Insight

Dare to be a rainbow nation

By Jeevan Thiagarajah

The visible needs to look beyond war and conflict are seen through news and imagery of around 260,000 IDPs who have so far been accounted, the reported decisions to silence the guns of the LTTE and deaths of all senior cadres.

Preceding this closure was reports in late 1970s when overnight due to an insurrection a curfew was declared.  It was crushed, a special commission ‘prosecuted’ and we hoped all would be well. The crushed insurrection came back with a vengeance in the late 1980s. It was crushed again, with much greater force, accompanying losses to life upwards of 45,000 persons, destruction of property and innovations around anti terror tactics and legal instruments.

Students union

A Youth Commission report’ looked at and understood the underlying causes.  A section of Tamils had by then joined the fray with their own insurrection, started as student organisations. The notable one was Tamil Students League (TSL) or Tamil Manavar Peravai founded in 1970 by Ponnuthurai Satyaseelan. Another one was Tamil Youth League or Tamil Imaginary Peravai founded in 1973 that was progenitor of many militant groups.

Finally General Union of Eelam Students (GUES) founded in London, UK whose members founded   Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students which in turn split into EPRLF - Eelam Peoples Revolutionary Liberation Front that gave birth to the current political party  EPDP - Eelam Peoples Democratic Party. Prior to 1987 the major groups included TELO - Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation, and PLOTE - Eelam People’s Democratic Party. There were over 30 other minor groups.

Clearly a history marred by violence. What drove so many Sinhala and Tamil youth in their own time and place to revolt against the state?  Consequences of a troubled legacy such as ours meant many, especially youth arming to fight as militants or as members of the SL armed forces. The armed forced reportedly lost 23,790 since 1980 fighting terror, around 27,000 died from the LTTE not counting those who died from other groups. The final civilian toll is yet to be known.  Special legal provisions gave cover for the ‘fight against terror.’

Assassinations took place, many went to prisons, were tortured, a few were successfully  tried, many disappeared, fled seeking refugee status, left the country for good, massive population shifts including internal displacement occurred, many became amputees, had scarred minds, became widowed, orphaned, single parent families or were missing in action. Massacres occurred, there were air, sea and land based suicide bombers, and physical destruction was caused, high expenses on defense followed and international relations with some took a dive.  

Life savers

At the end of April, this advice was offered to Sir John Holmes by this columnist, ‘The location of a pocket of resistance by the LTTE and attacks by the SLA are a point of great insecurity for trapped civilians.’ Words of the UNSG, G8 and community of concerned citizens oblige us to, ‘walk the talk’ and go now to lend protection and assistance to those  trapped.

‘If we cannot we must relinquish our offices. We are a confederation of life savers and not undertakers. A loss to life or degradation or injury to a civilian is a failure personal to all of us. We regrettably have failed to date. The zone where they are trapped must be demilitarized if not they should after stabilisation be moved to safer ground.’

In plain words it would have meant, safe passage for civilians, handover of arms by the LTTE possibly to a designated party and clearly end of the LTTE as a fighting formation. Accountability would have had the LTTE having to do so physically. The announcement quoted below would have been fairer by the government.

Probe war crimes

European Union nations have called for an independent war crimes probe into the killing of civilians in Sri Lanka. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband says there have been “very grave allegations” of war crimes on both sides of the conflict and “they should be properly investigated.” In a statement, the EU’s foreign ministers also appealed to Sri Lanka’s government to urgently let in U.N. aid groups to help provide much-needed food and medical care to civilians caught in the fighting and to seek reconciliation with the country’s minority Tamil population. Sri Lanka’s government announced it has crushed the 30-year resistance conflict with Tamil Tiger rebels.

Way forward

The responsibility to protect the word in the sub title is used in the context of governance to protect its citizens from the ravages of the legacy, help recover and importantly call for wise and foresighted leadership for all segments of the citizenry. 

Governance

In the 2000 Millennium Report of the UN SG, there is a line worth repeating, ‘Every group needs to become convinced that the state belongs to all the people.’

The  text quoted is of the instructive of Expert Panel (Majority) Preliminary Report of the All Party Representative Committee, which was released in 2006. It is a blueprint for the way forward.  ‘The crisis in the Sri Lankan polity has arisen because, although the country is multi-ethnic and multi-religious, the numerically smaller ethnic groups have not had their due share of state power which in their opinion, would have facilitated greater integration.  This has resulted in the minorities being sidelined and becoming alienated from the Sri Lankan state, as initial efforts to redeem this situation by a power sharing mechanism failed.

‘In this context, the goal should be to provide a form of governance that accommodates the different ethnic/religious identities within one country, while maintaining unity in diversity, through constitutional reform and thereby making an attempt to move away from conflict. The approach of this group has been to evolve to the maximum extent possible, a form of genuine power-sharing between the different ethnic/religious communities, which is not predicated on any particular model, but which suits our own needs in one, free, sovereign and independent state where, the people of Sri Lanka shall be described in the constitution as being composed of ‘the constituent peoples of Sri Lanka.’ ‘The right of every constituent people to develop its own language, to develop and promote its culture and to preserve its history and the right to its due share of state power including the right to due representation in institutions of government shall be recognised without in any way weakening the common Sri Lankan identity or construed as authorising or encouraging any action which would dismember or impair, totally or in part, the territorial integrity or political unity of the Republic.’

Reconciliation and healing

The leadership of country has to take cognisance of all what we should have done differently. All our abusers and abuses need to be recognised as all our victims who are victims of circumstances of our shared troubled, collective legacy and inheritance.

Survivors who are scarred and families who survive of those who did not come home or were physically or psychologically impaired serving the armed forces and those left behind from those who took to arms against the state must be treated equally and expeditiously. The dead on all sides must be remembered honourably.

