{"id":118376,"date":"2021-09-20T17:00:09","date_gmt":"2021-09-21T00:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=118376"},"modified":"2021-09-20T17:00:09","modified_gmt":"2021-09-21T00:00:09","slug":"erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-19-b3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/09\/20\/erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-19-b3\/","title":{"rendered":"ERASING THE EELAM VICTORY Part 19 B3"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

(Continued from B2)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Western delegations have made it a point to\nmeet and speak with the TNA, when they visit Sri Lanka. These are not secret\ndiscussions. They are   proudly reported\nin the newspapers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sampanthan\u2019s\ndiscussion with these foreigners covered the full spectrum of Tamil Separatist\nMovement concerns, such as the National question, Acceptable political\nresolution Power\nsharing the possibility\nof recurrence of violence,  merger of North and East provinces, new constitution,\n \u2018state sponsored colonization\u2019 plus the fiction that Tamils have been\nliving in the north and east from ancient times, this is their homeland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are some of the things Sampanthan has\ntold these foreigners. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • We\nhave been governed without our will and consent, and from 1956 onwards our\npeople have repeatedly voted for a change in the structure of governance in the\ncountry. These democratic verdicts have been continuously ignored and\nrejected”.<\/li>
  • “We\nhave not been given equal opportunities in terms of development and employment\nand our people are frustrated. On the contrary, if power is devolved then these\nsocio-economic issues could be addressed more effectively “.<\/li>
  • We are not against natural migration of people. But we are\nagainst the state-sponsored settlement schemes which are done deliberately to\nchange the ethnic composition in the regions. <\/li>
  • “We\nwant to have substantial power-sharing arrangements, an arrangement that will\nenable people to exercise powers in matters that are related to them, and ensure\nthat these powers are not taken back by the center or will not allow center to\ninterfere. “We\nare well within the international laws with regard to our demands for\npower-sharing. <\/li>
  • Sampanthan\n called for a merger of North and East\nprovinces citing \u2018the two provinces largely represent Tamil majority\u2019  <\/li>
  • “We\nwant a solution within a united undivided and indivisible Sri Lanka on the\nbasis of the dignity self-respect and sovereignty of different people who have\nhistorically inhabited certain regions for centuries<\/li>
  •  Sampanthan said failure to finding a\nresolution to the national question would result in a recurrence of violence. If\nthe government does not deliver, we may be compelled to take a hardline.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Here are extracts from a speech given by\nSampanthan <\/strong>at\nthe Counter terrorism conference, New Delhi, March 2017.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Human society is diverse, it is complex.\nSocieties in most countries are multilingual, multi ethnic, multi-cultural, and\npluralistic in character; they vastly differ from each other.\n Constitutional arrangements need to accommodate such diversity, such complexity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Sri Lanka is a multi-ethnic, multi lingual,\nmulti-cultural country comprising of the Sinhalese who are the majority and\nhave their own distinct identity, the Tamils, and the Muslims who are\nnumerically minorities and have their own distinct identities. This is accepted\nin Sri Lanka and is not a bone of contention.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The\nTamil speaking people have historically inhabited the North Eastern part of the\nCountry and are in a majority in every district in the North Eastern part of\nthe Country, while the Sinhala people are in a majority in the rest of the\nCountry. This too is accepted and is not a bone of contention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The\nCountry attained independence from Colonial rule in 1948.Before Colonial\nsubjugation, there were Sinhala and Tamil Kingdoms in the Country, which were\ncaptured by different Colonial powers, differently, and at different times.\nThese different territories were unified together in 1833 under British\nColonial Rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Sri\nLanka\u2019s first Constitution was framed in 1948 by our Colonial rulers. It\nprovided for Majoritarian rule with certain safeguards, which were soon\ndisregarded. Thereafter, we have had two Constitutions, one in 1972 and the\nother in 1978.It is the latter that exists today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The\n1972 Constitution was framed by one of the two major Sinhala political parties\nwithout the consent of the other major Sinhala political party or the consent\nof the Tamil political party mainly representing the Tamil people of the North\nEast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The\n1978 constitution was framed by the other major Sinhala political party without\nthe consent of the major Sinhala political party that framed the 1972\nConstitution or the consent of the political party mainly representing the\nTamil people of the North East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The\n1972 Constitution and the existing 1978 Constitution, were not framed on the\nbasis of consensus, they were unilateral actions of the political party in\npower at the relevant time .They empowered majoritarian rule. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The\npolitical culture prevalent in Sri Lanka has unfortunately been that, in order\nto achieve and retain political power, the tendency has been to confer on the\nmajority Community a supremacist position, in preference to truth, justice and\nequality .It must be realized that this approach has resulted in Sri Lanka, not\nbeing able to attain its rightful place in the World.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The\ndemand for a change in the structure of Governance has prevailed from shortly\nafter Independence, the demand was made by the Tamil people in the North East\nwho alleged that they were treated as Second class Citizens, that injustice was\nmeted out to them, in matters relating to their Civil, Political, Economic,\nSocial and Cultural rights. They were subjected to physical violence whenever\nthey made just political demands .This happened for several decades without any\nretaliation from the Tamils. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The\npolitical demand of the Tamil people for necessary changes in the structure of\nGovernance was democratically supported ,overwhelmingly ,by the Tamil people of\nthe North East, at every General Election to Parliament from 1956-up to date\nand at every other election whether provincial or local for a period of more\nthan Sixty years .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The\ndemocratic verdicts of the Tamil people were not given recognition .The Tamil\npeople are thus being governed without their consent and against their will in\nviolation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United\nNations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    After\nthat, there was armed revolt by Tamil Youth for almost three decades .Such\narmed revolt commenced more than three decades after the country attained\nindependence and after all democratic and political processes had failed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The\nresult of all this has been that up to fifty percent of the Sri Lankan Tamil\npopulation have fled the country and live in several Countries the World over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora is spread\nthroughout the World. More than 150000 Tamils have been killed. During the\narmed conflict, all people Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims suffered immensely.\nFurther violence would result in more Tamils fleeing the Country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The\nConflict has received international attention and four resolutions have been\nadopted by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2012, 2013, 2014 and\n2015.The resolutions deal with violations of International Human Rights Laws\nand International Humanitarian Laws by both parties to the conflict, the Sri\nLankan State and the armed rebel outfit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The Tamil people are committed to\nevolving a just, reasonable, workable and durable political solution within the\nframe-work of a single undivided and indivisible Sri Lanka. [End of speech]   (Continued in B4)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    KAMALIKA PIERIS (Continued from B2) Western delegations have made it a point to meet and speak with the TNA, when they visit Sri Lanka. These are not secret discussions. They are   proudly reported in the newspapers. Sampanthan\u2019s discussion with these foreigners covered the full spectrum of Tamil Separatist Movement concerns, such as the National question, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118376\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}