An Open Letter to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa

Congrats on a good article. But as a Sinhalese I would like to say a few things.

The Sinhalese are generally not opposed to Tamils getting equal rights. But what we fear say a federal solution is that, will the Tamil be satisfied with it? My guess is they would find the smallest excuse to get Eelam even after getting a federal solution.

The Tamils demand for a seperate state is based on two points.
1 Discrimination
2. that the north & east are traditional Tamil homeland.

What these eelaminst dont realize is the two statements contradict each other.
If they shout discrimination then they cant use the second one. if they do it means that even if the Sinhalese are nice to them and no discrimination the would demand a separate state based on the second point.
The point I want to show is that Tamil even before indipendance never really wanted to live together. They though they were smarter and better businessmen and should not be ruled by "less inteligent" Sinhalese.
My point is if they want a seperate state they should get it on their own merit instead of blaming on the Sinhalese. Just say we want a divorce even if you are nice to us.
That would put the issue in correct perspective

Vinod.


Understand the Tamil issue.

You are giving ideas to overun LTTE...but the tamil issue is there in that island from 1948.

Understand the Tamil Nationalism
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Rajnikanth :

"Did they enter the war on purpose? They demanded their rights through all kinds of peaceful methods, when nothing worked out, they were forced to take up arms," Mr. Rajinikanth said. "The urgent need is to stop the war. The voice that we rise over here must be heard by Rajapaksa," the famous actor explained in his speech.


He directly addressed the Sri Lankan President and said: "Rajapaksa! What are the Tamils demanding? Equal status. It is in your best interests if you recognise their rights. You have the three armed forces: the army, the navy and the air force. But have you been able to wipe out all the Tamils who have been fighting for their rights? You have not been able to do this in the past two-years of the war, as in the past thirty years. You are unable to accept your defeat. Because, for you, it is a question of EGO . Accept the truth and grant them equal rights."

On the same vein, Rajinikanth targeted the Sri Lankan nation and warned them in no uncertain terms: "When poor and innocent people of suffer, a country will never improve. The people there are dying in large numbers for the past several years. Please understand that their dead bodies are not being buried, they are being planted into the land. Don't forget that these seeds will grow again tomorrow!"

The super star implored the Sri Lankan President to give the Tamils their rights and their traditional land because it was in the best interests of Sri Lanka.

Kamal :


"In a society that does not guarantee fundamental rights, it is natural for radicalism to take root. When the nation attains independence, the so-called terrorists will be the martyrs and freedom fighters. Only time can be a judge. A peaceful solution should have come to Sri Lanka, but because of its absence, people have been forced to take up arms. Tamils all over the world have united for the sake of the Eezham Tamils," he said. "People in Tamil Nadu who have so much of infighting should realize this," he added at the end of his soul-stirring speech.

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Kamal Hassan and Rajnikanth may also one day claim that the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi was an act of freedom fighters. They may also claim that the murder and maiming of thousands of Indian soldiers was an act of freedom fighters. They may also claim to want a citizenship other than Indian.

When TamBrams in Mumbai want to protest against Raj Thakre and MNS, then they claim the nation is under threat from the whims of local parochialists. But when it comes to their precious Eelam war, then suddenly parochialism is something precious to be defended by them.

No credibility. Zero. Nada. Nil. Zilch.

Don't Forget :

Indian forces were indulging in number of civilian massacres, Involuntary disappearances and rapes during their time in the Northeastern province of Sri Lanka. These include involvement or complicity in the incidents noted :

Jaffna teaching hospital massacre

On October 22 1987 a few Tamil militants fired upon the advancing IPKF from within the hospital and made their escape by running through the hospital. The IPKF quickly raided the hospital on that day. However, when the IPKF entered the hospital there were no militant in the premises and no fighting. And yet, the IPKF massacred over 70 civilians. These civilians included patients, two doctors , three nurses and a pediatric consultant who were all in uniform. It is alleged that the pediatric consultant and two nurses were killed the following day (October 23) when they reported into duty. The hospital never completely recovered after this massacre.

