Sri Lanka Should Seize The Opportunity
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We welcome heartily what our External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukerjee has significantly said at Thoothukudi on 28th February on the civil war between the majority Sinhala Nationality and the minority Tamil Eelam Nationality in Sri Lanka:
“The Indian government views with great concern the humanitarian crisis that is building up with every passing day in Sri Lanka. There are reports that over 70,000 civilians are trapped in the conflict zone and there is acute shortage of food, water and medicines.”
He further pointed out, “ it is reported that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has offered a cease-fire. While this may fall short of a declaration of willing ness to lay down arms, it is our view that the Government of Sri Lanka should seize the opportunity presented by the opponent to bring about a pause in hostilities. The Government of India would, therefore, appeal to the Sri Lankan Government to immediately work out safe passage for trapped civilians to secure locations and this would require the cooperation of the LTTE too.”
The minister has also indicated that the pause in hostilities “must be utilised to facilitate the movement of the Tamil population out of the war-affected areas to secure location where proper rehabilitation is possible and international aid organisations as also the ICRC have free access and scope to provide medical and other form of humanitarian aid.”
He added that India was making arrangements to send an emergency medical unit and medicines to render assistance to internally displaced persons in north Lanka.
The cease-fire and shifting of civilians to safety should be followed by “effecting a proper devolution of powers to the provinces, with assurances of equality and equal rights to all citizens, particularly the Tamil people, within the constitutional framework of Sri Lanka maintaining its territorial integrity.”
Mr. Mukherjee has expressed the hope that the Government of Sri Lanka and all others will respond to his sincere appeal made in the interest of all sections of the people in Sri Lanka.
Hon’ble Chief Minister Kalaignar Karunanidhi’s untiring efforts - even during his hospitalisation for a surgery - have begun to bear fruits. He formed Sri Lanka Tamils Welfare and Protection Forum and a Sub-committee of legal experts . He constanly appealed to the UPA Chairperson, the Prime Minister and the External Affairs Minister to undertake all possible steps to stop the genocide and bring peace permanently to Tamils.
It is very unfortunate that politics was inducted even in this important common humanitarian ethnic issue of protection of Tamils. Inspite of it we see the twilight! Let there be a dawn.
Vested interests present the civil war in Lanka as the government’s fight against terrorism; it is a gross misrepresentation of the real issue. The Eelam Tamils have their own rich language with classical tradition dating back to more than two thousand years. Their traditional Home Land comprises the contiguous region in the north-eastern part of the island of Sri Lanka.
After Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon) got freedom from the British rule, the majoritarian regimes of that country are systematically taking discriminatory and harmful measures against the Tamils there. Sinhala alone is made the national language, and Buddhism the national religion. The Tamil language and the multi-religious tradition of the Tamils are relegated to a secondary or subordinate position. Their traditional homeland in the north-eastern part of the island is colonised in a planned manner with active government support with the sinistar motive of making Tamils minorities in their own land.
It is against these unjust and exploitative measures, the Federal Party of S.J..V. Selvanayagam, his colleagues and followers agitated in a peaceful manner. But their protests were met with brutal suppression by the successive Sinhala majoritarian regimes. The solemn agreements the government entered into to ameliorate the hardships and the miseries of the Tamils were repeatedly violated, and they were forced to live in insecurity. There was absolutely no scope to redress their conditions by democratic methods. It was under these circumstances the Sri Lankan Tamils, after more than twenty years of fruitless constitutional struggle for a federal polity, voted overwhelmingly for a liberated Tamil Eelam. Subsequently, the hard-hearted, unbending and inhumanly cruel attitude of the Sri Lankan rulers forced the youth to take up arms to protect their lives, honour, property, culture and homeland.
The truce effected in 2002 by the Norwegian initiative and the subsequent peace talks came to an end because of the obduracy, adamant stand the deliberate decision of the Mahinda Rajapaksha’s government. Army, navy and airforce were used to suppress the country’s own citizens. Cluster bombs are mercilessly dropped. Civilians, young and old including children are killed in thousands. Eelam Tamils are put to genocide. Major powers like the U.S.A., the European Union, Japan , the U.N. and Canada have asked to stop the war and find a just negotiated settlement. The Government of India has repeatedly made its stand clear on the same lines on more than one occasion.
The people of Tamil Nadu in India are pained beyond measure to see their kith and kin put to untold misery and genocide. With solidarity they have shown their anguish and anger in various ways. Though we totally disapprove of the tragic method, more than half a dozen persons of Tamil Nadu have killed themselves to draw attention of the international community to the untold sufferings of the Eelam Tamils and to urge the regimes to take effective steps to stop the genocide.
We earnestly hope that the announcement of our external affairs minister and the measured steps of our Chief Minister Kalaignar in cooperation with Union government will lead to a satisfactory peaceful solution to the decades long Sri Lankan problem.
