A Tamil heroine unmourned & the sociology of obfuscation - University Teachers for Human Rights, Jaffna; (1998)
NB: An 18 year-old report from one of the worlds most courageous defenders of human rights, the
University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna), whose members fearlessly upheld their commitment to humanity in the face of terror and intimidation from all sides - the Sri Lankan government, the LTTE and the IPKF. One of its founders was the feminist Dr. Rajani Thiranagama, murdered by the Tamil Tigers for her condemnation of their atrocities.
Proponents of self-determination may benefit from a reading of this report on the murder (May 1998) of Mrs. Sarojini Yogeswaran, Mayoress of Jaffna. Its last lines read as follows:
A Tamil heroine unmourned & the sociology of obfuscation
University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) Sri Lanka. Special Report no: 11. September 1998
University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna), whose members fearlessly upheld their commitment to humanity in the face of terror and intimidation from all sides - the Sri Lankan government, the LTTE and the IPKF. One of its founders was the feminist Dr. Rajani Thiranagama, murdered by the Tamil Tigers for her condemnation of their atrocities.
Proponents of self-determination may benefit from a reading of this report on the murder (May 1998) of Mrs. Sarojini Yogeswaran, Mayoress of Jaffna. Its last lines read as follows:
"The right
to self-determination is a precious right. It has helped in focusing attention
on the problems of minorities and in applying pressure on governments to
redress grievances and recognise their rights as distinct cultural, linguistic
or religious communities. But in exercising this right there is a dilemma.
Those who care for the right and help others in the exercise of it should be
alert and sensitive to the fact that the exercise of this right in the absence
of human rights and democracy within the community concerned, renders
self-determination meaningless.
The politics within the Tamil community has
become so depraved, that one may not be wrong in saying, much of the foreign
concern is so careless and uncritical that far from improving the quality of
freedom and democracy for the community, it has the opposite effect. In the
case of the Tamils of Sri Lanka, it has been hijacked by a small articulate
segment enjoying the short-lived freedom of the wild ass at the community’s
expense. At this point the right to self-determination becomes in effect, the
right to self-destruction" DS
A Tamil heroine unmourned & the sociology of obfuscation
University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) Sri Lanka. Special Report no: 11. September 1998
“ I cannot bring
myself to condemn these young men who murder. They themselves are victims,
puppets used by their leaders. The real culprits are those who work behind the
scene, from their nice hide-outs abroad, in countries like France, Germany and
the United States. They are the ones who pull the strings.
“ They brainwash
the poor boys, and often they use drugs to make them ready to obey orders
without asking questions. They use poverty and unemployment afflicting Algeria
as their wedge to get at these boys. We have to get to the root of these
problems.
“ Women
have a very important role to play. They educate the children and turn them
into men. A good part of the future of any society depends directly on women.
Convincing women that they should strive for a better future means laying the
foundations for a better society in the future...
“ I
think the extremists are enraged at Algerian women because we are courageous,
because we are the source of life... They attack women because a woman is a
symbol of life, which is why women fight against terrorism, which is death. By
killing women the extremists want to strike at the whole future of our
society...” - Saida Benhabiles, 50,
Head of the Parliamentary Commission on Social Affairs in Algeria, who has a
death sentence passed on her by religious extremists - Interview with Patrica
Unzain, Island October 18;1997
11th SEPTEMBER
1998
We announced in our Bulletin No.17 last May
that we would come out with a publication bearing the title ‘The Murder of
Mrs.Sarojini Yogeswaran, Mayoress of Jaffna & the Anatomy of Fascist
control’. In making inquiries about the emergence of fascism in Tamil society,
as the document progressed, we found that it is best divided into two parts.
The present report is the first part dealing with the ramifications of
Mrs.Yogeswaran’s murder. The second part which requires further cross-checking
will appear in the next few months.
As we were finalising
this document, news came of the bomb explosion in the ceremonial hall adjoining
Nallur Kanthasamy Kovil in Jaffna which killed the new Mayor of Jaffna, almost
the entire security forces hierarchy in the City of Jaffna, along with several
other civilians. Apart from Pon Sivapalan, Legal Secretary TULF, and Sarojini’s
successor as Mayor of Jaffna, the bomb explosion on 11th September killed
Brigadier Susantha Mendis, Jaffna’s Town Commandant, Captain Ramanayake, Jaffna
SSP Chandra Perera, ASPs Chandramohan and Sarath Fernando, Jaffna OIC Chief
Inspector Mohandas and PC Gerard. Among the civilians killed were Assistant
Municipal Commissioner Pathmanathan, Municipal Engineers Easwaran and
Pathmarajah, a Municipal typist and Mrs.Mallika Rasaratnam, Architect in the
Urban Development Authority - bringing the number to at least 13 dead.
The first thing the
incident once again demonstrates is the LTTE’s absence of any concern for its
own civilians. In July last year the LTTE attacked Thangathurai, MP
Trincomalee, at a school function. It killed a lady school principal Rajeswari
Thanabalasingham and educational works engineer Ratnarajah, along with four
other civilians. These further demonstrate the insensitive and diabolical
nature of the overseas Tamil lobby that supports the LTTE. Rajeswari
Thanabalasingham, Ratnarajah, Pathmanathan, Easwaran, Pathmarajah and Mallika
Rasaratnam were professionals who remained in the North-East because they
believed in their people and were committed to them. It would have been easy
enough for them to go abroad legally as privileged emigrants.
