No. 1 is a discussion on the situation in Sri Lanka. We are joined by representatives of the Irish Forum for Peace in Sri Lanka. Members will have taken note of recent events in Sri Lanka and are concerned at the worsening situation there. They will be interested to hear from the delegates, Mr. Brian Maguire, Mr. Jude Lal Fernando and Mr. Kumar Kumarendran, whom I welcome. Before we start, I must bring to their attention that members of the committee have absolute privilege but this does not apply to witnesses appearing before the committee. Members are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect that they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against a person outside the Houses or an official by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable.
Situation in Sri Lanka: Discussion with Irish Forum for Peace in Sri Lanka.
Mr. Brian Maguire
I am very pleased to be here. I want to make two comments before introducing our speakers. I wish to indicate the origins of the Irish Forum for Peace in Sri Lanka and address the purpose of the meeting.
The Irish Forum for Peace in Sri Lanka grew from a practical need to publicise internationally disappearances and arrests in Colombo. Essentially, we were being asked to send faxes to the Foreign Ministry in Colombo identifying journalists and human rights workers who had been lifted by unknown gangs in order to ensure they would not be murdered. If it was known that they had been taken, they would be safe. We were doing this as individuals. A particularly horrible event occurred which, in effect, sparked the creation of the group — the non-reporting two years of the aerial bombing of a school in Vallipunam, where 61 schoolgirls died. It was not reported in the New York Times or The Irish Times and we decided to form an organisation to publicise events in Sri Lanka, as we had concluded something terrible was going on and that nothing was happening internationally. That is how the group was formed.
We have held one international seminar on the issue of peace and the peace process. The keynote speech was made by Fr. Alec Reid and many politicians from the Oireachtas attended — there was one from each party. The Minister of State, Deputy Mansergh, shared his experiences of the Northern Ireland peace process. We adopted a number of points, including the demand for a permanent ceasefire and the need to work towards parity of esteem for both parties. We have held meetings with officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and also with this body's sister committee, the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs. We were very encouraged by the statement in March of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Martin, which called for a ceasefire and meaningful negotiations.
Our purpose today is to answer any questions the committee might have about this issue and to encourage action at European level in defence of human rights. The primary human right is the right to life, from which everything follows. This is the one right which is being denied. To show a European dimension, we have invited Mr. Kumar Kumarendran, who is a Tamil, a London banker and a representative of the British Tamils Forum. He will present information on the current situation in northern Sri Lanka and the British Government's response. To my left is Dr. Jude Lal Fernando from Trinity College, who is a member of the Irish Forum for Peace in Sri Lanka and who will give an overview and sum up. In the public Gallery we have Mr. Thrin Chchoti, who is from the Paris-based French Tamil co-ordinating committee and Mr. Kandeepan Somasuriyasingham, who is from the Tamil community in Ireland.
Mr. Kumar Kumarendran
A cháirde uaisle, I would like to thank you all for this opportunity to bring to your attention the genocide of the Tamil race on the island of Sri Lanka, and to acknowledge the solidarity shown by the Irish Forum for Peace in Sri Lanka.
The genocide in Sri Lanka is systematic and planned. No international media personnel are allowed in. International non-governmental agencies are barred by the Government of Sri Lanka from operating in those areas where the Sri Lankan state is aggressively pursuing its policy of genocide. Sri Lanka was expelled from the United Nations Human Rights Council last year for gross human rights violations. The British Foreign Secretary has undertaken to consider the legal question of genocide in Sri Lanka. He has also undertaken to support an investigation into war crimes in Sri Lanka. The British Foreign Secretary and the US Secretary of State issued a joint statement calling for a ceasefire. Many other governments have also called for a ceasefire.
For the past three months, Tamils living in the Vanni region of Sri Lanka have been on the receiving end of at least 2,000 artillery shells each day. Vanni is in the north east of Sri Lanka. No day goes by in Vanni without the loss of at least 100 innocent Tamil lives and serious injury to thousands of innocent Tamil women, children, the elderly and even infants. The use of aerial bombardment on innocent Tamil civilians has been going on not for weeks or months, but for years.
