TAMIL EELA THAI

தமிழ் அகம் - ஓர் உணர்வா, அல்லது இடமா?

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 07:39:11 +0100

தமிழ் அகம் - ஓர் உணர்வா, அல்லது இடமா?

"உலகெங்கும் தமிழன் பரந்து வாழ்ந்தாலும்.. தமிழீழத்திலேதான் தனியரசு உருவாகும் வரலாற்றுப் புறநிலை தோன்றியுள்ளது..."

கடல் கடந்தான் எங்கள் தமிழன் - அங்கும்
கற்பூர தீபம் கண்டான் இறைவன்
உடலுக்குப் பொருள் தேடி உள்ளத்தில் இறை நாடி
தமிழுக்கும் பணி செய்து தன்மானத்துடன் வாழ..
- from a lyric by Kavi Arasu Kannadasan

Today, more than 70 million Tamil people live in many lands across distant seas.

தமிழன் இல்லாத நாடில்லை -
தமிழனுக் கென்று ஓர் நாடில்லை

"Thamilan illatha Nadu illai -
Thamilanuku endru Oru Nadu illai"

"There is no state without a Tamil -
but there is no state for the Tamils".

Given the armed struggle for Tamil Eelam in the island of Sri Lanka, and the two hundred and fifty thousand (and more) Tamil asylum seekers and refugees in many countries in the world, including Great Britain, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland it may be tempting to conclude that the dispersal of the Tamils is of recent origin. But that would be wrong.

It is true that the genocidal attack on the Tamil people in 1983 in the island of Sri Lanka and the heightened conflict led to the large numbers of Tamil asylum seekers in the 1980s and 1990s. In the 1980s, for instance, during the period of the Cold War and Germany's relatively liberal asylum policies, many Tamils entered Europe via Germany.

However, as far back as the 1950s, the enactment of the Sinhala Only act in 1956 in Ceylon (as the island of Sri Lanka was then known), the genocidal attacks on the Tamil people in 1958, as well as discriminatory employment policies in the state sector led many Tamil professionals including doctors and engineers, to seek employment in Great Britain, USA, Australia and New Zealand. Later, in 1972, discrimination in respect to University admissions in Sri Lanka, saw a second wave of Tamil professionals leaving the island, to secure not only a future for themselves but also to provide an adequate education for their children.

But, again, the Tamil disapora is not simply the result of oppressive Sinhala rule in the island of Sri Lanka. British colonial rule also dispersed Tamils from their homeland in South India and the North-East of the island of Ceylon (as it was then known ) to many lands.

The abolition of slavery between 1834 and 1873, was followed by the system of indentured labour. The servant 'agreed' to work for a fixed number of years in exchange for a meager wage, plus room and board. The British enacted laws in the colonies to render the breach of the employment 'contract' by the 'servant' a criminal offence punishable with a prison sentence.

In the 1840's Tamils went to Trinidad in the Caribbean, Guyana in South America, and Mauritius off the coast of Africa; in the 1860's to the British colony of Natal in South Africa; in the 1870's to the Dutch colony of Surinam; in the 1880's to Fiji. Others migrated to the French colony of Reunion. Some migrated to Burma now known as Mynmar (and which until 1937 was a province of British India) to work on the plantations or to work as clerks and book keepers. Tamils from Tamil Nadu went to work on the plantations in central Ceylon and in Malaysia. Tamils who had resided in the North of the island of Sri Lanka, went to Malaya and Singapore in search of white collar employment.

The Tamil diaspora is a growing togetherness of more than 70 million people living in many lands and across distant seas, many thousands as refugees and asylum seekers. It is a togetherness rooted in an ancient heritage, a rich language and literature, and a vibrant culture. But it is a togetherness which is not simply a function of the past. It is a growing togetherness consolidated by struggle and suffering and, given purpose and direction by the aspirations of a people for the future - a future where they and their children and their children's children may live in equality and in freedom in an emerging one world.

Here, the comments of Osten Wahlbeck in Transnationalism & Diasporas:the Kurdish Example in 1998, are helpful -

"...The results from the study of Kurdish refugees suggest that refugees sustain transnational social networks and have a diasporic consciousness... The diasporic relations in the refugee communities mean that theories of ethnic relations are difficult to apply to refugee studies. For example, the Kurds did not regard themselves as an ethnic minority within the context of the country of exile; instead their ethnicity was defined within social relations in the country of origin. The label ‘diaspora’ is, perhaps, especially appropriate in the case of the Kurdish refugees because of the influence of Kurdish nationalism, which commits many Kurdish refugees to the restoration of their homeland.
However, this paper suggests that the concept of diaspora can also be a useful analytical tool in the study of other refugee communities. This is because the concept can, at the same time, relate to both the country of settlement and the country of origin. In this way, it can also describe the transnationalism of refugee communities in general.

The dual orientation towards both the country of origin and the country of resettlement is not as contradictory and paradoxical as it seems. In the refugees’ own experiences their country of origin and their country of exile, as well as the time before and the time after migration, constitute a continuous and coherent lived experience.

