An Unhealed Land

Black July was enabled by our collective-denial of the humanity of Tamils. The silent majority regarded Tamils as monsters enabling a violent minority to treat them as such. Our inability to be affected by Tamil suffering during and post-war indicates that that moral failure which enabled the Black July is still with us and within us.

by Tisaranee Gunasekara

“If one harbours anywhere in one’s mind a nationalistic loyalty or hatred, certain facts, though in a sense known to be true, are inadmissible”. Orwell (Notes on Nationalism)

(July 31, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Round II of the local government elections was held, coincidentally, on the 17th anniversary of Black July. Its results embody a stark message: post-war, Sri Lanka remains a politico-psychologically divided land. The Rajapaksas are still popular in the Sinhala-South but utterly unpopular in the Tamil-North.

The Rajapaksas wanted a Northern victory as proof of Tamil-contentment with the status quo. A mix-and-match of bribery and brute force was used to achieve this aim. Killing dogs and dumping excreta intermingled with baby-kissing and freebies. The Mahinda-Basil-Namal trio haunted the North. Huge rallies were held at which the President informed the Tamils how happy they are, post-war.  Read More 
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Protest against Lankan delegation

Monday, 01 August 2011
New Delhi:  AIADMK members in the Lok Sabha Monday shouted slogans to protest the presence of Sri Lankan delegates, led by Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa, who were in the house as special foreign guests.

AIADMK members, led by S. Semmalai and Munisamy Thambidurai, shouted “shame, shame” as soon as Speaker Meira Kumar began reading out her welcome message to Rajapaksa and his other colleagues, including Sri Lankan ministers, sitting in the special box to the left of her.

Almost all nine members of Tamil Nadu’s ruling party were heard shouting slogans against the Sri Lankan government as MPs from other parties thumped their desks to welcome the nine-member visiting delegation.

P. Lingam, the Communist Party of India (CPI) MP from Tenkasi in Tamil Nadu, also attempted to join the protests over alleged human rights abuses against Sri Lankan Tamils in the island nation. He was seen walking down the aisle towards the speaker’s podium but was stopped by his party leader Gurudas Dasgupta, who asked him to go back to his seat.

A visibly irate Meira Kumar rebuked the Tamil MPs and asked them to show some courtesy to the honoured guests.

The Sri Lankan delegation is on a five-day official visit to India on an invitation by the speaker. (NDTV)