As soon as Ranil became president, he lifted the ban on several Tamil diaspora organizations. Among these diasporas, the main diaspora organization to have the ban lifted is the Global Tamil Forum. Global Tamil Forum spokesperson Suren Surendiran is a good friend of former foreign minister Mangala Samaraweera. Before the 2015 presidential election, Mangala met him and sought the help of his Global Tamil Forum to influence the people of the north to defeat the Rajapaksas. After that, during Mangal’s first visit to London, Suren and representatives of the Global Tamil Forum met with Norway’s peace envoy Erik Solheim. Later Mangala organized a meeting between Suren and the then President Maithripala.
At that time, the opposition of the Rajapaksas raised a lot of objections about the meeting of the representatives of the Global Tamil Forum with Mangala. After Mangala’s meeting, the Maithri-Ranil government lifted the ban on diaspora organizations including the Global Tamil Forum. One of the main slogans of Gotabhaya’s presidential campaign in 2019 was that as soon as Gota became president, those organizations would be banned again. Gota became president and banned those organizations.
President Ranil, who was appointed by the Rajapakse family including Gota, after taking the oath of office, got Eric Solheim as an advisor. Several organizations including the Global Tamil Forum ban was lifted once again. After that, Suren Surendiran started negotiating with Ranil’s government. Several rounds of talks were held in London and Singapore. Last June, Suren Surendiran told the Tamil Diplomat website that he had discussed drafting a new constitution for Sri Lanka in Singapore. It is not known whether Eric Solheim was involved in these discussions or not.
Suren travelled to Sri Lanka with a group of Buddhist monks and met with Ranil and Mahinda Rajapaksa . in 2011, Suren’s Global Tamil Forum protested when Mahinda tried to deliver a speech in London during his presidency. Suren Surendiran also stated that Mahinda should be brought before the Hague war crimes tribunal. The Global Tamil Forum has been thrown into disarray as a result of Suren’s meeting with Mahinda. They have a few members resigned.
TNA did not support Ranil and Surendiran’s peace initiative. Previously, when Mangala had a discussion with Suren and during Gota’s administration, the Global Tamil Forum met with British and American government representatives. TNA Mp Sumanthiran too, joined the discussions. However, Sumanthiran has now distanced himself from the Ranil and Suren peace initiative.
Ranil made significant efforts after becoming President to win Tamil votes in future Presidential elections, but all of those efforts failed. Ranil hired Eric Solheim as his advisor and began peace initiatives with Suren to influence the TNA party.
After starting peace initiatives with Ranil Suren, was in serious trouble. Suren, on the other hand, is not supported by diaspora organisations such as the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam. The ban on many organisations, including TGTE, was not lifted by Ranil. Aliraja, a prominent businessman in the Tamil diaspora, lost his influence as a result of his dealings with the Maitri-Ranil government and then the Rajapaksa government. He is now canvassing votes for Ranil in the north. Same fate will befall upon Suren?
