The Tamil National Struggle is about freedom and independence of the Tamil-speaking people in Ceylon from political subjugation, oppression and genocide.

THE EARLY HISTORY

Let us dwell very briefly on the ancient and early history 'of Ceylon. Despite the myths propagated by Sinhalese politicians and historians, both the Tamils and the Sinhalese have inhabited the island of Ceylon from time immemorial.

The Greek astronomer and geographer Ptolemy, in the second century A.D., located the Tamil kingdom of Nada Dipa in the territory of Chilaw in the west to below Trincomalee in the east. From the ancient times Tamils have occupied the North and East of the island as their exclusive homeland and the ancient Tamil name of Ceylon was Tamparaparani. Even the two great Indian epics Mahabharata and Ramayana, written in Sanskrit before the 6th century B.C. and Pali chronicles mention the existence of the

Naga kingdoms.

The ancient capital of Anuradhapura was founded by Tamil kings. From Devanampiya Theesan in 3rd century B.C., followed Senan and Kuddikan (177-155 B.C.) and Ellalan (145-101 B.C.) he was defeated by the Sinhalese prince Dutugemunu. This fact is borne out by the Mahavamsa itself. The Tamil kingdom of Jaffna came into existence in 1214. In 1505 the Portuguese landed in Ceylon and conquered the Sinhalese kingdom of Kotte near Colombo. It was only a century later in 1621 that they were able to conquer the Tamil kingdom in Jaffna and capture the Tamil king Sankili who was then taken to Goa in India and hanged. The Dutch tookcontrol of Ceylon from the Portuguese, and in 1802 by the Treaty of Amiens they gave up possession of the island to the British.

As late as 1799 Sir Hugh Cleghorn, the first Colonial Secretary of Ceylon wrote in the famous Cleghorn Minute: 'Two different nations, from very ancient period, have divided between them the possession of the island: the Sinhalese inhabiting the interior in its Southern and Western parts from the river Wallouve to that of Chillaw, and the Malabars (another name for Tamils) who possess the Northern and Eastern Districts. These two nations differ entirely in their religions, language and manners.'

The map of Ceylon by Du Peron drawn in 1789 clearly demarcates the geographical areas of these two nations. It was in 1833 that the British purely for administrative convenience began administering the island as a common unit and thus brought them under a single unitary political authority. The British governor of Jaffna Patnam and the low-country Sinhalese region, Sir Robert Brownrigg wrote on 10 July 1813 to the Secretary of State for the Colonies: 'The Tamil language... which with a mixture of Portuguese is used through all provinces, is the proper tongue of the inhabitants from Puttalam to Batticaloa northward inclusive of both these districts. Your Lordship will therefore have no objection to my putting the Tamil language on an equal footing of encouragement with Sinhalese.' However, as Walter Schwarz observes in his report in The Tamils of Sri Lanka published by the Minority Rights Group, London, 'The most important effect of the early history of the minority problem of today is not in the facts but in the myths that surround them particularly on the Sinhalese side'

THE NATIONAL OPPRESSION SINCE INDEPENDENCE

The General Elections for the new house of representatives under the Soulbury Constitution was held in 1947 and Ceylon was granted independence on 4 February 1948. The Tamil Congress won all seven seats in the North and Eastern provinces. The Ceylon Indian Congress won all eight seats in the plantation areas. Mr. D.S. Senanayake, the leader of the Sinhalese who later became the first Prime Minister of independent Ceylon, earlier urged the Tamils to accept the new constitution and assured them on behalf of the Sinhalese thus: 'Do you want to be governed from London or do you want, as Ceylonese, to help govern Ceylon? On behalf of the Congress and on my own behalf I give the minority communities the sincere assurance that no harm need you fear at our hands in a Free Lanka'. Accepting this assurance the Tamils unanimously voted for the Soulbury Constitution. However, the events took a different turn.

