World must face up to this crucial issue
The plight of war refugees in Sri Lanka highlights a problem of international moment that has received paltry notice in official UK circles.
(Ian Johnstone, Scotsman) Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Autonomy entitlement is more than topical - maybe it would be of more pressing need to convene a G Whatever Number to sort out this trigger of conflict across the world.
As long as 20 years ago, I encountered Tamils in Africa who were among the
gentlest people I have known and who, back then, had little hope of ever seeing their island homeland again because of their ethnicity.
The recent Geneva G20 gathering was scuppered less by the Iranian president labelling Israel as racist than by the obvious prejudice against opinions other than their own shown in the walk-out by the cabal of western nations who decide, for example, that Kosovo can have breakaway autonomy recognition but South Ossetia and Abkhazia on the Russia-Georgia border cannot.
But such seems to be the sensitivity regarding autonomy, not least in the case of Scotland, where a proposed referendum incited another rush for the exits rather than rational dialogue. From north-east Africa to Sri Lanka to Tibet to Kurdistan, autonomy is something that merits international attention, and with the provision of superglue on every bigwig attendee's chair.
IAN JOHNSTONE
http://news.scotsman.com/opinion/World-must-face-up-to.5210755.jp
