I read through the various postings and thought to myself that there were still some sane SriLankans in existence. After reading ANEY PAw’s comments, I am forced to come to only one conclusion. Everyone seem to be racist these days no matter the community you belong to.

Tamils killing tamils, JVP killing its own kind, Tsunami funds squandered by politicians and organisations depriving their own race are some of the events that we have come to accept. As for accountability, what accountability and by whom and to whom???

As for the Presidential Elections, we can safely assume that the two leading candidates are taking on contrasting stands in order to woo the contrasting opinion of the voters. Rajapakse has taken on the more aggressive position dismissing the very essence of the LTTE’s stance. It will be interesting to see how the voters respond. Can anyone shed light into where this is all heading? What we can expect in the coming months in the SriLankan political scenario? I , for one, cannot fathom the complexities of these problems and what outcome we can achieve. Will the Tigers take an aggressive stand as well and pull out of the CFA agreement following Rajapakse’s comments?

Thanks to the LTTE.

Day by day, week by week, the toll of Tamils killed during the ceasefire is increasing as the LTTE seeks to assume total domination over those it claims to represent. Anyone that the LTTE perceives as an enemy is cut down savagely, people are hunted like prey and made to live in fear because of their political standing outside the LTTE camp. Nothing is sacred to LTTE which has single-handedly destroyed democracy within the Tamil community and turned the circle of hate a complete 360 degrees – the evil enemies were the Sinhalese and Muslim communities, now it is the Tamil community itself.

The political bankcruptcy of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which has shamelessly decided to jump into bed with a terrorist organisation is all too clear to all those Sri Lankans sick and tired of the campaign of murder and bloodshed being carried out by the Sun God (Surya Devan). Not once has the TNA raised a voice against the loss of Tamil life at the hands of the LTTE, not once has it shown the existence of a spine. It has always been a fundamentalist organisation bent on promoting the LTTE’s agenda and nothing else. Any claims to the contrary are just pure baloney.

The list of people killed at the hands of the Tamil Tigers since the signing of the ceasefire agreement is increasing exponentially as the months pass. And most of those killed are Tamils that the LTTE claims to fight for. This is how the LTTE is fighting for “Tamil rights” – by killing and murdering Tamils on a daily, weekly basis. All the LTTE is doing is destroying and decimating Tamil society from within. And the fundamentalists refuse to see it or accept it. In fact, they encourage it blatantly. All “traitors” (i.e. anyone who utters a syllable against the LTTE or anyone the LTTE perceives as a threat) must be dispatched as soon as possible, all in the name of “freedom” and “liberation” of course. Torture and murder of Muslim and Sinhalese civilians is welcomed and appreciated by worshippers of the Sun God. One megalomaniac’s pipe dream of a “Tamil Eelam” is being built on rivers of blood and suicide bombers.

And yet some have the nerve to blame the Sinhalese.

LMAO.

so what do you have to say about the LTTE CFA violations outnumbering the SLA/GoSL’s violations by more than 2000?

Im not a Imbecile Believer Of Our Dear GOSL. Everybody whos somebody is a Jerk to me in that thing…
Im just wondering where are those Patriotic , Bold, “Unbiased” – Freedom Media Movement Initiators, No WAR ! Talk Personals , Peace Fighters , Visionary Philosophers who brings out the Most daring, Insightfull and BOLD looking Thoughts when SIVARAM A.K.A Tharaki Murdered!

My God !

But,
What I Think is this Silence- Must Be Heard..!
This is The Most Dangerous & Scariest thing.

LTTE will Fight , They will Do what ever it takes to get to their Ultimate Goal..
Who we have to really be carefull on are all these Freedom Fighters in the East..

Remember,
We Cry. We Forget. We Cant Remember. We never Want to Remember.
They Moan. They Never Forget. They know What they are after. They Always Gets their Job Done.

Its Time We Have to think about Alternative Strategies. But We also need to Understand the Hidden Agendas of these Peace Talkers .

War Is not Good. We Dont Need a war. Nobody Likes it.
But Staring at all these Killings Like Eunacs & Trading Our Souvarnity Is Not An Option..

Hail Sri Lanka!

The War Pragmatists
by kos
Tue Aug 23rd, 2005 at 12:48:34 PDT
I’m not anti-war. As I’ve said before, I’m a military hawk. I supported the Afghanistan War and I supported the Bosna and Kosovo interventions. I’m not one of these touchy-feely hippy types that thinks war is inherently bad. I laugh at people who think they can “visualize peace”.

