After meeting Peres, I found myself at a dinner party with Yossi Vardi, a dot-com millionaire who made a bundle from one of the first Internetwide instant-messaging services. “Israel became very fertile ground for young people with ideas,” Vardi told me. “More than $1.4 billion in venture capital came in recently. The place is crazy — a technology boom alongside a very unacceptable political situation and chaos in Gaza, where most of the population is living on under $2 a day. It’s not right or sustainable.” He took a sip of a respectable cabernet sauvignon — Israeli winemaking is on the rise (from a low base) — before adding: “You know, power corrupts, and occupation is the ultimate manifestation of power. There are no checks, no balances. Occupation, after 40 years, corrupts absolutely.”

These successes are not occurring by accident. Amongst the many factors that are contributing to these successes is the relatively better leadership provided to the defence establishment by Gothabaya Rajapakse. Please see the interview he gave the Nation newspaper at:
http://www.nation.lk/2007/06/17/inter1.htm

You’re a bigot in your own way. Amen to that.
I’m not even going to attempt to defend myself, that was not even worth a response. I’m done proving my worth to those who believe I am worthless just because I’m privileged.

Tariq, brains, mmm…

Nice bit of nonsense there tamilgirl…

I especially liked the bit where you stereotypically assumed that just because Electra is from a wealthy (and by that I mean relative to the majority of this country) her ideas and opinions are myopic and blinkered to reality… then again maybe yours are too.

You’re also wrong about the colombo elite living off the blood, sweat and tears of the people of SL.. they live off their babies… far more succulent.

By your own “mathematical” reasoning and the “club kids” are only .005% of the problem so wake the fuck up to the real problems and do something about it.. me I work my fucking ass off and pay taxes to ensure that the blood, sweat and tears of the SL people are not in vain… and to buy more babies… mmmmm so tender…

LTTE’s barriers to entry hahaha that’s a good one… what makes you think that the LTTE wouldn’t have accounted for that, forged ID’s are not difficult to create and them having ones with sinhalese names is not too difficult to imagine, even so I myslef have witnessed the police being bribed with 100 rupees to look the other way when ID’s were not presented… so really these aren’t very good reasons to do what they did.. it doesn’t improve anyones security in fact it probably makes people less secure.

It amuses me how you continue to defend the method adopted by the police as ‘novel’ when it’s plain to see that it was illconceived and sloppily executed and this is not me speaking in hindsight. If any reasonably intelligent person was told that as a security measure, Tamils without ID and a valid reason to stay (whatever that means… no Sri Lankan needs a reason to stay anywhere in Sri Lanka) were to be bussed back to where they came, they would flag it as a bad idea from the get go (you don’t need to be a security expert to see the inherent flaws in the plan). It’s bad idea because it achieves nothing apart from ill will on the part of the lodgers, it certainly doesn’t prevent LTTE cadres from entering the city and it gives the impression that the police have limited options when it comes to securing its citizens. At worst it strengthens the LTTE’s argument that Tamils have no place in Sri Lankan society – you may not buy into that argument but you cannot deny that it strengthens their claims.

“i disagree with the second part. bombs will go off, ppl will kill , steal, and commit all sorts of crimes, depending on their nature. vast majority of poor and hungry ppl will not steal so to blame stealing on poverty or hunger is not correct. in the same way some ppl ( say virgina tech killer ) will fantasize imaginary insults and kill. your logic is weak.”

Please re read your comment before you post, its funny how you accuse others of weak logic when you demonstrate none of it yourself… my point was that if all citizens of this country are treated fairly and equally by the state you’d go a long way in ensuring that bombs dont go off in the future. If you think that the minorities are treated fairly and equally by the state then you might want to leave your fantasy land and join the rest of us in the real world. The discrimination faced by the minorities in this country isn’t imagined, it is very real and in no small part is a major contributor as to why we are in this mess in the first place. The moment you remove that reason you’ll go a long way in ensuring real security and not just perceived security. Oh and although stealing and murder may in some cases be due to the nature of certain people, bombs on the other hand generally don’t go off because a persons nature.

“not every one is allowed to travel freely everywhere. can you, me or others ( even when they are not “charged with any crime or arrested”) travel in some streets in colombo? are we not prevented from doing so by security ? is that a restriction on freedom of movement? yes, but is that against the constitution ? no. bc courts have not ruled against it.”

