It’s the chicken/egg story, Aadhavan, and we’d be arguing it back to the time of Dutugemunu and still not find out which came first. The point is to look forward, not back. The war is over, Sri Lanka won and Eelam lost. If the diaspora is interested in helping the NE Tamils, they should do so by putting their money where it’s needed — in housing and infrastructure development. Devolution, etc is just NOT gonna happen for at least a couple of decades, if not more. And no amount of boycotts, sanctions, or war crimes probes is gonna change that. It didn’t work in Iraq, it didn’t work in Cuba, and it won’t work here. All it does is harden the resolve of the GoSL, and give them an excuse to be even more paranoid and dictatorial. And you know what? The Sinhalese majority won’t thank the diaspora for it. In a polarisation, the rural Sinhalese will be bound even more closely to their government. In addition, the Tamils will just be worse off. You have to accept that. When you lose a war, you don’t get what you were fighting for under the table. If you could have, you needn’t go to war.

I know you prefer to scoff and jeer off late rather than engage with any meaningful argument, and I can understand that. It’s a very bitter and humiliating time to be Tamil. But like the Germans and the Japanese, you need to get past that soon and rebuild if you don’t wanna go down like the Tibetans.

Dear D. Blacker,

1. If we want to put our money in, will it be used for the intended purpose? Or will Mr.10% want more than his share? Can we trust this sinhala chauvinistic government with our money?

2. After world war two Germany and Japan were helped in their rebuilding effort by the winners ex: USA. The marshall plan, etc. Can we expect that from the GoSL? Or are they going to go around building sinhala monuments and destroying LTTE grave sites? What about the people who are left and their remembrance of their loved ones?

3. Tamil disapora is willing to invest in SL? But will it go for the intended purposes?

No need to go back to Dutugemunu Blacker. Indi wants the international community to give Sri Lanka a pass, and I reminded him that unless the GoSL cleans up its act, you’re not getting a pass. Instead, you will get war crimes investigations and trade sanctions. You responded with something about the diaspora, and investment, and Dutugemunu which is sort of besides the point. The folk who are pushing for war crime investigations don’t care two hoots about the diaspora or diaspora pressure.

Mahinda knows that Chinese commercial loans aren’t going to keep the economy afloat, and he knows the war crimes stuff won’t disappear until he decides to charge his friends in the army. So, he might just end up doing the right thing. Let’s see. Nice bit of pop psychology, but prosecuting genocide in Cambodia doesn’t give you too much time to write long comments on local blogs.

But no one is pushing for war crimes, Hilary basically shut the door when she told GL ‘nice job keep it up’ on the 28th.

As for the Sri Lankan economy, aadhavan you’re delusional if the Sri Lankan economy is doing anything but well. Don’t take my word for this ask the IMF, or just try to book a hotel over the weekend.

Aadhavan, NGOs and activists are pushing for war crime investigations and a section of the UN is. Governments? Not so much.
In an ideal world, impartial international investigations of war crimes and crimes against humanity would be automatic. But that’s not the world we live in. The EU’s even desperately tried to find some way to avoid having to revoke Sri Lanka’s GSP+ concessions – and that’s despite being under a binding legal obligation to revoke them. There’s precious little chance they’ll have the resolve to push through trade sanctions, leave alone a tribunal. That’s the reality, and Mahinda knows it.

Louise Arbour and others understand this too, which is why their reports have been growing increasingly strident (and I wonder if those who think she has no business interfering in someone else’s war also condemn her work on the Bosnian and Rwandan tribunals), but the odds are stacked against them on this one. The maximum the international community’s going to do is put relatively mild pressure on Mahinda to work on a political solution in good faith.

Do you boys not know that there are US govt investigators working on the SL case pretty much full time? The issue there is not so much lack of political will, and boy there is plenty, but that of “how do we make someone subject to our judicial processes from overseas?” If you think Hilary shut the door on war crimes stuff by telling GL that the Commission would have to investigate war crimes stuff, then that’s up to you. Susan Rice’s article (speech) lays down exactly what the US expects from the Commission, and now that GL has accepted it, the govt is pretty much bound to it in the same way the the joint-statement by Ban and Mahinda just after the war ended which talked about accountability is now being used to set up a panel to advise Ban on Sri Lanka.The trajectory of events, in just one short year, points to an inevitable conclusion. A caveat is in order though. Most of these folk think that Mahinda can still be convinced to do the right thing through good people in govt like GL and Moragoda, and that the right combination of carrots and sticks can used to get improvement on human rights and that sort of thing. The EU is flogging the bargaining chip of the GSP+ thing right to the end, but the result of that is pretty much inevitable too. In any case, seems to me like something’s going to give. If you think otherwise, good on you. Only time will tell.

