transcurrents

Speech by Hon. Bob Rae, at the inaugural meeting of Canadians for Peace

November 29th, 2007

Transcript of Speech by Hon. Bob Rae, at the inaugural meeting of Canadians for Peace:

I want to thank the alliance and the new organization very much for inviting me to join you today. I must start by saying I don’t bring any magic solutions. I’m going to do two things in my talk, first, give a public account on my full personal experience in Sri Lanka, and then to perhaps try and point out some things the Government of Canada could do.

I hope by the end of it you realize that I won’t make everyone happy, and I won’t make anyone completely happy. I’ve learned over the years that honesty is the best policy. So what I have to say may not please everyone but I have to speak the truth as I’ve seen it over the last several years. I was asked to visit Sri Lanka in my role as Chairman of the new organization created in 1997 called the Forum of Federations.

In that role, we were contacted in 1998 by Mr. G. L. Peiris, who at that time, was the Minister and part of the Government of the day in Sri Lanka, who said he would like to come to our conference in Quebec, because he felt he had much to learn about the federal idea, and because he felt that it was important for him to come and say something to both, in the direction for reconciliation in Sri Lanka. Mr. Peiris came to the conference and gave a talk, in which he indicated that some kind of plural solution was the only way that he saw to end the conflict. At that time the war was still on and it was before the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA).

I next attended a few conferences in Switzerland. One of them before the CFA, and the other one after the CFA, with a number of individuals, some who were closely associated with the LTTE, some who were closely associated with civil society, some who were closely associated with the Government of Sri Lankan and each of the main political parties in Sri Lanka. Since that time, I’ve had the opportunity to travel to Sri Lanka many times. I’ve met with government leaders, with political leaders in the south; I’ve travelled to Kilinochi on three occasions, I’ve visited the headquarters in the Vanni of the LTTE; I’ve spent several days meeting with their local cadres and their leadership. I’ve met with Tamil Chelvan several times. And I’ve met with Nadasan, who’s their new political leader. I’ve met with Puli Devan, who’s the head of the Peace Secretariat. And I’ve met with each of the leaders of the political parties in the south. And I’ve participated in several of the peace conferences, or so called peace negotiations, as they were called, the ones that were held in Bangkok, in Oslo, and in various capitals in Asia and elsewhere. And I also attended the last meeting that took place in Japan before the peace process ended. And I’ve visited Sri Lanka since that time.

Bob Rae visits the Church Wellesley Village, Mar 16th 2007 – bobrae.ca

So what I say to you will be very much based on that experience. I’ve come away, first of all, with a great love for the country. It’s a beautiful country and I’ve been made welcome in every part of the country that I’ve visited. My wife and I spent 10 days just travelling by car, going around to see the country just to meet with people in a non-political way. And I don’t have to tell people here, it’s a very beautiful country. I’ve seen much devastation as well, devastation by war. Many villages destroyed, many homes destroyed. I’ve been in Jaffna and visited many houses which are in ruins. I could tell you a funny experience that I’ve had in Jaffna. I was getting out of the plane someone threw a bag at me from the back of the truck, that greets you as you get off the plane in Jaffna. He looked at me and said “You’re Bob Rae”. “That’s right, how do you know me?”, I asked. He said, “I’m from Scarborough, so I know who you are.” It was a reminder to me of how small our world is, and how connected we are as people.

I’m going to be very candid with everyone here, I felt very strongly, and I feel as strongly today as I did then, that there is no military solution to this problem. To think there is a military solution on either side is a delusion. There is no military solution. And I know that obviously, in the south today, in the Government, there may be those who think ‘well, we’ve been able to kill one of the leaders of the LTTE. We struck a mighty blow, and therefore we can win with a military solution. And on the other side, there may be people who think, ‘well, we’ve developed. There’s no part of Sri Lanka which is safe from our own counterattacks. We can inflict so much damage on the Government of Sri Lanka that we can force the solution that we want, by military means.’ I am convinced that is wrong. There is no military solution.

We know why it is that people took up arms many years ago, and we have to recognize that people take up arms for a reason. They don’t do it because they enjoy it; they do it because they feel that they have no other way to get a message across. And that has to be understood. We will not find a solution that does not deal with the grievances that are underneath this conflict. I was very interested to hear Mr. Kumarasamy’s speech, in which he made the point that, there are some people who think that peace is just the absence of conflict. That if people stop fighting there will be peace. That will be the solution. But, in itself it is not, the solution because you have to deal with the underlying conditions that give rise to the grievance.

