A short note from the Vanni
Repost This ArticleBy Witness
I traveled to the Vanni on 17th September, with the hope of getting a lorry load of foodstuff from Vavuniya to Vanni, but it was impossible, as the Killinochchhi Government Agent’s convoy had been stopped at that time.
From Omanthai exit – entry point to Killinochchi, the situation was very different than when I had traveled in the previous months. There were no people on the road up to the Killinochchi hospital.
As I approached Murikandy I observed that everything was burnt and smashed. While I was passing this place last week, it was full of people and the place looked very busy, but now it has become a no man’s land. The people have vacated from there due to bombing and shelling and the shops were also destroyed. There was heavy traffic in the Killinochchi town, as people were crossing the A9 to Vattakachi and Tharampuram areas. Hospitals are full of injured people, including in the outer areas such as the veranda.
The Catholic priests who usually reside St. Theresa church and Caritas – Vanni in Killinochchi were about to leave from there with all their belongings. At night, the Killinochchhi town was in darkness as there was no electricity. All the shops were closed and some were packing available stocks to be taken away from Killinochchi.
The people now staying at Vattakachi and Tharmapuram areas are requesting to announce these areas as “safe zones” for the civilians. Food and shelter are desperately needed, as people are suffering without anything to eat and nowhere to rest. Aerial bombing, which is even amongst civilians, has created a situation of panic amongst the people.
“The people now staying at Vattakachi and Tharmapuram areas are requesting to announce these areas as “safe zones” for the civilians. Food and shelter are desperately needed, as people are suffering without anything to eat and nowhere to rest”
I can visualize the pathetic situation vividly as I personally watched a similar scene in 1996 when refugees marched back to Jaffna from Kilinochchi. Reporting is not enough. I think CPA should immediately get in touch with the proper authorities, may be, with the support of the UN Rep. here and help to create the safe zone before it is too late. At this rate the refugees’ last resort will be the Indian Ocean.
I sincerely hope the LTTE hold civilians as a human shield, just like they did in Vakarai and East.
Agbo, just to clarify, is there a ‘do not’ missing from your comment or did you mean what you wrote?
If people in the South read the report, Field Mission to Vavuniya Septamber 2008, they may be able to understand not only what is going on in the Northeast but also how the conflict is getting too knotty….
Raphael Lemkin, a lawyer, coined the word genocide and used it to describe an event in a court of law in 1943. To any social scientist, genocide embodies discrimination, dehumanisation and ultimate destruction, either in part or full, of a people of any national, ethnic, racial or religious group. It often starts up with unequal treatment and ends up with destruction of social and economic structure, and killing of fellow human beings.
When the constitution, the legislature and the judiciary of any country are ethically or religiously discriminatory, acts of discrimination, from being casual events, become a permanent feature with “justification”.
An ethnic “master-slave” attitude would become permanently established in the minds of individuals of the society, by this process of false “justification”.
Gradually, human dignity would be “justifiably” withdrwan from the “ethnic slave” and the “ethnic master” would consider the former as a property less than human beings. Non recognition of human rights becomes inevitable. Killing of any “ethnic slave” or gravely harming one would then be done with false “clear conscience”, without any guilt whatsoever.. Then humanness is lost to beastliness. Reasoning is lost to brutalness. Defiance replaces compliance.
Genocide is thus the culmination of a process. Genocidal acts of ethnic killing, disappearing, displacing, causing bodily harm, mass rapes etc; become widespread when the process is at its peak of ethnic “master-slave” phase.
Sri Lanka(SL) has now socially deteriorated into an ethnic “master-slave” graveyard. Sinhalese often say that they are very friendly with Tamils. Of course they could be and yet keep the collective status quo of ethnic “master-slave” intact.
During the days of American slavery, masters were friendly with the slaves to the extent of having even intimate sex to produce children; yet retaining the collective status quo of master-slave.
Legislation by Abraham Lincoln was necessary to abolish the collective rights of masters to own slaves and grant the collective rights of slaves to be equal to their masters. It was then, the master-slave syndrome from that country was extricated.
