Kumarathasan Rasingam
A note from the No Fire Zone [Book by Kass Ghayouri]
Dr. Varatharajan who was on duty inside the ‘NO FIRE ZONE” during the genocidal war laments:
“That night I cried,
Tamil civilians died,
Dead bodies I eyed,
I did not have pride,
There was no war guide,
Tamils forced to hide,
The Sri Lankan army lied,
Took the media for a ride,
It was a Tamil genocide,
By laws they did not abide, -Page 166
“It was heart wrenching to see women and children perish with shelling wounds. The army encroached upon Tamil villages killing thousands of men, women and children. My heart froze Sri Lanka became a frozen country with ultimate hatred.” Page 150
It is to be noted that Tamil leaders like Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan [1851-1930] and Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam [1853-1924] fearlessly spearheaded the struggle for constitutional reforms that led to the independence of Ceylon [Now Sri Lanka] from the British on February 04, 1948.
The Ponnambalam brothers in their evening of life realized that the Sinhalese politicians have let them down the garden path and taken them and the Tamils for a ride to advance the interests of the majority Sinhalese community.
In a speech to the Legislative Council during the debate on the Donoughmore Reforms, Sir Ramanathan appears the precursor of the Tamils demand for a sovereign state of Tamil Eelam.
He argued “Why did the Donoughmore Commissioners not study Ireland, which is next door to them? They [Irish] said that we are one lot and you are another. We cannot work together. We must have separate governments. Then I asked what happened in the Dominion of Canada? The Official concerned said, it is an impossible situation … Let us give these French descendants one form of government and let us give other people another form of government – forms of government suitable to the interests of each of these great big communities . Why did the Commissioners think of that?”
It was Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam who first [1923] exhorted the Tamils that – “They should work towards promoting the union and solidarity of what we have been proud call TAMIL EELAM. We are not enamoured about the cosmopolitanism which would make us neither fish, fowl nor red-herring.”
The Tamils and the Sinhalese are divided on the basis of territory, language, culture etc.
The Mahavamsa, a Buddhist chronicle written in the 6th century AD by a Buddhist monk portrays the Naga King Dutugemunu as the National Hero who defeated the Tamil King Ellalan and unified the whole Ceylon. This Mahavamsa made a virtue of killing in defence of Buddhism. This chronicle has been used to raise the cry of Race, Land and Faith by the Sinhala-Buddhist chauvinistic forces during the past several years.
D.S. Senanayake, the first Prime Minister of independent Ceylon [Now Sri Lanka] gave the following solemn promise to the Tamil and other minority communities “No harm need you [non-Sinhalese] fear at our hands [Sinhalese in a free [Ceylon]Sri Lanka.” He was speaking in the State Council in October 1945 when all the Tamil members have unanimously voted for the acceptance of the Lord Soulbury Constitution in a White paper.
In 1948 the very year of Independence, DS Senanayake, the Sinhala Prime Minister blatantly went back on the promise and bared his true colours as an unrepentant champion of Sinhala Chauvinism by depriving one million Tamils of their citizenship.
The Citizenship Act No. 18 of 1948 opened the floodgates to further legislative and administrative acts, which robbed Tamils of their language, education and employment rights.
In 1956 Late Prime Minister SWRD Bandaranaike introduced the Sinhala only Act.
Abrogated Pacts, Accords, Pledges
Bandaranaike/Chelvanayakam Pact: [July 25, 1957]
The Pact was signed between SWRD Bandaranaike, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka and SJV Chelvanayakam Tamil leader on July 25, 1957. It was later abrogated within less than a year on April 09, 1958 due to the opposition to the Pact by the Buddhist Clergy and the Opposition Party [United National Party [UNP]
Dudly/Chelvanayakam Pact [March 24, 1965]
This Pact [D-C Pact] was put down on paper and signed by Dudly Senanayake and SJV Chelvanayakam on March 24, 1965, which received opposition from the Opposition Sri Lanka Freedom Party and the Buddhist Clergy was torn down.
