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Tamils have a De Jure State
The Tamil Mirror - 7 April 2007
The Tamil Mirror interviewed Ms. Parker in March 2007. Tamil Mirror:
The Sri Lankan Government is denying food and medicine to the Tamil
people in the North and East of Sri Lanka to the extent of starving
them. Why are the UNHCR and other Human Rights Organizations not
raising their voices?
Karen Parker: In my view, the relative quiet of the
international community is in part due to very, very strong
pressure from the parties that have an interest in the
disposition of Tamil Eelam, most notably the US. As you know,
UNICEF, an organization that should be especially vocal due to
the situation of Tamil children, has traditionally been headed
by an American. Given how discussions about various aspects of
the crisis have unfolded, I think it’s fair to at least raise
the possibility of undue pressure from the US government on
UNICEF. If so, it would be rather unconscionable in the face of
near starvation. UNICEF is certainly on full notice about the
crisis.
A second problem is that the Special Representatives for
Children and Armed Conflict sent a delegate who focused almost
exclusively on the child soldier issue and did not adequately
address the other five items under the mandate. At the same
time, the Security Council’s Working Group on children and armed
conflict also, in my view, gave undue attention to child
soldiers at the expense of the other five issues in its recent
review of Sri Lanka.
I never truly have understood, however, why so many other
countries would go along with this agenda at the expense of the
Tamil people and why the UN forums or personages, who finally do
speak up, are so vague. There is no question when a statement
is made about Darfur: what’s at stake, who the perpetrators are,
who the victims are. If a catastrophe forces a statement from
UNICEF or the High Commissioner or the office of the Secretary
General or some entity such as the UN’s humanitarian disaster
office, their statements are so vague that you actually read the
statement and not know that the perpetrator is the government of
Sri Lanka, the victims are Tamil civilians (in many instances
children) and you don’t really have a sense of the degree of
violation of armed conflict law the incident represents. I
haven’t seen anything like that in any other conflicts and it is
very, very, very disturbing to me.
TM.: Again five students in Trincomalee were executed, 18 Aid
Workers were killed in Muthur, Tamil Children were bombed in
Sencholai and Families were massacred in Mannar. Will the United
Nations ever stand up or speak up for the plight of the Tamils?
K.P: I certainly hope that the UN speaks up. Following some
of these catastrophes I came to the conclusion that in fact the
overall situation is in fact a genocidal attack on the Tamil
people. I addressed the High Commissioner and the Secretary
General’s Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide in this
light. I raised it that way because to me it should be
impossible for the UN to fail to react and I believe I made the
case rather well, that it was genocidal. My first
communication was in January, and I haven’t received a reply yet
from the High Commissioner or the Special Advisor, although a
previous communication from me and one of my colleagues received
a reply from the Special Advisor. I submitted a written
statement to the UN Human Rights Council informing them that I
had sent this letter and giving an abbreviated version of the
letter, published as A/HRC/4/NGO/43.
When the situation is at this level of gravity I just cannot
fathom the silence and the failure to act. I think there needs
to be a real serious questioning by the international community
as a whole, and certainly by the Tamil people, in the face of
ethnic cleansing, murders left and right, forced eviction,
starvation, bombing of children and other civilians, and
absolutely racist comments against the Tamil people in the
Diaspora, against the Tamils in Sri Lanka and certainly against
the LTTE.
This is taking place in the context of the stridently
anti-Tamil political parties in the south. It is so
unconscionable that I expect to have at least some nudging
towards more balanced treatment in the future. I did let the
Secretary General’s special advisor and the High Commissioner
know that we were very aware that anytime people express any
concern for the Tamils or concern about acts of the government
of Sri Lanka, they will be publicly attacked by the Sri Lankan
government.
A recent example involves Alan Rock, the former Canadian
Minister who was supposed to be investigating six elements
relating to children in armed conflict. Sadly, he only
investigated child soldier, which I consider to be a low
priority issue in light of the situation of Tamil children as a
whole.