Why am I arguing that what is happening to the Tamils in Sri Lanka is genocide? It is well documented that the Government is using food and medicine as a weapon. Thirteen people have died in the last few days from starvation. The latest report from Vanni states that children are fainting due to lack of food. The last decent shipment of food went to Vanni on 2 April, which was only sufficient for a week given the number of people there. A further 30 metric tonnes of food was sent last Tuesday, which was not even sufficient for one day. We need to listen to what the international agencies are saying. Last Thursday, the International Committee of the Red Cross, ICRC, issued a statement that highlighted the urgent need to intervene. The UN and Human Rights Watch have warned governments of the human tragedy that has been unfolding.
It is becoming clear to the whole world that the Sri Lankan state has been and still is committing a war crime against the Tamils. The air force is using F7G MiGs and Kfir jets to bomb civilian targets. The navy is using canons and 107 millimetre rockets. The army is using artillery shelling, cluster and conditioned bombs. The bombing of many makeshift hospitals is a daily occurrence. The Sri Lankan defence secretary is on record as saying that the bombing of anything inside Tamil Tigers held territory, even if it is a hospital, is a legitimate target. Sixty patients and visitors were killed and over 80 civilians injured in the bombing of another makeshift hospital, while a female volunteer doctor also died in the attack. The GPS location co-ordinates were shared with the ICRC only three days prior to the attack. The ICRC has confirmed that it had already formally informed the Sri Lankan officials before the attack. The list of atrocities by the Sri Lankan state against the Tamil people is endless. Today, we must think of what we can all do to bring this tragedy to an end.
I wish to leave members with some thoughts on what British Tamils and Tamils throughout the world hope will happen. It is our duty to ensure food and medicines reach civilians in the conflict zone. As an emergency measure, we must air-drop food and medicines. Tamils would like Ireland to work with other international governments to support the idea of internationally co-ordinated air drops. It is about time the United Nations acted decisively. We want the Government of the Irish Republic, together with its partners in Europe, to raise the matter at the United Nations. We must work hard to secure a United Nations Security Council resolution. Such a resolution must enforce a no-fly zone in the north east of Sri Lanka and force Sri Lanka to maintain adequate food and medical supplies. It must enforce a cessation in the use of heavy weaponry by Sri Lanka. Time is running out. This is the last chance members have to save the lives of thousands of innocent Tamils. If we do not act to end this human suffering now, we should hang our heads in shame. These are not my words, but those of a British Member of Parliament in a debate in Westminster last Wednesday. It is time for action, not words. This is what British Tamils are asking the British and Irish Governments to do.
Dr. Jude Lal Fernando
I thank members for inviting us to make this presentation. I am Sinhalese and my parents do not speak a word of Tamil. I started learning the language of the other in 1983 when many Sinhala gangs, with the support of the then government, started killing nearly 3,000 Tamils within one week, according to official statistics. Through that atrocity, 500,000 Tamils were displaced. As a student in university and a Sinhalese, the only moral response I could give to this atrocity inflicted on my Tamil brothers and sisters was to learn their language. Today I am bilingual.
In the media the Sri Lankan conflict has often been depicted as one between two parties in which the innocent civilians are trapped. This depiction conceals the political reality of the Sri Lankan conflict. According to the most influential partner of the current coalition government, the JHU or national heritage party led by the Buddhist monks, all those trapped in the LTTE controlled areas cannot be called innocent civilians. As they are the kith and kin of the Tamil Tigers, they are a legitimate target in the war on terror to safeguard the unitary character of the Sinhala Buddhist state. In that sense, for the Sri Lankan Government, this is a war against the Tamils. This is a war against the Tamils' historical and legitimate resistance against 60 years of domination. As members may be aware, the Tamils non-violently followed the Gandhian-style satyagraha model, to resist subjugation by Sinhala majoritarian rule for the first 30 years, from 1948 until 1977. All those non-violent demonstrations were brutally crushed and many hundreds of Tamils were killed during this 30-year period. In 1977 the Tamils voted for a party which canvassed on the mandate of homeland rule, self-determination and the right to nationhood. It won overwhelmingly and became the opposition in Sri Lanka. This party was excluded, depriving the Tamils of their only democratic means of dissent. Only afterwards did the second phase of militant struggle evolve and gain popular support. During the second part of the 30-year period, more than 60,000 lives have been lost and more than 1.2 million people have been displaced.
