The major opposition UNP and the TNA have charged that violence is at its height in this country.

The UNP states that human rights are trampled in this country and that the government has to act expeditiously and with the sense of responsibility.

TNA has pointed out that human lives are uncertain in this country with abductions and killings. They have also stated that state terrorism has been unleashed and the government has failed to protect the people.

There is tension among the people with the discovery of five decompose bodies in the south. It is suspected that these could be the bodies of persons who had been abducted by white van in Colombo.

Meanwhile, relatives of people abducted in the south and the east rallied in Colombo and gave relevant details to the Colombo Civil Monitoring Committee. It is reported that they are to be documented and forwarded to the international community.

A.Vinayake Moorthy, leader of the Tamil congress and a former Parliamentarian, has appealed to the UN Secretary General to send UN peacekeeping force to Sri Lanka to save the lives of Tamils from atrocities by Lankan security forces.

That the attention of the international community must be drawn to focus on the abduction and killing and human rights violations against the Tamils in the government control areas is relevant and in fact quite urgent. One cannot disagree with him on that issue but the issue is whether a request for a UN Peacekeeping force has relevance at this juncture.

The international community including the UN must take cognizance of the fact tat there are harassments against the Tamils and that there are human rights violations in the country in breach of laws of land.

It is also important that international community must cease to view Sri Lanka as a state factor and fail to condemn its omissions. Then only, the international community will be able to view state terrorism in the right perspectives. Then only the international community can openly tell the world its assessments of the political reality in the country.

As far as the Tamils are concerned, we have already had an experience of a peace keeping force. Do we need another peace keeping force so urgently?

There are two parties to the conflict in our country, the majority Sinhala government on the one side and the LTTE as the representatives of the minority Tamils on the other side. If the international community including the UN views them as equals and approach this issue in that light, then the situation can improve.

An English translation of the Editorial in Sudar Oli, a Tamil daily, based in Colombo

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