GTF President Fr. Emmanuel to visit Sri Lanka
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
President of the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) Fr. Emmanuel has hinted that he may visit Sri Lanka in the near future in response to a personal invitation from President Maithripala Sirisena and Foreign Minister Managala Samaraweera.
Nava Lanka Samasamaja Party General Secretary and Ceylon Today's Columnist Dr. Wickramabahu Karunaratne told the writer that Fr. Emmanuel has accepted a personal invitation extended to him by the President and the Foreign Minister to work on the 'reconciliation' process the government has launched.
"Although I have accepted the personal invitation of the President and of the FM to come home and work for reconciliation, I depend very much on the cooperation of the progressive forces of the South to explain the whole truth to the Sinhala masses and I hope we have at least made a start in liberating the masses from the falsehoods of politicians," he had told Dr. Wickramabahu.
Under the Rajapaksa regime, in 2014, the Global Tamil Forum was banned along with many other organizations under United National Security Council Resolution 1373 for 'supporting terrorism'.
The ban, gazetted by the GOSL in 2014, includes the leaders of the main LTTE fronts – Rudrakumaran of the TGTE, Nediyawan in Norway and the Headquarters Group led by Vinayagam.
The Foreign Ministry said on the banning of the GTF that the government began reviewing the organizations banned under former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the process is continuing.
Some of his close associates living overseas added that the GTF President may be returning for good as he may like to spend his latter days in Jaffna with his relatives who live down Temple Road and will be saying mass in the same church his family attends.
Fr. Emmanuel was the Vicar-General of the Jaffna Diocese at the time that he fled the country and has remained in self imposed exile in European countries before he stationed himself in the UK where he headed the Global Tamil Forum that is now engaged with the government extensively in promoting peace and reconciliation.
In the aftermath of the US Resolution passed on Sri Lanka Fr. Emmanuel said he gives a cautious but hopeful welcome to the resolution.
Ceylon Today