In 2002, a ceasefire agreement was co-ordinated and facilitated by the EU and the Norwegian Government. The international community, including the EU, accepted both parties with parity of esteem. In 2002, the Tamil Tigers controlled 70% of the Tamil region and had military parity. It was on the principle that both parties should be recognised with parity of esteem and military parity that the 2002 ceasefire agreement was signed. I was in Sri Lanka at the time. It created a democratic space. Six rounds of talks were held in major cities, including Dublin.
However, two factors dismantled the entire peace process, one of which was internal. By 2005, there was a different political formation and the current President made an alliance Government with the two ultra-nationalist parties, which did not recognise that Tamils have a historical issue and which wanted to protect the character of the state through military means. The external factor was the unfortunate banning of the Tamil Tigers from the peace process by the EU. Nowhere in the world has one party been banned, under enormous pressure from the world's other powers, when a peace process was gaining momentum, however fragile it may have been. Had one party been banned when the Irish peace process was gaining momentum, matters would have escalated drastically. This is what we are experiencing in Sri Lanka.
Unfortunately, the EU's ban on the Tamil Tigers coincided with the non-negotiable stance of the Sri Lankan Government, which rules the country. Since the present Government entered power, more than 10,000 lives have been lost and more than 800,000 people have been displaced, not once, but innumerable times. Some 14 journalists have been killed and 49 journalists have fled. Like others, I am not in a position to return to my country. However, I am speaking before this honourable assembly.
It is true that some powers are faulty in making political decisions, but everyone, including myself as a Sinhalese, and the EU, is responsible. The only pressure, I strongly reiterate, that can be exerted on the Sri Lankan Government is to lift the ban on the Tigers, to re-establish parity of esteem and to recognise that the political issue should be addressed on the basis of parity of esteem. I do not want to point a finger at the Sri Lankan Government or the Tamil Tigers. Rather, I want to look at myself and Europe, where I have been given a residence visa to stay. I want us to consider our own responsibilities and to take every measure to lift the ban and to re-establish parity of esteem so that no more blood will be spilled. The conflict could be resolved, a process to which Ireland could be a witness. Ireland followed its own process and saw a relatively successful peace process to which no limitations were attached. Why can we not try the same in Sri Lanka?
It is true that accepting that something went wrong can be difficult. However, would it be easier to allow thousands to be killed or to accept a mistake? Let us correct the mistake and stop the shedding of blood on all sides.
I thank the Irish Forum for Peace in Sri Lanka for its submission. We see the scenes on our televisions of the situation in Sri Lanka but, unfortunately, we are far removed from it. What is the situation today? The impression given is that government forces have given the local population a period of time to evacuate from the area and for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to surrender. Can the delegation confirm this?
Why did the EU support the ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam? What is the view of the forum regarding the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam? The Minister has raised this issue in Parliament on several occasions, as have I. The forum attended the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs some months ago. Did any benefit accrue from that? What action did the committee take and what response did this get?
I thank the forum for opening our ears and eyes to the problem. We do not know a great deal about this issue. If we had the Sri Lankan Government rather than the Irish Forum for Peace in Sri Lanka before us, what would it say is the solution to the problem? What would the Irish Forum for Peace in Sri Lanka like the EU to do immediately? The Irish Forum for Peace in Sri Lanka refers to parity of esteem. Where did it break down, what went wrong and how do we re-establish that?
I am delighted to hear what the delegation has to say. As other speakers have said, we know very little of the situation in Sri Lanka. How many races or tribes exist in Sri Lanka and what are the religious or other historic differences that are exacerbating the situation?
