Name: The following is a talk delivered by SCOPP Secretary General Rajiva Wijesinha at a meeting with a group of intellectuals including former high commissioners concerned with Sri Lanka. New Delhi - India. 30th August 2007
Author: Rajiva Wijesinha

Quotes from The following is a talk delivered by SCOPP Secretary General Rajiva Wijesinha at a meeting with a group of intellectuals including former high commissioners concerned with Sri Lanka… (Rajiva Wijesinha)

Rajiva Wijesinha, The following is a talk delivered by SCOPP Secretary General Rajiva Wijesinha at a meeting with a group of intellectuals including former high commissioners concerned with Sri Lanka…

“ In some cases some of their younger colleagues have a more excitable approach, fuelled by the elite Sri Lankans they interact with, and based on their genuine awareness of what Tamils suffered in the past. But by and large I believe that concerted action to promote reforms and rehabilitation will meet with the whole-hearted support of the main agencies.
What is more worrying is the emergence of deliberate distortion on the part of some elements in the international community, to denigrate the government, in pursuit of some undefined yet not especially elusive agenda of their own. ”

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Source: Wikisource

“ Hence our concern with education, with remedying the deprivation that minorities had suffered through the system, not necessarily through discrimination but through the neglect that also left behind so many other of our peripheral provinces. A system that developed those too was of the essence, but our own priority had to be the minority areas, particularly in terms of the opportunity for new initiatives that developments in the East had provided. ”

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Source: Wikisource

“ The third field I took as our main area of action, to target areas that needed particular attention if Tamils in particular were to feel confidence in the peace process. For this empowerment was essential, so that Tamils and all minorities could not only feel an integral part of the Sri Lankan state, but also participate actively in decision making as equal members of society. ”

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Source: Wikisource

“ The Birnbaums of this world can go on to wreak destruction, their allegations will be reported sensationalistically in the international and the local press, there will be no similar coverage when they are proved both wrong and amoral, and only terrorism will in the long run benefit. ”

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Source: Wikisource

“ My belief, on the strength admittedly of interactions over just three months, is that particularly the more senior decision makers of the international community working here have a genuine desire to help, and are not promoting a destructive agenda. ”

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Source: Wikisource

“ But fire fighting too is essential in a context in which those opposed to democracy, whether in the LTTE or in the Sri Lankan opposition, make use of outsiders to undermine the government, its determined opposition to terrorism, and the sterling work being done by the leadership of the APRC in trying to produce a widely accepted package of reforms that will promote pluralism. ”

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Source: Wikisource

“ But, sadly, these legitimate concerns are overlaid by the particular agendas of some members of the international community. In particular the European Union, or rather some of its members who may be under pressure from elements in the diaspora opposed to the elected Sri Lankan government, are anxious to undermine the government by suggesting that international interference is now essential. ”

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Source: Wikisource

“ If those who wish to interfere succeed, we will be back to the bad old days of 2002, when the LTTE was able to strengthen its control over areas it controlled, extend its controls elsewhere, bring in weapons of enormous potency, and decimate other Tamil groups. ”

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Source: Wikisource

“ After all, if the international community criticized the government, several Sri Lankans would be delighted, and probably a majority of those in Colombo who were the people who interacted most with internationals. ”

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Source: Wikisource

“ It remains to be seen however whether aid programmes, which seem to prefer what they term awareness programmes, the impact of which can rarely be measured, will pick up on this concrete attempt to help youngsters who have suffered from conflict. ”

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Source: Wikisource

“ Empowerment of females was particularly important in this regard, given the numbers of female headed households in these areas. Whilst much was being done in this regard, there seemed room for particular interventions that would introduce new areas and fresh ideas too. ”

Rajiva Wijesinha

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Quotes from The following is a talk delivered by SCOPP Secretary General Rajiva Wijesinha at a meeting with a group of intellectuals including former high commissioners concerned with Sri Lanka… (Rajiva Wijesinha)

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Rajiva Wijesinha

Summary

Quotes from The following is a talk delivered by SCOPP Secretary General Rajiva Wijesinha at a meeting with a group of intellectuals including former high commissioners concerned with Sri Lanka… (Rajiva Wijesinha)

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