Tamil Forum Switzerland (TFS) in a letter has thanked Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh for meeting the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians led by Parliamentarian R. Sampanthan during his visit to Sri Lanka for SAARC Summit.
TFS, on behalf of the Swiss Tamil Forum--an umbrella organization of 30 Tamil organizations based in Switzerland, thanked the Indian PM for extending heart-felt sympathies and support to the Eelam Tamils.
“All Sinhala governments that attained power engineered and sponsored state terrorism against the minority Tamils. Tamils had to face inexcusable violence, murder, rape, and looting in 1956, 1958, 1977, 1979, 1981, and 1983. They endured damages worth over $ 300 million US to their properties and goods”, the TFS said.
“We are asking India to step in and help our people breaking her silence. We are hoping that India will bring to our people peace with justice”, it added.
- Tamils For Justice:
BERN 11 August 2008
TFS/MS/IN/KA
The Right Honourable Dr. Manmohan Singh,
The Prime Minister,
Republic of India,
7 Race Course Road,
New Delhi-110011,
India
Dear Dr. Manmohan Singh,
On behalf of the Swiss Tamil Forum, an umbrella organization of 30 Tamil organizations based in Switzerland, we would like to thank you for meeting the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians led by Parliamentarian R. Sampanthan. We also thank you on behalf of the Swiss Tamils for extending your heart-felt sympathies and support to the Eelam Tamils.
We would like to outline some of the instances of the more intensive and continuing suffering of Tamils living in their traditional homeland (North and East of Sri Lanka). As you are aware, the Tamils are not a warmongering people and they began to struggle for independence only after the Sri Lankan State failed to accommodate the island minorities.
The Tamils were systematically denied their fundamental rights by the successive Sri Lankan governments led by the United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP). These governments, encouraged monks to unleash violence under their leadership against the Tamil political leadership who protested peacefully on the lines laid down by India's great father, Mahatma Gandhi.
All Sinhala governments that attained power engineered and sponsored state terrorism against the minority Tamils. Tamils had to face inexcusable violence, murder, rape, and looting in 1956, 1958, 1977, 1979, 1981, and 1983. They endured damages worth over $ 300 million US to their properties and goods. These catastrophes took the lives of several thousands and created an atmosphere so gruesome that one million refugees fled the island and several hundred thousand became refugees in their own homeland. The most fearsome form of state terrorism was initiated and executed against the Tamils under the open support and patronage of the then President J.R.Jayewardene.
In other words, Jayewardene justified these pogroms against the Tamils, and the Tamils overwhelmingly began to realize that the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) mandate adopted in 1976 at Vaddukkoddai in Jaffna that the establishment of a sovereign independent Tamil Eelam should be the only solution to the Tamil national question.
Since then, the Sri Lankan State has been engaging in war with the Tamils without any heed to their political aspirations. Successive governments periodically promise to their Sinhala voters that they will either wipe out the LTTE or will engage to negotiate to end the conflict.
So far, neither of these initiatives have brought peace to the island. Tamils, overwhelmingly acknowledge the LTTE as their sole representative as the LTTE leadership has demonstrated great courage and made great sacrifices for the welfare of the Eelam Tamils. There is no doubt that the Tamil race would have been wiped out by now wiped out if the LTTE had not take up arms as a protective measure of the Tamils.
It is in this context that we write to you on the eve of India's Independence Day on August 15. We are confident that India as a peace-loving and friendly nation, would follow its policy of safeguarding oppressed peoples in relation to the Tamil people in Sri Lanka against the attempts of the Sri Lankan State to decimate them through a consistent policy of genocide.
The British, for their administrative and political convenience, brought together the Tamil kingdom with its people in their native soil and the Sinhala kingdoms. When they left, they entrusted the affairs of the island entirely in the hands of the majority Sinhalese who, have consistently refused to justly recognise the aspirations of the Tamil people.
Although the TNA leadership had to explain the problems and the sufferings faced by the Tamils within the short span of 15 minutes we thank you again for the sympathy evinced during your meeting with them. We are optimistic that more opportunities would be provided to bring to your attention the untold sufferings of the Eelam Tamils.
With our cultural, historical, linguistic, and religious links with India, we are optimistically looking forward to India its hands -off policy while the Eelam Tamils are facing great injustices, regular disappearances, killings, rape, and torture in the hands of the Sri Lankan government. We are asking India to step in and help our people breaking her silence. We are hoping that India will bring to our people peace with justice. We finally congratulate the people of the largest and genuine democracy in the world celebrating their independence and look forward to your just support to the Tamil people living in the North and East of Sri Lanka.
We remain
Yours sincerely
Thambipillai Namasivayam
General Secretary
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