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Winning The Peace in Sri Lanka
Ravi Nair
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As the Manmohan Singh government prepares to take office,
renowned human rights activist Ravi Nair outlines a peace plan
for Sri Lankan Tamils.
The plan has many aspects but is obviously meant only for those
who the right intentions. |
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 As
expected, the Sri Lankan has delivered the knockout punch to the
remnants of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). But
President Obama’s timely intervention is a signal to Colombo that
its brazen disregard of international humanitarian law – even as it
still claims to be mopping up the tenacious LTTE cadres – can no
longer be ignored in diplomatic corridors.
It is now
evident that Lankan security forces pulled some of their punches
early this month, but not to minimize civilian casualties as they
piously claimed. They did so mindful of
New Delhi’s
trapeze act between the desire to help
Sri Lanka
eliminate the LTTE as a military threat and the compulsions of
Indian realpolitik. Any new government in New Delhi later this month
cannot do without the support of either the DMK or the AIADMK, both
of whom have taken public positions on Eelam.
The LTTE has
lost the war on the battlefield, thanks to the absence of a
political strategy for the negotiating table. Now the Sri Lankan
Tamils, Indian Tamils, Tamils elsewhere and democrats everywhere
will need to craft a new pragmatic strategy if they are to ensure
that the Sri Lankan Tamil does not become the Palestinian of the 21st
century, living perpetually in the diaspora, as the poor cousin in
India, in the twilight zone of statelessness, or in Bantusans soon
to be created by the Sri Lankan government.
First, form a
circle
Any new strategy
must have as its lynchpin a carefully crafted constitutional
proposal that goes beyond the 1987 framework suggested by the
Indo-Sri Lanka pact as also the now defunct 13th
Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution and the inadequate
proposals of the All Party Representative Committee (APRC). The 1987
pact, which seems to be the mantra of the New Delhi establishment,
belongs in the past, as do the other proposals. The new enhanced
position must demand genuine internal self-determination akin to
Article 370 of the Indian Constitution prior to 1953. Sri Lankan
Tamils must avoid the false god of an independent Tamil Eelam.
Giving up gods that failed is heart wrenching, but a maximalist
position should be avoided if solidarity is to be achieved across
India, with democrats in Sri Lanka and globally. In the event of the
Colombo dispensation failing to read the accommodativeness of the
average moderate Tamil, it will not need a soothsayer to predict a
second coming.
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The LTTE
has lost the war on the battlefield, thanks to the absence of a
political strategy for the negotiating table. Now the Sri Lankan
Tamils, Indian Tamils, Tamils elsewhere and democrats everywhere
will need to craft a new pragmatic strategy if they are to
ensure that the Sri Lankan Tamil does not become the Palestinian
of the 21st century, living perpetually in the
diaspora, as the poor cousin in India, in the twilight zone of
statelessness, or in Bantusans soon to be created by the Sri
Lankan government. |
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The new campaign
will need to hinge on five concentric circles of support and
solidarity.
The first circle
must bring together the Tamil in India and in the diaspora, whether
in Malaysia, Mauritius, South Africa, Europe, North America or
elsewhere. A broad civil society solidarity committee cutting across
the political spectrum will need to be created. Civil society here
means political parties, trade unions, chambers of commerce,
community organizations, people’s organizations, women’s
organizations, media organizations, student unions, Bar
Associations, the film and cultural fraternity, the Tamil literary
community and voluntary organizations of every stripe.
Civil society
does not mean glossy pamphlet-manufacturing donor-driven NGOs. Most
have no eyesight, hindsight or foresight. Illustrations abound – for
example, the head office of an Tamil Nadu NGO expresses concern for
the Sri Lankan Tamils even as its sister branch in Andhra Pradesh
permits the circulation of some of the most jingoistic and rabid
Sinhala chauvinist propaganda against the Sri Lankan Tamils on its
listserv.
The broad
support and solidarity committee must have as its convener a Tamil
who is above the fractious political fray in Tamil Nadu, someone who
has unquestioned moral authority and gravitas. Once formed at the
state level, it should be replicated at the district and block
levels. The State Committee should have a small but dedicated paid
secretariat in Chennai to handle the work of the committee on a
daily basis. Many good causes in India are lost because in the heat
of the moment everyone wants to claim ownership. In time,
everybody’s baby becomes no one’s baby. The rights of Sri Lankan
Tamil must be an article of faith not only for every Tamil or
Indian but for every democrat globally.
As soon as the
newly constituted Indian Parliament convenes, this representative
body must get its act together and give a call for all parties to
unanimously move and pass a resolution in the Tamil Nadu state
assembly. This all-party resolution must be carefully crafted and
must support the legitimate demand for self-rule by Tamils in
Sri Lanka.
The resolution should be formally communicated to the Central
Government in New Delhi in time for the first session of the newly
elected Parliament.