Do you boys not know that there are US govt investigators working on the SL case pretty much full time? The issue there is not so much lack of political will, and boy there is plenty, but that of “how do we make someone subject to our judicial processes from overseas?

Really Aadhavan, I’m sure political will be spill all over at Washington after the Israel incident and now that turkey has all but called a jihad on Israel. And rice speech is merely a grand exercise in being vague

“As for the Sri Lankan economy, aadhavan you’re delusional if the Sri Lankan economy is doing anything but well”

I love how Sri Lanka continues to piss on Tamil extremists:

Sri Lanka Considers Raising GDP Estimate

JUNE 6, 2010, 10:08 A.M. ET.

By ERIC BELLMAN

COLOMBO—Fresh investments and consumer optimism spurred by the end of the war in Sri Lanka are helping the economy here more than expected, said the country’s central bank governor.

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka likely will raise its projection for gross-domestic-product expansion this year to 7% from an earlier estimate of 6%, said its governor, Ajith Nivard Cabraal. The revision could happen as early this week, he told The Wall Street Journal.

“We have already started to enjoy economic activity taking a very quick march upwards,” he said in an interview from his Colombo office overlooking the Indian Ocean. “The stock market is doing much better, bank lending is coming back and local investors are getting upbeat about what they should be doing.”

Mr. Cabraal said the central bank was waiting to confirm whether the strong numbers for the first quarter were in line with initial estimates. If they are as strong as he expects, then the bank will raise its forecast, he said.

Expatriate Sri Lankans are sending more money home, foreign investors are expanding their operations here, the government is in the middle of an infrastructure push and local consumers and companies are spending more than before, confident that their spending plans won’t be spoiled by war.

Sri Lanka was confident enough about its security situation that last week it hosted one of its biggest international events ever held here. The International Indian Film Academy awards attracted more than 1,000 people from the Indian film industry and its fans.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704726104575290422993374194.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines

“Indi wants the international community to give Sri Lanka a pass, and I reminded him that unless the GoSL cleans up its act, you’re not getting a pass. Instead, you will get war crimes investigations and trade sanctions.”

But you didn’t, Aadhavan. This is what you said in your first comment on this post: “Be cool Sri Lanka. The less paranoid, racist, authoritarian and downright scary the government becomes – the less people will try to meddle with it.” And I responded. That’s the prob, Aadhavan, you and your “boys” are too busy making up stuff to do anything constructive.

“You responded with something about the diaspora, and investment, and Dutugemunu which is sort of besides the point. ”

I know you prefer to backtrack and pretend you didn’t put your foot in your mouth, Aadhavan, but intellectual dishonesty is really pitiful outside a courtroom. This is what you said: “haha…the aggrression, racism and paranoia were around a long time before there was even a diaspora. ” And my point about Dutugemunu was that it’s pointless dwelling on the past, because both sides are equally to blame. I thought you were able to grasp context without it being explained to you in single syllable words.

“Do you boys not know that there are US govt investigators working on the SL case pretty much full time?”

Really? They still have US investigators targeting Cuba, and looking for life in the universe, but I don’t see any success there. Have you really deluded yourself into thinking SL is high on the US priority list? And all investigations in to SL are due to lobbying by interest groups — Tamil interest groups that pay lobbyists. It’s your own people, dude, you can invest that money into the NE or pay it off to guys over there who will keep this smouldering for decades. Meantime, the NE Tamils suffer for longer. It’s the same dumb, narrow-minded POV that kept you guys waving Tiger placards last year while Tamil women and children died daily. DBS Jeyaraj and others were pleading for the tone of the protests to change so that governments could be seen to help. He’s still warning against this silly revenge mentality, but no one’s listening. I guess, like the Sinhalese, the Tamil diaspora has got the leadership it deserves. The pity of it is that the NE Tamils will suffer because of that pigheadedness.

David: The investigations aren’t just due to lobbyists. Plenty of people – including respected activists like Louise Arbour and middle-level staff in governments – are genuinely horrified at the thought that this conflict will set a precedent making the use of heavy artillery and air power in operations against insurgents in populated areas acceptable and normal. India, for example, which has previously rule this option out as unthinkable is now actively considering it as a way of dealing with Naxalites. That, more than anything else, lies behind the various efforts to push for a war crimes investigation. The disapora’s role has been marginal.