I welcome the delegation and its submission. It is difficult to get a clear or in-depth understanding of a conflict in another country, particularly one that is so far away. We depend on media briefings to a large extent but this is often a tabloid version of what is going on. The opportunity for the Irish Forum for Peace in Sri Lanka to come before us and provide us with detailed documentation is helpful. Although I have been critical of the UN for its inability to be pro-active about conflicts in various parts of the world, one looks to the UN for a viewpoint on certain conflict zones. The submission suggests the UN is allowing a slaughter to escalate. This is a significant charge to make about the USA and the UN. Can the delegation explain that point further in terms of the interaction between the forum and the UN and how it sees the UN failing and being in dereliction of its duties?
Members' contributions indicate that we are not as familiar as we should be with the situation in Sri Lanka. One of the reasons for this is that it is some distance away. Notwithstanding that, through television, radio and newspaper reports we have become aware of what is effectively a civil war situation. That is the reality from the point of view of outsiders. For the people of Sri Lanka, depending on what side of the divide they are on, it can be a difficult situation. Civil wars do not make for good reading in any context. In the opinion of the forum, what intervention can our Minister make at this stage, at EU or UN level? What would be the benefit of an intervention of that nature?
We realise that difficulties arise in terms of the EU's ability to intervene in Sri Lanka. The UN is somewhat different in that it has been involved in peacekeeping operations for many years. It is a very difficult situation and a solution will not easily be found other than within Sri Lanka.
Mr. Brian Maguire
I will deal with the simple question of our relationship with the Tamil Tigers. The Irish Forum for Peace in Sri Lanka is purely a forum for peace. It has no relationship with any armed group. We took the view that the killings in Sri Lanka stopped while peace negotiations were being pursued. In regard to my earlier comments on how we came into being, those who were lifted in Colombo were not taken by the Tamil Tigers nor were they members of that organisation. They were journalists and other people who occupied the centre ground. We have experience in this country of how difficult the centre can become. If one is a player on either side of a conflict, one removes the centre.
I realise that the activities of the Sri Lankan Government are questionable and that many people in the establishment are terrified of disappearing or being lifted and murdered. I merely want to know the forum's opinion of the Tamil Tigers.
Mr. Brian Maguire
To quote my colleague, the Tamil Tigers are not saints. They have engaged in a particular action that horrifies the whole world, namely, suicide bombing. They see that as their means of resistance. We offer no support for the collateral damage of these actions. We find it interesting that they appear to want to stop fighting, although they do not desire to surrender. They are not fighting in Colombo or the rest of Sri Lanka. They have maintained discipline among the diaspora, which has refrained from violence. The election held in Sri Lanka in 1977 resembles our election of 1918. A vote on national determination was carried by a huge majority but the result was rejected.
Dr. Jude Lal Fernando
There was also an election in 2004.
Mr. Brian Maguire
That is where they got their mandate. I have no doubt that some of their tactics are reprehensible. At present, they are facing aircraft and artillery with small arms. The documentaries that have been produced over the past year reveal people moving away from the Sri Lankan army. They are not being herded onto trucks by Tamil Tigers. Trucks are taking away families and their possessions and it appears they are moving to stay ahead of the army.
There was an interesting report in The Irish Times two weeks ago which reported that we do not know if there are aeroplanes bombing on a daily basis or artillery shells arriving in this area, which is twice the size of the Phoenix Park. We know the Tamils are holding their kinfolk at gunpoint. I ask Deputy Timmins to be reasonable. How does he know one and not the other?
I do not know if I would go back to my childhood, and this may be off the wall, but I offer it to the committee. A year ago I was in Kenya and met the leadership of the Mau Mau. I grew up with the idea that these were the most horrible people who ever walked the face of the Earth and were terrifying. The Mau Mau were responsible for 200 deaths at most. The Kenyan Rifles killed 300,000 people in Kenya. We did not know that here. There are no journalists in the peace lines. The international journalists were ordered out. Those who stayed were killed. I cannot answer completely Deputy Timmins's question on who the Tamil Tigers are and what they are doing behind this. I have a suspicion of what I read and I have common sense. If one cannot pick an aeroplane out of a sky, how can one see a man in a ditch?