In a recent interview, Sarath Fonseka, the army commander, was aggressively defending the existing ethnic “master-slave” status quo in SL. Obviously, his war in the North East is to preserve this status quo. Even a green card from the country of Abraham Lincoln could not undo the harm SL had done to him, especially, to his mindset.
SL is badly in need of a leader of the calibre of Abraham Lincoln, with enough courage to abolish the rights of the Sinhalese to be masters over the Tamils and grant the legitimate rights to Tamils to be equal and free. Nothing else can prevent the ongoing genocide of Tamils in the North East.
The scenario in Vakarai, Mutur and Murigandy will go on repeating itself.
There is somewhat of media silence/delay atm about the war. The news they publish is not what is actually happening. All clear indications that the confrontations are serious. I really hope the UN can negotiate a resettlement with LTTE for the civilians to go to govt. areas. Where are the Norwegians when they can actually be useful?
a very short note from the vanni…
“Witness” please write more, part of the reason that the GOSL ordered the international NGOs and the UN out of the Vanni is so that the attacks on civilians and the war crimes (denial of food & humanitarian assistance) would not have an international impartial witness… (we all know the ICRC will not tell what they see)
thanks again for this report witness
for more on the same topic please visit the BBC website:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7630187.stm
no amazing, they were asked to leave because ltte has a habit of killing aid workers and blaming gosl when they need some international leverage. we can’t have none of that can we now after the last 17 aid workers the ltte massacred!
point is if any of them aid workers get killed gosl will get harsh ciritisism for not trying to protect them. simple as that. enough with the spin!
why do people think the IDPs in the vanni want to come to govt controlled areas…
this is what happens to tamils in govt controlled areas:
1) disappearances – when IDPs came out of Vaharai area many were “screened” and disappeared before reaching the camps and the international NGOs
2) extrajudicial killings – one or two tamils killed in jaffna and the east everyday because the are accused of being LTTE or ex-LTTE or have relatives in the LTTE
3) kept in “detention centres” that the govt calls Welfare Centres – some have been in them for years in vavuniya and trinco (alles gardens)
3) torture – many of the IDPs will be tortured to get info on the LTTE (many would say this is ok – the americans do it in guantanamo, no?)
as you may or may not guess, many of the 450,000 persons in the vanni are there because they choose to be there for a variety of reasons… #1 amongst these is that they or their relatives were or are in the LTTE… #2 it’s safer for tamils in the LTTE controlled areas – the only dangers are the bombing & shelling and the lack of food…
if the govt declared “safe havens” the IDPs wouldn’t be in danger… the LTTE asked for them in Vaharai but the govt didn’t agree…
How is that the Sinhalese readers assume that the LTTE is preventing the civilians from moving out? People knows what is in store for them when they come to the Govt. controlled areas. They will be held indefinitely in open prison camps. Youngsters will be arrested as suspected LTTE members, never to be seen again. They will not be able to go back to their own dwellings once the war is over. Their houses/lands/farms will be given to Sinhalese settlers. In short the misery will continue until they die!!
Main purpose of the govt. in ousting the NGOs from Vanni is to carry out all the atrocities against the civilians without witness, and to hasten the annihilation of Tamils by not providing food and medicine. Aerial bombardment, shelling etc will hasten the genocide of the Tamils!! All this will be done efficiently with the help of Pillaiyan and Karuna and others of their calibre.
I am sorry to note that the above comments are concerned with theories and principles to the exclusion of any practical involvement with the suffering of the people reported in the short note. Our indignation over political inequities often takes precedence over our sympathies for those affected by such injustice.
The greatest need of the hour is to grant relief to those who are reported as being driven from pillar to post in the battlefield of the Wanni. As a former public servant, I feel strongly also for my successors who are exposed to grave danger and deprivation in the performance of their duties amidst the fighting.
I think the root cause for the pathetic plight of the refugees is the decision to bring them down to areas of government control. Apart from imaginable resistance to such a move from the LTTE, it is human nature that people are reluctant to seek strange territory. They may naturally be scared of moving too far out in the battlefield.
