International Community - Its Involvement and Perception

"Running with the Hare and Hunting with the hounds"

By: Eelaththmilzan
Courtesy: TamilCanadian - November 23, 2008

-A classic analogy to the current International Diplomacy on the National Struggle of Eelam Tamils

In Defence of Our Brave Sons and Daughters
In Defence of our Legitimate Liberation Struggle
In Defence of Our Nation of Thamil Eelam
In Defence of Our Right to Self-determination

International Community - Its Involvement and Perception

The whole scenario of the international involvement in the peace process, initiated and concluded by the Norwegian facilitators in 2002, portrays an acrimonious and protracted diplomatic deception employed in addressing the real issues of the Tamil National Struggle for Self-determination and Self-governance.

The International Community’s appearance, at the scene of an early positive progress on the peace talks between the Liberation Tigers of Thamil Eelam and the Government of Sri Lanka, came in the form of The Tokyo Donor Nations later to become the self-generated Co-Chairs of Donor Nations. It soon became clear from its beginnings it was the emergence of United States as the dominant member, with United Kingdom playing as usual and as ever (behind the scenes) a major supportive role as a member of the European Union and followed by the rest of the EU and Japan.

What was the purpose behind the forming of donor groups, and their involvement in the overall Sri Lankan conflict, when the negotiating process was in its infancy? What was there to be requiring donations? What was there for any development to be initiated, which Sri Lanka had not already been receiving from these very same nations, over the whole conflict years?

Two elements emerge from their activities: One was, to be prepared to give increased economic and development assistance to Sri Lanka, under the pretext that its government had entered into a dialogue for a negotiated settlement. The second was, for the Liberation Tigers of Thamil Eelam to be enticed, reined in and sidelined militarily, under the pretext of an offer to engage with them and to extend economic and development assistance

Their first goal was easy enough, as Sri Lanka was waiting and willing to listen to their diplomatic tunes that brought sweet comfort to their ever-increasing budget on the war against the Tamils.

Their second goal was a bit more tricky and cumbersome, because the Liberation Tigers of Thamil Eelam were masters in their own capability and capacity to visualise and analyse any dangerous trappings and pitfalls that lay behind such enticing approaches.

The frustrations on their second goal were reflected by their actions in not inviting the LTTE to the Donor conference, where Sri Lanka was an important participant. The truth of the matter behind their self-motivated and well planned diplomatic posturing was to strengthen and establish a foothold in the politics of the island’s future outcome of the peace negotiations itself.

The deafening silence of the international community, today, on the genocidal war against the Tamils by the Mahinda Regime, shows the intransigent, inflexible nature of their deceptive diplomatic and hidden agenda in trying to create a division between the Tamil people and their liberation movement and thus deprive the Tamil nation of its goal of an independent and sovereign Thamil Eelam.

Wooing the Axis of Evil

There emerged two leading figures in the diplomatic world, one from the United States and the other from the United Kingdom - O’Blake and Chilcott. These free wheeling diplomatic stalwarts leaning solidly towards the Sri Lankan government have laid out clear and uncompromising agendas on how both their countries wish to see a political scenario emerge in the island. In this, not only have they reiterated their strong and unshakeable support for the Government of Sri Lanka but also that they do not recognise nor support the Liberation Tigers of Thamil Eelam. Today, this type of intrusive diplomacy happily gyrates around the Axis of Evil that is the Government of Sri Lanka.

Some excerpts from previous contributions

Robert O. Blake - American Ambassador to Sri Lanka:

“This is not an ethnic conflict per se: People have lived very harmoniously together”.–speaking to C A Chandraperume. - Courtesy Tamil Canadian – 01-02 June 2007’. - The conflict in the island of Sri Lanka is the making of all the Sinhala governments of southern politicians. As for the people having lived harmoniously together, it is not the same as forcing all of the people to sing from the same hymn sheet.

‘Concerned of the breakdown of the cease-fire and the humanitarian problems for the people of Sri Lanka’. He says ‘there is hope in the process under way in the APRC’. - The duplicity of the Sri Lanka government in propagating the collapse of the CFA in the first instance and then, pretending to promote a process of a bungling APRC exercise? It is now as dead as a dodo.

