The abandoned Tamils of Sri Lanka must derive strength in isolation

By Sridas Sivasambo

(March 27, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) It is somewhat heartening to note that the mainstream media in Canada, at least now, has started noticing the humanitarian catastrophe playing out in a far off island once described as the pearl of the Indian Ocean. Those desirous of seeking out the truth should have no difficulty discerning the fact that there is no "chicken or the egg" quandary here. The root cause for the blood bath being witnessed is indeed oppression of a minority race with attempts at subjugating it to second class citizens status as the penultimate step to genocide. Whilst adopting every known method possible the most resorted to was arrogant appropriation of territory under some pretext to alter the demographics by state aided Singhalese colonization.

Non violent political protests for the past five decades or more had been of no avail. Armed struggle ensued. The mass uprising the Singhala government had to face was too much for it to handle alone and it had to seek help from outside. India had been more than willing to help, ostensibly to discourage separation with its logic that it would be detrimental to the unitary status of India, the world’s largest democracy held together with a fragile union of mainly linguistic States. The Indian intelligence agency, the RAW apparently was handed the brief and they started operations no different to that of the CIA.

The modus operandi commenced with the RAW initiating internecine conflict, aimed at segregating the like-minded militant outfits with separate leaders but with the common goal of winning the rights of the Tamils. For the opposition to government to be effective, it was realized that there had to be a monolithic entity answerable only to the cause. True, the anointing of the LTTE to its current role had been with considerable loss of lives, victims being those who crossed its path ideologically. The LTTE is yet suffering from the stigma in addition to providing dissidents ready to be exploited by the government. Thanks to RAW which had been directly responsible for the internecine blood bath assisted by the so called IPKF (Indian Peace Keeping Force) brought in to implement, the road map chalked out by RAW. The IPKF, losing sight of its terms of reference behaved like an occupying army in the north, committing all manner of atrocities against the Tamil population. The LTTE which strengthened its ranks, in the mean time, proved too much for the IPKF which eventually had to stage an un-ceremonial exit from the country.

RAW indeed failed in its mission though it succeeded in cultivating a formidable crop of Tamil dissidents for its future plans of breaking the Tamil resolve, one way or another.

The Norwegian government brokered a peace agreement between the antagonists, the government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE, on the basis of an MOU (memorandum of understanding) between equal partners, froze territorial positions as of a given date and required both parties to refrain from any combat related activity. Maintaining status quo both parties were expected to work towards a negotiated settlement with assistance from the international community, duly respecting the Singhalese majority’s position and the reasonable aspirations of the Tamil people. Several rounds of talks ensued.

The talks were doomed to fail from the start as would be attested to by impartial observers. It was very clear that the Singhala government, having decided to carry through its original agenda of Tamil genocide, never intended to concede anything whatsoever by way of autonomy to the Tamils. Therefore the talks were never undertaken with even a semblance of earnestness. It was an exercise in futility. In hind sight, the international community cannot escape the conclusion that the Sri Lankan government went through the motions, prodded by the international community even though they never cringed at blaming the LTTE for intransigence. Such is its probity.

Thereafter, the international approach to the issue was noticed to undergo a metamorphosis. It was seen to facilitate a new direction, overtly partial to the Sri Lankan government. The LTTE was declared non persona grata by bush by listing it as an FTO with malice and absolutely no provocation and this was soon followed by Canada and the European Union. To the Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora this was a hit below the belt. Very soon it became clear that the whole world was ganging up against the Tamils of Sri Lanka and the moves were just part of the general orchestration for a concerted military solution, while paying lip service to a "negotiated solution".

The next move was the unilateral abrogation of the 2002 peace treaty by the government of Sri Lanka which never adhered to stipulations of the treaty, in the first place. With moral, technical and economic support from India the Singhala government embarked on outright war against the Tamils, declaring to the world that they were fighting terrorists. Tamil civilians are being deliberately targeted with its skewed rationale that all civilians in the Vanni are LTTE supporters and therefore they are all terrorists. By extension, majority of the Tamils from Sri Lanka, irrespective of their current domicile are LTTE supporters and therefore Tamils are terrorists !

An average of 70 to 100 tamil civilians are being killed in the Vanni daily, since January this year with assistance from India, Pakistan and China. The whole world is watching this unprecedented human carnage, adequately documented by independent media, despite total government black-out of third party reporting from anywhere close to the theatre of war. The government version of events are freely distributed to the foreign main stream media. These concoctions, far removed from the truth, serves as fodder to heartless main stream reporters needlessly poised against the Diaspora Tamils agonizing over the inhuman treatment to their loved ones back home. These media people assume safe passage to their contrived logic by invoking the FTO status objectively assigned to the LTTE. It would appear that none of them are concerned about the human suffering in the Vanni which brings the Canadian Tamils wailing to the streets of Toronto and elsewhere. Some of the observers even complain that they are required to wade through a crowd of demonstrators to catch a bus or a train, losing a few precious minutes. Of course, they are not bothered about loss of precious lives of the kith and kin of fellow Canadians, the reason for the Demonstration.

In a country which draws ire when a dog or a cat is subject to cruelty it is strange indeed that there is no manifestation of indignation learning about the genocidal onslaught on the Tamils in Vanni. Yes, there had been a five hour special debate in the Canadian Parliament which has only been a forum where the government announced financial assistance of a paltry $ 4.5 million for the victims and, for all purposes, washed its hands off. Canada, with the maximum number of Tamil immigrants,in the whole world deserve something better than this. It should be spearheading moves to get the U.N. involved with an International peace keeping force. It supported the oppressed in the apartheid regime in S.Africa. Why can it not do the same when a ruthless regime is overtly involved in genocide of the minorities?

The international community tenders the advice: " get the LTTE to drop arms and the war will be over". Instead of pressuring the Sri Lankan Government to redress the grievances of the Tamils which is the reason for the conflict they want the oppressors to get away with all their crime against the minority Tamils. This advice should remind us the story of the French Emperor who, hearing complaints from his subjects: "we have no bread to eat" said "then eat cake".

Tamils have been abandoned by the world community. This is the poignant truth and they really do not know what they did or did not do to deserve this. Apart from seeking divine assistance to assuage their predicament they would wish such to no other humans on the face of this earth.

-Sri Lanka Guardian