SOUTH AFRICA TAKING A LEADING ROLE TO PROMOTE PEACE IN SRI LANKA

(The Deputy President of the ruling ANC and South Africa's Special Envoy to Sri Lanka, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa, speaking at a Hindu Easter Festival in South Africa on Saturday)

(An ANC activist and provincial candidate, Mr Stanley Moonsamy, providing security for Mr Ramaphosa) (By Subry Govender)

The deputy president of the ruling African National Congress in South Africa, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa, has given a public assurance that they were fully involved in bringing about peace in Sri Lanka. Mr Ramaphosa, who has been appointed as South Africa's Special Envoy to Sri Lanka, was addressing a public rally of mainly Indian-origin people in the city of Durban on Easter Friday. He was one of several top political leaders who were invited as guests at the annual Hindu Easter festival of the Shri Mariammen Temple and Cultural Society in the former sugar mill town of Mount Edgecombe.

The other leaders included the Minister of Justice, Mr Jeff Radebe; Mr Obed Bopela, the Deputy Minister for International Affairs in the office of the Presidency; Mr Sisa Njikelana, ANC member of parliament and chairperson of the Solidarity Group for Peace and Justice in Sri Lanka; and Mrs Sally Padaychie, wife of the late former Minister who took a keen interest in the conflict in Sri Lanka. "We are offering our assistance after the Government of Sri Lanka called on us to help it in bringing about peace," Mr Ramaphosa told the massive crowd who turned up for the festival. He said South Africa had become involved in Sri Lanka after the President of the island country, Mr Rajapakse, had invited President Jacob Zuma to assist in finding a solution during the Commonwealth Heads of State Conference(CHOGM) in Colombo late last year. Early this year during his state of the nation address in Parliament in Cape Town, Zuma announced that Mr Ramaphosa would be the country's Special Envoy to Sri Lanka and South Sudan. South Africa heightened its role in Sri Lanka following the resolution adopted at the United Nations Human Rights Commission Council session in Geneva late last month to appoint an international investigation into the human rights violations in Sri Lanka.

It's estimated that between 70 000 and 100 000 Tamils were slaughtered during the final stages of the war in 2009 and the human rights of violations of Tamils is still continuing in the North and East of Sri Lanka. Detentions, arrests, rapes and the invasion of Tamil-owned land is taking place on a daily basis and the Rajapakse Government is conducting the colonisation of the North and East with Sinhala people from the south. "Recently we had discussions with a delegation of the Government of Sri Lanka in Pretoria and soon after that a delegation of the Tamil National Association(TNA) visited us for talks," he said. "We want to offer the experience we had gained when we entered into negotiations with the former apartheid regime to bring about peace and freedom in our own country. Over the past 20 years we have achieved a great deal in South Africa and we want to offer this experience to Sri Lanka. We believe that they too could engage in negotiations to bring about peace in their country. "In the final analysis it is up to the all the parties in Sri Lanka to bring about permanent peace in their country," he said. Mr Ramaphosa, who is poised to become the country's Deputy President after the general elections on May 7, said he would lead a delegation of Government and ANC leaders to Sri Lanka to promote dialogue between the Government, the TNA and other organisations and leaders. "There has been a lot of bloodshed in Sri Lanka and we want to offer them our help to achieve peace." President Jacob Zuma, who arrived after Ramaphosa was driven to another engagement, also addressed the people and urged the people to use their democratic right to vote in the forthcoming elections.