{"id":174744,"date":"2017-03-09T11:12:16","date_gmt":"2017-03-09T05:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=174744"},"modified":"2017-03-14T17:59:28","modified_gmt":"2017-03-14T12:29:28","slug":"solidifying-legitimacy-for-an-independent-tamil-eelam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/solidifying-legitimacy-for-an-independent-tamil-eelam\/","title":{"rendered":"Solidifying Legitimacy For An Independent Tamil Eelam"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Usha S Sri-Skanda Rajah<\/a> \u2013<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Usha S Sri-Skanda-Rajah<\/p><\/div>\n

TGTE’s intervention, challenging Sri Lanka\u2019s 6<\/span>th<\/sup><\/span> Amendment at the UN Human Rights Committee would have the necessary effect, regardless of Sri Lanka’s response and the likelihood of it citing sovereignty issues – the usual lame excuse that it hides under. The observations and recommendations the UN body could make would have a formidable and favourable impact very definitely on correcting false perceptions; to quote<\/a> TGTE’s Prime Minister, Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran, “w<\/span>e believe this campaign will contribute to solidify the legitimacy of Tamils\u2019 campaign for an independent state. It will also mobilize and solidify the soft power of the Tamils.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mounting a Challenge to Sri Lanka\u2019s 6<\/b><\/span>th<\/sup><\/b><\/span> Amendment <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) will be mounting a challenge to Sri Lanka’s 6th Amendment to the constitution by filing a ‘communication’ with the UN Human Rights Committee. Sri Lanka’s 6th amendment, \u201ccriminalizes peaceful advocacy for an independent state.”\u00a0 <\/span>The ‘communication’ has been signed by former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, Justice K.P. Sivasubramaniam (Red.), former Judge of the High Court of Madras, India and Prime Minister of the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam, Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran. At this time the TGTE is making<\/a> a “clarion call” to all lawyers across the globe to lend their support to this ‘communication’ it is filing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Historical Parallel <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

This remonstration by lawyers to the 6<\/span>th<\/sup><\/span> Amendment, and their readiness to support and demonstrate their willingness to providing implicit legal representation to this initiative to challenge a repugnant law, by adding their name, has in fact a historical parallel. It is \u201creminiscent\u201d Rudrakumaran told Taylor Dibbert for the Huffington Post, \u201cof Sri Lanka\u2019s 1976 Trial-at-Bar proceedings taken up against Tamil political leaders, at the time, for distributing to the public, copies of the Vaddukoddai Resolution.\u201d The Vaddukoddai Resolution, a landmark declaration of enormous significance, affirmed by all the Tamil political parties, who came together in Pannakam, Vaddukkoddai, to make the clarion call for the restoration and reconstitution of an independent and sovereign state of Tamil Eelam. At the Trial-at-Bar, a \u201crecord\u201d 70 odd lawyers, including the late SJV Chelvanayagam, then leader of the Federal Party, the late GG Ponnambalam, then leader of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress and the late Senator, M. Thiruchelvam, represented the Tamil leaders, charged with handing out seditious material. <\/span><\/p>\n

6<\/b><\/span>th<\/sup><\/b><\/span> Amendment a Violation of ICCPR Ratified By Sri Lanka integral to UN\u2019s International Bill of Human Rights <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The 6<\/span>th<\/sup><\/span> Amendment to Sri Lanka\u2019s constitution is a grave violation of freedom of thought and conscience and freedom of speech provided in Article 18 and 19 and of the right of self-determination, enshrined in article 1 of the 1966 UN treaty referred to as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by Sri Lanka in June 1980.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Furthermore the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights<\/a> and its 2 Optional Protocols together form an integral part of the International Bill of Human Rights, the other components being the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, all formulated in pursuance of United Nations General Assembly resolutions. <\/span><\/p>\n

Prof Boyle Calls on His Colleagues to Support this \u201cBreakthrough Initiative\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

Prof Boyle, renowned international lawyer, \u201cencouraging\u201d his colleagues to come on board said he was signing<\/a> \u201cthis breakthrough initiative\u201d among other, because, the right to self determination for Eelam Tamils was at stake here: <\/span>\u201cThe right to self-determination for the Eelam Tamils is at stake here and that is certainly why I am going to sign and why I would encourage all my legal colleagues to sign. This is an extremely important initiative, a breakthrough initiative, and I think everyone has to be behind it,\u201d Boyle said. Article 1 of ICCPR per se guarantees that, \u201call peoples have the right of self-determination,\u201d and that, \u201cby virtue of that right, they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development. <\/span><\/p>\n

