By Satheesan Kumaaran
(May 23, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) In Colombo and other parts of Sinhalese areas, the Sri Lankan government is celebrating the victory of the killing, wounding, and damaging the properties of tens of thousands of Tamils in their homeland. The Tamils in Eelam and elsewhere must intensify their diplomatic actions in their adopted countries. But they should use intellectual actions, which is the need of the hour and only to serve the liberation of Tamil Eelam from occupying Sri Lankan armed forces.
Sri Lanka has won the propaganda war when it circulated stories that they killed the LTTE leader and defeated the LTTE militarily, thereby ending the terrorism instigated by the LTTE. However, Sri Lanka failed to acknowledge the fact that Sri Lanka never won the hearts and minds of Tamils. The international media gave wide publicity with a pro-Sri Lankan slant to the stories fabricated by the Sri Lankan state. The American Major TV Networks, CBC, ABC, NBC, and PBS completely ignored the ongoing Sri Lanka - Tamil Eelam conflict. Not a word about Tamil people’s agony and suffering in Vanni and Mullaiththeevu. Wolf Blitzer of CNN did not carry any news of the crisis in his 4-6 pm “Situation Report...What is Happening Now”.
LTTE’s change of strategy
No doubt that the LTTE changed its strategy in attaining freedom for Tamils, fighting militarily since 1983, which paved way for the LTTE to become the sole representative of the Tamils. However, geo-politics and security matters have changed globally in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. The LTTE, too, needed to change its strategy to embrace the global community.
The LTTE also won in its strategy. Norway brokered a ceasefire agreement, but Sri Lankan government led by Mahinda Rajapaksa annulled it last year. Even before making it void officially, it launched military operations against the LTTE.
However, the LTTE had to adopt its strategy once again of not fighting the Sri Lankan armed forces other than spontaneous counter attacks. The LTTE’s strategy worked in the international arena. Many countries, including France, U.K., and the U.S. gave vocal support to the cause. They further demanded the Sri Lankan government to stop hostilities. However, the Sri Lankan government never respected their requests. So, Mahinda Rajapaksa has gained more foes than friends.
Further, citizens of the globe shed their tears upon seeing broadcasts of the plights of Tamil civilians. Unlike never before, the western media gave wide publicity to the cause.
So, the calculation of Sri Lankan government to launch such false propaganda created a sense of sympathy towards the LTTE. Many Westerners agree that the Sri Lankan government should grant autonomy for Tamils because Tamils are not occupying the lands belonging to Sinhalese, rather Sinhalese are occupying lands belonging to Tamils. If the LTTE was wiped out, 80 per cent of the Northern and Eastern population would be Sinhalese.
The southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu’s chief minister, M. Karunanidhi, told the press on May 18 that Tamil Nadu would not be a mute spectator when Tamil lands are taken forcefully in a systematic colonization. He said: “Tamils of India have the responsibility and duty to keep the Sinhalese out of Northeast of Sri Lanka. It belongs to Tamils.”
It is no doubt that Karunanidhi is widely known as a good orator and script writer for Bollywood movies. He does not show anything in deeds, but he shows in words and these words are empty air for the most part. However, he is widely popular for nepotism, hiring his family and relatives for political and business positions.
In any event, LTTE’s change of strategy has allowed some progression to attain an independent Tamil Eelam. However, it is a pity that thousands of civilians have died in the game. No one can put the blame on the LTTE for the deaths because the LTTE implored global governments to help stop the hostilities and there were warnings of dire human catastrophes if the word did not react immediately.
However, the global governments showed little interest and refused to take direct actions in helping to secure the civilians from such carnage.
What will be the next move?
Sri Lanka will remain the victor in Colombo and the ruling government led by Mahinda Rajapaksa will be seen by his supporters and extremist Sinhalese as the liberator of Sri Lanka from LTTE. Sri Lankan government already collected millions of dollars from local businessmen in Colombo and its suburbs through selling the Sri Lanka flag, which has been modified by erasing the yellow colour, which symbolizes Tamils, and replacing the yellow with red, which represents Sinhalese.
Further, Mahinda will invite foreign investors to receive hard currency to boost his bankrupt economy. This military victory claim will earn him the title of superman among Sinhalese and he calculates that would help him to be re-elected next time as executive president.
The tragic story for the Tamils is that they will have to wait for sometime to fulfill their aspirations for freedom. They need to further mobilize diplomatic pressure in foreign countries in order to draw the attention and support of their adopted countries to put pressure on Sri Lanka.
Even though the LTTE has only been fighting militarily since 1983, the Tamil national question was rooted well before the Tamil militancy. After the Sri Lankan state failed to embrace the minorities and they failed to grant equal rights, the Tamils began peaceful demands for greater autonomy. However, the Sri Lankan state failed to grant autonomy. Rather, the government sponsored pogroms that dated back to 1956.
