Tamils stuck in Prabhakaran’s terrorism – Col Karuna

Colombo, 27 November, (Asiantribune.com): Declaring that the Tamils have lost their freedom struggle because they are stuck in terrorism V. Muralitharan (Col. Karuna) President of the Tamileelam Makkal Viduthalai Puligal (TMVP) has asked the new government of Mahinda Rajapakse to:

1. revise the Ceasefire Agreement that paved the way for the LTTE to kill Tamils, Muslims and Armed Forces;

2. reconsider the role of Norway and

3. LTTE should be disarmed before commencing any talks.

Muralitharan raised these and other issues in exposing Prabhakaran’s anti-democratic terror tactics in his Heroes’ Day speech.

Here is the full text of his speech:

On a day when we dedicate ourselves to the memory of our fighters who sacrificed their lives for the liberation of Tamil Elam we have to pray for the liberation of our Tamil people.

We have before us the duty to ensure that the valour and sacrifices of our fighters are not made meaningless.

We had with us many intellectuals and leaders to lead and guide our people. But, we have lost all of them. Therefore it is our foremost duty to safeguard the lives of our remaining intellectuals and learned men and women.

I very much regret the fact that we who started a freedom struggle to liberate our people are fighting our own youth instead of fighting the enemy.

I never wanted our youth to fight among themselves and get mutually destroyed. I have seen for myself how wrong this is. That is why I sent all my young fighters to their homes. However, the LTTE killed all those whom we sent home without remorse or mercy. They were killed even when they were asleep and by treachery. We cannot call this an act of valour.

They have forgotten that their struggle is for the liberation of our people and these evil men who engage in nothing but murder have not left alone our younger generation. In order to save our youths and our people from the LTTE leadership we had to ask our cadres who were sent home to take up arms again in order to defeat and chase out these traitors to our cause.

I wanted to be on the sidelines at least for some time but the murderous acts of Pirabaharan had brought me back to the scene. We had been conducting some defensive attacks on the LTTE for the past one and a half years. Sadly those who were killed in these attacks were all Tamils. We have to think why this situation was created.

It is clearly evident for us that the leadership of our people and its liberation has got entrapped in the hands of wrong leaders. It is now several years since this leadership was rejected by the international community. Even now some countries are trying to ban this leadership. We should carefully consider why this has happened.

The reason is clear. It is because our liberation struggle has deteriorated into terrorism. We have still not achieved liberation because Pirapaharan’s terrorism stands in the path of our liberation struggle blocking its advance.

We should not forget the fact that the one single obstacle to our liberation is Pirapaharan. Only those people who have benefited by his terrorism are trying to hide this fact.

Pirapaharan has thrust upon the Tamil people a totalitarian control. He is camouflaging his dictatorship with the Tamil Eelam label. One example of his dictatorship was the violent force he had used to stop the people of North East from participating in the election held on the 17th. He demonstrated that he alone has the full dictatorial control over events in North East and that the Tamil people have no rights of their own. This has once again proved that our people do not know how to get out of the clutches of these evil men who run a dictatorial regime. This is nothing new. It was happening for years. He will allow the people to go to vote whenever he wants them to vote and stop them from exercising their voting rights whenever he wants them not to vote. This is how dictators behave. It is in the hands of our people to accept him or reject him.

He praised Ranil Wickremasinghe as a good and able person. Then at the elections he stabbed him in the back. Ranil did not give what he bargained for. That was the reason why he ensured Ranil’s defeat.

He created a long lasting enmity within the Tamils by the killing members of other Tamil groups and Tamil leaders. In order to end this enmity we are now forced to turn our guns against him. This makes me wonder where we are heading for.

I wonder whether all the sacrifices of our young men are meaningless. We should not allow their sacrifices to be wasted. Therefore we should get together to save the lives of our youth.

We would like to make one request to the cadres who are now supporting the LTTE leadership which is entrenched in Vanni. Reject this leadership and join us. We lost our fighters all these years in our struggle for freedom. But, we have not achieved the freedom we longed for. Our people who taught arts and culture to the world are now tottering without an able leadership to lead them forward. We should pose to think as to who created this situation.

I once thought that Pirapaharan and his men are travelling on the path of Tamil Eelam. I never looked into his other side. As I had an unshakable confidence in the liberation of our people I could not then see any shortcomings. I am one of those who were disillusioned because I believed that everything was done for the liberation of our people.

Except warfare nothing else interested me. Only now I realise how far we are behind in politics. By killing all those who were perceived as enemies we did not achieve liberation or political advantage. What remained was the name tag “terrorist”. These talks about peace and dialogue are in order to remove this stigma and the ugly label “terrorist”.

They have not really changed. On the outside they talk about peace but in the sly they continue to engage in murders. What is most ludicrous is that having murdered Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar they are trying to fool us by calling for inquiries into his killing and for the punishment of the perpetrators. They believe they could whitewash everything by telling lies. In the end our liberation itself will become a big lie.

