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  • Why Eelam war not over in Washington

    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.


    http://www.sundaytimes.lk/120115/Timestwo/int08.html

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