Loss of Parvathi Amma

:Sri Lanka takes on the Tamils for war rather than genuine reconciliation

by Satheesan Kumaaran

(March 12, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) When the LTTE, better known as Tamil Tigers, chose weapons as the last resort in order to protect the defenceless Tamils who live in their traditional homelands in the North and East of Sri Lanka from the occupying Sinhala-armed forces, many countries that backed the Sri Lankan government believed that the LTTE was a ruthless terrorist-outfit. These countries failed to hear the genuine pleas of Tamils who were engaging in non-violent protest in order to obtain a federal system of government because the Tamils and Sinhalese live different ways of life, such as culture, history, language, religion, etc.

The Sinhala leadership wantonly used violence to suppress the peaceful and legal means of protests of Tamils. Ultimately, Tamil youths had no choice but to defend their nation from various discriminatory policies by the Sri Lankan State. The LTTE fought nearly 30 years avoiding casualties to the civilians as much as possible. However, the Sri Lankan State wanted to brand the LTTE as terrorists and so they heaped all the blame on the LTTE even though such crimes were not the work of the LTTE.

The Sri Lankan State created divisions among Tamils. Sri Lanka managed to take advantage of the Tamil traitors like the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) and People’s Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE). These para-militant groups were given all the privileges in Sri Lanka, including joining mainstream politics and eventually many of the killings and disappearances were the work of these militant groups. However, the government simply put the blame on the LTTE.

With the war raging nearly 30 years, the Sri Lankan armed forces murdered nearly 150,000 Tamil civilians and they have severely damaged properties and other valuables of Tamils. Since May 2009, the Sri Lankan government has continued without restraint with its own agenda in crushing every single identity of the Tamils. If the government was serious enough and the Sinhala leadership truly wanted to solve the ethnic conflict in the aftermath of the end of Eelam War 1V, the Sri Lankan government should have attempted to create normalcy in the lives of Tamils.

Instead of creating normalcy, the Sri Lankan government is engaging in more revenge on Tamils. Over 100,000 Sinhala soldiers are wandering the streets of Tamil areas with everyday occurrences of kidnapping, killing, ransoms, raping, etc.

Even the 81-year-old Paarvathi Amma, the mother of LTTE leader V. Pirapaharan, was facing enormous hardships in the hands of the Sri Lankan armed forces since the end of Eelam War 1V. Pirapaharan’s father Veluppillai died last year while he was kept in secret custody of the Sri Lankan army. These elders were put in secret detention for no other crime other than that they were parents to a famous son, Pirapaharan. Unlike their son, they were never involved in politics and the late Veluppillai was a retired public servant well known for his unstinted loyalty to the Sri Lankan State. After the death of Veluppillai, his wife Paarvathi Amma was released and spent her last year in hospital in her hometown Valvettithurai in Vadamaradchi in the Jaffna peninsula.

Kalaignar and Sri Lanka main cause to the death of Paarvathi Amma

It was a deep shock to the world Tamils with the news of Paarvathi Amma’s expiration on February 20 at the hospital in her hometown. After the death of her husband in secret detention, Paarvathi Amma was released but she was deadly sick at the time. She was suffering from various ailments. Former parliamentarian Sivajilingam, who was a distant relative of Paarvathi Amma, was taking charge of Paarvathi Amma’s care. Sivajilingam escorted Paarvathi Amma to Malaysia on March 2 last year. Despite her prolonged illness, she was discharged from the hospital, but Paarvathi Amma wanted to join her daughter who lives in Tamil Nadu of southern India. With this in mind, she left to Malaysia with proper documents and the Indian High Commissioner also issued a visa for her entry into India.

Paarvathi Amma arrived in the night at Chennai on April 16 last year, but the immigration officials did not allow her to exit the plane. She was sent back to Malaysia before dawn the next day. Then Paarvathi Amma went back to her hometown in Jaffna. She was facing enormous suffering in the hospital without getting proper medical treatment. Dr. Mayilerum Perumal was taking care of Paarvathi Amma’s medical treatment. When the hospital staff went to see her around 6: 20 a.m. on February 20, she was already dead. She has four children, including her son, LTTE leader Pirapaharan. One daughter lives in Canada, another one in India, and the elder son lives in Denmark. It was unfortunate that none of her children were able to attend their mother’s funeral.

