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	Tamils make history at the UK Labour Party Conference

2009-10-03 | 3.45 PM

Tamils made history in the UK with a momentous passing of an emergency resolution on Sri Lanka at the Labour Party Conference on Thursday, 1 October 2009.

The sitting government party passed a resolution condemning the treatment of Tamils in Sri Lanka by that government. Resolution was passed unanimously by thousands of delegates at the conference and in front of millions of live TV viewers.

The notable resolution was delivered by Mr Paul Kenny, General Secretary of GMB, Britain's general trade union, representing over 5 million members through its affiliate bodies. Delivering a bold, yet passionate speech, Mr Kenny was able to clearly articulate the desperate

	situation faced by Tamils locked up in ‘internment camps’ in Sri Lanka. The emergency resolution, passed unanimously by delegates of the sitting government party, focussed on ending the detainment of civilians allowing them to return to their homes, allowing free access to journalists to report the ground situation and welcomed the recent decision of the EU to reconsider Sri Lanka’s favoured trading status of GSP+ to encourage such cooperation from the government of Sri Lanka. In his statement, Mr Kenny did not shy from exposing the Sri Lankan government's ongoing media censorship, lack of access to aid groups and failure to fulfil their pledges. "The Sri Lankan government has made promises to the United Nations and world governments, including our own, to close these camps and let the people return to their homes and it’s not happened. They have not kept their promises, but we must hold them to those promises", he said. Mr Kenny's sentiments were echoed by an appeal from Mr Sen Kandiah, the Chairman of Tamils for Labour and a senior member of the British Tamils Forum. “Please support this motion calling for the closure of the concentration camps and give our people the food, the medicine, the dignity they deserve.... “Let the Tamil people set their own destiny… but most of all, give us our freedom” he urged. Siobhain McDonagh MP for Mitcham and Morden spoke of the anguish felt by her constituents that have prompted her commitment to helping the British Tamils to save their families, relatives and friends in Sri Lanka. In a heartfelt appeal to the delegates, to shoulder their own commitment on the Sri Lanka issue, urging that a boycott of goods and avoiding holidays in the unsavory state would ensure their money would not “prop up that government!” “Next time you want to buy underwear from Marks & Spencer, you want to buy a t-shirt from Next, you want to go on a holiday of a lifetime in a beautiful island off the coast of India - Do you really want to spend your money on a government that chooses to lock 300,000 people up behind barbed-wire. A country that is the most dangerous in the world to be a journalist! A country where we can see on Channel 4 News, young men, naked and bound shot at close range. Is that what we want for our money, for our democracy?” Foreign Secretary, David Miliband MP, having been acknowledged by Ms McDonagh for his timely visit to Sri Lanka with his French counterpart, in his address commended the party’s democratic assistance in other parts of the world and implied to achieving the same in Sri Lanka. “And in those democracies, like Sri Lanka, where civil war claimed lives and liberty, we say governments have a duty to uphold the civil, social and political rights of all their citizens, whatever their ethnicity or religion. We also know that for too many people in our world, equality is a dream”, he said. British Tamils Forum is encouraged and welcomes the move by the Labour Party and their MP’s ongoing commitment to the issues that concern their Tamil constituents. British Tamils will continue to politically engage with all parties in Britain to bring a permanent solution to the suffering of Tamil people in Sri Lanka and restore a life of peace, justice and dignity in their traditional homeland.



	Paul Kenny, General Secretary, GMB Introduction to Emergency Resolution on Sri Lanka Labour Party conference, 1 Oct 2009 Conference, the civil war in Sri Lanka is over and that’s good news, but we now know what should be happening, now is the time for reconstruction, reconciliation for building the peace. But something else is happening on the ground, something we should all be very worried about. Men, women and children are being rounded up and placed in camps. More than a quarter of a million Tamils are living in desperate conditions and nobody hears them. Families lie awake at night crying for their loved ones, loved ones they cannot reach and get no word from. And how bad is life in these camps? The Sri Lankan government have turned away foreign journalists because they are afraid of the world hearing the truth. But stories seep out and they tell of desperation and heartbreak. The camps are tightly packed and they are surrounded by barbed wire. They are tightly guarded. Life for people in these camps is truly desperate. The Sri Lankan government calls them welfare villages but history has very different name for them. Do we care? Of course we do. Our Labour movement is a national movement. One that says we stand by the oppressed. One that stands foursquare for human rights. One that promotes human dignity. This conference has no shame in calling for a humanitarian solution in Sri Lanka. It should have no hesitation in calling for the government in Sri Lanka to keep its promises. It should have no hesitation in saying to the authorities there, “Open your doors, let in the journalists, what do you have to hide?” The Sri Lankan government has made promises to the United Nations and world governments, including our own, to close these camps and let the people return to their homes and it’s not happened. They have not kept their promises, but we must hold them to those promises. And Things could get worse very quickly. The monsoon rains are due and with them comes the risk of flooding. Already heavy rains have flooded latrine pits causing raw sewage to flow around the tents that people live in. So there is no time to lose. Our government must keep up the pressure. We can’t just complain about the regimes we don’t like, we’ve also got to tell other regimes, whether it’s in Sri Lanka or in the US, as in the case of the Miami five, that justice is justice. We must demand, we must demand, that Sri Lanka opens its doors to aid charities and journalists. We must demand that relatives on the outside get full details of who is being held, where and in what conditions. And demand Sri Lanka does what human dignity requires - Let these people free! The suffering of the children in these camps must touch the hearts of everybody in this hall. So let’s go back and do what we do. Let the message go out from here, from Labour, that we hear you - You can trust us to help the Tamil people. Please support this resolution.

	Speech by Sen Kandiah, Leader of Tamils for Labour, Labour Party Annual Conference 2009, 1 October 2009 Conference, One thing all us Tamils have in common, is family in Sri Lanka. And all of us are receiving horror stories on a daily basis. What we are talking about is nothing less than concentration camps – holding our family, our loved ones. A cousin of mine is in one of the camps. He is 55 years old. His age is benefit to him. He tells us of the appalling things happening to young people: Some disappear. Some move to other camps. Young girls are being raped. Children are being taken from their parents. What threat do they pose? The answer is none. They are innocent kids who want to run and play like our kids – but they can’t. Instead, they cower in the corner, under the control of soldiers wielding AK47’s. And why don’t you hear about all this? Because the government in Sri Lanka has closed its doors to the outside world. Our Prime Minister was good enough to see me, to hear about my people’s suffering. He said – “we will do the right thing.” The Tamil people of Sri Lanka have suffered 60 years of oppression under the Sinhalese majority. This cannot go on. For me there’s only one answer – self determination for the Tamil people. Let the Tamil people set their own destiny. That’s our ultimate objective. What I say to you today – is please support this motion calling for the closure of the concentration camps and give our people the food, the medicine, the dignity they deserve. But most of all, give us our freedom.




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