Video: British created Tamil issue in SL: JHU

17 November 2013 02:47 pm

While denouncing the British Prime Minister’s call for an international inquiry into alleged war crimes committed by the Sri Lankan Army during the civil war that ended in 2009, the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) today said the British were responsible for creating the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.

“The British PM has no right to ask for any international inquiry, breaching the sovereignty of a country and in violation of the Commonwealth Charter. He has no right to talk about what happened, as it was the British that created the conflict between ethnicities in Sri Lanka,” JHU General Secretary and Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka said.

“There was no Tamil or Eelam issue in Sri Lanka when the British landed here in 1796. It was the British that created the ethnic conflict between communities by discriminating one against the other,” he said.

He said Sri Lanka was handed over to the British as one country by one local administration but it was divided under the British administration back then.

“The present British administration under David Cameron should pay compensation to our country for creating a Tamil issue and killing civilians in Sri Lanka” he said.

The British Government was responsible for killing thousands of civilians in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. “The Chilcot report that investigated into the Iraq war had also not been released by the British government. At least we are implementing the LLRC Report in here,” he said.

He questioned in what way the British government would respond if the Sri Lankan President went to Northern Ireland and held talks with Gerry Adams of the Sienn Fein party about the English torture on the Irish.

 The Minister also said Dr. David Christopher Kelly, who declared that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, was murdered after the declaration, although it was later claimed as a suicide.  

“Under these circumstances Britain has no ethical right to call for an international inquiry to look into war crimes in here. We haven’t committed any war crimes as alleged,” he said.

He said that the JHU was making arrangements to submit a resolution to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva next March, to look into human rights violations of Sri Lankan Sinhalese and Muslims. (Lahiru Pothmulla)