Talks held in Singapore this weekend between Tamil and Sri Lankan groups on promoting reconciliation and strengthening democracy in Sri Lanka, faced criticism this week over a lack of transparency over the process.
"The fact that the above initiative is shrouded in secrecy raises serious concerns whether the legitimate aspirations and long term interests of the Eelam Tamils will be addressed by the above initiative," said the International Council of Eelam Tamils (ICET), a network of 14 Tamil diaspora groups worldwide, on Tuesday,
stating that the meeting also lacked proper Tamil representation. See full statement here.
"[It is] important to note that we did not try to get a full comprehensive representation of Tamil diaspora to the meeting," Ivor Jenkins of the South Africa based dialogue promotion group, In Transformation Initiative (ITI) which organised the meeting in conjunction with the Swiss government, told Tamil Guardian on Tuesday, when asked which organisations were present at the meeting.
"The meeting in Singapore consisted of mostly current Sri Lankan politicians (in total a small group of less than 20) who wanted to, amongst numerous other agenda points (and a lesser one for that matter), craft out a process of future engagement with the broad international Tamil diaspora groups," Mr Jenkins added.
"Agenda matters that absorbed most of the discussion related to the deepening of democratic processes and culture in Sri Lanka, national reconciliation and the bringing about of an equal, free and just society."
Whilst representatives at the meeting have not been officially disclosed, it is understood to have included representatives of Tamil National Alliance (TNA), officials from the Sri Lankan government, and Tamil diaspora groups, including the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) and representatives from its key member groups. Current members of GTF are Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC), Australian Tamil Congress (ATC), Norwegian Council of Eelam Tamils (NCET) and the US Tamil Political Action Council (USTPAC).
Asked what ITI saw as the next step in the process, Mr Jenkins said, "the next step of the process is not in our (ITI or Swiss) hands but in the hands of the Sri Lankans, and we will be led by them."
"The June elections seems to be the watershed moment about what the most effective next step will be," he added.
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