The Silent Genocide of Tamils

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Poetry for Justice

'Victims Without A Voice' is a poetry campaign designed to raise global awareness and consciousness of the Sri Lankan Tamil genocide.

More than fifty thousand ethnic Tamils were massacred to death in northern Sri Lanka between January to May 2009. Over 300,000 have been imprisoned in detention camps. Thousands more are disappeared, displaced and exiled from their traditional homeland.

We witnessed during the Apartheid in South Africa that poetry is the language of hope. Poetry gave voice to those who suffered in silence and subjugation. The literature of activists such as Steve Biko, Mazisi Kunene and Dennis Brutus spurred on the political ideals of anti-apartheid popular movements. Many of their works not only infused solidarity in the face of harsh oppression, preserved identity and galvanised audiences; but also drove the momentum for change. They needed a reason to speak, but none to keep silent. It's time we too raised our voices!

Speak Up. Save Lives!

The conflict in Sri Lanka claimed at least thirty times as many civilian lives as that in Gaza; the conditions in its camps are more ghastly even than those in Gaza; and Tamils in the newly re-conquered areas face a more total military occupation than most Palestinians. A genocide was staged whilst the international community kept silent to the carnage.

In its aftermath, after more than one year still mothers walk miles to look for their lost children, while mother-to-be walk post to post looking for their husbands, while in orphanages children without parents keep watching the gates for their parents' arrival. Thousands are kept behind barbed wires in internment camps and access to people's ancestral homes are denied, while the colonising army set up bases and check posts all over the territory.

A nation is being destroyed without any trace while good-will nations behave as though they need moral steroids to speak out. In the continued silence of the international community, gets silenced a nation's call for justice, because they are victims without voices.

Victims Without Voices

by Jay A. Jasan

Genocide of Tamils

Like the last cries of a herd of sheep,
Facing cruel cull amidst baying wolves,
Stood thousands Tamils facing slaughter
Among murderous army with cynical laughter;
Gleeful of ensuing massacre of innocent lives.
Skyward, echoed around walls of power, yells
Of protest and plea for mercy of thousands.
No power on earth moved-so perished thousands.
Silenced by the very silence of flawed conscience
Of moral high landers and so born us -
The Victims without voices.

Beyond massacre, mass graves and genocide,
Beneath false surface of normalcy, besides ecocide,
Wombs of yesterday walk in search of off springs,
Mums-to-be reach post to post in search of husbands.
Barbed wires weep at those detained behind them.
Curbed villagers scorn at schemes which deny their homes.
Kids many that defied death in the murderous onslaught,
Sit in orphanages, a lot in shock, rest in mental drought.
Sky much our agony, so little known of this tragedy
Because, we are the - The Victims without voices.

A nation being decimated and destroyed,
While nations of goodwill seem to need steroid
To break their silence and speak for us - silent victims.
A community of people pushed to extinction
While people of conscience lack moral conviction
To break their silence and speak for us - silent victims
In these civil and morally defunct valleys perish we -
The Victims without voices.

~ Jay A. Jasan ~

Waiting For Justice

"I have travelled around the world and visited similar places, but this is by far the most appalling scenes I have seen" (UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, May 2009)
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  • Reply
    Peacelover Nov 5, 2010 @ 9:55 pm | delete
    I lost trust in Humanity, My beleive in religon is slowly fading away, because of the suffering of tamils in the island, which is unanimously named as Srilanka by majority sinhalese in 1972.
    Tamils have suffered enough in that island nation(s) for almost 62 years since the so called independence from Britain in 1948 and it is continuing until to this day. I hope Amnesty with other other human rights organizations will help to bring justice to tamils and help them enjoy peace, freedom and equal rights as every other citizen in that nation, which I call as Ilankai or Eezham.
  • Reply
    cyclopseven Sep 20, 2010 @ 9:01 am | delete
    The world appears to quitely watching the drama by the Sinhala Regime like serials on TV. They closed their eyes, thus pretend like being blind to the bloody carnage performed in the name of war. Any civilised nation would respond immediately to the pathetic cries of people oppressed by this cowards. Sri Lanka is play-acting a drama to steal time to hide the perpetuated crime, while at the same time to obliterate whatever evidence which can implicate them. What UNITED NATION is doing is nothing more than having a cup of evening tea in a posh villa of a violently rich man, namely Rajapak-shit. It is a shame the world is closing both eyes to the brutish crime. Sri Lanka should and must be brought to face the War Crime Tribunal and expose every dirty tactics used, not just to defeat LTTE, but also to reduce the population of the Tamils under the name of war. Please act for the sake of HUMANITY.
  • Reply
    Elapriyan Sep 19, 2010 @ 1:41 am | delete
    Its a long long delay to deliver justice to the victims of war. Time buying tactics by the Sri Lankan and its band of supporting countries should be exposed to the civilized world and made to face the facts and face an international trial.
  • Reply
    ambi Sep 18, 2010 @ 8:41 am | delete
    The Rajapakse Govt is the similar to Saddam Hussain regime. Saddam Killed the innocent Kurds and Rajepakse killed the Innocent Tamils. If this is not understood by the other countries You can expect more and more breaches of Human rights. Please take action Now
  • Reply
    Theiventhiran Kanthia Sep 7, 2010 @ 9:12 pm | delete
    Like in the cases of Armenians, and then the Jews, decades ago, the whole world has beenwaiting and watching while the Sri Lankan Government had been acting with impunity for the last 30 years to confiscate the lands of these poor people, to destroy the cultural artifacts and historical records of yonder years, bomb their churches and temples and schools, forcefully subject women folk to abortion, murder their parliamentary representatives and finally starve them to death. Please, mark my words: It will be too late when we read these very same things later on in a history book and shed crocodile tears. These people have been completely broken by the Sri Lankan Government. They do not have the strength or means to plead to you once more. Please do something now, not later.
  • Reply
    Sumu Sep 7, 2010 @ 9:06 am | delete
    Tamil People have faced enough hardship. Free them and bring investigations again the Srilankan government.

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