An open letter from Appu: Please pardon me....

An open letter to my fellow Sri Lankans:

I understand why you would want to celebrate Prabhakaran’s death but please pardon me, if I don’t join in…

Prabhakaran’s death, or that of some fat lookalike, doesn't hide the fact that Prabhakaran’s cowboy adventures have attracted unprecedented violence, hatred and misery for the Tamils – so please pardon me if I don’t celebrate.

More civilians have died in the last four months than in 30 years of civil war – so please pardon me if I don’t celebrate.

Prabhakaran’s death is not going to do anything for the thousands of young Tamil and Sinhala boys and girls who died a pointless choreographed death – so please pardon me if I don’t celebrate.

Prabhakaran murdered all moderate Tamil leaders and left the Tamils in the custody of his old terrorist buddies ; Douglas, Karuna and Pillayan – so please pardon me if I don’t celebrate.

There are over three hundred thousand innocent civilians trapped in barbed wired squalor with no hope of living normal lives – so please pardon me if I don’t celebrate.

White van abductions, church attacks, murders, rapes, extortions and assaults are commonplace in Sri Lanka and it no longer resembles the paradise I was born in – so please pardon me if I don’t celebrate.

I have been disgusted by the shouts, the taunts, the insults and vitriol heaped upon the Tamils in the hours and days following the LTTE’s defeat – so please pardon me if I don’t celebrate.

I have been saddened by the flood of chauvinist emails, sms messages and blogs that have flowed in the hours and days following the LTTE’s defeat – so please pardon me if I don’t celebrate.

I’ve always thought that Prabhakaran was the ugly wound and not the cancer that plagued Sri Lanka and I am not convinced that his exit will cure the cancer that continues to fester within us – so please pardon me if I don’t celebrate.

... & so if you don't mind, I'll sit this one out and save my pissu-double-naetuma for when somebody's 'Heladiva' becomes 'my Sri Lanka' again!


Your Sri Lankan friend,

Gini Appu