Conflict in Sri Lanka: Ground Realities - Tamil Nation & Beyond
Conflict in Sri Lanka: Ground Realities - Tamil Nation & Beyond
Conflict in Sri Lanka: Ground Realities - Tamil Nation & Beyond
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of Norway and with the support of the co-chairs (USA, Japan, EUand Norway) of the Tokyo donor conference for <strong>Sri</strong> <strong>Lanka</strong>, havefailed to produce any results. Even the IC-<strong>in</strong>itiated Post-TsunamiOperational Management System (P-TOMS), a jo<strong>in</strong>t mechanismbetween the government of <strong>Sri</strong> <strong>Lanka</strong>n government (GoSL) and theLTTE to share the reconstruction aid from the IC equitably amongthe affected people, has also been prevented from function<strong>in</strong>g,through a court action <strong>in</strong>itiated by S<strong>in</strong>ghalese hard l<strong>in</strong>ers.Recent <strong>Tamil</strong> ResurgenceRealis<strong>in</strong>g that their hopes on the CFA and the peace processseem to have evaporated, the disappo<strong>in</strong>ted <strong>Tamil</strong> people began todemonstrate their frustration and expectations to the SLG andthe IC, by organis<strong>in</strong>g resurgence rallies <strong>in</strong> the <strong>Tamil</strong> homeland.The first <strong>Tamil</strong> <strong>Nation</strong>al Resurgence Conference was held on 27July 2005 <strong>in</strong> the northern town of Vavuniya. A conference of morethan 1000 <strong>Tamil</strong> academics, religious leaders and social activists<strong>in</strong> Vavuniya on this day proclaimed that an environment mustbe created to enable <strong>Tamil</strong>s to decide their own political dest<strong>in</strong>yand called for the <strong>Sri</strong> <strong>Lanka</strong>n armed forces to vacate the landand seas of the North-East. This is now known as the VavuniyaDeclaration and <strong>Tamil</strong> people liv<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> all the other <strong>Tamil</strong> Districtshave held similar resurgence rallies endors<strong>in</strong>g this declaration.With the CFA com<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>to effect, it has been accepted <strong>in</strong> pr<strong>in</strong>ciplethat, <strong>in</strong> the island of <strong>Sri</strong> <strong>Lanka</strong>, there exists an area controlled by theGoSL and another area controlled by the LTTE. The <strong>in</strong>ternationalcommunity has witnessed, especially after the tsunami disaster,the existence of an efficient civil adm<strong>in</strong>istration run by theLTTE <strong>in</strong> the LTTE controlled areas, with their own judicial,police, bank<strong>in</strong>g, transport and tax collect<strong>in</strong>g systems. Thereforealthough the British and the post-<strong>in</strong>dependence governments <strong>in</strong><strong>Sri</strong> <strong>Lanka</strong> have tried to erase the situation that prevailed beforethe British colonialists stepped <strong>in</strong>to <strong>Sri</strong> <strong>Lanka</strong> as recorded byHugh Cleghorn <strong>in</strong> 1799, <strong>Tamil</strong>s have succeeded <strong>in</strong> preserv<strong>in</strong>gto great extent the parameters def<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g their <strong>Nation</strong>hood. Thisis why they decided to proclaim their aspirations as those of a<strong>Nation</strong> through Vavuniya Declaration.35