Check the label and say- No to Sri Lanka
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Tuesday, November 24, 2009
No To Srilanka
Check the label and say- No to Sri Lanka
LTTE warns against fake news
LTTE warns media to be vigil about fake news spread by interested parties. It appeals to the media to report only official announcement and statements.
A statement released by LTTE Head Quarters said:
As you well know, Mr. Ram was functioning as an overall commander of the LTTE for Amparai district in the recent past. He and our other few commanders have now been arrested and detained by the Sri Lankan Forces. Now they are acting against our cause and our people in the custody of Sri Lankan armed forces. Mr. Nagulan, Former Commander of Charles Antony brigade and Deputy Commander of Amparai District, Mr. Thaventhiran, Trincomalee District Intelligent wing leader are some of them in this list of people in the SLA forces custody.
In this juncture, we are kindly asking you to report our official announcements and statements only, to avoid the fake news regarding our organization and the possible un – easiness among the people.
We will continue to make sure our official statements to reach you through our media department.
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Credentials of IC challenged while widespread rape by SLA alleged in Vavuniyaa
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) intelligence officers operating in the internment camps of Vanni have been allegedly involved in several rape cases during the past months. At least three cases of young victims, aged 14, 15 and 16, appeared in front of Vavuniyaa District Judge in October. SLA soldiers have also raped a 14-year-old mentally retarded Tamil girl inside the Vavuniyaa hospital.
There have been many alleged rapes in Zone-2 and Zone 3 internment camps.
A 17-year-old girl was reportedly raped by the SLA intelligence official who alleged that the girl was a former LTTE under-age cadre and threatened that she would be taken to detention centre where LTTE cadres were kept imprisoned. She was later sent to detention centre. There are also two other girls aged 17 and 19, who have been raped by the SLA officers.
Evidences have come to light through primary and secondary sources and TamilNet refrains from revealing the sources due to security concerns.
In the month of July, injured Tamil girls admitted in the Padawiya hospital were taken for naked open-air bath by Sinhala nurses using hose pipes to the amusement of Sinhala soldiers watching it, according to an eyewitness.
Reports have also surfaced from several sources that an influential humanitarian worker attached to a global body has been making use of women, who have been struggling to find out the plight of their husbands detained by the SLA inside undeclared detention centres.
"I was shocked to learn that there were also Tamils involved in rape cases with the support of the SLA intelligence personnel," an activist documenting the evidences told TamilNet on Monday. "We have three cases registered on this 'influential' international worker".
In May, 2009, three dead bodies of young girls were located at the riverbed near the internment camp. The dead bodies were handed over to Vavuniyaa hospital. Eyewitnesses, who have seen the corpses, report that they identified bite marks and signs of sexual harassments.
Recently, when US State Secretary Hillary Clinton condemned use of sexual violence as a tactic of war, declared rape by soldiers as a war crime and indicted Sri Lanka engaging in such a crime in the 'past', Sri Lankan authorities made a big noise in reaction. Sri Lanka's Prime Minister went to the extent of personally attacking the US State Secretary.
"Everybody knows that it is not a past activity of Colombo, but an ongoing crime facilitated by the entire International Community by leaving hundreds of thousands in the camps at the mercy of a hostile army," said the exiled Tamil activist who is documenting the rape cases.
"Sexual violence by the SLA is not confined to internment camps alone. The Colombo government is institutionalising the crime by creating hundreds of SLA mini-camps amidst populated areas of Tamils."
"This is why the victim nation of Eezham Tamils have lost faith in the empty rhetoric of the International Community and the UN, which have no means of taking any action or providing protection even to those who make the complaint."
"Humanitarian workers who have authentic evidences for the crime and for the perpetrators of the crime in the island, challenge the IC whether it can prove its credentials by taking action if evidences are provided to it," he further said.
Chronology:
03.10.09 Clinton's rape bombshell
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Counter-national conspiracy against Tamils comes to light
LTTE members either in custody or operating units in the island have become the most vulnerable to counter-Tamilnational conspiracies of Colombo government, well informed sources in Colombo indicate. The Colombo government’s focus now is to get the section of the LTTE in its trap to denounce Tamil Eelam and efforts are intensified to make use of the Heroes’ Day to test the conspiracy. Colombo is as usual abetted by certain powers in this exercise, the sources further said. Meanwhile, Tamil diaspora circles responded to the news saying that under current circumstances any ‘statement’ addressed to the public has to be viewed not from the point “what is said or who has said but from where it has been said.” The free LTTE has a great responsibility in promoting the emergence of new democratic political leadership that truly represents the national aspirations of Tamils, they further said.
According to the sources, a crucial strategy in the current war against Tamil nationalism centres around making the LTTE to announce that its leader Velupillai Pirapaharan is no more, even if irrefutable evidences for or against are not citable by it.
When there are no means of explaining the circumstances, whether the haste shown and pressure exerted by certain sections on such an announcement involve renouncement of the goal of Tamil nationalism and yielding into the designs of outside power interests, is the question, commented Tamil media circles in Colombo.
In this context the Tamil circles cited the absence of any international investigation or pronouncement even from any party of vested interest such as the Indian Establishment. They also cited Government of India after the Second World War refusing to accept the version of US occupied Japan on the demise of Subhas Chandra Bose.
According to them, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi who is now worried about disunity could have helped in not encouraging sections of LTTE deviating from the goal of nationalism and thus causing disunity, had he refrained from denouncing Tamil Eelam.
In the meantime, a marked intensification of orchestration, originating from several quarters, has been noticed in recent days actively engaged in not only discouraging Eezham Tamils in their national aspirations but also in luring them to buttress the very forces and the Sri Lankan state that are viewed by them as committing genocide.
Many Tamils who earlier understandingly viewed some of these quarters only as anti-LTTE sections now wonder at their anti-national stances.
Campaigns addressed to Eezham Tamils discouraging their nationalism harp on the current plight of Tamils in the island and on the priority of rehabilitation before any political demands. But interestingly most of such campaign exercises originate from the very same sections that caused the said plight to Tamils by collaborating with Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Conspicuously, a former militant group that is still retaining Tamil Eelam in its nametag advised Tamils a couple of days ago ‘not to demand what is not possible.’