(a) National Flag

The first expression of discrimination was shown on the eve of independence in the designing of the national flag of Sri Lanka and this became a great controversy. The Senanayake Government was persistent in the adoption of the Sinhalese Lion Flag but was willing to allow only the use of a Saffron stripe for the Tamils and a Green stripe for the Muslims.

(b) Citizenship

In the parliamentary general elections of Ceylon in 1947 the representatives of the plantation Tamils contested and won seven seats in parliament and significantly influenced the outcome in fifteen other electorates. The first Sinhalese-dominated government by discriminatory legislation deprived them of their citizenship in 1948 and disenfranchised them in 1949. Thus almost a million people were rendered stateless and voteless. In the general election that followed they lost all their representation in parliament.

The proof of citizenship was insisted upon for employment in public and private sectors, issue of travel documents, issue of rice ration books, registration of transfer of properties or shares, registration as traders, and other spheres reserved partly or fully for Ceylonese. Entitlement to state health and education facilities was virtually non-existent. They consequently suffer enormous civic disabilities and disadvantages and continue to suffer the stigma of statelessness. This was a grave injustice done to those helpless people.

Article 15 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights provides that 'Everyone has the right to a nationality. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality'. In 1931, Universal Adult Franchise was granted in the Island and in 1981 there were nearly half a million people still stateless.

Referring to the plantation Tamils, Prof. Paul Seighart, in his report .Sri Lanka: A Mounting Tragedy of Errors, says, 'However, there is one community in Sri Lanka that has every justification for seeing itself as a grossly underprivileged minority, and that is the so-called "Indian" Tamils. The bulk of these continue to workon the tea estates, and by their labour make a vast contribution to the national income, yet are miserably deprived in the provision of food, health and education. For none of these deprivations do they have any remedy, since most of them cannot now even be represented in Parliament or in local government. Although virtually all of them today were born in Sri Lanka, the great majority do not now even have Sri Lankan citizenship'.

(c) Language Policy

In 1956, the Sinhalese government led by Mr. S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike made Sinhala the only official language of Sri Lanka. He contested the general elections with the slogan `Sinhala Only, Within 24 Hours', although it was an agreed policy among leaders of all communities and political parties that Sinhala and Tamil languages would replace English as the official laguages of the country.

(d) Education and Employment

The language policy and the selective recruitment and discrimination in employment severely restricted Tamils from entering government and semi-government sectors. This resulted in frustration and alienation for a community which relied heavily on employment as a means of economic survival. After 1977, of some 500,000 vacancies in State and Corporation sectors, those belonging to the Tamil community were 2 per cent according to the Department of Census and Statistics, between the years 1977 and 1981; 94 per cent were Sinhalese, and only 5 per cent were Tamils. The unemployment rate among young Tamil males was 41 per cent as opposed to 29 per cent among Sinhalese.

The controversial provision for standardisation was a great cause for tension among many Tamil youths. The implicit rational quota under the university admission policies barred many competent Tamil youths from pursuing higher education.

(e) Colonisation

From 1950, the government of Ceylon has-undertaken large-scale colonisation of Sinhalese in the traditional Tamil homelands with a view to changing the ethnic and the demographic composition of these areas. These large-scale colonisations were state-sponsored and aided. Because of this settlement of Sinhalese in traditional Tamil areas, particularly in the Eastern province, the government in the early 1960s created a new district in Amparai with 80 per cent Sinhalese population and gave 2 parliamentary constituencies of Amparai and Seruvila which returned Sinhalese M.Ps. This was also designed to create a strong Sinhalese enclave breaking up the geographical continuity of the traditional homelands in the eastern province. Similar resettlements have affected the Trincomalee district. Even the Vavuniya district in the Northern province soon rendered Tamils a minority in their own heartland and weakened the Tamil nation's possession of an exclusive, distinct and separate territory, and thus weakened their claim for a separate and distinct Tamil nationhood.

