Rambukwella's deadline and Weerawansa's demand reflect govt. policy
by T.Sabaratnam
I wish to stick to tradition and wish you, my dear readers, a happy and prosperous New Year. Let me hasten to add that I am not that optimistic. I foresee the intensification of the Wanni war and the deterioration of the economic woes of the people.
The reasoning behind my pessimism is obvious. President Mahinda Rajapaksa and LTTE Chief Velupillai Pirapaharan have vowed to continue the fight. President Rajapaksa has declared the coming year as the year of triumph and Pirapaharan had told a Colombo English weekly in an email interview, “We will not run away leaving our people and the soil.”
The President had reiterated his determination to liberate the remaining territory in the Wanni soon from the LTTE’s hold, while Pirapaharan had said, “We have not been weakened… The battles in Kilinochchi had proved that. The future battles will demonstrate that we have not lost our strength.”
And Defence Spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella has fixed the new date for the capture of Pirapaharan as before February 7 and Wimal Weerawansa, the leader of the National Freedom Front that signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the governing UPFA last week to contest together the forthcoming provincial council election, has demanded the banning of the LTTE.
Rambukwella’s statement reflects the urgency with which the government wants Pirapaharan captured and Weerawansa’s the possible next step the government wants to take. Saturday’s Wattala blast and Monday night’s attempt to damage an electric transformer at Ratmalana may indicate LTTE’s possible reply.
The intensification and the widening of the war would naturally strain the economy further. The impact of the global economic turmoil would further strain the economy.
Let me also follow the customary practice of looking back and taking stock of the achievements and failures of the departing year. In the war front, the security forces have gained territory and continued the series of victories that started in the east last year. But during the last three months, the fighting has been stiff and losses in the number of men and material are heavy on both sides. Defence analysts predict that that trend will continue in the coming weeks.
This column has kept its readers informed about the developments in Tamil Nadu and the pressures to which Delhi is subject to. The main by-product of the intensification of the Wanni war is the upsurge of Tamil nationalism in Tamil Nadu and in the world.
O.A. Ramaiah, a senior trade unionist and Secretary General of the Red Flag Union, which is active in the hill country who attended the All India Trade Union Congress held at Travancore during November 29-December 5 captured the situation in Tamil Nadu thus: “Resurgence of Tamil emotion was evident everywhere. It was more so among the lower strata of society.” The Tamil people are generally disappointed with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Congress government for its failure to act on the request of the Tamil Nadu State Assembly’s resolution to pressurize President Rajapaksa to declare ceasefire. Their disappointment is turning into anger which resulted in attacks on the Congress headquarters Satyamoorthy Bhawan in Chennai. Houses of Congress leaders have been attacked last week.
Posters decrying the Congress leaders have begun to appear. One called the Congress leaders of Tamil Nadu slaves of Delhi.
The important development of the departing year is the Convention for the Acceptance of Tamil Eelam held on Friday in Chennai. The Convention adopted a resolution supporting the creation of an independent state of Tamil Eelam in the northeast of Sri Lanka. To overcome the difficulty the ban on the LTTE had placed on them, the organizers went back to the Vaddukoddai Resolution passed by the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) in 1976 and the final declaration of S.J.V. Chelvanayakam calling for the establishment of Tamil Eelam, a month before his death in April 1977.
Thol. Thirumavalavan, Leader of the Viduthlai Siruthaigal, who convened the Convention said, “Tamils have no state of their own. Tamil Eelam, as proposed by S.J.V. Chelvanayakam is the only possible Tamil state. We will tell the Tamil people to support it.”
Kasi Anandan, the Tamil poet from Batticaloa who was one of the promoters of the Vaddukoddai Resolution, told the Convention, “Supporting Tamil Eelam does not amount to supporting the banned LTTE. The demand for Tamil Eelam was the result of the failure of the Sinhala leaders to accommodate the aspirations of the Tamil people.”
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi who is aware of the anger building up against the Congress Party and Manmohan Singh administration is in a dilemma. He does not want to sever his relations with the central government where his party holds several important portfolios. He also knows that he is coming under attack and is losing support.
He thus got the general council of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, which met on Saturday to pass a resolution urging the central government to push the Rajapaksa government to declare a ceasefire. Proposing the resolution Karunanidhi admitted that the central government is not acting fast. He said the delay on the part of Delhi is causing the deaths of more Tamils. He issued a ‘tearful plea’ to Delhi to realise the urgency and act fast.
Karunanidhi said, “To help the Tamils in Sri Lanka we are prepared to make any sacrifice. If we are told to sacrifice our lives we are even ready to do it. I appeal to the central government to act at least after this appeal.”
Tamil Nadu Congress Chief K.V. Thangabalu announced on Monday that Foreign Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee would visit Colombo soon. He had made similar announcements earlier.
Why this delay? Pro-LTTE lobby in Tamil Nadu has accused Delhi of waging a proxy war against the LTTE. Some say that Delhi is waiting till the security forces capture Kilinochchi and Pirapaharan considerably weakened. Still another view is also emerging. Delhi wants both sides to be weakened.
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This morning the news headlines said SL forces have captured Killinochchi. Mahinda Rajapaksa has decleared that there will be a ceasefire if LTTE lays down arms.
If Tamilnadu leaders and tamils in India wants the war to stop, and if they are not prepared to support LTTE to fight back, the best option would be for them to approach and force LTTE to lay down arms. That will stop the war and stop the hardships Tamil citizens are facing in Wanni.
