December 6 will be a saddest day for the Tamils all over the world. The Sinhala extremists have reintroduced the Prevention of the Terrorism Act (PTA) in order to punish the supporters of the freedom fighters when they find that their armed forces are no match to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. This will include right thinking outspoken Sinhalese like Dr Brian Senevirutne, Mr Kumar Rupersinghe, Mr L Kotalawala, and many others.

Having bought time from the world watch dogs, the UN, UNICEF, Amnesty International and the WHO, to address and redress the many serious humanitarian issues and human rights violations through the introduction of an all party (AP)power sharing proposal, yet again the majority Sinhalese have deceived the world. Although the devolution proposal is from the Sinhala and Muslim parties having excluded the main democratically elected Tamil political party from the N&E, it had been glamorously named all-party proposal to deceive the world. In short it is a unilateral decision by two parties one major and the other minor leaving out the party, the Tamil National Alliance that represents the majority communities in the N&E-the Tamils. Such trickery by the government sounds strange, funny and illogical.

The world community should read between the lines the aim of the racist Sinhala government. The ultimate motive of the Sinhalese is to usurp the lands of the Tamils of N&E by devious means and annihilate their culture and language. Sinhalese wants to colonise the available lands in Tamil Eelam with Sinhalese people in order to make the N&E a mixed area. Once this is achieved the Sinhalese could easily claim that there is no traditional homelands for Tamils. Srima pura in Trincomale and Galoya in the Amparai districts are good example.

Anyhow, the 37-page report submitted on 6 December by the Sinhala government contains nothing new that can address the concerns of the Tamil people of the North & East (N&E) of Sri-Lanka. The main bone of contentions of the Tamils is their unalienable right to govern their own homeland. This salient point has not been addressed to in this proposal. The Tamils wants security for their boarders ensured and assurance from international community that the Sinhalese would not encroach on their land under any pretext such as establishing colonies for landless Sinhalese or by military onslaught for trivial causes using weapons that are prohibited for use against civilians.

The PTA now reactivated is against the existing cease-fire agreement between the Sinhala government and the LTTE. How could the world allow such transgression of the peace agreement? Diplomats from the UN who are highly trained in political diagnosis should have by now known the volte-face of the Sinhalese.

Even without the PTA, the Sinhala government had contravened several human rights laws. Some of the vital ones are furnished below.

About 1/3 of the land in the Jaffna mainland has been converted into High Security Zones by the Sri-Lankan army/government for the last 30 years. The owners of the properties have been displaced and are refugees elsewhere without compensation etc. They have lost their live earnings and their source of livelihood as they have been uprooted by a cruel Sinhala regime that does not care for the Tamils. How long will the evicted house owners have to remain dispossessed is not clear? The government has not given them compensation or alternative housing. Compare this treatment of the Tamils with the manner in which the Sinhalese people whose houses or lands were compulsorily acquired for government usage. They were given compensation and offered alternative accommodation and employment. The government is not sympathetic or considerate to Tamil citizens complaints against these Human Rights transgressions and there are nobody to speak for them either except Norway at this instance.

The economic activities of other members of Tamil community are similarly curtailed for a long time, nearly 50 years, without any thoughtfulness for their livelihood and human rights. Eg the members of the fishing industry. During the 1950’s when there was comparative normalcy in the N&E fishing industrialists exported their products to world markets.

Access for farmers to vast acreage of cultivable land in the peninsula that produced the staple food rice enough for the local population has been denied by the Sinhala forces because the government fears that the freedom fighters could pose as farm workers and kill them or land mine them. The Sri-lankan government in their heart of hearts wishes to starve the Tamils and make them dependant on imported wheat flower. Here again the basic rights of the Tamils, that of owning their property and growing their own food, are denied to the them in the North and East. This is unpardonable total punishment for the Tamil population who is suspected by the government of supporting the Tigers.

The fascist government is purposely starving the peninsular population in order to punish them and exterminate them simply because they are of a different ethnicity-Tamils. The closure of the A9 high way is an attempt to prevent free flow of food and social and other visits of the ordinary Tamils. Can the IDP sustain themselves healthy on rations of wheat flour, dhall and dry fish for many months without other nutrient giving vegetables and fruits. Killing the Tamils after subjecting them to poor food and nutrition the prerequisites to remain healthy will result in the reduction of the population making way for the Sinhala army to bring in Sinhala thugs to settle in these areas and take on Tamil maids by force. It is the strategy that Alexander the Great did during the dark ages of European history; winning land by force and securing them through love.

Multi-barrel guns are fired aimlessly in all direction in the predominantly Tamil North and East on the certainty that those killed would be Tamils. Carpet bombs too are dropped in their homeland for the same purpose. Para militaries and Sinhala Home guards travelling over army controlled N&E in white vans without vehicle registration number plates and motor bike riding personnel in helmets, to hide their identity, are committing daily 5-10 extra-judicial killings. This is Sri-Lanka now without the PTA. They carry on regardless the killing spree even when curfew is on. Innocent people are being indiscriminately killed daily, irrespective of age or sex, in their homes day and night. Killed in their way to work, work places, shops, streets and even while worshipping in temples. Some of the executed are buried in unmarked graves, some half burnt to hide identity unless with the help of DNA tests which is not widely available in Sri-Lanka. Still others brutally killed are left on the streets for the cats, dogs and vultures to feast.

I request the world community on behalf of most right thinking expatriate Tamils, to cry halt to the ill-treatments of the Tamils in the N&E by Sinhala governments. You have remained demure for long. The mental state of the population in this once blessed land in the N&E had come to breaking point. They have lost all power of patience. To help the helpless is a meritorious deed in any religion. I beg you to be reasonable and get rid of your silence.

I am afraid that the PTA will give absolute power to the Sinhala military who can then cover their backs from war crime proceedings. I humbly request the world peacekeepers to send in more international organisations to have an eye over the actions of the government under this act. I foresee that all Tamil youths will be incarcerated and the more national minded Tamils will be hounded out in order to subdue the entire Tamil populations. The dark spectre of the colonial days of the Dutch and Portuguese will return to the Tamils under Sinhala rule. A look at the History of Jaffna Kingdom under these foreigners will say stories that will haunt any souls for days. Hilter is setting foot in Sri-lanka under the name of Rajapakse. God forbid.

Expatriate Tamils should involve all political luminaries in their countries to take an active interest in the humanitarian affairs of the Tamils in the N&E who are being trampled by a dictatorial intransigent Sinhala regime. Many of the intellectuals in the West do not know the real situation in Sri-Lanka. They are under the impression that the Tamils are unnecessarily fighting for separation in a small country. They are ignorant of the ground situation and the cruelty heaped on the Tamils by the bloody Sinhala State. The meeting arranged by Harrow MP Gareth Thomas in the UK between the Minister responsible for Sri-Lankan affairs Foreign Office Minister Dr Kim Howells MP in the House of Commons on Monday 4th December to discuss the situation in Sri Lanka is praise worthy. Prominent Tamil emmigrants should follow the UK Tamils and meet their respective ministers and explain the actual situation in the N&E. Diplomacy at higher level is very crucial at this moment.

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