From a Tutsi of RWANDA to the Tamil Brothers....!!!

From a Tutsi to the Tamil Brothers‏

Fra: V Sivasupramaniam (vijaratnamsiva@hotmail.com)
Sendt: 26. mai 2009 07:53:10
Til: itsampanthan@hotmail.com; shanmugappirabunalliah@hotmail.com; thambibuva@hotmail.com; vijaratnam sivasupramaniam (v_sivadevi@yahoo.com); atput m (atput@rogers.com)
DEAR FELLOW TAMILS!
Now is the time to evaluate the outcome of our efforts all over the world. Was it worth the trouble.? Did the world community help us?
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I am a Tutsi from Rwanda, my family and I moved to Canada in the early 90s.. This country is my home now. The fact that my daughters have a safe and secure life here is something that I thank the Lord for everyday.. Things are very normal back home. Putting the bitter past behind them, the Tutsis and the Hutus are living together as one people now. To me, no matter how well Rwanda changes, my country will always be Canada.

Almost all of my relatives including my brother and his family were killed in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Losing a loved one is one thing, but losing everyone you loved is totally another thing. I always had this guilt that I did not do enough to get the Canadian government involved to stop the massacre on time. On April 6th, the first day of the genocide, I got a call from my brother. He described that the situation was horrifying and pleaded that I somehow get the Canadian government to exert pressure on Kigali to bring an end to the violence. After my brother’s call, which unfortunately was the last time I ever spoke to him, I managed to rally some fellow Rwandans who were living in Toronto and approached our local MP. He promised us that he would take the issue up with his peers and try to do something at his earliest. That was it. Assuaged by the MP’s assurance, we stopped trying to do more to stop the carnage. We were all too busy listening to the news and frantically trying check if our relatives were okay back home. Before long, millions perished and the rest is history. But to me, I always blamed myself for not going beyond talking to our local MP. Not trying harder. Not doing enough. This was something that I was not able to forgive myself for. The feeling of guilt was indescribable and I eventually fell into a depression.

Recently, I started hearing about what is happening in Sri Lanka and witnessed the tenacious protests that are staged by the Tamils all around the world calling an end to the violence. Unlike us Tutsis, Tamils have almost half of their population living outside of the country. They are united in voicing against the government of Sri Lanka for the killings of their brethren. And, they are not planning to stop at anything until the safety of the people is guaranteed and a permanent cessation of hostilities is accomplished. I am not here to argue the politics of Sri Lanka nor defend the Tamils. What I oppose are the killings. Whether it is the Sri Lankan government or the Tamil Tigers, the killings of innocent people must stop.

What I was also observing is that the sheer emotions expressed by these protesters. I work in downtown Toronto and I always walk up to these protests and quietly observe them during my lunch hours. They are from all walks of life. I saw a young girl giving an emotional interview to a local TV. She could not hold her emotions back as she was describing how she had not heard from her family from the conflict zone. Having experienced similar situation, I was able to understand her helplessness, anger, and frustration. I knew then what these people really want is the killings to stop. Simple as that.

At the beginning, a part of me envied the Tamils. They are very united, well organized and turned up in large numbers for a singular goal of stopping the genocide of their people. They are pretty much staging similar protests all over the world. They are trying to bring to light the atrocities committed against their people. I wondered if Tutsi had a cohesive Diaspora community like the Tamils, we could have altered the history and saved hundreds of thousands of innocent lives, if not millions.

Because of the similarities, I was naturally interested in Tamils and their protests. I was interested in the effects these protests were having in the countries they were staged. I was on the Internet reading news articles and visiting forums trying to learn as much as possible. The reaction by the mainstream population came as a huge surprise to me. I was literally shocked to read some of the articles written of the protests by the media outlets. They were all very negative. Some of them paid more attention to the minor inconveniences they had caused. Some described them as supporting terrorists. Nobody bothered to see why these people were turning up in thousands, skipping work and often braving bad weather. They did not want to talk about the genocide of Tamils as it was happening in a far away corner of the world. Talk shows were in full force smouldering about the traffic jams. Almost all the media outlets postulated that the protests were organized by the Tamil Tigers. Not surprisingly, there were some obvious racist remarks. All these really made me wonder if I was really living in a free society, as we often like to boast. An article by Raphael Alexander on National Post titled “Tamils tie up Ottawa for days in support of Tiger terrorists” was particularly emblematic of the ignorance and indifference. This reminded me of the irresponsible acts of people who were working at Radio Rwanda and Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines prior to and during the time of the Rwandan genocide, constantly inciting violence and negative stereotypes against Tutsis, calling them cockroaches. Mr. Alexander stopped short of calling the Tamils cockroaches. This article was just an example of many I have come across. The muted and negative response by the mainstream community, the media and the political leaders to the peaceful, democratic and worthy protests was pretty much universal. The so-called free world was not open enough to listen to the helpless. Shame on them!

The reaction, or lack thereof, to the Tamil protests in the Western world really got me thinking. If Tutsis had staged similar protests during the 94 genocide, what would have been the outcome? It would have been absolutely nothing! We would have been labelled as something convenient to discredit our agitations. And, nothing would have been done to stop the genocide.

This is something I want all the Tamils to realize. They are barking at the wrong trees. They can now block the University Avenue today and Young Street tomorrow. This country or any other Western countries for that matter would do absolutely nothing. It is not in their interest to help you. It is a sad reality. A vast majority of the people in the West are self-centered and are ignorant of the outside world. They have lost the basic human emotions such as compassion and kindness along the way. For them, a movie like ‘Hotel Rwanda’ or ‘The Killing Fields’ on a Friday night after a full meal may help toy with some of these long lost emotions. Sadly, these protests will do no good to the suffering Tamils in Sri Lanka. I would suggest that instead of standing in front of the US embassy, stand in front of Rwandan or Cambodian embassies. There is a better chance of your voices being heard. The way I see it, your only hope is the Tamil Tigers. Only they can save the Tamils. In our case, only our rebels saved the rest of the Tutsis, not the Americans or the French. Given the status of the Tamil Tigers now, even that is questionable. Only God can help you.

Ironically, one good thing happened to me through all this. I no longer have to wrestle with the guilt of not doing enough. It would not have made any difference anyways! Knowing that, now I can move on with my life accepting what had happened. Thank you Tamils for helping me achieve this mental peace.

Eloge Butera (eloge.butera@gmail.com)
Toronto, Canada
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முயலும் வெல்லும்!
ஆமையும் வெல்லும்!!
முயலாமை வெல்லாது!!!