Via a friend on Facebook, I came across the following interview with Tamil Canadian journalist Ignatius Sellah, on CBC. It’s interesting to hear his perspective, and also to see pictures from the recent protests in Toronto:
While the Sri Lankan government is hardly innocent of committing human rights violations, at the current moment the overwhelming evidence from refugees who have escaped the war zone suggests that the LTTE has been holding them hostage. If so, they are more at fault than the Government of Sri Lanka for what is happening to the civilians.
The protesters in Toronto and London may be voicing legitimate concerns about the condition of civilians in the war zone and in the internment centers outside of the war zone. But when they wave LTTE flags, use children as a buffer against the police (in a strange echo of how the real LTTE operate), and talk about genocide, I think they are acting irresponsibly. (Not that her opinion matters all that much — she’s a musician — but I think M.I.A., who has been throwing around the word “genocide” as well lately in her public statements, has also been irresponsible in using that word.)
It’s natural that the people shouting loudest are getting the most attention, but it would be ideal if the media covering these diasporic protests would also represent alternate (i.e., moderate, non-LTTE) points of view. There are plenty of people out there who have real and legitimate grievances regarding the treatment of Tamils in Sri Lanka over the years, who stop well short of supporting this senseless war. Are there other non-LTTE Tamil SL voices you would recommend?
“But when they wave LTTE flags” – A lot of the protesters may not necessarily associate this flag strictly with the LTTE, I’ve been to a couple of the protests in Toronto (and although there are chants of the Tamil Tigers being freedom fighters) some associate this to be the flag of the separate nation-state of Tamil Eelam though I’m not sure if they divorce it from The Tamil Tigers. Also, although the usage of this flag may be heavily tainted, perhaps this is the only symbol of resistance that a people far away from home (in addition to facing many social injustices in Canada as a result of marginalization) who are having families massacred only know. And it may be the only symbol of resistance that makes sense to them in their moment of chaos and trauma… Are we to take it away from them or call them irresponsible? I don’t know… then again some argue that this flag may be the same flag of an Rebel group that along with the Sri Lankan government is equally responsible for the death of innocent Tamil civilians…
“Use children as a buffer against the police” – If you are referring to the Toronto protests this is simply untrue unless the media is putting this spin on the protests. Attending a couple of the protests myself and knowing fellow peers who have been continually involved in the protest since they have started, people (of all ages, racial and ethnic backgrounds) take turns in rotation at the front lines when standing directly in front of Toronto Police whether the Police are in riot gear or not. The protests in Toronto have been anything but using children as a buffer against the Toronto Police. And although at one point there were young women of colour in a standoff, hands linked, face to face against Police in full riot gear; it was extremely empowering to see! (Especially, in a country and society which institutes a sort of democratic racism where Police are like as KRS-1 describes, plantation overseers) But it is important to note that with these young women of colour at the front lines, on certain days, right behind them were parents, elders, labour unions, various university campus groups etcetera and white folk too 😉
“I think they are acting irresponsibly” – I may have misunderstood what you mean by “acting irresponsibly.” Perhaps the language in addition to the flags used in these these protests may be irresponsible however, this has been one of the most peaceful (as in extremely limited amounts of arrests, little to no injuries so far), highly organized, most effective protests (and I must say really inspiring/empowering) that have taken place in Toronto especially by any South Asian diaspora… And in Toronto, these protests have been highly effective in terms of getting some results. The Toronto City Mayor, David Miller and The Premier of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty and the Leader of the Opposition Liberal Party of Canada, Michael Ignatieff although not agreeing with the method of protests, have all voiced their concerns about the humanitarian crisis and the need for Canada to take some action in Sri Lanka in particular response to these protests. If a whole entire community did not block a major highway in Toronto in the form of a protest, I don’t think we would have seen the municipal, provincial and federal responses we are now getting especially coming from our current politicians here.
“It’s natural that the people shouting loudest are getting the most attention, but it would be ideal if the media covering these diasporic protests would also represent alternate (i.e., moderate, non-LTTE) points of view. There are plenty of people out there who have real and legitimate grievances regarding the treatment of Tamils in Sri Lanka over the years, who stop well short of supporting this senseless war.” – Once again if this is a reference to the Toronto Protests, the media which is covering these in particular is probably doing a terrible job. All of those who have attended the protests may not necessarily support the LTTE, some at the protests may even condemn the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan government. I can say that there are those who had what you describe as moderate, non-LTTE points of view present in the rallies. But then again, the press are extremely selective on who they approached for comments at all these protests.
Amardeep, maybe I’ve let passion get the best of me and although I know that in this particular post you may be inquiring to alternative protests, however it appears (speaking of the Toronto protests covered by the media in particular) that you have taken so much away from these protests and the people in these protests in this post though that may not have been your intention… I did not intend to romanticize these protests which I feared I have done… because I know that with any protests, problematic elements may always be a factor but I think a more balanced coverage of these protests particularly in Toronto is necessary or more scrutiny of the media reporting these protests…
11:47 pm Friday night, in the middle of a cold rainstorm, only one police cruiser with an officer comfortably sitting in his warm dry car, in front of the US consulate, completely drenched Tamil Canadians and supporters from seniors, to children, to adults also chant, “we want: immediate ceasfire!”
Amardeep, why are you playing this game when it has so little to do with the question you’re asking? There are two violent forces which have decided, no matter what anyone else says, that this conflict will end only in violence, and tens of thousands of people whom both sides claim as their own citizens are being sacrificed. How is one idiotic, absurd party with such little concern for life more at fault than the other?
Yes, the LTTE should surrender. So should the government stop bombing hospitals – TWICE! Are you really making the argument that IF the LTTE had surrendered earlier then the government – what, wouldn’t have had to? – shell that hospital? And therefore the LTTE is more at fault?
DBS Jeyaraj. Wiki. Blog
Transcurrents.is uneven.
Isn’t it sad that I can’t list any more? I’m not going to include Anita Pratap because I haven’t read enough of her work to determine anything. She has managed to score the most interviews with Prabhakaran.
