I really do not get the point why the commander of army was given such a crapy vehicle. At a time one guy drives a humvy here, no excuses to give this kind of a shitty car for the army commander. Either they have some tube light mind where they forget what LTTE have done in the past within minutes afterwards or they have trusted the security too much when the reality is totally different. I wonder what is going on in my country. Hope they will flush them out atleast now..

i agree with most of your post.
but,
civil society can complain about it (as published on Moju) without fear, and our democratic society can make mistakes, learn, and become better. That is a very valid document
it is not a valid document. it is extremely biased and is a partial plagiarism (whole sentences word for word being lifted) from dbs jeyaraj’s blog as argued in moju and in my blog.
and authors cannot be termed ‘civil society’ in the literal sense of the word i don’t know whether you use it as a synonym for peacenik ngos.
anyway you can read the details in moju.

i’m not much into making political commentary, so i’ll refrain from doing so…

this is a good post, and yes, all we can do is hang in there…and hope for the best. i don’t know. like you said, in the meantime, life will go on, atleast for us.

however, i don’t think it’s technically correct to divorce the LTTE from what you call ‘the sri lankan side’. i think the LTTE is as ‘sri lankan’ as anyone else. don’t forget, even the boys/girs, men/women in the LTTE and all it’s supporters are, by nationality, sri lankan. this is not the LTTE vs the ‘sri lankan side’ but the LTTE vs. the GoSL. what either side stands for and what either side is willing to do to get what they stand for is to be seen.

Though shamefully I must admit that this is very true. Yesterday was a typical day at the office. Came in to office in the morning, called a meeting in the afternoon, listened to some music (my job actually requires me to do this. Seriously.), watched some porn while taking a break, ordered pizza for dinner, pizza guy delivered on time, had dinner and went home……oh yeah, heard about a bomb in Colombo too.

I have a theory on this. I was born in to the war. I don’t know a Sri Lanka without a war. All I know are killings, bombings, ethnic cleansing, peace accords and ceasefires. So anything that would make me raise anything other than my two cents worth view point would have to be something don’t experience on the third hand. Now that, is one scary fucking equation.

This is daunting shit especially coming from somebody whose pater was in the SL Navy for some 30 odd years!

Janapathi…I don’t often say this to people I don’t know, but go fuck yourself.

Horus, as you mention, life goes on. The only emotion that engulfed me yesterday was an overwhelming feeling of helplessness. What the fuck more do we have to do to show you we’re peaceful buggers? We flew you in a fucking helicopter you motherfuckers. What else can we DO? Why don’t we just give them Eelam? Here…take it. Let us go around in peace without the fear of getting blown up every step we take. My walk to work every day takes me past the buildings ruined and still deterioriating a decade after the CB bomb blast. It’s a reminder of the day I came closest to losing my father. Funny that…for a guy who’s father served in the army for over 20 years. He has his closest shave at Echelon Square.

I can’t do this anymore guys. It’s not GoSL. It’s not LTTE. It’s Us v. Them. I have no problem with them as long as they don’t blow up people. Take your pound of flesh and your coastline and just fucking go. Just please leave me alone. I’m so so sad for this country. What can we do?

The most significant thing is that the A9 is closed. This road that was the cause of so much death and suffering was kept open since 2002 because of the ceasefire. That is now closed. We are further on the road to two states.

The story you tell suggests that the LTTE is the only party to blame. This is incorrect. An undefeated armed seperatist group agreed to a ceasefire in 2002 (four years ago). Due to the inability of the southern politicians and the southern population to agree on modalities, there has been no progress toward peace. There are many excuses, elections, capricious decisions by President Kumaratunge, unprincipled alliances, etc. But excuses are no substitute for peace and progress.

