But outside pressures intrude: an air raid, media censorship, road blocks, a missing boy, a dead soldier, Lakshmi’s Tamil identity in a Sinhalese community – and an isolated but shocking moment of intimidating violence when a government minister visits Mano’s office and casually smashes a picture of his family.
“If I wrote the things that actually happened, you wouldn’t believe it,” Savanadasa says of his restrained portrayal. “One minister’s kids were disciplined by a school teacher: he tied the teacher to a tree and had him flogged. The government at that time had so much power. They won the war and they had so much support from the Sinhalese majority. They acted on impulse and they got away with it.” What happened at the end of the war is still contested, with accusations of war crimes on both sides.
0 kommentar(er)
