Suren Surendiran is a senior member of the British Tamils Forum and the official spokesperson for the Global Tamil Forum.
“Some governments try to dodge criticism by claiming that human rights are ‘western values’. But people all over the world prove them wrong by demanding and suffering for their human rights – be they imprisoned protesters in Iran, or murdered journalists in Russia, or civilians caught up in conflicts in Sri Lanka or Gaza. We must continue to support people who demand their human rights across the world.” – David Miliband, Foreign Secretary, Statement to mark International Human Rights Day, 10 December 2009 -
Sri Lanka’s president is pressing forward with parliamentary elections on April 8, 2010 despite allegations of electoral malpractice surrounding his own presidential election victory in January, the country facing economic crisis and growing international criticisms for the State’s callous disregard for human rights, general governance and lack of political will to resolve the 62 years long conflict.
The U.S. State Department, in its Annual Report on Human Rights for 2009, has been highly critical of the Sri Lankan government. It says the government or paramilitary groups close to it were involved in summary killings and disappearances and that lawyers and journalists were harassed and victimised. It says the war-affected parts of the country saw the greatest number of political disappearances, estimated to be in the hundreds.
Britain has also named Sri Lanka a “country of concern” in the latest Foreign and Commonwealth Office Human Rights Report 2009. “This reflects our concern about allegations of serious conflict violations, as well as the deteriorating status of the rule of law and freedom of expression…” – United Kingdom Foreign & Commonwealth Office Annual Report on Human Rights 2009
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on March 8, 2010 expressed “concerns about the lack of progress on political reconciliation, the treatment of Internally Displaced Persons and the setting up of an accountability process in Sri Lanka”.
The prospect of a panel of experts being appointed to advise the Secretary General on accountability issues relating to Sri Lanka was not welcomed by President Rajapakse who said it was “uncalled for and unwarranted”.
Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations Sir Mark Lyall Grant has said that UK disagrees with the argument put forward by the Non-Aligned Movement and that “[Secretary General] does have a mandate through the U.N. charter to uphold human rights and humanitarian international law, and therefore he is entirely within his rights to set up a group of experts who will advise him on taking forward his concerns about some of the allegations that have been made in the recent months in Sri Lanka”. – Colombopage, 20 Mar 2010
“Sri Lanka’s government has sought an additional 39.6 billion rupees ($345 million) to fund its military, a 20 percent increase from the original defence budget despite the end of a 25-year war against Tamil Tigers in May.
“Sri Lanka has a public sector of around 6 percent of the population. Maintaining loss-making public institutions without reforms, high and unproductive subsidies, a government with over 110 Ministers and expenditures that make more political than economic sense are other factors in the deficit.” – Reuters, March 4, 2010
It is no surprise that the International Monetary Fund has delayed the third tranche of a $2.6 billion loan after Sri Lanka failed to achieve its budget deficit target to reduce deficit to 7 percent of GDP.
An IMF mission to Sri Lanka in February concluded that they were unable to “complete” its review until the pending parliamentary elections in April. It is however important to note that Sri Lanka’s last two IMF programs ended with missions that were unable to “complete reviews”, effectively staying suspended. – Lanka Business Online, 25 Feb 2010.
Despite Sri Lanka’s claims that it can overcome suspension of IMF loan, the country is already fearing the affects of the temporary suspension of General Scheme of Preference (GSP+) trade concessions due to come into effect in August 2010.
“Western countries, and groups in the Tamil Diaspora, are pressing for some kind of accountability for thousands of civilian deaths at the end of the war. Sri Lanka is adamant its soldiers did not violate international law, and that for now has cost it enhanced European Union trade preferences known as GSP+ worth $136 million a year.” – Reuters, 2 Mar 2010
Some of these above quotes and links stand as evidence that credible independent media organisations, institutions and foreign governments have highlighted facts, which I have used to illustrate my argument that the Rajapaksha regime is driving Sri Lanka into economic ruin for the sake of power at the cost of humanity itself.
It is hoped that all donors including China, Japan and India will follow precedence set by Britain and the U.S. in persuading Sri Lanka to address its human rights record.
