Curiously a major portion of Sri Lanka, ranging from Chilaw to Moneragala districts. This includes North Western, Northern, some portions of North central, North Eastern, Eastern and South western Sri Lanka.
How they can justify a claim to such a large portion of the coast of Sri Lanka is not mentioned. Originally their so-called traditional homelands were only the north and the east of Sri Lanka. According to the map given in the document, such areas as Puttalam and Chilaw also seem to be a part of this mythical homeland of the Tamil people.
The document itself is a long rigmarole of out and out lies lightly sprinkled with half truths to give a semblance of authenticity to the tale. They have even quoted tame journalists and others with an astigmatised view on this subject. No one, not even the tame journalists have said anything about the bloody massacres of innocent Sinhala and Muslim villagers that have been carried out by these so-called "liberationists".
These have been actions of ethnic cleansing carried out systematically and in cold blood. These were genocidal acts that cannot be whitewashed by any excuse. Women and children hacked to death in their sleep. Devotees praying in Mosques sprayed by bullets while in prayer, not even respecting the sanctity of a place of worship. People hounded from their ancestral properties in order to stake a claim on these lands. These are akin to the atrocities carried out in a darker age on such indigenous people as the Native Americans, in both North and South America, Aborigines in Australia and Maories in New Zealand.
The excuses submitted for breaking off of peace talks, not once but time after time, are pathetic and are transparent for what they are: a lame attempt to justify the unjustifiable. According to a Sri Lankan folk tale, the man who went up a palm tree to steal coconuts, explained his conduct by saying he was looking for grass for his cow. This is the sort of excuse that FACT is making for the Tiger terrorists.
Foreign intervention is called for by these terrorist sympathisers only when the going gets hot for the terrorists. The people of Jaffna do not support the Tiger terrorists. They have to live with this menace. They are not able to show any opposition. The Tigers need them as passports for their own safety to use as human shields when they retreat.
Let us not delude ourselves. The Tigers are not liberationists. They are not interested in peace. They are nothing but gangsters using terror to subjugate their own people in order to be able to rule by the power of the gun.
According to the separatist lobby, one of the reasons why Tamil people cannot live in harmony with the Sinhalese in one country is because the Tamil people were disenfranchised. If this was so, how is it that in 1977 the leader of the opposition was Mr. Amirthalingam's TULF, which is not only a Tamil party, but one which promoted the LTTE to the hilt and paid for the privilege of having done so.
If facts are to be stated the unambiguous truth must be told. The Citizenship Act prevented those who were not citizens of the country from voting. This is not an unusual occurrence, there is no country in the world that would allow non-citizens the privilege of voting at elections. Australia does not allow permanent residents this privilege either, though they may live and die in Australia as permanent residents.
Why this should be held against the Sinhalese and the Government is a mystery. If the separatist lobby can calmly accept the same situation in a western country, why do they expect the Sri Lankan government to have higher standards?
The problem for these separatists is that they did not have their white masters who would give them special treatment. Instead they had to learn to live in a country where they could not expect "most favoured nation" status. Therefore, they resorted to cunning: by alleging discrimination and all sorts of heinous offences against the majority, they sought to put the Sinhalese on the defensive.
Although these actions came out into the open only within the last decade or so, the underground movement has been going on ever since the British decided to allow the "natives to have a hand in the legislature. The political history of Sri Lanka clearly shows that separatist elements among the Tamils have been jockeying for a position from which to launch their movement to gain supremacy over the rest of the nation and be in a position of absolute power.