We, the Tamil delegation, being solely representative of the Tamil people at the Thimpu
talks, have given careful consideration to the proposals made, on the 16th of August 1985,
by the Sri Lankan Government delegation. We state that we are constrained to reject the
proposals as they fail to satisfy the legitimate political aspirations of the Tamil
people.
The Thimpu talks were convened at the initiative of the Government of India. It was an
initiative which we welcomed particularly in the context of Prime Minister Shri Rajiv
Gandhi's statement concerning the need to find a just and lasting solution to the Tamil
national question.
At the commencement of these talks in early July 1985, the Sri Lankan Government
presented certain proposals, which were in substance, a repetition of the proposals by the
Government to the aborted All Party Conference in Colombo in December 1984. These
proposals had been rejected by the TULF and the action of the Sri Lankan government in
placing similar proposals once again at the Thimpu talks called in question the good faith
of the Government and its commitment to seek a just solution at these talks.
The intent of the proposals that were presented was clear. Although it was stated that
power would devolve on District Councils, in fact, the District Councils were without
executive power. Again, even their limited legislative power to enact subsidiary
legislation was made subject to the control and approval of the President. Finally the
funds to be placed at the disposal of a District Council were to be determined at the
discretion of a commission appointed by the President. The proposals submitted by the Sri
Lanka Government did not devolve power from the centre: they reinforced the power of the
centre to manage the districts. The proposals constituted evidence of the intention of Sri
Lankan government to manage and control the Tamil people even in the relatively
insignificant functional areas where the District Councils were given some jurisdiction.
We, the Tamil delegation, consisting of six organisations, unanimously rejected these
proposals because it was our considered view that any meaningful solution to the Tamil
national question must be based on the four cardinal principles enunciated by us.
The talks were thereafter adjourned to the 12th of August 1985, on which date the Sri
Lankan Government made a statement setting out its understanding of the four basic
principles enunciated by us and the Sri Lankan government denied that the Tamils
constituted a nation, that the Tamils have an identifiable homeland, and further that the
Tamil people have the right of self determination. The Sri Lankan Government further
questioned our right to represent or negotiate on behalf of the plantation Tamils in the
Island.
We responded by our statement of the 13th August 1985, and pointed out that our demand
for self determination had evolved and taken shape historically through the determined
political struggles of our people. We stated that the Tamils of Eelam or Tamil Eelam,
constituted a nation with a common heritage, a common culture, a common language and an
identified homeland, and further that they were a subjugated people and as such they had
the inherent right to free themselves from an alien subjugation. It is right of self
determination that has come to be recognised as one of the peremptory norms of general
international law. We stated that in upholding the right of self determination, we as a
people have the liberty to determine our political status, to freely associate or
integrate with an independent state or secede and establish a sovereign independent state.
We mentioned, however that the enumeration of the principles enunciated by us did not
entail that we were opposed to any rational dialogue with the Government of Sri Lanka on
the basis of such principles.
At the subsequent talks on the 13th and 14th of August 1985, the Sri Lankan Government
delegation failed to engage in any discussion concerning the basic framework that we had
enunciated. This was despite the circumstance that the members of the Tamil delegation
specifically requested the Sri Lankan Government delegation to honour that which it had it
had stated in its own statement of the 12th of August i.e. to engage in a 'fruitful
exchange' of views.
The Sri Lankan government delegation presented instead its so called 'new proposals'
on the 16th of August 1985. These 'new proposals' are a rehash of the earlier proposals
with the right to certain District Councils to function as Provincial Councils.
The 'new proposals' do not recognise that the Tamils of Sri Lanka constitute a nation.
The 'new proposals' do not recognise that the Tamil speaking people have the right to an
identified homeland. The 'new proposals' do not recognise the inalienable right of self
determination of the Tamil people. And finally the 'new proposals' do not secure the
fundamental rights of the Tamil people and any solution to the Tamil national question is
inseparable from the resolution of the problems of the plantation Tamils in the Island.
