BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS

The LTTE, Prabhakaran, and colleagues worked against Sri Lanka’s unity and territorial integrity as he needed to establish a separate Tamil state with armed forces and struggle. His behavior appeared he wanted to re-establish the Vijaya Nagar empire that will create severe risk India creating new Issues. The intention of the LTTE movement had been under the control of India and the behavior of Prabhakaran was differentiated by the killing of the Indian Prime Minister and it was the main cause to ending the life of the LTTE leader. Politics could be played in any country but killing politics is not tolerated by a democratic society.  

India is always careful to express views and supports to Tamils of Sri Lanka thinking there is a large Tamil community in India with ethnic relation to Tamils in Sri Lanka, and many Tamils in Sri Lanka are of opinion that except upcountry Tamils, who are descendants of Indians brought to Sri Lanka for plantation industry, are a part of the Sri Lankan community since before the era of King Elara. If it thinks in that line there is no question of respecting the rights of the Tamils. Whether Sri Lanka Sinhala, Muslim, or other communities do agree or not the government of Sri Lanka cannot discriminate against Tamils of Sri Lanka. They are a part of the Sri Lankan community like a caste within the Sinhala community and it shouldn’t be a reason to discriminate against them, the new constitution needs to clearly express that Tamil, Sinhala, Muslims, and other citizens of Sri Lanka are equal and all have equal rights and responsibilities.  If this idea is properly worded and express in the new constitution the equity and justice give equally to Sri Lankans and many clauses of the 13^th amendment would be immaterial as there are no ethnic groups in Sri Lanka, only one ethnic group in the country it is Sri Lankans.

When considering the Tamil aspirations of Sri Lanka nobody cannot ignore the Indo-Lanka accord signed on 29 July 1987.  This accord was prepared with an intention to enact the 13^th amendment to the constitution passed on 14 November 1987.  The complicated aspect of both was the idea of merging the North and Eastern provinces into one administrative unit. This idea was complicated and many Muslim and Sinhala people are living in the area and the rights of these people were ignored in the idea of merging two provinces and it was a violation of the rights of these Non-Tamils.  The merger should be a permanent action was the interpretation of the accord, which gave the power to the president of Sri Lanka to postpone the referendum to merge the North and Eastern provinces. 

The Indo-Lanka accord signed in 1987 has become a complicated matter after more than 30 years and it appears the accord should be canceled or amended according to the current environment. The political history of the world indicates that accords, agreements were among many countries, which were either canceled or ignored in the modern era. So, Indo-Lanka Accord was not an agreement God-given forever and it might change.

Sri Lanka had accords with India in history. In 1782 Sri Lanka signed an agreement to appoint a Malayali Prince as Rajahdi Rajasinghe to the kingship in Sri Lanka, but it was canceled and India did not protest or worked against the cancelation either. This means the Indo-Lanka accord signed on 29 July 1987 could cancel or renegotiate under the new condition. However, if the new constitution converts people of Sri Lanka as Sri Lankans like in India disregarding ethnic and religious, differences the validity of the accord may end without any negotiation.

Mr.J.R. Jayewardene described the Indo-Lanka accord as a way of living under the shadow of India without surrendering to India.  It was a highly complicated statement and when the 1983 July riots happened some international observers have analyzed and highlighted that Mrs. Indira Gandhi had the intention to annex Sri Lanka, but the major barrier to Indira was no a loyal group in Sri Lanka to manage the country on account of India. Mr.Varadarajah Perumal and his group may have trained for the purpose and it was not successful as the majority of Tamils had animosity with him than for a Sinhala leader. Later this situation changed and promoted the 13^th Amendment to the constitution and after the enactment of a new constitution the problem may solve or complicate further and the current president should aware of this situation.        

As India has mentioned, what is the process of reconciliation? this is a Byzantine approach that has no proper definition. Norway attempted to define the reconciliation with a bias toward Tamils and India indirectly opposed to the approach of Norway some time ago.  It was a Noble Prize-related process was the feeling of common people than a genuine reconciliation between ethnic and religious communities of Sri Lanka.  Some time ago I explained a genuine reconciliation should be without strings and the approach of Lord Buddha when he reconciled Chuloda and Mahodara would be the best approach.  Sri Lanka’s government has taken many steps in support of the reconciliation process. Nevertheless, India attempts to use the issue like a beggar’s wound and didn’t like western countries coming to the seen it may be a president to ethnic problems in India.

Sri Lanka’s relationship with China has impacted the Tamil aspirations of Sri Lanka and indirectly India requests from Sri Lanka to limit Chines role in the country and abate the support from China to Sri Lanka. India cannot support Sri Lanka in the magnitude that China is supporting.  India has a massive population who don’t enjoy at least the level of Sri Lankans’ economic enjoyment. Attempting to treat the equality of Sri Lankans in the same way, economic poverty of Indians is unreasonable.  

It seems an Indian hegemony-related issue too associated with the Indian approach rather than the problem that goes with international relations.

According to the UN convention relating the human rights, any country may have relationships with other countries, and it doesn’t limit the ability of relationships.  The attempt of India to limit the relationship with China might contrary to the UN convention.

When deeply analyze the Tamil aspirations of Sri Lanka they have limits and subject to Indian controls. Whether Tamils living in Sri Lanka without differences have understood the situation is a complicated issue and many Tamils now open express views against the Indian approach.  Why India sticks to the attitudes of the past is a question and educating people on this matter might help to change Indian attitudes.

Sri Lanka hopes India supports Sri Lanka in UNHRC and associate with Sri Lanka to convert Tamil aspirations to a demand for asking to bring the moon. On the political front, there is working together by India and Sri Lanka, however, intelligence service works deeply looking at odds and do people in India and Sri Lanka need to stick to odd points, no Sri Lanka had a closed relationship with India since history and Sri Lanka also related to Indo-China languages and Culture, in this way India and China both are friends of Sri Lanka, diversity and unity is the secret of maintaining the relationship with both.