Eelam and the new 'super power' Sri Lanka

In their petty geopolitical and corporate interests, India and the West have created a Frankenstein monster of a state in Sri Lanka that disgraces the whole world. What fears them now is this monster in its frenzies making their labours lost in the island. This is what impels them to tell the victims to reconcile, not to anger the monster and not to say genocide even when it takes place for decades. A general excuse they come out with is that the present world has no appetite for new nation states. Colombo makes the best use of this weakness. No justifiable norm of polity could be seen in why India and the West should labour so hard to uphold a united Sri Lanka and to appease it beyond all limits, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo.

A prominent diplomat of a power that invented and indiscriminately pursued the paradigm ‘war on terror’ in the entire world, after around two thousand of its people got killed in a single attack, is privately advising some members of the Tamil diaspora to avoid highly charged terms like ‘genocide’ and ‘Nazi-style conditions' in Sri Lanka to advocate constructively with the Sri Lanka government and the UN. “People in the government and the UN will assume there is no point in engaging you as your mind is already made up,” he says.

Sri Lanka’s foreign secretary and permanent representative to UN, Palitha Kohona explicitly explained the point saying “there isn’t one instance where a winner of a war has been tried before a Tribunal. They have always been set up for losers.”

A few days ago, an article appeared in Tamil in a literary journal of Tamil Nadu substantiated at length, Kohona’s stand. What is conspicuous about the article, apart from the fact that it made abetters of Colombo ‘vindicated’, is its vantage and thrust aimed at capturing the political course of the diaspora. Inferences in the article indicate its origins in the diaspora and not in Vanni.
When there was a long standing demand that the Tamil Nadu state assembly should inspire the world by recognising the national aspirations of Eezham Tamils, and when there should have been no ‘obstacles’ to it as the LTTE excuse was crushed, Karunanidhi government not only chose to openly nullify Eezham Tamil nation, but has gone to the extent of even erasing the word ‘Eezham’ in public places.
Mr. Karunanidhi reportedly told someone who met him that erasing the word Eezham had been the work of ‘central’ agencies. But people believe that Centre has now assigned the task of political subjugation of the question of Eezham Tamils to Karunanidhi. Some obsolete laws of the state have been re-asserted now, aiming against voices supporting the national cause of Eezham Tamils in Tamil Nadu.

Mahinda Rajapaksa set the orchestration sometime back by a draft legislation banning ethnic-orientated political parties in the island and by compelling to EPDP to abandon its identity in the municipal elections in Jaffna.
What is clearly and repeatedly demonstrated by all the Establishments is that the war they commonly waged for varying reasons was not against the LTTE, but against the national aspirations of Eezham Tamils in the island. If not so, their responses should have been different now.
In a negative way they all have recognised the validity of Eezham Tamil nationalism and the global significance of the question. War on terror was a camouflage as there was no moral justification to reject a long-due liberation.
All their intense and aggressive current manoeuvres only show that the war has not been 'won'.
But there is no camouflage for the aggressors and abetters now. So the war of the guilty ones now, shielding behind states and the tag of ‘winners,’ is to use all possible ways - coaxing, lure, money, divide, pressure, coercion and subjugation, to make Tamils on their own give up national aspirations and accept all blame onto themselves.
Colombo is never ashamed of its ‘naked’ chauvinism and will not be at rest until all traces of Tamil identity are erased from the island. Already it has started saying political solution is unnecessary as it is successful in 'emptying' Tamil homeland. In its incurable paranoia this self-proclaimed ‘super power’ is not going to stop with the island. Tamil Nadu and India are the immediate ones going to reap the consequences for the policies followed by them.

Drunk with diplomatic and military victories, Palitha Kohona has formally declared war on Eezham Tamil diaspora, last week. This is going to be waged by diplomatic missions being militarized now. Besides all kinds of acts of subversion by these missions, no diaspora member may able to visit kith and kin in the prisons and open prisons in the island without first getting screened by these missions and for that purpose sacrificing freedom of expression or playing stooges.
In their petty geopolitical and corporate interests, India and the West have created a Frankenstein monster of a state in Sri Lanka that disgraces the whole world. China and Pakistan have only made use of the situation.
What fears them now is this monster in its frenzies making their labours lost in the island. This is what impels them to tell the victims to reconcile, not to anger the monster and not to say genocide even when it takes place for decades. A general excuse they come out with is that the present world has no appetite for new nation states. Had it been some other context the song would have been different.
Colombo makes the best use of this weakness.
No justifiable norm of polity could be seen in why India and the West should labour so hard to uphold a united Sri Lanka and to appease it beyond all limits.
What so ever, how the diaspora is going to comprehend the situation and is going to respond are of paramount importance.
In any such situation there will be always a section of collaborators, citing the immediate plight of people or as Kohona has said, citing “job opportunities, children going to school” etc. Even though there is no history that collaboration with aggression ever produced positive results, let there be no qualms if this section could make anything durable. It is for them to prove to the people.
But the vast majority, who wants to be true to their aspirations, have a historic duty in organising themselves politically without playing in the hands of calculated detractors of Eezham Tamil nationalism and in demonstrating their will power for what they want.
International equations are not going to be the same always, but Tamils need the voice strong to negotiate when changes take place. Strength of any form is what always recognised.
What to do and how to do it democratically have been discussed in many articles appeared in TamilNet, even though being democratic in struggle is not going to keep Tamils away from the wrath of the Sri Lankan state.
The diaspora, which was able to draw all the people to streets for demonstrations, can always do it. It will not fit enough to be a nation if it doesn’t achieve it. If the old generation is disillusioned and if they can’t conceive ways to stand upright, let them not deviate the cause, but concentrate on other activities of developing the nation and leave the matter to the younger generation.
It is detractor’s argument that political organisation in the diaspora for Tamil independence in the island would affect the rhetoric ‘resettlement, rehabilitation and reconstruction.’ On the contrary, it is the political challenge that can expedite any meaningful remedy to the present plight of people. Moreover, collaboration is not going to have any say on the Three Rs as they are going to be determined only by the designs and interests of the aggressors and multi national corporations.
There is no need to tell genuine rehabilitation begins from psychological rehabilitation. After all what has happened, it can come to Eezham Tamils only when their national aspirations are recognised and fulfilled.