Indo/Sri Lanka Accord [July 29, 1987]
This Accord drafted and signed by the President of Sri Lanka JR Jayewardene and the Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi without any consultation with the Tamil leaders or with the freedom fighters for Tamil Eelam. [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam]
The trouble with putting the cart before the horse is that the cart does not move. The agreement that was signed on the 29th of July 1987 failed to address itself to the central issues of the Tamil struggle, which were crystallised in the joint and unanimous stand of the Tamil militant movement at Thimpu in August 1985:
‘It is our considered view that any meaningful solution to the Tamil national question must be based on the following four cardinal principles
1. the recognition of the Tamils of Ceylon as a nation
2. the recognition of an identified homeland for the Tamils in Ceylon
3. recognition of the right of self determination of the Tamil nation
4. the recognition of the right to citizenship and the fundamental rights all Tamils who look upon the island as their country”
The recognition of the Tamil people as a nation was central to the struggle of the Tamil people. The Thimpu Declaration sought to question openly and directly the claims of an exaggerated Sinhala nationalism which had for decades sought to masquerade as a ‘Sri Lankan nationalism’ and which had sought to ‘assimilate’ and ‘integrate’ the Tamil people into a so called ‘Sri Lankan nationality’ by denying the existence of not only the Tamil nation but also the Sinhala nation in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankan government’s record on investigating serious human rights is poor and impunity has been a persistent problem. There have been serious ongoing violations of human rights and a backlog of cases of enforced disappearance and unlawful killings that run to tens of thousands, as described for example, in the 2008 Human Rights Watch report “Recurring Nightmare.” Despite this track record, there have been only a small number of prosecutions.
Past efforts to address violations through the establishment of ad-hoc mechanisms in Sri Lanka, such as Presidential Commissions of inquiry have proved no results, either in providing information or in leading to prosecutions. To address abuses associated with the war, there is an urgent need for an Independent, International Commission of Inquiry in to the credible allegations of laws of war violations, including possible war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, illegitimate detentions and usage of banned Chemical weapons and usage of Cluster Bombs.
The prosperity of a nation depends on self-determination of the people; political, economical or sociological. In Sri Lanka Tamils are denied this aspect of the basic tenets of the social contract. The world cannot prosper if people are subjected to non constitutional difficulties such as what is happening in Sri Lanka.
Ethnic cleansing and the grand master plan of all is to flush out all other religions, and nationalities and linguistics out of Sri Lanka to create a secular mono-ethnic 100% Buddhist Sinhalese nation of Sri Lanka.
This is the dream and aim of the Maha Sanga and Mahanayakas who are the real power centers in Sri Lanka politics.
It is the prime duty of the United Nations, International Community and Civil Society to fight against this racism, fanaticism, feudalism that affects the minority communities in a democratic country who have no voice or ruled under draconian laws that prevents them to protest for their survival in that country [eg; Sri Lanka]
chiv / July 16, 2019
Kumarathasan, you are right in saying Tamils have been deceived and betrayed since history by successive Sinhala Buddhist governments or should I say families (Senanayaks, Bandas, Rajapaksa, JR/RW ). There is no single leader who was genuinely committed in doing right. There was pacts, understandings, agreements and promises which later turned out be their tools in lying , deceiving and betraying. But some of the blame should be equally shared by minority leaders (Tamil and Muslims) who betrayed their own community and their just cause.(in getting back their birth rights)
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rbh / July 16, 2019
4000 to 8000 mothers charged the doctor for illegal sterilization as claimed in the newspaper currently on the spot light. is this true.
4000 to 40000 mothers unknown whereabouts of their children after the war charge the concerned authority not enlightened is this true
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Peacelover / July 16, 2019
When someone cheats or deceive you again and again you are the one to be blamed because it is your mistake for allowing yourself to be cheated repeatedly having known the other persons character. If you haven’t understood his character then it is your mistake for being foolish. So don’t blame Sinhalese politicians for the foolishness of Tamil politicians, hereafter.
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K.Anaga / July 16, 2019
Peacelover.
What you is 100% correct. The Tamils have been cheated over and over again. But Tamils, like a dog wagging its tail and going back to its master to eat the fallen scrumps from the masters table cannot be accepted. When DS cheated the Tamils, it should have been a lesson to learn. But due to selfish reasons the Tamils failed to put their foot down in a unified manner. The Tamil leaders have always had a soft corner to the UNP despite being cornered continuously.
Only party who learned a lesson was the LTTE. But the world put them down, much to the delight of the TNA lead by SAMSUM.
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Punchi Point / July 16, 2019
Eelam doesn’t become Tamil just because you add Tamil in front of Eelam. Eelam is the island of the Sinhalese.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/References_for_Sinhala_-_Eelam_-_Ilam.png
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Anpu / July 17, 2019
Punching brain.
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Punchi Point / July 17, 2019
Just punching all your Tamil lies. All the references are from Tamil literary works, written by your ancestors in Tamilnadu. Why the name calling?
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Tamil from the north / July 18, 2019
Punchi Point Banda – keep dreaming this nonsense that was produced by the Mahawamsa comic book.
