17 Years After the Defeat of the LTTE: Mullivaikkal, Human Shields & the Unasked Questions

 

Seventeen years after the defeat of the LTTE, Mullivaikkal continues to be internationally presented almost exclusively through one narrative: that of civilian suffering caused during the final phase of the war. Yet, why does “civilian suffering” need LTTE insignia and LTTE propaganda. Why are only pro-LTTE supporters present. Why are mothers of rival Tamil militant groups excluded as are the families of those LTTE killed. These are unpalatable questions that never receive answers.

 

Civilian suffering was real. No one denies. That suffering is relevant to not only Tamils. Sinhalese, Muslims and even foreigners also suffered under LTTE.
Civilian deaths were tragic. The dead included not only Tamils. Sinhalese, Muslims, foreigners that included an Indian Prime Minister.

Every innocent life lost in war is a tragedy regardless of ethnicity, religion, or politics.

But seventeen years later, the narration is always built around only Tamil suffering. How brutally unfair is this?

 

Why are the actions of the LTTE during the final phase of the conflict so often minimized, ignored, or selectively erased from international discussion?

 

If hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians were trapped inside a shrinking-LTTE controlled area it was because the LTTE took them to be used as human shields and hostages.

This is a fact Tamils must face.

 

An armed militant movement should have boldly faced their enemy one to one.

Instead LTTE chose to hide behind civilians – the very people they claim to fight for.

This was the first signal of their cowardice and betrayal of their own people, at least those that did not support them. The supporters though were desperately trying all means possible to prevent the capture or elimination of a movement they had heavily invested in over decades.

It was the loss of this investment that resulted in the wrath and avenging against those that cut short their lucrative business. No one has assessed the legal & illegal avenues that the LTTE overseas networks made money.

 

Let us also be clear that even among the civilians that the LTTE took were those trained in armed combat. They could not be categorized as “civilian” under international definition.

 

Our empathy lies only with the true Tamil civilians who did not support LTTE and who were used as hostages and human shields and kept as cannon fodder.

It was these civilians who were shot when they tried to flee LTTE.

It was these civilians who begged for water and food

It was these civilians who were denied the humanitarian aid sent from Colombo.

Unfortunately, it was these civilians whose plight was used to provide an escape route to LTTE.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Benod38M9hk&t=6s

“the families stared in almost disbelief at the food handed out to them. Hunger and thirst have been a daily part of their lives. One of the mothers told me that the Tamil tigers had stolen most of the humanitarian aid and sold it on to the people. She couldn’t afford to buy it…. The Tamil tigers were shooting at them. The dead and the living were lying together….” (David Chater reporting from Pulmudai – April 2009)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ7zlRiijfM – LTTE firing at civilians attempting to flee

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhngG76_0qs – armed LTTE shooting at civilians trying to flee – LTTE using battle tanks within safe zones to attack armed forces.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2T1FiwRmQo – LTTE forced civilians to join hostilities (to use guns as well as dig bunkers) Meanwhile LTTE removed their uniforms and wore civilian attire making distinction difficult.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiZ_0SfCpEA – he says LTTE killed 29 civilians. He also says on 8 May 2009 at Damuniwagala around 9a.m. 42-44 disabled female LTTE cadres were put into a bus & LTTE exploded it.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5ByT9Gp3m8 – this eyewitness too says around 50 female LTTE cadres were put into a bus & exploded by LTTE. Some had requested tea before they were killed.

 

Numerous testimonies from survivors, former cadres, humanitarian personnel, and reports over the years described how civilians attempting to flee LTTE-controlled areas risked intimidation, forced retention, forced labour, forced recruitment, or even being shot while trying to escape.

 

When the then UNSG Ban Ki Moon also appealed to allow civilians to

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHhXS6wYG_M

 

What these clips show is that the LTTE was not only fighting the Sri Lankan military – LTTE was fighting their own who were trying to flee to safety from LTTE.

 

Why do the annual commemorations omit these aspects?

The only ones that remained with the LTTE were the LTTE & their supporters. The rest wanted to get to safety.

 

That the annual commemorations are an LTTE affairs is clearly seen by the photographs of LTTE cadres and the yellow & red LTTE insignia used at these commemorations.

 

All those wailing over “civilian” deaths do so by intentionally hiding that

• LTTE cadres fought in both uniform & civilian outfits
• LTTE child soldiers too wore uniforms & civilian clothes
• LTTE civilian armed force also fought in civilian clothing

 

All these scenarios intentionally blurred the distinction of “civilian”.

