BY JAMES VASSILOPOULOS
More than half a million people have been displaced as a result of the war between the Sri Lankan government and Tamils in the country's north demanding self-determination. Diseases like malaria and tuberculosis are spreading rapidly, according to a Tamil parliamentarian and prominent backer of Tamil national rights.
Joseph Pararajasingham, an MP from the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), was addressing a meeting in Canberra on May 15 organised by the Friends for Peace in Sri Lanka.
Pararajasingham also said that aid to help the sick was being used as a political weapon by the Sri Lankan government.
Both Tamils and members of the majority Sinhala ethnicity want peace, Pararajasingham said, quoting opinion polls which estimate that 80% of Sinhalese would like the war ended peacefully.
But while it too has spoken of a desire for peace, the Sri Lankan government has engaged in a massive military build-up. Pararajasingham said that nearly $US1 billion worth of weapons has been bought from Israel, Czech Republic and Pakistan and that the United States has provided military training to the Sri Lankan security forces.
There are also unconfirmed reports that the Australian government is also providing arms.
The Tamil MP was highly critical of the Australian government's stance on Sri Lanka, saying that Canberra has failed to publicly support a Norwegian initiative aimed at facilitating peace talks between the Sri Lankan government and the insurgent Tamil Tigers.
The Tamil Tigers declared a unilateral ceasefire in December, which lasted four months, and have repeatedly indicated support for the Norwegian initiative.
The lack of support in the international community for Tamil self-determination has also led to a significant shift in the Tigers' position on independence, Pararajasingham said. The rebel movement is now willing to accept a federation within a united Sri Lanka.
The prospect of talks, and Tamil concessions, has considerably increased the pressure on the Sri Lankan government to negotiate a settlement, the parliamentarian said, but some prominent ministers and army chiefs are still determined to militarily defeat the Tamil national movement, regardless of the human or economic cost.