A film about a Tamil Human Right's worker, who fought the LTTE, the IPKF and the Sri Lankan Government is making waves. The few lines on Rajani Thiranagama set me off Googling about the lady. When people assasinate Jaffna University's Head of the Anatomy Department, while she cycled her way back home, it fails to remain as a mere statistic. The more I read about her, the more humbled I am.
When doctors were too frightened to reveal an IPKF massacre at Jaffna Hospital in October 1987 which left 70 staff and patients dead, and were even afraid publicly to commemorate their dead colleagues, Rajani interviewed survivors…
With a handful of other women, Rajani cycled throughout the region, collecting information on the murders and tortures, and on the rapes that are a widespread but shamefully hidden consequence of the conflicts. She listed the experiences of the mothers and young girls, counseling them and giving them whatever they needed from whatever she had…
3 comments:
Thanks for sharing this Hemanth.
Yes, we need to see the "other" side of India [IPKF atrocities and suchlike]....
My wife was present in Jaffna during the IPKF period. IPKF bulldozed her house because the LTTE ambushed an IPKF convey nearby. When I was a grade one student, I used to stay at a friends place after school until my parents picked me. The IPKF shot and killed everyone in that family. IPKF commanders systematically looted civilian houses. I was attending a party in 1988 in my school in Canada when I overheard a local Indian psychiatrist talking about his brother, who was a commander in the IPKF. He said his brother brought 100s of TV sets and gave one to each relative. He boasted that all of them confiscated from the LTTE. When I mentioned that they were probably all looted from the Tamil civilians, the psychiatrist was very offended.
BTW, Rajini was murdered by an EPDP member on the orders of the IPKF. Her crime was to expose the IPKF's massacre doctors and nurses in the Jaffna hospital.
After her death, her organization, University Teachers for Human Rights (UTHR), was hijacked by two criminals who were punished by the LTTE for corruption. These two individuals subsequently got fundings from the Sri Lankan army to publish "human rights" reports. In these reports, the two criminals repeated the lie that Rajini was killed by the LTTE.
BTW, it should be noted that these reports never published anything about the Chemmani mass graves where scores of Tamils were buried. That was outted by a Sinhala soldier!
Hemanth,
For the past several months I have been researching the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka and went through over 3000 pages of material.
Rajani's life is quite symbolic of life in Sri Lanka where there are never permanent foes or friends and where life is cheap. The other thing is several killings go unresearched - you know never who was behind it.
Rajani and her sister Nirmala were foreign-educated. In 1971 the marxist Janata Vimukti Peramuna tried to overthrow the government. It was unsuccessful and 25000 of its men were killed by the govt. Rest of its leaders went underground.
Rajani fell in love and married one of them around 1977. He went underground in 82 as the govt began cracking down on the JVP leaders.
Rajani's US-educated sister Nirmala joined the Eelam movement in the early 80s with her husband both of them were lecturers in Jaffna University.
The first LTTE martyr was shot behind their home, as he was fleeing after taking refuge there.
This was Nov 1982.
Rajani and Nirmala both left Sri Lanka during the turbulent 80s and returned later.
In Nov 1989, SL cracked down on the JVP - Ranjan Wijeratne vowed to eliminate 80,000 of their men. They got the founder himself and executed him in 1989. Few days earlier Rajani was killed.
Although LTTE is suspected, few really know the truth. Did the LTTE kill someone whose own sister served them for so long? Was it the government?
We will never know.
You are welcome to contact me if you are interested in reading more. Anita Pratap's Island of Blood is a good book.
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