The soldiers had no time to swift through international law books to determine who was a “civilian” or not. All those human rights activists outside the war terrain can debate over how a war should be fought – what if they are put into a battlefield to show us how!

 

So this annual commemoration fanfare over civilian deaths when they conveniently omit

 

• Tamil civilians shot & killed while attempting to escape LTTE and enter government-controlled areas
• Tamil parents killed trying to prevent their children being taken as child soldiers
• Non-LTTE adults & children forced to engage in hostilities during the last phase and dying

 

are not genuine commemorations for civilians – they are commemorations for LTTE dead.

Every politician, diplomat, foreign official participating in these events are actually mourning terrorists.

So when Agnes Callamard, General Secretary of Amnesty International attended the Mullivaikkal commemorations amid LTTE insignia it was clear who she was mourning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXC6xod9rM4

 

So, if the commemorations are purely humanitarian remembrance events – why are LTTE flags, LTTE insignia, LTTE imagery and separatist symbols necessary?

Insignia, flags, separatist maps displayed at civilian commemorations are not mourning civilians – they are mourning terrorist dead.

 

Would any government in the world accept public glorification of an internationally proscribed terrorist movement?

Do you see the US, UK, European Govts permitting Al Qaeda leaders or other terrorist leaders or their movements to be commemorated in public.

So, when a Sri Lankan Government allows such – it only shows who they are mourning as well.

 

As we have repeatedly said – reconciliation is irrelevant. The enemy of the citizens of Sri Lanka was LTTE. The Sri Lanka Armed Forces, defenders of Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and the Sri Lankan people were tasked to rid the nation of terror. Which they did in May 2009. The people does not need to reconcile with terrorists.

 

LTTE fighters may have all been Tamil but LTTE supporters include not only Tamils but Sinhalese, Muslims and foreigners. We cannot prevent them annually mourning the LTTE – but they cannot do so in public. But when they do so, it only reconfirms they sided with the enemy, they sided with the terrorists and they were against civilian safety.

 

Everyone who attends these LTTE mourning commemorations have no pity for the 30 years of bloodshed LTTE is accountable for.

 

Everyone who attends these LTTE commemorations took the side of the LTTE when they

 

• assassinated Tamil political opponents,
• eliminated rival Tamil movements & their leaders
• recruited Tamil children as child soldiers,
• carried out suicide bombings,
• ethnically cleansed Sinhalese & Muslims from the North,
• attacked civilians across Sri Lanka,
• and enforced authoritarian control within Tamil society itself.

 

This is why seventeen years after the defeat of the LTTE, Sri Lanka still struggles with competing attempts to define memory itself.

 

We seek to remember and remind he people of the suffering of all civilians while acknowledging the brutality of terrorism.

 

The other side seeks to preserve a narrative where the LTTE is gradually transformed from an armed militant organization into a symbol of collective Tamil victimhood and savior.

 

Seventeen years later, many ordinary Sri Lankans — including Tamils who directly experienced LTTE control — continue trying quietly to rebuild their lives without returning to the politics of fear, coercion, and permanent grievance. Many are  even forced to attend these commemorations.

 

LTTE’s overseas political activists project an emotionally mobilized version of events that leaves little room for Tamils to close the past and move forward.

That they do not allow the Tamil populace to rebuild their lives showcases the selfish attitude of these LTTE overseas networks who have repeatedly ignored to voice for the real Tamil civilians.

 

• Who speaks for the Tamil civilians killed by the LTTE?
• Who speaks for the children forcibly recruited during the final phase?
• Who speaks for the families prevented from fleeing?
• Who speaks for the Tamils who had to pay LTTE to obtain food & water given free by the GOSL
• Who speaks for the dissenting Tamils silenced long before 2009?
• Who speaks for the Sinhalese/ Muslims expelled from the North?
• Who speaks for the Sinhalese and Muslim civilians killed in attacks over three decades?

 

Selective remembrance is hypocrisy.

The conflict ended in May 2009.

Seventeen years later, the battle over memory continues.

So long as the lies continues – we will remind all about the truth so we all remember the facts.

 

What is the real objective of these annual LTTE commemorations and for whose benefit are these being annually held?

 

 

 

 

Shenali D Waduge