It’s not a game, machan. I’ve been dipping a toe into the SL blog world lately and the mainstream, respectable, middle opinion is that a large tamil omelet is an unfortunate but necessary price to pay for the surety of no Tiger force left of operational capability. I vehemently disagree with the moral calculus at work here and the logic of the proof but i do realize that this is that we will see: only more deaths in the 2.5 square km that are left to ‘liberate.’ In the interests of an empowered tamil polity, but not voting bloc, I would not liken this situation to a pie-chart. The blame to attributed and roles to be judged complicit with furthering a nightmare stretches over time and across group identifications. SL certainly can’t haul Lord Soulbury out before the moral gallows. What remains to be seen is if the Rajapakse brothers seize upon fears of LTTE sleeper agents and start expanding detention targeting profiles and restricting civil liberties even further. Tissa is still imprisoned. Lawless brutes enforce a hidden agenda wherever an inquisitive lover of liberty should investigate.
Try this: http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/the-tamil-diaspora-solidarities-and-realities The Tamil diaspora: solidarities and realities by Nirmala Rajasingam
The Tamils abroad mobilising in response to events in Sri Lanka need to face difficult truths about the political narratives and forces that have contributed to their compatriots’ plight, says Nirmala Rajasingam. 17 – 04 – 2009
amardeep, have you seen the vid just posted at UB. some sl soldiers were violating the corpses of tamil women and children. it’s going to turn the opinions (and the stomachs) of a lot of fence sitters.
for the record – the tamils did not have my sympathies at the onset but i came around. i read of Mr Gunam’s hunger strike . He has lost 18 of his relatives in this strife. He went without food for two weeks in front of the Ontario legislature to protest his cause until an opposition mp promised to bring it to the attention of the parliament. The last straw was when the tamils shut down an expressway into the city. this was an unplanned event and i was moved by the anguish. this has been in the local news for long and i will let you all do the search through thestar.com and globeandmail.com. public opinion is somewhat negative – feeling the tamils are bringing a foreign war into canada, but i feel otherwise. this is a humanitarian crisis. why not act now, rather than have another rwanda happen in front of our eyes.
Thanks for the links, Nayagan and anu–I’m reading them now–they’re well-worth the read. Khoofi–doesn’t the Tiger flag-waving and lack of attention by the protesters to the reports that the Tigers are in fact corralling the civilians in an attempt to buy out an escape for their leaders trouble you a little? Is it genuine anguish, or political theater organized (or, indeed, coerced) by the Tigers?
one has to take sides rob and decide who to believe. i’ve been in the crowds. i listened and i made my decision. any more argument would be sophistry.
“[The LTTE are] more at fault than the Government of Sri Lanka for what is happening to the civilians. “
In a curious way they are working in concert to apply maximum damage to the civilian population. I don’t think we can say more or less at fault, because they’re both killing or causing the killing of civilians. Fault aside, it’s not unreasonable to argue that the government bears a greater responsiblity to ensure the safety of civilians and that, in this dance of death with the LTTE, they bear greater responsibility for what is happening to the civilians.
Instead, the SLA is doing things like this (WARNING: extremely nsfw; it’s a home video by sri lankan army soldiers in which they strip naked corposes of female ltte cadres and mug next to dead children).
Trying to weigh out blame in a war like this is a fools game. Everyone is atriociously in the wrong but futility of all of this is that the one party that should be trying to win a lasting peace, the government, is failing miserably. LTTE or no LTTE, SL is going to have problems for the foreseeable future.
11:47 pm Friday night, in the middle of a cold rainstorm, only one police cruiser with an officer comfortably sitting in his warm dry car, in front of the US consulate, completely drenched Tamil Canadians and supporters from seniors, to children, to adults also chant, “we want: immediate ceasfire!”
Yeah! So blow me. Why now? Why can’t they shout “we demand immediate surrender by LTTEâ€? I wonder if they were chanting we “want immediate ceasefire†when members of Sri Lankan civilians were getting blown to bits by the “brave soldiers for Thamiz Eelamâ€. The funny thing is ceasefire was instituted more that once in this war – almost always it was broken by the Tamil Tigers, usually by a LTTE suicide bomber. I just admire the tolerance of Canadians; they did not invite these LTTE dildos to Canada still they have to suffer this nuisance. OTOH – I find parallels between all this and nuisance that khalistanis “Lions†caused in late 80s and 90s. Circumstances were similar – you see every bloodthirsty thug wants ceasefire when he or she is out-gunned and out-maneuvered. Ars* whooping hurts, it does not matter whether you are a Lion or a Tiger. One thing though, just as the the gurudwaras are of Toronto adorned with portraits of gun toting khalistani thugs, tamilians will demand their temples to install idols of this sewer sucking “Emperor†and his cronies. Another thing – in a decade or so expect an onslaught of ‘rappers for Eelam’ when the current generation is brought up by rabid malicious parents.
I would urge everyone who is frothing at the mouth over this video to actually verify it.
Or don’t go out and pick up a LTTE flag like some “believers” seem ready to do.
The gov’t has substantial Chinese funding to continue the military operations indefinitely. What about inevitable tamil deaths don’t you understand? The most charitable reading of the protesters isn’t that they’re tilting at windmills but failing to see the bloody huge bugger right in front of their eyes. The US will not directly intervene. Sri Lanka is the first and most important ‘pearl’ in China’s necklace strategy. the port at Hambantota is seen by the chinese as extremely important.
Khoof, you’ll never know what it’s like to feel like as an SL Tamil traveler to nearly any city with a substantial SL Tamil population, and I’m thinking of France and Melbourne–without fail, you will be asked in a joking manner if you are a, “Tiger.” It’s not because we all are or love the same, but because the loudest mouths of the diaspora congregate at these demonstrations and paint us all bright red, along with their children.
How? the only thing at issue would seem to be the time – it might not have happened during this latest offensive, but does it matter either way?
I do agree with the second point – the tendency on seeing something so heinous will be to turn away from moderation and to the LTTE (for Tamils, not Khoof). The two-party dynamic is hard to shake when the third way has no voice, no leadership, no power.
“How? the only thing at issue would seem to be the time – it might not have happened during this latest offensive, but does it matter either way?”
