Urge LTTE to free Tamil civilians - TULF leader tells TN
The Tamil United Liberation Front has appealed to
governing officials in the Tamil Nadu (TN) to exert pressure on the LTTE
to set free those Tamil civilians trapped in Kilinochchi so that they
may go anywhere they want to.
The moment the LTTE opens its iron gate the displaced
persons will move out in no time and get back to their respective homes,
the president of TULF V.Anandasangaree has said in a letter addressed to
Tamil Nadu, titled Appeal to the leaders of Political Parties and the
People of Tamil Nadu.
The TULF President has said that if Tamil Nadu has any
sympathy for the Tamil people who are suffering under the subjugation of
the LTTE, it has a moral obligation to win them (the Tamil public) the
fundamental right of being able to choose the place they wish to live.
In this war situation people who are living with fear
and tension in Killinochchi should be rescued by Tamil Nadu by
pressurizing the LTTE, compelling them to set the Tamil public trapped
in their areas free , the letter said. .
The time has come for the leaders in Tamil Nadu to
forget their differences and come together to help liberate the Tamils
who have lost their rights, properties and self respect. The immediate
task should be to save the innocent people who have been trapped in
Killinochchi with no freedom to move out, the letter said.
It read: For more than quarter of a century the LTTE
had taken Tamil people for a ride. The Tamils need liberation only from
the LTTE. The government had already liberated large areas from the LTTE
, the East in full and in the North well over 75 percent. Now only a
small area is left.
It is here all the displaced persons from Mannar
Mullaitivu, Killinochchi and Vavuniya are driven into. The LTTE had
brought them here under compulsion for their own protection. They are
now using them as a human shield.
Sangaree has said in his letter that he was shocked at
the terminology used to describe the situation in Sri Lanka. The charge
of the LTTE that the Government of Sri Lanka is engaged in genocide is a
big farce, the letter said.
More than 50 percent of the Tamil people now live
among the Sinhalese and Muslims. Most of them had fled from LTTE
controlled areas. LTTE's repeated attempts to provoke a backlash in the
Sinhalese areas had failed.
All their claymore mine attacks in the Sinhalese
areas, targeting service personnel and civilians are done to spark off
communal riots. Hardly one such incident takes place without taking a
few civilian lives. There has not been any attempt as such to
exterminate anyone deliberately or otherwise. A few deaths had taken
place in the war zone but this cannot in anyway be classified as
Genocide.
The dispute in the country is not between any ethnic
groups. It relates only to the rights and privileges one is entitled to
and can be sorted out at the negotiating table. If the LTTE gives up its
demand for separation and agree to lay down their arms we will help them
to play an important role in negotiations.
Everyone in India, in Sri Lanka and even in many parts
of the world, know fully well that creation of a separate state of Eelam
is an impossible task. The Indian government is vehemently opposed to it
and so is the International community.
The only option available is to agitate for a federal
solution with the only one alternative of adopting the Indian model to
enable the various regions in Sri Lanka to enjoy powers equivalent to
those presently enjoyed by various states in India including Tamil Nadu.
We appreciate the bold stand taken by Dr. Selvi Jeyalalitha Jeyaram in
dealing with the LTTE as a terrorist Organization and also for pledging
full support in all other matters that could alleviate the present
plight of the Sri Lankan Tamils.
It is my frank opinion that some leaders and many
people in Tamil Nadu had been misled over a period of several years, by
exaggerated, false and fabricated stories spread at random by some
interested parties, to boost the LTTE.
But there are very eminent leaders in Tamil Nadu who
can recommend a reasonable and acceptable solution for the ethnic
problem within a United Sri Lanka. Unfortunately these sources had not
been properly tapped due to the LTTE's unyielding stand and constant
demand for separation.
I appealed to various authorities such as the
Secretary General of the United Nations, Heads of various States, Heads
of Diplomatic Missions, Heads of various Religions and such others to
intervene and help to liberate the Tamil People, whom the LTTE was
keeping under their subjugation for many years in areas under their
control.
These people hardly enjoyed any democratic or
fundamental rights. Their human rights had been violated beyond ones
imagination. The recruitments to their cadre under compulsion went on
unabated. They did not spare even elders from under-going some sort of
training.
Of the people abducted the whereabouts of many are not
known. They have torture camps and dark -room chambers with methods of
torture unheard of in any civilised society.
The outside world does not know what is happening in
the LTTE held areas, popularly known as an Iron Curtain area. I hope the
TNA members of Parliament who are now in Tamil Nadu, taking part in
demonstrations and Sathyagrahas will confirm this accusation of mine and
also endorse my demand that the Tamil People under the subjugation of
the LTTE should be liberated from them.
Inciting speeches in Tamil Nadu by the Sri Lankan
Members of Parliament of the Tamil National Alliance should be
discouraged. Allowing it will cause great embarrassment to the Sri
Lankan Tamils more than half of whom live in harmony in the South with
the Sinhalese and the Muslims.
The TNA members of Parliament who were elected
fraudulently with the fire power of the LTTE, only act as proxies of the
LTTE and not as elected representatives of Tamil people.
The Number of Tamil politicians academics principals
of schools business people ex-members of other groups killed by the LTTE
amount to several thousands. As a comparison not a single person under
this category had been killed during this long period of conflict by any
Sinhalese.
Black July 1983 incident is perhaps the last communal
riots the country faced. For that too the LTTE was partly responsible by
causing the death of 13 Sinhalese soldiers. Even in this incident it was
the hoodlums who were involved in murders and arson. The Sinhalese
civilians were responsible for saving hundreds of thousands of Tamils
who lived among them.
The Tamils in Sri Lanka remember with gratitude the
immense services rendered for the Tamil cause by people like the late
Indira Gandhi, the late Rajiv Gandhi and such others. We are also
grateful to two great leaders of Tamil Nadu the late Dr.
M.G.Ramachandran and Dr. Kalignar Karunanidhi.
We also appreciate the bold stand taken by Dr. Selvi
Jeyalalitha Jeyaram in dealing with the LTTE as a terrorist Organisation
and also for pledging full support in all other matters that could
alleviate the present plight of the Sri Lankan Tamils."
Courtesy: Daily News |
