Jaffna Uni students lash out at Chinese envoy; urge help in referring SL to ICC instead

The Jaffna University Students' Union which lashed out at the Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka Qi Zhenhong over a tweet, urged him to support their call to refer Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the upcoming UN Human Rights Council session.

In a report, the students Union criticized a tweet made by the Ambassador with regard to the upcoming UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session in Geneva and in favour of the Sri Lankan Government.

The Chinese Embassy in a series of tweets commented on the UNHRC sessions and said, “China has always been supporting Sri Lanka in the international fora for protecting its sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity. We will continue to do that.”

Meanwhile, in an article for the local portal Sri Lanka Guardian, published subsequently on the Chinese Embassy’s website on Friday, the Envoy said China would “continue to support” Sri Lanka in international fora, while slamming countries “far or near” for “bullying” the country.

“China has always been supporting Sri Lanka in the international fora for protecting its sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity. We will continue to do that. In contrast, some countries, far or near, always make various groundless excuses to bully Sri Lanka and trample on Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and independence repeatedly,” Ambassador Qi said.

The students union heavily criticized the statements made by the Chinese Ambassador and said they wanted him to retract his statement saying it has defamed the affected Tamil community.

The union further said, “Our only hope is to seek justice at the UN Human Rights Council by taking Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court. Tamil parliamentarians, political parties, religious leaders, families of the disappeared, civil society, trade unions and we collectively sent a letter to the UN Human Rights Council to refer Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court.

“On the same day that the Tamils unitedly sent a letter urging the UN Commission on Human Rights to refer Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court, the Chinese Ambassador ruled in support of the Sri Lankan Government at the UN Human Rights Council.

“In the United Nations Human Rights Council, many countries including the UK, India, America and Germany are working together in support of the Tamil people, the opinion of the Chinese Embassy is a warning to the Sri Lankan Government to strengthen its dominance in Sri Lanka. We strongly condemn the growing dominance of China in the North-East, which has an anti-Tamil attitude.

“We Tamils, who have suffered for decades, are deeply saddened by this irresponsible rant by the Chinese Ambassador and strongly condemn it. This act is "like a cow treading on one who fell from a tree."

The Union also said, “the Chinese Ambassador visited the Tamil areas and offered sincere assistance.  We suspect that your visit to Nallur Murugan Temple in traditional Tamil attire is an act of deceiving Tamils.

“We expect China to act as a responsible country and we ask you not to fish in our muddled pond and take advantage of our distress.

“Once again, we as the Jaffna University Tamil Students' Union appeal to the Chinese Ambassador to withdraw his remarks and support our call to refer Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court,” it said.

The Jaffna University Students' Union said China is well aware of the suffering of the Tamils during the war “waged by the Sri Lankan Government”.

It further said, “Even after the end of the war, hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankan soldiers are occupying our motherland in the North East Tamil areas. After the war, our native lands were confiscated to settle Sinhalese Buddhists to make us a minority in our traditional homeland,” the Union said.

In the article released to the Sri Lankan media recently, the Chinese Envoy indicated that China would support Sri Lanka in contrast to some countries which had either ruled or invaded Sri Lanka in the past.  

Meanwhile, it was reported that a function to be held at the university to sign a collaboration agreement between the Agriculture faculty and a Chinese Agricultural institute was indefinitely postponed and the envoy’s visit to Jaffna for this purpose was called off due to objections from the Students’ Union.

In response, Chinese embassy spokesperson Luo Chong said the Ambassador is always keen on another visit to Jaffna. “Northern Province is an important part of China-SL friendship and cooperation. About the exact time of visit, I don’t have information at the moment,” he said.

China has already set up an export-oriented fisheries development project in Jaffna. However, its bid to set up three small-size power projects using renewable energy in three islands off Jaffna failed because India objected citing security issues. Earlier India had objected to a proposal to set up a Chinese-built aircraft repair facility at Trincomalee in the Eastern Province as well.