The separation between before and after migration, as well as the separation between the country of origin and country of exile, is largely forced on the refugees’ experiences by the outside observer.

The concept of diaspora can help the researcher to rethink these issues and to understand the transnational reality in which the refugees are forced to live. Thus, the notion of diaspora can bridge the artificial duality in which the refugee experience is conceptualised..."

Terence Lyons pointed out in Diasporas and Territorial Conflict (March 2004)-

"...Diaspora groups link processes of globalization to conflicts over identity and territory. Globalization has increased cross-border migration and decreased communication and travel costs, thereby making it easier for migrants to build and sustain links between the original homeland and current place of residence. Those forced across borders by war commonly have a specific set of traumatic memories and create specific types of “conflict-generated diasporas” that sustain and sometimes amplify their strong sense of symbolic attachment to the homeland. They build new identities that stress their links to the homeland and often profess an intention to return, once their homeland is “free...”

And Klionsky's remarks in 1998 in Transnationalism, Diaspora & Exiles emphasise the increasing significance of transnationalism -

"...Transnationalism refers to sustained ties of persons, networks, and organizations across nation-state borders, arising out of international migration patterns and refugee flows (Faist, 2000). The recent global transformations in economic relations, ethnic conflicts, and communication technology have led to the creation of new transnational kinship groups, transnational social circuits, and transnational communities. By expanding borders across nations and creating new social ties, the concepts pertaining to cultural spheres, acculturation, cultural retention, and citizenship are started to change drastically. People and their ideas are moving more freely back and forth across global borders than ever before. This ebb and flow, through easy travel and growing communications technology, may be reshaping the traditional concept of a nation. In fact, some people with homes in two countries are showing an amazing capacity to maintain dual identities -- with strong cultural ties and contributions to both places .."

The words of Elise Boulding in Building Peace in the Middle East, 1994 quoted by Kevin Kusawa in Finding the Kurds a Way: Kurdistan and the discourse of the nation-state serve as a pointer to the future.

"..Groups of people are solidifying their identities outside of the state, and the twenty-first century will see new configurations of non governmental, inter governmental, and UN structures.."

The digital revolution in which we live is helping to advance Tamil togetherness. Globalisation and localisation are taking place at the same time. Tamils living in many lands and across distant seas are communicating with one another through internet newsgroups and mailing lists. Tamil web sites continue to multiply. And so do Tamil newspapers, periodicals and radio broadcasts on the web.

" Two decades ago, people moving from home countries to other countries would not have had the opportunity to remain actively engaged or even adequately informed of events in their home countries. Policy makers and scholars had a somewhat limited understanding of diasporic communities and their importance. Today, with the diminished saliency of the nation-state, the impact of globalization and the growing number of transnational migrants, this has changed. Diasporic groups, capable of maintaining and investing in social, economic and political networks that span the globe, are of increasing relevance and interest to policy makers in home countries as well as host countries..." Diaspora Circulation & Transnationalism as Agents for Change in the Post Conflict Zones of Sri Lanka - R.Cheran, University of Toronto, September 2003

When the Soc.Culture.Tamil newsgroup was founded about a decade ago, its Charter declared:

"What would be the role of Tamil language for the next millennium? Tamils around the world have a strong desire to establish a newsgroup on the Usenet to share their views on Tamil history, ancient and modern literature, ancient Tamil civilization, Tamil culture, religion, art, drama, philosophy and related topics. The proposed newsgroup is intended to serve as a niche for the Tamil language and culture in the electronic communication network."

There are today several hundred Tamil discussion groups (and blogs) in cyber space and this number continues to grow. Tamil dot Net, the Forum Hub, Dr. Jayabharathi's Agathiyar and Dr.Kannan's Esuvadi have grown to become important discussion fora enabling subscribers to communicate both in Tamil and in English.

Thomas Hylland Eriksen commented in Nations in Cyberspace in March 2006 -

"..the Internet is fast becoming a major medium for the consolidation, strengthening and definition of collective identities, especially in the absence of a firm territorial and institutional base. Some of the nationalist groups that appear to be most active on the Internet are Sri Lankan Tamils, Kurds, Palestinians... The most important transnational voice for Tamil independence may be the websites TamilNet (www.tamilnet.com ) and Tamilnation (www.tamilnation.org ), which are updated frequently..."

Again the impact of the struggle for Tamil Eelam, and the togetherness reflected in பொங்கு தமிழ் and Maha Veerar Naal, in nurturing Tamil national consciousness cannot be under estimated. The words of Tamil Eelam leader Velupillai Pirabaharan continue to receive an answering response from Tamils living in many lands and across distant seas -

What is a trans state nation? A trans state nation is a cultural, economic and political togetherness of a people living in many lands and across distant seas. It is a togetherness consolidated by struggle and suffering. It is not an 'idealism' expressed only in word. It is a political togetherness expressed in tangible deed. It is a togetherness directed to secure the aspirations of a people for equality and freedom - finding expression in establishing, nurturing and maintaining governmental or non governmental networks or institutions necessary for that purpose. And Montserrat Guibernau was right to point out in Nations without States: Political Communities in a Global Age

"...The task of intellectuals in nations without states involves the constant actualization of the nationalist ideology to respond to the community's needs. His or her job is one of service to society..."