No, it doesn’t. What does matter is whether people are credulous enough to miss propaganda when they see it in an extremely low resolution video or are aware of other. I’m no expert but the Tigers have doctored photos before and I wouldn’t expect them to stop there.
yes there are ltte flags in the crowds. but one has to look past that. remove the symbols and the braggadocio and the noise and just focus on the people and try to gauge the raw emotion. the people who are congregating are everyday people – mostly blue collar – the kind you know who would prefer to keep a low profile and not to rock the boat. gauge the emotion that drives everyone to spend day and night asking for intervention. i hope you can see what i see. there is genuine anguish. i focus on that. there is fear of the unknown. imagine knowing your loved one is facing rape or death or you do not know where they are or what state they are in. that’s the hollow dread i sense. for me it is a sense of loyalty to fellow torontonians and i can not turn a blind eye to their misery. canada must step in, because a critical mass of canadians are hurting. that is where i stand.
I don’t have very much time or energy at this point in the night; I might have more to say in the morning.
But here is something I can respond to briefly:
i hope you can see what i see. there is genuine anguish. i focus on that. there is fear of the unknown.
This is politics based on emotion. It’s understandable, but emotion can be used to lead people to do bad things as well as good things. And people under the influence of either poor reporting or outright propaganda might well be feeling real anguish and uncertainty. But merely the fact that thousands of Canadian Tamils are convinced of a certain point of view is not meaningful evidence of anything.
one has to take sides rob and decide who to believe. i’ve been in the crowds. i listened and i made my decision. any more argument would be sophistry.
I agree that one has to take sides and decide who to believe. But I disagree on the sophistry charge. Rather, I would say that further argument would be evidence of rational deliberation.
And Sulabh, yes, there are parallels to the Sikhs in India after 1984 here.
Amardeep, I don’t know how valuable the “more at fault” distinction is. Governments are supposed to be better than terrorist organizations.
I do think the war is legitimate given the history and the LTTE’s actions, but the handling in recent months has been criminally irresponsible.
The morality of taking civilian lives in a war is generally judged on two broad factors , the proportionality of the response compared to the provocation, and the value of the strategic goals weighed against the cost in lives. In the first three years of the current war (06-08) they’ve killed about 15k LTTE at the cost of ~1900 civilian lives. Obviously both are inexact balances, but given the 60k lives lost and the LTTE’s habit of assassinating anyone who tries to use peaceful means to further the Tamil cause, everything the government had done was more or less in line with international norms up to this point.
But,
In ’09 they’ve killed 2500 LTTE to 10k civilians in their effort to ‘finish them off’
This is no longer in the unfortunate but necessary category.
It was irresponsible. Yes, there was bound to be escalation with the LTTE being cornered and resorting to more desperate tactics, but they should have at least tried and extended ‘starve em out’ kind of policy while continually pressing for small gains in territory. It’s not as glorious, but it was the right thing to do and it should have been tried.
Even if an extended standoff ensued without them being able to end the war quickly, with the LTTE cornered the government could have started dialogue with moderates and made a good faith effort to show that their war is with the LTTE and not with the Tamil people.
They’ve sabotaged themselves in the long run. You can’t put that many people through that kind of trauma and expect them to move along when the smoke clears. This conflict is virtually guaranteed to continue violently now. If you’re going to justify civilian deaths by saying the long term benefit outweighs the cost, it’s unquestionably wrong to escalate deaths when it damages your cause. And “we didn’t think of that” isn’t a legit defence.
Data source: http://satp.org/satporgtp/countries/shrilanka/database/annual_casualties.htm
Excellent blog about the sri lanka Government.
Amardeep, do you ever read the site Groundviews? I think I heard about it through a post here by VV Ganeshananthan. I haven’t read it regularly enough to tell you how reliable or consistent it is in being moderate – but I think the variety and the debate that exists within its space is probably a good thing, and it seems as though the people who participate are generally above blind ethnic/political loyalty.
Genocide in Sri Lanka?
There has been a reluctance on the part of the mainstream media to accept the term “genocide” that has been used to describe the situation in the Wanni region of Sri Lanka. A large part of this has to do with the association, in the public mind, of these terms with the Holocaust, which involved one of the worst genocides perpetrated in human history. A careful study of this term, however, reveals that this is indeed an appropriate word to describe what is going on in Sri Lanka today.
Article 2 of the 1948 UN Convention on Genocide defines genocide as “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group as such: killing members of the group; causing series bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.” Clearly, intent is a crucial part of the definition of the term. And it is readily apparent that both parties to the conflict — the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE — have intentionally brought about untold destruction of civilian life in the Vanni region. The LTTE, although they claim to be the sole representative of the Tamils, have been accused of using Tamil civilians as human shields and intentionally firing on those who have tried to escape their grip. Still worse is the Government of Sri Lanka, who despite claiming to represent all of the island’s ethnicities, engages in indiscriminate aerial bombardment of civilian areas and routinely violates international humanitarian law in their military campaign into predominantly Tamil areas.
The defense used by the Government that this cannot be a genocide because Tamils are not being killed in other parts of the country fails to hold water because the genocide definition only requires that the acts are intended to destroy “in part” a national or ethnic group. The defense employed by the Government that civilian deaths are “collateral damage” or an unintended consequence also does not stand because the Government has always maintained that this is not an ethnic war but a war against a terrorist outfit aimed at liberating a segment of the population. If this were the case, then the utmost care would be exercised by a Government seeking to free its people from a ruthless outfit holding them hostage. But this is far from the case, as Government use of multibarrel rocket launchers to decimate large swathes of territory (HRW) and intentional bombing of declared “safe zones” demonstrates that the Sri Lankan armed forces do not view the Tamil civilians as “their people” but as LTTE-sympathizers whom they are intent on destroying or imprisoning. Furthermore, there would be no need to expel UN monitors, NGOs and journalists from the conflict zone unless there was something the Government had to hide.
Chaulk and Jonassohn define a “retributive genocide” as one that is most likely to occur when one group dominates another group and fears its rebellion when the other group actually rebels. This was what happened in 1983 during the Sri Lankan state-sponsored pogrom, when Sinhala thugs were provided voter lists in order to wreak maximum damage on the Tamil population after 13 Sri Lankan soldiers were killed in an ambush by the LTTE; and this is what is happening again with the Sri Lankan army’s assault on the Vanni region in Northern Sri Lankan after ongoing suicide bombings by the LTTE.