No war-no peace cannot be a sustainable equilibrium, however much the Sinhala electorate wants it. The people whose houses were destroyed by the multibarrel rocket launchers were still without houses, the young people who have to undergo humiliating searches still went through them, so no significant improvements in infrastructure and job creation were made in the North and East (quite the opposite to the improvements in the South as a result of the ceasefire). You cannot expect the people who suffer from the status quo to stand still while the beneficiaries of the status quo do nothing to keep their promises.

The Sinhala electorate voted for war in 2005. Now they have it.

Despite my inability to comprehend how two parties can sit and talk peace while plotting attacks of this impertinence, I must agree with you Aththa. I don’t want to, and I mean it, I really don’t want to get drawn into an debate about ISGA, but you are right. Mahinda rode in on a ticket not too dissimilar to that of SWRD. We are now reaping the results of the Sinhalese people’s incomprehensible thickness.

[...] i have and am going to continue to refrain from making any commentary on the situation that we’re facing right now, politically, as i mentioned on indi’s blog. i have noticed that getting into politically charged discussions don’t work on the net, almost always everything you say gets horribly misconstrued by others who have opinions and are as stubborn about them as you are, everyone is passionate about their point of view and no one really agrees to disagree. you may have noticed that i’m one of the few regular bloggers that haven’t made a post about the suicide bombing : it is not that i don’t care, it is that saying things on topics like this are mostly futile because right now everything is vague and everyone is hurt and no one really knows what to think. in fact, neither do i. and there is more possiblity than not that, stemming from something i say, i’ll be misinterpreted. i’d rather not have that. [...]

sophist : despite the heated-ness of your earlier comment, it is very ‘big’ of you to have left the second one. hats off.

aththa, sophist, electra and others: i’m curious to know why exactly the blame for the preceding days’ events should include the ‘thick’ sinhalese people (excluding the events in trinco which were disgusting and disheartening but given the incitements that led up to them, comprehensible) . it’s always fashionable to resent the power of the poor and less educated voting blocs in this country but in your attempt to spread the blame and hand out epithets to the sinhalese people, you and your ilk come very close to resembling ltte apologists imo. there is right and there is wrong. whether or not you are a mahinda supporter (and i certainly was not) and whether or not he came to power on a more hawkish platform, i’d like you to point out concrete examples of how mahinda’s actions (not his election rhetoric) + those who voted for him ‘resulted’ in what we are now facing. i’m genuinely curious.
i agree that (what was) the status quo was a completely untenable position. but from the point of view of a tamil farmer living in one of the conflict zones, no war/no peace was still better than the next most likely alternative. i think it’s becoming clear that the tigers want war because they were beginning to see that a democratic federal framework would inevitably erode their power. they are fascists through and through (and they operate best in the haze that accompanies war). in some respects, they are stronger because of it.

When you look at those pictures how could you feel anything but helpless. It is sickening and utterly condemable.

The provocation in Trinco – which was no doubt done by the JVP, I do think though that Sophist has the right answer. There should be a seperation. We need to be kept apart. There is too much cause & effect & it’s going to spiral into one decade long nightmare. Completely irrational & without any compassion for humanity.

We need people who can think outside the square to act. Send letters, emails faxes demanding that a line be drawn in the sand. We desperately need more moderates in SL. Tell me they exist?

Indi – you’ve listed the incidents you attribute to the ltte – it’s very telling. However, can you list all the killings courtesy from the other side – Joseph Pararajasinham, Trinco, etc? Also – seriously, the ltte did not kill Lux Kadi – I’m sorry, like it or not, You need to look carefully around you in Colombo for that one.

Interesting Mahinda has not said one word – where the hell is that schmuck when his country is falling to bits – bloody useless ignorant coward.

to all–
i was just going to bed in philadelphia when the bbc reported the colombo blasts and the GoSL reprisals. it’s a terrible thing to hear at any time of day but especially before sleeping.
my heart is so angrily sick at this. i wish i were there; it is torture to be so far away and not near any other invested parties.
aththa and sophist, i share your feelings. and i rage at the LTTE logic that responds to political violence with actual murder. there is nothing worse.
how can we recover? where do we go? endless war?
my prayers are with you all.