What is even worse,
many of those who worship and sustain the organisation that killed them are
almost certainly people who were in school and university with them and are now
living abroad. When the LTTE controlled Jaffna a great deal of fuss was made by
LTTE lobbies, medical conferences were held, and the US State Department
lobbied, to highlight the deprived conditions of people in the North - East.
After the people of Jaffna defied the LTTE’s attempts to drive them into the
Vanni, and returned to their homes under Army control, their eloquent concern
for them vanished. It was as though the people - their own people - no longer
needed to eat, work, receive medical attention and go to school. Now it was as
though any human existence for the people had to be terminated and the handful
of dedicated professionals who made such an existence possible, killed, to
prove their perverted point. This is the evil that the Tamil people are up
against. There is no balanced way of writing about the diseased wider social
phenomenon comprising the LTTE.
Since we have always
tried to address issues from the perspective of the ordinary people, we will
say something about the lady who occurred as a mere name with a title towards
the end of the list of the dead. It is also the reflection in the life of a
family of the tragic misdirection of the Tamil struggle. Mallika Rasaratnam
obtained her degree in architecture from the University of Moratuwa in 1976.
She and her family later moved to Jaffna. Since then she had been doing private
work in Jaffna. She believed in the Tamil cause, had a concern for the people
and had remained in Jaffna through thick and thin.
During the forced
exodus of 1995 she had a difficult choice. She had an ailing husband, an old
father and two daughters. Leaving her father with Roman Catholic nuns and
clergy who remained in the city, the rest of the family went to Karaveddy,
Vadamaratchy. The LTTE tried to use the helplessness contrived by them to
recruit her. She told the representative of the ROOTE indignantly that she
would stay where she was and if unable to return to Jaffna, leave for Colombo
when her savings were exhausted. To further rub in her helplessness she was told
that if she were leaving, she would have to leave a member of the family
behind. She responded that if they would bring her down to that level, she
would have to treat one child as lost and save the rest of the
family.
She moved back to
Jaffna in April 1996 after the Army took control, and being the only
professional architect in Jaffna, there was a heavy demand for her services.
The Municipality wanted her in the UDA and the University of Jaffna wanted her
to lecture in aesthetics. She also did the designing to rebuild old St.Peter’s
Methodist Church which was devastated by the war. The work was to be under her
supervision. She lost her father last year, and her ailing husband who looked
after their children’s studies, earlier this year. Mallika exuded beauty in
everything she did, from her designs, to her articles in the old Saturday
Review, to her correspondence on professional matters. Though herself a Hindu,
the Church of St.Peter when rebuilt, will remain a fitting memorial to her
faith in the future of Jaffna and her commitment to its people. The manner of
her death is the strongest indictment of those who sustain her killers.
Mayor Sivapalan, who
had his education at Victoria College, Chullipuram - at the same school as the
late TULF leader A.Amirthalingam - also became a lawyer by profession. After
Mrs.Yogeswaran’s murder, he out of a sense of duty accepted the job of mayor.
The former deputy mayor had resigned and started making statements in favour of
the LTTE. Sivapalan began by making statements to the effect that the LTTE
could not have killed his predecessor and pretending in word that they were not
in town. At his first council meeting he wanted to pass a resolution calling
upon the Government to stop the war and talk to the LTTE, which he withdrew
when some others objected.
As a person he was a
good man and innocent, and like most civilians, incapable of the kind of
security precautions needed to function in the face of the LTTE. He had been
warned several times by younger ex-militant councillors not to operate from the
Kalyana Mandapam (Ceremonial Hall), but to use the TULF Stanley Road office. He
had even been warned about individuals in the Municipal Council who were very
likely to be compromised with the LTTE. This does not mean they were hard-core
members, but rather people who had got favours from the LTTE or were
compromised in some corrupt activity and cannot therefore turn down an
instruction from the LTTE. Sivapalan was beginning to take notice of the
threat, but typically, had only recently attended an opening function in Ariyalai
for which invitation cards had been printed a week in advance.
It is believed that
the bomb was concealed in the roof of the Hall when some work was done on it
some months ago - when Mrs.Yogeswaran was Mayor. The possibility that it had
been targeted for the fatal meeting has not been ruled out. The meeting
concerned was about regulating traffic in the City and about road arrangements.
It was Sivapalan’s and Brigadier Mendis’ wish that meetings regarding civil
matters should be held in the premises of the civil authority concerned. He was
not dealing with an ‘army of occupation’. In fact the military authorities had
been very respectful to him. It is simply that the LTTE’s terror had reduced
the people to a position where nothing can move in Jaffna unless the Army takes
the initiative. It may sound like wisdom of the grave, but why did the security
authorities tasked to protect the Mayor overlook some basic things?
The main failure of
the TULF is that it does not touch the destructiveness of the LTTE's brand of
chauvinism. It means opening wounds in an awkward common history. Its
politicians having to function in the North-East know that the LTTE will sooner
or later target them. In this situation they hope against hope that it will
spare them if they regularly make pro-LTTE statements. The LTTE in turn watches
them and sends them messages lulling them into complacency. Sivapalan had been
told that complacency would only help the LTTE to deliver a blow demoralising
the people further. When Sivapalan’s name had been suggested for Mayor, the
expatriate-based IBC Radio tauntingly suggested that the TULF is preparing
another sacrificial lamb - as though democracy for Tamils here did not matter!
A poignant note on
Sivapalan’s death is that he had told his wife in advance that should he be
killed, he should be interred in Jaffna - the land of his birth. Once more a
son of the soil who strongly identified with its people had to be killed by
self-styled liberators… read the full report:
