Colombo, 31 August 2013
Good morning, and thank you for coming.
As is customary at the end of official missions such as this, I would like to make some observations concerning the human rights situation in the country.
During my seven-day visit, I have held discussions with President Mahinda Rajapaksa, and senior members of the Government. These included the Ministers of External Affairs, Justice, Economic Development, National Languages and Social Integration, Youth Affairs and the Minister of Plantations Industries who is also Special Envoy to the President on Human Rights, as well as the Secretary of Defence. I also met the Chief Justice, Attorney-General, Leader of the House of Parliament and the Permanent Secretary to the President, who is head of the taskforce appointed to monitor the implementation of the report of the Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC).
I had discussions with politicians who are not part of the current Government, namely the Leader of the Opposition and the leader of the Tamil National Alliance; in addition I met with the National Human Rights Commission, and a total of eight different gatherings of human rights defenders and civil society organizations in Colombo, Jaffna and Trincomalee. I also received briefings from the Governors and other senior officials in the Northern and Eastern Provinces.
I thank the Government for its invitation and its excellent cooperation during the planning and conduct of this very complex mission. It stated that I could go anywhere, and see anything I wished to see. And, despite some disturbing incidents which I will go into later, that commitment was honoured throughout.
Even though this is the longest official visit I have ever made to a single country, I am acutely conscious that I was unable to see everyone who requested a meeting. Nor will I be able to do justice to all the human rights issues facing the Sri Lankan people and government. Since I will be providing an oral update to the Human Rights Council in Geneva in late September, and a full written report in March next year, I will today confine myself to a few key issues that crystallized during the course of the mission.
I will divide these human rights issues into two parts: those related to the vicious and debilitating 27-year conflict between the Government and the LTTE, and its aftermath; and those that relate to the whole country.
Some media, ministers, bloggers and various propagandists in Sri Lanka have, for several years now, on the basis of my Indian Tamil heritage, described me as a tool of the LTTE. They have claimed I was in their pay, the “Tamil Tigress in the UN.” This is not only wildly incorrect, it is deeply offensive. This type of abuse has reached an extraordinary crescendo during this past week, with at least three Government Ministers joining in.
Firstly, let me say, I am a South African and proud of it.
Secondly, the LTTE was a murderous organization that committed numerous crimes and destroyed many lives. In fact, my only previous visit to Sri Lanka was to attend a commemoration of the celebrated legislator, peacemaker and scholar, Neelan Tiruchelvam, who was killed by an LTTE suicide bomb in July 1999. Those in the diaspora who continue to revere the memory of the LTTE must recognize that there should be no place for the glorification of such a ruthless organization.
I would like to pay my respects to all Sri Lankans, across the country, who were killed during those three decades of conflict, and offer my heartfelt sympathy to their families, all of whom – no matter who they are – share one thing: they have lost someone they can never replace. I have met many people during this visit whose relatives or spouses – both civilians and soldiers – are known to have been killed, or who are missing and may well be dead.
It is important everyone realizes that, although the fighting is over, the suffering is not.
I have been extremely moved by the profound trauma I have seen among the relatives of the missing and the dead, and the war survivors, in all the places I have visited, as well as by their resilience. This was particularly evident among those scratching out a living among the ghosts of burned and shelled trees, ruined houses and other debris of the final battle of the the war along the lagoon in Mullaitivu.
Wounds will not heal and reconciliation will not happen, without respect for those who grieve, and remembrance for the tens of thousands of Tamils, Sinhalese, Muslims and others who died before their time on the battlefield, in buses, on the street, or in detention. As one wife of a missing man put it poignantly: “Even when we eat, we keep a portion for him.”
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தமிழ் சினிமாவில் பார்த்த மசாலா படங்களை காரம் மசாலாவாக மாற்றி இருக்கிறது சென்னை எக்ஸ்பிரஸ்.
தன்
தாத்தாவின் அஸ்தியை ராமேஸ்வரம் கடலில் கரைப்பதற்காக தென்னிந்தியாவை நோக்கி
புறப்படுகிறார் ஷாருக்கான் (ராகுல்). எதிர்பாராத விதமாக சென்னை
எக்ஸ்பிரசில் தீபிகா படுகோனேவை (மீனம்மா என்கிற மீனலோச்சனி அழகுசுந்தரம்)
சந்திக்கிறார். அவர் கூட உருவத்தில் பெரியதாக இருக்கும் நான்கு
அடியாட்களும் இருக்கிறார்கள்.
வேறு
வழியில்லாமல், ஷாருக்கானைக் காட்டி இது தான் என் காதலன் என்று அப்பாவிடம்
பொய்சொல்லிவிடுகிறார் தீபிகா. தூக்குங்கடா என் மாப்பிள்ளைய என்று சத்யராஜ்
சொன்னதும் ஷாருக்கானுக்கு ராஜ மரியாதை வழங்கப்படுகிறது.
ஒரு
கட்டத்தில் இருவருக்குமே காதல் வருகிறது. தீபிகாவுடன் தன் சொந்த ஊருக்குத்
தப்பிக்க போகிறார் ஷாருக் என எதிர்பார்க்கிற நேரத்தில் மீண்டும்
சத்யராஜிடம் மாட்டிக் கொள்கின்றார். 
மீனலோச்சனி
அழகுசுந்தரம் என்ற பெயரில் வரும் அழகு என்ற வார்த்தையை உச்சரிக்க
முடியாமல் ஒவ்வொரு முறையும் ‘அசுட அசுட’ என்று ஷாருக் பேசுவது கலகலப்பு. 
இயக்குனர்
ரோஹித் ஷெட்டி தமிழ் மசாலா படங்களை காப்பியடித்து காரமான மசாலாவாக மாற்றி
கொமடி, காதல், சென்டிமெண்ட் என்று கலந்து ரசிகர்களுக்கு விருந்து
படைத்துள்ளார்.
