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M.I.A. Goes to War
Sri Lankan sensation M.I.A. has been nominated for both a Grammy and an Oscar this year, but she would rather talk about being labeled a terrorist in her own country. She sat down with The Daily Beast’s Toure to talk about her hit single, “Paper Planes,” why Kanye West might induce her into labor at the Grammy Awards, and how she “isn’t trying to be like Bono.”
M.I.A. needs you to know that right now in Sri Lanka there’s a genocide going on, and 350,000 people’s lives hang in the balance. These days, not much else matters to her. The musician has been nominated for a Grammy for her explosive single "Paper Planes," and an Oscar for the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack, but she has bigger concerns than statues and sales.
“The situation is systematic genocide, ethnic cleansing,” she says by phone from L.A. “I want my fans to know I’m not tryin’ to be like Bono. Someone Irish talking about what’s going on in Africa. I actually come from there and the fact is that this is happening now. The war has been going on for a long time, but it stepped into the genocide bracket recently with the new President. I lived in Sri Lanka when the campaign for ethnic cleansing started and if I could stop it and see the end of it in my lifetime that would be amazing. I can’t justify my success otherwise. I can’t justify getting nominated for an Oscar or a Grammy, that to me wouldn’t mean anything if I don’t actually get to speak about this. It’s not like I’m trying to sell records, I’m trying to stop the death of 350,000 people this month.”
On the tiny island just south of India there’s been a 25-year struggle between the Sinhalese majority and the Tamil minority. The Tamils have fought for an independent state in Sri Lanka’s northeast, but the war is nearing an end as the Government’s army is close to finally snuffing out the tiny guerilla force called the Tamil Tigers, or the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. But 350,000 Tamil civilians are trapped behind the front lines and M.I.A., whose family is Tamil, says they’re in a virtual concentration camp. “They’re treated like animals. They don’t have food or shelter and they’ve just been hit by a cyclone and the government hasn’t sent them any aid. It’s just out and out Nazi Germany.”
The world has heard little of this story, because Sri Lanka is tiny and the war is old and also because the government regulates the news flowing out of the country. “Tamil people are banned from the press,” M.I.A. says, “and there’s no international media allowed into the country. They get shot. The government’s banned any independent observers, media, aid, humanitarian agencies, NGOs—nobody’s allowed in to see what’s going on.” And government dissenters are silenced. In early January a prominent Sri Lankan journalist who was a staunch government critic was driving to work when he was shot and killed by gunmen on motorcycles. M.I.A. says the government has also erased people from existence. “Tamil people were banned from doing the Census report,” she says. “Which means that you could wipe them out and no one would know. You can’t account for how many there are.”
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Touré is a columnist for The Daily Beast. He's also an NBC contributor and the author of Never Drank the Kool-Aid, Soul City, and The Portable Promised Land. He is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, was CNN's first pop culture correspondent, and was the host of MTV2's Spoke N Heard. His writing has appeared in the New Yorker and the New York Times.
Xelene
Alright Daily Beast readers. I do not think Ms. Arulpragasam is aware that there are actual Sri Lankans reading the beast, and yet again, she is WRONG. She is lying on a public forum, and this sob story about having been shot is complete Bull. She lived in the UK for most of her life, before living in Brooklyn, NY. The LTTE, which she tries to label as a bunch of Kumbaya singing peacenicks is actually the very first guerilla terrorist group to use suicide bombers so effectively. She fails to see how the entire country has been set up with bunkers and baracks for check points. She also fails to mention how post 9/11, the LTTE TOO has been rightly listed as a TERRORIST GROUP.
There are no concentration camps in Sri Lanka, and what goes on is NOTHING like Nazi Germany. Only the hard line terrorists now occupy the northern fight zones, they have been evacuated of all civilians. There is no ethnic cleansing going on. She is a liar!
Xelene
Also - I find in interesting that MIA is allowed to write her pieces and sing her little songs, after all, could an Al Qaida sympathizer ever do anything in its defense in this country? I don't think so! The LTTE is Sri Lanka's Al Qaida. It's time the world understood this
billybob
pretty sure she said she was shot at?? also the article mentioned that they used terrorist tactics.... what's up with the hate man
stellamaris
shot or shot at? whats the difference. i know for a fact that M.I.A had to flee sri lanka with her family for fear of their lives b'cuz her father belonged to an anti-government group, and he was labeled a terrorist. M.I.A talks from first hand experience...she has lived it, and she represents the tamil struggle in sri lanka. anyone who is against her, what she represents or what she is trying to do is a HATER and doesn't want the world to see the atrocities which are being committed in sr lanka.
thanga
Thanks M.I.A for bringing out the GENOCIDE of tamils in Lanka. Daiyl about 50 to 1000 civilians are killed by the armed forces. A local doctor has commented that Lanka government is pursuing a 2 pronged genocide. Kill by shells and kill by denying medical facility. Tamils living in the government control go 'disappear' at an alarming rate. The civilians surrendered to the army are put in camps with men 'disappearing' and women being abused. There are no international monitors. Lanka has driven out all aid agencies by killing their members. French 'Action Against Hunger' pulled out of lanka after army killed 17 aid workers in a day (google it). See the HRW reports. www.tamilnet.com see the plight of civilians in youtube. here is a very short history http://www.MegaShare.com/580525
tamilnation-org
pls stop posting lies about MIA.
