We Eelam Tamils, as a Nation who were subjected to a similar predicament by the Sri Lankan state in 2009, hold our hands in solidarity with people of Ukraine 

NEW YORK, UNITED STATES, March 1, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ --

The Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) is alarmed at the situation in Ukraine as hundreds of civilian casualties including children are being reported; thousands of people have been left without power or water due to damage to civilian infrastructure; UN agencies are reporting that thousands of civilians were being forced to huddle in makeshift bomb shelters; and seven million people had been displaced, with the figure “rising
exponentially”. Bombing continues beyond Kyiv into other major cities of Kharkiv and Chernihiv.

Today we know of a missile attack on a primarily civilian area. The TGTE empathizes with the people of Ukraine and we join the voices around the world and
call Vladimir Putin to pull his troops out of Ukraine and save the 44 million people now on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe. The TGTE also salutes the resilience of the Ukrainian People and President Zelensky. Despite being so outnumbered and outgunned by their adversary, the courage, determination and the will to fight of the Ukrainian people is remarkable. We ourselves, as a Nation who were subjected to a similar predicament by the Sri Lankan state and the international powers in 2009, the Eelam Tamil People, hold our hands in solidarity with the people of Ukraine. 

Irrespective of the merits of any of the justifications presented by Russia for this action, we believe the proper cause of action is dialogue among concerned parties under the auspices of the United Nations. Article 33 of the UN article mandates, “The parties to any dispute, the continuance of which is likely to endanger the maintenance of international peace and security, shall, first of all, seek a solution by negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration,
judicial settlement, resort to regional agencies or arrangements, or other peaceful means of their own choice.”

As the UN deliberates over this crisis at the General Assembly’s rare and unprecedented emergency Special Session, we request the UN to work towards conducting referendums to determine the will of the People in Donetsk and Luthansk. We are encouraged by the chorus of voices coming out of the UN Assembly in New York against Russia’s action. At this juncture, it is hard to resist the thought that had the international powers paid scant attention to the massacre of more than a hundred thousand Eelam Tamils during the final stages of the armed conflict between the Eelam Tamil People and the Sri Lankan state in 2009, thousands and thousands of lives would have been saved in our homeland.

We are deeply moved to see the reception of Ukraine refugees in Europe, unlike the treatment accorded generally to refugees from Africa and the Middle East. It is no secret that there has been tightening of borders in Europe and clear mistreatment of refugees in recent times. It is our fervent hope that this new situation of movement of millions of Ukrainian people, and thousands of guest students and workers from Ukraine, would be handled with utmost care towards the fundamental rights of all displaced people and refugees, as the events unfold before our eyes. There are those who argue that the battle for Ukraine was a battle for the new world order. If the place of democracy as a central plank in the present world order continues to be challenged
through this crisis, rule of law, and indeed the law pertaining to self-determination of Nations also come under challenge. Therefore, it behooves us all to pause and reflect on this matter and do our utmost to bring the Ukraine crisis to closure. That way, all sovereign nations, ones as small as Tamil Eelam and ones as large as Ukraine, get to shine in the sun as free nations.

ABOUT THE TRANSNATIONAL GOVERNMENT OF TAMIL EELAM (TGTE):

The Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) is a democratically elected Government of over a million strong Tamils (from the island of Sri Lanka) living in several countries around the world.

TGTE was formed after the mass killing of Tamils by the Sri Lankan Government in 2009.

TGTE thrice held internationally supervised elections among Tamils around the world to elect 135 Members of Parliament. It has two chambers of Parliament: The House of Representatives and the Senate and also a Cabinet.

TGTE is leading a campaign to realize the political aspirations of Tamils through peaceful, democratic, and diplomatic means and its Constitution mandates that it should realize its political objectives only through peaceful means. It’s based on the principles of nationhood, homeland and self-determination.

TGTE seeks that the international community hold the perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide against the Tamil people to account. TGTE calls for a referendum to decide the political future of Tamils.

The Prime Minister of TGTE is Mr. Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran, a New York based lawyer.

Email: pmo@tgte.org
Web: www.tgte-us.org
Twitter: @TGTE_PMO

BACKGROUND

Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka faced repeated mass killings in 1958, 1977, and 1983 and the mass killings in 2009 prompted UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to appoint a Panel of Experts to report on the scale of the killings.

According to UN internal review report on Sri Lanka, over 70 thousand Tamils were killed in six months in early 2009 and Tamil women were sexually assaulted and raped by the Sri Lankan Security forces.

International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) in February 2017 handed over details to UN of Sri Lankan Military run "Rape Camps", where Tamil women are being held as “sex slaves”. Also, According to UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office report on April 2013, there are over 90 thousand Tamil war widows in Sri Lanka.

Thousands of Tamils disappeared, including babies and children. UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances stated in 2020 that the second highest number of enforced disappearance cases in the world is from Sri Lanka.

According to this UN report, the killings and other abuses that took place amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Independent experts believe that there are elements of these abuses that constitute an act of genocide.

Members of the Sri Lankan security forces are almost exclusively from the Sinhalese community and the victims are all from the Tamil community.

Tamils overwhelmingly voted in a Parliamentary election in 1977 to establish an independent and sovereign country called Tamil Eelam. This Parliamentary election was conducted by the Sri Lankan Government.

Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran
Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE)
+1 614-202-3377
r.thave@tgte.org

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