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Sathyam Commentary
2 October 2007 - Commemorating
the 138th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi
and the United Nations International Day of Non
Violence
The Moral Legitimacy
of the
Tamil Eelam Struggle for Freedom
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Truth
is a Pathless Land
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'..If someone asks
me when and how the struggle may end, I may say that,
if the entire community manfully stands the test, the
end will be near. If many of us fall back under storm
and stress, the struggle will be prolonged. But I can
boldly declare, and with certainty, that so long as
there is even a handful of men true to their pledge,
there can only be one end to the struggle, and that is
victory...' Mahatma
Gandhi's Pledge of Resistance in Transvaal, Africa,
1906
[see also International
Dimensions of the Conflict in Sri Lanka - Nadesan
Satyendra - a revised and extended version of a key note address
delivered at a Seminar on International Dimensions of
the Conflict in Sri Lanka presented by the
Centre for Just Peace & Democracy (CJPD) in
partnership with TRANSCEND International
in Luzern, Switzerland, 17 June 2007. ]
The Tamil Eelam
Struggle for Freedom is lawful and it is
just...
…because democracy
means the rule of the people, by the people, for the
people and therefore, no one people may rule another;
and
…because the struggle
of the people of Tamil Eelam is about securing freedom
from oppressive alien Sinhala rule…
Sinhala rule is alien
rule …
…because the Sinhala
people speak a different language to that of the Tamil
people; because they trace their history to
origins different from
that of the Tamil people; and because their
cultural heritage is different to that of the Tamil
people.
Sinhala rule is alien
rule …
… because the political
consciousness of the Sinhala people and the way they
exercise their vote, is clearly determined by their
separate language, by their separate history and by
their separate cultural heritage - in short by their
own separate
Sinhala national identity
Sinhala rule is alien
rule …
… because no Tamil has
ever been elected to an electorate which had a majority
of Sinhala voters and no Sinhalese has ever been
elected to an electorate which had a majority of Tamil
voters; and
…because a Sinhala
Buddhist ethno nation masquerading as a civic '
multi ethnic Sri Lankan nation', will always have a Sinhala
Buddhist as the executive head of
government.
Sinhala rule is oppressive alien rule …
…because the record proves and proves
beyond all reasonable doubt that the practise of
democracy within the confines of a single state has
resulted in genocidal rule by a permanent Sinhala
majority…
...because the Sinhala Buddhist nation
masquerading as a
multi ethnic 'civic' 'Sri Lankan' nation set about
its task of assimilation of the people of Tamil Eelam
by
- depriving a section of Eelam Tamils of
their citizenship,
- declaring the Sinhala flag as the national
flag,
- colonising parts of the Tamil homeland
with Sinhala people,
- imposing Sinhala as the official
language,
- discriminating against Tamils students
seeking University admission,
- depriving Tamil language speakers of
employment in the public sector,
- dishonouring agreements entered into
with the Tamil parliamentary political
leadership,
- refusing to recognise constititutional safeguards
against discrimination,
- later removing these constitutional
safeguards altogether,
- giving to themselves an authocthonous Constitution with a
foremost place for
Buddhism,
- and changing the name of the island itself
to the Sinhala Buddhist name of Sri Lanka -
appropriately enough, on the 'tenth day of the
waxing moon in the month of Vesak in the year two
thousand five hundred and fifteen of the Buddhist
Era'.
Sinhala rule is oppressive alien rule
…
...because Paul Sieghart ,
International Commission of Jurists and British
Section, Justice was right to conclude in March 1984
that "…communal riots in which Tamils are killed,
maimed, robbed and rendered homeless are no longer
isolated episodes; they are beginning to become a
pernicious habit." [see 1956, 1958, 1961, 1974, 1977, 1983]
Sinhala rule is oppressive alien rule
…
...because the inevitable
rise of Tamil armed resistance to
state oppression
was met with enactment of laws which were an 'ugly
blot on statute book of any civilised country',
with arbitrary arrest and detention,
torture,
extra judicial
killings and massacres, indiscriminate aerial bombardment and
artillery shelling, wanton rape, and
genocide - together with press
censorship, disinformation and murder of
journalists.
Sinhala rule is oppressive alien rule
…
...because the impunity granted to Sinhala armed
forces, para military groups, goondas and Sinhala thugs, exposed the
encouragement, support and direction given by
successive Sri Lanka governments for the crimes
committed against the Tamil people.
The Tamil Eelam Struggle for Freedom is
lawful and it is just...
