The Association of Tamil Creativists in Tamil Nadu against the Colombo International Tamil Writers Conference to be held in Colombo from 5th to 8th January 2011 has appealed to all Tamil writers to boycott the Colombo conference in a message to media released Tuesday in Chennai. Several leading Tamil creativists including writers, artists, film industry persons and journalists who took part in the Tuesday press meet have signed the appeal.
The English version of the appeal follows:
Let us boycott Colombo International Tamil Writers Conference – a request by Tamil creativists, artists and journalists.
Some writers have announced that they are to hold an International Tamil Writers Conference in Colombo on 5, 6, 7, 8 January 2011. It has been announced that some persons in Colombo and some Diaspora writers had met on 3rd January 2010 and decided to hold this conference.
Sri Lanka government, with India’s joint sabotage, had waged a massive Tamil genocidal war last year killing numerous combatants and innocent civilians to the great shock of the world.
The countries of the world, enraged against Sri Lanka which had made cruel attacks and committed atrocities on the Tamils with frenzied Sinhala chauvinism violating International rules in the conduct of war and the treatment of prisoners of war, have condemned it.
European Union has imposed an embargo on Sri Lanka. The UN General Secretary and the heads of UN member states continue to demand Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa to be charged in the International Court.
Sri Lanka, having waged a Tamil genocidal war, in order to escape the accusations of the world countries and to dampen the anger of the Tamils had tried to show that it was not an enemy of the Tamils by holding the India International Film Awards Festival in Colombo on 3, 4, 5 June.
But the Tamil film society boycotted the festival and appealed to the film societies of other languages in India resulting in the absolute failure of the festival.
With this total failure Sri Lanka is now attempting to stage the Colombo International Tamil Writers Conference in an effort to hide the blood stains of a hundred thousand Tamils on its hands. Without revealing its true face it now wears the mask of writers to engage in this fraudulence.
Therefore, the Tamil creativists, activists and artists and journalists should understand the background and the motive of holding this conference.
We are humanists, creativists, humanitarian thinkers, artists and journalists who sincerely cherish humanity beyond the boundaries of countries, race and language. We are duty-bound to raise our voices together against violation of human rights and attacks on human beings in whichever corner of the world.
The atrocities committed against Eezham Tamils and the horrendous killings of them which reached its zenith in Mu’l’livaaikkaal cannot be described in words. This tyrant Sri Lanka government, exposed of its atrocities and facing the condemnation of world countries, in an effort to hide its cruel face, is now making up its face with the paint of Tamil-love.
We wish to emphatically state that we will not be a party to this effort under any circumstance.
There is no record in world history of a people who had achieved any development independently without political liberation.
Therefore, we request the creativists, scholars and artists to see through the cunning motive of the Sri Lanka government which tries to entice them in the name of development of literature, language and film industry. Tamils of the world should wholly boycott this counterfeit and pompous conference.
Thank you,
(signatures of participants)
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