While speaking at a protest against Sri Lankan President and accused war criminal Gotabaya Rajapaksa outside UN, the Prime Minister of Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) and New York based lawyer Mr Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran said that the sacred memories of Maaveerar who sacrificed their lives for the realization of the Tamil’s right to self-determination in the form of an independent and sovereign state of Tamil Eelam so that Eelam Tamils can live in security and with dignity in their historic territory.
He further says, Brothers and sisters, we are gathered here today to show our moral anger towards the genocidaire and war criminal, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. We are gathered here today to demonstrate to the international community that until justice is done for our people, we, the Eelam Tamils will not rest. We have gathered here today as the face of the million strong Tamil diaspora community now inhabiting tens of other lands away from home, yet carrying the spirit of freedom for our people and the homeland and our determination to set our own course TOWARDS THAT FREEDOM.
We are appalled to see that this war criminal is allowed to address this august body of the United Nations. However, we are also cognizant of the protocols that enable him and many other heinous people before him to parade in this forum. We are aware of the fact that genocidaire Omar Al-Bashir has addressed this noble body. We are also aware that the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin once addressed this body. Thus, we are not surprised that Gota is allowed to address this body.
However, TODAY we want to send a message from here loud and clear to Gota. You know what happened to Bashir. The day you join his ranks, the day you will hide in disgrace is not far away.
I must also state that even though protocols allow Gotabaya Rajapaksa to address the UN, the United States could have denied entry to Gota similar to their refusal to issue a visa to the then-Austrian President Kurt Waldheim in 1987 to join the UN General Assembly in New York on the grounds that he was implicated in war crimes in the second world war. But they chose not to.
We urge the United States State Department to put Gota on the watchlist and deny him entry to the in the future.
It is reported in the press that Gota has spoken about four things with the UN Secretary General. It is reported that FIRST he would pursue accountability for the conduct of war and associated crimes through DOMESTIC mechanisms. The call for an international mechanism on this matter is not just a call from the Eelam Tamils, but a call from the International Community at large.
The whole world is aware of the fact that the Sri Lankan state, the Sri Lankan Institutions are all permeated with entrenched and pervasive racism. In this, there is no space, there is no room for Tamils to receive justice. Sri Lankan history has amply demonstrated over many decades.
Secondly, the crimes were committed not by one individual, not by one single battalion, but by the state of Sri Lanka itself. It is common sense and a fundamental legal principle that the accused cannot be a judge. If Gotabaya has the moral courage, we challenge him as the leader of Sri Lanka to ratify the Rome Statute retroactively and submit the matter of accountability to the jurisdiction of the International Court. We know he will not do that. Because he is a coward.
Then he has spoken about granting amnesty to everybody. We urge him to stop this rubbish talk.
Who is to forgive whom?
The international humanitarian law states that combatants should be treated with dignity and released immediately after the cessation of hostility. The armed conflict came to an end more than ten years ago. In fact, the fact that Sri Lanka is still holding prisoners of war is a crime against humanity.
Then he talks about the Office of Missing Persons. The OMP is a gimmick made to deceive the international community. It is against the spirit of UN HRC Resolution 30/1 by not containing international experts and it is manned by the very same people who caused these disappearances. It is a joke.
He said that he is willing to issue death certificates. What for?
The loved ones of the missing and disappeared want to knowwhat happened to their family and friends not death certificates. We want closure; Based on the right to know, based on the right to know the truth. We want an investigation. We want justice. We can not allow Sri Lanka to bury the truth or to bury their cruelty.
And finally, Gota calls for talks with the Tamil diaspora. As we issued in our statement yesterday, we are not quite sure whether Gota is delusional or not. Or is he desperate?
Or perhaps a combination of both.
His call to talk to Tamil diaspora is similar to a call by Hitler for a Jewish diaspora if hypothetically Hitler had managed to remain in power following the Holocaust.
The Tamil national question should be decided through a referendum. We are willing to talk to Gota about the logistics of it.
Brothers and sisters, our Maveerar brought the Tamil national issue to the international arena through the honour and sacrificeof their thousands and thousands of them.
It is now incumbent upon all of us to create a situation in which one day soon the Tamil Eelam Head of State shall address this body, while Gota is rotting in jail.
The Tamil’s destiny in Tamil hands.
Watch: https://youtu.be/n2qE4zFXgvU