Covid-19 & President Gotabaya’s Military Rule In North And East Of Sri Lanka 

By Kumarathasan Rasingam –JULY 25, 2020

Kumarathasan Rasingam

Tamils in Sri Lanka especially in the North and East are now living between the devil and deep sea. Heavy presence of the military [to the ratio of one soldier to every four civilians 1: 4] and on the other side they are scared of the Covid-19.

The President is determined to hold the election on August 05, 2020 without taking into consideration the voices of the opposition parties requesting to postpone the elections. The government is now under financial crisis and the coast of living is increasing day by day due to the recession prevailing around the world due to Covid-19. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is determined to hold the election as early as possible as he and his party expect two third majority in parliament to repeal the 19th Amendment so that the president will have more powers than the Parliament with executive powers to dissolve the parliament.

The dilemmas facing Sri Lanka since independence in 1948 remain unsolved. Democracy did not take hold as expected then, people still needed a good governance, and what transpired since has been a country raped and pillaged by successive generation of politicians all feathering their own nests while sowing racial and communal discord.

New military facilities have opened across army bases in Jaffna, as the military continues to consolidate its presence across the Tamil homeland.

Despite calls for demilitarisation of the region, the official military website reported that the new facilities were built for the “benefit of soldiers.”

This is the latest example of the Sri Lankan military’s approach to embed and normalise the process of militarisation, despite the armed conflict ending over a decade ago.

The forcible appropriation of lands of the Tamil people for the building of Sinhala Army cantonments, recreation facilities, Buddhist temples and Sinhala settlements is seen by Tamil as a clear move to further blur the demography and a way to plunder the TAMIL NATION and robbing of both its natural resources and of its arable lands with no thought given to sustainable development.

Tamil’s nationhood and Tamil right to rule comes at a critical time when concerns running high over the intensified ‘Structural Genocide’ of the Tamil nation leading to the virtual obliteration of the Tamil Nation that has been undertaken by Sinhala administrations of the past and now pursued with vengeance by Rajapaksa’s administration and gaining rapid rapid momentum in the North and East. The end goal of the Rajapaksa’s and the Buddhist clergy is to make the Tamil Nation extinct on the island.

It is relevant to note the historical maps before the demographic changes and since the Colebrook Cameron Commission in 1833 and later since independence in 1948; it is crystal clear that the Tamil Nation possessed a clearly defined contagious territory comprising the Northern and Eastern Provinces of the island, had its own Tamil Kingdom and was sovereign. The Jaffna Kingdom existed with Nallur as its capital from 1215 AD to 1619 AD and existed for 403 years. Although Sri Lanka is a multi-linguistic, multi-religious country Rajapaksa’s are not prepared to guarantee equal status for faiths Hinduism, Christianity and Islam as for Buddhism.

Sinhala Buddhist chauvinist Governments have unilaterally abrogated Pacts, Accord and promises. 

[1] Bandaranaike/Chelvanayakam Pact JULY 26, 195

[2] Dudley Senanayake/Chelvanayakam Pact 24th March 1965

Indo-Sri Lanka Accord between India and Sri Lanka signed by the Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lankan Prime Minister JR Jayewardene on July 29, 1987.This Accord is still to be implemented fully due to the pressure from extremist Buddhist clergy and racist politicians. 

It is interesting to note that President Gotabaya has recently declared that he is not going to honour the UNHRC Resolutions 30/1 and 40/1 even after getting extensions to implement these Recommendations So far no action has been taken to implement the Recommendations mentioned in UNHRC Resolutions 30/1 and 40/1.

Sri Lankan Government promised the United Nation and the European Union to repeal the draconian Prevention of terrorism Act and will introduce a new one with international standard. So far no action has been taken and still people are arrested under this draconian Law. This draconian Law [PTA] which was passed in 1979 strikes at the roots and principles of rule of law. It denies an accused a fair trial. It unjustly provides impunity for the wrongs of Security personnel. It treats one person unequally below the law and another one above the law. It is a mockery of judicial process travesty of justice in a civilized democratic country.  

It is now in the hands of the United Nations, UNHRC, and International Criminal court to take prompt and punitive measures to force Sri Lanka to oblige and implement the UN recommendations.

IT IS ALSO THE SOLEMN DUTY OF THE CO-SPONSORS OF THE UNHRC RESOLUTION 30/1 AND 40/1 TO RAISE THE ISSUE IN THE FORTHCOMING UNHRC SESSION AND URGE ALL UNHRC MEMBER COUNTRIES TO TAKE APPROPRIATE ACTION LIKE ECONOMIC/DIPLOMATIC SANCTIONS AND TRAVEL BAN TO ALLEGED WAR CRIMINALS.

To the Tamil political parties contesting in the North and East on August 2020;  

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