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To work towards the enhancement of the

Tamil Nation and to provide an avenue

for the betterment of Tamil youth in canada

TYOContents

Feature Article 4

Tamil History 8

World History 9

Youth Reflection 10

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Media is a key component to today’s society as it serves various needs from entertainment to providing as critical resources. In regards to its purpose of a resource, it factors in a great extent as providing factual evidence for the genocide in Sri Lanka.

The genocide of Sri Lanka carried out great effort to prevent any source of media in entering the warzones. During the time of war there was no outside media or even representatives of the Unites Nations on the site to report back on the situation; the few UN staff whom were caught in the ‘safe zones’ were bombarded by the Sri Lankan forces. The UN who we rely on to provide information had no international observers present in Sri Lanka as no foreign observers/reporters were permitted. The only organizations that were allowed access into warzones were humanitarian organizations. The UN regrets not releasing figures of the casualties it had at the moment to stop the cruel actions of the Sri Lankan government. Also, UN former spokesmen mentions that it is unlikely that a judicial inquiry will come from Sri Lanka and that the UN panel is working towards

getting the attention of world leaders towards Sri Lanka. Senior leaders and their statements during the time of genocide are on record and will be inquired further. UN former spokesman explains that due to the factor of communication, the UN was faster in working with Libya than Sri Lanka as Sri Lanka was successful in its control over media.

It is a key factor that the Thamil community can stress on to the international community, questioning the reason why Sri Lanka did not allow foreign media if it the country has nothing to hide. Foreign media is an outside source on neither side of those involved in the genocide; however, they are not allowed to enter the warzones, something the world should question. Acknowledging the sacrifices, casualties and future consequences the Thamil community should urge the United Nations to continue serious investigations on the war crimes committed by the Sri Lankan government and constantly draw attention to the atrocities that continue in Sri Lanka.

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eThe implications of the UN Panel Report

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The implications of the UN Panel Report

In mid April the United Nations released a damning report that found that the Sri Lankan Military killed tens of thousands of civilians in Vanni.

The Government of Sri Lanka has claimed that it pursued a “humanitarian rescue operation” with a policy of “zero causalities”. However the UN panel has found the Government of Sri Lankan in serious violation of international humanitarian law and international human rights law which amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

It provides estimates of Tamil civilian deaths in the final phase of the war ranging from 40 000, 75 000 to 80000 and 120 000 respectively based on different credible methodologies. The UN report concludes that a range of 40 000 deaths cannot be ruled out and finds that “most civilian casualties in the final phase of the war were caused by government shelling”

The Panel found credible evidence that the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) committed murder, extermination, and persecution of the Tamil population of Vanni, all of which constitute crimes against humanity (as defined in the Rome Statute of the ICC).

The UN Panel also drew parallels between the genocide of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica and the Tamils in Vanni. As highlighted in the UN panel report Srebrenica was a designated a safe haven (by the UN), encouraging civilians to concentrate there, which allowed the mass killings to take place. In Sri Lanka, the Panel found that the “government shelled on a large scale in three consecutive No Fire Zones, where it had encouraged the civilian population to concentrate, even after indicating it would cease the use of heavy weapons, it shelled the United Nations hub, food

distribution lines and near the ICRC ships that were coming to pick up the wounded.. It shelled despite its knowledge of the impact, provided by its own intelligence systems and through notification by the United Nations, the ICRC and others. Most civilian casualties in the final phase of the war were caused by government shelling”.

The report based their findings on precedents set by the tribunals for Yugoslavia (ICTY) and Rwanda (ICTR), as well as ICC statutes and UN conventions. Now that credible evidence has been found, the Sri Lankan Government needs to be held accountable for these human rights violations. Sri Lanka is also part of several human rights treaties which require international investigations to be performed. The likelihood of Sri Lanka taking the necessary steps for an international investigation is very slim. However it is the responsibility of the UN Human Rights and Security Councils to hold the Sri Lankan Government accountable for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Navi Pillay, United Nations Human Rights Chief called for an international investigation on the war crimes allegation. “I hope that the disturbing new information in the report of the three-member panel will shock the conscience of the international community into finally taking serious action;” said the human rights chief. “The eyewitness accounts and credible information contained in this report demand a full, impartial, independent and transparent investigation,” said the High Commissioner Pillay.

With this new information the Tamil Diaspora all over the world should engage in bringing justice to the Tamils.

