Remembering those killed in Mullivaikal massacre

Members of the Sri Lankan Tamil community gathered in Auckland recently to remember the Mullivaikal massacre of 2009.

May 18 marks the sixth anniversary of the genocide which happened at the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war. Thousands of Tamil civilians were killed by bombings of “safe zones” which included hospitals and humanitarian operations.

Dhaya Haran, 40, from the National Council of New Zealand Tamils is the project co-ordinator for Auckland and organised the event.

It was held on Sunday May 24, at the Mount Roskill Intermediate School hall.

Mr Haran, identifying himself as Eelam Tamil, said the genocide affected his people severely.

“Around 70 to 100,000 people were killed. Houses were brought down, there are war widows left with no income and families torn apart. People were also left disabled,” he said.

“The Sri Lankan Government till this day hasn’t taken any responsibility or punished the people who were behind these crimes against humanity.”

He said Tamil civilians are treated like a minority, discriminated in language, religion and culture.

He gave the example of Sinhala being the preferred language and Buddhism seen as the predominant religion.

“The Tamil population resides mostly in the North and Eastern parts of Sri Lanka. And although the Government has announced the war has ended, there’s still military presence in those areas.

“There’s probably one military person to three Tamil civilians,” said Mr Haran.

Education was seen as a hope for Tamil civilians and things did run smoothly under the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), he said.

They ran their own schools and administration in the North. However, the peace was short-lived as Tamlians continue to be exploited.

“Some Sinhalese also control land owned by Tamil civilians, and they undermine them by making them work harder and fetch a much lower price for their wares.”

Catherine Delahunty, a Green party list MP, is calling upon foreign affairs minister Murray McCully to take action.

She said in her blog post about the anniversary that he should question the Sri Lankan Government on its abuse of human rights, instead of focusing on trading relations.

“It’s incredibly disturbing. I’m quite ashamed of not only my own ignorance to date, but the ignorance of my own country.

“We’re trading with Sri Lanka, selling milk powder and building closer ties. Only six years ago an unknown number of civilians were massacred and there’s no accountability or consequences,” she said.

“It’s a huge abuse of human rights. At every level, the Tamil people are living without justice.”

Mr Haran said the Sinhalese claim that Sri Lanka solely belongs to them.

Ms Delahunty disagrees.

“The concept of Tamil Eelam, the Tamil people’s homeland has been going on for a very long time. Historically they have always been there in the North from my understanding.

“It’s like saying because Pakeha are here now, Maori don’t exist,” she said.

Saarah Abdeen, an AUT student, comes from a Muslim Sri Lankan family and grew up in “civil war Sri Lanka”.

“I went to a private school, where we had people in Singhalese medium and Tamil medium separated.

“If you were born Tamil and spoke Tamil, you had to study only Tamil, they wouldn’t allow them to mix with other students.”

Ms Abdeen said a suicide bombing had happened near her school once and she had heard gunshots too.

“There were moments like that, when the war really affected you,” she said.

“When we went back in 2013, we saw that they have now started targeting Muslims, and my family are Muslim Sri Lankan, it’s a new conflict.”

Mr Haran was born in Jaffna and came to New Zealand in the 90s as a student. However at a young age he witnessed deaths too.

“My school was targeted by bombs and helicopter shootings were regular, I saw people die.”

“There was no independent media to report on issues as well.

“If anything was written which questioned the government, it was targeted,” he said.

Ms Delahunty believes raising awareness of the genocide is important as many people have not heard about it.

“I thought the struggle was between the Sinhalese government and the LTTE, not this massive civilian abuse in which killings happened.

“It’s tragic and horrific for the people who are still there,” said Ms Delahunty.

Remembrance day for the Mullivaikal massacre is held annually in Auckland and Wellington by the Wellington Tamil Society.

More information on the National Council of New Zealand Tamils can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/NCNZT