Sangakkara, batsman and propagandist extraordinaire
POST
27 DECEMBER 2012 BY TREVOR
GRANT
Leading Sri Lankan batsman Kumar Sangakkara is
currently in Australia to play cricket but he also appears to be auditioning for
a job in Mahinda Rajapaksa’s propaganda unit.
As
he did on the England tour last year, Sangakkara takes every opportunity in
Australia to suggest that his homeland has become a haven of peace and
tranquility.
He
did so again this week when sending a message to the protesters who plan to
gather at the MCG on Boxing Day, calling for an Australian cricket boycott on
future tours and matches against Sri Lanka.
“We
are mature enough not to take these things personally. This (cricket tour) is
one area they are trying to use to further their agenda. For us sports is beyond
politics. We are ambassadors for our country,” Sangakkara said.
Tunnel
vision
A
Tamil Refugee Council spokesman, Mal Bala, said Sangakkara’s view of the country
came from his tunnel vision as a member of the well-off Sinhalese community who
was educated at an elite private school, Trinity College in Kandy.
“We
all respect Sangakkara as a cricketer, but he would have no real idea how life
is for the Tamils in the north and east of country,” Bala said.
“These
people have been kept in concentration camps after the war and now they are
being repressed in everyday life by the military. Rape, murder and torture
continues as the regime tries to apply a stranglehold on the Tamil
population.
“Our
protest is going ahead at full steam because we want to give the Australian
public the truth about Sri Lanka not the sort of propaganda Sangakkara is
peddling.”
The
Boxing Day protesters asked for a boycott on Sri Lanka until president Rajapaksa
agrees to UN demands for an independent inquiry into war crimes and crimes
against humanity at the end of the civil war in 2009 and until his regime and
military ends the on-going persecution of Tamils.
A
UN report has said at least 40,000 innocent Tamil civilians were murdered by Sri
Lankan Army artillery and bombs while sheltering in hospitals, schools and other
buildings. The civilians had been asked to go to these so-called “safe zones” by
the Army, who then deliberately targeted them.
The
Tamils in north-east Sri Lanka remain under the boot of the Sri Lankan Army,
with the Indian Economic and Political Weekly reporting in June this year that
–three years after the war — there was one soldier for every five people in the
north of the country.
The
'other Sri Lanka'
“For
us,” said
Sangakkara, “it’s about showing the world what Sri Lanka is
like now. People from outside should really come back and visit. If you don’t
see what’s happening on the ground it’s hard to change your opinion.”
A
few requests for Sangakkara, then, before we agree to head off on a trip.
Could
you arrange a trip for us to all the detention centres in the country, where
torture and other abuses remain a regular feature of daily life for imprisoned
Tamils?
We
guess that might be a bit difficult, given that the UN Human Rights Council was
given a flat “no” from the Government six weeks ago when it asked Sri Lanka to
allow the International Red Cross to visit detention centres. But surely a man
of Sangakkara’s connections could pull a few strings?
Could
he also take us to the main Colombo police station to see how the investigation
into the murder of the Sunday Leader newspaper editor, Lasantha Wickrametunge,
is coming along?
It’s
been four years since he was gunned down in broadlight on his way to work after
he forecast his death in his newspaper, knowing he had crossed the Rajapaksa
clan with his gutsy, honest, critical journalism. So far there’s been no sign
that it’s being investigated, let alone solved, and, funnily enough, his wife,
Sonali Samarasinghe Wickrametunge, has fled to the US in fear.
I
would have also liked to have caught up with his successor in the editor’s
chair, Frederica Jansz, but I’m told she’s also fled the country, after she got
a death threat from the defence minister, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who just happens
to be the president’s brother. Those Rajapaksas’ certainly like to keep it all
in the family, don’t they?
While
we are at the police station maybe we can check on the investigations into the
other 30 or so journalists who have been killed or “disappeared” in the past few
years. Surely the men on the beat must have a few leads by now? They haven’t?
Ah well, I suppose policing is a tough business these days.
After
we wrap things up in Colombo, could we head north? We’d like to go to
Mullivaikal, where thousands of innocent Tamils were slaughtered in 2009 and now
lie in mass graves. That is, of course, if the bodies haven’t disappeared, due
to the Army using acid to cover up their war crimes.
Maybe,
also, we could see the site of the town’s hospital, which became a pile of
rubble after the Army mortar bombs and artillery had targeted it and killed at
least 70 people in one hit.
Then,
seeing as we are in the area, could we also visit the prison in which several
Jaffna University students were lodged recently after being declared terrorists
for lighting candles to commemorate the Tamil war dead ?
Finally,
there’s one last thing to organise, and we are off.
We’ve
got a few Tamil refugees here who wouldn’t mind having look at the old country
as well. Could we bring them along ? We reckon it would be nice for them to see
their old friends and families, if they haven’t been locked up.
The
trouble is they keep saying if they went back it would be a rather limited tour,
something about a “white van” trip between the airport and the torture chamber
at Negombo prison.
It
wouldn’t be like that, Kumar, would it?
Trevor
Grant is a former chief cricket writer at The
Age and now works with the Refugee Action
Collective.
