France goes for referendum on Tamil Eelam this weekend

Eezham Tamils living in France will be voting this weekend to say yes or no for independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam in the island of Sri Lanka. Polling will take place in 30 centres in Paris and suburbs and in 5 centres outside, between 08:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. Saturday and between 08:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Sunday. The formation committee for the country council of Eelam Tamils in France is organizing the poll with the support of 61 Eezham Tamil organizations and two NGOs in France. Taking the secret ballot will be officiated and presided over by independent French election officers coming from members of the local government councils of France. The poll gains significance at a time when Tamils are left with no choice other than politically proving their geopolitical importance as powers have made it absolutely clear that they are guided only by geopolitical considerations.

Commenting on an emerging situation, Tamil circles said that after scheming the defeat of the militant struggle of Tamils, the powers now don’t want to consider the national question of Tamils even as a speck in their geopolitical designs.

“Global Tamils have to prove the geopolitical significance of the Tamil homelands either side of the Palk Strait, making the powers to listen to reason. It is not that only the Sinhalese can play the card of geopolitics for ages,” says Kirushthi Skathithasan, a Tamil activist in Paris.

All generations volunteer to make the poll a success. A group of Eezham Tamils in France attending a organisational meeting for the referendum

“The referendum on independence and creation of wide spread country councils are of much significance in the emerging context in comparison to monolithic transnational governanance, which is easier for the powers to manipulate,” Ms. Kirushthi said, adding that “in the dictionary of the powers ‘moderates’ mean collaborators compromising the basics, and after exploitation this section will not be respected even by those very powers.”

On arguments that the diaspora has no business to direct the politics of Tamils in the island, Tamil circles said that the argument is more applicable to a few in the diaspora collaborating with Colombo.

Re-mandating the independence and sovereignty of Eezham Tamils based on the main principle of the Vaddukkoaddai Resolution of 1976 has become more important than it was before May, because what remains today is only a political premises based on the democratic will of the free people, they said.

Both the second generation of Eezham Tamils and the older generation, including senior citizens, were found actively and enthusiastically distributing pamphlets this week, calling for overwhelming participation in the referendum.

The voters are requested to bring in any document of identification just to prove that they are 18 or above 18 and are either Tamil speaking people of the island of Sri Lanka or their descendants.

Sri Lankan embassy in Paris unsuccessfully tried to prevent the referendum organisers getting halls of the local government institutions for the poll centres, circles close to the organisers said.

Postal vote is permitted to the benefit of the few living in the interiors.