Toronto, Nov 27: Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird issued a statement on Thursday regarding the UN Secretary General’s Internal Review Panel Report on Sri Lanka. Offering support to the report, the statement laid stress on the failure of the Sri Lankan government to make progress on ‘reconciliation, accountability and respect for human rights in Sri Lanka’.
The statement by the Canadian government’s Foreign Affairs department comes after the release of the UN Secretary General’s Internal Review Panel Report that has determined a ‘systemic failure’ of the UN in its handling of the last stages of the war in the island.
The statement remains silent on the issue of ‘UN systemic failure’ and on any clear action plan despite a hollow commitment to ensure that the mistakes made should not be repeated.
“The statement reflects the limitations of the Canadian government to stay within the parameters of a unitary state structure and imposition of a Sri Lankan identity as the basis for any solution. These limitations must be challenged by community activists,” Eezham Tamil activists in Canada commented.
“However critical this UN internal review report is, it has come too late for the tens of thousands who were massacred under the UN watch despite the loudest and continuous alarm bells rung across the world capitals, by the relatives of those who perished. However, what is more alarming presently is the continuing inaction by the international community to arrest the deteriorating situation faced by the Tamil people,” the BTF statement said.
“What is of utmost importance is an immediate establishment of an international investigative mechanism to send a very clear signal to the Sri Lankan regime that the international community will not stand by any longer allowing the State to continue its programme of Tamil Genocide. Another report in another six months time will be too late for those who would have perished in the hands of the Sri Lankan regime or while trying to flee the island,” the statement further said.