The United Sri Lanka Association (USLA) expressed its relief at the securing of over the week end, the release of the last fifty thousand of a total of nearly three hundred thousand innocent Tamil civilians, held hostage as human shields by the Tamil Tiger terrorists in the last few months for their protection from the security forces offensive to eliminate terrorism in Sri Lanka, after repeated failures at a negotiated settlement.
In a letter to the Editor, Asian Tribune, Dr. Chula Rajapakse MNZM Spokesperson of United Sri Lanka Association in New Zealand writes, "Our relief is further heightened by the quest for liberation of the Northern Province from Tiger terrorism being all but completed, over the week end. We believe that the meticulous elimination of terrorist infrastructure and wherewithal achieved in the process will ensure the unlikelihood of guerilla type operations in the future.”
Dr. Chula Rajapakse further writes -
"For all of these our association is deeply grateful to President Mahinda Rajapaksa for his leadership and the bravery, efficiency and commitment of the security forces. The Tigers were once labeled as the worls “most brutal” by the FBI.
It is appropriate to reflect that, the spontaneous streaming in of these thousands of civilians from Tiger control to the security forces the moment the bunds preventing their escape were breached both on the 20th of April and 15th of May, and the numerous accounts of ruthless acts of shooting to prevent their escape, confirmed unequivocally that these civilians were being held hostage against their will by the Tigers and not staying voluntarily as the Tigers had repeatedly claimed. Similarly, many accusations by the Tigers that the SL forces had been deliberately shelling these civilians and their medical facilities have subsequently been shown to be entirely fabricated.
Sri Lanka now faces the daunting task of providing for the immediate needs for this vast number of internally displaced civilians. The SL government’s efforts hitherto at providing these have been commended by visiting dignitaries including a delegation of parliamentarians from the UK. Sri Lanka has been helped in this task by many countries and UN agencies. We invite New Zealand to explore avenues to help in this massive humanitarian operation, as they did during the Asian tsunami.
In the longer term Sri Lanka now faces the even tougher battle to win the hearts and minds of the Tamil community through a negotiated political settlement, attempts at which had been repeatedly scuttled by the Tiger terrorist.
In this task, Sri Lanka has already demonstrated significant capability. Following the earlier liberation of the Eastern province in April ’07, elections in Aug ’07, declared free and fare by more than one observer group lead to the election of a provincial government headed by Mr Sivanesathurai Chanthirakanthan alias Pilayan, a former Tamil Tiger child terrorist now reformed. Working in co-operation with the government he once fought, an unprecedented development and reconstruction program has been launched in the east. President Mahinda Rajapakse has indicated similar plans for the North, following it’s liberation.
Mr Pilayan’s former leader & former Tiger deputy leader Mr. Muralitharan Vinayagamoorthy alias Karuna Amman was sworn in March ’09 as the Minister of National Reconciliation in the central government in the capital Colombo. All of these augers well for an eventual, negotiated political settlement.
USLA hopes that with this liberation, Sri Lanka, a secular south Asian democracy of over sixty years standing with literacy rates in the nineties and the highest per capita income in the region, would be able achieve its full potential , the world has had only glimpses of in recent times as in the Cricket World Cup victory in the mid 90’s."
- Asian Tribune -
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