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Ayathuray Rajasingam / July 16, 2019
It is agreed that the Sinhalese political leaders had betrayed us, though some of them had opportunities to solve it peacefully but missed. The real Sinhalese people were not against the Tamils but the Sinhalese with the mixture of other races from Tamil only created the racial problem for their political survival. S.W.R.D.Bandaranayake directly descended from a Tamil called Nila Perumal who came to Sri Lanka from Tamil Nadu in the 15th century. J.R.Jayawardena’s direct paternal ancestor was Tamby Mudaliyar who was a descendant from a Chetty trader who migrated to Colombo from Tamil Nadu and married a Sinhala woman with the surname Jayawardena. It was these two persons during their period communal disturbances broke. They were only concerned of their political gains. Even Sarath Fonseka directly descended from Karaiya migrants from Tamil Nadu whose ignorance was shown when he said ‘I strongly believe that this country belongs to the Sinhalese’. I do not know whether these persons were aware that the Sinhalese is a mixture of 70% of South India Tamil, 25% of Bengalis and 5% Veddhas. But I would like to raise an issue that the Tamil political leaders were bent on emotional speeches. They failed to realize that when one door is closed, God keeps the other door open to use their wisdom and share it with the helping people. Tamil leaders may be intelligent but lacked wisdom. They failed to command the respect of the Sinhalese people and of the Buddhist priests. Even at the Thimp Talks the Tamil leaders of the organizations never allowed room of the Tamil political leaders to speak out due to their arrogance. I can still remember that the Indian Foreign Minister warned both the Sinhalese and Tamil leaders to stick to their point and not deviate that the right to self-determination will lead to separation.
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Peacelover / July 17, 2019
Sir, don’t waste time by analysing the percentage of blood mixed in Sinhalese Tamils and Muslims. This will not help Tamils who have lost their rights and livelihood. What we should do now is to find ways to come out of this mess and to march forward with progressive ideas, action plans and implementation of it. Alleviating poverty, providing shelter, and repossessing the land lost to armed forces should come first. Releasing the political detainees and tracing involuntarily disappeared persons should go along with it. These are not so easy, but somehow or other we must find ways to achieve them. I wouldn’t advise Tamils should unite or form a united organisation to start with. Tamils will never unite. Historically they are a divided race. Disunity is in their blood flesh and breath. So let us ponder and find ways means ideas action plans and selfless people to carry them forward.
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Punchi Point / July 17, 2019
Died, cried, lied, genocide….
genocide, genocide, lied, cried, died …..
This is Tamil history in a nutshell.
Tamils together with mentally disturbed authours, like the one who wrote that poem, who glorify killings, genocide, war and tragedy for personal and political gains must be sent for mental rehabilitation.
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soma / July 17, 2019
Tamil political class has NEVER proposed a ‘solution’ or ‘settlement’
for discussion which covers at least 50% of the Tamil Nation (all Tamil speaking people irrespective of their religion, caste or the date of arrival scattered across the island).
Mr. Ranasinham, it is never too late for people of your calibre to take that initiative. How on earth you can you blame our politicians for not granting something you never asked for?
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Soma
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Ayathuray Rajasingam / July 17, 2019
soma,
I have been watching the situation of the Tamils since 1954. First our Tamil political leaders have never been united. They have their vested interests in every aspect and have isolated a section of the Tamils in every field. I do not like to elaborate on this subject. I have been associating with Sinhalese, the Muslims and also with the Buddhist priests some of whom are good friends. Now the ethnic problem had come to a boiling point, let us forget everything and forgive each other. We cannot put the clock back again – it has to begin where it stopped. The best thing is to call for a dialogue with the Buddhist priests and try to command their respect. Join hands with them even in the construction of Buddhist places of worship and participate in their religious ceremonies. Likewise we also should invite them (sportsmen, priests, professionals, etc) and make them to participate in our ceremonies. This will be the beginning of confident building measures. Such things should have done when Lalith Athulathmudali, Gamini Dissanayake, Ronnie de Mel, Luxman Kadirgamar, Professors, professionals, IGP and the Security Forces, etc long ago. But Tamil leaders were concerned of emotional speeches in misleading the people. The consequences of emotional speeches saw the murders of prominent figures which have been a great loss to the country. Had such things been followed even the Buddhist extremists will realize and ready to lend a helping hand to us. Never bow down to emotional speeches but to meaningful actions.
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soma / July 18, 2019
Mr. Rajasingam
Knowing well that Sinhala politics in the south is utterly unprincipled and corrupt pre-election promises by parties for the Tamil vote base cannot be expected to be honoured. I mean it is utterly idiotic to think so. Last minute back door horse trading is not the way to approach a ‘National Question’.You gang up with less than 50% of the Sinhala Buddhist majority and plan to wriggle out a solution. For my life I cannot understand the wisdom behind this strategy. Your lament of ‘betrayal’ is laughable to me.
