Dated: 25.05.2009.
Signed:
Maniyarasan
Kurinji
Kochadai
Thiagu
K. Venkataraman
Aranga Gunasekaran
P. Thirunavukkarasu
A.J. Khan
Amarantha
Natarajan
Paamayan
of the Latin American friendship Association(LAFA)
No.176/10, Vaigai Veedhi, Municipal Colony Salai, Veerappan Chatram Post,
Erode-638004. Contact Phone: +91-9443307681, +91-9445125379.
Dear Comrade,
It is a great shock for the People of Tamil Nadu to find that Cuba, Nicaragua and Bolivia among other countries have supported the Sri Lanka Government in annihilating the Tamil Population in the Island nation.
I am disheartened and depressed both as a Tamilian and as an admirer and supporter of the Liberation Movements of the Latin American Countries. I have spent more than Twenty-Five years in Translating and writing on and about the heroic Cuban and Nicaraguan Revolutions, the Social-Democratic movements of Chile, Venezuela and Bolivia. I have published more than ten books translated by me and have been instrumental in the publication of several books on the various steps being taken now in Latin America under the guidance of Cuba & Venezuela. We, the friends of Latin America, have been watching the happenings in this part of the world like the formation of the ALBA, BANCO DE SUR & PSUV with great expectations for a socialist transformation of the entire region. My friends – both writers and others used to make fun of me saying that though I have been born in Tamil Nadu, India, my heart and soul are permanently wandering in Cuba and Venezuela. But now, with this act of Cuba, Nicaragua and Bolivia signing against the right of the Tamils in Sri Lanka, I find that I have no ground to stand…
It is unbelievable that these countries could sign in support of the Sri Lanka Government (henceforth SLG) in this genocide of Tamils. How could Raul Castro, Daniel Ortega and Evo Morales from the Land of Marti, Sandino and Bolivar favour the crushing of a Liberation Movement?
Is this not equivalent to calling the July 26th Movement as a Terrorist outfit?
Is this not something like calling the Sandinista movement a Terrorist outfit?
Will it be proper to call the people of Bolivia who fought the Water Wars in 2001 as Terrorists?
Will it be acceptable to call as Terrorists the Venezuelan people who gathered outside the Presidential Palace in 2002 against the stooges
of the U.S. to Save Chavez?
Have all of us forgotten that Jose Mariategui, the Latin American Marxist thinker declared that “every land will decide upon the nature of the freedom struggle as suited to its soil”?
How could it be so conveniently concluded that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam be called as Terrorists? How could a Terrorist outfit fight relentlessly for more than a quarter century? It was an Organisation which had been making all out efforts to strike a balance with the Sri Lankan Government but in vain. Guerilla warfare was their last resort and they were a nightmare for the Sri Lankan Army till recently. Now that India, China and Pakistan have supplied shiploads of arms to the Sri Lankan army, it was possible for them to annihilate the Tamil race from their Homeland. They do it with an eye on the Trincomalee Port for expansion of their trade and for geo political reasons. But why do the Latin American countries support them? Is it because China has now become the provider of Latin America? But this is equivalent to selling eyes to buy Paintings.
We here in Tamil Nadu celebrated the 80th Birthday of Comrade Fidel by releasing 8 books on Cuba’s achievements in various fields, its contribution in the fields of education, health care and human rights. Now, we, the Friends of Latin America are in the midst of our preparation for the Commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the
Triumph of the Cuban Revolution and Evaluation of the Consolidation of Latin American Countries under ALBA, Banco de Sur & PSUV, with the release of about 10 books. Now that we have received news of Cuba, Nicaragua and Bolivia (Brazil abstaining) (Chile and Argentina opposing) signing the Resolution of the U.N. Human Rights Council in support of the genocide of the Tamil Race in Sri Lanka, how could we go ahead with this programme with a sharp poisoned knife stuck in our hearts?
We are struck dumb and rendered disheartened and disillusioned by this act by those countries of Latin America on which we have pinned our hopes for the future – Socialism of the 21st Century. Why do these countries wish for wiping off the Tamils from the Sri Lankan Soil, where they rightfully belong? What are the sources of information for these Latin American Countries to decide against the Tamils and in favour of the Racist Sri Lankan Government in the UN Human Rights Council? Here are 6.5 Crore Tamilians in Tamil Nadu – Come to us to know the truth.
Yes… The Sri Lankan Army (SLA) in the name of ‘hunting’ the LTTE had killed and injured treacherously thousands of Tamil civilians. The SLA has also used chemical weapons and cluster bombs to kill Tamils in the so-called “no-war zone” where 3.2 lakh Tamil people were held captive in barbed-wire camps. This apart, hundreds of Tamils in these killing zones died without food and medicine. International organizations like the Red Cross, International Human Rights Organisations, International observers, Media persons and even elected Members of Parliament were never allowed inside the no-war zone. Genocidal killing of Tamils was thus done without witnesses. From Jan 1, 2009 to April 11, 2009 alone, 15,000 civilians were killed and 10,000 were wounded. There are about 10 lakh Sri Lankan Tamils living all over the world as refugees.
We the Tamil people here in Tamil Nadu are under deep depression and now more than ever do we feel the absence of Che Guevara the True Internationalist, who laid down his life for the oppressed people of the world.