Canadian Tamils mark 25 years since Colombo riots forced their flight
Stewart Bell, National Post Published: Wednesday, July 23, 2008
MISSISSAUGA, Ont. -Kiruthiha Kulendiren was hiding in her neighbour's storeroom when the mobs came to the front door, demanding to know if there were any Tamils inside.
It was July, 1983, and Colombo was in flames. Black smoke clouded Sri Lanka's steamy tropical capital as rioters armed with metal rods, swords and gas cans went door to door looking for minority Tamils.
A 12-year-old schoolgirl at the time, Ms. Kulendiren could see them outside the window, members of Sri Lanka's ethnic Sinhalese majority. And she could hear the screams as the mobs killed more than 1,000 Tamils, and burned and looted their homes and shops.
"Sitting in that room, I realized how much I was hated," said Ms. Kulendiren, who now lives in Mississauga, Ont. "I remember thinking, 'They hate me because I'm Tamil.'"
This week marks the 25th anniversary of the outbreak of the Colombo riots, when members of the South Asian island's ethnic Sinhalese majority turned violently against the minority Tamils.
The riots ignited a brutal civil war that continues to this day, and galvanized support for the Tamil Tigers rebels. They also changed the face of Canada: A quarter of a million Sri Lankan Tamils now live in Canada, mostly around Toronto.
"There was a mass exodus out of Colombo," said Manjula Selvarajah, a survivor of the riots who now works with the Canadian Tamil Congress, which will mark the anniversary with a vigil on Friday, and an art exhibit and drama performances on Saturday.
Although they happened a quarter century ago, the riots remain a vivid symbol of the hardship Tamils faced as a minority in Sri Lanka. "That's what it means to Tamils, they look back and they say: 'Wow, that was like the purest expression of the fact that you are not really wanted here,' " Ms. Selvarajah said.
The memory of the riots also drives separatist sentiment among Tamils, as well as support for the Tamil Tigers guerrillas fighting for independence in northeastern Sri Lanka.
That support now reaches into Canada. On July 5, thousands of Canadian Tamils rallied in Toronto, many of them carrying the militaristic flag of the Tamil Tigers. A similar, though smaller, event was held in Montreal last weekend.
The RCMP says the Tamil Tigers have been operating a lucrative fundraising network out of Toronto and Montreal that has raised millions in donations -- some voluntary, some coerced--from Canadian Tamils.
Following complaints from some Tamils and human rights groups, the Canadian government has been putting a stranglehold on the Tamil Tigers, notorious for such terrorist tactics as suicide bombings and political assassinations. The most recent action by Ottawa came on June 16, when Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day announced the government had outlawed the Toronto-based World Tamil Movement, which police accuse of fundraising for the rebels.
Formed in 1976 by young revolutionaries influenced by India's freedom fighters, the Tamil Tigers initially carried out sporadic guerrilla attacks against the police and army, but the conflict escalated on July 23, 1983, when the rebels ambushed a Sri Lankan Army convoy, killing 13 soldiers. It was the biggest loss to date for the government forces.
The morning after the ambush, Ms. Kulendiren's grandfather left for work on his motorbike, but he soon returned.
"We need to go," he told the family.
Mobs of angry nationalists were killing Tamils and ransacking their homes. Some were Buddhist monks in saffron robes. Some carried official voters' lists that allowed them to find Tamil homes, suggesting a degree of government complicity. Many Sinhalese also sheltered Tamils from the violence.
As the mobs neared her house, Ms. Kulendiren could smell burning rubber. Tamils were being pulled from their homes, fitted with tires and set alight. A Sinhalese widow opened her door to a
dozen Tamil neighbours, including Ms. Kulendiren and her mother, hiding them in a storeroom with a single window.
Ms. Kulendiren sat with her arm around a terrified friend, peering out an opening in the curtains at the unfolding chaos, watching as smiling looters carted off jewellery and clothing.
At home, Ms. Kulendiren's family had never differentiated between Tamils like themselves and the Sinhalese who made up Sri Lanka's overwhelming majority. Her parents spoke both Sinhala and Tamil, and celebrated Sinhalese holidays, as well as Tamil ones.
"It never occurred to me that somebody could hate me because, and only because, I was a Tamil," she said.
"It's a horrible feeling."
The rioters reached the widow's house and pounded at the door. They wanted to know if she was hiding any Tamils, but she told them there was nothing in her storeroom but pots and vegetables. "They believed her, thank God, because had they opened that door, they would have massacred us," Ms. Kulendiren said.
Ms. Kulendiren and her mother sprinted to a nearby mission, where the swamis took them in and they joined a growing crowd of refugees. "There were people bleeding, just people in states of trauma and anxiety and distress, crying, people silent." The mobs eventually broke into the mission, and the refugees were evacuated in trucks that brought them to an auditorium guarded by Sri Lankan soldiers. Posing as Muslims, Ms. Kulendiren and her mother made their way to the airport and got tickets to Dubai, where her father was working as an engineer. The life they had built in Sri Lanka was finished. Their home had been ransacked, along with their sense of belonging. "Overnight, it was all gone," she said.
The Sri Lankan government has apologized for the riots, and although the war continues in the north, the east has been cleared and Tamils who were once part of the Tigers now hold elected office there, including the post of Chief Minister.
"We have come a long way," said Bandula Jayasekara, the Sri Lankan Consul General in Toronto, who accused the Tamil Tigers of exploiting the riots to raise money and justify their armed fight for a separate state.
Ms. Kulendiren said she cannot forget. "I am who I am because of that," said the trauma counsellor who works with Canadian Tamils. "I can't forget it. I have forgiven the layperson, but I still hold the government responsible."
[email protected]{ var arr_da = document.getElementById('ad-leaderboard').getElementsByTagName('script'); for(var i in arr_da){ if(typeof(arr_da.src) != 'undefined' && (/http:\/\/ad\.ca\.doubleclick\.net/.test(arr_da.src))){ var str_da_src = arr_da.src; str_da_src = str_da_src.replace(/loc=\w+;/gi, 'loc=microbar;'); str_da_src = str_da_src.replace(/sz=\d+x\d+;/gi, 'sz=88x31;'); str_da_src = str_da_src.replace(/ptile=\d+;/gi, 'ptile=4;'); document.write(''); break; } } }catch(e){}
http://www.nationalpost.com/todays_paper/story.html?id=672763
font_size(0);
#commentform-narrow { display: none; } #recent-comments { width: auto; padding-top: 0.25em; margin: 0 0 1em 0; } #recent-comments #comment_head { font: bold 14px georgia, serif; } #recent-comments .comment_box { width: auto; margin-bottom: 0.5em; } tour_comments_off = true;
Stewart Bell, National Post Published: Wednesday, July 23, 2008
MISSISSAUGA, Ont. -Kiruthiha Kulendiren was hiding in her neighbour's storeroom when the mobs came to the front door, demanding to know if there were any Tamils inside.
It was July, 1983, and Colombo was in flames. Black smoke clouded Sri Lanka's steamy tropical capital as rioters armed with metal rods, swords and gas cans went door to door looking for minority Tamils.
A 12-year-old schoolgirl at the time, Ms. Kulendiren could see them outside the window, members of Sri Lanka's ethnic Sinhalese majority. And she could hear the screams as the mobs killed more than 1,000 Tamils, and burned and looted their homes and shops.
"Sitting in that room, I realized how much I was hated," said Ms. Kulendiren, who now lives in Mississauga, Ont. "I remember thinking, 'They hate me because I'm Tamil.'"
This week marks the 25th anniversary of the outbreak of the Colombo riots, when members of the South Asian island's ethnic Sinhalese majority turned violently against the minority Tamils.
The riots ignited a brutal civil war that continues to this day, and galvanized support for the Tamil Tigers rebels. They also changed the face of Canada: A quarter of a million Sri Lankan Tamils now live in Canada, mostly around Toronto.
"There was a mass exodus out of Colombo," said Manjula Selvarajah, a survivor of the riots who now works with the Canadian Tamil Congress, which will mark the anniversary with a vigil on Friday, and an art exhibit and drama performances on Saturday.
Although they happened a quarter century ago, the riots remain a vivid symbol of the hardship Tamils faced as a minority in Sri Lanka. "That's what it means to Tamils, they look back and they say: 'Wow, that was like the purest expression of the fact that you are not really wanted here,' " Ms. Selvarajah said.
The memory of the riots also drives separatist sentiment among Tamils, as well as support for the Tamil Tigers guerrillas fighting for independence in northeastern Sri Lanka.
That support now reaches into Canada. On July 5, thousands of Canadian Tamils rallied in Toronto, many of them carrying the militaristic flag of the Tamil Tigers. A similar, though smaller, event was held in Montreal last weekend.
