Dear Friends,
Welcome to this community forum. Thank you for sparing a couple of hours of this marvellous weekend to take part in this forum.
Let me introduce what our aims and limitations are.
The escalation of the conflict into a war situation has brought back death, destruction, and suffering to many innocent civilians. The social, economic and political costs of this war will be enormous. The war is killing sons and daughters of Sri Lanka, increasing in its wake fears and uncertainties, within the Sri Lankan expatriate community in Australia, about their families, relatives, friends and neighbours. This war has a capacity to drag on for years without a decisive military or political outcome. Hundreds have been killed in this phase of the war alone. Tens of thousands have been displaced from their villages and live in fear and hunger without shelter. We emphasise here that all of us have always unreservedly condemned and will continue to condemn all acts of destruction of civilian life and property caused by the parties to the conflict. The many senseless acts of violence, and repeated human rights abuses have caused nothing but severe setbacks to the process towards peace and reconciliation.
This community forum is not an attempt to replace, override or supersede any of the existing organisations of the Sri Lankan community here in Melbourne.
Our endeavour is to build closer and cooperative relationships between Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim, Burgher and other Sri Lankan expatriate communities in Victoria by finding common grounds on the issues affecting them. We could play a significant role in achieving a negotiated resolution to the ongoing conflict in Sri Lanka, if a majority could present themselves as a broad front. We believe that these relationships have to represent a higher level of understanding of each other's problems and a genuine desire to overcome prejudices than has been exercised previously. We believe that for a solution to be successfully implemented and made durable, it is imperative that the currently strained relations between the various ethnic groups of Sri Lanka be overcome. This can only be achieved by improving mutual understanding of each other's points of view and eventually achieving a climate of trust between the people concerned.
Issues of the conflict involve historical development Sri Lanka has undergone willingly or unwillingly and are intertwined with problems of constitutional law, economics, culture, communication, perception and most importantly politics, which are all extremely complex to deal with. In a similar vein, we acknowledge that the governments of Sri Lanka have publicly acknowledged the grievances of the Tamil-speaking people in Sri Lanka. We also acknowledge that to let all people in Sri Lanka to live in dignity, with fairness and justice radical constitutional reforms to devolve power are necessary. We also support the view that while these reforms recognise the cultural diversity, it should also safeguard the sovereignty and the unity of the island. We welcome current trends in Sri Lanka in developing a consensual basis for resolving the conflict through negotiations.
However, we are not here today to argue about absolute histories respective communities and people believe in, in relation to their origins and settlements in Sri Lanka. A forum like this cannot resolve those issues. We are not here today to discuss about each and every political and violent act that have occurred in Sri Lanka. Those issues have been amply discussed, fought, blessed or condemned elsewhere. If someone is interested in such issues, we regret to say that this is not the appropriate forum to discuss such issues. We kindly request not to waste the time of this forum and if such deviations occur we will take steps to stop such occurrences.
Our objective is to discuss how to move forward from the current abyss.
The willingness for reconciliation should not remain only a desire, but must be accompanied by determined and concrete gestures on the part of not only parties engaged in the war, but also the communities involved in this conflict. The feeling of mistrust between the parties involved cannot be totally obliterated without the reconciliation of communities involved. Only reconciliation will pave the way to gradually remove this mistrust. Change of hearts and attitudes is necessary to achieve reconciliation.
It is imperative that the Sri Lankan expatriate groups of different ethnic backgrounds maintain meaningful dialogue with one another, work together to encourage the parties to the conflict to end the war and work towards a political settlement. Such a political settlement will allow all the peoples of Sri Lanka to decide their political destiny within the framework of a united and sovereign Sri Lanka, and based on the principles defined in the UN Charter and appropriate Covenants.
Everyone of us may be specialised in our own ways. However in other areas we have our own limitations too. We should be prepared to listen to and agree with those who are capable of putting forward a better proposition that may lead to a just solution to this complicated issue. In order to look at the world as it is, we will be required to take away glasses of different shades we wear. What are our suggestions? What are our proposals? What can we concretely do to initiate this dialogue? Please make your views on this regard be heard. We hope that establishing community forums like this would contribute positively towards achieving this objective.
Let us hope in unison that the sounds of guns and bombs will gradually pale into oblivion never to be heard again.
First of all, I propose our friends to introduce themselves with any organisations they represent before they raise their points or concerns.
Let us hope for the best and commence our work in a positive manner.
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