Observers point out that Colombo government is not prepared to handover rehabilitation neither to collaborating Tamils nor to international agencies, but wants to keep it under its armpit. Some diaspora Tamils secretly and openly meet Rajapaksa coterie are only taken around for tours to whet their nostalgic appetite, the observers said.
While Mr. Douglas Devananda made a statement in Zurich that he was discussing rehabilitation and more powers to Provincial Councils, the Buddhist prelate in Kandy wants to do away with PCs and the immediate concern of the prelate in Kelaniya is ‘development’. Rehabilitation of Tamils is not in their diction.
An academic in Jaffna known for his Tamil nationalist sentiments sounded with pessimism as he finds those who pose as Tamil leaders wanting in potency to pursue the nationalist goal.
Diaspora circles watching the situation told TamilNet of the urgent need for the emergence of firm political leadership that doesn’t play stooges.
In their opinion all those who collaborated with Mahinda Rajapaksa or any of them thinking of serving outside power-interests as means of achieving Tamil polity are not fit enough for leadership.
A vicious campaign is being made that expressing national aspiration amounts to revival of violent politics.
Rehabilitation, development and liberation of a people can never come through defeatism or by renouncing the spirit of nationalism or by meekly accepting another nationalism that one despises for ages. Rather they come by asserting to the goal and struggling for it, they said.
Whatever sections of the LTTE that remains free and intact now have the historic responsibility in encouraging the national political leadership in democratic ways, in the diaspora as well as in the island, by incorporating all those who have Tamil national aspirations and by handing over the task to the people, diaspora circles said.
People have equal responsibility in taking up the challenge. They have to come out with apt leadership through democratic exercises of organising their polity. The country councils and transnational government set the platform in the diaspora for the emergence of new leadership. These are sure to inspire independent Tamil leadership eventually emerging in the island.
Collaborationist circles are welcome to achieve whatever possible for them. But their course of politics and their anger with LTTE resulting in discrediting Tamil nationalist efforts don’t serve any purpose other than abetting oppressors inside and outside. Rather they should participate in the democratic process, the diaspora circles further said.
On marking the Heroes’ Day, comments heard in the diaspora was that it has to be marked in a creative way this year, setting positive directions for the struggle ahead.
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Media, journalists in Jaffna issued with death threat again
Two black-helmeted persons arriving on motor cycles Tuesday around 7:00 p.m to the offices of Yaazh Thinakkural, Uthayan and Valampuri Tamil dailies in Jaffna issued a letter threatening the lives of their journalists and officials for publishing false news about ‘terrorists’, causing confusion among the residents of Jaffna peninsula, sources in Jaffna said. The letters signed, ‘Alliance Protecting Tamils’, accused the media and its reporters in Jaffna for reproducing Indian media released photos of Pirapakaran and Pottu Ammaan taken in 2002 and warned them of drastic consequences if they continue in the same manner, the sources added.
“We will not just continue to issue warnings,” the threat letter said.
This threat has been issued in an atmosphere of fear among the media persons in Jaffna after witnessing thousands of copies of Tamil dailies published in Jaffna publicly burnt by another group calling itself ‘Alliance Protecting the Country’ on 25 June, media sources in Jaffna said.
Local media and their reporters publish false news confusing people while failing to bring out true news, the letter of threat further said.
News released by the Tamil Diaspora praising ‘terrorists’ creating an appearance as if they continue to be active, in their websites are being published in the local dailies destroying the self-confidence of the people, the letter pointed out.
“We continue to watch the news published by the local dailies giving prominence to ‘terrorists’ and we had issued severe warnings several times before. It is evident that our threats have been ignored,” the letter said.
The activities of certain persons abroad are being published as news in the local dailies without any evidence at all. Jaffna dailies should publish the news published in the other dailies published in Sri Lanka, it further said.
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Sunday, November 22, 2009
'Future bleak, but do not give up,' veteran Marxist reviewed
“Fifty years of ethnic cleansing have wiped out whole generations who knew any sort of peace, and made cohabitation with the Sinhalese people virtually impossible,” says veteran Marxist A.Sivanandan on the political future of the island of Sri Lanka in an interview to the New Left Review 60, November-December 2009. The 87 years old ideologue, who in his younger days “had no sense at all of being a Tamil” while living in the south, and who now feels “not only for the Tamils but also for the Sinhalese people,” further said: “The Sinhala elite has transformed the country into a counter-insurgency state like Colombia, in which repression, torture, imprisonment without trial and disappeared people are institutionally embedded. I don’t think anything now can be done from above, let alone from the debased self-interests of the ‘international community’.”
A Sivanandan
“It was under Jayawardene that the country’s opening to foreign capital really began:
“Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan bourgeoisie itself has changed: there is no more national bourgeoisie, but rather an internationalized bourgeoisie serving multinational corporations.
“Over the past thirty years, the opportunities offered up to overseas capital have mostly been in the West and South of the country. But now, with the defeat of the LTTE, the North and East have been opened up for exploitation.
“The US has established a new department of USAID, which apparently plans to set up industrial zones in joint ventures with local entrepreneurs; China is planning an FTZ for manufacturing microchips, while India is reportedly going to take over Jaffna High Security Zone and turn it into an FTZ. Israel is also involved in farming and food production in Batticaloa and Monaragala, while Iran is investing in oil processing installations in Colombo and Trincomalee. Japan also has a very influential role, as the main donor—it accounts for over 40 per cent of aid money in Sri Lanka.
“The Tamils have simply been off the radar. The total number, who have died since 1983 is around 80,000, according to UN estimates—many times more than Miloševic´ killed in Kosovo. And yet the West simply stood by and watched. This despite the huge numbers of Tamils who fled to the West—Canada, the UK and Australia combined have half as many Tamils as today’s Sri Lanka.
“The humanitarian brigades of the West remained largely silent while innocent Tamils were being slain. Some in the West want Pakistan to become as ruthless as Sri Lanka in dealing with the ‘enemy within’.”
