2ND LEAD (Adds video)

OISL deferral has dashed Tamils' hope on permanent settlement: NPC Councillor

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 February 2015, 23:22 GMT]
The international community has opted for the deferral of the OISL findings without understanding the grave impact of the act of postponement, said Northern Province Councillor K. Saraweswaran in a video interview to TamilNet this week. More than its findings on the war crimes, the timely release of the report itself was anticipated to open the door for a sustainable and permanent political solution to the Tamil national question in the island. The deferral has dashed that particular hope that prevailed among the Tamil people in the North-East, he said.



Apart from establishing the real nature of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Sri Lankan government, Mr K. Sarweswaran was also expecting the OISL report to reveal the fact that there was a systematic intention on the part of the Sri Lankan government to annihilate Tamils as much as possible during the final stages of the war.

All successive governments for the past 60 years have been following the genocidal ideology of the promised island for Sinhala Buddhists, the NPC councillor said adding that the Sri Lankan governments wanted Tamils who fought for their rights to be either annihilated or be assimilated as slaves.

If the new regime in Colombo really seeks good governance, it should be giving equal respect to Tamil freedom fighters who sacrificed their lives and limbs, their orphans and their families now languishing without proper help, on par with the respect the government gives to what it claims as war heroes of the Sri Lanka Army, their orphans and the families, Mr Sarweswaran said.

All the honour and all the compensations given to the SL Army should be given to all the Tamil freedom fighters if this government wants to prove that it is prepared to treat Tamils as equals. “Then only, you can go for a real reconciliation. Otherwise, the reconciliation would be a meaningless farce,” the NPC councillor, who is the brother of TNA MP Suresh Premachandran, said.