Ilankai Tamil Sangam
Association of Tamils of Sri Lanka in the USA
Published by Sangam.org
by Nadesan Satyendra, TamilNation, April 6, 2009
Let me now turn to the third matter - and that is what appears to be your acceptance of the view held by President Rajapaksa's genocidal regime that whatever may be the political solution it should be a 'post conflict' one. Given the genocidal onslaught launched on the Tamil people during the past several months, I trust that you will agree that 'post conflict' in this context means 'post genocide'. Here I believe that it is helpful to point out that genocides do not just happen. Mao Tse-tung's famous dictum that the guerrilla moves amongst the people as a fish swims in the sea has brought with it the counter guerrilla strategy of draining the sea. |
Your letter of 23 March 2009 to the Honorable Mary Jo Kilroy was of particular interest because you mention that Congresswoman Kilroy's letter had touched on 'many of the points that State Department officials have raised in meetings with Sri Lankan government officials in Washington, as well as in Colombo, Geneva, and New York.' I felt that a closer examination of that which you have said may be helpful. You say that 'a lasting peace in Sri Lanka will only be achieved through political inclusion of all of Sri Lanka's minority communities'. You add that you 'continue to urge the Sri Lankan government to devise a post-conflict political solution that will demonstrate to Sri Lanka's Tamil population and the Tamil Diaspora that the government is serious about political inclusion.' Here, three matters arise. One, is your reference to Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka as one of 'Sri Lanka's minority communities'. The second is your reference to 'political inclusion'. And the third that you envisage that the political solution, whatever it may be, will be a 'post conflict' one. Let me examine each of these three aspects of US policy in turn. Minority Community Your view that the Tamils who inhabit the north and East of the island of Sri Lanka are simply a 'minority community' does not accord with the political reality on the ground. You will, of course, be not unaware of the declaration by the Gandhian leader of the Tamil United Liberation Front, Mr.S.J.V.Chelvanayagam in 1975, on winning a mandate for Tamil Eelam -
"It is a regrettable fact that successive Sinhalese governments have used the power that flows from independence to deny us our fundamental rights and reduce us to the position of a subject people. These governments have been able to do so only by using against the Tamils the sovereignty common to the Sinhalese and the Tamils." "I wish to announce to my people and to the country that I consider the verdict at this election as a mandate that the Tamil Eelam nation should exercise the sovereignty already vested in the Tamil people and become free." The historical fact is that 'the Sinhalese and Tamils in the country lived as distinct sovereign people till they were brought under foreign domination' in 1833. And the record proves that during the past 60 years and more, the national identity of the Tamil people has been consolidated by oppressive rule by a permanent alien Sinhala majority within the confines of a single state. I urge you to recognise that the Tamils who inhabit the north and East of the island of Sri Lanka are not simply one of Sri Lanka's 'minority communities' but that they constitute a nation of people and that the conflict in the island concerns two nations who speak different languages, who trace their history to different origins and who live by and large in different territories. You may query: what after all is a nation? And I would respond that a nation is a community of people, whose members are bound together by a sense of solidarity, a common culture, a national consciousness -
I urge you to accept the view expressed by 15 Non Governmental Organisations 1 at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Geneva on 8 February 1993 that 'the Tamil population in the North and East of the island of Sri Lanka are a 'people' with the right to freely choose their political status' -
I also urge you to recognise the force of reason in that which 17 non governmental organisations2 told the UN Commission on Human Rights at its 50th Sessions in February 1994:
You may query: what does it matter whether the Tamil population in the North and East of the island constitute a nation? In what way does that impact on the political resolution of the conflict in the island of Sri Lanka? The relevance relates to your stated view of the need for 'political inclusion' and 'credible power sharing'. And it is to this matter of 'political inclusion' and 'credible power sharing' that I now turn. Political Inclusion The 'political inclusion' of the Tamils as a people must begin by recognising their existence as such a people.