Again, all this, is not to say that a people should not at the same time, work toward the ideal of a 'one world' where the separate national identities of the world are transcended by a greater unity. However, that unity will not come by the suppression of one nation by another. It will come from truly understanding the timeless force of that which Kanniyan Poongundran said in the Purananuru, some 2500 years ago -

"To us all towns are one, all men our kin.
Life's good comes not from others' gift, nor ill
Man's pains and pains' relief are from within.
Death's no new thing; nor do our bosoms thrill
When Joyous life seems like a luscious draught.
When grieved, we patient suffer; for, we deem
This much - praised life of ours a fragile raft
Borne down the waters of some mountain stream
That o'er huge boulders roaring seeks the plain
Tho' storms with lightnings' flash from darken'd skies
Descend, the raft goes on as fates ordain.
Thus have we seen in visions of the wise ! -
We marvel not at greatness of the great;
Still less despise we men of low estate."
Kanniyan Poongundran in Purananuru,
Poem 192 - written in Tamil 2500 years ago
English Translation by Rev. G.U.Pope
in Tamil Heroic Poems

யாதும் ஊரே ; யாவரும் கேளிர் ;
தீதும் நன்றும் பிறர்தர வாரா ;
நோதலும் தணிதலும் அவற்றோ ரன்ன ;
சாதலும் புதுவது அன்றே ; வாழ்தல்
இனிதுஎன மகிழ்ந்தன்றும் இலமே; முனிவின்,
இன்னா தென்றலும் இலமே; ‘மின்னொடு
வானம் தண்துளி தலைஇ, ஆனாது
கல்பொருது இரங்கும் மல்லற் பேர்யாற்று
நீர்வழிப் படூஉம் புணைபோல, ஆருயிர்
முறைவழிப் படூஉம்’ என்பது திறவோர்
காட்சியின் தெளிந்தனம் ஆகலின், மாட்சியின்
பெரியோரை வியத்தலும் இலமே;
சிறியோரை இகழ்தல் அதனினும் இலமே.

192, எட்டுத்தொகை நூல்களில் ஒன்றாகிய
புறநானூறு - பாடியவர்: கணியன் பூங்குன்றன்

@muhunthan.

Comments

TAMIL EELAM - DE FACTO REALITY

Fri, 09 Mar 2007 18:52:23 +0100

"For the first time in their fierce armed uprising for an autonomous homeland, the Tamil Tigers see themselves as being within striking distance of their goal. This is so because Sri Lanka needs international aid for post-tsunami reconstruction and rehabilitation and governments across the world want Sri Lanka to share the aid with LTTE. Colombo is caught in a Catch-22 situation; if it shirks away from sharing the aid, all the promised money will slink away and if it does, it will give legitimacy to an enemy with which it is in a reluctant ceasefire. Ironically, it is by doing neither that the government has endorsed the fact that LTTE does govern an area of the country that falls out of the realm of Sri Lanka’s sovereignty."

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Tamil Eelam, the LTTE’s long-standing demand, is today a de facto reality. The Tigers run their own courts, police and generate funds for their economy.

Can anyone write the lines of my unwritten poem? In a land where fantasies of freedom outnumber bloody memories, even two decades of war have failed to answer Captain Malathi’s poetic query. She was 20, the first woman fighter of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to die in combat. Thousands of young men and women laid down their lives to give meaning to her lines. Finally, the tsunami did what a violent ethnic conflict couldn’t. It made Eelam, the Tamil homeland, a de facto reality. The tsunami brought the world to this war-blighted corner of Sri Lanka. The ocean drowned the past and left behind the hopes for a new beginning.

The tsunami has wrought a political inflexion and the world has had to grudgingly take note of this reality. A pointer to this reality is visible on a beach in Mullaitivu, the naval base of the LTTE’s Sea Tigers. A statue of the Virgin Mary stands with her back to the waves. She stands tall in a ceaseless vigil, amid large heaps of concrete and possessions forsaken during the manic moments when numerous feet pattered away from the invading waves.

The way she stands after the waves receded has kindled unbelievable hope in this strategic coastal region, home to the LTTE’s naval wing. For the embattled Tamil Tigers, the tsunami was a blessing in disguise. It gave the LTTE unprecedented international recognition for running an effective administration in Eelam that is intrinsically concerned with its people’s welfare. Two-thirds of the 40,000 devoured by the tsunami were Tamils from the north and east, which the LTTE says is the contiguous homeland of the Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Even though LTTE continues to wear the tag of a proscribed ‘terrorist’ organisation, the tsunami receded only after it left behind the potent message of “a nation within a nation”. The buzz in LTTE territory is that the chief Velupillai Prabhakaran is buoyant and, for the first time, sees the possibility of the outfit being de-proscribed. The international community is holding on to the purse strings till the LTTE is made an equitable stakeholder. And despite three impotent years of “no war, no peace” and an impudent rebellion in its stronghold in eastern Sri Lanka, the LTTE is feeling smug.

