Two officials from the US State Department who met civil society of Jaffna last week categorically told them that the US would not take up war crimes/ human rights issues against Sri Lanka in the March HRC session, as there is no sufficient pressure or request from the affected people. Ruling out any outside intervention for political solution, the officials said that the US would only support the implementation of the LLRC report, which means annihilation of the nation of Eezham Tamils and completion of structural genocide by 2020, as fixed by the report. The officials didn’t listen to the civil group, but insisted only on passing the message. As genocidal Sri Lanka is going to be emboldened further by the stand of the USA and similar stand of India, what responses are going to come from Tamil Nadu and from those who pawned politics to the USA and India, ask the civil groups.
US State Department officials, Thomas O. Melia of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour, and Lesley Taylor of the desk for South and Central Asia met the Senior Citizens Group of Jaffna on 22, Sunday.
Accept the genocidal SL state and its government, work with it and reconcile is the message from the USA in simple terms, the civil groups said.
Two other delegations coming from the US Defence and Commerce would also keep the State Department position as the basic policy and would ask the Eezham Tamils to live with the current situation, the civil groups further said.
What went wrong; Who is doing what; Is anybody really understood the gravity; Is re-articulation process inevitable; How long will it take; Is campaign of the GOSL extra ordinarily superior; Can people survive through a long-term strategy; If March 2012 missed, will it end everything – these are some of the questions the civil group participants in Jaffna want to share with the nation of Eezham Tamils in the island and in the diaspora, with Tamils of Tamil Nadu and with the larger civil society of the world.
The policy of the USA was consistent ever since it designed the war without witnesses, asked the liberation fighters of Eezham Tamils to surrender, and asked the Tamil civilians survived the genocide to get into Colombo’s barbed-wire camps.
It is the sections of Eezham Tamils who misled the struggle, groomed by ‘foundations’ during the war and hijacked the Tamil polity to the backyard of the USA, who are disillusioned. If we think that the world ends with the Establishment of the USA or with that of India then we betray our living planet and its civilisation, commented a diaspora Tamil politician.
Meanwhile, Norway, the ‘peace-facilitating’ face of the USA is shortly convening a ‘Natchiappan Meeting’ for a selected group of 25 Eezham Tamils in Norway.
Deceptive peace facilitator Mr. Erik Solheim is expected to address the meeting and the participants need not have any illusions over the message being different from that of the US State Department, the civil groups of Jaffna cautioned. A follow-up meeting is planned with representatives from Tamil civil groups in the island, they said.
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The minutes taken in the Jaffna citizens group’s meeting with the US officials, sent by a participant, follow:
Position of the US state Department on the possibilities of passing resolution against Sri Lanka during March, 2012 at UN Human Rights Council was categorically clarified by officials of the US States Department on 22.01.2012. View points and the advise given by them follow:
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There is no possibility of a resolution against Sri Lanka at the next HRC meeting in March 2012
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There is no sufficient pressure or request from the affected people for resolutions on war crime investigation.
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No reference will be made to UN Panel report, War Crime or International Inquiry at any discussion at this session.
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There may be only a small step on SL conflict at the next meeting.
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At the maximum, they may refer to the positive side of the LLRC report and request Sri Lanka to take measures to implement the recommendations therein.
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There is a big gap in the required pressure given to State Dept. to push for any resolution.
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The position of the State Department is that the LLRC report is fine, except for the war crime aspects.
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State Dept. will be satisfied if GOSL initiate action to implement the recommendations in the LLRC report.
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In any case, finally, the solution has to be an internal one. Categorically there will not be any outside intervention of any sort.
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If at all any external intervention, it will be only in the form of any support to the internal mechanism to implement the recommendations.
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State Dept. is not interested in instituting accountability mechanism.
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State Dept. feels and advises that why can’t the Tamil community forge partnership with southern progressive elements and pressurize the government?
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They also feel and advise that why can’t the TNA reach out to the South and initiate a process which will pave for the majority to present the case of the minority to the Govt.
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Last time even the 17 countries that had signed the petition for a resolution withdrew at the final stage.
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The New Democracies are not in favor of such resolutions and forget about Russia and China.
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US States Dept. will approach slowly, only step by step, and it will be of long term in nature.
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Officials of the State Department are advised to not to antagonize the GOSL
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Officials of the State Dept. were not interested in listening about War Crime and International inquiry.
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