She is not support any group. She is simply asking SL-State to STOP KILLING the innocent Tamil (ethnic-minority) civilians.
Readers, don't be fooled by the Sinhala people (the pro-SL govt ppl) writing lies about MIA. (Sinhala is the ethnic-Majority in SL)
true story is at www.tamilnation.org
nicole007
what is happening in Sri Lanka is a civil war that has destroyed thousands of lives...though the Tamil Tigers have used terrorist tactics, it is the only way they have to have their voice heard against a corrupt government that wants to destroy the Tamil culture and its people...the Tigers may use suicide bombers, etc. but the government has used its powers to quiet any dissent (i.e. have you arrested and never seen from again) and ruined many more lives of people that want nothing more than control of their own land and a culture to be proud of!
M.I.A. good on ya for using your voice for peace!
UKlankan
As Tamils we should be so proud of this young girl. i was directed from one racisit sinhala srilankan website hate campaign agaist MIA to this blog. therefore dont be surprised to see many anti tamil comment and anti MIA Comment.
there are thousands of people were abducted and killed by srilankan forces in the last few months alone.
and as we speak there are large number of males and females are taken by police and army and many womens are raped and killed by the security forces sinhala newspaper reporting it.
Artillery-fired cluster shells, aerial bombing on safety zone, 39 civilians killed
here is typical killing that happens in srilanka.
[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 January 2009, 17:44 GMT]
For the first time within the safety zone, Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers Saturday attacked Moongkilaa'ru and Chuthanthirapuram. Relentless artillery fire also continued throughout the day on civilian targets. 39 civilians were killed and 128 wounded in the indiscriminate attacks. Artillery-fired cluster munitions were used in the attacks by the SLA against civilians targets
today in london UK over 100,000 protested against the killing of tamils in srilanka. and no media reported, because these media sytamatically aiding the genocide.(not even a word in BBC)
but MIA as a single person at least making it aware to the world. and we tamils salute her. we love you girl, god bless you.
tomatom
Tiny Island????? Check your facts. 20 million people live there.
tanwam
Wow M.I.A forgot to mention all the ransoms that LTTE has gotten from tamil civilians through blackmailing and threats..
It was the LTTE who started this bloody war to begin with.It's really sad to see what this country had come to as a result of it.Now she is going around promoting the terrorist group.
LankanWonder
Uhm okay, to the first comment on this article. If you are not living in that country, have no clue about what is going on, and someone decides to spill the truth, and you get mad, it's obviously because you don't wanna open your mind to see that there is things as horrible as MIA is saying occuring in the world at this moment. And just because you don't believe it, doesn't mean it isn't happening. So please, if you can't have an open mind about such a deadly situation, just shut your fucking mouth and let the people who wanna stop this, do it. Because frankly, you're mouth is not needed during a time of such despair. While so many lives are being tortured and killed, you wanna run your mouth about someone who is actually trying to do some good, jus because you're not the one in the video making a difference, don't hate and get the fuck outta here cause noone needs your bullshit.
clarktierneyx1
I find it interesting tha M>I>A> thinks you need to be from a specific country to say something about the plight of it's people. If that were the case, then she shouldn't have anything to say about anywhere in the world except where she is from.In case she hasn't realized it, the world is ONE PLACE.
Her attitude reflects the entire problem. Thank you, M.I.A.
nopace1
Xelene, it's not a matter of Maya being right or wrong. Her stated goal is to expose a conflict that's become a genocide. Does the labeling of the Tamil Tigers a terrorist organization justify the genocide of Tamil people? Or did they use terrorist tactics in response to state-sponsored terrorism against them? These are big questions that have no right or wrong. What I appreciate about this article and Maya in particular is her courage to use her spotlight to raise these issues. She is the voice of millions and millions of immigrants all over the world and History will remember her. Oh and the Bono line is priceless...
balans
one man terrorist another man's freedom fighter. in the name of war on terror, the atrocites commited by some countries against the people is unbelivable.Sri Lanka will be the # 1 for state terrorisam. I admire M.I.A for standing up for Tamils as she is the only Tamil who has the access to western media. I would like to THANK her for stepping up to the plate and doing the right thing at the right time for the people who have been sffering for long time under the brutal regimes.
thanga
Another 40 civilians killed on Sunday Feb 1st. Also SriLanka has issued the following warning (google for this AP news):
Sri Lanka's hardline government warned Sunday that Western ambassadors, news agencies and INGOs of "dire consequences" if they attempt to give the LTTE a second breath of life. "They will be chased away (if they try) to give a second wind to the LTTE terrorists at a time the security forces, at heavy cost, are dealing them the final death blow," Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa told The Sunday Island
Thank you.
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