There is no point in reminding again again about the past. At the same time we should not forget the past.

Let us on this Heroes Day once more dedicate ourselves for the liberation of our people for which our young men and women sacrificed their lives having reposed their believe in our goal and policies. The international community has recognised that we are a separate nation.

The policies of those who claim to be the sole representatives of the Tamils our political rights have been pushed backwards. However, we will win the rights of our people. We will continue our fight until such time we satisfactorily achieve the rights of our people.

We wish to settle the differences between the two communities by dialogue. Because of the rights issue, the two communities in Ceylon have suffered in many ways. The Sinhalese leaders too have learnt some lessons. Continuing the war will take the country backwards but not forward.

Though some parties are rejecting the rights of the Tamil people, those who have come to power understand the reality. Sinhala parties have different policies. We need not worry about that. Let them have their policies. But if we stand firm on our policies we can win back our rights.

At this juncture we have to stand between terrorism and opportunism and continue our struggle to win back our rights. The Sinhala people and Tamil people have so far failed to reach a solution. We cannot find a solution through agents.

In order to find a solution, those countries who knew very well our histories and who are in touch with our people should come forward to assist us. There are only two such countries that fall into this category. They are India and Britain. Only these two countries understand our problems very well. We would welcome only their mediation. In particular, India is the country which should come forward to settle our problem. Britain is a country that ruled us and later transferred the administration in the hands of the Colombo people.

It is Pirapaharan who is preventing these two countries from interfering in our problem.

All the countries feel that finding a solution at this stage will only strengthen the hands of Pirapaharan and his organisation. If Pirapaharan’s hands are strengthened, it would strengthen the hands of terrorism. Pirapaharan’s organisation is considered by the international community as a terrorist group. This is why his organisation is banned as a terrorist group. Thus, it is very clear that the only obstacle to find a solution to our problem is Pirapaharan.

However, if our people can unite together we can achieve freedom very soon.

We are prepared to make concessions. We need intellectuals and leaders to lead our people. They should shed their fears of the Vanni LTTE leadership and come forward to unite together.

The path to our liberation is very clear. We lost our freedom struggle because we were stuck in terrorism. The real freedom lovers should come forward in unison to defeat terrorism and to achieve our freedom. Our people’s problem is not one man’s problem. All of us have a role in finding a solution to the national problem of our people. No one person can claim the sole right to lead our freedom struggle. Therefore I call upon all the Tamil groups that loved our freedom and made sacrifices with the lives of their cadres and all Tamil people to unite together.

From the start of the freedom struggle until today all Tamil groups have made sacrifices with the lives of their members. It is nothing but dictatorial to claim that one single group had made sacrifices.

I am not claiming to lead our people and I am not asking you to follow me. My request to all of you is to get together so that we could lead a common struggle to achieve our freedom.

There are many people who have made greater sacrifices than the sacrifices I have made. We have to recognise those sacrifices. In our selfishness we should not belittle those sacrifices by calling them traitors and thereby hurt the struggle of our people.

Our Tamileelam Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) organisation and the Eelam National Democratic Liberation Front (ENDLF) came together last year to form the Tamileelam Ikkiya Viduthalai Munnani (TIVM).

We formed this joint organisation in order to demonstrate that North and East are together in our struggle for liberation and to show our unity and friendliness. This showed that no one is big or small but that all of us should work together by forgetting our differences in size or importance for the sake of a common cause.

We should very soon establish the real representation of our people. That representation would include all eligible persons. That representation should take our problem to India and Europe in order to find the correct solution.

No one should fear the armed intimidation of Pirapaharan. Time will give him an answer. My request to all Tamil groups is that as we understand our people’s problem very well we all should join together. All of us have to share the responsibility for the deaths of our people. If we have led our freedom struggle in the correct path we would have achieved freedom a long time ago. We need not have lost so many lives.

On an occasion when we remember the sacrifices of our fighters we have to find ways to save the lives of our young men from death and destruction and to make them live longer. The future of our people is in the hands of the youth. By leading them on the correct path we could make our people stand high in this world and make them the backbone of the modern scientific world.

Our problem is inter-related to the problems of the Muslims. Only a comprehensive solution to the problems of all Tamil speaking peoples could help establish a permanent peace in this country. The ethnic problem will continue so long as the rights of the Muslims are denied.

In the meantime, we wish to ask the newly elected Government to immediately revise the ceasefire agreement that had paved the way for the LTTE to kill Tamils, Muslims and the Armed Forces. The government should also re-consider the role of Norway which had facilitated the agreement. We wish to tell the Government that if there is to be true peace in this country, LTTE should be disarmed before commencing any talks with them.

At this time when we are remembering our heroic youths, I request the Tamil speaking people to make a determination to save the lives of our youths.

Nanri, (Thanks.) Vanakam.

V.Muralithran (Karuna)
President
Tamileelam Makkal Viduthalai Puligal (TMVP)

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