'Countrywide Census: GTF won’t cooperate with GoSL'
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Article in The Island regarding GTF's perspective on Government proposed country wide census.
http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=76703
The UK based Global Tamil Forum (GTF) yesterday said that it wouldn’t cooperate with the government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) as long as President Mahinda Rajapaksa remained in power.
The GTF was responding to a query by The Island on whether it would support GoSL efforts to establish the number of dead, missing and those who left the country through legal and illegal means since 1982.
GTF spokesperson Suren Surendiran said that Tamil speaking people living in Sri Lanka as well as the Tamil Diaspora had no faith in investigations undertaken by the GoSL. Surendiran alleged that the GoSL was one of the main perpetrators of atrocities committed on the Vanni front during the final phase of the conflict.
He said that those who represented the interests of Tamil speaking people would cooperate only with an independent international investigation. "We’ll cooperate voluntarily and furnish all available information to independent investigators," Surendiran said, alleging that Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and Economic Affairs Minister Basil Rajapaksa had been directly implicated in atrocities, including alleged execution of some LTTE cadres during the last 72 hours of the government offensive.
As long as the Rajapaksas remained in power, there couldn’t be an independent international investigation, Surendiran said, adding that the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), appointed by President Rajapaksa, too, was not acceptable to the Tamil community. The GTF said that the LLRC consisted of persons who had previously defended the dictatorial government, both in Sri Lanka and abroad, therefore they couldn’t be taken seriously.
Military spokesman Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasuriya told The Island that those wanting to know the whereabouts of people missing during the conflict should cooperate with the GoSL. Various parties well known for hatchet jobs, including one-time UN spokesman in Colombo Gordon Weiss and former BBC correspondent Frances Harrison had given varying figures, the official said. The GTF and its associates would never cooperate with GoSL inquiry as they would be exposed, Brigadier Wanigasuriya said, emphasizing that it would be the responsibility of those interested in the wellbeing of post-war Sri Lanka to help establish the war dead.
Defence and External Affairs ministries told The Island that thousands of persons categorized as dead and missing could be living abroad, with some of them even having new identities. Sources acknowledged that the government had never realized the gravity of the situation until the revelation that Frontline Socialist Party (FSP) leader Kumar Gunaratnam had obtained a new Australian passport under the assumed name of Noel Mudalige. With that Kumar Gunaratnam had ceased to exist, therefore another missing person added to the list, sources said. A combined effort was needed to track down those living abroad while they remained here on a list of missing persons, sources said. Colombo based diplomatic missions were aware of the problem, sources said, adding that among those listed as missing could be illegal migrants who died on the high seas trying to reach Australia.