Lanka made more post-conflict gains than Northern Ireland- UK
Parliamentarian
"We will give our experience and help not
hatred and anger"
By Janaka Alahapperuma from London
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Parliamentarian
Ian Paisley Jr. |
Northern Ireland parliamentarian for North Antrim from
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) Ian Paisley Jr said that Sri Lanka has
made more measurable gains post-conflict than Northern Ireland. That is
what he has seen on the ground, and British politicians should recognize
it and stop the suffocation of a country by its past and help Sri Lanka
to move forward to a better future. He made these strong comments with
passion at Westminister Hall, UK Parliament during the debate on 'Sri
Lanka and the United Nations responsibility to protect' from 9.30am to
11.00am on Tuesday 08 January 2013.
Debate was moved by Siobhain McDonagh Labour MP for
Mitcham and Morden, South London who is an ardent supporter of Eelamist
separatist ideology. However, when she started the debate with high
hopes in the second day of the parliament sitting in the new year
targeting Sri Lanka to influence the British Government not only
boycotting the next CHOGM Summit in Sri Lanka but also to sabotage it.
But her evil dreams were shattered slowly by slowly when Ian Paisley MP
progressed his speech.
Mr Paisley Jr was well supported by Conservative party
government MPs James Wharton from Stockton South and Aidan Burley from
Cannock Chase in the debate. Siobhain McDonagh's anti Sri Lanka
arguments were also backed by few parliamentarians those who are regular
participants of pro Tamil Tiger propaganda campaigns.
Ian Paisley MP said: "On my journey to the House this
morning, I drove through the memorial gates near the Mall. The words
"Sri Lanka" are carved in granite on those gates to remind us that the
Indian subcontinent, during the two great world wars, gave 5 million
volunteers to this nation to defend freedom. When we hear the aggression
from Argentina over the Falklands this week, we are reminded that the
only country that stood with us in the international community in the
original attempt to take back the Falklands was Sri Lanka. When a
country that has supported us in the past comes under pressure, we
should not kick it in the teeth. We stretch out the hand of forbearance
and say, "We will help you through the difficult, post-conflict
situation that you are clearly in. We will give you our experience and
our help. We will not give you our hatred and our anger." That is an
important lesson that we, in a nation part of which is in a
post-conflict situation, should recognize.
I have visited Sri Lanka on a number of occasions,
both as a private individual and with constituents who had business
there, as well as on a cross-party parliamentary trip. My experience was
very different from what I have heard from propagandists not in Sri
Lanka. The people on the ground gave a very different message from the
out-of-touch one that I have heard from the self-appointed Diaspora,
both in Canada and here in the United Kingdom.
I have visited Jaffna, the most disputed part of Sri
Lanka in the north. There I saw new housing settlements, with Tamils
living in them. I had tea with some of those families, whose interests
are fishing and farming. They did not talk to me about the past, even
though they had opportunity to do so. Indeed, when I raised the past-I
was with them on my own-they wanted to talk about their future, their
children and their new housing settlements, which were supported by
money given by our country through the EU to help rebuild their country.
They wanted to talk about moving forward. I have met both Tamil and
Sinhalese families, and their united wish was to present a picture of
hope for their country, not a picture of division. It was a community
that wanted to move forward. They did not want to hear the international
community talking about what happened in the past; they wanted the
international community to help them to move to a better future.
On one occasion, two of my guides were a Tamil
gentleman and a Sinhalese gentleman who had been at war with each other.
At the end of my visit, in tears they embraced each other and they spoke
about how they were now new brothers in a new land. Whenever I raised
with them issues that I had heard in the propaganda in the United
Kingdom, they could not understand them. They said that they bore no
resemblance to their reality on the ground. In many aspects, Sri Lanka
has made more measurable gains post-conflict than Northern Ireland. That
is what I have seen on the ground, and we should recognise it and stop
the suffocation of a country by its past and help Sri Lanka to move
forward to a better future.
I took a day out and spent it with the leader of Tamil
National Alliance, Mr Sampanthan. I spoke to him and his party
colleagues at length, and I waited for him because I wanted to hear from
him at first hand, without his being pushed or prodded into some of the
difficult issues about the past. He did not raise with me the issue of
the disappeared; he did not take time to raise with me the issue of war
crimes; he did not take time to talk about routine torture, in his
country, of his people. He had a politician with him from this nation
and he did not want to talk about those things. In fact, he actively
applauded the Government, whom he opposes. He applauded them on their
investment in the country-in parts of the north-and he said that the
most effective thing that many of his people required was practical help
to get bicycles and other tools to help them to work and run their
country. That was the message of the man who is leading the opposition.
If people took the time to speak to the active
politicians on the ground who are representatives of their community,
they might have a slightly different perspective than that in some of
the propaganda that we have seen and heard. I urge the Minister to
appeal publicly today to Sampanthan to stop his boycott of the political
process, to lead his people and his party, and to join with other
parties in the parliamentary select committee of Sri Lanka to find a
political solution to the problems. We learnt the lesson the hard way.
