A Tamil Reflection
A young Sri Lankan wonders if there were any true victors.
by M. Junaid Levesque-Alam
Critics bemoan the United States and its allies' failure to decisively defeat Islamist militant movements, casting a pall over the policy debate and ceaseless invoking the ghosts of Vietnam. Meanwhile, a fierce insurgency that has haunted Asia for decades conceded defeat last month to the Sri Lankan government, which trumpeted its apparent victory over the Tamil Tigers by holding celebrations in the capital.
But is this a victory for peace, or merely a victor's peace?
Brintha Jeyalingam is skeptical of the Sri Lankan government's claims and intentions. A 29-year-old American activist with the organization People for Equality and Relief in Sri Lanka (PEARL), her family is of Tamil origin.
Tamils comprise about 12 percent of the population of Sri Lanka; historically oppressed by the Sinhalese majority, they've sought an independent homeland since the nation won independence from England in 1948.
In her youth Jeyalingam didn't witness the conflict first-hand, nor did she jump headlong into the advocacy fray based on political preconceptions. Though in her childhood days she helped prepare advocacy letters that her father sent to congressmen and senators, her knowledge of the conflict was minimal.
"I had heard my parents saying that they came to the U.S. with expectations to return to Sri Lanka one day," she says, "but it never happened and I never questioned why — I grew up living a comfortable life, ignorant to the Tamil issues."
When Jeyalingam visited Sri Lanka to see extended family, her itinerary was confined to the capital Colombo. What ultimately impelled her to broaden her scope was not political interest, but humanitarian catastrophe.
"In December 2004 I went to Sri Lanka to visit my relatives. It turned out that I landed there the day after the [Indian Ocean] Tsunami hit, killing about 40,000 people mostly on the Northeastern coast," she says, adding that she remained in the capital, "[glued] to the television like everyone else while my relatives were making phone calls to find out who survived." It was not until she returned to the U.S. a week later that she questioned why she didn't visit the destroyed villages or the surviving orphans in outlying areas. "At that point I knew I wanted to offer assistance to those affected, but I wasn't sure what it would be."
Jeyalingam researched tsunami relief efforts and, in 2005, quit her job to begin volunteering with the Colombo-based Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (which two years later was blacklisted by the U.S. government for allegedly funneling money to the Tamil Tigers). She spent time in Colombo and then in Kilinochi, to the northeast, absorbing information about reconstruction projects, relief efforts and funding opportunities.
But that's not all she learned.
"As I met more people living in the Northeast," she says, "I saw a clearer picture of the human rights abuses the Tamil population faced for the last 60 years." She learned of and soon joined a local human rights organization, the Northeast Secretariat on Human Rights, and heard people relate the horrors of life in government-held areas, "where sons were abducted by armed men in white vans within military high security zones; where daughters were raped and killed when walking nearby military bases; where families were massacred in their own homes."
Locals reported human rights violations including assassinations and kidnappings targeting key civil society members, as well as young women and children. The binding theme? "All were Tamil," Jeyalingam says.
She remembers a particularly striking experience from August 2006, when government forces bombarded an area approximately 20 miles away from where she was volunteering. "[P]eople were used to daily bombings; sometimes we would not know where it hit, but could feel the ground shake and hear the fighter jets scraping the sky," she observes. Jeyalingam learned only hours later that the bombs fell on a residential camp where high school girls were being trained in disaster relief; 53 died and hundreds were wounded.
Her touching account deserves to be quoted at length:
"Our organization started to immediately piece together a report with these accounts and collect information about the girls. We were able to get individual school photos of all the girls over the next few days and were preparing the report. My mind was racing, I was trying to comprehend what just happened, and write the report at the same time.
At one point I looked at my desk, which was covered with small 1" x 1" photos of these beautiful girls, hair tied neatly back, hope in their eyes. I wondered what each one of their dreams were, what they wished for and whether or not they were able to laugh enough in the last days before their death. In the middle of these thoughts, I picked up one photo and on the back, the name 'Brintha' was written. A Brintha with such a different and cruel fate. That forced me to think about what my role was going to be in the Tamil cause, so that the next time I see someone named Brintha, she is alive."
