Sunday, 5 October 2014
Suren: GTF seek lasting peace within an undivided Sri Lanka.
DC CORRESPONDENT | October 05, 2014, 05.10 am IST
Chennai: Global Tamil Forum spokesperson and its director of strategic initiatives, Suren Surendiran, presently in Chennai on a private visit, speaks about the Sri Lankan Tamils gaining new hope from change of regime in Delhi.
Excerpts:
Q: The TNA recently met Indian PM Narendra Modi. How do you view this development?
Suren Surendiran: Global Tamil Forum (GTF) believes that Mr Modi meeting TNA members, who are the democratically elected representatives of Tamils in Sri Lanka, is a significant step. On the day after his taking charge as PM, Mr Modi had met President Rajapaksa, who was an invited guest at his inauguration event. However, before meeting a formal Sri Lanka’s government delegation or the official opposition party in Sri Lankan Parliament, PM Modi choosing to meet the TNA underscores the significance.
Regarding subsequent events, Rajapaksa has maintained status quo. He has not made any efforts to engage the TNA in any constructive way. The large military presence still continues in the Tamil-dominated north and east. Land-grabbing and government-sponsored colonisation of the Tamil areas with the clear intent to change the demography is still continuing. Vulnerable women, mostly the 80,000 or more Tamil war widows in the north and east, are being harassed and subjected to sexual violence, largely by the Sinhala military.
Q: What will the efforts towards success in the Sri Lankan Tamil issue look like, say about 18 months from now? And what would be the impact if these efforts fail to yield fruit?
Suren: The Indian foreign policy towards Sri Lanka corrects its course and takes more of a regional leadership role than being the subdued equal partner role. In this process, India uses all levers at her disposal with specific timelines set to achieve lasting peace in the region. India and the international community maintain pressure on Rajapaksa to deliver on his promises and articulate consequences for non-delivery.
Tamil leadership in the north/east and around the country, including the plantation workers and the leadership of the Tamil-speaking Muslims should find convergence on the important issues faced by their communities. The same should be achieved with the like-minded Sinhala Buddhists and Christians. While Tamil diaspora is accepted as a stakeholder by most of the international community, India’s recognition will be fundamentally important to strengthen the moderate voices within the diaspora. This, in turn, will broaden the stakeholder base that can add capacity and capability to the struggle, in the most constructive way.
Failure would mean that Rajapaksa continues as the hawkish President with a corrupt regime persecuting minorities. Allowing this would create rebellious forces from several communities and that will not just destabilise Sri Lanka but the entire region.
Q: LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran was the sole voice representing the Tamil people of Sri Lanka until his death in May 2009. Now the Tamil voice not only sounds weak but also is badly divided.
Suren: The TNA, the elected representatives of the Tamil people in the island, and the GTF that is an umbrella body in the diaspora with significant influence and contacts with several international bodies and governments, work in conjunction. There has been a programme run by the several representative bodies to consolidate even further, which work is in progress. TNA has also taken steps to explore possibilities of convergence with the leadership of Tamil-speaking Muslims in the island. I am more positive about my community than less!
Q: Should the Tamils continue to insist on separate Eelam or work towards something that might be more realistic in achieving, such as the 13th Amendment as a starting point?
Suren: GTF is committed to non-violence. We seek lasting peace in Sri Lanka, based on justice, reconciliation and negotiated political settlement within an undivided island of Sri Lanka.
Q: Considering the Chinese interest and involvement in Sri Lanka, what, according to you, should be the Indian agenda in the strategically important southern neighbour?
Suren: India should at least now, take a regional leadership role to assert her policy on strategic and national security priorities. The lack of it may leave India a larger and unnecessarily wider issue to deal with in the near future.
Sangaree tells Modi: TNA responsible for LTTE crimes
Sangaree tells Modi: TNA responsible for LTTE crimes
Sunday times lk 05-10-14
The Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) Secretary General V. Anadansangaree in a letter to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi this week said the TNA and the ITAK by supporting the activities of the LTTE should take responsibility for innumerable crimes that had resulted in the deaths of thousands.