Now you know, I’ve got several messages this week from people, saying don’t come to this meeting because it is not representative of the feelings of the Tamil people in Canada, and does not reflect their feelings. But I have to say to those people; never try to keep Bob Rae from coming to a meeting. It’s not a good idea to try that, because I don’t respond well to that kind of approach. I am not here to endorse any one position, or any one view of what needs to happen. I am here to simply give you my assessment as a Canadian who’s been involved a long time, for nearly a decade now, to say what it is I think we need to do as a country.

We have to deal with the underlying conditions. And I can say very directly to you, that the LTTE is a guerrilla organization that recruits children, that engages in violent activity, and it is not activity that I either approve of, or condone or support. I wouldn’t be deluding anyone, if were I to say that. But I’ve said it to Tamil Chelvan, I said it to Puli Delvan, I’ve said it to every LTTE leader that I’ve met, do not ask or expect any Canadian political leader, or Canadian mediator, or anyone with a Canadian role, to look you in the eye and say “we approve of what you are doing, or we believe you when you say that you are not engaged in violent activities, or you are not engaged in being a fighting army.” You are a fighting army, you are an insurgent army, and you are engaged in violent activity that we cannot condone or approve. I don’t say this lightly, I don’t say it because it’s what people want me to say. And the response comes back, “we are only doing what we feel we have to do. We’re doing, what we are doing because we feel we have no choice to do it, and we’re doing it because we felt there was no other avenue for us to carry out our activities.” To which I can only reply, if you look at the example of the IRA, in Ireland, if you look at the example of the African National Congress in South Africa, at some critical point in their lives, at some critical point in the struggle, wiser souls realized that there was not victory, victory did not lie through the military route. And it did not lie through the military route, because the pain and suffering inflicted on the civilian population was not worth the price, it was not worth it. If the purity of the struggle required that level of human sacrifice, then everyone has to look again at their hearts, and say how else can we achieve a legitimate recognition of our rights, and a legitimate political solution to our problem.

On the other hand, there are those people who think that we have to find a solution that does not involve the LTTE. To which I say, everything in my experience tells me, that as much as I disapprove or dislike the tactics that have been used of the LTTE, I do not believe we are going to find a solution that does not include them, because unless they are included in the solution, we will not find a basis for a solution. That has to be understood. Now, does this require a change of behaviour on the part of the LTTE? Of course it does. Of course it does. Does it mean that we expect or ask the government of the day to simply sit down and say “we are simply going to discuss with the LTTE without any pre-conditions”? No. Do I believe that the LTTE is the only voice of the Tamil people? No, I do not believe that. But do I believe it to be a voice of the Tamil people? Absolutely.

Its not for an outsider to say exactly what is the route that must be followed to get to a solution, but it is for an outsider to say, that based on our experience of human history, based on our experience on how these insurgencies develop, ultimately they lead to tragedy or they lead to a solution, we have to offer our best advice. So at the risk of repeating myself, by far the advice we’ve consistently given the involved parties is this: there has to be a ceasefire, the ceasefire has to be carried out by the people who are involved in the conflict. But the creation of the solution, the long-term political solution, requires the presence of more parties than just the parties of the ceasefire. The ceasefire is between the combatants, between those who are fighting. That is what a ceasefire is. You don’t ask somebody who is not engaged in the fighting to be involved in the ceasefire? No, because they are not involved in the ceasefire, or in the fighting.

But once the fighting is over, you are looking to create the basis for a broader solution, there has to be broader participation. Now we’ve seen how by the Up-country Tamils coming to the table how the grievances of the Tamils have been presented in ways that they were never presented before. We’ve seen the Muslim population, whose leadership I’ve met with many times, in the east and in Colombo, and in the north. Wherever we can find Muslim leaders who come forward, we’ve met with them. Clearly there are issues which need to be resolved, to be dealt with. During the ceasefire negotiation process we did have meetings between the LTTE and the Muslim leadership. There were discussions, and there was a recognition. Even Balasingam recognized that things happened during the conflict that should not have happened. And injustices were caused which should not have been created. And there needs to be recognition of that, an honest recognition. A recognition that there is no purity on anyone’s side in these conflicts. Mistakes are made, terrible things happen and terrible tragedies occur, and we have to have the honesty to recognize that, that’s what happens in a war.

War is a terrible thing and nobody should glorify war and nobody should glorify death and nobody should glorify a conflict. There is nothing glorious about it. It’s a terrible, terrible thing that inflicts huge pain and suffering and ends the life of thousands of people who should not have died and should not be held hostage to this kind of conflict.