Thus, the genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka is two-fold: an autogenocide perpetrated by the LTTE and a retributive genocide waged by the Government of Sri Lanka.
If we can accept that the situation in Sri Lanka clearly fits the UN definition and a number of scholarly definitions of the term, why then the reluctance to apply it to the present situation? First, many people hold the view that while what is happening in Sri Lanka is horrible, the scale of it is not the same as what happened during the Holocaust and in Rwanda — two of the most memorable and worst genocides in human history. And that by labelling what is presently occurring in Sri Lanka a genocide, we in some way detract from the historical significance of these events. I would, however, argue that we need a broader conceptualization of the term. If we only acknowledged genocides on the scale of the Holocaust and Rwanda, we would overlook some terrible situations in this world and lose our ability to prevent situations from spiralling out of control. On the other hand, if we are too broad in our conceptualization, we could end up labelling everything a genocide, and the term would lose its usefulness. Second, use of the term “genocide” implores one to act. If genocide is going on, something must be done to stop it. This is why, as recently as Darfur, people have opposed use of the term to benefit politically and downplay the human tragedy. And this is precisely why I favor a broader conceptualization of the term. We cannot simply wait until it is too late to call a situation a genocide.
Well, how bad is the situation in Sri Lanka? An unobstructed view of the numbers is revelatory. Of the 75,000 lives claimed in the ongoing violence since independence, the vast majority (greater than 95%) are Tamil; at least 800,000 Tamils have been displaced all over globe (primarily the result of the 1983 pogrom and systematic government discrimination); and currently there are least 325,000 internally displaced Tamils within Sri Lanka. This would mean that at a minimum, a whopping 40% of the Sri Lankan Tamil population have been directly affected in a significant way by this ongoing conflict. Anywhere between 2-3% of the Tamil population in Sri Lanka have been killed, and the potential exists for this number to increase to anywhere in the range of 7-9% based on the number of civilians trapped in the conflict zone. By comparison, the Guatemalan genocide involved 3% of the Mayan population killed, the Kurdish genocide in Iraq saw 4% of the Kurdish population eradicated, the Bosnian genocide saw 6% of the Bosnian muslim population eliminated, and in Darfur we witnessed 8% of the Zaghawa, Masalit and Fur tribes decimated. Must we wait for this percentage to climb before we can label this situation a genocide, or can we act before then?
The genocide in Sri Lanka is also tougher to name because it does not involve a singularly discernible perpetrator. There is no Hitler or Hussein. Today there is Rajapaske; yesterday it was Jayawardene (“The more you put pressure in the north, the happier the Sinhala people will be here. Really, if I starve the Tamils out, the Sinhala people will be happy.” 1983) But close inspection reveals what can be seen to be a slow, insidious genocide. While no official decree bids the killing of Tamils, a culture has been fostered whereby Tamils can be imprisoned, tortured or killed with impunity. Not a single member of the Sri Lankan armed forces has been charged for a crime against a Tamil civilian. The only crimes that go punished are those that involve speaking out against the Government. The common thread that ties the many Sri Lankan governments is the underlying belief that Tamils are interlopers on the island, and that they must not “make undue demands” (Sarath Fonseka). Articles on prominent Sri Lankan websites (e.g., LankaWeb’s “The Only Practical Solution) advocate genocide as the only viable solution to eliminate the Tamil “cancer.” And while the rhetoric of the government is careful not to openly reflect this line of thinking, there is no effort made to suppress these viotriolic forces and the government’s actions certainly leave no doubt in anyone’s minds what their objective might be.
In defining genocide, Raphael Lemkin (1943) wrote, “Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves. The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups.”
The genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka quite plainly fits this description. Since the independence of the island, there has been a carefully coordinated set of actions that were aimed at destroying the essential foundations of life for Tamils, beginning with the Sinhala Only Act in 1956, which deprived Tamils the right to use their language in an official capacity, right through to Standardization in 1976, which deprived Tamils equal rights to education. State-sponsored colonization schemes were then carefully employed to undermine Tamil claims for a homeland and feelings of national solidarity. The burning of the historical Jaffna Library was another such coordinated action aimed at destroying a monumental cultural institution of the Tamils. The organized pogroms of 1956, 1958, 1971, 1977 and 1983 demonstrate a historical continuity to the genocide. The Chenmanni mass grave in 1996 where the bodies of 600 disappeared Tamils were unearthed in the Jaffna peninsula is one of many examples of what happens to Tamil civilians at the hands of the Sri Lankan armed forces even after a military campaign is complete. As a result, the roughly 3,000 civilians that have been killed in the Vanni in 2009 must be seen in the context of the historical genocide perpetrated against Tamils primarily by the Sri Lankan state, although recently also by the LTTE who claim to be fighting on behalf of Tamils.
The only question now is what the “peace” will look like in a country that is moving towards declaring itself “Buddhist” (in quotes because most of the bhikkus are hardly followers of the dhamma) state and where Tamils are discriminated against economically and otherwise by law. Not to imply that life would be better in Eelam, Prabhakaran would have created a N. Korean style paranoid state, but I know many Tamils who hate the LTTE and would prefer a single, secular multi-linguistic state who are feeling quite desperate now
This is politics based on emotion. It’s understandable, but emotion can be used to lead people to do bad things as well as good things. And people under the influence of either poor reporting or outright propaganda might well be feeling real anguish and uncertainty. But merely the fact that thousands of Canadian Tamils are convinced of a certain point of view is not meaningful evidence of anything.”
amardeep,
if you are referring to the belief that the SL Gov’t is wholly composed of rapine genocidal individuals, then yes I agree with you. But if you are referring to the psychic shock of seeing the graphic deaths of people you are either related to or with whom you might have socialized, then you’re completely wrong. For all the brash talk and uninformed memes which run through such protests, the anguish is certainly real. Why do you think there is so much grass roots mobilization among the general population in SL to send supplies north? Everyone feels it at some level.
“I agree that one has to take sides and decide who to believe. But I disagree on the sophistry charge. Rather, I would say that further argument would be evidence of rational deliberation
And Sulabh, yes, there are parallels to the Sikhs in India after 1984 here.”
