Home
The LTTE Has Intensified Its Terror Campaign In The Face Of Diminishing Support From The People It Claims To Represent
Sri Lanka has told the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva on 15 April 1998 that "the LTTE, sustained mostly by funds raised from abroad, have recently increased the tempo, intensity and brutality of its terrorist campaign reflecting perhaps its increasing desperation in the face of diminishing support from the people it claims to represent". Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva , Ambassador H.M.G.S Palihakkara presenting Sri Lanka's "Country Statement" at the on-going sessions said "the Tamil voters of Jaffna refused to pay heed to the LTTE bomb threats against local government elections and went to vote in January 1998. The turn-out (20%), though admittedly low by Sri Lanka standards, was nevertheless an emphatic 'No' to violence and a resounding 'Yes' to the democratic process". Emphasizing that "international cooperation against LTTE fund raising and arms smuggling is an imperative that is integral to this peace effort as this group is increasingly relying on expatriate sustenance as its domestic support has greatly eroded", he said.
Whilst demonstrating to the terrorists that they cannot hold the people and the security of Sri Lanka to hostage, the government has pledged its unwavering commitment to a negotiated political solution based on far reaching constitutional reforms towards which it is working in partnership with the Parliamentary parties. Ambassador Palihakkara who observed that Sri Lanka believed "that sustaining a national and international dialogue rather than parochial platitudes and simplifications is the true and practical basis to address and redress even the most complex human rights issues " said. The Government of Sri Lanka has been able to develop and launch an integrated strategy for peace and accelerated development encompassing constitutional, security and human rights measures. Government has taken on a broad front to implement legislative, administrative and investigative efforts both to promote and protect human rights as well as to address a number of reported abuses attributed to the security forces.
Ambassador went on to describe the enhanced safe guards against human rights violations in the proposed constitution, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka which had become fully operational, Sri Lanka's ratification of the Optional Protocol of the ICCPR and the continued accountability through national as well as international means as measures aimed at serving this objective. Noting that reports of alleged disappearances was an area of keen concern to the Government, he said "Sri Lanka was discussing openly and freely with the Commission and the working group on disappearances the progress made, as well as problems encountered in clarifying and investigating these cases." He informed that "allegations concerning reported disappearances in Jaffna had diminished significantly, particularly during the second half of 1997", adding that the Government was "committed to ensure that security forces personnel could not act with impunity." He noted that "in 1997, 325 police personnel, 79 army personnel and 3 navy personnel were charged in the Supreme Court in relation to alleged human rights abuses by them", adding that "in a number of other prominent cases security personnel who are on operational duty have been brought before the courts, including through the trial-at-bar procedure, which is being invoked only for 4th time in the legal history of Sri Lanka."Referring to humanitarian issues engendered by the terrorist initiated violence in the north and east, Ambassador Palihakkara said "the government of Sri Lanka has continued its productive partnership with a number of United Nations and other International Organisations, as well as NGOs in providing essential services and supplies to the civilian populations in the north and east", adding that "the government expects soon to restore the land route to Jaffna in order to further augment the supplies to the north." He further noted that the UNSGs Special Representative will visit Sri Lanka next month to launch a programme with the government of Sri Lanka to address the problem of tamil children forced into battle by the LTTE.
Concluding, Ambassador Palihakkara noted that "the people of Sri Lanka who have remained calm and unprovoked despite the intensified terrorist outrages consecutively perpetrated against them" said "the people and government derived courage and inspiration from the fact that nationally and internationally, these terrorist acts have been condemned and the peace process has been upheld." Observing that there was no alternative to "peace making" the Ambassador asserted that "no one, certainly not the most intransigent terrorist group in the world, can detract the people and the Government of Sri Lanka from this exceedingly difficult but patently indispensable task "