Tamil diaspora must be realistic - EPRLF
by M.R. Narayan SWAMY
A Sri Lankan Tamil militant group turned political party has urged
the Tamil diaspora to be "realistic" to achieve a better political deal
now that the Tigers are history.
The Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) issued the
appeal to the vast Tamil diaspora community spread around the world at a
two-day conference that took place in Paris.
The EPRLF call comes amid intense churning in the Tamil community
based outside Sri Lanka, many of whom used once backed the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in varying ways.
"The diaspora has to be realistic in defining a Tamil political
solution," an EPRLF leader told IANS on telephone from London. "The time
has come when the politics of negativity has to be given up.
"Now that the war has ended, people must take a different approach
(towards Tamil political issues)," he said. "Negative politics pursued
by the LTTE and its supporters will only worsen the situation."
The EPRLF was once a militant group which later presided over the
provincial administration in Sri Lanka's northeast when the Indian
troops were deployed in the region in 1987-90.
The LTTE gunned down the EPRLF leadership in India's Chennai city in
1990. The EPRLF has teamed up with several similar Tamil groups and
activists now to form what is known as Tamil Arangam - a grouping that
seeks a better political deal for the Tamils within Sri Lanka.
Forty delegates from Sri Lanka, France, Britain, Switzerland and
Germany gathered in Paris for the Oct 23-24 meeting that debated the
situation in Sri Lanka and the vast Tamil diaspora community.
The Paris meet felt that the LTTE's end was a blessing in disguise
for the Tamils. "If the war had not ended, it would have only caused
more deaths and destruction," said the EPRLF leader, providing a gist of
the discussions.
The separatist campaign spearheaded by the LTTE claimed around 90,000
lives from 1983 till 2009, becoming one of the bloodiest conflicts in
modern history.
A key speaker in Paris was Annamali Varadaraja Perumal, the former
Chief Minister of Sri Lanka's northeast who has moved back to his
country after living in India for nearly two decades.
Perumal is playing a major role in the revival of the EPRLF in the
North and the East of Sri Lanka, reviving a network that got silenced
when the LTTE dominated the region leaving no room for anyone else.
In recent months, the EPRLF has held 70-80 meetings, both in the
Tamil-majority Northern Province and the multi-racial East where Tamils,
Tamil-speaking Muslims and Sinhalese live in near equal numbers.
"We will try to engage the Sri Lankan Government in a positive way,"
said the EPRLF leader. "We have to persuade the government to act
sensibly."
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