mr president we only have to hear those opening remarks to understand why i very much regret that we are having this debate today
it is being promoted by extremist elements in the tamil diaspora the same people who have helped sustain the ltte terrorist campaign over many years through political activity and often from the proceeds of crime
of course the final stages of the ltte campaign were awful
the un's darusman report which is the immediate pretext for this debate states clearly that in those final stages the ltte used the civilian population as human shields intensified the forcible recruitment of civilians including children into its ranks executed civilians who attempted to escape the conflict zone and deployed artillery in proximity to displaced civilians and civilian installations such as hospitals
this does not excuse the shelling of civilian targets but it does put it into context and shows where the blame lies
instead of trying to bring together the peoples of sri lanka there are those who seek to continue a campaign of hatred and division
they see this darusman report as a weapon in this campaign and just want to put the sri lankan government in the dock
this approach is malicious and counter-productive
the government of sri lanka and the commission have set up the llrc to investigate human rights allegations
let us do all that we can to support them and the peoples of sri lanka instead of attacking them
