Temples, Rose Petals and Guns
- POST 21 AUGUST 2012
- BY SINTHUJAN VARATHARAJAH
A rosy sky appearance rocked this year's Nallur festival when a Sri Lankan Army helicopter appeared in the cloudy sky of Yaalpaanam (Jaffna) above tens of thousands of devotees who gathered to celebrate this year's Nallur Thiruvila (chariot festival). Infamous for its engagement in spraying bullets and dropping shells on citizens, constructed as enemies and enemies constructed as terrorists, the Sri Lankan Air Force's performance during the festival prophesied nothing but fear and terror in the minds of local and distant viewers of this very spectacle. The mere sight of Sri Lankan military power flying above a defenseless crowd of Tamils returned countless memories of buildings and humans that turned into unidentifiable piles of charcoal and ash by a military force that captured people, land, water and sky.
Instead of dropping bombs, the Sri Lankan Army helicopter released rose petals on the masses of Tamil Hindu devotees who came to celebrate this festival’s holy day. What seemingly can, and most likely will be interpreted by some, including many Tamils, as an act of positive engagement, a proof of reaching out to the ethnic group and an illustration of the Sri Lankan Government led 'politics of reconciliation' (that of course begs to be commended) urges us to look behind this facade to discover what things really are, and versus what they seem to be. Yaalpanam (Jaffna) today is and what it shares as communality with all of the traditional Tamil regions of the island is their state of occupation. Whether during or after this year's Nallur Thirivula, Yaalpanam remains to be a peninsula under occupation; a people under siege.
Pacifying guns and civilizing violence