If a safety zone can be created as requested by the refugees as close to their homes as possible in an area mutually agreed to by the antagonists, it will be easy to concentrate the affected civilians in that area. Public servants can move in there to help without facing limitless risks. UN and other aid agencies also can operate from the hub of relief activity without resorting to remote control.
I appeal to all civil society organizations, NGOs and INGOs concerned with human rights to take immediate positive steps to bring about a self-contained and independent Safety Zone as desired by the destitute refugees in Vattakachchi and Tharmapuram. I am glad to offer my personal experience and expertise to such a venture on site.
Sri Lanka is in a destructive path and taking an irreversible trajectory towards either total subordination of the Tamil people, in the way Sam T says above, or towards separation if the Sinhala army finds the task unsustainable. Sinhala intellectuals and others who are rooting for Sinhala army’s march into NE, are likely cognizant of this eventuality. Pirapaharan, however unlikely it may seem now, may eventually prove himself as the undoubtible master of forcing world events towards achieving his aims.
So called Democratic Republic of Sri Lanka now under the Dictator Mahinda is getting help from China, Pakistan and Iran and bombing and destroying whole infrastructure of Wanni and killing numerous innocent people every day. They expect to capture Wanni and then go back to Western countries to ask aid to rebuild the country. No sensible country will give Sri Lanka any money for this type of wanton destruction of the homes, businesses and properties of the Tamils. The whole world should exert pressure on the government of Sri Lanka to stop killing and bombing its own people and instead go for a negotiated settlement to this purely an ethnic problem and not a terrorist problem.
the west and the US cannot do nothing to stop us from doing what we are doing
since they are doing the same thing in iraq ,afghanistan ,wuziristan in pakistan
so stop asking them for help
the UN white boys club is now obselete including the security council
before it was communism now its terrorism
Dear Eellamists,
The Sinhalese has already won this war. Even if this war is extended for another 10 years it would be advantageous for the Sinhalese because in such a situation the Tamil population can be reduced to around 5%. Already the SL tamil population (not of Indian origin) has been reduced to around 8-9% of the total population. If he Sinhalese gov want to genocide the Tamils all they need to do is to extend the war and prevent a quick LTTE defeat. But the Sinhalese are too compassionate and forgiving and will do their best to avoid the tamils from self destruction.
Significant majority of the population do not support division of the country or allowing “de-facto states” with in the state boundaries of Sri Lanka. They want all parts of Sri Lanka to be accessible (or livable) to all citizens.
The best way is to cease the conflict and thereby the destruction of SL Tamils is to agree on a ceasfire on the basis of de-commission of arms possessed by all non state actors and commece negotiations for solutions to existing issues.
All well meaning minds should focus on exerting pressure on relevant parties to this end. Rather than lamenting.
The politics of gun has run it’s course from the point of view of Tamil resistance. It is now giving negative returns. Not even diminishing returns.
“seelan” – it is not for the sinhalese or the “majority” to decided if the NorthEast secede…
as in East Timor, Macedonia, Czechoslovakia (Czech & Slovakia now) and many other instances any referendum held would only involve those areas wishing to secede and not the rest of the country; ie. it is not for the sinhala people to decided the fate of the tamils. it is for the people of the NorthEast to decide.
and those who came to the NE via state sponsored colonization schemes or irrigation schemes and their voting age children – WOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO VOTE in this referendum. the sinhala govt’s policy of ethnically diluting the concentration of tamil speaking people in the NE will not be rewarded! those people are welcome to live there but will not be able to vote in THIS referendum…
ajith,
are you serious? or are you david blacker under another name…
this comment is ludicrous:
“after the last 17 aid workers the ltte massacred!”
EVERYONE knows that the GOSL did this – even the GOVT will admit that to you privately.
Ajith seems to have “evidence” to prove the pepetrators of the crime of killing the aid workers(as if he has seen it). Why didn’t he come out to the open and proof it? What happened to the investigations carried out RELUCTANTLY by the government? Why was the government reluctant to have the investigation? For that matter the Government is reluctant to hold inquiries in any of the killings, abduction, extrajudicial killings which is happening in the heart of Colombo during broad daylingt with a maze of check points manned by security forces. Why? In any other country even if a dog is killed in this fashion, they will have inquiry and punish the culprits!! Not in our country which “boasts of 2,500 year old Budhist civilisation”
How is that the Government is asking the Wanni people to come to the Govt. controlled areas, but asking the Tamil people who has come to Colombo to escape atrociities by the security forces from Jaffna and other places to go back to their own places? Why did they send them back in buses from Colombo to Vavuniya and other places, without even allowing them to change their cloths or even to take their belongings or even to inform other family members who were out at that time? They did not even spare the sick people who have travelled from far away places and come for treatment to Colombo. Does anybody Expect the Tamils to TRUST this Government after all these treatment?
“as in East Timor, Macedonia, Czechoslovakia (Czech & Slovakia now) and many other instances any referendum held would only involve those areas wishing to secede and not the rest of the country”
Amazing, as usual you are amazingly ignorant of both history and current events. Let me educate you. East Timor was illegally annexed by Indonesia, so it’s independence wasn’t a secession, but a regaining of its independence from an occupying nation. Macedonia too had a constitutional right to secede if agreed. Czechoslovakia divided by mutual agreement, not by one side demanding it. For a secession, the population must first agree via a plebiscite that secession may be allowed via a vote, or it must agree via a referendum to devolve to a federal-type system. Once that has been done, a plebiscite can be held within the devolved province or federal state on secession. One has to walk before you can run.
Nandasena & Amazing, I have clearly given you the ballistic and circumstantial evidence that tilts the balance towards the ACF workers being killed by the LTTE. You conveniently disappeared from that comment thread when faced with the facts, and now pop up again with your juvenile “oh everybody knows that the GoSL did it.” Well “everybody” knows that the Sinhalese are descended from a lion too, no? But where’s the evidence?
David in 1980 there were 154 UN recognized countries. Today in 2008 there are 192 or is it 193 UN recognized countries. As you can see the number of countries in the world have continued to increase and not decrease!
If your government does not honestly devolve power to the minorities, their will eventually be a Tamil Eelam. It might take some time.
‘If at first they (tamils) don’t “Secede”, ……they will try and try again!”
The More the Merrier!
the tamils were a separate nation before the british “unified” the country – after independance the tamils entered into a “social convent” with the sinhalese based on section 29 (2) of the soulbury constitution – when this was dropped from the illegal 1972 constitution the tamils reverted back to their former status.
and the ballistics are worthless… how do they PROVE it was the LTTE…? at most they show that ballistics aren’t the determining factor here… did you listen to any of the testimony at the CoI? one of the govt guys there said that he had hidden his gun that had been used…
Amazing, I thought I may sacrifice a bit of my time to counter your incredibly blatant eelam white washing here. Not surprised though to be honest – know your camp very well.
Tamils are safer in LTTE area? How the hell? If you’re a youth or an adolescent child in your good years then you’re DOOMED! Be it a male or a female. You are force conscripted to fight whether you like it or not. This is if they’re lucky. Otherwise if those kids are unfortunate enough to be recruited by black tigers then it’s worse than hell itself with the most excruciating training regime with a life of prostitution until the day u blow ur self up! Now amazing is it really a benefit to stay on that side? Tell me. I agree on the point that relatives of LTTE members will opt to stay because family ties are stronger than anything else. Gov controlled areas on the other hand cannot and will not forcefully recruit Tamil youth to fight. Yeah sure they get interrogated but that is common practice for any army to deal with IDPs coming from enemy territory. There will always be hidden enemy elements.
On top of it, it is not like LTTE can provide for these people. They got nothing and heavily depend on supplies from South. Wouldn’t it make a whole lot of sense to let those people come over to the other side and at least be able to have a proper meal? Of course not that would diminish the LTTE’s self imposed status as the guardian of Tamils. What a joke.
If you use some common sense it will dawn very clearly upon any thinking man/woman that killing aid workers is disadvantageous for the government and serves absolutely no purpose at all! All it does is to attract negative press and pressure from the international community! Why would the GOSL willingly pursue this attention? Exactly! So common sense would say it is the LTTE that has all to gain from this practice and unleashing their horde of propagandists to point the finger at GOSL.