Tamils no longer trust the Sri Lankan state because they remember when Sri Lankan leaders signed pacts and then tore them part on several occasions with Tamil leader, Thanthai Chelvanayagam. The Tamils feel that they needed a strong and dedicated leadership, which is the LTTE. So, the Sri Lankan government will have no choice but to engage positively with the LTTE through peaceful means to find a peaceful settlement to the ethnic crisis.
The Sri Lankan government claimed they would enter into peace talks after defeating the LTTE militarily. So, the time is ripe for the government to engage in genuine peace talks with the Tamil leadership. The Sri Lankan government has damaged the Tamils enough. It is time to treat the Tamils with respect by giving access to UN agencies to help the displaced civilians.
Recent reports coming from war zone north are bitter and that has further angered the Tamils because Sri Lankan armed forces purposely and methodically killed Tamil civilians even when they waved white flags. Many wounded civilians were shot and killed by the armed forces. All these are acts of war crimes. The Tamils, just as British and other members of the European Union members, want Sri Lanka to cooperate with the UN.
Perpetuators of the crimes should be punished whether it is done by the LTTE or the Sri Lankan armed forces. The Tamil civilians have been saying that they were not killed by the LTTE. As a freedom movement fighting for the cause of Tamil liberation, it is ridiculous to say that the LTTE would kill their own people. If they were, the Tamils around the world would not support the LTTE at all.
Intellectual thinking is a must
The Tamils around the world have gotten to the final stage to mobilize their demands for the liberation of their brethren in Sri Lanka. The LTTE has transferred it to the hands of the Diaspora and Indian Tamils. Their responsibility is to mobilize the global support towards peaceful end to the ethnic conflict.
Tamils should conduct their protests by keeping in mind that they should get global support through peaceful means. Tamils should show the world that the LTTE is not a terrorist organization, but a last ditch effort, after peaceful attempts failed, to liberate their brethren in Sri Lanka.
Tamils in India have greater responsibility than ever before. By setting aside petty differences, they should come together for helping Tamils in Sri Lanka. They have the power to put pressure upon New Delhi to accept the LTTE leadership as it is the sole representative of the Tamils.
Tamils in India should make every effort to require New Delhi to lift the ban on LTTE as the LTTE is no longer a threat militarily to India. Indian Tamils should provide a proper tactical method to make New Delhi support Eelam Tamils.
The time is now. The LTTE leadership is in the hands of Tamils. They should ensure that any hegemonic powers should bend their knee to the intellectual actions of the general public. So, the global Tamils should also get the support of other communities and they should mobilize their actions peacefully to liberate Tamil Eelam from the cluster of state terrorism.
(The author can be reached at e-mail: satheesan_kumaaran@yahoo.com)-Sri Lanka Guardian
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Tamils were originated in south India. Your actual mother land is South India.Sinhalese came from north of India like Tamils in ancient times.In south India Tamils have certain degree of autonomy.Other than that Tamils live all around the globe.Malaysia South Africa now a days in UK Canada France USA etc.Will
the Canadian, UK Tamils get the privilege of using their mother language in those countries ever.Best thing is to live in harmony of all races.
Sri lankan Tamils have more privelege in Sri lanka when you compere to other countries where Tamils are living.Sri lanka is the only country in the world which naturalized over one million South Indian Tamils who were brought by British colonnial masters as plantation workers.At the time of independence in 1948 British colons left the country without solving the South Indian Tamil citizenship problem.But the Sinhalese govt was generous to naturalized them all successively.Only through the dialog with out bloodshed.Their political leaders like Late Mr. Tondaman now his grand son as a minister are well respected by all sri lankans.
Your article must be a joke. The CFA brokered by Norwegians was not done in good faith. We can now see the Norwegians were interested only in LTTE leadership and not the average Tamils. Even more than 9,000 violations made by LTTE, the monitors took no action. And some members now had known to have run arms factories which supplied weapons to the terrorists while being members of the teams. The writer’s attitude is to drive the wedge between Sinhalese and Tamils, and not to finding peace among the races. He is hell bent to take revenge from the Sinhalese for annihilating the tiger leadership hell bent on terrorism to achieve their goals.
In a note, why LTTE did collected so much of weapons and ammunition. It cannot be for the peace the writer is talking about. While getting the government of Sri Lanka to supply the necessities for civic life as food, medicine, education the LTTE went on to make bunds, bunkers, trenches and all other kind of war stuff. What is the rational that this group was embracing peace, while the average Tamil in their territory had to suffer. When the Sri Lankan army helped the trapped civilians to run to safety, we saw the condition of these human beings. However, the crowd belonging to the tiger leadership including the wife of Soosai crossed, they were so well looked after as if they were returning from a holiday resort.
