PAST HISTORY : WHAT WENT WRONG ? WHY PEACE INITIATIVES FAILED IN SRILANKA

Federalism is buried: “After the UNP Government of 1977-1989 adopted its 1978 Constitution, political devolution and the establishments of a federal system of government were precluded by Article 2, which declared “The Republic of Srilanka is a unitary state. The remaining scope for political decentralization was eliminated by Article 76 which specified that the Parliament shall not abdicate or in any manner alienate its legislative power and shall not set up any authority with legislative power. The two articles were incorporated explicitly to forbid devolution. Indeed when the Constitution was adopted, then President J.R.Jayawardene confidently claimed to have “all but closed the door on federalism”. These observations in the Assessment of conflict resolution initiatives in Srilanka from 1957 to 1996, reveals that unless these two provisions in the Constitution is removed no federalism can come into existence.

Official language status is deprived: Till 1956 Tamil and Sinhalese languages enjoyed equal status. India which always boasts of the 13^th Amendment of 1987 to the Srilankan Constitution as a fruit of its intervention conveniently closes its eyes to the article 18, which had taken the life out of the amendment. The article states that official language of Srilanka shall be Sinhala. Tamil shall also be an official language. English shall be link language. Neither India then nor the other nations that sermonize the need to resolve issues within Srilanka are going to get the Constitution amended to read “The official languages of Srilanka shall be Sinhala and Tamil. This alone is equality, which Srilanka will never concede, that too when it is in a position of strength.

Dictatorship in garb of Democracy: The UNP Government creation of Executive Presidency dealt a death knell to the Cabinet system of governance, devalued the office of the Prime Minister, and by 1981 Parliament was reduced to silent spectator with no powers. Unless Executive Presidency is done away and Parliament regains its supremacy, there can neither be democracy for Sinhalese or Tamils.

Under Occupation forces safety in peril: Preferential recruitment of Sinhalese only in army and police force starting from sixties had led to a situation where Tamils does not even constitute one percent of the armed forces. Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s emissary Mr.G.Parthasarathy who drafted the Annexure C proposals was aware of this imbalance and made first effort to address the issue of security forces remaining foreign forces in the eyes of Tamils. Till date the security and police forces have no space for Tamils, which makes Tamils insecure in the unitary Srilankan state. After defeating the so called terrorists, if the Srilankan Government had given General Amnesty to the Tamil forces, and had absorbed them, some degree of trust towards government would have reared its head in Tamil hearts. But it is not so. We once heard US President calling for General Amnesty, but now no such voice is heard in international arena. All the civilians uprooted from their villages due to war will not be immediately resettled, but they have to remain in concentration camps, till all physically able young boys and children are taken away for screening and killed so that not a single young men with able bodies will be allowed to resettle, seems to be the order of the Srilankan Government, and this act falls under the criteria of crimes against humanity. Hence along with Srilankan President, Defense Minister and Army Chief, Naval Chief, Air Chief of the Srilankan Government and the Para-military forces patronized by Srilankan Government should be charged with war crimes and brought to book.

Theocratic state that buries Secularism: India prides itself to be secular state, but it patronizes a theocratic state, just because the Sinhalese call themselves Aryan. Racial affinity blinds some of the Aryans who consider indigenous Dravidian people as their eternal enemy. There cannot be any common ground between the rulers of India and Srilanka on secularism. There cannot be common ground with the geo-political interests of China and Pakistan, but the racial affinity makes the rulers of India remain adamant with like rock like stubbornness, with no prick from conscience unmovable by the protests, self immolations, and cries of help from Indian Tamils, who are Dravidians. Racial common thread between so called secularists of India and theocrats of Srilanka blinds Indian vision towards Tamil genocide.

