Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Ms. Jayalalithaa should make it a mission to campaign for the independence of Eezham Tamils in the other states of India and elsewhere. For two years before the independence of Bangladesh Mrs Indira Gandhi quietly undertook a diplomatic campaign for it all over the world. Now there is no one except Ms. Jayalalithaa who is bestowed with the mantle to play such a role for the independence of Eezham Tamils.
TamilNet Editorial Board
Call for war crimes investigations and exposure of the crimes committed in the vicious war that was fought in Vanni, intentionally keeping away witnesses and silencing the victims, are only a first step in seeking justice.
The crimes exposure is sure to evoke an awareness of the genocidal intention of state in Sri Lanka and the indiscretion of powers in not hesitating to use genocide as means for their gains.
While the war crimes investigation is a larger duty of the civilised world and its institutions, in practical terms justice coming out of such investigations is a lengthy process taking decades.
The most important point that has been brought out by the Channel 4 documentary “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields” is the international nature of the crime. As such is the nature of the crime and as the involved ones are sitting in the establishments all over the world, a genuine investigation and full justice coming out of the investigation are likely to be even more a lengthy process.
Those who have watched the Chennai-based Head Lines programme could have noticed the contradicting statement of Sri Lanka’s military spokesperson who denies any crime committed by the SL Army, but at the same time says that they are investigating it locally.
Is it possible for a party to the crime to investigate it while denying it?
But we have an Asst Secretary of State in the US and a Defence Secretary in the UK who have hopes on such an investigation. We also have a Foreign Secretary in India who has no comments.
While it is not difficult to guess the course of the war crimes investigation and leaving it as a task for the world human civilisation, the obsession of Eezham Tamils is how to arrest the ongoing genocide and extermination of their nation that are being intensively carried out by state in Sri Lanka, using the international dilly-dallying over the war crimes investigation.
The former is a task for the world civilisation, but the latter is exclusively a task for Tamils to spearhead and establish it to the world that the ultimate justice is the independence of Eezham Tamils. Any compromise on that is compromising with the intentions with which the crimes were committed, and are being committed.
In this regard, Eezham Tamils note it with appreciation and thanks the recognition coming for their right to self-determination from the European Left.
The stand taken by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on the war crimes and the awareness campaigns that are now taking place in different parts of India by the Communist Party of India, Left groups and various civil society organisations are very encouraging. However, Eezham Tamils are trying to comprehend the situation with a question that what constrains or concerns are still preventing sympathetic political opinion in India polarising into a call for their independence.
The visiting UK Defence Secretary implied a hard truth while speaking in Colombo last week. The powers recognize only “building blocks” for their security. Even though genocidal, the state of Sri Lanka is a much-needed ‘block’ in the maritime milieu and Eezham Tamils at the moment are not recognized as a ‘block’ in the region.
Who make the ‘blocks’ in the contemporary world, whether peoples or brutal and genocidal states? While once again leaving the question to our civilization today, we should also take note of the discretion made in this regard by the International Crisis Group (ICG) that reflects the defence outlook of the West.
According to the ICG, peoples and their struggles are recognized for independence in some parts, watched with indecision in some other parts but denied independence in the rest of the instances, and the struggle of Eezham Tamils come under the third category.
How to prove that Eezham Tamils as a people make an inevitable block in the given geo-political context? This is where the small nation of Eezham Tamils, long deserving independence but brutally striped of its military balance through conspiracy, needs the political commitment of Tamil Nadu in setting the perspectives right.
Independence of Bangladesh was a must for the people of Bangladesh and it didn’t kindle any need in West Bengal in India to break away from the Indian union.
Some shades of political opinion in India recognize the modus operandi of war crimes committed by state in the island as a danger to the entire region and to the struggles inside India, but they don’t go further into recognizing the need for the independence of Eezham Tamils.
State terrorism may have parallels in the region, but the question of Eezham Tamils is more than that, is unique in its context and independence of Eezham Tamils is the only way to set inspirations right in the region or to discourage states following the model of Sri Lanka.
Many in the Indian subcontinent have so far not fully realised the gravity of the crisis related to Eezham Tamils. The crisis has the potential of setting a negative paradigm to the peoples of the entire region if it continues and it could set a very positive paradigm if it ends in liberation through a political struggle of the peoples of the region.
Standing on the moral space gained by the war crimes exposure, and setting the paradigm right without any slips at the outset itself, Ms. Jayalalithaa should now spearhead the political and diplomatic campaign for the independence of Eezham Tamils. By virtue of her office she has the moral authority and she has resources and leverage. She will get silent support with gratitude from the gagged Eezham Tamils in the island and will get overwhelming support from Tamils all over the world in this historic mission.
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