Fundamental problem is that the international community have given so much excessive latitude to successive Sinhala governments of Sri Lanka that they have come to believe they would never be properly penalised whether bomb, shell, decimate, rape, rob and continue with their campaign of colonisation of Tamil homeland and genocide of the Tamil populace in their own homeland. President Bush's administration has kindly donated $32 million worth of food and other necessities last year (2007) alone for helping the Tamils in the north, simply on an assurance by the government of Sri Lanka which is not the worth the paper it is written on. $32 million worth of donation is a huge amount in the present context. How many of you believe that even a significant proportion of it would have reached the northern Tamils, whose plight is nothing less than destitute. What about the billions of dollars worth of donation and development aid granted by the international community, since President Rajapaksa took office? We all know where all those monies have gone. The Sinhala government is still continuing to encroach Tamil homelands in the east, as they have always done in the past. East is undoubtedly a part of Sri Lanka that had been long neglected by successive Sinhala governments apart from State-aided Sinhala colonisation under one pretext or another expropriating land from the Tamils for a very long time - since independence in 1948, at least – with the specific purpose of continuing with colonisation of Sinhalese. Military action against the Tamils - not to mention the paramilitary action, who are especially suckled in Sinhala army camps for this purpose - alongside continuing to deprive the Tamils in north and east socio-economically will never cease unless the international community put their foot firmly down and impose very stringent punitive measures.
Tamil are relatively weakened over the decades by successive Sinhala governments and this trend would undoubtedly continued to further weaken to the point where the Tamil National Question would cease to exist, unless of course Chennai, New Delhi, and the international community do not give into excuses that they have for decades fallen prey to.
One popular excuse trotted out by successive Sinhala governments is that the demand made by the LTTE as Thamileelam is excessive. How can the Sinhalese who have not even got the basic definition of 'democracy' right and have constantly engaged in vilifying the Tamils for at least several decades talk of what is an excessive demand by the Tamils. There is not an inch of land or coastline demanded in excess to what is traditionally and historically ours!!!
What needs to happen now is that Sinhala governments should learn to mind their own business and not interfere in Tamil affairs. Their history and mindset are not fit to deal with Tamil affairs. Let the Tamils sort out their own problems. The military and the paramilitaries should be withdrawn from Tamil homelands as a matter of urgency. The Sinhala Army has no business in Tamil homelands. Sinhala Terrorist State writ should not run in Tamil homeland. If it cannot conduct itself in a peaceful manner with the full cooperation of the Tamils, they shouldn't be in Tamil homelands in the first place. It is time that the international community with the help of Chennai and New Delhi drove the Sinhala Terrorists out of Tamil homeland. The presumptuous Sinhala governments have no business in Tamil homeland. Their writ cannot be allowed to run by force of arms. Tamils have completely lost faith in Sinhala governments nor do they believe that the Sinhalese will make meaningful offer of peace. Under the pretext of offering peace they will continue to hoodwink the international community and continue their genocidal campaign against Tamils, both covertly and overtly. The importance of the need to act with urgency by the international community against the Sri Lankan government's ongoing genocidal campaign cannot be over-emphasised!
Victory rouses up emotions. Victory and defeat are experiences enabling persons to choose to be better. This however does not happen to the Sinhalese in the South of Sri Lanka(SL). For them, "victory" stops abruptly; only with emotions.
When Jaffna was captured by the Sri Lankan army in 1995, the lion flag was hoisted and there was wasteful euphoria amongst the Sinhalese. Since then, there was no change in Sinhala attitudes. So, the war continued, bombs exploded and sufferings escalated,
Instead of reasoning with Tamils of the North East(NE), the Sinhalese sought to rebel with violence, murder and genocide; using political puppetry. SL developed into a crazily reckless rogue state, refusing to grant the legitimate demand of the people in the NE for self governance and self determination of their future.
Now, after 13 years of abuse of Tamils, it is "victory" again. Surely, this time it is a victory for state defiance, state terror, Tamil genocide and courtship with untruth; worthy of celeberation by inhuman and uncivilised people. The wicked always rejoice in the sufferings of others.
Though the demand for Tamil Eelam(TE) was democratically established in 1976 and endorsed by a "plebicite" in 1977, long before LTTE was born, Mahinda Rajapakse defiantly "firing from his hip" said in his "victory broadcast last Saturday that the LTTE had thrust the idea of a separate state on generations of Tamils.
TE was a peoples' demand and would firmly remain so till achieved, as evident from the popular votes cast in repeated parliamentary elections, to the political party striving to achieve TE.
Further, anti Tamilism and Tamil genocide have made the people of NE to believe without any doubt whatsoever that their lives, freedom and property could never ever be trusted in the hands of any Sinhala state. Instead of humbly accepting this truth Rajapakse stuck to his version.
Last year, a British High Commissioner said in Colombo that Eelam was not illegitimate. A few weeks ago, Indian lawmaker Y.Gopalasamy, made a speech in British parliament, to a parliamentary committee, outlining the political history of the people of NE and their legitimate demand for self determination. The British parliamentarians were humbled by the truth.
And now, the US government has stated that both the GOSL and the LTTE should negotiate on the "legitmate demand" of Tamils.
The people of NE gave a democratic sole mandate status, overwhelmingly, in the last parliamentary elections to the LTTE through TNA, to negotiate with Sri Lankan state. And Rajapakse promised during his presidential election that he would even go to Kilinochchi to negotiate a political solution with the LTTE, within six months of election. Rightly, the US wants democratic mandatees to negotiate.
Therefore, both mandatees only should negotiate to achieve a political solution. Tamils who sowed in tears should be made to reap independence with joy.