It was the week before my sister’s wedding- and we were all ecstatic to celebrate. The wedding happened at a time of constant Sinhala harassment and torture. As such, we had to seek permission from the Army to congregate – we gave them a list of the attendees and the reason for our gathering. On the second day of the wedding festivities, the army came to my town and detained all the male members in the surrounding neighbourhoods—including me and those at the wedding. The army took us away on foot, as we feared for our lives.
The officers temporarily detained us and waited on a superior’s order to take us away to prison.
The thing that stung the most was that there were often informers within our towns working for the army and their job was to point out those with potential connections to the Tigers. Their word was treated as gospel by the Sinhala army, as those outed by the informers would immediately get sent to prison, oftentimes never coming back. The betrayal from these informers stung more than the brutality of the Sri Lankan Army because you’d expect your own people to have your back.
The superior officer eventually came to our holding spot, and luckily knew about our request to hold a gathering for the wedding. He then asked for the names of those who were at the wedding, and I, along with my relatives were allowed to go home. Sadly, there were others present who were not sent home with us. It was the last time I would see many of those men.
To this day, I still remember the climate of constant fear and harassment I was forced to live in. The Tigers represented our only hope to fight back against the tyranny of the Sri Lankan Army, and I am forever in debt for the price they paid for our freedom.
Although it was difficult leaving my homeland, I hoped by leaving, my children would be spared the indignity of being treated like second class citizens because of their heritage. But the reality is that even in Canada our people continue to be criminalized. The ban on the LTTE has been used to justify Canada’s criminalization of the Tamil diaspora and those seeking refuge. It is not only the Sri Lankan state but many of these world powers that now threaten us with arrests, deportations and persecution based on terrorist rhetoric. By challenging the removal of the ban, we get one step closer to demanding our sovereignty and self-determination.
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