Why should we achieve a solution within a state? Why can't we live as two friendly states on this island? We tried to live together since independence. Finally, it was the late SJV Chelvanayagam who called for an independent state in 1974 based on the political reality - Rudra
( April 5, 2014, New York City, Sri Lanka Guardian) Visuvanathan
Rudrakumaran known as Rudra, is a man well known to the public for
decades, although his public appearances are limited due to the nature
of the work that he is engaged in. Once, as the international legal
representative of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Rudra was
a close friend of the LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran who was killed
by the Sri Lankan military as a part of its eradication the Tamil
militancy in the country.
A militarily successful government not only declared the battle won but
it also has aggrandized all powers into the President Rajapakse’s family
and the entire country is speeding towards authoritarianism. People in
general are yet to understand what really has happened and how the
system has been further deteriorated using the “victory” over the LTTE
as a pretext. This very reason has further isolated the country. The
government banned under a blacklist a number groups and over four
hundred people named from the Tamil Diaspora just after its failure at
the United Nation Human Rights Council. The real intention of the
government is unclear but possible outcome scenarios will be known only
in the future.
In this lengthy exclusive interview Rudra as the Prime Minister of the
TGTE, elaborated on many areas that many have confusions about on what
his newly established TGTE government is planning to achieve. We believe
this interview is a large contribution to the general debate on the
very crisis that the country has undergone for decades. However, we
note, he has quietly avoided answering some questions that he felt are
unnecessary to get into.
See below the full text of the exclusive interview with Rudra;
Nilantha Ilangamuwa (NI): Mr. Rudra, welcome to the Sri Lanka
Guardian and thank you for agreeing to this exclusive interview. I’m
planning to discuss many issues, all equally important, and I hope you
will have detailed answers for these queries.
You are leading a new type of government called the Transnational
Government of Tamil Eelam or TGTE, which involves a kind of shadow
ruling without fulfilling the legal requirements to be a government
according the Montevideo Convention. However, you were parachuted almost
from nowhere into the TGTE after the end of the civil war in Sri Lanka
in May 2009. Where does your legitimacy come from?
Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran (VR): The requirement for the
Montevideo Convention is applicable only to States. The Transnational
Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) is not claiming itself to be governing a
State, and for that matter, it is not even an exiled government. Yes,
the TGTE is a new political phenomenon and it is a new ‘type’ of
government in the sense of governing the political affairs of the Tamil
Diaspora and enacting their political aspirations. Given the denial of
political space for Tamils inside the Island to articulate their
political aspirations fully and freely, the primary purpose of the TGTE
is to represent the diaspora, whereas the other side of the coin of the
Tamil Nation is to campaign for the establishment of an independent and
sovereign state of Tamil Eelam. It's legitimacy comes through the
participation of the people through an electoral process.
Though there are common features, our Government and a Government in exile are different in the theory behind them.
A government in exile refers to a government temporarily shifted to or
formed in a foreign country by exiles who hope to return to their home
country when it is liberated. For this Government at least the approval
and acceptance by one host country is required. A government in exile
needs no Diaspora.
The concept of a Transnational Government has received the attention of
social scientists for more than two decades. It is associated with the
transnational life of a people and their engagement with transnational
politics.
People in the Diaspora maintain relationships among themselves, as well
as with people in their homeland and with their Diaspora relatives in
other countries, wherever they might be living. As such their lifestyle
is not at all confined to the borders of their host country. The Tamils
have established themselves as a transnational society. While complying
with the laws of the host country, the transnational social space is the
factor that largely decides their political, social and economic
interests. This is the life style of the Eelam Tamil Diaspora as well.
Their family units are split and members live within different States of
the world, yet, they interact among themselves through a variety of
means. Outside the family unit, in cultural and social life also, these
interactions transcend the boundaries of States.
One purpose of the Transnational Government is in fact the promotion of
these interactions. The TGTE will have the additional purpose of
creating a mechanism for the political unity and the pursuit of the
political desires of this transnational community, while respecting the
laws of the States which this transnational community inhabits. It is in
the distinct transnational space within which these cross-border
relationships take place that the Transnational Government is seeking to
operate by facilitating the promotion of interactions and forging a
common political program.
The Tamil Diaspora, along with those in our homeland, seeks to preserve
this transnational relationship. Thus the people of Tamil Eelam, too,
are part of the transnational social space. Their politics is not
confined to the Northeast region, but extends to transnational politics
as well. Tamil nationalism is one that is diversified, socially
beneficial and based on democratic principles.
 |
| File Photo:
LTTE leader Vellupillai Pirapaharan(ctr) flanked by the movement's
delegation: (l-r) Col. V Karuna, Mrs. Adele Balasingham, Mr. Anton
Balasingham, Mr. S. P. Tamilselvan, Mr. V. Rudrakumaran and Dr. Jay
Maheswaran. |
The TGTE proposed to be established in the transnational space by Tamils
is meant to realize the political aspirations of Tamils in our
Homeland. It will also engage in promoting the social, economic and
cultural development of Tamils in the Diaspora.
