UK Should Restore the Sovereignty of Tamil Nation

By Malarthamil

(February 17, Bangalore, Sri Lanka Guardian) On February 12 2009, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom appointed the Right Honorable Des Browne MP as his Special Envoy for Sri Lanka to focus on the immediate humanitarian situation in northern Sri Lanka and the Government of Sri Lanka’s work to set out a political solution to the ethnic conflict.

But the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his cabinet said the appointment was “unhelpful” and was made without consulting them. A foreign ministry statement said the appointment was tantamount to an “intrusion of Sri Lanka’s internal affairs”, accusing the UK “unilaterally” appointing him.

However any political observer can conclude that the appointment of Special Envoy only shows the historical continuity of the close involvement of UK in the politics of the Sri Lanka in the last two centuries .and if watched in that context it is clearly understood that Sri Lanka is accusing UK for interference only to cover up the failure of the Sri Lankan state in their commitments towards the Tamil people.

Portuguese took possession of the island in 1505 when there were Two Sovereign Sinhalese kingdoms in the south west and One Sovereign Tamil Kingdom in the north east OF Sri Lanka. Dutch usurped control in 1658 and British took over only in 1796.

In 1799 , Sir Hugh Cleghorn, the first British Colonial Secretary wrote to the British Government… ….Two different nations from a very ancient period have divided between them the possession of the Island. First the Sinhalese, inhabiting the interior of the country in its Southern and Western parts, and secondly the Malabars (Tamils) who possess the Northern and Eastern Districts. These two nations differ entirely in their religion, language and manners…..

It is to be noted that Portuguese and Dutch ruled the Tamil and Sinhala Kingdoms separately, but, the British artificially joined them for their administrative convenience only in 1833. However in 1948 British left the Island leaving it as one country, Ceylon.

It is a Historical mistake of the British empire to hand over the sovereignty of Tamil Land which they usurped in 1796 to the Sinhalese in 1946. Therefore the UK has to address the injustice it has caused to the Tamil speaking population in Sri Lanka. Particularly when the authorities of the Sri Lankan Government are openly declaring that the island belongs to Sinhala only, rejecting the existence of Tamil Home Land in the north and east of the island, whatever agreement Sinhalese have signed with the British empire in 1946 has become null and void which brings the UK to have a reason to interfere in the internal affairs of Sri Lanka.

Therefore the people of the Tamil Nation in Sri Lanka have great expectations with Mr. Des Browne and are eagerly waiting to see what kind of steps he could take to end the genocide of Tamils and to restore the sovereignty of Tamil nation in Sri Lanka. This is the responsibility of the Queen of the United Kingdom which could not be absolved any more.

( Malarthamil is a civil engineer and writer-poet.)

-Sri Lanka Guardian