For the first time in their fierce armed uprising for an autonomous homeland, the Tamil Tigers see themselves as being within striking distance of their goal. This is so because Sri Lanka needs international aid for post-tsunami reconstruction and rehabilitation and governments across the world want Sri Lanka to share the aid with LTTE. Colombo is caught in a Catch-22 situation; if it shirks away from sharing the aid, all the promised money will slink away and if it does, it will give legitimacy to an enemy with which it is in a reluctant ceasefire. Ironically, it is by doing neither that the government has endorsed the fact that LTTE does govern an area of the country that falls out of the realm of Sri Lanka’s sovereignty.

No wonder the buzz in the LTTE run 1-9 bar (it’s the best and the only bar on the A-9 road running through Tiger territory and that’s how it got the name 1-9) in Kilinochchi is one of awe as international aid workers and representatives of UN agencies gather to exchange notes. The conversation invariably centres on their serendipitous encounter with Eelam, much like what I experienced.

I was in Sri Lanka, but I could have been in a different country altogether. A swathe of land called Vanni comprising the northern districts of Mannar, Vavuniya and Mullaitivu, a part of the umbilical Elephant Pass that connects the island to Jaffna peninsula including Kilinochchi, the present administrative capital of Eelam and parts of the east, Ampara and Batticaloa, form a zone outside Sri Lanka’s sovereignty. The writ of the government does not run here.

So complete is Sri Lanka’s loss of sovereignty in LTTE-controlled areas that even its flag has been replaced by that of the Tigers’ flag, depicting a snarling yellow tiger in a blood-red backdrop. MK Eelaventhan, a Tamil National M.P. in the Sri Lankan Parliament, summed up the paradox of a nation in disguise pithily: “The crux of the Tamil problem is centred over the need for a homeland. Land is a must, a standing army to defend the land is a must and finance to administer the land is a must.”

So the only sign of Colombo’s tremulous presence is the Government Agent (GA), whose only job is to ensure he/she remains in the good books of the LTTE and keep track of official supplies of essential goods sent by the government. The GA also issues identity cards to Tamil civilians so that the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) or police don’t arrest them when they venture out of LTTE-administered areas.

In any case, the government can’t even put a road marker in Eelam without LTTE approval. Colombo has virtually written off its sovereignty in Eelam. Colombo does nothing in Eelam because it does not want to strengthen its enemy. There are no power stations — only limited electricity supply, no piped water or industries. The LTTE has had to generate its own resources and depend on international agencies and the Tamil diaspora to rebuild and create institutions to run its administration.

So when UN agencies wanted land to rebuild permanent houses for the tsunami displaced in Mullaitivu, the Eelam administration allocated the land. When the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) wanted to bring computers for its office in Kilinochchi from Colombo, it had to ensure that the LTTE media office issued approval letters. Thaya Master, an affable man with a steely look in his eyes, is the “permissions man”, aid workers say.

Not surprisingly, therefore, outsiders talk of an amazing duality of a nation within a nation. And it is visible the moment one crosses the last SLA checkpoint at Omanthai in northern Sri Lanka. Everyday at 6.10am, the ‘border’ of Eelam opens on the Colombo-Jaffna A-9 road at Vavuniya. As soon as I entered Vanni at Puliyankulam, a LTTE cadre dressed in white shirt-black trouser uniform came up and said, “This is Eelam, your passport please.”

Some 100 yards away, identities and intentions are checked in a special office — ‘For Indian Passport Holders Only’. In that cheerless, caution-filled room manned by a stern girl, one immediately understands that no answers are sought. Only explanations are demanded. A journalist from Delhi is met with “you should not be here, what are you doing here?”

Later at the LTTE’s political office, I was told that there had been a communication gap between the media office and the immigration post about my arrival. So the woman officer manning the counter for Indian passport holders had suspected me to be an Indian intelligence agent, posing as a journalist. I was told that every year some Indian visitors would transit through this office on their way to Jaffna, a city controlled by the SLA. All of them claim to be saree sellers from Tamil Nadu. The LTTE suspects that most of these saree sellers are agents of Indian external intelligence agency, raw.

Once the confusion was sorted out, the LTTE immigration post issued a one-month entry slip and waved me on. “You must hold on to this very carefully and must produce it at any checkpost if asked. If you lose this pass, you will not be able to go anywhere and you will have difficulties when you leave Vanni,” said a woman officer in a brown light and shade sari. “And yes, remember we have half an hour time difference with Sri Lanka, so don’t forget to adjust the time,” she called out as I moved towards the Tamil Eelam entry point. The reminders are constant: the territory is theirs.

