| by S.
Ratnajeevan H. Hoole
( December 9, 2012, Washington DC, Sri Lanka Guardian) Canada’s denying
asylum to Sri Lanka’s Captain Ravindra Bandanage, 38, made headlines
this week. Many have been denied, but Bandanage made news because he claimed being
ordered to plant explosives at former TNA parliamentarian M.K. Sivajilingam’s
home. This was the first time a senior officer had admitted to planting
evidence on opponents and to torture and other crimes by our government against
Tamils, although for Tamils these are facts of life.
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| Passport of Captain R.P.W. Bandanage (Courtesy: National Post) |
M.K. Sivajilingam on War Crimes
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|
M.K. Sivajilingam
Maverick with
Backbone
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Sivajilingam
expressed what many Tamils privately think but fear to say. For, Butenis writes
further of her discussions with R. Sampanthan, who said “he believed accountability
was important, [but] the Tamil community was ‘vulnerable’ on the issue” and “he
would not discuss ‘war crimes’ per se in parliament for fear of retaliation.” Of
the few Tamils who think otherwise is the Tamil National People’s Front’s Pathmini Sithamparanathan who postures as a
nationalist before Tamils but privately told Butenis in mid-December 2009 that “now
was not the time for war crimes-type investigations.” It is clear why the army
wanted Sivajilingam, the only person who tenaciously and loudly wanted
accountability, framed.
The
government is very foolish in going after Sivajilingam and eliminating Tamils
who voice the people’s unspoken feelings. Sivajilingam is an unpredictable
maverick. For example he stood as a candidate in the last presidential
elections because he did not agree with his TNA’s endorsement of General
Fonseka who had said terrible things about Tamils. At the same time he could
not see how Tamils could vote for Rajapaksa who is culpable for war crimes
under command responsibility. Many Tamils had similar feelings but went with
the TNA’s recommendation out of loyalty and therefore Sivajilingam hardly received
any votes.
But Sivajilingam’s
was probably the one TNA voice during LTTE times that could question Prabhakaran
in public as an elder from Valvettithurai. In one incident when Sivajilingam
went into the jungles to challenge a decision by Prabhakaran, Prabhakaran could
not face him and went deeper into the jungles to avoid him, giving security
issues as an excuse.
Just 6-7 months ago, when fishermen in Kothiyaal, Valvettithurai had a
trawler dispute with the army, it was Sivajilingam who averted violence. When
the Jaffna Library was to be reopened by Mayor Kandaiyan, Prabhakaran wanted it
stopped. Sivajilingam worked on a compromise but LTTE Political Commissar
Ilamparithy threatened those who would open the library with death.
Today in government eyes, Sivajilingam is bad while Ilamparithy is hunting LTTE
remnants with the army. The government has gone mad.
Planting
Evidence: University
A TNA stalwart is emphatic that Bandanage
lied in claiming asylum, saying “I will never believe a man in Khakis.” But I
am not so certain. As I write the rampant tactic of planting evidence against
opponents like Sivajilingam is ongoing at Jaffna University following last week’s
disturbances by the army.
Most students did not even know about any lamp lighting.
A
shadow intelligence service is in charge like in LTTE times. It is not
answerable to anyone in the regular forces. University persons meeting the DIG say
he knows little – not where his orders to arrest the students were coming from,
what they were charged with or being interrogated about.
As the world
looks the government seeks to legitimize
the army’s incursion with some arrests. But there is no charge for lighting
lamps. So
Sri-TELO, a government creation, claimed a petrol bomb exploding at its
Thinnavely office. Two students including the
Secretary, Arts Faculty Union (who was beaten up by intelligence men on
motorcycles with steel rods on Heroes’ Day 2011) were arrested. The Police claimed
that Sri-TELO gave their names over the bomb blast; but the latter deny it, making
plain that the bomb was a ruse. Altogether, 4 arrested students were taken to
Vavuniya and Colombo in vans. There is fear for their lives, going by past army
practice.
In blundering, the security forces have shown they treat Tamils
as enemies. The episode poses a difficult challenge to the university’s plans
to be multi-ethnic. An assistant lecturer friendly with Sinhalese students was
asked by SMS about 27th Nov and he replied it was Heroes’ Day. His innocuous
reply was forwarded to intelligence which subjected him to interrogation. The trilingual
first year science students’ representative was ordered to report to the CID in
Colombo after a handful of Sinhalese students demanded his replacement because
he was among students when stones were thrown at “our national army.” Some of
these students are regular visitors at nearby army camps and sometimes eat
there.
Said a Sinhalese student “Trying to hunt Tigers we are
turning the students into Tigers. We cannot beat the Tamils this way.”
Denial
of Asylum: Poor Judgement
Thus Bandanage’s claims are credible. The benefit of the doubt
was his but the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) failed him. In denying
Bandanage refugee protection, Canada argued that his being asked to place a
bomb on Sivajilingam showed he was a trusted officer, aware of the “relentless
brutality” of the Sri Lanka Army towards Tamil civilians and its “countless
crimes against humanity.”
That seems a poor argument, especially when the judgement itself
shows that Canada is well aware of the criminal nature of our government.
Tamils and Sinhalese too know of the countless crimes by the army but that does
not make us complicit in their crimes. We are simply powerless. In Sri Lanka,
ordering an underling to do dirty work does not imply trust but rather arrogant
expectation of obedience.
Canada’s
IRB Discourages Evidence
However, this ruling should have been expected in light of a similar
denial earlier this year to a former Sri Lankan naval officer, Commodore
Nadarajah Kuruparan, on the grounds that he “had been complicit in the crimes
against humanity because he had a long service with the navy, an organization that was known to regularly and systematically
commit human rights abuses against the LTTE, the Tamil population and
individuals suspected or perceived to be LTTE collaborators or sympathizers.”
What will happen to Bandanage and Kuruparan now? Sri Lanka is
too dangerous for them and, having had asylum rejected, a third country to go
to would be difficult to find. This denial also would make other witnesses to
war crimes reluctant to come forward, in fear of being accused of being in the
trusted circle of criminals.
Tamils in Sri Lankan
Forces
Kuruparan’s denial makes the case that no Tamil should join
any Sri Lankan armed force for fear of being held complicit, whereas for us
Tamils, having Tamils in the forces at least gives us channels of sympathetic
communication with our dreaded forces.
A very good friend of mine with a Sinhalese surname had no
knowledge of Sinhalese because he was born to a Tamil Hindu mother and brought
up with us in Jaffna. He went by his first name, using his father’s name as an
initial. Few outside our circle knew he was Sinhalese by paternal lineage. He
joined the police because he wanted a job. Learning his father’s language, he became
a good policeman, serving for years until he was assaulted by fellow policemen
as the communal cauldron heated up and he was thought to be Tamil. He went to
the Middle East as a security officer after his suitcases were thrown out of
the top floor of his police quarters in Colombo. By Canada’s misguided
argument, he was complicit in all police crimes although in fact he helped many
Tamils as a policeman.
Canada’s Responsibility
Canada, after making a fuss over the upcoming Commonwealth
meeting in Sri Lanka because of Colombo’s culpability in war crimes, should not
now make it impossible for Sinhalese soldiers to give evidence on those crimes
in fear of being held complicit. Nor should Canada label decent Tamils in the Sri
Lankan armed forces as complicit traitors.
 Canada’s denying asylum to Sri Lanka’s Captain ...){kind=link}