Source:Indian_Express (PDF)
http://www.ltteps.org/mainpages/images/2006/08/Massacre_at_Valvetti_-_Indian_Express.pdf

Indian Army betrayed the Tamils when they came as IPKF. They were outfoxed by the then Sinhalese Government and turned against the Tamils. They waged a full scale war against the Tamils..carried out massacres, executions of young Tamils. Created Para military groups and unleased most horrible violence against innocent tamil villagers in the north east Sri Lanka. The IPKF was caught up in this war trap unable to get out. They were trying to implement agreements with most racist sinhala governments at the expense of Tamil lives. Don't forget Rajiv Gandhi escaped assassination attempt by a sinhala guard by ducking and diving. Even then he took side with the sinhalese and did the dirty work for them. For this he rightly paid with his life, to avenge the innocent who were killed by the IPKF. May their souls rest in peace.

Vinod :

A nice article. Congrats. Rajapakshe can do all the things suggested by you, only after obliterating LTTE, which would eventually happen, but the price paid would be enormous.

As a person visiting Colombo often, I could feel the pain of the country, diverting its precious resources fighting terrorism.

I wish peace returns to the island nation soon, so that it can prosper. LTTE had done more harm to the cause of Tamils. They resorted to violence for a cause initially, now the violence has become the cause, defeating the original cause.

Here comes the re-hash of LTTE fabrications against the Indian Army. Surely then you don't want "the evil Indian Army" to intervene in Sri Lanka, if they are so evil?

The fact that LTTE is begging for Indian military intervention tells me how much they believe their own lies about the Indian Army.

The fact that LTTE supporters in India from one side of their mouths bash their own army over its deployment to Sri Lanka, while from the other side of their mouths clamouring for Indian army intervention in Sri Lanka, tells me all I need to know. Those who spread lies against their own countrymen in pursuit of their own racial parochialism, are showing the quality of their character (more specifically, the lack of it).

LTTE is the gift we Sri Lankans got from India. They trained LTTE crgeres in South Indian camps in 80's. Then they send Indian army to Sri Lanka to protect LTTE from it's death in 1987. LTTE is India's child. They gave the birth to it and fed without knowing that it's a snake. When LTTE attacked back to it's mother by assasinating Rajiv, all indian LTTE supporters and ThamilNadu politicians kept silent for a long time. When LTTE is again in danger South Indian politicians again have come to protect them. For some reason South Asia is a strange place that politicians can use their people for their own benefit and can make them fool over and over again. Politicians can easily create ethnical problems and start conflicts among them. They don't care how many people die in the conflicts as long as they can get more votes in the election.

Now South Indian politicians have again forgot about the past and started using their powers in the Indian parliament to force Sri Lankan government to stop attacking LTTE terrorists. In the first place what has Indian central government to do with internal affairs in Sri Lanka. Why do they want to create a seperate state in nothern Sri Lanka. That state is not going to be created for innocent Tamils in Sri Lanka. That is just to make the Prabhakaran a King. Normal Tamils won't gain anything out from this war or any state created in nothern Sri Lanka.

Why India wants to intervene into Sri Lankan internal affairs while they are fighting a war in Kashmir. They should first give the Kashmir to the freedom fighters before they intervene into the problems of other countries.

In Sri Lanka, LTTE became the only representation of Tamils by assadinating few generations of Tamil political leaders in Sri Lanka. LTTE's first victim was the mayor of Jaffna who was a Tamil. After that they killed so many Tamil political leaders. They have killed more Tamil leaders than Sinhala politicians. In this situation most of the Tamil leaders who think about their life and their own families don't speak against LTTE. The few Tamil leaders who do that are still running and hiding from LTTE. Is this what South Indians think as freedom for Tamils in Sri Lanka.

If you think that you should have a seperate country when ever you have the majority in some area, then you can first try to seperate Tamil Nadu from India and build a sperate country over there for Tamils. you have the majority of the Tamils in the world living in TamilNadu.

Amil, I agree with you.

