The Bishop of Mannar has stated that the 13^th Amendment is “fundamentally flawed” and has called for the recognition of the Tamil people as a nation as crucial to bringing about peace on the island.

Speaking via Skype at a side event at the 14^th session of the Universal Periodic Review currently underway in Geneva, Bishop Rayappu Joseph told the audience that,

“Our solution does not lie in the 13^th Amendment but on the Tamil nationhood to be recognised. We are not a minority.

From the beginning of history there have been two nations, that must be recognised.”

The Bishop then went on to state that the 13^th Amendment was “fundamentally flawed” and called for the Tamil people to have the “right to rule”.

Bishop Joseph also commented on many other issues, telling the audience that despite testifying to the Sri Lankan government several times that a recorded 146,679 people were missing from the end of armed hostilities in May 2009, he was yet to receive a response.

He also stated that crimes such as extra-judicial killings had to be investigated, saying,

“We know the people behind these crimes… there must be accountability”.

Commenting on the Sri Lankan government’s prohibition on commemorating those that had died in Tamil areas, the Bishop said,

“There are a lot of people walking like skeletons… They have lost their mind, they need to heal… A lot of money is spent on celebrating the war but where are our people?

We are not allowed in our areas, Mannar for example… to grieve our dead people. The dead must be respected and justice served.”

Responding to a question from Father Emmanuel of the Global Tamil Forum on the militarisation of the North-East, the Bishop also commented,

“The Sri Lankan military are here. We don’t understand why… the war is over.

They run restaurants. People who earn very little are being deprived.

Land is not grabbed all over the country, but in the North-East. They are grabbing land all over the North-East; Trincomallee, Jaffna, Palali and Mullaitivu.

The presence of the military is creating abnormality.”

Also speaking at the event was Gary Anandasangaree from Lawyers Rights Watch Canada, who spoke out against colonization of Tamil areas, saying

“Increased colonisation in Tamil areas is reducing any type of democratic exercise by Tamils and it needs to be stopped”

"Colonisation effectively renders the Tamil majority into a minority…"

He also noted that the 13^th Amendment was “flawed”, stating that even though it was part of the Sri Lankan constitution, it is yet to be implemented. Anandasangaree went on to say that it was “ridiculous” for institutions such as the UN to call for its implementation.

The event, entitled “Sri Lanka UPR 2012: Rhetoric and Reality” was organised by the International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism, and was co-sponsored by Amnesty International, Asian Legal Resource Centre, Franciscans International, Human Rights Watch and Lawyers Rights Watch Canada.

Other speakers included Sinhalese journalist Sunanda Deshapriya, who noted “impunity has not stopped (in Sri Lanka), after the war has come to an end”.

Brito Fernando from Right to Life Sri Lanka also called for the Sri Lankan government to publish a list of all detainees being held, noting that even a prisoner who was killed in the recent attack by security forces on prisoners in Vavuniya was thought to be have been missing by his family for over 3 years.

The event was chaired by Nimalka Fernando from Lawyers for Democracy (Sri Lanka), who told the audience,

“You have heard from Gary Anandasangaree and the Bishop (of Mannar), what we have read in Sri Lanka’s report is contrary to the situation on the ground”.

Sunil Abeysekera from Sri Lanka Human Rights Defenders Network also noted that the Sri Lankan government portrayed those who work for human rights as “LTTE agents, CIA agents and Western Imperialists”.

“Sri Lanka is a failed state and is hurrying down the slope to disorder.

The panelists are mainly from the South and they haven’t suffered the persecution for 60 years like the Tamils.

Tomorrow Sri Lanka will paint a rosy picture. How long can Sri Lanka go on in the international community telling lies after lies?”

Also present in the audience was GK Mani from Tamil Nadu, president of the PMK party. He told the audience that Tamil Nadu stood in solidarity with Tamils on the island and stated that what was happening in Sri Lanka was an “international problem”.

See our live tweets from the event on our Twitter account here.