Jeyalingam's experiences on the ground doubtlessly inform her assessment of the government's claim to total victory. "I do not believe that the Sri Lankan government has achieved any kind of 'victory' as reported in the mainstream media," she says, adding that only genuine recognition of Tamil grievances would prove meaningful.
Is the national government committed to accommodating the Tamil minority's concerns and aspirations? Present and past indications inspire little confidence. As noted in a New York Times editorial titled "No Victory in Sri Lanka," President Mahinda Rajapaksa "callously rejected international pleas for a cease-fire to let civilians escape the war zone, while his troops shelled the area" in the waning months of the war, and his vague statements about reconciliation so far lack specifics.
While acknowledging that allegations leveled at the Tamil Tigers (as well as the army) of using civilians as human shields should be investigated, Jeyalingam points out that it was the army that refused several ceasefire offers in April and May. Citing massacres committed against Tamils in the past several decades, she believes that reconciliation will not come easily.
UN officials place the Tamil civilian death toll since January 2009 at 20,000, and, she says, the government is still preventing international aid in some camps ("every Tamil is suspected of being a 'terrorist' and has no protection"). Jeyalingam therefore believes that the government's actions thus far amount to a sort of slow-motion genocide.
She is resolved to continue to struggle for Tamil rights from wherever she happens to be, forming part of an extensive Tamil diaspora that, as one Times blog headline announced, is "not ready to surrender."
"Some analysts have claimed that a younger generation of Tamils could be 'radicalized' leading to new forms of terrorism, which I find completely absurd," Jeyalingam says. Highlighting the value of action alerts and outreach efforts, Jeyalingam says, "If one looks at the efforts of the younger generation, you will see that they are using grassroots advocacy to engage with their elected officials and human rights organizations."
Such activism, she says, offers a distinct advantage: "This is a movement that the Sri Lankan government cannot defeat militarily." [courtesy: wiretapmag]
Levesque-Alam blogs about America and Islam at Crossing the Crescent. Co-founder of Left Hook, he's also a journalism graduate of Northeastern University and has worked for the daily press in suburban Massachusetts and weeklies in Queens, New York. He now works as a communications coordinator for an anti-domestic violence agency in the NYC area.
12 Comments
A few weeks ago, there was a military parade in Colombo to celeberate "victory". war criminals and Tamil genocide perpetrators marched on the streets with arrogance, defiantly displaying the military hardware used for their crimes during the past two years. It reminded me of the military display during the Jewish genocidal days of Adolf Hitler.
The UN called for probe into the war crrimes committed by the government of Sri Lanka(GOSL). But G.L.Peiris, a cabinet minister, uttered in Japan that no criminal charges would be made against any soldiers in any court in SL. Peiris has blood on his hands too in war crimes.
It was no surprise to Tamils. The so called judicial system in SL was never able and willing to impart justice to them. Former Chief Justice Sanath de Silva pronounced this ugliness very clearly in his last press conference held recently, prior to his retirement.
Implementation of justice in any democracy answers the agonising questions for the affected persons and societies.
In case of violation of rule of law, justice becomes an expression of the renewal of law and order.
Criminal justice deals with the evil past and it pins responsibility on persons or even on an entire society for crimes committed.
Justice gives reasons for illiberal rule and accountability is ensured. It answers the question "who bears responsibility for repression, retribution, genocide and war crimes?"
Surely, any such benefits of justice could never be expected to emerge to Tamils from the existing unjust "judicial system" in SL. During the past two years, too many Tamil civilians have been killed, maimed or displaced by soldiers.
Justice by the state was not even attempted. Soldiers who perpetrated these crime should be judged, punished and rehabilitated. Justice cannot even be imparted to Tamils from any regional probe, as India, Pakistan and China were active associates in these crimes. One criminal should not be asked to adjudicate another criminal when justice is seriously desired.