The A-9 road snakes through thick forested areas, skirting the remains of huge SLA camps once in a while. An hour or so later, Captain Malathi’s glistening granite memorial unmistakably comes into view at a T-junction. It marks the outer limits of Kilinochchi, Eelam’s administrative capital. Instead of travelling straight up the road towards Jaffna, a right turn past the memorial is a place that I later surmised will increasingly become a bone of contention between Chandrika Kumaratunga’s government and the Tamil Tigers. Iranamadu is where the LTTE has established its air operations wing, the Air Tigers, functioning from a solitary airstrip.

The first person to give me a clue about the existence of the Air Tigers was a Lankan Tamil emigré poet, vis Jayapalan, who divides time between Oslo and his village close to Kilinochchi. In Vanni, strangers attract friendship and some suspicion.

Jayapalan was keen to know about developments in India and he invited me for lunch. We were having mixed fried rice in 1-9 restaurant and I was absent-mindedly listening to his soliloquy about his interactions with Nirupama Rao, India’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, and how he found her to be ready listener, when he abruptly changed tack: “Have you heard the low growl of aircraft engines at night?” I said, “No”. “In my village many have heard it and so have I,” he replied.

I got the Tigers’ confirmation in a strange manner. Riding pillion with LTTE spokesperson Thaya Master on his Hero Honda, I asked him: “Does the LTTE have an air force?” Master slowed the bike, looked at me and said, “there is some truth in what you have heard”. This might be a formal acknowledgement but the LTTE has not revealed how many planes it has.

What can be confirmed is that the LTTE has at least two Swiss-built Pilatus pc-7 aircraft. Many countries use this aircraft to train their air force pilots. It is flown by a two-member crew and has a 1,200-km-range without drop tanks. A sense of freedom is in the air but militarily the Tigers have their fingers on the trigger. The new reality could also see the breakout of another war and in anticipation, the military muscle is being strengthened. An LTTE cadre told me that Air Tiger pilots are undergoing night landing exercises, with rudimentary navigational assistance. I was shown photographs of the fighter planes published in LTTE newsletters.

The Tamil Tigers also have an elite Black Tiger unit that specialises in suicide operations. In Kilinochchi, I met a young LTTE fighter (name withheld for his safety) who aspires to be a Black Tiger. He was once a bodyguard to senior renegade leader Vinayagamurthy Muralitharan, alias Colonel Karuna, who broke ranks in March 2004 and which has led to a deadly internecine conflict. The toll stands at 200 and is climbing. While it is an open secret that the Karuna group (also known as the Eastern Tamil Tigers) is functioning under the SLA’s patronage, a section of the LTTE believes that raw is behind Karuna’s “betrayal”.

At the sprawling Tamil Eelam police headquarters, I asked police chief B. Nadesan about his views whether raw is indeed destabilising the Tigers. “We don’t attach much importance to frivolous rumours. We believe these rumours are baseless and untrue. Some people want to create more trouble because they want to disturb the peace process and so create these stories about covert Indian intelligence support to the Karuna faction.”

Nadesan was pleasantly disinterested in the interview. He really did not have the authority to answer the “difficult questions” posed to him, like ‘what is the police strength?’ or ‘Is the LTTE continuing to train its forces to prepare for war?’ Because, whatever a senior LTTE leader says must be in principle cleared by their reclusive supremo, Prabhakaran.

Nadesan was, however, authorised to make an interesting revelation. He told me that India has to play a crucial role if the ethnic strife in Sri Lanka has to be permanently resolved. The Tigers have control of their de facto nation but they need international support. “We are eager to build a relationship with the Government of India. India can pressure the Government of Sri Lanka to resolve this question by peaceful means,” he said. The LTTE has been making covert approaches to the Indian government and we will pick up the thread of the new dynamics in India’s engagement with the Tamil Tigers elsewhere as we continue our journey through Eelam. For now let’s get back to the young man who wants to be a Black Tiger.

“One must be enlisted as a cadre to join the Black Tigers. Each member of the unit is handpicked by the leader (Prabhakaran),” he said. Any LTTE cadre wanting to join the Black Tigers must show a consistency in his or her resolve to join the crack commando squad. The unwritten protocol is that an aspiring candidate must write five to six letters to the leader expressing his or her reasons for joining the elite squad. If Prabhakaran is convinced, he issues orders for the candidate to be called in for a lengthy interview. The thumb rule is that only those candidates are called who have lost close relatives in military operations. If the candidate clears the interview, he/she is put through rigorous training and then inducted into the Black Tigers. This is so because such candidates having lost their loved ones want to avenge the deaths of their family members.

Even though LTTE’s official history records Captain Miller as the one who blew up the northern SLA headquarters at Nelliady, LTTE fighters consider Prabhakaran as the first Liberation Tiger to have willed to die for Eelam. The young LTTE fighter told me, “Our leader is actually the first Black Tiger. During ipkf operations, he lived for many days with a can of petrol in one hand and a weapon in the other. He had instructed his bodyguards that should a situation arise wherein the Indian Army finds his hideout; he and all of them should go down fighting and take cyanide capsules so that nobody ends up in Indian custody. Such was the defiance that he had instructed his bodyguards to set his body on fire. ‘I don’t want the Indians to even take away my body,’ he had told his bodyguards.”