The 'political inclusion' of the Tamils as a people must also begin by recognising the existence of their homeland. And the words of Sathasivam Krishnakumar in 1990 remain true today -
I urge you to recognise that the struggle for Tamil Eelam is about the democratic right of the people of Tamil Eelam to govern themselves in their homeland - nothing less and nothing more. Democracy and the right to self determination go hand in hand. I urge you to recognise that one cannot exist without the other. If democracy means the rule of the people, by the people, for the people, then the principle of self determination secures that no one people may rule another. The ground reality is that during the past 60 years and more, no Tamil has ever been elected by a Sinhala majority electorate and no Sinhalese has ever been elected by a Tamil majority electorate. Rule by a permanent ethnic majority is the dark side of the practise of democracy within the confines of a single Sri Lankan state. I urge you to recognise the underlying truth behind that which Professor Marshall Singer said in 1995 -
I urge you to recognise the underlying truth that in Sri Lanka a Sinhala ethno nationalism has sought to masquerade as a Sri Lankan 'multi ethnic secular civic' nationalism albeit with a Sinhala Lion flag, an unrepealed Sinhala only Act, with Buddhism as the state religion and with a Sinhala Sri Lanka name which it gave itself unilaterally in 1972. "...In the Sinhala language, the words for nation, race and people are practically synonymous, and a multiethnic or multicommunal nation or state is incomprehensible to the popular mind. The emphasis on Sri Lanka as the land of the Sinhala Buddhists carried an emotional popular appeal, compared with which the concept of a multiethnic polity was a meaningless abstraction..." - Sinhala Historian K. M. de Silva in Religion, Nationalism and the State, USF Monographs in Religion and Public Policy, No.1 (Tampa, FLA: University of South Florida 1986) at p31 quoted by David Little in Religion and Self Determination in Self Determination - International Perspectives, MacMillan Press, 1996
I urge you to recognise that an 'inclusive political solution' must address the political reality on the ground - and that is that 'a multiethnic state is incomprehensible to the popular (Sinhala) mind' and that the emphasis on Sri Lanka as the land of the Sinhala Buddhists carries an emotional popular appeal, compared with which the concept of a multiethnic polity is a meaningless abstraction. A principle centred approach to the conflict in the island of Sri Lanka will need to recognise that the 'problem in nationally divided societies is that the different groups have different political identities, and, in cases where the identities are mutually exclusive (not nested), these groups see themselves as forming distinct political communities.'
I urge you to recognise that peace will not come in the island of Sri Lanka without recognising the separate 'political identities' (and therefore the separate 'national identities') of the Tamil people and the Sinhala people who inhabit the island of Sri Lanka. Post Conflict Let me now turn to the third matter - and that is what appears to be your acceptance of the view held by President Rajapaksa's genocidal regime that whatever may be the political solution it should be a 'post conflict' one. Given the genocidal onslaught launched on the Tamil people during the past several months, I trust that you will agree that 'post conflict' in this context means 'post genocide'. Here I believe that it is helpful to point out that genocides do not just happen. Mao Tse-tung's famous dictum that the guerrilla moves amongst the people as a fish swims in the sea has brought with it the counter guerrilla strategy of draining the sea. You will recall that it was a strategy which was spelt out with remarkable candour by US supported Guatemala Gen. Efrain Rios Montt in the 1980s - "The guerrilla is the fish. The people are the sea. If you cannot catch the fish, you have to drain the sea." That Gen. Efrain Rios Montt, led some of the worst atrocities against the indigenous Maya people in Guatemala showed that for him, like Mao Tse Tung, theory was a very practical thing.
President Rajapaksa has chosen to follow in the footsteps of Guatemala Gen. Efrain Rios Montt . The Tamil people will be thankful that you have not followed in the footsteps of President Ronald Reagan and described Sinhala Sri Lanka President Rajapaksa as 'a man of great personal integrity and commitment' concerned to 'improve the quality of life for all Sri Lankans and to promote social justice'. The Tamil people will also take some re-assurance from the words of President Clinton in March 1999 -
I urge that the US does not repeat the same mistake. I urge you to attend to the words of Benjamin Valentino, Paul Huth and Dylan Balch-Lindsay in 2004 -
The mass killings by President Rajapaksa's armed forces is proof of the high levels of active support that the LTTE has received from the local population. Indeed, it will be fair to say that if the LTTE did not enjoy that support, the Rajapaksa regime would not have found the need to resort to genocide to drain the sea. Unable to catch 'the fish', the murderous President Rajapksa regime (like the equally murderous regime of Guatemala Gen. Efrain Rios Montt), has sought to drain 'the sea' by resort to genocide - and imprisoning those it has failed to kill off in concentration camps called welfare villages.