And the answer to your questions, is that Tamils are encouraged to pursue parochialism in India. There are already plenty of Raj Thakre types among the Dravidian chauvinists in Tamil Nadu. Nobody holds them to account when they attack the Sri Lankan embassy there.

The same people (both in India and in Sri Lanka) who are calling Indian Army rapists and murderers, are once again pleading for the "rapist murderers" of Indian Army to come back there.

If some liar calls me a rapist and a murderer, I'm certainly not going to be at their beck and call, coming for them when they summon me by shaking their little bell.

how much open our leaders are and out side
involement are the matters not ltte or others
even ltte finished ,some body comming along, that how would is now days we stupid people will
not understand , always are looser is weak and poor, rest you imagine they give you reasons
now ltte before jvp tomarrow who will be
100% not slfp unp and rajafucker family

how can it be, not possible to united, we have not got good leaders, all are from out side the country, when they finished they not going to be
it is poor and sick suffer we wait and see

how can it be, not possible to united, we have not got good leaders, all are from out side the country, when they finished they not going to be
it is poor and sick suffer we wait and see

Shanoi, I don't agree with you. Many countries are composed of more than one nation - e.g. the UK, Switzerland, India. Just because the Tamils claim they are a separate nation and that the north and east are their traditional homelands doesn't mean they automatically want to secede. The demand for secession arose as a result of the discriminatory policies put in place after independence. The British favoured the Tamils and so when Sri Lanka became independent, the Tamils were economically more advanced. However, the Sri Lankan government's policies were not only mean to uplift the Sinhalese, they were also meant to drag down the Tamils.

Trueindian & Val, the IPKF is most probably guilty of at least some of the massacres you have mentioned. But do remember, the war between the IPKF and the LTTE started when the LTTE took a conscious decision to start hostilities. The LTTE did not want any thing other than independence. The LTTE did not like the composition of the proposed interim administration which also had representatives of other Tamil groups. When 17 LTTE men including Kumarappa and Pulendran were captured by the Sri Lankan navy and 12 of them committed suicide using cyanide capsules smuggled into their detention centre by the LTTE, the IPKF was blamed. The LTTE actually started hostilities by ambushing 5 Indian paratroopers who had gone to collect food. They were neck-laced - killed with burning tyres around their necks. These are not matters which will be forgotten easily.

Amil, India's favourite Tamil group was the TELO and not the LTTE. India stood by when the TELO was massacred by the LTTE. Yes, India was totally wrong to have given weapons training and money to armed groups from Sri Lanka. We have paid heavily for our mistake.

Vinod- You are on the dot! Time to adopt a middle path. Yet another mess left behind by the brits for the locals to clean up- sadly in a violent manner. It is time for the two groups to come together, set aside the "past" and work towards a harmonious future. It is impossible to have "separatist' ideas in a highly integrated world. We are shrinking economically- space wise and value wise (LOL) and it is time to learn to live together! In an island, it can get difficult, given the "space" constraints, but high time for this nonsense to stop.

I don't get it.
Why should start your letter with the premise that Sri Lanka should be united. Why can't it be a two nations - one for Sinhalese and one for Tamils.
That way we will not see so many people dying everyday.

Thanks.

I don't get it.
Why should start your letter with the premise that Sri Lanka should be united. Why can't it be a two nations - one for Sinhalese and one for Tamils.
That way we will not see so many people dying everyday.

Thanks.

Sujai- whatever the "political" identification of a piece of land, however small- be it island or continent, division of it on any basis can get us just so far. It always has to do with how we can live in an integrated manner, even if we are different nations. Today, faced with global warming, the way we use water and air in America affects Africa and Asia affects Antartica etc. It is time to set aside our political differences to see how we have just this one planet to call home.

vinod:

bottom line:

the state should aim to win the hearts and minds of its majority and its minorities

this should be universally applied

but

most states comes ip short

Things would have been way better for Sri Lankan Tamils of we didn't have LTTE. They wanted the majority Sinhalese attack Tamils in Sri Lanka. They kept trying to create a cause for that. LTTE blasted the highest regious Buddhist temples in the country and killed Buddhist monks. All those were done just to create that problem in the country. They only want to use innocent Tamils in the island to create an ethnic problem and use that situation to reach their goal.

