- Tamil Tigress
-
Tamil Tigress 
Author(s) Niromi de Soyza Country Australia Language English Publisher Allen & Unwin Publication date July 2011 Pages 320 ISBN 9781742375182 Tamil Tigress is a book by Niromi de Soyza (a pen name based on that of Richard de Zoysa),[1] which tells the autobiographical story of a former child soldier of the Sri Lankan guerrilla army Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and one of its first female fighters.[2] This is the first narration of a Sri Lankan female guerrilla soldier to be published as a memoir in English. It was initially written as a diary while at boarding school after the author fled Sri Lanka. The author was inspired to rewrite the book for publication after seeing the negative reaction to those fleeing from the civil war in Sri Lanka[3], where the government murdered at least 40,000 civilians.[4] The book contains accounts of brutalities that surrounded the civil war in Sri Lanka, including brutal practices of the LTTE.
The book was first published by Allen & Unwin in May 2011. It is included in the 50 Books You Can't Put Down' list as part of the Get Reading programme sponsored by the Australian Ministry for the Arts and the Australia Council.[5]
Contents
Pen name
The name Niromi de Soyza is based on that of Richard de Zoysa,[1] a well-known Sri Lankan journalist and human rights activist who was abducted and murdered in 1990,[6] by suspected government agents.[7]
Author
At the time of publishing the work in 2011, the author of the book is the mother of two children, and living in Sydney, Australia.[8] She was raised in Sri Lanka by a middle-class Tamil Christian family, and at the age of 17 ran away from her convent school to join the Tigers.[9] After leaving the Tigers she was sent by her family to a boarding school in India, and then gained political asylum in Australia[3] at a time when the Tigers were not regarded as a terrorist organisation by the Australian government.[10]
Responses
Australian Media response
The book received wide publicity in Australia,[11][2][8][9][12][13] drawing in general sympathetic comment from Australian media personnel.[11][13][2] Gordon Weiss,[14] the Australian-born former UN spokesman in Sri Lanka and author of The Cage: The Fight for Sri Lanka and the Last Days of the Tamil Tigers, responded warmly to the book, saying[13]
I found it incredibly moving, you get the perspective of a young person, coming of age and experiencing oppression in extraordinary circumstances, who then joins in great innocence this organisation which seems to offer so much hope. She ultimately sees (the LTTE) as no solution and leaves, because she doesn't want to become like them. It's really a story of redemption. A young woman drags herself back from the precipice and literally, one day, casts off her uniform and walks out of the forest.
Reviews
Gerard Windsor reviewing[9] Tamil Tigress came to the conclusion that the form of the book is more that of a realist novel than a memoir, leading our common sense to tell us that there must be a creative element here. He commented that action, often pedestrian and repetitious, rather than thoughtfulness, is what moves the book forward with a mature, briskly businesslike de Soyza only entering the book in its final pages.
Historical Detail
The book’s authenticity is challenged on the grounds of a fundamental error in historical detail.[1][15][16] This is a misrepresentation by the author of the identity of her combat adversaries which contradicts the historical context of her claimed fighting tenure[1][15][16] (late 1987 to 1988 according to Tamil Tigress ).
From late July 1987 to early 1990, the signing of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord and the consequent arrival of the IPKF ensured the withdrawal of the Sri Lankan troops from the Battlefield. Under the terms of the agreement,[17][18]Colombo agreed to a devolution of power to the provinces, the Sri Lankan troops were to be withdrawn to their barracks in the north and the Tamil rebels were to surrender their arms.[19][20] When the LTTE was at war with the IPKF from early October, 1987 to end of 1989, not one of the three arms of the Sri Lankan forces participated in joint action with the IPKF or had any integrated command structure.[21] The Sri Lankan forces stayed clear of direct combat with the LTTE during this period, apart from the limited operations undertaken at sea by the Sri Lankan Navy.[21] In contrast the blurb[22] of Tamil Tigress announces,[1][15][16]
“Two days before Christmas in 1987, at the age of 17, Niromi de Soyza found herself in an ambush as part of a small platoon of militant Tamil Tigers fighting government forces in the bloody civil war that was to engulf Sri Lanka for decades…”
This is not a publisher’s mistake confined to a publisher’s blurb as the author herself makes specific reference to who the Tigers fought during this time.[15][16] When she joined 'the Indian forces had arrived and the Tigers had chosen to fight the Indian forces as well as the Sri Lankan forces.'[11] When the war resumed, 'just as Prabhakaran had predicted', they 'were fighting not only the government troops but the peacekeepers, too'.[12] She 'put down her gun and fled the violence she'd become a part of, unable to deal any longer with the brutality of her fellow Tigers or the viciousness of the Sri Lankan armed forces'.[13] Most of her time with the Tigers was 'spent running and hiding from government soldiers'.[13]
In her Throsby interview, responding to a question about a film - the "four corners documentary", which claims to be a documentary covering the atrocities committed by the Sri Lankan Government Forces during the final stages of the Elam War, Niromi de Soyza makes another statement, which can be linked to this misrepresentation of the historical context of the period.[15][16][11]
“I watched it. I forced myself to watch it… It distressed the whole time….I couldn’t sleep that night… but at the same time it wasn’t new. This was something that I knew had happened. I mean I had witnessed much of it and I knew when… the Tamil tigers were caught by the soldiers those things would happen …they would be shot in the head, raped, tortured all of those things. It was nothing new.”-(between 35.56 and 36.23)
Michael Roberts, a Sri Lankan-Australian historical anthropologist[23][24][25][26] who has a history of asking his readers to disbelieve Tamil accounts of the war in Sri Lanka[27][28], has interpreted this contextual misrepresentation by the author as an attempt to give the book greater contemporary currency by projecting the Sri Lankan Forces (contemporary target for war crimes allegations[29][30][31]) into the fighting experiences attributed to Niromi de Soyza in Tamil Tigress.[1][15][16]
Controversy
Sri Lankan born Tamil poet Arun Ambalavanar raised doubts about the authenticity of the book [2]
Author's Response
As part of an "inspirational address" to an Australian womens' business network, it was reported that while "Sri Lankan critics have questioned Niromi's incredible story, she stands by her memoirs."[3]
References
- ^ a b c d e f "Sri Lanka Guardian: A Captivating Fiction with a Political Slant?". srilankaguardian.org. 2011 [last update]. http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2011/08/captivating-fiction-with-political.html. Retrieved 12 September 2011.