My statements at the UN and elsewhere are also attacked in
rather strong and shrill accusations by the government of Sri
Lanka. But by accusing the government of this in my statements
quiets them down a little bit because they don’t want to allow
me to win the point. At last year’s September/October session,
the 2nd session of the new Human Rights Council, the way I
phrased that comment in a way that seems to force the Sri Lankan
government to tone down their response to me.
Still, the Tamil people in Sri Lanka and in the Tamil
Diaspora need some strong support from a strong government.
Norway and Iceland try to be balanced in their mediation role
but they are two relatively small countries and Norway is a NATO
country. The pressure of the European Union countries to put
LTTE on the terrorist list was, I believe, pushed in order to
get the other three Nordic countries off the Sri Lanka
Monitoring mission. This definitely weakened the possibility for
the Tamil civilian population to be properly represented with
only two relatively weak countries rather than the whole Nordic
block involved. I think the Tamils need to understand that
targeting may very well have been to weaken the Sri Lanka
Monitoring Mission and to keep the sympathy for the Tamil people
as pressured as possible.
There is a big Tamil Diaspora that could be putting pressure
on other governments that haven’t yet proscribed. I’m interested
perhaps even New Zealand joining the fray. I’m working to have
Tamil communities in Germany and France, along with non-Tamil
friends, pressures those governments to resist the EU banning
and to have a more balanced view of the situation.
I frankly think success will be dependant on whether
international community tries to contain the US. Again, in my
view, it is the US that is actually behind all this pressure on
the UN and other governments to prevent them from taking a fair
position. As they become more aware of this there may be a
showdown between the International Community and the US over Sri
Lanka. TM: So, do you think this is because the US is using
this pressure that the Sri Lanka is saying that they are
fighting terrorism or they have some other motives such as
Trincomalee Harbour and other interests in Sri Lanka?
I think the US has clear interest in Trincomalee Harbour as a
potential navy base for US outpost and I think the US has
indicated a clear interest in Palali Air field. American
officials have visited there, I assume to check it out, so to
speak.
The US is in a very difficult position in other areas of the
world where they had expected to have their normal influences
intact, specifically in Latin America. This particular
administration and the previous Reagan/Bush administration have
had an agenda to monitor and control the international petroleum
shipping routes, the production of new fields, etc. The US
clearly now seeks rapid military strike capacity against
basically any place in the world. Without Sri Lanka providing
navy ports and air fields, the US has a severe disadvantage in
that part of Asia and the Caucuses. I think the use of the
‘terrorist card’ is calculated and intentional. The US knows
that it is really an armed conflict but they use the ‘terrorism
card’ to their advantage. But a situation in which there is
armed violence is either an armed conflict or terrorism. It
cannot legally be both. The US is using the terrorism to
intimidate other countries, to intimidate non-governmental
organizations, humanitarian aid organizations, and to prevent
any sympathy for the Tamils to gain a foothold. Imagine telling
the American Red Cross that they can’t distribute post -Tsunami
aid in the Tamil areas, even though it is under the Sri Lankan
government’s control. That is certainly targeting the Tamils in
a completely unacceptable way.
TM. Tamils are concerned that many Tamil villages were bombed
with multi-barrel Rockets and the International Community was
silent. But when there is a bomb blast in Colombo or in Southern Sri
Lanka they swiftly condemn the LTTE. Will they ever be impartial?
K.P: What we have is an impasse in Sri Lanka in every area. I
have no problem with multi barrel rocket launchers. It just
depends on where they’re going. If they are going to the
military positions then there is no violation. If they’re
heading to a civilian village then it’s a crime against
humanity.
The International Community responds in a rather lock step
way. If there is an incident against one Sinhala, the headlines,
if there is an incident against 1000 Tamils it might get a
–mumble/grumble grudging sentence.
I think the statements made by the US and others after
serious war crimes committed by the Sri Lankan government are
clearly reluctant mumbles: they do not really express concerns
because they never even identify the perpetrator or the victims.
The innocent bystander reading such pronouncement could clearly
conclude that the LTTE carried out the operation and that the
victims are Sinhala. I think that is purposeful. It has to stop.