‘The failure of successive governments to address the grievances that have given rise to terrorism in the first place’ - Terrorism has been the hallmark of all Sri Lanka governments, long before the United States woke up to the reality of this phenomenon in the North East Tamil homeland.

‘We see many examples of the so called insoluble problems that the international community has in fact been able to solve’. ‘In the middle east where there is deep enmity between the Arabs and the Israelis’. ‘You have Tamils and Singhalese and Muslims who have lived together for centuries and even in Colombo 40 % of the population is Tamil. And there is intermarriage between the communities. So this is not an ethnic conflict per se’. - Continuous political and militaristic connivance by the United States with the State of Israel has blinded even an electoral democratic participation by the Palestinian people. There is no difference in the ethnic composition between the Tamils and the Muslim population apart from their religious beliefs. The people of Moorish origin known today as Muslims of Ceylon, have as their mother tongue, Tamil. The war-displaced Tamils in Colombo cannot be considered as those composing a permanent resident population? Speaking of intermarriage in these times of trials and tribulations of a people subjected to humiliating treatment on the streets of Colombo, is playing on sad human emotions

‘Certainly I would agree that the LTTE is a terrorist organisation ..We have been working with our friends in the Sri Lankan government, to restrict the LTTE’s activities, in every way we can think of. …There is a growing international consensus against the LTTE, and that would encourage them to come to the negotiating table in good faith. …The Tamil Diaspora is getting weary of the conflict, just as Tamils in this country are ….If the government can come up with a solution, that will have a very powerful effect in mobilising the Diaspora and all the Tamils in favour of a political solution, and thereby force Prabhakaran to come to the negotiating table …..Almost every Tamil that I speak to, wants a federal solution within a united Sri Lanka. They do not want a separate Eelam’. - ‘Growing international consensus’, ‘the Tamil Diaspora getting weary of the conflict’, ‘mobilising the Diaspora’ and ‘all the Tamils in favour of a political solution’ are the words of a man who seems to wish it so happens, so that his hidden agenda of continuous interventionism and disruptive political gambit could be further enhanced.

Mr Dominick Chilcott – British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka:

‘There are perhaps some 4 million British people of South Asian origin living in the UK. And, as you would expect, that translates into a rapidly rising number of MPs and local councillors of South Asian origin playing an active role in British politics. This large number of political representatives and the much larger number of constituents from this region means that British politics is bound to take a close interest in developments in South Asia’. - Electoral Impact

‘I don’t know a reliable figure for the number of people of Sri Lankan origin resident in the UK. It could be anything from 200,000 to over half a million. What you can be sure of is that the Sri Lankan diaspora community follows very closely what happens here. The conflict stirs up the diaspora who make representations to the British government to do something about it’. - Potential electoral Bank – Has the government openly extended their recognition of the Tamil North East homeland and the Tamils’ Right to self-determination ?

‘We want the unity and sovereignty of Sri Lanka to emerge intact and whole. We support a single state solution, not a two state one. We would not support a despotic regime continuing in the north and east, because we do not believe that would contribute to a lasting peace’. - Tamil sovereignty over their homeland and the legitimacy of Tamils’ national struggle being derided

‘We think Britain’s added value in peace building derives partly from our experience of peace processes, especially from Northern Ireland; from our specialist expertise in key sectors, such as security sector transformation; and from our knowledge of and cultural links with Sri Lanka’. - Main criteria of the hidden agenda. – Northern Ireland Crisis is nowhere near the nature and the enormity of the Tamil National Issue. The comparison is totally misplaced in the Tamil context.

‘More generally, we aim to share our experience of conflict resolution by encouraging key opinion formers, including those Sri Lankans living in the UK, to pursue every avenue for peacefully resolving the conflict’ . - _Fishing in troubled waters.

‘ We are helping the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence with the development of policy and training in peacekeeping operations, civil military relations, international humanitarian law, and the law of armed conflict. We are also working with the Sri Lankan Police to support their development of a community based policing programme’. Continued military support to Sri Lanka

‘The LTTE are an anti-democratic regime, with a record of appalling human rights violations. They have no concept or respect for free speech. They eliminate dissent. They do not live by, nor represent democratic values in any sense’. - Drawing the cart before the horse.