This committee
must host an international conference of Tamils within six months of
its formation to craft the outlines of a substantive political,
diplomatic and media campaign on behalf of their Sri Lankan Tamil
brethren, in Tamil Nadu, the rest of India and worldwide. The
preparation of a comprehensive background note and a draft programme
of action should precede this. A cross section of democratic opinion
cutting across the ethnic divide in Sri Lanka should be invited.
The newly
elected members of the Indian Parliament from Tamil Nadu must,
irrespective of their party affiliation, seek to do a number of
things in a time bound manner.
Firstly,
they should move a joint resolution in both houses of the Indian
Parliament asking for a diplomatic initiative that seeks to ensure
self-rule for the Tamils in Sri Lanka within a specific timeframe.
The timeframe must be reasonable but not elastic.
They should move
another resolution demanding perpetual landing and fishing rights
for Indian fishermen on the island of Kachchathivu within a year.
Thirdly and most
importantly, all Tamil Parliamentarians must demand an official
white paper from the Indian Government on India’s engagement in Sri
Lanka since the withdrawal of the IPKF. This will ensure that the
initiative on policy making on Sri Lanka is returned to the
legislative arena. Currently, it appears to be the preserve of a
cabal of official security specialists who have only served to
undermine India’s interests where its neighbours are concerned.
Fourthly, they
must impress upon the Indian Government that the Rs. 1 billion
humanitarian aid announced by New Delhi and supplemented with Rs.
250 million from the Tamil Nadu government must be routed through
the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and other
credible humanitarian organizations on the ground in the North, such
as local church groups. Nothing that strengthens the civil arm of
the Lankan war machine must be permitted.
The Tamil
members in the Indian Parliament must also lobby to ensure that
Parliament directs the Indian Foreign Ministry and Finance Ministry
to instruct India’s executive members in the IMF, the World Bank,
the Asian Development Bank and all other multilateral financial
institutions such as the Sri Lanka Aid Consortium to oppose any
loans and credit lines to Sri Lanka unless there are iron clad
conditionalities of time bound action on internal self determination
for the Tamils in Sri Lanka. Colombo must also guarantee
non-derogable constitutional amendments safeguarding the political,
language, economic and cultural rights of the Sri Lankan Tamils.
The Indian
government must be asked to make demarches to other countries like
the United States of America, the United Kingdom, France, Norway and
Japan to exert their influence in this regard. The Indian government
must be told to formally invite and consult the leadership of the
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) on issues of common concern at an
early date. These consultations must be held at the highest
political level, not at the level of Smiley’s people and diplomats,
as was the case earlier.
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The
Indian government must be asked to make demarches to other
countries like the
United
States of America, the United Kingdom, France, Norway and Japan
to exert their influence in this regard. The Indian government
must be told to formally invite and consult the leadership of
the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) on issues of common concern at
an early date. These consultations must be held at the highest
political level, not at the level of Smiley’s people and
diplomats, as was the case earlier. |
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The Tamil Nadu
solidarity committee must study the possibility of calling for a
worldwide boycott of all Sri Lankan products and tourism if there is
further intransigence on the part of Colombo. A small research team
must look at all Indian and international companies that have
invested in Sri Lanka and lobby for the divestment of their
shareholding in these companies. The committee must seek the
withdrawal of all Indian and other investment in Sri Lanka. Similar
exercises must be conducted in Europe, North America and
Australasia. And while we all love Sanath Jayasuriya’s cricket,
there should be a boycott of all cricket and sporting contacts with
Sri Lanka, as was done during the anti apartheid campaign.
The committee
must study in particular all arms transfers that were made openly
and surreptitiously by the shady merchants of death who camped in
fancy accommodations on
Lotus Road
in Colombo, and must devise a campaign for outing these
carpetbaggers. At the international level, it must track all
countries that sold arms to Sri Lanka and find out the names of the
companies involved. It must use the shareholder information of these
companies in Europe and North America and publicly expose them in
their next annual general meetings. It must urge union pension funds
and sympathetic local governments to withdraw their investments in
these companies.
The Tamil
solidarity campaign must also start an international campaign
against all Chinese products and companies based in India, since
China has emerged as the largest supplier of arms and financial
credit to Sri Lanka. Buy Godrej, Westinghouse, LG, Samsung,
Electrolux and Siemens. Haier and Huawei must be given the 21st
century version of the Boston Tea Party.
Bring in more
players
The second
concentric circle will need to involve a wider audience in all the
states of southern
India
where there are affinities of language, ethnicity and kinship. One
of the failures of the movement for solidarity for the Sri Lankan
Tamil in Tamil Nadu was the Indian Tamil’s failure to build a wider
constituency of support and solidarity for the beleaguered Sri
Lankan Tamil. The New Delhi-based television and print media, with
some honourable exceptions, also failed to catch on. At every stage
of this conflict, Indian television news channels have
unquestioningly swallowed all that was dished out to their embedded
tank-mounted correspondents by the Sri Lankan military authorities.