It is essential that we condemn the active violence of the LTTE; it is equally important the we condemn the passive violence of the Sinhala majority which refuses to respond with a political solution. Both are forms of violence.

I repeat: anyone can see how much people in the government controlled areas benefited after the violence was stopped as a result of the ceasefire; no equivalent benefits flowed to the people in the LTTE controlled areas or even in the government controlled areas in the North and East (unless the reduction in the likelihood of being bombed or otherwise killed is seen as a benefit). The one exception is mobile telephony, but as they say, you can’t eat phone calls. Then one has to ask who benefited most from no-war/no-peace. The politicians, the businesses and the middle classes in the South, primarily in the Western Province.

There is no point in debating the rights and wrongs of the specific actions that lead to the start of Eelam War III. The underlying condition is one that we need to recognize.

aththa
The Sinhala electorate voted for war in 2005. Now they have it.
then so did the tamil one by not voting.

but lets face the facts none of the them really wanted war.

it was only the ltte who were really capable of bringing on war and they are most of the way there. and they will be blamed for it and get what they deserve.

It is essential that we condemn the active violence of the LTTE; it is equally important the we condemn the passive violence of the Sinhala majority which refuses to respond with a political solution.
so you consider them comparable?

btw are you saying condition of ppl in north east is no different whether there was a war or not? they did benefit. and ppl do not get prosperous just bc there is peace. peace should never be ‘sold’ as such, another ngo mistake.

Why does the obvious political chicanery of the LTTE, when the pulled the rug out from under Ranil’s faggotty (I don’t care if I offend anybody) feet, blind us to the statement they were making?

The FACT IS…the mandate of peace would only have been delivered if the Tamils voted, i.e. – the Sinhalese didn’t vote for peace. Do you understand you buggers? Or are you by some complex reverse psychological method trying to prove my point about Sinhalese people’s thickness. If you are – bloody good job.

Janapathi. Please allow me to reiterate my sentiment from my earlier post…’go fuck yourself’.

Yes, Nut, and the rest, I agree. There is no way, in this world or the next, that the LTTE can be absolved. No violence of this nature is justified. The abuse of the human condition of pregnancy, and the magnanimity of the Army in providing free clinics to pregnant women must be condemned and I hope the ‘peacenik’ NGO’s get off their goddam Dravidian horse and call it like it is.

Suddenly the world media story is not the fact that the Army Commander was almost killed and several civilians WERE killed inside the Army HQ compound, but the fact that several ‘civilians’ in ‘Sea Tiger bases’ have been killed. Also a completely spontaneous, unsponsored mass exodus of people leaving their homes in fear of ‘genocide’ by the security forces.

They attacked the Army Commander – for FUCK’s sake!!!

I’m not an LTTE apologist. I never have been, I never will be. Living for the more than 18 years of your life unsure of whether you’ll ever see your father again makes you not really fond of the LTTE. Or the JVP. My pater served in Matara in the height of the insurrection while the now whiter than white JVP were putting people’s heads up on poles. He was in Palaly when the Elephant Pass camp was attacked. They called for reinforcements. He went. He hitched a ride back in an ambulance from Ratmalana 10 days after he left Palaly camp. I am my mother’s only child. I am not an LTTE apologist.

In the same breath, I am also not a Sinhala chauvinist. What the LTTE showed by not voting was that the south doesn’t care about peace. Overwhelmingly doesn’t give a fuck. They want some anachronistic Dutugemunian legend of unity. Someone used the words ‘election rhetoric’ and ‘uneducated voters’. I don’t resent them. But the fact remains that they vote on rhetoric, and not on issues. So we have a problem. I resent politicians for abusing the stupidity of the masses.