World Tamils were deeply shocked over Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for his doubled-standard political game over deporting the elderly woman who lived in Tamil Nadu decades before she and her husband went back to Eelam in the post ceasefire agreement between the LTTE and Sri Lankan government in 2002 with the facilitation of Norwegian government.

If Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Kalaignar had allowed Paarvathi Amma to enter Tamil Nadu, she would have sought proper medical treatment and she may still be alive. The 87-year-old Kalaignar is in a wheel-chair facing the assembly elections in a month and if his party wins, he could be the six-time Chief Minister. What a coincidence this is. An elderly man mobilizing himself with the support of his staff in a wheelchair gets the chance to rule the State. This reveals that Kalaignar is a mirror of dictators like Muammar Gaddafi, Hosni Mubarak, Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong II, Than Shwe, etc.

Kalaignar has built an economic empire in India. However, he still claims that he respects democracy.

If Kalaignar stabs in the back as this is the form of a traitor, the Sri Lankan State stabs in the front giving the notion that their prime enemy are the Tamils. Even the Sri Lankan government has challenged the western countries when they called upon the Sri Lankan government to equitably accommodate the Tamils and do something meaningful to reconcile them in the post Eelam War 1V era.


So called disciplined Sri Lankan armed forces do not respect even the dead

Cultural genocide, too, is on the rise, but these take place behind closed-doors. The real motives of the Sri Lankan rulers were revealed in the aftermath of demise of LTTE leader’s mother Paarvathi Amma. Sri Lankan armed forces were deployed with tight security in the presence of intelligence officers to sabotage any commemoration events taking place in the Jaffna peninsula.

The LTTE had established quite a number of cemeteries called “abodes” (Maaveerar Thuyilum Illangal) where their heroes were laid to rest in neat rows of graves marked by single tombstones. A pavilion commemorating them collectively with names and relevant dates was also constructed. Since the end of the war end, the Sri Lankan military forces, when seizing territory from the LTTE, have demolished many of these resting places. In some places, coconut palms were planted on top of the graves and police stations and military bases were erected on others. These barbaric actions have caused much resentment amongst the Tamils.

Sinhala soldiers have done much more harm in the aftermath of Paarvathi Amma’s death. Tamils throughout Jaffna peninsula were marching in thousands to pay their respect to the dead woman who is no doubt a great woman who produced a wonderful leader who, for over 30 years, resided in the hearts and minds of Tamils. The Sri Lankan government has not spared any sympathy to this woman even in her final rest. Their respect for the dead was evident in the photographs showing the desecration and the abuse of the dead Tamil freedom fighters recently shown by channel 4 of the BBC, claimed by the Sri Lankan government to have been doctored.

When people in Jaffna put up black mourning, flags, the military tore them down. The soldiers levelled machine guns to bar Jaffna University’s students from attending her funeral, and intimidated and videotaped those present. The businessmen who closed their stores as a way to mourn the death of Paarvathi Amma were investigated by the troops. Even the priest who conducted the final rites attended sessions of investigation. Politicians from Tamil Nadu who sought to attend were refused visas and deported.

The cremation site of Paarvathi Amma had been desecrated. Bodies of three stray dogs shot were left on the site and burnt along to mix with the ashes of Paarvathi Amma’s remains. This is a ‘Himalayan’ insult to the dead. All these show nothing but that the Sri Lankan State has no plans for reconciliation whatsoever.

It is no doubt that the Sri Lankan State is again and again pushing the next generation Tamils to take another form of struggle against Sri Lankan State. The acts of the Sri Lankan State are not only the matter of primordial hatred, but also part of state policy and the political manoeuvres of the barbaric Sinhala hegemonic powers which will have to continue unless Tamils are allowed to freely live in their homeland with the right to self-determination.

The death of Paarvathi Amma has been a catalyst again to prove that the Sri Lankan government maintains its inherent hatred towards Tamils, and indeed, they have in their hatred for the Tamils forgotten compassion which was taught by Gautama Buddha.


(The author can be reached at e-mail: satheesan_kumaaran@yahoo.com)