TM: The Sri Lankan government de- merged the North and East
provinces and collaborates with the Karuna group to try to occupy
the Tamil lands in the East controlled by the LTTE. These acts are
in clear violation of the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA). Now, the LTTE
leader has declared that the “uncompromising stance of Sinhalese
Chauvinism has left us with no option but an independent state for
the people of Tamil Eelam.” Is the Tamil peoples’ freedom struggle
justified?
KP: Absolutely. Particularly now in the phase of what I
consider a genocidal situation that is not receiving the proper
attention and condemnation from the International Community. In
my opinion, the only sane solution to this problem is succession
and severance. The Sinhala clearly cannot live with the Tamils.
They insist on taking away their lands, destroying their land,
raping their women, starving their children. How can people live
under these circumstances?
The Sinhala have had almost 60 years to show the
International Community that they can have a multi-ethnic state
and all they have shown is that they can have a Sinhala state
with an oppressed minority. I think after 60 years, time is up!
In my view, because of the right to self- determination, the
Tamil areas belong to the Tamils. It is their land. The civilian
government and the military force- the LTTE- have a right de
jure (by law) to this State.
Their presence in their own land is not de facto and their
government is not a de facto one.
What is the difference between De jure and De facto?
De jure means “by law.” Applied to land and States, if the
land is legally your land and you are present and govern in your
land, you are the de jure State. De facto means “by fact.” The
Sri Lankan government’s occupation of part of the historic Tamil
Eelam is de facto. They are there by the clear facts on the
ground but they don’t have the legal right to it. So, their
governance over Tamil land is not de jure.
I know the LTTE has used the terms the other way around when
they maintain that they have a de facto State. But I think the
Tamils have a de jure State: they have the right to
self-determination, the Tamil lands are those lands attached to
that right, they are present in their land and they have a Tamil
civil administration governing it. This is a de jure State. The
Tamil people, of course, also have a de jure right to the Tamil
lands under control of the government, but they are not now in
control of them.
T.M: But the government can say that just as President Mahinda
Rajapaksa said recently that the government is providing medical
facilities, food and education to the Tamils even in the LTTE
controlled area:
K.P. That has nothing to do with whether one has a legal
right to the land and a legal right to being a State. In many
countries aid goes over borders. If the government of Sri Lanka
is going to completely isolate and trap Tamil Eelam they have to
provide some sort of humanitarian access. You cannot just encase
people alive in that area and have those all die. We see the
kind of genocidal policies that are forcing Tamil people away
from more and more of their traditional areas. What is
officially, legally Tamil Eelam is being wittled away in a de
facto way. It is not legal. If the Tamil people have a right
to Tamil Eelam, and I think they do, then they have a right to
all of Tamil Eelam and they will always have a right to all of
Tamil Eelam. But these little territorial gains that have
crippled the ability of Tamil Eelam de jure state to exist can
never ripen into sovereignty for the Sri Lankan government.
They’re faced with that dilemma, and they do everything to get
the conversation into their own terms. So, they use the trivial
excuse that they provide some aid into the Tamil areas as in
some ways eliminating the Tamil claim to self-determination.
That cannot be. It just is not legally possible.
T.M.: All the Foreign Diplomats in Sri Lanka know about these
Human Rights Violations. The President wants a military solution to
the Ethnic Problem and yet no ones want to speak about it?
K.P: It’s back to the same problem: the pressure, especially
by the UN, on the international community to keep the
discussions on terrorism and counter terrorism rather on the
war.
The fact that former government ministers are speaking out is
similar to when during the dirty war in Argentina. Nobody could
budge the generals, they had strong international support from
the US and others who helped put them in power. But there was
kind of the court of shame. There comes a point, if people have
any humanity left, they are no longer willing to participate in
a genocidal plan and they will step out.
I think the fact that former ministers in Sri Lanka have said
anything, even in a guarded way, is an indication that the court
of public shame has had an effect.
It is very difficult especially for the former foreign
minister who played such a role in going around the world trying
to convince everybody to put the LTTE on the world terrorist
list, of course at the request and pressure from the US
government newly inspired by the Rajapakse administration as a
whole, but there comes a point where the cost in lives is just
too much and the will of participants to go along with it
weakens.
This happened in the Vietnam War when the US forces higher
and higher up in the military and in the government could no
longer stomach first of all, the day to day lies and second of
all, the atrocities being committed by US forces in Vietnam and
that they had intervened. The burden became too great.