I can tell you that I’ve been criticized very heavily by the Government of Sri Lanka who say why don’t you realize that what we have to do is win a military solution to this problem and the LTTE is a terrorist organization and that’s the beginning and the end of it. The answer to that is to say to the Sri Lankan Government, and we have to be very emphatic again and again and again, “There is no military solution to this problem”. That is why I must say that the statement made in the earlier speech that, for the next step, the ball is in the court of the Government of Sri Lanka, is correct. I can tell you, as an observer and as somebody who has been watching and listening, we have been waiting, the world has been waiting for a long time for the Government of Sri Lanka to tell us what are the ways in which they believe this conflict can be ultimately resolved outside of a military solution. What is the plan? What is the plan that will recognize human rights? What is the plan that will recognize not just individual rights, but the collective rights of the people? And how do you intend to go about changing the internal constitution of a country in such a way that it will contribute to a peaceful resolution of the conflict. We’ve been waiting and we are still waiting. We are still waiting because such a plan has not been forthcoming.

We all know the reasons, the political reasons why it hasn’t happened. I’ve observed this. One party is in and the other party is critical. Them saying why are you giving in, why are giving in and the other party gets into power and all of a sudden it’s a switch. One day you know a federal solution might be possible, the next day federalism is the f word. The f word; you’re not allowed to say. I don’t care what the word is.

The one thing I believe very strongly is the constitution does not have to contain the words either federal or unitary. It doesn’t, these are just words. The emotion, the value, the passion that has to underlie the future of the country is mutual respect. This means respect for identity, respect for language, respect for religion, respect for pluralism, and which recognizes that there cannot be simply the dominance by the majority. That does not recognize the legitimate rights of all the people and of all the nationalities that make up Sri Lanka.

As I said I have no magic solution. There is no magic wand to be waved. I think the government of Canada has to be one of the countries, not the only country, but one of the countries that continues to be as present as we can be in insisting that these are the things that need to happen to get us to peace.

To me it is amazing. And I feel this so intensely, the news is very selective. If there is a bomb that goes off in one country in the Middle East it’s a big deal. And it’s on the news and everybody is preoccupied, everybody is focused, everybody is thinking. In the last two years in Sri Lanka, we’ve had over two hundred thousand people displaced from their homes, displaced from their homes. We’ve had more people killed in the last year than in most other countries that have the attention, the full attention of the Security Council of the United Nations. We have very little international attention being paid to Sri Lanka. It’s disgraceful. The eyes of the world need to be on Sri Lanka just as much as any other place in the world where there is a conflict that we need to understand better.

Now, the United Nations is going to look at the human rights situation. We have people beginning to, again put pressure back on to say this is something which has to be dealt with. And I can tell you the world should not be silenced. And I will not be silenced. I will not be silenced by people who say you can’t express sadness or regret at the death of the leader Tamil Chelvan. I will tell you when a leader like Tamil Chelvan dies, it isn’t a good thing for the world. It is not. I also say to you that I do not condone and I do not support and I will not be silenced in saying that the atrocities that have been committed, have been committed on both sides. And the evidence of that is overwhelming and anybody wants to say, well they have done this and we have done nothing wrong, I can tell you the evidence for that is just not there. The evidence is that terrible things have been done that should not have been done and they have been done by all sides to the conflict. Unless a lot of people face up to that fact and recognize the cost of the conflict and what it is meant in human terms, then we will not succeed.

So I think Canada should be playing a leadership roll and frankly, I don’t see Canada there. I see Canada, just going through the motions, going through the motions of expressing concern. I don’t see any leadership at the moment coming from our Government and it should be coming from our government. We are home to more people of Sri Lanka in origin, Tamil, Sinhalese, Muslim, than virtually any other country outside India. Therefore we have a stake.

Having said that we have a stake, I want to put back a challenge to the community in the Diaspora. And that is, those of you who are here, and frankly those of you who are not here because many people who say that they will not come to meeting like this because they are too attached to one side or the other to come. I understand that. We have to recognize that people who take that stronger view, but I can say to you very emphatically, very emphatically; it is frankly in the Diaspora that a lot of the momentum for peace is going to come. I mentioned that Ireland was an example. A little known fact about Ireland, the Irish conflict in the past twenty years is as much a part of Canada as it is part of any other country. When the people came to Canada from Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland in the last twenty to twenty five years, they came here and they said, “that was there, here we’re Canadians; here we’re trying to find a solution. I don’t care whether this guy is a Protestant or a Catholic. I don’t care what part of the country you came from, we’re going to work together.”