The RCMP says the Tamil Tigers have been operating a lucrative fundraising network out of Toronto and Montreal that has raised millions in donations -- some voluntary, some coerced--from Canadian Tamils.
Following complaints from some Tamils and human rights groups, the Canadian government has been putting a stranglehold on the Tamil Tigers, notorious for such terrorist tactics as suicide bombings and political assassinations. The most recent action by Ottawa came on June 16, when Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day announced the government had outlawed the Toronto-based World Tamil Movement, which police accuse of fundraising for the rebels.
Formed in 1976 by young revolutionaries influenced by India's freedom fighters, the Tamil Tigers initially carried out sporadic guerrilla attacks against the police and army, but the conflict escalated on July 23, 1983, when the rebels ambushed a Sri Lankan Army convoy, killing 13 soldiers. It was the biggest loss to date for the government forces.
The morning after the ambush, Ms. Kulendiren's grandfather left for work on his motorbike, but he soon returned.
"We need to go," he told the family.
Mobs of angry nationalists were killing Tamils and ransacking their homes. Some were Buddhist monks in saffron robes. Some carried official voters' lists that allowed them to find Tamil homes, suggesting a degree of government complicity. Many Sinhalese also sheltered Tamils from the violence.
As the mobs neared her house, Ms. Kulendiren could smell burning rubber. Tamils were being pulled from their homes, fitted with tires and set alight. A Sinhalese widow opened her door to a
dozen Tamil neighbours, including Ms. Kulendiren and her mother, hiding them in a storeroom with a single window.
Ms. Kulendiren sat with her arm around a terrified friend, peering out an opening in the curtains at the unfolding chaos, watching as smiling looters carted off jewellery and clothing.
At home, Ms. Kulendiren's family had never differentiated between Tamils like themselves and the Sinhalese who made up Sri Lanka's overwhelming majority. Her parents spoke both Sinhala and Tamil, and celebrated Sinhalese holidays, as well as Tamil ones.
"It never occurred to me that somebody could hate me because, and only because, I was a Tamil," she said.
"It's a horrible feeling."
The rioters reached the widow's house and pounded at the door. They wanted to know if she was hiding any Tamils, but she told them there was nothing in her storeroom but pots and vegetables. "They believed her, thank God, because had they opened that door, they would have massacred us," Ms. Kulendiren said.
Ms. Kulendiren and her mother sprinted to a nearby mission, where the swamis took them in and they joined a growing crowd of refugees. "There were people bleeding, just people in states of trauma and anxiety and distress, crying, people silent." The mobs eventually broke into the mission, and the refugees were evacuated in trucks that brought them to an auditorium guarded by Sri Lankan soldiers. Posing as Muslims, Ms. Kulendiren and her mother made their way to the airport and got tickets to Dubai, where her father was working as an engineer. The life they had built in Sri Lanka was finished. Their home had been ransacked, along with their sense of belonging. "Overnight, it was all gone," she said.
The Sri Lankan government has apologized for the riots, and although the war continues in the north, the east has been cleared and Tamils who were once part of the Tigers now hold elected office there, including the post of Chief Minister.
"We have come a long way," said Bandula Jayasekara, the Sri Lankan Consul General in Toronto, who accused the Tamil Tigers of exploiting the riots to raise money and justify their armed fight for a separate state.
Ms. Kulendiren said she cannot forget. "I am who I am because of that," said the trauma counsellor who works with Canadian Tamils. "I can't forget it. I have forgiven the layperson, but I still hold the government responsible."
[email protected]{ var arr_da = document.getElementById('ad-leaderboard').getElementsByTagName('script'); for(var i in arr_da){ if(typeof(arr_da.src) != 'undefined' && (/http:\/\/ad\.ca\.doubleclick\.net/.test(arr_da.src))){ var str_da_src = arr_da.src; str_da_src = str_da_src.replace(/loc=\w+;/gi, 'loc=microbar;'); str_da_src = str_da_src.replace(/sz=\d+x\d+;/gi, 'sz=88x31;'); str_da_src = str_da_src.replace(/ptile=\d+;/gi, 'ptile=4;'); document.write(''); break; } } }catch(e){}
http://www.nationalpost.com/todays_paper/story.html?id=672763
font_size(0);
#commentform-narrow { display: none; } #recent-comments { width: auto; padding-top: 0.25em; margin: 0 0 1em 0; } #recent-comments #comment_head { font: bold 14px georgia, serif; } #recent-comments .comment_box { width: auto; margin-bottom: 0.5em; } tour_comments_off = true;