Anyone can understand that if they live in this country for long time. Even now majority of Tamils in the country live in Sinhalese areas. Not in nothern part of the country. In the capital Colombo city, the majority of the permanent residents are now Tamils. Sinhalese and Muslims are minorities. But these areas are original Sinhalese areas. The Tamils are still relocating to the other Sinhalese areas. Still the Tamils are feeling guilty due to the reason that LTTE is fighting for a seperate state and turned this little paradise to a hell.

How can the ThamilNadu Super stars decide how Sri Lankan Tamils should suffer in future. South Indian politician might get some benefits of having an LTTE controlled state in Nothern Sri Lanka. But Sri Lankan Tamils won't get anything from LTTE other than the problems.

Unless those out siders have come to Sri Lanka and understand the situation, how can their opinions be valid. Stop supporting terrorism for small benefits. LTTE will some day bring the war into South India as well. Then only South Indian Tamils can understand how the ethnical descrimination starts.

From that IP:

* "Amil" has posted 7 comments
* "Suresh" has posted 1 comments
* "Nath" has posted 1 comments

good artical and good ideas for Mr; Rajapaksa. But one thing I have to tell you Mr.VinodI think Srilankans still have compassiton about tamils, Becouse srilanka is Buddist country, That's one of the biggest fortune tamils got ,tamils always has to thanks for buddisam in srilanka, You know otherwise what's happening in srilanka? there is no any tamils in the Island of srilanka at this time, You remember whats happend to Ruwanda withen three months hutu killed almost 1 million of tutsi......without having 25 years war, without damage lives 25 years, L.t.t.e damaged to srilanka lot.there own tamils, muslims, and singalese. Everyone in the world has to understand shingalese could'nt live or visit north of srilanka, but still every part of the country tamils living and having normal daily life like others, But it's not happend Ruwanda ,Timor or some african countries......Thanks for buddisam which teach for metta ,karuna ,mudita ,uppeka

But some how has to finish this stupid L.t.t.e , athnk you President Rajapaksha You doing good job. I'm sure you'll take care inosent tamils .......And build peace between tamils and singalese

i am a sri lankan that my nationality, thats wut it says on my passport, thats wut is in my heart !!! one of my best friends is a Tamil from Jaffna a Hindu !!! my "band partner -bass guitarist" is a Tamil from Jaffna both of them living in colombo.. and i am a Sinhalese.... all of us know one thing !!! LTTE must go....
rajinikanth / kamal should realize that this is real life i am 28 years old... this war is nearly 30 years old .. i have lived my entire life in this war ...i know wut it feels like my friends know wut it feels like rajinikanth / kamal or any other dude in TN you only read wut is in newspapers !!!! so dont think u know it all and wut is best for us ..while appreciateing your concerns with all do respect BACKOFFF !!!!!!!!

Since LTTE was farthered by India lets tell the farher to tame the son!

Rohan, the IPKF had tamed the LTTE once and Ranasinha Premadasa asked us to leave your Island.

Dear Friends we all talk about wiping of LTTE but we dont speak about saving of tamils

Dear Friends we all talk about wiping of LTTE but we dont speak about saving of tamils.

First as an Indian Tamil I like to apololize to each and every Indian on behalf of tamils being responsible for killing of Gentleman and highly loved person Mr.Rajiv Gandhi.

In India it is Vinod or Rohan anybody can become
PM or President. Do u think that same can happen in Srilanka. Can u say that 30lakh tamil population is reduced to 15lakh it is agreeable?

In todays modern world tamils are the only people wandering all over the world as orphans.