FOUNDING OF THE FEDERAL PARTY

The disenfranchisement in 1949 of plantation Tamils made two members of parliament, S.J.V. Chelvanayagam and C. Vanniasingham, to protest vehemently and break away from the Tamil Congress to form the Federal Party (F.P.) in 1949. S.J.V. Chelvanayagam, becoming leader of the party, declared with prophetic foresight, 'Today it is the Indian Tamils, tomorrow it will be the Ceylon Tamils who will be axed'. The Federal Party was to become the dominant national political party of the Tamils for the decades that followed.

PARLIAMENTARY AND CONSTITUTIONAL PROCESS

G.G. Ponnambalam, who founded the Ceylon Tamil Congress in 1944, argued before the Soulbury Commission for a 'balanced representation', generally known as 50-50, for the Tamils in the legislature. The scheme of representation the Commission approved resulted in 67 per cent Sinhalese representation in the 1947 election. However, by 1970 the Sinhalese representation had risen to 80 per cent by making the plantation Tamils stateless arid by planned colonisation of Tamil areas. In 1977 the representation had further increased to 84 per cent although the Sinhalese population was only 74 per cent. By the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution in 1983 the Tamil representation was virtually removed leaving an in-built permanent ethnic majority in parliament.

In the 1956 general elections, the Federal Party won the most number of seats in the Tamil homelands and became the Tamil national party representing the Tamil aspirations. It sought toachieve the rights and demands of Tamils and secure their protection through a federal constitution as practised in countries like Switzerland and Canada. The peaceful protest by the Federal Party in 1956 to resist anti-Tamil legislations, discrimination and colonisation was responded to by mob violence. The agreements entered into, like the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayagam Pact of 1957 and the Senanayake-Chelvanayagam Pact of 1965 which provided some redress for Tamil grievances, were unilaterally abrogated or dishonoured.

Race riots and mob violence against the Tamils began in 1956. The alarming riots of 1958 unparalleled in the Island's history were directed against the Tamil civilian population. However, there was more to come. There have been recurring riots against the Tamils all over the country including the plantation areas. In all those riots several thousands of Tamils lost their lives, limbs and their belongings. Many became refugees and destitutes. Several thousands fled Lanka rather than face indignities and humiliation.

TAMIL NATIONALISM AND SINHALESE CHAUVINISM

The Tamil nationalism in the post-independent Ceylon came about as a reaction to Sinhalese chauvinism. The disenfranchisement of the plantation Tamils giving birth to the Federal Party (Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi�ITAK) marked the early beginnings of Tamil nationalism since independence. Sinhalese chauvinism exalting myths and legends was determined to oppress and even exterminate the Tamils. In its blindness it sought to seek historical validity to subjugate and ekclude the Tamils from the Sri Lankan state. In 1972, the Sinhalese government of Srimavo Bandaranaike imposed a Republican Constitution unilaterally against the will of the Tamil people. The Tamil representatives did not take part in the constituent assembly nor were a party to the creation of the new republican constitution. The new constitution gave pride of place to Sinhalese and Buddhism in Sri Lanka. The two leading Marxist parties of Ceylon were a party to this constitution with Colvin R. de Silva, a Marxist leader, being the Minister of Constitutional Affairs during this painful period. Following this the hitherto divided Tamil political parties�the Federal Party, Tamil Congress, Ceylon Workers' Congress, Eela Thamilar Otrumai Munnani and several Tamil youths and student organisations--met at Trincomalee and formed the Tamil united Front (TUF). The Tamil leaders, S.J.V. Chelvanayagam, G.G. Ponnambalam and S. Thondaman, were brought together for the first time for a united struggle .

