A Tamil Tragedy

Dr. Neelan Tiruchelvam was slated to be a visiting professor at Harvard Law School in the fall of 1999. A renowned constitutional lawyer from Sri Lanka, Neelan was better known to me as a leading Tamil human rights activist who had thrown his hat into the political ring. As a scholar he had helped establish think-tanks to address social issues in a country beset by communal strife. And as a member of parliament he worked to develop a national plan that would end the then-15-year-old civil war between the secessionist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan government.

I knew his academic appointment in Cambridge wasn't just about lectures and research -- it was also spurred by the many death threats he had received. But the school year started too late. Ten years ago this week, on July 29, 1999, a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber stepped in front of Neelan's car outside his Colombo office and blew himself up, killing Neelan. Five others were wounded in the blast.

Neelan was a soft-spoken yet passionate man with an incomprehensibly sunny disposition. He believed that all Sri Lankans -- Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims -- could live together peacefully in a democratic society. He spoke out against abuses by the Sinhalese-dominated government, but he did not accept violence as a means to achieving the Tamil population's aims. And he rejected the claim of the Tigers' leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, that the LTTE was the "sole representative" of the Tamil people.

Such views from a prominent Tamil undermined not only Prabhakaran's justification for unrestrained violence, but also the Tigers' argument for supremacy over all other Tamil groups. Neelan's murder and the killing over the years of others who shared his views, lost the LTTE support of many Tamils in Sri Lanka and in the diaspora, and all but foreordained the Tigers' eventual defeat.

But it is Neelan's life, not his death, that speaks to Sri Lanka's future. His 55 years were dedicated to creating a rights-respecting, multi-ethnic Sri Lanka. He would have seen the Tamil Tigers' defeat in May not just as an end to the suffering of civilians and combatants, but as an opportunity to address the grievances of Sri Lanka's minority communities and give the nation a fresh start.

Unfortunately, in defeating the Tigers, the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa has adopted a very different strategy. Although the fighting has stopped, the continuation of wartime policies, including overbroad emergency regulations and severe restrictions on free expression, suggests that President Rajapaksa is not anxious for the politics of war to come to an end.

Today more than 280,000 Tamil civilians displaced from the war zone during the last brutal months of the fighting are locked up in detention camps, euphemistically called "welfare villages" by the government. Instead of letting families move in with relatives and host families if they wish, the government says they can only leave the camps when they can return to their villages after demining and rebuilding. The government already admits it can't meet its promise to return 80 percent of those displaced by the end of the year. Past government practice and pressure on international agencies to build permanent structures in the camps suggests that it may actually be years before most of these people return home -- and that this may be the government's intention as it tries to maintain full control over Tamil war survivors.

The government insists that letting displaced persons leave the camps would set hidden LTTE fighters loose. But thousands of alleged combatants have already been screened out from the displaced population and detained separately. By holding several hundred thousand civilians under lock and key, the government is keeping the survivors of the fighting from telling their stories to the media and human rights groups, even if their accounts include Tamil Tiger abuses as well as government ones.

More ominously, the Rajapaksa government is sending a message that it wasn't just the Tamil Tigers that were defeated, it was the Tamil population. As a result, the government is doing nothing to reach out to Neelan Tiruchelvam's successors among the Tamil population in Sri Lanka and abroad. This short-sighted approach is destined to continue state policies and practices that fomented Tamil militancy some 30 years ago.

The United States and other concerned governments need to show Colombo by words and deeds that ending the mistreatment of the Tamil population and ensuring full Tamil participation in the political process is the only way forward. Neelan certainly wouldn't have had it any other way.

James Ross is Legal and Policy Director at Human Rights Watch.

 

Comments

[Birchmount]

The war in that country is over. Colombo no longer has any excuse for its brutal treatment to tamil minority.
The country is plagued by a longstanding oppressive policies by authoritarian regimes. Sri Lankan president should spare the children in captivity.
Racism and barbarity have no place in the modern world.
Service to Humanity is the Best Work of Life.

[ThosaiFan]

My heartiest congratulations to Mr.Muthiah Muralidaran who is one of the greatest (of not THEgreatest) cricket player/sportsmen in Sri http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/Muthiah_Muralidaran
Mr.Muralid­aran is Tamil and like millions of other Tamils live and prosper in SriLanka.

“The Tamil Union Cricket and Athletic Club which has been in existence since 1899 has been inextricably linked with the heritage of cricket in Sri Lanka.
On 23 August the club plans to make this link even stronger with the presentation of the 1st Golden Oval award to MuthiahMuralidaran for his achievements and contribution towards SriLankan cricket.
Murali has been playing for TamilUnion since leaving school, and presently holds the record of the most number of one day and test match wickets.
He is also currently the ViceCaptain of the SriLanka Cricket Team.” http://www.dailynews.lk/2009/08/20/spo03.asp

Only the criminally ignorant and intellectually dishonest like the birthers&deathers talk of “racism and barbarity” in SriLanka.

[truenorth8]

Dear James Ross,

Thank you for this tribute to Neelan Tiruchelvam. All Sri Lankans particularly Tamils miss such an irreplaceable human soul that is needed most in Sri Lanka today. May his soul rest in peace.

Thank you.

[Shanthy]

280,000 tamil civilians kept behind barbedwire fences for too long include over 50,000 children who haven't had schooling for last two years. They are kept captive under a state of fear psychosis so that the tamil uprisal of a new generation is preventable. Sri Lanka is now tutored to use Xinjiang template in altering demography of the vacated tamil regions. Peaceful rise, with long term maritime ambitions, now has a throughfare in the indian ocean with the help of codename 'war on terror'. Vanguished LTTE is a no factor for the Sri Lankan long term plans to enslave tamils. Racism and hatred are the pillars of ready to rough president rajapakse and his family now holds positions of 67% of national budget. Rajapakse is now conferred Sinhalese emperor and divine gift by the Sinhalese hardliners and buddhist monks.

In Article 9, the constitution of island of Sri Lanka says: “The Republic of Sri Lanka shall give to Buddhism the foremost place and accordingly it shall be the duty of the State to protect and foster the Buddha Sasana . . . .”
"He is now the leader of the Sinhalese Buddhist movement, which does not in any meaningful way accommodate the political needs of the tamil minority, the way in which the state treats the victims of the conflict — that will be the basis on which national unity will be forged" says Batty Weerakoon, a former minister

[PeacelovingHuman]

Jim Luce, pleace read what James Ross is saying. Today, LTTE is defeated cannot be blame. There is not even one step taken by GOSL to free Tamils from the detention camps instead planning to settle the sinhala families in the north and east lands. This is what happening to tamils by Sinhala dominant government since 1948. Many Tamils wants to live peacefully in SL. But Sihala dominant goverment did not let tamils live peacefully, instead pushed them to the edge to seperate the country. UN and west countries must step in to bring the peace and rights to the tamil people from sinhala dominant government.