No, Amardeep, you don’t have to take sides. I am curious as to what is leading you in this direction? Surely it cannot be a love of analytical binary systems?
And the similiarities to the Sikhs in India after 1984 don’t extend as far as I think Sulabh feels they do–nobody took pictures and video of the Indian gov’t shelling a bounded area with 150K civilians trapped and milling about inside. Nobody who experienced that is likely to forget it in time to ‘rise up’ with their fellow citizens and become wealthy, grudge-less pacifists. It will be plainly obvious to all of the unfortunates that whatever your rationale for the ‘necessity’ of such a captive-audience bombardment, it was done and very few people spoke unequivocally against it on the outside…except for the crazy tiger-flag-waving people abroad. That should be worrisome.
“who are feeling quite desperate now”
yes. but i think the singhalese of my generation in SL did not grow up with the, “Aadhavan has to score 10 points better than I on the standardized test to gain admittance” rule. They may see and vociferously decry the occasional tamil getting nabbed at a checkpoint due to racist money-grubbing cops, but they certainly won’t admit to (and genuinely believe) seeing any sort of widespread discrimination against tamils. That, of course, would mean that their long-term prospects are a sight dimmer than they think them to be currently.
Thanks for the post Amardeep. I find myself agreeing with a lot of the following post I came across today:
The Tamil Tigers Shoulda Listened to Yo’ Mao-Mao
By Gary Brecher
One thing you have to give the doomed Tamil rebels in Sri Lanka credit for: their supporters sitting in comfortable first-world cities have no shame when it comes to begging for help. Militarily the Sri Lankan Tamils are o-vuh, but when it comes to demanding favors from people who have every reason to hate their guts, these guys are world-class. For some hilarious examples of propaganda from a doomed army, check out the LTTE’s glossy but totally insane website, Tamilnet.
Today’s headline on their site is this little classic: “99% of Norway Tamils Aspire for Tamil Eelam.� “Eelam,� y’unnerstan’, is their fancy name for the independent Tamil state they want to create in Sri Lanka, the “E� in “LTTE.� Anyway, what this headline means is that they rounded up the Tamils living in Norway and herded their frozen asses into a Sons of Knute meeting hall in Oslo and lo’n’behold, 99% of those poor flotsam (should that be “flotsam� or “flotsams�? Not sure) turned out to be in favor of dear old Eelam. The fact that they were ten thousand miles away from Sri Lanka, where the government artillery was shredding the last backyard-sized scrap of land in “Eelam,� didn’t faze those Norwegian diehards one bit.
These guys have no shame at all. They’d probably be willing to go on Flava Flav’s “Workfare for Overage Street Ho’s� show, they’re so shameless. They even, believe it or not, called for the US to save them with “gunboat diplomacy.� I kid you not.
After decades of playing the bold revolutionaries, they’re actually screeching for American destroyers to rescue them. Ah, it’s a fun world as long as you remember we’re all garbage at heart.
Now that the Tamils’ great Sri Lankan kingdom has been whittled down to about ten acres of blasted scrub, they’re so desperate they’re even tying up traffic in Toronto by way of attracting attention to their sad little plight that they totally brought on themselves. The Canadians are giving it their typical mealymouthed cowardly PC response, “We understand your frustration,� while these losers tie up the biggest freeway in Toronto.
But my favorite little desperate gesture from the Tamils is the way they’ve reached out to Sonia Gandhi, the big Indian politician, to ask for help.
Which is funny because Sonia happens to be the widow of Rajiv Gandhi, who was killed by a suicide bomber in 1991. And who sent the bomber? Nobody but the LTTE, the Sri Lankan Tamils’ great liberation army. Yup, they didn’t like Rajiv’s policy on Sri Lanka so they sent him the LTTE version of a strip-o-gram: a zombie girl who shimmied right up to Rajiv at a rally and pulled her own string. It stripped her all right; it stripped the flesh off her and Rajiv and anybody else within the blast radius. Scorched-earth erotic dancing. The ultimate Bollywood closing number.
FULL STORY
Anu thanks for posting a very important link with Nirmala’s superb article. Everyone here SHOULD read this before talking any more. As for moderate voices coming out from Sri Lanka and the diaspora, people should read Groundviews, dbs jeyaraj, indi.ca and keep an eye on the blog aggregator Kottu.org for other neutral minded bloggers that come out with stuff regularly. I also upload articles of relevance on my blog with people writing in from the diaspora. Thanks Amardeep for the video link about Manoranjan. Manoranjan has been one of the neutral voices along with Nirmala, ex- LTTE and now living in exile in London for a long time now.
People! The fact that there is a huge humanitarian crisis in Vanni unravelling untold human suffering on a daily basis is OBVIOUS. I don’t think any humane person would refute this. If you ask anyone coming out of the Vanni bruised and battered and sick of it all, they will just tell you that they want to be left alone! So it is absolutely distressing when people trying to be politically correct talk about the notion of a separate state or Tamil Eelam, as this is NOT the need of the hour or for the future! Eelam is redundant to all those who really matter! The people who have been pushed into the fire of nationalistic nonsense driven by the guilt-ridden homeland sentiments of the diaspora!
All these protests are nothing more than a desperate bid to save the Tigers and the Tiger supporters who have blood on their hands in terms of financing this protracted conflict. They DO use their children (I have people who have seen this in Canada, seen news reports from London and in Switzerland, where during the May Day protest a huge cage with children locked in, with fake bloodied bands around their heads had a man dressed in army fatigues banging on it while these children shouted out in staged unison) and they do stand out in thunderstorms, the women do stand courageously against the cops…but the real courage and dedication they could show in the name of the suffering civilians in the Vanni would be to tell the Tigers to do their part!
So please all you neutral minded humane people, stop being taken on a ride! The romanticism of a separate state is just a bad dream; more like a nightmare to the real people back at home. We just want to live in dignity and to make a future for our children. Rajapakse be damned if he doesn’t take the APRC process forward in finding a political settlement and for heaven’s sake isn’t there other way to fight for our rights?!
