Worries of Tamils remain though war ends

This column joins the nation in welcoming the end to the brutal war, but hastens to highlight the worry of the Tamil people: resettlement of the 265,000 internally displaced persons (IGPs) of Vanni and their rights, nationally, and in the north and east.
The Tamils are worried about the state of things in the IDP camps in the Vanni. The information they get is that the daily needs of the IDPs are not properly met.  The rumours that some ‘helpers’ are demanding big sums to get them ‘released’ are disturbing them.
Most of the IDPs were farmers who lived a self-sufficient life, and they expect decent treatment. “What is the crime we have committed?” they ask. “Is it our fault that we lived in the Vanni?”
Several foreign reports said that Tamils did not take part in the victory celebrations. I know that most of them felt insecure. Why? What does that show? These are questions the government and political leaders should ask.
Up to the time I wrote this column, only one Sinhala leader, JVP’s  Somawansa Amarasinghe, has told the celebrators not to wound the feelings of the Tamil people.
Jathika Hela Urmaya (JHU) Leader Ven.Ellawala Medhananda has added to the worries of the Tamil people with his suggestion that the villages in the north should be renamed after the names of the soldiers. Tamils know by experience what would follow the renaming.
The Tamils are worried that the strengthened Sinhala nationalism would block the government from implementing even the rights enshrined in the existing constitution.
Although Tamil was also made an official language in 1987, it is still not implemented. The much talked about 13th Amendment gave the Provincial Councils several powers. Most important of them, power over land and the Police, are yet to be implemented. There are talks of diluting them to satisfy Sinhala extremists.
Implementation of the rights already given by the Constitution, would remove from the Tamils their sense of marginalisation. Jehan Perera, Executive Director of the National Peace Council, sees in the reluctance of the Tamils to take part in the celebrations, a lesson. He says, “Now the country must work on healing those long-standing feelings. Otherwise there could be a second Pirapaharan.”
Start of armed struggle
The war came to an end on Sunday when Presidential advisor Basil Rajapaksa announced that the fighting would end, ‘within hours,” and the LTTE in a dramatic statement said that their battle for an independent homeland had reached   its “bitter end”.
The armed struggle which Pirapaharan started in 1972, when he was an 18-year-old boy wearing shorts, has ended after 36 years. In 1972 he formed a secret armed group called Tamil New Tigers (TNT) which was renamed Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on May 5, 1976, nine days before the Tamil political parties, the Federal Party, and a section of the Tamils Congress, passed the Vaddukoddai Resolution, which called for the first time for the creation of a separate state called Tamil Eelam.
The LTTE was then a small group of less than 30 members, and would have remained so if not for the 1983 July riots and Indian intervention. The July riots hurt Tamil pride and thousands of youths, especially those who were chased away from south Sri Lanka, who opted to fight the Sinhala government with arms. And the Indian offer to give them weapons training turned their anger into Tamil militancy.
Pirapaharan was in Jaffna when India offered to train the Tamil youths. Anton Balasingham who was then in Chennai,  heard about it and  met Tamil Nadu Deputy Inspector General Alexander, who advised him to write a comprehensive letter to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi introducing the LTTE.   Within a few days, Chandrasekaran, a RAW officer, flew to Chennai and met him.
He wanted a meeting with Pirapaharan who travelled to Pondichery (now Puthichcher) and stayed in a rented house. Balasingham and his wife Adele joined him at Pondicheri. Chandrasekaran went to the house where Pirapaharan stayed, and met him around midnight. Balasingham who was present at the meeting says this in his book ‘War and Peace’ Page 58):
“Mr. Chandran (He wanted us to call him by his shortened name. We referred to him as Mr. Moon,) offered to train 200 LTTE cadres in two batches of 100 at a time. The first batch would commence training in early November (1983). It would be necessary for the LTTE cadres to travel to Delhi where they would be met and transported in military trucks to an Army complex in Dehra Dun, in the hills of Uttar Predesh.
Chandran presented Pirapaharan a 7.62 mm German Lugar pistol. Pirapaharan was also allowed to have several training camps in Tamil Nadu. But Pirapaharan refused to toe India’s foreign policy line. India wanted the Tamil militants to destabilise Sri Lanka and make it its satellite state, but Pirapaharan wanted to establish Tamil Eelam which India opposed. His fighting with the Indian Peace Keeping Force and the murdering of Rajiv Gandhi were the events which India never forgave.
Tamil diaspora
Some violent incidents in Sydney, Australia and the blocking of rail tracks in Germany were the first reactions by the Tamil diaspora to the death of Pirapaharan. More are expected to follow, driving the Tamils and the Sinhalese living abroad further apart.
In Tamil Nadu too some violent reactions have been reported. There were instances of stoning of buses. The government has taken precautionary actions by arresting about 300 pro-LTTE leaders and strengthening the security, especially in Chennai.
 Tamil Nadu chief Minister Muthuvel Karunanidhi who refused to comment on Pirapaharan’s death took action to defuse the feeling of the people. The DMK Working Committee passed a resolution asking the new Indian government to pressurise Sri Lanka to ensure the rights of the Tamil people living in Sri Lanka.
 Karunanidhi seems to be conscious that the defeat the Congress suffered in the elections, was due to the campaign pro-LTTE groups carried against them. The victory of the ADMP in ten seats too should be attributed to the same reason.