Dr Sudath Gunasekara. President Senior Citizens movement Mahanuwara 20.2.2012.

The word Diaspora is usually used to describe Jews who are supposed to have been exiled in mass scale from Egyptin the 6^th and 7^th centuries BC. The term Diaspora in Greek means “dispersion or scattering”. This Biblical legend refers to the dispersion of Jews among the Gentiles who are not Jews. It is generally referred to as exodus in Biblical literature. This involved a forced eviction of a people by force against their wishes followed by mass exile of people from their traditional Homeland and they lived in exile in different countries until the creation ofIsrael in 1948.

TheƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ State of IsraelƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ declared independence on May 14, 1948, after almost two millennia ofƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Jewish dispersalƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ and persecution around the Mediterranean. From the late 19th century theƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ZionistƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ movement worked towards the goal of creating aƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ homeland for the Jewish people. Israeli independence has been marked by massive immigration of Jews, by conflict with theƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ PalestiniansƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ and by wars with neighbouringƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Arab states. Since about 1970 theUnited States has been the principal ally ofIsrael. In 1979, an uneasy peace was established withEgypt and in 1994, withJordan. About 42% of the world’s Jews live inIsrael today.

Modern Israelis roughly located on the site of the ancient Jewish kingdoms of Israeland Judah, that were the birthplace ofƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ JudaismƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ andƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ChristianityƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ and contains sites sacred to all of the world’s principal monotheistic religions. The Jews were mostly driven out of the country by the Romans over the course of centuries of conflict, although some Jews remained.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ In the Middle Ages, the area formed the focal point of conflict between Christianity andƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Islam. In modern times, persecution inEurope led to the creation of the Zionist movement, which was able to win international support and establish the world’s only Jewish-majority state.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ None of the Sri Lankan Tamils on the other hand who have leftSri Lankaand settled down in other countries were chased out of this country under such circumstances. Therefore they cannot be called Diaspora in any conceivable meaning. They were simply emigrants. Some of them have left for better employment and majority who has left theIslandonly during the LTTE time to save their lives and their children being abducted by the LTTE for conscription. As such none of them could be described as Diaspora in its true sense. Therefore it is worthwhile for someone to elaborate on this issue so that the inappropriateness and the danger of using this term to designate the Sri Lankan Tamils living the world over. They only have left voluntarily in search of greener pastures.

Tamils and anti Sri Lankan elements use this term to gain legitimacy as the Jews did over the past two millennium. Tamils the world over in fact wanted to create Dravidasthan long time ago inSouth India. This is exactly what the Dravida Munetrakasagam wanted to achieve.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  But since they realized that that dream cannot be achieved in India they decided to first do it in North and East Sri Lanka with the greater dream of making this Island the center of the traditional EELAM which they planned to extend it next to Tamilnadu and use it as a spring board for the establishment of their dream World Federation of EELAM including whole of India, Madagasca, Andaman Islands and Fiji etc. This was the final objective of theoreticians like Appadorei, Chelvanayagam and their bandwagon in Tamilnadu and finally they found a ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”MessiahƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ in Pirapaharan to reach their sinister goal. This is exactly what the remnants of the EELAMIST the world over are dreaming even today.

The word Diaspora is used to designate Tamils living all over the world by the Tamils inSri Lankaand Tamilnadu to equate their cause with the plight of the Jews in the Biblical context. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ They have given the impression that all the Tamils dispersed all over the world are people who have been chased out ofSri Lanka. This approach has enabled them to win over the sympathy of the western Christian world including the Jews to support their cause against the Sinhala Buddhist majority in this country. EELAMists all over the world have been successful in lobbying the political leaders, International bodies like the UN, NGOO like the Amnesty International and even the local politicians and the electorates in these countries through their votes and the enormous wealth at their command amazed through human trafficking, drug trafficking, arms smuggling, money laundering, extortion, credit card skimming, bank loan absconding etc.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ They have been able to convince these people that there is mass scale persecution, discrimination and even genocide committed against the Tamils here by the Sri Lankan governments.

So, as a first step we should forthwith stop the use of this word Diaspora to call all Sri Lankan Tamils living abroad and second carry out an aggressive global propaganda programme to tell the real position to the whole world.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Meanwhile it is also important to educateIndiaas a main stake holder on this issue as the EELAMISt agenda is a greater threat to her than even to this country. During the Ghandian regimesIndiadirectly supported the LTTE to tame the Sri Lankan government as it felt this country was adopting a proUSApolicy that was considered a threat toIndiaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s security. Present dayIndiaindirectly does the same mistake by supporting LTTE elements indirectly to appease the Tamilnadu to maintain political balance at home. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ It is a tragedy thatIndiadoes not realize the danger of supporting Tamil eelamists. By doing so they will dig their own grave one day. Rajeev Gandhi paid with his life for his folly. Present dayIndiatoo will have to pay heavily at a future day if they continue to commit the same mistake for short term political gain at home. I vouch that those countries like theUSA,Canada,UK,France,Norway,GermanyandAustraliawill also have to reap the harvest of LTTE terrorism in the near future if they continue with their present pro-LTTE policies to destabilize our motherland -Sri Lanka. The final goal of Eelamists is the realization of their dream Ehesam or Ehelam they claim to have ruledIndialog before the Aryan invasion.

It is high time that both Indian and Tamilnadu politicians realize that Communal Tamil politics of Tamilnadu will never bring dividends either toIndiaas a whole or the people of Tamilnadu. They both should understand thatIndiaandSri Lankaare two different sovereign states enjoying the same territorial rights.