Tamil News Media in Sri Lanka have printed a story reporting that PM Modi is a strong candidate for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. The Mothers of Missing Tamils urge instead that “the Nobel Prize committee to use this opportunity to push for Tamil sovereignty or a safe mechanism to protect the Tamils from genocide.”
The following statements were made in Vanni by the mothers of missing Tamils:
Today is the 2222nd day of our continuous struggle to find the missing Tamil children, save Tamils from future genocide and get help from US and EU in achieving Tamil sovereignty.
Rumors have been circulating that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a ‘top contender’ for the Nobel Peace Prize.
On March 16, the Norwegian Nobel Committee Vice President Asle Toje responded in an interview that this is “fake news.”
The Nobel Peace Prize historically has been awarded to those who have worked to bring peace to warring nations, resolve civil conflicts, or deliver freedom to oppressed people. Examples include Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Menachem Begin, Anwar Sadat, Jose Ramos-Corta and others.
The massacre, forced displacement and systematic rape unleashed by Pakistani forces against the Bengalis in East Pakistan in eight months in 1971 killed an average of 375,000 people per month. Overall, 3 million people died. The genocide in East Pakistan prompted Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to invade East Pakistan. Eventually the Pakistan Army surrendered to the Indian Army. Indira Gandhi should have received the Nobel Peace Prize for ending the massacre and liberating East Pakistan from West Pakistan.
PM Modi’s Nobel Peace Prize depends on how free Tamils in the Northeast are. But Mr. Modi has done nothing to save Tamils from ongoing genocide in our homeland.
During his visit to Sri Lanka in 2019, Mr. Modi promised Tamils a cooperative federation. Prime Minister Modi has done nothing to improve the situation of Tamils.
For Modi to merit the Peace Prize, first he should help find the missing Tamils, release all the so-called Tamil political prisoners, and take direct action to stop the genocide, rape, kidnapping, military occupation, land grabbing, demolition of Hindu temples and construction of Buddhist temples, harassment of Tamils by Sinhalese intelligence agents and destruction of Tamils’ homes and farms. Perhaps this even means the kinds of measures that Indira Gandhi undertook in East Pakistan/Bangladesh. We the Mothers of Disappeared Tamils say that Prime Minister Modi does not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize until the Tamils are freed.
We want him to earn this honor, but he needs to do much more for the cause of a true and lasting peace in Sri Lanka. To win the Nobel Prize, Modi must liberate the Tamils from oppression and occupation and bring Tamil sovereignty to the Tamils.
Useful Link:
All Nobel Peace Prizes
Link: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/lists/all-nobel-peace-prizes/
1971 war: The story of India’s victory, Pak’s surrender, Bangladesh freedom
Link: https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/vijay-diwas-how-india-ended-pak-s-atrocities-and-ensured-freed-bangladesh-118121600120_1.html
The Independence of Bangladesh in 1971
Link: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/the-independence-of-bangladesh-in-1971/