“Innumerable crimes had been committed resulting in the death of thousands, some of whom were Members of Parliament. According to the TNA’s manifesto of 2004, the TNA and ITAK should accept responsibility for these crimes,” Mr. Anandasangaree said in the letter.
In reference to the TNA’s relationship with the LTTE , Mr. Anandasangaree alleged that ahead of the 2004 Parliamentary elections, representatives of the ITAK, ACTC, TELO and the EPRLF signed a declaration accepting the “leadership of the LTTE as the National Leadership of the Tamil people and also accepting the LTTE as the real sole representatives of the Tamil people.” They also pledged “to give our full support for the struggle the LTTE had undertaken on behalf of the Tamil Nation”.
He said the declaration of the four secretaries of the alliance gave ample opportunities for the LTTE to commit atrocious crimes between April 2004 and May 18, 2009. The TULF General Secretary urged the Indian Prime Minister to consult other Tamil political parties and Tamil-speaking people of Sri Lanka and not exclusively the Tamil National Alliance (TNA).
“Dealing with the Tamil question is no more a monopoly of either the TNA or the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK). Having waited so long by allowing the TNA to deal with our ethnic problem and having lost confidence in the TNA, the time has now come for all the other concerned parties to find an alternative,” V. Anandasangaree said in a letter to Mr. Modi this week.
Mr. Anandasangaree said the TNA was supposed to comprise five political parties — the ITAK, TELO, EPRLF, TULF and the PLOTE – but the delegation which met Modi comprised only four members from the ITAK and one each from the TELO and EPRLF with none from the PLOTE although its leader polled more than 40,000 votes and came third at the recently held Northern Provincial Council elections.
He added that the claim of the TNA that voters had repeatedly given it the mandate through various elections, to negotiate with the Government was not acceptable and misleading. “The 2004 general election was virtually conducted by the LTTE with little or no supervision by the Government. There was large scale impersonation, threats and intimidation of voters by the LTTE and some won after their defeats were announced.”
Mr. Anandasangaree said the Indian Prime Minister’s advice must be taken seriously if the Tamils in Sri Lanka wanted a solution. “Hence action should be taken forthwith to consult various political parties of Tamils and Tamil-speaking people to know their views. The intention of meeting the party leaders is not to confront any one of them including the TNA and the ITAK, who should be warned of their links with the LTTE if they are serious in finding solutions. The sole purpose is to arrive at a consensus and to see to what extent we can compromise,” he said.
Sunday times lk 05-10-14
The Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) Secretary General V. Anadansangaree in a letter to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi this week said the TNA and the ITAK by supporting the activities of the LTTE should take responsibility for innumerable crimes that had resulted in the deaths of thousands.
“Innumerable crimes had been committed resulting in the death of thousands, some of whom were Members of Parliament. According to the TNA’s manifesto of 2004, the TNA and ITAK should accept responsibility for these crimes,” Mr. Anandasangaree said in the letter.
In reference to the TNA’s relationship with the LTTE , Mr. Anandasangaree alleged that ahead of the 2004 Parliamentary elections, representatives of the ITAK, ACTC, TELO and the EPRLF signed a declaration accepting the “leadership of the LTTE as the National Leadership of the Tamil people and also accepting the LTTE as the real sole representatives of the Tamil people.” They also pledged “to give our full support for the struggle the LTTE had undertaken on behalf of the Tamil Nation”.
He said the declaration of the four secretaries of the alliance gave ample opportunities for the LTTE to commit atrocious crimes between April 2004 and May 18, 2009. The TULF General Secretary urged the Indian Prime Minister to consult other Tamil political parties and Tamil-speaking people of Sri Lanka and not exclusively the Tamil National Alliance (TNA).
“Dealing with the Tamil question is no more a monopoly of either the TNA or the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK). Having waited so long by allowing the TNA to deal with our ethnic problem and having lost confidence in the TNA, the time has now come for all the other concerned parties to find an alternative,” V. Anandasangaree said in a letter to Mr. Modi this week.