The early killing of the 13 soldiers which lead to mayhem is forgotten by the tigers. Then the Lamp post murders and killing innocent Tamils leadership is forgotten by him. Even getting rid of Amirthaligam who was a father figure for to Prbhakaran is also forgotten. What about the annihilation of Thiruchelvam, Kadiragamar and whole sluice of other Tamil leaders. Even attempt to kill the current Tamil Cabinet Ministers for them to claim the title sole representative of Tamil people. These LTTE thugs never faced an election and never democratically elected to take that title of the Tamil people. They got what ever they got by intimidating and killing.
Then annihilating the Sinhala political leadership of Dissanayake, Premadasa and who host of other people. Attacking sacred places of worship of Sinhala Buddhist is easily hidden in this article.
There were more than 25,000 Sri Lankan Soldiers and 50,000 innocent Sinhalese people had died by bullets of the tigers. If you expect to spill the blood in the future you can continue to write like this.
The writer does not take any responsibility of LTTE actions. He sounds as if only Tamils have the freedom to kill and be indifferent to the majority population. The article has racial bias, which the Sinhalese are always branded... After all this destruction done by the Tamils, they expect the Sinhalese to reach out to them overnight. I wonder being a majority is a sin in this world. If the Tamils expect to live in harmony they should take the initiative to reach out to the Sinhalese to normalize our centuries old relationships.
This is not in vengeance to the Tamil people. Even some Tamils did enjoy this relief. Most the Sinhalese though 6 or 7 times in numbers living in fear of bombs and shotting carried on by LTTE on innocent people. It is this freedom people were enjoying not anyway directed to anti tamil sentiments. The write is full of anger towards Sinhalese. You should calm down and allow this tense moments to pass to think more relistically as one people.
The news of LTTE leader being killed was reported as it is by the major news out lets. But the bias of reporting was on LTTE. Always, even now we can see how biased the western media have on LTTE. They are only representing the large Tamil Diaspora in these lands, not the truth. The Tamils holding as human shield to Tiger leadership is never mentioned in the international media. Most of the innocent Tamils got hurt because of LTTE holding them as a human shield for their own safety. At no time the LTTE leadership was concerned about the safety of the Tamil people. If that case they could have surrendered to the Sri Lankan forces when they found there was no way out. They were prolonging this until Indian elections. They were trying hard to create bogus international pressure. Do not blame any body else. LTTE should take responsibility for their plight.
It is thinking like this that continues to prevent the Tamil diaspora from moving into a new future after all these years of bad leadership. If you continue only to see the mote in the other'seyes, you will never see the one in your own eye.
this is no true.....after fully destroying ltte power in sri lanka ....still this people acting .....like winners!!!!!that is tamils weak mentality....it is witness by proving there recent attempts troubling sinhalse expatriates living in other countries.....ther acidiced sinhala students in australia,,,,demaging budhist temples in england, canada,,,putting on fire on a food palace in canada brampton city,,,giving lots of money to foreign ministers and police in other countries on support.....
it is evident that these people are ignorant,,,,but great manipulators and cunning people in the world.....
they earned money fron drug dealing,weapon dealings,illegal immigration,credit cards,pay phone cards,collecting money on religious rehabilitation,buying Hindu temples on their authority under different names, buying grocery stores, fake property buying loans from the banks
passport forgeries so on.....
written lot of books on wrongly changing sri lankan history,,,,establishing LTTE get togethers under the name of villege parties.....i hate this LTTE supporters and majority tamil who came as refugees are all linked to it.except good immigrants who have come here on their merits as residents.....they never support as they came by them selfes. tamils are forced to listen to their broadcasting and their channels.....
our sinhalese nation been attack time to time by chola, kerala, pandi of southeren indian areas ...since for a long time how many sinhalse people you already killed in various wars...millions and millions....but still sinhalese people survive...why because all the gods know,,,,,sinhalese are good and clever straight foward people.we do not deceive anybody...like you people....
karma always presents when fight something not belongs to you....
when you can,t win on the war you were trying come on foreigners shoulders do not you? shame on you....
UN and its Western backers would love to have seen a bloodbath in Sri Lanaka. Now preaching ethnic tribalism in Sri Lanaka while promoting multiculturalism in the West!
This obviously suggests a broader coalition that craves for further suffering in SL and gives away the true strength of obstacles that stand in the way of Lankans march towards unity and prosperity, from external forces of enslavement.
The West do not have friends, only bloodthirsty interests!
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