--------------------------'Long live human dignity; shame on international community'
While the so-called international community is "exposed of its shameful conning," thousands of Tamil civilians and combatants are laying down their lives to "uphold Tamil dignity, and human dignity," says a Tamil academic in Colombo. Those who blame the LTTE for bringing in the disaster know well that Colombo always had the option to negotiate or to come out with a political solution convincing Tamils not to continue the conflict. But Colombo’s aim is not power sharing but genocide and subjugation of Tamils by forcing war on them. "The only way now for the IC to come out of the colossus shame is direct intervention and recognition of the justification for Tamil Eelam," the academic said.
Chegou, aparentemente, ao fim o conflito no Sri Lanka entre Cingaleses e Tâmeis. Depois de25 anos de conflito, ataques suicidas, genocídio e uma grande carnificina, o conflito chegou ao fim. Ou, ao menos, espera-se que tenha chegado ao fim.
""Esta batalha chegou ao seu amargo fim. É nosso povo que está morrendo agora de bombas e fome. Não podemos permitir que nenhum outro mal os afete. Temos uma última opção, que é remover a desculpa de nosso inimigo para matar nosso povo. Decidimos silenciar nossas armas", disse o líder rebelde Selvarasa Pathmanathan em um comunicado."
O G1 comenta a derrota da LTTE porém faz uma ressalva importante:
O Sri Lanka venceu os rebeldes separatistas tâmeis , mas está longe de ter ganhado a paz com a minoria tâmil, em um conflito étnico profundamente arraigado na história do antigo Ceilão.Ainda no G1:
A Reuters noticia:Os rebeldes anunciaram horas antes que abandonaram o combate, admitindo sua derrota após 37 anos de insurreição separatista e 25 anos de guerrilha aberta.
Após esta ofensiva derradeira iniciada em janeiro, 200 mil tâmeis se amontoam em campos de refugiados, sem esperança a curto prazo de voltar para casa.
"O governo talvez tenha ganhado a guerra, mas ele deve se dedicar agora às suas causas profundas: a discriminação de inúmeros tâmeis", resumiu Anandasangari, presidente do Frente unido tâmil para a libertação.
Pois, para historiadores, o conflito neste país de 20 milhões de almas pode ser explicado em parte pelo ressentimento da maioria cingalesa (74%) com a minoria tâmil (12,5%), suspeita de ter sido favorecida pelo colonizador britânico até a independência de 4 de fevereiro de 1948, principalmente em termos de educação e emprego.
Desde que assumiu o controle total do Ceilão em 1815, a Grã-Bretanha vem realizando uma política que consiste em "dividir para melhor reinar", seguindo divisões étnicas e não religiosas.
Os cingaleses são em sua maioria budistas, com uma minoria de cristãos (5%), enquanto os tâmeis são hindus e contam também com cristãos (3%). Há também 7% de muçulmanos e 5,5% de tâmeis de origem indiana.
Assim que os britânicos foram embora, a sede de poder cingalês de retomar os empregos ocupados pelos tâmeis alimentou as tensões entre as comunidades.
Em 1972, um tâmil radical, Velupilla Prabhakaran, fundou a organização separatista dos Tigres tâmeis, com base no nacionalism tâmil e no ressentimento de um minoria que se sente por sua vez vítima de discriminações vindas do regime nacionalista cingalês.
A guerra em grande escala que termina neste domingo (17) começou em 1983 após a morte de centenas de tâmeis em rebeliões.
Hoje, a classe política tâmil moderada espera que seus pedidos por mais autonomia política não sejam enterrados pelo presidente Mahinda Rajapakse.
"Muitos tâmeis temem que estas reivindicações não sejam satisfeitas, mas acredito que uma solução política aceitável será encontrada", confiou recentemente à AFP Dharmalingam Sithadthan, chefe do Frente democrático de liberação do povo.
COLOMBO (Reuters) - The Tamil Tigers conceded defeat in Sri Lanka's 25-year civil war on Sunday, with some staging suicide attacks to try to repel a final assault by troops determined to annihilate them.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa had already declared victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) the day before, and the military said the bulk of the fighting was over by the time the rebels said they had been beaten.
Even though there was little doubt about the final outcome of Asia's longest modern war, sporadic battles were still being fought late on Sunday and no one was willing to predict when the last bullet would be fired.
"We are doing the mopping-up operations," military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said. "Suicide cadres are coming in front of troops in the frontline and exploding themselves."
