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Syndicate
The Silent Genocide
“Systematic Killing of Tamils by the Sri Lankan Government”
“Looking In-Depth into the Genocide from Various Perspectives”
Organizers: Be:Collective, CESAR, RyeACESS, RSU , RyeTSA and Ryerson Women’s Centre
Date: March 17th, 2009
Place: Thomas Lounge, Ryerson University
55 Gould St. Toronto, ON M5B 1E9
Part #1: Workshops from 5:00PM – 6:30PM
Please Pre-register by visiting: www.ryetsa.ca for the following workshops:
Political Struggle
Current Situation
Disability Struggle
Women’s Struggle
Media Freedom
Education Struggle
Part #2: Discussion Panel from 6:30PM to 8:00PM (No registration required)
Join Our Facebook Group: Click Here
Please contact if you have any questions: info@ryetsa.ca
Hunting the Tigers
http://player.sbs.com.au/naca#/naca/dateline/Latest/playlist/Hunting-the-Tigers/
Tamil Abductions
http://player.sbs.com.au/naca#/naca/dateline/Latest/playlist/Tamil-Abductions/
War of Rights - Massive Human Chain Tommorrow
Canadian Tamils Protest Held on March 16, 2009
Huge Rush-Hour Tamil Protest Ends Peacefully
http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_32923.aspx
Hundreds take part in Tamil protest
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090316.wtamil0316/BNStory/National/home
Human chain of Tamils circles city core
http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/603446
Toronto Tamils slow traffic in latest Sri Lanka protest
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2009/03/16/tamil-protest.html
Toronto police to probe whether Tamil protest flags broke law
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2009/03/17/tamil-protest.html
But ************, who attended Monday's rally, told CBC News the flag is a legitimate symbol of the Tamil people.
I am a Tamil. This is not my flag. Tigers are not my leaders. They are the cause of the current assault on the Tamil people. Tigers have done this before in Jaffna. They cut and ran and mingled among the people when the army came for them. Civilians died.
We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. Martin Luther King Jr
Good to meet you Tamildeqken.
Could you elaborate on the statement "they are the cause of the current assault on the Tamil people"? I'm curious what you mean.
News:
Tamilnet reports on two leaked UN documents - UN withheld civilian casualty figures to protect Sri Lankan state
UN Document #1 - Civilian casualties in the Vanni
UN Document #2 - Food Delivery to IDPs in the Vanni
It's Me D........... Good to meet you Sir
The tigers consider themselves to be the saviors of the tamil people and want the respect of the tamils. They should not hide behind the civilians and use them as shields. They are not strong enough, emotionally, financially or intellectually to withstand the perils of war, they have no business hood winking the tamil people in Sri Lanka or abroad and claim to be the leaders of Tamil people. The Tamil people are dying because the Tigers consider them disposable commodity.. Just cut and run.
"Tamilan Canadavillayum uthai vangaporan". Not only have we lost to the sinhalese we are well on our way to disgracing ourselves with the international community.
We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. Martin Luther King Jr
"Tamilan Canadavillayum uthai vangaporan"
Translation: Tamils are going to get kicked in Canada as well
---------------
What do you mean by that?
Rabble's front page ran an article along those same "Tigers don't speak for me" line recently (linked in rabble news features forum).
--
"One law for the lion and the ox is oppression" - Blake
‘The Tamil Tigers don’t speak for me’
http://www.thevarsity.ca/article/17608
---------
Ze,
I couldn't find the article on rabble so I posted the one found on the net. I like to get some feedback on this article.
Here's the rabble article Ze mentioned.
http://www.rabble.ca/news/protests-and-missed-opportunities-sri-lankan-tamil-diaspora
I had trouble finding the article Ze mentioned to, thanks for posting it RP. Having read both articles I have a couple comments:
The Varsity Article:
I think its simpler then this unfortunately, like this other interviewee from the article, Milly Thanagarajah, says,
The Tigers and the trial referenced in the article have little to do with it, its simply the Sri Lankan conflict's situation within the "War on Terror" which makes all Tamils terrorists; you're either with us or against us and all that bullshit. I don't think its so different from the treatment of Arabs. Here in rural Nova Scotia I'm afraid you'd be hard pressed to find many white folks who differentiate between brown folks, racism is easy to propagate when you rarely get exposed to other cultures.
The comments to this article are good though, in just three comments they manage to state,
Which are both excellent points I think.
The Rabble Article:
It often occurs to me, when I visit rabble, that babble is shamed by association with that publication. This time is no exception.
And the organizers of Israel Apartheid Week left out criticism of Hamas... and well they should have. Rabble should leave these pathetic arguments to Stockholm.
I find it hard to believe that the diaspora has been ignoring the plight of Sri Lanka's Tamils until just now... I agree the MSM has ignored Sri Lanka for too long, however they are just stepping in now to provide damage control and spin services to the Sri Lankan government to ensure Canada's Tamil community is thoroughly discredited and disenfranchised.