But, the actions of Muthukumar, Ravichandran, Thamil Venthan, Sivaprakasam and Muruguthasan suggest that as President Rajapaksa drains the sea, he is also feeding the fire. I am reminded of something which Savyamurthy Thondaman who served as a Minister in President Jayawardene's cabinet said in March 1992 -
You say in your letter that you have 'called on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to allow civilians freedom of movement and to discuss modalities for ending hostilities.' You also say that you have 'condemned the actions of the Tamil Tigers who are reported to be holding civilians as human shields, and to have shot at civilians leaving Tiger areas of control'. I note that you have been cautious and referred to the actions of the LTTE as having been 'reported.' Given the control of the media by the President Rajapaksa regime and the disinformation campaign carried out by his regime, you are right to be cautious. Said that, calling the sea in which the guerrilla swims as a 'human shield' is misleading as that would suggest that the responsibility for the continuing genocide somehow lies with the resistance movement. It is unfortunate that the US policy that you have adumbrated in your letter, labels the 'sea' in which the guerrilla swims as a 'human shield' and appears directed to help draining the sea by evacuating the Tamil civilian population from their homeland in the Vanni to camps - albeit supervised/overseen by the international community so that the US and the 'international community' (presumably not including China and/or Iran and/or even India) may secure their own physical presence in the island, through international NGOs and/or the United States Pacific Command. It is an approach that has led some Sinhala writers to draw their own conclusions -
Given all the foregoing I have tried to understand the reasons for your denial of the justice of the struggle of the people of Tamil Eelam for an independent state - an independent state which may associate on equal terms and in freedom with an independent Sinhala Sri Lankan state. As I had pointed out in an open letter to Senator Kerry on 19 February 2009, it is not that the US does not have an understanding of the issues in relation to the conflict in the island of Sri Lanka. You will recall the statement by US Congressman Mario Baggio in the US House of Representatives many years ago in May 1980 -
You will also recall the resolution of US Massachusetts House of Representatives in June 1981 calling for the Restoration of the Separate Sovereign State of Tamil Eelam -
I urge you to accept that states have lifecycles similar to those of human beings who created them and that restrictions on self-determination threaten not only democracy itself but the state which seeks its legitimation in democracy -
I trust that you will not take it amiss if I urge you to revisit your words in October 2007 -
A principle centered approach which will 'inspire and attract' will also need to draw a distinction between violence and terrorism. The two words are not synonymous and much confusion arises by conflating the two. All violence is not terrorism and an US approach which liberates political language will also help liberate peoples who have taken up arms as a last resort in their struggle for freedom from oppressive alien rule. I urge you to accept that there is a compelling need to attend to the conclusions of the UN Special Rapporteur, Kalliopi K. Koufa in 2004 -
International Frame As I have said, I have tried to understand the reasons for your denial of the justice of the struggle of the people of Tamil Eelam for an independent state - an independent state which may associate on equal terms and in freedom with an independent Sinhala Sri Lankan state. I am driven to the conclusion that it is the dynamics of the balance of power in the Indian Ocean region that leads you to give your support to the continued existence of an undivided Sri Lanka. It appears that the US is concerned that support for an independent Tamil Eelam may lead to an increased Chinese/Iranian presence in Sinhala Sri Lanka and in the Indian Ocean region. This is not dissimilar to the concern of India in 1980s that support for an independent Tamil Eelam may result in President Jayawardene turning more to the US. The record shows that Sinhala Sri Lanka has exploited the balance of power triangle (US - India - China) in the Indian Ocean region by engaging in a 'balance of power' exercise of its own by handing over parts of the island (and the surrounding seas) to India, US and China. We have India in the Trincomalee oil farm, at the same time we have a Chinese coal powered energy plant in Trincomalee; we have a Chinese project for the Hambantota port, at the same time we have the attempted naval exercises with the US from Hambantota (to contain Chinese presence in the Indian Ocean); we have the grant of preferred licenses to India for exploration of oil in the Mannar seas, at the same time we have a similar grant to China and a 'road show' for tenders from US and UK based multinational corporations; meanwhile we have the continued presence of the Voice of America installations in the island and the ten year Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA) was signed by the United States and Sri Lanka on 5 March 2007. Said all that, you will ofcourse recognise that a 'post conflict', 'post genocide' Sri Lanka will prove to be no different to Saddam Hussien's Iraq which the US supported in Iraq's war against Iran. I have no wish to sound patronising but George Santayana's remark that 'those who do not learn from history are condemned to relive it' continues to remain true.
