Tamils win the War at Last

By Noor Nizam

THIS IS THE REALITY OF THE SRI LANKAN MISSION OF PEACE BY THE SECURITY FORCES.

(January 16, Toronto, Sri Lanka Guardian) The war on terror in Sri Lanka was a mission of Peace for the whole nation. Fall of the garrison city of Killinochi, followed by Nadunkeni, Oddusuddan and entering Thamilamadam, Elephant Pass and now consolidating their positions there and taking over the main political headquarters of Kilinochchi last week, on their march forward to get Mullaithivu, with only Pudukudyirrupu, Dharmapuram, Vishwamadu and the Muthiyam kattu jungle left to be captured, the Security Forces has made what the international community refused to accept – the freedom of the Tamils happen.

Little do we know how the terror groups in Sri Lanka have been created, nursed and nourished by the foreign forces, International NGO's including suspected UN affiliated Organizations and interested groups over the last few decades? The Security Forces in Sri Lanka have been alive to these phenomena which many have failed to realize, until recently. Evidence clearly indicates that there has been a presence of more than 50 Non Governmental Organization actively engaged in so-called humanitarian assistance and emergency relief aid in the country during the past decades. The noble mission of these organizations has the highest respect for serving the humane cause of those in need and the vulnerable all over the world. The plight in Ceylon and now Sri Lanka had been very different. These NGO's have attempted to categorize the conflict as an "armed struggle conflict and have being calling for the application of humanitarian law", another form of International Law being used to discredit the Sri Lankan government. The Sri Lankan government continues to claim that Tamil resistance is an "internal disturbance", and labels it as "terrorism" according to International Law. Yet the Joint Statement by 17 NGO's at the UN Commission on Human Rights in February 1994 was the beginning of the harassment of the Sovereignty of the State of Sri Lanka by the International and local NGO community. This has never been the same since last year when the Sri Lankan authorities took to task the INGO's and NGO's and all International and UN affiliated Human Right watchdogs - head on to drive the point that the activities of the armed violence, was Terrorism and nothing but Terrorism.

Not only can we strongly point the finger towards India, the big brother neighbour of the little island of Sri Lanka, but there is enough evidence that even European countries including some EU countries and Scandinavian countries, especially Norway have stabbed the back of the democracy of a very peaceful nation that lived in harmony for centuries between the Tamils, Sinhalese, Muslims, Burgers and all other diverse communities. These foreign forces who were welcome with open hands and a smiling innocent Sri Lankan nation, have played a much bigger role under the disguise of providing humanitarian assistance to the vulnerable areas and groups in creating the machines of terror and destruction in a country that lived with peace and harmony among the different diverse communities throughout history with few conflicts, as normal in any part of the world, but resolved through the institutions of democracy.

The culture of armed struggle was thus spread in Ceylon and later Sri Lanka by these evil crusaders of so called Peace and Harmony, Human Rights and Democracy in Sri Lanka .

The beginning of terror in Sri Lanka or for that matter in Ceylon , was never a hindrance to society, until, when Jaffna 's earliest episodes of armed violence took place. Violence began to affect the Tamil landscape as early as 1944 when some caste Hindus gunned down a low caste Tamil as he tried to cremate the body of an old woman of his community at the Villoonri cremation ground in Jaffna . This anti-low caste violence was to continue sporadically over the years. Thus, it can be said that the culture of armed struggle began in Sri Lanka in the form of attacks on untouchables within the Tamil population much earlier than the taking to arms by a group of militant Tamil youth as have been seen during the last 2 decades. The engagements of the Jaffana elites in violence followed subsequently by the Tamil militants turned terror groups since 1970 which ended with the formation of the LTTE in 1972.

THE BIRTH OF THE MILITANT TAMIL MOVEMENT – THE LTTE.