Also why is it that some people are compelled to only point their finger at GOSL. C’mon we weren’t born yesterday, we all know what the LTTE is like. Bit of cyanide here n there, bit of suicide bombings here n there and a touch of international money laundering and ethnic cleansing? All with absolute impunity! Why not stand up to this? Why scream at a lesser evil? A corrupt government that can be held accountable and has been in the past.
Amazing, the amazing thing is that whatever the topic that is posted on this blog, eelam trumpets like your self will convert it to a flame thread and throw the same “ludicrous” (in your own words) arguments over and over. Contributing nothing to the original topic and completely roll it on a tangent.
Finally I am not David Blacker and it puzzles me as to why you would associate me with him under a pseudonym? I couldn’t figure it out. From the few posts I have seen by him seems to me like an educated individual and I certainly won’t take any offence to it
nandasena i couldn’t “proof” it because it was in the past – as in already happened!
isn’t it also a bit contradictory on your behalf that you fling the accusations/innuendos right back at another party without any evidence just after accusing me for lack of “proof”.
that should have been “social COVENANT”…
“David in 1980 there were 154 UN recognized countries. Today in 2008 there are 192 or is it 193 UN recognized countries. As you can see the number of countries in the world have continued to increase and not decrease!”
Yes, Chinthana, no one is arguing the numbers. But I’ve pointed out how those countries came into being — via constitutional means; not by the gun. A large number of those countries from 1954 were artificial unions such as the USSR and Jugoslavia, which fractured into the constituent countries. Sticking your head in the sand and repeating a mantra won’t give you Eelam — after a quarter of a century of failure to get Eelam, don’t you see that your way is wrong? How many more Tamils must die before you see that the LTTE can’t get you Eelam?
“‘If at first they (tamils) don’t “Secede”, ……they will try and try again!””
Yes, until pigs fly and Santa comes down the chimney. Good luck with that. Perseverance isn’t useful without intelligence. Bashing your head against a wall repeatedly just gives you a bashed head — ask the Cuban exiles and the Tibetan militants.
“the tamils were a separate nation before the british “unified” the country”
What rubbish, Amazing. The entire country was a collection of fiefdoms, not nations. You might as well call Mt Lavinia a nation. If the ’72 constitution is illegal as you claim, challenge it in court.
“and the ballistics are worthless… how do they PROVE it was the LTTE…? at most they show that ballistics aren’t the determining factor here…”
They are worthless to the accuser (you) because it doesn’t prove it was the LTTE. It’s quite valuable to the accused (the GoSL) because it casts sufficient doubt on the accusations. So what is this Amazing determining factor, pray tell. You’ve been banging on about this for a few weeks now without bringing up a single scrap of evidence to back up your fantasies.
“did you listen to any of the testimony at the CoI? one of the govt guys there said that he had hidden his gun that had been used…”
I have read most of the transcripts and this seems to be a figment of your rather vivid imagination. Please link to any such documented statement.
“They are worthless to the accuser (you) because it doesn’t prove it was the LTTE”
Sorry, that should read “…doesn’t prove it was the Army.”
David Blacker,
The president of Serbia said this week that he is willing to recognise the independence of Kosovo. Don’t you worry, this watr will make the Sinhalese to be in the waste bin of the world and Tamil Eelam will become independent soon and the South will recognise Tamil Eelam like how Serbia is doing.
David, you seem to have a black out on Tamil matters. The North East were sovereign when the British colonised the island. The people of North East never ever opted to be in the republic of Sri Lanka. They have a right to secede like the countries you have mentioned in your letter.
It is better for a person to keep quiet than talking to exhibit his total ignorance !!!
When I read the following comments it was very clear to me that the arson and destruction caused to the houses is a savage act of genocide.;
“As I approached Murikandy I observed that everything was burnt and smashed. While I was passing this place last week, it was full of people and the place looked very busy, but now it has become a no man’s land. The people have vacated from there due to bombing and shelling and the shops were also destroyed.”
