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Lakshine Sathiyanathan TYO (Canada) 20 February 2008
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They lay lifeless. Row by row, lines upon lines, bodies of young Tamil women draped in cloths, as horrified family members search frantically for their daughters, nieces and sisters, fearing the next covering they lift up will expose the face of their loved one. I was disgusted. Disgusted with myself, disgusted with what the world had become. I was at disgust with myself, for I was behind a computer screen, in the safety of my own home. A home in a first world nation that does not have to face such conflicts. I turned my speakers off thinking without sound these images of absolute sadness would be bearable.
But when a picture is worth one thousand words are the sounds of their agonizing cries necessary? Their cries echoed vividly in my mind: cries of why, cries out to God, cries out to those beside them in search of comfort. I could see it in their faces, their expressions enough to pierce through your heart. The tears welled up in my eyes, reducing the video to a mere blur. I could see it no longer.
They call it a ‘War Against Terrorism.’ Sixty-five Tamil school children are deliberately targeted by the Sri Lankan government in genocidal intent and they called it a ‘War Against Terrorism.’ The Tamils of Sri Lanka fight for independence after decades of oppression and they dub it ‘terrorism.’ ‘War Against Terrorism,’ a phrase that sadly has become a household term internationally, a phrase used to describe a never-ending war against those who seek to strip us of our liberties.
They call it a ‘War Against Terrorism.’ ‘War Against Terrorism’ a phrase being abused, perverted and taken out of context; a phrase that has become an excuse to disguise what is genocide. Under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, acts of murder committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group as such are considered as acts of genocide. Government-sponsored atrocities in north and east Sri Lanka are parallel to that of Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia which forced the international community to establish special committees — ethnic cleansing, starvation, murders of children; extrajudicial killings, rapes, bombardments, shelling, arbitrary arrests and detention,labour camps, ill-treatments, summary executions, collective punishment, and pillage. These atrocities, committed on a large scale and used as an instrument of oppression against the Tamil people, meet the international definition of genocide.
The Sinhalese majority enforce such barbaric, inhumane, means of violence to conquer the Tamil homeland and impose its alien Sinahla rule on the Tamil people — a Tamil people, who by their free vote at the General Elections in 1977 had given a clear mandate for the establishment of an independent state, a Tamil people who speak a different language to that of the Sinhala people; who trace their origins to roots different to that of the Sinhala people; and who by their suffering and sacrifice fall between the cracks of a failed world.
‘War Against Terrorism’ —a phrase used to justify the merciless slaughter of thousands upon thousands of Tamils. Genocide — one corrupt government’s desire to wipe a race off the face of the planet. But they call it a ‘War Against Terrorism.’ Genocide is Not a War Against Terrorism
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