GLOBAL TAMIL FORUM

'GTF puts forth demands'

In comments made to Ceylon Today, GTF Spokesperson, Suren Surendiran, discusses the latest UNHRC resolution on Sri Lanka and the issues of militarisation in the North of the country.

http://www.ceylontoday.lk/51-28779-news-detail-gtf-puts-forth-demands.html

The Global Tamil Forum's (GTF) demand for justice through an independent international investigation has been strengthened by the fact that the international community wants the accountability issue addressed by Sri Lanka, and until that happens there won't be a let up, GTF Spokesperson, Suren Surendiran said, asserting the Rajapaksa regime must address the disproportionate militarization of the North and reduce the military presence, materially. He said the GTF has called for the removal of serving and retired military personnel from civilian administration, and to stop government sponsored colonization of the North and East which in being carried out to change the demography of the area where Tamils have lived traditionally and claim as their homeland."
 
 

Talking about a real process of reconciliation, Surendiran demanded the government should stop building places of Buddhist worship in the North and East where people generally had traditionally followed Hinduism, Islam or Christianity, redistribute the land that it had acquired by force from the Tamil people for military use and stop forthwith any future land-grabbing from the Tamils. It should also resettle displaced people in their original place of residence, he said, adding, "The government also must start bi-lateral negotiations without any preconditions with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which is the largest elected party representing the Tamils to address the root causes of the Tamil national question.
 
 
He also said the government should stop intimidating the Muslim people and give them freedom to practice their religion without any hindrance. "The government should also enforce law and order by ensuring forced disappearances are the thing of the past, investigate previous disappearances including the people who went missing straight after the end of the war. It should release the people who are held without following proper judicial process or charge them under the law of the land, and also publicize the list of names of people who are held in custody," he further said.
 
 
Surendiran also said: "The government should stop harassing and intimidating journalists and reinstate the Chief Justice, and stop meddling with the Constitution and the independence of the Judiciary. It should reinstate the democratic features that existed before the introduction of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution."
 
 
He further said, "If the government begins to address even some of these issues, that could be considered as progress but four years since the end of the war, President Rajapaksa, although with a large enough majority in Parliament, has done just the opposite to make the country a non-democratic, authoritarian State, tending to being a lawless country."