It is against this backdrop and as part of its campaign to create worldwide awareness of the real human rights situation in Sri Lanka, the Global Tamil Forum has called for a worldwide boycott of Sri Lankan products and services – www.boycottsrilanka.com
11 comments:
I've never thought how boycott campaign will have its impact against GoSL. But it has made its stride.
If we keep up the intensity as it is, we can surely keep GoSL in checks.
Please see the below link for the original contents of this thread.
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate-uk/2010/03/24/tamil-forum-calls-for-boycott-of-sri-lanka/
Bhairav,
Puligalin Kural is updated for the past four days.
Suren is a great man. Thanks for posting his article
"Boycott of Sri Lanka Products is Started to Bear Fruits" is a great news !!!
AK,
Yes, PK.com has been updated for last few days.
Kovil,
Suren has the qualities to be one of our spokespersons.
Eezham Tamil woman in Tamil Nadu refugee camp burned herself to death
Eezham Tamil woman in Tamil Nadu refugee camp commits suicide due to sexual abuse by 3 policemen.
Tamil woman from Sri Lanka held in the Refugee camp for Sri Lankans in Karoor district in Tamil Nadu died Sunday night in Karoor government hospital where she had been admitted two weeks ago when she had set herself ablaze unable to bear being sexually molested by three Tamil Nadu policemen.
Ms. Kumar Pathmathevi, 28, had said in her statement to a feminist human rights activist that the policemen took her to a private house and molested her instead of taking her to the police station to be interrogated about her husband Kumar who was wanted in a homicide case. Various civil organizations in Jaffna peninsula as well as in Tamil Nadu are in uproar against the police cremating the body of Pathmathevi, against the law of the country.
The three policemen who had sexually molested had warned Pathmathevi not to divulge the incident to anyone and that they will shoot dead her husband Kumar if she did so, according to Pathmathevi’s statement given from her death bed to the human rights activist woman.
The burning of Pathmathevi’s remains which should have been interned by the police has raised suspicion that the three policemen are guilty of the offence alleged.
http://tamilkovil.blogspot.com/
Karuna Amman’s supporter abducts and kills school boy in Jaffna
Chaavakachcheari police recovered Saturday the body of the 17-year-old student who was abducted from his house in Madaththadi in Chaavakachcheari North, Jaffna Peninsula, on 14 March for a ransom of 30 million rupees, from the backyard of a house on Dutch Road in Chaavakachcheari, sources in Jaffna said. The body was recovered from the plantain garden in the backyard of one of the three friends of the victim arrested and detained in Jaffna prison, the sources added.
Unidentified men arriving at the house of Thiruchelvam, a popular merchant in Madaththadi in Chaavakachcheari North abducted his son, Kapilnath, 17, student of a leading educational institution in Jaffna.
The abductors had kept demanding 30 million rupees as ransom to release the boy using various phones from the time of abduction until Monday dawn and had threatened to kill the boy if the money was not paid, according to the merchant.
Sources from the police have revealed that the school boy from Chavakachcheri was abducted to receive ransom money and later killed by one of Karuna Amman’s supporters.
Although the person who had killed the boy has been taken into custody, the mastermind behind the plan it is learnt is still at large.
During the questioning of the man in custody it had been revealed that the boy was abducted killed and his body was buried in the suspect’s compound in Chavakachcheri.
The body of the student was exhumed yesterday and the post mortem was held at the Jaffna Hospital yesterday.
The post mortem report stated that the boy was strangled to death.
http://tamilkovil.blogspot.com/
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point 1
you could stop buying Ceylon tea. All the workers on the tea estates are Tamils so the effect of such a boycott would be to make them penniless, but they are the wrong kind of tamils arent they?
point 2
to make a boycott effective you must be able to afford the products that youre planning to boycott - i.e. you must be a viable market. now here are some of sri lanka's key exports:
1. high-end tourism including boutique hotels
2. high quality, high priced tea (a 10-bag box of Dilmah white tea retailed for $11, as against about $3 for a box of Twining's.)
3. gemstones, notably red rubies and sapphires
4. designerware (Victoria's Secret, Liz Claiborne, Tommy Hilfiger)
since when did you guys have that kind of BUYING power???
Hi,
I have read your blog and I update my knowledge after read your post.
Thanks for sharing information!
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