Media Release – 30 April 2009
Sri Lanka: Maori Party has raised a very valid point
We are an organization mainly consisting of New Zealanders of Sri Lankan origin closely monitoring the current situation
in Sri Lanka. As a group that has watched a long and arduous campaign of a democratically elected sovereign government
against a band of separatist terrorist group proscribed by world’s leading democracies, we welcome Maori Party’s most
sensible action of blocking a motion in New Zealand Parliament on the situation in Sri Lanka.
The veteran Parliamentarian Jim Anderton thinks that stopping the violence against civilians that are leaving the combat
zone could be achieved by requesting the government to stop the evacuation of the trapped civilians held hostage by a
group of terrorists holding them against their will as a “human shield”. He seems to have forgotten that it is the duty
of a sovereign government to protect their people from Terrorism even using military force.
We regret to note that this once astute politician has been mislead presumably by some LTTE sympathizers who wants to
cover up the fact that it is the LTTE terror machine that removed thousands and thousands of civilians from their homes,
booby trapping and setting ablaze their houses, driving them away in order to trap them as hostages and keep them as a
“human shield”.
We share with all peace loving Sri Lankans that include the 54% Sri Lankan Tamil population harmoniously living among
Sinhalese in the southern parts of Sri Lanka, their aspiration to see to an end to this decade long conflict with a band
of terrorists who masquerade as the only representatives of the Tamil community.
We want the world not to forget that LTTE has come this far solely by their terrorist activities. Suicide bombings,
killing of hundreds of civilians in busses and trains, murdering both Sinhala and Tamil political leaders brought Tamil
Tigers to their present status. They have not discussed a single issue on the Tamil aspirations by cleverly avoiding
such issues during few rounds of talks held so far. They killed almost all moderate Tamil politicians trying to achieve
the sole representative status of the Tamils through murder.
Treating this murderous clique on par with a democratically elected sovereign government is not acceptable by any
standard. If the motion in Parliament was carried through that would have amounted to accepting such barbaric acts as
legitimate by the New Zealand Government
Once again we express our deep appreciation to Maori Party MPs who objected to the motion. Their reason for the
objection was it gave equal weight to the Sri Lankan Government and the Tigers. It is indeed a very valid point.
We, as a minority group in the New Zealand polity, salute the Maori MPs for preventing an unforgivable mistake that
would have earned the outrage of thousands of peace loving Sri Lankans who have made New Zealand their home.
ends