Government plans to hold Vanni IDPs in camps for longer period

Northern Provincial Council (NPC) has instructed government authorities to set up offices in Vavuniyaa and its surrounding area to carry out the administration of Ki’linochchi and Mullaiththeevu districts in Vanni which had ceased to function due to the war on Vanni, sources in Vavuniyaa said. Though it is said that the above decision has been taken due to Sri Lanka Army (SLA) refusal to resettle Vanni Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in their own villages in the near future, the real intention of the government is to hold the Vanni IDPs in the detention camps permanently, the sources added.

Government has directed high officials of the NPC to take action to set up temporary buildings along with the government offices in Vavuniyaa to house the government administrative structures of Ki’linochchi and Mullaiththeevu districts.

Besides, all government officials who had been serving in Ki’linochchi and Mullaiththeevu districts and given temporary permission to serve in Jaffna district and other areas have been instructed to immediately return to Vavuniyaa to assume duties.
The temporary permission granted to the above government officials has been cancelled with immediate effort, the sources said.
Though some high government officials had visited Ki’linochchi and Mullaiththeevu districts with the intention of reactivating the administrative structures their efforts had been blocked by SLA.
As SLA refuses to allow Vanni IDPs to be resettled in their villages, government is making plans to hold the IDPs in the detention camps permanently by relocating the entire government administrative structures to Vavuniyaa, the sources said.

Plan to resettle IDPs in the midst of Army and Sinhala settlements

A source close to the President said that the release of IDPs has been postponed indefinitely with the government focusing on a plan to resettle them along with the new Sinhala and military settlements that are to be set up in the north.

The source further noted that the plan is to resettle people in areas in Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, below Mannar and above Vavuniya , where there are currently no people. The plan is said to remove all the old Tamil villages that existed in the respective areas. Although thousands of displaced persons currently living in camps even after completing the security checks, they cannot be released due to the government�s new plan.
According to the Defence Ministry and the Defence Secretary, 10,000 of the 300,000 people living in the displaced camps have been identified to have links with the LTTE. They are currently living in separate camps located within the main IDP camp in Vavuniya.
While former child soldiers of the LTTE are being rehabilitated at the Ambepussa camp, several other LTTE members are held at the Boossa camp.
Half of the government stipulated period of 180 days to resettle the displaced persons has lapsed. The government in order to receive aid from India and other countries said it would resettle the displaced within 180 days.
It is reported that elements opposed to the devolution of power within the government had proposed the above mentioned plan while the others who are supportive of power devolution have objected to it.
Meanwhile, Disaster Management and Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe told parliament on the 19th that the displaced would be resettled by December 31st

'Sri Lanka has imposed iron curtain on refugee camps'

The Sri Lankan government has been accused of dropping a 'modern-day iron curtain' over an unfolding humanitarian crisis in its camps for Tamils displaced by its recent war against separatists.

The British Tamil Forum (BTF), a large group that says it works for Tamil self-determination through democratic means, said 300,000 Tamil civilians are confined in military-run internment camps in Sri Lanka, hidden from the glare of international witnesses.
The Sri Lankan military crushed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May to end a 20-year insurgency but its subsequent policy of confining the war displaced in refugee camps has come in for strong criticism from international aid agencies and media.
'The continuous refusal to engage with international humanitarian organisations and allow access to international monitors and free media places a modern day 'iron curtain' over a humanitarian crisis that no longer takes precedence on the international agenda and gives little hope for the Sri Lankan government's commitment towards reconciliation,' the BTF said in a statement.
'With the ongoing restrictions to aid agencies and international monitors, the true extent of the risks facing these imprisoned civilians remains vastly obscured. These supposed 'welfare camps' lack adequate sanitation facilities and access to clean water,' it added.
The statement, issued on the inaugural UN World Humanitarian Day Aug 19, said heavy rains in the areas of Vavuniya District and Menik Farm have damaged or destroyed up to 1,925 shelters, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The BTF urged international institutions, governments, humanitarian rights groups and humanitarian organisations to help end what it called the 'unprecedented violation of human rights and continuous crimes against humanity' and secure the release of civilians from the camps.
The Sri Lankan government says it needs the camps to screen for fleeing LTTE terrorists.
However, US Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake has made provision of aid conditional on the resettlement of Tamil refugees and progress on 'reconciliation and devolution of power.'