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7/27/2019 Just as We Are United in Our Grief Over Weliweriya We Must Be United in Our Struggle Against Tyranny-Sumanthir…
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Just as we are United in our Grief Over
Weliweriya we Must be United in our Struggle
against Tyranny-Sumanthiran MPBy M. A. Sumanthiran MP
‘ I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is
only temporary; the evil it does is permanent’. – Mahatma Gandhi-10 August 2013,
Grief is the inevitable consequence of violence. The tragic and inexcusable events of
Weliweriya have left its residents with unimaginable grief.
Akila Dinesh Jayawardena was a
17-year-old student of Chandrajothi Vidhyalaya, Yakkala. He was killed by a soldier’s
bullet as he inched through protesters searching for his mother. As his body lay at the
mortuary of the Gampaha hospital on the evening of August 1, two others, Ravishan
Perera and Nilantha Pushpakumara, fought for their lives. But, they, too, did not survive.
Ravishan was 19 years old at the time of his death. Nilantha was 29. Close to 50 others
were treated for injuries. Some were critical.
In December 2011, during the Parliamentary debate on the Defence Ministry budget, I
warned the nation that the ills of militarisation in the North would eventually spill over
into the South. Now that the post-war fog has been lifted, the people—perhaps for the
first time—see the monster they are left with. Even those persons who, as ambassadors
and in similar capacities defended the government’s brutal prosecution of the war in the
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North with scant disregard to civilian safety, are now getting on the band wagon
questioning the role of the military in this instance. These are the people who even
parrotted the government’s blatant falsehood that there were only 70,000 people in the
war zone, when in fact the government figures themselves would have shown that there
were people in excess of 400,000!
The villagers of Weliweriya had a serious grievance. They protested against the
government’s failure to address contamination of their ground water reserves caused bytoxic waste from a nearby glove factory. The government and courts refused to close the
factory. Left powerless, thousands of people from ten affected villages took to the streets.
What happened next shocked and bewildered the South. The North watched with weary
empathy.
The Army arrived, dressed in flack jackets and helmets, with T-56 assault rifles by their
side. Armored Personnel Carriers were deployed. Soldiers used clubs and riffle butts in an
indiscriminate assault on the people of Weliweriya. Even women and children were not
spared. To think the Army could have done this to their people was unthinkable to the
residents of Weliweriya.
A villager from Weliweriya told the media that they held regular Bodhi Poojas to bless the
soldiers during the war. Now, those very soldiers have turned on their supporters. Fromlearned men to simple villagers, events in Weliweriya have caused the sanitised narrative
of this regime in respect of the military’s conduct during the war to be called into
question. I began with the Mahatma‘s words because I anticipate that those who
unquestioningly supported the militarisation project will now detect the permanent cost
of such support.
Weliweriya was only the latest of a string of horrifying incidents involving the Armed
Forces and the Police. In May 2011, Roshen Shanaka, was shot dead by the Police at the
young age of 21. His crime was to have dared to protest against the government’s
mandatory pension scheme for private sector employees. In August 2011, the people in
Navanthurai, Jaffna protested over a serious grievance, which directly involved the
military.
At the time, the fear of ‘grease devils’ bedeviled the country. Five such ‘grease devils’
were seen fleeing into an Army camp, only to exit the camp in military garb and in an
Army jeep. The next day, 100 Tamil men were dragged from their homes by armed
soldiers, brutally assaulted and ‘arrested’. In February 2012, Warnasuriya Anthony
Fernando, a 35-year-old fisherman and father of two, was shot dead by the Special Task
Force while protesting against a fuel price hike. In July 2012, several Tamil political
prisoners were severely beaten by the Special Task Force following a hostage taking
incident.
Amongst them, Ganesan Nimalaruban died of his injuries. Another prisoner, Mariyadas
Delrukshan, was left in a coma and eventually succumbed to his injuries. In November2012, a peaceful protest organised by the students of the Jaffna University was brutally
suppressed by the Army. Many of the protestors were later hospitalised due to injuries
sustained in the attack.
Also in November, the Army was deployed to quell a riot at the Welikada prison, where
they shot and killed 27 prisoners. Some of the prisoners were killed ‘execution style’ after
the riot was quelled. These incidents mark the truly indiscriminate effects of militarisation
and impunity in this country. How many more of these incidents would it take before the
peoples of this country unite in their commitment to end tyranny?
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Lincoln once said, “You can fool some of the people all the time and all of the people
some of the time but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.” The people are not
fools. They realise that militarisation and impunity must come to an end. Voices in the
South are already speaking of the ills of militarisation. They are also speaking of credible
and independent investigations into the Weliweriya incident. Some even have the
audacity to call for international investigations.
Throughout the post-war period, my party and I have called for the disengagement of themilitary and a return to civilian administration. I have repeatedly criticised the monthly
Presidential Proclamation that calls out the Armed Forces to maintain law and order.
Immediately following the end of the war, we called for accountability for international
crimes committed by the Armed Forces and the LTTE. We called for an international
investigation because the government was unwilling to impartially investigate these
crimes.
Our call is on account of the immense suffering and injustice endured by the victims we
represent. It is also on account of the fact that the lack of accountability breeds impunity.
The cost of impunity—though disproportionately borne by the Tamil people—is a cost all
peoples of this country will have to bear. Last week, the families of Weliweriya paid a cost
they should never have had to pay.Weliweriya bears testament to the fact that militarisation condemns all of society to
endure grief. It is also a harsh reminder that an unaccountable government will be
unaccountable to everyone, including to its own supporters. Just as we are united in our
grief, we must be united in our struggle against tyranny. A military confined to the
barracks is a decisive victory for all Sri Lankans, as it will signal a return to normality and
civilian life. A robust policy of prosecution, truth telling and reparation for the crimes
committed in the past will be a decisive victory for all Sri Lankans, as it will ensure that
acts of impunity will not be tolerated, regardless of the victims’ identities. This is the
measure of genuine unity. For if we are all connected, we will be united in grief, and when
justice comes, united in victory.
By M. A. Sumanthiran
Member of Parliament
Tamil National Alliance