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

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ecause of its vagueness to the Tamil mind. Rather it could besaid that the Tamils trusted the integrity of the Tamil leadership,which advocated the federal solution as what was best in theirinterests. The Sinhalese elites viewed the Federal Party as then‘classic Tamil disposition’ of wanting to have the cake and eatit; they therefore refused to hear of federalism being the secondbest, or even as a compromise on a separate sovereign state.Tamil nationalism which was spreading like a bush fire amongthe Tamils of Ceylon. There could not have been a better recipefor the burgeoning of Tamil nationalism than the IATR’s culturalactivities and the Tamil Federal Party’s gospel of the Tamilhomeland and the unity of the Tamil speaking peoples of Ceylon.Along with repression by the Sinhala Buddhist State, there couldnot have been a greater fillip to Tamil aspirations in the aimfor a nation state. Thus culture fed nationalism and nationalismboosted patriotism. This Tamil nationalism expressed itself in anall-out struggle (porrattam in Tamil) against the Sinhala Buddhiststate. That was the term which the aspiring Tamil youth reservedfor the state apparatus that sought governance over them.The Church and the TempleSetting aside their historically inherited hostilities and differencesthe Hindu-Christian elite leadership entered into mainstream ofthis nationalist struggle with one voice. Hindu leaders and priestsjoined hands with their Christian counterparts in supportingand advancing the Tamil demand for separate statehood. NallurTemple and the Bishop’s House became the meeting place ofthe leading citizens of Jaffna to express their protest against theatrocities of the armed forces.In this Tamil national porrattam (struggle) the Catholic andProtestant churches in the Tamil areas and its hierarchy providedan active leadership with undaunted courage. The scholar-Bishopof Jaffna, Most Rev. Dr. Deogupillai stood solidly with his peoplein championing the cause for Human Rights, justice and equalitywith the late Rev. Dr. D. J. Ambalavanar, the Jaffna Bishop ofthe Church of South India who convincingly argued the Tamilnational question in India and abroad.50
The Armed StruggleIn the arena of conflict the Liberation Tigers have survived thesuperior strength of the armed forces of the Sri Lankan state.Pirapakaran is committed to the cause of Tamil nationhood and isunwilling to place any reliance on Sinhalese assurances given thetrack record of their leaders. In the earlier phase, Pirapakaran andhis supporters launched their struggle for a separate state. Afterthe Indian intervention of July 1983 there was the realisation thatIndia with its armed might will obstruct a mini-state of Eelamemerging in their backyard; the Liberation Tigers therefore declaredthat they would agree to any formula which approximated to thesubstance of a separate sovereign state, which they said couldeven be a federal set up. However the Sinhalese mindset has up todate not showed any willingness for even a substitute for the Tamildemand for statehood. It must be pointed out here that the Eelamwars were being waged at such tremendous cost and sacrificelargely because of the refusal of the Tamils to accept secondarystatus in a country which had been their motherland for centuriesgoing back to the pre-Christian era. Having made such incrediblesacrifices there will be no space for an ideological retreat.The Liberation Tigers in fact administered their own state in theNorth within the larger state of Sri Lanka. This species of state wasunknown to the world. A parallel quasi-state was being operatedwithin the larger island state of Sri Lanka. The Tigers were therulers with their own bureaucracy, police force and judiciary. Oneschool of Sinhalese thought preferred to leave this quasi-statelittle disturbed while the People’s Alliance government made anegregious blunder in militarily occupying this state of Eelam in theJaffna peninsula. The situation was rendered more quixotic withthe Sinhala governments opposed to this state of Eelam funding theadministrators and maintaining state equipment in the peninsula.In this way it did not appear that the Colombo government hadsurrendered part of the island’s territory, the north-east. The firstfoundation of the proto-State of Eelam was brought to the groundwith the PA government’s determined conquest and occupation ofthe Tamil heartland of Jaffna in 1995 - a grievous and poignantlyirreparable blow to the Tamil psyche.51
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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 and 46: Sudan’s Interim Power-sharing and
Page 47 and 48: of Norway and with the support of t
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: 4. Consequently the feeling of a mi
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
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Conflict in Sri Lanka: Ground Realities - Tamil Nation & Beyond

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