Tamil Leader Escapes LTTE Tamil Concentration Camp

Date: 19 Apr 2003 23:55:35 -0700
Newsgroups: soc.culture.sri-lanka,soc.culture.tamil,soc.culture.canada,soc.culture.indian
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PRISONERS!
TISARANEE GUNASEKARA
April 15
"How hard it is to sing
When I must sing of horror."
Victor Hara (Silence and Screams are the End of My Song Santiago
Stadium Chile 1973)
When I read Bruno Apitz's unforgettable novel Naked Among Wolves more
than twenty years ago I thought it was more fiction than fact. The
book is based on the author's experience as a long time political
prisoner in the Nazi concentration camp, Buchenwald and tells the
story of how a group of political prisoners at the risk of their own
lives saved a small Jewish child by hiding him from the camp
authorities. However my subsequent reading on the Buchenwald made me
realize that Apitz's truly amazing story was actually more fact than
fiction. The child did exist Stefan Georg Zweig, the son of a Polish
lawyer and his life was indeed saved by the heroism and dedication of
a group of political prisoners who refused to allow their humanity to
become submerged in the terror, bestiality and debasement that was
their daily life.
The Nazis set a new record in man's inhumanity to fellow men but even
in their gruesome concentration camps prisoners were not kept chained
as a norm; nor were they held in dungeons. According to the testimony
of Chelliah Paraman of the EPDP who recently escaped from a Tiger
prison, the conditions prevailing in LTTE detention centers seem even
more horrendous than the conditions that prevailed in Nazi
concentration camps. The LTTE prisons are actually dungeons,
underground bunkers into which no sunlight penetrates and the
occasional sound of human voices is the only sign a detainee has that
he is still in the land of living and not in purgatory:
"It was a long and narrow bunker. In the middle of it there were
ladders along which the meals were sent. Polythene bags were given for
toilet facilities…. I was assaulted many times, especially when I was
taking my meals. When the food spilled they kept on assaulting me.
Water was poured on the ground and I had to lick it" (The Sunday Times
13.4.2003).
Mr. Paraman who escaped from this living hell with the help of a
fellow prisoner, a member of the PLOTE, made another startling
revelation:
"It was then I heard men talking in Sinhala. When I inquired I was
told that there are a lot of men from the Army, Air Force, Navy and
police. They were all chained" (Ibid).
NIGHTMARE The Nazis were unquestionably modern in their methods of
detention, torture and murder. In fact they took a great deal of
trouble to use the latest scientific and technological findings in
their torture chambers and concentration camps. The LTTE on the
contrary seem to be extremely archaic, quite medieval, in their
approach to imprisonment and murder. The last time one heard of
underground prisons was several centuries ago, the infamous dungeons
of pre-modern times. That practice is now obviously being revived in
the Suryadevan state. After all, if you regard your leader to be the
Sun God, the rest should follow.
The Nazis had a habit of draining out the blood of their prisoners
marked for elimination. A couple of years ago the same allegation was
made against the Tigers by Tamil sources. It was claimed that the LTTE
drained the Armed Forces captives of their blood. This story like many
similar stories of the LTTE's horror practices was allowed to die an
unnatural death by the powers that be (in this case the PA). It was
this lackadaisical conduct of the Lankan authorities (both political
and military) which enabled the Tigers to whitewash themselves with
such ease. If this story and other similar stories of LTTE horrors
were investigated and the truth revealed to the world it would have
been that much more difficult for the likes of Milinda Moragoda to
plead the Tigers' case in Western capitals and Martin Ennals to give
lectures to LTTE ‘judges'. Now fate has provided Sri Lanka with
another undeserving chance. We finally have a witness who has
experienced at first hand the treatment the Tigers mete out to their
unfortunate captives. It is no longer hearsay; Mr. Paraman's story is
the testimony of his own agony, of what he underwent, heard and saw
during his stint in the LTTE's living hell. It therefore constitutes
evidence which can be used to expose the LTTE for what it is a demonic
force which is an affront to humanity.
The number one priority is to ensure that the Tigers do not murder
this witness, as they murdered so many of those Tamils who provided
intelligence about the LTTE to the Sri Lankan side. The government
should take this matter up as a priority with both the LTTE and the
SLMM. The government should also contact international human rights
organizations such as the Amnesty International and invite them to
come to Sri Lanka and to talk to Mr. Paraman in an effort to verify
the truth or otherwise of his horrendous revelations. A similar
request should be made of the diplomatic community here.
Well, lets be practical. The Wickremesinghe administration will not do
any of this since it fears the wrath of the Tiger more than anything
else in the world. The regime is therefore likely to either ignore Mr.
