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EUROPEAN UNION & THE TAMIL STRUGGLE
EU Credibility on the Line
Brian
Senewiratne
"...The EU �calls on the LTTE not
least to take immediate public steps to demonstrate
their commitment to the peace process and the
willingness to change�. For the record, it was the
LTTE
that initiated the Ceasefire even
before the then Sri Lankan Government did so.
The EU needs to check its facts. Would the EU call
on the Sri Lankan government �to demonstrate �.
willingness to change� by abandoning its declared
policy that Sri Lanka is a
Sinhalese Buddhist nation despite the fact that
Sri Lanka is a multiethnic, multicultural and multi
religious country, and repeal
sections of the Constitution in which this is
guaranteed? If not, why not?.."
Background
I am a Sinhalese from the majority community in Sri Lanka. I am a
doctor of Medicine with no political affiliations or ambitions. I
left Sri Lanka 30 years ago and the only reasons for my involvement
are concerns that are humanitarian and the future of the country. I
have had a longstanding interest in the on-going ethnic conflict, in
particular, in achieving a solution which enables the Tamil
�minority� to live with equality, safety, dignity and without
discrimination, in the country of their birth. I have supported the
Tamil people in their struggle against a succession of Sri Lankan
(read Sinhalese) governments who conceive of Sri Lanka as a
Sinhala-Buddhist nation which effectively excludes the Tamils, a
concept that is even enshrined in the Constitution.
A fundamental problem is the failure to recognize the historical
fact that Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) was not a single nation but three
effectively separate kingdoms (nations), the Tamil Kingdom in the
North, the Kandyan (Sinhalese) in the Centre, and the Low-Country
(Sinhalese) Kingdom in the South. This separation existed for
hundreds of years until the colonial British, for administrative
convenience, unified the country.
When they quit (1948) they handed over the
country to Governments that were, and will always be,
dominated by the majority (74%) Sinhalese. Discrimination
against the minorities, especially the industrious Tamils,
was always a possibility, and was, in fact, articulated
strongly by Tamil politicians when the British quit. This
possibility became reality as competing Sinhalese political
parties adopted more and more discriminatory policies
against the Tamils in language, education, employment and
the developmental neglect of the area in which the Tamils
lived.
Over the next 50 years
Tamil politicians have negotiated with a succession of
Sri Lankan governments to address these problems. A series
of pacts between the two groups have not been implemented,
even torn up, unilaterally by the Sri Lankan government to
gain the political support of the majority. The initial
request of the Tamils was for a Federal State in the Tamil
area. The response of the Government was to unleash violence
on peaceful Tamil protests and to increase the
discriminatory measures. It was then that the Tamils pressed
for a Separate Tamil State (Eelam). It is important to
appreciate that the Tamils are not trying to divide and
destroy a country but to reverse a British colonial policy
which had clearly not worked.
It was not the LTTE but the Tamil people who, in the
1977 General Election (the last with a credible result)
voted overwhelmingly for a Separate Tamil State and gave
their elected parliamentarians a mandate to pursue such a
result. It was the abysmal failure of these elected
representatives to make any headway using democratic means
that resulted in the Tamil militants picking up arms to
establish such a goal by force, much as what Nelson Mandela
and the ANU did to get the racist South African government
to abandon its policy of apartheid.
Had the Tamil militants not gone the way
they did, the elected representatives of the Tamil
people would still be grovelling at the feet of Sinhala
politicians as they have done over the past 50 years.
There would have been no Peace Talks or a search for any
solution to address the problems faced by the Tamil
�minority�. Had
Mandela and his group not acted in the way they did
to take on the South African government, apartheid would
still be flourishing in South Africa. To White South
African eyes, Mandela was a terrorist who should be
jailed (and was), to international eyes he was a
statesman who deserved a Nobel Prize (and got it). So
also Yasser Arafat, another Nobel Prize winner, leader
of the PLO whose acts of violence dwarfs anything that
the LTTE have done.
If some of Sri Lanka�s political leaders who
have directed
the mass killings of Tamil civilians and the Heads of
the Armed Forces who carried these out (which included mass
�disappearances� of those in their custody, some of whom
were tortured and buried alive), are taken before the
International Court in the Hague on a charge of genocide, I
doubt if they will go unscathed.
The EU declaration
In the context outlined above,
the recently released EU statement condemning one party
ot the on-going negotiations puts the credibility of the EU
on the line.
1. The declaration condemns the
�continuing violence and terrorism of the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)�. There is no condemnation
by the EU of the much more serious violence and
terrorism of the Sri Lankan armed forces and the
paramilitary groups armed and supported by them.
 Where
were the EU nations when the armed forces launched an
assault on Jaffna with half a million civilians
(�Operation Thunder� followed by �Operation Riviressa�
(Sun Ray)?
Half a million people had to flee the city to escape
the onslaught. The then
UN Secretary General called on international governments
to �assist the uprooted people of Jaffna�. Was this not
government terrorism unleashed on the Tamil people in
the North? Was this not an attempt by the Sri Lankan
government to pursue a political goal, by what the EU
itself describes as �totally unacceptable methods�. If
so, why did the EU nations not condemn this in the same
language that they have now thought fit to �declare�?
