1. In the island of Sri Lanka a Genocide is being committed against the Tamil people in the north and east of the island. The process of the Genocide has occurred in stages and is ongoing.
2. The Sri Lankan state and its armed forces are guilty of carrying out the crime of Genocide against the Tamil people.
The multifaceted offensive that is carried out by the Sri Lankan state, aimed at dislodging the people from their land, demonstrate the intent to destroy the foundations of national life of the Tamil people in the north and east. The genocidal intent of the Sri Lankan state is based on the motive of ensuring Sinhala rule over the Tamil homeland in the island.
3. The British state is guilty of being complicit in the crime of genocide against the Tamil people.
During their colonial rule the British regarded the island of Ceylon as an important strategic post to maintain control over the sea routes and their Indian Raj. The militarily crucial deep sea harbour in Trincomallee (which Lord Nelson called the finest harbour in the world) was situated in the Tamil inhabited eastern part of the island. Due to their geographical proximity, Ceylon and India enjoyed close and strong cultural and political ties. The historical connection between India and the Ceylon was manifested through the existing relationship between the Tamils living in the island and the South Indian Tamil population. For the British these factors threatened their objective to develop the island into a strategic asset.
In the above context, the British foresaw the necessity to enhance the geographical separation that this military post had by virtue of being an island by creating a unified structural entity with a unique identity that would separate the people in the island from the people of India. The Sinhalese were the ‘chosen people’ to achieve this important task. In 1833, the British created a unitary structure by forcibly amalgamating the traditional Tamil homelands with the Sinhala areas thus laying the basis for a Sinhala dominated unitary state system. Subsequently through their work in the fields of historiography, archaeology and anthropology the British constructed a new ‘Sinhala Buddhist Aryan’ national identity which would see India as an ‘invader’ and the Tamils as the ‘descendants of the invaders’. In sharp contrast to its brutal treatment of the Indian people across the water the British awarded universal suffrage in the island coupling it with an island wide census to instil the Sinhala identity with a majoritarian consciousness. Despite the repeated demands by the Tamils for constitutional safeguards that would preserve their collective rights as a nation, the British transferred the power to the Sinhala elite leaving the Tamils at the hands of the newly created Sinhala dominated state that regarded them as an ‘alien threat.’
The unitary state structure and the Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism became the two fundamental components which laid the basis for the genocidal process against the Tamil people in the North and East of the island. In implementing their strategic policies the British acted with reckless disregard for the probability that genocide would result from their actions and created the motive for the Sinhalese to commit the genocide.
4. The USA is guilty of being complicit in the crime of Genocide against the Tamil people.
After the second World War, the USA replaced Britain as the dominant power in the region. In partnership with Britain the USA maintained and developed the commitment to support and fortify the unitary structure in the island. The USA’s involvement deepened as the Genocidal process was challenged during the 70’s and the 80’s when the Tamils expressed their resistance with the political demand for selfdetermination, for Tamil Eelam. As this undermined the unitary state structure, the USA became proactively complicit in the Genocidal process in the island by providing the military and political support, with the knowledge that it would be used to continue the the said process. During the internationally backed peace process – that started in February 2002 – the USA with the assistance of the UK, deliberately took a series of calculated measures to alter the balance of power between the Sinhala State and the de-facto Tamil administration and succeed in destroying the negotiations process that had provided succour to the victims of the genocidal process. These US/UK measures created the conditions for the war to start and ensured its continuation until the Tamil resistance was physically exterminated – with genocidal results. With the elimination of the political/physical force that had hitherto shown the capability to halt the actions of the Sri Lankan State and its principle backers, the genocidal process was restarted and is proceeding with unprecedented tempo. Thereby, the USA borrowed the criminality of the Sri Lankan state, which is the principal perpetrator, and shared with it the intent to destroy the national foundations of the Tamil people. The motive of the US is to gain control over the island as a strategic asset in their global military power projection.
5. The Indian state is guilty of being complicit in the crime of Genocide against the Tamil people.
In the late 1980’s India intervened against the LTTE, in order to gain control over the Tamil population as a strategic asset, resulting in the death of 12.000 Tamil people. In the 90’s India, as a junior partner, formed a strategic alliance with the US, and then on, increasingly subordinated its strategic policy approach towards Sri Lanka under the US war paradigm, becoming complicit in the genocidal process against the Tamil people.