Organizers hope to open eyes of public to human-rights abuses, focusing on Tamil Tigers' use of torture
COLIN FREEZE
August 22, 2008
The ordeal of a Canadian Tamil who says he survived torture at the hands of the Tamil Tigers will be among the shocking stories delved into this weekend, when artists and activists hope to expose the full range of human-rights abuses perpetrated in Sri Lanka.
Organizers of the Call of the Conscience exhibit hope their photos, films and written words will be an eye-opener for Toronto, the largest centre of Tamils outside of Sri Lanka. A 30-year civil war driven by ethnic rivalries has claimed an estimated 70,000 lives in the island nation and sparked an exodus that has turned Toronto into a key front where the Tigers hope to elicit support in the continuing battle for a separate homeland.
Canada and several other Western governments have recently blacklisted the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam as a terrorist group, but the focus of many Toronto Tamils is on alleged acts of "state terrorism" by the Sri Lankan government. Organizers of tomorrow'sevent at Roy Thomson Hall say they will criticize both sides and zero in on the Tamil Tigers' use of torture, child conscripts and suicide bombings.
The show will make a distinction between Tamil nationalism and the Tamil Tigers, who claim to be the only standard bearers of the cause. The stand has some support, but not everyone agrees.
"I hate the Tamil community here. The way they support the terrorists," said Samaran, a Tamil in his 50s. Portions of his written life story will be an exhibit at the event, and he agreed to speak about it only on the condition that this newspaper not use his real name, photograph his face, or reveal the Canadian city he lives in.
"Samaran" translates as "survivor," but his fears of reprisal still run high. Calling the Tigers the "world's biggest terrorists" in an interview, he said he was picked up as a suspected dissident in 1990 and held for months in a Tamil Tiger prison.
At the time, the rebels were solidifying their hold on northern Sri Lanka, and ridding the area of suspected government collaborators and rival rebel factions. "They beat me till I fainted just for wearing a rosary," recalled Samaran, a Christian from a land that's mostly Hindu. He says a young rebel guard told him that "Here, I am the God - you tell the truth, you get released" - but he could only respond that he had no information to give.
Hundreds of those he was jailed with were tortured, he said, and many were killed. Then, in a turn of events that proved less fortunate for other prisoners, he said, he escaped when Sri Lankan military planes bombed the jail.
In 1996, he arrived in Canada, where he said he remains amazed at the level of support the guerrillas enjoy. "I'm living away from the Tamil community," he said. He said he urges his teenaged children not to believe everything they hear about the war from Tamil student groups in Canadian universities. Samaran was persuaded to tell his story by a friend who organized the event, a dissident Tamil journalist who also claims the Tigers' reach extends to Canada. Manoranjan Selliah said Tiger supporters burned down a Tamil library for dissidents in Toronto in 1996, and adds that he moved to Canada after articles he wrote in Sri Lanka criticizing the Tigers led to threats.
Today, "I'm getting attacks on both sides," Mr. Selliah said. He said his decision to organize the exhibit has led to charges he is partisan. "Government supporters say, 'Oh, you are getting money from the LTTE now,' " he said, "and the other side is saying, 'Oh you're getting money from the government.' "
The space for the exhibit at Roy Thomson hall was paid for by donations from individuals and trade unions, he said., adding that he feels particularly "smeared" by rumours that he arranged the event to counter last month's "Black July" rallies. Tamils around the world have just marked the 25th anniversary of pogroms that killed hundreds of their brethren in Sri Lanka.
This weekend's exhibit will include six short films that intend to show the evolution of the bloodletting in Sri Lanka. "I am displaying the whole thing," said Mr. Selliah, 47, who hopes the films will show how Colombo politicians laid a foundation that led to civil war, inspiring the Tamils to rise up before their independence movement became mired in what he calls "self-destruction." The films will explore the use of "cyanide capsules, child soldiers and suicide bombs," he said.
The Tigers' drive toward an independent state has lately lost momentum. Mr. Selliah points out that Sri Lankan military campaigns have reduced Tiger-held Sri Lanka to a rump of 300,000 residents in the northern jungle regions.
Toronto now has more than 200,000 Tamils. Yet it is getting a lot harder to turn sympathy for the independence movement into possible material support for the Tamil Tigers.
The Call of the Conscience exhibit will run tomorrow from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
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