Habarana Truck Bombing
The charred buses, Reuters photo by Buddhika Weerasinghe
This is more of a placemarker than anything. There were almost 100 people killed in a suicide attack. This was an unarmed convoy of 24 buses. The blast must have been huge to cause so much damage. An unbelievable amount of explosives. According to the Times, over 2,000 people have been killed since April. One thing I’ve noticed is that the tension has kinda left Colombo and it’s returned to status quo. Still, events like this bring it home. Amma said she felt it in her body. I can’t say the same, but it’s still a terrible loss of life. The government remains committed to peace talks, which is good. I just wonder if talks aren’t just bunkers in one long bloody field.
I recently wrote about gay marriage, which is not even on the radar in Sri Lanka. But we have another type of marriage discrimination here as well. Foreign marriage. If you marry someone non Sri Lankan, they can never become a citizen. Their lives and their rights to even be in the same country as their children are permanently unstable, and it’s patently unfair.
When 
I started off not really liking General Sarath Fonseka, him being part of the aggressive war effort. I didn’t support the war (largely cause I thought it would fail), and I thought Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and Fonseka were gleefully stomping everything. Fonseka even came out and said “I strongly believe that this country belongs to the Sinhalese but there are minority communities and we treat them like our people,” in 2008 (
General Sarath Fonseka was arrested on a bunch of trumped up charges, but mainly for daring to threaten Mahinda in a Presidential election. Despite his poor health, Fonseka was arrested in February 2010 and sentence to three years. Word on the street now, however, is that he’ll be released soon. Like any day now. President Mahinda Rajapaksa has told 
check this pic out…
Yahoo
http://www.nitharsanam.com/?nav=6000
unarmed convoy…???
i DON’T THINK SO!
don’t believe everything the sri lankan military/govt spokespersons say
grow up man…
They were defined as unarmed in the news wires (New York Times, Asian Tribune, Hindustan). Dunno. Still sucks. When anybody dies.
OK, I count about a dozen to twenty T-56s in that pic. If it was a 24-vehicle convoy, each bus would have had an armed guard onboard. Routine (like a conductor, but everyone moves to the back much faster).
Anyway, a military convoy’s a legit target. Armed or not. We wouldn’t hesitate to axe a classroom of Tiger trainees, so what’s the dif?
Point is, this is another attempt to instigate retaliatory ops just before the talks. The target hardly matters. It was a soft one, they went for it. Battlefield success has been slim for the Tigers, so this is the next best thing.
I felt it, but I agree with Blacker that it is a legitimate target. I can’t see what voice-in-colombo and lankawatch are crying about. To echo a phrase Aadhavan used sometime ago (and not to put too fine a point on it) what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.
so says the voice of experience, david. Succint. Pragamatic. probabaly bang on.
When they meant unaremd I beleive they were referring to each member not being armed with a gun, however as David points it out and I too have mentioned in my post, you cant call “fowl” anymore this is war. You cant deny it.
More at fault are the Military for not taking more precuastions becuase the everbody knew that tigers fear are navy and have made several attempts to attack the convoy. It was a shame that we fell for an old trick in the book where they’d dug up ditches and coveredthem with planks. (So I’ve heard)
Anyways as I post this comment LTTE is attacking the Galle Harbour.
Absolutely. We’re fighting a war with terrorists. Some of it is terrorism some of it is warfare, conventional and otherwise. The Navy was being compacent. Higher ups should know that no installation is safe under these conditions. After the narrow escape of the troop carrying boat, you’d have thought that such a large convoy of troops of any of the three forces would be protected. Instead they are carefully arranged on the bulls eye of a target. Idiots. Sarath Fonseka really is losing his marbles along with the other chiefs.
Now that the LTTE has probably put all their efforts into Muhamalai, they’ll be severely weakened, hence the attack on the convoy (1 life for 100 something casualties – you do the match). Expect more attacks. Especially in places that haven’t been targetted upto now.
Come on, Sophist. For every convoy hit, hundreds get through unscathed. I don’t know what Chaar Max means, but I thought it was a explosive-loaded truck. To be totally safe from rammings, convoys would have to do what the US does in Iraq. Hang a board at the back saying “Anyone approaching within a 100m will be shot”, and do it. We all complain whenever roads are closed for convoys or VIPs, but then when this happens, we call the military idiots. You can’t win ‘em all.
Point…but this was an military installation which had been complaining about its lack of protection since May.
OK, I thought you were talking about the convoy, not Galle.
there is no such thing as terrorism…
war is hell…
if i’m in a “war” with you i’ll use “any means nesscessay” and/available… collateral damage is unfortunate but what to do… the SL airforce doesn’t mind hiting civilians…
galle is a navy base = valid target
the airport has an airfore base there also = valid target
there are many targets “far from the battlefield” which are military targets…
do you really think that a forces you can “contain” this war to the NorthEast?
Tamilselvan has already said that this war, if it escalates, will not be confined to the NE… i’d take that seriously if i was you all
there’s rioting in galle
tamil shops and persons being burned…
AlertNet
That would be tragic, but the news on all the other wires (Jasmine, TamilNet) are that a blanket curfew has been imposed. Even the report you cite says ‘News of the raid sparked rioting in Galle, with shops belonging to the minority Tamil community targeted by the majority Sinhalese, residents and police said. A curfew was imposed and local police were ordered to stop the riots, one officer said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.’ Might want to read the whole report.
