JVP always denied Eezham Tamils’ inalienable self-determination: Anthropology scholar

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 September 2024, 16:12 GMT]
The JVP has recently lent itself to US efforts to consolidate the unitary state and realise its long-held ambition to capture state power in Colombo. In this regard, they have also engaged with a range of actors, from the IMF, Washington, and New Delhi, as well as attempted to woo Eezham Tamils and other Tamil-speaking people to opt for the NPP in the 2024 SL Presidential Elections. Norway-based Eezham Tamil anthropology scholar Dr Athithan Jayapalan writes that the NPP and Lionel Bopage speak of equality without addressing the right of an oppressed nation to secession in the face of national oppression and genocide. Instead, the NPP, aligned with the US position, vows to neutralise the Eezham Tamil political struggle for self-determination.
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Sinhala leftists need careful perusal of Lenin’s definition of Right to Self-Determination

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 September 2024, 21:30 GMT]
Russian revolutionary leader and theoretician Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924) was highly critical of the interpretation of the Right of Self-Determination by his contemporary Marxist thinker Rosa Luxemburg (1871-1919). While Luxemburg argued that national self-determination was a dangerous distraction from the desired system change towards a socialist state, Lenin defended the right to self-determination, including secession. Most Sinhala leftists have been opportunists who peddle Marxism like a pimp, especially concerning the national question. They are divergent from Lenin’s extremely well-articulated definition and clarification of the national right of self-determination.
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Viraj teaches Zone of Peace, Peace Process, Crimes Against Peace

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 August 2024, 17:59 GMT]
When I went to work on a project with Viraj Mendis in Germany, I recognised him at the Bremen airport from a video: a tall man with white hair and beard. He was interesting and special in my view then as he was Sinhalese and passionate about ending the conflict of Tamil Eelam's occupation by Sri Lanka. I wanted to know how it came to be. I failed to understand that the opportunity of working with him was so precious; I should meticulously document everything he said in videos, at least just for myself. Just like after my parents passed away, I had regrets, I feel the same for Viraj and wish I could talk to him again. As he has said in a video, the realisation comes after a tragedy.
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Viraj Mendis: A beacon of international solidarity and a pillar in the Eelam-Tamil liberation struggle

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 August 2024, 21:23 GMT]
Comrade Viraj Mendis, arrived in the U.K in 1973 as a student and were there until he was forcefully deported by the British government to Sri Lanka in 1989. During the course of these years, Viraj developed ties with revolutionary movements in the U.K and advocated solidarity towards the liberation struggle of the Eelam-Tamils. Likewise, he spent his one year of deportation in Sri Lanka to work towards building solidarity for the LTTE and the Eelam-Tamils amongst the Sinhalese. His efforts created the conditions for the emergence of a small number of Sinhala revolutionaries who would follow his path towards embracing the Eelam-Tamil liberation struggle. These Sinhala revolutionaries would also over the course of the years be forced into exile and have since worked alongside Viraj.
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Viraj in Tamil Radical Politics

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 August 2024, 16:47 GMT]
The “radicalness” observable in Eelam Tamil Nationalist struggle ranges from centre-right all the way to radical left. It was only the launch of armed struggle that saw radical-left politics entering the Tamil Nationalist struggle. Prior to that Tamil radical politics was led by the Communist party centred on anti-caste movement. Armed struggle was partially successful in absorbing the anti-caste struggle but there were many elements in the anti-caste struggle that stood apart and watched the armed struggle with a very critical eye.
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Navi Pillay explains ‘human rights’ limitations in Geneva on Tamil genocide