... because the Joint Front of Tamil
Liberation Organisations was right when it
declared with
unanimity
at the Thimpu Talks in 1985: ''We are a liberation
movement which was compelled
to resort to the force of arms because all force of reason had failed
to convince the successive Sri Lankan governments in
the past. Further under conditions of national oppression and the
intensification of state terrorism and genocide
against our people, the demand for a separate state
became the only logical expression of the oppressed
Tamil people. Our armed struggle is the manifestation
of that logical expression.''
The Tamil Eelam Struggle for Freedom is
lawful and it is just...
... because it is a cruel
extension of the terrorist scourge to taunt the
struggles
against terrorism with the label "terrorism" and
the
Geneva Declaration on the Question of Terrorism was
right to 'call for the liberation of
political language along with the liberation of
peoples' and point out that 'terrorism originates from
the statist system of structural violence and domination
that denies the right
of self-determination to peoples'.
The Tamil Eelam Struggle for Freedom is lawful and it
is just...
... because Sri Aurobindo was right when
he declared in 1907 that: "..it is the common habit of
established governments and especially those which are
themselves oppressors, to brand all violent methods in
subject peoples and communities as criminal and
wicked. When you have disarmed your slaves and
legalised the infliction of bonds, stripes, and death
on any one of them who may dare to speak or act against
you, it is natural and convenient to try and lay a
moral as well as a legal ban on any attempt to answer
violence by violence... But no nation yet has listened
to the cant of the oppressor when itself put to the
test, and the general conscience of humanity approves
the refusal..."
The Tamil Eelam Struggle for Freedom is
lawful and it is just...
...because today, the Sinhala
Sri Lanka government as well as the Sinhala Sri Lanka
opposition seek to pursue the Sinhala assimilative
agenda by reneging on the 2002 Oslo
Declaration, by refusing to recognise the existence of the Tamil homeland, and
by perpetuating a Sri Lankan state structure within
which the Tamil people may continue to be ruled by a permanent Sinhala
majority.
The Tamil Eelam Struggle for Freedom is
lawful and it is just...
...because the genocidal
intent of the Sinhala Sri Lanka government is proven
by the war crimes committed by the Sri
Lankan armed forces under the President's command
and by the Sri Lanka para military who in the shadow of a ceasefire, have raped,
murdered Tamil Parliamentarians, Tamil journalists, executed
Tamil students with impunity, arbitrarily arrested and detained Tamil
civilians, abducted Tamil refugee workers,
orchestrated
attacks on Tamil civilians and Tamil shops,
bombed Tamil civilian population
centres and displaced
thousands of Tamils from their homes.
The Tamil Eelam Struggle for Freedom is
lawful and it is just...
....because "...the problem
in nationally divided societies is that the different
groups have different political identities, and, in
cases where the identities are mutually exclusive (not
nested), these groups see themselves as forming
distinct political communities. .. if the minority
group seeks to be self-governing, or to secede from the
larger state, increased representation at the centre
will not be satisfactory. The problem in this case is
that the group does not identify with the centre, or
want to be part of that political community...One
conclusion that can be drawn is that…
secession/partition of the two communities, where that
option is available, is the best outcome overall.
.." Normative
Justifications for Liberal Nationalism - Margaret
Moore, 2001
The Tamil Eelam Struggle for Freedom is
lawful and it is just...
...because "… the
principle of territorial integrity protects a state
only against invasion of its borders and not against
internal rebellion... Lord Robert Cecil once justly
observed that the main cause of recurrence of wars was
precisely the permanent freezing of state frontiers. In
a recent New York Times article, human rights activist
Yelena Bonner (widow of Andrei Sakharov) writes that
"the inviolability of a country's borders against
invasion from the outside must be clearly separated
from the right to statehood of any people within a
state's borders." Visuvanathan
Rudrakumaran in The Tamils' Quest for
Statehood
The Tamil Eelam Struggle for Freedom is
lawful and it is just...
... because"...restrictions
on self-determination threaten not only democracy
itself but the state which seeks its legitimation in
democracy...Let us accept the fact that states have
lifecycles similar to those of human beings who created
them. … hardly any Member State of the United
Nations has existed within its present borders for
longer than five generations. The attempt to freeze
human evolution has in the past been a futile
undertaking…" Self
Determination & the Future of Democracy - Prince
Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein, 2001
The Tamil Eelam
Struggle for Freedom is lawful and it is
just...
