Australian Greens & French Tamils

by Gaja Lakshmi Paramasivam

(July 12, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) I write in response to the article ‘Sri Lankan atrocities exposed: 'It's like Israel and Palestine' by Reporter Tony Iltis, of Green Left.

Mr. Tony Iltis says about the Channel 4 documentary on Sri Lanka’s Battle of Vanni - ‘The documentary’s maker Callum Macrae described it as “probably the most horrific ever to have been broadcast on mainstream television”.

Channel 4 defended screening the footage by pointing to the lack of response by Western governments to the UN report, released on April 25, which documented the same war crimes.

In Australia, the documentary was screened by ABC TV’s Four Corners program on July 4.

When Four Corners screened footage two weeks earlier of livestock being kicked and beaten, the revelations were considered serious enough to demand a government response that created widespread economic dislocation in northern Australia and strained Australia’s important trading relationship with Indonesia.

The government’s response to the abuse of Tamils has been more muted, although foreign minister Kevin Rudd did tell ABC radio’s PM on July 5: “No-one watching this program could emerge from that undisturbed and we don’t either.”

The order in which the exposures / reports happened confirms that the Sri Lankan issue is being kicked around by all those who seem to think they are custodians of global powers. True Global Powers would be close to the Universal Power of Truth. Pictures taken have to be published by eye-witnesses, for them to have validity in a court of law. They need to also be published as close to the time and place where it all happened. If they are taken over by others the matter is likely to be hijacked by ‘foreigners’. Knowing this intuitively, I presented my own experiences in Courts and then to all interested parties. To me, that is self governance. The rest rightly or wrongly would go towards separation.

The Australian Public have invested more as individuals in animals than in the People of Third World. When I was arrested by Police, here in Australia (for Peaceful Assembly) – the Police listed me as Sri Lankan and refused to change it despite my strong protests that for legal purposes I was Australian. The Courts - except Federal Magistrate Smith who heard my last complaint of Racial Discrimination – accepted this description. This experience confirmed to me that there are two systems in Australia – one through which we ‘show’ others that we follow the law and the other that is Natural to us. We act as per the latter when we are not conscious that someone is looking and assessing us. Hence the confidential vote. The latter is the Political system and in Australia this is stronger than the Judicial system. It’s when the two are at Equal level of power that we would be truly a democratic nation.

The ordinary Australian naturally hurts at the sight of cruelty to animals. Young Australian Tamils have also joined them and some write more against animal cruelty than against cruelty against fellow humans in Sri Lanka, by either side. I have publicly criticized such work. To me, this meant that their parents lacked feelings for their own origins or that the children lacked faith in the parents who did care.

I protested in being called a Sri Lankan legally because I was more conscious of my legal rights as an Australian and if I meekly accepted the listing by junior Police Officers – I would have denied the value of my Sri Lankan Higher Education. Australian Political leaders accepted the UN’s description of the LTTE – that it was a Terrorist organization. Ordinary White Australians have asked me – ‘So you are from the area of the Bad Tigers?’. Australian laws based on this UN listing resulted in the prosecution of Australian Tamils who financially supported the LTTE in this war. It indirectly punished others who contributed in small amounts. It is difficult for the average Australian to feel for either side now that the Government also has been exposed for their cruelty in this war. Tamils experienced this each time there were riots in majority Sinhalese areas. It was worse then because the thugs who attacked were not bound by any code of conduct – except their natural ethics. Until that is cured and/or buried – one cannot expect a disciplined armed force from that community.

Mr. Rudd’s response that they were disturbed is a Natural one and many of us heard similar from the Australian Public, at our levels. But most Australians lack the confidence to invest in foreign wars except for material returns. Not so in eliminating cruelty to animals in which they/we genuinely feel they are world leaders. They/we are as per my assessment.

As per the article in Green Left ‘Thiru Thiruchchothy, president of Maison du Tamils, the democratically elected council representing France’s 100,000-strong Sri Lankan Tamil community, condemned the UN panel’s report as belated.

He told Green Left Weekly: “The UN can have a report of 250 pages, or whatever it is, but they should first answer why they didn’t do anything when they knew they were about 400,000 people in that territory’

Exactly my question including to Mr. Gordon Weiss. It’s for the same reason why Australian Public did not express public condemnation of the war atrocities in Sri Lanka. Both lack ownership investment in the issue. Most Australians depend on the system through which the Australian citizen is valued – i.e. the UN for current issues and the Commonwealth for inherited issues. They lack independent investments through their personal experience (for example the Aboriginal issue) and independent thinking based on personal experience.

If I were the UN person in that war area - I would have worked to bring as many civilians as possible - out of the war zone or stayed there with them until they were ready to leave. Towards this I would have had to be a true civilian myself. I would then have had the power of Truth to support me. Unto Tahtinen says in his article about Gandhi (published in Sri Lankan Guardian on 08 July) ‘According to Gandhi, "put all your knowledge, learning and scholarship in one scale and truth and purity in the other and the latter will by far outweigh the other.’

The Truth about me is that in my fight for freedom from Racial Discrimination, I accepted the punishment by Australian Authorities, including imprisonment and threats of treatment for alleged mental illness . I did not ‘run away’ from the problem I went into because I could not take it any more. UN officials ‘ran away’ and abandoned ship. All those who depend on the UN – would also feel like running away and therefore would have closed their eyes and memories.

It takes strong conscious thinking to override habitual thinking by association with those through whom we value ourselves – in this instance the UN. Majority Australians are not ready to make this commitment to eliminate racism here in Australia. Sri Lanka is remote land to most of them.