S.J.V. Chelvanayagam, the then Tamil leader, resigned his parliamentary seat in protest of the new constitution and challenged Srimavo Bandaranaike's government to hold a by-election to test the acceptability of the new constitution by the Tamil people. After two years of waiting the government ordered the by-election in 1975 where Chelvanayagam sought the Tamil people's mandate for separation and won by a huge majority. Winning the by-election he declared 'throughout the ages the Sinhalese and Tamils in the country lived as distinct sovereign people till they were brought under foreign domination. It should be remembered that the Tamils were in the vanguard of the struggle for independence in the full confidence that they also would regain their freedom. We have for the last 25 years made every effort to secure our political rights on the basis of equality with the Sinhalese in a united Ceylon. It is a regrettable fact that successive Sinhalese governments have used the power that flows from independence to deny us our fundamental rights and reduce us to the position of a subject people. These governments have been able to do so only by using against the Tamils the sovereignty common to the Sinhalese and the Tamils. I wish to announce to my people and to the country that I consider the verdict at this election as a mandate that the Tamil Eelam nation should exercise the sovereignty already vested in the Tamil people and become free. On behalf of the Tamil United Front I give you my solemn assurance that we will carry out this mandate.'

THE HISTORIC PANNAKAM RESOLUTION

On 14th May 1976, the TUF leaders and the party met at Pannakam in the Vaddukkoddai constituency and reconstituted the party, at its first national convention, as the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) and adopted the historic resolution which declared that, `The Tamils of Ceylon, by virtue of their great language, their religion, their separate culture and heritage, their history of independent existence as a separate state over a distinct territory for several centuries till they were conquered by the armed might of the European invaders, and above all by their will to exist as a separate entity ruling themselves in their own territory, are a nation distinct and apart from the Sinhalese and their convention announces to the world that the Republican Constitution of 1972 has made the Tamils a slave nation ruled by the new colonial masters, the Sinhalese, who are using the power they have wrongly usurped, to deprive the Tamil nation of its territory, language, citizenship, economic life, opportunities of employment and education, and thereby destroying the attributes of nationhood of the Tamil people'.

The TULF resolution also called upon the Tamil youth in particular, 'to come to throw themselves fully in the sacred fight for freedom and flinch not till the goal of a sovereign socialist state of Tamil Eelam is reached'.

HISTORIC MANDATE

In the 1977 General Election, the TULF election manifesto to the Tamil people stated,

'What is the alternative now left to the nation that has lost its rights to its language, rights to its citizenship, rights to its religion, and continues day by day to lose its traditional homeland to Sinhalese colonisation? What is the alternative now left to a nation that has lost its opportunities to higher education through "standardisation" and its equality in opportunities in the sphere of employment? What is the alternative to a nation that lies helpless as it is being assaulted, looted and killed by hooligans instigated by the ruling race and by the security forces of the state? Where else is an alternative to the Tamil nation that gropes in the dark for its identity and finds itself driven to the brink of devastation? There is only one alternative, and that is to proclaim with the stamp of finality and fortitude that we alone shall rule over our land our forefathers ruled. Sinhalese imperialism shall quit our homeland. The Tamil United Liberation Front regards the General Election of 1977 as a means of proclaiming to the Sinhalese Government this resolve of the Tamil nation.... Hence the TULF seeks in the General Election the mandate of the Tamil nation to establish an independent, sovereign, secular, socialist state of Tamil Eelam that includes all the geographically contiguous areas that have been the traditional homeland of the Tamil-speaking people in the country'. The manifesto further stated, 'The Tamil nation must take this decision to establish its sovereignty in its homeland on the basis of its rights to self-determination. The only way to announce this decision to the Sinhalese government and to the world is to vote for the Tamil United Liberation Front. The Tamil-speaking representatives who get elected through these votes, while being members of the National State Assembly of Ceylon, will also form themselves into the National Assembly of Tamil Eelam which will draft a Constitution for the State of Tamil Eelam and establish the independence of Tamil Eelam by bringing that Constitution into operation either by peaceful means or by direct action or struggle.'

In the General Election, the Tamil nation responded overwhelmingly by voting for 18 seats out of a possible 19 seats to the TULF. The Jayawardene government, which was returned to power in the elections, deluded the Tamil leadership by the device of the District Development Council.