If Indian goverment thinks to wipe LTTE, before that it should take action against Srilanka first. Because everybody think to punish LTTE, but the real clever person who made that is
former SL Presdent Sree Jayavardhana. Even People used to say that His excellency used to
tell his people that Mr.Rajivgandhi's age is expereince. It is 100% true because our Rajivgandhi is not a politician but such a nice
human being. He belived everybody including Mr.Jayavardhana. But that gentle man played double game and used our own finger to attack
our brothers and sisters in Srilanka in the form
of IPKF. For example everybody know the Sandolwood king Veerappan. How many people know about his personnal life. Actually he is very poor cattle feeder and spent his time forest with his cattle and doing small hunting activities. Only big shots encouraged him to increase his network and do all king illlegle activites. They made crores and crores of money and enjoyed their life. But our law punished only veerappan. As per the law the higher punishment should go the intigator better that the person wo done it. It is like punishing the arrow instead of he person who shooted it. Same way Mr.Jayavardhana done all the clever network and the punishment is given to the tamils.

Will u agree that once LTTE is wiped out tamils can live peacefully there.??? I can give u many
history quotes for the Tamils who are living 1000s of years.Today they are living like
a slave.

Everything is over and only separate country will be a solution for that. Regarding this i can give some quotes. please wait
of years

mohan ramaswamy

>>For example everybody know the Sandolwood king Veerappan. How many people know about his personnal life. Actually he is very poor cattle feeder and spent his time forest with his cattle and doing small hunting activities. Only big shots encouraged him to increase his network and do all king illlegle activites. They made crores and crores of money and enjoyed their life. But our law punished only veerappan.

Veerappan - poor cattle feeder. such a sob story. If only the government had come up with the 65,000 cr debt relief before. We might just have been able to save the poor soul.

by the way, what was he feeding his cattle, elephant tusks or forest guards?

>>As per the law the higher punishment should go the intigator better that the person wo done it.

I have little knowledge of the law, but serious, if thats the law, it will have to be changed.

Dear Mohan Ramaswamy, you have no business apologising on behalf of Tamils - Indian or Sri Lankan. Neither are responsible for Rajiv Gandhi's assasination. The LTTE was responsible for the murder, not the Tamil community.

Mohan

"In todays modern world Tamils are the only people wandering all over the world as orphans."

Are Tamils living in India orphans? Are Tamils wandering/living all over world orphans? Since they are orphans, should Tamils be demanding independence all over world, like they are doing in SL, perhaps after LTTE succeeds in SL? Are they planning to unite all the orphaned Tamils into one Tamil nation?

A very nice article.

Regarding the situation in Sri Lanka , first the LTTE has to be wiped out , no doubt and a gradual devolution of power is what is needed . The problem roots from the fact that the Sinhalese politicians wanted to claim sole monopoly over the island and thank god , the minorities fought back , else the minorities would ve been decimated by the sinhalese politicians .If not for LTTE,minorities would ve been decimated there . So , that's one good thing about the LTTE . They did'nt take to arms without a reason . However good the sinhalese people may be , parties like JVP and JHU will always be there to formulate the ideology of wiping out minorities . They say muslims go back to arabia and tamils go back to india . What have these people got to do with India and Arabia ? They have been here for 1000s of years . And even if they go , you think India and Arabia will welcome them ? Utter non sense . Sinhalese must reject these stupid parties if they are to believe in equality and brotherhood . As long as JVP and JHU are there , there will be no equality .

Coming to the solution,

Sinhalese want to rule the whole island and Tamils want to rule their regions . Only solution i can think of is the model followed in .. wait for it .. Spain . Spain is the most successful country when it comes to respecting minorities . The nation is ruled by a Castilleans(Spanish speakers) whereas the autonomous regions like catalunia and basque are ruled by the minorities where powers have been devolved to maximum . Seperatism is almost nil now compared to a few decades bak . Similar to what Sinhalese desire right ? I think someone must write to Rajapakse about this model and tell him to implement it . THIS IS THE BEST POSSIBLE SOLUTION WHICH WILL KEEP HAPPY THE MAJORITY AND MINORITY . How ? Because before the devolving of powers took place , there were lots of terrorist outfits but now it is nil . Everyone in spain is happy with this devolvement and autonomy they get.