And they have fanned their delusions and misinformed the Indian
viewer by bringing on air a supposed Tamil oracle, whose publication
is named after an eccentric medieval ruler of
Delhi
and which has a minuscule readership. The professedly Marxist editor
of venerable Chennai-based English daily played second violin in
this orchestrated dissimulation on the Sri Lankan Tamil plight and
the popular mood in Tamil Nadu. Both these worthies could hardly be
called representatives of mainstream Tamil opinion.
The third
concentric circle will have to enlist the average Indian in other
parts of India. Indians must be reminded that Indian governmental
policy since the unceremonious withdrawal of the Indian Peace
Keeping Force (IPKF) and the dastardly murder of Rajiv Gandhi has
oscillated between masterly inactivity and the helplessness of an
aged puppet master whose puppets have acquired a life of their own.
The Rajapakse brothers, the Chinese, the Pakistanis and a few other
interlopers have brilliantly exploited this. The official Indian
establishment now croons to Cliff Richard’s “Outsider, that’s me”.
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This plan
is not exhaustive. It is only illustrative. There is a need to
be resolute and determined, yet there must be none of the
rhetoric that has been the bane of Tamil and Sinhala politics.
The Tamil Robespierre is part of history. Many a good Tamil
Danton, well meaning Sinhala and Muslim have died needlessly in
that reign of terror. The Rajapakse brothers have unleashed a
new ethno-religious authoritarian order and appear keen to usher
in a militarized state. Lasantha Wickramatunga is dead, and a
Vichy-like enclave is being led by a Tamil Pétain in the Eastern
province. |
The
first official policy initiative by the new government at the Centre
must be to underline the rights of Indian fisherfolk. Those in
Temple Trees will know that
New Delhi still
wields clout when they are compelled to recognize the perpetual
landing and fishing rights of Indian fishermen on the
island
of
Kachchathivu
on which negotiations between the Sri Lankan and the Indian
Government last took place in September 2008 and have made little
progress. Remember that an establishment that screams blue murder at
any suggestion of giving up any “atoot anng” (‘inseparable
part’ in the Queen’s English) of India, had generously gifted away
this island in 1974 to Sri Lanka, much against the wishes of every
shade of political opinion in Tamil Nadu. All extant historical
records conclusively prove Indian ownership of the island.
Raising the
game
The fourth
concentric circle will need to involve Tamil diaspora groups which
must lobby in their respective countries and network in
international fora. The diaspora, left rudderless in its impotent
rage, has been blocking roads in London and Toronto, losing the
sympathy of the average Londoner or Canadian and causing little
sweat to the Brothers Grim (pun intended) in Colombo who have been
enacting so many horror stories in the North. A more nuanced
lobbying policy will need to be devised to harness the
understandable and legitimate sense of helplessness and anger of
diaspora groups. This is a tragedy that affects their kith and kin.
But they find themselves in a global clime where even uttering
Article 1 of the United Nations Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights has come to mean high treason.
The fifth
concentric circle will need to encompass all democratic Sri Lankans,
Jaffna Tamils, Colombo Tamils and also the poor hill Tamils. It must
actively seek to encompass the democratic Sinhalese, Muslim and
Burgher. An exclusivist Jaffna Tamil position will be music to the
hegemons of Colombo 7. Further, there must be open contrition and a
public apology expressed to the Muslim community by the Sri Lankan
Tamil. Tamil Muslims were hounded out of eastern Sri Lanka by the
Quisling Karuna at the behest of a myopic LTTE leadership and used
cunningly by the Sinhala ultra nationalist Buddhist fundamentalists,
who in other circumstances would have had little time for them.
Fair and
square
This plan is not
exhaustive. It is only illustrative. There is a need to be resolute
and determined, yet there must be none of the rhetoric that has been
the bane of Tamil and Sinhala politics. The Tamil Robespierre is
part of history. Many a good Tamil Danton, well meaning Sinhala and
Muslim have died needlessly in that reign of terror. The Rajapakse
brothers have unleashed a new ethno-religious authoritarian order
and appear keen to usher in a militarized state. Lasantha
Wickramatunga is dead, and a Vichy-like enclave is being led by a
Tamil Pétain in the Eastern province.
Alarmist, one
may think, but read the portents and stand up now and speak out
loudly in protest or forever remain silent in shame.
 Ravi
Nair is Executive Director of the South Asia Human Rights
Documentation Centre (SAHRDC). He is Coordinator of the Asia Pacific
Human Rights Network. Mr. Nair was the recipient of the M A Thomas
National Human Rights Award for 1997. He may be contacted at
rnairsahrdc@gmail.com
13 May 2009
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