You really think Louise Arbour gives a fuck about civilians? Isn’t she concerned about the 600 000+ civilians dead in Iraq as a result of an illegal American invasion? That’s not setting a precedent I suppose since 2 million Vietnamese died as well.

We certainly didn’t set the precedent for using artillery and air strikes in civilian areas. That has been practiced for a long long time, most recently by the Israelis & Americans in Gaza & Fallujah respectively.

Dodo: But not in their own countries against their own citizens. Genuine democracies (and Sri Lanka is universally acknowledged to be one) had sort of gone off using heavy artillery and air strikes in those circumstances, and the international law types were hopeful that an international norm to this effect would evolve after the Cold War came to an end.

Zion: It’s not just the US. Arbour’s also been called out for not criticising Russia, China and other influential and / or powerful countries in the same way she criticises less influential ones. I can’t speculate as to the reasons for her choosing the targets she chooses, but it doesn’t change the fact that her concern for human rights is genuine, and she has done a lot for that cause – she was a lot more even handed before she became the UN Commissioner for Human Rights.

No, it means her concern for human rights is SUSPECT. If you revere human rights you will call out for them EVERYWHERE, not pick and choose to your liking like Arbour is doing. She is nothing but one of those white westerners who think the west can do no wrong, even as they butcher 600 000 Iraqi civilians, cause the displacement of 2 MILLION pakistanis and so on and so forth.

Lotus, the Tigers and their support base didn’t consider themselves Sri Lankans. You can’t have it both ways — oh, we’re Eelam Tamils when we’re blowing up Katunayake, but help we’re Sri Lankans when arty is blowing our shit up.

The ARVN (South Vietnamese Army) used arty and fixed-wing aircraft against the VC (who were also South Vietnamese), and the SL Army used 6-pounder guns against the JVP on Uttuwankanda in 1971. The only reason artillery isn’t so frequently used by armies fighting guerrilla/insurgent forces is simply because it’s pointless unless you’re facing semi-conventional forces. Why didn’t the SL Army use artillery against the JVP in ’87-’89 — because we felt warm and cuddly towards the commies? No, it’s because using arty against five terrorists in a village of a thousand civilians is useless. It’s better to send soldiers in to kill the five and burn their bodies on tire pyres. It’s the same if you look at most low-intensity campaigns — Northern Ireland, Malaya, South Africa, etc.

Artillery and fixed-wing aircraft are used only when the enemy is operating in formations big enough to target — as in Iraq, Afghanistan, Oman, Vietnam, and yes, Sri Lanka — or when the enemy forces cannot be easily reached by ground troops, as in Borneo, Jammu & Kashmir, Gaza, and Lebanon. It’s nothing to do with morality — it’s a simple case of military necessity.

It’s absurd to think that the SL model will be used by other countries, since they aren’t facing a similar threat. The Naxalites are in the jungle, and can possibly be shelled, but I doubt India will bother. Only Israel uses similar tactics to us, and we learned it from them, not the other way around.

It’s possible that the Pakistanis might use similar tactics against the Taliban, but to say that they’re copying SL is silly — the same strategies and tactics are being used against the Taliban and AQ next door in Afghanistan.

Myil, I have answered most of your numbered points in my response to Aadhavan. Why don’t you reread it. As for reference to animals, my apologies if you’re vegetarian.

Yes, the Americans did pump in money, and yes, SL is doing what it can, but we are a poor nation. But if the Nazis hiding in Argentina, or the Japanese in the California internment camps had tried to charge Eisenhower or MacArthur with war crimes in 1946, I doubt there’d have been any Marshal plan. Both Germany and Japan accepted that they were wrong, and worked to rebuild their countries, they didn’t whine about the American economic blockade of the ’30s or the backbreaking sanctions that Germany faced in the ’20s or ’30s. As I said to Aadhavan, there were faults on both sides going back to Dutugemunu, but it’s pointless arguing about it. What do you do NOW?

If you think the GoSL is a “sinhala chauvinistic government”, you’re already failing at the first step, and there are many steps on this long road back to prosperity. Trust has to be built, and as I’ve said before, it’s the Tamils that have the most to gain in rebuilding trust. BTW, did you question that the money you gave the Tigers were to build VP a swimming pool or procure Thai hookers for KP? No, you didn’t, so why so careful with the dollars now?

As for the IMF, do you really need me to explain to you the difference between that body and a few thousand grumbling diaspora Tamils?

As for your point 7, stick around and your ignorance may not be so easily displayed ;) or are your racial theories too deeply entrenched?