THE TAMIL LIBERATION STRUGGLE

The repeated pogroms, state terrorism, brutality and repression, Draconian legislations, the emergency laws and prevention of terrorism acts coupled with arbitrary detentions and torture on one side and the inability of the parliamentary political leadership to deliver their promises to the people by the constitutional process, made the Tamil youth disenchanted and restive. The anti-Tamil riots of 1977, the UNP's betrayal of election pledges and the unilateral imposition of the 1978 Constitution without the participation or consent of the Tamils, made the Tamil nation and their youth realise that, after having exhausted all peaceful means to protect the security of the Tamil people and their continued existence in Sri Lanka, only by armed resistance could they save themselves from the oppression of the Sri Lankan state. When the Sinhala chauvinism and repression through its state machinery reached genocidal proportions, the Tamils lost their conservatism and became radicalised. The Liberation Tigers came to be the vanguard of the Tamil liberation struggle and the desire for national liberation became an inevitable historic necessity to secure the existence of the Tamils as a nation in Sri Lanka. In 1983, Sri Lanka witnessed the anti-Tamil pogrom and the holocaust which attracted the attention and concern of the civilised world.

Sinhalese chauvinism was nurtured through myths, legends and twisted historical facts. The writings and preachings of Anagarika Dharmapala (1864-1931), Piyadasa Sirisena (1875-1946), Munidasa Cumaratunga (1887-1944) and D.C. Wijewardene gave mean-ing and respectability to these concepts. The Sinhalese political leaders like D.S. Senanayake, by their utterances such as 'unless we stem the tide of growing domination of Indians in Ceylon in our economic and social life, our extinction as a Ceylonese nation is inevitable', and later S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike saying, 'The fact that in the towns and villages, in business houses and in boutiques most of the work is in the hands of Tamil-speaking people, will inevitably result in a fear, and I do not think it is an unjustified fear, of the inexorable shrinkage of the Sinhalese language....' gave political direction to their fears, phobia and bigotry. Sri Lanka, Sinhala, and Buddhism in their eyes became synonymous. Therefore, to realise the further practicality to this rationale, the exclusion of the Tamils from the Sri Lanka and its polity became inevitable. Thus commenced the political, social, economic and cultural subjugation of Tamils by a process of exclusion, assimilation and extinction. From this evolved the genocidal violence, destruction of Tamil economy, way of life, places of worship, centres of culture, etc. The support and participation of the Buddhist clergy played a major role in these destructive processes and Sinhala and Buddhism were given pride of place and ultimately enshrined in the Sri Lankan Constitution. This conclusively stamped Sri Lanka as the country of Sinhalese and Buddhists only and therefore others who inhabit there have to live at their mercy.

Having exhausted all avenues through parliamentary and constitutional processes to seek accommodation within the Sinhalese state and to protect the Tamils and their continued existence in Sri Lanka, the Tamil nation was left with no alternative but to resort to an armed struggle to resist this genocidal oppression. The UN Convention on the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide (General Assembly resolution 2670 of 1948) defines genocide as 'the killing of or causing serious bodily or mental harm to a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, committed with intent to destroy such a group in whole or in part'. Article IV of the Convention states, 'Persons committing genocide shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.'

Raphael Lemkin, in his book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe, says, 'Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves. The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feeling, religion. and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of personal security, health, dignity, and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups. Genocide 'is directed against the national group as an entity, and the actions involved and directed against individuals, not in their individual capacity, but as members of the national group'.

In a memorandum to the 7th Summit meeting, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam declared,

`...It is the plight of the Tamil nation of four million people and their legitimate struggle for political independence based on the democratic principle of national self-determination. The Tamil nation was forced into this political path as a consequence of nearly thirty-five years of violent and brutal oppression practised by successive Sri Lankan governments, aimed at the annihilation of the national entity of the Tamils. Decades of peaceful, non-violent, democratic political struggles to gain the very basic human rights were met with vicious forms of military suppression. The intensified military occupation of Tamil lands, the intolerable terrorism of the armed forces, the implementation of racist and repressive legislations, the mass arrests and detention of political activists�all these Draconian methods were employed to stifle and subjugate the will of our people to live free, and stamp out their legitimate struggle for justice. This ever-unfolding thrust of national oppression made unitary existence intolerable and finally led to the demand for secession by the oppressed Tamil people...'