There are 200K Tamil Canadians in and around the GTA – a hitherto invisible minority. The first gens are not the most articulate in English, but they make this city run. It was interesting that there was enough tamil membership in the steelworkers union that USW got involved. the secondgen and later have come up well and they are the vocal force behind the street protests. I give a little background because it is important for me to dissociate the politics from civic participation. I want you to see what I see. Let alone the human cause, I am part of the fabric that joins us. so I commisserate. Hence I want the Canadian parliament to raise this in question period – what, if any action can Canada take to avert the upcoming humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka? If Canada chooses not to participate, then the parliament should provide a clear cogent answer to the constituents explaining its inaction. To ignore the voice of a major chunk of Canadian population is not acceptable. Did the distinction come across? I do not argue for the LTTE or debate what led to the war. I am asking for due democratic process. Canadian voices must be heard and be represented by our parliament. that is all.
stepping aside from the discussion – i will add that the biggest decisions are based on ‘gut’ and facts are shoehorned in to suit the conclusion at will. this isnt necessarily poor logic. good decisionmakers listen to a lot of facts, but dont necessarily follow linear logic in forming a conclusion. the output is thus characterized as emotional because it can not often be justified linearly, and even if one were to attempt the same, for every point that one puts forward, there is an easy counter point. conversation easily descends to a babble.
I hear you Khoof, but I think it is already too late for the cornered Tamils in that pocket. The best thing the Canadian government & international community can do is to ensure the Sinhalese majority government doesn’t work against its own interests by keeping the resentments simmering. All of this, the whole mess, was avoidable. There needs to be integrated Sinhala/Tamil/Muslim army/police units to give people a sense of security. India should prevent the clowns in the TN government from exercising their own foreign policy and convince the SL govt that it is a better friend than the PROC which views all of Asia as a collection of vassal states
DBSJeyaraj .period.
For the people who do not read Sinhala blogs,it finally seems that they are coming of age.Although the Sinhala blogs are a handful ,there are two blogs that stands out . http://taboosubjects.wordpress.com/2009/05/16/02-4/ http://beyondframe.wordpress.com
Sam, you make me laugh with your stupid/ignorant comments. What you have to realize is that it doesn’t matter who win the 35 year old war. What matters right now is the innocent people who are caught up in the war.
As a srilankan singala I have lived 35 years in Sri lanka and as any singala I support the SL government and would like to see the LTTE destroyed but at the same time we all have to realize one thing; the war may end in Sri lanka but what of the tamils who are dying/dead in vanni, what about their sons and daughters?
The entire world know that the LTTE is a terrorist organization just as the Sikhs who were considered terrorist during the 80s. But as the government, it’s the SL governments morale duty to protect the innocent, just because the LTTE is holding innocent tamils as human shields it doesn’t give SL government the right to bomb, shell and kill every one. Is it morale for a government to kill 250,000 of it’s citizens to get to 10,000 LTTE fighters? Any one who look at it from a humane point of view would argue let the 10,000 get away if you could save 250,000 innocent lives.
So my question to you (sam) and every one that reads this, IS IT OK TO KILL 250,000 TAMILS TO GET TO 10,000 TERRORISTS? And by the way if you think it’s o.k to indiscriminately bomb and kill innocent people to get to terrorists then that would MAKE YOU A TERRORIST.
Since when did we start NOT holding governments accountable for the welfare of ALL their citizens? Are high standards expected from governments only in certain parts of the world; only when they represent certain sections of the world citizenry?
About Canadian democracy:
After the recent collapse of Iceland’s economy, fourth- and fifth-generation Icelandic-Canadians in Gimli and Winnipeg, Manitoba, think it is their duty to help Icelanders any which way possible — rebuild Iceland, increase immigration to Canada, and allow for educational, business and economic opportunities. Politicians vie with each other to applaud these brotherly sentiments; public interest groups lobby for immediate actions and policies; newspaper editorials commend such sentiments.
But when first-generation Canadians who survived decades-long civil war in another part of the world stage protests and beg for immediate action, genteel, white Canadians are suddenly outraged that immigrants leave behind neither their ties nor their “baggage.” Apparently the new immigrants’ only meaningful duty is to become model Canadian-Canadians. That they are “stupid” and audacious enough to view themselves as Sri Lankan-Canadians or Tamil-Canadians or troubled-Canadians of all hues and colours is extremely inconvenient to most hyphenated Canadians, including those 6th generation Icelandic-Canadians sitting on newspaper editorials.
I do tend to see all the arguments putting the blame on tigers as a mere sophistry to hide people’s unwillingness to protest what is one of the biggest humanitarian tragedies of our times. Not made as an outright justification of the government killing thousands of Tamils but the allusion that government had to do it because tigers are holding them hostage is a morally bankrupt but politically expedient argument to make. A government that says, they have sealed off all the escape routes for months and have completely destroyed all offensive capabilities of the tigers but still continues with its indiscriminate, all out, assault to “free†people sounds less genuine to me. And I find it perplexing that people argue that we should expect reason from a group they themselves call terrorists but fail to see that the government had many other options to deal with the siege but deliberately chose the one that would cause the maximum casualties. Yet people fall back on the allusion that casualties are an end result of tigers holding tamils hostage and not a result of government choosing to continue assault at any cost. I see the words like “wiping outâ€, “finishing offâ€, “no matter at what cost†dotting governments’ and its apologists commentary and I wonder if people realize they are dealing with an internal rebellion and not with a foreign invasion. This also brings up the question about the tendency to reject the collective will of the Tamils even if we don’t agree with it. Instead of asking the Tamils why they are not opposing the tigers, if you ask them why they are listening to them, you might get a more illuminating answer. Is it hard to believe that as much as the hatred for the tigers would allow some people to look the other way even when thousands of Tamils are massacred, the hatred and complete distrust of the government would allow the Tamils not to rally against the tigers regardless of how repulsing it looks to outsiders?
very well said Malathi
More Nirmala Rajasingham:
http://experts.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/05/15/diaspora_of_doom
See also:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090403.wcoessay0404/BNStory/Front/home/?pageRequested=all
I am sorry to write at length here, but I find it amazing that with weeks leading up to a massive episode of violence against civilians, the posts we get here are focused on ideas like who is at fault and criticising protesters who use the word ‘genocide’ or wave one flag but not another to express their feelings.