Mahinda appointed Sarath Fonseka. He was publicly pro – war. Mahinda sent a bunch of fuckwits for a holiday in Geneva. Mahinda makes blanket statements like ‘api rata bedanne naha’. For the LTTE this was probably like making out with a girl renowned for being a cockteaser. Do what you want but you’re never going to get sex. What’s the point?

But why does the LTTE keep doing this when I’m helpless? Why do you kick me continuously when I’m down and not fighting back. You’ve punched me you’ve kicked me, you’ve taken away my will to live. I’m bleeding from my eyes, ears and mouth and yet you keep kicking me in my head, my groin, my kidneys. I did’nt want to fight Prabha. I still don’t. So please…just stop hitting me.

I am ashamed of the shortsidedness and the ignorance of my people: the Sinhalese.

Attha said, “It is essential that we condemn the active violence of the LTTE; it is equally important that we condemn the passive violence of the Sinhala majority which refuses to respond with a political solution. ”

I agree with this to the extent that the UPFA government under CBK and now Mahinda really don’t have any credible workable policies. At least Ranil for all his faults (and he has many) had some executable policies, which his government was fully behind. Then Mahinda came up with a hardline coalition on the “Rata bedannay na” platform and the idiot Sinahalese majority voted him in. The LTTE, by preventing the Tamils in the North and East from voting, merely exposed the political stance of the majority of Sinhalese in the South: anti-devolution.

This is all fine, if we have the balls and the capability of making anti-devolution a workable, credible policy – but we don’t. What this means is that we have to be willing and able to go to war – with all the personal, social and economic pain that it entails. However, the policies of Mahinda are so shallow that he cannot do this without scuttling his subsidy-based economy. We have no money to fight a proper war, especially not with his level of fiscal irresponsibility.

The start of this and the end of this is, and will be, rooted in economics. And thus, one thing is clear: we cannot let such gross violations of the ceasefire go unanswered. No matter how bad it is for us in the short-term, we have to retaliate hard. The LTTE must experience a significant cost as a result of their actions. I am glad that air-strikes have already been called on known targets. I just hope they minimise “collateral damage”.

“People respond to incentives – all the rest is commentary”.

[...] i’m still trying to abstain from getting involved in discussions regarding the road down which the country is headed as of recent times, but i must comment the thread of conversation on indi’s blog, and the posts by daytripper and childof25. the sri lankan blogosphere is finally showing me what most of it is truly made up of : passionate arguments, carefully thought out opinions and the innate desire for peace. [...]

Ravana – glad you are glad that bombings were on “known targets” – just don’t know if you have any proof apart from what’s put out by govt controlled press as to exactly what these targets are?

In war – the first casualty is the truth. I’d say part of the whole blogging thing is to try & work through dis-information.

One has to be careful – we that are younger, more battlehardened & I truly hope more tolerant & willing for Peace, we need to make sure we don’t fall into the same “them vs us” trap.

Sohpist – skany ho (sorry but you said I could not call you dude or sister) – are you quite sure you are not a Sinhala chauvinist? Look – I think it’s a very personal question – can you just quietly ask yourself that? Being quite liberal with the words Fucking this & Fucking that (that’s what dem Skanky ho’s do) is all well and good but can we have a few more less lopsided solutions.

Across blogshpere I can tell that the lessons of the past have not been learnt. More killing does not mean the end of it – it just means …. more killing.

Ashanthi…can you read?!

Ashanthi – I read about the air strikes on Tamilnet, thank you very much. One article said that they were bombing the LTTE controlled side of China Bay. I know that the LTTE have a base there and even a makeshift airstrip because I’ve spoken to fishermen in the area who have seen it with their own eyes. I’m assuming the airforce is bombing this base, along with other such known targets. Obviously, Tamilnet makes it sound like they are just bombing villages, but even they are not making such a hue and cry about collateral damage, so it can’t be that bad.

