Tamil diaspora divided over ‘Transnational Govt’ - Karuna

Karuna Amman, a former top Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) commander who is now a Sri Lankan Minister has said the Tamil diaspora is divided and had conflicting views on the so-called ‘Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam’.

 

The Tamil diaspora cannot make a significant impact internationally as it faces internal dissension and is now divided into three segments, Deputy Minister of Resettlement Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna Amman said.

 

Amman split from LTTE towards the end of 2004 following differences with Velupillai Prabhakaran and formed the Tamil Makkal Vituthai Pulligal (TMVP).

 

In March last year, he quit TMVP and joined President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party and was subsequently appointed its vice-president.

 

Amman said that the diaspora had broken into three groups - US-based Visvanathan Rudrakumar, Norway-based Nediyavan and a London-based group.

 

They had conflicting ideas about the proposed ‘Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE)’.

 

Karuna Amman told the Sunday Observer that their efforts to form a TGTE is “another pipe dream like Vellupillai Prabhkaran’s Eelam.”

 

“How can they set up a separate State without the support of the Tamils living in Sri Lanka? They detest the LTTE for having destroyed them. No pro-LTTE element will get the support of the Tamils to set up a separate state in Sri Lanka now,” Amman said.

 

Amman said that the Tamils in the North and the East were confident that the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government would address their grievances.

 

“They were denied development for three decades as the previous regimes had neglected them due to the conflict,” the state run Sunday Observer quoted him to say.

 

“However, the present Government had provided them an opportunity to settle their grievances”, he said.

 

The Minister asserted the Tamil diaspora will not return to Sri Lanka and should create issues for their survival abroad.

 

He said that the Tamil diaspora did not suffer at the hands of LTTE and they had funded it, to make the outfit militarily strong “so that the Tamil diaspora could continue to live abroad,” the newspaper said.

 

“But some of the Tamil diaspora have now realised the truth and they did not wish to join these segments,” he said.

 

Amman said he had discussed the efforts made by the Sri Lankan Government to solve the post conflict issues such as resettlement, rehabilitation and development with the Tamil diaspora.

^HT