First Anniversary of the Tamil Genocide - 40,000 candles in heart (Opinion)

By Anizzat

On May 19th, Tamils in Sri Lanka and in the Diaspora commemorate the 1^st anniversary of the genocide that took the lives of more than 40,000 Tamil civilians including tens of thousands of children. The occasion constantly remind them the immense sacrifice those individuals made for the simple reason there were born as Tamils – the simple logic whereby the Diaspora breathes all aspects of those Tamil heritage the Sinhala regime tries to bury deep down in Mullivaikal, yet couldn’t. It gives an absolute resolute that the Diaspora has an obligation to voice for the voiceless Tamils of East and North, in them getting a just and sustainable political solution based on their rights to self - determination.

The genocide becomes so magnified given the fact the whole world simply looked away last May, when the Tamils were assaulted with heavy weaponry including internationally banned cluster bombs and chemical weapons by the Sri lankan forces, on the narrow stretch where more than 300,000 of innocent civilians were herded into. It was a complete darkness in the pages of Humanity.

In Memory of all those killed in Tamil Eelam

The Sri Lankan military planners knew well in advance probably in consultation with their international backers, what catastrophe would engulf these unarmed civilians through this meaningless military operation that would only kill the masses in cold blood. As anticipated Mullivaikal became a mass graveyard - the bloody military onslaught by the Sri Lankan armed forces became the assault on every decent human being – the only crime being a repressed and voiceless minority in the Island.

Many countries including the regional powers, China, India, Pakistan, and Iran assisted Sri Lanka and became the accessories in staging the Tamils’ Genocide.  Louise Arbour, who was the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and U.N. former Human Rights High Commissioner recently commented that, If the Sri Lanka model is now going to become the model for solving internal conflict, it's very troublesome because the model is "keep the world out, keep the U.N. out, keep humanitarian actors out, keep your borders very tight, and do what it takes at any cost. That’s not very good.” 

She recently stated that she will examine these allegations [of war crimes in Sri Lanka] and make the case for an independent international inquiry as a necessary step in making Sri Lanka's tenuous and bitter peace more just and sustainable. She also will be participating in a conference on "War Crimes in Sri Lanka" on Monday at the premises of the event's joint sponsor, Chatham House, London.

The evidence of the May massacre simply littered all over through the recordings and evidences provided by many survivors. A Tamil civilian who survived the tragedy mentioned the final hours in the narrow strip in Mullivaikal, Vanni as a "human avalanche".

Makeshift hospitals in the small narrow strip in Mullivaikal, Vanni struggled to cope with thousands of dead civilians and injured besides they themselves being targeted by the Sri Lankan forces as a clear sign of violation on the Geneva Convention.

"We've had lots of dead bodies brought to the hospital, others are on the road," a health worker at the zone told a reporter for a world media at that time.

"Lots of the injured who are taken to the hospital die from blood loss - there is no blood-bank and a lot of people are anemic because there is no food. People were dying in droves."

“The Sri Lankan armed forces went to the extent of using internationally banned weapons such as, chemical gas, cluster bombs and massive heavy weapons to blow the tiny bodies of children and letting them bleed to death. They were accused of burying civilians alive, including women and children, in the civilian protection ditches in Mullivaikal.”

Tamils all over the world call upon the academics and political institutions especially in the West to open areas of studies on the suppression of Tamils from the Colonial times. They should find out the facts and the implications generated by the administrative amalgamation of the Tamil areas with the Sinhala areas, thus creating such catastrophe. The Tamil kingdoms existed at the time of Colonial conquer never returned to the same structure but artificially handed over to the majority Sinhala administration.  

The Western academia and political think-tanks should brush away the agenda of Sinhala revisionists, rather rely on the independent media outlets, like The Times, U.K, Guardian U.K. The Telegraph, U.K. Boston Globe, France24 News, Washington Post, New York Times, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Asian Human Rights Commission, media rights groups such as RSF, CPJ, and many other rights organizations around the world.

Though the human history is dotted with evilness hatched in the darker corners of human minds, the Tamil genocide opens a prickly awakening chapter in the modern times. The world powers simply stood silently,  though the news coming out of the screaming souls of Mullivaikal was relayed instantly to world governments.

The world so far has stayed mum, if not for the voices trickling out of the UN offices for an independent ‘war crimes’ inquiry. The Tamils through their precious sacrifice has given an opportunity to the world to remind, that no government should be given a license to kill its own citizens en-mass under any circumstances. What’s the point in drafting and celebrating human rights universally, when in fact Sri Lankan Government is still free, despite killing 40,000 of its citizens intentionally? What’s the difference in the gazing of Iraqi Kurds in their own villages and the mass murder of Tamil civilians in their own habitats? The Justice cannot be different to two sets of people!  

(The author can be reached at e-mail: anizzat@gmail.com)

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