It is a well known fact that wherever the international community, particularly the Anglo Saxon Britain and United States have had a hand in intervention in any conflict, they have left such areas, beset with enmity and bitterness, tearing apart the native fabric of societies within them.

The wishes of the Tamil people to find a viable alternative, to separatism, that meets with their aspirations towards self-determination, to regain their political, cultural, linguistic and geographical entity as a Nation, has been amply enunciated by their Leadership of the Liberation Tigers of Thamil Eelam , many times over.

The International Crisis Group

It is not by chance that the International Crisis Group has stepped into the Sri Lankan conflict, to produce its half-baked study and analysis of the Tamil National Issue. Like so many other international bodies set up to protect the interests of western democracies of former colonial powers, it too has assumed the mantle of partisan and prejudicial analysis and exhibiting archaic colonial mentality in addressing the island’s conflict.

As though to re-invent the Bandaranaike/Chelvanayagam Pact of early sixties, in its earlier report on Sri Lanka, it harbours painstakingly on how the GOSL, should be dealing on the language issue, encouraging it to initiate a program of language rights for all, for government servants to learn Tamil, make provision wherever needed of Tamil translators, government signs, and forms in Tamil; and to provide instruction in Tamil for Sinhala-speaking students and in Sinhala for Tamil-speaking students. It also attempts to legitimise the occupation of the East it clandestinely encourages the reconstruction and economic development work in the Eastern Province. It calls on the UNP to publicly express the party’s commitment to cooperate with the government in devising a political consensus. It asks the Tamil, Muslim and Leftist parties to endorse the importance of the APRC proposals for the devolution of power

Role of the United Kingdom

The United Kingdom carries a heavy burden of responsibility and an underlying obligation to address the Tamil National Issue in a non-partisan manner and rectify its major error in misplacing the trust of the Tamil people.

The Tamil Diaspora in Britain has been active in campaigning the British government very energetically and with hope, now for over many years, on the Tamil National Issue in the island of Sri Lanka. We can see how motivated they are in their commitment to gain the support and help of the British administration to recognise the Rights of the Tamil people in their quest for self-determination of the governance of their North East homeland regions and in that have placed their Trust in the members of parliament to the British Hose of Commons.

We Tamils have had a long history of placing our trust in the powers that be, starting with the then British Colonial administration and right up to the post-independent governments of Ceylon and those of the Sri Lankan republic. We Tamils have been the victims of deception and mistrust at every point of any hopeful outcome from agreements, pacts and deals. Hopefully this will not repeat itself again in our journey into the future

Signs of Patronising Attitudes

It is now time to face up to some realities in the spoken words and the actions or non-actions of the British political establishment in confronting the demands of the Tamil Diaspora.

One case in point is the presence in the House of Commons of a voluntary body of members of parliament who have come together to form the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils – (APPG-T). These members have been very enthusiastic in extending their support to the Tamil Diaspora and participate in the events held by the Tamils. They continue to declare their sympathy and support to the activities of the Tamil Diaspora and to their national cause.

The foreign policy of the British government does not seem to extend to any sympathy for the Tamil peoples’ right to self-determination. The Tamil Diaspora has been canvassing the Foreign Office on the Tamil National Issue, and has been encouraged by many statements of senior ministers and departmental ministers and spokespersons in the government. They remain positive on the provision of Aid to the displaced Tamils in the Vanni, and speak against the human rights violations of the Sri Lankan government in general.

The above two facets of the British establishment, still remain far from giving any recognition to the aspirations of the Tamil people in the island They also display a lack of any expression of regret nor condemnation of the daily atrocities of the Sri Lankan armed forces and their aerial bombardment of Tamil regions.

It all seems very familiar now, how a major partner of the international community, has come to intervene in the manner that it has, to dissuade and deceive the Tamil people and to collude with the ruling Sinhala government in the island of Sri Lanka, as it has done Sixty years ago.

For the Record

The nations of the world who are currently cantering to the Sri Lanka government are acting against their own historical ethos established by their saviour and statesmen who evolved their national status, are themselves treading on the very same freedom struggle of the Tamil people to reclaim their geographical and national entity lost to the Sinhala Sri Lankan establishment in the island.

