New Year should be critical year of changes in the freedom struggle! Sri Lanka to be isolated further in the international arena!!
| by Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran
( January 3, 2013, New York City, Sri Lanka Guardian) Just as the world is welcoming with hope and aspiration the dawn of the New Year of 2013, it gives me immense pleasure to extend my New Year wishes to the people of Tamil Eelam, those in Tamil Nadu and indeed all Tamils living across the globe.
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The only resolution to the people of Tamil Eelam, who are a Nation that is subject to genocide by the Sinhala State, would be the establishment of an independent and sovereign state of Tamil Eelam in order to protect their physical survival.
In my New Year message a year ago, I stated that 2012 would turn out to be an important year for all of us.
The year 2012 did in fact emerge as the year in which the Government of Sri Lanka began to encounter challenges and pressures in the international arena.
The US led resolution pertaining to Sri Lanka that was passed at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in March 2012 with the support of India was described by many as the first major political and diplomatic setback for Sri Lanka in the international arena since May 2009. Despite being so far from meeting our expectations, this resolution has pushed Sri Lanka to the centre of international attention in terms of accountability for all of its crimes.
I also stated in 2012 that it was important for our people in the homeland to undertake direct political action, and I assured that the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) was committed to act in the international arena in solidarity with those in the homeland. It heartens us all to note that such direct political actions have been spearheaded in our homeland in 2012.
It is our earnest desire that 2013 also becomes a critical year of changes in the struggle of the Eelam Tamil Nation.
We should take effective measures this year in terms of isolating Sri Lanka further in the international arena.
The struggle by the people in the homeland against the genocidal actions of the Sinhala State should be intensified this year.
It is unavoidable that this year will also refresh in our collective memory the tragedy of thirty years ago in the form of the pogrom of July 1983. The July 1983 pogrom and the May 2009 genocide in Mullivaaikaal stand as stark and bloody reminders of the fact that the Tamil Nation can never live together with the aggressive Sinhala forces.
So it behooves us in TGTE to galvanize the support of the international community for a two state solution as the only option for the national conflict in the island of Sri Lanka and this will be our main political program for 2013.
I wish to reiterate on this New Year day the same message I gave out on the 2002 Martyrs Day, namely, that the two state solution will be eminently compatible with the interests of the international States, and one that will be conducive to the interests of the Sinhala people also.
The only resolution to the people of Tamil Eelam, who are a Nation that is subject to genocide by the Sinhala State, would be the establishment of an independent and sovereign state of Tamil Eelam in order to protect their physical survival. They are entitled to this through the realization of the right to self-determination on the basis of being a people, and on the basis of remedial rights due to them under international law.
Such a two state solution is not at all contrary to the interests of the West, India or any other State. It is in fact compatible with the interests of all those States.
In this connection, it is important to recognize that the Sinhala State is deeply entrenched as a unitary state and is in no mood for considering any kind of reforms. Any proposals for power sharing and decentralization only remain in the realms of fantasy and are no more than just waste of time.
The two state solution has the potential to make way for the Tamil people to live as friendly neighbors with the Sinhala people. But successive rulers in Sri Lanka, through the use of a virulent form of racism, have continued to obtain the support of the Sinhala masses for their anti-democratic actions against the Tamils. In their efforts to subjugate the Tamils, the Sinhala rulers are oppressive of the democratic rights of the Sinhala people as well.
It is time that the Sinhala people realized that their support for Sinhala regimes that continue aggression and genocidal actions against the Tamil people amounts to placing shackles on themselves. This is amply demonstrated by the blatant violation of democratic rights of Sinhala people by the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime today. Until the Sinhala nation realizes that a resolution of the national question requires the recognition of the Eelam Tamil people as a nation, the Sinhala people will not be liberated.
With the aims of strengthening the justifications for the two state solution, mobilizing the Tamils around the globe towards building up the soft power of the Eelam Tamil Nation, and formulating the strategies of the Tamil Eelam struggle in juxtaposition with the evolving geopolitical situation in the Indian ocean, the TGTE is organizing an international conference in the US on May 9-11, 2013. It gives me great pleasure to state that the ‘Tamil Eelam Freedom Charter’ will also be promulgated at this conference pursuant to the resolution passed in the TGTE’s 4th Parliamentary Sessions held recently in London, UK.
I am also pleased to announce that, as a way of intensifying the political dialogue between our government and the people, we will launch an open telephone line on 14 January, 2013, with the international dial-in number (212) 537-4054.
Let us move forward unceasingly in our action with the determination that the New Year will enable us to take effective moves in our journey towards liberation!
The Thirst of Tamils is Tamil Eelam.