Mr. Sivanandan, whose leftist political career started well before the independence of Ceylon, brought out his analysis of more than six decades of political course in the island in a nutshell in the 20-paged interview:
Citing the three kingdoms, one of them Sinhala, one of them Tamil and yet another a mixed one at the advent of colonialism in the island, Sivanandan says the unification was brought in for the purpose of British Colonial capitalism, but it prevented a unified anti-colonial movement from taking shape:
“Colonial capitalism needed the island to be unified as an economic unit, but it did not want the different communities to come together in any other sense. The British strategy was to divide politically in order to integrate economically. One of the main instruments for this was to provide Tamils with educational opportunities and use them to staff the administrative apparatus. While economic wealth remained in the hands of the old Sinhala feudal elite, the public services, train stations, post offices and so on were all run by Tamils.”
Sivanandan deviates from the often-repeated and malice dipped formula of Sinhala ultranationalists that has been picked up by some outside academics too, that Tamils under colonialism were well off in ‘development’ than the Sinhalese: “There were no big Tamil landlords [...] education was the only route to jobs and social advancement for Tamils. Under British colonial rule, many Tamils were sent to fill bureaucratic posts in one or another malarial station in the interior, to open up the country, as it were.”
“The first steps towards ethnic cleansing were taken under the government of D. S. Senanayake, in 1949,” Sivanandan says, adding that in 1956 “the UNP had also joined the communalist game—there was a Dutch auction in which it promised to make Sinhala the sole official language within five days; Bandaranaike outbid them by saying he would do it within 24 hours.”
According to Sivanandan events of 1956 which were antecedents to the 1958 pogrom, were “the start of the two tracks towards ethnic cleansing: the official and the unofficial, parliamentary and extra-parliamentary, each overlapping and reinforcing the other.”
“If Solomon Bandaranaike had cut out the Tamils’ mother-tongue, Sirimavo brought them to their knees,” he says on later course of politics that paved way for Tamil militancy:
“At a stroke, she cut the ground from under the feet of Tamil youth. Up till then, they had not been affected directly, and had followed in their fathers’ footsteps—arguing for peace talks, reconciliation, federal arrangements. But now their land had been taken from them, and then their language, and finally their chances of earning a living: they had been robbed of their future. Tamil youths saw that the electoral-bargaining approach of the Federal Party had produced no results, and they had no allies in the South: the LSSP, to its eternal disgrace, was part of Mrs Bandaranaike’s racist coalition government. It was only at this stage that the Tamils took up arms: when they had no other choice.”
On JVP, he said: “The Janata Vimukhti Peramuna (People’s Liberation Front) was formed in 1965 by young Sinhalese Marxists, as a split from the pro-Chinese Communist Party [...] they had not addressed the Tamil question except to put forward a thesis on ‘Indian expansionism’, which served only to stir up animosity against the plantation workers.”
The attitude of outside world to save state in Sri Lanka, however repressive it could be, was first evident in the 1971 JVP insurrection, Sivanandan says:
“In April 1971, the government responded with fierce repression—helped by the full complement of outside powers: Britain, the US, the Soviet Union, China, India, Pakistan, Yugoslavia all offered their assistance. Thousands of Sinhala youths were massacred by the police and army; there were bodies floating in the rivers.”
“It was a clear sign to any Tamil group that might be considering doing the same—and a dry-run for what was to come when they did.”
“The killing of a policeman in Jaffna in 1979 allowed Jayawardene to declare a state of emergency and pass the PTA, which allowed civilians to be imprisoned and tortured with official sanction. The army was sent to Jaffna with instructions to ‘wipe out terrorism in six months’. From then on, it was a struggle between the Tamils and an occupying army.”
1983 pogrom against Tamils had official support, points out Sivanandan.
According to him, Tamil militancy “was a strange marriage of bourgeois-romantic historicism with radical Marxist ideas that generated more and more contradictions as time went by.”
In the analysis of Sivanandan, the degeneration of Tamil militant movement started much earlier when Tamil groups having the same end-goal started fighting amongst themselves and chose the path of eliminating anyone who stood in their way, instead of winning over people who disagreed.
The ultimate self-defeating came because “the military tail had begun to wag the political dog” he says adding that “unlike the resistance movements in Algeria, Vietnam, the Portuguese colonies in Africa and Bangladesh, the Tigers were politically underdeveloped and militarily over-determined. Weaponry was in command, not politics. This was a critical weakness, and it created the conditions for the final defeat in 2009.”
He also cites the defection of Karuna whom he sees “a sort of Ceylonese equivalent of Abbas or Karzai” and says “The reason he [Karuna] gave for splitting in 2004 was that Prabhakaran was only concerned with the Jaffna Tamils, and not about those in Eastern Province, the Batticaloa Tamils. But I think he found he was getting nowhere, and realized he could make a deal with the government.”
“This is what allows the Rajapakse government to claim it has not been waging war on Tamils as a whole. The Colombo elite played on the divisions, split the Tigers and won over a layer to collaborationist politics.”
While many of the Tamils firmly expected India would come and help them, especially as there were 60 million Tamils in Tamil Nadu, the IPKF taking over from the Sri Lankan army in its war against the Tamils, the massacre of civilians by the Indian troops, the military defeat of the IPKF at the hands of the Tigers and the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi are other issues discussed by Sivanandan.
He didn't touch the point of the lone anti-imperialist struggle the LTTE was waging without yielding in to any of the powers, while the Sri Lankan state was abetted by all the powers.
On Left politics in the island and on the LSSP, the first political party of the island in pre-independence days, Sivanandan says, “Ceylon was the only country in the world where the largest left party was Trotskyist, and where the CP split off from it rather than vice versa.” But he adds “the LSSP leaders played key roles in the sorry story that followed. When Bandaranaike was re-elected in 1970, it was Colvin R. de Silva, one of the founder-members of the LSSP, who drafted the new constitution enshrining Sinhala chauvinism—notably in the change of the country’s name to ‘Holy Lanka’.”
However, Sivanandan was self-contradicting, like many of his ilk among Tamils, and the self-contradiction stems from refusal to deviate from considering the island as a single unit for political analysis.
On 1952 rice-riots that made the cabinet in Colombo to flee to a ship in Colombo harbour, Sivanandan says: “This was the very height of civil protest and resistance; the whole country was united by the strike. But then the Left simply caved in: they agreed to talks with the government, and then allowed it to return to power even though they had gained nothing. The LSSP and CP by this time had an entirely middle-class leadership, and they seemed to take fright at their success. I think the Left’s subsequent degeneration can be traced back to this moment.”