Mr. Anandasangaree said the TNA was supposed to comprise five political parties — the ITAK, TELO, EPRLF, TULF and the PLOTE – but the delegation which met Modi comprised only four members from the ITAK and one each from the TELO and EPRLF with none from the PLOTE although its leader polled more than 40,000 votes and came third at the recently held Northern Provincial Council elections.
He added that the claim of the TNA that voters had repeatedly given it the mandate through various elections, to negotiate with the Government was not acceptable and misleading. “The 2004 general election was virtually conducted by the LTTE with little or no supervision by the Government. There was large scale impersonation, threats and intimidation of voters by the LTTE and some won after their defeats were announced.”
Mr. Anandasangaree said the Indian Prime Minister’s advice must be taken seriously if the Tamils in Sri Lanka wanted a solution. “Hence action should be taken forthwith to consult various political parties of Tamils and Tamil-speaking people to know their views. The intention of meeting the party leaders is not to confront any one of them including the TNA and the ITAK, who should be warned of their links with the LTTE if they are serious in finding solutions. The sole purpose is to arrive at a consensus and to see to what extent we can compromise,” he said.
US Now Admits it is Funding “Occupy Central” in Hong Kong
US Now Admits it is Funding “Occupy Central” in Hong Kong
By Tony Cartalucci
Global Research, October 01, 2014
Just as the US admitted shortly after the so-called “Arab Spring” began spreading chaos across the Middle East that it had fully funded, trained, and equipped both mob leaders and heavily armed terrorists years in advance, it is now admitted that the US State Department through a myriad of organizations and NGOs is behind the so-called “Occupy Central” protests in Hong Kong.
The Washington Post would report in an article titled, “Hong Kong erupts even as China tightens screws on civil society,” that:
Chinese leaders unnerved by protests elsewhere this year have been steadily tightening controls over civic organizations on the mainland suspected of carrying out the work of foreign powers.
The campaign aims to insulate China from subversive Western ideas such as democracy and freedom of expression, and from the influence, specifically, of U.S. groups that may be trying to promote those values here, experts say. That campaign is long-standing, but it has been prosecuted with renewed vigor under President Xi Jinping, especially after the overthrow of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych following months of street demonstrations in Kiev that were viewed here as explicitly backed by the West.
The Washington Post would also report (emphasis added):
One foreign policy expert, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive subject, said Putin had called Xi to share his concern about the West’s role in Ukraine. Those concerns appear to have filtered down into conversations held over cups of tea in China, according to civil society group members.
“They are very concerned about Color Revolutions, they are very concerned about what is going on in Ukraine,” said the international NGO manager, whose organization is partly financed by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), blamed here for supporting the protests in Kiev’s central Maidan square. “They say, ‘Your money is coming from the same people. Clearly you want to overthrow China.’ ”
Congressionally funded with the explicit goal of promoting democracy abroad, NED has long been viewed with suspicion or hostility by the authorities here. But the net of suspicion has widened to encompass such U.S. groups as the Ford Foundation, the International Republican Institute, the Carter Center and the Asia Foundation.
Of course, NED and its many subsidiaries including the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute do no such thing as “promoting democracy,” and instead are in the business of constructing a global network of neo-imperial administration termed “civil society” that interlocks with the West’s many so-called “international institutions” which in turn are completely controlled by interests in Washington, upon Wall Street, and in the cities of London and Brussels.
The very concept of the United States ”promoting democracy” is scandalous when considering it is embroiled in an invasive global surveillance scandal, guilty of persecuting one unpopular war after another around the planet against the will of its own people and based on verified lies, and brutalizing and abusing its own citizens at home with militarized police cracking down on civilians in towns like Ferguson, Missouri – making China’s police actions against “Occupy Central” protesters pale in comparison. “Promoting democracy” is clearly cover for simply expanding its hegemonic agenda far beyond its borders and at the expense of national sovereignty for all subjected to it, including Americans themselves.
