The Other Side Of Ethnic Cleansing
By Veluppillai Thangavelu –November 5, 2015
Veluppillai Thangavelu
The Colombo Telegraph published a statement issued by the National Peace Council titled “Deal with the Muslim Expulsion also through Geneva process” and the comments that followed.
Amarasiri in his comment rightly claims that “Ethnic Cleansing is a WAR CRIME. Period. Refer to war Crimes.”
The expulsion of Muslims from the North was ethnic cleansing even if that was retaliation for violence against Thamils in the east by Muslim Home Guards aided and abetted by the armed forces. Thamils living along Muslim border villages were forcibly driven away and their homes and paddy fields appropriated by marauding Muslim goons.
Twelve years after the summary expulsion of the Muslims from the Northern Province, the LTTE held a meeting at Kilinochchi on April 13, 2002 presided by Prabhakaran. The meeting was meant to mend fences between the two communities and was attended by SLMC leader Rauff Hakeem, Athaullah, Uthumalebbe. Mohideen Abdul Cader, Basheer Segu Dawood, Masoor Noordeen and Masoor Moulana. Also present were Anton Balasingham, Political Advisor, S.P.Thamilchelvan, Head of Political Department and District Commanders of the LTTE.
Following the talks between the two sides, Anton Balasingham on behalf of the LTTE expressed profound regret and also apologised to the Muslims. “I made an apology to the Muslim people that what has happened in the past has to be forgotten, that we are willing to talk to them and resolve their problems,” Mr Balasingham said, assuring Muslims that they could return to their homes in the North. He stressed that the Tamil homeland and the Tamil territory in the North-East “belonged to the Muslim people also.”
Mr Hakeem said that they are willing to forgive the LTTE. “We have told them unequivocally that we are prepared to forgive and not forget (the past)… We have bitter memories of the past. But it is time we contended with the ground realities. That would mean that the LTTE also has to look at Muslims and their separate political identity as something that has become quite pronounced over a period of time,” he said in an interview.
At a function held last week to mark the 25th anniversary of the expulsion of Muslims from the North, Sumanthiran, TNA MP told Express “Just as the NPC passed a resolution condemning the genocide conducted against the Thamils, the NPC should pass a resolution condemning the en masse expulsion of Muslims by the LTTE which amounts to ethnic cleansing. If the NPC does not do it, the world will not take the Thamils’ contention that they had been subjected to genocide, seriously.” “The Thamils cannot condemn the misdeeds of the Sinhalese majority while ignoring the misdeeds of the Tamil majority,” the Jaffna district MP further said.
