interview
‘Suffolk sounds like a
soothing music to me’
David Cameron’s recent decision to speak out about human rights abuses in Sri Lanka focused attention on the plight of the country’s minority Tamil population. Sheena Grant speaks to a journalist who fled the country in fear of her life to find sanctuary in Suffolk and hears about the artwork that is helping her deal with her experiences When Sri Lankan-born journalist Viththiyaparan* arrived in Suffolk a year ago she was not
in a good way.
“I would describe myself as a mobile corpse, a corpse that eats and breathes” she says. The mother-of-two had left her native country four years earlier, fearing for her life. Since then, her sister has died - after, says
Viththiyaparan, being arrested and tortured and her parents have gone missing. Her experiences have taken their toll on her health too. Three years ago, at the age of only 32, she suffered a stroke and lost the ability to
speak.
Since arriving in Ipswich, however, she has started to turn her life around and regain her voice. She credits the help and support she has received locally with playing a big part in her recovery She has also taken up painting, something she had never done before, as a means of processing some of the turmoil in her mind and
helping her to express herself when words will not come. Some of the pictures don’t make for easy
viewing, especially when taken in conjunction with the titles Viththiyaparan has given them. In ‘A dream of mine’, a blood-spattered figure is accompanied by the words: “Why was I killed? Is it for reporting truth?” while in “It’s my hopeless life” a goat is depicted, clinging precariously to a sheer cliff face.
“I hadn’t touched a brush before,” says
Viththiyaparan. “A lady just gave me the paint
and things. It has helped me. I never think, ‘I
will draw this, or that’. It just happens.”
Viththiyaparan, who is seeking asylum in
Britain, fled Sri Lanka just before the end of a
bitter civil war that had raged for almost 30
years. Sri Lanka’s army defeated separatist
Tamil Tiger rebels in May 2009.
Allegations of atrocities
during the
closing stages of that war have dogged the
government ever since. The rebels were also
accused of abuses.
Viththiyaparan, who is from a Muslim Tamil
background, worked as a journalist for a
government newspaper
but also wrote “freelance” articles under a
range of pseudonyms, reporting what was
happening to the Tamil community in the north
of the country.
Sri Lanka is a dangerous place to be journalist,
especially one writing anything the government
might frown on.
Continued on page 4
4 ealife Saturday, December 7, 2013
interview
Only last month, foreign journalists reporting
on a Commonweath summit hosted by the
country, were subjected to such intimidation
that some of them decided to leave.
They included a team from Channel 4, whose
news editor Ben de Pear told how his reporters
were followed and attacked by members of the
intelligence services.
“The people who so effectively executed the
annihilation of the Tamil Tigers and many tens
of thousands around them still run the country
on a war footing,” he said. “Now the enemy is
civil society, journalists, the opposition.”
The fact that Sri Lanka is ranked 162nd out of
179 countries on the Reporters Without Borders
press freedom index gives an idea of the
hostility towards journalists. Bottom of the list
are North Korea and Eritrea.
Viththiyaparan, who is currently living in Ipswich with her husband and two young sons,
both born in the UK, believes that if she had not
got out, she would now be dead.
“My heart has been eaten up since the time I
was forced to claim asylum,” she says.
“However, my heart remembered to breathe.
“There were days when I felt as if I’d lost
everything in my life but I never wanted to just
accept that.
“I am now living at least for the sake of living
and it’s thanks to the people I’ve met here in
Suffolk that has helped me get to this point.
“The people of Suffolk held my weak hands
and walked with me to this stage where I am
now. Gradually, this beautiful county has
become like a second motherland to me. The
people I’ve met have treated me as if I was a
family member. They have encouraged me to
start rebuilding my language skills again. They
have encouraged me to write. They have put me
back on the right path.”
Viththiyaparan says she was targeted in Sri
Lanka because of her job and what she was
doing.
“I worked for a government newspaper as a
journalist but was working freelance and
writing against the government too. The
articles I wrote supported other parties and
were against all the harrassment they were
getting,” she says.
“What’s it been like for me to recover from a
stroke as well as coping with having no news
about my family back home? Only worries.
“After my family were relocated to Ipswich by
the Home Office almost a year ago my brain
seemed to never co-operate with my body. I
would describe myself as a mobile corpse, a
corpse that eats and breathes.
“I used to be an investigative journalist in my
motherland. It’s a country that has been
bleeding with war and violence for more than
three decades. As a result, journalism is the
most dangerous job in my country. I was
writing about the government’s record on
various aspects such as human rights and
aspects of both the good and the bad policies it
seemed to be pursuing. I wrote under various
aliases and in several languages in order to
protect myself and my family.
“Sadly, my activities were noticed by
people who acted like wolves in sheep’s
clothing and my name was given to the
authorities. This helped me to pull out from
the fire before I could be harmed. If I had
stayed, maybe the same would have
happened to me as happened to my sister.
They tortured her. She passed away. My
parents were caught and tortured as
hostages by the government and that was
when I had my stroke. I don’t know what has
happened to them. I just hope they are hiding
somewhere but there is no option for me to
find out about them.
“It has been a long recovery for me, but
since coming to Ipswich it has been great.
Thanks to so many people I am now able to
speak and to write again and now have the
courage to tell others about what happened to
me.”
Among those she praises with helping her are
Liz Wood, of the Suffolk Refugee Support
Forum.
“Liz was the first person I met here,” she
says. “When I met her, I was scared of
everything. I didn’t trust anyone. Yet Liz still
heard me. She found me legal support, health
support, and so much more.
“Legally, as an asylum seeker I am not given
many rights. Indeed, I am legally destitute. But
Liz and her organisation gave me the
confidence that I should expect to be treated
with a minimal amount of respect. One way
they helped me regain some sense of self-worth
was to encourage me to start writing again.
