NPC Councillor condemns premature donor-brokering involving Tamil diaspora
[TamilNet, Monday, 08 June 2015, 15:51 GMT] Tamil diaspora groupings don't need to get locked into any premature donor-brokering process that enables the Sri Lankan regime to claim that a domestic process of so-called reconciliation was being agreed upon by the Tamil diaspora, Northern Provincial Councillor M.K. Shivajilingam told TamilNet on Monday, responding to the news of a premature donor brokering by third parties through a South Africa facilitated twin-track process. All the donor States have their development agencies through which they can assist the resettling people in Valikaamam, Champoor and in other places, Mr Shivajiingam told TamilNet adding that Tamil diaspora should be firm in effecting internationally-guaranteed and internationally-mediated solutions including an international investigation on genocide as demanded by the Northern Provincial Council.
There are development agencies operated by the donor States such as the Switzerland Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC), United States Agency International Development (USAID) and several other organisations attached to other countries such as the United Kingdom, Shivajilingam told TamilNet.
While all of them were prepared to assist in constructing houses for the resettling Eezham Tamils, the former regime of Rajapaksa restricted the housing assistance to the Indian Housing Scheme of 50,000 units alone.
Now, there should be no such restriction and these development agencies should come forward to offer housing schemes, other rehabilitation and development projects to the uprooted people in the North-East, Mr Shivajilingam said adding that each donor State could be assigned the responsibility of assisting a particular district in the North-East.
The Chief Ministers of Northern and Eastern Provincial Councils have the necessary infrastructure to facilitate the housing schemes for the resettled people with foreign agencies until a negotiated settlement is reached, Mr Shivajilingam said.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has postponed its report on the investigations on Sri Lanka (OISL) to September and there are forces seeking to alter the direction of the yet-to-be-released recommendations in that report, the NPC Councillor said.
The NPC has demanded the OISL to either investigate the charge of genocide or to recommend a proper international investigation on genocide in its recommendations.
“We expected an independent international investigation at least in the form of a Commission of Inquiry (CoI). In 2014, the USA came with the resolution. The Geneva process didn't produce a CoI which was independent of the OHCHR. The three-member experts in the OISL have only advisory role,” Mr Shivajilingam observed.
“However, the Tamil people are expecting a reasonable verdict from the OISL process,” he said adding that if the OISL failed to recommend an international investigation into Tamil genocide, the Tamil diaspora, Tamil Nadu and the Tamils in the homeland should be waging a global struggle demanding international justice.
In the meantime, Diaspora Tamils should not be carried away by any premature process that seeks to facilitate their participation in the name of so-called development.
Mr Shivajilingam condemned the actions of M.A. Sumanthiran without explicitly mentioning his name.
A political solution should be arrived through international mediation, he said.
“The model of international facilitation has been already exhausted. We have witnessed how the process of Norway's facilitation ended,” he said adding that the Tamil people were demanding an international mediation in which the State actors, such as the USA, India and the European Union, take part along with non state actors. “The role of non-State actors is important to make sure that no geo-political injustice is committed in the mediation process by the State actors,” Mr Shivajilingam told TamilNet.