Urge LTTE to free Tamil civilians - TULF leader tells TN

Chamikara Weerasinghe

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.”