Sri Lanka

Speech by Liz Lynne on Thu 7th Sep 2006

Mr President, the end to the violence seems to be further away than ever. One of the reasons for this was the failure to have a second round of the Geneva peace talks, with the LTTE pulling out. Hopes of further talks have been damaged by the Council proscribing the LTTE as a terrorist organisation on 29 May 2006. I am personally pleased that an amendment has been tabled to that effect and I am sorry that it is not in the resolution. The banning of the LTTE only leads to further isolation. They are not permitted to travel, so another Geneva conference is impossible.

We should be realistic here. However much we condemn the terrorist acts by the LTTE - and we do - the government is certainly not blameless. We just have to look at the 17 French aid workers who were killed on 4 August 2006. Evidence points to the government security forces being responsible - we do not know as yet. This incident and all the others perpetrated by the LTTE and the government need further investigation by an independent human rights expert. What I find so reprehensible is that neither the government security forces nor the Tamil Tigers do enough to protect civilians. Persistent uncertainty about what has actually occurred and who is responsible for alleged war crimes and other violations of international law is fuelling fear and panic among the civilian population. We must have a strong, effective monitoring operation, but it must have the support of the government, the LTTE, the United Nations and its members.