Dr. Jude Lal Fernando
There was not only an election in 1977, as Mr. Maguire mentioned. During the peace process in 2004 there was another general election and the Tamil National Alliance, an umbrella parliamentary political party in Sri Lanka, contested the elections on the basic principles that were enumerated in the 1977 elections of the right to nationhood and separation. There was an added principle that they would accept the Tamil Tigers as the sole representatives of the Tamil nation. It was a peace time. Almost all the seats were won by the Tamil National Alliance. In the last three years, four Tamil National Alliance MPs have been assassinated. All of them were bilingual.
The question is not one of terrorism, it is a political issue. Unfortunately, the 11 September 2001 discourse has generalised and stereotyped, and we have been put into a situation where we cannot objectively analyse the political dynamics of particular conflicts, such as that of Sri Lanka. It has its own historical and legitimate reasons and these were meant to be addressed in the 2002 ceasefire agreement. That is why I have reiterated this.
A member asked about the role of the UN and the US. The ceasefire agreement was signed on 22 February 2002. Within six months, a US Pacific command naval group arrived in Sri Lanka to carry out a feasibility study of the eastern province, a good part of which was administrated by the Tamil Tigers. It carried out a study and handed a report to the Sri Lankan Government saying this was peacetime. At this time I, as a Sinhalese was going to the Tamil areas and so many Tamils were coming to the Sinhal areas. This is what I have lost. I have the document produced by the naval fleet with me. It says:
We are going to win the war and we need to get hold of the eastern province first. It was from the eastern province from 2005 that the present military onslaught against the Tamil region started.
This is nothing new. Unfortunately, since 6 April 2000, the Tamil Tigers have been banned by the EU, under pressure as we are told, from the British and American Governments.
I do not make this claim out of nothing. The Swedish major general Ulf Henricsson was head of the Sri Lanka monitoring mission and went to a meeting in Berlin immediately after the ban. He said that the EU consulted the monitoring mission before the ban. This body knew the reality on the ground and this is how political decisions had to be reached. He strongly recommended not going through with the ban as it would lead to an enormous escalation in the situation. No sooner did he have a meeting with the EU Commission than he indicated that the ban should go ahead. He bluntly said that the decision to ban the Tamil Tigers was taken under enormous pressure from Britain and the US and it was not taken within the European Union parliamentary complex. He said it was taken in the coffee shops of Brussels.
I am trying to retrieve one of the most ethical principles of the Irish peace process and one of the most profound ethical principles of the European Union. This is to resolve conflicts through parity of esteem; not through military means but political means. If we do not establish parity of esteem, the other option is the military one. There is no middle way. The military option is being promoted at the moment.
There were 15,000 sq. km. in the Tamil region in 2002 which were controlled by the Tamil Tigers when the ceasefire was signed but it has been smashed into and restricted. One can see the entire basis for a political negotiation has been dismantled. Is it possible to rectify this situation? It is possible but we cannot be deterministic in political decisions, and the committee members, as politicians, would be aware of this more than me. I am an academic and peace lover. That is all.
I come before the committee to indicate that it is not an impossible task to establish parity of esteem and to recognise that the Tamils have a legitimate grievance which needs to be addressed within a democratic framework and without further bloodshed. This has cost an enormous number of Tamil lives and polarised my community and that of the Tamils. All the peace-loving people within the community have been terrorised and resistance has spread from the Tamil region to Tamil Nadu, south India and the whole world.
We are not too late to retrieve and resurrect this process. I request that this honourable assembly address the conflict objectively and politically. In order to do this, I would like to make four demands, taking on board what my colleague said. First, the EU, including the Irish Government, must call on the Sri Lankan Government to halt its military onslaught immediately and agree to a permanent ceasefire rather than a temporary ceasefire. The Tamil Tigers have continuously indicated they do not want a temporary ceasefire and they are ready for a permanent ceasefire.
