Sivaram has been exposing the Sri Lankan government's duplicity in dealing with the peace process

Sivaram has been exposing the Sri Lankan government's duplicity in dealing with the peace process

They can take Sivaram away from us but can they extinguish the fire of Tamil Nationalism he has ignited in the hearts of many

By: Dr. Victor Rajakulendran - Sydney, Australia Source: TamilCanadian - May 6, 2005

They can take Sivaram away from us but can they extinguish the fire of Tamil Nationalism he has ignited in the hearts of many

For the last few days we all have been battling to come to terms with the fact that "Mamanithar" Sivaram Dharmeratnam is no more with us. But when we all read more and more details about the events leading to his liquidate, our resolve to expose those who try to silence the voice of freedom by threats and intimidation gets only stronger and stronger.

I have been reading Sivaram's contributions to the media from the time he started writing under the pen name "Taraki" in "The Island" news paper published out of Colombo, Sri Lanka. In those days when the Internet was not there, I used to wait impatiently for the Tuesday of the week to get the Sunday edition of "The Island" in Sydney to read his analysis.

In April 2002 Sivaram went to Jaffna with one of my friends along the A9 highway to go through Vanni. During this trip unexpectedly he had the rear opportunity to meet the Tamil National Leader Velupillai Prabakaran. When my friend returned to his home country, he introduced Sivaram to me for me to use him for my radio interviews. I interviewed Sivaram for the first time for "Thamil Muzhakkam" the Tamil radio in Sydney, Australia on Saturday, April 6, 2002 to share what he found during his trip north with our listeners. The same night I e-mailed him the web link of the interview for him to listen to the interview. The next day I received an acknowledgement from him with a special greeting. I would like to share the pride he shared with me through this "greetings from E. Pbutt" with as many Tamils around the globe as possible.

I still vividly remember what Sivaram wrote in an analysis in "The Island" paper soon after the LTTE's first failed attempt to overrun the Elephant Pbutt garrison. To prove that he has visited the area before he wrote the analysis, he publicly declared to the readers to go and check on the wall of a partly ruined Hindu temple in the vicinity, for which he gave the name, that the name "Taraki" is written. This shows the risk he has been taking in gathering information for his analysis.

Sivaram was one of those rare journalists who are intellectuals and well read. His knowledge ranged from Tamil literature to technical details of military hardware. He was par excellent in military as well as political analysis. Through his writings he stimulated political debate, raised voice for human equality and justice and fearlessly criticised authorities in power whenever they misused the same. He took lot of risk to bring out the truth about an oppressed people and to tell the world how the authorities in power were misusing their power to oppress these people.

We all knew very well that Sivaram's life was under threat for the last few years. First he was injured when his news paper office in Batticaloa was attacked by a Tamil paramilitary group operating under the protection and guidance of the Sri Lankan security forces. Later, twice the police searched his house in Colombo, allegedly for suspected hidden weapons. First search was on the World Press Freedom day while he was away in Batticaloa and again 3 months later. These could be taken only as warnings given by his enemies to silence him.

Sivaram has been exposing the Sri Lankan government's duplicity in dealing with the peace process from its inception. He has exposed more specifically the JVP's desire for capturing power and the way they have been deceiving the poor Singhalese mbuttes. When Karuna revolted against the LTTE, Karuna's schoolmate and former friend Sivaram abandoned him and publicly condemned him for his traitorous adventure. More damage was done to Karuna's reputation when Sivaram exposed the details of the businesses Karuna started in Colombo with the money Karuna collected from the public in the East. Therefore it is evidently clear that Sivaram had gathered at least 3 different enemies during his recent journalistic career, namely the Sri Lankan security forces, JVP and the Karuna faction.

Considering the fact that he was abducted just in front of the Bamabalapitya police station in Colombo and within 2 hours Sivaram's body was dumped behind the parliament house building which is guarded by the security forces as a "high security zone", there is no doubt that the abduction and liquidate of Sivaram could not have been done without the knowledge-sanction of the law enforcement arm of the Sri Lankan State.

Less than 24 hours before Sivaram was abducted, his last article appeared in the Colombo news paper "Daily Mirror" in which he criticised JVP's craftiness. When I was reading this article I felt that Sivaram has breached the safety zone the enemies have buttigned to him the same way Mr. Kumar Ponnambalam did by publishing his last open letter to President Chandrika Kumarathunga. Mr. Kumar Ponnambalam a veteran Tamil politician, who used his pen to a limited extent like Sivaram did to declare the truth. Kumar's buttbuttination is alleged to have been masterminded by the Presidential Security Division, another arm of the law enforcement authority of the State.

Sivaram's buttbuttination has been condemned by an array of people ranging from the common, down-to-earth Singhalese journalists to the UNESCO chief. This shows the respect and credibility Sivaram has earned through his genuine and high calibre journalism. The only people who failed to condemn Sivaram's liquidate are those who belong to the ultra Singhalese nationalistic parties, the Janatha Vimukthy Peramuna (JVP) and the Sihala Urumya. Some of these people have even implied that Sivaram should have been locked up long time back for supporting the LTTE. Others have even called him a person. Some bankrupt journalists have tried to fool themselves by interpreting Sivaram's buttbuttination as a result of the internecine fight among the Tamils themselves. Some have even gone to the extent to interpret it as a warning given by the Tamils to the Tamil National Leader, Velupillai Prbakaran. They are only trying to hide the truth from the public and cover up the misdemeanours of the State security forces. They are trying to equate the killing of an unarmed journalist on a Colombo street to that of a militant Tamil fighter in the troubled east of the country.

Many times when I contacted Sivaram for interviews, I have caught him travelling in areas in the east, which are hot beds of internecine killings. Whenever I raised my concern for his safety in these areas, he did not seem to consider it as a big issue. He was very confident that he knew what he was doing.Although Sivaram had strong feelings about the lack of development in the east of the country, he was not prepared to embrace regionalism at the expense of Tamil nationalism. He spent lot of time and energy to explain this to the eastern Tamils when Karuna tried to mislead the eastern Tamils with his new invented regionalism slogan. Sivaram took up arms to establish Tamil nationalism and continued his campaign through his pen after he gave up the violent path. He has contributed much more through his pen to this noble cause than he contributed through arms. As a result he has captured a permanent place in the hearts and minds of the Tamil people living all over the globe. Sivaram who used the worldwide web for disseminating his ideologies efficiently will never disappear from the face of this earth, as his persons would have hoped for. Sivaram had a fine mind and as people often say his fine mind can never really die. His fine mind can only be reborn. Sivaram's buttbuttination will inspire more Sivarams to appear among those who use worldwide web for expressing their views. This only could deter the cowardice acts of persons like Sivaram's buttbuttins.

We all will miss Siva when we need explanation to complex phenomena in Sri Lankan politics in the future. We only cannot pick up the telephone and talk to him. But, we all could hope a google search would help to find those answers buried in what Siva has already left for us in the worldwide web.

Let his soul rest in peace!

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" - 'The Sinhala political organizations and their leadership, which are deeply buried in the mud of Sinhala-Buddhist chauvinism, will never be able to comprehend the political aspirations of the people of Tamil Eelam. None of the major Sinhala political parties are prepared to recognize the fundamentals underlying the Tamil national question. None of the Sinhala political organizations is prepared to accept the northeastern region as the historical homeland of the Tamil-speaking people, that the Tamils consbreastute themselves as a distinct nationality and that they are enbreastled to the right to self-determination, including the right to secede. -

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Sri Lankan War Crime :

Sinhala person War Crime:

================================================= LTTE is a politico- military organisation, which is fighting for the right of self-determination of the Tamil people =================================================