ASIA/SRI LANKA - The government also puts a priest in the list of "terrorist" because he defends the Tamil

Colombo (Agenzia Fides) - In response to the decision of the UN Human Rights Council to start an investigation into war crimes in Sri Lanka - after thousands of complaints from individuals, local organizations, churches, international NGOs that have raised the question, especially regarding the abuses suffered by the Tamil civilian population - the government of Sri Lanka has included a series of leaders and organizations that defend the rights of the Tamils in the list of "terrorists". The list also includes the Catholic priest S.J. Emmanuel, leader of the "Global Tamil Forum" (GTF), an eighty-year-old priest who has been living abroad for years. His forum is very active, with other groups in the diaspora, and with the main Tamil political party in Sri Lanka, "Tamil National Alliance" in the search of a political solution in the country in order to ensure lasting peace and peaceful coexistence between the two major components of society, the Sinhalese majority and the Tamil minority.
Among the associations labeled as "terrorists" , even the "Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam", known for its non-violent and democratic approach, the "British Tamil Forum" and the "Canadian Tamil Congress". According to the government in Colombo, the "Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam" (LTTE), the tamil military and guerrilla formation that the regular army defeated in the civil war operate under the guise of all these groups.
The tamil clergy has shown its support to the UN inquiry into war crimes and human rights violations during the years of civil war with a letter signed by 205 priests and religious, and more than 100 nuns. The first signatory, Mgr. Rayappu Joseph, Bishop of Mannar. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 11/04/2014)