September/October: Month of Remembrance of fighters & India's betrayal.
In South Asia, India tries to act like a 'big brother' but in turn, it is the biggest bully! In September of 1987, we lost Thileepan Anna due to India's betrayal and before we grieved, we lost 12 of our brightest warriors, again to India's betrayal.
As Tamils from Eezham believed India & Indira Gandhi would be our saviors, Thileepan Anna's turn became a big turning point. Fight for Tamil Eelam strengthened by 1983 due to India's role in training all Tamil military groups & supplying weapons.
Liberation of East Pakistan to Bangladesh & Indira Gandhi's brave step towards her support of Tamil Eelam made Tamils put all their trust in India. But was to be trusted?! According to surviving members of Tamil militant groups trained in India, her interest was not for Tamil Eelam but in using us as a tool to monitor and control Sri Lanka. This was witnessed in her conversation with then Minister of External Affairs, Parthasarathy.
Before her true intentions were revealed in Tamil's liberation for their homeland, she was assassinated by her own guards. It was then believed that external forces might have had a role, including Sri Lanka. But Indian government, nor her son Rajiv [who later filled her role] showed any interest in finding the truth. The biggest curse for India (and us) is political nepotism. This allowed Rajiv Gandhi to come to power: he was a foreigner in his own land.
Born with a silver spoon, educated in the West, and married a Westerner, his awareness of India and Indian politics was highly questionable and this was proven right by how he acted while in power. While tackling Indian politics, Rajiv was also in a place to handle the political disruption in India. As he was new to all, he allowed those around him to influence him. J.R. Jayawardena asked him to remove the Tamils in power, hence Parthasarathy and Gopalasamy were terminated from their position & in power came Romesh Bhandari. From then on, every play was controlled by J.R.
Imposed provincial council among Tamil was even stopped and this led to lab grabbing and destruction of Tamil lands & genocide towards Tamils started taking place. They also played a role in creating drift between Tamil militant groups. Witnessing all this, Thileepan anna started his protest using the non-violence method that liberated India. But it did not work in India and we lost him. Within a few weeks, again 17 members of Tamil Tigers were arrested by Sri Lankan Navy.
Even after the betrayal, they respected the Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord (sept 28) & surrounded. If no such accord existed, they sure would have fought back & the Navy would have lost or wouldn't have allowed themselves to be caught alive. Again, we trusted India, and these 17 men were not protected. These men came from Tamil Nadu, carrying documents & arms for personal protection (allowable according to the accord). They didn't fight the arrest as they thought they were covered under an amnesty under the Indi-Sri Lanka Accord. They were taken to the Palaly Military base, which was then under the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF). Sri Lankan government wanted to move these men to Colombo. Knowing the history of how Tamils were treated, they refused. LTTE asked the IPKF to respect the accord and release their men.
According to some, Major General Harkirat Singh J.N.Dixit, and Depinder Singh were against handing over LTTE cadres to the Sri Lankan army but due to orders from New Delhi, they agreed. When SL army tried to take them to Colombo, all tried to commit suicide by swelling cyanise capsules. 12 of our men died while 4 survived. This led to LTTE withdrawing from Indo-Sri Lanka Accord.
Harkirat Singh blames the diplomats and the Army headquarters for the turn of events leading to the conflict. This changed everything for Tamils and for India. https://ndtv.com/book-excerpts/ltte-leaders-swallowed-cyanide-pills-and-everything-changed-for-india-1661795
Abstracts from Thalaivar on the arrest and death of Kumarappa, Plendran, + 10 Annans. - October 1987
- anti-tamil riot
- pogrom
- mass suicide
- mass genocide
All happened due to India and Sri Lanka. And for Tamils to believe India will give us a solution now, hope this will be a reminder of why they are not to be trusted.
Memorial stones to build to honor and remember the 12 men in Eezham
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