 TAMIL
EELAM:
RIGHT TO SELF DETERMINATION
Statement by the Non Governmental Organisation Liberation
at United Nations Commission on Human Rights
Geneva 31 January 1991
"The people of Tamil Eelam have suffered enough and have waited long enough
for their human rights. Today, they are a people who can no longer be denied
their right to self determination"
The systematic violations of human rights by the Sri Lanka government over a
period of four decades are well documented and are, clearly, no accidental
happenings. They constitute evidence of the resolute and determined effort of an
alien Sinhala majority to subjugate and assimilate the people of Tamil Eelam
within the framework of a unitary Sinhala Buddhist Sri Lankan state.
The people of Tamil Eelam have suffered enough and have waited long enough
for their human rights. Today, they are a people who can no longer be denied
their right to self determination.
The views of Dr.Hector Gros Espiell in his report for the United Nations
Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination of Minorities in 1980, deserve
our renewed attention:
" Every people subject to any form or type of colonial or
alien domination possesses the right to self determination, and
no distinction can be drawn between one people and another for
the purpose of recognising the existence of this right if there
is evidence of colonial or alien domination of the people or
peoples in question"
We also urge the Commission to give careful consideration to the comments of
Professor Leo Kruper in the Minority Rights Group Report on International Action
against Genocide in 1982:
"...genocide continues to be an odious scourge on mankind... there are also
at the present time many immediate issues related to genocide which call for the
most urgent action... (such as) the communal massacres in Sri Lanka...some of
these genocidal massacres arise out of struggles for greater autonomy, and might
be regulated by recognition of the right of self determination..." (Minority
Rights Group Report: International Action Against Genocide)
We believe that it is a matter of immediate importance that the Sri Lankan
government should be called upon to .. secure a political settlement of the
conflict within the framework of human rights and the right of self
determination of the people of Tamil Eelam. |
