Today we ask how Tamil sovereignty can be achieved. We want address the topic in depth.
Today is July 23. We all know what happened on this day forty years ago, the beginning of the genocidal Black July attacks.
On this day, Tamils started leaving our homeland. As long as Tamils live, we will never forget this day and the actions of Sinhalese leaders, including Minister Ranil.
Today is the 2345th day of our continuous struggle to find the missing Tamil children, to save Tamils from future genocide and to once again request help from the US and EU toward the goal of Tamil sovereignty. In front of Vavuniya courthouse, we are continuing our journey in this booth on A-9 road.
Diplomats and international journalists have visited our booth and offered advice in a number of ways. We understand their thinking about our missing Tamil children. Most of the missing in Sri Lanka are still living with the Sinhalese or are being held in military camps, and some are living outside Sri Lanka as slave laborers or sex slaves.
They also said that we need to explain why we need a political solution, especially to the US, Canada and the European Union. We have to continuously explain again and again the need for external pressure to bring about a referendum for Tamil sovereignty.
Tamils have failed to adequately explain the crisis to the whole world, what we seek and why, and how it will help Tamils. We have failed to explain as well what tools we will use to achieve our political solution.
Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau, one of the main leaders of Western countries and NATO, has declared that what happened to the Tamils in Sri Lanka is genocide. What Prime Minister Trudeau is saying is that the UN’s R2P should allow Tamils to leave the Sri Lankan political system.
If the Sinhalese-dominated government and the majority of the Sinhalese population and want to destroy the Tamils, then the only way for the Tamils to escape genocide is to have a defined land and their own political rule. This is called sovereignty.
Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau said that Tamils could not live with a Sinhalese majority under a unitary government. What Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau is telling Tamils is that neither the 13th Amendment nor federalism is a tenable solution for Tamils when Sinhalese aggression is at its peak. Neither of these is a solution or a tool to prevent genocide.
Sampanthaan and the Tamil National Alliance continue to preach a united, indivisible and undivided country. But Sampanthan tries to manipulate the psychology of Tamils so that Tamils accept their losses and Sinhalese central authority, hoping that the the promises represented by the 13th Amendment will be kept. Sampanthan feels that Tamils should not ask for more autonomy after having lost the war.
That is wrong. Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau is not the only one who recognizes the genocidal actions in Sri Lanka and the danger of these becoming worse. The United States, the European Union, as well as the United Nations Human Rights Commission all perceive the threat.
Talking about the 13th Amendment and “Federalism” is absurd and useless for Tamils.
India will not force Sri Lanka into any political solution. If India offers to help solve the political problem of Tamils, the Sri Lankan government will not listen.
We need to look at our problems and explain them to North Americans and Europeans, particularly the following:
- How to expel the Sinhalese Army and Sinhalese intelligence agencies from Tamil land
- How to stop the military drug culture that is destroying our younger generation
- How to stop the nightly crimes of pro-government criminals in our homeland
- How to avoid further killing of Tamils by Sinhalese such as the massacres that happened in 1958, 1977, 1983 and 2009
- How to save our Hindu Temples and Lands from Bhikkhus, Archaeologists, Mahavali development, Forest Renovators, and goons
- How to improve our education systems and create more jobs in high technology
- How to take political power to govern ourselves
- How to prevent Chinese encroachment in the Tamil Homeland of the North East
- How to stop serial arrests and disappearances
We can list many questions and concerns. We must present these facts to every rich and powerful nation. We should ask them to help free us from these abuses and end these atrocities.
If US intervention was able to lead to referendums for sovereignty in East Timor, Kosovo, South Sudan and many other countries, we should ask them why a referendum is not possible for the Tamils.
Tamil diplomatic emissaries should be sent to European and North American capitals to encourage these governments to support the referendum. This is what the US ambassador indirectly told Gajan Ponnambalam.
Thank you
G. Rajkumar