Rajapaksa was due to make a formal victory announcement in parliament on Tuesday morning, but already flags were flying, people were dancing and lighting off fireworks in celebration.
The last act was playing out in what the military said was less than 1 square km (0.5 sq mile), where the LTTE carried out suicide attacks on Sunday before troops freed the last of 72,000 civilians who have fled over four days.
LTTE founder-leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran's fate remained a mystery, although military sources said a body believed to be his was recovered and its identity was being confirmed.
The LTTE, founded on a culture of suicide before surrender, at the last minute issued a statement from its diplomatic chief saying: "This battle has reached its bitter end."
"We remain with one last choice -- to remove the last weak excuse of the enemy for killing our people. We have decided to silence our guns," said Selvarajah Pathmanathan's statement, posted on the pro-rebel www.TamilNet web site.
Pathmanathan, who is wanted by Interpol and was for years the LTTE's chief weapons smuggler, said 3,000 people lay dead and 25,000 more were wounded.
Getting an independent picture of events in the war zone is normally a difficult task, given both sides have repeatedly distorted accounts to suit their side of the story and outside observers are generally barred from it.
O El País conta os mortos e feridos:
Pathmanathan también ha denunciado que en las últimas 24 horas 3.000 civiles tamiles han muerto y otros 25.000 han sufrido heridas y no disponen de "atención médica". "Tenemos que hacer todo lo que podamos para detener esta carnicería. Si ello significa silenciar nuestras armas y entrar en un proceso de paz, eso es algo a lo que ya hemos accedido", ha asegurado Pathmanathan.
Por fim, o derradeiro comunicado da LTTE, via Tamilnet.com:
Dignity and respect for our people is all we ask – Pathmanathan
[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 May 2009, 08:22 GMT]
“Despite our plea to the world to save the thousands of people in Vanni from the clutches of death, the silence of the international community has only encouraged the Sri Lankan military to execute the war to its bitter end. In the past 24 hours, over 3000 civilians lie dead on the streets while another 25,000 are critically injured with no medical attention. To save the lives of our people is the need of the hour. Mindful of this, we have already announced to the world our position to silence our guns to save our people," Selvarasa Pathmanathan, the head of LTTE’s International Diplomatic Relations has said in an urgent statement issued Sunday.
"This we have appealed to the countries of the world and called on them to halt the unrelenting massacre of our people by the Sri Lankan armed machinery. We are extremely saddened that this plea has fallen on deaf ears”, Mr Pathmanathan further said as he desperately called on the International Community to take immediate actions to save the Tamil people caught in the war zone and take necessary actions to protect the cadres and people giving themselves up to the military.
“This battle has reached its bitter end. Against all odds, we have held back the advancing Sinhalese forces without help or support, except for the unending support of our people. It is our people who are dying now from bombs, shells, illness and hunger. We cannot permit any more harm to befall them. We remain with one last choice – to remove the last weak excuse of the enemy for killing our people. We have decided to silence our guns. Our only regrets are for the lives lost and that we could not hold out for longer. We can no longer bear to see the innocent blood of our people being spilled," Mr. Pathmanathan said.
The LTTE had for almost three decades fought the Sri Lankan military and defended its right to carry arms as a means of protecting the Tamil people living in the island. After unilaterally walking away from the Peace Process that began in 2002 with Norwegian facilitation, The Sri Lankan Government had opted for a military solution to end the crisis. Since the war intensified in 2007, several thousand Tamil civilians have died. The recent thrust by the military into the Northern strong holds of the Tamils have seen an escalation in the deaths and has resulted in untold misery with people succumbing to starvation and lack of medical supplies.
“We need to do everything within our means to stop this carnage. If this means silencing our arms and entering a peace process, that is something that we have already agreed to,” said Mr Pathamanathan. “This is the need of the hour. These are historically unprecedented times and require historically prudent decisions. If this means saving the lives of thousands of people, it needs to be done” he stated.
Mr Pathamanathan further stated that, “There is not a person who can doubt the LTTEs fearless and unending commitment to this cause with which we have been entrusted by our people. Know that the Tamils are a people deeply rooted in culture and history. No force can prevent the attainment of justice for our people. Our sons and daughters have taken up this call without question and without hesitation or fear of death. None have hesitated to make the supreme sacrifice for the cause of liberating their motherland. We have not forgotten that it is for our people that we fight. In the face of the current conditions, we will no longer permit this battle to be used as a justification by the forces of the Sinhala state to kill our people. We willingly stand up with courage and silence our guns. We have no other option other than to continue our plea to the international community to save our people”.
