"Bloodbath" in Sri Lanka - A Response

by Romayne | May 21, 2009 at 01:37 pm

327 views | 11 Recommendations | 8 comments

The voices of Tamils rarely heard

http://www.economist.com/members/persona.cfm?econuid=3258076

Comments on: “Bloodbath” in Sri Lanka | In blood steeped | The Economist on Sunday, 17-05-2009 at 18:55pm

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 here.
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 & 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.
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 a mob violence started in Colombo, due to murder of 13 Sri-Lankan soldiers in Jaffna. People said “they are burning property and killing Tamils”, we were horrified.
My Aunts next door Singhalese 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 Singhalese 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 LTTE waged a guerrilla war against the government.
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 3 mansions there and all three was 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 their 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 2 sons and daughter was able to see them for 8 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.
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 & Prabakaran 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 sympathizer, or a fund raiser, or a propagandist would survive “hell”, because for 30 years they gave us and every Sri-Lankan, nothing but “hell”.

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René

at 14:47 on May 21st, 2009

from the comments on the article linked above:

Sri Lanka is one of the oldest democracies in the world. Sri Lankan women got suffrage before UK women or US women did. Worlds first female elected head of state came from Sri Lanka. If Lakshman Kadirgamma was not assassinated by LTTE, he would have been the first Tamil PM in the world. Even though Sri Lanka has less than 2 million Tamils in a population of 20 million, Tamil people are represented in our national flag, and Tamil is an official language. Since independence, if we were to look at records of the number of University graduates per year, we will see that a percentage proportionate to the Tamils in Sri Lanka have become graduates. If we look at all the government employee records since independence, We will see that every year, a percentage proportionate to the Tamil % in SL have been hired for jobs. The Tamils keep claiming discrimination in SL, but we have written records to prove that these claims are false. We can always put a face to the names in the existing records. For instance, if we take all the medical graduates of year 1983, and we separate the number of Tamil names, and look at the MD certificates(license) they received, we can always trace the certificates to an individual that is practicing medecine somewhere in the world. The number of MD certificated awarded for year 1983 will be proportionately equal to the ethnic ratio of the country. You cannot ask for a more fair system. So, if all this is true, Why do the Tamils make this claim?

Certain percentage of Tamils make this claim, because in 1950s, at a popular World Tamil conference, a decision was made to create a country for Tamils. They said, there are 80 million tamils in the world, but they do not have a country of their own. They said, Jews have Israel, South Afrikaners have SA, but 80 million Tamils have no state. The natural choice for a Tamil state is Tamil Nadu with 60 million Tamils, but the problem they saw at that time was that waging a war against India would be difficult. So, they decided to create a country in Sri Lanka.

I hope your family can recover some of that property.

Sri Lanka Army news

at 19:29 on May 21st, 2009

Thanks Rene` for ur Comment..Also Good Post Romayne.One Nation,One Flag,We r all SRI LANKANS!

Hiranya Malwatta

at 09:57 on May 22nd, 2009

René, here is a link for you to read if you have time, the article is a bit long.

It is the version of History by a Lankan Tamil who had lived at the time and now lives in Canada. I learned a lot of things by reading his articles.

http://www.mawbimanews.com/2008/02/tamils-must-ask-for-what-is-reasonable.html

Hiranya Malwatta

at 23:36 on May 22nd, 2009

Thanks for the post Romayne.

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

Was really sad to read that.

I know of a 14 year old Tamil boy in Vakkarai (East) who was very affected by LTTE forcefully taking a tractor that belonged to his family. This boy was forcefully conscripted, he went through hell and finally escaped and surrendered at a Army base. But more than anything that happened to him (he says he was initially put in a small cage the size of a dog cage by LTTE to 'tame' him), he was much angered by the fact that they robbed his father's tractor. The rich family being robbed of their property reminded me of that now.

Malithi (not verified)

at 11:45 on May 22nd, 2009

Thank you Romayne.

There may be thousands of similar stories which people would rather not talk of.

In fact, an ex-colleague of mine lost her husband to the ltte in the mid 80s, He had been an Evangelist, preaching the Word of God.

One evening, while the family was at dinner, some boys on cycles had come upto their door and called him out. When he went upto them, they wanted him to come with them as they needed to ask some questions. When he tried to go in to wash his fingers and to put on a shirt, the boys had asked my ex-colleague to get some water and a shirt. And then he was taken away on the bar of a cycle.

As this movement was on at that time in Jaffna, the wife, his sisters and his aged mother knew who these boys were. They pleaded with them not to take him away but to question him there it self. But they assured that he will be brought back in a short while. He never returned.

From the following day onwards, they tried searching for him and eventually, requested someone in the neighbourhood, who they had heard was also in the movement, to find out. They were told that he was still at a particular location and the questioning is not done as yet. But a few weeks later, they got the word that he was shot that very night.

His crime? He had been seen talking to a policeman that afternoon, in the town. Whoever who saw him assumed that he was tipping them off.

This young wife, left Jaffna and came down to Colombo with the little two year old son who now must be a young man.

A few months later, the ltte contacts her to say that they are sorry, it was a mistake!

Sorry?

Hiranya Malwatta

at 23:33 on May 22nd, 2009

Malithi,

That is the same way the JVP (Sinhala terrorists) operated in the south in '88-'89 period. The then government crushed their terrorist movement within months in the most ruthless fashion. Since the terrorists were Sinhalese, there were no international cries or protests to stop the government at the time.

Romayne

at 21:01 on May 23rd, 2009

I think it's time we all looked beyond this constant mashing up and throwing of past grievances - It's human nature to dwell on the past, but it's also human nature to be resilient and positive ... As I see it we have been given a great opportunity now to focus positive energy on driving some real change in Sri Lanka.

We can either continue to trade blame and talk about old hurts forever or we can get off the "gong bangers" bench and get into the game and play some serious ball !

I'd like to ask one question from our very vocal Tamil Diaspora members - when was the last time you contributed to the lives of the Tamil people in a pro-active way ? (apart from bankrolling and drum beating)

Have you

Contributed your services to the education of tamil youth?

Funded real tangible social projects which benefit people's health, nutrition, education and mental welfare ?

Helped to build the capacity of the teachers and other professionals in the North and East who are determined to make a difference in their students' lives ?

Offered professional advice to those who need entrepreneurial guidance to make their own livelihood initiatives ?

Contributed in some way to influencing positive change in the lives of the Tamil people ?

Tell me - how does spreading hate mongering news about the government helping the people in the North and East ? How does running on the streets of another country holding up flags and slogans serve to give these people better jobs, skills, food, water and hope for a better life ?

THAT is the real test of whether you really care about the people you claim to stand for, so i suggest you get Working on it !

Lankan.Ian (not verified)

at 18:32 on May 24th, 2009

Dear Romayne

The biggest loss for Sri Lanka is the loss of genuine Tamils like you and your parents who lived side by side with Sinhalese, Muslims and Burghers, to LTTE bullets and due to migration. Without you in this land the victory over terror is not as sweet.

As a Sinhalese I gurantee you that we will do our utmost to protect every ordinary person of all minorities from any danger while working day and night against the terrorism and separatsim.

I pray that your parents be born in this land once more and the days it didn't occur to us of ones race when we hear a name (like pre 1980's) would be dawned again in SL.