- Suren Surendiran is the spokesman for the British Tamils Forum. The opinions expressed are his own. -

The war against Tamils has ended, if we believe the statements coming from Sri Lankan state news media and the carefully orchestrated propaganda campaign.

What of the civilians now? The celebrations in Colombo have smoke-screened the fate of the 20,000 - 25,000 injured civilians and prisoners of war from the war zone. Despite the “End of the War” these civilians, who have endured continuous aerial bombardment, artillery shelling and cluster bombs, have yet to be given medical attention. Many are still stranded in the makeshift medical facility or caught up at “check points” or held at school halls “temporarily” without medical treatment.

The international community must act now, at least, to salvage the thousands of lives that their inaction has cost until now. The internment camps that were already bursting at the seams and of deplorable conditions must now facilitate over twice its capacity, but there is no road map to safeguard the welfare of these Tamil civilians.

International community including the UN were rushing to call for evacuation of Tamil people from their home environment to a foreign land (Army controlled territory where amongst other things even the language is foreign to majority of these people) without ensuring their safety and security or adequate facilities in camps.

The war on Tamils in the name of “War on Terror” has caused untold civilian casualties, total destruction of the Tamil homeland, all with the tacit approval of the “International Community”. By all accounts the dead are left to decay; injured bleed to death and the Sinhala nation is celebrating the annihilation of Tamils.

Amidst the despair and immense anguish felt by the Tamil Diaspora, there is much anger and discontent, to a system that has failed them. United Nations, the very emblem of human rights, dignity and equality has committed a betrayal of the Tamil people, denying them of even the basic right to food and medicine.

“Never again” they said, but once again the United Nations has proved itself to be unfit for purpose in preventing genocide or to uphold the doctrine of “Responsibility to Protect”.

Evidence of the State sponsored genocidal war is emerging and presenting the international institutions with mounting pressure to investigate this humanitarian catastrophe and war crimes, of which they were pre-warned. The numbers game played by the Sri Lankan government, of the population in the conflict zone, has further established the use of food and medicine as weapons of war and the use of heavy weaponry on such a densely occupied area.

It is crucial at this juncture that independent monitors and international journalists are allowed in to conduct impartial assessments of the situation. This must happen with a sense of urgency before the corrupt government of Sri Lanka attempts to destroy all evidence on the ground.

Further concern has been raised with allegations that Mr Vijay Nambiar, the UN Secretary-General’s Chief of Staff, who was appointed to negotiate with the Government of Sri Lanka and sent twice on fact finding mission is a brother of Satish Nambiar, a former military person from India and a paid consultant to the Sri Lankan Army, for a while now.

This has further tarnished the independence of the UN and exposed the lack of due care to ensure potential conflicts of interest are avoided. Institutions such as the UN must be and seen to be impartial and avoid such compromising circumstances.

Encouraged by their “victory” and International Community’s lack of any meaningful action against their excesses would no doubt encourage the Sinhalese to brush aside any Tamil grievances. In fact by their silence during this genocide and the collective celebrations, the Sinhalese have shown to the Tamils that peaceful and dignified coexistence is not on the cards and in the process have unwittingly conceded Tamil’s demand for self determination.

Tamils have known their tormentor all along. It is time for the International Community to get to know their ‘sovereign state’ friend. It’s “Peace in our time” all over again. Who said we learn from history? Then, what does it matter if the people at the receiving end do not belong to ‘us’?

Sri Lankan government may think that they have got away with the genocide without witnesses but the International Community is watching. International Community may think that they have got away with their quiet facilitation of this genocide but the Tamils are watching. Tamil youths are mobilised the world over, especially in the “Doyen of democracy” countries. Thanks to the duplicity of the International Community and the skewed world of the ‘free media’ of the west, even the moderate Tamil is becoming radicalised.