•Written by William T. Dowell• ••Friday•, 20 •February• 2009 10:54•
Tamil mourners crowded into a small Catholic church a few blocks form the Palais Nations on Friday to pay their last respects to Murukathasan Vanakulasingam. The 27-year old former computer science graduate had doused himself with gasoline turning into a human torch in front of the main gates to the United Nations at eight o’clock on Thursday night, February 12. His suicide was intended to protest what he believed to be the failure of the UN and the international community to respond effectively to the massacre of innocent Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka.
Tamils at the funeral told me that they believed the lack of media interest was one reason that the slaughter was allowed to continue. TIME Magazine had recently listed Sri Lanka as one of the three most under reported international stories. The irony in Murukathasan’s martyrdom is that it went virtually unreported in both the Swiss and international press. His parents in England, where he was currently as a stock clerk in a Sainsbury supermarket, only learned that he had died by scouring Tamil internet blogs. In a letter that was found 30 feet from Murukathasan’s charred body, he explained, “I have no words to wake up the international community. The flames over my body will be a torch to guide Tamils to the path of liberation.”
Friends said that Murukathasan had become obsessed by news reports coming from Sri Lanka lately. The government in Sri Lanka believes that it will soon be able to wipe out the last Tamil Tiger holdouts, but Tamils attending the funeral said that they all consider themselves to be tigers, and that Tamils everywhere will rally to what is happening in the country. One Tamil estimated that there are probably a quarter million Tamils now living in England. Human rights organizations are critical of both sides. The government is blamed for indiscriminately using bombs and artillery fire against civilians in the eagerness to get at the resistance. The Tigers are blamed for using civilians as human shields, and for using suicide bombers to assassinate government figures. Shortly after the funeral, reports came in that two airplanes belonging to the Tamil Tigers had bombed government offices back in Sri Lanka. With such intense emotions on both sides, it is hard to see a workable solution short of allowing Tamils to establish their own homeland. That is what the Tamils have been demanding all along.
Regardless of who is right or wrong, the human cost and emotions that have resulted from the conflict are hard to ignore.
While Murukathasan’s sacrifice was widely honored, Friday, more thoughtful Tamils warned against repeats. “We don’t want any further incidents like this,” Thaya Idaikadder, a Tamil leader in England said,”Even though I appreciate and admire his courage and what he ahs done, I am pleading with people not to do it.”
Subscribe to this comment's feed