The formation of a militant student body called the "Tamil Students Movement" to protest government plans to limit access of Tamil students to universities gave birth to the LTTE thus. Soon this movement went underground and turned to overt terrorist activities. Violence escalated in Jaffna from 1972 onwards, beginning with the publication of a new constitution seen by the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) as anti-Tamil. The year 1972 saw the formation of two Tamil terrorist groups – the Tamil New Tigers (TNT) and Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO), splinter groups of the original Tamil Students Movement. The other four major groups were the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF), led by K. Padmanabha, the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO), led by Sri Sabaratnam until he was killed by the LTTE assassins in May 1986, the Eelam Revolutionary Organization of Students (EROS), led by V. Balakumar, and the People's Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), headed by Uma Maheswaran. In July 1983, countrywide riots and clashes between Sinhalese and Tamils left thousands of Tamils dead and several hundred thousand as refugees, a shameful chapter in the annals of the regimes of the United National Party (UNP) of which Hon. Ranil Wickremasinghe is the leader today. The UNP political thugs and leading so-called UNP nationalists and trade union bosses are still to be blamed for the violence that was perpetrated on the innocent Tamils, which led to the Tamils completely mistrusting the Sinhalese majority. Large number of Government forces were deployed in the North and East provinces, not to win a militancy struggle against the State, but to oppress it's own citizens. This period marks the beginning of the LTTE guerrilla campaign against the Sri Lankan Government, as written by researchers and media personnel. But the birth of the ideology and vision of the militant groups including the LTTE has a much deeper story than know to all in Sri Lanka or the International Community. However, Eelam's panegyrics to itself and its armed revolution cannot accommodate such uncomfortable facts. Those who celebrated the greatness of the Tamil armed struggle are of course careful to have avoided mention of when Jaffna 's earliest episodes of armed violence took place and against whom these were directed – the Tamils themselves.

Tamil nationalism acquired a real political edge only in the 1940s with the formation of the Tamilar Congress in 1944 and the Tamilarasu Party in 1949. The low cast Tamil mobilization preceded this by a quarter century, with the formation of the Forum for Depressed Class Tamil Labourers in July 1927. The forum launched an agitation for "equality in seating, equality in eating" in 1928 in protest against caste discrimination in schools where low caste children were forbidden from learning or dining with other children. Two years of sustained struggle resulted in an administrative order that in schools receiving government grants/allocations, low-caste children should be allowed to sit on benches instead of on the floor or outside on the ground. In retaliation, high caste Hindu Tamils burnt down 13 schools that implemented the new regulations. And by way of political follow-up, the elite of the Vellala community from Urelu, Vasavilan and Punalakkattavan petitioned the government in 1930 to rescind the equal-seating directive.

The next major effort to thwart rights of the low caste Tamils took place in 1931, when the then British government of Sri Lanka set up the Donoughmore Commission to look into the changes to be introduced in the country's constitution. The commission recommended the introduction of universal adult franchise in Sri Lanka . As a result, the low caste Tamils gained voting rights. Unable to tolerate this development, high caste Tamils, headed by prominent leaders like S Nadesan , launched an agitation.

They were ready to give up their own voting rights to prevent low caste Tamils from getting their right to vote. To demonstrate their social power, they went one step further and imposed several new restrictions on low caste Tamil populations. According to the draconian strictures the adopted, "Untouchable women should not cover their torso and (must) remain half-naked. They should not wear jewels, not use an umbrella, nor use the caste thread in marriages. Their children should not bear the names used by dominant castes. They should not cremate, but bury the dead bodies. They should not use footwear; should not get water from public wells; should not sit in buses; nor send their children to schools". These restrictions were even harsher than the restrictions imposed in the 1930s on Dalits of Tiruchi, Ramanatha-puram district in Tamil Nadu by the dominant Kallar, Maravar and Thevar communities.

With the advent of the left movements in Ceylon then, the influence of the left movements found roots in the Tamil communities as well. Left political aspirants like Mr. V. Ponnambalam, a popular Tamil politician who was with the CP for many years before he left the CP to form the "Red Tamil Movement" which championed the cause of the oppressed, both by being a low caste Tamil himself and for other reasons spread the seeds of socialism among the disgruntled Tamils. This group was generally refered as the "Red Caps" of the Tamil community in the early years. The beginnings of the revolutionary ideology and subsequently the taking to violence thus began to engulf, specially the youth of the Tamil community who belonged to the lower levels of the Tamil caste system in Sri Lanks's North and East. The birth of the LTTE dominated by the youth of the "karaiyar caste or fishing caste" was thus conceived in the history of the annals of the political aspirations of the Tamils of Sri Lanka . As a result, the LTTE was formed in 1972 and carried out its first major armed action in 1978. After the 1983 civil riots, the LTTE gained increased support from the Tamil community and dramatically stepped up it's war against the Sri Lankan army.