The 1978 constitution reserved for Buddhism the foremost place [art.9] in contrast to other religions, a provision which was introduced in the 1972 Republican Constitution with the motive to make Buddhism the State Religion. The January 1996 Draft Provisions by Art 7 strived to entrench Buddhism and create a Supreme Council of the Buddhist clergy to advise the Government elected by various religious communities, on the process of fostering only one religion, Buddhism. The Indian brains which remains in paralysis, will never seek amendment to make Srilanka a secular state. They will advise all religions to dismantle their structures in Srilanka and get assimilated by Sinhala language, religion, and authority. Such unitary state will be an open air concentration camp for people of other religions. Now Tamils, within them considerable amount of Christians live in concentration camps allowing breathing time for Sinhalese Government to nip in bud all young boys and girls, so that a physically handicapped  Tamil people’s state can be established as vassal state of Srilanka.

Broken Pacts of Past and to be Broken promises to Donor Nations now: The countries that had borrowed the Indian formula to solve the aspirations of the Tamil people are not aware that both India and Srilanka are hiding the hidden truths about so many pacts and initiatives of the past in this direction ended in a fiasco. If democratically mandated Tamil parties from 1957 failed to realize federalism and equal rights by pacts with Srilankan Governments of all times, now India wants Tamils to expect the victor who had crushed a freedom struggle to offer better panacea to the vanquished, is totally foolish. Indian Governments pact with Srilanka itself is broken to pieces, and now India wants Tamils to pick the rags of that agreement from the dustbins of Srilankan President. This is to fool the world and Indian Tamils urge the nations with conscience not to buy the Indian argument but to individually evaluate the solutions that they can offer to people of Tamil Eelam.

A] Pact between Prime Minister S.W.R.D.Bandaranaike, Prime Minister of Srilanka and Leader of the Federal Party Mr.S.V.J.Selvanayagam signed in July 1957 and abrogated unilaterally by the Prime Minister in May 1958, stands for scrutiny here, to remind the nations that preach a solution within Srilanka, that however they may wish, it won’t get fulfilled. The Federal party agreed to abandon its demand for a federal system, and agreed to regionalism, which means political decentralization within the unitary framework of governance. Srilanka that did not accept this compromise in 1958 but now after vanquishing the freedom struggle, it will only offer slavery.

   1] The Pact agreed that in Regional Councils Members of Parliament    representing the Central Government can preside, which gave room for Parliament to directly control these regional councils. Instead of seeking powers for the Ministers in the Regional Council, the pact paved way to reduce powers and to vest some powers to Parliament.

   2] The Pact agreed that regional councils should have powers for subjects including agriculture, cooperatives, lands and land development, colonization, education, health, industries and fisheries, housing and social services, electricity, water schemes and roads. The flaw in this pact is it did not delineate the legislative powers of the regional councils.

  3] The Pact did not specify the Executive powers of the proposed regional councils. The powers of Regional Council would not be greater than that of municipalities.

  4] The Pact reiterated Sinhala as the sole official language of Srilanka. The Federal Party accepted the secondary status given to Tamil language but the Pact remained silent on non-sinhalese speaking peoples living outside the Northern and Eastern Provinces.

  5] The Federal party, commentators say failed to vigorously defend the rights of Tamils and Muslims over land distribution in the Gal Oya scheme.

  6] The 1957 Pact did not address the law and order issue

  7] The 1957 Pact states that the Government will provide grants to regional councils and the regional councils will have powers to taxation and borrowing.

   8] The 1957 Pact totally remained silent on economic resources but under infrastructure subject’s electricity, water schemes and roads were for regional councils.

   9] The 1957 Pact conceded that over education Regional Councils will exercise controls.

  10] The 1957 Pact kept silence over employment.

  11] Linking citizenship to ethnicity that too the majority and relegating other ethnic groups lead to new class of Tamils called stateless Tamils being created to brand Tamils of Indian origin, the up-country Tamils. The Federal party prayed for the abolition of discriminatory classification of citizens of Registration.

12] The 1957 pact recognized Ceylon as a Sinhalese state, where Sinhala would be sole official language of the country and Tamil to be made as the language of administration of the North and Eastern provinces without infringing the position of official language.

This was the pact of 1957 when Tamils backed the Federal Party and even these concessions were not given and pact abrogated in May 1958. Then so many pacts, promises and initiatives, which did don’t give the minimum requirement of Tamils, the nations of the world must bear in mind.

