The World Socialist Web Site has received more letters in response to the March 9 statement "Oppose LTTE campaign of threats and violence against SEP supporters in Europe!" We urge our readers and supporters to send protest letters demanding the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) immediately cease its attempts to suppress political debate within the Tamil community and end all threats against Socialist Equality Party members and supporters. (Previous correspondence can be viewed here.)
To the British Tamils Forum,
I'm writing to condemn the anti-democratic practices conducted by European and Canadian pro-Tamil nationalist (LTTE) organisations against supporters of the Socialist Equality Party and to demand their immediate cessation.
The World Socialist Web Site reported that SEP supporters had been subjected to anti-Sinhalese racist abuse and physical intimidation during last month's public demonstrations in Europe. Today a report in the WSWS about Monday's public demonstration in Toronto detailed the military style thuggishness of pro-LTTE elements once again towards SEP supporters. The SEP interviewed some of the demonstrators, who not only bravely spoke out against the war; they did so under intimidating conditions where their interviewers had been harassed and were under close surveillance.
The SEP has the right to not only voice publicly opposition to the reactionary war conducted by the Rajapakse government in Sri Lanka but also to criticise the nationalist perspective and tactics of the LTTE, to distribute literature and to engage in political discourse with Tamils about the crucial need for a socialist perspective that seeks to unite the people of Sri Lanka (Tamil, Sinhala, Muslim and all other groups of workers) against the capitalist profit system that is the source of war and exploitation, free from intimidation and violence.
The targeting of the SEP by pro-LTTE supporters should serve as an urgent warning to Tamils as to how political dissent would be dealt with in an LTTE-led Tamil statelet.
These cowardly actions also expose the fragile confidence that pro-LTTE groups have in their own perspective among Tamils when confronted by a principled opponent of the civil war.
Peace with justice and dignity cannot be built on such rotten foundations.
The targeting of the SEP must stop immediately!
Sincerely,
Mark L
England, UK
***
For the attention of:
The LTTE and its front organisations in France, Germany and Britain namely,
Comité de coordination tamoul en France,
Tamil Confederation—Germany and
The British Tamils Forum
As an employee of a BPO center in Chennai, I have come to know through WSWS articles about the anti-democratic attacks being carried out by supporters of the LTTE against members and supporters of the International Committee of the Fourth International and Socialist Equality Party in France, Germany, Britain and Canada, and also against other organisations that are critical of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
No individual or organization, including the LTTE, has a right to impose a political monopoly or claim a political monopoly over the Tamil people's democratic rights. I who live and work in Tamil Nadu know only too well the fraud and communal posturing of political parties and organizations of the Tamil elite, as opposed to the multi-millioned Tamil working people in the state.
Take for instance V. Gopalasamy or Vaiko and his MDMK (Marumalarchi Dravida Munnethra Kazagam), who is closest to the LTTE. The MDMK is in an alliance with the AIADMK (All India Anna Dravida Munnethra Kazagam) and its "supremo" Jayalalithaa-led front. Jayalalithaa was a sworn enemy of the struggle of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka for more than a decade and a half. Until March 5, Jayalalithaa was maintaining, like Rajapakse, that it is but natural that civilians get killed in a war and the LTTE must lay down arms and surrender.
The other friend of the LTTE in Tamil Nadu is the PMK (Pattali Makkal Katchi) and its founder Ramadoss. The PMK is a constituent of the Congress-led UPA government of Manmohan Singh and Ramadoss's son Anbumani Ramadoss is the Health Minister in Manmohan Singh's cabinet.
Nimal Sripala de Silva, Rajapakse's cabinet minister, while answering a question in the Sri Lankan parliament, has confirmed what many critics of the UPA government and its constituents the PMK and the DMK (Dravida Munnethra Kazagam) have been trying to hide. De Silva had said on Wednesday, "The victory over the LTTE became possible because of the great help of the Indian government."
The UPA government in Delhi supplies arms, money, logistic and intelligence support to Rajapakse's government to ensure Colombo's military victory over LTTE, while hundreds of thousands of ordinary civilians are suffering from bombing, shelling and near starvation. All these Tamil Nadu political parties are communal parties like LTTE. They are not concerned about the democratic rights of Tamil people in Sri Lanka or Tamil Nadu.
Its Tamil separatist perspective brings the LTTE to a dead end. It does not want now, more than at any time, a democratic discussion on socialist and internationalist perspectives as against its separatist perspective.
Pamela Sheena Archibald
Chennai, India
***
Dear friends,
For many years I have been a supporter of the Tamil cause. Indeed, I first took an interest in "Ceylon" in the 1950s. I was with the US Navy rescue operation in the great typhoon season of 1957, and came to know Trincomalee and the beautiful coast of the north and east. Over the decades I have seen the repression of human rights in your beautiful country. In the 1990s I ate many a Tamil curry dinner here in Sydney in support of the Tamil people.
Today I am disturbed to learn that in communities across the world there is concern that elements of the LTTE are attempting to stifle debate about the situation in Sri Lanka. This is deplorable and unacceptable. Whatever the need for unity under the guns of the State, it is vital that free expression of ideas outside Sri Lanka be allowed without hindrance. It is only in that way that support can be maintained from those who are the real friends of the Tamil people.
I also understand that specific harassment of members of the Socialist Equality Party has been occurring in a number of countries. I wish to protest against that in the strongest terms, and I seek your assurance that this will not continue.
In support,
Gill H. Boehringer
Prof. of Law (ret.)
Macquarie University
Sydney, Australia
***
To Tamil forums and the LTTE,
We strongly protest your organization's blatant disregard for political freedom as well as the anti-democratic attacks perpetrated by your representatives in London, Paris and Berlin against the members of the SEP.
It is revealing that you attacked an organization which has consistently and unabatedly defended the democratic rights and interests of the Tamil people since long before your organization existed.
This is a powerful example of the dishonesty of your political perspective. You shamelessly attempt to use Tamil people in the recent war as human shields by not letting them leave the war zone, while at the same time you appeal to very imperialist powers which have tacitly—and from time to time openly—supported this catastrophe imposed on the entire Tamil population. You then respond to any exposure of this situation by attempting to suppress any opposition.
You do this, not just in Sri Lanka but in the middle of European capitals, in bright daylight. Ironically, these are the same capitals which support the Sri Lankan army's campaign of subjugation of Tamil people and perhaps the physical annihilation of your own organization in the process.
But this is not your main concern. Your main concern is to protect whatever influence you have left over the Tamil masses, by force, if necessary. Naturally, due to the class position of your organization, it never occurs to you to appeal to the working classes of those same imperialist countries in order to stop the recent bloodshed. Indeed, when the SEP attempts to do this job, you have the audacity to stop them in the name of Tamil people.
We demand that such activities stop immediately.
Sinan Ikinci,
On behalf of seven WSWS readers in Turkey