Reiterating her demand for imposing an economic embargo on Sri Lanka till Tamils in the country were fully and honourably rehabilitated and granted rights on a par with the Sinhalese, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Wednesday called upon the Union government to work in tandem with other countries to ensure that those responsible for the war crimes were made to face an international trial.
She said India should also hold discussions with the U.S. and like-minded countries and draft a United Nations resolution against Sri Lanka.
In this context, she recalled a resolution adopted by the Assembly in 2011 demanding an economic embargo on Sri Lanka.
Reacting to the photographs, carried by The Hindu and other sections of the media, on the killing of Balachandran, son of LTTE leader Prabakaran, the Chief Minister described the killing as “a war crime of gravest nature and an unforgivable act.”
She said, “It is an inhuman act of extreme cruelty. Balachandran was only12 years old and was just a child. He had not committed any crime,” she observed, adding that the boy was killed simply because he happened to be the son of Prabakaran. She likened the massacre of Tamils in Sri Lanka to the Nazi destruction of Jews in Germany. The evidence for the killing of Balachandran and the systematic killing of other Tamils “reveals the mindset of the present government in Sri Lanka,” she said.
DMK president M. Karunanidhi said the videos released by Channel 4 and the pictures published by The Hindu unmasked the true face of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who sought to project himself as a saint. Mr. Karunanidhi said while Western countries were ready to support the US-sponsored resolution against Sri Lanka at the UNHRC, India was yet to announce its stand on the issue.
“Its silence pains us. People in Tamil Nadu expect India to take forward the resolution,” he said, adding that the Union government should not try to bail out Sri Lanka.
Keywords: Sri Lanka warcrimes, Jayalalithaa, Channel4, UN Resolution, Balachandran killing, Prabakaran son
This sort of journalism is highly criticized world over. Dramatization is not what is called for but the reality and the truth and nothing but the truth. Releasing of such a premeditated and made up story at the run up to impending UNHRC review on Sri Lanka is an arrogant act of misconduct by Channel-4’s questionable journalism. In the face of all that is going on and orchestrated by Western vested interests and hypocritical India, as a protest, until UN comes up with a clean sheet on the review process, Sri Lanka should seriously think of boycotting UNHRC review.
The tragedy of Tamils in Sri Lanka is a vivid illustration of the toothless posture of a government in India in search of allies in its neighborhood in the face of the overreaching policies of China to embarrass India. I am afraid that even when Sri Lankans start recognizing the shameful nature of their military's genocidal practices, India will continue to protect an ungrateful neighbor from international humiliation. If India fails to support even a condemnatory resolution against Sri Lanka this year, it will seriously strain the unity of India. What use is it to have the friendship of a double faced neighbor if, in the process, you are loosening the ties that bind India together? I think that the Government of India must seriously ponder about India's internal cohesion if it chooses to oppose a condemnation of Sri Lanka in the UNHRC.
The above resolution was the main plank for the TULF in the ensuing
parliamentary elections in the island and it won 18 seats in the Tamil
northern and eastern province. The TUlF won thumping victory and
therefore enjoyed the mandate of the ethnic Tamils.
What followed thereafter in the island in the next 36 years upto this
day , including the famous declaration of the Srilankan president
that he will not give any power to any one on the basis of race, we
all know fully well. The two nations of majority Singalese and
minority Eezhamite Tamils can not co-exist any more in the island
as citizens of one country created by the colonial powers that
reigned the then Ceylon. Thamizh Eezham is the only solution for
long freedom struggle of the ethnic tamils of the island.
“The first National Convention of the Tamil United Liberation Front
meeting at Pannakam (Vaddukoddai Constituency) on the 14th day of May,
1976, hereby declares that the Tamils of Ceylon by virtue of their
great language, their religions, their separate culture and heritage,
their history of independent existence as a separate state over a
distinct territory for several centuries till they were conquered by
the armed might of the European invaders and above all by their will
to exist as a separate entity ruling themselves in their own
territory, are a nation distinct and apart from Sinhalese and this
Convention announces to the world that the Republican Constitution of
1972 has made the Tamils a slave nation ruled by the new colonial
masters, the Sinhalese ,who are using the power they have wrongly
usurped to deprive the Tamil Nation of
its territory, language citizenship, economic life, opportunities of
employment and education, thereby destroying all the attributes of
nationhood of the Tamil people.