Having dealt objectively with that question, Ashanthi, I would like to say that I find your last post condescending, and unhelpful. As far as more killing leading to more killing – this is a blatant oversimplification. Very often pacifism leads to more killing. Not doing the right thing at the right time leads to more killing. World War II is a case in point, where the rest of the world played a pacifist game allowing Hitler to grow more and more powerful and kill more and more people before they intervened. Millions of lives could have been saved if military intervention had taken place earlier on.

There is a time for war, and a time for peace. Save the flower power for the retro party, girl. Now is the time for war.

What the!
Guys.. it’s not sinhalese people who appointed Mahinda.. it’s LTTE who allowed Mahinda to win by not supporting Ranil.

read that statement again and think about it! if the LTTE did not vote for ranil , the singhala people (according to your statement) obviously did vote for mahinda! if not he could not have won now could he!!
I think what teh LTTE did sucks too but one has to think rationally when placing blame! dont make bloody stupid statements!

Yes Anarchy…dont’ make bloody stupid statements. Anymore that is.

yes wise one. You make so much sense you seem to constantly contradict yourself.

Great post Indi.

My tuppence:

I don’t in any way condone what the LTTE has been doing over the last few months, but in their defence, I have to say that they are not the only side with blood on their hands. The GoSL isn’t the innocent little lamb that she pretends to be.

I have information (from a very reliable source) that the Karuna faction is working with the GoSL. The GoSL is using his group (and information supplied by him) to strike LTTE targets in the North and East.

Most people have written here that the GoSL side is committed to peace and the LTTE are butchers, etc. But the GoSL cannot offer the olive branch of peace with the one hand and secretly have the sword of Karuna behind its back in the other hand. The GoSL has been provoking the LTTE just as much as the LTTE has been provoking the GoSL.

Both sides are to blame here. Both the GoSL and the LTTE execute and slaughter people with impunity in the North and East. This has been happening for the last six months. Many have died on both sides. Only because it was brought into the Colombo consciousness two days ago are we all up in arms about it.

What is sad is how desensitised we all have become to hearing about these killings. It’s easy to read the number five in the headline “5 shot dead in Jaffna” or the like. But think about it – that’s five lives ruined, five families torn apart forever, five young minds wasted as if they were no more than dirt on the ground.

My attitude is that this situation will never be solved. The LTTE will never back down, nor can they be defeated. (Not by a military that is so incompetent that its HQ can be bombed, anyway.) The GoSL will never act in a totally genuine way towards peace and a solution, because there is too much corruption and too many vested interests (read: money) are at stake.

Anyway war has pretty much started now, albeit not in name. It will go on endlessly, as I don’t think this is a war that can be won. It’ll be another Vietnam, or Afghanistan, or Iraq. As long as the people of those areas are unhappy with the GoSL, the war will go on. Which will be for a long long time.

(Janapathi: Please don’t bother replying. See what Sophist said to you if you want to know what I think of your racist and childish opinions. It’s easy to live undercover in Bangkok and be a cowardly racist – like most expats you have no connection to the ground situation here, yet you are more opinionated than the people who actually live here.)

{update}

Now that I come to think of it:

The Australian TV channel SBS has proved that there are Karuna training camps in GoSL terrtory. Presented with this info, the GoSL response was that there are no armed groups within GoSL territory. If GoSL were truly genuine about their side of things, they would apprehend these Karuna paramilitaries and show that they are doing their part to push peace forward. But of course they can’t, because they are backing Karuna (unofficially). Links:

http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=17831
http://news.sbs.com.au/dateline/index.php?page=archive&region=2#

I think Anon is right about the government allowing the Karuna faction to move around freely in the government controlled areas. The other day, I heard an account by one of our field guys at my place of work. He’s based in the Polonnaruwa District. He walked into the barber shop to get a haircut, and lo and behold – a Karuna cadre getting his haircut as well, complete with pistol in pocket.

