Organizers hope to open eyes of public to human-rights abuses, focusing on Tamil Tigers' use of torture;
The ordeal of a Canadian Tamil who says he survived torture at the hands of the Tamil Tigers will be among the shocking stories delved into this weekend, when artists and activists hope to expose the full range of human-rights abuses perpetrated in Sri Lanka.
Organizers of the Call of the Conscience exhibit hope their photos, films and written words will be an eye-opener for Toronto, the largest centre of Tamils outside of Sri Lanka. A 30-year civil war driven by ethnic rivalries has claimed an estimated 70,000 lives in the island nation and sparked an exodus that has turned Toronto into a key front where the Tigers hope to elicit support in the continuing battle for a separate homeland.
Canada and several other Western governments have recently blacklisted the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam as a terrorist group, but the focus of many Toronto Tamils is on alleged acts of "state terrorism" by the Sri Lankan government. Organizers of tomorrow'sevent at Roy Thomson Hall say they will criticize both sides and zero in on the Tamil Tigers' use of torture, child conscripts and suicide bombings.
The show will make a distinction between Tamil nationalism and the Tamil Tigers, who claim to be the only standard bearers of the cause. The stand has some support, but not everyone agrees.
"I hate the Tamil community here. The way they support the terrorists," said Samaran, a Tamil in his 50s. Portions of his written life story will be an exhibit at the event, and he agreed to speak about it only on the condition that this newspaper not use his real name, photograph his face, or reveal the Canadian city he lives in.
"Samaran" translates as "survivor," but his fears of reprisal still run high. Calling the Tigers the "world's biggest terrorists" in an interview, he said he was picked up as a suspected dissident in 1990 and held for months in a Tamil Tiger prison.
At the time, the rebels were solidifying their hold on northern Sri Lanka, and ridding the area of suspected government collaborators and rival rebel factions. "They beat me till I fainted just for wearing a rosary," recalled Samaran, a Christian from a land that's mostly Hindu. He says a young rebel guard told him that "Here, I am the God - you tell the truth, you get released" - but he could only respond that he had no information to give.
Hundreds of those he was jailed with were tortured, he said, and many were killed. Then, in a turn of events that proved less fortunate for other prisoners, he said, he escaped when Sri Lankan military planes bombed the jail.
In 1996, he arrived in Canada, where he said he remains amazed at the level of support the guerrillas enjoy. "I'm living away from the Tamil community," he said. He said he urges his teenaged children not to believe everything they hear about the war from Tamil student groups in Canadian universities. Samaran was persuaded to tell his story by a friend who organized the event, a dissident Tamil journalist who also claims the Tigers' reach extends to Canada. Manoranjan Selliah said Tiger supporters burned down a Tamil library for dissidents in Toronto in 1996, and adds that he moved to Canada after articles he wrote in Sri Lanka criticizing the Tigers led to threats.
Today, "I'm getting attacks on both sides," Mr. Selliah said. He said his decision to organize the exhibit has led to charges he is partisan. "Government supporters say, 'Oh, you are getting money from the LTTE now,' " he said, "and the other side is saying, 'Oh you're getting money from the government.' "
The space for the exhibit at Roy Thomson hall was paid for by donations from individuals and trade unions, he said., adding that he feels particularly "smeared" by rumours that he arranged the event to counter last month's "Black July" rallies. Tamils around the world have just marked the 25th anniversary of pogroms that killed hundreds of their brethren in Sri Lanka.
This weekend's exhibit will include six short films that intend to show the evolution of the bloodletting in Sri Lanka. "I am displaying the whole thing," said Mr. Selliah, 47, who hopes the films will show how Colombo politicians laid a foundation that led to civil war, inspiring the Tamils to rise up before their independence movement became mired in what he calls "self-destruction." The films will explore the use of "cyanide capsules, child soldiers and suicide bombs," he said.
The Tigers' drive toward an independent state has lately lost momentum. Mr. Selliah points out that Sri Lankan military campaigns have reduced Tiger-held Sri Lanka to a rump of 300,000 residents in the northern jungle regions.
Toronto now has more than 200,000 Tamils. Yet it is getting a lot harder to turn sympathy for the independence movement into possible material support for the Tamil Tigers.
The Call of the Conscience exhibit will run tomorrow from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.
2 comments:
In Sri Lanka, the problem is state terrorism. Thanks for putting this in quote “State terrorism”, and actually, it is the very basic truth and main cause of the problem. Even long time before LTTE was born, Sri Lankan state terrorist used oppression including killing, rape, torture and systematic human right violations on Tamils. Let us bring UN to investigate all the killings since 1948 and punish everyone who involve in these killings.
Tamils suffered since 1948 under Sri Lankan state terrorism, and until late 1970s, Tamils fight against using non-violent protests. In 1977, Tamils decided to go separate and this mandate was approved by more than 90% of the Tamils in Tamil Eelam via an election.
Instead of respecting the Tamils democratic will, Sri Lankan government used state terrorism to terrorize Tamils and especially the Tamil youths. As a result, Tamil youths took weapons and fought against the Sri Lankan state terrorist. Several thousands of Tamils have been abducted, killed and tortured by the Sri Lankan government. When UN requested to have investigation on these abductions and killings, Sri Lankan government simply branded the EU officials as ‘terrorists”.
Canadian Tamil Congress and other Tamil organizations held ‘BlackJuly’ commemoration events throughout Canada last month (www.blackjuly83.com), but interestingly, it did not catch your attention.
