Statement to the Media 23.12.2011 Comrade SK Senthivel, General Secretary of the New-Democratic Marxist-Leninist Party in his statement on behalf of the Politburo of the Party on the Report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Committee, observed

Statement to the Media

23.12.2011

Comrade SK Senthivel, General Secretary of the New-Democratic Marxist-Leninist Party in

his statement on behalf of the Politburo of the Party on the Report of the Lessons Learnt and

Reconciliation Committee, observed that the Report has been produced, sidelining, ignoring

and hushing up important issues like finding a political solution to the national question and

investigation of war crimes and human rights violations. This report has no meaningful proposals

to offer for providing the necessary relief, reconstruction and rehabilitation for the Tamil people

who have been experiencing destruction and misery and whose lives suffer the consequences of

war. The LLRC, through its report, displays a tendency to justify and assert the chauvinist stand

and wartime activities of the Mahinda Chinthanaya government.

The statement added that, despite boasts by the government that the LLRC would achieve

great many things, the LLRC has meddled in matters that did not come within its terms and made

comments in a way that does not question chauvinist hegemony. That is, while its mandate was to

draw lessons from the peace process, its failure and consequences, and to enable reconciliation,

the LLRC went beyond its mandate to make biased statements about war crimes and rule that

no war crimes were committed. It has thereby issued the government and its armed forces

a certificate of commendation. At the same time, it has made woolly statements about the

thousands who have been abducted and gone missing. Besides, the LLRC has failed to properly

examine evidence given before it regarding abductions and disappearances.

The Report, which in very general terms states that the Tamil people have problems, has

nothing that identifies the problems or their gravity. This Report offers neither the means for

finding short or long term solutions for the problems of the Tamil people nor proposals to that

effect. Instead, the Report has paid its fullest attention to putting forward suggestions that endorse

the actions of the government and the armed forces.

The LLRC is, thus, just another in the series of commissions that are appointed when

problems reach crisis proportions to deflect and cover up the underlying issues. Beyond that there

is no significance of any kind for the report of the LLRE. Besides, there is little to learn from the

report of the LLRC except for the waste of time and huge sums of public funds.

The country and its people suffered destruction and setbacks as a result of denying the

rights and demands of the Tamil, Muslim and Hill Country Tamil nationalities and sharpening

the ethnic, religious and linguistic contradictions. No due lesson could be learnt nor could

reconciliation be achieved without taking this into account. If genuine reconciliation is to be

achieved in the country, steps should be taken that would affirm the rights of all nationalities

based on equality, the right to self determination and autonomy.

To leave these aside and uphold the hushing up, rationalisation, eye wash and deflection of

issues found in the report will only create further complications and crises relating to the national

question, and meet with the resistance and struggle of the people. The global and regional

powers will seek to transform such a situation into opportunities for them to intervene. The Party

forewarns with a sense of caution that such a situation will bring great harm to the country and

the people.

SK Senthivel

General Secretary