in New York
by Nadodi, October 6, 2004
sangam.org/articles/view2/581.html
http://www.asiasociety.org/speeches/kumaratunga04.html
The caption given to the news item about President’s speech at the Asia Society on September 20 in the Yahoo India news was “LTTE must give up Tamil Eelam demand: Kumaratunga.” This statement of the President is totally out of place and indicates how Kumaratunge tries to deceive an International audience.
Branched palmyra at Vallipuram Temple, photo courtesy www.santhoor.com
What Kumaratunge said at the Asia Society is a downright and deliberate misstatement to say the least, particularly when the International Community (IC) knows fully well that, though the LTTE sought separation for very good reasons, (which most people know and do not bear repetition here), in the interest of peace the LTTE had given up this demand at the Oslo talks of December 2002 in return for fulfillment of Tamil aspirations. The statement issued at end of the talks included the following: “both sides (meaning the government and the LTTE) agreed to explore a political solution founded on the principle of Internal self-determination in areas of historical habitation (meaning the Northeast Province) the Tamil speaking peoples, based on a federal structure within a united Sri Lanka”. This was a major concession by the LTTE, and a historic one at that, and came to be known as the “Oslo Accord”. The whole world came to know of it. As Executive President of the country, which she constantly claims to be the head of, it was her government, which was a party to the Accord. Where was she when this happened? I am sure she was not sleeping. Her speech was a deliberate attempt to mislead the international community, which must have laughed under its breath.
Kumaratunge is used to telling what she thinks the audience likes to hear, and later denying it or changing her views. She tries to get Brownie points and demonizes her opponents, in this case, the LTTE. She is supposed to have said that the “Tamil Tiger guerrillas should explicitly give up their dragging campaign for an Independent Tamil Eelam homeland”. She had also reaffirmed Sri Lanka’s commitment to building a plural society where minorities have equal rights. What was she doing in the more than ten years she was Executive President when she pursued an incongruent “war for peace”, during which the armed forces pursued a scorched earth policy, bombing, shelling and strafing the Tamil homelands indiscriminately, and imposed an embargo on food, medicine and other essential items, a war crime. Lack of equality in law, and in fact, is the single most important problem facing the country. There is no equality in language, religion, development, education and other rights.
Under the dreaded Prevention of Terrorism Act, in force during the President’s entire 2 terms, people can be arrested, tortured and even killed, and their bodies disposed of without them being brought before a judicial officer. Even if there is a semblance of equality in law, it is breached in its compliance and who has the money, time and effort to go through a corrupt and inefficient legal system, which takes years to give a verdict? Could she, for the information of the IC, publish accurate figures of the percentage of Tamils working in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Police, Government jobs, Foreign service, Semi-government corporations, the amount of Development expenditure in the Tamil homelands and outside on a per capita basis, compared to the Sinhalese and their areas? The figures would give the drastic inequality between Sinhalese and Tamils. Could she also give figures of children not attending schools, suffering from malnutrition, or suffering due to lack of medical facilities being bombed out, and the percentage of expectant and lactating mothers comparing them to similar categories in the Sinhalese areas?
In her speech She gave a figure of Tamil Expatriates of 700,000 who give on an average $10 per month to the Tigers. I do not know if she refers to individuals or families. Later, she said that 1,200,000 Tamils left Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the violence. With the natural increase there must be around 1,500,000 living overseas! She also indicated that the expenditure on arms by the government per year is less than $ 7 million. What hypocrisy!
Having found fault with Norway of being pro LTTE, Kumaratunge mentioned that they had worked hard as facilitators for five and a half years.
Kumaratunge said that the Tigers should give up their armed conflict (give up arms). In view of past experience, the LTTE is not naive enough to give up their arms till an acceptable final settlement is reached and acceptable guarantees are in place. She must be joking.
Kumaratunge said that her government (must be referring to the government before the new coalition with the Marxist JVP) was the first to admit that Tamils were discriminated against. Maybe so. She also that she had tendered a national apology for the 1983 pogrom. That is so, but it is small comfort to Tamils who suffered so much of death, destruction, loss of livelihood and other privations. What has she done to give redress? Now her new partners are not even permitting her to talk to the LTTE.
Kumaratunge mentioned that the LTTE walked out of the talks in April 2003. First, it must be remembered that it was the LTTE that first declared a unilateral cease-fire after the 2001 elections. Even in 1994 the LTTE, believing the views expounded by Chandrika during the run up to the elections, declared a unilateral Cease-fire. The Tigers did not walk away in April 2003. During the talks they pointed out that several matters mentioned in the MOU had not been implemented and also that matters agreed between the parties during the talks had not been attended to. It was the failure to get the government to make amends that made them postpone further talks. Perhaps Prime Minister Ranil did not keep Kumaratunge advised of the situation!
Chandrika mentioned that 1.2 million Tamils left Sri Lanka in the aftermath of violence. On an earlier occasion, quoting figures of the Ministry of Rehabilitation, she mentioned that the figure of internally displaced person was a million, most of them displaced a multiple times. You do not have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what percentage of the Tamil nation were affected, considering that indigenous Tamils make up 12 % of the population of about 19 million. According to these figures, the entire Tamil population are refugees!
Kumaratunge said further, “We don’t believe in war. [So, too says the LTTE]. We have offered an extensive form of power sharing”. We have not seen any proposal that indicates power sharing. What has been offered is devolution of some powers. Devolution signifies something that flows from a higher authority to a lower authority.
Kumaratunge is reacting to the LTTE’s Interim Self-Governing Administration proposals, made public a year ago. Most of what has been mentioned in the ISGA proposals are similar to the discussion document dated June 17th 2003 on the Peace process website, yet Kumaratunge’s government has rejected them. There is nothing in the ISGA proposals that is not found in other countries of the world.
What the ISGA proposals are requesting is an interim arrangement till a final settlement is agreed upon. The proposals are based on internal self-determination in the Northeast. They do not address the arrangements in, and relationship, with the rest of the country. A final settlement should be based on internal self-determination in the Northeast and power sharing at the center according to the Oslo Accord.