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
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Wednesday, July 12, 2017
Editorial: A simmering crisis
Illustration: Keera Ratnam |
11 Jul 2017
On
Sunday afternoon, Sri Lankan police shot dead a Tamil man in Jaffna.
Though the facts around the killing are still not clear, with reports he
may have been involved in illegal sand mining, what is known for
certain is that Yogarasa Thines was completely unarmed. The police
decision to gun him down, not only seems wholly disproportionate, but
follows a sadly well-established pattern of Sri Lankan state violence
against Tamil civilians, amidst a culture of impunity.
The frustration at the killing of yet another Tamil boiled over the
following day, as locals burnt tyres, blocked roads and damaged a police
post in demonstrations. Given Sri Lanka’s long history of impunity and
the total lack of accountability for the countless Tamils who have been
killed by the state, the outrage at another killing is not an unusual
response. Tamils feel the state will once again attempt to sweep this
act of violence under the carpet, in a flurry of broken promises,
endless bureaucracy and hollow investigations, like it has done with so
many before it. The Tamil people are, justifiably, angry.
This killing echoes back to the murder of two Jaffna University students
last year, also gunned down by Sri Lankan police in October. Despite
widespread protests and arrests being made, that case continues to drag
on without an end in sight. Whilst the reported arrest of two police
officers on Monday for the killing of Mr Thines is a welcome sign,
Colombo cannot stall proceedings there, as it has done on numerous
occasions before. A full-scale inquiry into the killing must be swiftly
carried out and those responsible prosecuted.
However, the government’s response to the protests – beefing up security
presence by deploying the infamous Special Task Force across the region
- sends worrying signals. Instead of addressing legitimate Tamil
concerns around state violence, it seems as if the state is poised to
respond with an increased security clampdown. This is the wrong approach
to take. Far from quelling the palpable frustrations across the
North-East, it instead heightens fears of a cover-up and increases the
militarisation and intimidation of the Tamil homeland.
This is not new to the North-East. Whilst the South too has suffered
from the excesses of Sri Lanka’s militarisation, there is an inescapable
difference. The sheer extent of the violence, with tens of thousands of
Tamils killed or unaccounted for, alongside an unwillingness to seek
accountability for those crimes, reveals a stark disparity in both scale
and context. All whilst the very same soldiers that Tamils have
witnessed commit horrific acts of violence, continue to occupy their
homeland in massive numbers. The lack of outrage from the Sinhala press,
Southern civil society and the general public towards Tamil deaths –
including the killing of Mr Thines – is also telling. Tamils on the
island remain unequal, even in death.
It has now been well over two years since this government came in to
power. Despite repeated reassurances to the international community of a
profound transformation towards ‘good governance’, a lack of tangible
action in this case will only add further evidence that impunity still
reigns. Sri Lanka must not be allowed to let this continue. If justice
is not served, anger and discontent across the North-East will continue
to rise, as it has done with many other issues that affect the life of
Tamils over the past two years. As has been demonstrated several times
over the island’s bloody history, brute force will not quash Tamil
voices for justice. Indeed, despite unfathomable losses, the Tamil voice
has only grown louder.
It was a history of violence, insecurity and disenfranchisement that
fuelled the decades long ethnic conflict. That reality has not changed.
The state’s actions in the days to come will make amply clear whether it
intends on defusing or exacerbating the simmering crisis on the island.