The Plight of the Tamils in Sri Lanka

“The present leadership itself is conspicuously spearheaded by a family of four brothers who have surreptitiously master minded in the breaking down and dividing the United National Party (UNP) into two, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) into two, the Sri Lankan Muslim Congress (SLMC) into two, and the Janatha Vimukthi Perumuna (JVP) into two. The Eastern Province’s Muslims and Tamils into two by offering positions and appointing Mr. Pillayan as Chief Minister to the Eastern Province and without forgetting the already merged Northern and Eastern provinces into two separate administrations.”
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(May 26, Jaffna, Sri Lanka Guardian) The minority groups on the basis of religion, race and language have been unjustly oppressed by the Sinhala Buddhist Majority in this country since Sri Lanka obtained its independence from the British. Many political attempts have been made by minority communities (Tamils and Muslims) to place before the Governments of United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lankan Freedom Party (SLFP) that were in power from time to time concerning their grievances for well over 40 years, Fr. Fr. Alfred Alexander of Cenacle of the Divine Healer in Sillalai, Pandatheruppu , said in his letter to Secretary General of the United Nations.

According to his letter one of the copies received by Sri Lanka Guardian, “the Tamil speaking population hoped that the latest All Party Representative Commission’s (APRC) package of 2008, which reflected the good will of many well meaning politicians, would have assuaged the fears and wiped away the tears of the minority to some extent and could have even drawn the LTTE into the mainline politics.”

Here we reproduced full text of the letter,

Cenacle of the Divine Healer,
Sillalai, Pandatheruppu. N.P.
Sri Lanka. (T.N.060-221-7253)
20-05-2008.

Secretary General of the United Nations
U N Secretariat
New York

Dear Sir,

The Plight of the Tamils in Sri Lanka

The undersigned petitioner is a long standing peace activist for more than 30 years.
I am a Catholic Priest belonging to International Religious Congregation of priests and religious. I had been the head of the Congregation in Sri Lanka for 13 years during which time I was elected President of the Major Religious Superiors for 5 years and I played a major role in confidence building and bridge building between the two major ethnic groups of Sinhalese and Tamils leading to the historic signing of the Cease Fire Agreement between the United National Party and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. My articles towards peace activities can be found under Fr. Alfred Alexander SSS on internet.

Communalism:

The minority groups on the basis of religion, race and language have been unjustly oppressed by the Sinhala Buddhist Majority in this country since Sri Lanka obtained its independence from the British. Many political attempts have been made by minority communities (Tamils and Muslims) to place before the Governments of United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lankan Freedom Party (SLFP) that were in power from time to time concerning their grievances for well over 40 years. Although progressive Governments in power acknowledged the grievances of the minorities and agreed upon to find a permanent political solution to their grievances, discrimination of the minorities continued relentlessly to marginalize, especially the Tamils through variety of acts to the extent of the Government Forces closing down the trunk-road called A9 joining the two divides the north and the rest of the country- biggest crime that speaks eloquently of a separation!

It is evident that every grievance or crime perpetrated against the minority was linked up with religious fanaticism of the hard core Sri Lankan Sinhala Buddhists which was and is bent on making the country a Sinhala Buddhist country. Accordingly, once in every five years there had been acts of mass genocides unleashed on the Tamils triggered either by religious or racial sentiments with a hidden agenda to break their educational-economic back bone! This went on unabated until all political approaches by the Tamils failed at the parliamentary level.

It’s only then the Tamil militancy began to be ‘conceived’ in minds of the Tamils. It is important for others, who are not familiar with the political history of our country to understand that it was, in fact, the sheer absence of political will on the part of the Sinhala Buddhist majority within and outside the Parliament that necessitated and precipitated in a freedom struggle of the Tamils living in the North-East provinces. In actual fact it was the Sinhala-Buddhist chauvinism which fathered the ‘baby’ and christened it as ‘terrorism’, which is and was confined only within this country except for the alleged assassination of late P.M. Rajive Gandhi. It is in the course of time and brutality of the forces stationed in the North it developed into a force to counteract State terrorism in Sri Lanak.

Opportunism:

As you understand, Sir, the militant-groups took up arms out of sheer frustration, necessitated by the need to protecting themselves. They saw clearly a vacuum of good will among the Sinhala politicians. This in turn created a culture of opportunism and nepotism within the majority community. President Mahintha Rajapakshe’s Government was the worst of all the other Governments which preceded it. This Government has came to power two years ago through unscrupulously undemocratic means. This flawed procedure was once again witnessed in the Provincial Council election in the Eastern Province on the 10 and 11th of May 2008. The Government is thus already preparing itself to stay on for another seven years through undemocratic means. While making in roads into other parties by luring opportunistic politicians by way of offering positions, perks, privileges, thrones overseas-trips etc.

