Sunday Times.lk, SriLanka
Jan 15 2012
Why Eelam war not over in Washington
The US capital can be a frontline for international combatants
By Emily Wax
Despite differences that spurred civil war and cost tens of thousands
of lives, the Tamils and the Sinhalese from Sri Lanka have at least
one thing in common: a love of tea. But some Tamil Americans say they
are cautious when they go to Dupont Circle’s Teaism because their
archenemies – the ethnically Sinhalese Sri Lankan Embassy staff –
might also be in there sipping Ceylon green from the old country.
“We would prefer not to have any big, public arguments right now,”
said Vimala Ranjithan, a Tamil American physician who lives in
Cumberland, Md.
The quarter-century-long civil war between the separatist Tamil Tiger
rebel group and the largely Sinhalese Sri Lankan government officially
ended in 2009. But halfway around the world, the two groups continue
to come to verbal blows, enduring awkward run-ins at seemingly neutral
locales.
“They can target you,” said Ranjithan, who wears a disguise with
sunglasses when she goes to a protest against what she considers the
Sri Lankan government’s discrimination against Tamils. She echoes a
fear that many Tamil Americans voiced in interviews: that their
critical words in Washington could result in the arrest or harassment
of relatives back home.
War is not over in Washington: Grace Williams carrying out her
boycott-Lanka campaign. Pic courtesy Washington Post/Sarah L. Voisin
Sri Lankan Americans aren’t the only Washingtonians who find
themselves avoiding their foes on the streets of downtown Washington.
The de facto capital of the world is a high-profile stage for
expatriate rivals who, on their own turf, might be engaged in
guerrilla warfare. Instead, they avoid one another at suburban strip
malls, skirt confrontation at embassy cultural events or duck punches
at political meet-ups when fights break out over conflicts that are
unfolding thousands of miles away.
In Washington’s international circles, the acrimonious relations
between long-standing enemies such as India and Pakistan, Palestinians
and Israel, and Tibet and China are well-known, not least because they
have some of the most organized and well-funded advocacy groups in the
country. But the alleged high-profile Iranian plot to assassinate the
Saudi ambassador to Washington while he dined at his favorite
restaurant was just one example of the subterfuge and animosities
still smoldering just under the city’s surface.
What happens in D.C.
>From his offices on Capitol Hill, Fred Turner’s job is to focus on how
these conflicts unfold on the ground in Washington. “The truth is that
Washington still plays an outsize role on the world stage. And what
happens in Washington gets reported back to Budapest, Bakou or Berlin.
Of course, that amplifies what happens here,” said Turner, deputy
chief of staff for the independent U.S. Helsinki Commission, a
government agency whose mission is to monitor the frozen conflicts,
human rights violations and security breaches in 56 nations in Europe
and Central Asia.
For example, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus has a K Street
office in Washington. Those who live there consider themselves an
independent country, even though the U.S. government does not
recognize them as one. It’s known to the rest of the region as
occupied Northern Cyprus, separate since Turkish troops invaded in
1974.
When the Helsinki Commission recently held a hearing on the
destruction of religious property “in Cyprus,” representatives of the
Turkish Embassy got upset and asked that the hearing’s name be
changed, Turner said. The commission invited the Government of Turkey
to participate, but it declined.
“We’re looking at these issues here every single day,” Turner said.
“Even a simple movie screening has instigated diplomatic fireworks.”
Frontline: Washington
One such fireworks display took place recently, when the Sri Lankan
Embassy hosted a screening of the government-produced film “Lies
Agreed Upon” during a briefing in Congress on rebuilding the country.
The documentary is a rebuttal of reporting by Britain’s Channel 4 News
on alleged war crimes perpetrated by the Sri Lankan government.
Tamil American groups in the area quickly voiced objections. Among
them was Grace Williams, a Tamil American who came to the United
States in 1978. During an interview, she lugs out an encyclopedia-size
photography book with the blunt title “Genocide in Sri Lanka.” It
includes hundreds of pictures of anti-Tamil riots, chronicles the
disappearances of Tamil men and lists names of allegedly assassinated
Tamil political party leaders.
This isn’t the first time that Williams, 54, a Bowie resident and
retired health-care advocate for special-needs children, has been
drawn back into the 26-year conflict. After she took part in a summer
memorial ceremony outside the Capitol honouring the Tamil dead,
someone speaking in the Sinhalese language left a threatening message
on her voice mail, she said.