because "a social group, which shares
objective elements such as a common language and which
has acquired a subjective political consciousness of
oneness, by its life within a
relatively well defined territory, and by its struggle against alien
domination, clearly constitutes a 'people' with the
right to
self determination and ...the Tamil population of
the north-east of the island are such a 'people'." -
Joint Statement by 17 NGOs at United Nations Commission
on Human Rights Geneva 4 February 1994 consisting
of International Association of Educators for World
Peace, International Educational Development,
International Indian Treaty Council,Consejo Indico de
Sud America, Comision de Deeches Homonas de El
Salavador, Commission for the Defence of Human Rights
in Central America, World Council of Churches,
International Movement against all Forms of
Discrimination and Racism,Action des Christians Pour
L'Abolition de la Torture,FIMARC, International Council
of Women, American Association of Jurists, Centre
Europe-Tiers Monde, Servieiv Pax Justica America
Latina, Pax Romana, International League for the Rights
and Liberation of Peoples, and World Christian Live
Community
The Tamil Eelam Struggle for Freedom is
lawful and it is just...
....and therefore it has received
the support of legal scholars and non-governmental
organizations "We request that the delegates to the
49th Session of the Commission on Human Rights.. accord
open recognition to the existence of the Tamil homeland
in the North and East of the Island; and recognise that
the Tamil population in the North and East of the
island constitute a 'people' with the right to self
determination''
Joint Statement by 15 NGOs consisting of the
International Organisation for the Elimination of all
Forms of Racial Discrimination, International
Educational Development, Centre Europe Ties Monde,
International Indian Treaty Council, Fedefam,
Association paur la Liberte Religiose, Codehuca, World
Christian Community, Pax Christie International,
International League for the Rights and Liberation of
Peoples, Movement contra le Racisme, International
Association of Educadores for World Peace,
International Association against Torture, World
Confederation of Labour, and International Movement for
Fraternal Union among Races and Peoples. at United
Nations Commission on Human Rights, Geneva 8 February
1993
The Tamil Eelam Struggle for Freedom is
lawful and it is just...
... because the Gandhian
Tamil Leader S.J.V.Chelvanayagam Q.C. M.P. was right
when he
declared 32 years ago, on 7 February 1975
"Throughout the ages the Sinhalese and Tamils in the
country lived as
distinct sovereign people till they were brought
under foreign domination... 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."
The Tamil Eelam Struggle for Freedom is
lawful and it is just...
...because the people of
Tamil Eelam were right to give their overwhelming
support in 1977 to the manifesto of the parliamentary
Tamil United Liberation Front proclaimed which
proclaimed "What is the alternative now left to the
Nation that has lost its rights to
its language, rights to its citizenship, rights to
its religions 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 that our
fore fathers ruled. Sinhalese imperialism shall
quit our Homeland"
The Tamil Eelam Struggle for Freedom is
lawful and it is just...
... because Velupilllai
Pirabaharan, the Leader of Tamil Eelam was right
when he declared : "We are not chauvinists. Neither are
we lovers of violence enchanted with war. We do not
regard the Sinhala people as our opponents or as our
enemies. We recognise the Sinhala nation. We accord a
place of dignity for the culture and heritage of the
Sinhala people. We have no desire to interfere in any
way with the national life of the Sinhala people or
with their freedom and independence. We, the Tamil
people, desire to live in our own historic homeland as an independent nation, in peace, in freedom
and with dignity."
The Tamil Eelam Struggle for Freedom is
lawful and it is just...
...because it is not for
glory or riches that the people of Tamil Eelam struggle
but for freedom which no
human will lose except with his life
The Tamil Eelam Struggle for Freedom is
lawful and it is just...
...because உங்கள்
உடல்கள்
சாய்ந்ததால்,
எங்கள்
தலைகள்
நிமிர்ந்தன..
இன்று..
நாங்கள்
வெறும்
கவிதை
பாடிக்
கொண்டிருக்கிறோம்..
நீங்களோ..
காவியமாகி
விட்டீர்கள்..
…in sum,
The Tamil Eelam
Struggle for Freedom is lawful and it is
just...
…because it is
concerned to secure the
democratic right of the people of Tamil Eelam to
govern themselves in their homeland… and
....because it is about
reversion
of sovereignty - a sovereignty that the Tamil
people enjoyed before the British unified the
administration of the island of Sri Lanka in 1833;
and
...because the charge is genocide but
the struggle is for freedom
And the Tamil Eelam Struggle for Freedom
will succeed...
...because Mahatma Gandhi was
right when he
declared in Transvaal, South Africa one hundred
and one years ago "..If someone asks
me when and how the struggle may end, I may say that,
if the entire community manfully stands the test, the
end will be near. If many of us fall back under storm
and stress, the struggle will be prolonged. But I can
boldly declare, and with certainty, that so long as
there is even a handful of men true to their pledge,
there can only be one end to the struggle, and that is
victory..."
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