- ^ a b c Warne-Smith, Drew (May 23, 2009). "Cause remains for Tamil Tiger in our midst". The Australian. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/cause-remains-for-tamil-tiger-in-our-midst/story-e6frg6nf-1225715005848. Retrieved 10 September 2011.
- ^ a b c Book gives boat people a voice
- ^ CHOGM a chance to hold Sri Lanka to account
- ^ "50 Books you Can't Put Down". http://www.getreading.com.au. http://www.getreading.com.au/50-books-you-cant-put-down/. Retrieved 27 September 2011.
- ^ Sandasen Marasinghe (2005 [last update]). "Online edition of Daily News - News". dailynews.lk. http://www.dailynews.lk/2005/01/29/new21.html. Retrieved 12 September 2011.
- ^ Feizal Samath (2011 [last update]). "SRI LANKA: Radio Play Poses New Questions About Journalist's Murder - IPS ipsnews.net". ipsnews.net. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44942. Retrieved 12 September 2011.
- ^ a b "Sunshine Coast Business Women’s Network breakfast | Sunshine Coast Queensland". mysunshinecoast.com.au. 2011 [last update]. http://www.mysunshinecoast.com.au/events/events-display/sunshine-coast-business-womens-network-breakfast,45044,62884. Retrieved 12 September 2011.
- ^ a b c Gerard Windsor (2011 [last update]). "Tamil Tigress book review". smh.com.au. http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/tamil-tigress-20110901-1jmmv.html. Retrieved 12 September 2011.
- ^ Sri Lanka Country Brief
- ^ a b c d Margaret Throsby,With Niromi de Soyza, Thursday 21July2011
- ^ a b Life as a female Tamil Tiger guerilla relived by one of first female soldiers: The Telegraph
- ^ a b c d e Tigress, interrupted: Nikki Barrowclough : Sydney Morning Herald : Good Weekend : 09/07/2011
- ^ Niromi de Soyza in conversation with Gordon Weiss: Tue 05 Jul 2011
- ^ a b c d e f Michael Roberts (September 2011) Forbidden Fruits? Niromi de Soyza, Noumi Kouri and Helen Demidenko? The Island Tigressails&code_title=33739 Part 1, Part 2 .
- ^ a b c d e f Michael Roberts, Forbidden Fruits: Niromi de Soyza’s “Tamil Tigress”, Noumi Kouri and Helen Demidenko?, Groundviews, 31 Aug 2011
- ^ M. L. Marasinghe (1988). Ethnic Politics and Constitutional Reform: The Indo-Sri Lankan Accord. International and Comparative Law Quarterly, 37, pp 551-587 doi:10.1093/iclqaj/37.3.551
- ^ Sri Lanka: The Untold Story Chapter 35: Accord turns to discord
- ^ New Delhi & the Tamil Struggle. The Indo Sri Lanka Agreement. Satyendra N. Tamil Nation
- ^ Text of the Peace accord.Tamil Nation
- ^ a b Rohan Gunaratna (1993). Indian intervention in Sri Lanka: The role of India's intelligence agencies. South Asian Network on Conflict Research. ISBN 978-9559519904.
- ^ Title at Allen and Unwin,[1]
- ^ Michael Roberts Papers, mainly on Sri Lanka. University of Adelaide Library
- ^ Personhood and Suicidal Devotion to Cause: Kamikaze, Jihadist, Tiger. University Scholars Programme, 19 October 2006
- ^ Michael Roberts. The Drum Opinion(Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
- ^ Michael Roberts : Phillip Adams : Tropical Amsterdam, 19 September 2011
- ^ Taken in by Tamil tall tales
- ^ Crude reasoning
- ^ Sri Lanka faces pressure on War Crimes claim
- ^ Secrecy and denials are also war crimes
- ^ Australian police study Sri Lanka 'war crimes' dossier
- de Soyza, Niromi (2011). Tamil Tigress. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 9781742375182.
External links
Categories:- Sri Lankan Civil War
- Sri Lankan diaspora
- Memoirs
- 2011 books
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