On June 25, 2024, Daily Mirror, a mainstream English-language publication in Sri Lanka, published an editorial titled “Who does the Tamil diaspora fight for?” Mr. Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran, prime minister of the TGTE, sent a response to the publication on June 25, 2024. As of this writing, Daily Mirror has not published or otherwise acknowledged it.
Daily Mirror’s blackout of Mr. Rudrakumaran’s response is a violation of basic journalistic ethics which dictates that all sides of an issue should be given fair hearing. The blackout is a stark reminder that political space for Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka is actively encumbered not only by the Sri Lankan government (under Sinhalese leadership) but also by the so-called “mainstream media” which is controlled by Sinhala elites.
BELOW, PLEASE FIND BOTH THE EDITORIAL AND THE RESPONSE:
June 25, 202 The Editor Daily Mirror Sri Lanka
Dear Editor:
I am writing in response to the 25 June 2024 editorial in your newspaper entitled “Who does the Tamil diaspora fight for?”. The simple answer is that the Tamil diaspora advocates for the Tamil Nation, comprising Eelam Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka and the Eelam Tamil Diaspora.
As for your reference to the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE), the raison deter for the TGTE, a democratic entity to create a space for the Tamil Nation to express its political aspirations freely and to engage in activities to realize those aspirations, without fear of persecution.
Until 2009, the de facto state of Tamil Eelam governed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) provided the only political space for Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka to exercise not only their political will but also their fundamental human rights.
With the Sri Lankan State’s destruction of the de facto state of Tamil Eelam, which the State of Sri Lanka accomplished in part via committing the Mullivaikal Tamil Genocide, along with the Sinhala militarization of the historic Tamil Homeland recognized in the Indo-Sri Lakan Accord, there is no longer an open political space for the Eelam Tamil People to freely articulate their political aspirations due to the 6th Amendment of the Sri Lankan Constitution, which criminalizes the peaceful advocacy for an independent state.
This prohibition violates freedom of speech and freedom of association guaranteed in the international Civil and Political Rights Covenant, that true democracies embrace – and that the TGTE embraces and practices. Whereas the Sri Lankan State’s Constitution violates these freedoms, the TGTE’s Constitution enshrines them.
Regarding your editorial’s mention that the domestic Tamil political parties do not clamor for an independent state, the reason is the 6th Amendment. It is illegal for them to do so. If you really believe that the Eelam Tamil People inside the island of Sri Lanka do not subscribe to an independent state, I challenge you to ask the Sri Lankan government to repeal the 6th Amendment of the Constitution and to hold a referendum in the North East to allow the Eelam Tamil People to decide their political future. If you are so certain of your unfounded claim, there is no reason to not take these two actions and a failure to do so could only suggest your doubt and demonstrates the hollowness of your claim.
I further assert that the State of Sri Lanka, including its political party leaders, the peaceniks, and the Sinhala intelligentsia, does not have the moral courage to repeal the 6th Amendment. Only the 6th Amendment’s repeal can show me wrong.
Your editorial also insinuated that calling for a separate state is an abhorrent idea. As you must be aware, since 1990 34 new states have been established. The Tamil Nation simply believes that the State of Tamil Eelam will join that list.
Your editorial is also mistaken in its statement that the appeals commissions ruling was “the end of a protracted legal battle fought by the TGTE to get the LTTE de-proscribed in the UK.” The TGTE will continue its lawfare until justice is done. It should also be noted that the chairman of the Appeal Commission himself stated that the case was a close one “finely balanced”. Furthermore, the Appeal Commission repeatedly noted that the legal challenge against the UK Home Secretary’s decision was not a “merit based appeal,” and also that it was not for the Appeal Commission to say “whether it was reasonable to continue to proscribe the LTTE, but only to ensure that there was no material flaw in the process.” The Appeals Commision’s demonstrates the deproscription of the LTTE is not faraway.
The Appeals Commission’s decision also strengthens the recognition of the Tamil Eelam national flag. It is also noteworthy that the Sri Lankan State’s ban of nine Tamil diaspora entities, including the TGTE, has been characterized by the 2024 U.S. State Department’s Human Rights Report on Sri Lanka as “Transnational Repression” I would also like to point out that the TGTE has not been banned in any of the 193 countries worldwide except for Sri Lanka. Both the 6th Amendment and the ban of entities whose ideas differs from the States’ demonstrates the Sri Lankan State’s fear of ideas.
In addition to seeking political freedom for the Tamil People, the Tamil diaspora also fights for accountability for the Tamil genocide and other international crimes the Sri Lankan State has committed. Notable in its perpetuation of impunity, the crime of genocide is not in the Sri Lankan penal code. Noting this strategic exclusion, in 2015, the former UN High Commissioner of Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein called on the Sri Lankan government to include genocide in Sri Lanka’s penal code. However, this call has fallen in deaf ears.
