Coverage of Conference by Hot Springs, London
Journal of Commitment Edited by S.Sivanayagam

November/December 1997

Defiance at Delhi

The "International Convention for Solidarity with the Eelam Tamils of Sri Lanka" was scheduled to be held at the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) auditorium in New Delhi on 14 December, 1997. Delegates from foreign countries as well as from other Indian states were to be present at the one-day convention. But two days before the meet was to take place Samata Party leader George Fernandes, the convener of the meet was informed by the Delhi Police that permission to hold the conference would not be given.

The Delhi Police had also warned the FICCI authorities that it should not allow the "misuse" of its premises for "anti-national activity".

But George Fernandes was not perturbed. He held a Press Conferenc on 12 December and announced that the convention would take place,ban or no ban.

"FERNANDES MAY FACE ARREST" said a headline in one newspaper. Because of the government ban, the convention proceedings got more publicity in all the newspapers two days later. A beaming Mrs.Jeya Jetley, the organising secretary of the Samata Party publicly thanked Indian Home Minister Indrajit Gupta and the Indian government for creating tremendous Press interest in the convention by banning it !

The HINDUSTAN TIMES in its issue of 13 December carried the headline:  GOVT..SAMATA LOCK HORNS OVER LANKAN TAMIL MEET, and said : "The international convention on Sri Lankan Tamils is poised to become a major bone of contention between the Governmen and Sanata Party

"Pointing a finger at "10 Janpath" for the proposed ban, he (Fernandes) says if it is enforced, the Government of India would be going against the Constitutional Right to Freedom of Expression.

"We have an opinion as to what happens in Sri Lanka and it cannot be tailored to the requirements of a family. Government can have different opinion if it does not-suit the Government or its proxy owners", he stated.

The HINDUSTAN TIMES report said: "Day before yesterday, in a letter marked "secret/most immediate". Union Home Minister Inderjit Gupta had requested Mr.Fernandes to "reconsider" the decision to hold and participate in the Convention.

He pointed out in his letter that LTTE leadership based abroad were trying to re-activate" their support base in Tamil Nadu in the aftermath of the US decision to declare the LTTE a "terrorist organisation". With this objective in view and at the "behest" of LTTE leadership, the conference was being organised"

"The Home Minister said "reports" received in this regard also indicated that "funds for the purpose are being channelised from the US and Australia-based LTTE leaders, through Mr.Nedumaran.

"Mr.Fernandes, at the time of releasing copies of the letter to correspondents, had Mr.Nedumaran by his side. Mr.Fernandes, who strongly reacted to the contents of the letter said it was  being made out that he was either "an overground operator for underground LTTE or being a nitwit".

"He said he had been to almost every convention held on the Tamil question as a "human rights activist" since 1983 in India and abroad.... Justice Krishna Iyer had been also attending most such conventions and only three days ago had gone to attend such a conference in Geneva...

According to a report in THE STATESMAN, New Delhi, "The Samata Party leader also said that the First Secretary of the Sri Lanka High Commission had contacted them and expressed interest in attending the conference because of the nature of issues being discussed and a member of Parliament from Sri Lanka, Mr.J .Pararajasingam had already confirmed his participation.".

With the Delhi Police deciding that discretion was the better part of valour the Convention was held as scheduled. but of course in a different venue - at the spacious lawns of 3, Krishna Menon Marg. the official government bungalow allotted to Mr.Fernandes as a member of the dissolved Lok Sabha.

Among the participants at the Convention were Malcolm R.Gracie of Amnesty International. Australia. Gillies Piquois, Member, International Commission of Jurists. France. Joseph Pararajasingam. Member of Sri Lankan Parliament, A.P.Venkateswaran. former Foreign Secretary of the Indian Government. K.Veeramani. General Secretary, Dravidar Kazhagam. Maj Gen.(rerd) Ashok Mehta. K.V.Ponnaiyan of the Tamil Nadu Marxist-Leninist Party, Dr.S. Sathananthan, Secretary Action Group of Tamils in Colombo (AGOTIC) and Pala Nedumaran of the Tamils' National Movement. and Dr.T.R.Janarthanan of the World's Tamil Forum. Scholar and political commentator Adrian Wijemanne sent a supportive message to the Convention which was read out by Samata Party Secretary Jeya Jetley.