Since the TGTE is formed and sustained by the people, the consent of the
States within which the transnational community exists is not a
pre-requisite, as all these are democratic states which promote and
protect the right to association provided the associations pursue
democratic purposes. Community-based organizations among the Tamil
people should serve as the pillars of the Transnational Government of
Tamil Eelam (TGTE). The Transnational Government (TGTE) will campaign
and strategize for the establishment of an independent and sovereign
state of Tamil Eelam.
NI: What is the importance of having the TGTE? Why the names of your
MPs are not widely published? How can you have anonymous
representatives?
VR: There is no political space for the Tamils in Sri Lanka to
articulate the Tamil Nation's political aspirations fully. The sixth
amendment criminalizes peaceful advocacy for an independent state. It is
thus also an infringement of the freedom of speech and military
strangulation.
The social existence of the Tamil people depends on the preservation of
their distinct political, economic and cultural ways of life. The Tamils
must have the ability to coexist and be co-partners with other
communities around the world. To achieve these goals and to control
factors that pose threats to their existence, there is a need for a
strong and self-governing political entity. These aims were given shape
in 1976 through the Vaddukkoddai Resolution and reinforced by the
mandate given by the people in the 1977 general elections. The 1985
Thimpu Principles and the 2003 Interim Self-Governing Authority (ISGA)
proposals added weight to these aims.
In the island of Sri Lanka, the political structure has been militarized
for more than 60 years. The constitution enacted by Sinhala-Buddhist
hegemony and the laws enacted thereunder have denied the fundamental
rights and well-being of other peoples on the island. The constitution
and the current political structure have become stumbling blocks to the
political identity, social existence and cultural advancement of the
Tamil people, as well as other non- Sinhalese-Buddhist nations.
Furthermore, internal conditions in the island of Sri Lanka have become
oppressive and are grave threats to the Tamil people, preventing them
from freely expressing their aspirations and engaging in political
discourse and activism to protect their rights or advance the interests
of their separate identity.
Tamils have been compelled to live in open prisons leading lives of
slavery. At the same time, the Sinhala government’s leaders, policy
formulators, diplomats and army commanders are indulging at the national
and international levels in false propaganda claiming that there were
no problems for the Tamils and that there was no need for any political
solution.
The responsibility has now fallen into the hands of the Tamils living in
the Diaspora to confront these problems and adopt different approaches
to realize the Tamil people’s political right to self- determination. It
has now become necessary to constitute a coordinated and democratic
polity to advance these objectives. This polity is the Transnational
Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) created by us.
NI: Why is there a US Tamil calling himself a TGTE MP for Canada? Whom does he represent?
VR: There is no factual basis for this question and therefore I am unable to provide an answer.
[Editorial note: Sri Lanka Guardian
stands by the factual basis of this question. However, we do not name
the MP because of the recent unreasonable listing as terrorists of
anyone associated with the TGTE]
NI: Some Diaspora Tamils I know say they were never asked to vote and
did not know where to vote, and did not even know of an election going
on. Where was election information and registration information
circulated? Only in Eelamist circles? Without all votes can you claim to
be representatives?
VR: I don't know what you are talking about. Election information
was widely circulated in all the Tamil Diaspora TV, radio and
newspapers. We also held many town hall meetings.
The first step in forming the TGTE was to form a Transnational
Constituent Assembly of Tamil Eelam by holding direct elections among
the Tamil Diaspora in its many locations.
A right to public participation in democratic governance exists in
international law. The United Nations Committee on Human Rights has
recognized a specific right to participate in constitution making. One
way to engage citizens is through the selection of popular
representatives to the body that develops the draft constitution. A
popular election is the most accepted mechanism for securing popular
representation.
Participation is now promoted as both a right and a necessity. The right
is established in international declarations and conventions adopted by
most nations, as well as in many recent national constitutions. The
necessity stems in part from the forceful advocacy of democracy as the
sole model for legitimate governance. Participatory constitution making
is a practice with growing momentum. Despite challenging difficulties of
definition and implementation, a democratic constitution-making process
is, in the words of African observer Julius Ivonhbere, “critical to the
strength, acceptability, and legitimacy of the final product.”
Country Working Groups were established in October 2009 in order to take
the electoral process forward the first time. In the first round, the
Country Working Groups were set up for the UK, Canada, USA, South Africa
and Norway, with such Working Groups for Australia, New Zealand and
France announced subsequently.
The CWGs engaged in policy discussions with local Tamil organizations
and Tamil people to garner support for the TGTE. These groups not only
sought support among Tamils, but also canvassed support from the wider
civil society for the formation of the TGTE. They also engaged in
soliciting the support of political leaders and governments of
respective countries.