Paramn's revelations or to dismiss them as lies or exaggerations. The
SLMM too would turn a deaf ear since the Norwegians also fear annoying
the Tigers. The fact that the Wickremesinghe administration and the
SLMM are maintaining a deafening silence concerning Mr. Paraman's
revelations is indicative of their unwillingness to take up this issue
at all. On the other hand the Opposition even if it takes up this
issue will only politicize it, thereby destroying its efficacy.
The responsibility therefore lies with the civil society particularly
the media and interested organizations and individuals (especially
those Lankans domiciled in Western countries). They can do much to
attract international media and political attention to this case and
to encourage reputed international human rights organizations to take
an interest in it. This case cannot be taken to its logical conclusion
without internationalizing it. Past experience makes one surmise that
the Wickremesinghe administration would use all its influence to keep
this story out of the local media especially the Sinhala media.
Therefore the only way out is to try to ensure that this story ‘breaks
out' in a big way in the West, and through that bring it to the Lankan
people. Therefore much depends on the willingness of Sri Lankans
abroad to become involved since they have greater access to both
politicians and the media in the countries they reside in. Anything
would do, from a letter to a local paper or politician to more
organized efforts to create an awareness of the issue among the media
and the policy makers through petitions, meetings, demonstrations and
seminars.
THE COURAGE OF THE DAMNED
The first group of American officers who reached Buchenwald said of
the condition of the prisoners: "They are brutalized, unpleasant to
look on. It is easy to adopt the Nazi theory that they are subhuman,
for many have in fact been deprived of their humanity" (The Buchenwald
Report edited by David A Hackett). The courage displayed by a large
number of Buchenwald inmates in keeping their common human decencies
intact against systematic efforts by their captors to
force/compel/encourage them to abdicate their humanity should be
understood and appreciated against this background. I see a comparable
greatness in the courage displayed by ordinary Tamil men and women who
resist the LTTE in countless little ways, as part of their daily lives
- from the parents of the children abducted by the LTTE to those who
still dare to raise their voices against the LTTE on matters large and
small; from the children who risk death to escape Tigers slave camps
to all those who contribute in numerous ways to the compiling of the
UTHR reports.
History has shown what a rare commodity resistance is particularly in
the face of overwhelming odds; far too many people prefer death to
defiance. It must have been hard enough escaping the LTTE's prison.
The fact that Chelliah Paraman instead of going into hiding here or
abroad decided to come forward to expose the Tigers is an act of
heroism which is rare in any country, in any period of history. This
is particularly so since he would know that he would get no backing or
protection from either the regime or the state or even from the
Southern society. He would know that they would not lift a finger to
save him from the certain wrath of the LTTE. The fate of almost 20
Tamil members of Army Intelligence (plus many civilians who provided
information to the state about the LTTE) is an invisible but potent
monument to the cowardice, ingratitude and stupidity of the Lankan
state and society. The fact that Mr. Paraman still decided to come
forward, to add his voice to those who dared to go against the
prevailing tide of cowardice and abasement gives one hope that all may
not be lost.
That is why Mr. Paraman's story should not be allowed to die. Whatever
we may feel about separatism, autonomy, self determination or
federalism, we should be united in our rejection of an entity which
keeps prisoners chained and in underground prisons. A state run by
such an entity would be an unmitigated nightmare, the playground and
the breeding ground of the subhuman and the barbaric. If such a state
is allowed to be born it will activate a trend which will go a long
way towards negating and nullifying all the hard won advances in the
realm of democracy and human rights in the last couple of centuries.
When the first Americans reached Buchenwld on April 11th, 1945 an
amazing sight met their eyes: "We turned a corner onto a main highway,
and saw thousands of ragged, hungry looking men, marching in orderly
formations, marching East. These men were armed and had leaders at
their sides… They laughed and waved wildly as they walked… These were
the inmates of Buchenwald, walking out to war as tanks swept by at 25
miles an hour" (Buchenwald, a Preliminary Report Egon W Fleck and
First Lieutenant Edward A Tenebaum Twelfth Army Group). The Nazis thus
failed in their effort to force their captives to abdicate their own
humanity. The organized resistance of the prisoners led by the
International Camp Committee (ILK) prevented the mass evacuation of
the camp, took over its administration when the Nazis fled at the
approach of the American Army, took 26 of the former SS guards captive
and handed the camp in an orderly fashion to the Americans: "instead
of a heap of corpses, or a disorderly mob of starving, leaderless men,
the Americans found a disciplined and efficient organization in
Buchenwald" (Ibid).
The times demand even greater courage from the people of Sri Lanka if
they are to avoid either living under or having as the only neighbour
a bestial state which is barbaric in its treatment of its own citizens
and voraciously expansionist towards its neighbours. The conduct of
Mr. Paraman proves that our society is still capable of such acts of
resistance. That is why others have to take the story from him and
carry it out to the world because that is the only way to prove that
it is not only submission and cowardice that pays, even in the short
term.