NIRMALA RAJASINGAM (TAMIL ACTIVIST, SRI LANKA DEMOCRACY FORUM) INTERVIEW - 24 May 2009
And now to Sri Lanka and two views of this week's historic declaration
that the bloody 26-year civil war between the Tamil Tigers and the
government is all over, bar the shouting, of course, of which we have
heard plenty in the days since. But where to from here for that
savagely divided subcontinental island nation? Nirmala Rajasingam is a
Sri Lankan Tamil activist and writer living in exile in London. In the
1980s, she was the first woman to be detained under Sri Lanka's
Prevention of Terrorism Act and in 1990 her sister Rajani was
assassinated by the LTTE, the notorious Tamil Tigers, for her outspoken
views. Given her almost contradictory personal background to this
week's momentous shift, Nirmala's reaction has been, to say the least,
mixed. George Negus spoke with her from London.
GEORGE NEGUS: Nirmala, thanks for joining us on what is a
momentous
week - Asia's longest-running civil war, we are told, is now over. But
as a former member of the LTTE, a former Tamil Tiger adherent, reading
what you have written, you seem to have mixed feelings because you do
not feel very affectionately towards either the Tamil Tigers or the Sri
Lankan Government.
NIRMALA RAJASINGAM, TAMIL ACTIVIST, SRI LANKA DEMOCRACY FORUM: I think
when I heard the news of the defeat of the LTTE, I felt a sense of
relief simply because I knew that the war had come to an end and also
the insistent, the continuous killings of Tamil dissenters, Tamil
democracy activists would stop.
GEORGE NEGUS: Including your sister Nirmala?
NIRMALA RAJASINGAM: Including my sister and so many others - very
famous ones and not so famous ones who were community activists who had
been murdered by the LTTE. I realised that this will come to an end
now. And, of course, we can start organising our lives, in the sense
the Tamil people can start organising their political lives in a much
better fashion. Secondly, at the same time, I am very, very
apprehensive about the future because the current government, the Sri
Lankan Government, has mobilised Sinhala Buddhist nationalist opinion
to prosecute this war and, of course, with all this, as you can see, in
Colombo, with the celebration of the defeat of the LTTE, well, fine,
OK, people can celebrate the end of the war, but I am anxious as to
whether it is a bit too jingoistic, the kind of celebrations.
GEORGE NEGUS: Your family past in this whole civil strife is
intriguing. Your sister as you say was gunned down by the then LTTE
leadership. You were the first woman as I understand it to be
imprisoned under the government's protection against terrorism,
prevention of terrorism laws. That is very unusual to hear you saying
anything decent or reasonable about either side.
NIRMALA RAJASINGAM: That's right. I was detained under the Prevention
of Terrorism Act, kept in solitary confinement for 22 months, I was at
that time a sympathiser of the LTTE. But when I escaped from prison and
I joined them as a full-timer in Chennai, I realised that they were a
really ruthless military organisation devoid of any progressive
political values and I began to notice there were internal killings
within the movement and that the leadership was planning killings of
leaders of other groups, and I realised that I couldn't stay there any
more and within six months I left and I was, of course, since then,
very critical of the LTTE. So I have been persona non grata with the
Sri Lankan state as well as the LTTE for many years.
GEORGE NEGUS: But you don't believe that this military victory
against
the Tamil Tigers is the way to solve this problem?
NIRMALA RAJASINGAM: No. Basically what it is is that this conflict
started, began long before the LTTE was born. It is a political problem
- it is a problem of democracy, democratic governance, about how
minorities are treated. How the Sri Lankan state is a majoritarian
state and it discriminates against its minorities and it has been for
decades and when the minorities challenge it, as the Tamil have, they
respond with violence. They have responded with violence through the
decades.
GEORGE NEGUS: So do you trust the government when the
leadership is
saying that they have liberated Sri Lanka from terrorism by this
military victory? They are now talking about democratising the entire
nation state of Sri Lanka. Do you really believe after 25, 26 years of
nonstop conflict and fighting, terrorist acts, responses from the
government, that this government really does mean that they are going
to include Tamils in any Sri Lankan democracy?
NIRMALA RAJASINGAM: I am rather apprehensive. I'm worried, I am anxious
as to whether they will come out with a sufficiently, democratic and
inclusive process to discuss the ethnic conflict. I hope they do. The
other very serious problem is that for the last three years there have
been a horrendous number of abductions, extra-judicial killings,
disappearances, exclusively targeting the Tamil community. If the
government wants to make this peace a real one, a sustainable
long-lasting one, these violations have to stop right now. For
instance, the surrendered LTTE cadre - we need transparency, we need to
know how many people have been taken in, how many people have been
taken away from their families for rehabilitation, we need to know what
happened to the three doctors who have been detained. This has to be
transparent and has to be put in front of the Sri Lankan public and
internationally.
GEORGE NEGUS: Could it be a test of the genuineness of the
government's
attitude if someone like yourself was able to return to Sri Lanka? I
guess I have to ask you who would you fear, your life might be taken
from you by, and could you go back? Will you go back?
NIRMALA RAJASINGAM: I would like to go back. I have returned. For
nearly 22 years I didn't go back. I stayed only in the south, in
Colombo. The LTTE was the greater threat, definitely. The LTTE was the
greater threat. I knew that if I went to the north and east, or the
east, I would have been finished off.
GEORGE NEGUS: That is a tragic irony, that the people you
supported
were the greatest threat to your life.
NIRMALA RAJASINGAM: Absolutely. They told us, "Well, you do not have
the right to do politics. You have to stay, you have to keep silent.
You either do politics under us, or you don't." So that is how they
took away the voice of the Tamil people. Now of course, the Tamil
people have to rethink how they are going to continue their campaign
for their democratic rights. Of course, armed struggle is completely
out of the question, and I don't think there will be a return to armed
struggle. I think that whole phase is over and secession is out of the
question and Tamils have to publicly disavow any connection they have
with secessionist notions and win the confidence of the other
communities. And that's what will be good for the Tamils for the
future.
GEORGE NEGUS: Nirmala, thank you very much for your time, and
I hope
that your aspirations and your hopes become a reality.
NIRMALA RAJASINGAM: Thank you very much.
GEORGE NEGUS: Thank you.