TAMIL LEADER DESCRIBES IN
CANADA HOW TAMILS ARE SUBJECTED TO DARK ROOM CHAMBERS, TORTURE CAMPS
AND ABDUCTIONS BY TAMIL TIGERS
By Walter Jayawardhana
V. Ananda Sangaree, President of the Tamil United Liberation Front
(TULF) , the largest Tamil democratic political party in Sri Lanka charged
Tamil people in the Northern part of the country are subjected to worst
human rights violations like “detention camps, dark room chambers,
torture camps, abductions, killings, compulsory recruitments of children
as child soldiers” by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).”
The Tamil democratic leader said, “The outside world is not aware
of these atrocities that are going on behind the LTTE’s “Iron
Curtain” area. Up to now no one had refuted my charge that, in
the areas under the control of the LTTE there are detention camps, dark
room chambers, torture camps, abductions, killings, compulsory recruitments
of children as child soldiers, mercilessly assaulting parents who resist
conscription of children and many other such atrocious acts of the LTTE
cadres. The people are so fed up that they want to run away from their
homes into government-held areas but they are driven further deep into
the area under LTTE control and are often used as human shields.”
He was addressing the opening of the Call of the Conscience, a human
rights exhibition held at Roy Thompson hall in downtown, Toronto, August
23.
He said several thousand innocent and unwilling Tamil youths from poor
families were brainwashed and sent to the battlefront and as suicide
bombers to die. Most of them were children of poor parents recruited
under compulsion and thoroughly brainwashed. Sangaree accused while
the poor parents who are unable to challenge them are weeping in silence
they are envying the fortunate children of the leaders of the LTTE having
their education in western countries. The right of education is denied
to children of poor parents, he said.
The TULF leader further said, “Sri Lanka had been a peaceful country
for generations, in which the Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Burghers,
Malays and people of other ethnic groups, lived in peace and harmony.
During the late seventies and eighties there had been a few upheavals,
due to the violation of human rights, injustice, discrimination, exploitation
and intolerance. The victims were mainly Tamils and Muslims. Various
Tamil groups cropped up as saviors of the Tamils and Muslims. Their
fire- power could not stand against one group called the LTTE, which
gradually either eradicated the other groups or silenced them with their
fire-power and emerged as a single group committed to dictatorship.
Championing the cause of the Tamils they even drove every Muslim out
of the Northern Province.
The Muslims, merely because they are Muslims, had to leave behind all
their possessions and the land where they lived peacefully with the
Tamils for several generations. They are now languishing in refugee
camps for more than 17 years in the south, with the Sinhalese, in Puttalam
and Anuradhapura Districts, without privacy and their basic needs met.
As long as refugee camps exist in our country, whether the inmates are
Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims or of any other group, we have no moral rights
to boast of democratic principles. With one section of our people undergoing
untold hardships, being deprived of their democratic fundamental and
human rights, we can’t boast of our country as one enjoying full
democratic rights. Loss of democratic rights, fundamental rights and
human rights amount to slavery. Should our youths, be they Sinhalese,
Tamils, Muslims or of any other group, continue to shed their blood
unnecessarily and die in vain at the battle front? I am convinced that
the time has come for the country to find a solution reasonable enough
and acceptable to the minorities and the international community.
“It is no secret that the LTTE has now become so weak but is still
challenging not only the government of Sri Lanka but the entire international
community as well. The Tamils are held as hostages in their own land.
Even the Tamils living freely in the south with Sinhalese and those
who fled the country and are being well-looked after by various countries
in the west, Canada and the United States are living in fear and tension
due to the threat of the LTTE. Most of the Tamil media all over the
world are under their control and are used by them to glorify all their
actions and to condemn all their rival organizations and individuals
opposed to them. Although the LTTE is banned in all the 28 countries
of the European Union, UK, USA, Australia, India and more recently in
Canada, they continue their activities unchecked in some of the countries
where they are proscribed. Under the pretext of having a cultural program
even after it is banned, the LTTE hoodwinked the Canadian authorities
and celebrated the “Ponguthamil” recently in Toronto at which
even the Tiger flag was hoisted. It is understood that similar ceremonies
were held on a large scale in Paris and on a smaller scale in London-UK
as well.
“A large number of Tamils belonging to various other groups, academics,
teachers, government servants of all ranks had been shot dead. Apart
from this, a few thousand Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and some from other
minority groups had been killed in large explosions in trains, buses,
Central Bank and other important government buildings and over 30,000
army, navy, air force and police personnel in clay-more mine attacks,
hand grenade attacks, and a large number in the battlefront. In short
Mr. Prabakaran should take the responsibility for the death of over
70,000 citizens of Sri Lanka and for the loss of limbs and eyesight
of many. Thousands have become widows, orphans and destitute persons.
Many of these victims are living on begging due to lack of social support
system.
“Due to this Mr. Prabakaran has earned the very disgraceful title
as the leader of the most ruthless terrorist organization in the world.
He also brought utter disgrace to the Tamil community – which is
proud of its culture and civilization.
“I expected Mr. Prabakaran to show some sympathy towards the suffering
Tamils of the North and East who are undergoing untold hardship more
in the hands of his cadres than from anybody else. Twenty-five years
of subjugation under his leadership made the people to lose all confidence
in him and in his cadres.
“The Tamil people who had been deprived of all their rights, including
fundamental and democratic rights, as well as the right to live peacefully,
are anxiously waiting to be liberated to enjoy the fruits of freedom
and democracy. It may not be an exaggerated view, if I conclude by saying
that the impact of a series of bans on the LTTE and the more recent
policy decision of the government of Canada has weakened the LTTE. It
gives signals of early liberation of the people of northern Sri Lanka
from the LTTE, the so-called liberators.”
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