In 2011, similar revelations were made public of the US’ meddling in the so-called “Arab Spring” when the New York Times would report in an article titled, “U.S. Groups Helped Nurture Arab Uprisings,” that:
A number of the groups and individuals directly involved in the revolts and reforms sweeping the region, including the April 6 Youth Movement in Egypt, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and grass-roots activists like Entsar Qadhi, a youth leader in Yemen, received training and financing from groups like the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute and Freedom House, a nonprofit human rights organization based in Washington.
The article would also add, regarding NED specifically, that:
The Republican and Democratic institutes are loosely affiliated with the Republican and Democratic Parties. They were created by Congress and are financed through the National Endowment for Democracy, which was set up in 1983 to channel grants for promoting democracy in developing nations. The National Endowment receives about $100 million annually from Congress. Freedom House also gets the bulk of its money from the American government, mainly from the State Department.
Image: US Senator John McCain on stage in Kiev, Ukraine cheerleading US funded sedition in Eastern Europe. In 2011, McCain would famously taunt both Russia and China that US-funded subversion was coming their way.
“Occupy Central” is one of many waves that have hit China’s shores since.
Pro-war and interventionist US Senator John McCain had famously taunted both Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and President Xi Jinping’s predecessor in 2011 that the US subversion sweeping the Middle East was soon headed toward Moscow and Beijing. The Atlantic in a 2011 article titled, “The Arab Spring: ‘A Virus That Will Attack Moscow and Beijing’,” would report that:
He [McCain] said, “A year ago, Ben-Ali and Gaddafi were not in power. Assad won’t be in power this time next year. This Arab Spring is a virus that will attack Moscow and Beijing.” McCain then walked off the stage.
Considering the overt foreign-funded nature of not only the “Arab Spring,” but now “Occupy Central,” and considering the chaos, death, destabilization, and collapse suffered by victims of previous US subversion, “Occupy Central” can be painted in a new light – a mob of dupes being used to destroy their own home – all while abusing the principles of “democracy” behind which is couched an insidious, diametrically opposed foreign imposed tyranny driven by immense, global spanning corporate-financier interests that fear and actively destroy competition. In particular, this global hegemon seeks to suppress the reemergence of Russia as a global power, and prevent the rise of China itself upon the world’s stage.
The regressive agenda of “Occupy Central’s” US-backed leadership, and their shameless exploitation of the good intentions of the many young people ensnared by their gimmicks, poses a threat in reality every bit as dangerous as the “threat” they claim Beijing poses to the island of Hong Kong and its people. Hopefully the people of China, and the many people around the world looking on as “Occupy Central” unfolds, will realize this foreign-driven gambit and stop it before it exacts the heavy toll it has on nations that have fallen victim to it before – Libya, Syria, Ukraine, Egypt, and many others.
By Tony Cartalucci
Global Research, October 01, 2014
Just as the US admitted shortly after the so-called “Arab Spring” began spreading chaos across the Middle East that it had fully funded, trained, and equipped both mob leaders and heavily armed terrorists years in advance, it is now admitted that the US State Department through a myriad of organizations and NGOs is behind the so-called “Occupy Central” protests in Hong Kong.
The Washington Post would report in an article titled, “Hong Kong erupts even as China tightens screws on civil society,” that:
Chinese leaders unnerved by protests elsewhere this year have been steadily tightening controls over civic organizations on the mainland suspected of carrying out the work of foreign powers.
The campaign aims to insulate China from subversive Western ideas such as democracy and freedom of expression, and from the influence, specifically, of U.S. groups that may be trying to promote those values here, experts say. That campaign is long-standing, but it has been prosecuted with renewed vigor under President Xi Jinping, especially after the overthrow of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych following months of street demonstrations in Kiev that were viewed here as explicitly backed by the West.
The Washington Post would also report (emphasis added):
One foreign policy expert, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive subject, said Putin had called Xi to share his concern about the West’s role in Ukraine. Those concerns appear to have filtered down into conversations held over cups of tea in China, according to civil society group members.
