At the end of the day, the shadowy ex-JVPer was reduced to
some kind of prankster suffering from delayed adolescence, the JVP was pushed
against the periphery of public notice and Gunaratnam’s party left rudderless
and discredited on account of being led by someone confused about his identity
and suspected of being an agent of a foreign government. Yes, the Australian High Commission also
suffered a bit of egg-on-face.
If Gunaratnam’s case is to crest the banner of human rights
it would be tragic, not least of all because the current champions of the cause
are severely compromised on account of a long history of thieving and pandering
to the designs of terrorists and violators of the self same rights, the USA for
example. The new found love for the
likes of Gunaratnam makes a sad story because many of these HR champions were
in the thick of a gunfight with the JVP in the eighties, and were hand in glove
with the LTTE and now with its rump.
Gunaratnam calling for ex-LTTE cadres to join him completes the
picture. It is not about human rights,
but petty power games.
Human rights games are pantomimes, but victims are not
players, even if they are used and abused for bucks and power. As of now, over 15,000 people have been
recorded ‘Missing’ since the eighties, the vast majority of them during the
UNP-JVP-OLD LEFT Bheeshanaya of
1988-89. Complaints made to
international organizations about those gone missing in the last phase of the
war more or less corresponds to the figures generated by enumerations.
Now it is well known that many of the ‘missing’ have taken
on new identities and migrated with the ancient sob-story of persecution and
Gunaratnam’s story is just an iceberg-tip in this regard, i.e. the
multiple-identity racket. Some of them
are also guilty of making others go ‘missing’.
Some of the ‘missing’ would have died wearing military fatigues. Mothers will weep for sons, widows for
husbands and children for fathers, but public sympathy will not go to those who
created gaping holes in the hearts, minds and lives of other mothers, wives and
children whose loved ones were killed by these people who subsequently went
missing themselves.
On the other hand, 99 killers going missing is not reason
enough not to find out what happened to the 1 innocent whose whereabouts are
unknown. The relations and loved ones of
that person need to know and it Is incumbent on the state to leave no stone
unturned in finding out what happened.
A nation that comes through tragic times and in particular a
bloody armed conflict can and does get over the losses collectively. This is what happened in 1971 and in 1988-89
and also the tsunami of 2004. Personal
loss is different. Collective closure is
not salve for personal wound.
Individuals need to get on with their lives and full knowledge of what
happened is a prerequisite for this.
This Government has proved time and again that it has the
resources to track down dangerous criminals, including underworld figures and
terrorists. It is no easy task to find
out what happened to 15,000 people, especially 20 years after many of them went
missing. It seems that the painstaking
work has started, especially with the census exercises. The people, especially those affected, must
have a way of knowing what’s being done.
The long struggle against terrorism is over. No one should go ‘missing’ now and if anyone does,
the government will stand indicted for complicity or inability.
Finding what happened to those who are ‘missing’ is
something that society as a whole owes those members who suffered and continue
to suffer. It is something that the state owes the citizenry. It is something that the LLRC has
recommended. It’s not part of some NGO
conspiracy or a coercive tool employed by pernicious international actors. It is part of our nationalism, if we are to
be worthy of being called a nation.
['The Nation' Editorial, April 22, 2012]
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