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Tamil Eelam (Tamil: தமிழ் ஈழம், tamiḻ īḻam) is the name given by certain Tamil groups in Sri Lanka to the state which they aspire to create in the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka. It is derived from the ancient Tamil name for Sri Lanka, namely Eelam. One such group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) currently controls some of the land claimed for Tamil Eelam. This includes parts of the districts of Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu and Vavuniya. However a majority of the land, including the claimed districts of Jaffna, Ampara, Trincomalee, Mannar, Batticaloa and Puttlam, is controlled by the government of Sri Lanka.
[edit] Central issue and Historic development
Great Britain gained control of the whole island of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1815 and administratively unified the island [4]with a legislative council in 1833 with three Europeans and one each for Sinhalese, Sri Lankan Tamils and Burghers. British Governor William Manning, who arrived in Ceylon in 1919, created a reformed legislative council in 1921 and actively encouraged communal thinking in the legislative council.[5][6] As a result, the Tamils started to develop communal consciousness and began to think of themselves as needing to be represented by Tamil leadership. [7][5] It was this thinking that made way for the development of Tamil political organization called the All Ceylon Tamil Congress headed by G. G. Ponnambalam [8][9] Likewise Sinhala communal consciousness reached the political stage in the Southern part of Ceylon with the formation of numerous Sinhala political parties. Ceylon achieved independence from the British in 1948 and in the same year the government of Sri Lanka, with the acceptance vote from G.G. Ponnambalam, passed a new act called the Ceylon citizen act which disenfranchised the Indian Tamil plantation workers[10][11][12] Though Ponnambalam did not vote for all the bills pertaining to the Ceylon citizenship act (including the offending bill), his silence in parliament made the Tamil public believe that he was not interested in Indian Tamil rights.[13] . In 1949 a new Tamil political party, named the Federal Party, was formed and was led by S. J. V. Chelvanayakam who earlier broke away from All Ceylon Tamil Congress because of the latter's decision to tie up with the UNP[14] In 1956 the government enacted another act called the Sinhala Only Act which made the Sinhala as the sole official language of Sri Lanka[11][15] The Ceylon citizen act and the Sinhala Only Act were seen as discriminatory policies towards the minorities and led to increased ethnic and political tensions between the two communities. The Federal Party (FP) opposed both the Ceylon citizenship act and the Sinhala Only Act and as a result became popular amongst the Tamil population[11][16] . As a result of their popularity the Federal party became the most dominant party in the Tamil districts after the 1956 elections. [edit] Concept
Federal Party (FP) became the most dominant Tamil political party in 1956 and it lobbied for a unitary state which gave Tamil and Sinhalese equal rights, including recognition of two official languages (Tamil and Sinhala) and considerable autonomy for the Tamil areas.[17][18] It was against this backdrop that the Federal party decided to sign the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayakam pact on July 1957. However soon afterwards, the agreement was not implemented by the Sinhala party. On 1965 another pact called Dudey-Chelvanayakam pact was also signed but was also not implemented [19] The failure of the Sinhalese dominated government to implement devolutionary agreements through the 1950s and 1960s, abrogation of power-sharing promises, worsening economic conditions, and lack of territorial autonomy caused further disillusionment and isolation among northern Tamils[20] In the 1970 election the United Front (UF) led by Sirimavo Bandaranaike came into power. The new Government in power adapted two new policies that were considered discriminatory by the Tamil people.[21]First the government introduced a dicriminatory system regulating university admissions specifically targeted at reducing the intake of overachieving Tamils and other minorities in the Sri Lankan educational system. The scheme allotted up to 40% of the university placement to rural youth (primarily from Sinhala areas). The government claimed that this was an affirmative action scheme to assist geographically disadvantaged students to gain tertiary education. According to K.M de Silva, a Historian, the system of standardisation of marks, however, required the Tamil students to achieve higher marks than the Sinhalese students to get into university[22][4] Same sort of policy was adapted for employment in the public sector in which less than 10 percent of Tamil speakers were employed as public servants[23][24] The Federal Party opposed these policies and Chelvanayakam resigned his parliamentary seat on October 1972. The new constitution in 1972 further exasperated long standing grievances and sense of discrimination for the Sri Lankan Tamil people. This had emboldened younger Tamils to seek ways to form a Tamil homeland (nation) where the rights and freedoms of the Tamil people could be protected and nurtured.[20] In 1973, Tamil parties’ call for regional autonomy was replaced with the demand for a separate state called Tamil Eelam and two years later, in 1975, all Tamil political parties merged together and became known as the Tamil United Liberation Front(TULF). On 1976, the first national convention of the Tamil United Liberation Front was held at Vaddukodai and the Tamil United Liberation Front adapted a unanimous resolution called the Vaddukodai resolution. The Vaddukodai resolution charged that the Sinhalese government, with the use of the constitution of 1972, used it's power to "deprive the Tamil nation of its territory, language, citizenship, economic life, opportunities of employment and education thereby destroying all the attributes of nationhood of the Tamil people." The resolution further called for the "Free, Sovereign, Secular Socialist State of TAMIL EELAM".