there’s a lot of writing on Sri Lanka from a truth-oriented standpoint – try Sumantra Bose, or Rohan Edrisinha, or Neera Wickramasinghe at Open Democracy or Center for Conflict and Reconciliation (I think it’s called) or many many many many other resources before continuing this ‘debate.’ Here are some basic assertions that I have come to in trying to understand and be fair-minded and at the same time not lose sight of the fact that human passions are involved here-
The idea that Sri Lanka has two and only two communities – ‘Tamil’ and ‘Sinhalese’ is a modern, not ancient phenomenon – much like many other nationalisms. For example, some people say there were at least six distinct ‘communities’ just prior to independence – ‘Sri Lankan Tamils’ ‘Muslims’ ‘Burghers’ ‘Kandyan Sinhalese’ , the other kind of Sinhalese whose title I can’t remmeber now, ‘Indian Tamil’, etc. That doesn’t mean the dichotomy is artificial NOW but that these identites have evolved and continue to evolve and are not fixed in stone or operating in any way that resembles what nationalists on any side tell us..
What is happening now is not five weeks or five months or five years or 25 years old, but the outcome of a historical and political process that goes back to at least the first half of the twentieth century. The understanding I have based on reading stuff like the abovementioned writers is that the Tamil elites were relatively more favoured by the British in their practice of balancing different elites off each other and that the idea of a unitary state in Sri Lanka was also a British administrative choice. Mass suffrage was introduced in the 1930s by the British and then after independence, you had Sri Lankan politics become gradually more Sinhala chauvinist (though there were things very early on, like the disenfranchisement of ‘Indian tamils’) while the attempts of the former Tamil elite and other Tamils to secure their place started with demands for equal rights in parliament, moved into autonomy claims, later outright rebellion and since 1983 or so outright war. You can attribute this to politics, economics, and, to an extent demographics.
Regardless, the point is that there has been a long and consistent and perhaps increasing process of violence and coercion by the Sri Lankan state – though I would argue that this is structural and not due to a few bad apples here and there even though some of the apples are worse than others. Some people willc all this genocide, some people will call it ethnic cleansing, some people will call it ethnic conflict, some people will call it ‘violence’, some people will call it a ‘legitimate response to terrorism’ – it doesn’t change the outcome for the people who are living in ‘safe zones’ or are refugees in Tamil Nadu or who were killed or censored Sinhalese journalists or even the Channel 4 news crew that was brave enough to sneak into an area they weren’t supposed to show the world some footage.
That is why the question ‘ Who is to blame’ is not just wrongheaded, but actually insidious – that game needs to stop NOW since the military outcome is now clear and has been for at least several months, as has been the prospect of a massive civilian catastrophe. For anyone who is not deeply wedded to Sri Lanka through personal connnections, family, their own lives, to engage in playing ‘who’s fault is it’ is really, really messed up right now to be engaging in this as if it’s ‘an issue’ rather than actual lives that are being bloodied, killed, endangered, etc – on ‘both sides.’ though right now the remaining Tamil civilian population in that area, the displaced, and everyone who will continue to be affected by this issue int he future are the ones we might want to focus on. It’s not that I don’t have my opinions – but it’s very obvious that no one in their right minds beleives it’s right for the LTTE to hold people against their will if that is happening, or for the GoSL to use chemical weapons or shell hospitals or deny press access to the areas that are being bombed, if that’s happening.
If anyone wants to do something, please learn more and consider taking steps to push your government representatives or other groups to hold at least the GoSL accountable for some basic basic steps.
Yes, as a matter of fact it’s hurting the families of all the people that the LTTE has killed (which includes many Tamils), and all the Tamil families whose children have been forcibly abducted into the LTTE’s cadres. It’s also hurting the Tamil people in Sri Lanka’s overall cause, b/c it’s making the Tamil diaspora look like they’re either (1) supporters of a totalitarian bunch of goons or (2) can’t be believed, b/c they’re in fact so cowed/threatened by the LTTE that, although we feel bad for them, we can’t pay attention to what they say, b/c they’re just the mouthpieces for the LTTE goons.
Look the point is, even if the Vietnamese are mistreating the Cambodians by discriminating against them or worse (and, yes, I’ll be the first to say that what the GoSL has done at times has been far worse than just discrimination), that doesn’t mean I’m going to support the Khmer Rouge. And Cambodian exiles marching around in, say, Paris with Khmer Rouge paraphernalia aren’t helping the oppressed Cambodians at all. You’re seriously saying it would be misguided to judge such exiles as being unhelpful??
weeks leading up to a massive episode of violence against civilians, the posts we get here are focused on ideas like who is at fault
You wrote at length, but I can reply briefly. That is not an irrelevant question, because if a person believes, as I do, that the violence against civilians is largely an artifact of the LTTE holding them hostage, then one’s perspective on this issue fundamentally changes.
Your points (1) and (2) are redundant, and anyway, not particularly relevant to this post. The protestors in Toronto are not talking about Up-Country Tamils (whom you didn’t mention?)vs. other Tamils, they are talking about Tamils. They are not talking about British colonialism either.
though right now the remaining Tamil civilian population in that area, the displaced, and everyone who will continue to be affected by this issue int he future are the ones we might want to focus on.
I addressed the interned/refugee issue in an earlier post. I am concerned about it, and will continue to follow it.
So you’re only sympathetic to the latter – great – join the club – but what is needed is truth and reconciliation, not judgement and blame, particularly from someone like the writer of this post who as far as I know is not connected in any deep way to this issue int he first place, though that is an assumption on my part.
Truth and reconciliation cannot seriously begin until this conflict ends.
I find your move to delegitimate my point of view hard to stomach — at least I’ve signed this post with my real name, so people know who I am and where I’m coming from. You might or might not have a “deep” connection to this yourself, but no one would know, would they?
Spot on, Amardeep!
I do not buy this line of argument. It assumes that the Sri Lankan government has no choice but to indiscriminately air bomb the place, including civilian relief structures like hospitals, and has no other recourse left to it w.r.t modes of warfare.
The only truth and reconciliation Amardeep can envision is the Weberian view of the state imposing its hegemony at the end of a gun. By only legitimating the state and its usage of violence, the post author only serves to fuel further ethno-nationalist struggles to form their own states. Only if they are successful will their use of violence be legitimate. It furthers the belief that all nations must have their own nation-states.