When I first heard about the Karuna faction splitting, I was dismayed, while most of Sinhalese were rejoicing. Having Karuna around just makes an already complicated situation even more complicated. Solutions are relatively simple when it’s a two person game, but the more players you add the harder it is for a solution to be reached. It’s bad enough that the government is a coalition of strange bedfellows that can’t agree, but now even the terrorists don’t get on with each other! It’s becoming like Northern Ireland and Palestine, with the many different splinter groups. And we all know how f8cked up things are there.

There can be no permanent settlement with Karuna faction still around. So they have to go. Who’s going to get rid of them, and how is another question. We should never have entertained them in our areas in the first place. Until they exist, we have to maintain the status quo, we can’t move forward. If we want to move forward – and we have to seriously think about whether we really want to, because as long as the Karuna faction exist the LTTE are weaker – then we have to trade Karuna faction for something big at the negotiating table.

I suggest that Mr. P of the LTTE and Mr. M from the GoSL mud wrestle. The winner is allowed to live in Sri Lanka as a farmer and the loser is sent into exile.

The constitution should then be scrapped and a federal assembly formed that will be assigned the first task of building a constitution that is not equitable – but truly guarantees EQUALITY and is based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Unless the Sinhalese insist that they are the product of some beastial union with a Princess and a lion – I think the Tamils and Sinhalese can trace themselves back to being of Indian origin – which is a good place to start. We can then forget about a difference in race and merely think of ourselves as culturally diverse.

Of course that’s a frightfully stupid and naive take on things… but it is a proposed solution, which is more than what the LTTE or GoSL have been able to come up with. I don’t think the “GIVE ME ALL YOUR TOYS!” attitude that the current government and the LTTE have will get anyone very far.

Ok that’s it from me – now it’s open season – crucify me! ;)

Pity you didn’t suggest that when Chandrika was in power. I’d rather see her mud wrestle than Mahinder. Actually…come to think of it both Prabha and Mahinda look slightly alike no? Hmmm….

i love watching mud wrestling ……….

Strummer – Agree.

I may be breaking blogging etiquette but you seem to be helpful. I have just set up a blog on wordpress but have no idea how to link it to Kottu. Can you please help? Thanks Me

Dear [Edit]/ Electra…

We all know that wht Kinda prick your mother is..

Yeah.. She fuckin NGO and all she does and do is tryin to make money out of War… She pretends to be a saint-like..

Huh… Whiney Bitches like your Mom needs to be stripped infront of the Whole nation..

Your Momma Never said a Good thing about the Sri Lankan army whos protecting your Brown [Edit] ass while you Blog in the AC back in sri lanka.. whose protecting your Bitchy mom up in SL now.. Right now,,,

So dont Blog about your Moms SAD SMS whuch made mommys girl cry.. Cry about the Money your mom bribed from the Innocent people of this country to Educate you ..
How she Smuggled Millions of Rupees through NGO movements… We all know what your Breed are..
So stop Wanking on the Net.
Dadless Rich She Fagget!!!

we are not going to get anywhere if we call each other names and continue to put forward arguments based on unsubstantiated evidence.
and personal attacks on ppl with no evidence just do not work and shows ones own failure.

lets face the facts since elections
ltte helped mahinda buffalo to win by enforcing a election boycott.
why? bc they thought he will be easily blamed for war.
it became even more clear that ltte was planning a war this year by p.’s hero’s day message.
ltte started attacking the military in december
military showed restraint in not engaging in reprisals. and buffalo to his credit allowed this
international community condemned the ltte and pressured them to attend peace talks.
ltte stopped its attacks on military for a while.
government foolishly promised to control the paramilitaries in geneva
killings by both ltte and paramilitaries of individuals continued.
government was predictably to comply with disarming of paramilitaries . it was manifestly impossible and impracticable. and it was probably stupid follow through too
as next round of talks drew near ltte again started to attack military
military showed commendable restraint again
international commnity condemmned the ltte and put pressure on them to resume talks
ltte then started attcking civilians in trinco
after a bomb that killed civilians a riot broke out and was controlled by military with in 2-3 hours (much quickly than in other countries btw)
victims of the riot included all communities
ltte attempted recreate it by intensifying attacks against civilians but there was no repeat riot even though some of the civilian killings were very brutal.
ltte attempted to kill army commander.
buffalo ordered limited military strikes.
ltte continues to attack military and civilians.
some civilians are killed in the military strikes. may be bc ltte was sing them for cover .

