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The month of February, that shows signs of Natures Early spring also saw the political world opening its eyes to the genocide of the Tamils by the Sinhalese. Western democracies were aroused from their slumber by the united protest marches of the Tamil community and 7-8 self immolation of youths by setting fire to their physique. Mr. John Cannis (Scarborough Centre, Lib.) speaking in the Canadian Parliament meant business. He wanted to call a spade a spade rather than hiding behind false pretence of modesty. He said “The humanitarian tragedy that is unfolding today is unfortunate. I think we could go so far as to use the word that is not permitted to be used: genocide, or ethnic cleansing.

We are all aware that organizations and groups such as the European community, the U.K., Norway, Switzerland, the United States and Canada have expressed their concern for what is happening. It is odd that although all these prominent, powerful nations have made these statements, they are going nowhere. He recapped Javier Solana ex NATO Secretary-General “The solution to the problem is not in signing papers; it is in compliance”.

Another MP was equal to the occasion in condemning the Sinhala government genocide of the Tamils in their Homeland of North and East. Hon. Peter Kent (Minister of State of Foreign Affairs (Americas), CPC), stressed the importance of immediate collective action thus “We have also repeatedly impressed upon all parties our grave concern over the deteriorating human rights situation and the need for an international presence to report on human rights violations. Through bilateral meetings and multilateral fora such as the Human Rights Council, the Government of Canada continues to express our concerns regarding reports of violations of humanitarian rights and humanitarian law”.

After five and a half hours of debate the House put a unanimous motion. “Canada calls for the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to declare and honour an immediate ceasefire to allow full, safe and unhindered access; the evacuation of the sick and wounded; and the delivery of much-needed humanitarian assistance to civilians.

Canada endorses the statement released yesterday by the co-chairs of the Tokyo Donor Conference on Reconstruction and Development of Sri Lanka (Norway, Japan, the United States and the European Union). The statement proposes conditions to prevent further civilian casualties and human suffering and to achieve a just and lasting political solution”.

In addition they concluded that that every effort should be made to allow the ICRC, the United Nations and international aid agencies to deliver humanitarian assistance and that they be allowed to establish relief centres beyond the lines to provide support and relief to civilians to relocate to this area. Canada has stated that the government of Sri Lanka had unilaterally established the safe zone, had directed the ICRC, UN and civilians to go there and the government was, therefore, responsible for their safety and it was unacceptable for the Sri Lankan army to be firing into the area, even for counter-bombardment purposes.

Another MP, Mr. Pierre Poilievre (Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and to the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, CPC) pointed out the discriminatory way Sinhala government distributed aid given by the international community and warned to be alert to avert such a situation. “ Mr Speaker, when I was in Sri Lanka some years ago, I travelled to the south in Galle and then later to the north in Jaffna and I did notice a dramatic distinction in the distribution of aid. It was clear to me that Tamil regions were receiving less aid than were Sinhalese. It appeared to me that the government was doing its best to favour one group over another in the post-tsunami period.

I wonder if my hon. colleague would have suggestions on how we could better scrutinize the use of those dollars (aid) to ensure they reach their recipients and relieve the pain and suffering of these victimized people rather than those dollars being wasted, not being spent at all, or being diverted to unworthy causes”.

A majority of the MPs was critical of the Sri-Lankan government for violating all the clauses under article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide that was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in December 1948 and came into effect in January 1951. Article 2 of the convention says that .any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group, constitute genocide.

The UK Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Bill Rammell): said during a one and a half debate on the Sri-Lankan civil war “Overall, the past month has demonstrated how serious the human rights situation remains”- in Sri-Lanka. The Foreign Secretary also discussed the matter with US Secretary of State Clinton on Tuesday. They jointly called for a no-fire period to allow civilians to leave the conflict area and to allow humanitarian agencies access. An important part of any political solution would be the establishment of effective systems and structures to protect the rights of all Sri Lankans.

It had been the habit of the Sri-Lankan government to call its Western critics ‘White Tigers’. Mr. Lee Scott (MP for Ilford, North) (Conservative) of the UK parliament warned Sri-Lanka to be careful of such mudslinging. “I conclude by saying that the Sri Lankan Government should be ashamed of themselves for seeing everyone in this Chamber today as a terrorist because of our wish to stand up for people’s rights. What we are not is what they accuse us of being. We wish to see human life being saved and people living in safe harmony and in a democracy”.

Recently, many other conscientious communities and people joined the large number of others that called for a stoppage of the Sri-Lankan genocide. The Conference of Diocesan Priests of India emphasised India could not remain silent when genocide was reported in various parts of the globe. A statement from the conference's Feb. 3-6 meeting said its members felt anguished at the terror unleashed against innocent people in Sri Lanka as well as in Gaza. India and other nations must work to bring an immediate end to the war in Sri Lanka and to resume a political process that would protect the human rights of the Tamil people, the statement said.

US NGO Forum on Sri Lanka, in a letter to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on 19 02 2009 had urged her to consider explicit sanctions against the government of Sri Lanka if it does not agree immediately to a ceasefire and to allow the UN and the ICRC to carry out an evacuation operation. “The UN must be able to specify the conditions and modalities under which such an operation is to be implemented. In addition, we urge you to call for a discussion in the UN Security Council of the situation in Sri Lanka”.

On 18 02 2009, Shiva Pasupati, Former Attorney General of Sri Lanka had strongly criticised Sri Lankan Government’s Genocidal war on minority Tamils and had called on United Nations Secretary General to intervene immediately.

Dr Thaya Thiagarajah, a psycho-social consultant writing in Transcurrents.com on 21 February was pessimistic of UN or any others moving in to stop the genocide of the Tamils. She wrote “Now, what is happening here is genocide in many forms. Needless to say scattering people all over to unknown and unfamiliar places will ultimately lead to a weak population and result in damages done to our culture, education, and relationships. I can foresee a maimed Tamil generation with no hope in the future. The international community can make statements. But none will pay heed. For me the future looks dark and gloomy”.

When Sir John Holmes was chaperoned by Sinhala ministers all through out his fact finding mission this week preventing him from holding or seeing for himself the actuality one is bound to be sceptical of any intervention from UN. As one Tamil poet said ’The world is a stage and all are actors”. Real actors in that indeed.

Published: Feb 23, 2009 12:09:08 GMT