Today, 18th
June 2010, has been declared a public holiday
by the government. Many Sri Lankans, especially Sinhalese from the South
are expected to respond enthusiastically to the government's elaborate
plans to celebrating the war victory over the LTTE. For several days,
citizens in Colombo had to put up with closed roads in preparation. How
much of our – citizens – tax payer's money will be spent for this
celebration is something I don't know and dare not think.

(By Ruki, 18 June 2010, Groundviews) 

Today, 18th
June 2010, has been declared a public holiday
by the government. Many Sri Lankans, especially Sinhalese from the South
are expected to respond enthusiastically to the government's elaborate
plans to celebrating the war victory over the LTTE. For several days,
citizens in Colombo had to put up with closed roads in preparation. How
much of our – citizens – tax payer's money will be spent for this
celebration is something I don't know and dare not think.

Some
media had highlighted on the fact that the General who led the
war victory is likely to be in detention and not invited to celebrate
the victory he led.

What seems to be forgotten, and what I do
know for sure is that tens
or hundreds of thousands of Tamils, particularly in the North, will not
be celebrating this victory. Many of them infact, will be grieving and
mourning for family members and friends killed, injured, missing and
detained in during the course of the war, particularly the final months
of the war.

However, now, even grieving and mourning appears to
be criminalized
in the newly "liberated" North.

On 17th May, amidst heavy showers
and floods in Colombo
(which had compelled the government to postpone the victory
celebrations), I was with a group of friends, at an ecumenical
(Christian) event to commemorate those killed in the war. As we were
starting the event, I got a call from a good friend, a Catholic priest
in Jaffna, who told me that he had got several threatening calls asking
him to cancel a religious event he had organized in Jaffna to
commemorate civilians killed in the war. In addition to the telephone
calls, senior army officers had visited his office and asked him to
cancel the event. He was in a dilemma – he was personally not keen to
cancel the event, but was concerned about the safety of his staff and
families due to participate in the event.

Later, I came to know
that this was not an isolated incident and
several other friends were subjected to similar threats.

On the
same day, 17th May, Nallur Temple area in Jaffna,
where an inter-religious event was being held to remember those killed
in the war was held, was surrounded by the police and the army. The
people who came to participate were threatened and told to go away.
Those who insisted on going in they were asked to register their names
and other details with the police. Many went away in fear and only few
had participated. Later on, the army had questioned and threatened a
priest who was involved in organizing the event. The priest was even
summoned to Palaly military headquarters in Jaffna for questioning.

In
Vanni, an army officer had told a villager that he will shoot a
parish priest and drag him behind his jeep, because he (the priest) was
organizing prayer services for those killed in the war. Another priest
was prevented from celebrating a holy mass to pray for those killed in
the war on 19th May in the Vanni.

So, it is clear the army
doesn't want Tamils to mourn and grieve for
their loved ones killed during the war. The thinking appears that all
these events are to commemorate the killing of LTTE leader Prabakaran.
Or that May 17th – 19th is a victory day, and
thus, no mourning should happen, and everyone should celebrate, even if
your own mother or child or husband was killed.

This seems to be
the official policy of the government, with the
Minister of Media and Information reported as saying that Tamil people
only have a privately commemorate their kith and kin killed privately
and not publicly. (See
http://www.lankaenews.com/English/news.php?id=9568)

Of course the
writing has been on the wall for some time. Ever since
the end of war, I had seen many monuments built in the Vanni celebrating
war victories and in honour of dead soldiers. At the same time,
memorials for Tamil militants built by the LTTE have been destroyed, in
the Vanni as well as in Jaffna, denying family members the opportunity
to light a candle or lay a flower. At one such destroyed memorial site
in Jaffna, army officers told me not to take photos since that place is
now earmarked to be an army camp. I was not allowed to even get near
another such well known memorial in Kopay, Jaffna.

Not
surprisingly, I didn't see a single memorial built to remember
civilians killed in the war. A priest in Vanni who was trying to build a
simple and small monument for civilians killed was warned by the army
to stop building it.

Beyond a moral and ethical perspective,
these incidents raise serious
issues about freedom of assembly and freedom of religion.

Just a
few days after some provisions of the emergency regulations,
including restrictions on public processions and meetings were repealed,
the military had prevented peaceful religious events from taking place
and threatened organizers and participants.

The army had also
curtailed religious freedom, despite freedom of
religion being a right that cannot be restricted in any circumstances in
the Sri Lankan constitution.

So, we Sri Lankans will have to
live with a type of homegrown
reconciliation in Sri Lanka that doesn't allow its citizens, and
especially families of those killed, to light a candle, lay a flower,
say prayer to mourn and grieve.

We will have to live with an
indigenous "liberation" and "freedom"
which doesn't include rights of religion and peaceful assembly to have
religious events to commemorate family members and loved ones killed.