Perhaps I am misinformed but to the best of my knowledge this is a statement of opinion and not fact; numerous violations have been commited by both sides.
The high point of this article IMV is the following statement by interviewee Sujith Xavier,
I'm as suspicious of this article as I am of calls for "balance" in criticism of Israel's actions. That said I am not a Tamil and I would love to hear more feedback from others on these two articles.
If we're going to talk around the rabble article, this thread's already over the limit, we could move over here.
(As an aside: the disconnect between rabble and babble is bigger than I thought, since no one on this thread had even seen the article on the front page! That's not a criticism of anyone, I don't often read the rabble front page myself, it's just an observation.)
Strikes me that this is a Tamil voice, and so I'm interested in hearing how the Tamil voices here respond. It's an internal criticism I've heard before, so maybe a chance to learn from the debate within the community....
--
"One law for the lion and the ox is oppression" - Blake
It would be nice if Tamildeqken can respond to the question I asked so that we can move forward from there.
Thirusuj Sir
"Tamilan Canadavillayum uthai vangaporan"
Translation: Tamils are going to get kicked in Canada as well
This was a comment from an Indian Tamil from Chennai, at my workplace after the protest march and the Tiger Flags. Meaning, that we have no Idea how to run a revolution to get what we want. Also the problem with raising awareness of the atrocities of SL government is that, as soon as someone opens his/her mouth about the Tamils, they are called, Tigers (Architects of Suicide bombers, Killers and Cowards). I am not a Tiger. and the The flag is not my flag. There is another Tamil lady from SL who works with me. She suffers from the pain that is causing the Tamils, but has suggested and remains quiet, because she is a Tamil and not a Tiger.
We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. Martin Luther King Jr
54 civilians killed in "no fire zone"
Sri Lanka govt accuses aid NGOs
Is your Indian Tamil friend also admitting that the Tamils in India are getting kicked as well for agitating to bring about an honorable political solution to the Tamils who are suffering?
If the Tamil Eelam national flag is not yours, what is the flag that represents your heritage?
That is because for too long we have let the Tigers carry the "Terrorist" label in the eyes of the international community for fighting on our behalf and saving us from annihilation. We need to explain to them the circumstance in which the Tigers adapted to such tactics instead of shying away from it. We also need to ask everyone, if what the Tigers do is terrorism, what do you call of the actions of the Sri Lankan (Ceylon) government which has existed much longer then the Tigers? What legitimacy does the Sri Lankan government have to claim that they represent us?
The majority of the Tamil people have realized over a 61 years of history since independence that Tigers are the only one that have stood with the Tamil people without being bought out by anyone.
Sheik's in India have a problem, we don't hear of protest marches on Canadian Streets. They quiety but surely move themselves into politics and powerful possitions. Whereever they live they use this stratergy to minimize the damage that is done to their community. People don't loose their lives for the cause.
We as Tamils don't deserve to loose our lives over this issue. No Tamil should die for the Tamil cause. The Tigers made it their business to kill. Now that they are being hunted, they hide behind the Tamil population. SL government is hunting the tigers. During this process they are killing the Tamil people. It is as simple as that.
Tigers can't win this for the Tamils. They will kill anyone who opposes them and comes to the aid of the Tamils. The International Community is fed up with the Tigers and now synonymously Tamils.
We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. Martin Luther King Jr
Yes, they have a problem. But India does have a constitution that does not discriminate them just because they are Sikhs and India does not have laws that treat Sikhs differently form others. India is not so centralized, India is a Federation. India does not use bombs on it own civilians.
Same thing cannot be said about Sri Lanka, so your comparison holds no value.
The Tamils don't have the time to get into powerful position when a mad government is help bent on destroying them quickly as possible nor the Sinhalese extremist going to let them have any power (the whole system is designed in a way that Tamils cannot have a say in anything). Then again would you also like to explain what happened to the Tamil politicians and the agreements that the Sinhalese leaders signed too when they were in the so called position of power? Would you like to explain how JR Jayewardene threw an official opposition party (the Tamil party) from their position by just adding the Sixth Amendment to the constitution?
Did you forget all the lives we lost when the Tamil politicians protested peacefully long before the existence of LTTE or does that seem irrelevance and unrelated to you? Tigers made it their business to see the Tamil people's political aspiration of 1977 gets fulfilled. The Sri Lankan government has been killing the Tamils since independence and they won't stop even if the Tigers are completely destroyed.
Accusation that Tigers are hiding behind them should be proven first by sending in International media and International monitors.
Oh they could, they have done it before but the International community was not aware of the problem to recognize and seal the victory. The situation was so twisted in the Main Stream Media (also due to the 9/11 mentality) that the International community ended up fueling the conflict instead of putting an end to it. If any countries got involved genuinely instead of putting their geo-political interest the Tigers and the Tamils would have welcomed then with open arms. Can you name anyone that got involved without putting their geo-political interest in the front?
