Tamil Turbulence

Ever since the day I came out of class and noticed the giant Tamil wall lining the downtown streets, I have been keeping a close eye on the struggle in Sri Lanka between the government and the country's notorious rebel group, the Tamil Tigers. Actually, my interest goes back further when a famous Sri Lankan journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge, made world news by predicting his death at the hands of the government. He was vehemently opposed to the war against the rebels, and was eventually gunned down likely for his stance on the war. Three days later, his paper published a self-written obituary that read, "When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me.''




This naturally piqued my interest, as I am a firm believer in journalism as the catalyst to democracy, or at least an essential fragment of democracy. We know journalists in other countries don't have the freedom we do over here, and it deeply saddens me. What is worse is that Wickremetunge is not the only innocent person to have died at the hand of the Sri Lankan government. Many papers here and elsewhere hailed the government for finally collapsing the rebel forces and murdering their leaders (Velupillai Prabhakaran, and feared military leader Pottu Amman). Apparantly, the streets of Colombo were alive with people dancing and cheering in thanks for the end of the civil dispute. I just can't believe this is the whole story.


I am aware that the Tamils, like most rebel groups, used child soldiers and their leaders Prabhakaran and Amman were responsible (or thought to be) for a handful of Prime Minister murders both in India and Sri Lanka. I'm certain most rebel groups don't always follow international laws, but it seems to me that the Tigers have been quite peaceful in the decades leading up to these past few months. Even in Toronto with all of the protests, people complained that they blocked the Gardiner. No one noticed or cared that they picked a Sunday, of all days, in the afternoon. Few people would be travelling to work or leaving town - Sunday was definitely the day they would cause the least turmoil. But people were outraged that the Toronto Tamils had the audacity to get our attention through hunger strikes, picket signs and chanting. Dangerous.

While I do feel bad (very slightly) for the handful of people who were inconvenienced on that Sunday afternoon - not being able to get to Grandma's house for dinner is a real bitch - I am bewildered that no one has even questioned the victory of the Sri Lankan government over this relatively peaceful and very reasonable rebel group.

When colonization occured, many many groups were displaced and boundaries were set where they shouldn't have been. Nearly every previous colony - including Canada and America - have had civil wars to determine if the rebel groups can live in the country without being marginalized or they need their own independent boundaries. I believe Canada takes the French for granted, and if things were different, we could have faced a civil war ourselves when the Quebecois threatened to separate. We didn't choose to wipe them out, kill their political leaders, innocent children and men and women, cut off their medical supplies and food and water. We didn't starve them, murder them. But when it comes to another rebel group in a different country, we turn a blind eye to their plight? Was it so long ago that Quebec threatened to separate? We have no sympathy for the hundreds of other countries going through a similar problem, a heightened problem.

The thing that hurt me the most throughout this conflict was the absolute apathy that the Tamils met in Toronto when they clambered to raise awareness of the issue. Child soldiers, the deaths of 15,000 Tamils, the defeat of a marginalized group who deserve their own boundaries and separate state are all maddening. The worst - the cold, heartless IGNORANT Canadians who cared more about the Gardiner Expressway than people suffering. Wake up Toronto.


-- the golden girl

Civil war timeline -- Courtesy of Ravi Nessman (Associated Press)

Developments in Sri Lanka's conflict:
1975: Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam group forms. It demands a separate state for minority ethnic Tamils in the island's north and east.
1983: Civil war begins.
1991: Tamil Tiger suicide bomber assassinates former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, apparently in revenge for sending peacekeeping troops who ended up fighting the rebels.
1993: Tamil Tiger suicide bomber kills Sri Lanka's president Ranasinghe Premadasa after his government's failed peace efforts.
February 2002: Sri Lankan government signs a ceasefire agreement with Tamil Tigers.
June 2005: Relations between the government and rebels deteriorate over the issue of sharing international tsunami aid.
August 2005: Tigers blamed when Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, an ethnic Tamil who opposed a separate state, is assassinated.
December 2005: Rebels launch first major attack since truce, killing at least 12 Sri Lankan navy sailors. A series of attacks follows.
Feb. 22, 2006: Government and rebel officials meet in Switzerland for peace talks and agree to de-escalate violence. A second round of peace talks a few months later is postponed as the two sides argue over transport and security.
June 8, 2006: Talks in Norway aimed at restoring peace collapse.
July 20, 2006: Tamil Tigers close sluice gates of an eastern reservoir, cutting water to more than 60,000 people, prompting the government to launch its first major offensive on Tiger territory since the 2002 ceasefire.
July 11, 2007: Government announces ouster of rebels from eastern Sri Lanka
Nov. 2, 2007: The head of the Tamil Tigers' political wing, S.P. Thamilselvan, believed to be the second-in-command of the group, is killed in a government air raid.
Jan. 2, 2008: Government says Tamil Tigers must disarm before any future peace talks, a day after the authorities decide to withdraw from an internationally brokered ceasefire.
Jan. 16, 2008: Sri Lanka's ceasefire deal officially terminated.
Aug. 2, 2008: Sri Lankan military says troops enter the district housing the Tamil Tiger rebels' de facto capital for the first time in 11 years.
Jan. 2, 2009: Military captures the Tamil Tigers' de facto capital, Kilinochchi.
Jan. 25, 2009: Government captures rebels' last major stronghold of Mullaittivu.
May 17, 2009: Surrounded rebels offer to lay down arms, saying the war has reached the "bitter end.''
May 18, 2009: Government says it has captured the last rebel-held land and killed rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, his top deputies and his son Charles Anthony.