Conflict in Sri Lanka: Ground Realities - Tamil Nation & Beyond

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inferior Tamil nation in policies of language, land alienation,education and employment.When the Tamil nation’s struggle for equal rights using nonviolentdemocratic methods, within and outside the parliament,was subjugated with brutal force by successive Singhalesedominatedgovernments, the then democratically elected leadersof the Tamil nation realised that the establishment of a separateState in the traditional homeland of the Tamil people, the North-East region of the country, is the only way to live in this islandwith peace and dignity. This culminated in the Tamil UnitedLiberation Front (TULF), the then moderate democratic politicalparty of the Tamils, passing a resolution for the Tamils to initiatetheir struggle to establish an independent, Sovereign, Secular,Socialist State of Tamil Eelam in their traditional homeland, theNorth-East of Sri Lanka.The resolution calling for a separate state was passed at the TULF’sconvention held at Vaddukodai in 1976. It is now popularly calledthe Vaddukodai Resolution. Tamil people gave their mandate tothe TULF for this resolution, which was their platform, in theparliamentary elections in 1977. When the TULF’s non-violentstruggle for an independent state was crushed, the Tamil youthsopted for an armed struggle. This armed struggle is today takenforward by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).Until the LTTE was able to grow and evolve with the support ofthe Tamil people into an equal armed formation to the Sri Lankansecurity forces (SLSF), and was able to successfully resist theSLSF’s occupation of the Tamil homeland, no serious ceasefireagreements (CFA) or international community (IC) involved peaceprocesses were initiated. Such a CFA was signed in 2002 betweenthe Sri Lankan government and the LTTE with the facilitation ofthe international community (IC), specifically Norway.Although the CFA is still holding (after nearly 4 years) politicalkillings are not in short supply, which are blamed on both, theTamil paramilitary forces aided and directed by the SLSF, andthe LTTE. Six rounds of peace negotiations, with the facilitation34
of Norway and with the support of the co-chairs (USA, Japan, EUand Norway) of the Tokyo donor conference for Sri Lanka, havefailed to produce any results. Even the IC-initiated Post-TsunamiOperational Management System (P-TOMS), a joint mechanismbetween the government of Sri Lankan government (GoSL) and theLTTE to share the reconstruction aid from the IC equitably amongthe affected people, has also been prevented from functioning,through a court action initiated by Singhalese hard liners.Recent Tamil ResurgenceRealising that their hopes on the CFA and the peace processseem to have evaporated, the disappointed Tamil people began todemonstrate their frustration and expectations to the SLG andthe IC, by organising resurgence rallies in the Tamil homeland.The first Tamil National Resurgence Conference was held on 27July 2005 in the northern town of Vavuniya. A conference of morethan 1000 Tamil academics, religious leaders and social activistsin Vavuniya on this day proclaimed that an environment mustbe created to enable Tamils to decide their own political destinyand called for the Sri Lankan armed forces to vacate the landand seas of the North-East. This is now known as the VavuniyaDeclaration and Tamil people living in all the other Tamil Districtshave held similar resurgence rallies endorsing this declaration.With the CFA coming into effect, it has been accepted in principlethat, in the island of Sri Lanka, there exists an area controlled by theGoSL and another area controlled by the LTTE. The internationalcommunity has witnessed, especially after the tsunami disaster,the existence of an efficient civil administration run by theLTTE in the LTTE controlled areas, with their own judicial,police, banking, transport and tax collecting systems. Thereforealthough the British and the post-independence governments inSri Lanka have tried to erase the situation that prevailed beforethe British colonialists stepped into Sri Lanka as recorded byHugh Cleghorn in 1799, Tamils have succeeded in preservingto great extent the parameters defining their Nationhood. Thisis why they decided to proclaim their aspirations as those of aNation through Vavuniya Declaration.35
Page 7 and 8: ContentsIntroduction ..............
Page 9 and 10: IntroductionThe prospects for peace
Page 17 and 18: that I haven’t voted in the elect
Page 19 and 20: Is Peace Feasible?- Wakeley Paul[Wa
Page 21 and 22: In short, Rajapakse’s conception
Page 23 and 24: their leader should be? Obviously n
Page 25 and 26: The Vaddukodai resolutionIf there i
Page 27 and 28: due to the depopulation of vast are
Page 29 and 30: east because the Muslims reacted to
Page 31 and 32: usually tends to be obfuscated in d
Page 33 and 34: consider federal structures based o
Page 35 and 36: The official languageThe question o
Page 37 and 38: the LTTE-led Tamil National Movemen
Page 39 and 40: the LTTE to deliver humanitarian ai
Page 41 and 42: to power sharing. This behaviour, t
Page 43 and 44: political stand of the overwhelming
Page 45: Sudan’s Interim Power-sharing and
Page 49 and 50: inception of the CFA, they laid out
Page 51 and 52: determination, many analysts and co
Page 53 and 54: The peace talks were mediated by th
Page 55 and 56: Sri Lanka and Tamil Eelam: The Part
Page 57 and 58: e trusted on a permanent basis. The
Page 59 and 60: their times and climes but their vo
Page 61 and 62: 4. Consequently the feeling of a mi
Page 63 and 64: The Armed StruggleIn the arena of c
Page 65 and 66: aircraft, the world has chosen to l
Page 67 and 68: Former President Bill Clinton, who
Page 69 and 70: epresentative, was “review of the
Page 71 and 72: says: “The governments of India a

Conflict in Sri Lanka: Ground Realities - Tamil Nation & Beyond

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