A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Sunday, June 4, 2017
Jun 2, 2017
During the first two weeks of May 2017 he was visited six times by
military intelligence. On several occasions, he received anonymous
late-night phone calls. Between 16-20th May
he was summoned by the police three times to provide statements. And
yesterday, a court order restricting his activity and mandating an
official investigation in the interests of “national security”, was
extended by a further two weeks.
For a month in which there were over 20 reported attacks and hate speech
incidents targeting minority communities across Sri Lanka, many would
be forgiven for assuming this recent flurry of police activity to be in
connection to one of the several high profile nationalist extremists
allegedly involved in orchestrating the latest wave of intimidation .
The individual in question however is Father Elil Rajendram, a Tamil
Jesuit priest and human rights defender based in the North of Sri Lanka.
The activity that has so captured the attention of the police and
intelligence forces: his role in organising a remembrance service for
Tamil war victims on the 8th anniversary of the end of the armed conflict.
The service, which was planned to take place on 18th May
in the vicinity of St Paul’s Cathedral in East Mullivaikkal – the date
and site of the war’s conclusion – was the third of its kind to be held
openly in the area since 2009. Following years of aggressive crackdowns against
commemoration activities under former President Mahinda Rajapaksa,
during which public mourning by Tamils was effectively criminalised,
early shifts initiated under the Presidency of Maithripala Sirisena
seemed to suggest a relaxing of the government’s heavy-handed approach.
Remembrance activities in 2015 and 2016 saw continued high levels of
surveillance and judicial obstruction, but a decline in incidences of
physical obstruction and explicit threats against organisers – as well
as an overall decrease in the presence of military personnel around
events – prompted some cautious hopes about the direction of change.
The latest wave of persecution against Father Elil and others has
however dimmed those hopes, exposing the hard limits that the government
of Sri Lanka continues to impose on the rights of it is Tamil citizens
to grieve. They are limits that not only aggravate the personal anguish
of those seeking to remember their loved ones, but which also continue
to foster the kind of mistrust which make reconciliation and lasting
peace impossible.
In a worryingly regressive move by the Sri Lankan authorities, a court
order was issued against Father Elil on the evening before the event
prohibiting any commemoration activity on the land adjacent to the
Cathedral. The order was duly observed by participants on May 18th,
who conducted the service within the grounds of a nearby church amid
oppressive surveillance, yet harassment of Father Elil has continued
unabated since. The source of interest by the police and intelligence
services appears to relate to plans by local family members
participating in the service to lay stones carved with the names, ages
and dates of death of their loved ones in a nearby field – with anxiety
stemming in particular from speculation that some of those names might
include former LTTE cadres.
No evidence has been provided by police to substantiate such links.
Irrespective, there exists no legal basis for the suggestion that they
could give rise to criminal wrongdoing. While police officers involved
in the case have continued to allude to provisions in the Prevention of
Terrorism Act (PTA) regulation prohibiting the use of LTTE symbols as
justification for their ongoing investigations, plainly even the most
blanket provisions in this draconian legislation were not designed to
ban the use of names of former combatants in this way. The right to
remembrance is a fundamental and universal one, and it is not open to
any government to restrict it on the basis of the affiliation of the
dead. For the Sri Lankan authorities to suggest otherwise indicates a
chillingly authoritarian attitude towards the rights to freedom of
expression, thought and memory of their citizens. It also gives rise to
the prospect of a particularly cruel form of double punishment against
those families mourning loved ones who were forcibly recruited into the
LTTE’s ranks during the final stages of the war.
Despite various interventions last week from Sri Lankan civil society groups, senior diplomats, and international human rights organisations the
Sri Lankan authorities have showed few signs of letting up their
campaign of harassment and intimidation. The government of Sri Lanka
must now urgently act to put an end to this disturbing series of events,
by intervening to see that the court order extending investigations to
the 12th June
is rescinded, and by calling for an immediate halt to surveillance of
Father Elil and his colleagues. The international community for its
part, must take a firmer stand. Justifying the recent decision to
restore GSP+ preferential trade status to Sri Lanka, EU Trade
Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom insisted earlier
this week that no “blank cheque” had been granted to the government of
Sri Lanka, and that the EU would continue to act to “hold Sri Lanka to
its commitments to improve human rights”. Now is the time to show the
world what that means – by standing up for Father Elil, and for the
rights of all Tamils to remember.
Act now: join Amnesty International’s Urgent Action in
support of Father Elil by writing to one of the named Sri Lankan
government officials, or to your local political representative.
Encourage the international community to raise this case with the
government of Sri Lanka by tweeting your concerns to the following
handles: @EU_in_Sri_Lanka @MalmstromEU @UKinSriLanka @USEmbSL
@CanHCSriLanka. Thank you.