The present leadership itself is conspicuously spearheaded by a family of four brothers who have surreptitiously master minded in the breaking down and dividing the United National Party (UNP) into two, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) into two, the Sri Lankan Muslim Congress (SLMC) into two, and the Janatha Vimukthi Perumuna (JVP) into two. The Eastern Province’s Muslims and Tamils into two by offering positions and appointing Mr. Pillayan as Chief Minister to the Eastern Province and without forgetting the already merged Northern and Eastern provinces into two separate administrations.

Human Right Violations:

What is even more outrages is the present Government’s actions in unaccountably and boldly embarking itself in endangering the lives and the human rights of the civilians while burying up all evidences pointing to crimes ostentatiously committed by the military in connivance with the paramilitary groups carrying arms and engaged in acts of violence. Abductions, extortions and non summary executions were and are part and parcel of the military which are undoubtedly sanctioned by the heads of the Government for instance when the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) collectively expressed their frustration, to proceed any further with the inquiries of many cases of human right violations brought before them , ‘without the good will of the Government and its assistance’, the Minster in charge of Human Rights, Mr. Mahintha Samarasinghe snapped back at the IIGEP by saying: “If President Mahintha Rajapakshe didn’t have the good will he wouldn’t have invited the IIGEP into the country in the first place!”. A gentleman’s answer no doubt!

From Hope to Despair:

The Tamil speaking population hoped that the latest All Party Representative Commission’s (APRC) package of 2008, which reflected the good will of many well meaning politicians, would have assuaged the fears and wiped away the tears of the minority to some extent and could have even drawn the LTTE into the mainline politics. But alas! It is the Government’s absence of good will, combined with its strategy on “war for peace” caused the minority to suffer more and die in numbers with military aerial bombardments and at the same time being responsible for making the Sinhala masses also to pay with their lives and limbs maimed in explosions ‘in a tit for tat ’ retaliatory manner allegedly done by the LTTE. Though this counter action is not justified by any means but when a war that has been thrust on the defenceless, like air bombardments, compels it to hit back to summon the perpetrator to sanity. Paradoxically, for instance, when the President recently proclaimed to the world, from the Oxford Union Hall in London that, “he is prepared to have talks with the LTTE” and at the same time at home, on the same night, the Prime Minister declares, ‘that Rajapakshe’s Government will somehow eliminate Prabaharan, the leader of the LTTE even with the help of modern weapons!

Full Grown Military onslaught:

What had begun as a language issue about 40 years ago has now blown into a full grown military war that the innocent Tamils were and are being arbitrarily arrested, detained without trial for many years and are finally tortured and killed. This is being carried out under the 20 year old obnoxious law called Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). And there are others who were and are being hunted daily and abducted ruthlessly by men who travel in white vans conspicuously dressed in military uniform and other paramilitary working hand in glove with the government forces. These heartless men mainly prey on Tamil wealth earned through hard and honest labour. I myself have been personally involved in rescuing one Tamil youth on 16 April 2007 from being abducted and killed. It is amusing that I am to be RECOGNIZED for it on the 4th June 2008 by the CIVILIAN BRAVERY FOUNDATION. This in itself speaks a volume of truth!

Another tactic that the present Government persistently employs is to keep the International Community at bay from acting on issues concerning the minorities by repeatedly claiming that “Sri Lanka is a sovereign Country” while at the same time treating the minority as aliens (slaves) imposing mental and bodily hardship on them with impunity. The unquestioned assumption by the Government is whether the Sinhalese alone could constitute the sovereignty of this country? If that’s the case then, to which country should the Tamils belong to? What has the UN got to say about this? Or is it because the International Community feels the S.L Tamils are minorities and its plight simply an ant’s bite on the back of an elephant!?

Seeking the Intervention of UN and EU immediately:

If the Tamil-nation had been marginalized as aliens and pushed out from the Sri Lankan centre to the periphery then who shall it turn to? Today, those of us who are living in this part of the country wish to place all our grievances before the International Court of Justice hoping that it would find a just solution for the surviving “voiceless people” either through political means or even, if necessary, by dividing the country, before the entire Tamil nation is decimated by the Sri Lankan security forces. In fact, the entire Northern Province from where I am writing, is enveloped in a fear psychosis. So much so I myself have taken the risk to place the Tamils’ plight before you Sir, even that too not through normal means! The voiceless people here firmly believe and place their trust in the International Court of Justice which is our last and only hope.

Thanking you, Sir, for your patient study of our plea,

Respectfully Yours

Fr. Alfred Alexander, SSS.
Superior.
- Sri Lanka Guardian