Your argument is specious at best… high security zones which limit or deny access do so without prejudice, it is applicable to all people regardless of ethnicity, caste, creed, sex, religion or even geographical profile. It doesn’t say that if you’re not from the north East then you can enter… please come up with a better argument than that. In this case the lodges were not in any high security zones and no one else was prevented from renting a room there or staying there. The people who were asked to move weren’t breaking any laws and there was never any indication that staying there was illegal or restricted or do you just feel safer with less North Eastern Tamils around?

The basic facts are that if you were Tamil, from the North East, without an ID and a “valid” reason you were asked to leave regardless of whether you were innocent of any crime. The validity of the reasons were determined by a bunch of cops and military personnel with limited knowledge of Tamil and therefore made subjective judgements with grossly imperfect information – apparently getting married isn’t a valid reason to be in Colombo. The lack of identification is more likely due to the absence of appropriate government officials to administer the same. There are literally thousands of Sri Lankans without proper identification, Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims mostly from the North East simply because Govt officials have been unable to travel there… are they all then to be treated with suspicion? In reality these people were punished for not having access to ID’s.

The decision to just bus them out of Colombo is more revealing of the Police’s lack of ideas in properly managing the security of citizens than it is an indication of their willingness to protect. It’s not even a case of “their hearts were in the right place” – this was by anyones standard a ill thought out, badly executed measure which backfired spectacularly and while that gives me no pleasure, to not criticize them would be a failing of our duty as citizens to speak out at a very real injustice and our duty to respect the rights of our fellow citizens.

“in the first place you are making the claim “based on ethnicity ” in other words you are engaging in exaggeration denying the facts. this was not based on that, it was based their original location, lack of identification, and their lack of reason to stay in colombo,. there are hundreds of thousand of tamils in colombo .there are 15000+ tamils in lodges and 5000 in lodges examined that day. their was selection based on those criteria . to reduce it to mere ethnicity is an error on your part.

why do you make it ? do explain in your reply”

Ok I’ll humour you.. you yourself say that the Tamils in the lodges were the targets of the raid was that not a decision made on ethnicity? The police weren’t targeting everyone without an ID or a valid reason to stay, they were targeting Sri Lankan Tamils falling into that criteria.. that my friend is a decision based on ethnicity not anything else… if not there are thousands of Sinhalese and Muslims without ID residing in lodges in Colombo… didn’t see them being bussed back did you? So either you are blind to the main criteria or you just like making rubbish arguments for the hell of it. I agree though that this wasn’t ethnic cleansing.. people who say so haven’t seen the horror that it really is… but this isn’t far off from it… I believe that we have matured as a nation not to repeat the mistakes of ’83 which is why actions like this saddens me no end… it is a throwback to one of our darkest days as a nation and to deny it is to contribute to it

I know its not fair that you have a public profile and people take advantage of their anonymity to make personal attacks on you.

Electra,

In some ways its not your fault or their fault, Sri Lanka is extremely polorised, racialy, socio economicaly etc. So its very difficult to have a calm rational dialogue about things that we all care about…ie the future of the country, the war and the ongoing humanitarian crisis. If you figure out how to work around this you will be able to survive any place on earth! :)

I know its not fair that you have a public profile and take advantage to people make personal attacks on you.

Electra,

In some ways its not your fault or their fault, Sri Lanka is extremely polorised, racialy, socio economicaly etc. So its very difficult to have a calm rational dialogue about things that we all care about…ie the future of the country, the war and the ongoing humanitarian crisis. If you figure out how to work around this you will be able to survive any place on earth! :)

The argument about the moral standards of the LTTE vs the GoSL has been an eternal one, we’ve established over and over again that the GoSL are NOT terrorists and therefore cannot go around behaving like terrorists.

Indi : CONTSTRUCTIVE DEBATE? Have you failed to notice that every single bloody time someone puts up a post about the war, we get called LTTE supporters and tiger lovers? That I get told that me being the ‘little rich kid’ that I am, I have no right to say what I say? Have you not seen the way people trash us, our work, our personal lives, our PARENTS? It’s disheartening dude, some people are just bigoted and it’s difficult to make constructive debate when bigots are not only bigots but ignorant.

Where do all these moronic false-elitists come from? Those who bolster their next-to-nil self-esteem by putting down others and thus making themselves happy? Is that how you hope to let your ideas gain credibility?

Your false elitism is the flip side of pity, and really, you might even consider religion, so you that you’ll at least do some good instead of sitting on your internet throne and congratulating yourselves for being so ‘intelligent’.