© What's the Score, Sport?
Leading Sri Lankan batsman Kumar Sangakkara is currently in Australia to play cricket but he also appears to be auditioning for a job in Mahinda Rajapaksa’s propaganda unit.
As
he did on the England tour last year, Sangakkara takes every opportunity in
Australia to suggest that his homeland has become a haven of peace and
tranquility.
He
did so again this week when sending a message to the protesters who plan to
gather at the MCG on Boxing Day, calling for an Australian cricket boycott on
future tours and matches against Sri Lanka.
“We
are mature enough not to take these things personally. This (cricket tour) is
one area they are trying to use to further their agenda. For us sports is beyond
politics. We are ambassadors for our country,” Sangakkara said.
Tunnel
vision
A
Tamil Refugee Council spokesman, Mal Bala, said Sangakkara’s view of the country
came from his tunnel vision as a member of the well-off Sinhalese community who
was educated at an elite private school, Trinity College in Kandy.
“We
all respect Sangakkara as a cricketer, but he would have no real idea how life
is for the Tamils in the north and east of country,” Bala said.
“These
people have been kept in concentration camps after the war and now they are
being repressed in everyday life by the military. Rape, murder and torture
continues as the regime tries to apply a stranglehold on the Tamil
population.
“Our
protest is going ahead at full steam because we want to give the Australian
public the truth about Sri Lanka not the sort of propaganda Sangakkara is
peddling.”
The
Boxing Day protesters asked for a boycott on Sri Lanka until president Rajapaksa
agrees to UN demands for an independent inquiry into war crimes and crimes
against humanity at the end of the civil war in 2009 and until his regime and
military ends the on-going persecution of Tamils.
A
UN report has said at least 40,000 innocent Tamil civilians were murdered by Sri
Lankan Army artillery and bombs while sheltering in hospitals, schools and other
buildings. The civilians had been asked to go to these so-called “safe zones” by
the Army, who then deliberately targeted them.
The
Tamils in north-east Sri Lanka remain under the boot of the Sri Lankan Army,
with the Indian Economic and Political Weekly reporting in June this year that
–three years after the war — there was one soldier for every five people in the
north of the country.
The
'other Sri Lanka'
“For
us,” said
Sangakkara, “it’s about showing the world what Sri Lanka is
like now. People from outside should really come back and visit. If you don’t
see what’s happening on the ground it’s hard to change your opinion.”
A
few requests for Sangakkara, then, before we agree to head off on a trip.
Could
you arrange a trip for us to all the detention centres in the country, where
torture and other abuses remain a regular feature of daily life for imprisoned
Tamils?
We
guess that might be a bit difficult, given that the UN Human Rights Council was
given a flat “no” from the Government six weeks ago when it asked Sri Lanka to
allow the International Red Cross to visit detention centres. But surely a man
of Sangakkara’s connections could pull a few strings?
Could
he also take us to the main Colombo police station to see how the investigation
into the murder of the Sunday Leader newspaper editor, Lasantha Wickrametunge,
is coming along?
It’s
been four years since he was gunned down in broadlight on his way to work after
he forecast his death in his newspaper, knowing he had crossed the Rajapaksa
clan with his gutsy, honest, critical journalism. So far there’s been no sign
that it’s being investigated, let alone solved, and, funnily enough, his wife,
Sonali Samarasinghe Wickrametunge, has fled to the US in fear.
I
would have also liked to have caught up with his successor in the editor’s
chair, Frederica Jansz, but I’m told she’s also fled the country, after she got
a death threat from the defence minister, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who just happens
to be the president’s brother. Those Rajapaksas’ certainly like to keep it all
in the family, don’t they?
While
we are at the police station maybe we can check on the investigations into the
other 30 or so journalists who have been killed or “disappeared” in the past few
years. Surely the men on the beat must have a few leads by now? They haven’t?
Ah well, I suppose policing is a tough business these days.
After
we wrap things up in Colombo, could we head north? We’d like to go to
Mullivaikal, where thousands of innocent Tamils were slaughtered in 2009 and now
lie in mass graves. That is, of course, if the bodies haven’t disappeared, due
to the Army using acid to cover up their war crimes.
Maybe,
also, we could see the site of the town’s hospital, which became a pile of
rubble after the Army mortar bombs and artillery had targeted it and killed at
least 70 people in one hit.
Then,
seeing as we are in the area, could we also visit the prison in which several
Jaffna University students were lodged recently after being declared terrorists
for lighting candles to commemorate the Tamil war dead ?
Finally,
there’s one last thing to organise, and we are off.
We’ve
got a few Tamil refugees here who wouldn’t mind having look at the old country
as well. Could we bring them along ? We reckon it would be nice for them to see
their old friends and families, if they haven’t been locked up.
The
trouble is they keep saying if they went back it would be a rather limited tour,
something about a “white van” trip between the airport and the torture chamber
at Negombo prison.
It
wouldn’t be like that, Kumar, would it?
Trevor
Grant is a former chief cricket writer at The
Age and now works with the Refugee Action
Collective.
© What's the Score, Sport?
© What's the Score, Sport?