by
Hemantha Warnakulasuriya

(The writer a Presidents Counsel served as Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Italy)

After the 1983 black July riots, the cream of the Tamil intelligentsia spread their wings and settled right round the globe, especially concentrating in Europe. Like all minor ethnic groups, they flocked together in towns and cities where there was a heavy concentration of their own kith and kin.

Italy was the only country where the Sinhala population was larger than that of the Tamils. This was due to the fact that some of the Catholic missionaries, including the Jesuits, who came to Ceylon to spread the Gospels, after completing their mission, deciding to take along with them to Italy, some members of the Sri Lankan Catholic fraternity, who lived along the coastal belt and had become devout converts, as domestic aides.

Thus, flowed the Sri Lankan Catholic community from Negombo and other areas to Italy. The Tamils went to Europe for other reasons, firstly as refugees, running away from ethnic violence and others became economic refugees in Europe.

In Italy the pattern was similar and the Tamils were concentrated mainly in two provinces – Regio Emilliar and the ancient city of Palamore on the Island of Sicily. Others were scattered in towns like, Lecce, Modana and Milan.

I found that very few Tamils came to the Embassy to get their Consulor documents, like passports, authenticated by the Sri Lanka Embassy. Instead there were few Tamil brokers and agents who brought those Consulor documents to the Embassy.

On inquiry, I found that these miscreants, who acted as agents of the Tamil people, had deceived them by spreading false stories about the Sri Lanka Embassy. Mis-information and dis-information was not the sole prerogative of the LTTE. These agents did tell the Tamil people, that no one should ever go to the Sri Lanka Embassy as they could be arrested and deported to Sri Lanka, as most of them had come to Italy illegally and some of them may have connections with the LTTE. Most of them could neither speak Sinhala or English. They could only converse in Tamil. They spread the story that the Sri Lanka Embassy had only Sinhala staff who did not know Italian or Tamil.

I found that these agents were charging 100 to 300 Euros from those hapless innocent Tamils, who rarely complained as they were driven by the fear that they would be arrested and deported to Sri Lanka. At a meeting of the staff, it was suggested, by the senior diplomatic staff, that we should concentrate on developing a rapport with the Tamil community to prevent the Tamils being used by the LTTE for terrorist activities and collecting of funds.

It was decided that the Embassy should conduct Mobile Services and initiate the Consulor Division of the Embassy being taken to the doorstep of the Tamil people residing in those areas. We had constraints on utilizing Government funds and even the allocation granted by the Foreign Ministry was hardly sufficient to conduct Mobile Services.

In the meantime, we had a visitor, who had come to the Embassy from the province of Lecce, who was a Professor of Arts in a local University. He was interested in holding an Art Exhibition and wanted Sri Lanka to send authentic paintings for the Exhibition. He also invited us to the province of Lecce and said that there were about 500 Tamils living there. He invited the Embassy to conduct a Mobile Service in the province and said he would look after the expenses.

It was the first time that the Embassy has conducted a Mobile Service in an area where there were More Tamils than Sinhalese. The Mobile Service was a resounding success. On the first day, we found that the Tamils were reluctant to come to us. In fact, they had been prevented by the brokers and agents and warned not to enter the Mobile Service premises, which they claimed was technically Sri Lankan soil and that the Embassy would have the right to arrest and deport anyone who had violated the Sri Lankan emigration laws.

When we heard this, we decided to welcome every single participant and speak to them and tell them that this was their Embassy and we would treat them in the same manner that we would treat any other ethnic group. Our host, the Professor, provided them with soft drinks and victuals.

One Tamil woman, with a child, was brought before me. She was crying and when I asked her for the reasons of her sorrow, she said in Tamil, that she was overwhelmed with joy at the warm welcome given to her. She said that at that time, when the war was raging, her husband and one of her children were killed in the cross-fire. But, it was extremely difficult to accept any other country to live other than Sri Lanka, as it was her mother country. She said that the propaganda unleashed by the LTTE, warned them not to step into the Sri Lanka Embassy but to apply for refugee status. The LTTE collected 20 Euros per month from her and some times it went up to as much as 100 Euros per month and if the amount was not paid, they threatened to kill one of her sons, who was abducted by the LTTE and fighting for them.

