Almost 100 civil society leaders have signed a memo to the Tamil National Alliance urging them to reject the provincial council system and the demerging of the North and East, as they prepare to contest in the upcoming Eastern Provincial Council Elections.

The statement, signed by student activists, academics, religious leaders, trade union leaders and professionals amongst many more from across the North-East, noted that,

“Tamils have consistently made it clear that a unitary constitution and a provincial council system within the confines of a unitary constitution are incapable of fulfilling their political aspirations... There can be no doubt that a Tamil political party with a Tamil Nationalist dispensation can never run a provincial council autonomously, something that even Tamil parties aligned with the Government could not achieve.”

Commenting on the "hard reality" of the TNA’s decision to contest in the upcoming eastern Provincial Council elections, the civil society leaders said,

“That the people want to use elections as a vehicle through which they could express their anger and frustration against the oppression being meted out against them is understandable. On the one hand, while elections might be an opportunity to demonstrate such opposition and anger, on the other hand it is important to also take into account the political costs of taking part in an election.”

“The Tamil people will never allow the bartering away of their political fundamentals for the sake of attaining an  immediate political strategic objective – that of preventing a Government backed Tamil political party capturing the provincial council in the Eastern Province.”

Four “suggestions” were put forward for the TNA to include in their election manifesto,

1.    The present unitary constitution and the provincil council system within such confines should be rejected. The 13th amendment cannot be even considered to be a starting point towards achieving a political solution.

2.    The North and East are the traditional homelands of the Tamil speaking peoples. Any political solution should recognise a merged North and East as the relevant territorial unit. The confidence of the Muslim people should be sought to make this a reality. It is important that the Muslims and Tamils realise that working together is essential to safeguard the existence of both communities.

3.    A permanent political solution can only be attained by recognising the right to self determination of the Tamil people and by recognising Tamil Nationhood. There is no point in a political process that refuses to acknowledge the above.

4.    Despite four months since passing the Geneva resolution injustices and oppression against the Tamil people have not reduced, rather they have increased. The land grab project continuing unabatted, Tamil political prisoners continuing to linger in prison, lack of any progress in tracing missing persons, the continuous destruction of the economic and cultural fundamentals of the Tamil nation, the ever increasing role of the military in the daily lives of the Tamil people, the ever increasing interference into the independence of different sectors of life including education, higher education, health, agriculture and fisheries, the conversion of high security zones into permanent high security zones (including the Sampur High Security Zone), a significant number of Tamils continuing to live as displaced people in IDP camps, the continuous neglect of the livelihood of those resettled are examples of these injustices and oppressive practices. Further there is no progress in holding accountable those responsible for the genocide and war crimes committed against the Tamil people. The International Community has to realise that solutions to these problems cannot be found using the LLRC report as a road map. Both the report and the action plan have been designed to hoodwink the International community and to buy further time. The International Community has to realise that such time is being sort to provide space for the Government to complete its project of destroying the existence of the Tamil people.

The statement ended by asserting that,

"It is very important that our rejection of the provincial council system and a demerged North and East is clearly communicated to the International Community."

See the full statement and signatories in English here.

See the full statement and signatories in Tamil here.