Since I’m unaware of the context of the two situations you refer to, I’m afraid I don’t know what to call him or her, though I’m sure you have a simplistic Bushean epithet to give me (and that you will take at least three paras to articulate it badly).

“when person advocate peace with ltte at one point and then say ltte is beyond the pale of morality is he being consistent?”

How is advocating peace with an immoral enemy inconsistent, and if it is, what is it inconsistent with?

“or is he advocating giving power over millions to ppl who are so immoral intentionally ?”

I’ve no idea. Is he? If so, please point out the evidence of that advocacy.

“of course he is free to be inconsistent and whatever you call it .others are however just s free to point that he is inconsistent etc.”

Yes, we’re all free ‘cos it’s a free world. Thank you for pointing that out. The Tamils are free to live in Pettah, the GoSL is free to evict them, the people of Colombo are free to protest it, and the SC is free to prevent it. And your point was…?

of course he is free to be inconsistent and whatever you call it .others are however just s free to point that he is inconsistent etc.

If you feel that a particular side of the story isn’t being covered, start your own blog and tell everyone about it. I’m sure we’d all be interested.

anyway let examine your arguments

“The government deports people on the basis of ethnicity”
really ? as i said above “there are hundreds of thousand of tamils in colombo .there are 15000+ tamils in lodges and 5000 in lodges examined that day.”
clearly there was a selection made, based on lack of identification and lack of reason to stay in colombo.
why do you persist on your ethnicity argument ? is it bc without it you have to admit you do not have one? :-)

“CPA goes to the Supreme Court, which, in a rare fit of lucidity, stops the government action”
you mean it has not done this before ? really ? may be you expect cpa to succeed every time. for your information courts are there to decide on law not to agree with one party ( or the party you back) every time. :-)

This is supposed to be proof that (a) this was not ethnic cleansing; and (b) all those who protested were overreacting.
if the main criteria was not based on ethnicity it was not ethnic cleansing , and all those who say it is ethnic cleansing in spite of facts are overreacting. you think that is twisted logic? as you wish. :-)

If not one protested and the CPA did not move the court, the Supreme Court would not have acted. No “over-reaction”;’ no injunction; deportees still stuck in Vavuniya. But now that the injunction was issued, this is proof of over reaction. Wow!
wow indeed! your imaginary powers in attributing things i never said to me is indeed great.
did i say a thing against cpa going to court ? in fact i said they should come up with evidence ( as i have asked repeatedly ) for their other hobby horses like white van theories and see how courts dispense justice ( see above )
so get down to earth from fantasy world and point out any errors in argument i did make .

“There still is hope, seeing how isolated S’nut is in the blogsphere”
wishful thinking ?
quite apart from your allegation about isolation ( which i don’t feel as i used to in 2006 april and i am the best judge) do you believe that parroting terrorists based on such sloppy logic as above makes you right bc others are doing the same . is that what you think? as they say some ppl are so weak creatures that they cannot think or have opinions on their own . they always depend on others .you seem to be one. that explains why you adopted the terrorist spin on this in spite of facts

you probably thought the same in 2006 april. when your like made the same claims after the trinco riot. and attacked me. most of them have dropped out and others have changed their names. while i am still here with the same opinions. what was the name under which you posted then ? :-)

i am going to have some fun if the present lot doesn’t drop off likewise

aadhavan:
Yes, this was one of the positives to come out of the whole episode.
so you subscribe to diyasena’s diyawena arguments above ? typical :-)

indi:
Sri Lanka does not need to take moral guidance from terrorists. The LTTE has committed countless atrocities, as has Karuna. Those are not the standards by which we measure ourselves.

very good principle
hopefully you would stick consistent to that in the future ( you haven’t in the past even though you have said the same before ). as such would we soon see the following

you would not support any measure (like giving power to ltte in return for unsustainable ‘peace’ or even ceasefire ) that will allow it to carry on with it atrocities . you would support legitimate use of force to defeat ltte. you would in fact advocate that ppl under ltte be liberated. you would if there was a mavil aru type situation advocate that military force be used to ensure the rights of ppl to water ( as you did not do then even as weeks passed by is dead lock ). you would denounce ppl who accept ltte as sole representative ( instead of arguing that was the pragmatic thing to do as you did )

or do you think that we don’t have to use military bc ltte will just give up arms and reform bc it was asked to do ? :-)

fact is if you really considered ltte to be evil and terrorist, you would not advocate appeasement for peace,or believe that ltte is supported by tamils as their security and that tamils think it is fighting for them etc. as you have done. you say ltte is evil, but you do not act and speak like you think it is so.

not every one is allowed to travel freely everywhere. can you, me or others ( even when they are not “charged with any crime or arrested”) travel in some streets in colombo? are we not prevented from doing so by security ? is that a restriction on freedom of movement? yes, but is that against the constitution ? no. bc courts have not ruled against it.