Thousands have been touched by material, physical and psychological losses due to our recent history. They are found within the country, in remote hamlets, in private secluded worlds, in prisons, hospitals, in IDP camps, in overseas lands.

Where the law and courts are needed, the process must be applied to all equally and justice delivered expeditiously. Many Tamils feel shocked at the violence at the end. Second generation of Sri Lankans within and outside though have very refreshing words and views. None of which have been heard in full yet. If we were to be truly a rainbow nation we have to count them all and speak to their hearts and minds.

Post war

The radars checking land, sea or airborne intrusions are unlikely to see any hostile flight for some time to come unless we are so flushed with a sense of victory so as to insensitively drive people again to arms. The tanks will not fire, artillery will not be used, rockets will not fly, bullets will not empty from magazines, jets will become obsolete, soldiers and combatants will not need surgery and military burials will not be seen as before.

The media so full of the enemy, victories, bombings, killings, conquests will not have the same storyline. It would be shock to many. Those who learnt to fight will need new vocations which give respect and a dignified standard of life. Affected civilians will need new beginnings. Spin doctors will need new story lines. The supra laws which necessarily circumscribed fundamental freedoms must be withdrawn at the earliest.

Militants and the gun must not be allowed to intrude plural and democratic dialogue ever again.  The serious business of running a country and living in an economically turbulent world will be felt. Raising funds beyond the emergency funds will be a challenge. Substantial contributors will seek the design of long term recovery now. 

The Task Force for Resettlement, Development, and Security has a year to conclude its work. It must as announced produce the plan. Financing the recovery should harness the assets, skills of resident and non-resident nationals. Innovative approaches should be employed. It’s important to draw upon the advice of international expertise, including Walter Kallin, Rep of the UNSG on the Human Rights of IDPs.

 We must draw strength from what we possess.  The recovery must be for what is needed tomorrow, not what we had yesterday. We must attract skills and capital of our people with investor friendly frameworks.  The youth of today will be our tomorrow. We must invest in that tomorrow today. The direction should be about the next market and source of sustainable existence.  Above all we must be humble enough to remember our abnormal violent recent history and share responsibility for what we nurtured at such cost. The war may have ended; the cost will not be so easy to forget.

A Tamil domiciled in Canada writes…

The bitter end of Sri Lanka’s war

As a Sri-Lankan Tamil Catholic who was born and brought up in Jaffna, and thereafter moved to Colombo and then to Canada, I cannot stop grinning while reading some comments.

I was born to wealthy Tamil parents in Jaffna as the youngest daughter in the family. It was way back in late ’60s where people enjoyed peace and harmony in that paradise island. Life was truly a bed of roses.

By 1975-76 things were changing in Jaffna. I heard my parents talking about some murder, and I still remember my father in his deep thoughts. In a few weeks my parents sent my brothers to Colombo to live with my aunt and her family and to attend a leading college in Colombo.

A few years later, once I passed my Grade 5 scholarship, I was also sent to Colombo to attend a convent. At school, my friends were talking about “troubles in Jaffna” and when I asked my parents they told me to focus on my studies.

Colombo different

Days passed by... life in Colombo was quite different but I liked the new change, because there were a mix of people from all nationalities, religions, classes and even caste, but all these differences had a prominent place in Jaffna.

Even my best friend was a Sinhalese Buddhist girl called Nalika.

It was 1983 July... where mob violence started in Colombo, due to the murder of 13 Sri Lankan soldiers in Jaffna. People said “they are burning property and killing Tamils,” we were horrified.

My aunt’s next door Sinhalese neighbours protected us... we were hiding in their attic for several days. The government failed to control the riot and it went on for days. However, during those dark days, despite all the ugly stories I heard, I was able to see the true beauty of my Sinhalese friends, they stood by me, protecting me from all the evils.

I finished school and joined an Indian Bank in Colombo. Gradually, things changed in Jaffna, when “groups of armed Tamil youth” called the LTTE waged a guerrilla war against the government.

Killing spree

They were on a killing spree like maniacs. villagers, women, children, infants, priests... all became their victims. The government army was counter-attacking them, trying to establish law and order to protect the civilians.

Things were getting worse in Jaffna. My brothers (who never visited Jaffna) insisted that my parents too should move to Colombo, but they refused because they just couldn’t leave their massive ancestral property there. They owned three mansions there and all three were acquired by the LTTE and were used as hospitals and a mortuary. Only one room was given to my parents.

Once when my father, who was a well known, respectable lawyer who lived as a king in that area, wanted to talk to the rebel leader, a Tamil youth in late teens pointed the gun to his mouth and threatened him saying “old man, the mouth is only to eat, not to speak...” a few days later, my father died of a heart attack.

We tried our best to get our mother to Colombo, but she wanted to join my father, which she did, a few days later. None of their children were able to see them for eight years and none of us were able to attend their funerals (if there were proper funerals).

In a couple of years, we all left to Canada. I still don’t understand why my parents didn’t want to leave their homeland or house, knowing that they won’t be able to survive with those bloodthirsty maniacs.

Left with nothing

We, who inherited mansions and hundreds of acres of lands worth billions of rupees from our ancestors, left Sri Lanka only with our paper qualifications and the little money we saved. That’s what this LTTE and Pirapaharan did to our family.

Today, when I see those innocent Tamils crossing over to “life”, my eyes fill with tears, wishing that my parents would have done that, years ago.

As a person who believes in God, I know that not a single LTTE leader, or a terrorist, or a supporter, or a sympathiser, or a fund raiser, or a propagandist would survive hell, because for 30 years they gave us and every Sri Lankan, nothing but hell.