« ‘Un dieu ne peut pas mourir.’ Divergences des récits sur la défaite des Tigres de libération de l’Eelam Tamoul » par Giacomo Mantovan et Lola Guyot (Critique internationale )

Giacomo Mantovan et Lola Guyot ont corédigé un article portant sur « ‘Un dieu ne peut pas mourir.’ Divergences des récits sur la défaite des Tigres de libération de l’Eelam Tamoul ». Cet article a été publié dans la revue Critique internationale.

Source : Mantovan G. et L. Guyot, in Critique internationale, 101, n°4, 2023-12-01, p. 77-98

Résumé : Après avoir mené une longue guerre contre le gouvernement sri lankais (1983-2009), suscitant de grands espoirs de victoire chez les combattants et les activistes de la diaspora tamoule, le mouvement armé des Tigres de libération de l’Eelam tamoul (LTTE) a été totalement anéanti en 2009. Bien que partageant le même objectif, les activistes de la diaspora et les anciens combattants en exil produisent des récits de cet événement très différents. Les premiers passent sous silence la destruction du mouvement armé et la mort de son dirigeant, et minimisent la défaite en déclarant que la victoire est toujours à portée de main. Les seconds racontent sans détours l’anéantissement de leur organisation, ainsi que l’effondrement qui s’est ensuivi de leur culture, de leur imaginaire et de leur manière d’être au monde. En cherchant à comprendre les raisons de ces différences, nous nous interrogeons sur les liens entre la production mémorielle et les trajectoires de mobilisation (démobilisation et remobilisation) des militants. Les efforts des vaincus pour donner sens à des années de lutte, à l’expérience de la défaite et à celle de l’impuissance politique sont ainsi analysés à l’aune des dynamiques de capitulation ou de résurrection de la lutte dans lesquelles s’inscrivent les différents acteurs.

 

 

” ‘A God cannot die’: Divergent narratives about the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam” ‘by Giacomo Mantovan and Lola Guyot (Critique Internationale)

Giacomo Mantovan and Lola Guyot co-authored an article entitled ‘“A God Cannot Die”: Divergent Accounts of the Defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam’. The article was published in the journal Critique internationale.

Summary

After waging a long war against the Sri Lankan government (1983-2009), raising high hopes of victory among combatants and activists in the Tamil diaspora, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were totally annihilated in 2009. Although they share the same objective, diaspora activists and ex-combatants in exile have developed very different narratives about this event. The former, on the one hand, gloss over the destruction of the armed movement and the death of its leader and play down the defeat by declaring that victory is within reach. The latter, on the other hand, give a detailed account of the annihilation of their organisation, as well as the ensuing collapse of their culture, their imagination, and their way of being in the world. In seeking to understand the reasons for these differences, this article examines the links between memory production and the mobilisation trajectories (demobilisation and remobilisation) of activists. The efforts of defeated actors to make sense of years of struggle, the experience of defeat, and political impotence are studied in light of their various political trajectories, between capitulation and attempts to resurrect the struggle.

source: Mantovan G. & L. Guyot, in Critique internationale, 101, n°4, 2023-12-01, p. 77-98

“Eelamarasu Times: How a revolutionary movement gave rise to a Tamil press in Paris” by Delon Madavan and Anthony Goreau-Ponceaud (Dvar magazine)

In his inaugural release, Dvar magazine has published “Eelamarasu Times: How a revolutionary movement gave rise to a Tamil press in Paris“, a condensed translation of an academic article, authored by Dr Anthony Goreau-Ponceaud and Dr Delon Madavan published in Paris, Capitale Polyphonique
 
About the authors:
Since 2008, Anthony has been engaged in research on the Tamil diaspora, examining the trajectories and experiences of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees, particularly in Tamil Nadu, South India.
Delon was born in France to parents originally from Jaffna, Sri Lanka. For the past twenty years, Delon’s research has focused on migration, identity and integration of Tamil populations in several cities around the world (Jaffna, Colombo, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Paris and Montreal).

“Complexity of “Loyalty”, “Betrayal” and Metaphors of Eelam in Shobhasakthi’s “Traitor”” by

“Shobhasakthi’s Traitor ends with a surrealistic description where an old man wandering about the mountains with a corpse which he carries – a corpse which he uses to entertain, disgust and even to drive away people; which he sometimes uses for his own sustenance – encounters a carter going uphill caught in a predicament with its horse which wouldn’t budge. The carter whispers in the horse’s ear, tries a mild stroking from its whip and – all failing – thrashes the beast with all his might. The old man, who with his corpse is seated nearby, is visibly moved and intervenes. This abstraction with which the novel ends is a surrealistic summing up of the fate of the Eelamist struggle and the fate of its various stakeholders.”

via: http://slwakes.wordpress.com/2014/12/27/complexity-of-loyalty-betrayal-and-metaphors-of-eelam-in-shobhasakthis-traitor/

Communiqué de presse du Conseil International de l’Eelam Tamoul (ICET) sur la Résolution prise par la Commission des Droits de l’Homme

Nous partageons pour information le communiqué de presse diffusé par le Conseil International de l’Eelam Tamoul (ICET), sur la position de la diaspora tamoule eelamiste, sur la sur la Résolution prise par la Commission des Droits de l’Homme.