People find a political solution by engaging in
politics, not by asking for a boycott or for the international community
to do their work for them-they do it themselves. I appeal to our
Government to say to Sampanthan, "Lead your people and do not boycott
the process any longer." Politics, not a boycott, will work. The
international community will not solve Sri Lanka's problems. It will be
the people of Sri Lanka, living in Sri Lanka, who will fix the problems
of Sri Lanka, and we should actively encourage them in that. The biggest
mistake that this Government could make would be to send the message to
Sri Lanka that they were going to pull out of the Commonwealth talks
later this year and punish a country that needs help, not more
persecution.
Conservative MP James Wharton who has been to Sri
Lanka many times said from his personal experiences that it worries him
how much misinformation is out about what is happening on the ground in
Sri Lanka. He quoted from the comment made by Ilford North Labour MP Lee
Scott who follows matters in Sri Lanka keenly, has a different position
to him was absolutely right to say that we must not forget the past, but
we must not misinterpret or misrepresent it either.
James Wharton MP said: It is a pleasure to follow the
hon. Member for North Antrim (Ian Paisley), who speaks passionately,
with experience of post-conflict life and of rebuilding communities
after a very difficult period. He gives us all cause to pause and to
reflect on what the debate is really about. There was a great deal that
I wanted to say, but as I have a very short time, I will significantly
cut down my comments.
I have been to Sri Lanka a number of times, and the
visits are all declared in the Register of Members' Financial Interests.
I have gone there with colleagues, some of whom are here today. What
worries me is how much misinformation is out there about what is
happening on the ground. My hon. Friend the Member for Ilford North (Mr
Scott), who follows matters in Sri Lanka keenly, has a different
position to mine, but it is a genuinely felt one. He was absolutely
right to say that we must not forget the past, but we must not
misinterpret or misrepresent it either.
A problem that Sri Lanka has faced in the debate in
the western world, in this Parliament, in the media and in other places
across the globe is that, for a variety of reasons, too many people try
to change what happened in the past, to change the accepted facts of
what went on. The reality is that a lot of what we see is not based on
facts or in reality. I have raised the point before in the House that
even the Darusman report, which preceded the UN report that has led to
the debate today, specifically states, in paragraph 53:
"This account should not be taken as proven facts, and
any effort to determine specific liabilities would require a higher
threshold." It is made clear that the report establishes a narrative
that can be used to work forwards but that none of the data-for example,
on the numbers of casualties-should be quoted as specific figures. The
facts on the ground regarding the provision of food and medical supplies
are starkly different to some of the evidence given by unnamed sources
to the expert committee that put together the report.
I am conscious of the time, so I just want to draw the
House's attention to a few areas in which progress is being made in Sri
Lanka. Most of the 300,000 internally displaced persons have now been
resettled. I visited Menik farm, one of the welfare camps set up to
house the huge numbers of people displaced by conflict in January of
last year. There were about 6,000 people left, and the camp has now
closed and the people have gone home. They have been able to do so
because demining operations have proceeded at an amazing pace, with more
than 900,000 mines and unexploded ordnance having been cleared,
primarily by the Sri Lankan army but also by the HALO Trust with support
from UK aid, and I congratulate the UK on its contribution.
More than 120,000 houses have been constructed in the
north and the east, nearly 600 child soldiers have been rehabilitated
and more than 10,000 adult combatants have been rehabilitated or
reintegrated into Sri Lankan society. Some 900 Tamil speakers have been
recruited into the police force in the north and east, and that is
important in building trust in a community that does not have historic
trust in its Government and the organisations that represent it.
Investment is key, as is infrastructure, so that the economy can grow
and people can improve their lives.
When I went to Sri Lanka with the charity
International Alert, we visited a group of young Tamil people in the
Vanni, and they talked about jobs and employment prospects, about what
they were going to do and what they wanted to do. They talked about the
challenges that they faced at home and about how they wanted to get
education and the cost of education. They talked about the same things
that young people in colleges in my constituency talk to me about; they
share some of the same problems. They wanted to look forward and go
forward.
The tone of debate in the House too often worries me,
because we focus on what we can do to punish the Government of Sri
Lanka, whether by the removal of the generalised system of preferences
or the UK's pulling out of the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting.
Such things will not damage the Government of Sri Lanka; they will
damage progress towards peace and the prosperity of the people who live
in Sri Lanka. The tone of the debate here needs to change. We need to
work constructively with the Government of Sri Lanka to put pressure
where it is due and, where we can, to deliver improvement.
