Jaffna varsity teachers assert right to mourn
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The Jaffna University Science Teachers’ Association has
condemned the closure of the university between May 16 and 20, pointing
to intimidation and repression of free discussion on campus.
It
said that some university professors and student leaders received death
threats warning them against holding any commemoration for those who
lost their lives during the war, alleging that they were trying to
revive the LTTE.
Earlier this month, the registrar of
the university had sent out a circular announcing that the university
and its hostels will remain closed from May 16 to 20, which coincides
with the days that the country’s ethnic conflict ended.
“Why
should Tamils speaking of the war be such an explosive issue five years
after it ended, a war in which neither side owned a monopoly on
terrorism?” the university teachers asked, in a strongly-worded
statement titled ‘In the shadow of war and peace on a war-footing’
released on Tuesday. The statement assumes significance for it comes
from a group of academics who are not affiliated to any political party,
at a time when most people in northern Sri Lanka are hesitating to
speak fearing surveillance. The Sri Lankan government has, over the last
few months, maintained there was an attempt to revive the LTTE in the
island’s Tamil-speaking north. Pointing to the ‘Victory Day’ celebration
– to mark the end of the war — to be observed by the Sri Lankan armed
forces in Matara, the teachers asked why the Tamils alone were barred
from remembering those who died during the war.
“The
Tamil people should have the freedom to mourn collectively the untimely
death of a large number of members of their community whether or not
the dead persons are members of their family,” the note said.
“While
the Government wants to use the war for political deception, it is only
to be expected that its obverse, in the wake of hopelessness and
humiliation in being forced to accept the Sinhalisation of their lands
and symbols, and the erasure of huge civilian suffering in the latter
months of the war, might lead to latent nostalgia for the LTTE – despite
the anger against its holding the civilians hostage in the last stages
of the war,” it said. The only way to deal with such nostalgia is allow
people to express themselves freely, and to ensure that the mechanisms
of justice function to eradicate, and not to instate impunity, the
statement said. When The Hindu earlier spoke to registrar V. Kandeepan on why the university was closed, he cited pending repair work as reason.
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