Coordinated International Effort Needed
to Contain Situation in Sri Lanka M.R.Wilson 5 May 2006
1)“Democracy prevails in a country only as long as the rule of the people, for the people and by the people survives in the absence of any racial, linguistic, cultural or religious dominance” as envisaged by the former American President Abraham Lincoln.
2)The objective of a Cease Fire Agreement being framed, the conflicting parties signing and peace brokering co-chairs to the peace process attesting, certifying and subscribing to it with the coverage of the mass media to publicize it to the entire world is all lost, if it is violated or not honored to the letter. In this connection, Sri Lankan Government would stand accused in the event of its reneging since the basic main clauses of the CFA remain dead letters even after four years of signing!
3) Sri Lanka looks a dangerous place not only because of the majoritarian Singhalese regime, which commits iniquities and atrocities over the minority Tamils, but also because of those peace brokering international communities viz. the Co-Chairs of the Tokyo Donor Conference (the European Union, Government of Japan, the United States and Norway) which react to and take into account only the retaliatory violations of the Tamil militants while overlooking the cruelties of the aggressors that preceded. Singhalese aggressors will never be able to hide a whole pumpkin (i.e. their tyranny against the Tamils) in a pot of rice (i.e. under false pretences).
4) When Tamil civilians are collectively not responsible for any attacks carried out by the Tamil militants on the armed forces, what is the moral behind the three-prong combined attacks and atrocities that are wielded over the Tamil civilians in the Tamil territories, anywhere at any time? It looks ridiculous when the navy, army and the air force of the Sri Lankan military attack the Tamil territories to carry out their racial genocide, equipped with Israeli built Kfir super sonic fighter jets to bomb, multibarrel guns to fire artillery shells and the naval ships to indiscriminately bombard Tamil areas.
5) As it is always the case that the mightiest would be all out to subdue the weakest, it has become a matter of paramount importance for the peace brokers to see that, adherence to the conditions agreed upon in the previous peace talks takes precedence over any future peace talks. Instead, if the peace brokers engage in activities to ban the LTTE, it would be very favorable for the Singhalese regime to undermine the Cease Fire Agreement that is in effect and force, and to resort to a degrading strategy of extermination of the Tamils gradually but steadily to diffuse their demand for equal rights. If the balance of power among the warring parties involved in peace process is torpedoed by any elements with vested interests to be detrimental to the minority group, chances for the survival of any peaceful atmosphere would be remote and there will be no justice for the suppressed.
6) On a careful scrutiny of the chronological compilation of violations or crimes of both parties with regular updates (date /month) to-date starting from 22/02/2002 the date on which the CFA was signed in Sri Lanka, it would reflect that any allegations leveled against the militants are consequential, retaliatory or sometimes concocted by the government. It has to be borne in mind that, the LTTE has confined itself to the Tamil territories in Sri Lanka and targeted its attacks at any time only on Sri Lankan tyrannical security forces and their interests and not on any international communities or their interests elsewhere.
7) After years of armed struggle since 1990, people of Sri Lanka heaved a sigh of relief hoping for a lasting solution when the Cease Fire Agreement was signed on 22/02/2002. Unfortunately, when it transpired in the LTTE that Karuna, one of the most trusted erstwhile confidants of LTTE militants was guilty of embezzlement of tens of millions of movement funds, murdering fellow cadres, sexual escapades and abuse of female cadres, he slipped into the hands of the Singhalese armed forces to escape justice from the movement. This betrayal by Karuna impelled the armed forces to sideline the peace process, break the truce that prevailed by virtue of the CFA and embark afresh on violent activities shattering the peaceful atmosphere that existed in the country. To make good the opportunity, when the armed forces threatened Karuna under duress for his past acts against them, he pledged to damage the reputation of the LTTE and pursue his vendetta against it until it is crushed and on this assurance he was spared by the armed forces on the philosophy that one’s enemy’s enemy is one’s friend.
8) Many a time, LTTE militants had restrained themselves and refrained from retaliating to give a wake-up call to the Sri Lankan regime against its atrocities repeatedly wielded over the Tamil civilians by the paramilitary groups in collaboration with the armed forces in blatant violation of the CFA that is in effect and force. With a subtle move and degrading strategy to disintegrate the infrastructure of the LTTE, the Sri Lankan armed forces have enticed Tamil renegades into their own paramilitary groups, who pose a baneful threat to the aspirations of the Tamils.
9) Nowadays, the Tamil community in Sri Lanka is obsessed with a fear psychosis because of the dreadful terror that prevails among them by the existences of the Paramilitary groups comprising Tamil renegades. These undesirable elements with the complicity of the Singhalese armed forces go on a killing spree when they come across anyone who supports the freedom struggle or does not submit to their extortions and further they stray into the territories where women are forced into sexual relations under coercion. They indulge in abduction or killing of prominent, erudite and intellectual personnel, besides humanitarian workers to subdue the Tamils and suppress their aspirations. Further, they still have not released the TRO personnel whom they had abducted and their fate is not known still.
10) Even before the birth of LTTE ,Tamils were targeted since the independence in the year 1948, orgy of humanitarian crimes and terrorism was unleashed on them periodically as and when racial violence against them erupted in the country repeatedly especially in the year 1958, 1977 and during the ‘Black July” 1983 in the Singhalese areas. The Sri Lankan state is notorious for torturing and slaughtering Tamils even in state prison and reducing even the Jaffna library one of the best in the South East Asia to ashes, by arson attack.