Recalling his personal experiences Conservative MP for
Cannock Chase, Aidan Burley who visited Sri Lanka on a eight day trip
last year said that he has detailed his trip because he strongly believe
that people can only speak authoritatively and honestly about a subject
if they have first-hand experience, seeing things with their own eyes
and forming their own impressions, rather than just watching a Channel 4
documentary. He further requested Siobhain McDonagh and other MPs to go
to Sri Lanka and speak to the people of Sri Lanka, not to the people of
Mitcham and Morden, and listen to what they have to say. Mr Burley
stated that he found a country at peace with itself. That is what we
should be debating and supporting: helping Sri Lanka to build a better
future for itself, rather than letting extremists in the UK divide it.
He also asked Siobhain McDonagh when she last visited
Sri Lanka because she has mentioned lots of second-hand evidence in her
speech, but when did she last visit Sri Lanka and see for herself-at
first hand-some of the things that she is alleging are happening there.
MP McDonagh replied that she has never been to Sri
Lanka, but she respect the views of the UN special envoy to Sri Lanka,
the UN, the Canadian Government, the Australian Government, the US
Government, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.
Siobhain McDonagh, Labour MP for Mitcham and Morden
said: Are all of those organisations bogus? Do we not believe anything
that any of them say?
MP Aidan Burley (Cannock Chase) (Con): The hon. Lady
mentions the fact that lots of people visit Sri Lanka. May I ask her
when she last visited Sri Lanka? She has mentioned lots of second-hand
evidence in her speech so far, but when did she last visit Sri Lanka and
see for herself-at first hand-some of the things that she is alleging
are happening there?
Many speakers this morning have started by declaring
whether they have visited Sir Lanka, and I intervened on the hon. Member
for Mitcham and Morden (Siobhain McDonagh) to ask whether she has done
so, because I visited Sri Lanka in July 2012 and spent eight days
travelling all over the country. I did not just fly into Colombo; I went
to the north, the east and the south. I went to Jaffna and Kilinochchi,
Trincomalee, Kandy and Hambantota. I went to all the rural areas, not
just to the towns and cities.
I went to the Jaffna teaching hospital and discussed
the lack of medical equipment with some of the doctors. I went to the
chamber of commerce and discussed inward investment with business
leaders. I visited resettlement projects in Ariyalai and mine clearing
in Kilinochchi with the HALO Trust, which, as my hon. Friend the Member
for Stockton South (James Wharton) mentioned, is partly funded through
the Department for International Development.
I met the President in Kandy. I also met, Mr
Sampanthan, a leader of the opposition, for several hours in Trincomalee-I
recognise the comments of the hon. Member for North Antrim (Ian
Paisley)-and I remember him telling us that he wanted a bicycle for
every one of his people, which is his main priority.
I have detailed my trip because I strongly believe
that people can only speak authoritatively and honestly about a subject
if they have first-hand experience, seeing things with their own eyes
and forming their own impressions, rather than just watching a Channel 4
documentary. After all, would a person buy a house just because someone
told them it was nice, or would they want to see the property first
hand? Would a person move to an area just because someone said it was a
nice place to live, or would they want to visit the area first?
Everywhere I went on my eight-day trip to Sri Lanka
last year, I saw the same thing first hand: Sinhalese, Tamils and
Muslims living harmoniously with each other, getting on with their lives
and rebuilding their country. I saw the different communities and faiths
living beside one another after their horrendous civil war. I saw
Sinhalese boys and Tamil girls playing together in the playgrounds of
the schools that we visited. That is why I wanted to speak in this
debate. The UK should be helping Sri Lanka, our former colony, to
rebuild itself. British politicians should understand Sri Lanka's
reconciliation and help it to demine, so that communities can move back
to their own lands. I saw that happening with my own eyes; I saw the
minefields being cleared through the HALO Trust, and I saw houses being
rebuilt and crops being grown on the old minefields. That is
constructive. We saw HSBC and Marks and Spencer in Sri Lanka. I learnt
that the software that runs the UK stock market is based in Sri Lanka.
All that is positive-it is about jobs and
livelihoods-and we should be having a debate on encouraging trade to Sri
Lanka. British politicians should be leading business trips and
delegations of British companies to Sri Lanka to encourage Sri Lankan
and British businesses to work together. Britain has the second-highest
number of tourists to Sri Lanka-a country that desperately needs
tourists' pounds. I do not believe this debate will help that rebuilding
process; it is a negative debate that perpetuates old myths and
stereotypes and is based on narrow interest groups in the UK that have
their own agendas.
The hon. Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn)
said that he was astonished to see the Sri Lankan Government lobbying
here. I know lobbyists for the Sri Lankan Government. My constituency is
99% white, and there is no Diaspora. I have no candle to hold for the
Sri Lankan Government; I am just recounting the first-hand impressions
that I witnessed for myself by bothering to go to the country. The hon.
Member for Mitcham and Morden should go to Sri Lanka and speak to the
people of Sri Lanka, not to the people of Mitcham and Morden, and listen
to what they have to say. I found a country at peace with itself. That
is what we should be debating and supporting: helping Sri Lanka to build
a better future for itself, rather than letting extremists in the UK
divide it.
Source : Hansard - UK Parliament
