Ananthy Sasitharan hits out at government at Women In Black gathering

Member of the Northern Provincial Council In Jaffna  MP Ananthy Sasitharan was seen protesting agains the government  at the XVI Biennial Gathering of the Women in Black, which took place in Bengaluru on Wednesday evening.

The Women in Black vigil, had survivors and activists from war-torn nations all over the world. Participants stepped out onto the street when the traffic signals turned red, holding up their placards. The vigil was spearheaded in Bengaluru by city-based womens’ rights organisation, Vimocha

Ananthy who is also the wife of Velayutham Sasitharan (alias Elilan), the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's political head for Trincomalee told the Deccan Chronicle that under the current Lankan government Tamils had no rights.

 “The war ended six years ago, but there are no rights for Tamils," she told the Deccan Chronicle.

Their land, she said, has been reclaimed by the government. “Young women are forced to undergo tubectomies so that they cannot bear children. They are trying to systematically wipe out the Tamils living in Sri Lanka.”

The aim of attending the Women in Black conference, said Mithila Sri Padmanabhan, Sasitharan's companion, is to start an organisation as strong as Vimochana that will work with women whose husbands lost their lives in the war. Iraqi professor and activist Eman Khammas left Iraq, her homeland, nearly a decade ago, after being severely threatened by the militia.

“During the US-led occupation of Iraq, we started a group called the Occupation Watch, which looked into political, economic, legislative and human rights violations,” she said. “We would write about the violations and the sectarian government the US had set up in Iraq.

Soon, I was being threatened by the militia and I had to leave, for the sake of my family. We left everything behind and I dream of going back,” she told the Deccan Chronicle.

[caption id="attachment_88603" align="alignnone" width="365"]Picture courtesy Deccan Chronicle[/caption]