Tamils do not have any trust on Sri Lankan government. Eelam Tamils want separate state as a solution. Sri Lankan government and its paramilitary killed several hundreds of NGO workers, journalists, and Tamil activists, and thousands of Tamil civilians. If Sri Lanka rejected UN human right investigation on all the killings, the International community must apply sanction on Sri Lanka. In fact, Sri Lankan government already rejected such proposal by UN and kicked out from UN human right council for worst human right violations. Therefore, it is time to apply sanction on Sri Lanka as an immediate action. Let Sinhalese, Muslims and Tamils join and call for a sanction on Sri Lanka and let us have a UN monitored referendum in Tamil Eelam to respect the rights of the people. If Eelam Tamils decide for separation in the referendum, similar to Kosovo, Tamil Eelam must be freed.
The Tigers have carried out more suicide bombings than Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Al Qaeda combined.
The actions of Velupillai Pirabaharan, the leader of Tamil Tigers prove he is real tiger. The only business he knows is killing. He killed Kalvian Kaadu Chetty, the person who named the group "Tigers" and the original leader of the Tiger group
Then Pirabaharan tried to kill the next leader of Tigers, Uma Maheswaran in a shoot out in India . He killed the founding members of the Tigers, Michael and Pat Kunam. Pirabaharan himself tipped off the Police about the then leaders of Tigers, Kuttimani and Thangathurai and their whereabouts. This incident led to Kuttimani and Thangathurai’s incarceration until their terrible deaths in the Welikade jail.
Pirabaharan killed all the persons he worked with before he became the leader of the Tigers. He even killed the last surviving Tiger group founding member Sabalingam who was residing in France , because Sabalingam started writing about Pirabaharan's power hungry killings
After Pirabaharan became the leader of the Tigers, he started killing all Tamil political leaders, elected mayors, university professors and many innocent Tamils who had criticized Tigers. Pirabaharan banned all Tamil political organizations for the last twenty years and finally the international community including USA, Canada, European Union, India and Australia has banned the Tigers, mainly due to Tigers' continuous use of child soldiers and their terror activities.
Pirabaharan also killed hundreds of people who were members and supporters of Tamil political organizations. The Tamil Tigers have twice attacked Colombo's only skyscrapers, the twin-towered World Trade Center. They've also killed Sri Lankan president Premadasa who had provided helicopter loads of weapons and money to Tigers, blinded another Sri Lankan President, and assassinated a former leader of the world's largest democracy India's Rajiv Gandhi. Pirabaharan clearly knows that under any circumstances except at gunpoint, majority of Tamils won't accept his leadership. That's why he killed all other Tamil Political leaders, to become as the so-called "Sole Leader of Tamils".
Ramachandran a.k.a MGR, former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu gave Pirabaharan more than 1.25 billion rupees in 1985. Tamils provided their support to Tigers at gunpoint only and never helped Tigers to grow to this extent. Without MGR massive financial support and Premadasa's supply of weapons and money, Tigers won't exist today.
Tigers are terror loving trigger-happy killers, created by MGR and Premadasa. Tigers' killings are severely affecting the future of Tamils since the killings created a huge political vacuum.
In 1990 Pirabaharan wanted 100,000 Muslims in the North of Sri Lanka to get out within 24 hours, leaving their belongings and treasured valuables - that was a text book example of ‘ethnic cleansing’. Prabhakaran made Idi Amin look like an angel as Idi Amin had a heart to give the Asians in Uganda three months to leave the country and not 24 hours.
Most of the young people who are younger than 35 years, do not know the history of Tigers. They believe that, Tigers became so powerful, because of continuous outpouring support from majority of the Tamils,
If Tamils like Tigers, why is Greater Colombo flooded with Tamils from Tiger controlled areas? If majority of Tamils like Tigers, Tiger controlled areas should be flooded with Tamils from other areas. Why are Tamils trying to escape Tiger controlled areas, rather than migrating to Tiger controlled area?
If Tigers lift the exit pass system and allow free movement in the Tiger controlled areas, except the people on Tigers' payroll, every body else will leave Tiger controlled area. The only supporters of Tigers are that they either do not know anything about Tigers or gain benefits from Tigers.
Why are none of the Tamil business people investing in Tiger controlled areas? Why are even farmers leaving Tiger controlled areas? Why are Tamils living abroad trying to help their relatives to leave Tiger controlled areas? In Tiger controlled areas nobody can express any political opinions or different ideas.
Only things allowed to say are those that support Tigers. No way can anyone criticize Tigers and live the next day in a Tiger controlled area. Tigers that do not care about human lives will never understand even the basics of human rights. Even the hardcore Tiger supporters are not willing to relocate to Tiger controlled areas.
Majority of the Tamil refugees, who claimed asylum in western countries, told the authorities that they were running away from Tigers. If majority of Tamils who live abroad support Tigers, why do they have to be threatened to collect money for Tigers as reported by the Human Rights Watch?
If majority of the Tamils who live abroad support Tigers, those Tamils would line up in front of the Tiger branch offices to drop off money. The major serious problem Tamils are facing right now is there are hundreds of very young terror loving trigger happy Tigers who know only one thing, which is killing another human. Last thirty years, Tigers killed more Tamils than any body else. Also more Tigers were killed by Pirabaharan than any body else.
Majority of Sri Lankan Tamils are patiently hoping, praying and waiting for a new young democratic political visionary as a leader. Until then, gunpoint Tiger culture and never ending killing spree by Tigers will grow and continue.
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