“When I wrote a few words for the Suffolk
Refugee Support Forum about my experiences,
they never took my efforts for granted, and
helped me feel a little better about myself.”
Help also came from the Refugee Council’s
health befriending project.
“I craved trustful friends around me though I
was very scared of people,” says
Viththiyaparan. “Stefania McLoughlin (a
volunteer co-ordinator with the befriending
project) first suggested that if I was struggling
to speak I express myself by drawing and
painting. I didn’t know that I could even draw
stick people before that.
“I must admit that when she asked me to
draw, I thought it would be a waste of time. Also
she gave me some paints and canvas to take
home to paint. In my sleepless nights I started
to hug them to comfort me. I never believed her
until she influenced me with positive thoughts.”
Nicola Johnson, another volunteer with the
health befriending project, is credited as being
an adopted mother since the day
Viththiyaparan’s son introduced her as “my
Nicola”.
“I am blessed to have her around my family.
From left, It’s a dream of mine; It’s my hopeless life; Tree in snow; and Footstep of my country, paintings by Sri Lankan asylum seeker Viththiyaparan.
Prime Minister David Cameron. Paintings by Viththiyaparan, right top, I am scared; and bottom,
I miss my dad – I am guilty of leaving him back in fire.
From left, volunteers Stefania McLoughlin; Judith Croft; Nicola Johnson; and support worker Liz Wood.
From page 3
Saturday, December 7, 2013 ealife 5
interview
Whenever my brain turned off, her brain
switched on, on behalf of mine,” she says.
“Then there is Judith Croft, who has also
helped me. When I asked her about why she
offers her hands to hold she told me: ‘I am
blessed with many fortunes and I am sharing
them with those less fortunate than me’. It’s an
excellent way to express the hand she offers me;
a hand of trust and care. An asylum seeker never
expects more than that.”
Attention has been focused on Sri Lanka’s
human rights record in recent weeks by the
Commonwealth summit held there which was
overshadowed by claims of war crimes. The
leaders of India, Mauritius and Canada
boycotted the event. David Cameron, who did
attend, visited the northern Jaffna region to see
the situation facing the country’s Tamil minority
and called on Sri Lanka’s president to set up an
independent inquiry into alleged war crimes – or
face a UN probe.
The Sri Lanka government has denied
allegations of war crimes and insists it is on the
path of reconciliation.
Viththiyaparan praised Mr Cameron’s
decision to visit the north of the country – the
first international leader to do so since Sri
Lankan independence in 1948 – but said he had
only seen a fraction of the problems there.
“Journalists in my motherland are forced to
forego their duties and rights. I expected that the
Commonwealth summit would open the eyes of
the world wider. The only satisfaction I got was
at least a few eyes opened their lids.
“It was amazing to experience the compassion
and sense of responsibility David Cameron
showed. The violence on journalists and their
families are a gruesome action by the regime. I
do appreciate that Mr Cameron set a spotlight on
war crimes, the disappearance of people and
Tamil Journalists.”
But, she asks, given the oppression of
journalists, who is left in Sri Lanka to ask
questions about human rights now.
She says other Sri Lankan journalists seeking
asylum in Britain share her views and hanker
after the days when people of different
backgrounds and religions lived peacefully
together.
“This had been ruined. This is the dreadful
damage done by both parties. Who is going to
bring this atmosphere back?”
For all that she has seen and suffered,
Viththiyaparan remains hopeful, thanks, in
large part, to the sanctuary and support she has
found in Suffolk.
“I do have very harmful, discouraging and
hopeless experiences,” she says. “They melted
with the warm experiences. Many times the
impact of bad experiences was much heavier
than the good ones. Still, Suffolk sounds like a
very soothing music to me.”
* names have been changed to protect
identities.
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, then called Ceylon, gained
independence from Britain in 1948
The government changed the
island’s name to Sri Lanka in 1972
and gave Buddhism primary place as
the country’s religion, antagonising
the largely Hindu Tamil minority
(Around 5% of Tamils are Muslim
and 6% Christian).
Tensions grew over the next few
years and in 1983 the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)
launched a violent uprising, seeking
autonomy for the Tamil-dominated
north and east.
In 2005, after years of war and failed
peace talks, Mahinda Rajapaksa was
elected president. Four years later
the Tamil Tigers were defeated after
the army over-ran the last patch
of rebel-held territory in the northeast.
The LTTE leader Velupillai
Prabhakaran was killed.
The spotlight has fallen on the final
phase of that war when civilians
were hemmed into a thin strip of
land on the north-eastern coast -
both sides are accused of atrocities
here. The United Nations says as
many as 40,000 Tamil civilians may
have been killed.
In 2011 the UN called for an
international investigation into
possible war crimes. Last year
another UN report said 70,000
civilians were “unaccounted for” at
the end of the war.
During his visit to Sri Lanka for the
Commonwealth summit in November
David Cameron called on president
Mahinda Rajapaksa to set up an
independent inquiry into alleged war
crimes, or face a UN probe.
He also travelled to the Tamildominated
north of the country,
where, at one point, his convoy
was surrounded by more than 200
protesters holding pictures of loved
ones who they claim were killed
by the Sri Lankan armed forces or
have disappeared. He also toured
a temporary refugee camp and a
newspaper office whose printing
presses had been burned.
Just days ago the Sri Lankan
government announced it was set
to start a survey to determine the
number of people killed during the
country’s 26-year civil war. The
census will collect information on
deaths, missing people and damage
to property from 1983 to 2009, it
said.
Viththiyaparan
believes she would
be dead if she
hadn’t escaped
from Sri Lanka.
Picture posed by
model
Saturday, December 7, 2013 ealife 3
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