Indian indifference is shameful - Fernandes

Speaking at a Press Conference held on the eve of the Convention, Mr.Fernandes criticized the ruling class of India for their indifference to the plight of the Eelam Tamils. "It is shameful that the Indian government does not have a word to say against the fate of the Tamils who are at the receiving end of State sponsored terror by the Sinhala army in Sri Lanka... There are very powerful groups in this country who would not care at all about the Tamils, and they treat Tamils as second-class citizens"

"Fifty five million Tamils in Tamil Nadu are watching the indifference of the central government towards their brothers and sisters in Sri Lanka, and they will teach a lesson at the next general elections", Mr.Fernandes said.

Rape cases involving govt. forces on the increase - Sri Lanka M.P.

Inaugurating the convention. Tamil M.P. in the Sri Lankan Parliament Joseph Pararajasingam said that human rights violation had increased considerably in the war zone in the northeast during the current phase of the war. Citing a check-list of such violations, especially against women. he said that there had been a minimum of 60 rape cases involving the government "security forces" personnel in his parliamentary constituency of Batticaloa this year.

Human rights violations, he said, included killing of innocent Tamils. assault on children and women, illegal detentions, torture and aerial bombing of predominantly Tamil areas.

According to the report in the HINDUSTAN TIMES of 15 December. "Two of his comments drew instant applause from the audience. The first one was that India could not remain a silent spectator and that it must play its legitimate role in finding a political settlement to end the conflict. And the second was that without the LTTE's participation. no restoration of peace and return of normalcy was possible.' He quoted the Amnesty International's concluding summary report of November 1997 which stated that "Sri Lanka will remain prone to upsurge of serious human rights violations , particularly "disappearances" until the government tackles the problem at their root cause.."

Mr.Malcolm R Gracie of Amnesty International. Australia, said that participants at the conference were mainly concerned about the human rights violations in Sri Lanka. What was happening was genocide. Innocent victims are the ones caught up in the war. These people are entitled to basic human rights, basic medical assistance and basic necessities of life, which are all denied, he said.

Mr.Gillies Piquois of International Commission of Jurists, France , said in branding the Liberation Tigers as "terrorists" the Sri Lanka government was unable to understand the motivation behind those youths. They were neither terrorists nor extremists. They were fighting for the human rights of the Tamils and to free their people from bondage.

Sri Lanka was a country where the worst form of ethnic oppression was being practised. Neither schools. nor the sanctity of temples and churches were being regarded when it comes to aerial bombing. This deserves the highest condemnation by any civilised country. The people in France will lend their voice against any violation of human rights anywhere in the world

India's former Foreign Secretary. Mr.A.P.Venkateswaran said that it was the height of stupidity on the part of the Indian government to seek to ban that convention. Nothing better could be expected from a Flume Minister who did not understand the right of freedom of expression. He praised Mr.George Fernandes who had the courage to defy the ban.

Mr. Venkateswaran said he was the country's Foreign Secretary when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was in power. She was prepared to help the Tamil militants in order to bring pressure on the Sri Lanka government to resolve the Tamil question. Her son had to pay a heavy price for following a policy contrary to his mother 's.

The Tamil-Sinhala problem, Mr.Vekateswaran said, had a history going back to 2,000 years. Later, during the colonial period, the progress achieved by the Tamils in various fields angered the Sinhalese. After independence, came the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayagam Pact which could have led to sharing of power between the two peoples. But the man who prevented its implementation by instigating Buddhist fanatics was that 20th century Fox, Junius Jayewardene.

