Truth of voices silenced by the Gun

“We have all too often viewed the war through clouded, misguided lenses of Western privilege. We have refused to confront the mirror image of Sri Lankan state oppression and LTTE authoritarianism. We have sought easy answers from self-appointed leaders, instead of extending our hand to Tamil communities with the compassion, understanding and solidarity that is so desperately needed. We have not risen to the challenge of speaking the difficult truth, a truth which countless activists have lost their lives for.”

by Kevin Shimmin

(August 26, Toronto, Sri Lanka Guardian) I would like to start by congratulating the organizers of this unique and courageous exhibition. [“ Call of the Conscience” in Toronto, August 23, 2008.] As the war in Sri Lanka again escalates to tragic proportions, we need the voices of truth more than ever. The truth can be found in the photographs and documentaries that surround us here this afternoon. It is the truth of endless suffering of the human body and continuous oppression of language, culture and identity.

It is the truth of voices silenced by the gun and the resulting fear which has gripped entire communities. It is the truth of hopes and dreams crushed – of the persecution of youth, of women, of human rights and social justice activists. And it is the truth of a deafening silence among ourselves – a silence that represents our challenge to work towards a just political solution to the war, a solution that is inclusive and representative of all communities in Sri Lanka.

It is significant that this exhibition is being launched in Toronto. With the world’s largest Diaspora community from Sri Lanka, it is the responsibility of us all to recognize that we can have a progressive impact on the war. We need to talk about why the Sri Lankan state remains unaccountable today, after more than two decades of war, for an overtly racist agenda of oppression, for the bombing of civilians, for illegal detention and torture. We need to talk about why the LTTE remains unaccountable for an authoritarian regime that silences Tamil voices of dissent, which continues the forcible recruitment of children. And we need to ask ourselves where have we been? What have we been doing right here in Toronto to work for peace and justice in Sri Lanka?

We have all too often viewed the war through clouded, misguided lenses of Western privilege. We have refused to confront the mirror image of Sri Lankan state oppression and LTTE authoritarianism. We have sought easy answers from self-appointed leaders, instead of extending our hand to Tamil communities with the compassion, understanding and solidarity that is so desperately needed. We have not risen to the challenge of speaking the difficult truth, a truth which countless activists have lost their lives for.

The 2002 peace process facilitated by Norway failed because it refused to gain the confidence of the people. Instead of carefully building on the demands of the people, demands for dignity, justice and security, the brokers did the exact opposite. They initiated a top-down, elitist approach to resolving one of the world’s most bitter and deadly conflicts, attempting to reconcile differences between two oppressive leaderships, while ignoring the pleas of the people. Ignoring the voices of women. Ignoring the voices of minority communities. Ignoring the voices of workers and rural villagers. Ignoring the voices of the internally displaced. Ignoring the common concerns of the Tamil, Muslim and Sinhalese peoples. The common demands for a life without fear, an end to systemic racism, and an end to impunity.

During the ceasefire, we were told not to talk about human rights violations. We were told that criticism of the LTTE or the Sri Lankan state would jeopardize the peace process. And so political killings, torture and child recruitment continued and often escalated. When we raised these issues, many said that we were against peace. But what kind of peace was being negotiated? It was a peace agreed upon between a chauvinist oppressive state leadership and the authoritarian command of the LTTE. If ever there was a moment in history when the mirror image of the LTTE and the state was absolutely clear to the peoples of Sri Lanka, this was it.

In my opinion, and that of many other activists, much of the responsibility for these catastrophic events lies squarely at the feet of the West. The smug arrogance of Western nations to tell the peoples of Sri Lanka how to achieve peace was intolerable. Human rights activists murdered, children forcibly recruited, the continuing impunity of government forces – this was how the West negotiated peace? This was the peace which the international NGO community told us to patiently wait for? The peoples of Sri Lanka knew it was a tragic farce. Dissidents knew it was a farce. The common people and the internally displaced knew it was a farce. Yet the Norwegian contingent, other privileged nations of the West, and the mainstream NGO community refused to recognize the painful and dangerous reality. Even when the lifeless body of the victim of yet another political killing was taken to the offices of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, the leaders of this process refused to relent.

The ceasefire was a crucial time when all of us should have been seeking out the voices of courage and humanity among Tamil, Muslim and Sinhalese communities, particularly among the Diaspora here in Toronto. While some of us did continue to support our sisters and brothers who were speaking out against human rights violations and persecution, many others allowed themselves to be silenced by those in the international community who refused to critique the peace process. Every excuse in the book was used to cover up ongoing human rights violations. We were labeled as troublemakers or we were condemned for promoting supposedly Western values of human rights. Yet, what many forgot is that contemporary struggles against racial oppression have been built on the very notion of human rights. We need not look further than the many nations in the African continent where people rose up and broke the shackles of colonialism by fighting specifically for human rights. We need not look further than the many nations of Latin America that today have achieved democratic representative governments, peoples’ governments, by specifically fighting against torture and political killings during decades of military rule and foreign imperialism. What these experiences have told us, from Chile to Bolivia to South Africa, is that peace can only be achieved if the right to dignity and human security is guaranteed, not only as an end result, but clearly as a means to that end.

While we were told not to speak of political killings and child recruitment during the ceasefire, we are now being told to be silent about bombings of civilians, torture and extrajudicial executions during the war. But the fact is that anyone who tells us to be silent about the oppression and murder of either the Sri Lankan state or the LTTE is someone who has no interest whatsoever in achieving a just peace for all peoples of Sri Lanka. Peace in Sri Lanka cannot be attained through a military solution. Human security cannot be achieved by continued state racism and oppression. And human dignity and empowerment cannot be gained through continuing authoritarianism within our own communities. Indeed, liberation and self-determination have never been achieved through fascism. Instead of consistently continuing to divide ourselves, we need to start building solidarity across the common humanity that can unite us all. It does not help when Western governments label us as “terrorists”. And it does not help when the brand of “traitor” continues to be acceptable within mainstream publications in our own communities.

In closing, we need three crucial action pieces from our municipal, provincial and federal governments in Canada and we need them now. First, we need affordable housing, good jobs, recognition of foreign credentials, and equitable distribution of wealth and social services for new immigrants. It is absolutely unacceptable that people immigrating to Canada face dire poverty and systemic racism at work, at school, and within our governing institutions. It is this very marginalization which makes critical dissent within the Diaspora community next to impossible since Canadian society itself isolates and oppresses those who seek a new life here. Second, we need our politicians and community leaders to seek out those critical progressive voices of dissent within the Diaspora and support their struggles for social justice. This means empowering those voices which are not part of the mainstream, who may not speak English, who are not in positions of power and privilege. Finally, we need our governments to demand an independent human rights monitoring body be set up and supported by the United Nations. This body must be impartial and accountable to the peoples of Sri Lanka, especially those living in the North and East. It must have the power and willingness to report violations by all actors in the war. And most importantly, it must work in coordination and cooperation with the people – civil society groups, women and youth, the marginalized, the isolated, the oppressed.

My friends, we must start taking responsibility for our role in supporting our sisters and brothers in Sri Lanka and right here in Toronto. We must call on our collective conscience to heal the wounds that divide us. We must demand bread and roses, and we must demand peace and justice. I sincerely hope that this gathering here today represents a significant step towards the realization of dignity and humanity for all peoples of Sri Lanka.
- Sri Lanka Guardian