SOUTH AFRICAN TAMIL LEADER CALLS FOR THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR GENOCIDE OF TAMILS IN SRI LANKA TO BE BROUGHT TO JUSTICE

By Subry Govender The new president of the South African Tamil Federation has called for those resposnible of the genocide of more than 70 000 Tamils in the north and east of Sri Lanka in 2009 to be brought to justice by the Interntional Court of Justice. Mr Karthigesan Moothsamy, 48, of Benoni, near Johannesburg, who was elected along with his new set of officials recently, spoke to this correspondent during a "meet the people" tour of Durban and its surrounding areas in the second week of January. Mr Moothsamy, who is a successful businessman, said the Tamil people of Sri Lanka must be allowed to determine their own future. He condemned the continued suppression of the rights of the Tamils in the North and East of Sri Lanka. "We highly condemn to what happened to our Tamil people in Sri Lanka," he said. "We will not accept how they are being treated and we will raise our concerns. The law must take its course against those people who were responsible for the genocide against the Tamil people. In any society where there has been wrong doing, the law processes must be put into place." He said he was meeting with organisations that were concerned about the plight of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka. "We will then formulate a co-ordinated approach under the banner of the SATF. We will then take this as an agenda issue to the Government and then we will say we want to be involved in a workable solution in Sri Lanka. "We will formulate something at our conference on March 1 and 2 in Johannesburg. "My personal view is that we need to look into the situation. We need to give our Tamil people the support. "In so far as the TRC that has been suggested - this must be decided by the people of Sri Lanka as to whether this will work for them. "I agree that the TRC is not acceptable by Tamil people but we must extract from it what will work." PROMOTION OF TAMIL LANGUAGE AND CULTURE IN SOUTH AFRICA During his visit to Durban and surrounding areas, Mr Moothsamy met more than 100 people, including officials and members of cultural and religious organisations, individuals and politicians in an attempt "to find out from grass-roots people" about their needs and aspirations as Tamil people. What he found was that there was a deep desire and determination among all people to promote the Tamil language, culture and tradition. Mr Moothsamy said he wanted to ensure that the Tamil language, culture and traditions were promoted and propogated among all people who had Tamil roots - irrespective of their backgrounds. RELIGION SHOULD NOT BE A BARRIER "The SATF caters for all people - irrespective of their religion," Mr Moothsamy told me. "Our (SATF) constitution speaks of language, culture, and religion and then it speaks of politics and social cohesion. We are not asking what religion you belong to. If you speak the language and you are interested in propogating the language then you must be allowed to do that. We need to bring a thinking that we need to co-exist with those around us." Mr Moothsamy, who has now taken leave from his business to administer the SATF on a full-time basis, said they found that the Merebank Tamil School Society (MTSS) was the leader in promoting the Tamil language. MEREBANK TAMIL SCHOOL SOCIETY - A MODEL THAT MUST BE DUPLICATED ALL OVER SOUTH AFRICA "Our programme to meet the people started from the Merebank Tamil School Society (MTSS) in Durban the day after we got elected early in December. "The MTSS comes to us as a model organisation. The strengths of the MTSS can be duplicated by Tamil organisations all over the country and even the world. We we want to take their model and duplicate and replicate it. "We will continue with our programme to meet the people throughout the country - to the Eastern Cape, Western Cape, Gauteng. We are establishing new provinces - Mpumulanga, Nelspruit, Witbank, and Middelburg will become a new province. We are also meeting people in the Northern Cape - Kimberley and we are going to Rustenburg which is in the North-West. There is Tamil people all over the country. "We also want to say that we are producing 100 000 calendars which will create uniformity in this country so that everybody will celebrate all important functions on the same day. This calendar will be all-embracing and will cater for all events in the lives of the Tamil people." SATF TO BE PROMOTED ASA BRAND Mr Moothsamy said he and his executive officials were undertaking the "meet the people" tour because they wanted to build the SATF into a brand "that will encompass all issues that affect the Tamil people of South Africa". "We have established a full-time office because