Tamil Group condemn Tokyo Co-Chairs' Bias in Sri Lankan issue

by senthil5000 | April 22, 2009 at 06:32 pm

103 views | 1 Recommendation | 0 comments

Tokyo Co-Chairs is a group of four countries - Norway , Japan, U.S and E.U who brokered ceasefire between LTTE and Sri Lankan government. This Tokyo Co-Chairs consistantly were working on positions favourable to Sri Lankan government side. This is one reason that the issue got grown up to the stage of 'bloodbath on the beach'.
An US based Tamil group called 'Tamils for Obama' wrote a letter to the four Tokyo Co-Chair countries condemning their biased and half-hearted work. They mentioned the below few examples that exposed how biased is the Tokyo Co-Chairs:

1. After talks between the Government Of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the Tamil resistance (Tamil Tigers) had gone on for a while, the Tokyo Co-Chairs moved the talks to the U.S. This was convenient for all parties except the Tamil resistance. The Tokyo Co-Chairs invited the GOSL but not the Tamils. In this period of the negotiations, only one side was allowed to speak, or even to be present.

2. The Tokyo Co-Chairs took the GOSL's position--that Sri Lanka could not be divided--from the start and ruled out the Tamil's wish for their own state and with it any compromise position, such as a federated state. The Tokyo Co-Chairs refused even to consider some measure of self government for the Tamils in the negotiation. Since this was the principal goal of the Tamil resistance, ruling out the Tamil resistance's main objective exposed the Tokyo Co-Chairs' pro-GOSL bias.

3. The Tokyo Co-Chairs should have taken a firmer position with the GOSL when the GOSL dissolved their government and fired their negotiating team for even considering the Tamils' proposal for an Interim Self-Governing Authority (ISGA).

4. Despite the GOSL's long history of ethnic cleansing and state terrorism, the Tokyo Co-Chairs consistently and loudly condemned actions by the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) while ignoring atrocities committed by the GOSL.

5. While ignoring terrorist acts by the GOSL, the Tokyo Co-Chairs urged the E.U. to add the Tamil Tigers to their list of terrorist organizations, thus freezing all of the Tamil Tigers' assets in E.U. countries. At the same time the Tokyo Co-Chairs not only turned a blind eye to the GOSL's atrocities, but the Tokyo Co-Chairs' members provided money, arms, and military training to the GOSL's armed forces.

6. In 2002 the Tokyo Co-Chairs brokered a cease-fire between the GOSL and the Tamil Tigers. When the GOSL unilaterally broke the cease-fire, the Tokyo Co-Chairs expressed regret but took no firm action against the GOSL.