Typical of these countries are America, China and India. They should follow their own historical passage through time in achieving their freedom and independence, led ably by their revolutionary thinkers and martyrs, when they intervene in modern day national conflicts. They quite conveniently forget or overlook their own struggles for Justice and Freedom over the centuries.

The advent of Consumerism arising from a global economy seems to drive the hidden agendas of vested interests, over national and international boundaries of sovereignty and nationhood.

Today, we the Tamils in Thamil Eelam, and the Tamil Diaspora of Thamil Eelam from around the world, stand at the threshold of a new era that will unfold in the very near future, to bring us the dawn of freedom, with Self-respect, Dignity and Justice within our Tamil National entity of the North East homeland.
Published: Nov 24, 2008 2:49:28 GMT
Comments [ 6 ]:

Thamilichi from Canada on Nov 24, 2008 14:14:27 GMT

I totally agree with the writer on "we the Tamils in Thamil Eelam, and the Tamil Diaspora of Thamil Eelam from around the world, stand at the threshold of a new era that will unfold in the very near future, to bring us the dawn of freedom, with Self-respect, Dignity and Justice within our Tamil National entity of the North East homeland." I strongly believe in that too. For those who don't know our leader Prabaharan, the war is almost over. For those who closely follow him for the past 25 years, the final war hasn't started yet from LTTE's side, and that is the reality. Also, it won't take that long for US & UK agents to flip the opinion on LTTE and our freedom struggle.

CK from United Kingdom on Nov 24, 2008 13:19:12 GMT

Excellent piece of article. We need articles of this nature continuously not only targeting Tamils around the world but also greater audience of western world. I believe, through Sri Lankan government's intense political lobbying, few people acting as mediators or representatives of western world, not telling the Truth & Facts to their own people. 50 years of Struggle was turned as terrosim issue. But manipulating facts are unsustainable and this has happened in almost all struggles. WE ALL HAVE TO TELL THE TRUTH TO THE GREATER AUDIENCE THROUGH PROFESSIONAL WRITINGS, PROVIDING ADEQUATE EVIDENCES. AS PRESIDENT ELECT OBAMA DID, WE NEED A BOTTOM UP APPROACH FROM PEOPLE. TRUTH WILL PREVAIL.

JP from Australia on Nov 24, 2008 10:01:52 GMT

A very good analysis. The other reason why the US highjacked the peace process and volunteered to have it in US was to curb the LTTE letting all their trumph cards on the table, making the MR representation to leaving with no awnsers. Thus for US by doing this they did turn the table upside down and changed the balance of powers. As they knew what the resluts of this would be, and we are seeing thorugh the Ealam War 4. Although what they didn't anticipate was that SL would never see the end of the tunnel, but the tamils of ealam would make this to attain their goals much quicker. Just imagine the morons like Bush Jr and MR sitting on the same table not knowing who each other were?

Vel from Canada on Nov 24, 2008 4:17:22 GMT

The author seems to confuse with the terms "Thamil Eelam" vs "Tamil Eelam". Some news media try to use the new term 'Thamil', but it is not the time to make this confusion. Eelam Tamils should stick to one term 'Tamil Eelam' because this is what mentioned in the 1977 mandate. For example, 'Tamil Nadu' is still called Tamil Nadu even after Chennai was introduced. As Eelam Tamil Diaspora, let us stick to one term 'Tamil Eelam' and one mandate that 1977 Tamil democratic mandate.

(EXCELLENT COMMENT VEL - T4J)

If Tamil Diaspora showed their strong support for Tamil Eelam in the peace process time, it would make a big difference. Still, Tamil Diaspora lacks its strong collective support for Tamil Eelam via lobbying.

Mithrar from Australia on Nov 24, 2008 3:43:25 GMT

continued But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. The founding fathers of the USA wrote the above in the decleration of independance. So Blake and Chilcott and their masters will fail in their support of the axis of evil.We the thamils of Eelam have to not deviate from the goal of independance from the tyrany of the sri lankans

Mithrar from Australia on Nov 24, 2008 3:39:25 GMT

The struggle of the eelam thamil nation can be justified by the following words governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; continued