The same Sivanandan speaks differently on LTTE agreeing for Western-mediated peace when they were successfully taking on Chandrika government in 2001.
“At this point, remarkably, the LTTE dropped its demands for a separate state, saying regional autonomy would be enough. It seems to me that these talks could have succeeded.”
Sivanandan knows talks couldn’t have succeeded under the given conditions, which he himself brings out. Many other analysts believe opting for peace than fighting ahead was the beginning of degeneration of the Tamil struggle.
Sivanandan who says that decades long events have made cohabitation with Sinhalese people impossible for other ethnicities and “the sixty years since independence have produced an ethnocentric Sinhala-Buddhist polity founded on feudal customs and falsified history, in which the ethnic majority is guaranteed its power forever,” still see “seedlings of hope” in “former LTTE figures now in exile” in their political struggle “not talking about Eelam.”
Sivanandan was able to go, but why shouldn’t Tamils choose to live in the island have their own country at least until the Sinhalese are able to come out of the Mahavamsa myth that doesn’t see Tamils as human beings. What leftist ideology stands in between?
“Buddhism is seen in the West as benign and peaceful. The history of my island teaches otherwise,” says Sivanandan.
He rightly predicts that the Sri Lankan state “is not simply going to give the Tamils their rights. And its authoritarianism means that the next people to suffer will be the Sinhalese themselves.” Yet, like the powers of vested interests, he doesn’t want to end the single State in the island that is causing eternal misery.
A probability that is perhaps missing in the interview is the possible future role of a new Tamil bourgeoisie, emerging especially from the diaspora and harbouring interests in the corporate and Colombo-centric economy of the present form of State in the island, playing alongside Sinhala oppressive forces in acting against the liberation struggle of the Tamil masses as well as against the Sinhalese.
What so ever, the octogenarian ideologue comes out with a guiding statement at the end of his interview: “What is important, and I say this as someone in my eighties now, is not to give up. To carry on writing and speaking the truth and fighting every atrocity. These are the seeds that we can sow. Who knows but that one day they might bear fruit.”
This is exactly the voice that is coming from the diaspora circles now: The struggle has not been surrendered militarily and it cannot be surrendered politically. Tamils have to tell what they want loudly and clearly to the world and register their claim in no uncertain terms without fear or without being hijacked by anyone in their polity. The Eezham Tamil struggle for liberation is of universal dimensions now, addressed to entire world polity and humanity.
External Links:
| NLR: | AN ISLAND TRAGEDY : Buddhist Ethnic Cleansing in Sri Lanka |
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Friday, November 20, 2009
'Norway finances humiliation of Tamils'
The implied message of the reporting is that in whatever democratic ways Tamil polity is organised and aspirations are expressed, such efforts would be branded as ‘terrorism’ and as ‘LTTE projects’, as long as they don’t tally with the designs of the Establishments, however defective and unrealistic their designs could be. The designs of the so-called ‘reconciliation’ are lopsided, insinuating to mobilise only collaborators, said Tamil circles in Norway.
It is exactly for this reason, proposed country councils in all countries and the transnational government have to be formed with absolute independence and commitment of the Eezham Tamil nation and have to be orientated to strengthen the hands of democratic forces inside each and every state, for right decisions to emerge, Tamil circles said.
For more than 60 years now a federal solution couldn’t be worked out in the island either by the Sri Lankan state or by India or by the international community. Those who now advocate for it or claim that they had such a solution under their sleeves have to prove its feasibility by enacting such, if they can, before asking Tamils to get rid of their nationalism. Otherwise, as events took place and are taking place in the island and in the international scenario, Tamils can’t help thinking that what the international community is up to is the easiest solution – total genocide of Tamils, Norwegian Tamil circles further said.
To what extent abetting militarised ultranationalism of one nation but not recognising the democratic aspiration of another nation in the island amounts to professing reconciliation, is the question of Eezham Tamils.
English translation of the feature article by Øivind Fuglerrud, Professor of Anthropology, University of Oslo, appeared in Dagbladet on Sunday, follows:
Sri Lanka and Norway
– half a year after
Øivind Fuglerud, Professor, University of Oslo
Professor Øivind Fuglerud
The remaining of the entire leadership of the liberation movement, the Tamil Tigers, succumbed to rain of bombs on the beaches outside the village of Mullaithivu in the north-eastern part of the country, together with thousands of civilians, many of them sympathisers and family members of active freedom fighters, others scared and traumatised victims of war held back as hostages by the Tamil Tigers.
Many courses of actions that occurred during the final days of the war are still unclear; how many civilians lost their lives in reality, how did some of the leaders of the liberation movement die, which rules of engagement in the war and in the treatment of civilians were breached by the parties. Reliable assertions have been put forward claiming that at least 20 000 civilians have lost their lives during the last months of the war, mainly due to government army's barrage of areas, which they themselves had defined as 'secure', and whether key political leaders of the Tigers were executed after they had surrendered, both the claims denied by the government.
WHAT IS NOT UNCERTAIN is that the civilians who got away during the last weeks of the war and those who remained inside when the weapons were silenced, totalling between 280,000 and 300,000 people, were interned behind gigantic barbed-wire camps under military administration, remotely from Vavuniya. Yet, rounding almost six months, they are still interned there, without the possibility of being freed or being let to reunite with their families.
The government soldiers shot at a group of people, who attempted to flee one of the camps, at the end of September. The situation at the camps is miserable with shortage of food, water, and unsatisfactory lavatory conditions. The British newspaper TimesOnline reported on July 10 this year that the mortality rate at that time was 1400 per week. Persons who were suspected of sympathising with the Tamil Tigers were identified with the help of paramilitary enemies of the Tigers and removed from the camps to undeclared locations and their fate remain unknown. Some of the arrested are found dead. Former minister Mangala Samaraweera claimed on September 22 in the Parliament that 40 civilians were being reported as missing from the camps, weekly. Allegations of systematic sexual violence against the female captives by the military guard personnel have surfaced. Journalists are denied access to the IDP camps, and humanitarian organisations are provided access to the camps with a precondition that they don't criticise the prevailing conditions or the general politics of the government, reports Uthayan daily.