It is clear when people go to Afghanistan or Iraq that it is very difficult to find a group with which to negotiate. As a non-violent person, I believe we should be able to do this, not through military means but through a change of heart and mind. In Sri Lanka there is a clearly identifiable political movement that worked with the United Nations, the European Union and other international bodies and was ready to negotiate. Why not call for a permanent ceasefire?
The second demand, as Mr. Kumarendran mentioned, is to allow immediate humanitarian aid because people are dying of starvation. The Sri Lankan Government has used medicines and food as weapons.
The third demand is to stop internment camps. The Tamil Tigers have been accused, without objective analysis, of keeping people as hostages. Those who accuse the Tamil Tigers do not ask why people should leave their land. People have been bombarded and forced to leave. Those who accuse the Tamil Tigers do not acknowledge that those forced to leave the area are held in Guantanamo Bay-type internment camps. The UN agencies which go there see that conditions in the camps are not good enough. The Sri Lankan Government has been given millions of dollars to maintain the camps without addressing the humanitarian and political issues.
The fourth demand is to call for parity of esteem through a lifting of the ban on the Tamil Tigers, which would promote political negotiation. I strongly believe Ireland can play a crucial role in this. History can be created and Ireland may be implicated because it is part of the European Union. It has a history of conflict resolution through peaceful means and also has the high moral ground. It can help raise Sri Lanka from the huge blood bath in which it finds itself.
Mr. Kumar Kumarendran
A question was asked as to how many races existed in Sri Lanka. The Sinhalese are predominantly Buddhist, the Tamils are mainly Hindu and there are also Muslims and Burghers. Before the British invaded Sri Lanka, there were three kingdoms, one of which was the Tamil kingdom. For administrative purposes, the British merged the three kingdoms but gave power to the majority Sinhalese on Sri Lankan independence in 1948.
A question was asked on why the European Union had banned the LTTE, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Terrible consequences followed the attacks of 11 September 2001; there were security failings and the former President of the United States, George Bush, started the war on terror. The LTTE was banned as a terrorist organisation but what one person sees as a terrorist organisation may be seen as a group of freedom fighters by another. Mr. Nelson Mandela was a terrorist but is now a statesman.
The current situation in Sri Lanka is extremely bad. The Government of Sri Lanka is not sending food and medical supplies; there are no more antibiotics and the international community must intervene.
A question was asked on the solution sought by the Sri Lankan Government. We all know it seeks a military solution to a political problem; it has ignored the many requests made by international governments for a ceasefire. We must understand the mindset of the Sinhalese state; a few months ago the head of the army said Sri Lanka belonged to Sinhala Buddhists. If an army commander said this in Ireland, would he keep his position for even five minutes?
Tamils are treated as second class citizens and a planned genocide is taking place. The Government expelled all foreign journalists from the conflict zone and killed local journalists, including Sinhalese journalists. A prominent Sinhalese journalist was killed because he sought to tell the truth. Slobodan Milosevic killed so many Albanians, and the genocides in Darfur, Rwanda or Srebrenica could have been prevented if the international community had taken steps in time. They wake up and find that thousands of people have died, why? Sri Lanka calls itself a sovereign state. A sovereign state must protect all its citizens, but Sri Lanka is not doing that. Therefore, the responsibility for protection falls on the international community.
I hope we have answered all the questions. If we have not, please let us know.
When did the Sri Lankan Government last win an election? Is it a military dictatorship?
I thank the representatives for coming. The situation is desperate. I am reading the statement from the EU that it repeats its call on the Government of Sri Lanka to proceed urgently towards an inclusive and peaceful political process. However, from what Mr. Kumarendran said, I do not think that is going to happen. It is a sort of fairytale. Is there anything we can do?
I sympathise with the difficulties faced by the people of Sri Lanka. Are there outside forces at work in the region? Does the Indian Government have any involvement or sympathy with the cause? How many civilians have been lost on both sides? I know the numbers caught up in the troubles, but have the Government forces lost many people as a result of the conflict? Who is providing arms for the Tamil Tigers? What is the situation on the ground?