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 March 2021, 13:34 GMT]
The manifestation of a “pre-existing strategy” using archaeology and historic preservation as guises for political or religious agendas has been observed by the UN Special Rapporteurs visiting Sri Lanka in recent years. Today’s international law has not provided universal human right to land. However, SL State’s violations of the land rights of “marginalised communities” could be addressed under the normative framework of international law, said Dr Navanetham Pillay. She mentioned the violation of the Right of Self-Determination. Pillay appeared as a keynote speaker at a conference titled “Loss of the Tamil Homeland,” which was convened by Justice C.V. Wigneswaran on Saturday. She was confronting TamilNet’s questions over her failure to call for investigations on Tamil genocide, which includes examining the “pre-existing strategy” for all the crimes committed against Tamils in the past.
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Tamils witness false dilemma in Geneva as geopolitical formations pit against each other

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 February 2021, 11:53 GMT]
SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s ‘balancing act’ has tightly pitted the US-UK-India axis of bandwagoning strategic partners against the China-Russia-Pakistan formation at Geneva. US Ambassador Ms Alaina Teplitz in Colombo was making a North trip as Pakistan’s prime minister visited Colombo. Simultaneously, the politics of human rights was unfolding in Geneva at the Interactive Dialogue on Thursday after Ms Michelle Bachelet, the UN Human Rights High Commissioner and the former president of Chile, presented her report on Wednesday. As usual, the UN High Commissioner’s Report was strongly worded than what one could expect from a resolution being tabled by parties with a vested interest. Eelam Tamils, who demand specific referral to the main crime of genocide from the UN High Commissioner and the UNHRC Resolution, have to confront a false dichotomy once again.
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UK not prepared to push for ICC option in new UNHRC Resolution

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 February 2021, 14:02 GMT]
The South Asia Department of the Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office of the UK has stated that it still believed that the UNHRC framework is “the best way” to establish the truth and achieve justice and lasting reconciliation for “all communities in Sri Lanka”. The Tamil organisations demanded both ICC referral and investigations on genocide in their letters to the British Foreign Secretary. However, the FCO was dodging any reference to genocide in its reply. On the ICC option, it said: “The ICC could only exercise jurisdiction if the situation is referred to it by a UN Security Council Resolution, or if Sri Lanka accepts the Court’s jurisdiction. Our assessment is that this step would not have the support of the required Security Council members and that it would not advance the cause of accountability for an ICC referral to fail to win Security Council support or to be vetoed.”
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Unprecedented P2P uprising paves the way for rights-oriented politics of Tamils and Muslims

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 February 2021, 23:16 GMT]
The Tamil-speaking people in the North-East have waged an unprecedented post-2009 march from Poththuvil in Ampaa’rai in the East to Polika’ndi in Jaffna. Confronting the legal barriers and the roadblocks put up by the SL Police and the notorious Special Task Force (STF) commandos, the people across the eight districts of the North-East mobilised outmanoeuvring the ‘disciplining mechanisms’ of the Sinhala-Buddhist ethnocratic rulers in Colombo. The five-day march, named as “Poththuvil to Polika'ndi” (P2P), was organised ahead of the 46th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva. The rally concluded on Sunday demanding international justice for genocide reiterating the fundamental principles, the Right of Self-Determination and Eezham Tamils’ nationhood. The P2P mobilisation also demanded an immediate end to the discriminatory forced cremation of COVID-19 Muslim victims.
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Tamil activists resisted three sources of outside influence while drafting demands to UNHRC

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 January 2021, 23:44 GMT]
The joint demands formulated by the Tamil national political parties towards the United Nations make specific reference to genocide twice. The four-point document gains significance as Parliamentary Group Leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Mr R Sampanthan has endorsed it with his signature, said former Northern Provincial Council Minister Ms Ananthy Sasitharan. Mr M A Sumanthiran representing the TNA in the negotiations finally agreed to make the specific reference after TELO Parliamentarian Selvam Adaikalanathan seemingly insisted for it, she said. TELO is a party of the TNA with three parliamentary seats. In an explosive and lengthy comment to TamilNet, Sasitharan narrated how the foreign powers and NGO agenda-setters were attempting to influence the process from three fronts. She considered Dr Guruparan Kumaravadivel as the behind-the-scene drafter of the final document.
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