What the LTTE does. Photo from AFP internal servers
It’s around two and I’m pretty focused on getting a sandwich. Then the bomb blast ripples through the phone lines and vibrates insistently in my pocket. Put down the menu disconsolately and ask service to switch to BBC. They don’t have much more info than SRI LANKA BOMB BLAST but it’s not like tombstones need much content anyways. They’re just there for confirmation. BBC drives me crazy cause they play the same 5 minute airport loop over and over, but the local stations don’t cover at all. The rest of the news comes in via text message, phone calls, and general foreboding. Carry on with the day as usual, but there’s a lead veil that hangs over Colombo now. Its deadly quiet at night as I take a trishaw home. I found some photos on a press server, but I dunno what to say.
One thing that’s important to note is that life really does go on in Colombo. I still ate my meal, still went to visit that client, still talked about the future, still went to that press conference and still got home too tired to write anything. In the morning I woke up and I still had shit to do and it’s only now at noon the next day that I can steal a few moments to spit something out. All the usual business contacts express their fears and whatever, but life goes on. I don’t know if that’s good or bad, but it’s weird how numb people have got. Like, the Sri Lankan populace blew up when 13 solidiers were killed in ’83, but there were 80 people killed last month and we didn’t notice. Either we’ve reached some Buddhist equanimity, or else we’re fucking dead and the LTTE is kicking a corpse. Regardless I think the Sri Lankan restraint is commendable and that we truly have the higher ground in this case. I mean, come on. Sri Lanka has held elections, participated in peace talks, and drives and flies the damn LTTE around. On its side, the LTTE has
1. Assassinated the (Tamil) Foreign Minister in his home
2. Prevented anyone in the North and East from voting
3. Detonated countless Claymore Mines
4. Hacked six Sinhala villagers to death in their homes
and now
5. Attack the army commander and kill more in Colombo via suicide bomb
The worst thing the Sri Lankan side has done was the rioting in Trinco, which was very bad. What’s great about Sri Lanka, though, is that the 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 and it shows how high the ground is that we now occupy. Discussion of that event focuses on proper compensation and strengthening of existing police-backed Peace Committees. With the LTTE we have to simply ask them to stop behaving like barbarians. We’re just like, ‘err, stop using suicide bombers, stop recruiting children, and stop extorting your own citizens. Oh, and if that’s your severed head in the Araliya tree, do you mind cleaning it up. Please?’
The LTTE violates the Cease Fire brutally and indiscriminately and then I’m reading Tamil Net and they bitch about GoSL not disarming Karuna. If you don’t know, the LTTE splintered into a Northern and Eastern faction, with Karuna being Eastern. Now the LTTE wants GoSL to clean up their miss. Honestly, how the shit is the government of Sri Lanka going to disarm half of the LTTE? Don’t you think we thought of that? Argghhh. However, no matter how petulant and blatantly the LTTE shows its terrorist stripes, it just takes one bad move from GoSL for the BBC to start calling them ‘Freedom Fighters’. As it is the LTTE acting like international dicks and it’s great that Canada has finally decided to ban them. Sri Lanka, looks incredibly patient and moderate in comparison, but that can only go on so long. Not because the country doesn’t want peace, but simply because you can only negotiate for so long with terrorists who prevent people from voting, assassinate Foreign Ministers and Commanders, hack villagers to death and leave limbs strewn around Colombo.
Strewn Limb, downtown Colombo. Photo from AFP
The only problem is that there is no next move on our side. The LTTE is a terrorist organization, so no matter how many camps the Army attacks, they will still kill innocent people and attack targets in Colombo. They will still attack and ethnically cleanse villages, murder dissidents and carry out assassinations. Even as an unelected group they can continue to spread violence and push and prod the country into extremism. Right now the military is bombing targets in Trinco and the North, but real war is very messy because it’s like living next door to Al Qaeda. Actually, we live next door to terrorists that make Al Qaeda look amateur since they basically invented modern suicide bombing. It fucking sucks. There is no next move. We can sit here and accept letters of support from the international community, or go out and fight an enemy that will kill innocents without hesitation. I don’t know, but I do have to get this proposal across before Money goes for lunch so I guess that’s all for now. That’s Colombo, I guess.
Front of the Car. Photo from AFP
Side of the Car. Photo from AFP
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!
if Ranil want peace why UNP did this.
read here
Just wanted to correct something you said. I am sick and tired of people talking about things they don’t know. Mahinda didn’t appoint Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka because he was pro – war. Just because my father is a patriot doesn’t make him a person who wants to go to war. You think he has nothing to do but risk his life and others lives for war? He was appointed by the president because; Mrs. Bandaranayake because of her greediness for money was going to make him retire. If your father was or is still in the Army (my salute to a great hero), get you facts right. He will let you know that Kottegoda’s time was up and that he was given an extension so that Sarath Fonseka would have to retire. Anybody who knows Gen. Sarath Fonsek knows that he’s well deserving of his position. My father has been shot and hit by mortar pieces more than 3 times in his life. This is not just by sitting at home. It’s by trying to do his duty as a citizen. However, he has and always will keep on serving the country. With all this happenings, we still do not ask anybody to separate the country. We still do not ask him to quit. You think this is because we like war? You think we like the fact that our father is always in danger? You think Sarath Fonseka want s to go to war so that he can risk his life again? If the innocent Tamils wanted Jaffna, they won’t fight. Cause they are already in Jaffna AND Colombo and nobody has ever told them not to be there.
Please and I say please once again, get your fact right before you write what you feel. Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka does not like the war but, if war is needed to save the country from going in to the LTTE (terrorists) hands then we can’t help it. The only fact that he is guilty of is trying to save the country from terrorist. So, think what you want. Think that he’s all for war (cause I’m sure he loves the feeling of getting blasted time and time again). Don’t ever think for a second that he is doing this for the country and for the people. Just be happy thinking that he loves risking his life for fun.
Siinhala. I never said that Sarath Fonseka ‘liked’ the war. Nobody likes war exxcept arms dealers and politicians. Its not a good thing. I’m merely analysing the LTTE response to Gen Fonsekaùs appointment. Dont take things so personally. Dont think youre the only one who knows what its like to know that youre fathers not coming home.
Please get off your sanctimonious high horse and try to read and understand. And also think before you give yourself a psuedonym. Dont want to appear nationalistic do we?