I lived in Jaffna most of my young life. All I can remember is the attrocities and the killings. Killing Tamil people, killing other groups who wanted to speak for the tamils. Calling Tamil people traitors and killing them. I do not need, International media or the International monitors to tell me what the tigers are doing. I am a Tamil. I was there, when the tigers hid amongst the population and did their terrorist activities and killings. The army, IPKF took revenge on the Tamil population. More killings. More dead people.... Tamil dead people.
Thank you but no thank you to the Tigers. Tamil people can manage their affairs without killing Tamil people and those who oppose our views. After all we are doing ok in Canada without killing people. A generation will rise out of the diaspora and will resolve the Tamil Crisis.
We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. Martin Luther King Jr
Thats very hopeful but don't you worry that, if its not happening now, it will be too late? I assume you don't feel this sea-change in the views of young Tamils is happening now, since your perspective on the conflict doesn't seem representative of most diaspora Tamils.
Did these other groups uphold the political aspiration of the Tamil people as expressed in 1977?
Of course you don't need international media and monitors because it would make it harder for you to vomit what ever you want.
You keep on insisting that you are a Tamil gives me more doubt if you really are Tamil.
Every group started as a guerrilla force and mingling among the civilians is part of the tactics. If the Tamil people didn't want that to happen, they wouldn't have offered support, wouldn't have fed these youths with arms and would have reported them to the army. When the LTTE gained the trust of the Tamil people, they empowered them to become a conventional force.
What is your definition of terrorism?
The army took no revenge but they did what they did to protect the Sinhalese interest and subdue the Tamil people. The army was doing this long before the existence of LTTE or any other militant Tamil youths.
As for the IPKF, the Indian politicians who came to secure their geo-political interest used the Tamil issue as a pretext to set foot on the island. The Tamil people rebelled when the agreement on which they set foot on the island was not implemented paving the way for the Tigers to rearm. IPKF unable to tame the Tigers as well as other militants because the Tamil people protected them; IPKF decided to use violence on the Tamil people, which included, mass shelling of civilians, rape, torture, shoot at sight and many other methods to intimidate them so that Tigers would lose the protection of the Tamil people.
So who killed Tamil people before the Tigers came into existence? Who opposed the Tamil peoples desire for self-governance?
That generation has raisin, all these agitations all around the world are being carried out by the Tamil youths. And we don't have much time left.
These "agitations" are unlike anything we've seen from the Diaspora Tamils before so I'm inclined to agree. I think Tamildeqken is hoping for a generation who won't undertake this kind of actions, since he does not appear to support them. I'm not sure what that would look like but I am sure you're right when you say there is no time left to find out.
Thirusuj you say these "agitations" are being carried out by the Tamil youth, how much of the impetus comes from the youth? Maybe you don't know this kind of detail but how much influence do youths have in the Diaspora groups behind these rallies, etc.? I'm not just talking about whose boots are on the ground and whose fists are raised (because the energy of youth is often harnessed without enfranchisement in return), I mean who's behind the actions in the first place.
In Canada, like most places, the system is set against the young, who are consistently disempowered. I'm curious if this dynamic differs in the Tamil community here or elsewhere, to the best of your knowledge.
Tamildeqken,
There are question that are directed to you in post # 112 and 114, can you please give a reply?
It's Me D,
I would disagree with the system in Canada is actually to discourage the youths. Youths need to make time to give back to the community rather then enjoying the material wealth all the time. As youths we have our own lives like socializing, studying, working and so on.
It is hard to find time to commit to a cause unless your profession encourages you to do so (most of the Tamils youths have profession that has nothing to do with social works in terms of mingling in the political world of the national parties, unions, etc). The Tamil youths are putting at least 2 hours a week to organize or help out.
The elder generation is still there, but doing rallies in downtown Toronto or going public to support the Tigers, trying to remove the stigma attached to the Tigers or the Tamils is something that is encouraged by the youths (the previous generation was shy and very worried about the results or making it worst). Also the older generation lacked the language skills to interact with mainstream organizations, unions etc....All that is changing with the youths taking up these issues with grassroots movements in Canada.
The leadership role and positions of many of the Tamil Canadian organizations are gradually being filled by the youths. Given another 2 to 5 years, you are going to have a totally new generation with a totally new approach for the entire community. At the moment brining this war to an end and to get international involvement is in full force. If you get a chance to look at Tamil Canadian media, feedback on the current performances of youths by elders, involved youths trying to purse the non-involved youths, etc are common flash in the community media. Other tools like facebook, emails, text messaging, discussion through clubs etc..are all flooded with brainstorming new ideas and recruitments for Tamil Canadian organizations as well as participating in mainstream organizations.
As for the youths in other countries, they are way ahead of the Tamil Canadian youths. We definitely are envy of their performance.
And one thing that is going to be unchanged is the right to self-determination issue. Tamils are totally against the current unitary system of Sri Lanka. The Tamils youths are less favorable to even the federal setup witch was seen as acceptable to the Tamils. The Tamil youths have no association with Sri Lanka or the Sri Lankan flag, they are more attached to Tamil Eelam and the Tamil Eelam flag.