“Even when we were living in the Vanni, we had no connections with the Sinhalese. We were told that the Sinhala Army would loot, rob all our belongings and kill us and go to the extent of even raping an old woman like me in order to take revenge from the Tamil people. They are hell bent on ethnic cleansing and would kill every Tamil to make Sri Lanka a Sinhala nation. But you have shown us this is false and that the Sinhala people are such pleasant, kind and loving people. Please give this message to others.”

The next day we had a huge turnout and the three or four persons on the staff could not cope up with the work and it went on till 11.00 p.m. One of the important cultural facets I noticed is that unlike the Sinhalese, the Tamil people in Lecce, have never lost their Sri Lankan identity. The women wore sarees and chewed beetle and spoke only Tamil. Men had to change from their Verti to trousers, but at home they lived in the same way they lived in the Vanni. They appealed to me to send them a teacher who could teach their young girls Katakali and Bharatha Natyam. They were a deeply religious people.

Their leader spoke to me and asked me when I thought the horrendous war would end. “We do not want a separate state or a separate identity.” We could see that every single Tamil who came to the Mobile Service had not torn or destroyed their passport and applied to become refugees in Italy. They said that their most precious possession was their Sri Lanka passport and their Sri Lanka identity. I told him that it is most unfortunate that they believed in false propaganda.

I explained to them that the Government’s effort was to defeat and destroy the terrorists and President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s aim, as a Southerner, was to bridge the gap between the South and North. He had promised that once the war was won he would devolve power to the periphery and the 13th Amendment would be fully implemented.

As he could read English, I gave him some circulars and Government publications, we had received from Colombo which elaborated the devolution of power to the Tamil people in the North. I reminded him that the efforts of the Sri Lankan and Indian Governments to implement the Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord was shattered by Prabhakaran. Then, he asked me “what about the JVP, DJV and other extreme Sinhala elements who opposed the Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord.” He reminded me that one of the strong leaders of the opposition, matinee idol Vijaya Kumaratunga who supported the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord was killed by the DJV.

I told him that these are historical mistakes we had made. But, the present Government had given an assurance that they would even go beyond the 13th Amendment and they would give authority to the Tamil people after the monstrous Prabhakaran and LTTE were destroyed. And I ask you as the leader of the Tamil community here to exhort and advice your people not to give funds to the LTTE and not to give secret information about their activities and to give any such information to me personally, so that your names would not be divulged.

Then he told me, Sir!, I believe you, but will the Sri Lankan leaders fulfill their promises if they win the war. Would they cheat us again This has been done for the umpteenth time. For instance D.S. Senanayaka, introducing the Indo-Pakistan Citizenship Act and disenfranchising thousands of Estate Tamils.

I told him that we had learnt bitter lessons from the past. Tamils are a very important cog in the wheel of progress. The Government will never go back on the undertakings given to the international community and after crushing the LTTE they will develop the North. We thereafter conducted several Mobile Services where the Tamils concentrate, like Regio Emillia and Palaroma.

With the help of the Italian Police and the Tamil people, who gave information about the LTTE, we were able to arrest more than 32 hardcore LTTE members. These community leaders were constantly in touch with me. They said “from December 1958 to date our people had shed more blood than any other ethnic group in Sri Lanka. We had been battered and bruised, our properties burnt and we suffered the ignominy of being paupers overnight.

It is not the politicians who advocate a separate state that suffer, their children study in England and in Europe but our children have no schools and an education as the LTTE continues to abduct not only young men but young women too. The community has suffered without any protests. Now the war is over and Prabhakaran is dead. We hope that we have also contributed by not collecting funds for the LTTE. ”

He said we have decided to support your efforts to bring about reconciliation. “We believe you, but let no one be permitted to question you on whether even you have cheated and reneged on your promises. This is the theme of the LTTE.

They say do no trust a Sinhalese even a dead one.We hope that the Sri Lanka Government would not cheat us again. Let us have no more tears as our tear ducts had got frozen and could shed any more,and let us all smile with our Sinhala and Muslim brothers and struggle for a united and undivided Mother Sri Lanka, where every community is proud of their ethnicity, their religion and their language,” he said .

I am no longer the Ambassador. I silently, in my prayers, ponder whether we have cheated them again?