The Black Tigers’ unshakeable loyalty to suicide missions is rooted in such legends about Prabhakaran. The marine commando unit of the suicide squad, the Black Sea Tigers, is the most lethal unit. They are primed for ramming boats packed with explosives against an enemy vessel. In fact, I was told that the training regimen of the Black Sea Tigers includes swimming through the treacherous waters of the Indian Ocean to the Tamil Nadu coast at night and then return to their base in Mullaitivu. The drill, apparently, is still on.

The Black Sea Tigers’ commitment has percolated even through the iconography of the militarised Eelam society. A petite white replica of a bronze Parvati from the Chola period symbolises the Goddess of Justice in the courts, instead of Themis, the Greek goddess. The transmogrification of Shiva’s consort, Shakti, as Goddess of Justice is loaded with Tiger symbolism of power, destruction and justice. The Tamils respect the integrity of the Eelam judiciary, whose functioning is an insult to SriLankan authority. The courthouse in Kilinochchi is full of men and women with petitions and documents in their hands. Even Tamils from SLA-controlled Jaffna and from the east come to Kilinochchi to file cases. “If a case comes to the courts from Tamil areas that are currently not under our control, the court summons both parties to Kilinochchi to settle their dispute,” E. Pararajasingam, chief of the Eelam judicial services, said as he took me around the court premises.

The judiciary started by the Tamil Tigers in 1993 has become a full-fledged legal system. The legal system is borrowed unabashedly from India. So much so that the law college prescribes Indian law textbooks. Even the Eelam penal code is a replica of the Indian one. The judicial hierarchy is in this order—chief judges, high court judges, district judges who are in charge of the special bench, two high courts (Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu) and seven district courts respectively. In 2001, the LTTE issued a directive that the death penalty should be restricted to cases of murder, rape and grievous assault for robbery.

The LTTE leadership ensures that the law and order machinery radiate the principle of rule with an iron rod. I came across this principle in the police post within the courthouse complex. A man charged with heinous murder sat quietly on a bench smoking as a woman police officer updated the police report on his crime. He was not handcuffed. “The principle is simple—nobody can escape from here. So we neither handcuff murderers and dangerous criminals, nor do we chain them,” Pararajasingam said. “We run a revolutionary administration so the crime rate in Eelam is extremely low. There have been only 150 cases of heinous crimes, murder and rape, in the last 12 years,” he added.

In my interactions with LTTE leaders, I could sense their confidence in having demonstrated their ability to manage and govern freedom. “Our understanding is that in the post-tsunami scenario, the international community has realised that we are not a terrorist organisation. Within 20 minutes of the tsunami impact, the LTTE effectively put in the right disaster management mechanism that could deliver humanitarian aid and provide relief services. By doing this we did not merely demonstrate our capability to meet the needs of the people but reaffirmed the fact that we are with the people because LTTE is a people’s organisation and people’s welfare for us is priority number one,” SP Thamilchelvan, the political wing leader of the Tamil Tigers, said.

An Emergency Task Force (ETF) set up by the Eelam Planning and Development Secretariat converted schools, temples and churches into 23 welfare centres. The ETF is coordinating with un agencies and international ngos on rehabilitation work. “We have moved 22,000 tsunami displaced from welfare centres to 16 transitional centres and are now concentrating on setting up permanent habitats 300 metres away from the coastline,” ETF director Eelamaran said.

His Mullaitivu office looked like a war room with people working on computers and wireless sets buzzing with status reports. Meanwhile, the overall in-charge of the eastern coast of Mullaitivu, Sea Tigers commander Thillayampalam Sivanesan, alias Colonel Soosai, deployed his forces for rescue and relief operations. But there are no accurate figures available of the damage to the Sea Tigers’ assets in the tsunami. One thing is sure though; Colonel Soosai has been extremely tied up shuttling between Mullaitivu in the east and Mannar in the west as he tried to make LTTE’s naval capability operational.

Though the LTTE is tight-lipped about the damage to its fighting ability, I witnessed the excitement with which their leaders expectantly waited for international dignitaries visiting Colombo to assess the rehabilitation and reconstruction needs to also turn up at Kilinochchi. But the government prevented un Secretary-General Kofi Annan and former US Presidents Bill Clinton (UN special envoy for tsunami recovery) and George Bush from visiting tsunami-hit areas in Eelam.

While the world waits to help Sri Lanka, the government and Sinhalese establishment have embarrassingly revealed their inability to seek accommodation with the Tigers. In the eyes of the international community, the government has shown up as unrepentant and uncaring to the grave humanitarian crisis of thousands of Tamils. This has strengthened the Tamil aspiration for autonomy.

