Rudra questions GTF, Government talks

Head of the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) V Rudrakumaran says there is nothing new about political entities becoming involved in official or unofficial talks pertaining to the Tamil National Question as well as the urgent and immediate needs of the Tamil people.

Rudrakumaran told the Colombo Gazette that as a legal advisor to the LTTE, he has taken part in many rounds of talks in the past and he is also well aware of the duplicitous drama staged by the Government of Sri Lanka during such talks.

“When launching into talks of this kind, it is not only the subject matter of the talks that should be taken into account but also the timing of the talks, the motives of the parties to the talks, and who will gain more from entering into such talks. Whoever engages in talks on behalf of the Tamils should only speak from the perspective of Tamil interest,” he said.

Rudrakumaran also said that a number of questions and concerns come to the surface in relation to talks held this week between the Government and the Global Tamil Forum (GTF), including that the timing of the talks coincide with the expression of support by the international community to the efforts taken by Sri Lankan Government to convert the international investigation started by the UNHRC into a domestic investigation with “international involvement”.

He says the UN appears to have allocated initial funding for this as well and the recent talks are being used to create the impression that the domestic investigation was setup with the support of the Tamils.

“When the parties to the talks are hiding even the identity of the participants from the international community at the talks, one begins to doubt the truthfulness of their assertion about what was discussed there,” he said.

He also noted that with respect to people’s urgent and immediate needs, there are plenty of issues to be discussed at home where the Tamil representatives are. Their attempts instead to talk with the diaspora raises the question whether this is in fact an exercise to weaken the campaign for rights by the Tamil diaspora.

“ The present government is to be a short lived one with parliamentary elections likely to happen soon. Nothing much will eventuate in terms of long term outcomes for Tamils with this interim government structure. Therefore, the urgency surrounding these talks brings up questions whether the talks are genuinely in the interest of the Tamils,” he added.

Rudrakumaran said that doubts have also been expressed as to whether the decision to hold these talks came as official positions of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the GTF or indeed it was based on decisions of the individuals who participated in the talks.

“Therefore, we call upon the TNA and GTF to tell the Tamil people their official position with regards to these talks. If they were official talks, they are obliged to inform the Tamil people the rationale for the “talks” and the matters discussed in the form of an official report,” he said.

Rudrakumaran also said that the Government did not invite the TGTE to talks. He said that since the TGTE’s position with respect to the Tamil National question includes the holding of a referendum that includes the creation of an independent state as an option; referral of Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court for the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, and the establishment of an international mechanism to enable the Tamil diaspora to contribute to the development of Tamil homeland, the Government cannot realize their political motivation by engaging talks with the TGTE and this may be the reason why the TGTE was not invited.(Colombo Gazette)