Dr. Chua Rajapakse MNZM Spokesperson USLA.

Thank you for affording me the privilege of being able to reinforce for the ninth consecutive year, my thanks and deep gratitude to the Ranaviru for their sacrifice of , life, limb, in their efforts at liberating Sri lanka from three decades of Tiger terror.

It is because of this sacrifice that, Sri Lanka having enjoyed ten years of peace till unfortunately it was disrupted by the Easter Sunday bombings, entirely owed to the acts of omission and commission of those presently entrusted with preserving the peace. We still hope that this would be a one off event with the custodianship of preserving the peace , passing onto more competent hands ere long.

We owe it to the sacrifices of the Ranaviru ,

That Mothers and fathers and families in SL can travel together in the same bus or train without the fear of being wiped off by one bomb.

That SL was able to replace their pot whole ridden road network with well surfaced roads and expressways

That SL has been able to build new ports, airports, a port city in Colombo

That SL was able to beautify Colombo and make it a worthy travel destination

That SL has been able to provide electricity to every corner of SL, an unparalleled achievement in South Asia

That the per capita income doubled and trebled in the first five years post liberation , though stagnant now,

That SL was named the top travel destination, twice by lonely planet and once by CNN

It is for all of these and many other reasons that we reaffirm our gratitude to the Ranaviru and on this occasion particularly to the soldiers , the unsung and unnamed privates and corprals coming from heart land Sri lanka , whose mothers , fathers brothers, sisters, and even children released their young men to go to war to liberate SL.

25000 of them who never returned. It is all of them that we remember today.

I am proud of the work that USLA has done, with donations worth over $25,000 I believe, to support the welfare of the injured Ranaviru in their new life time abode , at the Seth madura’s at the various locations in SL, and thank USLA for having afforded us also an opportunity to contribute to these funds.

Besides such support, I believe we also have a solemn duty to protect the dignity, might and majesty of what the ranaviru achieved, when ever these are threatened.

These happened , even during the time of the war . I remember one such occasion when a politician, in opposition then ridiculing the hard fought capture of Elephent pass Alimankada, to being the same as walking into Pamankada.

However the recent threats that have come to the dignity of these achievements are more serious. In Torornto, a Mayor has designated the 18th of May as the Tamil Genocide Day”, claiming that the Ranaviru achievements came at the cost of Tamil Genocide , at an unacceptably high civilian casualty rate of 40,000 or more in the last week of the war, .It is also claimed that these are UN endorsed figures

Even in Wellington a Tamil Genocide Remembrance meeting is scheduled on Tuesday 21st at 6pm in the Parliament Theatrette under the auspicies of Mirama Davidson, Green Party co leader. An international speaker and screening of film are on the cards. I learnt of these yesterday from Bret Hudson and Chris Bishop, who sent me a copy of the invitation for this meeting that has gone out to all MP’s.

I have spent all of the last 48 hours emailing Maramar , and whole list of known MP’s, and media that the premise of Tamil Genocide does not come sanctioned by the UN, but comes from the UNSG appointed Darusman commission , not sanctioned by UN and opposed by the UNSC . Also that the commissioners were ill disposed to SL , and came to their conclusion without ever visiting SL, listening only to the tigers not to other SL’s. Since announcing their conclusions they have refused to revealed the sources of their information till 2030.

Hence this claim of Tamil Genocide is neither a UN claim nor a claim with any credibility. Accordingly I have asked her to call off the meeting and adviced other MP’s to be well informed if they go. Some have written and thanked me for making the position clear.

I have passed on copies of these communications to all sections of NZ media for their information and to all NZ MPs.

I also informed the Hon Consul and the HC in Canberra and am hoping that similar pressure would be applied by them.

Ladies and gentlemen, if you could offer a similar helping hand in disseminating these truths, emailing my letter to all of NZ’s MP’s it would be helpful.

I have also indicated to all of these individuals and institutions a catalogue of reasons why these allegation of 40,000 civilian deaths has no credibility , starting form lack of 40,000 graves, nor no where near expected 80,000 , injured. On the other hand the UN office in Colombo in May 2009 estimated 7,000 dead. This was confirmed by the Tamil Teachers census in 2012. The WikiLeaks revelations from despatches from US and UK embassies confirmed the great care exercised by the security forces to minimise civilian casualties . The dispatches from the UK embassy have been tabled in the UK House of Lords in October 2017 by Lord Naseby. Further the Paranagama commission, endorse by several internationally recognise legal luminaries, confirmed that there was no genocide.

Not withstanding these , the greatest slur on the Ranaviru achievements still remains the UNHCR resolution co sponsored by SL which has the implied acceptance of an unacceptably high casualty rate. The tabling in UK house of lords done by Lord Naseby offers a great opportunity for SL to withdraw from this resolution in the light of this new data.

Disappointingly, the current administration does not appear to have the will to do this. We therefore have to wish for a regime change to achieve this.

Whilst we await this , I will conclude ,once again re affirming our deep gratitude to the Ranaviru for their sacrifices for our sake