THE JVP AND THE ARMY - SINHALESE YOUTH FREED FROM THE IDEALOGY OF ARMED VIOLENCE AND EMBRACE DEMOCRATIC POLITICS.

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) of Sri Lanka was founded on the 14th of May 1965. The 1971 April Up-rising took place as an exercise of self-defense during the continuous capitalist state suppression in which nearly 10,000 members of the movement were slaughtered and about 20,000 members were held in detention in prisons. Later in 1976 as the state of emergency was lifted, the proscription on the party came to an end and the party engaged in mainstream political activities again. In 1983 July the party was proscribed without a justifiable reason and all the steps taken by the party to reverse the proscription were futile. During that time there was a complex political environment in the country and the security engagements were intensified. The majority community government used the armed forces then to crush the Sinhala youth rebellion. Comrade Rohana Wijeweera was arrested and on the 13th of November 1989 and was murdered while in custody. The only surviving political bureau member comrade Somawansa Amarasinghe left Sri Lanka and lead the party from abroad. In 1994 the government had to lift the emergency as a result of the agitations of the people. Though seen as brutal then, the question arises as to whether the security forces won the war on Sinhala terrorism for the people. As a result, the JVP entered the mainstream politics, contested the 1994 General Elections under the party name of National Salvation Front (in coalition with Progressive Front) and won a parliamentary seat in Hambantota district. At the Presidential Elections 1994 the JVP nominated comrade Nihal Galappththi as the National Salvation Front's Presidential candidate. 10 legislators were elected to the parliament at the 2000 General Elections representing the JVP in the parliament and then at the General Election held on 5th December 2001, JVP won 16 seats in the parliament. At the Local Government elections held in 2002, 219 representatives of the JVP were elected. After having discussions for more that 10 months the PA and the JVP formed the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) in January 2004. Having won the election held on 2nd April 2004 the UPFA formed the government. The JVP won 39 seats in the Parliament. The JVP won 80 seats at the Provincial Councils Elections held in 2004. The JVP for the first time in its history was a partner of the Sri Lankan Government, but now in the opposition. It is alleged that, with the assistance of the LTTE, they helped the incumbent President to win the elections at the presidential elections in 2005 with a narrow margin over Hon. Ranil Wickremesinghe of the UNP, the sitting leader of opposition. President Mahinda Rajapaksa His election platform was –

"Democracy will be strengthened and law and order will be established in the country," Mr. Rajapaksa said. "For me, power is not an ornament, but a means to serve the people."

THE NOTION OF A SEPARATE TAMIL STATE .

At a special convention held in Jaffna on 30 January 1972 to consider the draft constitution of the then government of the late Madam Srimavo R.D. Bandaranaike prepared by the Steering and Subjects Committee, the political path taken by the Vellaalar (elite caste) which dominated the political organizations of the Tamil people and the Federal Party leadership were severely criticized by the youth. They told their leaders that Sinhala leaders would never give the Tamils their rights and not to go begging behind these leaders. They called the draft constitution a Charter of Slavery and urged the Convention to reject it. Leaders of the Federal Party obeyed the call of the youth. They passed a resolution rejecting it. But Tamil leaders like , S.J.V.Chelvanayagam declared in 1975 that –

"Throughout the ages the Sinhalese and Tamils in the country lived as distinct sovereign people till they were brought under foreign domination. It should be remembered that the Tamils were in the vanguard of the struggle for independence in the full confidence that they also will regain their freedom". Not withstanding the fact for a thoughtful long term political resolution, then Tamil youth leaders like the late Amirthalingam's Kankesanthurai speech was a reflection of the growing feeling of frustration among Tamil youth.

