DR A.E SELVANATHAN, sub dean of the Department of Asian and International Studies at Griffith University and spokesperson for the Tamil Sangam
Tamil and Sinhalese communities have lived in Sri Lanka for more than 2500 years, Selvanathan said, but traditionally as separate kingdoms, with different languages, religions and culture. The island was only forced into one nation after British colonisation in 1795.
"Previous colonisers, the Dutch and Portuguese had ruled the island with Tamil and Sinhalese kingdoms intact. Trading and administrative interests guided the actions of the British who were keen to exploit the natural resources of Sri Lanka. The two kingdoms were crushed and the British created 'Ceylon' with its administrative hub in Columbo.''
After 150 years of colonial power, the British left Ceylon with a parliamentary system that favoured the Sinhalese majority. Gradually the rights of the Tamil minority were whittled away.
"In 1949, Tamils who had been brought by the British from India to work on the tea plantations were disenfranchised. In 1956, Sinhala became the official language. Public servants were required to speak a level of Sinhala designed to limit the number of Tamil civil servants. Between 1956 and 1958 anti-Tamil riots resulted in the death of hundreds of Tamils. Since this time, there has also been encroachment on Tamil land by Sinhalese settlers [which have] displaced the Tamil people. Access to jobs and education also became extremely limited for the Tamil population."
The decision by the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) in the 1970s to take up arms brought new waves of repression from the Sri Lankan authorities.
A Tamil convention in Jaffna in 1976 passed a resolution calling for the "restoration and reconstitution of the free, sovereign, secular, socialist state of Tamil Eelam".
In 1983, a genocidal campaign in Columbo led by government ministers and Buddhist monks ended in the deaths of over 6000 Tamils. Another 75,000 became refugees.
A LTTE-called boycott of local government elections in 1983 was supported by 90% of Tamil people. This was a clear rejection by the Tamil people of the Sri Lankan government which continued its war against the LTTE.
In the mid-1980s India attempted to broker a peace deal, but with little consultation with the Tamil people. The deal was to provide a rehabilitation program for those who had been displaced and some other concessions. To ensure the success of this deal, the Indian government deployed thousands of troops to Sri Lanka, but the plan collapsed in 1990.
Some 35,000 troops were sent to the north and an economic embargo (including food and medical supplies) was imposed on Jaffna. Heavy bombing by the Indian and Sri Lankan armies killed 5000 Tamils and displaced 1 million.
0 comments:
Post a Comment