Australian Tamil Congress Murasu ISSN 1837-6460 Remembering Mulivaaikal 2009 May 2011 Volume 3, Issue 5 Remembering Sri Lanka’s Slaughtered Faces by Roy Ratnavel ceded by the seismic wave that was felt as we lay on the ground. Any Tamil who lived in Sri Lanka knows how personal For me, the fear I remember most clearly was feeling the the month of May is. In sum: May will be etched in Tam- ground shocks from a stick of bombs, each one getting ils‟ memory as the month where Sri Lankan military most closer and more intense, and then the relief when the effectively demonstrated their ability and their desire to next shock came from the other side and the intensities kill Tamils in the blood-lands of Vanni. This wound will began to decay. Many homes and lives were destroyed on stay raw forever. a daily basis by the Sri Lankan terror apparatus. But some This is a moment for Tamils to soberly reflect on how we nights, surprisingly I have slept through it all. value life and what meaning we attach to death. This mo- At school, the teacher would sometimes ask us to stand ment is ripe for celebration, a celebration of the lives of and observe a moment of silence for the souls of my innocent people killed in May 2009 and those who were classmates who had been killed in a recent raid. Often we caught in the crossfire of decade old war on Tamils in Sri heard of number of people dead in the recent raid. Lanka. In 1986, at one of those silence tribute at my school, I When this Memorial Month concludes, thousands of learned the details of my classmates — Skanthakumar Tamils around the globe will have participated in com- and Roshan. I learned that Roshan‟s house, and subse- memorations that represent a precious opportunity for quently his body was blown to smithereens by Sri Lankan reflection, remembrance and mourning — both public navy‟s daily recreational night shelling. Skanthakumar was and private. It also presents an important lesson to us all dragged out of his house kicking and screaming by a gang to fulfill the obligation to the survivors — especially the of drunken soldiers — shot like an animal right in front kids. of his parents — the only son they had. My scarred memory is full with incidents of my experi- British philosopher, and Nobel Laureate Bertrand Russell ences in northern Sri Lanka during mid-eighties. Skantha- once observed that war doesn‟t decide who is right, war kumar and Roshan — two timid teenagers of Point- decides who is left and people who are vigorous and bru- Pedro, a small coastal town whose inhabitants were fre- tal often find war enjoyable, provided that it is a victori- quently bombed and shelled to oblivion. Included in that ous war and that there is not too much interference with was my family‟s ancestral home, which included two rape and plunder. This is a great help in persuading peo- young boys — my only brother and myself. ple that wars are righteous. Tamils perhaps do realize to- As boys growing up in northern Sri Lanka during the day how complete Russell‟s thoughts were. conflict of 1985-86, on most nights during heavy bom- Western governments and the media have gone along bardment we lay on the warm floor of our home. I soon with Sri Lanka in blaming the Tamils and have refrained learned to recognize, at a very young age the different from criticizing the Sri Lankan government‟s handling of sounds generated by bombers during an air raid: the air- craft guns; the machine guns and return fire of the Tamil the ethnic strife. This stance certainly gave Sri Lanka the fighters; the cracks made by the incendiaries as they land- carte blanche to kill scores of Tamils. The world had its ed; the shock waves from the high explosive bombs, pre- opportunity to save them and did nothing, except to wax eloquence; proving that global human rights have become Mura su Volume 3, Issue 5 Pa ge 2 Remembering Sri Lanka’s slaughtered faces…..cont more about carefully crafted thakumars and Roshans — whose still, soft voices call marketing messages than about out from the grave to all of us to remember. human life. It is either gross incompetence or collusion. Certainly, we each have our memories of those we have lost. Some are personal, subtle moments between According to recent U.N. find- two individuals; some are the stories we all share that ings numerous war crimes were, unite us in our grief and make us smile fondly even in and still are committed against the midst of overwhelming loss. Tamils. But it is too late for those murdered Tamils of Sri It is important to replace numbers with names, which Lanka. However, the deeds of is why I felt the need to name my lost friends. Failing those who tried to protect Tamils from persecution — to do so is like a deafening silence — silence of a mur- the few righteous around the globe, represent a flicker- dered generation, including thousands of innocent ing spark of humanity in a world that had gone dark. Tamil children. Each victim of the Sri Lankan terror They offer a sharp rebuke to those who say “we had no had a name, felt love, was loved, laughed, cried, was choice,” or “we did not know,” or “it was a war against scared and ultimately slaughtered by the Sri Lankan terrorism.” army hordes. No words can bring meaning or sense to such senseless We have seen enough deaths to understand the value deaths. But commemoration can bring hope to those of life. It is important not to replicate the cycle of vio- who survived and those who remember. And in so do- lence that has already crippled Sri Lanka. The war ing, we can at least show the victims of Sri Lanka‟s turned the innocent kids into numbers. It is for us madness that their deaths had some effect on us, Tamils in the West to turn the numbers back into kids. caused us to reflect, reconsider and even hope. If we cannot do that, then the tyrants have shaped not Like many Sri Lankan Tamils in the West, there‟s a only these kids view of the world, but their humanity. troubled, guilty part of us that‟s still thousands of kilo- We must honour those who were lost with forthright meters away. Troubled, because Tamils are still a perse- action and a commitment to ensure we will enhance cuted minority in Sri Lanka. And guilty, because not the lives of those who survived, but are still suffering. everyone we loved managed to escape, like we did. We must serve as the much needed prosthetic to those We lived, but many Skanthakumars and Roshans did- amputated souls. n‟t. To this day, many of us worry that we didn‟t do I am left only with the memories — the mischievous enough to help them. It‟s hard to enjoy the Western smile of Skanthakumar, the shy nature of Roshan, the dream when your nightmares leave you racked with two timid boys. But somewhere in this mangled survivor‟s guilt. memory will always be the life it Many survivors, like us, found a haven in the West. represents, like an echo you no Through pure motivation, we found the strength to longer hear but swear you will nev- start over again; to build new families and to leave a er forget. Skanthakumars and legacy of hope, love and determination for our children Roshans were and are the true fac- and their descendants to follow. We need to show es of this sad epoch in history. them where we are going, without forgetting where are [email protected] from. The views expressed are those of the au- In the end, we must show a fidelity to history and thor and do not necessarily reflect the memory. We do this for ourselves and for those whose views of ATC echoes were so murderously silenced — for the Skan- Mura su Volume 3, Issue 5 Pa ge 3 Public Relations Team’s report May was an extremely busy month for the al- The ATC political and PR teams have continuously raised ready overworked ATC PR team. awareness of these issues with all parties in the Australian Upon hearing of the Australian government's ac- parliament and the changes slowly taking place bring us ceptance of a former navy commander as Sri some comfort that our tireless work is seeing some light. Lanka's next High Commissioner, the ATC media Our advocacy work is not just restricted to politicians, but team set to work with a timely press release fol- also include academics, journalists, lawyers, and other emi- lowed by media coverage on this issue. nent persons. Daily we see more opinion pieces being pub- lished, with the former Australian Deputy High Commis- To date, our Foreign Minister, Kevin Rudd and our sioner to Sri Lanka, Bruce Haigh and reknowned Human Prime Minister, Julia Gillard have still not com- Rights Lawyer, Stephen Keim both having opinion peices mented on the UN Expert Panel's report. Nor have published this month. they openly called for an international independent Another great achievement due to constant education of investigation into war crimes in Sri Lanka. The ATC fax campaign on this issue is still our journalists in Australia has been the front page and active and can be accessed on the ATC website, double page exclusive pieces written by Ben Doherty which and we encourage you to participate.