An independent Election Commission was established in each country where
direct elections were held to elect the representatives of TGTE. As
noted above, the CWG was responsible for forming each Election
Commission. Election Monitors were also appointed to monitor that
process and ensure that elections are conducted in a fair and free
manner.
Those wishing to vote in the TGTE election had to demonstrate that they
were seventeen (17) years of age or older by Election Day and were
connected to Tamil Eelam culture by descent, marriage or adoption, along
with those identifying themselves as Eelam Tamils to the satisfaction
of the Election Commission. The latter category was a residual category
that was applied strictly having regard to the circumstances of each
individual case.
NI: Did you follow any earlier experiences or paradigms from world history in establishing and structuring the TGTE?
VR: As I said earlier, it is a new political phenomenon
The Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) is a political
formation to win the freedom of the Tamil people on the basis of their
fundamental political principles of Nationhood, Homeland and Right of
self-determination. The TGTE is a novel concept both for the Tamil
people and the rest of the world.
At present the Tamil people have absolutely no prospect of articulating
their political aspirations or of exercising their fundamental rights in
their homeland itself. The Sri Lankan government, through legal
impediments, military occupation and murder is strangling the Tamil
people’s aspirations and their political rights.
In this context, the Tamil Diaspora, an integral part of the nation of
Tamil Eelam, utilizing democratic means in their respective countries,
established the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam as the highest
political entity to campaign for the realization of the Tamils’ right to
self- determination. Since it is impractical for political leaders and
people in Tamil Eelam to participate in the TGTE, only those Tamils in
the Diaspora were elected to the TGTE through democratic elections. The
TGTE has been working hand-in-hand with anyone working for the
well-being of the Tamil people in the island of Sri Lanka, including the
political and social leaders of the people in Eelam.
NI: Are there any successful transnational governments in history which achieved their dreams?
VR: TGTE will be the first.
NI: I noticed that on many occasions you make a careful distinction
between state and government. You have said you stand against the state
of Sri Lanka instead of the relevant government in the country. Your
problems, or in other words your disagreements, are they really with the
government or the state? Please elaborate your principles on this
disagreement with the state of the Socialist Democratic Republic of Sri
Lanka.
VR: As the UN Expert Panel Report and Internal Review Report
state, there is no political or judicial environment for the Tamils to
get justice. Since Independence, during which different governments were
in succession, Tamils have been marginalized. Thus the problem is the
state.
The long and arduous struggle of the people of Tamil Eelam for the
establishment of an independent, sovereign and universally recognized
country has seen many turns of fortune in modern history. It stands
today, however, at a dire and unprecedented juncture and one fraught
with the possibility of their annihilation as a nation, people, culture
and society in their own homeland.
Their travails started over six decades ago when the departing British
colonial power casually handed over the nation of Eelam to a Sinhala
dominated administration of Ceylon. The racist, majoritarian
dictatorship by Colombo in turn robbed the Tamil people of both justice
and dignity, sparking off a several decades long peaceful, non-violent
struggle which at one point turned into full-fledged war for
Independence.
The war ended in May 2009 with the massacre of thousands upon thousands
of innocent Tamil civilians and the brutal execution of the leaders of
the militant struggle. Genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity
were committed during this period with impunity by the Sri Lankan state
forces. In the aftermath of the war thousands of Tamil youth were
arrested and either murdered or thrown into torture chambers; thousands
of women molested; and yet larger numbers of innocent civilians put away
in internment camps.
Today, almost five years after the horrors of Mullivaikkaal as we survey
the arrogance of those in power in Colombo, the wasted territories of
Tamil Eelam and a globe that has lost its moral spine to respond in any
meaningful way, it is easy to get disheartened and even cynical.
The scenario outlined above amply demonstrates the continuing inhumanity
of the Sri Lankan state against the Tamil people. It reinforces the
Tamil demand for the realization of the right to self-determination, in a
remedial fashion, and the exercise of their sovereignty in order to
protect them from annihilation and thereby to ensure their safety and
security as a distinct people in their own homeland. Every accepted
tenet of international law, as observed by the Canadian Supreme Court in
the Quebec case, and the moral principles, recognizes that in such
circumstance a right to self-determination could/should be exercised in
the form of an establishment of an independent and sovereign state.
NI: Why can’t we achieve the solution together within the state?
VR: Why should we achieve a solution within a state? Why can't we
live as two friendly states on this island? We tried to live together
since independence. Finally, it was the late Mr S J V Chelvanayagam who
called for an independent state in 1974 based on the political reality
(racial pogroms, abrogation of political agreements, etc.)
