Four Years Ago The Sinhalam Robbed Our Dignity, Denied Our Right To Life

By Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran -May 17, 2013 

PM - TGTE - Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran

Vanakkam,

Distinguished guests, fellow members of the Transnational Government, brothers and sisters, holding the sacred memory of our martyrs in my heart, I greet you on behalf of the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam. 

Four years ago on this day we witnessed the climax of a genocide of our people in our own land. Four years ago the Sri Lankan government denied our right to life; four years ago the Sinhalam robbed our dignity. Four years ago the Sinhala politico military establishment imposed untold suffering on our people in violation of humanitarian law and civilized norms in an attempt to destroy our political aspirations. The pain and humiliation of those days are still raw in the heart of the Tamil nation. Mullivaikal has etched a permanent place in the collective memory of the Tamil nation just as the word holocaust in the collective memory of the Jewish people. This week’s memorial events are being undertaken centered around the Tamil National Mourning Day.

We are all here with such heavy hearts. We are here not just to pool our collective wisdom and knowledge, but to share among us that knowledge and the refine thoughts of the recent years to strategize for a noble cause. Even though our cause was always a just one, we were overwhelmed in the battlefield due to duplicitous diplomacy. We are here to find ways and means as to how truthful diplomacy can be employed to secure justice that has been denied for us and our departed brothers and sisters. We are here, taking into account the evolving international jurisprudence and the politics surrounding of that jurisprudence to find ways and means to secure justice for our people.

Even though our brethren exhibited immeasurable valor and sacrifices to the utmost kind, we were overwhelmed in the battlefield. Might, however, is not right. We are here keeping in mind the maxim often stated by our National Leader that the world does not revolve on the axis of “tharmam”, but on the axis of interests. We are here to find ways and means how we can coalesce, how we can converge that Tamil political interest and the status quo powers’ geo-political interests. Even though the Tamil nation is now deprived of our hard power – our military power – we are here in the knowledge that power does not necessarily always mean hard power. The question is how we can exercise our soft power of augmented by Mullivaikal ? How we can exploit our soft power in a smart way? We are here to find ways and means as to how we can change the existing ‘Sino-, Indo-, Sri Lanka- Triangular Paradigm’ in which the Tamil nation is an object to a new ‘quadrilateral paradigm’ having four vantage points, namely China, India, Sri Lanka and global Tamils. When we convert our status from object to being a remarkable subject, we will be in a position to influence the course of events.

Distinguished guests who are gathered here are not just intellectuals, professionals and academics, but also activists in their own rights. We will work with unity of purpose amongst ourselves and with others who share our ideals to move our cause forward. With our knowledge and commitment we have in this august assembly can contribute to the birth of a free Tamil nation With dedication and unwavering determination, as an honor to the cries of Mullivaikal, I inaugurate this Conference.
Thirst of the Tamils is Tamil Eelam

*TGTE Prime Minister’s inauguration speech May 15th conference – Tamil Week

India's investments in Sri Lanka topped $1 billion since 2003

With investment inflows of USD 160 million in 2012, nearly USD 2 billion worth of FDI had been committed by Indian companies for the next five years or so.

By PTI | 17 May, 2013

COLOMBO: Indian companies have invested nearly USD 1 billion in Sri Lanka since 2003 and this figure could rise above USD 2 billion in the next five years, Indian envoy to Colombo Ashok K Kantha has said.


With investment inflows of USD 160 million in 2012, nearly USD 2 billion worth of FDI had been committed by Indian companies for the next five years or so, he added. 

Addressing a trade gathering here yesterday, Kantha highlighted that in 2011-12, India's imports from Sri Lanka went up by almost 45 per cent to cross USD 720 million, making Sri Lanka the largest source of merchandise from the South Asian region for India. 

This was a big jump from the USD 45 million imports in 2000-01, when Sri Lanka occupied 4th rank as an import source for India in the region. 

Also Sri Lanka's exports to India had multiplied by over 16 times in this period, while India's exports to Sri Lanka had gone up by less than 7 times. 

"There was thus no doubt that the FTA had brought significant benefits to both sides, but more to Sri Lanka. A number of top Indian companies had displayed high interest in Sri Lanka, investing in the country across sectors such as infrastructure, manufacturing, services, and construction," the envoy said. 

Air connectivity had gone up manifold and there were about 120 flights a week between Colombo and eight destinations in India; almost one-fifth of tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka was from India.