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| Sunday, 30 January 2005 |
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And the tiger shall sleep with the lamb Light Refractions by Lucien Rajakarunanayake When does a tiger begin to cherish a lamb?
But the conventional wisdom is being challenged by what the tigers here are doing just now. Just take the recent news of how the tigers of the LTTE took away 25 children from a temporary shelter for tsunami affected people at Akkaraipattu. Now don't jump to rash conclusions that they were taken to be forcibly recruited as child soldiers. Nothing of the kind; the children were taken by the Tigers to the barber to give them haircuts. Apparently, the children were duly returned to their alarmed parents after the barber had finished with them. There is no description as to the type of hair cut they were given, and why the parents were alarmed. In the story reported last Thursday, Police reports about this incident say that other parents at this temporary shelter were also waiting for the LTTE to give their children too these sponsored haircuts. However, the Police also added that such a ploy could be the first step in conscription. How unfair of the Police to suspect the LTTE of such evil intent, after having been so generous as to give a free haircut to 25 children. Who knows whether the tsunami had made the tigers care more for the needs of their own people, something they cared little about all these years? When I asked Puliraj, that vociferous member of the TNA about this incident, and the suspicions of the police, his immediate reaction was to say that this is the typical attitude of a majoritarian police, that has been oppressing the Tamil people for the last two decades or more, in what the Tiger leader described as the first tsunami to hit the tigers. "Now why can't the Police accept this as an act of genuine generosity towards these children and their parents who were waiting to have their hair cut?" he asked. However, my friend Chelva Thambiraja, who does considerable work for the welfare and protection of children, said one had to be cautious about such approaches. He cited examples from paedophiles, where such acts of generosity are referred to as "grooming" the kids, prior to the unsuspecting abuse. When I put this possibility to Mannen Nei (Kerosene) Mahendran, the green elephant Tamil who accepts the Tigers as the sole representatives of the Tamils, and is known for his raucous behaviour in parliament, he was visibly angry. I feared the paper weight he clutched so hard would end up on my face. "How dare you try to spread stories like that about our sole representatives?" he asked. "In the midst of all that we Tamils suffered in the tsunami, you are now trying to give us a bad image internationally as persons involved in child abuse. All nonsense, I'm sure the LTTE will be on the look out for more children who need haircuts and arrange for them to have it." I was puzzled by these protests of innocence from one side and the suspicions of the police on the other. Could the tigers have turned a new leaf? Will they really begin to care for the children, give them haircuts as well as clothes, books and all those things they need after the tsunami, whether first or second? Will they really groom these kids to grow up as good children and not as child soldiers? Will they dare bring shame on themselves by asking the Sri Lanka government to help them save the children, which will only show their own inability to do so, after the battering from the so-called second tsunami? That was when I happened to read the latest report from UNICEF, which says the LTTE has recruited 40 child soldiers from the day of the tsunami at more than one a day. There are no details as to whether these 40 children were also first taken to the hair dressers before their forcible recruitment to carry guns for the tigers. This made me begin to believe my friend Chelva Thambiraja, who said this could be a form of "grooming" for the later grab into the clutches of the Tiger, and be made prey to its need for the foot soldiers it must have lost in the tsunami. I asked both Puliraj of the TNA and Kerosene Mahendran of the UNP about what they had to say of the UNICEF report. "Can you now say the tigers don't abuse children?" was my question. They were vehement that carrying arms had nothing to do with paedophilia or child abuse. "The LTTE is only giving them practical lessons in Tamil patriotism. This may require them to live in camps, undergo training in self-defence and yes, even learn to carry arms and use them. That is part of being a genuine liberation Tamil. The parents of these children must be proud to have their kids taken by the tigers for such a noble purpose," they said. "You mean learning to worship the new Sun God, who was afraid to see the sun or be seen in it for three weeks after the tsunami, is a good training for these children?" "Well the new Sooriya Deivan is now part of the pantheon of Hindu deities, so why not worship him?" was the response of Puliraj. "Well have you sent your children for such training, or are they growing up safe in schools?" "Why talk of our children when the issue is about the children of other parents" said Puliraj, somewhat sheepishly for the first time ever. Although other parents in that Akkaraipattu shelter may be waiting for the tigers to give free hair cuts to their children too, it seems best for Tamil parents in the North and East to beware of these benevolent felines, who bring sponsorship to their kids. What other ploys will they use? From hair cuts it could lead to special day care centres, or free lessons in swimming. They may even be taken for lessons on guarding their homes with gun in hand? The possibilities are endless and the dangers to the children enormous. The tiger is on the prowl looking for sheep it can prey upon. First or second time round they may behave as sheep farmers who catch their sheep only to shear them. But it won't be long when they come to take them away for their own special form of child abuse - child soldiers. It is only till then that the tiger will sleep with lamb. It is now clear that not even a tsunami can wipe the stripes off its body. |
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The conventional wisdom about this would say it is when the lamb is
ready to be made its prey.
