In a war, it is common that citizens in thousands, lakhs or
crores getting killed belonging to enemy groups. In the Sri Lankan civil war
too which lasted almost 9 years, thousands and thousands got killed in the
clashes between the govt troops and forces loyal to LTTE (Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Elam) under the command of Veluppillai Prabhakaran demanding a separate
State for Tamilians of Sri Lanka for which the ruling Party, Sri Lankan Freedom
Party (SFP) led by the incumbent President Mahinda Rajpaksa.
It is true that Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) led
by Veluppillai Prabhakaran played ahavoc across Sri Lanka when he saw that even
after consistent demands Sri Lankan govt didn’t bow down to the wishes of
majority of Tamilian who constituted LTTE went on a killing spree in which
hundreds and hundreds were massacred leaving entire Sri Lanka in turmoil. Several top dignitaries of the govt like
Premadasa, who was President of Sri Lanka, another President Jayawardane,
former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadir Gammar who was a Tamilian were
assassinated in cold-blood which naturally boiled the blood of Sinhalese across
Sri Lanka. Former Preisdent Chandrika Kumara Thunga, Mahinada’s predecessor too
was shot at and lost the vision of one of her eyes by the Tamil militants. No
amount of threats, murders, assassinations and atrocities could force the govt
from declaring free nation to the Tamils.
Immediately after Chandrika Kumarathunga stepped down from
the prestigious post, Mahinda RajaPaksa, her then confidential was got elected
as President of Sri Lanka.
Unlike Chandrika Kumarathunga who believed conducting negotiations
with the LTTE, Raja Paksa adopted a belligerent attitude towards LTTE and gave direction
to the army to fight to the hilt until the enemies were brought to their knees
and his direction was promptly and aggressively followed by his army men. What
ensued was a mayhem in which a number of Tamilians, Govt soldiers as well as
civilians across Sri Lanka were slaughtered converting Sri Lanka into a huge
pool of blood. The civil war thus continued for nine years and with Sri Lankan
forces forging ahead with might and vigour, LTTE’s arsenal gradually began to
dry up and Veluppillai Prabhakaran’s forces too began to run for cover who had
already lost the determination, direction, courage, morale and confidence with
the onslaught of Sri Lankan force gaining more and more vigour and confidence.
Even Prabhakaran, his family and other loyalists too withdrew
gradually from the war zone and went into hiding. A confident Sri Lankan force
continued their hunt to root out Prabhakaran and his loyalists. Their most
wanted man was Prabhakaran himself as they were very certain than the person
most responsible for a such a sorry state of affairs was himself. In their
frantic search to nab Prabhakaran dead or alive went on with rage and fury and at
last they fished him out and shot-dead point blank ensuring themselves that the
root cause was gone for good. Meanwhile Prabhakaran’s 12 year old son
Balachandran too was caught and was reportedly shot dead. Tilll recently we had
nurtured a mistaken notion that 12 year Balachandran was shot dead during a
fight. The truth that it was a mistaken notion became clear when a British journalist
Callum Macrae released his documentary ‘War
Zone- The killing fields of Sri Lanka’. The documentary could explode the myth
that Balachandran was killed during fighting. Instead, documentary evidence
proved beyond doubt that the child was already nabbed before shooting him to
death. Balachandran was seen sitting in a vehicle in his knickers leaning over
a bunch of sand bags arranged from top to bottom behind him. He was seen crunching
the snacks given to him by somebody. In another picture we see Balachandran
lying dead in the same vehicle who was shot point- blank five times on his
chest. It was a blood-chilling sight which no-one could/can forget in his/her
life-time. A child after being caught given rest for some moments and then shot
at five times…something horrible and heart-breaking.
Now that the issue has been taken note of by the United Nations
Human Rights Council. Tamilians of Tamil Nadu as a whole are demanding govt of
India to vote against Sri Lank on a resolution condemning the brutal murder at
UNHRC.
No comments:
Post a Comment