Unlike most people reading this, I grew up in a country at war. I’ve seen the effects first-hand. I also served in the Army. To me war isn’t a video game or an abstract concept. It’s real. Yet sometimes, many times, military force is a force for good. There are evil people in the world, doing evil things. And all the sanctions in the world, all the strongly worded denunciations, will never have the effect of a 1,000 pound bomb.

I oppose the Iraq War.

But I refuse to be labeled “anti-war”. I’m not. I’m anti this war. Why? Because I’m a war pragmatist. I understand the costs of war, but I also understand the potential benefits.

And in a modern world, we need to be able to weigh the two when deciding whether it’s worth engaging in combat.

I opposed Iraq because it forced the U.S. to take the eyes off the real threat — the Al Qaida assholes that attacked the United States and many of our allies around the world. That was a rightous, honorable campaign. Yet we took the eyes off the ball to go after an impotent, contained, powerless regime that posed nary a threat to its neighbors, much less the U.S.

It’s a war that never should’ve been fought, it’s a war that’s been negligently managed, and it’s a war that we can’t win. All the military might in the world can’t convert fantastical wishful thinking into reality.

I oppose Iraq not because I’m anti-war. I’ll have nothing to do with any of the anti-war rallies planned in the near term (and the crazy cast of characters that seek to inject their unrelated own pet causes into the proceedings).

I oppose the Iraq War because I’m a War Pragmatist.

My thoughts on Kadirgamar’s murder is that LTTE definitely did it, and they did it with long term intentions even if they knew that it will tilit the International opinion against them(well, that also will be negligable, now that CBK has sked them to come for talks and they have obliged like ducks to water). I’ ll put out the reason in point form:

1) If Mahinda Rajapakse is to become the President he would have to muster up the support of JHU and JVP, otherwise the Presidency could and will go to Ranil. And with Ranil as the President LTTE will have no problems whatsoever.

2) If Rajapakse becomes the President via the above route mentioned, then he will be hard pressed to be tough on the LTTE.

3) This will result in LTTE going about telling the International community that Rajapakse is a Sinhala/Buddhist chauvanist Leader for theire propaganda purposes of course.

4) In such an atmosphere the only able person to have tilted the International opinion in favour of GOSL would have been, you guessed it, Kadir.

5) So to overcome such an obstacle in theire way, they had to remove him.

This is the palin truth and the motive behind Kadirgarmar’s killing. Prabhakaran is a vicious terrorist and he will not stop at anything until he achieves his objectives. And what his clear objectives are I am sure even Thamilselvan is not aware of.

One other point is that LTTE is always a step or two ahead of the GOSL and this has been proved once more.

Indi I would suggest you get your facts right. The two suspected LTTE members were not arrested outside LK’s personal residence. They were arrested outside his official residence which is not really nearby, if you know Colombo. I am not even in the country yet I am aware of this. Your ignorance of this fact can only be an indication of your willingness to twist information pertaining to the investigation to fit your case.

Kadirgamar was killed on Buller’s Lane. His official residence is on Wijerama Mawatha and Gregory’s, if I’m correct. The LTTE cadres were surveying… wait for it… Buller’s Lane.

Two weeks before the murder, the army arrested two Tamils from the neighbourhood. Brig Ratnayake confirmed to The Sunday Leader that they were LTTEers from the Up-country. A digital camera recovered from the two revealed that they were reconnoitering Buller’s Lane, close to Kadirgamar’s residence.

They had taken photographs of the residence, its surroundings and other locations. (Sunday Leader, 21 August)

Always open to fact-checking, as long as the facts are right. Sometimes, however, Morq’s personal experience and reality are a little uncorrellated.

One might think that the sign of human intelligence is when we went beyond our own personal experience and tried to use dialogue and research to find larger truths. Morquendi, however, still clings to his personal experience as the measure of all things.

# I’m not Sri Lankan enough to comment, that is, a paraya (pariah)
# His personal experience is the measure of all things
# Terrorism cannot be quantifed

The most obvious example of points 1 and 2 is: “This is a Sri Lankan problem of which you clearly have no understanding. The world might be black and white to you and Bush, but it most certainly is many shades of gray to all Sri Lankans.”