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Congratulations to the First Eelam Tamil MP in Canada

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29-year-old Canadian Eelam Tamil Rathika Sitsabaiesen, hailing from Achchuveali in Jaffna, has been elected as Member of Parliament in Canada as a candidate of New Democratic Party (NDP) which has emerged as the leading opposition under the leadership of Jack Layton in the general elections held on May 02. Ms. Rathika now represents the multi-ethnic federal constituency of Scarborough- Rouge River, where Eezham Tamils make a significant section of the population. She is the first Tamil to be elected to the Canadian Parliament. Her successful election by a big margin through the opposition NDP ticket reflects the true feelings of Eezham Tamils in Canada towards establishments that slip in delivering justice to Eezham Tamils.

Ms. Rathika, a first time candidate, secured victory with a big margin for the NDP in the present elections. She polled 41.1% trailed behind by Marlene Gallyot of the Conservative Party, who polled 29.6% and Rana Sarkar of the Liberal Party polling 27.1%.

“It’s the entire community coming together,” she said Monday as she emerged from a crush of supporters after her victory was certain.

Rathika was born in Tamileelam and came to Canada with her family at the age of five. Rathika’s political, social, and cultural consciousness took shape early on in her life as her parents have been community activists who worked towards the advancement and injection of Tamil culture into the Canadian fabric. Rathika attended the University of Toronto for the first two years of her undergraduate studies, where she as he Vice-President of the Tamil Students’ Association. She then transferred to Carleton University, where she completed her Bachelor of Commerce degree. While

attending Carleton University, Rathika served as a Vice-President of the Carleton University Students’ Association, as Caucus Chair of the New University Government, and as Operations Manager with the Rideau River Residence Association. Rathika proceeded to obtain a Master’s Degree in Industrial Relations from Queen’s University, where she worked with the Service Employees’ International Union as a researcher and helped the organization to successfully launch the “Justice 4 Janitors” Campaign.

Since the age of nine, Rathika has been making a difference at the grassroots level as a volunteer and community organizer in various capacities. Her inspiration for political participation stems from the student movement, the labour movement, and pursuit of social justice. The causes which are close to her heart include poverty reduction, affordable housing, access to education, employment equity, immigration, and the preservation of Tamil language and culture. Rathika became involved with the New Democratic Party in 2004 by volunteering in the Ed Broadbent federal election campaign. Since then, Rathika has continued her involvement with the NDP in different capacities. In the 2008 federal election, Rathika was a canvasser and campaign manager. Rathika currently works at the University of Toronto Students’ Union and is the New Democratic Party’s candidate in the federal constituency of Scarborough-Rouge River.

Tamil Youth Organization – Canada wishes Rathika success and are confident that she will continue to fight for peace and freedom for the Tamil people in Tamileelam and for the betterment of Tamils worldwide.

Congratulations to the First Eelam Tamil MP in Canada

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The Ceylon government followed a policy of using Sinhala and Tamil as its official languages until the passage of the Official Language Act No. 33 of 1956. This Act declared Sinhala to be the only official language. The Act dictated “Sinhala language shall be the one official language of Ceylon, and that if immediate implementation was impracticable, the language or languages currently in use may be continued until the necessary change is effected as early as possible before the expiry of the thirty-first of December, 1960” . The Act was not followed by subsidiary legislation in the form of regulations, as was the practice. However, the implementation was based on the policy statements and cabinet directives. This was the beginning of the decline in the “employment prospects for the Tamils in the state services. Their numbers have shown a sharp decline since the mid-1950s; at the moment they have dropped below 10%.”

The Tamils opposed the implementation of the Sinhala Only policy of the government. As the resistance to the official language policy grew stronger, the Ceylon Parliament passed

the Tamil Language (Special Provisions) Act of 1958. The act provided for the use of Tamil in correspondence with the public for prescribed administrative work in the Northern and Eastern provinces. Tamil was accorded the status of an official language in the Northern and Eastern provinces without prejudice to the operation of Sinhala as the official language in those provinces.

The 1978 constitution once again reiterated that the official language of Sri Lanka shall be Sinhala. This position was somewhat a change from the hitherto accepted position of the 1956 Act that declared explicitly that the Sinhala language shall be the one official language in Ceylon. The 1978 constitution, in contrast, did not appear to have that emphatic statement, but it amounted to saying the same thing from the point of view of the Tamils.

The colonization of the Tamil homeland and the imposing of various policies to ensure the elimination of the Tamil language from the island continue to take place at a rapid speed in Sri Lanka. This amounts to cultural genocide.

Sinhala Only Act

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The Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.W

orld History

Just after 6 p.m. on April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. is fatally shot while standing on the balcony outside his second-story room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. The civil rights leader was in Memphis to support a sanitation workers’ strike and was on his way to dinner when a bullet struck him in the jaw and severed his spinal cord. King was pronounced dead after his arrival at a Memphis hospital. He was 39 years old.

