Exploring contemporary diplomacy against the changing nature of world politics is important for the survival of the nations or ethnic groups. The importance of the Indo-Pacific region is felt in the world. The Tamils, deceived for the past 14 years, are waiting to absorb the current change.
The Tamils will gratefully extend their support to the countries that travel with them, political and military analyst Arush said in a conference, which was held in the British Parliament Auditorium on 15th of May.
See the full speech below:
Today we are participating in a conference coinciding with the 14th anniversary marking the deaths of thousands of Tamil people killed in the genocide carried out by the Sri Lankan government.
This was the biggest genocide of the 21st century that has taken place, but the victims are still struggling for justice.
The “Internal Review Panel on United Nations Action in Sri Lanka,” commissioned by former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and published on November 14, 2012, found serious failings in the conduct of UN officials and institutions during the final months of war [1].
The internal review, written by former UN official Charles Petrie, also found fault with the UN Security Council. The UN cannot just say that the system failed without explaining who was responsible for that system.
In 2009, the Sri Lankan government committed the biggest genocide of the 21st century, but until today neither the United Nations nor the international community has taken it into account, and they have not come forward to punish the Sri Lankan government or give justice to the victims.
This has been painfully imprinted on the minds of all the Tamil people living in the world and has caused distrust in the United Nations and the international community.
We record here with pain that even when the UN Human Rights Commission passed many resolutions [2], the Sri Lankan government did not respect it, and the West and the United Nations deceived the Tamil people by giving time to Sri Lanka again and again.
Even though the United Nations has reported that less than 10,000 people have been killed in the last year of war in Ukraine, the speed of Western resolutions in support of Ukraine is high [3].
But the fact that this speed has not been seen in relation to the Tamil people, where tens of thousands of Tamil people have been killed, has further pained the Tamil people of the world.
The Sri Lankan government does not respect the resolutions of the United Nations [4], continues to threaten the Tamil people by using the Prevention of Terrorism Act, systematically expropriates the lands of the Tamil people, destroying their cultural heritage and destroying the homeland of the Tamil people.
Even the decision given by the Tamil people in the Sri Lankan Court of Justice is not respected by the Sri Lankan Buddhist monks or the police. The government supports their actions.
That means Tamil people are being denied justice in Sri Lanka. Denial of justice to an ethnic group means that ethnic group is doomed to extinction in that country.
We are saddened to realize that India and the West, who have always promised to bring political solution and justice to the Tamil people, continue to deceive us.
But today the world order is changing. The international community can generally be divided between the East and West. But this bipolar world is gradually morphing into one that is multipolar. The developing nations are starting to emerge as a collective power — both economically and politically [5].
With the rise of China after the trans-Atlantic financial crisis of 2008-09, the global power system has increasingly become ‘bi-multipolar’, rather than remain ‘uni-multipolar’ or become the old ‘bipolar’ system of the old cold war era. While the US and China are the only Big Powers today, there are many other nations capable of retaining their strategic autonomy, or at least secure adequate space for an independent foreign policy.
This would certainly include Russia, India, Brazil, France, and South Africa and could potentially include Germany and Japan. Apart from these countries, many other countries may seek to utilise the opportunity provided by East-West rivalry to pursue their own national developmental and security interests [6].
Meanwhile, the importance of the Indo-Pacific region is felt in the world. The Tamils, deceived for the past 14 years, are waiting to absorb the current change.
Tamils should present, with unity and integrity, their demands to all the member countries of the United Nations. Regional superpowers such as India and China and global superpowers such as America and Russia are no exception to this.
Sri Lanka’s strategic location at the crossroads of busy shipping routes linking Asia to Africa and Europe has become an important arena of geopolitical and maritime competitions between regional and global superpowers in recent years.
Over the past few years, Sri Lanka has become more important than ever to the United States and to India. This was confirmed when the head of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency did pay a secret visit to Sri Lanka on last February.
The Indo-Pacific region has emerged as a key theater of engagement with the return of great power competition. Asia is undergoing major power and military transitions potentially shifting the regional balance.
The regional and world superpowers know that the north and east of Sri Lanka are important in the geopolitical rivalry. Therefore, they cannot ignore the value of Tamils who are native of those areas.
We also know that the Sri Lankan government continues to deceive these countries. The Tamil people will not want the Sri Lankan government and its allied countries to use the territory of the Tamils without the consent of the Tamil people.
The Tamil nation will travel together with the countries and parties who accept our sovereignty, support our political rights, and support us in getting justice for our people who suffered from genocide.
Diplomacy is an essential tool required to operate successfully in today’s international system. Exploring contemporary diplomacy against the changing nature of world politics is important for the survival of the nations or ethnic groups.
The Tamils will gratefully extend their support to the countries that travel with the Tamils. Please support us and save the Tamils from genocide.
Thanks
[1] The “Internal Review Panel on United Nations Action in Sri Lanka”, Nov. 2012.
[2] The UN Human Rights Council (UNHCR) resolutions: 19/2 of 22 March 2012, 22/1 of 21 March 2013, 25/1 of 27 March 2014, 30/1 of 1 October 2015, 34/1 of 23 March 2017 and 40/1 of 21 March 2019, 23 March 2021: 46/1.
[3] Civilian casualties in Ukraine from 24 February 2022 to 15 February 2023, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.
[4] Sri Lanka: Rights Groups Urge Strong UN Resolution, Human Rights Watch report, September 13, 2022.
[5] Collective power of developing nations creating multipolar world, Nikkei Asia, January 16, 2023.
[6] US, China, and Global South in a ‘Bi-Multipolar’ World, The wire, 28 Feb 2023.
