Open Letter to Mr. Malinda Seneviratne

by Mak S. Makenthiran, BA, FCCA(UK)

This has reference to your article in Lakbima under the  heading “Let’s take S.M. Krishna seriously.”

You have referred to India as a regional thug. Is not Singhalese dominated Sri Lanka a thug within the country? Singhlese having defeated Tamil resistance by their sheer numbers, are now terrorising the defenseless Tamil people through the Singhalese army of occupation imposed on the Tamil homeland of North and East of Ceylon.

From the very year Ceylon was given independence by the British in 1948, the Singhalese have been behaving like thugs and persecuting the Tamils. The depriving of the entire Upcountry Tamils of their citizenship and voting rights in 1948 was an act of racism by Senanayake and a great injustice to the Tamil people. This was followed by the Singhala only Actin 1956 depriving the language rights of the Tamil people, inspite of the stiff ressistance by the Tamils.

Then followed the infamous Srima-Sastri Pact in the 1960s,forcible sending half million Tamils from the Upcountry Tamils to India.

Srimao brought in Standardisation to prevent Tamils entering higher education, restricting Tamils entry into Government services, police and armed forces. Sri Lankan army is now 99% Singhalese.

You are not unaware of the anti Tamil riots by the Singhalese in 1956, 1958, 1971 and 1983. Singhalese thugswith the support of the Singhalese army and Police, looted, massacred, raped und uprooted Tamils all over Sri Lanka. Singhalese convicts planted in the Tamil homeland of Eelam massacered Tamils with impunity. The Tamils had no armed forces to protect themselves and had to flee in large numbers to their homeland in Northeast endearingly refered to as Mother Eelam.

You are not unaware that the Singhalese have succeeded in throwing out about 1 million Tamils out of Sri Lanka by violence and intimidation throughout Sri Lanka. Tamils have sought refuge in India, UK, Canada, Australia, Europe, America and all over the world.

You are not unaware that Tamil youth took up arms and fought the Singhalese to protect the Tamil people, and ultimately succeeded in creating a Tamil mini state of Eelam in the Tamil homeland of North east. The 30 years of civil war ended in the defeat of the Tamil Tigers in May 2000, and the victory of the Singhalese over the Tamils. You Singhalese are now enjoying the spoils of victory, which was temporarily prevented by the Tamil Tigers. You Singhlese were enjoying the spoils of peace after independence gave you unlimited control over the defenceless Tamil people, till the Tamil youth took up arms to defend their people. Now we Tamils are back to sqare one as we were in 1948 at time of independence.

The Tamil Tigers made a fool of themselves by fighting the Indian Peace Keeping Force and allegedly killing Rajiv Gandhi who sent in the IPKF. The Tamil Tigers also blundered by killing Amirthalingam, Sabaratnam and other Tami leaders. They committed many strategic blunders and antagonised many. They were splendid fighters but not good in diplomacy.

We will not forget how the Singhalese under the command of Sarath Fonseka, placed 300,000 Tamils who surrendered, in concentration camps without proper food, clothing and shelter, toilet facilities and amenities of life for months and still keep about 30,000 in the internment camps behind barbed wires. The Sri Lankan government is holding in jails 11,000 Tamil suspects without trial indefinitely for many years. We have received credible reports of war crimes committed on the Tamils by the Singhalese armed forces during the civil war. Many Tamils have been tortured. Tamil girls have been raped and humiliated. Under Emergency regulations, the Singhalese army and police are arresting Tamils and extorting ransom for their release.  The Sri Lankan government keeps extending emergency regulations to commit crimes against Tamils even though they claim to have eliminated terrorism completely.

While Tamil refugees are languishing without homes to live, Singhalese are occupying Tamil lands and homes with government patronage. Tamil people are unable to go back to their homes even after one and a half years of the end of the civil war because the Singhalese are expanding the High Security Zones in the Tamil homeland.

The Tamils will leave no stone unturned until the Singhalese guilty of war crimes are brought to justice. Mahinda Rajapakse, Gothabaya Rajapakse, Sarath Fonseka, Shavendra Silva, Palitha Kohonne et al, will have to be brought to justice like the Nazi war criminals were done by the Israelis.

The Tamils in Sri Lanka are helpless under the jack boot of occupying Singhalese armed forces. Under the circumstances the Tamil Diaspora under Rudrakumaran have declared a Trans National Goverrnment of Tamil Eelam after holding elections around the world where Tamils live, with a cabinet and ministries. Although pro Singhalese writesr like D.B.S. Jeyaraj has ridiculed TNGTE as comic, we take TNGTE as serious as Dalai Lama's Provisional Government of Tibet. The Tamil Forums are also espousing the Tamil cause. The cause of Eelam will be kept alive till the situation turns in our favour.

Please remember that we Tamils are down but not out. We are 700,000 Tamil people all over the world. Although Indian government has jettisoned us, there are embers that can conflagarate any time. Nedumaran, and Y. Gopalaswamy have not abandoned the Tamils. Seeman is in jail for supporting the Tamil cause. We belong to the 1 billion Hindu community. The BJP, Siva Sena, ADMK, PMK, Chiruthaigal, Nam Thamilar and other Tamil organisations have not forgotten the Eelam Tamils in the hour of their need. Unfortunately, Karunanithy is unpredictable.  We have to wait and see how Jayalalitha will handle the Tamil Eelam issue.

It is my firm conviction that a permanent solution to the Eelam problem can only be solved by Eelam federating with India with our own Chief Minister, Cabinetand Legislature, like Pondichery. We have missed a great opportunity during the time of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi due to the lack of foresight of our leaders. The Singhalese will continue to persecute the Tamils and the thuggery will only stop when India intervenes.

I would request you to respond to my comments. I am releasing this to the media.