The State of Sri Lankan propaganda

Truth, they say, is the first casualty in war.

In Sri Lanka, however, truth was a casualty long before the war. Falsehoods and Propaganda about the Tamils justified oppression. The world was told that the problem in Sri Lanka was Tamil terrorism. The story about the dysfunctional political system, which procured power to the one who could inflict the most damage to Tamils, was cleverly disguised.

The propaganda was taken to a higher degree of sophistication by the Kumaratunga government. While she carried the game of ‘beat, brutalize and enslave Tamils to get power among the Sinhalese’ to a higher degree, she combined that with bewitching words, which won her credibility in the international scene. The trickery kept the begging bowl and the war coffers replenished, to sustain the game of genocide at home. She was ably assisted in this by some Colombo Tamils, the most prominent being the master boot-licker and servile minion of the Sinhala rulers - Lakshman Kadirgamar.

With his aid, the massiveness of the brutality heaped on the Tamils has been concealed effectively. Obstruction of access to the northeast, intimidation of the media and the NGO’s, and crude censorship at critical periods etc. have been all used. They have even gone to the extent of manufacturing news and committing murder to persuade the world to believe their version of the story. An exercise in futility nonetheless; all the people all the time are not fools. Slowly but surely the truth is coming into view, as evident from the latest US State Department Human Rights report and the report of the US Committee for Refugees.

Assisting in getting the truth out of the grips of an oppressive state is the ability to communicate electronically, and the Sangam’s web-site is a step in this direction.