At present, more than 300,000 Tamils are kept in military controlled concentration camps. About 13,000 persons have disappeared from these camps after the government announced that the war was over. The elderly are dying, children are starving and women are being raped.
Injustice in SL is an attack on human civilisation.
Peace cannot be achieved without reconciliation. Reconciliation is not possible without justice
The UN should therefore appoint a war crimes tribunal without any rhetoric whatsoever, to bring about justice reconciliation and peace in SL, having in mind the basic judicial principle that criminals resist justice.
Wherever in the world any movement took arms against government,sooner or later, they are getting the same treatment LTTE got last month.WE SAW HOW THEY KILLING THEIR OWN PEOPLE.
SL government wage a war with terrorists who hiding behind civilians.Because of that innocent people died.LTTE thought that hiding behind people they were safe.Many Presidents tried to solve this problem by discussion and LTTE deceived them and some killed by them
.
Anyway justice is a word which has no meaning in a war with armed terrorists.IF ANYBODY RESPONSIBILE FOR THE DEATH OF INNOCENT CIVILIANS IT IS NOONE BUT TAMIL DIASPORA.They are the people who funded LTTE.
The people who talk about Justice now,even don't say a word when thousands of innocent people killed by LTTE for the last 30years.
Ordinary Sinhalese have nothing much to be proud of..They lead simple lives and many hate the Politicians..and I feel many hate Tamils also!
Majority of ordinary Tamils (54%) live amongst Sinhalese people and they also lead simple lives and have nothing much to be proud of..They obviously hate Politicians and many hate Sinhalese people.
Both these communities are very proud and don't respect each other!
There is so much of hatred amongst these 2 communities,at least for the time-being, even though they live side by side and they have nothing much to protect or lose.
I think we will never learn to respect each other and will never live in harmony and Tamils will suffer MORE whenever there is a conflict as they are outnumbered.
We have clashed many times historically and will continue to do so, therefore there will be no reconciliation. Hence its better for peace-loving Tamils to migrate either to India or to another country, so that they can live in peace.
Able Sinhalese also tend to migrate not because they don't have a country but because they want to live in peace!
Those who don't want peace can remain in Sri Lanka and continue hatred, conflict and confrontation in future also!
Ramesh, what about the majority who don't hate others and who want to live in peace but have no opportunity to live outside. Therefore, have no option but to continue to live in SL and continue to undergo war?
Ms Jeyalingam, I can truly sympathise with you what you went through to see those young girls bombed. That is something we in the south have in common with you, when we also had to go through the same experience over and over again each time the LTTE planted bombs in public places and sent suicide bombers. However, I note you make no mention of such feelings when Tamil kids were robbed of their childhood and made to fight for the LTTE threatening to kill their family if they refused.
Posted by: rana :
"Wherever in the world any movement took arms against government,sooner or later, they are getting the same treatment LTTE got last month."
That is a brainwashed idology. What do you think about ANC who took arms against South African government?
How Erithrian got liberation?
How Sandinistas got power over the militery rule in Nicaragua?
If Vietnamese didn't take arms against US, the world order would have been different.
It is true the LTTE didn't travel in the correct path many places. But that does not mean Tamils were safe in SL. If tamils were safe, 1956/77/81/83 riots would not have happened. Or even those happened no single charges made to provide the justice people. Thease are all pre-tiger period.
you said:
"SL government wage a war with terrorists who hiding behind civilians.Because of that innocent people died."
1. You are saying LTTE are terrorist.
2. Gov wage the war - offensive.
So, should the government have any kind of responsibility to safeguard the people? As you say terrorist will not care people, then you are happy to attack and see innocent die? Are they Sri Lankan? If there is a responsible government, they should have the plan to save the people first. You do the offensive and put the blame on tigers is a kind of creul joke.
This was the history. JVP upraise have been finished off the same way killing as much people as possible. More then 100,000 people -mostly youth- have died "WE SAW HOW THEY KILLING THEIR OWN PEOPLE(your words)". Now tigers have been wipped out more then 100,000 died since 1983 mostly tamils.
