End of Peace in India�s South

TAMIL EELAM STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM

End of Peace in India�s South

Chivanadi in TamilNet, 14 January 2009

"The people of Tamil Nadu in no uncertain terms have said what they wish and have shown their indignation and resentment to what is happening in the island of Sri Lanka. The Tamil diaspora all over the world has demonstrated its solidarity with the national question of Eezham Tamils. The people of USA have firmly voted for the revision of the politics of terrorism. But the few, clinging at the helm of the outgoing administrations of New Delhi and Washington have decided to run amok, defying local and global public opinion. While Bush leaves behind a precarious world legacy to Obama, the Sonia Congress bears personal responsibility for the plight of Eezham Tamils."

Comment by by tamilnation.org We agree with much of that which Chivanadi says. We agree that it is 'time that the Eezham Tamils and its diaspora have to loudly say what they want, not mincing words and stick to it." and that "Eezham Tamils suffering in the open prison may have to maintain silence" but that "the diaspora has to firmly and fearlessly tell the world, tell the RAW and other agents who approach them to capture the diaspora that the Eezham Tamil sovereignty is not negotiable." We have said it before and we say it again. An independent Tamil Eelam is not negotiable but an independent Tamil Eelam will negotiate with an independent Sri Lanka the terms on which two independent states may associate with one another in equality and in freedom. It is not enough to say simply that an 'independent Tamil Eelam is not negotiable'. To say that alone is to lay ourselves to the charge of being intransigent. And intransigent we are not. We the people of Tamil Eelam recognise that sovereignty is not virginity. But it is only the independent who can negotiate the terms of their inter-dependence.

"The struggle for Tamil Eelam is about giving effect to the will of the Tamil people expressed by the mandate that they had given the Tamil United Liberation Front in 1977. It is also about reversion of sovereignty. It is about the democratic right of the people of Tamil Eelam to govern themselves in their homeland - nothing less and nothing more. (It) is not about securing benevolent Sinhala rule....The struggle for Tamil Eelam is not about 'very moderate devolution' or 'modest devolution' or 'significant devolution'. It is not about devolving power from the higher to the lower. It is not about devolution. Period. It is about freedom from alien Sinhala rule. At the same time, the struggle for Tamil Eelam is also about how two free peoples may associate with each other in equality, in freedom and in peace...At the same time, the struggle for Tamil Eelam is also about how two free peoples may associate with each other in equality, in freedom and in peace...The demand for Tamil Eelam is not negotiable. But an independent Tamil Eelam will negotiate. And there will be everything to negotiate about..." The Singer Error - Nadesan Satyendra, 24 March 2001

Sathasivam Krishnakumar said it in 1991 -

"The Tigers currently favour the associative structure mooted by European Community states which preserves their sovereignty and cultural distinctiveness. The European states who participate in the European Community are not prepared to give up their right to self determination. Neither are we. Self determination is not a dirty word, it is an inalienable right".

Said that whilst we understand that Chivanadi may have felt the need to resort to hyberbole and declare that "the people of Tamil Nadu in no uncertain terms have said what they wish and have shown their indignation and resentment to what is happening in the island of Sri Lanka" it is important that we also pay heed to the words of Director Cheran at Rameshwaram Protest by Tamil Artists & Writers in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu on 19 October 2008 -

In the name of fighting against one of the most formidable �terrorist� organizations of the world, what is taking place is the genocide of one of the most ancient cultures of humanity and its righteous aspirations.

Who, other than elements harbouring no national interests of India or regional interests of South Asia could conceive committing such an act?

The so-called final onslaught on Vanni, carried out in collaboration with all authoritarian forces, is aimed at not merely eliminating the LTTE.

The interests of the strategic partners vary and the implications are much greater.

Genocide of Eezham Tamils is the agenda of only the petty Sinhala chauvinists who are subconsciously orientated with the desire of seeing Tamils �naked�, physically and metaphorically, which they have been demonstrating for decades.

No world power can educate them by playing on their side and these powers, which are products of the culture of greed, are not interested in educating them either. Their interest is only playing the card of the majority to get into the Island, in order to begin a new saga of colonialism.

Those who are now not prepared to share the country with their brethren and burst crackers blaring out �Sri Lanka belongs to Sinhalese� are soon going to be in the receiving end, finding that they belong nothing. Their government would have sold out everything by then.

The �terrorism� that actually pinched the world powers is the LTTE�s defiance to play into their hands. What the world powers want to demonstrate in the case example of the Eezham struggle is that no national question or humanitarian question can be successful in the contemporary world without playing stooges to their ambitions of global monopoly, and that nowadays they make no pretensions of such ambitions.

As it has now been judged by these powers that the formidable impediment and a negative inspiration to their interests in the region has been brought to its lowest ebb, they are going to waste no time in filling in the vacuum with a full battalion of quislings, international agencies and �development� agendas.

But, not to talk about self respect, territorial rights and political rights of Tamils.

A taste of what is going to happen can already been seen in US Pacific Command and US Agency for International Development initiating �Development� in Trincomalee.

Whoever is writing the playscript, directing and manning the current war on Tamils, the real war spokesperson who from time to time spills out the actual agenda is Mr. Robert O. Blake, the American ambassador in Colombo.

The immediate agenda implied by him is separating the Eezham Tamils from their fighters and capturing their diaspora.

Reading his saintly advices to the Colombo government on the importance of getting the confidence of Tamils, one wonders what confidence his government and those who are tagged behind it enjoy with Tamils.