The youth were telling the leaders to follow the path of the JVP and the Awami League. The JVP revolt and Bangladesh liberation had emboldened them. They realized that the constitution makers were primarily concerned with the consolidation of the power of the Sinhalese and were insensitive to the feelings of the Tamils. The draft of the new constitution then under preparation contained provisions to entrench the unitary character of the state, the official language status for Sinhala and foremost place for Buddhism. Taken together, the three provisions would make Sri Lanka a Sinhala country and make Tamils a subject race. The youths wanted to resist. They were confident they could mobilize the people, as had been done in Bangladesh . They turned more active and assertive. They said Tamils should unite and the leaders should show the way. What Amirthlingam said in Kankesanthurai was what the youths were saying, militant struggle, and, if necessary, bloody struggle and Tamil unity.

Against the backdrop of dissention among Tamil youths, the annual convention of the Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi was held at Mallakam on September 9, 1973. On May 17, 1973, the Action Committee of the Tamil United Front met at the Head Office of the Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi, located at Jaffna . At the meeting, C. Suntheralingham, the leader of the Eela Thamilar Otrumai Munnani, said:

"Our Sinhala brethren are not prepared to share power with us. They are not prepared to treat us as equals. In such a situation, the only way available to the Tamils is to establish a separate state for ourselves." Mr. Suntheralingham then proposed that the Tamil United Front should come forward to take appropriate steps to establish a separate Tamil state. The late Mr. A Amirthalingham, then president of the party, proposed a resolution to change the objectives of the party from Federalism to separatism. He said, "Once it had become clear that we cannot establish our rights with the consent of the Sinhalese people, the only way open to the Tamil nation is to establish self-rule in their traditional homeland in the exercise of the inalienable right of every nation to self-determination."

The vision of the youth was to follow the path of the armed JVP revolt of 1971and the struggle of the Awami League to create a situation similar to that of the Awami League's struggle for a separate state, the state of Eelam.. Bangladesh Liberation Force on November 21, 1971, handed over of the full command and authority of its operations to the Indian armed forces to command the war for a separate state. That led to the separate state of Bangladesh being formed with the help and blessings of the then Indian regime under. Thus the Tamil youth insisted in the leadership that it was the best path to tread on. The JVP revolt and Bangladesh liberation had emboldened them. They realized that the constitution makers were primarily concerned with the consolidation of the power of the Sinhalese and were insensitive to the feelings of the Tamils. The draft of the new constitution then under preparation contained provisions to entrench the unitary character of the state, the official language status for Sinhala and foremost place for Buddhism. Taken together, the three provisions would make Sri Lanka a Sinhala country and make Tamils a subject race. The youths wanted to resist. They were confident they could mobilize the people, as done by the JVP in Sri Lanka and as had been done in Bangladesh . They turned more active and assertive. They said Tamils should unite and the leaders should show the way. What Amirthlingam said in Kankesanthurai was what the youths were saying, militancy struggle, and, if necessary, bloody struggle and Tamil unity. Thus the bloody struggle for Eelam began and has now ended as a bitter war against the LTTE and the security forces in the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka .

ARMED STRUGGLE AND KILLINGS.

The price paid was – nearly 70,000 lives, specially the youth of the Tamil and Sinhalese and a few hundred Muslims and others have lost their lives to this cruel uprising and conflict that has plagued the nation of Sri Lanka for decades. The trauma and pain of mind created to the hundreds of thousands of citizens of the country and the families of the Security forces and the members of the revolting groups who have lost their dear ones cannot be imagined to be under stood. Moreover, the loss and damage to infrastructure and the economy has still to be evaluated and accounted for.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has called the conflict in Sri Lanka a "No Mercy War." This is what the ICRC labeled the terror war in Sri Lanka say:

"It is a war that takes few prisoners, with a high toll in civilian casualties and suffering. Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, which applies to "armed conflict not of an international character," establishes the minimum standards of humanitarian law that the parties to the conflict are bound to apply. Although the government of Sri Lanka is a party to the Geneva Conventions and the LTTE has expressed its commitment to respect them, neither side adheres to them. Both sides were guilty of torture, illegal detention, disappearances and extra judicial execution. There are few prisoners taken, and the numbers of dead are difficult to assess due to a lack of access to the conflict areas.