We hope the burden becomes too great for these forces in
relationship to the Tamil people before the Tamil people are
annihilated. Unfortunately, we are down to kind of an end game
in that scenario: I would want to be optimistic but this is a
situation where there are just too many “ifs.” However having
this court of shame ostracizing the Sri Lankan government
because of their atrocities can happen.
In earlier times, it got to the point in the United Nations
where the Argentinean and Chilean representatives had to walk
along the wall so they would not be confronted. I think we need
a lot more strength in the court of public shame against the
government of Sri Lanka.
Unfortunately, the government of Sri Lanka has been given
enormous latitude that neither the government of Chile or
Argentina, for example, enjoyed. As I said in statements to the
High Commissioner and at the Human Rights Council, this is
unprecedented: there is no other State that has perpetrated such
a genocidal, abusive, war crimes against another people that has
been allowed to walk right down the middle of the corridor.
T.M: If India wanted to solve this problem it could have been
done long time ago. What do you think that is holding them apart
from the Rajiv Ghandhi killing? This consider to be a Humanitarian
issue!
K.P: Well, India is playing a very “wily customer” game and
clearly has geopolitical interests in the disposition of Sri
Lanka as a whole and in certain of the Tamil areas. Rajiv Ghandi
got tricked in Sri Lanka. The intentions originally were in
India’s best interest, but this was sabotaged. I was pretty
certain I knew how the sabotage came down and I think in the
long run Rajiv Ghandi came to accept my position on the sabotage
and whose interest played into the catastrophe for India.
In fact I remember when the assassination first occurred most
of the Indian human rights people and Indian groups assumed that
it was a CIA job and it very well may have been, I do not think
we will ever know. I don’t care who is admitting what, the fact
that a Tamil was used perhaps is no indication that the Tamils
as a whole had anything to do with it. There are Tamil
quislings. There are Tamils who will do that so that their
families will get huge sums of money from other sources.
Families make sacrifices for other family members. There are all
kinds of possibilities in this situation but I do remember from
the very beginning particularity the Mumbai media and others (I
think also The Statesmen) also came out very strongly with
concern that it was CIA motivated: one of these “targeted
events” that has occurred in so many places around the world
involving potential political opponents of especially the US.
From my perspective at the time too, Rajiv Gandhi was the
least likely person to be targeted by the LTTE because he has
already flopped in Sri Lanka: there was absolutely no way that
Rajiv Gandhi would be tricked again in Sri Lanka. So,
politically it made no sense for LTTE to make that target. There
are many uninvestigated similarities in the world that we will
probably never know but I have grave suspicions on this
particular one.
Subsequently, the pressures from other parties on India to
proscribe the LTTE was very strong. President Bush sojourned
through India. He has not visited many counties but he did visit
there and I think there must have been motivation for some kind
of deals in that regard. I don’t know what these deals were but
I am quite sure there was discussion of the Tamil situation.
The US as we all know wants those out bases and I am sure
needed to reassure India about them. The only other potential
place for what the US might have in mind for the region would be
Pakistan and I am sure the government of India would not want to
have major US bases in Pakistan. Having US bases in Sri Lanka
would be more acceptable.
Again I don’t know what occurred. It will be a while before
that insiders will become so upset that they will begin to talk.
How this unfolds I am not exactly sure. There is pressure in
India but the pressure in India right now is not useful to the
Tamil cause even with the change of government in Tamil Nadu.
The politicians in the area who should be much stronger are
relatively weak in that there is no pressure in India to take
the terrorist label off the LTTE.
The label is obviously politically done. Why aren’t the
politicians saying “we don’t like that, we resist that.?” In the
situation of the Irani opposition, there was prescription both
in the US and, with US pressure, in the EU. But within both of
those bodies there is great pressure to undo it. For example, in
the US more than half the Members of Congress are urging that
the Irani opposition be taken off the list. Because of that the
US government is having a difficult time.
There is no such thing happening in India and there should
be. The politicians should band together and say that it was a
mistake to put the LTTE on the terrorist list and they should
take it away.
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