And accordingly the 'new proposals' fail to satisfy the legitimate political aspirations
of the Tamil people.
We may add that the so called 'new proposals' are in fact nothing new. As early as
1928, the Donoughmore Commission recommended the establishment of Provincial Councils on
the ground that it was desirable that a large part of the administrative work of the
centre should come into the hands of persons resident in the districts and thus more
directly in contact with the needs of the area. Twelve years later the Executive Committee
of Local Administration chaired by the late S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, considered the proposal
of the Donoughmore Commission and in 1940, the State Council (the legislature approved the
establishment of Provincial Councils. But nothing was in fact done, though in 1947, on the
floor of the House of Representatives, the late S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike again declared his
support for the establishment of Provincial Councils.
In 1955, the Choksy Commission recommended the establishment of Regional Councils to
take over the functions that were exercised by the Kacheries and in May 1957, the
government of the late S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike presented a draft of the proposed Bill for
the establishment of Regional Councils. Subsequently, in July 1957, the
Bandaranaike-Chelvanayagam Pact made provision for direct election to Regional Councils
and also provided that the subjects covered by Regional Councils shall include
agriculture, cooperatives, lands and land development, colonisation and education. The
Pact however did not survive the opposition of sections of the Sinhala community which
included the United National Party.
In July 1963, the government of Mrs. Bandaranaike declared that early consideration'
would be given to the question of the establishment of District Councils to replace the
Kacheries and the government appointed a Committee on District Councils and the report of
this Committee containing a draft of the proposed Bill to establish District Councils but
again nothing was in fact done.
In 1965, the government of the late Dudley Senanayake declared that it would give
'earnest consideration' to the establishment of District Councils and in 1968 a draft Bill
approved by the Dudley Senanayake Cabinet was presented as a White Paper and this Bill
provided for the establishment of District Councils. This time round, the opposition to
the Bill was spearheaded by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party which professed to follow the
policies of the late S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike who himself had in 1940, 1947 and again in
1957, supported the establishment of Provincial/Regional Councils. In view of the
opposition the Dudley Senanayake government withdrew the Bill that it had presented.
More than 50 years have passed since 1928 and we have moved from Provincial Councils to
Regional Councils and from Regional Councils to District Councils and now from District
Councils back to District/Provincial Councils. We have had the 'early consideration' of
Mrs. Srimavo Bandaranaike and the 'earnest consideration' of the late Dudley Senanayake.
There has been no shortage of Committees and Commissions, of reports and recommendations
but that which was lacking was the political will to recognise the existence of the Tamil
nation. And simultaneous with this process of broken pacts and dishonoured agreements, the
Tamil people were subjected to an ever widening and deepening national oppression aimed at
undermining the integrity of the Tamil nation.
The four basic principles that we have set out at the Thimpu talks as the necessary
framework for any rational dialogue with the Sri Lankan Government are not some mere
theoretical constructs. They represent the hard existential reality of the struggle of the
Tamil people for their fundamental and basic rights. It is a struggle which initially
manifested itself in the demand for a federal constitution in the 1950s and later in the
face of a continuing and increasing oppression and discrimination, found logical
expression in the demand for the independent Tamil state of Eelam or Tamil Eelam. It is a
struggle in which thousands of Tamils have died and many thousands more have lost their
properties and their means of livelihood - they have died and they have suffered so that
their brothers and sisters may live in equality and in freedom.
And so, we declare here at Thimpu, without rancour, and with patience, that we shall
speak at Thimpu, or for that matter anywhere else, on behalf of the Tamil nation or not at
all. And we call upon the Sri Lankan Government to state unequivocally, whether it is
prepared to enter into a rational dialogue on the basis of the framework set out by the
cardinal principles enunciated by us at these talks.
There is one further matter of some considerable importance to which we wish to refer
and we propose to do that in a separate statement.
