Opinion: Tamil victims in Sri Lanka

Sri Lankan Ambassador Bernard Goonetilleke cites a few Sri Lankan court cases to create the illusion that justice prevails in Sri Lanka ("Tamil homeland fantasy," Commentary, Sunday). Noticeably, cases like that of Kirishanthy Kumarasamy are absent from Mr. Goonetilleke's list. Kirishanthy was an 11th-grade Tamil schoolgirl who was abducted by the Sri Lankan State Army, gang-raped and buried in one of the many Tamil mass graves. Kirishanthy's mother, brother and a neighbor who subsequently went looking for Kirishanthy also ended up in mass graves.

Mr. Goonetilleke argues that because Tamil people live and work among the Sinhalese in the south, the Tamil claim of state-sponsored oppression is a lie. What the ambassador conveniently forgets is that these risk-taking Tamils fell victim to the repeated state-sponsored pogroms of 1956, 1957, 1977 and 1983. There are Americans who risk their lives to find employment in Iraq and Afghanistan. Does this mean those American workers think Iraq and Afghanistan are better democracies than the United States? People have worked under risky conditions since the beginning of civilization. The ambassador shows how desperate he is for examples to establish his fiction of "Sri Lankan democracy."

In Sri Lanka, being born a Tamil is reason enough to get thrown into one of the cruelest prisons of the world — Welikada. It was in this prison, during the 1983 state-sponsored pogrom, that Tamil detainees faced the inhumane fate of having their eyes plucked out by mercenaries. Twenty-five years later, not much has changed. Yet when the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, visited Sri Lanka on a fact-finding mission, the state denied the commissioner access to the prison. She was denied the opportunity even to meet freely with regular Tamil civilians. Does the ambassador believe these actions of the state are telltale signs of an enviable democracy?

The Tamil struggle for independence is not driven by ideologies, nor it is about re-establishing past glories. On the contrary, it is about survival. Whether the ambassador admits it or not, there is ample evidence why the Tamils cannot continue to coexist with the Sinhalese. No one in his right mind could expect Tamils to remain sitting ducks at the mercy of the Sri Lankan state. Secession was the last resort for Tamils and the reasons only become stronger by the day.

SATHEESH THADCHANAMOORTHY
Markham, Ontario