I got a sense of the LTTE’s buoyant mood at a meeting with Eelaventhan in Kilinochchi. He told me that the LTTE leadership “wants the government to allow free flow of international aid to areas under our administration. Around $3.5 million has so far come as tsunami relief but it has not been channelled to us because it is under Central government control. We say that for democracy to succeed there must be sharing of powers at the grassroots level, both here as well as the Centre.”

By refusing to share tsunami aid, Colombo has handed down a potent marketing pitch to the LTTE to sell its demand for an autonomous homeland. And they have found a market in many European capitals. Two top LTTE leaders that I met, Thamilchelvan and Nadesan, are currently leading an LTTE delegation on its first-ever official Europe tour. Their intention is to solicit direct aid so that they can carry out rehabilitation in areas under their control.

A week or so before they left, I caught up with Thamilchelvan. The LTTE political wing leader sprung a surprise when in the course of the interview, he told me that if Colombo continues its dilatory politics “the Tamil people themselves will make a determination to have a pattern of governance for their own freedom. We will have to wait and see whether such a resolution accommodating the aspirations of the Tamil people could be arrived at by negotiations. So Colombo has to make a decision as to which of the two would be ideal for the nation.”

The LTTE is poised to enter a dramatic new phase in its armed struggle. From what I gathered from other LTTE leaders and if one goes by Thamilchelvan’s hints, it appears that the Tigers are poised to unilaterally declare independence. If the government does not react then Sri Lanka’s position will become indefensible. And if it does, it will have to wage war. This will take care of the mounting internal pressure on Prabhakaran to launch an offensive against the government. In any case with Japan, European Union and the US backing the peace process with the lure of massive aid, it will be a difficult decision for Colombo to take.

MY SINCERE THANKS TO MR.ITHAYA-NORWAY.
@Muhunthan

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தமிழன் கால் பதிக்காத இடம் இப்புவியில் இல்லை!

