Tamil reps meet visiting Deputy UK PM; briefs NPP Govt’s flaws on key Tamil issues

 

The Tamil delegation met with visiting British Prime Minister David Lammy on Tuesday. 

A group of representatives from Tamil political parties met with visiting British Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy yesterday (February 18) briefing the National People’s Power (NPP) government’s flaws in handling key Tamil  issues, particularly new constitution making process to resolve Tamil National question. 

The delegation consist of Ilankai Thamil Arasu Katchchi (ITAK) General Secretary M. A. Sumanthiran, Tamil National People’s Alliance (TNPF) leader MP Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, MP S. Shritharan, MP Raamanickam Chanakiyan and Leder of Tamil Eelam Liberation Front (TELO) leader MP  Selvam Adaikalanthan met with UK Prime Minister at Westminster House, Colombo. 

Issuing a statement, MP Ponnambalam said that the NPP came on an anti establishment wave that called into question the politics of the previous governments of 76 years. “That questioning of the past included the position previous govts had taken on the Tamil National Question. This made the NPP to boldly state that all previous govts had been racist towards the Tamils and that the NPP govt awill not be the same,” 

They promised, the MP pointed out to resolve the ethnic question with a new constitution that would address tamil concerns. They promised to repeal the PTA and never replace it. They promised to release all private land occupied by the armed forces. They also promised to release all Tamil political prisoners and stop sinhaslisation projects in the NE. 

“On everyone of these key issues faced by the Tamil people the NPP has defaulted. And when we as Tamil representatives point these failures out we are labelled Tamil racistsby the govt,”

If we are to give the benefit of the doubt to the govt and assume that the govt has failed because they fear a backlash from the extreme elements amongst the Sinhalese, the only way to deal with it would be to silence those extreme elements, he noted. “Those elements happen to be also the very same sections that stand accused for IHL and human rights violations. So we urged the UK to redouble its efforts to ensure international accountability.  Going after them will also eliminate any excuses the govt can give for not pursuing a political solution to the Tamil National question as well.”