ngos through out this failed recognize the restraint show by the military. quite in contrast to slmm and international community.
they failed to condemn the ltte and made much of few instances when military failed to show restraint as in mannar in january
one of them ‘centre for policy alternatives’ issued the very biased report on trinco riot. whch was in fact a partail word for word plagiarism from post by pro ltte blogger dbs jeyaraj.

these are facts.

ppl who deny them have to produce the the evidence to support them
what is quite clear is that ltte was driving for war through out this period . some ppl including myself predicted in decmeber(see my posts during that time) that based on evidence ltte wanted war in spring of 2006 .

well it seems we were right unfortunately
only ltte will see it will get nowhere by war either.

I’m confused, everybody who blames the GOSL for the current state of affairs cites the disarming of the Karuna faction as being the catalyst for the LTTE wanting to go back to war. Is it not the case that Prabha pulled out of the peace talks BEFORE Karuna broke off from the LTTE initially? Why pray tell did he do that if he was sincere about peace?

karuna is an excuse for ltte and a false one to anybody who examines it.
i recently wrote a post about fallacy of this argument.
ppl who put forward have to answer these questions first.

do they deny that ltte engaged in daily direct attacks on military throughout the period when they were insisting that government disarm karuna?
do they deny that government showed patience and still insisted on peace talks even while they are being attacked by the ltte?
do they deny that military did not engage in direct attacks against ltte before 25th except at sea(which was forbidden to ltte in the cfa)?

so what right has the ltte to insist that government disarm the paramilitary before peace talks?
it is clear that ppl who put forward karuna as an excuse for ltte are ether biased against the government in the extreme or have problems with basic logic. that is the only way we can explain this inability see the obvious fallacy.

What sort of odds do you think you could get if you’re betting on whether or not Ma-hinder is personally conducting strikes in the Rao hinterland…see front page Daily Noise? This bugger is the MAN.

War is a means, not an end. We sometimes forget that when we say the LTTE want war. War is not Prabhakaran’s end objective, merely a means that he thinks will get him closer to what he wants – a separate state, or a substitute that will satisfy the same needs. What need is this? Look at Maslow’s hierarchy – a separate state probably fulfils needs all the way from the bottom, up to the top of Prabahakaran’s personal pyramid.

I disagree with Sittingnut. You can’t assume that the LTTE want war. Mahinda and the JVP would have scuttled the peace process if Ranil had gotten in, so the LTTE had to make sure that they were dealing with a government that represented the other extreme as well, not just Ranil’s middle. This makes for a more permanent solution, when one is reached.

Plus, if you look at both Lakshman K and Sarath Fonseka, they are both leaders who were highly anti-LTTE and opposed to the peace process (Lakshman thought that GoSL was giving too much and was opposed to anon-unitary state), and Sarath is basically one of the toughest commanders we’ve had for a while.

And you see what’s going to happen now, there was a violation, there was a retaliation, and now we’re going back to the table. If Sarath was killed, we’d have still gone back, but to a less-trigger-happy staus quo. Closer to peace? I think so.

I think you’re analysis is a bit wonky, Sittingnut.

ravana
‘I think you’re analysis is a bit wonky, Sittingnut.’
as you wish. i find yours incomprehensible.

‘War is not Prabhakaran’s end objective,’
maybe, at the moment it is, if we go by his actions. he may cahnge it after trying ot what he can get.