The Tamils are a distinct ethnic group and have a tradition in Sri Lanka that should be respected, although not in a separate state. Regional autonomy is what they want. It is similar to the situation in Northern Ireland in one sense. That seems a reasonable request on the part of those who have a separate ethnic background and religion to the majority of the population. There are about 1.2 million Tamils in that region, which is a sizeable number.
I thank the Chairman for inviting the witnesses because it gives them a platform to provide information to the people of Ireland. I hope the media will explain what is happening in the region and try to get us more involved.
Members have stated their views and expressed their anxiety to involve themselves in a positive way that will have some impact. The analogy with the peace process in Ireland is well made. However, it did take us several hundred years to realise the benefits of peace and we would not now regard ourselves as experts. Situations such as that do not resolve themselves overnight. They have to be worked at all the time, and that will continue for several years to come in Ireland.
One thing has been recognised, namely, it is better to talk than to kill. Winston Churchill once said it was better to jaw jaw than to war war.
"To jaw jaw is always better than to war war." Yes, but——
This is still relevant. However, Sri Lanka has a large population of 21 million, which is the same as the population of Australia, for example, although in a somewhat smaller territory. Against that background, members are obviously concerned — and have shown their concerns — as to what intervention we can make. We can talk to the Minister, which we will do next week. The point made by the witnesses about international journalists being excluded from the arena is a useful one and we may be able to do something in that regard. However, it will eventually fall to the community in Sri Lanka itself to come to a decision as to whether they want to continue as things are or make peace. In itself, a ceasefire would not be the solution to the problem but it might be a first step. A peace process was in place before it broke down.
Senator Cummins's intervention is to be the final one.
I am looking at the conclusions of the GAERC meeting last week. The last paragraph states:
The EU repeats its call on the Government of Sri Lanka to proceed urgently towards an inclusive and peaceful political process. The EU believes it is the only way in which lasting peace in Sri Lanka will be achieved. It encourages all stakeholders in that country to urgently engage in a responsible way to enable progress to be made in finding a lasting, peaceful political solution.
Those are the words of the Council on the concerns of all communities in Sri Lanka. Ultimately the delegates would like to see them being translated into actions. That would possibly be a good way of concluding the discussion today. I do not know whether the delegates have seen those debates but such a solution is what we would all like to see as the outcome. I am sure the committee will do anything it can to assist. There is a need to lobby all European governments on the issue and to maintain the momentum of the GAERC's conclusions.
Mr. Brian Maguire
I will answer Deputy O'Rourke's point. The second paragraph reads: "In this context the Council welcomes the reported announcement by the Government of Sri Lanka of an end to heavy military operations as a first step". That would not have happened without the political intervention of European governments. Just as we used to send faxes about individual matters, the governments have stated this is not on. The US Secretary of State, Mrs. Clinton, has also mentioned this, as have President Obama and the British Foreign Secretary. There is international shame about what is happening in the country. All I can say is keep it up.
Dr. Jude Lal Fernando
I thank Senator Cummins who quoted from the EU resolution but I appeal strongly for these words to be matched by concrete action — established parity of esteem.
I asked whether outside forces were at work in Sri Lanka.
Mr. Brian Maguire
There is an extraordinary list, including India, China, Russia and Iran, as well as the Bush Administration. There is a new system and new words coming from Washington. The blockage at the United Nations has been caused by China and Russia. I do not know what the situation is but those are the realities.
It may take a little time for actions to percolate through the system. I thank all the delegates for their attendance at the meeting which has been most informative. The committee will follow up as appropriate. We will raise the issue with the Minister when he next addresses us in a week's time. We discussed it briefly with him during his last visit. We will see what we can do to mobilise international thinking on the matter with a view to having international observers present or, at least, press freedom or a press presence in the area, which would be of some benefit to all sides. It is not possible for us at this stage to wave a wand, nor should the situation be seen in that light. We will certainly make whatever contribution we can at this level as a committee of the Houses of Parliament.
I ask my colleagues to remain for a few minutes because we have some housekeeping items to address.