2. The EU declaration claims that �the present political
goals of such totally unacceptable methods only serve to
damage the LTTE�s standing and credibility as a
negotiating partner�. But that
is precisely what the Sri Lankan government has done
over many years. The EU�s double standard is blatant
hypocrisy.
3. The EU �repeats the condemnation of the shocking
murder of Lakshman Kadirgamar�.� For a start, there is
no evidence that the LTTE were responsible unless the EU
has some undisclosed information. It is more likely that
the EU is acting as a mouthpiece for the Sri Lankan
Government whose credibility has been questioned by
internationally credible human rights groups over many
years.
Could we ask the EU to turn to the shocking mass murder
thousands of Tamil civilians by the Sri Lankan armed
forces who have indiscriminately bombed and shelled
Tamil civilians who had a right to be where they were
i.e. peacefully living in their homes? It would appear
that Tamil civilian lives are of lesser value (lesser
mortals) to the EU.
4. The EU is �actively considering the formal listing of
the LTTE as a terrorist organization�. Precisely what
would this achieve? The exclusion of one of the main
negotiators from the Conference Table? And what would
that achieve?
The EU, in particular the UK �presently leading the EU�,
should know that with IRA bombs exploding all over
London, the British government banned the IRA. What did
that achieve? Nothing. When the reality of being unable
to negotiate with a banned organization dawned, the IRA
was �de-banned�! The EU in general and the UK in
particular, seem to have learned nothing from past
blunders.
5. The EU �has agreed that with immediate effect,
delegates from the LTTE will no longer be received in
any of the EU Member States�� What exactly is the EU
trying to achieve? To opt out of facilitating a
negotiated settlement? Is that acceptable behaviour of a
supposedly responsible body?
6. The EU has agreed that member States will �take
necessary measures to check and curb illegal and
undesirable activities (including issues of funding and
propaganda) by the LTTE�. What about
issues of funding, propaganda and of even greater
concern,
the supply of weapons to the Sri Lankan government?
Is the �end use� of such military assistance for a
country to fight and destroy its own people, of no
concern to the EU? It would appear so from the recent
partisan declaration of the EU.
7. "...The EU �calls on the LTTE not least to take
immediate public steps to demonstrate their commitment
to the peace process and the willingness to change�. For
the record, it was the LTTE
that initiated the Ceasefire even
before the then Sri Lankan Government did so.
The EU needs to check its facts. Would the EU call on
the Sri Lankan government �to demonstrate �. willingness
to change� by abandoning its declared policy that Sri
Lanka is a
Sinhalese Buddhist nation despite the fact that
Sri Lanka is a multiethnic, multicultural and multi
religious country, and repeal
sections of the Constitution in which this is
guaranteed? If not, why not?.."
The reality
It is time that the EU recognized the reality on the ground.
Whether one considers the LTTE to be Liberation/Freedom
Fighters or Terrorists, two things are crystal clear.
The first is that they are here to stay. They will not go
away, be bombed out or �smashed�. That will not happen,
indeed the opposite. They have grown from an insignificant
group whose very existence was doubted in the early 1970s to
one of the most powerful and best organized military
organizations in the world. They have also established a de
facto State in the area under their control (Wanni) which is
far more efficient than anything in the Sinhalese area and
infinitely more honest and free from corruption. The
handling of the recent Tsunami disaster was evidence of this
and was commended by several NGOs.
The second is that the LTTE is a key player in any
negotiated settlement of the ethnic problem. It is not a
�marginal player� that can be, isolated, antagonized or
banned. Those who cannot appreciate this are living in the
land of make-believe
To claim that the LTTE are the cause of the problem is
arrant nonsense. The LTTE is not the cause of the problem
but the result. The cause of the problem is
Sinhala-Buddhist ethno-religious chauvinism � this
destructive concept that multi-ethnic, multi-religious,
multi-cultural Sri Lanka is a Sinhala-Buddhist nation which
effectively excludes the Tamils. If that is so, then there
is no option to the establishment of a Tamil nation.
The timing of the declaration
The EU declaration is not only seriously flawed but its
timing is disastrous. Sri Lanka is facing a critical period.
Prime Minister Rajapakse, who is the Government-favoured
Presidential candidate, has just signed a pact with the
so-called Marxist JVP (read �political opportunists�) who
have done so much damage to Sri Lanka (in two insurrections
in1971 and in 1988) and the politically active Buddhist
clergy who, by their ethno-religious chauvinism have
prevented any solution to the problems faced by the Tamils.
These extremists and opportunists have declared their
crucial support to Mr. Rajapakse on condition that he tears
up the Peace Pact and abandons the Tsunami relief to the
Tamil areas. The recent EU declaration will give enormous
support to these extremists and strengthen their hand. If
these extremist forces triumph, it will be the restart of
war and the total destruction of the country or what is left
of it. Should this happen, the EU countries cannot absolve
themselves from blame.
The EU can make a number of substantial contributions to
facilitate the peace process in Sri Lanka. Issuing
irresponsible �declarations� will not be one.
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