What the police did wasn’t admirable or novel… it was lazy, illconcieved and put more citizens lives at risk… how you say?
as i said previously that is a subjective judgment on your part. if anyone is in any position to judge the efficacy of some security measure it should be the professionals; the police. as i said from my first comment you are free to have your own opinion. however it is them, not you who will have answer to the lives of ppl killed by bombs.

“..its about all us of us stop saying “my country” and start calling it “our country”.”
agreed. did i say anything that disagrees with that ?

““their job is to protest the public”
and each citizen is part of this “public” so telling them to pack up and leave isn’t really protecting them is it?”
depend on the actual situation .asking ppl to leave certain area may be part of ensuring their security.

“Never said there’s something wrong about having suspicions but there are actions that they can take to investigate them… rounding them up and shipping them out isn’t really helpful is it?”
you are making a mistake. ppl from northeast who does not have identification and do not have a reason to stay are suspicious not bc all them can be terrorists but allowing them to stay here means that ltte can infiltrate the city with cadres who do not have identification and a reason. by this measure ltte’s barriers to entry goes up . legality of it should be determined by the courts

if you want to arrest, detain, and question, all those ppl ( as i would suspect police will resort to now) until investigations are complete, overcrowding the prisons, and overwhelming the police, you are welcome to it. as i said efficiency of this measure in comparison to alternatives is a subjective judgment .

“but they didn’t… even the president ordered it to be stopped”
more subjective judgments.

“My preference is that all citizens be treated fairly and equally by all agents of the State, you start doing that then those bombs wouldn’t be going off in the first place.”
i agree with the first part. whether in this case police were not acting thus, taking into account the interests of all ppl is a subjective judgment.

i disagree with the second part. bombs will go off, ppl will kill , steal, and commit all sorts of crimes, depending on their nature. vast majority of poor and hungry ppl will not steal so to blame stealing on poverty or hunger is not correct. in the same way some ppl ( say virgina tech killer ) will fantasize imaginary insults and kill. your logic is weak.

“Wouldn’t it be better if the police were fully aware of these laws in the first place… ”
as i said in novel situations limits of law have to be tested . this happens is all democracies.

“Yes but do think for a second any state agency of the EU or US would even consider rounding up people based on ethnicity and shipping them out of the major cities? oh and ’shooting to kill because you look asian’ is NOT a policy in the UK… BBC broadcasts would make pretty grim viewing if so”

in the first place you are making the claim “based on ethnicity ” in other words you are engaging in exaggeration denying the facts. this was not based on that, it was based their original location, lack of identification, and their lack of reason to stay in colombo,. there are hundreds of thousand of tamils in colombo .there are 15000+ tamils in lodges and 5000 in lodges examined that day. their was selection based on those criteria . to reduce it to mere ethnicity is an error on your part.

why do you make it ? do explain in your reply

btw have you not heard of concentration camps of japanese americans during world war ii ? are you saying there isn’t ‘ethnic profiling’ going on in usa? where does the word comes from ? and they don’t even have a war.

that usa and eu at present implement security measures that curtail rights is not in doubt. only difference may be in the nature of rights curtailed. but they do not have war in their soil at the moment so do not have to curtail movement as they did when they had a war. however they do that in iraq. they are even building barrier between sunni and shia in capital there . legality of such curtailment of rights do go in front of their courts too

so don’t advance half baked arguments.
btw don’t prejudge any differences between sri lanka and other democracies just bc this is sri lanka and not usa or eu etc. that smacks of racism

-
yes this gave an opportunity to terrorist propaganda to exploit through exaggeration, as i said in my blog. but in the end propaganda is not sustainable without actual facts. that is why i said in the first comment “i will not regret my opinion a year from now” any more than my opinion about last year’s trinco riot when same ppl made the same arguments.

i believe we are not engaged in anything close to ethnic cleansing and believe sri lanka’s institutions of law are working, contrary to claims here. as long as that is the case whatever excitement terrorist parrots may derive from exaggerations relating to this, whipped up by ltte spin office, will not last.