Rudrakumaran Confident Tamils Would Opt for Independent State If 6<\/b><\/span>th<\/sup><\/b><\/span> Amendment is Repealed <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Rudrakumaran strongly believes that the overwhelming mandate the Vaddukoddai Resolution<\/a> received in the 1977 general election, \u201cremains valid\u201d and still stands, considering that subsequent, \u201celections since 1977 were held under the imposed parameters of the 6<\/span>th<\/sup><\/span> Amendment.\u201d As reiterated by Rudrakumaran to Dibbert, the TGTE sees, the island wide proposed referendum on the new constitution that\u2019s being drafted, without freedom to articulate the Tamil people\u2019s political aspirations for an independent state, to be truly undemocratic, viewing TGTE\u2019s challenge to be a \u201ctimely\u201d intervention. \u201cIf a referendum is to be held, it should be held in an unhindered, open political space. Otherwise it is a sham exercise,\u201d Rudrakumaran told Dibbert, never doubting the Tamils in the island would opt for an independent state if the question was put to them freely, Rudrakumaran reiterated:\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the subsequent general elections of 1977, the Vaddukoddai Resolution was put forward to the people and a mandate was sought by the united Tamil political leadership at the time. The Tamils in the North-East all vehemently voted in favor of the resolution and gave a resounding mandate. All elections since 1977 have been held under the imposed parameters of the Sixth Amendment. This implies that the mandate given by the people at the 1977 general election, the last time elections were held in an open political space, remains a valid one. If anyone today wants to claim that the Tamil people have given up their political aspirations for an independent Tamil state, I dare them to resign their position and contest elections after repealing the Sixth Amendment or to conduct a referendum after repealing the Sixth Amendment.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

6th Amendment Does Not Prohibit a Call for its Repeal <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Keyed up by events on the ground in the homeland and the resounding success of the rallies held by \u201cEluga Tamil\u201d movement, both in Jaffna and in Batticaloa, the TGTE expects lawyers in the homeland to also part-take in this initiative, with Rudrakumaran asking them to bear in mind the 6<\/span>th<\/sup><\/span> amendment prohibits a call for an independent state but does not prohibit anyone from campaigning for its repeal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cry for Independence<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

For 69 long years, successive Sinhala governments have been relentlessly pursuing and perpetrating acts of genocide on the Tamil people; the marginalization of these people was systematically engineered. Slowly the Tamil people became a subjugated and persecuted race. All peaceful protests by them against discrimination were violently crushed; numerous state sponsored pogroms were unleashed at them. It took some brave youth, nearly 3 decades, after constant repression, to mount an armed rebellion that lasted another 3 decades, one that was defeated in May of 2009 through large scale and indiscriminate bombing, intentional and intensive shelling of the ‘no fire zones’, use of illegal and chemical weaponry, summary executions and the wanton killing of civilians; of even children, including deprivation of food and medical aid; one that can be best described as a holocaust with documentation to prove it. <\/span><\/p>\n

The mass atrocities carried out against these oppressed people, fighting for the right to self-determination, have gone unpunished.\u00a0 <\/span>The blatant land grabs and state sponsored, often calculated colonization of their historical habitats, intended to change the demography of the area with a view to obliterating this ethnic community hasn\u2019t ceased; the disappearances, incarceration, torture and rape endured by these people haven\u2019t ended;\u00a0 <\/span>the use of the still not repealed \u2018Prevention of Terrorism Act to imprison persons without charge for an indefinite period of time and tortured to extract confessions without being able to see a lawyer, continues; the brutality and coercion of an already large and ever expanding and menacing occupying army that still holds sway in Tamil areas, go unchecked. This together with majoritarian Sinhala Buddhist governments, ruling the roost, amounting to what can be described as unremitting hegemony over a people who are virtually held against their will, has been the story of their lives. <\/span><\/p>\n

No Federal Arrangement, TNA Sworn to Secrecy to the Detriment of Tamils – Tamil People increasingly Skeptical of Outcome\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

From their stubborn stance to maintaining a unitary system, new regime or old, there\u2019s no hope a political solution akin to a federal arrangement, will be offered.\u00a0 <\/span>A federal system of government being the second option of the Tamil people, in view of the existence of the 6<\/span>th<\/sup><\/span> Amendments which prohibits them opting for separation. It is on a federal manifesto that the TNA campaigned at the last and previous general elections and won a mandate, but they themselves, in an act of betrayal are backtracking from the federal model with talks of continuing the unitary nature of the state and going for province based rule (But not mentioning the extent of the powers devolved), and the acceptance of both national and provincial sovereignty \u2013 Mr. Sampanthan\u2019s latest shocker revealed in an interview he gave in Tamil to IBC, not a word about the powers of the president and or the central government. On the 22nd of February, Sampanthan speaking in parliament, for the record, went through an epic list of broken promises (one which he has done before) and the views of India, the Co-Chairs and the US et al pertaining to past political solutions – but not a word about the specific political system he is backing or expecting.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n