Remembering Mu’l’livaaykkaal is for edification of international community

Dr Fernando receiving the copy of a poetry book by the exiled writer Thirukumaran [left]. The book contains 68 poems which depict not only the pain and suffering but also the power of resistance. Some of these poems were read at the Mu'l'livaaykkaal Remembrance event in Dublin.

Dr. Jude Lal Fernando
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 May 2012, 22:14 GMT]
Remembering Mu’l’livaaykkaal is not wailing for a tragedy. It is remembering the highest achievement of modern Tamil history, when Tamils decisively said no to an entire international community abetting a genocidal state. Mu’l’livaaykkaal is not an end of a journey. It calls for our massive re-commitment of collective political aspirations more than ever, as the Sri Lankan state has intensified its second phase of genocide, again aided by the international community, said Dr. Jude Lal Fernando, addressing Mu’l’livaaykkaal rememberance event in Dublin, Ireland, on Friday. Dr. Fernando, a Sinhalese currently lecturing and doing post-doctoral research in peace studies in Ireland was 
one of the main co-ordinators of the Dublin Permanent People’s Tribunal on Sri Lanka held in January 2010.  

Dr. Fernando’s vantage of looking at Mu’l’livaaykkaal from a Tamil history perspective as well as from a universal perspective of the edification of the international community gains significance, when failed ‘peace facilitators’ like Erik Solheim of Norway, asserting that his view is the stand of the international community, denies the right of self-determination to Eezham Tamils despite the two phases of genocide, and asks them to “abide by the international community.”

There is no support for a new separate state in Sri Lanka or for the models of applying self-determination as in Southern Sudan and other examples, Solheim said in Oslo, a week ago.

“My opinion here is absolutely similar of the opinion of India, of the European Union and the United States of America. [...] – and of a broader western global community. It may not be the opinion of Iran or Pakistan or some other forces. But, it is most certainly the opinion of the influential parts of the international community in the United States and Europe,” Solheim, sharing stage with TNA parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran, asserted at the meeting organized by some diaspora Tamils.
Full story >>