Much later in 1986, that same Jayewardene entered into a pact with India's Rajiv Gandhi for the same purpose of devolving power to the Tamils. It was agreed that the north and east would be merged and that a referendum would be held to confirm that merger But within two days of the agreement, Jayewardene announced that he himself would campaign against the merger of the two provinces

The Welikade massacre of Tamil political prisoners in July 1983 could not have happened without the tacit support of the government. Such provocative acts were the ones that made the LTTE take to arms. The Tigers were the ones who proved to the world that Tamils were no cowards.

Rajiv Gandhi believed Jayewardene's contention that a potential Tamil Eelam would lead to separation of Tamil Nadu and the setting up of a greater independent Tamil Nadu. It was this fear that was fed by Jayewardene that made Rajiv Gandhi send in the Indian forces into the north and east of the island.

As IPKF commander Gen.Ashok Mehta said earlier, had not Rajiv Gandhi sent in the Indian army. 1400 Indian soldiers would not have paid with their lives. Similarly, four, five times this number of Tamils would still be alive. It was Rajiv Gandhi's blunder that brought about this loss of lives. People who make such a noise about Rajiv Gandhi's life are not prepared to think of 6,000 to 7,000 killings of Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Mr.Venkateswaran said that there was no doubt that the Tamil liberation struggle would continue, even if America comes to the aid of Sri Lanka. What happened in Vietnam ? When one or two American soldiers were killed in Somalia, the US forces beat a hasty retreat.America is not prepared to lose life, or make any sacrifice. But the Tigers are not like that

Mr.Venkateswaran said that although he was not a Tamli i in the full sense of the word, as a one-time Foreign Secretary. of the Indian government. he could say with confidence that no force on earth could prevent the eventual victory of the Eelam Tamils

Which government bombs its own people ? - DK leader

Leader of the Dravida Kalagam from Tamil Nadu Mr.K.Veeramani said that the Delhi Convention was just the right beginning. The holding of the convention had made a mockery of the ban imposed on it. "Thanthai Periyar" used to say that there was no ban that was insurmountable. This had been proved right here in Delhi People have to be first aware of what was happening in a neighbouring country They have next learn to see the difference between terrorism and a freedom struggle. The Tigers of Thamil Eelam are fighting to restore the fundamental rights of their people What does the UN say , that genocide of a people should be condemned. Several human rights bodies have already condemned this. The Tamil people trust Prabhakaran and the Liberation Tigers. Is protecting your people terrorism ? Does the world expect the Tigers to sit with hands folded when their mothers and sisters are being raped ? Even the Indian law justifies the killing in self-defence. That is exactly what the Tigers were doing. What was happening in Sri Lanka, Mr Veeramani said was not only a problem of the Tamils It was a human problem "Not a dog received the Sri Lankan army in Jaffna in
December 1995"

It would be an act of political folly to try to separate the Eelam Tamils from the LTTE, said Dr.S.Sathananthan, Secretary of the Action Group of Tamils in Colombo (AGOTIC).

Three generations of Tamils are involved in the liberation struggle of the Tigers. The Chandrika government tries to make out that the Tamils are now ready to be "liberated" from the Tigers. Does it mean that they seek to fall into the arms of the Sinhala army ? When the Sinhala army entered Jaffna on December 5 1995, there was not even a dog to welcome it.

It appears that the Chandrika government's goal is to first cage the Tigers and then grant the Tamils concessions. Why not try giving the Tamils concessions without caging the Tigers ? For 20 long years Sinhala governments have been trying to cage the Tigers.

On Tamil National Heroes Day, Tamil leader Prabhakaran spoke with clarity. He said they were prepared to negotiate on the basis of the four principles enunciated at Thimphu. But the Chandrika government says there cannot be talks until the Tigers give up their arms. If the Tigers drop their arms, what is the need for talks ?

Those Tamil groups who had given up arms are entreating the government to negotiate with them, but the government pays no heed to that. If the Tigers give up arms, they will be in no way different from those groups. In fact,had not the Tigers become such a strong force, the Government will not be talking of devolution and packages. Victory for the LTTE is assured.