And, while taking note of the reservations in relation to its
commitment to the setting up of a separated state of Tamil Eelam
expressed by the Ceylon Workers Congress as a Trade Union of the
Plantation Workers, the majority of whom live and work outside the
Northern and Eastern areas,
This convention resolves that 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 CM. selvi.Jayalaithaa is reported to have likened the massacre of
Tamils in Sri Lanka to the Nazi destruction of Jews in Germany. She is
absolutely right. And it is very important that for all their
sufferings, the Jews have been rewarded with their own sovereign
state of ISAREL. So must be, Eezhamite Tamils with their sovereign
THAMIZH EEZHAM. As in the case of Jewes who now have their own
sovereign state of Israel, the historical corollary must be birth
Thamizh Eezham for the Eezham Tamils of the island state of Lanka. I
have been following the political events in the island for the past t
50 or more years. Significant and relevant here are the Vaddukottai
resolution of the year 1976 for Thamizh Eezham which reads by its core
parts:
A sound decision from the TN CM, it was purely economic considerations which caused India to betray the Tamil cause in Sri Lanka. Now that the world has seen the horror and the series of war crimes perpetuated by the Sri Lankan Army, hit them where it hurts. A wholescale economic and military embargo against Sri Lanka.
Why is the New Delhi government taking so long to act?
Look at the innocence on the face of that young unsuspecting boy. Poor child was just
munching something with some distant thoughts, just as playful carefree boys of that age.
Just imagine that little Balachandran was your own Son, Nephew, relative or a neighbour.
Won't your soul go through a million agonies. How cruel would have been that heart which
pumped in 5 bullets point blank. Who are you? Human and by what token? Man you have
incurred the wrath and curse of 6.99 billion people on this planet, if the count was 7.00
billion. Will you live a normal life, after you killed this lovely little butterfly? You are a curse to
our family, a curse to your community, curse to your country, curse to this world, a curse to
humanity.
well said, hope the UPA Govt does something
ha ha what about killing of Rajeev Gandhi and thousand of innocent egg
shampoo drinking IPKF ? (not to forget about tens of thousand innocent
suicide bomb victims).Every life is worth not only Tamils.
UN should investigate role of these TN leaders on creating and
maintaining/supporting LTTE terror network by these actors.
Chief Minister J.Jayalalithaa's condemnation of the cold blooded murder of Balachandran, son of the LTTE leader showcases her strength of conviction in the face of the central government's agonizing apathy towards SL's violation of human dignity towards its own people who have not taken part in any form of conflict in any manner. The leaders of political and other organizations of the state treat the issue according to the vicissitudes of their political equations with the ruling establishment.
The 4th Geneva Convention establishes those who do not take part in hostilities,esp.those who do not belong to the armed forces, mothers,children under 15yrs,mothers of children under 7 etc must be protected against all acts of violence by the occupying powers.
During the last phase the SL gov. had ripped apart the dignity through discrimination of individuals who had nothing to do with war. This savage image of a boy's murder is yet another remainder of SL's sordid infringement on civilians.
Well said by Selvi Jeyalalithaa, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu as no human being can be so cruel like the Sri Lankan regime. Indian UPA government should take an independent, democratic view and apply International Law as it has already tarnished its image by entertaining and supporting the Rajapakse regime.
I respect the CM's and Tamil Nadu people's respect for the child murdered in cold by Sri Lanka ON 16 May 2009. Thanks to UK's Channel 4 too for exposing this cruelity to the world & The Hindu in India.
We now eagerly await to see if the Central Government in New Delhi respects the feeing of its own 70 million Indian ciztens and the Tamils world over..
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