The failure of the Indo Sri Lankan Peace accord in 1987 and subsequently the failure of the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan Government initiated by the International Community and facilitated by Norway resulted in the withdrawal of the Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission (SLMM), the deceptive foreign peace watchdog that in fact fanned the violence in Sri Lanka, behind the scene of official engagements as a so-called peace keeper.

INGO'S, NGO'S AND UN AFFILIATED HUMANITARIAN AGENCES MISSAPPROPRIATE AID FUNDS DONATED TO THE DESERVING AND VULNERABLE MINORITIES OF THE NORTH AND EAST.

Living on the misery of the Tamils and the Sinhalese with the Muslims sandwiched in-between the LTTE and the Security forces, it was the youth of all these communities that were deceived by these so-called angels of peace who appeared on and off, much frequently as INGO'S, NGO'S and UN affiliated Humanitarian and Relief Aid agencies. These INGO'S, NGO'S and UN affiliated Agencies indeed robbed the Charity (billions of dollars) donated by the innocent citizens of North America, Scandinavia and Europe towards charitable fund raising that these unsculhprous institutions under the disguise of providing humanitarian assistance and emergency relief to the thousands of citizens penalized by the violence. Auditor General's Office of Sri Lanka in 2005 made allegation of massive suspected fraud by the NGO communities where Rs. 3,570,000 (US $ 35,700 million) was reported to be misappropriated. The Auditor General's department has documented these incident as well. Yet the report has not yet been made public. "There is no precise evidence to explain the missing sum of Rs 53,597,253,625 [about US$535 million]." Out of the donor agencies gave about $1.2 billion (having initially pledged about twice as much) donated for the Humanitarian Aid and Relief assistance to Sri Lanka , only the amount spent on tsunami projects is Rs. 68,533,124,662 (about US$685 million), according to the Development Assistance database (DAD). The INGO'S, NGO'S and UN affiliated Humanitarian and Relied Aid groups mainly robbed this charity from the deserving vulnerable people by paying themselves exorbitant salaries and wide ranging expensive perks, which amounted to nearly 35 – 40 % of the charity donations received by these agencies from the compassionate citizens of North America, Scandinavia, Middle East and European nations, while there governments donated the balance through multilateral aid grants to the UN affiliated agencies. Unaccounted amounts of Canadian dollars 475 million by the Canadian Red Cross and hundreds of millions of Norwegian Kroners by Norwegian INGO"S such as Red Barna (Save the Children of Norway) , FORUT and Norwegian Peoples Aid (Norske Folkehjelp) are very good case studies to support this dilemma. Thus the reality of the plight of the Tamils, Sinhalese and the minority Tamil speaking Muslims in the North, North Eastern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka have been a life of discrimination and oppression, both socially and economically, under the actions of militancy, armed struggle, violence and political hegemony of certain groups. The International Aid Organizations have aided and abetted this action since the advent of INGO and NGO activities in the beautiful country of Ceylon and now Sri Lanka which have existed in Peace and Harmony over hundred of years with a vibrant history of tradition and culture, guided by a commitment of deep faith and religion of the different communities, the Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and the Christians.

It is from this discrimination and oppression, both socially and economically, created under the actions of militancy, armed struggle, violence and political hegemony of certain groups and the harmful actions of the International Aid Organizations (INGO'S, NGO'S and affiliated UN Aid agencies in Sri Lanka, that the Security Forces of Sri Lanka have saved the people of the North, North East and Eastern regions of Sri Lanka and the country in general. Thus it has to be concluded that the Tamils who have been the majority community in the North and East who are the victors of the present war as a result of the victory of the security forces.

History will tell whether President Mahinda Rajapaksa was correct in stating in 2005 during the presidential elections that - "Democracy will be strengthened and law and order will be established in the country," Was it that "power is not an ornament, but a means to serve the people." to the President who is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Sri Lanka by Constitutional Rights. Then, this is the reality of the Sri Lankan mission of Peace by the security forces. - Sri Lanka Guardian