MY GIST:Devolve maximum powers to Tamil Eelam maintaining the territorial integrity of Sri Lanka . Let Sinhalese ,the majority rule the entire island and let Tamils rule their regions within Sri Lanka . Hope the blog writer agrees with me .Eagerly awaiting Vinod's response :)

It is not the right of India/Sinhalese of Sri Lanka to decide the fate of LTTE. The only people who have that right are the Tamils of Tamil Eelam. Not Even Tamil Indians have any business with this regard. Vinod suggesting Rajapakse to mend his ways is good. However, Vinod does not have any advice to Mr. Parabakaran. I would love to hear Vinod opinion on How LTTE can be sucessfull also. Some feel that Prabakaran is the biggest sinner. Actually the perpetrators who killed 3000 Tamils in the streets of Colombo and the leaders who conspired with that are the first to be booked and eliminated. Then comes the irresponsible actions of the officials who drafted and forced the Indo Sri Lanka Accord. Then comes the LTTE and its leadership. A young Rajiv Gandhi with all good intentions ordered the IPKF to serve Sri Lanka. However the Sinhalese leaders eventually misused the situation and turned brothers into enemies. An equally young Prabakaran returned the favor and got blacklisted in the Indian books. Both made disasterous mistakes.

All this cribbing about LTTE using terror tactics are nothing but a hangover of Sep 11 attacks and the hatred the world has developed on insurgencies. Prior to Sep 11, these insurgencies were called freedom strugles. Over night the same strugles became terrorist activities. Its a vicious circle. I dont think world has to follow what USA declares is good for the world. Let free thoughts and regional opinions and aspirations be respected and take precedence. All strugles cannot be lumped into terrorism which is not good for containing true terrorism either.

Finally if you ask me if LTTE is to be eliminated - my personal opinion is that they must be cultivated. They are the best bet for the Tamils of Sri Lanka and also the security of India against China and Pakistans anti Indian ambitions. Hence i am eager to read Vinods suggestion with regards to how India can cultivate LTTE. And regarding the right soluation: What ever works for the Tamils in Sri Lanka - We need to ask them, rather than suggesting our own creative ideas. We already did a mistake once. Lets not do it again. A UN supervised referendum asking the people: Separate Tamil Eelam or United Sri Lanka?

www.Kalugu.com

I don't support the idea of an independent Eelam. Explaining why will take a fair bit of time and space and so I'll do a separate post on it at a future date.

Vinod , I would like to know of your comments regarding my post . Is it a possible solution ? The "Spain model".

Will the Sinhalese approve such a proposal is a different question . But , the minorities must have all the rights the majority has . In India or Singapore , anyone can become a President , a Sikh or a Muslim but in Sri Lanka only Buddhists can become heads of state . Such hegemony must be stopped and chauvinistic attitude must be put away . Enough of linguistic chauvinism which has killed this island which was a model of development in 1950s . Had Bandaranayake not passed the "Sinhala Only" Act , such things happened . The Sinhalese must at least allow Tamils to establish a state called Tamil Eelam within Sri Lanka like Tamil Nadu or Karnataka in India or Catalunia,Galicia or Basque in Spain . Respect the minorities . Federalism is the need of the hour .

Vinod , I would like to know of your comments regarding my post . Is it a possible solution ? The "Spain model".

Will the Sinhalese approve such a proposal is a different question . But , the minorities must have all the rights the majority has . In India or Singapore , anyone can become a President , a Sikh or a Muslim but in Sri Lanka only Buddhists can become heads of state . Such hegemony must be stopped and chauvinistic attitude must be put away . Enough of linguistic chauvinism which has killed this island which was a model of development in 1950s . Had Bandaranayake not passed the "Sinhala Only" Act , such things would not have happened . The Sinhalese must at least allow Tamils to establish a state called Tamil Eelam within Sri Lanka like Tamil Nadu or Karnataka in India or Catalunia,Galicia or Basque in Spain . Respect the minorities . Federalism is the need of the hour .

And Vinod, I would request you to put up an article of how power devolution was done in Spain and how that can be applicable in Sri Lankan scenario . I was really impressed on how autonomous communities are so successful in Spain .

Whether you want to do it or not , is entirely upto you

Regards ,
May Sri Lanka be united with an autonomous Tamil Eelam as a state in it :)