ICET Communique de Press -Geneva Press Club- 21 March 2014-1 (1)-1

 

Source: Conseil International de l’Eelam Tamoul (ICET)

2009 pro LTTE demonstration at Batu Caves (Malaysia) by Delon Madavan

This is the translation of an article published in french for the website Cafégéo. The website invites in its rubric “Carte postale” contributors to give the analyse of a photography. The 2009 pro LTTE demonstration, hold on 24th May 2009 at Batu Caves in Malaysia, has been chosen as case study for this exercice.

 

(photography taken on May 24, 2009  at Batu Caves, Malaysia)

 The choice of location is not insignificant. Batu Caves, with its large golden statue of the god Murugan, is one of the largest Hindu temple outside of India. It is from this holy place, located at 13 km from Kuala Lumpur, that Malaysian Tamils ​mobilise to condemn the genocide which affects those in Sri Lanka. Photographs of children and women victims of bombings echo the explicit banners denouncing, in Tamil and in English, the atrocities that were committed deliberately against civilians (“Stop genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka”, “Punish Sri Lankan State Terrorism”, “Your silence smacks of approval of genocide”). The organizers wish to attract the attention of Malaysian and international public opinion on the humanitarian catastrophe that touches the largest minority of that country. Indeed, the last phase of the conflict, which opposed the Sri Lankan army and the LTTE separatists (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam), has cost the lives of 20,000 civilians. Furthermore, despite the proclamation of the victory of Colombo, 280,000 civilians still remain, after several months of fighting, locked up in overcrowded internment camps without any presence of international observers.

The Tamil Malaysian community also intends to press for his government to withdraw its support for the Sri Lankan government that seeks the support of a third of the countries to present a draft resolution, preventing the UN to open an investigation into the possible war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the last months of the conflict.

The portraits of the late separatists’ leader, V. Prabhakaran, and Tigers flags worn by the demonstrators leave no doubt about their commitment to the creation of an independent state for Tamils ​​in Sri Lanka: the Tamil Eelam.

In contrast, leaders of some states are clearly presented as objective enemies of the separatist cause. Several banners caricature as devils Sri Lankan (President Rajapakse) and Indian (Indian Prime Minister M. Singh and Sonia Gandhi, President of the Congress Party and wife of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi assassinated by the LTTE) political leaders. The head of the Sri Lankan state is compared to Hitler and is presented as the primary reason for the Tamil genocide. While the demonstrators reproach the Indian leaders for supporting the Sri lankan government for its draft resolution, which prevents the opening of international and independent investigation against Rajapakse and his army. Posters calling for a boycott of products manufactured in these two countries also express the anger of the demonstrators (“Boycott ! Boycott !! Boycott !!! Air travels to India by Indian air lines, Tours to India, Relationship and Dealings with Indian High Commission”).

To compensate for the lack of support of a sovereign state, pro Eelam militants insist on the mobilisation of the trans-national Tamil community. Several posters present it as a single and integral entity. But the observation of certain banners quickly puts spotlight its artificial nature. One can thus read on certain of them « N°1 Tamils ennemis traitors» with the portraits of two characters. The first represents Karuna, former military leader of the LTTE for the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka who broke away and joined the Sri Lankan government. The second portrait represents M. Karunanidhi, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu (India), who is accused of having done nothing to force the Central Indian state to intervene to stop the military offensive of the Sri Lankan army. Enabling the massacre of Tamils ​​as well as leading to the defeat of the Tigers. So despite the rhetoric of the demonstrators, the trans-national Tamil community is diverse and activists at the Batu Caves are not their spokesperson.

If this mobilisation is presented as a spontaneous reaction of the defense of human rights in favour of a civilian population in distress, the event is nonetheless a political instrument for the LTTE, which wants to assert its positions. For proof, many demonstrations were held across the world with the same slogans and the same staging. At Batu Caves, the pro LTTE Tamil trans-national movement gives a religious dimension to its political struggle. By organizing their protest in this sacred temple, Tigers have also called upon the faith of the faithful to believe, despite the military defeat, in the future birth of an other territory that has been sacralized, that of the Tamil Eelam. The latter would include the Northern and Eastern parts of the island, considered by the separatists as the historic homeland of the Tamils ​​in Sri Lanka. Thus the LTTE presents the obtaining of an independent state, not as the completion of the dream of the only Sri Lankan Tamils ​​but as the one of the Tamil nation dispersed across the world.

Source of the french version:

Madavan D, 2010, Carte postale de Batu Caves in Cafégéo

http://www.cafe-geo.net/article.php3?id_article=1981