The government has come with announcements that the IDPs would be returned to their homes due to the pressure from the International Community. The Sri Lankan paper, Sunday Times, on October 25, reported that a group of interned people were transported back to the camp after being photographed and getting portrayed to the international press as being "released". Meanwhile, representatives of the Norwegian organisations who work in the country have revealed to the author that the captives who have earlier been portrayed as "freed" were only transferred to other closed camps.
DEVELOPMENT MINISTER Erik Solheim, the Norwegian facilitator of the Sri Lankan peace process between the period from 2002 and 2008, is on record having been quoted by NRK journalist Sverre Tom Radøy as saying that "Sri Lanka is the country where Norway has played its most significant role since the times of the Vikings." This could not be believed today, roughly two years after the ceasefire agreement, which he contributed to be negotiated towards, was annulled. In the final phase of the war, while the Western countries – certainly due to their poor ability and unable to gain any success – attempted to find a solution that could save the lives of civilians, but Norway sat silently like a mouse.
Today, while a massive international pressure is mounting against the Sri Lankan government's handling of the interned, while EU is considering to withdraw the trade privileges due to Sri Lanka's breach of human rights, and while USA is demanding an investigation of the war crimes by the parties in the last phase of the war, Norway is totally absent in the international news-picture when it comes to the opinion on the situation in Sri Lanka.
Norway contents itself by assisting the financing of the internment camps through UN-organisations and the private Norwegian organisations that have been provided access to operate there. The situation of the internally displaced is being described on the same lines as that of a consequence of a natural catastrophe in the government documents of Norway. For example, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry, in its 2010 budget forecast (Prop. 1 S) page 69, says, "Norway would maintain a meaningful humanitarian and political engagement to improve the situation of the internally displaced."
THE TRUTH IS THAT Norway, certainly together with the UN and other individual states, , through its "humanitarian" work, is heavily financing and managing the camps where a considerable number of the Tamil minority people are being held in captivity and dying. The Sri Lankan government has budgeted the maintenance of the camps for the next year with 225 million dollars from the international donors. Probably, the stream of money the camps are generating is a major reason for the displaced still being kept under captivity.
Another reason is presumably that the Sri Lankan government, through the establishment of military complexes and Buddhist temples, is preparing a massive, Sinhalese military and religious dominance in the Tamil areas that have been emptied of inhabitants. It will not be surprising if the Norwegian aid in future is also incorporated into infrastructure-efforts related to this project. Officials in the Foreign Ministry, in informal conversation with the author, have revealed that the Norwegian authorities are up to appeasing the Sri Lankan government, now that the Tamil Tigers are out of the picture. The only way of doing this is to abet the discrimination of the minorities – together with Sri Lanka's other friends Iran, Burma and China.
A minor but an exposing example how this is taking place, in practice, is Norway's cultural cooperation through Concerts Norway (Rikskosertene) with the Buddhist organisation Sewalanka. One of the projects in the cooperation is conduct of a music festival in the town of Galle on 27 November this year. Those who are familiar with Sri Lanka would be aware that the date November 27 is not an arbitrary choice, it is the date when the Tamil Tigers mark their fallen heroes and the day has been observed as the national day of Tamils, throughout the war. The music festival, this year, is part of the Sri Lankan government's celebration of its victory over these heroes, and is a part of the continued humiliation of the Tamil minority - paid by Norwegian tax money.
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Tamil, Muslim political parties find their table in Zurich
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Widely speculated as a drama backed by ‘high-powers,’ leaders of most of the Tamil and Muslim political parties in the island of Sri Lanka are meeting for the first time in Zurich, Switzerland, between Thursday and Saturday. The move is said to be for ‘extracting’ a joint proclamation of them necessary for further power manoeuvres in the island. A couple of years ago it was such a behind-the-scene move of some powers that made most of these parties except the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to rally behind Mahinda Rajapaksa and pledge support to him in the war that brought in disaster to Tamils, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo.
The commentator further writes:
Rajavarothayam Sampanthan, the parliamentary group leader of Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Mavai Senathirajah (TNA), Suresh Premachandran (EPRLF-S, TNA), Gajendrakumar Ponnampalam (All Ceylon Tamil Congress, TNA), Arumugam Thondaman (CWC),Muthu Sivalingam (CWC), Mano Ganesan (DPA), Douglas Devananda (EPDP), P. Chandrasekaran (UPF), Ananda Sangaree (TULF), T. Sritharan (EPRLF-P), Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan (TMVP), D. Siddharthan (PLOTE) and Rauff Hakeem (SLMC) have flown to Switzerland from Colombo.
Immediately after the war a group in London met to discuss to bring in ‘all non-LTTE political groups’ to come out with a political programme to achieve ‘minimum’ demands.
This group is now disappointed that the effort has been ‘hijacked’ by some other elements in London.
The meet in Zurich is now organised by Tamil Information Centre of London with the blessings of India, well-informed sources in Colombo say. In the meantime, sources in Chennai try to downplay the role of India, saying that it was primarily an initiation of US and Britain, with 'reluctant' participation of India.
Timed for the Zurich meet, a BBC report by Anbarasan Ethiraj on Tuesday, said that the LTTE ‘failed’ in the political mobilisation of Tamils even in the diaspora.
A Tamil journalist, known for his leanings towards India, a few days ago came out with an article defending the Rajapaksa family along with ‘inside’ stories abusive of Sarath Fonseka.
When diaspora Tamils in Norway for the first time successfully demonstrated democratically elected polity for them upholding the independence and sovereignty of Eezham Tamils, instead of welcoming a pioneering democratic effort it was received with bias by sections of media trying to project Tamil nationalism as nothing but an LTTE agenda.
Meanwhile, a media run by a Tamil that always jumps at reacting to even slightest criticism on any US policy also now joins in discrediting Eezham Tamils organising their national politics on their own.
Quite for some time now, an esoteric section in the TNA ever since its return from New Delhi is working on some ‘formula’, which was not known even to most of its members for a long time.
