Tribute by Maha

Viraj teaches Zone of Peace, Peace Process, Crimes Against Peace

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 August 2024, 17:59 GMT]
When I went to work on a project with Viraj Mendis in Germany, I recognised him at the Bremen airport from a video: a tall man with white hair and beard. He was interesting and special in my view then as he was Sinhalese and passionate about ending the conflict of Tamil Eelam's occupation by Sri Lanka. I wanted to know how it came to be. I failed to understand that the opportunity of working with him was so precious; I should meticulously document everything he said in videos, at least just for myself. Just like after my parents passed away, I had regrets, I feel the same for Viraj and wish I could talk to him again. As he has said in a video, the realisation comes after a tragedy.

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Lawyer Maha Ramakrishnan (Malaysia)

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The best we can all do to honour him is to continue his work in a true and principled manner. For that, I am listing out some of the topics of conversations I had with him with regards to the Tamil cause.

I hope more Tamils, Sinhalese, Muslims, and especially young people will follow in Viraj's footsteps and find the list useful. At the very least, hope we can learn to abandon the current "political" trajectory of the Tamil diaspora, who always operate within the cusp of control of western interests which is designed to never deliver a solution to the conflict between the two nations.

Keeping the Indian Ocean as a Zone of Peace: The US is doing all it can to have control of the Indian Ocean in competition with superpower China. The strategic importance of Trincomalee harbour for US is for having control of the Indian Ocean sea lanes and for US Navy logistics. This can only be realised by the US by keeping the island in a unitary SL state under the Sinhalese. There are increased US Naval activities in the region, enabled by agreements signed between the US and SL. Pressure is used by the US to keep SL within its control.

Keeping the Indian Ocean as a zone of peace is beneficial not only to the people of the island, but also to mankind. The Tamil liberation struggle would be against US waging war from the Tamil nation. This is all related to geopolitics which Taraki Sivaram explained to Viraj. He used Taraki Sivaram's videos to explain.

Crimes Against Peace: This crime is the systematic preparation to wage war in violation of an international agreement, the Cease Fire Agreement– just like what US and SL did in a common plan against the Eelam Tamils who sought a solution under peace negotiations.

Contrary to popular belief, it was the Tamil liberation struggle that initiated the peace process. They wanted a permanent peace with justice and freedom to enjoy their right to self determination. This was when they were at their strongest. The allegation that Tamil liberation struggle derailed the peace negotiations is therefore a myth and a false accusation.

Erik Solheim, who was brought in at the invitation of Chandrika Kumaratunga and Milinda Moragoda who was lobbying at Washington, are the main actors in making sure the peace process was undermined, stalled, and failed.

This allowed SL to build its war with the help of many nations while the Tamil liberation struggle laid down its arms or used them sparingly. It was SL that unilaterally withdrew from the CFA.

In the crimes against peace process, the EU ban on LTTE architected by the US, accelerated the path to war as it caused an important shift in the politics of the ongoing peace negotiations.

The importance of justice for terror-listing LTTE: The argument at the courts should not have been that since LTTE is no more, therefore it should be delisted. Viraj said that we must put it to the courts that LTTE is a freedom struggle, and it was needed to defend against the ongoing genocide.

The case of Nathan Thamby: He should not be criminalised by Germany. Viraj wanted the case to be appealed at the ECJ, but before that could be realised, he passed away. There were Tamil organisations that wanted those charged to admit their guilt and pay the nominal fine. Viraj argues that during the war they collected money to save their friends and family from genocide.

Permanent Peoples Tribunal: It goes without saying that there will not be the Dublin, Bremen, and Berlin PPTs without Viraj. Though I did not take part, the reports will show you the scale of work required. The recent Berlin one had some allegations thrown at Viraj.

Honesty and independence: All I can say is that I know Viraj to be a thoroughly honest person. I do not lightly say that about anybody. He had been thrown challenges by certain Tamil groups that see him as someone who doesn’t compromise under their administrative grips and designs. Only a person like Viraj could survive those challenges, especially after 2009.

Viraj lived a financially hard life from the I980s because of his activism. A story I was told by someone who knew Viraj way before all this came to play: One day a Tamil guy saw Viraj handwashing clothes in the bathtub, and he learned that Viraj had been doing that for months. So, a few Tamils jointly bought Viraj a washing machine.

Refugees: He had an organisation that helped asylum seekers and refugees at any time of the day. In a few instances, he brokered peace between Tamil community and other communities living in dense housing projects in Bremen.

About his friendships with Tamils: Viraj told me a story of how as a very young boy, he excelled in maths. Whenever he got the highest score in class, his Sinhalese friends would congratulate him for scoring higher than Tamils and it upset him that they made his marks a racial issue. In SL or UK, he said Tamils helped him.

About his friendships with Sinhalese: I was privileged to meet his close Sinhalese friends who are like family to him. They also fully supported him in his Tamil cause projects, sometimes even financially, even though they were not well off. Sometimes it was they who gave him the ideas for the projects for the Tamil cause. I cannot imagine the pain they are going through with Viraj's loss.

Leftist circles: Viraj also had support of Bremen city council and leftist friends for the Tamil cause and justice. For me, this was amazing to watch. He had worked hard not only to educate Tamils and Sinhalese on the conflict and genocide but other communities too.

Viraj's love of his life: His wife Karen, a British origin German citizen who obtained the latter citizenship opposing the British one, has been the main financial supporter of Viraj's activities for the Tamil cause. She works as an English teacher and lives a life of hardly any luxury for decades because of this. I also know that she is a kind and compassionate person as she sent me a beautiful musical box and called me after she overheard Viraj arguing with me over the phone. Karen has sacrificed a lot for the Tamil cause. She deserves our love, greatest respect, and recognition. It is hard to imagine the grief of someone who loved like her.

I like to end with this: In one TamilNet video, quoting an 80-year-old estate workers rights activist man from Malaysia, choking with emotion, Viraj Mendis says, paraphrasing: "We look at Mullivaaykkaal like it was the worst thing that happened to Tamils (it was terrible of course), but if we look at it from a historical point of view, it was actually the highest point in Tamil history because the whole world was against Eelam Tamils but you never gave up, never changed position, never knelt down, you stood up and was defeated but you never surrendered."



This was very much Viraj`s spirit too, as he kept organising on the ground and putting out so much work on the Tamil cause despite it always being a great challenge for him. A close friend of his said that Viraj said he wanted to be alive for a few more days so he could complete some very important work for the Tamil cause.

Chronology: