War for Christmas
Joseph Pararajasingham was shot at midnight mass. Likely* culprits are Karuna, the other Tamil extremists.
By likely I mean ‘I don’t know’, but feel free to yell at me
Had dinner with Point Pedro yesterday. They had these circular things, kinda like a flattened danish. Das gupta. Ask if he’s been back to the North East recently and he says no, it’s too dangerous. “If you’re inside its OK, but on the roads, with the mine attacks, crossfire, you never know what could happen”. I stir my gulab jamon discontentedly, look at my feet. He says its going to get worse before it gets better. Talk to young UNDP guy who says I should support Rajapakse because he is our President. Take a shot of water from the metal cup and grumble. “I supported George Bush cause he was the American President, and where the fk did that get us?” I think this is a time for dissent, the LTTE is killing people and the water buffalo hasn’t blinked. This morning I heard that MP Joseph Pararajasingham was killed in church during the night, shot down during mass. May have been automatics, 7 people were hit and his wife is in critical condition. Two days ago 15 soldiers were killed by a claymore mine attack. Day before 4 sailors killed. Gunfire, grenades every day. We live in an age where no one says ‘war’ anymore, but I’ll be damned if this isn’t it.
Drive down to Colombo. Not today cause I’m lazy, but some other day. Every day I see army trucks, army jeeps – black gloves hanging out the window, stiff-arming traffic like I don’t get it. On Friday nights there’s a cop in every corner, milling about in the greens, underpaid and toting semi-automatics. Sometimes the sun is in my eyes and all is someone with an automatic weapon on a motorbike. That still freaks me out. Why they can’t carry handguns like normal cops is beyond me. Of course, and I think this merits a subhead, no one gives a shit.
No One Gives A Shit
Last month the Sri Lankan foreign minister was assasinated in his swimming pool. Saw some posters for a few weeks, but lest I overstretch the point, no one gives a shit. Later, Sri Lankans elect Mahinda Rajapakse on a hardline pledge not to divide the country. Ironically, he wins only because the LTTE prevents people from voting in the North and East. Mahinda has literally won a divided country, but no one gives a shit. Shortly after he’s elected something like 13 soldiers are killed by mines in the North. Now, in 1983 thirteen soldiers were killed and sinhala extremists saw fight to riot and bloody the streets of Colombo. This time, however, no one gives a shit. The LTTE is killing soldiers every day, with impunity. How?
LTTE Strategy
This is a deceptive heading cause neither I nor anyone else has an clue, but lets take it simply. The LTTE is a terrorist organization. They are unelected and have a record of suicide bombings, assasinations, child conscription, money laundering, extortion, and general terrorist shit. It follows that this, at least partly, a terrorist war. Terrorism is, by its nature, international. Fundamentally, the money required to sustain the LTTE campaign comes not from the impoverished North and East, but from the diaspora in Toronto, London, Oz, etc. This former point may be worth expanding cause Point Pedro uploaded a nice paper on the Conflict Time Economy which breaks it down to a drop in fish and egg production. Anyways, the flow of money, arms and ideas is international, and the LTTE needs to control that in order to secure and independent state with some accreditation. To that extent the LTTE needed to cut Sri Lanka off from the international community, and that is exactly what they’ve done. In a classic example of doublespeak, Batticaloa TNA Member of Parliament Mr. S. Jeyananthamoorthy says,
“Targetting key Tamil political actors,” and “blocking the Tamil side from the access to the west,” is a two-pronged stategy adapted by the Sri Lankan state to weaken Tamil struggle, Jeyananthamoorthy said. This strategy will fail and in its wake likely bring an unprecedented catastrophe to Sri Lanka, he added.