11) The Republican Constitution of 1972 robbed the minorities of even the scant safeguards against discrimination provided under Section 29 of the Soulbury Constitution introduced at independence in 1948.
12) Because of all these, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, popularly known as Tamil Tigers or LTTE, has waged an armed struggle against the Sri Lanka state since 1983 to win equal rights for the minority ethnic Tamils in the country’s North and East accusing the Sri Lankan Singhalese regime of discriminating against the minority Tamils. LTTE has no facility for aerial or naval attacks. Singhalese regime mercilessly, resorts to indiscriminate attacks by way of aerial blitz, strafing, and shelling and cannonade from naval ships in the Tamil homeland during the acts of their racial genocide and kill extra judicially innocent Tamil civilians in Temples, Churches, Schools, refugee camps, houses, fields, sea or even on the roads in their thousands , sparing not even the children. Tamil militants resort to suicidal attacks to retaliate, contending that those are inevitably unavoidable to arrest and crackdown the rampageous atrocities unleashed by the Singhalese armed forces over the Tamils.
13) Racial genocide over the Tamils by the Singhalese that erupted in the country repeatedly was mainly the primary and motivating factor to induce the Tamil youngsters to take to arms. If the Tamil militants who fight for a noble cause of saving the Tamil Nation from genocide are to be branded as terrorists, why hesitate to designate the Sri Lankan Government as a Terrorist Regime since it is the authority responsible for the atrocities and mass murders committed by the armed forces since the independence from the British rule?
14) In Sri Lanka, only a Buddhist Singhalese could be the ruler, Buddhism is the State religion, Singhalese is the official language, Buddha statues are erected at random anywhere in the island, colonization of Tamil areas by Singhalese is done at State expense and a contrived standardization procedure to enter higher education is enforced to benefit the Singhalese and to suppress the Tamil children who thrive on education. Further, any of the past historical records together with the archaeological evidences of the country could be tampered with surreptitious interpolations to the advantage of the Singhalese community.
15) It is better for the children to have fought and died for the rights of the Tamils if they wish to do so, rather than being bombed, killed, maimed or conscripted by the traitors. The prolongation of the tyranny of the ethno-religious chauvinistic Singhalese armed forces without a lasting solution to the ethnic struggle, left men, women, young and old with children killed, maimed or mangled in tens of thousands. Further it left, the children orphaned, men and women widowed in tens of thousands. In addition to this, because the armed forces have crept into the Tamil territories, usurped control of certain areas legally owned by the Tamils where once peace and harmony prevailed and made a hellhole of it, families in tens of thousands inclusive of children are displaced from their legally owned properties.
16) Sri Lanka government concentrates more on reserving funds enormously in the budget for war and amassing sophisticated weaponry and armaments than on spearheading the peace process. It is glaringly an act of brazen savagery of the Singhalese government, when it is not capable of waging a war at any time to overpower any country in this world, to make all these preparations to terrorize only the Tamil community within Sri Lanka.
17)Nevertheless, in consideration of the safety of the Singhalese civilians during the insurgencies of the Singhalese JVP extremists, in the Singhalese areas the governments’ forces never resorted to such tactics.
18) Singhalese community by virtue of their majoritarian status and voting strength will arrive at any decision of their own at any referendum and defeat any opinions or proposals voiced by the Tamil community with regard to their aspirations and fundamental rights.
19)Further, their representatives in the legislative assembly can enact and have enacted any law or frame any constitution arbitrarily at any time to the advantage of the Singhalese community only, by their voting strength overriding any opinions or proposals put forward by the Tamils.
20) By virtue of the right to self-determination and accepted international norms and standards, a community with its own linguistic identity and identifiable homeland is free to determine its political status and live with equal rights with other communities. In such a condition, the Sri Lankan Tamils are entitled to pursue their economic, social and cultural development and establish their self-autonomy, and self-identity within the purview of the United Nations' Charter.
21) The Government and the Tamil militants framed a “joint mechanism” to alleviate the sufferings of the Tamil victims of the tsunami disaster and the Sri Lankan Jurisdiction has jeopardized it alleging that it is inconsistent with the constitution. Further, the heartless in the Singhalese community obsessed with jingoistic patriotism has also had not allowed even humanitarian aid to reach them.
22) The incumbent President, jettisoned all the aspirations of the Tamils for peace by prioritizing war and captured power with his formula called “Mahinda Chinthanaya” which emphasizes “no Norway, no federal constitution, no right to Homeland, no self-determination, no nation-hood for Tamils, no PTOMS, no recognition as sole partner in negotiation and no Oslo as venue for talks”.
23) If a federal rule to safeguard the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka is not be feasible, the only viable alternative would be the formation of Tamil Eelam for the Tamils in the North-East. In an event that such a situation arises , international communities should be forthright enough to recognize it fully and back the existence and independence of the Tamil Eelam as done in the case of UN Member States like Israel, Bangladesh and so on in the past or East Timor recently in the year 2002. We can have two States in Sri Lanka, which is approx. 65,610 sq.km. A few of the UN Member States actually smaller than either the future Singhalese Sri Lanka approx. 46,777 sq.km. or the Thamileelam approx. 18,833 sq.km (in order of Area) are as follows:
Fiji, Kuwait, Swaziland, East Timor, Vanuatu, Qatar, Gambia The, Jamaica, Lebanon, Cyprus, Brunei, Cape Verde, Luxembourg, Comoros, Mauritius, Singapore and so on.
"We shall have to repent in this generation not so much for the evil deeds of the wicked people, but for the appalling silence of the good people." –By: “Martin Luther King”- Jnr
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