We are now happy saying terror free country. But having the same system (if not too worse) of governing. We do not have changed anything since 1948. More then that we are not ready to discuss anything. Do we have a gurentee that we do not have another JVP, tigers or both born again.
People will always get against militery powers which act against their will. That is the human history. No country in the world will be safe/peaceful if they do not want to listen the people. Or if they think they can control people by militery.
Negative thinking - if it is from Gov or tigers - did not work for long. e.g: if the Sirimao government would have built 5-10 universities to accomodate more students in 1971 rather then bringing standardaisaton. We would have a totally different world in SL right now.
Last week one of my friend travelled from Jaffna to Vavunia camp to see his relative. They took 2 days to reach vavunia from Jaffna (Jaffna-Trinco-Vavunia).
SLA allow to talk only 10 minutes. When they met they have emotional first. As many of the relative lost lives and relatives here that first time…
And he said the place was full of flies as even they cannot stand and see each other clearly (remember they are both sides of barb wires too).
This is not winning. This is not peace. As one of the writer said: "we can argue what is right and what is wrong, but we cannot stop the future, if we have situations like this, we will get worse again".
It's unfortunate that Ms.Jeyalingam chooses not to acknowledge the two ceasefires by the government that the LTTE rejected out-of-hand but took advantage of to further effectively corral the Tamil civilians about them
glossing over LTTE actions with a gossamer-thin "acknowledgement of charges levelled at the LTTE" does no good to anyone - reconciliation cannot be done by one party alone
Ramesh, I;m a ordinary sinhala buddhist and I've lot of things to proud about.
1.I have a mother country and a more than 2500 years old history.I'm proud of my civilisation and the great kings who develop this country.I'm proud when I seeing great tanks,great dagabas and great towns
and cities built by great kings and our ancestors.
2.I'm proud of tank,dagaba and field concept of our ancestors,and their irrigation system which astonished even the foreign engineers.
3.I'm proud of a present President,Defence Secretary,Tri forces commanders,STF,civil defence force because together they won what some westerners and our own political jokers said unwinnable war.
Now you diaspora feel deflated and proudless because,
1.The murderer who murdered thousand of sinhalese, and their own people killed by our army.Earlier you and your tamil diaspora proud of the killer maniac Praba and his terrorist gang.
2.Now you are proudless because the poor tamil people look after by government,and thosands of sinhalese collecting food items,clothes,other house-hold items and distribute them among IDP's in Vavunia.You don't like to see two communities getting know each other and forget about their past and differences and going forward as a nation.
3.O.K if you want every tamil go to either South India or Canada go and tell it to the IDP's.If you go there and tell it to them, and I'm definetely know it is the end of your life.
Dear Aylanee and Rana,
As a moderate Sinhalese who associate lot of Tamils in Colombo, I think I have a reasonable feeling about how both these communities feel.
Aylanee, in our small way we can promote ethnic harmony so that all of us can live in peace and harmony in this beautiful paradise of ours. But it is sickening at times to know how extreme Sinhalese and Tamils react to each other, as you may see in the comments of most of the articles of this site, which prompted me to wrote above earlier.
Rana, of course I am Very Proud as Sinhalese that our Army won the battle but what is sad is efforts of extreme Sinhalese to undermine genuine Tamil grievances, that caused this mayhem starting from 1956.
I am, as a Sinhalese from South, also proud of those dagabas but with an exclent educated work force, free health and education we can do much better than Singapore today rather than wasting time boasting about dagabas.!!
I am also proud of our history but Tamils also have a rich history in our country dated back to 200 BC and even at that time there was a Tamil king called Elara who ruled 2/3 rd of the country, according to Mahawansa.they they have genuine claims!!
But I am not so proud of Rajapaksa brothers, though they won the war, because we and people of Hambantota know their political history better than you.
If Ukkuwa (famous rapist and murder of Beliatta)or Chandi Malli (famous murder and under-world king pin) would have told about Rajapaksa's if they were alive. You will know Rajapaksas better sooner than later!!
