Unity Is a Prerequisite to Success

The US is fully aware of the extent of Indian involvement in the genocide and any probe into Mullivaikal genocide will expose India. So US won't go hard on that.

(MELBOURNE) - Originally, I did not belong to any group, but eventually I gravitated towards the Tamil Tigers and Prabhaharan, as they were the ones who were better organised and motivated. The multiple militant groups, who were mostly selfish and self-centred, had been the bane of the liberation struggle. Raw and India were able to manipulate them to wipe out the Tigers; hence the series of internecine wars that resulted in thousands of deaths.

Let it be Sudan or East Timor, not a single liberation struggle, I know of, was won my multiple parties. In nearly all cases most of the weaker organisations, like Eros, merged with the stronger organisation and the rest were restrained and that is history. All the Tamil militants,except LTTE, agreed to accept the Indo-Sri Lankan Accord, which was heavily flawed. It did not offer the liberation, the Tamils wanted. The Tigers were not willing to lay down their arms, until the negotiations were successfully concluded. They wanted to know what would happen to them, if the negotiations failed and they were without arms. They were also suspicious that it was India's ploy to disarm all militants. India's Intelligence Agency, RAW, played the centuries old policy of divide and rule and made the other militant groups go against LTTE..

Eventually, EPRLF became India's chosen group and they were pitted against the LTTE and the other groups were watching from the sideline, not knowing which side was likely to win. Eventually, when the Tigers drove EPRLF out of SL, EPRLF and TELO each of them split into two and half of them went along with the LTTE. Now that the Tigers have lost the war, these militants are at a loss as to whom they should follow. They tried to move towards India, but they found India, as a country involved in the genocide, was not willing to go against SL.

Now the Sinhalese are implementing their agenda of colonising Tamil Eelam, and all the Tamils have woken up to the reality that LTTE's policies were right and Eelam is the only solution. Meanwhile, India is waking up a bit late, but they are helpless, as Gotabaya had said they fought India's war.

It is about time, as the TN Tamils have concluded that India is not to be trusted, the Eelam Tamils will have to depend on themselves. Originally we trusted Mother India and Mother India had betrayed us. If not for India the LTTE would have won the war and the Tamils will not be in the plight they are in today. It was India that advised the Western powers to ban LTTE fund raising and purchase of arms in the West. It was India that helped SL to sink 8 out of 9 ships in the East. It was India that paralysed the LTTE and not only brought them to their defeat, but also helped the Sinhalese to commit genocide by wiping out 40,000 to 70,000 people, the so called LTTE supporters, in one week. The US tried to evacuate the Tamils and cadres to safety, but MK.Narayanan, Shiv Shankar Menon and the then Foreign Minister, Pranab Mukherji, prevented the American Navy from doing so, while Karunandhini performed his pseudo fast.

There are a lot of lessons to be learnt from this. Unity is a prerequisite for success in any liberation struggle. Multiple groups is not an ingredient for success. TNA is composed of a few parties, which are moving in different directions. Gajendra is willing to join TNA, provided TNA is willing to follow pre-May 2009 policies. Sumenthiran earlier believed that Gajendra could be defeated in election again. Are the people in the same mood now as they were in 2009? The depleted population through death and emigration split into two in NPC election, may not create the solution to the problem. It is better for them to compromise and fight the NPC election as a United Tamil Front or disappear into oblivion. As the Tamil objectives have become very visible, it is better for them to dissolve all the parties and form a single party.

Now coming to the Diaspora parties, they are not performing any better. The first Diaspora gathering I attended was GTF in Paris in 2009. It didn't take me long to conclude that they wouldn't bring salvation to the Tamils. One day they were meeting the person who motivated the Tamil Genocide, Sonia Gandhi; on another day they were attending a discussion with Robert Blake and yet on another day they were running after South African leaders without any success to date. During any of the meetings did GTF make any attempt to invite the other parties, such as TGTE, to join them? They were running around clueless without knowing in what direction they were moving.

To my mind - please correct me if I am wrong - TGTE is the only party that is proceeding step by step as a Diaspora organisation. They have an elected Transnational Government with parliamentarians and senators from all over the world. They are also inviting the other organisations to join their functions. The other parties can exist if they have any function to perform. Like 'Tamils Against Genocide' or 'Tamils for Obama, they can continue their functions and be an associate of TGTE.

The Tamil Nadu students have given the Tamils worldwide a direction. They were the first to point out that the US resolution should be burnt, when everyone else in the world wanted it passed in the UNHRC in Geneva. Both the US resolutions submitted in 2012 and 2013 in Geneva did not address the problems the Tamils faced. They excluded the UN Panel of Experts Report and they wanted only the positive elements in the LLRC implemented. Can you imagine a resolution was needed to force SL to implement its own resolution. Ms Navi Pillay's recommendations were shot down by India.

Past events have proven to us that without India's agreement nothing could be implemented. in Sri Lanka. As far as US is concerned, they are the least bothered about the plight of the Tamils in Sri Lanka. At the same time they cannot ignore the pressure exerted by the Diaspora Tamils and the righteousness of their cause. Also the American geopolitical interest in South Asia cannot be ignored. It needs India to contain Pakistan and Afghanistan. That is the reason why the US is bending forward and backwards to appease India.

The US is fully aware of the extent of Indian involvement in the genocide and any probe into Mullivaikal genocide will expose India. So US won't go hard on that. Others, like Navi Pillay, will have to pursue the international investigations into war crimes. Both her attempts during the two US resolutions has been shot down by India. The sudden burst of Tamil Nadu Students' uprising stunned India and made her realise that this game cannot go on for ever.

The Eelam and Diaspora Tamils will have to work closely with Tamil Nadu Tamils. It will be virtually impossible to get the support of India while the Congress government is in power. Hopefully, in the next parliamentary elections the BJP comes into power and the Tamil Nadu Parliamentarians remain steadfast in their cause. Then the situation will be favourable for the Tamils.

Visvanathan