B] Senanayake-Selvanayagam Pact of 1965. After the Parliamentary elections of 1965 the UNP lead by Mr.Dudley Senanayake did not have majority and it needed the support of the Federal Party of Tamils led by Mr.Selvanayagam. The Senanayake-Selvanayagam Pact of 1965, which Tamils pinned hopes will get them regionalism was not fulfilled by a national government in coalition with Federal Party. This show how treacherous the Sinhalese leaders and political parties have been in past, and they have changed names but not stance.

C] Model Constitution for the Federal Republic of Srilanka: The constituent assembly met to draft the first Republican constitution in 1972; Federal party tabled a model constitution which was rejected by the steering committee of the constituent assembly.

D] Presidential Commission on Development Councils 1979:Dr. Neelan Thiruchelvan Report of 1980 went to dustbin.

E] INDIAN INTERVENTION: Annexure C proposals: The holocaust of July 1983, which marks the daylight state terrorism without any sense of shame made then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to intervene. India initiated talks with Srilankan Government and Tamil United Liberation Front, a political party pursuing democratic path to fight for Tamils rights. This led to Annexure C proposals master minded by Mr.G.Parthsarathy, which could have formed the basis of further talks in the All Party Conference.

 1] Annexure C failed to demand repeal of Article 76 thereby making the promise to transfer powers an empty promise. It neither urged to repeal Article 2 thereby accepting the unitary system nor does not pave way for regionalism.

2] The Annexure did not indicate whether Regional Councils would exercise control over Regional Public Service Commission and Regional Public Service. No provision was made to create Regional Judicial Service Commission.

3] The Annexure C confirmed the discriminatory treatment of Tamil language in 1978 Constitution.

4] Annexure C did not envisage transfer of the subject of land to councils.

5] The Annexure C did not even suggest placing Regional Police Service under the Regional Councils. The wanton exclusion of Tamils from employment in armed forces was not addressed to instill a sense of security for Tamils, and also to give them equal rights as citizens to join armed forces.

6] The 1983 Annexure C proposals addressed India’s concerns by suggesting creation of a Port Authority under Central Government for administering Trincomalae Port.

7] Though Annexure C allocated culture as subject allocated to Regional Council, it did not define culture.

8] The Ceylon Tamils objected to the design of the National flag and anthem which did not reflect the multi national and multi cultural society of the country. Annexure C did not find remedy for this grievance but first time this issue was subjected to debate.

Having dealt what little was offered when India brokered peace in 1983 that too when the Iron lady Ms.Indira Gandhi was Indian Prime Minister, it will be wild goose chase again to seek for Tamils rights under unitary Srilankan State of Theocratic Dictatorship which had been a terrorist state to Tamils since 1956 till date.

F] District-Provincial Councils Bill of 1984: All Party Conference in August 1984 created a Working Group of Officials and Experts which submitted its report to the plenary sessions of the All Party Conference in September 1984. President submitted his statement to the All Party Conference in December 1984. A draft bill for District and Provincial Council was adopted in the conference, which did not satisfy Tamil aspirations or meet Tamils demand. Tamil United Liberation Front, the political party with majority representation of Tamils in Parliament expressed unhappiness which was a good excuse to President J.R.Jayawardene to shelve the bill in cold storage.

G] Thimpu Talks 1985 and after : Government of India brought Srilankan Government and Tamil militant groups LTTE, TELO, PLOTE, EROS, and EPRLF to negotiating table in Thimpu, capital of Bhutan, a Himalayan country. Talks failed. But Indian External Affairs Ministry continued its dialogue with the Srilankan President and a Draft Framework of Terms of Accord and Understanding was arrived at in August 1985. President J.R.Jayawardane should have submitted that draft to Srilankan cabinet, but he chose not to do, lapsing the agreement.

H] Rajiv Gandhi’s Initiatives: Tamil United Liberation Front presented few proposals to Indian Prime Minister Mr.Rajiv Gandhi in December 1985, and India sought the opinion of Srilankan Government which rejected the demand of federalism. Then Indian Minister Mr.P.Chidambaram led a delegation to Srilanka and discussed with the Government of India and Tamil United Liberation Front. Government of Srilanka as a follow up sent its proposals to Government of India. Government of Srilanka prepared a Draft Amendment to the Constitution of Srilanka to provide legal sanction to Chidambaram proposals in September 1986. Subsequently discussions took place in Bangalore between Indian Prime Minister Mr.Rajiv Gandhi and Srilankan President Mr.J.R.Jayawardane and a working paper emerged on 18^th November 1986. This paved way for proposals of 19^th December 1986.