Hence the Tamil diaspora’s belief that accountability for the Tamil Genocide can only be realized in the international Court of Justice (ICJ), International Criminal Court (ICC), and foreign domestic judiciaries based on universal jurisdiction. The Tamil Diaspora, which lives in free countries unlike Sri Lanka, is more vocal for this call because it is in a safer position than Tamils inside the island of Sri Lanka, to fight for justice.
What does the Tamil diaspora fight for? Referendum and Accountability.
Thank You, Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran Prime Minister Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE)
HERE IS THE DAILY MIRROR EDITORIAL – June 25, 2024
“Who does the Tamil diaspora fight for?”
The UK Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission on Friday rejected an appeal by the Transitional Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE ) to lift the proscription on the LTTE in Britain as a terrorist organisation.
During the hearing of an appeal the TGTE argued the LTTE should not be proscribed in the United Kingdom as it seeks to pursue its political and ideological objectives through non-violent means.
Britain was one of the first few countries that proscribed the LTTE. It was in the height of the war between the Sri Lankan armed forces and the LTTE, the UK Secretary of State on March 29, 2001 added the LTTE to the list of proscribed organisations, under the Terrorism Act 2000.
The ruling on Friday by the Appeals Commission was the end of a protracted legal battle fought by the TGTE to get the LTTE de-proscribed in the UK. On December 7, 2018, the TGTE applied to the Home Department to remove the LTTE from the list of designated organisations.
Following a review process that entailed the commissioning of assessments by the UK’s Centre for the Analysis and Assessment of Domestic and International Terrorism Threats, the Secretary of State turned down the application on March 8, 2019.
On October 21, 2020, the Appeals Commission allowed an appeal to this decision. However, the Secretary of State took a new decision to maintain the ban on the LTTE, and the decision was notified to the TGTE on August 31, 2021. Despite the TGTE lodging an appeal against that decision on October 12, 2021, the Commission on Friday dismissed the appeal and ordered the proscription of the LTTE in the UK to continue.
It is interesting to note that these attempts to get the ban on the LTTE lifted were being made by an organisation that wants to carve out a separate Tamil state within the territory of Sri Lanka. Hence, there is little or no doubt that the TGTE wants to revive the LTTE which has never renounced violence or its objective – a separate state – to launch an armed struggle to achieve that objective.
Ironically, Tamil political parties in Sri Lanka no longer want to fight for a separate state, whereas only the Tamil diaspora groups and some leaders of Tamil Nadu have been campaigning for one. Despite the Tamil leaders in Sri Lanka being hesitant to openly clash with those overseas Tamil leaders over this, they have occasionally shown their frustration.
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader R. Sampanthan’s speech at the 14th annual convention of the Ilankai Thamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) in May 2012 was one of the best cases in point. While asserting that “it was the TNA, led by the Ilankai Thamil Arasu Katchi, that primarily represent the Tamil people, following the end of the armed conflict” and the “ITAK does not have a history of armed struggle, which has always rejected such struggle,” Sampanthan appealed to “those who living abroad to think beyond their personal estimations and ideas, and always give importance to the situation of those living in the homeland.”
He added “The diaspora’s political initiatives and public statements on behalf of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka must not negatively affect the situation here. It is the efforts that are made by the people in Sri Lanka, which are made in accordance with the situation in Sri Lanka, and with sensitivity to this situation that will finally bring about concrete results for the Tamil Nation.”
During the Northern Provincial Council election campaign in 2013, C.V.Wigneswaran who assumed office as the Chief Minister of the province subsequent to that election also expressed similar sentiments on the actions of the Tamil Nadu leaders. In an interview with The Hindu, he said “When politicians in Tamil Nadu say separation is the only solution, the Sinhalese masses – many sections of which fear that Tamils would collaborate with India and form a separate State – get very annoyed. We get affected by what is being said there.”
Yet, these messages do not seem to have reached those who campaign in other countries for a separate state in Sri Lanka or they pretend not to have heard those messages for political, financial or survivalist reasons.
- ABOUT THE TRANSNATIONAL GOVERNMENT OF TAMIL EELAM (TGTE):
The Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) is a democratically elected Government of over a million strong Tamils (from the island of Sri Lanka) living in several countries around the world.
TGTE was formed after the mass killing of Tamils by the Sri Lankan Government in 2009.
TGTE held four internationally supervised elections among Tamils around the world to elect 132 Members of Parliament. It has two chambers of Parliament: The House of Representatives and the Senate and also a Cabinet.
TGTE is leading a campaign to realize the political aspirations of Tamils through peaceful, democratic, and diplomatic means and its Constitution mandates that it should realize its political objectives only through peaceful means. It’s based on the principles of nationhood, homeland and self-determination.
TGTE seeks that the international community hold the perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide against the Tamil people to account. TGTE calls for an internationally conducted and monitored referendum to decide the political future of Tamils.
The Prime Minister of TGTE is Mr. Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran, a New York based lawyer.
Email: pmo@tgte.org Twitter: @TGTE_PMO Web: www.tgte-us.org