 The most important question is can the commemorations be held without justifying and glorifying armed struggles and more importantly promoting future armed struggles and would it be acceptable? |
Can commemorations be held without glorifying armed struggles?
Two Sri Lankan courts have given two different orders on the commemoration of Rasaiah Parthipan alias Thileepan, the one-time political leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Jaffna who died after a twelve-day fast over five demands, in September 1987.
Vavuniya Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday (September 20) rejected an application filed by Sri Lankan Police to ban a memorial float dedicated to Thileepan from travelling through Vavuniya. The memorial float set off from Pottuvil n last Saturday, September 16 and was heading towards Nallur to mark 36 years since his death.
Vavuniya Police moved that the commemoration of Thileepan which included a demonstration along with a motorcade to the Vavuniya town was liable to result in a breach of peace.
However, the court rejected the request of the Police and held that anyone had the right to commemorate the dead, but legal action should be taken against any breaches of law and order.
In the meantime, the Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court and the Maligakanda Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday prohibited events planned in Colombo to commemorate Thileepan who is called by Tamil leaders and Tamil media Thiagi Thileepan (Martyr Thileepan). Police sought court intervention citing possibilities of breach of peace.
The two courts seem to have taken into consideration the possibility of a breach of peace according to the locality where the commemorative events were to be held. Vavuniya is well-known to be a Tamil-majority area whereas Colombo is not. Earlier in 2020 a Jaffna court had banned Thileepan commemoration in Jaffna as well, under a different context.
Earlier, on Sunday when the commemoration float reached Uppuveli in Trincomalee, it came under mob attack and the convoy turned back towards Tambalagamuwa and the Jaffna District Tamil National People’s Front Member of Parliament Selvarasa Gajendran, who had been travelling in the convoy had complained to the Inspector General of Police about the incident over the phone.
Police Media Spokesman Senior Superintendent of Police Nihal Thalduwa later said six suspects were arrested in connection with the attack.
Although Thileepan died in his fast and was his organisation’s political wing leader for Jaffna, he was also a militant, who fought against the State armed forces. He sustained serious injuries to his stomach during the famous Vadamarachci Operation also known as Operation Liberation launched by the armed forces in May/June 1987.
It was under heavy pressure from the Indian government that LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran accepted the Indo-Lanka Accord of July 1987 and very soon they reneged the accord attacking Sri Lankan forces and civilians.
India started to send its troops, the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to Northern Sri Lanka, under the accord. It was against this backdrop that Thileepan started his fast unto death on September 15, 1987, in the premises of the historic Nallur Kandaswamy Kovil, putting forward five demands.
The “release of all political prisoners held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and emergency regulations, cessation of Sinhalese colonisation of Tamil areas under the guise of “rehabilitation”; cessation of all “rehabilitation” activities until the establishment of the Interim Administrative Council, cessation of construction of Police stations in the Northern and Eastern Provinces, and the disarmament of Home Guards and withdrawal of the army/police from schools and colleges” were the five demands. He died on September 26 without achieving any of these demands.
The above rulings of Vavuniya, Colombo and Maligakanda Magistrate’s Courts and the attack on the Thileepan commemoration parade in Trincomalee have opened an interesting debate in social media over the right to commemorate people, who have died or killed in armed struggles, irrespective of them being called wars, insurrections, insurgencies, uprisings or revolutions.
Many in the north and the south justify the LTTE’s Ma Veerar Naal (Great Heroes Day), Mullivaikkal Naal (Mullivaikkal Day), Black Tigers Day and Thileepan commemoration, citing the commemoration by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) of their cadres who were killed in their two insurrections in 1971 and 1988/89.
In fact, this is a tricky issue for various reasons, despite the rights of those who love these rebels and believe that the latter sacrificed their lives in their interest being undeniable.
Armed struggles, irrespective of them being launched in the name of the State or a particular community or a class are brutal, no doubt. And those who are involved in them are the perpetrators of those brutalities. There are always segments of society that suffer in those brutalities while other segments are being or being perceived to be benefitted from them.
Although Thileepan died while engaging in a peaceful method of struggle, it was under his and Kittu’s (Sathasivam Krishnakumar’s) watch that over 400 cadres of Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) were massacred in April.
Unable to face the LTTE onslaught, most of the victims including TELO leader Sri Sabaratnam had surrendered to the LTTE when they were cold-bloodedly shot dead.
Therefore, it would be difficult to find a common ground for both the victims and the beneficiaries or the perceived beneficiaries of a State military operation or an armed struggle launched by a particular group.
One would be at a loss to understand TELO’s reactions to the issues about the Thileepan commemoration. A poster had been put up in Sinhala for an event at the Centre for Society and Religion in Maradana, Colombo to commemorate Thileepan which said “You sacrificed your life for the emancipation of the people.” To know the stance of those who put up the poster on those who were killed in the two JVP insurrections might be interesting.
Interestingly, the LTTE and their sympathizers in the north/east and south do not mention in their remembrances the names of members of other Tamil organizations who laid their lives for the cause of Tamil Eelam, not even Urumpirai Sivakumaran, the first youth who killed himself in the struggle for a separate Tamil state, as early as 1974.
Similarly, would those who support the commemoration of those killed in the two southern insurrections recognize the right of the people in the north and the east to remember the members of the LTTE and other Tamil armed groups is yet to be known.
The most important question is can the commemorations be held without justifying and glorifying armed struggles and more importantly promoting future armed struggles and would it be acceptable?
However, if a common ground is found for the commemoration of all victims of all armed clashes, as the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) report suggested, it would be an ideal path to genuine reconciliation. Yet, it seems to be wishful thinking, for the moment.