The armed struggle for freedom intensified in response to the military occupation and offensive in Tamil homelands. The deep concern of the 50 million Tamil brethren in Tamil Nadu in India for the tragic plight of the Tamils in Sri Lanka and the regional security considerations resulting from the civil war made India to offer its good offices to resolve the conflict.

Under the Indian Government auspices representatives of Tamils and the Government of Sri Lanka met in Thimpu, Bhutan, where the Tamils representing 6 liberation organisations unilaterally set out four cardinal principles and sought the recognition of the Tamils in Sri Lanka as a nation, the existence of an identified homeland for the Tamils, the right of self-determination, and theright to citizenship and fundamental rights. By this, Thimpu recognised the armed struggle and legitimised its leadership. The Sri Lankan Government failed to make any positive proposals to meet Tamil aspirations.

On 29 July 1987, the Indo-Sri Lanka Agreement was signed to establish peace and normalcy in Sri Lanka. The conflict in Sri Lanka was primarily and essentially about the oppression of the Tamil people by the Sri Lankan state. This agreement was not between the parties to the conflict even though it was to decide and seal the fate of the Tamils while securing India's regional and security concerns. Certainly this was not the first agreement of this nature between the countries concerning the Tamils in Sri Lanka. In all probability it will not be the last either. All the earlier agreements had common characteristics. They were entered into over the heads of the Tamils without consultation and agreement with their representatives or leaders. None of them have achieved what the Tamils wanted, resulting only in more misery and suffering.

Suthumalai is a historic turning point in the Tamil national struggle. On 4th April 1987, Mr. V. Prabhakaran, the leader of the LTTE, on the grounds of Suthumalai Amman Temple, addressing a mammoth assembly of Tamils of over 100,000, and in the presence of national and international media, declared: 'My beloved and esteemed people of Tamil Eelam! Today there has taken place a tremendous turn in our liberation struggle. This turn has come suddenly in a way that has stunned us, and as if it were beyond our power to influence events. Whether the consequences of this turn will be favourable to us, we have to wait and see....

`...I do not think that as a result of this Agreement, there will be a permanent solution to the problem of the Tamils. The time is not very far off when the monster of Sinhala racism will devour this Agreement. I have unrelenting faith in the proposition that only a separate state of Tamil Eelam can offer a permanent solution of the problem of the people of Tamil Eelam. Let me make it clear to you here beyond any shadow of doubt that I will continue to fight for the objective of attaining Tamil Eelam. The forms of struggle may change, but the objective or goal of our struggle is not going to change. If our cause is to triumph, it is vitally necessary that the wholehearted and totally unified support of you, our people, should always be with me'.

This is not only historic but also prophetic.

THILEEPAN'S MARTYRDOM

The Indian Government went back on its assurances although the .L FIE started laying down their arms. As the Tamils feared, the Sinhalese were being settled in the Tamil areas of the Eastern Province while Tamil refugees were unable to return to their villages, and the notorious Home Guards and Special Task Force of the Sri Lankan Government were still functioning in Tamil areas. The Interim Government which was promised to the Tamils was unduly delayed whereas the police personnel were being recruited in police stations established in the Tamil areas by the Sri Lankan Government. The Indian Secret Intelligence Agency, Research & Analysis Wing (RAW), had been carrying out covert operations in Sri Lanka for a long time. After the Indo-Sri Lanka Agreement, the RAW became very active in Tamil areas in promoting armed Tamil mercenary groups to undermine the LTTE. These groups were killing LTTE cadres and Tamil civilian activists. All these were contrary to the letter and the spirit of the Accord.