I] Indo-Srilankan Accord of 1987: It should be noted that while Srilanka was discussing ways and means to solve the Tamil conflict between 30^th August 1985 to 19^th December 1986 it was continuing its genocidal war. India then had a wise leader Mr.Rajiv Gandhi which provided all material and moral support to militants in the field while bringing diplomatic pressure on Srilanka to fix it for violation of human rights.

Unlike the whole world that watched helplessly without coming to the rescue of starving civilians in recent genocidal war, India headed by Mr.Rajiv Gandhi did not remain with lip service. It intervened to airdrop food and medicines to the war zones of Srilanka. This act forced Srilanka, which understands only the voice of the might, agreed to sign the Indo-Srilankan Agreement to establish peace and normalcy in Srilanka in July 1987.

The traditional Tamil homelands which were infiltrated by Sinhalese colonization were merged into a single North-Eastern province. The merger should be confirmed by referendum before end of 1988, thereafter it will be permanent.  We all know how this promise was broken using Courts, and Indian leaders who swear by the name of Rajiv Gandhi have completely forgotten the longstanding demand of Tamils which Rajiv Gandhi obtained for Tamils after so much efforts.

To implement the accord Indian Peace Keeping Force was sent. LTTE agreed for cessation of hostilities and token surrender of arms and started handing to IPKF. The same accord contains a general amnesty clause. The general amnesty “to political and other prisoners now held in the custody under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and other emergency laws, and to combatants, as well as those persons accused, charged and or convicted under these laws”.

After signing the accord Government of Srilanka went back saying that amnesty does not apply to persons who have committed offences outside the North Eastern provinces and withheld amnesty to 1250 political prisoners. The LTTE retaliated by suspending surrender of arms.

Recently in May of 2009, the USA President Mr. Barrack Obama called for grant of General Amnesty to the freedom fighters of Tamil Eelam. If Srilanka in past had gone back on general amnesty agreed in a pact between India and Srilanka, how  can United Nations or all civilized nations on Earth except those who condone the Tamil genocide by Srilanka, are going to get general amnesty to the 9100 LTTE fighters claimed by Srilanka to have surrendered. If the UN Secretary General had to go all the way praying for free access to humanitarian agencies to help Tamil civilians in concentration camps, who is going to pray for general amnesty for the LTTE fighters who have surrendered. They will not be treated as prisoners of war; all canons of international law will be thrown into winds. These 9100 fighters and all able bodied young men and girls among the Tamil civilians will be annihilated, Tamil villages and towns will be implanted with Sinhalese colonization, then the physically incapacitated, mentally derailed slaves now who remain behind barbed wires, may be allowed to go back to their original places. The time needed till year end is not to de-mine the areas but to de-tamilize these places and to break down the will power of those who bore the brunt of the civil war, but somehow survived to become slaves.

J] The IPKF did not act in neutrality, here some bureaucrats or army officers derailed the purposes for which IPKF was sent to Srilanka. Let me quote few pages from Prof Daya Somasundaram`s book Scarred Minds The Psychological Impact of War on Sri Lankan Tamils.[Professor Daya Somasundaram is the Professor of Psychiatry in the University of Jaffna and concurrently Consultant Psychiatrist, General (Teaching Hospital) Jaffna. He was one of the four authors of the book, Broken Palmyra, which was critical of the LTTE, a co-author of Mental Health in Cambodia, where he served as a Consultant Psychiatrist]

 If American forces during Bush era indulge in excesses, America under President Barrack Obama makes amends and civilized democracy condemns such acts. India we have democracy but we are ashamed to wash our dirty linen in public. Anyhow as we look back at history we have to see the reasons behind LTTE and IPKF clashes culminating in the Rajiv Gandhi’s murder.