The House of Tamil Eelam, an association created after the end of way in May 2009 to defend the rights of Tamils in Sri Lanka organised an referendum, asking the people of Sri Lanka to pronounce on the future political situation of the Tamils in that island.
Eezham Tamils living in France voted on the 12th and 13th to say yes or no for independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam in the island of Sri Lanka. The formation committee for the country council of Eelam Tamils in France organized the poll with the support of 61 Eezham Tamil organizations and two NGOs in France. Taking the secret ballot was officiated and presided over by independent members of the local government councils and independant people from the French associations.
The poll gains significance at a time when Tamils are left with no choice other than politically proving their geopolitical importance as powers have made it absolutely clear that they are guided only by geopolitical considerations.
Global Tamils have to prove the geopolitical significance of the Tamil homelands to the International Community, making the powers to listen to reason.
Re-mandating the independence and sovereignty of Eezham Tamils based on the main principle of the Vaddukkoaddai Resolution of 1976, which was voted by the Tamils in Sri Lanka in 1977 and has become more important than it was before May 2009, because what remains today is only a political premises based on the democratic will of the freedom of the people.
On the 12th and 13th of Decembre nearly 32000 Tamils of Sri Lanka origin over 18 years old presented themselves and voted in 37 polling stations spread of in Paris and its outskirts and also in the Provinces.
The organisers were contacted by thousands of tamils living in isolated french towns making their will to participated in the vote. So postal voting system was made available for them.
On the available results without counting the postal votes 31148 people participated in the vote and 30936 people answered yes to the question "I aspire for the formation of the independent and sovereign state of Tamil Eelam in the north and east territory of the island of Sri Lanka on the basis that the Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka make a distinct nation, have a traditional homeland and have the right to self-determination."
More than laying sound democratic foundations to the liberation struggle, the referendum will be deciding how the free Eezham Tamils and their descendants choose to identify themselves to the world – whether as ‘Sri Lankans’ or as Eezham Tamils, in the wake of international attempts to impose identity on them. By stating the Tamil aspirations democratically and in no uncertain terms, the referendum fills in the political vacuum of Eezham Tamils in the aftermath of war where more then 50 000 people were massacared more the 30000 children left handicaped and more then 300000 people left homeless and when the UN and the Security Council is being silent with evidence for war crimes and crime against humanity.
According to Raphaël Lemkin (http://www.preventgenocide.org/lemkin/)the acts by all the Sri Lankan gouvernments since 1948 can be termed as genocide according to UN and International Laws.
Relying on the following definitions of Genocide, namely Article 2 Paras (a) to (c) of the UN Convention On Genocide (1948) and the term Genocide as originally defined by Raphael Lemkin:
Article 2: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
•(a) Killing members of the group;
•(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
•(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
•(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
•(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Raphael Lemkin Definition is broader. It includes non-physical acts of genocide. He personally defined it as follows:
"Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves. The objectives of such a plan would be disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups. Genocide is directed against the national group as an entity, and the actions involved are directed against individuals, not in their individual capacity, but as members of the national group."
There has been an intent to commit genocide by the Sri Lankan State acting via its officers since atleast as early as 1948 continuing to the present time. In support of this intent we rely on explicit statements of the a series of Presidents [reference ..] including but not limited to “If I starve the Tamils the Sinhala People will be happy” [Jeyawardene July 1983] and “Nothing must exist outside the safe zone”.[Rajapakse, 2009]
Specific events in Sri Lanka already meet the UN Convention definition of Genocide and have been so recognised:
•The 1983 anti-Tamil pogrom was itself a genocide by the UN Convention definition [see Sheet 1 for definition, the UN convention will be addressed in a future sheet]. The International Commission of Jurists termed the 1983 events an “Act of Genocide”.
•By the same reasoning, all previous pogroms – 1956, 1958, 1977, 1981 - qualify as genocides in the UN Convention.
•Specific aspects of the current [Eelam War IV] – such as the targeting of civilians in Safe havens – are similar to events recognised by the ICTY [International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia] as genocides
•Nevertheless under the Lemkin definition, there is a continuum of genocide since 1948. We say there has been genocidal intent, accompanied by genocidal actions – together, a “Genocide” – since 1948.
Methods
•Legislation intended to achieve an ethnically pure elite in public administation, the military and police.
•Ethnic cleansing, both violent and non-violent
•Mass killings and massacres: both pogroms in times of peace and massacres in war
•Killing of intelligentsia since 1983, but with accelerated episodes
◦Killing civil society leaders in Jaffna
•Killing media workers
•Killing Tamil parliamentarians
•Killing/abducting academics (e.g. Vice Chancellor of Eastern University) and student leaders
•Killing aid workers
Threats to physical existence:Starvation, embargos of medicine Depopulation – abductions, disappearances etc War as a pretext for genocide
Genocide in Vanni
We also can see that attacks and conditions in Vanni as a genocide along the lines established by the ICTY in Krstic comparable to the genocide in Srebenica.
We are cognizant of the obligations of UN Members states under the UN Convention 1948 under Article 1 which states: “The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.”. We note the failure of UN Members in their obligations towards the Tamil people under the Genocdie convention.
Seeing all this we are living in a world which accepted the Freedom of KOSOVO after the massacre by the Serbes, the Freedom for East Timor, the creation of Bosnie after the massacre in Serbenica our wish to all leaders of this world to act according to international law and accept the right of the victims since 1948.
Today the diaspora Tamils making nearly 1/3 of the Tamil population of Sri lanka are voicing the voice for the voiceless through referendums all arround the world declaring the right of Self determination declared in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Kilde: lankanewsweb.com
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