United States & the struggle for Tamil Eelam A Response to US Ambassador Wills Dr.S.Sampanthar, Ph.D.(Cantab),
Manchester, United Kingdom
31 March 2001 [see also: (1) Annotated text of ' Observations on Sri Lanka's Conflict' - E. Ashley Wills, United States Ambassador to Sri Lanka; (2) An Open Letter to the US Ambassador in Sri Lanka by S.Sivanayagam, formerly Editor Saturday Review and (3) US and us by Pathma Naban]
| "...You may be aware of the large scale emigration of Tamils from Sri Lanka. In a sense those who can are getting out. In their host countries they ... are 'melting' - to use your phrase. To their progeny, Sri Lanka will be a distant poor country with a narrow outlook and plenty of trouble - a place to keep away from. A lot of those who do not or cannot emigrate are being killed in the fighting. When my 90 year old mother died in Jaffna a few years ago there were only women, mostly old, who were left there to attend the funeral. Though Hindu funeral rites must be performed if possible by a male descendant it had to be done by my old widowed sister. My mother's two sons, including myself and five grandsons were unable to attend. Actually there would have been six had one of her grandsons not been beaten to death in Colombo in broad daylight on 29/7/83 after the then President of Sri Lanka had made an inflammatory speech on TV... You ask the peace loving Tamils to advise the LTTE to come to the negotiating table. Of course we cannot condone or support violence. But who am I, Sir, sitting comfortably in my UK home, to advise the young LTTE fighters to lay down their arms, or for that matter to fight. Let us not forget that these fighters are prepared to lay down their lives so that other Tamils can live in dignity and peace. They are not on drugs. Nor do they think that they will go to heaven if they are killed in battle..." |
Your Excellency,
I have read the speech you recently gave in Jaffna with considerable interest. I wish I could have listened to you in person. Then I would have known whether you spoke with conviction or was merely rehearsing your Government's position. Any way I am glad that you took the trouble to go to Jaffna to see for yourself.
You, Sir, have disarmed me by saying that even if a person or Government is not perfect their interest in other people's affairs should be taken at face value. Hence I will confine my remarks to your speech relating to Sri Lanka only. To liberal individuals coming afresh to the Sri Lankan issue the Tamil demand for self determination appears backward looking. Many others including Tamils living in other countries have asked the question why cannot the Sinhalese and the Tamils live in peace? Why the demand for self determination?
To understand the problem in its correct perspective I respectfully say that one must study the Sri Lankan history since the time of independence. The Tamils at first wanted only to be part of the emerging Sri Lankan nation. After all their homelands were not rich and a number of Tamils made their living in Sinhalese areas. But no Sinhalese politician has been able to deliver on the various undertakings and pacts they entered into with the Gandhian Tamil leaders of the time. What is more, there have been periodic mob violence directed at the Tamils and their property in Colombo and the southern districts. Initially the Tamils could get to their traditional homeland in the northeast, often assisted by the Government in power which provided ships for transport as it was not safe to go overland. In due course when the situation stabilised the Tamils retuned to pick up their interrupted lives. | "...(The) perceived solution of self-determination has evolved and taken shape by the compulsions of more than three decades of political struggles of the Tamil people and their political leaders which ended in the ignominious failure to arrive at any just solution by the process of negotiation between the two parties. There lay in ruins the scrap-heap of broken pacts and dishonoured agreements as to proposals for Regional Councils, District Councils, Provincial Councils, Provincial/Regional Councils, District/Provincial Councils - all tentative concepts and toothless bodies with no genuine devolved powers of decentralization..." (Satchi Ponnamblam in Tamils Right to Self Determination, July 1991) |
With the passage of time army occupation of the northeast began and even the traditional homeland of the Tamils was no longer a safe haven for the Tamils. After exhausting all other options, in1976, the parliamentary party of the Tamils came to the conclusion that the only way for the Tamils to live safely in the Island of Sri Lanka was for them to live in their own homeland, with the association with the Sinhala state to be worked out in bilateral talks . They got a mandate for their resolution in an open and fair parliamentary election, the last such fair election. But the Sinhalese leaders would not or were not allowed to budge. And it was after the 1983 organised violence unleashed on the Tamils by some Government ministers and Buddhist clergy that the Freedom movement began seriously to take up arms. All this is in the record if only one wishes to read it.