If you want to believe that 1) I am not Sri Lankan and 2) Morquendi speaks for ‘all Sri Lankans’ then I hope you and Morq have synchronized your watches for a successful uprising. On that day you can revoke my citizenship and make Morquendi’s word law, but until then I’m glad I live in a democratic country. Morq can comment all he wants, but no one can tell me how Sri Lankan or not Sri Lankan I am. If you want to call me paraya because I disagree with you, then that’s your business, but the Sri Lanka I live in is democratic and free. Also crappy and run-down, but dammit, we’re trying.

His third point actually rises above the Mervyn Silva level of debate of yelling paraya and spouting self-righteous rhetoric. That point: Is Sri Lanka a terrorist state?

Some characteristics of terrorists states are death squads, disappearances, torture, unfair trials, child stealing, and ideological persecution. Now the line between this and war is thin, and almost every country commits some of these sins. What separates a terrorist state from a normal, crappy but functional state is how they deal with it. That, of course, and quantity. If your participation in the national and international legal system doesn’t lead to a decrease in Humna Rights Violations, then you have a problem. In Sri Lanka however, the use of state violence has drastically declined since 1983. Then the killing of 13 foot-soldiers triggered unchecked rioting. Now the killing of our Foriegn Minister has triggered nothing more than a call to return to peace talks.

The Sri Lankan State has done some horrible horrible shit in the course of the War. A great deal of that can be attributed to War, but there are enough disappearances, civilian killings, and cases of torture that parts the Sri Lankan government has been censured in various courts and legal bodies – nationally and internationally. Morquendi, however, has a unique take on the rule of law.

Non-state parties are not bound by any conventions and one need not be surprised if they resort to terrorism. But when states such as the GoSL resort to terrorism it is a blatant violation of the rights of the very people they claim to represent and serve. Your understanding of the very concept of democracy seems to be flawed. I suggest you do some reading on that too.

Morquendi seems to be talking to himself here. He is somehow arguing that being bound by conventions makes you a terrorist, whereas following no conventions makes terrorism OK. By that logic it’s OK to rob a house as long as you don’t believe in the rule of law, and God forbid that anyone call you a criminal. I’m making the more logical argument that because Sri Lanka is bound by conventions, it is not a terrorist state. Every state commits Human Rights Violations, except Godland or Narnia. Sri Lanka has a constitution, it subscribes to the Geneva Convention, it gets hauled in front of the UN, etc. Has Sri Lanka paid for its offences? No, that’s never possible. However, Sri Lanka does have the democratic mechanisms to bring some modicum of justice to its people. To quote from a very LTTE biased source (Tamil Canadian) -

”There is no evidence,” according to the report, ”to suggest that the sanction for ‘disappearances’ came from the political leadership of Sri Lanka.” At the same time, Amnesty notes that the government ”must take responsibility for failing to protect the lives of civilians under its jurisdiction.”

It says the government has nonetheless managed to curb the number of disappearances by taking a series of steps, including the creation of a Board of Investigation in the Ministry of Defence, a special investigative unit of the Military Police, and a Human Rights Commission, which is currently investigating 274 disappearance cases.

I have looked through a few of their cases of Sri Lankan Terrorism, and they mostly have some resolution under rule of law, as another example:

The Attorney General has framed charges against five soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army attached the Gajaba Regiment of the Saliyapura camp with the murder of eight persons and causing injuries to another who were residents of Mirusuwil village Jaffna on December 19, 2000 (Tamil Canadian)

Is there perfect justice? Hell no, the justice system is bloated, politicized, bureaucratic and bang-your-head-against-the-wall frustrating. For every case that’s prosecuted 20 are left unresolved. The justice system does, however, exist. As crappy as it is, in democratic Sri Lanka there is a mechanism for resolving and hopefully preventing Human Rights Violations. I agree that it sucks and barely works, but I’ll take barely over nothing. Nothing is all the LTTE has in the way of justice. If the LTTE abducts your child you’re pretty much fucked.

As Morquendi says, the LTTE – as a non-state – are not bound by any conventions. Take a look at the Human Rights Watch file for Sri Lanka. The vast majority of offences are by the LTTE, and those have no resolution. Cases by the Sri Lankan state however, are subject to trials and official international scrutiny. Is there always justice? Hell no, but there is a justice system. The LTTE, on the other hand, is abducting children to serve in its army and the parents have no recourse at all. Can check out the Amnesty Report as well, to see what GoSL is still getting wrong, and how it is dealing with issues like torture.

