The Curious Case Of Jeyakumari

| by Tisaranee Gunasekara If they treated us like this for engaging in a demonstration one can imagine the situation in the North. We thought they did something big by finishing the war in our country. Now it looks as if they just killed innocent people ! Weliweriya resident " #arch $%& '($)& *olombo& +ri ,anka Guardian- .eyakumari /alendran is often pictured carrying a picture. The enlarged and laminated photograph shows a group of adolescents doing physical e0ercises. #s. .eyakumari1s youngest son& a former child soldier& is reportedly in the photo2 the photo is from a go3ernment publication showcasing the regime1s rehabilitation programme.

#s. .eyakumari1s story is the story of her community in microcosm. 4er two older sons joined the ,TT5 3oluntarily and were killed in the war. 4er youngest son was forcibly conscripted in the final stages& as part of the ,TT51s 67uest to pursue a war that was clearly lost8."and- to preser3e its senior leadership& as the 9arusman :eport phrased it. The young boy sur3i3ed that final murderous spree and returned to his family. #s. .eyakumari heeded the call of the ,ankan authorities and surrendered her son. While in the custody of the ,ankan state& after he was photographed being ;rehabilitated1 by the ,ankan state& the boy 3anished. That was how #s. .eyakumari came into limelight < and the attention of the authorities. +he went to the ,,:*& participated in demonstrations& met politicians and ga3e media inter3iews. #s. .eyakumari had proof that her son sur3i3ed the war& was surrendered to the go3ernment and was in go3ernmental custody proof pro3ided not by a *hannel ) 3ideo but by an official go3ernment publication. 6+he has a strong case against the go3ernment because it published a

photograph of her son in a go3ernment book depicting rehabilitation of rebel fighters . If her surrendered son is dead& it would indicate that war crimes continued to happen& post war. The :ajapaksa state thus has e3ery reason to be concerned about #s. .eyakumari and her relentless struggle to unearth the fate of her son. Tony /enn& that giant crusader for justice who died last week& said& 6I think there are two ways in which people are controlled. =irst of all frighten people and secondly& demoralise them . The two tactics are often interconnected. =rightened people become demoralised easily2 they are more likely to abandon their public struggles and retire to their pri3ate spaces. #s. .eyakumari1s arrest might work as a potent disincenti3e and make many Tamil ci3ilians abandon their own efforts to disco3er the fates of their lo3ed ones. The authorities claim that #s. .eyakumari was harbouring a Tiger suspect and a mine detector. The same authorities claimed that 3iolent protestors attacked peaceful soldiers in Weliweriya> 6#ilitary +pokesman /rig. :uwan Wanigasuriya& refuting allegations& said that it was the 3illagers that first attacked the army and police with clubs& sand bottles and petrol bombs but not the army or police . The attempt to depict the Weliweriya protestors as terrorists failed because Weliweriya is in the +inhala +outh and the media refused to be cowed. 53en then& against all a3ailable e3idence& the regime continued to blame the protestors and to castigate their just struggle for safe water as an anti national conspiracy. The ?resident himself repeated this lie at the beginning of this election season> 6+ome elements ha3e launched a subtle campaign to destroy the country1s economy by inciting people to e3ict factories . Would such a go3ernment hesitate to arrest a Tamil dissident and accuse her of terrorism@ Weliweriya and Aillinochchi !kila 9inesh& the $B year old student killed in Weliweriya& 6was about '(( meters away from the8.main road when the army chased him firing at him. ;While they were chasing !kila they broke a **TC camera fi0ed to a house knowing that their ;bra3e1 actions would be recorded8.they fired at the street lights and then chased away the people shooting all o3er&1 said #alkanthi& a neighbour. !kila 9inesh escaped a traitor1s epitaph because he was a +inhalese and his killing happened a few miles away from *olombo. #s. .eyakumari is Tamil2 she li3es far away from *olombo& in a de facto occupied territory& almost inaccessible to +outhernDinternational media. In such a restricti3e en3ironment lies and truth are easily interchangeable. The police and the army can surround her 3illage in military operation style& and seal if off2 she and her little daughter can be interrogated for hours2 she can be taken before a magistrate in the dead of the night and detained under the ?T!2 and she can be incarcerated in /oosa& with no access to the outside world and no news about the fate of her little daughter& apart from what her persecutors choose to tell her. It was .eyakumari /alendran& the mother& who bra3ed the ,ankan state and the ubi7uitous and hostile military. The same maternal lo3e can be used to silence her. !fter all& her only sur3i3ing child& her young daughter who reportedly attained puberty just this month "#arch 'nd- is in the hands of the same state which ;disappeared1 her son "the little girl is reportedly terrified and asking for her mother-. ?erhaps somebody thought that .eyakumari& the mother& can be made to incriminate herself and her fellow campaigners by using the safety of her daughter as a bargaining chip@ What a coup for Gene3aE The FN 4uman :ights *ommissioner& in her latest +ri ,anka :eport& stated that 68.legal

proceedings ha3e not begun against any ,TT5 suspect for alleged war crimes or other human rights abuses. The :ajapaksa state& which is detaining #s. .eyakumari under the ?T!& has failed to indict a single Tiger suspect it already has in custody. This same state also set free Cellupillai ?irapaharan1s designated successor& simply because he agreed to change allegiance from the Tamil ;+un God1 to the +inhala ;4igh Aing1. In .anuary '($(& while presidential election 3otes were still being counted& the downtown hotel in which Gen. =onseka and other opposition leaders were staying was surrounded& military style. !t the end of that long siege& the ser3ing soldiers who were assigned by the state to protect the presidential candidate& as per law& were forced to kneel on the road& handcuffed and taken to jail like so many ;terrorists1. The regime which can do that& and arrest the war winning army commander in another military style operation weeks later& can certainly arrest a dissenting Tamil woman and use the safety of her daughter to break her. =or those who remo3ed the name of Gen. =onseka from the list of !rmy *ommanders displayed at 9eyata Airula & affi0ing the terrorist label on a dissenting Tamil woman is nothing. The +inhala +outh got a tiny taste of the ;4umanitarian Gperation1 in Weliweriya> 6They attacked barbarically& brutally8. There is a rule of war8.hospitals& temples& churches and schools cannot be bombed or in3aded8.when a man comes forward with arms raised you cannot shoot. . 6The injured had to be taken to the hospital through paddy fields and cemeteries. +imilarly& the persecution of #s. .eyakumari foretells the future fate of +outhern dissidents. The Tiger leaders betrayed their followers and their community& as the embarrassingly unheroic dHnouement of the 5elam War demonstrated. The :ajapaksas are sacrificing +ri ,anka to their power hunger. The plight of .eyakumari /alendran and her little daughter is symbolic of the ,TT51s failed struggle and of the :ajapaksas1 failing peace.