Murderous regimes who have acquired a propensity to murder will continue to murder to stay in power. The murder of Sinhala editor Lasantha Wikremaratne is a case in point. Shift Happens Again, I am not unmindful of the issues raised by Al Qaida, the US presence in Afghanistan and the US need to secure the support of Pakistan. Nor am I unmindful of the global financial/economic crisis, its impact on US foreign policy and your declared view that your 'relationship with China will be the most important bilateral relationship in the world in this century'. I am also not unmindful that the US may regard today's world as an 'unipolar world with a multilateral perspective' whilst others may regard today's world as an 'asymmetric mutipolar world' and still others may see it as an 'emerging bi polar world'. For those who have lived through the collapse of sterling as the world trading currency, the depression of the 1930s, the rise of Germany and the eventual carnage of World War II, there may be a sense of deja vu - a compelling sense of familiarity. Shift happens.
I recognise that today, the US is a debtor country and that the role of the US dollar as a world trading currency is under threat.
Way Forward Given all this, there are two ways in which the world may go in the aftermath of the current global financial/economic crisis. One will be the path that was trodden in the 1930s, the jostling for narrow national advantage, leading to world wide conflict when push comes to shove - with China being cast in the role of Germany in the 1930s. The other is for all of us to learn from the lessons of the past and resolutely seek a principle centred approach to the resolution of conflicts between peoples and recognise the enduring wisdom of Charles Chaplin in the Great Dictator -
A principle centred approach will need to pay more than lip service to that which the peoples of the world proclaimed in the preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 10 December 1948 in the aftermath of World War II -
In this day and age, the approach spelt out by India's External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee in October 2008 is nothing short of neanderthal and a regression to the politics of the old cold war -
The United States, India and China will want to recognise that the Indian Ocean is nobody's 'backyard'. Neither is it a playground. The Indian Ocean is a major sea lane connecting Middle East, East Asia and Africa with Europe and the Americas and for any one country to claim hegemony is the path not to peace but to confrontation and perpetual conflict.
A principle centered approach will also want to recognise that, significantly, the day before the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, on 9 December 1948, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide which declared, inter alia
Here I urge you to give credence to your responsibility to protect by strengthening the capacity of the people of Tamil Eelam to resist the genocidal onslaught launched on them by Sinhala Sri Lanka and to that end, remove the ban that you have imposed on the LTTE - rather than await its annihilation and await a 'post conflict' solution from President Rajapakasa's regime. At the risk of repeating myself may I say that 'post conflict' means 'post genocide'. And for President Rajapaksa 'inclusive political solution' means that which the Sinhala Buddhist ethno nation may offer to a conquered people so that Sinhala Buddhist hegemony may be secured in the island for the forseeable future within the confines of a so called Sri Lankan 'civic nation/state' with a Sinhala Sri Lanka name (which it gave itself unilaterally in 1972), with a Sinhala lion flag, with an unrepealed Sinhala Only Act and with Buddhism as the State religion. I urge you to accept that human rights activist Yelena Bonner (widow of Andrei Sakharov) was right when she declared
I believe that the long term strategic interests of the United States will not be furthered by steadfastly defending the inviolability of territorial boundaries of existing states, regardless of how and when they were determined. That will not be the path to a stable world order. Time will ofcourse, tell.