“So, whats your explanation for mass killings of sinhalese by LTTE?”

Terrorism.

“Isnt it bad than this?”

I think you mean “worse than this”, and yes, killing is worse than explusion. But a democratically elected and legitimate government is held to higher standards than a dictatorial terror group.

“What abt kebithigollawa?what abt water restriction they did by covering a water line?”

Very bad.

“Killers should be removed. Innocent tamils could stay.”

Very good, so remove the killers, leave the innocent. How do you do it? It’s called criminal investigation. The police even have a division for it; its called the CID.

“What are they doing for ages in pettah?”

Whatever they’re doing, if it’s legal, they should be allowed to do it as long as they can afford to.

“Why cant they go back of they came for a good course?”

Why should they? It’s a free & democratic country, and citizens of SL are free to travel and live wherever they wish without GoSL permission.

“Why pettah? Cant they live in a less crowded suburb in Colombo?”

Has it occured to you that maybe these people can’t afford to live in Colombo 7? Perhaps you’ve got a room you can rent them.

“Hey came to mass kill,,thats why they stay there”

Got any evidence?

“.who killed buddhist monks? wasnt it shame?”

Killing of ANY civilians is shameful.

“who did pettah bomb?”

If you mean the recent one on Reclamation Rd, I believe it was the LTTE. Do you think it was someone else?

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF SRI LANKA
http://www.priu.gov.lk/Cons/1978Constitution/Introduction.htm

Freedom of Speech, assembly, association, movement, &c.

14. (1) Every citizen is entitled to -

(h) the freedom of movement and of choosing his residence within Sri Lanka

There you go that’s one violation… if they were not charged with any crime or arrested then they are presumed innocent… do you disagree with any part of that?

What the police did wasn’t admirable or novel… it was lazy, illconcieved and put more citizens lives at risk… how you say? well by strengthening the LTTE’s claim that the Govt doesn’t consider Tamils as Sri Lankans.

“this is i country at war”

This country is at war you are right… but the military aspect is only a part of it… this country is at war with its own identity, there needs to be a fundamental shift in how we perceive the man standing next to us if we are to win this war. There are a huge number of wrongs that have been committed against Sri Lankans by Sri Lankans and its no longer about how it all started and who did what to whom first, its about all us of us stop saying “my country” and start calling it “our country”.

“their job is to protest the public”

and each citizen is part of this “public” so telling them to pack up and leave isn’t really protecting them is it?

“if you think it is wrong to have reasonable suspicions about them, you are living in a fantasy world”

Never said there’s something wrong about having suspicions but there are actions that they can take to investigate them… rounding them up and shipping them out isn’t really helpful is it?

“if there are suspicions police should act within law to take preventive action. they are duty bound to do so”

but they didn’t… even the president ordered it to be stopped

“do you prefer police to detain and monitor all of them under pta? do you think that is a practicable measure given the numbers involved? or do you want police to wait until bombs explode?”

My preference is that all citizens be treated fairly and equally by all agents of the State, you start doing that then those bombs wouldn’t be going off in the first place.

“since this is a new situation legality of this case is uncertain. legality is decided by courts. ( not by you or me) that is exactly what is happening here. sri lanka’s institutions of the law are working contrary to exaggerated claims made in above post and elsewhere”

Wouldn’t it be better if the police were fully aware of these laws in the first place so that… at the end of the day their action did far more harm than good (if it did any at all)… the view that the Govt doesn’t consider Tamils as Sri Lankan (as purported by the LTTE) was given a massive boost and the authority of the police was undermined, they were made to look like a bunch of incompetent fools who’s only security solution involved bussing people (who were guilty of nothing) out of Colombo

“as i said this sort of situation where actions of security apparatus is tested against constitution do take place in all countries ( whether that is be ‘extraordinary rendition’ in eu, wire tapping and detention in usa, ’shooting to kill because looking like asian policy’ in uk etc)”

Yes but do think for a second any state agency of the EU or US would even consider rounding up people based on ethnicity and shipping them out of the major cities? oh and ‘shooting to kill because you look asian’ is NOT a policy in the UK… BBC broadcasts would make pretty grim viewing if so

If the police and the Rajapakse Reich cannot figure out that deporting people on the basis of their ethnicity is a gross violation of their human rights (something you really don’t need a legal brief to figure out) then other people need to point out the absurdity of the situation.

Blinkered idiotic nationalists like you are the reason we still have a 20 year war.