In the months before his assassination, Martin Luther King became increasingly concerned with the problem of economic inequality in America. He organized a Poor People’s Campaign to focus on the issue, including an interracial poor people’s march on Washington, and in March 1968 traveled to Memphis in support of poorly treated African-American sanitation workers. On March 28, a workers’ protest march led by King ended in violence and the death of an African-American teenager. King left the city but vowed to return in early April to lead another demonstration.

On April 3, back in Memphis, King gave his last sermon, saying, “We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop...And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.”

One day after speaking those words, Dr. King was shot and killed by a sniper. As word of the assassination spread, riots broke out in cities all across the United States and National Guard troops were deployed in Memphis and Washington, D.C. On April 9, King was laid to rest in his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. Tens of thousands of people lined the streets to pay tribute to King’s casket as it passed by in a wooden farm cart drawn by two mules.

Over the years, the assassination has been reexamined by the House Select Committee on Assassinations, the Shelby County, Tennessee, district attorney’s office, and three times by the U.S. Justice Department. The investigations all ended with the same conclusion: James Earl Ray killed Martin Luther King. The House committee acknowledged that a low-level conspiracy might have existed, involving one or more accomplices to Ray, but uncovered no evidence to definitively prove this theory. In addition to the mountain of evidence against him--such as his fingerprints on the murder weapon and his admitted presence at the rooming house on April 4--Ray had a definite motive in assassinating King: hatred. According to his family and friends, he was an outspoken racist who informed them of his intent to kill Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He died in 1998.

Dr. King is assassinated. (2011). The History Channel website. Retrieved 11:00, May

27, 2011, from http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/dr-king-is-assassinated.

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In an era where the topic of justice and human rights seem to be increasingly put on a platform of importance, it is disheartening to recollect the imagery of how the plight and pleas of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka were and continue to be overlooked.

Human rights... what exactly is that? Supposedly, these rights disregard an individual’s race, gender, or any other trait since they are rights that are innately guaranteed to humans merely because of the fact that they are human beings. When linking the protection of human rights with the Tamil people in Sri Lanka, it clear that contradiction seems to arise. By their very nature, Tamil people should be entitled to the same human rights that everyone on a universal level is entitled to. When considering this, why is it that the Sri Lankan government was so cleverly able to cover the atrocities that made these Tamil civilians victims of a silent war? If human rights are guaranteed, then what happens if they get violated? Who questions the wrongdoings? Who answers?

The tragedy that took place in Sri Lanka, especially during May 2009, has been marked down in history. The Sri Lankan government did not allow any foreign journalists to enter the grounds to witness what was actually taking place. This alone heightens suspicion with regards to what the government could have been masking. When there are so many allegations of human rights violations, why would a government, that claims no injustice is happening on its grounds, forcefully deny entry to the international community? If the ‘truth’ is that no human rights violations are being committed, then why not simply allow the international community to gain access to the truth? The United Nations’ investigation in terms of what

took place in Sri Lanka during this time period is devastating. The war that took place was undoubtedly a silent war. It was one in which the Sri Lankan government and armed forces powerfully planned and executed a disguised version of reality. Their control over the media and communication essentially made the Sri Lankan government effective in carrying out their mission of a war without witness.

As the underlying truth behind this war continues to emerge, it is distressing to recognize that even with the thousands of people around the world who had protested and called for an international war crimes investigation, the request was still disregarded. This resulted in the loss of thousands of Tamil civilians. Why didn’t the world come to their aid sooner? Today, the call for an international war crimes investigation of what happened in Sri Lanka is becoming harder to ignore and disallow.

The audacity of the Sri Lankan government in thinking that they could commit war crimes and mask the truth is staggering. People often say that the truth eventually comes out, and that it is only a matter of time. Right now, the call for an international inquiry is crucial in upholding human rights regulations. The suffering of Eelam Tamil people did not merely end with lost lives; it both directly and indirectly scarred and invigorated an entire ethnic group, and everyone else who values human rights. Though the mental images and pain cannot be erased, they must be addressed. Sri Lanka, is now drenched in the lingering aftermath of a war without witness.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of

destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

A war without witness...

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Join TYOOur doors are always open to new members that are looking to make a difference for Tamils around the world.

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Interested in getting involved?

Please contact us at contact@canadatyo.orgOr visit us at www.canadatyo.org

Speak OutAs Tamil youth in Canada, we have the ultimate duty of educating others, as well as ourselves of the suffering of the Tamil people. Understanding is crucial. And with understanding comes awareness, the most essential step in the path to progress.

Ignorance is not a bliss.

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