I say doublespeak because what he accuses GoSL of is the exact LTTE strategy, as evidenced by their (accomplished) goals:
Kill Kadirgamar: As the Tamil foreign minister, Lackshman Kadirgamar was a vital voice in cutting off the LTTE internationally and defending Sri Lanka across the globe. The LTTE’s lobbying force is much stronger through the diaspora and Kadirgamar was one of the few aces we head. That is, until the LTTE shot him dead while swimming. Of course this was pre-election, so you get a lot of condemnations but no reaction from GoSL. It’s a safe move for the LTTE, and it scores them points in that Sri Lanka is now effectively voiceless internationally – leaving them to define the world’s perception of us. His current replacement is Mangala Samaraweera, who is prone to foot-in-mouth disease. LTTE 1, Sri Lanka 0.
Vote for Mahinda: One Eelam, one vote, and Prabhakaran cast his vote for Mahinda. All the polling showed that Ranil would eek out a win with the North and the East, so that effectively gave the LTTE the choice. Let people vote, and you get Ranil. Disenfranchise people, and you can install Mahinda. The LTTE chose the latter, and they installed Mahinda as the Sri Lankan President. The people who once rallied the world to ensare the Tigers – Ranil and Milinda – were out. The next day the BBC carries stories about a ‘Tamil boycott’ and ‘Sinhala extremist President’ and, if you haven’t got the chorus, no one gives a shit. Mahinda and the JVP aren’t going to protest that they won, and Sri Lanka gets a big international black eye. We look like assholes, and the real assholes that prevented people from voting look like freedom fighters. Score 2 for the Tigers, 1 for the water buffalo and -4,000 for Sri Lanka.
Last year we got a tsunami for Christmas. This year we get a water buffalo of a leader, traipsing through traffic with garlands round his neck, oblivious to the claymore’s on the road. Our Foreign Minister is dead, at least 30 soldiers are dead, and now Joseph Pararajasingham (that probably by Karuna) was shot at midnight mass. Mele Kalikimaka.
I want to visit my friend in China before he comes back. Free place to crash and all. So, I applied for a visa to China, from Colombo. I’m not sure I’ll get it, but this is process to at least apply. For official but incomplete info, check out the 
The Mahavamsa (a history of Sri Lanka) is full of conflicts between generals and kings. Usually, the more bloodthirsty and unscrupulous would win. Our current (elected) ruler Mahinda Rajapaksa has had his own general conflicts, namely with one Sarath Fonseka. In the old days Fonseka would have staged a coup, as in literally try to cut of Mahinda’s head, and Mahinda would – if that failed – tie him to four elephants and split his parts asunder. Can’t do that shit anymore. Instead Fonseka ran for office and lost and Mahinda tossed him in jail.
Today on the 
Janith has updated 
So Indi – what are you going to do about it – do you give a shit?
its too bad you’re just a singhala establishment hack, otherwise it would serve you right to make note of the SLA terrorism conducted within the last week. it would put things in context and provide objectivity. however, it seems your concern is not the truth but the villification of the LTTE. that’s not hot.
the only reason why 83 won’t be repeated is cuz the singhala thugs and goons have not been given the orders by their political masters, who are well aware that Black Tigers walk the streets of Columbo. :)
indi:
you are too pessimistic imo. ppl ‘do give a shit’
We live in an age where no one says ‘war’ anymore, but I’ll be damned if this isn’t it. – no, this is certainly not it! you will see the difference when it finally breaks out.
so far international community backs sri lanka. ref the co-chairs statement after meeting the tigers. and most of them were not deceived by ltte claim that vote boycott was voluntary, any more than by ltte claims that recent attacks were not by them. ltte can still come to it’s senses and back down, though i do not expect it to.
as for the buffalo and his herd, less they open their mouths and keep on doing what they have been doing, which is basically nothing, the better.
43seconds:
put things in context and provide objectivity – follow your own advice.
villification of the LTTE. that’s not hot – can anybody really vilify ltte? can one accuse them of any cowardly evil action they have not done already?
as for black tigers, imo last several botched attempts in that area suggests ltte is running out of them, but i suppose there are a few left. question is will ltte dare attacks against civilians if war breaks out? world reaction will certainly be very different to what it was in the 90′s.
Though we have no word of what the government’s doing in retaliation… I’m sure someone somewhere is hatching a plan. At least I hope so.