“They are very concerned about Color Revolutions, they are very concerned about what is going on in Ukraine,” said the international NGO manager, whose organization is partly financed by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), blamed here for supporting the protests in Kiev’s central Maidan square. “They say, ‘Your money is coming from the same people. Clearly you want to overthrow China.’ ”
Congressionally funded with the explicit goal of promoting democracy abroad, NED has long been viewed with suspicion or hostility by the authorities here. But the net of suspicion has widened to encompass such U.S. groups as the Ford Foundation, the International Republican Institute, the Carter Center and the Asia Foundation.
Of course, NED and its many subsidiaries including the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute do no such thing as “promoting democracy,” and instead are in the business of constructing a global network of neo-imperial administration termed “civil society” that interlocks with the West’s many so-called “international institutions” which in turn are completely controlled by interests in Washington, upon Wall Street, and in the cities of London and Brussels.
 |
| Image: While the Washington Post would have readers believe NED is in the business of promoting “freedom of expression” and “democracy” the corporate-financier interests represented on NED’s board of directors are anything but champions of such principles, and are instead notorious for principles precisely the opposite. |
In 2011, similar revelations were made public of the US’ meddling in the so-called “Arab Spring” when the New York Times would report in an article titled, “U.S. Groups Helped Nurture Arab Uprisings,” that:
A number of the groups and individuals directly involved in the revolts and reforms sweeping the region, including the April 6 Youth Movement in Egypt, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and grass-roots activists like Entsar Qadhi, a youth leader in Yemen, received training and financing from groups like the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute and Freedom House, a nonprofit human rights organization based in Washington.
The article would also add, regarding NED specifically, that:
The Republican and Democratic institutes are loosely affiliated with the Republican and Democratic Parties. They were created by Congress and are financed through the National Endowment for Democracy, which was set up in 1983 to channel grants for promoting democracy in developing nations. The National Endowment receives about $100 million annually from Congress. Freedom House also gets the bulk of its money from the American government, mainly from the State Department.
Image: US Senator John McCain on stage in Kiev, Ukraine cheerleading US funded sedition in Eastern Europe. In 2011, McCain would famously taunt both Russia and China that US-funded subversion was coming their way.
“Occupy Central” is one of many waves that have hit China’s shores since.
Pro-war and interventionist US Senator John McCain had famously taunted both Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and President Xi Jinping’s predecessor in 2011 that the US subversion sweeping the Middle East was soon headed toward Moscow and Beijing. The Atlantic in a 2011 article titled, “The Arab Spring: ‘A Virus That Will Attack Moscow and Beijing’,” would report that:
He [McCain] said, “A year ago, Ben-Ali and Gaddafi were not in power. Assad won’t be in power this time next year. This Arab Spring is a virus that will attack Moscow and Beijing.” McCain then walked off the stage.
Considering the overt foreign-funded nature of not only the “Arab Spring,” but now “Occupy Central,” and considering the chaos, death, destabilization, and collapse suffered by victims of previous US subversion, “Occupy Central” can be painted in a new light – a mob of dupes being used to destroy their own home – all while abusing the principles of “democracy” behind which is couched an insidious, diametrically opposed foreign imposed tyranny driven by immense, global spanning corporate-financier interests that fear and actively destroy competition. In particular, this global hegemon seeks to suppress the reemergence of Russia as a global power, and prevent the rise of China itself upon the world’s stage.
The regressive agenda of “Occupy Central’s” US-backed leadership, and their shameless exploitation of the good intentions of the many young people ensnared by their gimmicks, poses a threat in reality every bit as dangerous as the “threat” they claim Beijing poses to the island of Hong Kong and its people. Hopefully the people of China, and the many people around the world looking on as “Occupy Central” unfolds, will realize this foreign-driven gambit and stop it before it exacts the heavy toll it has on nations that have fallen victim to it before – Libya, Syria, Ukraine, Egypt, and many others.
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