Full text of a statement by the LTTE Political Wing
‘The Tamil people are shocked over President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s rejection of their basic political aspirations in an interview with Reuters on 13 February 2006.
‘The President had, in this interview, totally rejected the Tamil homeland concept and emphasised that a political solution to the racial conflict would be looked into only within the parameters of the unitary constitution.
‘Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) strongly condemns these sentiments expressed by the President that tend to belittle the political rights of the Tamil people.
‘That the North-East part of this island is the traditional homeland of the Tamil people is not a political concept that developed overnight. It has remained the habitat and homeland of the Tamil people for over several thousands of years. The Tamil homeland was well defined and demarcated even at the time of European invasion of this island.
‘The Tamil people have always protested against Sinhala governments’ systematic and planned Sinhala colonisation of the Tamil homeland with an ulterior sinister motive to grab territory. Ground reality dictates that obviously it is the growth of Tamil peoples’ military strength that has prevented the Sinhala regimes from furthering their agenda on this score.
‘Homeland, nationhood and self-rule are the three basic and cardinal principles that have been guiding the LTTE in its struggle to find a peacefully negotiated political arrangement to the Tamil people, resolving the racial conflict. It is the refusal by the Jayawardena regime to accept these basic principles that led to the failure of the Thimpu talks.
‘The Sinhala rulers are in a dream-psychosis that makes them wrongly perceive that their success in rejecting the Tamil homeland concept would invariably nullify the concepts of Tamil nationhood and self-rule.
‘Unitary form of government, if translated into ground reality, means Sinhala Parliament, Sinhala Constitution, Sinhala Judiciary, Sinhala bureaucracy and Sinhala armed forces ruling this country. It is within this conceptually rigid supremacy centred unitary constitution that the Tamil people continue to face a cruel genocide.
‘A resolution of the Tamil national problem through devolution of power within the parameters of the unitary constitution is a concept that has lost its credibility and adaptability almost fifty years ago.
‘The Tamil people opted for a separate state only because their call for resolution of their national problem on the basis of federation was rejected. Tamil call for federalism has seen the passage of fifty years and their option for secession dates back to thirty years.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa now goes half a century backwards and is taking shelter into a rotten unitary constitutional concept. Going the extra mile, he even wishes to place this concept before the LTTE that has under its de-facto administration major parts of the Tamil homeland.
‘President Mahinda Rajapaksa, hastily going to town without knowing correctly the deep contradictions and complexities of the Tamil-Sinhala racial conflict, would seriously impact the current efforts for talks.
‘If the Mahinda regime adopts a political stand ruling out the Tamil homeland concept and insists on a resolution of the racial conflict within the unitary constitution, the LTTE would be left with no alternative other than to endeavour hard to respond effectively to the Tamil call for self rule.’
‘The Tamil people are shocked over President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s rejection of their basic political aspirations in an interview with Reuters on 13 February 2006.
‘The President had, in this interview, totally rejected the Tamil homeland concept and emphasised that a political solution to the racial conflict would be looked into only within the parameters of the unitary constitution.
‘Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) strongly condemns these sentiments expressed by the President that tend to belittle the political rights of the Tamil people.
‘That the North-East part of this island is the traditional homeland of the Tamil people is not a political concept that developed overnight. It has remained the habitat and homeland of the Tamil people for over several thousands of years. The Tamil homeland was well defined and demarcated even at the time of European invasion of this island.
‘The Tamil people have always protested against Sinhala governments’ systematic and planned Sinhala colonisation of the Tamil homeland with an ulterior sinister motive to grab territory. Ground reality dictates that obviously it is the growth of Tamil peoples’ military strength that has prevented the Sinhala regimes from furthering their agenda on this score.
‘Homeland, nationhood and self-rule are the three basic and cardinal principles that have been guiding the LTTE in its struggle to find a peacefully negotiated political arrangement to the Tamil people, resolving the racial conflict. It is the refusal by the Jayawardena regime to accept these basic principles that led to the failure of the Thimpu talks.
‘The Sinhala rulers are in a dream-psychosis that makes them wrongly perceive that their success in rejecting the Tamil homeland concept would invariably nullify the concepts of Tamil nationhood and self-rule.
‘Unitary form of government, if translated into ground reality, means Sinhala Parliament, Sinhala Constitution, Sinhala Judiciary, Sinhala bureaucracy and Sinhala armed forces ruling this country. It is within this conceptually rigid supremacy centred unitary constitution that the Tamil people continue to face a cruel genocide.
‘A resolution of the Tamil national problem through devolution of power within the parameters of the unitary constitution is a concept that has lost its credibility and adaptability almost fifty years ago.
‘The Tamil people opted for a separate state only because their call for resolution of their national problem on the basis of federation was rejected. Tamil call for federalism has seen the passage of fifty years and their option for secession dates back to thirty years.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa now goes half a century backwards and is taking shelter into a rotten unitary constitutional concept. Going the extra mile, he even wishes to place this concept before the LTTE that has under its de-facto administration major parts of the Tamil homeland.
‘President Mahinda Rajapaksa, hastily going to town without knowing correctly the deep contradictions and complexities of the Tamil-Sinhala racial conflict, would seriously impact the current efforts for talks.
‘If the Mahinda regime adopts a political stand ruling out the Tamil homeland concept and insists on a resolution of the racial conflict within the unitary constitution, the LTTE would be left with no alternative other than to endeavour hard to respond effectively to the Tamil call for self rule.’