There is a need for the US to defend the very real values that a people stand for and speak from the heart to the hearts of those people. These are the values which the Obama administration has pledged to uphold. 'Values are the essential principles of life without which life would be without meaning – things would fall apart, and the centre cannot hold. They are agents of social cohesion'.
I urge you to recognise that the United States has an opportunity to make Sri Lanka a model and help it to evolve, by negotiating, two autonomous democratic political structures within a system acceptable to both parties,
Yours sincerely, Nadesan Satyendra |
1. International Organisation for the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination, International Educational Development, Centre Europe Ties Monde, International Indian Treaty Council, Fedefam, Association paur la Liberte Religiose, Codehuca, World Christian Community, Pax Christie International, International League for the Rights and Liberation of Peoples, Movement contra le Racisme, International Association of Educadores for World Peace, International Association against Torture, World Confederation of Labour, and International Movement for Fraternal Union among Races and Peoples 2. International Association of Educators for World Peace, International Educational Development, International Indian Treaty Council, Consejo Indico de Sud America, Comision de Deeches Homonas de El Salavador, Commission for the Defence of Human Rights in Central America, World Council of Churches, International Movement against all Forms of Discrimination and Racism,Action des Christians Pour L'Abolition de la Torture,FIMARC, International Council of Women, American Association of Jurists, Centre Europe-Tiers Monde, Servieiv Pax Justica America Latina, Pax Romana, International League for the Rights and Liberation of Peoples, and World Christian Live Community |
Text of Letter also in PDF THE SECRETARY OF STATE March 23. 2009 The Honorable Mary Jo Kilroy Dear Mary Jo Thank you for your March 9 letter expressing concern over the humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka. Your letter touched on many of the points that State Department officials have raised in meetings with Sri Lankan government officials in Washington, as well as in Colombo, Geneva, and New York. We agree that a lasting peace in Sri Lanka will only be achieved through political inclusion of all of Sri Lanka's minority communities. We continue to urge the Sri Lankan government to devise a post-conflict political solution that will demonstrate to Sri Lanka's Tamil population and the Tamil Diaspora that the government is serious about political inclusion. We have called on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to allow civilians freedom of movement and to discuss modalities for ending hostilities. In the past week, State Department officials have engaged the Sri Lankan government on the humanitarian issue. On March 13, I called Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to express my deep concern over the deteriorating conditions and increasing loss of life in the Sri Lankan government-designated "safe zone." In my conversation with President Rajapaksa, I emphasized that the Sri Lankan Army should not fire into areas where civilians are trapped in the conflict zone. I urged President Rajapaksa to devise a political solution to the ongoing conflict, and pressed him to give international relief organizations full access to the conflict area and displaced persons camps, including screening centers. I condemned the actions of the Tamil Tigers who are reported to be holding civilians as human shields, and to have shot at civilians leaving Tiger areas of control. Due in part to the State Department's efforts here in Washington as well as our Embassy's tremendous work in Colombo, access for the international organizations to the safe zone has improved. However, much more remains to be done, particularly in allowing medicine into the safe zone and stopping the shelling. On March 15 and 16 the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was able to evacuate over 900 wounded people from the safe zone and will likely conduct additional evacuations in the coming days. In addition, the World Food Program completed a shipment of 500 metric tons of food on March 13 and another shipment of 500 metric tons on March 19. The majority of this food assistance has been donated by the U.S. government. The State Department continues to press the Sri Lankan government to provide adequate conditions in internally displaced persons' camps. We have urged, and the government has agreed, to allow UN agencies and the ICRC greater access to the camps, including monitoring the treatment of displaced persons. We also continue to press the government to permit full ICRC and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees access to all screening centers. The international community has started planning for the post-conflict period and remains committed to returning displaced persons to their homes as quickly as possible. The international donor community in Sri Lanka has also agreed on certain guiding principles for post-conflict donor assistance. These principles include the Sri Lankan government's good faith effort towards political inclusion, credible powersharing, and respect for human rights. Sincerely yours, Hillary Clinton |
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