| by M. A. Sumanthiran MP
( December 30, 2012, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Guardian) November 27th this year marked an important milestone in the different
phases of ethnic relations in this country. For those of us who still retain
the memory of the events of 40 years ago, it was like Déjà vu. Students of the
Jaffna University observed Heroes’ Day within the University premises.
The security forces invaded a female hostel;
beat several students who protested the next day and the Terrorist
Investigation Division (TID) of the Sri Lanka Police arrested four University
students. Subsequently over 40 other youth have also been arrested and
detained.
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Violence and counter-violence devoured thousands of Sri Lankans until May 2009, when the State used its military might to decimate not only the LTTE but also several thousand Tamil civilians for which it is still to be held accountable. After May 2009 there was no fighting between two forces, which gave the civilian population in the entire country some respite.
None of them have been produced before
courts, except one Medical College student who was released. They seem to have
been detained under the provisions of the infamous Prevention of Terrorism Act
(PTA). The Defence authorities say that these youth have been sent for
‘rehabilitation’ at their own request!
It is important to assess these developments
in the backdrop of history and we cannot but notice the forty year cycle. In
the early 1970s the Tamils of this country were alienated from national life in
a very significant way.
The supposedly autochthonous Constitution was
created by a majoritarian vote at the Navarangahala. Every single resolution
proposed by the ITAK was defeated by the use of majority votes. The ITAK then
walked out of the Constituent Assembly, leaving behind the All Ceylon Tamil
Congress MPs Thiagarajah, Arulampalam and Anandasangaree.
The ITAK leader S. J. V. Chelvanayagam
resigned his Parliamentary seat in protest and challenged the government to
hold a by-election in order to demonstrate that the Tamil People endorsed their
decision and that they rejected the First Republican Constitution. The
government delayed holding the by-election by two years but when it was
eventually held, he won with a massive majority.
Parallel to this there were other
developments that took place around this time. The standardisation practised
for admission to universities ended hopes of tertiary education for the Tamil
youth. Many of them were sent to the UK for higher studies by their parents
after selling or mortgaging their lands.
Frustrated by this alienation many of them
started movements in the UK, which turned out to be first militant groups.
General Union of Eelam Students (GUES) and Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of
Students (EROS) are examples of these. Note that both of these were student
organisations! The LTTE which emerged a little later must be seen and
understood as part of this evolutionary process.
In the mid-1970s the Tamil youth were
radicalized, first by unfairly denying them higher education and then when they
protested, mainly using democratic forms, by arresting them and incarcerating
them under the then extant emergency law without charging them in courts.
Over 40 Tamil youths were held without trial
for over four years and were released only after they went on a fast unto death
in the prisons just before the Non-aligned summit held in Colombo. Mavai
Senathirajah, MP and the present General Secretary of the ITAK, was one of
those.
But the most accelerated form of militarizing
them was by sending the army to the North under ‘Bull’ Weeratunga to ‘crush’
‘terrorism’ in six months. Groups of Tamil youth congregating at junctions in
the evenings were rounded up, beaten mercilessly and detained under the PTA and
tortured.
Unable to defend themselves, many youths
started joining the several militant organizations that had emerged and went
under-ground. Several of them went to the Middle East and were trained in
guerilla warfare.
They returned and engaged in hit and run
attacks against the oppressive army. It was the large-scale violence that was
unleashed against the Tamils in July 1983 that forced the Tamil youths in their
thousands to join the different militant groups. This is an undeniable fact.
This shows that Tamil militancy as seen post
1983 was a direct result of Anti-Tamil pogroms of the State. This is not
intended to exculpate any of the militant groups from responsibility for the
terror they themselves unleashed, but certainly the State played a significant
role in bringing this about.
Violence and counter-violence devoured
thousands of Sri Lankans until May 2009, when the State used its military might
to decimate not only the LTTE but also several thousand Tamil civilians for
which it is still to be held accountable. After May 2009 there was no fighting
between two forces, which gave the civilian population in the entire country
some respite.
Other forms of violence however continued
unabated mainly against the Tamil civilians. Over a hundred thousand displaced
persons are yet to be permitted to resettle in their original places; heavy
militarisation continues with its attendant evil consequences; land grabs by
the military and the continuing detention of hundreds of detainees under the
PTA, etc., are but some examples of such violence. A government that brooks no
dissent even in the South of the country, does not tolerate any form of
democratic opposition in the North.
Although there has not been a single act of
violence against the State from the Tamil side as it were since May 2009, the
government has continued to deal with the populace in an overly oppressive way.
This includes the non-recognition of the democratically elected representatives
of the Tamil People at the Parliamentary as well as local council levels in
development and other activities.
If the imposition of the will of the majority
on the Tamil People through sheer numbers was the form of oppression until
1970, actions that directly target the dignity and self-respect of the Tamil
People, in addition to the physical violence that is being heaped on the Tamils
is the form it takes now. This is exactly what was done 40 years ago and the
cycle seems to be restarting again.
Once again the target is the youth in general
and the student community in particular. The replay of events 40 years later
has significant similarities. Again just over 40 youth have been arrested and
without being produced in court, are being held under the PTA and are even
purportedly being given ‘rehabilitation at their own request’ at the Welikanda
Army Camp.
The fact that these detentions are wholly
illegal somehow seems irrelevant to the government, which is focused on trying
to show the world that the LTTE is now rising from the ashes. Ironically this
is sweet music to the die-hard LTTE supporter! But in reality both sides are
dragging the Tamil youth and the University students in particular down a
slippery slope.
The presence of LTTE flags at the joint
opposition May Day rally in Jaffna and other protest rallies, though laughable
for their amateurish attempts, is an indication of what the government is
trying to portray. Astonishingly, the extremist forces within the Tamil polity
are their greatest allies in this.
The portrayal of the LTTE as having
re-emerged may suit the different, if opposite, agendas of both sides.
But it is one that will do serious damage to
any meaningful reconciliation being achieved. Right thinking people in both
communities must thwart this attempt; Tamil youth must not fall into this trap
wittingly or unwittingly.
We must often remind ourselves of history if
we are to learn from it. Unfortunately the only consistent lesson that history
teaches is that no one learns from history!
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