As for ” no one gives a shit” – agreed. It’s apathy. And we’re all guilty of it.
what do you mean by government’s doing in retaliation? what it should do is to make sure the soldiers are safe and fire back only when attacked, nothing else, except maybe search operations in areas it controls.
ltte is doing all this provocations precisely because they want army to react irrationally, so they can blame the government for restarting the war. we should not fall in to their trap. we should not actively seek war, anybody who advocate that should join the army first.
of course they should have a plan for what to do when ltte really goes to war with no one else taking the blame. as i said in this post the best plan in jaffna peninsula is to withdraw from all civilian areas and to confine army to defensible camps there. any successful military operation can only be carried out from vavniya towards north or in the east.
we have already blindly walked half way to the tiger’s trap by electing buffalo, let us ensure that we do not go all the way.
SittingNut: “…make sure the soldiers are safe and fire back only when attacked…”
You should see the soldiers in the northern region…the expressions on their faces denote that of terror; terror of being caught in a ‘difficult’ position…they don’t know what to do, when to shoot, how to act – either they haven’t been given proper instructions, or the entire situation is getting too hot for them to handle…so much so, that one of my colleagues was almost shot at by the army – but he managed to slow down his vehicle, and talk to the guy – and only to discover that they were so shaken by the mine attack last wednesday – that the army guys were just out of control – later the army dude, tearfully apologized…
It’s a sad situation out there – this entire war is just about power and more power – and oh yes, money…the rest of us are just pawns in this whole bloody sadistic game of chess…
OUT WITH THE BUFFALO/ES!
Sweetidiot – I think you have a point there. This “inexperence” and resultant panic is documented in the latest UTHR(J) – briefing (an interesting read) too. As we have seen even the americans are regularly invoved in “accidently” shooting the innocent simply out of fearing an explosion/insurgents. Arguably they are better trained, more accountable(sic) and have more access to counselling than the SL troops.
the rest of us are just pawns in this whole bloody sadistic game of chess – may be, so what will it take to get the colombo middle-classes out (followed by the rest) to “no war / stop the killing ” protest similar to the spanish protests that followed the madrid bombings. Surely the private sector and the UNP have enough clout and organizational capabilities to start something. What’s more. IMHO, it would get the UNP back in the political map as well as the hearts and minds, or do they only care about the next election?
oops … that was meant to read
What’s more, IMHO, it would
sweetidiot:
while i defer to your first hand experience, fact remains that army has so far acted with exemplary restraint if we go by actual killings. navy in mannar was not that good.
best thing to do as i said above is to withdraw from civilian areas in jaffna.
ivap:
compared with americans and other coalition forces in iraq our army is in fact very disciplined . that sort of discipline is not acquired through training alone but by real war experience. in fact i would venture to say that we have the army that is best and most experienced in dealing with terrorist cum insurgency forces and all this with minimal resources, compared to other armies. in the same way tigers are by far the most ruthless and manipulative such force in existence and in the bloody cutting edge in terms of tactics used. only difference is sri lankan war was not covered in international media but that does not change the facts.
as for your suggestion about mass protests like in spain, imo we are much more used to people getting killed in large numbers than the spanish, where the eta is nothing more than a few hundred(if that) ppl going around exploding occasional bomb. so i will be skeptical about the feasibility of this, but unp at least should try, i agree.
that sort of discipline is not acquired through training alone but by real war experience
I’m hope so but we’ll see if and when the war comes. The Navy certainly has shown that it isn’t very disciplined.
only difference is sri lankan war was not covered in international media but that does not change the facts.
One thing that’s quite noticeable since the tsunami is the sharp increase in coverage of sri lankan issues in the international media. It hasn’t been limited to the tsunami either. This time around I suspect that the international media are going to be paying much more attention than in the past.
i hope you know that Kadirgamar wasnt well liked by many ppl… mainly as he supervised the killings of alot of children…innocent children who were herded off to b killed like animals.
you could say that the LTTE did it…but in reality any of those parents could have… as sittingnut always says that i jump into conspiracies.. but y shouldnt i if every1 else does?
kadirgamar? herded children to be killed ?
thanks for making my point. :-)