{"id":73047,"date":"2013-02-09T19:09:28","date_gmt":"2013-02-09T19:09:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=73047"},"modified":"2013-02-13T10:56:00","modified_gmt":"2013-02-13T10:56:00","slug":"mass-grave-in-matale-a-cause-for-grave-concern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/mass-grave-in-matale-a-cause-for-grave-concern\/","title":{"rendered":"Mass Grave In Matale: A Cause For Grave Concern"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Malinda Seneviratne<\/a><\/span> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Malinda Seneviratne<\/p><\/div>\n

The discovery of a mass grave in Matale<\/a><\/span> has elicited horror in certain circles.\u00a0 It is no doubt a horrifying discovery.\u00a0 The horror is such that it is also natural for people to ask questions and demand answers.\u00a0 It all depends on who is asking, who is being asked and who ends up answering.<\/p>\n

In the West there is a word that is used in post-death or indeed post-anything situations: closure.\u00a0 Investigations help, we are told, not just to bring perpetrator to book but for the aggrieved to find \u2018closure\u2019.\u00a0 The Matale grave is over two decades old, we are told.\u00a0 The dead were the victims of the bheeshanaya<\/em>, many seem to think.\u00a0 They may be right.\u00a0 The question is how did the loved ones of the victims find \u2018closure\u2019?<\/p>\n

Most were Sinhala Buddhists<\/a><\/span>.\u00a0 The parents didn\u2019t get to see the bodies of their sons and daughters.\u00a0 Some assumed they were dead because they were aware that abductions had actually taken place.\u00a0 Some couldn\u2019t have known.\u00a0 Twenty years is a long time.\u00a0\u00a0 One stops waiting.\u00a0 Other tragedies sweep over earlier ones.\u00a0 Joys, sporadic or otherwise, give respite. The diurnal takes over and new routines over-script older ones.\u00a0 In most cases, merit (pin<\/em>) would have been \u2018transferred\u2019 subsequent to almsgivings.<\/p>\n

One can argue, effectively, that death is the only unguent that takes away the burdens and pains of loss.\u00a0 Loss is personal.\u00a0 Grief is personal. At the same time we are talking about mass murder. We are talking of crimes against humanity, and of course ones which escaped the eagle eye of chest-beating human rights activists.\u00a0 These activists who talk of \u2018justice for the living\u2019 and \u2018accountability\u2019 should not be stopped by crime-date.\u00a0 They can go back to the horrendous crimes against humanity perpetrated by European hordes in Sri Lanka for five long centuries, including the breaking of temples and construction of churches over those ruins, the burning of ancient and invaluable manuscripts and other such acts of vandalism.\u00a0 They won\u2019t.\u00a0 Must we?<\/p>\n

Yes, and no.\u00a0 Yes, because society and civilization require answer to query.\u00a0 No, not if it is a selective exercise. And \u2018no,\u2019 if it amounts to turning mass graves, bones and such into a political football.<\/p>\n

The JVP<\/a><\/span>, which lost hundreds of members in that period of terror, has demanded an investigation. Interestingly, though, the JVP has called for investigations into allegations of their own wrongdoing.\u00a0 It\u2019s a win-win situation. Victims of JVP terrorism were not buried in mass graves.\u00a0 They were all clear cut assassinations where life was taken and body left behind.<\/p>\n

The thrust of the JVP\u2019s rhetoric on the Matale grave has little to do with the horror and the need for \u2018closure\u2019 but to gather some political mileage by way of pointing fingers.\u00a0 Pointing fingers, let us be clear, not at the regime of the time but at individuals associated with that regime who have crossed over to the present regime.<\/p>\n

The JVP \u2018pacted\u2019 with the UNP<\/a><\/span> during the last Presidential election.\u00a0\u00a0 It dare not upset fellow travelers in the political wilderness.\u00a0 This is logical and understandable.\u00a0 It also points to humbuggery about victims and their loved ones.\u00a0 \u00a0The UNP, for its part, has been silent, although those UNP stalwarts who are aiding and abetting clearly pernicious moves to manufacture crimes against humanity purportedly perpetrated by the security forces, has the moral obligation to comment. They\u2019ve been silent.\u00a0 Not strange.<\/p>\n

How about Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, Jehan Perera, Sunila Abeysekera, Nimalka Fernando, Kishali Pinto Jayawardena, Basil Fernando, Kumar David and J.C. Weliamuna?\u00a0 Is their silence a different kind of political football with the dead?\u00a0 Are some victims not newsworthy? Are some murders not worthy of investigation?\u00a0 Does that have something to do with who did the killing and does this silence indicate where these supposedly \u2018neutral\u2019 commentators stand party-politically?<\/p>\n

None of these people wept the kinds of tears they weep now back then when the UNP regime slaughtered unarmed youth in their hundreds on a daily basis. They don\u2019t need \u2018closure\u2019 now because they didn\u2019t need closure then, should we not conclude?<\/p>\n

Way back in the early nineties, Mangala Samaraweera<\/a><\/span> helped set up an organization called \u2018Mau Peramuna\u2019 (Mother\u2019s Front), which was also a \u2018footballing\u2019 of sorts, where the then \u2018recent\u2019 inconsolability of mothers whose children were billafied<\/em> and probably murdered, some burnt alive, was tossed around for political gain.\u00a0 Why is he so silent now?<\/p>\n

No one can really dismiss investigation-call on account of the length of time that\u2019s passed.\u00a0 \u00a0This is why those who are shedding tears over crimes that are said to have happened cannot remain silent about Matale.\u00a0 The USA, Canada, Britain and other EU countries must speak out. They have not.<\/p>\n

These are matters of grave concern.\u00a0 These are matters to think about for if footballing is the intent then closure is of secondary import to the questioner.\u00a0 That\u2019s adding insult to injury.\u00a0 Not just the dead but the living too would be turned into pawns in a political game.\u00a0 This cannot be something that the nation wants.<\/p>\n

*Malinda Seneviratne is the Chief Editor of \u2018The Nation<\/a>\u00a0and his articles can be found at\u00a0www.malindawords.blogspot.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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