The writer is personally aware how US academic agents in the early 1980s advised the Tamil militant groups to get rid of leftists from their ranks and not to talk leftist ideologies if they wanted support from the West.

The Tamil militancy heeded to the advice in the post Indra Gandhi scenario, when India lost the confidence of Tamils, and part of the militancy perished.

The dominant Tamil militancy and the diaspora that upheld the national struggle always had hope with the West and never went against the interests of the West. But the basic national interests cannot be compromised. The struggle was kept intact all these decades because it was not fought by others or not fought at others instance and therefore would continue intact until the aspirations are achieved.

After orchestrating a genocidal war to their geopolitical interests and thinking of carrying it out to its end, it is obvious where the West and India stand in enjoying the confidence of Tamils.

Dislocating the civilians of Vanni and putting them in camps is the immediate task in the minds of the strategic partners.

The camp life for defeated people is nothing new. The people of the Jaffna peninsula are living in an open prison camp for years, its youth getting killed, arrested or disappearing every day. Every night they are terrorized as houses are violated for robberies and atrocities. A situation has been created there that neighbours dare not go for assistance to screaming victims and never even ask what had happened for fear of reprisals.

Rehabilitated people live in clusters in Batticaloa. Human rights violations and killings have only increased manifold after the Colombo government captured the East.

The claimed final defeat of the LTTE is going to worsen the plight of Tamils not only in the Tamil areas but also in the other parts of the island.

In the meantime, the British Deputy High Commissioner is suddenly interested in the life of the people in the Jaffna peninsula and paid a visit there following reports of refugees either captured or arriving from Vanni.

Perhaps the strategic partners may now be thinking of putting human masks to their foxy faces and organize �internationally supervised� camps for the IDPs of Vanni. The money collected by Karunanidhi also may now be spent on them.

But confidence will not come from camps, food and �development�. Confidence comes from respecting the sovereignty of Eezham Tamils for which they are demanding for decades and will continue to demand.

It is folly for both the Tamils and the sane section of Sinhalese to have confidence that peace would return in the island through elements that have instrumented a military solution and have plans to continue strengthening the military. The process would only lead to a modified version of military dictatorship, which is perhaps what the concerned elements are now experimenting in the island.

The biggest loser of the present pace of war is India.

The war will be confined to the island of Sri Lanka and will not spill out to the mainland only as long as the LTTE is in the scene, because of its strong Tamileelam nationalism.

The defeat of the LTTE and an encouraged Sinhala chauvinism are sure to spread the crisis into the mainland. It seems some powers in the world want this to happen to destabilize India in its southern flank.

It is said that a huge amount of unaccounted money reached the hands of the Colombo government from a particular Asian country to be spent in India, and especially in Tamil Nadu, now to help Sri Lanka government winning the war, but in the long run for the crisis to seep into India.

It is also widely discussed in a section of diplomatic circles that the biggest success of Mahinda Rajapaksa was trapping or silencing India.

The establishment in Delhi is embarrassed to open its mouth and tell this because it always bungles Sri Lanka. This time it was personal bias that blinded its eyes not to know friends and enemies and to consider the wider interest of the country and the region. Elements responsible for this sorry state of affairs will go away only when the regime is seen not coming back in the next elections, if it is not prepared to amend its ways.

It is for the people of India and especially for the people of Tamil Nadu to act immediately, before it is too late, to see their government on the right side to check the dangerous trends of affairs in the south.

This is not merely in the interest of Eezham Tamils, but in the interest of Tamil Nadu, India, the whole region of South Asia and above all in the interest of oppressed people all over the world. Otherwise the world will lose faith in its civilization and will more and more resort to the deconstruction of it.

Sections of the Eezham Tamil diaspora hope that Obama will play the saviour. A signature campaign is now organized requesting Obama to address the crisis. There are also sections that want to plead Sonia Gandhi.

The present day experience is that such campaigns are effective only when they are carried out in the interest of powers so that they can quote public endorsement. We are also reminded of the days when Tamils telegrammed Queen Elizabeth when the 1972 constitution that stripped the minority rights was enacted in Sri Lanka.

But, Obama may perhaps act. The haste with which the strategic partners try to eliminate the Tamil struggle before his coming to power, gives rise to speculation for changes in the course.

However, the real hope is the people.

In 1976, the Eezham Tamils have said clearly what they wanted. An overwhelming democratic mandate endorsed it in 1977.

It is time that the Eezham Tamils and its diaspora have to loudly say what they want, not mincing words and stick to it.

The Eezham Tamils suffering in the open prison may have to maintain silence. But the diaspora has to firmly and fearlessly tell the world, tell the RAW and other agents who approach them to capture the diaspora that the Eezham Tamil sovereignty is not negotiable.

The people of Tamil Nadu especially, the people of India in general and the reasonable Sinhala brethren who can understand the Tamil demands are the hope of the situation today.

When it is difficult to capture the minds of people, powers of vested interests capture their elite and leaders. The British imperialism first captured the Brahmins. Today�s imperialism has gone a step further in making governments dummies. As the biggest democracy in the world, considering numbers, people of India have a responsibility to the entire world.

The national question of Eezham Tamils is a question of democracy of the civilized world.

As fellow Tamils, much depends on what the people of Tamil Nadu do now, and do what in the forthcoming elections, in deciding the fate of the region, including their own living space.