State terrorism and resistance: The genocidal occupation of the Tamil homeland
BY ATHITHAN JAYAPALAN-21 NOVEMBER 2012
Three years have passed since the genocidal killings in Mulli'Vaykal in the North-East of Sri Lanka (Eezham). The Colombo government inhumanely portrays the conclusion of the Tamil Genocide on 19th May as Victory Day. Amidst Colombo’s euphoric, romantic and triumphal portrayals of the post-war period, the conditions of the Tamils are appalling and testify to their existence as a shackled and besieged nation.
While Colombo celebrated the 3rd anniversary of the V-day, the stateless Tamils continue to face multifaceted oppression indicating the government’s commitment to continue the protracted genocide. Though the material base, distorted and manipulated to suit Colombo's most favored rhetorical tool "The Tamil Terrorist" is non-existent, the state violence pulsates on. It was thought the state could no longer utilize its much cherished term the fight against terrorism as a cloak to exert blatant genocidal violence against Tamils and brutal suppression of dissent. Contrarily the state violence remains in the post war scenario and displays the structural and systematic nature of it. The state sanctioned and manned violence is in fact inalienable from the functioning of the unitary nation state and is legitimized by the dominant Sinhala nationalism. The state centric discourses present the workings of Colombo as developmental in the North-East and that the situation of Tamils is progressively improving. Hence it is sung that with the ‘Northern Spring’ campaign, this oppressively centralized and unitary country is moving towards reconciliation, prosperity and peace.
The reality for Tamils is quite different as not even the shadows of equality, peace and security fall upon their homeland and so the political, socio-cultural and economic situation of the Tamils deteriorates drastically. Self determination is nonviable and as a nation their existence is under rapid erosion and faces annihilation or total subjugation. The prevalent situation was recently illuminated in a Washington post report (1), and in internal reports produced by diplomats in the Norwegian embassy (2).
In both it is pointed out that the entire Tamil homeland is under heavy military governance and that every aspect of civilian life including the local economy is dictated. During fieldwork conduction in the North-East in early 2012 to assess the situation of Tamils, the Norwegian diplomats also noted the constant following presence of the military, even during meetings with the locals.
Undoubtedly in the Tamil homeland a military occupation with genocidal intent is bent on marginalizing and conditioning the Tamils’ capacity to lead their lives with dignity, to govern and independently empower themselves. Such a regime also prevents any form of just devolution of governance and the restoration of justice for war crimes and crimes against humanity. An environment which facilitates Tamils to express grievances, injustice, atrocities and their political demands is by no means available. It seems to be the intent of the state to eradicate the capacities of Tamils to reproduce their national consciousness, identities, socio-cultural characteristics and intricate connections to the traditional homeland. With the erosion of these elements, Colombo can without many obstacles assimilate the Tamils into its chauvinistic nation building project, a united and centralized Buddhist Sinhala Sri Lanka with dependent minorities. President Mahindra Rajapakse even said once that "there are no minorities in Sri Lanka, only Sri Lankans", and such understandings stem from and illuminate the mono-ethnic nature of the nation state and its ideology. An ideology falsely propagating the notion that Tamil-speakers are results of numerous migrations and invasions. They are then understood as immigrants and second grade citizens in contrast to the Sinhala who are the ‘sons of the soil’. Thus is the sectarian conceptual base formed to understand the island’s national question. Accordingly it is understood that non-Sinhala nations within the state are neither entitled to independently assert themselves nor to mobilize politically on such grounds.
Alarmingly the genocidal intent of the Sri Lankan state is increasingly becoming more impudent and manifest. The President capitalized the V-day speech to rebuke Hillary Clinton’s statement from 18th May urging Colombo to demilitarize the North and East (3). Recently The Sri Lankan Army Chief, Lt. General Jagath Jayasuriya reassured the world that it is he alone who decides the military affairs of the island and that “Where the army camps are deployed is my problem, not anybody else’s.”(4). Militarization and the ongoing colonization and occupation in the Tamil homeland are out rightly legitimized by the foremost authorities of the State.
Proliferation of Organized Resistance
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