The Sri Lankan State is not terrorist precisely because it is bound by conventions. When it breaks those conventions, as all states do, it takes (baby) steps to correct itself. Terrorists answer to no one, whereas GoSL does – however haltingly – respond to the needs of the people it serves.

At the same time, the LTTE is so prototypically terrorist that I’m surprised it’s even an issue.

some of the Tigers’ innovations—such as the “jacket” apparatus worn by individual suicide bombers—have been copied by al-Qaeda, the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, and Palestinian groups such as Hamas and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

In its early days, experts say, the LTTE trained with the Palestine Liberation Organization, and the group may still come into contact with other terrorist organizations through the illegal arms trade.

The LTTE is notorious for its suicide bombings. Since the late 1980s, the group has conducted some 200 suicide bombings—far more than any other terrorist group. LTTE suicide bombers have attacked civilians on mass transit, at Buddhist shrines, and in office buildings. In October 1997, a suicide truck bomb killed 18 people at the 39-story World Trade Centre in Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital.

LTTE suicide attacks have targeted political leaders in Sri Lanka and India, including:

* the May 1991 assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi at a campaign rally in India;
* the May 1993 assassination of Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa;
* the July 1999 assassination of a Sri Lankan member of parliament, Neelan Thiruchelvam, an ethnic Tamil involved in a government-sponsored peace initiative;
* a pair of December 1999 suicide bombings in Colombo that wounded Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga; and
* the June 2000 assassination of Sri Lankan Industry Minister C.V. Goonaratne. (Council on Foriegn Relations)

The LTTE answers to no one, whereas the Sri Lankan democracy answers to itself and the international community. Furthermore, GoSL uses a uniformed army and is fighting an ugly war, with incidental human rights violations. For the LTTE, however, human rights violations are its bread and butter – against Tamils, Sinhalese, and Muslims alike.

But that’s just a paraya talking, Morquendi and Mervyn Silva are true sons of the soil. Judging by their combined wisdom, Malaka is a normal boy, the CIA is funding the JVP, and Jayantha Dhanapala killed Kadirgamar in order to become Secretary General of the UN. Damn paraya don’t understand anything.

Morq, I think one can quantify terror, in some instances, and it’s important (though not always central) to do so: it helps in determining what punishments and dissuasions we as a society will use to protect ourselves from terrorists. I would argue that there’s something worse about random public sniper attacks and racially motivated ones, for example. In a just world we punish the latter more severely because it represents an attack on a category of people (even when it doesn’t physically harm all of them). Ignoring the psychological intent of terror implicitly condones psychological violence.

Indi, of course states can precipitate or perpetrate terror. Wikipedia places the criterion “The perpetrator is a non-state entity” last in a seven-element partitionable list. Think Milosevic, Rwanda, Third Reich, Herod… the reason we remember these more than, say, Sierra Leone or Armenia (arguably) is that they were state-supported. Because the GoSL is a democracy, it bears greater responsibility to protect citizens than does a Fascist separatist junta. Totting up the numbers dead and holies violated on either side is a) pointless for peace prospects and b) a horrible, devastating indictment of the rotten, weak values of the ‘democracy’ that spawned and perpetuated the horrors we’ve seen over the past 50 years.

Which is not to say that I’ve picked my side. I have neither love nor sympathy for the aforementioned Fascist Junta.

SLA
Navali Church bombing 117 dead
then I found this in Tamil net
1700 Hindu temples !
It’s virtually all the hindu temples in North and East isn’t it?(if you get the no of hindus in N&E and divide this by 1700 probably this will be 400-500 hindus for each temple destroyed ) can this be correct?

“Do you how many temples were brought down in the late 70s and early 80s in Jaffna by the army? Do you? Well, I am sorry Indi like Morq said you have to go through it for it to hit you. So I suggest you DO YOUR HOMEWORK before posting because it’s very important to have your facts straight, like somebody pointed out in another one of your posts, relating erroneous facts (the one where you had mentioned that the JHU was part of CBK’s coalition!-one of many errors) Think/research before you write.