When the Global Tamil Forum (GTF), upholding Tamil sovereignty, was formed a couple of months back to look after Eezham Tamil development, a key US official is said to have told the representatives of the GTF that they should think of solutions within one-state formula.
Some personalities seen as operating behind the Zurich meet are said to be contemptuous to moves re-mandating the Vaddukkoaddai Resolution that spells out independence and sovereignty of Eezham Tamils.
Certain circles are arguing for quite sometime now that political demands in the diaspora should match ‘ground realities’ and there should be a ‘joint voice.’ The hint is that the diaspora should not demand anything higher than what is possible for Tamils to open mouth about them in the island.
Efforts to shift the Tamil political focus to Switzerland have been going on for quite sometime with necessary 'groundwork.'
Sections of Tamil media are wondering what power could be behind the Zurich Meet. They fail to understand that maintaining the ‘unity and integrity’ of the state in Sri Lanka at 'any cost', and however injustice it could be, seeing that Tamils are made to drop their national aspirations, are not a single-power agenda, whatever differences that may be existing among the ‘strategic partners’.
Before May, intelligence agencies of certain powers were busy with an anxious question what will be the reaction of Tamils if anything happens to LTTE leader Pirapaharan. Now they are again busy with another anxious question whether violent politics will again surface among Tamils. The anxiety raises suspicion in Tamil circles whether the powers are not confident or don’t foresee their manoeuvres bringing in satisfactory solutions to Tamil grievances.
There will be no room for anxiety if democratic politics are not 'hijacked' and the world listens to and acts on the democratic aspirations of people.
Sinhala polity responds to the situation with its 'traditional intelligence' by producing Rajapaksa–Fonseka equation to conveniently deny any political aspirations conceded to Tamils.
Some of the participants of the Zurich Meet couldn’t have come without consent from Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is now desperate to save his skin.
Powers stage-managing the Rajapaksa–Fonseka equation care only to score points among themselves in the geopolitical competition of dominating the island kept as a whole, and think that accommodating aspirations of Eezham Tamil nationalism is irrelevant in such an exercise.
The determined and concerted efforts of powers in nullifying historically justified cause of Eezham Tamil nationalism, when fought militarily or democratically, are surprising. But, more surprising is the attitude of some personalities among Tamils, who have no faith in the political will power of their own people.
No one can justify discrediting any unity of the political parties of the affected people in the island. But whether the aim of the sponsors who forge Tamil politics from the 'above' is bringing in unity for the cause or unity for the surrender of the cause that has not been surrendered in the crushed militant struggle, is the question.
The Zurich meet may become a success to ‘reconciliation politics’ if it can pave way to set a political de facto situation in the island for Tamils and Muslims, for an engagement of parity with the Sri Lankan state. Otherwise it is just eyewash of helpless forces acting on behalf of Sri Lankan state and powers of vested interests, which in a highly nuanced way now try to invest the responsibility of protecting Rajapaksa regime on Tamils and Muslims.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Toroto MASS RALLY AT SRI LANKAN CONSULATE Nov 21 @ 12:30 pm
Please make every effort to particiapte in the Canadian Concrned about Sri Lanka rally (www.canadiansconcerned.ca) on Saturday November 21st 2009 from 12:00 to 2:30 pm. This is a rally which is different from others. It is being organized by a broad coalition consisting mainly of prominent non-Tamil organizations. Please speak to all your friends and family urging them to attend, it only lasts for 2 hours and it is on a Saturday. There are some prominent speakers at the rally like Jack Layton and Bob Rae.
We should encourage the organizers by showing up in large numbers for this rally. It is very important this non-Tamil coalitions grows, so that a strong message can be effectively sent to Sri Lankan government (and the Canadian government to act strongly) Everyone should work on this effort to get more people for this very important rally, please speak to your non-Tamil friends and co-workers urging them to attend.
If the non-tamil population takes up our issue in large numbers all politicians here in Canada will fight over to champion for Jutice of Tamils in Sri Lanka.
If you have questions or need clarifications please contact Canadian Tamil Congress at (416) 240-0078
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MASS RALLY AT SRI LANKAN CONSULATE
WILL FORM A CIRCLE OF HOPE
FOR THOUSANDS DETAINED
Bob Rae and Jack Layton to speak at a Rally to “Unlock the Camps” in Sri Lanka
Location: Sri Lankan Consulate (40 St. Clair West)
Date & Time: Nov 21 @ 12:30 pm
Toronto – As the humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka remains in critical condition, community groups are uniting this Saturday to form a Circle of Hope. The objective of the rally is to raise awareness and increase pressure on the Sri Lankan government to respond to the plight of the civilians in detention camps. The Circle of Hope will be held alongside actions in at least ten other countries, including the US, France, Germany and Mauritius. The events support Amnesty International’s Campaign to ‘Unlock the Camps,”
Currently tens of thousands of civilians remain imprisoned in deplorable camps. As Amnesty International reports, what the Sri Lankan government is doing constitutes “arbitrary detention”. The civilians in these detention camps should have access to civilian administration, systematic and transparent registration, and have the right to return to their homes.
“Allowing humanitarian aid into the camps and enabling the 200,000 or more civilians to return to their homes would be a signal to the world that the restoration of human rights is key in ending conflicts in troubled lands,” said Allan Parker, United Church of Canada Toronto Conference. The call for immediate release of those in detention camps is echoed by several groups who feel that this issue not only for Tamil Canadians but for all Canadians.
“It is vital that Canadians speak out about the humanitarian crisis in that embattled island and raise these issues with key decision-makers,” said John Cartwright, President of the Toronto & York Region Labour Council. Federal politicians, Liberal Foreign Affairs Critic Bob Rae and NDP leader Jack Layton, will speak about the injustices faced by detained civilians.
Canadians Concerned about Sri Lanka is a broad coalition of community, labour and academics who came together in June 2009 in response to the humanitarian crisis. The group hopes to press the Canadian government and international bodies to pressure Sri Lanka to treat all its citizens equally and in a just manner.
For more information, contact CCSL at contactCCSL@gmail.com
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194 Day of the continuous rally at the White House- November 20
Gather in Upper Senate Park 10:00 for March to White House »» read more
Rally in Lafayette Park in front of the White House 12:00 –4:00pm
Rally in Washington, DC
Friday Nov. 20
Let the Tamil People Go
November 20 is Day 194 of the continuous rally at the White House.November 20 also marks the entry of the BREAK THE SILENCEmarch from Toronto to DC.
