''PEACE INITIATIVES & CONFLICT RESOLUTIONS'' and ''The Wolf in sheep's clothing''

[சோழன்]

''PEACE INITIATIVES & CONFLICT RESOLUTIONS'' and ''The Wolf in sheep's clothing''

A Conference was Hosted by Mr Nirj Deva MEP (Original Sri Lankan name was 'Niranjan Deva Aditiya' ) on the 10th December 2006.

Special Report By Charles Somasundrum

Mr Nirj Deva (Nirj) a member of the European Parliament, who was a

Conservative member of the British Parliament, prior to the rout of the Conservatives in 1997, is said to have hosted this conference. A number of organisations with different backgrounds, political and otherwise, are said to have attended the conference. The ‘release’ that followed the conference describes the ‘hard working’ Mr Nirj Deva, a Conservative Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the South East of England, had put in ‘seven months of hard work’ to organise this conference.

Let me explain to those Sri Lankans who may be puzzled by the unusual name, this gentleman is said to be a dual passport holder i.e. he is a citizen of Britain as well as Sri Lanka, and is better known to Sri Lankans by his Sri Lankan name of Niranjan Deva Aditiya. He was also, recently ‘sponsored’ by the Sri Lankan government for the then vacant post of Secretary General of the UN. There is a rumour current among Sri Lankan sources that the Sri Lankan President, on a visit to the British PM, had ‘put in a word’ (a Sri Lankan habit) for Mr Nirj, forgetting that the British PM was himself a member of the Labour Party and its leader while Mr Nirj is a member of the opposition Conservative Party!

The conference in question did discuss some major issues that are of relevance to the besieged Tamils of Eelam in the north and East of Sri Lanka. It is however puzzling to note that Mr Nirj (a Sri Lankan passport holding Sinhala) who is an MEP for South East England was the person who hosted the conference. It is quite possible that the European Parliament sponsored the event through Mr Nirj. In view of such a likelihood, one needs to examine the decision, early this year, by the European Parliament to ban the LTTE freedom fighters of Eelam as ‘terrorists’, on a motion brought before the European Parliament by eighteen signatories to the motion, one of who was Mr Robert Evans, is a Labour MEP. Though Mr Nirj was not one of these eighteen signatories, it is however possible that he was a prime mover behind the scenes, in view of the nature of the motion and the obscure details referred to in the motion.

An examination of a couple of the clauses in the motion that was passed by the European Parliament, indicate details of specific incidents and skirmishes in the civil war in Sri Lanka that only a person well briefed by the Sri Lankan army or intelligence would have been aware of.

Take clause B. ‘whereas there have been countless attacks on the Jaffna Peninsula, Trincomalee and Batticaloa and the officially registered ceasefire breaches run into thousands most of them committed by the LTTE’.

There certainly have been breaches of the ceasefire, but the Sinhala Army, Navy and Air Force committed most of these. The Navy and the Air Force have the monopoly of the air, and the sea around the island. They also possess the latest weapons of warfare like bombers, fighters and gunboats, so kindly provided by some of the nations who are members of the European Parliament..

The other point to be borne in mind is that the three places mentioned at Clause B. i.e. Jaffna, Trincomalee and Batticaloa, lie in the area claimed by the Tamil freedom fighters of Eelam as Tamil homeland and are populated, mostly by Tamils. By no stretch of imagination could it be argued that Tamils were killing their own kind.

Or take Clause D that reads ‘whereas on the 11th May the LTTE attacked a vessel carrying 710 unarmed members of the security forces on their way back after home leave with the Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission (SLMM) on board and flying the SLMM flag which (sic) was escorted by many gunboats, sinking one of them and killing 18 of the crew members’.

This clause when examined carefully, describes an incident when soldiers of the Sinhala armed forces, who are waging a war against the Tamil freedom fighters, were returning to the war zone after home leave. In a war situation, if either camp were to detect a large group from the opposing camp there can be only one response. Incidentally, one should note that the resolution of the European Parliament refers to the exact number of soldiers in the vessel i.e. 710. The Sinhala army have also been known to fly whatever flag of convenience was available to them. It is hard to accept that these soldiers, on their way back to the war zone after home leave and escorted by a number of gunboats, according to the resolution, were unarmed!

The other clauses of the European Parliament’s motion are on similar lines. The motion shows by its very construction, that it was clearly biased and prejudiced. Yet, the European Parliament passed this motion and the freedom fighters of Eelam - the LTTE, have been banned in all EU countries. It is sad that respected organisations like ‘Christian Aid’; the UK based Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) International Alert and the Brussels based NGO ‘European Centre for Common Ground’, to name a few who took part in the conference hosted my Mr Nirj, failed to comment on the European Parliament’s response to the current conflict in Sri Lanka/Eelam or lack of ‘conflict resolution’.

Having said that, I welcome all organisations that are willing to help resolve the conflict in which large numbers of innocent Tamils have lost their lives purely because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. As I write these comments I am aware that large numbers of Tamils are struggling in the Tamil homeland without the basic necessities of life while large numbers of others are starving. I only hope that the organisations represented at the conference will beware of Mr Niraj – the wolf in sheep’s clothing.

http://www.uktamilnews.com/