The repression of the Tamil people since the granting of independence to
Ceylon began with the disenfranchisement of the Indian Tamils, the
enactment of the Sinhala Only Act that made Sinhalese the only official
language of Sri Lanka, the denial of access of young Tamils to
university education and the violent repression of peaceful protests of
the Tamils. There were major organized riots (pogroms) against the
Tamils in 1958, 1960, 1977 and 1983, in which there was government
complicity. On winning the Kankesanthurai by-election in 1975, Mr S J V
Chelvanayakam who is affectionately referred to as the ‘Gandhi of Eelam’
declared:
“We have for the last 25 years made every effort to secure our
political rights on the basis of equality with the Sinhalese in a united
Ceylon...It is a regrettable fact that successive Sinhalese governments
have used the power that flows from independence to deny us our
fundamental rights and reduce us to the position of a subject people...I
wish to announce to my people and to the country that I consider the
verdict at this election as a mandate that the Tamil Eelam nation should
exercise the sovereignty already vested in the Tamil people and become
free.”
Following Chelvanayakam’s election victory, all Tamil political parties
convened in Vaddukoddai and unanimously adopted the Vaddukoddai
Resolution. The Resolution was adopted at the first National Convention
of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) on 14 May 1976. The TULF's
participation in the 1977 general elections was anchored in this
Resolution. In this Resolution, the TULF declared its intent of forming a
sovereign State of Tamil Eelam. S. J. V. Chelvanayakam presided over
the Convention. The following is a translation of the Resolution, which
was originally adopted in Tamil. “This convention resolves that the
restoration and reconstitution of the Free, Sovereign, Secular,
Socialist State of Tamil Eelam, based on the right of self-determination
inherent to every nation, has become inevitable in order to safeguard
the very existence of the Tamil Nation in this Country.”
The Resolution concluded by saying that the Convention called upon the
Tamil nation in general and the Tamil youth in particular to come
forward to throw them fully into the sacred fight for freedom and to
flinch not until the goal of a sovereign state was realized. The 30-year
long legitimate campaign of the Eelam Tamils to realize their right to
self-determination led by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)
suffered a serious setback through military aggression by the Sri Lankan
armed forces, during which these armed forces were in violation of
humanitarian laws and all civilized norms. People all over the world
were shocked and deeply saddened by the atrocities committed in the
course of the war and particularly during its final phase in the Vanni
area.
Of particular note, the use of banned weapons and heavy shelling by the
Sinhalese military were responsible for the massacre of tens of
thousands of Tamil civilians in the no fire zone in 2009. The government
of Sri Lanka then incarcerated 300,000 Tamils, and herded them into
military-run internment camps. The UN, INGOs and other relief
organizations and journalists were barred from free access to these
internment camps. The imprisonment of civilians was a collective
punishment to them solely on account of their Tamil nationality.
According to the UN, during the initial stage of the internment people
died due to starvation. According to Amnesty International, some women
were forced to give birth in front of strangers. The UK’s Channel 4 News
reported that “shocking claims have emerged [of] shortages of food and
water, dead bodies left where they have fallen, women separated from
their families and even sexual abuse.” Though a substantial number of
people were allowed to go ‘free’ from these internment camps in the last
weeks of 2009 following internal and external pressures, those released
have been living under constant fear and without the basic facilities
for human existence. They have not been meaningfully resettled or
permitted to return to their original homes.
Those Tamils who live outside the camps hardly fare better in terms of
their safety and well-being. The North East, the traditional homeland of
Tamils, is swarming with military personnel and camps and is
effectively an occupied territory. The South of the island is under the
control of a Sinhalese nationalist government, and the Tamils who live
there are viewed as a security threat and live in constant fear of
violence. Tamil civilians are being targeted solely on account of their
Tamil ethnicity. Tamils are on the verge of being annihilated as a
nation, a people and a community through deliberate killing and
disappearance, forced assimilation, ethnic cleansing and colonization.
In addition, because of the systematic colonization of Tamil areas, the
gerrymandering of electoral districts, the large numbers who have been
driven from or fled the Tamil areas because of violence, and the lack of
new voter registration, Tamil representation has decreased
substantially in the legislature since independence. Moreover, the
electoral process in the island of Sri Lanka is entrenched with
pervasive racism and has resulted in further marginalization and
oppression of the Tamil people at each and every election. Consequently,
the Tamils are denied effective participation in the political process
of the island. This is also corroborated by the UN Expert Panel Report,
which observed that “the ongoing exclusionary policies, which are
particularly deleterious as political, social, and economic exclusion
based on ethnicity, real or perceived, have been at the heart of the
conflict”
The scenario outlined above amply demonstrates the continuing inhumanity
of the Sri Lankan government against the Tamil people. It reinforces
the Tamil demand for the realization of the right to self-determination,
in a remedial fashion, and the exercise of their sovereignty in order
to protect them from annihilation and thereby to ensure their safety and
security as a distinct people in their own homeland.
source:sg
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