No, of course not, as the paper I linked to makes clear. In any event: (a) the people who’re murdering baby girls are not screaming and whining about Sri Lanka. If they’re aware it exists, it’s about as close to the margins of their awareness as it’s possible to be. (b) there are several strands within Tamil nationalism. The strand to which the people screaming about Sri Lanka belong doesn’t concern itself very much with social problems – one of its hallmarks is that it pretends there are NO problems in Tamil society apart from those introduced by the EVIL Aryans which will magically disappear the moment we get their jackboots off our necks. (c) All serious political parties in Tamil Nadu belong to a rather different strand within Tamil nationalism, whose emphasis is social reform. So they’re all committed to continuing with the programme to end female infanticide, and none of them are screaming or whining about Sri Lanka now. They’d like to see a settlement that can see the Sri Lankan Tamils become happy Sri Lankans. If recent polls are anything to go, that’s also the position held bythe majority of the Sinhalese in Sri Lanka. The political parties who were screaming and shouting got their bottoms royally whipped in the last elections and in a city of 7 million can barely rustle up five hundred supporters to attend their rallies.

But of course, if you derive a certain modicum of satisfaction through believing there’s one monolithic entity called “the Tamils” who all do and say exactly the same thing with no variance whatsoever, and who like nothing better than chanting slogans against Sri Lanka while simultaneously defecating in the streets and strangling babies, well, feel free to essentialise that way.

Toilet Nadu is a shithole… filled with primitive illiterates who vote in film stars and make temples for film stars, marry dogs and burn themselves to crisps at the drop of a hat. Yeah, that really saved Prabhakaran didn’t it? Killing baby girls and locking up SL Tamil refugees is a sport there, and yet they whine and cry about “genocide” in lanka. Sarath was right – they are a bunch of jokers!

you are a joker as well, my friend.

Tamil Nadu has one of the highest literacy rates in India. Like I said before Check you facts

As for voting in film stars or stars in general, what do you think Sanath Jayasuriya is doing in parliament? Or the other film personalities in our beloved parliament in SL?

Hindu practices are also practiced by Buddhists.

As for infanticide that is true for India in general and china as well, due to assets inheritance issues

SL Tamil refugees were looked after better by Tamil Nadu than the sinhala government, which was executing and raping them. Denial of medicine and food was also done by the sinhala government.

who’s the joker now??????????????????

Toilet Nadu’s literacy rate doesn’t even come close to Sri Lanka’s. What happened to all those Super Intelligent Tamil brains? Are they too busy thinking of ways to kill baby girls and the best way to burn themselves into a crisp or which film star to build a temple for? Certainly looks like it.

If you think SL politicians are bad, all you have to do is look across the Palk Straits to the total idiots that are Karunanidhi, Jayalalitha, Vaiko et all. What a bunch of dickheads. And to think they were voted in by the people of Tamil Nadu.

If India is treating SL Tamils so well, why don’t you lot fuck off there then? Problem solved.

Dear Zion,
You seriously need to get yourself checked. It’s rather sad to see you ranting like this. You haven’t produced anything substantial yet. Your posts have mostly been expletives and racist remarks against Tamils.

Since you keep saying go to Tamil Nadu, why don’t you? This is our homeland we are going nowhere, deal with it racist.

If anyone’s ranting here it’s you going on and on about Tamil this and Tamil that. No one really give s a shit about your people as long as they have the attitude that you carry. Like I said, if you guys have a problem living in Sri Lanka, please pack your bags and go back to Tamil Nadu. That is where you came from and that is your homeland.

Dear Zion,

The attitude that you talk about is what you are carrying. It creates problems, changing it would help.

Have I used bad language in my posts? No. Go back and check. I know how to put my points through without getting emotional. You should try to learn it.

As for Tamil this and Tamil that, you were the one who started with the profanity and the insults against Tamils. I merely responded to that. I have accepted that Tamils are also biased and need to move forward and be flexible. But you go on and on about this land being exclusively for your people and all the attacks against Tamils and Tamil Nadu, etc, etc, etc.

I have never attacked sinhalese in my posts. But I do believe that the cause for this ethnic strife came from the sinhala side. That does not mean all sinhalese are bad, I personally know of a lot of good sinhalese. Unfortunately you don’t seem to be one of them, sadly.

check the dictionary and let me know what ranting means? Most people looking at your posts strewn with profanity would say it is you. So let me know

First get rid of the racist name TAMIL NADU and give equal rights to the Telugus and Kannadigas living in Toilet Nadu. Then come and talk to the Singhalese about equal rights. If you guys cannot live here in peace, GO BACK TO TAMIL NADU. This all started because you guys weren’t satisfied with Tamil Nadu and wanted to steal Singhalese land and claim it as yours.