All representations made by the LTTE on these matters to the Indian authorities fell on deaf ears and hence the LTTE was forced to launch a peaceful campaign to register its demands. One of their young political leaders, Mr. Thileepan, fasted unto death demanding the implementation of the Indo-Sri Lanka Agreement and the assurances given by the Indian Government to the LTTE. He achieved martyrdom on 26th April 1987. This created enormous concern amongst the Tamils in Sri Lanka and they became anxious about their safety and security, and rallied behind the Tamil Tigers. India then responded by an agreement with the LTTE on 28th September 1987 under which an Interim Administrative Council was to be formed without delay. The Administrative Council was to have 12 members and 7 of them including the Chief Administrator were to be LTTE nominees. When the LTTE submitted a list in order of priority so that its representation could give weightage to all Tamil regions the .Sri Lankan Government, with a view to defeating this objective and blocking the implementation of the Council, rejected some of the LTTE nominees, including the nominee for Chief Administrator.

While the dispute on the names of the intended Administrative Council was on, the Sri Lankan Government detained 17 LTTE members including two regional leaders, Pulendran and Kumarappa, and attempted to remove them to Colombo for inter-rogation. This was a fundamental breach of the Indo-Sri Lankan Agreement, because under the Agreement all LTTE cadres, as well as the other militant groups, were given amnesty and guaranteed protection. Despite repeated appeals by the LTTE leaders, the Indian authorities failed to get the 17 LTTE members released; and they were forced to take cyanide capsules, and 12 of them died. This sad development created enormous confusion in the Tamil areas and understandably there were violent reactions in some areas.

THE INDIAN MILITARY OFFENSIVE

On 10 October 1987 began the attack on Jaffna. This seems to have been preplanned and managed. First they attacked the printing presses of the two registered daily newspapers Murasoli and Eelamurasu in Jaffna, blew up their building and printing equipment and also removed the LTTE television station, the only television network in Jaffna. At the same time access to local and international media was cut off from the Tamil areas. These were all designed to keep information of what was to happen to the Tamils of Sri Lanka away from the outside world.

Information of what has actually happened during the IPKF offensive has in fact come out of the Tamil North and East, through the appeals made by civic leaders, heads of religious organisations and through some adventurous international media personnel, who had ventured unnoticed into the combat zone and have widely reported of indiscriminate shelling and aerial bombardment of civilian population. It is now estimated that civilian deaths including women and children ran into thousands, and over 400,000 people, which is about half the population of the Jaffna peninsula, were made homeless during that period and were forced to take refuge in temples, churches, schools and elsewhere. The conditions of the civilian population were so appalling that some of the appeals from civic leaders and heads of churches were heart-rending.

There was acute shortage of food and medicine, and essential services were cut off. Hospitals were damaged and ran out of supplies. IPKF have also committed enormous civilian atrocities, including rape of women, killing of children and old people, attacking hospitals, temples and churches. A particular reference has to be made about the Jaffna General Hospital where on 24 October the IPKF killed doctors, nurses and other staff along with over 100 patients. This is despicable of a supposedly peace-keeping force from India who originally came to the Tamil areas to provide safety for the Tamils. As BBC reported, 'it is an irony that the Indian Peace Keeping Forces are killing the same people whom they came to protect.'

The LTTE has appealed repeatedly for cease-fire and negotiations to resolve the problems which are essentially political. India must practise what it preached to Sri Lanka before this Accord. But India has not responded positively and expects the LTTE to disarm themselves and accept the Accord unreservedly, which is unrealistic. The fast-unto-death undertaken by the Tamil mothers Annammah David, Poopathy Kanapathipillai and Nesammah Vadivelu of the Mothers Front in Batticaloa in the Eastern Province of the Tamil homeland, brought to focus the true inner feelings of the Tamil citizenry. In response to their request the LTTE shifted from its earlier stand and announced that they were willing to talk to the Indian Government without any pre-conditions. The Indian army used trickery and deception and removed one of the mothers from the venue of her fast. Mrs. Poopathy Kanapathipillai later achieved martyrdom.