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Leaving aside all that the fact of the matter is in view of demographic distribution of Tamil speaking people across the island NO SOLUTION EXIST that encompasses a minimum of 50% of them. So long as the 50% living outside the North East are NOT prepared for relocation the problem is intractable. Your untiring efforts of convincing the world outside of discrimination, genocide etc. has not gone into the minds of that 50%..
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Soma
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Kumarathasan Rasingam / July 19, 2019
Your mean to forget and forgive the Genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka. The world and the international community and United Nations is watching and the ongoing structural Genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka.
1956 – Sinhala Only Act divided the country
1983 pogrom against the Tamils – Reason for the Tamils Youths taking arms to protect the Tamils.
The curse for the country is the Buddhist Monks who engage in politics and forgetting the teachings of Lord Buddha.
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Punchi Point / July 19, 2019
The Official Language act of 1956, erroneously called “Sinhala only” act was meant to unite the country not to divide.
Whether the Tamils who resorted to violence were youth or aged is not relevant, what matters is that Tamils resorted violence, citing the language policy and perceived discrimination as reasons. However much Tamils twist and turn the real situation, all the reasons Tamils give are minor reasons and not issues that needed an armed struggle. Also, Tamils took up arms over 10 years prior to 1983. 1983 riots was a result of a frustrated population protesting against Tamil aggression. Other means than the distasteful cowardice act of attacking civilians should have been sought to protest against the Tamil aggression. Also 1983 riots started because the Tamil terrorists had killed 13 soldiers and mutilated the bodied of the soldiers. However much one looks at the situation, Tamils resorted to terrorism and violence to achieve political demands because these Tamil demands were thoroughly unjust and unattainable. Example of how unattainable Tamil demands were and still are – official status for the Tamil language to achieve equal status was one of Tamil demands – now we have made the Tamil language also official. Has the Tamil language gained equal status with Sinhalese? No. Tamil is still Tamil, a language without any history in the island, while Sinhalese is still Sinhalese, the indigenous language of the island. The only thing that happened was that status of the official language was reduced and diluted.
I hope Tamils like Rasingam realize that Tamils’ wish cannot ever be realized in this island. Tamils will never ever be anything else than a diaspora of Tamilnadu trying spread and impose Tamil hegemony in a land that belongs to the Sinhalese.
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Anan / July 17, 2019
If Srilanka Government want to open new temples in north , they can , why they are stopping Tamils in Trinco, to going their temple in Kannia, why Police and army provide Garde the new born Buddist people, ( this place was old than (1000) years, in India, the 1st university ( Buddist), getting old and old, why this Buddist monks go to India and do some thing to this old places,
Yesterday in south, sea water, going in to the villages, when you do a wrong thing, the god give‘s you anther punishment, —( that way in south, sea water, go inside the village ), don’t do wrong things,
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Wimpy Kid / July 19, 2019
Tamil leaders betrayed the Tamil people
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Mayan / July 19, 2019
I totally agree with you. Minister Mano Ganesan arranged a meeting with the President to discuss about important issues faced by Tamils, mainly the issues faced by Hindus in Kanniya In Trincomalee, Nayaru in Mullaithivu, and upgrading Kalmunai North prathesa saba. Meeting was scheduled yesterday and the minister has invited TNA MPs to attend along with him, but none of the TNA turned up. However meeting with the President went ahead with Mano Ganesan and a few MPs from upcountry and decisions made on Kanniya and Nayaru temples. Now we learn that Sumanthiran and other TNA MPs does not like Mano Ganesan getting involved in North & East politics as well as him taking credit for the decisions that will be arrived at the meeting, hence they didn’t attend. What a bunch of jokers these TNA MPs. Disgusted by TNA’s irresponsible behaviour Mano Ganesan has now stated that he will not involve with politics of North and East hereafter and will deal with his ministry’s works only. These TNA won’t do anything and they won’t let others to do as well.
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Shan / July 22, 2019
We now criticise the Tamil leaders with aid of hindsight. Therefore we can’t consider ourselves smarter than our present and past leaders. All our present analyses and reports must be about future. Dwelling in the past must only be to learn lessons. So far I have not seen much by way of the future direction
It is obvious that during Tamil leader’s negotiations with colonial rulers and later with the Sinhalese rulers Tamil leaders including the elected leaders did not succeed. Now Tamils are in an unenviable position which is getting worse with time.
In any negotiation to be successful both parties must benefit. With the aid of hindsight we can now say that this had not happened in the negotiations with the colonial rulers and later with the Sinhalese rulers.
The signs are that a new set of Tamil leaders will replace the old guard after the next election. It is hoped they will do a better job. Sadly Sri Lanka is a country where the ethno- nationalist environment will not go away
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