Nobody wants war. Tamils, and the Sinhalese too, have lost so many valuable young lives. By ruling out self determination for Tamils in advance the US is taking sides. To be a target for a bomb attack or be part of the co lateral damage is terrible. This terror comes without warning. What of the terror of the people and children who daily hear the thunderous noises of the jets flying low not knowing when a bomb may fall or of the daily terror of hearing the deafening noise of shells from artillery flying past. Is that not to be condemned?
The Government leaders appear to be reasonable men. To be sure there are also Tamils among them. And as you rightly said the LTTE does not represent them. In the past there have been Tamil Ambassadors of Sri Lanka who had to explain the Government position to the world.. At least in one case when the time of duty of the Ambassador expired he chose to remain in the country to which he was accredited because he knew there was no future for him and for his family in Sri Lanka as Tamils. I wonder how many of the Tamil leaders in Government will choose to remain in Sri Lanka once they cease to hold office.
After coming down hard on the LTTE you and your Government may urge Sri Lanka to show restraint and reciprocate. I very much hope you do so. But, Sir, the Sri Lankan Government can afford to play a waiting game, as they have done in the past. They know that you will not be stationed in Colombo for ever and your Government's attention may soon be directed elsewhere. Even if we accept that the Government is sincere in wanting to find a peaceful solution to the problem it does not take a soothsayer to predict that no Sinhala Government will be allowed to deliver. Anyone believing otherwise is living in a Fool's Paradise. Once the fighting stops and the LTTE is disarmed the south will consider the problem solved. There will be enough people to say that we did not lose so many men to capture and hold territory only to hand it over at the negotiating table.
What does the future hold?
You may be aware of the large scale immigration of Tamils from Sri Lanka. In a sense those who can are getting out. In their host countries they are not clinging together but are 'melting' - to use your phrase. To their progeny, Sri Lanka will be a distant poor country with a narrow outlook and plenty of trouble - a place to keep away from.
A lot of those who do not or cannot emigrate are being killed in the fighting. When my 90 year old mother died in Jaffna a few years ago there were only women, mostly old, who were left there to attend the funeral. Though Hindu funeral rites must be performed if possible by a male descendant it had to be done by my old widowed sister. My mother's two sons, including myself and five grandsons were unable to attend.
Actually there would have been six had one of her grandsons not been beaten to death in Colombo in broad daylight on 29 July 1983 after the then President of Sri Lanka had made an inflammatory speech on TV. As you will know even prisoners in top security jails were beaten to death. The killing continues. Recently it was at a well publicised show case youth rehabilitation centre. Of course the perpetrators go unpunished.
Your advice and your Government's actions help to solve the Tamil problem in the long run in the most brutal way possible.
You ask the peace loving Tamils to advice the LTTE to come to the negotiating table. Of course we cannot condone or support violence. But who am I, Sir, sitting comfortably in my UK home, to advice the young LTTE fighters to lay down their arms, or for that matter to fight. Let us not forget that these fighters are prepared to lay down their lives so that other Tamils can live in dignity and peace. They are not on drugs. Nor do they think that they will go to heaven if they are killed in battle.
If they do surrender their arms can you assure them, Sir, that they will not meet the same fate as the youngsters at the Youth Rehabilitation Centre? Or which Government will allow them to immigrate and start a peaceful life elsewhere. The fighters must make up their own minds.
In due course Sri Lankan Tamils may cease to exist as a community. And they will not have been the first or last people in this world to be eliminated as a people. I know it is not easy to change your Government's policy. Nor is it easy for a person to appear to waver from an entrenched position. But you, Sir, sounded as a thinking, humane person. I can only hope that this helps to give you a fuller picture.
With regards
Yours faithfully |
