We conclude by merely listing the other means whereby the Tamils are put to grave
hardships:
1 . Denial of equal opportunities of employment to Tamils in Government Service and
Government controlled corporations.
2. Sustained propaganda against Tamils through Government approved school
textbooks.
3. Continued Police and Army action in Tamil areas.
4. Denial of the right of peaceful assembly.
5. Denial to many Tamils and Tamil leaders the right to leave the country.
6. Absence of effective provisions in the Constitution protecting the Fundamental
Rights of minorities.
7. Arbitrary arrests and detentions (at the moment there are 42 Tamils under such
detention) and
8. cruel and inhuman treatment at the time of arrest and during detention.
9. The grant of :the foremost place to Buddhism and imposing on the State a
constitutional duty to protect and foster that religion.
10. Denial of the right of representation to 50,000 in the Kankesauthurai Electorate by
maliciously refusing to hold the by-election for the last two years.
THE COMMONWEALTH AND TAMILS.
Sri Lanka is today a State with two nations and the Tamil nation there in seeks its
inalienable right of self-determination. The Tamil problem is not an internal affair.
The Shri Rajagopalachari, the First Governor General Of India has stated:
"Most private wrongs are done within family walls, and most public wrongs within
the borders of States. If world opinion is to consider state frontiers sacrosanct then
there will be no chance for world progress as a whole; tyranny would have received
a world charter."
Any attempt therefore, to regard the Tamil question as an internal affair of the State of
Sri Lanka, would amount to an evasion of recognizing the political and social realities
in the country. There is little doubt that the situation, fraught with many dangers, is
gradually getting out of hand and is one for which there are unfortunately many
parallels. From all accounts the Tamils of Ceylon are beginning to despair of
obtaining their right, through discussion, compromise, and peaceful means; tensions
and frustrations are beginning to crystallize around issues which sooner or later am
likely to lead to a point of no return.
In Ceylon today there is closely a situation where immediate action and assistance are
necessary to stop a bad situation from getting worse. The question would arise
whether the subject of minority nationalities in Commonwealth countries could be
discussed even if such a subject is not on the agenda of the conference. There have
been occasions in the past when the conference did consider subjects like Kashmir
and Apartheid even though they were not on the agenda. The rapidly deteriorating
situation here, demands in the name of common humanity that the Tamil question of
Ceylon be considered at the 20th conference. Recent history shows that the nations of
the world have moved to help a smaller nation in distress, only after many paid with
their lives for their legitimate rights.
The CPA is an Association of Commonwealth parliamentarians who, irrespective of
34