Violence on both sides should be unequivocally condemned, especially the state’s greater resources and ability to wage brutality on its own citizenry.
For an alternative viewpoint, see here.
Ummm–do you know what “unequivocally” means? You contradicted its meaning in the rest of your sentence, rendering the entirety a (nonsensical) paradox.
To be clear, you start by condemning violence “on both sides” “unequivocally,” and then proceed to, well, equivocate by focusing on the state’s greater responsibility. . . .
The issue is even weirder, b/c, and this applies to Malathi’s comment in #31 above as well:
The (sad) fact of the matter is that these unfortunate Tamil civilians being held captive in the increasingly shrinking LTTE-controlled zone have not been subject to GoSL control for the past many years–the only “state” (in the Weberian sense, friend Mewa Singh) they have been subject to is the LTTE. And we see how that went.
1) If the LTTE holds people hostage and the GoSL attacks both the LTTE and those people, how does that make you less sad or angry that there are people being killed, raped, exposed to chemical weapons, held hostage, and forced to become refugees? Would it be better if it were just the LTTE who were bad guys or jsut the GoSl who were bad guys rather than both (to put it really crudely)?
Not for the purpose of delegitimising your views, but for understanding where they come from, what are you relying on in forming your view and how do you substantiate it? Presumably, you have thought about this issue and have some underlying assumptions that led you to come to the conclusion that you did; what are they?
2) I have tens of thousand words of writing on the Internet under this pseudonym and I linked to the recent writing on Sri Lanka- it’s not that hard to find out where I’m coming from without anyone knowing my name. However, I think it’s fair to ask people to be as open as they feel comfortable being: I am Indian American and sort of a radical humanist or something like that, I am not Sri Lankan in any way; I have some close friends or colleagues from Sri Lanka, including one who is British Tamil and sort of a Tamil nationalist and sort of a humanist; I did some reading/writing on Sri Lankan politics / history in the course of doing a masters but that’s the extent of my familiarity with sri lanka – for example, i know very little abotu the impact of portuguese and dutch colonialism.
3) Do you really really really want to talk about epistemology and credibility issues? Here’s a link to Amnesty International’s action alert. It’s probably a better use of your time than talking to me. (for peeps interested in the politics of the alert, see post).
Well, that’s easy–they left behind some nice desserts (e.g., Breudher), some Christian-converts, and some mixed-race people (the “Burghers”), most of whom have since (haha, logically enough, though it’s really sad to have to recognize such a move as logical) decamped for Australia or elsewhere in the Anglo-sphere during what one might term the “Troubles” (which is why they’re not talked about much anymore, even though you wanted to reintroduce them in your point #1 in your first post on this thread). . . .
No, it wouldn’t be better–you’re correct on that . . . but the point is that we were condemning the idiots waving LTTE flags in Toronto (somehow mesmerizing the normally razor-sharp Khoofi), and you were criticizing us for such condemnation–let’s not lose the thread here. I agree that condemning the Toronto peeps isn’t helping, at the first order, the victims, but I’m also sure it’s not hurting them, and I think as a third-or-so order effect, it should help them get their act together.
Dr. A–I think you need to read up more on the horrors committed by various “liberation” movements (e.g., Khmer Rouge, North Korean communists, Castro-ites) before you criticize me and others for condemning groups like the LTTE. . . .
By only legitimating the state and its usage of violence, the post author only serves to fuel further ethno-nationalist struggles to form their own states.
I am not talking about other ethno-nationalist struggles or monopolies on the legitimate use of force. I am talking about a group that has put a large number of its own countrymen in mortal danger — at gunpoint — and then sent out propagandists to try and claim that the other party is responsible for genocide.
There are lots of ways to advocate for what you perceive to be the advancement of your people. This, however, is not it.
The doctors in the conflict zone who reported on casualty figures during the fighting have been detained by government forces and there are fears for their safety.
link
Most of us are in the west, but please speak to your political representatives and let them know about what’s happening – the LTTE seems vanquished, there’s little standing between the government and a vulnerable civilian population, only political pressure from parties who matter can secure their safety now.
If the LTTE holds people hostage and the GoSL attacks both the LTTE and those people, how does that make you less sad or angry that there are people being killed, raped, exposed to chemical weapons, held hostage, and forced to become refugees?
I am sad and angry about it. The LTTE should let them go, and face its chosen enemy without jeopardizing those innocent lives. This is not a one-way war.
Would it be better if it were just the LTTE who were bad guys or jsut the GoSl who were bad guys rather than both (to put it really crudely)?
I don’t know what you’re getting at here. I have always acknowledged that the government of Sri Lanka is by no means blameless. (For instance, I wrote a rather angry post a few months ago after a reporter named Wickramatunge, who had been critical of the government, was assassinated.) But the point of this post is that the protesters are irresponsibly oversimplifying the current crisis.
Not for the purpose of delegitimising your views, but for understanding where they come from, what are you relying on in forming your view and how do you substantiate it?
Talking with you is always a lot of going around in circles. First, I substantiated my views briefly in the post above, in this case extrapolating from the first-hand reporting done by Ignatius Sellah in the video I linked to. Most commenters either agreed or disagreed with me on the merits. But then you came along and said, “you have no standing to talk about this, not having ‘deep’ connections to Si Lanka.” Now, after I pushed back, you are asking me how I substantiate my views again.
Yes, that I agree with 100%–we need to make sure that the media get in there and that GoSL is kept to (strict) account for the treatment of civilians. Very, very important going forward in the next few months (hopefully not years. . . .). Has nothing to do with the LTTE, note!!
Amardeep, as you’ve shown a willingness to weigh in and commit to definitive assessments – what are your thoughts on the post-war situation of Tamil civilians? The UK’s Channel 4 has already reported on the poor conditions of those in the camps the government has set up for the displaced (rape of the interned by soldiers; litlte/no medical care; shortages of food etc)..Surely you won’t pin that on the LTTE, will you?
I’m sort of offended that you think it’s appropriate to wade in now and apportion blame as the conflict rages. Both sides, the LTTE and the Government, are brutalizing the civilians. Your input at this stage is unproductive and, frankly, worthless.