The survival instinct

A violent struggle of militancy has flared up in recent weeks to capture the Vanni, in northern Sri Lanka.But simultaneously another dimension of this human spectacle unfolds,which the world fails to see. Some 15,000 or more Tamils including Up Country Tamil speaking people have fled to neighbouring India as refugees,over 200,000 (IDP's) persons internally displaced, have been forcibly driven out of house and home by war and near starvation seeking an existence, under open skies and crowded camp tents, without hope of tomorrow. There are no prizes for being a Tamil in the world of today.Nor is there any dignity in surrender either for the victim or for the vanquished. The world sees both sides,as weak and vulnerable. It cares little to warrant sympathy or to enforce the rule of law. The law of the jungle, so to speak prevails. Without diplomatic leverage, international or for that matter regional support, nothing will change. Tamils after all, were looking forward to air their grievances before the world body,the UN Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva, as they have done on many occasions past.Dossiers on human rights violations have been submitted to this august body,by Tamils and by intermediaries like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International among others, but refuted vehimentally by the Government authorities. As nothing appreciable seems to have been achieved to shift either the parties to the conflict, Government/ the LTTE or even world opinion to respond to the blatant bombings, the violation of human rights, extra-judicial killings,abductions,inhuman acts committed on ordinary citizens particularly in the North and elsewhere in the island,it appears the slogan: "we will never surrender," is perilous in the extreme. A "climate change" which was expected with the implementation of the 13th Amendment of the Constitution accepted by the Government as recommended by the APRC, is hardly in the making, with the apparent indifference or inattention to the problems of extremism and intollerance,which constitute a grave threat to civilised coexistence.Rhetoric has replaced ways of reconciliation, perhaps,for a reason. There appears to be a lack of political will or commitment on the part of the world, including the government and the parties to the conflict, to see an end to the daily bombing of the Vanni. Perhaps, world opinion is not yet convinced the time is ripe or even right for the UN to intervene,when there are conflicting sentiments from Government sources that it is clearly "winning the war," and the Tamils wanting more than sympathy for their plight. The piggy in the middle are the dispossessed,"the Displaced Generation," of Tamils in the militarised camps,who having craved world attention are slowly but surely disillusioned, and are seeking ways out of their maze of fear,insecurity and depravation, through techniques of self reliance,self realisation and self confidence, to treat each day as a new beginning. The Tamil people have a history over 5000 years old and have a survival instinct unknown to many, in the human race. They have seen many battles,many conquests, and have lived to fight another day. They seem convinced of the near hypocrisy of nations to pain and suffering experienced by the downtrodden in Sri Lanka. They are also plainly aware of the duplicity of the motives which drives the West to condemn human rights violations in Zimbabwe, whilst maintaining a diplomatic tolerance of violations in Sri Lanka.Even the sentiments expressed by so called neighbouring states with similar cultural values, have come into question. Successive governments over the past sixty years of post colonial times have tried out several strategies to breakdown the right of Tamils to life and limb, without much success. Foremost among these plans was the easiest known method used of denial that there was a problem. Enfeeblement of the minorities,colonisation, educational imparities such as standardisation of examinations, abandonment of meritocracy in employment, the much recent publicised diaspora show visits to the theatre of war, the procrastination bordering on paralysis in the enforcement of the rule of law, among others has brought about a self realisation among Tamils living in Sri Lanka,that the outcome of their survival, is not outside but within their ingenuity. How long will this orchestrated whitewash "to provide a voice to the voiceless, power to the powerless Tamils," be able to fool the indigenous Tamil speaking people? How long will the war,the incessant bombings,the depravation, the starvation go on? How long before the people regain their right of self determination within or without Sri Lanka, even if every window of opportunity is blocked today? One, two or three generations of Tamils have endured the hurt, the humiliation the crimes against humanity, the anger and the blood, sweat and tears. Someday, one day, perhaps, even in the distant horizon called the future,both the oppressor and the opressed people, will come to realise the bounty of their common heritage, their humanity and celebrate their difference as unique feature, using their talents to save their environment,which they both cherish, for the benefit of all living beings. While the hope of a new dawn of respect for each others' difference, culture,way of life,language and religion, after a just settlement is reached, the ember of war having died down, the people of Sri Lanka,will see sanity in the realisation that this episode was a nightmare,which at best is forgotten and at worst written off as cruel history of a disoriented bygone age, fought at the behest of a hidden agenda. There is no doubt that both the Sinhalese and the Tamils will live to see the dawn of this Age of Aquarius.