[25] As a result of the Vaddukodai resolution, the Tamil United Liberation Front became the first Tamil political party to run it's campaign on a separatist platform. It swept the parliamentary elections in the Tamil-dominated districts of the North and East in 1977, winning 18 seats and became the largest opposition in parliament[26][27] The reason for the success of the TULF was seen as the result of growing Tamil agitation for self-determination[20] During the time of the Vaddukodai declaration, there were several Tamil militant organizations that believed an armed struggle was the only way to protect the sovereignty of the Tamil areas. TULF, however, believed in peaceful parliamentary ways towards achieving a solution[28] Though the TULF had adapted a separatist platform they were still open for peaceful negotiations and, as a result, decided to work towards a political agreement with the executive president at that time, J.R Jayewardene. The outcome was the District Development Councils’ scheme (DDC) passed 1980. The District Development Councils' scheme was based, to some extent, on decentralization of the government within a united Sri Lanka. The District Development Councils' scheme was soon abandoned because both sides were not able to agree to the number District Ministership in the Tamil districts[29] In 1983 the Sixth Amendment was passed and required Tamil members of parliament and Tamils in public office to take the oath of allegiance to the unitary state of Sri Lanka. The Sixth Amendment forbade advocating a separate state even by peaceful means. Consequently, the TULF was expelled from the parliament for refusing to take the oath.[30] [edit] Development
At first, the concept of Tamil Eelam conceived by the Federal party was state within united Sri Lanka, but in time the concept developed into complete self-determination. The concept of Tamil Eelam always implied the notion of freedom and self-government for the Tamil people [31] The demand for a separate statehood of Tamil Eelam is believed to have grown as a result of job opportunities and university admissions being severely curtailed for Tamils because of discriminatory government quotas; and continuing decline of economic opportunities[25] As a result the people began to believe that a separate state would win back their opportunities and the concept of Tamil Eelam was welcomed enthusiastically throughout Tamil areas[32] In addition to the economical and social basis for separate state there is also a more fundamental basis for support for a separate statehood - safety[33] In 1977, after the parliamentary election campaign by the TULF which was on a platform of separate state, a riot engulfed the island in which about 300 Tamil civilians were killed[18] Likewise in 1983, another anti-Tamil riot engulfed the island as a result of an IED attack on group of Sri Lankan Soldiers by LTTE rebels. The riot, know as Black July, killed between 1,000[34] and 3,000[35] The call for Tamil Eelam increased as a result of these communal violence against the Tamil minority perpetrated by the Sinhalese majority[18] Furthermore, allegations of state terrorism and genocide by the Sri Lankan government have led to solidification of demand for separate state for minority Tamils[36][37][38] To add to the Tamil people's separatist sentiments, acts of mass violence, rape, extrajudicial executions, whole scale round ups, force detention, torture and other forms of inhuman treatment by members of Sinhalese dominated Sri Lankan security forces within the North and East provinces have further created communal tensions among the Tamil people[18] The mistrust in the Sinhala dominated armed forces and the perceived discrimination faced by the Tamil population[39] lead the Tamil people to believe that only Eelam could provide long term safety[20] and came to believe that their very survival was possible only through formation of a separate Tamil state on the island[33] [edit] Current status[edit] Governance
The portion of Northern Sri Lanka under the control of the LTTE is run as a de facto quasi-independent state[40][41] [42] and it runs a government [43][44][45] in these areas. The Tamil Tigers have also established a military wing[46][47][48] with land combat force, naval force (the Sea Tigers), air wing which they call "Tamil Eelam Air Force",[49] In addition, the LTTE runs a judicial system complete with local, supreme and high courts. The US state department has alleged that the judges have very little standards or training and act as agents to LTTE; it also accuses the LTTE of forcing Tamils under their control to accept their judicial system [50], however, people who have a choice at judicial system sometimes choose to go to the judicial courts of the areas controlled by the LTTE rather than the Sri Lankan courts[44][43][45][27] Furthermore, Tigers performs state functions such as Police Force, Human Rights organization, humanitarian assistant board[43], health board and education board[44][51][52] It also runs a Bank (Bank of Tamil Eelam), a radio station (Voice of Tigers) and a Television station (National Television of Tamil Eelam)[45] [edit] Pongu TamilPongu Tamil (or Tamil Upraising) is an event that is held in support of "Tamils Right to Self-Determination" and "Tamil Traditional homeland". Pongu Tamil was first organized in Jaffna on January 2001 by students of the Jaffna University. The event was organized in response to alleged disappearances, mass graves and abuses under the government’s military rule and was designed as peaceful protest. The event attracted between 4000-5000 students amid the event being banned in Jaffna, an area controlled by the Sri Lankan Army, and allegations of intimidation and death threats by the police[53] In 2003, the event was held again and attracted over 150,000 people and has become an annual event in the LTTE held areas of Sri Lanka. In the recent years some members of Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora have also picked up on the notion and it has become an annual event in the countries they reside[40] In 2008, the event was held in New Zealand,Norway,Denmark,Italy,South Africa, France,Australia, England and Canada. According to Tamilnet, a pro-rebel website, the event attracted thousands of people in these countries including over 7,000 in France[54], 30,000 in England [55] and over 75,000 in Canada [56] Australia is said to have attracted about 2000 people displayed the Australian flag, Tiger symbol and picture of Velupillai Prabhakaran.[57] [edit] See also
[edit] References
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