“Controversies must be settled. Histories must be preserved,” said I.V.Mahasen, a political columnist.
Forty years after the burning of the Jaffna Public Library, hailed as South Asia’s repository of knowledge, the scar left by the tragic event among the Tamil people of the world remains unchanged to this day.
In this context, in an exclusive interview given to the ‘Quest’ website by political columnist I.V.Mahasena regarding the arson of the Jaffna library by the Sri Lankan government.
Genocide in Sri Lanka is a structured genocide that has been staged against Tamils for a long time. The Government of Sri Lanka staged the genocide on 01 June 1981 on our Educational Scholarship, similar to the structured genocide carried out today through the Departments of Archeology and the Mahaweli Departments, which are much talked about.
Those who set fire to the books in 1981 massacred the Eelam Tamils in 2009. It is the tragedy of the Eelam Tamils that justice has not been done for both till today.
Books are an immortal asset. People are dying. But, books never die. No man, no power, can eradicate memory. We know that in this war, books are weapons.
We must pass on our sorrows to the next generation. Our histories, in the right way, must be passed on to the next generation. One day for sure, when justice is available, our descendants will need to know the history of the past. If so, of course, it is necessary to pass on our histories. Eelam Tamils continue to err on the side of caution. To date, there has been much controversy surrounding the date of the library burn. Controversies must be resolved. Histories must be preserved.
