by C. Wijeyawickrema

A crime without a name

In August 1941, Winston Churchill delivered a speech on the BBC saying that the Nazi armies were advancing exterminating whole districts in Europe. He thundered, as quoted in the book, A Problem from hell: America and the age of genocide by Samantha Power (2003), "We are in the presence of a crime without a name." Raphael Lemkin, a Polish Jew and international lawyer who lost all his relatives during the Nazi war decided to find a name for the crime and he coined term "genocide." Lemkin would not have expected what was in store for his labour. Recently, white politicians and corrupt NGO agents exploited the word as a cover for selfish purposes. Even private individuals joined in the game. For example, the American lawyer Bruce Fein uses the word genocide frequently because allegedly, he gets $30,000 per month from the owners of the Tamils against genocide website. Arundhati Roy fears of an impending genocide in the No Fire Zone in Sri Lanka. She has had a journalist’s crush on her hero Prabhakaran (ref. The Island, 4/28/2009, essay by Kalana Senaratne)

White political cats

Samantha Power, in her extremely popular book, discussed Cambodia, Iraq, Rwanda, Srebrenica and Kosovo cases of genocide in which western white politicians gave all kinds of excuses to avoid talking and acting about genocide.

These white politicians banned Prabhakaran’s terrorist outfit in law in their jurisdictions but allowed it to have a free hand in collecting funds and delivering weapons to Kilinochchi. Because Tamil votes were important in elections in London, Toronto or Paris, white politicians had no alternative but to play politics. They knew that Prabhakaran and company were guilty of genocide, but they pretended that they did not know that he practised it.

Genocide programme of Prabhakaran

The intention to eliminate or harm another human being because of the birth and existence of that human being is genocide. This meaning is hidden due to the fact that race or religion (or both) separates the perpetrator and victim. Also, in previous cases there were large numbers of victims involved.

1. Intention

Prabhakaran intended and did ethnic cleansing by removing Muslims giving them 2-hours notice to leave Jaffna. The number was 100,000. This notice was not required for the Sinhalese as he killed them if they remained in Jaffna. Muslims and Sinhalese were victimized because they were not Tamils. The only case we know otherwise is the Sinhala Buddhist monk who lived in Kilinochchi for 25 years!

Prabhakaran’s massacres at Arantalawa, Sri Maha Bodhi, Mosques and other places were not attacks on the military but civilians. These were not isolated incidents, but there was a pattern running over his 33-year ‘rule’.

2. Power’s case study on Cambodia shows that genocide is applicable to differences in what human beings acquire after their birth. Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot killed people of their own race and religion. They were killed because after their birth they had an education, did not support communism, liked western habits, lived in suburban areas etc. This means, when Prabhakaran killed Neelan Thiruchelvam, Lakshman Kadiragamar, Jeyaraj Fernandopulle or Amirthalingam, he committed genocide because killing people of his own race (Tamil) or religion even in smaller numbers makes him guilty of genocide.

3. Taking Tamils as a human shield is an intentional act of destroying them for Prabhakaran’s benefit. Therefore, the name genocide should include this act of Prabhakaran at least for the past 3 months. Even if this human shield business is considered by the white politicians an act of self defence (which is allowed under the western jurisprudence) then the killing of those who wanted to escape from him has to be a crime of genocide. Daya Master has revealed that about 300 people had been killed on two occasions. It may be possible to unearth mass burial sites inside CFA 2002-donated area with the help of surrendering cadres.