Call 1-800-GENOCIDEand tell your Congressperson
to sanction Sri Lanka, and investigate war crimes.
Visit Amnesty’s Unlock the Camps Campaign atwww.amnesty.org
www.ustpac.org
www.tamilsagainstgenocide.org
250,000 Tamils indefinitely interred in concentration camps.
202-595-3123
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For immediate release
November 13, 2009
Rally to Unlock the Camps in Sri Lanka
WASHINGTON,DC: Tamil Americans from around the country will be joined by Tamil Canadians to bring attention to the end of the 180 period promised by Sri Lankan President Rajapakse to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on May 23, 2009 for the release of 300,000 Tamils detained in internment camps in Sri Lanka since the final stages of the war. Two thirds of these Tamils continue to be detained in poor conditions without accountability, family reunification or a timetable for release.
According to a USTPAC spokesman, "These people are being subjected to collective punishment for their demands for political, social and cultural rights in their own traditional homeland. We support all efforts to allow these innocents to return freely and with dignity to their homes in a secure environment."
The rally also indicates the culmination of an epic 6 month long walk by three young men from Toronto, Canada to Washington, DC through Chicago, IL to ‘Break the Silence’ about abuses against Tamils in Sri Lanka during and after the war. These young men walked through the heartland of America making crimes committed on the other side of the world personal for thousands of American citizens and officials. The rally will honor them for their selflessness and perseverance.
During the past month, as international pressure has mounted for the release of the hundreds of thousands of Tamils detained by the mono-ethnic Sinhalese military, the government of Sri Lanka has started making statements that the numbers of detainees have been cut by half. According to UNHCR and other sources, many of these people are simply being moved to more dispersed detention centers. Many of those actually released are left on the streets without resources or the right to return to their homes. Those lucky enough to have friends or relatives to stay with or who are able to go home continue to have little freedom of movement due to military restrictions throughout the Tamil areas.
Of grave concern to all Tamils are purported plans to change the demographics of the Tamil areas through the settlement of large numbers of Sinhalese military, administrators, businessmen and convicts along with their families under the guise of reconstruction and control of a restive population. The government has moved large numbers of Sinhalese into Tamil areas since independence in state-sponsored irrigation schemes, accompanied by dilution of the Tamil vote and voice in national affairs.
For further information call 202 595 3123. Visit us at www.USTPAC.org
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Disgraceful treatment of suspected LTTE captives
A military source disgusted with the behaviour of the army officials involved in the rehabilitation of surrendered LTTE cadres in a rehabilitation camp located in Mudaliyar Kulam in Vanni, confirmed to the Sri Lanka Guardian requesting anonymity that the suspected LTTE detainees are being put through harrowing and humiliating experience in the camp.
The source said the army officials have implemented strict routines in the camp. Each day starts with the hoisting of the national flag of Sri Lanka in the open space. All the detainees are made to assemble in rows in front of the flag and are ordered to give military salutes when the pre-recorded national anthem is played on the audio and then made force marching for half an hour. Army officers with batons and canes are present to ensure strict adherence to the ceremony. Those who failed to give the salutes are beaten after the ceremony in front of other inmates.
The very same routine is said to be practiced in the evening when the flag is brought down.
The source confirmed torture is a routine practice in the camp. He said there were occasions when young LTTE female cadres were taken away in the night and returned the next day morning. He further said some of them were not brought back and their fate is unknown.
The dispirited source said, provision of food for the detainees is bare minimum in the camp and there are no recreational activities to rehabilitate them.
According to the source, one disoriented detainee had said that he had attempted to commit suicide couple of times and circumstances had prevented him from doing so. He had told that he has no choice other than committing suicide as he cannot prolong with the humiliation and suffering in the camp. (By Sri Lanka Guardian Correspondent in Vavuniya)
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Sinhala speakers socially fail in moral responsibility: Peter Schalk
“We all know there will be no apologizing. It may come only when Lanka’s intellectual and political elite among Sinhala speakers faces its judges in an international war tribunal after an international (military) intervention by the UN or a cluster of states, or when the Lankan economy suffers a breakdown. We should not delay any effort to bring these criminals to justice. If they do not acknowledge any moral responsibility we can teach them legal accountability,” writes Professor Peter Schalk opining futility in expecting change and improvement for the Tamil people to come from the Sinhala society that is structurally not prepared by its mindset to accept responsibility and tactically considers pleading guilty is costly.
“What is the moral responsibility – not legal accountability - of Sinhala speakers for the Tamil speakers in the ongoing conflict” asking the question the academic says, “many – not all - firmly believe that the Government of Sri Lanka and its supporters among the people have no responsibility for the well documented disaster of civilians among Tamil speakers.”
Peter Schalk
But Peter Schalk is sceptical justice would come from them: “Having this attitude of denial of guilt we cannot expect from these intellectuals an insight or recognition of failure, especially not at present when the leadership of the country still celebrates its triumph over terrorism (…) consequently there will be no change and improvement for the Tamil speakers.
Peter Schalk, professor of religious history whose areas of specialisation include Buddhism in Sri Lanka, considers the crisis is structural, shaped by “Mahavamsa mindset” and says “its most negative aspect, the evaluation that a war fought with the blessing of Buddhist monks in the name of the Buddha, is just, has to be highlighted by us again and again”
“We read on 19 October that the Sri Lanka President lays foundation for first of nine stupas to mark war victory, accompanied by a picture,” Peter Schalk writes, continuing, “The Buddha’s name is here exploited to justify the war in the island whose nine provinces shall be sealed as parts of the island of the dhamma. Mahinda Rajapakse completes what Dutthagamani has started more than 2000 years ago. Just-war-theory is, however, an aberration of the teaching of the Buddha. He grieves today at his lost Lankan disciples.”
The academic in his article also draws attention to a shrewd and tactical stand of the Sinhala nation: “There is an important obstacle to plead guilty of specified crimes: It is regularly followed by demands of compensation by the victims. To plead guilty is costly.”