I do admit that by bombing the Dalada Maligawa, the tigers stooped down to the level of the SLA. See the thing is the Dalada Maligawa is famous unlike the many temples that were ruined in Jaffna. Everything apart , a place of worship is a place of worship and NO ONE has the right to damage/destroy one.”

Please point me to a place where I can find a list of temples destroyed by SLA.
Please don’t take this as a challenge or something .Just want to get my facts straight.I’m interested in the religion/SLA angle of this .It seems highly unlikely that majority Sinahala-Buddhists Army destroying Hindu Shrines because Sinhala Buddhism is so much mixed up with Hinduism.Just go to your local temple and check how many Hindu gods are there.

thanks
Chandare
P.S
I’m aware of Navali Church bombing by air force because LTTE attacked SLA from the church using innocent civilians as a shield.For which the SLA said sorry later(I understand there has been mob attacks on Hindu Kovils in 1983,77,58. I need to know direct SLA attacks)

If you take the attacks by LTTE on Religious sites (and clergy) ,we have Sri Maha Bodhi (116 gunned down ),Arantalawa Massacre(20 monks?) then Dalada Maligawa.

On the other hand what constitutes a religious site in Sri Lanka where they have Buddha,Jesus and Hindu gods statues every where ?I remember the case about bo-tree /small shrine on Punchi Borella Junction.When the road expansion was going on 4-5 years back ,the buddhist priests made a big fuss .The priest was illegaly in the land and wouldn’t let the it go .Remember the recent ho -ha about the Buddha statue in Trinco?If you place a buddha statue under a bo-tree ,Ganesh statue under a banayan tree or place a crucifixion in a crowded junction is that a site of religious worship?

I think that here, we’re seeing the same occurring from the opposite perspective.

Your almost blind faith in the GoSL actually surprises me Indi, it’s in stark contrast to the impression i get of you from reading your other posts. You seem to have c hosen a side and are now railing against the opposing side. You’ve forgotten/never knew/absolved your side of any wrong they’ve done and have placed the blame and onus for the situation entirely on the opposition.

Is that rational? Are you unable to view this situation from the perspective of a non-colombo sri lankan tamil? Are you really that ignorant of the atrocities that your government has committed on your behalf?

I agree with Morquendi, you need to learn more (from impartial sources) about the situation as a whole, what all sides have done in this conflict and the effect it has had, not just the tigers. I think advocacy without knowledge is, at best, mildly annoying and at worst, possibly dangerous. Don’t take this post as an insult, I don’t intend it to be that, but i’m still really surprised by the almost racist perspective you seem to have taken up.

I do admit that by bombing the Dalada Maligawa, the tigers stooped down to the level of the SLA. See the thing is the Dalada Maligawa is famous unlike the many temples that were ruined in Jaffna. Everything apart , a place of worship is a place of worship and NO ONE has the right to damage/destroy one.

Indi, you sound very immature. how old are you if you don’t mind me asking?

If you hop into the country halfway through the ceasefire and believe you can develop a sense of what has been going on over the past 50 (20+ if you want to talk only about the war) years, then you are sadly mistaken. You and other such Sri Lankans who live abroad can have your little debate on your site but please don’t expect anyone else to take you seriously.

nothing they’ve done compares to the Central Bank bombing, suicide bombers, airport bombing, Temple of the Tooth bombing

Again, you try to quantify terrorism. If you believe it can be quantified and measured then I have nothing further to say to you. Only someone who has never experineced the many forms that terrorism takes can believe that the world is so black and white.

In my opinion state terrorism is worse than that carried out by non-state parties. Non-state parties are not bound by any conventions and one need not be surprised if they resort to terrorism. But when states such as the GoSL resort to terrorism it is a blatant violation of the rights of the very people they claim to represent and serve. Your understanding of the very concept of democracy seems to be flawed. I suggest you do some reading on that too.

And pray tell me on whose behalf did the GoSL wage war against the LTTE? Did the Sri Lankan people vote them into power to napalm Tamil villages? You may sanction your government to do that because you, with your American/Bush mentality, don’t seem to think the killing of innocent civilians is wrong, but no Sri Lankan did.

If you want to go by the UK and US lists I suggest you go and live there. You come from there and with that mentality so I am not surprised that you are willing to accept anything they say as the word of god.

This is a Sri Lankan problem of which you clearly have no understanding. The world might be black and white to you and Bush, but it most certainly is many shades of gray to all Sri Lankans.