Buddhist President celebrates Tamil genocide
| by Pearl Thevanayagam
No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee - John Donne
(May 21, 2012, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) No truer words were spoken by John Donne although he confined his poetry to Europe. Nonetheless, like all prophesies, Donne's words ring true even now to any nation across the world and they transcend ethnic, social and religious divide to give meaning to our existence as human beings and to serve our brethren until we depart from this world to a better or higher plane which nobody has seen and nobody can bear witness to.
Each man's death diminishes me. This is perhaps the most poignant line in the last five lines of Donne's poem which sends out a heart-rending plea to those who rightly or wrongly believe that ending a human life can be justified; be it in national interest, self defence, revenge or sheer psychosis. But little do they realise their actions would haunt them for life since deep in their hearts they know it is not national interest or self-defence at stake but their own inflated ego and to a greater degree the yearning for absolute power cloaked in vanity and professing to pandering to the majority populace; be it religion, race or culture.
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| Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa, front, sings the national anthem as Air force commander Air Marshal H.D. Abeywickrama,left, Inspector General of the Police N.K. Illangakoon, right to commemorate the third anniversary of the end of the civil war on May 19, 2012 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. - Getty Images |
As our nation celebrates the massacre of 40.000 or more Sri Lankans in the heartland of Wanni in the 18 months of intensive military offensive against hapless civilians ending on May 19,2012 after vanquishing the Tamil Tigers who chose the militant path in the face of successive governments including Tamil politicians who failed to seek redress for the injustices meted out on the minority Tamils for decades since independence, it is also a time to reflect where did we as a once peaceful island go wrong.
Instead of saying mea culpa for the death of thousands of Sri Lankans who were mostly ethnic Tamils, the government is celebrating their massacre even as the foreign minister is trying to pacify the US that it gave humanitarian relief to the Tamils caught in the escalating war between the Tamil Tigers and the government security forces.
It is not easy to bury the truth. The whole world knows Sri Lankan government committed war crimes. General Mladic who masterminded the Bosnian Muslims' ethnic cleansing is now standing in the docks in Hague. Ditto for Charles Taylor of Liberia.
Three years since 40,000 Tamils ( a very conservative estimate) were massacred in the name of wiping out LTTE rebels who fought a relentless war by fair means or foul, the government has been in total denial and sending emissaries to plead its innocence and their right to self-governance.
The US and the West always have an agenda but they also have a conscience arising from the annihilation of six million Jews, the survivors of whose tribe are the economic backbone of the US not to mention the rest of the West.
General Sarath Fonseka who is credited with wiping out the LTTE has been freed although his passport has been impounded since the President believes he could turn witness to war crimes which the President's brother and defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa hijacked.
The publishing of Gota's War by a stooge could not have come at a better time. This book sealed the last nail in the coffin for the Rajapakse regime. Stupidity and arrogance are instant formulae tailor-made for the present regime. Killing Fields video cleared by Ofcom, the independent broadcasting monitor in the UK, which won worldwide acclaim and which proved the tiny island of Sri Lanka surpassed the Sreberinca massacre of Bosnia Muslims in the nineties is not lost on the UNHRC which would dog the island till kingdom come and justice meted out.
Killing the messengers, activists and blocking out media from the war zone did not do much good to the country's image. Today's celebrations would go down in history as Nero fiddling while Rome burnt.
One can easily draw parallel to President Mahinda Rajapaksa with General Ratko Mladic's pronunciation that, "The whole world knows who I am," during a hearing last year. "I am General Ratko Mladic. I defended my people, my country... now I am defending myself." he proclaimed on May16, 2012 hearing for war crimes in Hague.
Charles Taylor, Liberia's former President, who was initially supported by the US is now standing in the Hague's dock for crimes against humanity, war crimes, rape, murder and plunder. All of these dictators would argue that they wiped out terrorism. Bu they cannot extricate themselves from causing the deaths of their own people numbering thousands in the name of sovereignty. Their armed forces were given carte blanche to kill at will, rape and plunder all in the name of preserving the hegemony of the dominant ethnic or religious groups.
Colombo editorials are exhorting the meeting of External Affairs Minister, Prof. G.L. Peiris with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as an acclaim for the government's post-war reconciliation measures. Not a month ago the same editorials were spewing venom on the US for presenting a resolution demanding accountability for war crimes at the recently concluded UNHRC sessions.
Why is the country still under the jackboot of security forces when the government is declaring victory over the LTTE and celebrating for the third successful year that peace has dawned on the isle once more? It is a mystery.
It seems the more deaths of Tamils means there is more space for Singhalese. And to hell with Donne immortal words of every man's death diminishing one's self.
( The writer is Asia Pacific Journalism Fellow at UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, California and a print journalist for 22 years. She can be reached at pearltheva@hotmail.com)
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