Full text of the article by Prof. Peter Schalk follows:
On the Moral Responsibility of Sinhala Speakers
What is the moral responsibility – not legal accountability - of Sinhala speakers for the Tamil speakers in the ongoing conflict? I am aware that this question is provocative and incomprehensible to leading intellectuals among Sinhala speakers. Many – not all - firmly believe that the Government of Sri Lanka and its supporters among the people have no responsibility for the well documented disaster of civilians among Tamil speakers. All responsibility lies with the LTTE. The Government’s use of violence is allegedly justified being a war for peace.
Questions of responsibilities of intellectuals have been put before in several other conflicts in this world and have to be put again, now with special reference to present intellectuals among Sinhala speakers. The same question has to be put to intellectuals among Tamil speakers and to Western intellectuals, diplomats and politicians who have been involved in the conflict in Sri Lanka. Here I only focus on intellectuals among Sinhala speakers.
We cannot expect to find a Jean Paul Sartre, a Noam Chomsky or a Karl Popper among them, but are there at least smaller copies of these within the island? Where do find among Sinhala speakers a courageous intellectual of the calibre of a Willy Brand, one who repeats Willy Brandt’s Warsaw genuflection from 1970? Has any religious body among Sinhala speakers confessed complicity with the war crimes of the Lankan Governments? In 1945 the Confessing Church of Germany pleaded guilty of complicity with the war crimes of the Nazi Government (=”Stuttgarter Schuldbekenntnis”).
True, among Sinhala speakers we find a small group of dissidents. There is the dissident who has gone into internal emigration: he is oppositional, but keeps his criticism for himself out of fear. His fear is justified facing the iron fist of the Government. There are also those who stand up for human rights and therefore are persecuted, imprisoned, tortured and murdered. Their names fill a long list. Many of them have to choose outer emigration, away from their beloved Lanka where they cannot continue their opposition. I want to mention especially journalists having given convincing evidence of the human rights violations and war crimes of the Sri Lankan Armed Forces. Their fate is well-documented by ) Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka. They deserve all our support during their stay in exile.
Dissidence in Lanka has emigrated, internally or externally. There is in the island among some Sinhala intellectuals a strong and long tradition of ideological historiography that functions as an interpretative device on actual events, as a guiding lamp on the history of the island. Much has been written on the Mahavamsa “mind-set” expressing itself today in haughtiness and obstinacy by intellectuals and politicians as response to criticism. This mindset is of course not an autonomous actor, a Hegelian Geist that creates and maintains itself by its own force. It is constructed, upheld, developed, manipulated and transmitted from generation to generation by intellectuals and politicians whenever they considered the interests of the Sinhala speakers to be endangered. Its most negative aspect, the evaluation that a war fought with the blessing of Buddhist monks in the name of the Buddha, is just, has to be highlighted by us again and again. Just-war-theory dominates the mind-set of intellectuals and politicians among Sinhala speakers. It appears in a traditional Sinhala-Buddhist form retrieved continuously from the Mahavamsa, chapter 25, but also in a contemporary modern form that links the present war with the preceding pax americana of the Bush administration. It justified war as a war against terrorism, as a kind of crusade for peace. Both forms alternate or appear together in the process and context of war mongering.
Having this attitude of denial of guilt we cannot expect from these intellectuals an insight or recognition of failure, especially not at present when the leadership of the country still celebrates its triumph over terrorism. Without insight of guilt there will be no shame. There will be no politics of regret. Consequently there will be no change and improvement for the Tamil speakers. Reconciliation is based on an insight of guilt, shame, and regret. How often have I heard violations of human rights being excused by reference to the other side that also violates human rights! German human rights activist today criticising the Lankan Government are reminded of the Nazi past of their grandfathers as if that would pardon Lankan perpetrators’ war crimes.
In the case of Germany and Japan, a military defeat was needed, also the summoning of an international court of war crimes, and an intensive re-education of civilians to make German and Japanese civilians conscious of their war crimes. Without the support of civilians the German and Japanese Governments’ regular armed forces would not have been able to perform mass murders on civilian Jews and Chinese. The same is the case in Lanka where civilians cannot blame politicians and intellectuals only for their crimes against humanity. These politicians and intellectuals are elected by a majority of civilians and they acted in concord with their voters. They demonstrated in open and democratic elections their just-war-theory as motive and legitimisation for their actions.
One SLFP-leader has admitted complicity in the burning of the library in Yalppanam, but only to blame the UNP as perpetrator. Some politicians among Sinhala speakers have admitted that Tamil speakers have just grievances, but these are cleverly never specified. This confessing is of course no genuine realisation of guilt. There is an important obstacle to plead guilty of specified crimes: It is regularly followed by demands of compensation by the victims. To plead guilty is costly.
The patience of the world with the present Lankan regime is cooping out, but knowing its constructed, re-constructed and modernised mindset I do not expect a public performance by the President apologizing and admitting guilt of violations of human rights and of war crimes against Tamil speakers. If it happens it would be a new way of demonstrating Sinhala-Buddhist heroism including of course the preparedness to pay compensation to the victims.
We all know there will be no apologizing. It may come only when Lanka’s intellectual and political elite among Sinhala speakers faces its judges in an international war tribunal after an international (military) intervention by the UN or a cluster of states, or when the Lankan economy suffers a break-down. We should not delay any effort to bring these criminals to justice. If they do not acknowledge any moral responsibility we can teach them legal accountability. All they have said and done in public is recorded and can be used against them. A Government that lets children rotten away in concentration camps has lost its moral integrity. A de-sinhalatva-fication on all social levels is needful starting with teachers in day care centres and elementary schools. It should be made clear on all stages that just-war-theory which is brought to dominate the mindset of the present Sri Lankan Government is part of war mongering.
We read on 19 October: “Sri Lanka President lays foundation for first of nine stupas to mark war victory”, accompanied by a picture (see below). The Buddha’s name is here exploited to justify the war in the island whose nine provinces shall be sealed as parts of the island of the dhamma. Mahinda Rajapakse completes what Dutthagamani has started more than 2000 years ago. Just-war-theory is, however, an aberration of the teaching of the Buddha. He grieves today at his lost Lankan disciples.
[Photo courtesy: Colombo Page]
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