NESOHR chair addresses US event

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 November 2004, 19:15 GMT]
Rev Father Karunaratnam, Chairman of the NorthEast Secretariat on Human Rights (NESOHR), delivered the key note address at the the Annual General Meeting of Ilankai Tamil Sangam (ITS), USA held in New York Saturday. He urged expatriate Tamils in the US to become politically more active to raise the plight of Sri Lankan Tamils in the US political fora. He described the human rights situation in the NorthEast and the efforts of the NESOHR to address rights issues. Two books related to Tamil struggle were also released at the event.

Fr. Karunaratnam giving keynote address

Fr. Karunaratnam was in Europe recently with the NESOHR delegation to meet various European Government officials.

Event co-ordinators said there is a need to educate the expatriate Tamils on human rights issues affecting NorthEast Tamils and they were fortunate to get Fr.Karunaratnam to attend the event.

The day long event included cultural programs including classical dance and music. Several talks on medical subjects of interest to expatriate Tamils were given by medical professionals.

A youth event was held in parallel in a nearby venue where several Tamil youths from different states participated.

Dance item in progress

"Leader of All Seasons," a book on LTTE Leader Velupillai Pirapaharan and "War and Peace," a book authored by Liberation Tigers’ Political Strategist and Chief Negotiator, Mr. Anton Balasingham, were released during the event. "Leader of All Seasons" was produced in Tamil by the International Federation of Tamils (IFT) in Switzerland to commemorate the 50th birthday of Pirapaharan and contains photographs of key events in LTTE Leader's life.

Visuwanathan Rudrakumaran, Legal Advisor to the LTTE, releasing Mr. Balasingham's book, "War and Peace," said, "What distinguishes this book from others on Tamil struggle is that author Mr Balasingham is widely regarded as the authoritative commentator on the politico-military struggle of LTTE. He has been the Chief Negotiator during the recent peace talks and has participated in all previous peace talks, and has been the closest confidante of LTTE leader Pirapaharan from the beginning of armed struggle in early 1970s.

"Balasingam illuminates the reader on what transpired in the recent peace talks and points out that the major impediment to the peace process is the lack of coherent policy in the Sinhala South. He says the absence of consensus within the Sinhala polity on a framework for political settlement and the lack of political will, will continue to bedevil future negotiations," Rudrakumar commented.

ITS current president Chandranathan receiving the first copy of "War and Peace" from Rudrakumaran

Mr Manoranjan receiving the first copy of "Leader of All Seasons" from President of World Coordinating Committee, Dr.Jeyalingam

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