LTTE solicits Ian Martin’s continued advice on Human Rights
“We are deeply impressed with your continued commitment and engagement in the matters of Human Rights from the time of our ISGA proposals in which we incorporated your worthy inputs, and it is unfortunate that they did not see the light” said Mr.S.P.Tamilselvan, Head of the Political Division in a meeting with Mr.Ian Martin International Human Rights Expert and formerly of Amnesty International today 13 October 2005 at the Peace Secretariat in Kilinochchi.
 Recalling his earlier visits to Kilinochchi and the resultant workshops, about seventeen in number, that his counterparts were able to conduct in LTTE administered areas, Mr.Ian Martin said that he would be pleased to be of assistance to the Tamil people in strengthening the Human Rights structures now in place with the North-East Secretariat on Human Rights (NESoHR) taking the lead role. He also mentioned his reference to NESoHR in a meeting with them in the morning of the necessity to mark its presence in the East more conspicuously since he felt the need more compelling after his fact finding tour of Batticaloa. 
Responding to the suggestions made by the expert on strengthening human rights values, Mr.Tamilselvan reflected on his meeting with the Special Norwegian Representative in the morning, wherein the necessity to first salvage the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) from the grave situation that it is placed in was discussed at length. Elaborating on the urgency of such a political engagement to diffuse the tense situation and put an end to the violence and killings, which seriously threaten the collective Human Rights of the Tamil people in the military occupied parts of the Tamil Homeland, Mr.Tamilselvan said that Mr.Ian Martin can definitely play a
positive role by driving home the obligations of the government as one party to the CFA. “There is a whole lot of human rights violations that can be prevented by giving effect to the implementation of the CFA with the sincerity it deserves and that is why we are reiterating on the necessity to start political talks on the measures to implement the CFA as a meaningful instrument that can help to deliver ‘normalcy’, the basic peace dividend and a basic collective human right of a people battered by two decades of war and lately by tsunami” noted Mr.Tamilselvan. Mr.Tamilselvan extended LTTE’s invitation to all Human Rights activists to visit the Tamil habitats, both in the military occupied areas and those that are freed from military occupation and see for themselves the conditions of living in a human rights perspective. In a lighter vein, Mr.Tamilselvan quipped that he was astonished to hear the remarks of the Sri Lankan cabinet spokesperson the other day that “the LTTE has at last agreed to allow Mr.Ian Martin to visit Kilinochchi”, whereas in fact the Human Rights expert had been a regular visitor to Kilinochchi during and after the formulation of ISGA proposals.
13 October 2005
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Europe which has a total population of 800 million is made up of 45 language based nation states. South Asia which has a total population of one billion, (1000 million) is comprised of four states. Who is preventing and therefore benefiting by limiting new nation-states in South Asia?
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