Entrapped Civilians Brave Tamil Tiger Bullets to Seek Safety

SRI LANKA UNITED NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CANADA Box 55292, 300 Borough Drive, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M1P 4Z7

07 March 2009
Hon. Eric Solheim
Minister of Environment and International Development
Oslo, Norway

Dear Mr. Eric Solheim,

We thank you for your note of today’s date and your concern for the entrapped civilians forcibly held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), also known as the Tamil Tigers, to form a human shield against the advancing Sri Lankan Security Forces carrying out their duty of regaining the usurped territory from a band of armed terrorists to extend the writ of the democratic and sovereign state of Sri Lanka.

The Government of Sri Lanka had previously called a 48 hour ceasefire to allow the civilians to move out of the combat zone to safety within government controlled territory where they could be cared for with the assistance of the UNHCR and the ICRC till such time as they could be re-settled in their former places of residence, but the LTTE blatantly attacked the civilians thereby preventing them from leaving the area. This position has been stated by the nearly 35000 civilians who braved such attacks to escape from the tyranny of the Tamil Tigers, and same confirmed by the UN Agencies and ICRC having access to civilians both inside and outside the remaining LTTE controlled territory. Even Human Rights Watch affirms this situation based on reports reaching them. We would also like to quote from a statement issued by the University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) made up of Tamil academics, on the developments in the region:

University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) gave an impartial account on the Sri Lankan situation to the IANS News Service. While the H.R.W. Report demanded a cease fire and peace talks, the UTHR (Jaffna) observed, “… Presently, the indications we have are that the people want an end to the war but are wary of peace talks and cease fires with the LTTE… Previous peace talks had only given oxygen and a free run to the LTTE…” Referring to the ruthless behaviour of LTTE cadres and shooting of escaping civilians the UTHR (Jaffna) commented “… generally the behaviour of the soldiers at entry points has been exceptionally good…”.

We call on you as a key member of the Norwegian Government which played a role in the facilitation of a peace process, where the LTTE was erroneously recognized as the sole representative of the Tamil community, where a farcical ceasefire continued from 2002, during which time the LTTE was ruled by the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) made up of Scandinavian representatives, to have violated the CFA on 3830 occasions in the first five years including the killing of over 400 soldiers, civilians and leading officials such as the distinguished Minister of Foreign Affairs, the late Hon. Lakshman Kadirgamar, in addition to the abduction and forcible recruitment of nearly 6000 underage children to their fighting units as reported by UNICEF, to rethink of the ineffectiveness of the entire process which was used by the LTTE to rearm and build up their forces to pursue their goal of establishing a racist fascist separate state called “Eelam” for their exclusive governance by breaking up the island nation of Sri Lanka. Our open letter of June 20, 2006 addressed to the Editor of the Aftenposten in Oslo (copy attached), where we outlined the partisan conduct of Norway which contributed to the bolstering of an internationally designated terrorist movement, that was to a great extent the cause for encouraging the LTTE to seek violent means to reach their objective including suicide terrorism even against civilians, as there was no mechanism to bring them to book other than adding one more violation to their scorecard maintained by the SLMM, and ofcourse the usual call of the ‘Co-Chairs’ to get back to the negotiating table. You would therefore understand the position of the Government of Sri Lanka which patiently adhered to the CFA terms for a period of over four years deciding to withdraw from the lopsided and failed agreement to deal with the LTTE in the only language that they understood, to do away with the wasteful exercise of bogus negotiations in order to retaliate against offensive moves of the LTTE commencing around December 2005 in Muhamale, later in July 2006 in Mavil Aru, Muttur and Sampur, to rid the country of the terrorist menace that took over 70,000 lives, maimed thousands and destroyed an inestimable amount of valuable property during the last three decades.

We are more distressed than you about the inhumane manner in which the Tamil civilian population of the Vanni who are part of the Sri Lankan people are currently being forced to form a human shield for the cowardly LTTE and even forced to take up arms to defend the terrorist leaders who are cornered in a tiny sliver of jungle terrain, which is a serious violation of human rights and a war crime that must be taken up strongly by the international community. We are glad that you have not ventured to give a count of the total number of civilians who are being forcibly held back by the Tigers, as the numbers are well below HRW and other INGO estimates of 250,000 to 300,000, which is the inflated number given by the relief agencies to obtain enhanced funding for their questionable operations where they have been found to have neglected the civilians in their desire to collaborate with the LTTE in bolstering their armed capabilities. A Catholic priest who recently escaped from the LTTE area had put the figure around 50,000 civilians, with the maximum being placed at 70,000 recently by most observers.

Whilst we appreciate your concern, we call on you to use your influence with the Tamil Tigers for whom you have provided many facilities in Norway to give a firm undertaking that they would honour a temporary no-fire period and allow the free movement of the civilian population including any sick or wounded under supervision of the ICRC within the time frame to be agreed upon, and ensure that they would not harm those civilians opting to move into areas controlled by the government where all their food, water, medical care, accommodation and other needs could be met. We also note that you have been in touch with other members of the Co-Chairs, namely the powerful countries such as the USA, EU, Japan and other key international actors in this regard, and trust that you are in a position to ask from them that they will jointly guarantee that the LTTE would honour such an agreement before the Government of Sri Lanka agrees to your proposal. In the alternative, you could demand that the LTTE lay down its arms including its diminishing stockpile of weapons and unconditionally surrender themselves to the custody of the Sri Lankan authorities and bring their maniacal adventure to an end, which will free the civilians to resume normal lives and create the environment to allow democracy to return to the region.

We trust that our suggestion in the penultimate paragraph are worthy of your consideration and that of your powerful international partners, and we earnestly hope that you will be able to act to safeguard the civilians who are compelled to submit themselves to the brute force of the Tamil Tigers even at this very late stage.

With best wishes.

Yours sincerely,

Mahinda Gunasekera
Honorary President

—– Original Message —–
From: Solheim Erik
To: mgunasekera@sympatico.ca
Sent: Thursday, March 05, 2009 11:06 AM
Subject: RE: Entrapped Civilians Brave Tamil Tiger Bullets to Seek Safety

Dear Mr Mahinda Gunasekera,

 Thank you for your e-mail about the situation in Sri Lanka. I greatly appreciate your concern. Like you, I am distressed by the suffering of the civilian population.

Norway has condemned the fighting and the unacceptable suffering it is causing the civilian population. Norway is continuously urging the parties to agree on a temporary no-fire period. This would allow the sick and wounded to be evacuated. Humanitarian organisations must be ensured safe access so they can provide food, water and medical assistance to the civilian population in the conflict area.

 In our contact with the Sri Lankan Government and the Tamil Tigers, we underscore their responsibility for taking immediate measures to protect civilians and acting in accordance with international humanitarian law. We are cooperating closely with the US, the EU, Japan and other key international actors on this matter.

 With best wishes

 Erik Solheim
Minister of the Environment and International Development

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