we believe there are so many issues affecting the Tamil people that they need to be attended to immediately. "Our office will be manned from 8am to 5m from Monday to Friday. We have given an assurance that within 24 hours they will get a response on any issue brought to our attention. "We want to ensure that there is uniformity between temple organisations in this country and tackle issues such as the need for bursaries, career guidance for children coming our of matriculation and the need for employment. "We also want to tackle issues such as drugs and other social evils. We will meet with organisations and work with them but we will not dictate." SATF WILL NOT BE SUBSERVIENT TO HINDU MAHA SABHA Mr Moothsamy also referred to the South African Hindu Maha Sabha(SAHMS), which is headed by lawyer, Ashwin Trikamjee. He said the SATF was an independent organisation representing all the Tamil people of South Africa and, therefore, would not be subservient to any organisation. "We have met with the SAHMS in Durban on January 15 and we spelt how we would like to have a working relationship," he said. "There was some kind of a relationship in the past and we have spelt it out to them that this will certainly change. What do we mean by this? We are the official spokes-people for the Tamil people in this country. We made it clear that anything of a Tamil nature that arrives on their desk, then they must refer it to us for us to attend to the matter." WE ARE SOUTH AFRICANS FIRST The dynamic new leader of the SATF said Tamils were first and foremost full South Africans and, therefore, must become fully involved in all aspects of South African life while mainting and promoting their language, culture and traditions. He said: "We must remember that we are South Africans first, and then we are people of Indian origin and then we are Tamilians. "What that means is that we need to embrace our society around us. We need to live in peace and harmony. We need to put in place things to effect that change that we would like to see happen. By that we are saying we should get involved, our Tamil people should get involved in structures - crime prevention programmes, community issues, and other socio-economic matters so that we can effect the change in this, our country. "High on our agenda is to hold a meeting with the President and the ruling party to discuss the issues of need for the Tamil people in our country." FROM A POSTAL CLERK TO A VERY SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSMAN AND CULTURAL LEADER Mr Moothsamy, who became a very successful businessman in a period of 25 years, has come a long way from the small town of Nigel, near Johannesburg, where he was born on February 1 1966. He was born into a family of four brothers and one sister at a time when life was tough. Both his father, Mr Viragul Moothsamy, and his mother, Throbayamal, worked in odd jobs in order to ensure that the children went to school and there was "food on the table". He went to primary school in Nigel and completed his matriculation in Springs in 1984. In 1985 he started work as a postal clerk and at the young age of 22, he was appointed the Postmaster of the Benoni Post Office. But, after five years in the Post Office, he entered the business world at the age of 23 when he entered the business world by opening a truck and bus spares shop. Over the next 25 years, his business expanded expotentially and he had interests in - among others - private schools, filling stations, and care dealerships. He first became interested in the Tamil culture while still a young boy when he used to attend the Nigel Vishnu Temple, which was built by his father. While working as a postal clerk, he also became an official of the Nigel Child Welfare Society at the age of 19 and became involved in the school governing body. And in the early 1990s, Mr Moothsamy became a member of the unbanned ANC and worked tirelessly to canvas for the ANC during the first democratic elections in 1994. BENONI TAMIL SCHOOL BOARD When the family moved to Benoni 20 years ago, Mr Moothsamy became involved in the Benoni Tamil School Board under the leadership of Mr Sunny Nayagar. He first served the BTSB as a councillor and then as vice-president, deputy president and then president. He also served as President of the Gauteng Tamil Federation for one term and has been involved with SATF and the GTF for the past 10 years. Mr Moothsamy, who is still involved with the Benoni Tamil School Board, was responsible for the total renovation of the Benoni Sivan Alayam and the construction of the magnanimous 20 metre Shiva/Shakti Murthi on the grounds of the temple. He was inspired to undertake the construction of the 20 metre Shiva/Shakti Murthi after he noticed a similar structure during a visit to Mauritius four years ago.