‘the LTTE had to make sure that they were dealing with a government that represented the other extreme as well, not just Ranil’s middle. This makes for a more permanent solution, when one is reached.’
? then what about the daily attacks.

‘Lakshman K and Sarath Fonseka, they are both leaders who were highly anti-LTTE and opposed to the peace process ‘
really ? that does not prove anything either way . it merely proves that ltte wants to get rid of opponents who may trouble them either in war or peace. sf would have given them more trouble in war not in peace .

‘If Sarath was killed, we’d have still gone back, but to a less-trigger-happy staus quo’
this is a contradiction. that s was almost killed was the cue for pulling the trigger.

[...] Indi says it much better than I ever can. [...]

Bomb attack kills 4 civilians, 4 navy officers wounded in northeastern Sri Lanka
Associated Press, Mon May 1, 2006 01:03 EDT . CHRIS BRUMMITT – Associated Press Writer – TRINCOMALEE, Sri Lanka – (AP) A bomb exploded in a residential neighborhood of this northeastern Sri Lankan town Monday, killing four civilians and wounding four Sri Lankan navy officers, police and witnesses said.
The bomb apparently was aimed at a vehicle carrying the naval officers when it exploded, killing the four civilian bystanders, said a police officer, who identified himself as the area’s chief inspector. He did not give his name.

There was a pool of blood on the road, as residents and police tried to help. The officer blamed the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels for the attack.
Published: Mon May 1 02:06:34 EDT 2006

Sittingnut: I think the reason you don’t understand what I’m saying is because you take the LTTE’s and the government’s actions at face value. May I recommend a book called “Thinking Strategically” by Dixit and Nalebuff? It’s good introduction to game theory, and this is what we’re in: a game.

Just a quick question for you Indi, I noticed that you and your family lived in Canada and the US, what made you guys move back to SrI Lanka? I mean this place sounds more like Africa or Iraq to me. Why would you guys want to go back to a place like that? My sister Kelly had a friend in college who moved to the US from Sri Lanka when she was 5, I’m not sure what the deal was with her, but she told me one time that her family would never consider going back there.

Well Raquel your sister Kellyùs friendùs family is missing out.

Whats wrong with Africa? Admittedly Darfur may not be on everybody’s top tourist spots but there are plenty of other places that are fine, quite nice in fact… Also Iraq has suicide bombers going off every 100 meters or so, in SL they only blow up every few kilometers.

Just to preempt a few more of Raquel’s possible questions; yes we have roads, electricity, walls that are not made of cow dung, trees, people who speak english and not everyone rides around on elephants! (the most common questions I’ve had from the ignoramuses I’ve encountered).

Answer to Raquel’s question from one of Indi’s parents:

We moved several times: from Sri Lanka to Canada before Indi was born; from Canada to Sri Lanka when he was three; from Sri Lanka to the US when he was five; and back to Sri Lanka when he was an adult in university. In no case were the moves determined by compulsion; rather they were based on some forms of opportunity-endowment calculations (though the move in 1987 to the US on the eve of the second JVP insurgency may have had a tinge of compulsion).
As professionals who function within the “universal” culture of academia, we are more capable of moving, than most.

In each case, including in the last move in 2002, there were many opportunities. Sri Lanka in 2002 was a land of hope. The Ceasefire Agreement was in force; peace talks had momentum. The economy was picking up after the disastrous decline of 2001. Economic reforms were in the air.

The opportunity to make a difference with a government running on the twin platforms of peace and economic reform existed. The endowment, in the form of relevant skills and experience, not only of the theory of economic reform, but also of the practice of implementing reforms, existed. An international consulting assignment, funded by IDA money (over 70% grant component), enabled the surmounting of the financial barrier to the move.

We have no regrets about moving to Sri Lanka in 2002; we might do it again!

[...] failed. The Foreign Minister (incidentally, a Tamil) was killed but the Defence Secretary and the Army Commander survived. Hence they’re [...]