Sri Lanka’s president Mahinda Rajapaksa, crest fallen in London, tried to simulate support for him Saturday, by intimidating Eezham Tamils living in captive conditions under his military in Vanni. On Saturday early morning, amidst heavy rains, Sri Lanka army rounded up ‘re-settled’ Tamil civilians in Vanni, including pregnant mothers, elderly and children, and brought them to Ki’linochchi forcing them to carry placards in a ‘demonstration’ that Rajapaksa was doing good to them and it was wrong for the diaspora Tamils in London to reject him. About 500 civilians were caught in the military harassment and those who resisted were attacked by the military. Rajapaksa is determined in demonstrating that the genocidal conditions set by him is the reality to comprehend with, as opposed to diaspora articulations, and he is backed in it by the position taken by India, observers said.
The army liberated the country, saving the human rights of Tamils. Diaspora Tamils and organisations blaming the army should be sent out, reads one placard in Tamil. The other one in Tamil says while the diaspora was free, we suffered in the hands of the terrorists. Now the diaspora should help the development that takes place here.
The ‘phased dialogue’ principle accepted by the Indian Foreign Minister S. M. Krishna, allowing genocide and colonisation to match with no political solution in the near future, had set the platform for the escapades of Rajapaksa, Eezham Tamil political circles said.
An ideological onslaught was earlier set by a New Delhi academic, Romila Thapar, who was brought to Colombo a few months ago to tell that the diaspora is ‘historically untenable and outdated’ to the culture of the home country.
Unlike the Sikh question in the 1980s, the paradigm of genocide set in the island and the integral nature of the Eezham Tamils at home and in the diaspora in the struggle for liberation, is new for the world to comprehend with. To what extent the Kashmir model of keeping a local population subjugated by military for decades will work in the case of the island, is a question.
But, emboldened by the possibility of silencing the people, even silencing their temple bells, and demonstrating ‘partnerships’ in nullifying the national question, Rajapaksa took the risk of challenging the diaspora in London.
As it failed, the strategy now is to simulate a rift between Eezham Tamils at home and in the diaspora and show it as a case to argue why the Rajapaksa ‘experiment’ should not be disturbed. Vested interests and incapability of action in some world establishments have already found some secret sympathisers to Rajapaksa agenda, and they work towards simulating subordinate political voices at home among those who are in prisons and open prisons, informed political observers said.
Allowing blackmail polity of Sri Lankan state to use a captive population as political shield will have no limits given the nature of state in the island and it has to be totally rejected by proactive international action, diaspora Tamil activists said.
On Saturday, the SLA brought around 500 civilians to Ki’linochchi Central Bus-stand and instructed them and paramilitary-operatives in civil to chant slogans supporting Rajapaksa. The ‘demonstration march’ started at 11:45 a.m. at Ki’linochchi bus-station went through A9 road and was ended at water-tank around 1:00 p.m. Those who participated complained that they were forced to stand at the bus station for several hours as the SLA was determined to stage the demonstration. There was no name tag of the organisers of the protest.
Meanwhile, a Colombo media reporting from London, discrediting the demonstration of Eezham Tamils in UK said on Friday: “Tamils have nothing worthwhile to do here. A lot of them work in shops, Mc Donalds, supermarkets and petrol stations. They have Tiger flags and T-shirts ever ready for this. This is also an outing for them. At beck and call they will be anywhere in thousands. That’s the kind of training given to them by the Tiger leadership over the years”.
More than 50,000 Eezham Tamils congregated in London on 27 November to pay homage to the heroes who laid down their lives to the liberation of Tamil Nation.
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