Such genocidal acts were witnessed in Sarajevo for which the army commander Ratco Mladic is being tried in the Hague. Hope it will be the same for Sarth Fonseka.
[Chintana Mahinda - This comment is heavily edited. Please refrain from personal insults and jibes. Not only do you then encourage a similar response from the person to whom they are intended, you just lower the quality of debate on this site. Please read submission guidelines before you post.]
What about Eritrea?
the Eritreans rebeled and fought against the ethiopians for 31 straight years and finally on may 24th 1991 the gained their freedom. This is just one example where armed struggle succeeded.
There is nothing permanent except change. Nothing endures but change.
All is flux, nothing stays still.
- Heraclitus of Ephesus-
500 years ago If someone said that someday people would land on the moon, people would have thought he was crazy!
A Tamil Eelaam is a more likely prospect though! If not in our lifetime…may be in children’s or grand children’s lifetime.
Devolve maximum power to the minorities….or a ‘Separate State’ is inevitable!
“It is better for a person to keep quiet than talking to exhibit his total ignorance !!!”
Perhaps you should practice what you preach. Upto now, Justin, you and these other LTTE apologists are the only ignorant ones here.
“The president of Serbia said this week that he is willing to recognise the independence of Kosovo. ”
Still repeating the mantra, Justin, without knowing the contents? You don’t get from A to Z by skipping the rest of the alphabet. When a nation gets from A to Z, you don’t assume it went in a straight line. Many or most of the former Jugoslavia were recognized nations in recent history. Tamil sovereignty within SL is still debatable with no real decisive evidence. Even if there was such evidence, it doesn’t guarantee automatic independence — it just brings it one step closer.
The debate here on the question of secession is just painful to read. A referendum affirming the desire of a people group to secede is not in itself sufficient to ground a right to secession. i.e- Quebec. On the other hand, you don’t need to be a federal unit or have a history of being a separate sovereign unit to claim a right to secession. Ultimately, the Montevideo conditions apply, with international recognition now emerging as all important feature. You see it in Kosovo, in the Balkans and to an extent in S. Osettia and potentially in Abkhazia. Those interested might want to google up the emerging theory on earned sovereignty. The North East can never secede as long as India is opposed to a secession. Conversely, if India wants to see a separate state in the North East, the Sri Lankan state will be powerless to stop it. That’s cold reality. But please, guys, don’t engage in a debate on public international law without at the very least having a superficial grasp of the first principles.
That wasn’t the debate, Aadhavan, as usual. Law rarely is a debate in any of this forums, however much you wish it to be.
My apologies for thinking the debate was about inter alia secession, sovereignty, UDI’s and referenda. My bad.
aadhavan where is the “earned” sovereignty of red indian americans of US, aborigines of Australia, IRAQIS? Now I’m talking about people who are indigenous who should not have to earn this right! Not late migrants. These are just terms (like RTP) used to squeeze less powerful countries for larger geo political benefit by the present world powers – dare I say the corporate nations that hold the politicians of these “powers” – “private military assets” as puppets for reckless wealth building.
You are probably one of them that studies politics but don’t quite get it – in reality.
There I spared the Googling for Wikipedia entries for false meanings of a worthless term for the other folk here. Again us general folk shouldn’t be messing around with such a sophisticated topic beyond the grasp of our intellect anyway. Let’s leave it to a select few of self proclaimed experts who are wise enough to advise on what we should refrain from. Cheers!
Spare me the international law – why Tamils turn to countries (which i leave u to figure out) that blatantly undermines these laws instead of boycotting them? UN supposedly stands for these laws but significant veto power is held by those nations that renegade against these laws at WILL making them to be the guardians of international law??
Study it anyway, we need another generation of UNers to prevent a 3rd world war and push paper work on how to share the oil among the big guns.
india cannot make sri lanka give an eelam. surely they won’t risk chineese military bases in sri lanka. giving out a terrorist state is blasphemy to most nations now. international community cannot and will not allow that as it sends a wrong message to other terrorists. that is why the tide changed for sri lanka. ltte is that bratty child who grew up and realised he was nobody among men.