We are going to work on building an understanding and go back to Sri Lanka saying this is crazy. We should not be perpetuating this conflict in Canada. We should be trying to solve this conflict in Canada. And the Diaspora has the responsibility to do that. We have to break down those barriers that still exist among Canadians of Sri Lankan origin. Now we’ve seen signs of this among younger people going back to their homeland and coming back and learning lessons and taking lessons and trying to share experiences. We have to continue to do that, but we have to do it more effectively and with more support. And so, I don’t come with a magic solution and if, somebody said, “do you support the Canadian’s Peace Alliance Solution?” I’ll say I’m not taking a position.

I’m not here to say one thing or another, but wherever Canadians come together and look at a conflict which has caused such heartache, such hardships, such pain, such suffering and such loss; loss of life, loss of culture, loss of work, loss of jobs. The economy in Sri Lanka has been devastated because of this conflict. Anything that contributes to changing that is something we should all support; all political parties should support.

Please call Mr. Carry Johnson here to participate in this discussion because he to has been to Sri Lanka many times and knows as much about the conflict as anyone. So I’ll stop there Mr. Chairman, I thank you very much for your introduction and your kindness and inviting me. I appreciate it.

I hope you will accept some of my very direct observations. They are not made lightly and they are made with the greatest of respect and I will continue to make them in whatever way I can. A solution is not going to be easy. The killings last week could well, it’s fair to say unless people take a deep breath and look hard into the mirror, lead to yet another spiral escalation of battle to retaliation and to counter retaliation and on it goes. It has to stop.

I guess the last thing I’d say is, from my experience I have often wondered what is it that leads us to peace and it’s very ironic today; just before coming here tonight I was late was because I had a meeting at three o’clock with Mr. Jerry Kelly who was a member of the Irish Republican Army and who is now a junior Minister in the newly formed Government in Northern Ireland. He works everyday with E.N. Paisley Junior who is the son of E.N. Paisley. And E.N. Paisley Senior is the joint first minister with Martin McGuinness who was also in the Irish Republican Army. I was telling Mr. Kelly a story in which he initially didn’t believe. He was quite incredulous but I’ll tell it to you too. In 1974 I was a young student in England and I went over to Ireland to look at what was happening, just as a curious observer, an interested observer. And was coming back from Belfast to London on a plane in 1974 and the plane made an emergency landing and we were held in custody for twelve hours at the Magistair airport. Because they discovered that a bomb was on the plane. It turns out that on that plane there was a police chief who was going down to London to be knighted by the Queen and there was an attempt to assassinate him. I later discovered on reading a book on the history of the conflict that somebody had painted the pin which was to carry the charge between the timer and the bomb, which was 2 seats behind the seat I was sitting on the plane and I said to Mr. Kelly that my life was saved by a single coat of paint. And he looked, I started the conversation and he didn’t know what I was talking about and so I told him the story and he told me that he was going to check it and tell me if it was true or not and I said well I was on the plane and I know there was a bomb on it. I know that we were interviewed for 12 hours and I read the story that gave the account of when this story happened. But I said but here we are, thirty years later and he said well you know it’s amazing. He said you know if you’d told me thirty years ago, I was in jail thirty years ago, that in thirty years time I would be sitting in a cabinet meeting next to E.N. Paisley, I would not have believed it.

And so I really think we have to learn these conflicts; to say that it’s not enough just to say that we have to defeat terrorism. Of course we have to defeat terrorism. But we also have to recognize that we have to get at the underlying causes of this violence and we also have to recognize that people change and people learn and frankly we have to learn that nothing is hopeless. I must confess that a level of frustration that some of it is cultural and you know I’m a western guy, and there is a different pace of time in Sri Lanka, right, and there is a different sense of how things emerge and unfold in the discussion. I was watching this discussion about people saying how are the negotiations going and I used come back to Canada and say that I don’t know if there were any negotiations. People are in the same room for a long time and they were giving speeches to each other but nothing was going on that I would have called a negotiation. But it wasn’t end of a conflict. So there were times now that I must confess upon hearing the news last week, where you know you can throw up your hands and say that it’s hopeless and the conflict is just unbearable and its going to continue and we don’t know what next step is going to be taken, which will be, which could take place. But I guess our experience should tell us, as I said this happens, this happens in this connection of this meeting that I had today, is that things can change.

All I can say is let’s hope that things change and lets work together to make sure things change. Let us at least do what we can to make it happen. Having said that let me thank you once again for having me here.

[Inaugural meeting of Canadians for Peace was held on 10th November 2007 at the Scarborough Civic Centre, Canada]

Entry Filed under: Full Text of Speech