LTTE's ferocity knew no bounds

by Janathri Nanayakkara

One cannot comment on the movie Madras Café, without understanding the dynamics of Lankan history sans bias. Suhrith Parthasarathy, the author of the New York Times article 'Bad history mars Indian movie on Rajiv Gandhi's assassination', fails to do just that.

The events in Sri Lanka were not as simple as what Suhrith Parthasarathy portrays them to be. Most of the roots of the three decade-long violence in Sri Lanka lie in the 133 years of colonial rule.

The British, true to their colonial principle of 'divide and rule', favoured the minority communities over the majority Sinhalese and sowed the seeds of division among one another. A century of oppression of the majority Sinhalese, by the British, gradually resulted in the antipathy-fed rift in the social fabric of Sri Lanka. To illustrate, until 1948 (Sri Lankan's Independence), 94 percent of senior civil servants were Tamil (population 12 percent - 1946 census). This was because the schools providing English education, which was required for government jobs, were mainly in Tamil-dominated Jaffna.

The introduction of democracy to Sri Lanka became the gateway that allowed all communities access to equal opportunity.

It turned things around for the majority Sinhalese, as it gave them a voice, which they used to realign the equation. The privileges enjoyed by the minority communities themselves (Tamil and Burgher) during the colonial era were no longer a 'birthright'.

The seeming shift of power from the minority, especially that of the Tamil elite, was received with unease. However, what may have pushed the Tamil community was the 1972 Policy of Standardisation, that rectified disparities in university enrollment since colonial rule.

Tamil leadership

Alfred Duraippah	Rajiv Gandhi

In the 1960s, documents relating to a separate socialist Tamil state began to circulate based on the legend of the Chola kingdom, which in 10th century ruled South India and extended to other parts of Asia as well.

Several impatient Tamil youth, who were enlisted in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE), carried out several hit-and-run operations against moderate Tamil politicians, Sri Lanka Police, and civil administration, against the wishes of the older Tamil leadership. Contrary to author Parthasarathy's allegations, Black July of 1983 was sparked by the LTTE, through a series of events. To list a few:

• 1975 assassination of the democratically elected Tamil Member of Parliament and Mayor of Jaffna, Alfred Thambirajah Duraiappah

• 1976 robbing of the People's Bank at Puttur of Rs. 668,000

• 1977 shooting of Tamil Member of Parliament P.C. Karunandhi

• 1978 murder of the Leader of Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) K. Kanagaratnam

• 1978 assassination of Tamil Police Inspectors Bastianpillai, Pathmanathan, Kumaru and Perampalan during the investigation of Kanagaratnam's murder

• 1978 killing of Sinhalese Constable Kingsley Perera and Tamil Civilian Satchithanadan during LTTE's Rs. 1,000,000 raid on the People's Bank at Nallur.

• 1978 bomb explosion on an Air Ceylon plane flying from Kankesanturai (Jaffna District) to Colombo.

• 1979 massacre of Tamil civilians S.A. Emmanuel of Chankanai, Thaadi Thangarajah, A. Krishnagol, T. Poopalasingham and A. Sivarajah of Thondamannar for providing evidence against the LTTE to the Sri Lanka Police.

• 1979 murder of Tamil Police officers Gnanasambandan, Sivanesan, Guruswamy, and S. Swarnarajah and their families.

Subsequently, the final straw was the 1983 murder of 13 Sri Lanka military officers.

Ferocity

Disastrously, some of the Sinhalese were provoked by the LTTE's ferocity, which led to dangerous riots that caused the blemish in the Sri Lankan psyche, the bloody "1983 Black July". While many innocent Tamils lost their Iives, many more fled the country. However, it is scarcely noted, how most Sinhalese at the risk of their own lives sheltered their Tamil brethren from the angry mobs.

The incident was just what the LTTE was waiting for, to mobilise the support of the Tamil masses to their cause. It was the beginning of the brutal terrorist war, triggered by suicide bombings and ambush attacks.

The Sri Lanka Government moved on to lifting the Policy of Standardisation, hoping the compromise would encourage talks with the LTTE. However, they had other plans by then.

The LTTE's desire for a mono-ethnic separate state in the North and the East included the slaughter and displacement of over 100,000 Muslim and Sinhalese men, women, and children. The 1985 massacre in Anuradhapura at the sacred Sri Maha Bodhi of nearly 230 Sinhalese, mainly women and children, is one among many LTTE atrocities. In 1986 thousands of Muslims were given 48 hours to leave the North. The gross violence in the North and the East against Muslims and Sinhalese by the LTTE had the effect that they desired.

By 1991, in an unprecedented act of ethnic cleansing, the LTTE rid the North of all other communities. Many Tamil civilians living in the North and East, who didn't share the LTTE ideology, were violently dealt with.

The 1986 torture and killing of 34 Tamil civilians near Batticoloa for refusing to take arms for the group is another grim reminder.

Education

Even during the height of war against terrorism the Sri Lanka Government ensured that the citizens of the North and the East had access to publicly funded education, universal health care, food, and clean water, and safe shelter for thousands of Tamil families fleeing the LTTE controlled areas.

The government prioritised the maintenance of civil infrastructure, including salaries for the civil servants even in areas under the LTTE.

Most Tamils trapped in the North sought an escape from the LTTE's grip. It was the expatriate Tamils and sympathisers who kept the LTTE's dream alive for another two decades by funding them with millions of dollars each year.

Unfortunately, many Tamils who were affected by the conflict in Sri Lanka (through cultural ties or otherwise) so easily overlook what truly was taking place.

The events were not simple as what Suhrith Parthasarathy infers in his article, where the LTTE seems to be the champions.

Although they professed to be freedom fighters, the LTTE, soon evolved in to a terrorist outfit proscribed in many democratic countries.

They no longer cared about the cost of their terror campaign, but only of power and a future where Velupillai Prabhakaran would be the 'Eelam king'.

A true champion of its people, would not, snatch children from their families and forcefully enlist them as child soldiers, torture and kill his people if they did not abide by his wishes, promote propaganda which made his people fear other communities, repress education within the community, or brainwash his cadres to become suicide bombers.

Jan Goodwin's, Marie Claire article, 'When a Suicide Bomber is a Woman', puts LTTE in its true perfection, as it depicts a first-hand account of a captured female suicide bomber.

Therefore, Parthasarathy, before you criticise a Bollywood movie on its marred history, it would be appropriate if you get your facts straight.