I also appreciate efforts of Sinhalese to collect things to distribute amongst IDP after all the misery caused by the LTTE to ordinary Sinhalese people, but importantly we have to ensure that there will be no mass murders of civilians like in 1983, there will be no burning of cultural heritage like Jaffna Library in future, no vote rigging and murdering like in Development Council elections in 1980, and also there is no discrimination of Tamils in Colombo and other parts of the country.
I think our Victory will only be meaningful, and we can be proud not only about our past but also about our present also only then!May all of us have the courage to treat Tamils equally and consider them as our Brothers and Sisters rather than hate each other!!
Sinhalese and Tamils in the South and North experienced violence by both parties of the conflict. However, attacks against Tamils are systematic and intend to brutalise and oppress an ethnic minority. It is complicated to analyse violence by LTTE or Sri Lankan government, but it must be done to fully understand the violence that has plagued this island for the last 60 years.
Aylanee's comment that the LTTE robbed Tamil children of their childhood is accurate. The Sri Lankan government also robbed Tamil children of their childhood by denying them education, schools and community programs where they could grow and learn like children in the South. It is this situation that the vulnerable Tamil children were found in, thus falling into the hands of the LTTE either voluntarily or by force. Tamil children living in the North had little opportunities - their families faced poverty, they were either forced to work by their families, had no schools to attend, or forced into marriages at young ages. Many also lived in IDP camps and had no food. This was a precarious situation for Tamil children, and again shows the situation that leads them into fighting in armed forces.
The last ceasefire (that was signed in 2002) was abrogated by the Sri Lankan government in January 2008.
I've bored reading this type of articles when are these tamils going to learn to live in harmoney with all the other races in SL.
In SL majority is living below poverty line. Many humans (inspite of thier race) are deprived of basic human rights not only tamils. THe muslims are the minority who have suffered silently for so long in SL. How the tamils in North and east illtreated this monority community is not heard by the IC.
The boader villages where the LTTE massacared innocent sinhala villages (most hacked to death) were justified by the pro LTTE diaspora and the IC were silent. Why such a hue and cry only about the tamil race? aren't majority in this planet undergoing discrimination and deprived of many basic human needs.
Can the tamil daispora get out of this racist mentality and think humanely and about the universal problems and negociate with the others in SL and not the western govt. and human rights watch and so on?
Can you people think of some innovative way to uplift the lives of the poor tamils,muslims, malyas, sinhalese and may be indians, nepalese and indonesians and afgans and so forth?
The egocenric view of the tmail diaspora is driving the poeple suffering from the conflict in to deeper trouble.
Many moderate Sri Lankans would not bother to even send a comment to this type of totaly racist and biased article.
Tamil youth in the west are totally misguided and driven to a dangerous path of self destruction.
Following the military defeat of the LTTE in May, it is obvious that many young Tamils around the world are strengthening their efforts to continue the fight for Tamils' right to self-determination (an issue that existed long before the LTTE). I do not understand how young Tamils are "misguided." How can they be misguided when their efforts are based on legitimate aspirations of Tamils, expressed directly to them when they met with the people there during peace time?
How is this article racist and biased when it is an account of one person's experience working for the Tamil people?
When are Tamils going to learn to live in harmony with other races? Is this a joke question? Tamils will live in harmony when they are given their rights and freedom. Right now there is no social, political or economic space for Tamils in the North to even THINK about "living in harmony." Do you think the 300,000 Tamils in the internment camps are sitting around thinking of ways to live in harmony? The Sri Lankan government is oppressing them to the point where right now all they want is to be returned to their homes, re-build the livelihoods and live without fear. Is this wish asking too much? It appears so.
The Tamil Diaspora, having suffered a fraction of what Tamils today are experiencing, are trying to speak for those who are silenced. There are also Sinhalese Diaspora who support this, so it is damaging to the human rights of ALL people in Sri Lanka to make statements that the Tamils are responsible for prolonging this conflict.