I’d say that Sri Lanka has actually behaved commendably in this war. The police are stopping rather than fanning rioting in this case. All the latest acts of aggression were LTTE (Kadirgamar, cutting off water, bombing various buses, assassinating Tamil dissidents in Colombo, attacking Pakistani emissary) while GOSL has responded with restraint. It’s certainly not behaving perfectly, but the LTTE is clearly the aggressor here, not Sri Lanka.
oh, ok indi…
you don’t hear about the things the army was doing in the northeast…
rapes, dissappearances, attacks by the paramilitaries… they don’t make the news but they are out there
TamilNet covers a lot of terrible things, we don’t need to take your word that ‘they’re out there’. However, big stuff tends to make the news, and the LTTE has been making audacious attacks. I never said that GOSL was lily white, but this is LTTE aggression
Logic, there are lots of rapes by Tigers, dissapearances, extortion, torture, etc which ALSO does not make the news. As Idi says, the big stuff does. The airstrikes, the suicide bombings. This is the nature of media, not of war.
Did I hear someone say “There is no such thing as terrorism”?
Ooooooooooh, after that argument about whether there is such a thing as the average Sri Lankan, I’m itching to get into this one!
terrorism is in the eye of the beholder…
george washington: didn’t line up his soldiers like the british did… hit and run… new type of warfare for the time
nelson mandela
Che
Ho Chi Mihn
anyone that is a “non-state” actor…
what’s the difference between delievering a bomb via truck/human and or via pakistani pilot flying a SL air force kfir killing a civilian…?
central bank bombing: central bank – economic target, but civilians killed – delivery method – truck
navaly church (jaffna) bombing – civilian target (as statedby ICRC http://www.tamilnation.org/indictment/genocide95/gen95012.htm) only civilians killed – delivery method SLAF
which one is terroism???
I think we’ve had this discussion. There is no qualititative difference between those killed by suicide bombers or Kfirs. That is accepted and understood. However, it is the nature of, and the motivation for, the killings that result in its labelling. If a truck is driven into a navy convoy nobody calls it terrorism. And that’s fair. But if it is driven into the CBSL with thousands of civilian workers around, then THAT is unambiguously a terrorist act. Similarly, if a Kfir targets and LTTE camp and one or two civilians who were in or around the camp dies – that is not terrorism. However, if the Kfirs deliberately targetted a village of innoncent people – that would be.
The point is that the GOSL hasn’t (at least acknowledgedly) adopted a policy of TARGETTING civilians. Hence they are not terrorists, even though they may commit acts which sometimes may blur the distinction.
the govt is targeting civilians… they have done so in the past and are doing it now…
the barrel bombs in the 80′s were dropped on PURELY civilian areas…
and i don’t think the CBSL can be characterized as “unambiguosly” terroist… a target is a target… you think the US would not hit Osama in the middle of 1000 afgan civilians… PLEASE… give me a break…
you put a target in a ccivilian area… that’s your fault… why are all these military offices in SL in the middle of colomb0…? civilian shields?
you know where the pentagon and the CIA and the undergound US command center are…? far, far away from any civilian population…
those civilians killed and injured in the CBSL bombing were unfortunate “collateral damage”… it sucks… but it da truth…
“Collateral damage” to what? What was the target? The objective was to disrupt the economy and strike hard at the heart of the country. By doing what? By causing the maximum amount of death. That is terrorism, because the civilians weren’t incidental deaths. They were the target.
The Pentagon, the CIA, and the “underground US command centre” are all military targets. The CBSL and the WTC were not. There IS a distinction, though it’s often blurred. Bit it’s there. Saying the US would do such and such isn’t a way of defining what terrorism is.
by the way the comment about pentagon etc. was in order to relate the placement in colombo of vital military instalations IN THE CAPITAL in order to use the civilians sheilds… re-read it you douche bag…
and disrupting the economy of a country during a war IS a legitamate military goal – the economy woulda crashed if the reserves in the basement of the CB had been destroyed (but they survived)… the attack on the Air Force base at katunayake (dual use as a civilian airport as a civilian sheild) was not terrorism and it is what brought the govt to the negotiating table… econ tanked after that…
Douche bag (I mean aiyo), your inability to be articulate is no reason to fall back on insults. If you could write a cohesive sentence, I wouldn’t have to reread. The only “vital military installation” in Colombo are the forces HQs, and these were in place long before the war, and in fact predate independence. The Pentagon was specifically built for the purpose. Where could they have built it — Grand Central Station? Don’t make a fool of yourself by picking the wrong examples and then attempting to defend your mistakes.
The reserves in the CBSL basement cannot be touched even if the entire building collapses. This was forseen after the fire in the late ’60s. Not even a truck bomb could bring the building down, and the Tigers weren’t dumb enough to try that, even if you are dumb enough to think so. So the target wasn’t the reserves. The target was the economy, legitimate enough, but attacking civilians is not legitimate. The purpose of war is to win — legitimate. How you do it can be legitimate or illegitimate.
Military installations in SL are not picked for their proximity to civilians, but because of convenience. SL does not have the funds to build dedicated naval or air bases.
you’re right david… i sometimes just reel shit off with out forming it into a coherent argument… sorry… i will try to be clearer in the future…
peace…
Aiyo you fault the CBSL for being in a central business district. Interesting. I must fault all those tamil women and children who just happen to stand in front of LTTE cadres who do the shooting.
This is degenerating into a tit for tat. That serves no purpose. Please read and understand, that is the simplest courtesy you can offer to fellow bloggers.
sophist, you’re the one who should read…
i said military installations in civilian areas invites collateral damage…
in a separate “thought”/”point” i mentioned that the the Central Bank is an economic/stategic and thus military target…
maybe i wasn’t clear… i’m sorry…
i condemn ALL civilian deaths… but “war is hell” so let’s not have war…