Sri Lanka Retaliates Against UN Call for War Crimes Investigation – List Tamil Groups as Terrorists
ASIA--PACIFIC, 7 Apr 2014
World News Report – TRANSCEND Media Service
Angered by the recent UN Human Rights Council Resolution authorizing International War Crimes investigation for Sri Lanka’s mass killings of Tamils, Sri Lankan government put several Tamil groups from around the world in its Terrorist list.
Chief among them is Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE), which held internationally supervised elections among Tamils around the world to elect over 120 Members of Parliament and is leading a campaign for non-violent and democratic approach to solve Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict, including an internationally supervised Referendum. The Constitution of the TGTE mandates that it should realize its political objective only through peaceful means. TGTE has a bicameral legislature and a Cabinet and held one of its Parliamentary sittings in the British Parliament. The Prime Minister of TGTE is Mr. Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran, a New York based lawyer.
Another group is UK based British Tamil Forum (BTF), which is active in shaping UK’s policy towards Sri Lanka and met British Prime Minister David Cameron ahead of his visit to Sri Lanka for the British Commonwealth Conference. BTF recently organized a Land Grab Conference in London, which was attended by Members of Parliament from Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the main Tamil political party in Sri Lanka. The British Tamils Forum was formed to highlight the humanitarian crises and human rights condition of Sri Lankan Tamils in Sri Lanka. It is led by Ravi Kumar.
Other group on the list is Global Tamil Forum (GTF), which is led by 80 years old Catholic Priest Fr.SJ Emmanuel. GTF coordinate activities with other diaspora Tamil groups and with the main Tamil political party in Sri Lanka Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to achieve a political solution to Tamils. It has organized Conferences on a number of subjects.
Another group is Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC), which is also advocating for Tamils rights. CTC sued Sri Lanka born terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna for linking CTC to the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) and was awarded $53,000 by a Canadian Court. In a February 2011 article published by Lakbima News, Gunaratna was quoted as saying: “The LTTE is operating under the name of the Canadian Tamil Congress, which is the main LTTE front organization in Canada. The Toronto-based CTC filed a defamation case against Gunaratna for linking it to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and won the case.
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