Fri, 09 Mar 2007 18:05:28 +0100

தமிழன் கால் பதிக்காத இடம் இப்புவியில் இல்லை என்ற இன்றைய நிலையில் பரந்துப்பட்ட இந்த நிலப்பரப்பில் எங்கும் பரவிக்கிடக்கும் தமிழர்களாகிய நாம் இன்று சில வரலாற்று கடமைகளை முன்னெடுக்கும் காலகட்டத்தில் இருக்கின்றோம். சமீப காலமாக கருத்தாடலும், செயற்பாடுகளும் அதிகரித்துக்கொண்டு வருகிறது. சிலர் சில ஆய்வுகளை வெளியிடுவதும் அதனை ஆதரித்து அல்லது ஆமோதித்து பலர் கருத்துகளை பகற்வதும் என்று சிறப்பாக தொடர்ந்து கொண்டிருக்கிறது. அடிக்கடி ஏதோ இந்திய - பாக்கித்தான் அணிகளுக்கிடையேயான மட்டையாட்டத்தொடர் நடைபெறுவது போல் விடுதலை புலிகள் சிங்கள படையினை தாக்கி பாரிய இழப்பை ஏற்படுத்தினால் ஆரவாரிப்பதும், சிங்கள படை விடுதலை புலிகளைதாக்கி பாரிய இழப்பை ஏற்படுத்தினாலும், பொதுமக்கள் மீது குண்டுமாரிப் பொழிகின்றபோதும், தமது உள்ளக் குமுறல்களையும் உணர்ச்சிகளையும் வெளிப்படுத்தி கட்டுரை வடித்து, கதைப்பதிலும் சென்று கொண்டிருக்கின்றோம். அன்று துண்டறிக்கைகள், இதழ்கள், செய்திதாள்கள் மூலம் வெளிப்படுத்திய உணர்வினை இன்று இணைய ஊடகங்களிலும் வெளிப்படுத்தி கொண்டிருக்கின்றோம். வளர்ந்து விட்ட அறிவியல் தொழில் நுட்பத்தின் ஊடாக நமது உள்ளக்குமுறலை மட்டுமே அதிக அளவில் வெளியிட்டு கொண்டிருக்கின்றோம். மூன்றாம் கட்ட ஈழப்போரின் முடிவிலேயே விடுதலை புலிகள் தங்கள் படையை பலப்படுத்துவதோடு, சமூக-அரசியல் கட்டுமானத்தை முன்னெடுப்பதில் முனைப்பு காட்டி இன்று நான்காம் கட்ட ஈழப்போரின் தொடக்கத்தில் சர்வதேச விழிகளின் முன்பு தமது சிறந்த படை பலத்தோடு மட்டுமல்லாமல், சிறந்த சமூக-அரசியல் கட்டுமான பலத்தோடு நின்று கொண்டிருக்கின்றார்கள். தாக்குதல் நடத்தி ஒரு இடத்தை பிடிப்பதோடு மட்டுமல்லாமல் அவ்விடத்தில் சமூக-அரசியல் கட்டுமானத்தையும் முன்னெடுக்கும் போது மட்டுமே நாம் உண்மையான விடுதலைப் போரில் வெற்றி ஈட்ட முடியும். தமிழ் மக்களால், தமிழ் மக்களுக்காக கட்டப்பட்ட விடுதலை புலிப்படை தமிழ் மக்களின் தேவையை நிறைவு செய்யும் பொருட்டு ஒரு சமூக-அரசியல் கட்டுமானமாக உருவாக தொடங்கிவிட்டது. எல்லாவற்றினையும் விடுதலை புலிகளே செய்வர் என்று பாராமல், இவ்விடுதலைப் போராட்டத்தை வீறுகொண்டெடுக்க முனைவது சர்வதேச தமிழர்களாகிய நம் முன் நிற்கின்ற தலையாய கடமையாகும். புலத்தில் உள்ள ஒவ்வொறு தமிழனும் இன்று உலகம் மெச்சக்கூடிய சாதனைகளை புரிந்து கொண்டிருக்கின்றான். அச்சாதனையின் பலனை தாய்நாட்டின் அடிப்படை சமூக-அரசியல் கட்டுமானத்திற்கு நாம் பயன்படுத்த அணியமாக இருக்க வேண்டிய சூழலில் இருக்கின்றோம். எவரும் வந்து உதவி செய்து பெறக்கூடியதல்ல விடுதலைப் போராட்டம், நமக்காக நாமே போராடி பெற வேண்டும். யாழ் கோட்டையிலும் திருகோணமலையிலும் என்று புலிக்கொடி பறக்க விடப்படுகின்றதோ அன்று தமிழீழ குடியரசு மலரும் அதனை விடுதலை புலிகள் பார்த்துக் கொள்வார்கள். நாம் உருவாகும் தமிழீழ குடியரசின் அடிப்படை சமூக-அரசியல் கட்டுமானங்களை நிறைவு செய்து வளர்த்தெடுக்க வேண்டிய தலையாய கடமையில் இருக்கின்றோம். பெறும்பாலும் கவிதை, கட்டுரை, ஆய்வுகள், செய்திகள் கொண்ட இணைய தளம் வாயிலாக நமது உணர்வினையும் உள்ளக்குமுறல்களையும் வெளிப்படுத்தி ஊடகம் ஊடகம் என்று ஊதிக்கொண்டிருக்கின்றோம். எதிரி எவ்வளவு பேர் வீழ்ந்தான், நம்மவர்கள் எவ்வளவு பேர் வீழ்ந்தார்கள் என்று பலியானவர்கள் காயமடைந்தவர்கள் என புள்ளி விவரங்களை கணக்கெடுப்பதை விடுத்து உருவாகும் தமிழீழ குடியரசின் அடிப்படை தேவைகளை நம்மால் எவ்வளவுக்கு நிறைவு செய்ய முடியும் என்ற கோணத்தில் ஒரு புதிய வரலாற்று கடமையினை ஆற்ற வேண்டிய சூழலில் இருக்கின்றோம். புலத்தில் உள்ள ஒவ்வொரு தமிழனும் வெவ்வேரு துறையைச் சார்ந்தவர்களாக இருப்பர், அத்துறையில் வல்லுநர்களாகவும் இருப்பர். ஆதலால் தத்தமது துறைகளைப்பற்றிய புதிய ஆக்கங்களையும், ஆய்வுகளையும், தொகுப்புகளையும், அறிவியல் தொழில் நுட்பங்களையும் உருவாகும் தமிழீழ அரசிற்கு சமர்பிக்க அணியமாகுவோம். நம்மால் முடிந்தளவு ஆக்கபூர்வமாக முன்னெடுப்பதோடு மட்டுமல்லாமல் நம்மை சுற்றியுள்ளவர்களையும் ஈடுபடுத்தி ஒரு புதிய சூழலை உருவாக்குவோம். "விடுதலை புலிகள் ஏவுகனை கிபீரை வீழ்த்தியதா" என்பதோடல்லாமல் கிபீரை வீழ்த்த என்ன செய்யலாம், புதிய ஏவுகனை வாங்கி கிபீரை வீழ்த்த விடுதலை புலிகளுக்கு பொருளாதார உதவி செய்ய முடியுமா? அல்லது விடுதலை புலிகளே ஏவுகனை வடிவமைக்க தொழில் நுட்ப உதவி செய்ய முடியுமா? என்று நமது ஆய்வினை மேற்கொண்டோமானால் கிபீரை மட்டுமல்ல சிங்கள படையினையும் தூள்தூளாக்க முடியும். இதுவே தற்போது நாம் செய்ய வேண்டிய தலையாய கடமையாகும். இது விடுதலை புலிகளுக்கு தார்மீக பலமாக மட்டுமல்ல தாங்கும் பாலமாகவும் அமையும்.
வாழ்க தமிழ்...! வெல்க தமிழீழஅரசு...!
"புரட்சியாளர்கள் என்றும் புதைக்கப்படுவதில்லை விதைக்கப்படுகிறார்கள்"

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