“I called both my senators,” said Williams, who is also assistant
secretary of the U.S. Tamil Political Action Council, a Tamil activist
group. “They shouldn’t be doing this in America. But Washington is
where these fights are often fought – Washington is another frontline
of these conflicts.”
Sri Lankan Ambassador Jaliya Wickramasuriya said in an interview that
Tamil American groups are usually fronts for the Tamil Tigers, a rebel
movement long on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations. In 2006,
the FBI investigated the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization, which has
a branch in Cumberland, for allegedly financing the Tamil Tigers
through a tsunami relief fund. The U.S. Department of the Treasury
shut the charity down when the allegations were substantiated. (Tamil
Americans say the accusations were unfair and that funds were indeed
used to help victims of the tsunami.)
“We work with the U.S. and FBI to try and figure out who is connected
and who is not,” said the ambassador, who added that he thinks most
Tamil Americans just want to help rebuild the country. “The diaspora
is very active in Washington, and it keeps these issues alive, even
when people back home have moved on.”
Century-old hostilities
Although some of the tensions between international antagonists are
high-level and unfold in official channels, they also manifest
quietly, as chilly silences or suspicious glances between individuals
from warring nations.
On a recent evening, Ali Abudul Latif, a cabdriver from northern
Sudan, was surprised to find that the new nation of South Sudan, with
which his country spent years at war, was holding a conference in
Washington. Salva Kiir, the new country’s president, was even speaking
at a downtown hotel.
Latif fled Sudan because he was a teacher and didn’t want to fight.
But when he found himself picking up fares at the very hotel where
Kiir, once South Sudan’s top rebel commander, was being feted, it
wasn’t the taste of home he was looking for in Washington. “I’m still
wishing we could be one nation,” he said as he began to drive.
“Washington is far away from home, yet home to so many enemies.”
Time has proved as ineffectual as distance in quelling such disputes.
In April, members of Washington’s Armenian community held a silent
vigil at the Turkish Embassy to commemorate the Armenian genocide of
1915 to 1923. On the other side of the street, vigil participants say,
those sympathetic to the Turkish government, which does not
acknowledge that the events of the era constituted genocide, waved
baseball bats and sang and danced in the streets. The police were
called.
Turkish people who attended the counter-rally but asked not to be
named said they were simply mocking the idea of protesting such an old
issue. “It’s totally rude,” said Aram Hamparian, who lives in Bethesda
and is executive director of the Washington-based Armenian National
Committee of America. “Armenian Americans were deeply hurt to see that
allies of Ankara were not simply denying the Armenian genocide but
actually celebrating the destruction of an entire nation.”
Seeking a voice
Perversely, many of these combatants are drawn to Washington for the
same reason: Its proximity to the U.S. government makes it an ideal
base for lobbying efforts. “Our arsenal is not weapons,” said Nick
Larigakis, president of the American Hellenic Institute, which
promotes U.S. relations with Greece and Cyprus and is often at odds
with Turkey’s goals. “It’s having a voice in Washington where we can
use the rule of law to provide credibility to our arguments.”
Sometimes there are victories.
Turkey was allegedly denying religious freedom to Ecumenical Patriarch
Bartholomew, who is head of the Greek Orthodox minority in Istanbul
but also the spiritual leader of all Orthodox Christians.
But steady lobbying by the Greek community here to recent
administrations helped pressure Turkey to improve religious freedoms
there, said Andy Manatos, who, along with his father, Mike Manatos,
runs one of Washington’s most powerful lobbyist firms.
“Washington is far and away the most effective place if you want your
issues addressed,” said Manatos, who focuses on international issues
and also does pro-bono work for the Greek Orthodox Church. “If you can
convince the most powerful people in the world of the truth of your
cause, I know of no place in the world better for advocating your
issue.”
Protesting, but warily
…On a cold December day, on the cobblestone streets of Old Town
Alexandria, the Tamil American community said their fight was far from
over. They were holding up signs that read, “Victoria’s Dirty Little
Secret” and “Big GAP in ethics” in front of Banana Republic and the
Gap, warning shoppers to check labels, lest they buy clothing made in
Sri Lanka, where they say human rights violations are continuing and
Tamils are being forced off their land by the government.
“We need jobs in America, not in a country accused of war crimes,”
they chanted. The wind was piercing, but under a banner that read
“Stop Tamil Genocide” they had their cause to keep them warm. And
Williams and the other protesters were there, dressed in oversize hats
and sunglasses – just in case the enemy was watching.
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