Photo by Jonathan Fryer
A little over a year ago I began paying more attention to Sri Lankan politics, following them as closely as I follow the goings on of politics in my own country. I highly recommend this to everyone for a lot of reasons, but at the very least, I can offer an incredibly quick summary of the past year of Sri Lankan history.
Here’s what happened in the past year, in a nutshell:
THE WAR ENDS – BOTH SIDES COMMITTED ATROCITIES
In May of 2009, the Sri Lankan government emerged victorious in their brutal 26 year civil war. This was arguably an ethnic conflict. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elaam (LTTE, or Tamil Tigers) began the civil war in the wake of legislation they felt was destroying their culture and history. They lost to the mostly Sinhalla forces of the Sri Lankan Government who were seeking to unify the nation with that legislation. Neither group is indigenous to Ceylon — the name of the Island on which the nation of Sri Lanka occupies — they just came to the island at different times, and both claim to be there first.
During the war both sides committed major human rights violations. The WINNERS, Sri Lankan Government:
- fired rockets into hospitals on at least 30 occations,
- “disappeared” hundreds (maybe thousands) of Tamils, including buses of children, many of whom expected to be relocated away from the fighting,
- raped women (checkpoints were famous for this),
- asked civilians to leave a No Fire Zone (to let tanks through) then fired on them outside the No Fire Zone.
- threw grenades into civilian bunkers
- killed hostages
- tortured and killed hostages and civilian Tamils,
- shot surrendering LTTE soldiers (including officers and generals) and Tamil civilians escaping from the LTTE.
The LOSERS, the Tamil Tigers:
- invented the suicide bomber,
- moved the entire civilian Tamil population with them as they retreated, and killed those who protested as “ethnic traitors,”
- used child soldiers,
- enforced extremist Victorian moral codes on their own soldiers: no alcohol, sex, or fun
1. there is only one document case of LTTE soldiers committing rape, and the rapists were dragged behind a tractor to death
2. enforced exaggerated gender stereotypes, and then forced female soldiers to give up these stereotypes to become soldiers, even when they were forced to become soldiers.
- in 1991 they assassinated former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Ghandia
- in 1993 they assassinated Sri Lankan president Ranasinghe Premadasa.
But that war is now over, and the government is trying to figure out what to do with the Tamils who were moved back throughout this conflict.
TAMILS AFTER THE WAR
After the war 283,000 Tamils were locked in refugee camps without the right to leave; they didn’t release the majority of them for six months. These camps were plagued by shortages of food and medical supplies.
It has been widely reported that women and girls in these camps traded sex for food for themselves and their families.
There are still nearly 100,000 people in these camps waiting to be released.
But they will never really be released. It is expected that when/if they go home they will be monitored, most likely for the rest of their lives, and very possibly throughout their children’s lives as well.
It is still being debated whether or not they will ever be allowed to vote. But with memories of the war so recent in their memories, they aren’t likely to protest.
AN ELECTION
The Tamils didn’t vote in the presidential election this January. But the Sinhalla and other ethnic groups did.
This election wasn’t like elections in many other countries where voters choose between different candidates.
This presidential election was between two candidates who campaigned on virtually the exact same political platform. They made the same campaign promises. They called each other the same names and even had similar controls over the military and economy.
For all intents and purposes, they were the same candidate.
Then came the election, the incumbent president won, and it seemed to be a tainted election. There were many oversight groups on the ground monitoring to see if democracy was served by these elections. These groups judged that the election was free and fair. I’m highly skeptical of the outcome of this election and the judgment of the oversight groups.
Here are a few reasons to be skeptical of this election’s legitimacy:
1. Pre-election polling indicated the candidates were a hairs-breadth apart, yet President Mihinda Rajapaksa won with a 17 percent margin of victory.
2. The opposition candidate, former Army Chief Sarath Fonseka, and many of his supporters’ names weren’t on the ballots and thus they couldn’t vote.
3. Only a fraction of the Tamils (about 13% of the population, including the entire population in, or recently released from, the camps) were eligible to vote.
4. On Election Day, Fonseka’s security detail was removed while he and many of his supporters were barricaded in Cinnamon Lake Hotel by the Sri Lankan Army.
The main difference between these two candidates is their reaction to accusations of human rights violations during the civil war.
Rajapaksa justified violating the Geneva Convention and other international human rights laws in very general and ambiguous terms. Fonseka, on the other hand, actually said the army sometimes has to overlook the traditional rules of war. This was in response to an inquiry about a film of showing the extrajudicial execution nine bound naked Tamil soldiers by men under Fonseka’s command.
However, that was during the war, which they both used to justify their heroism, and the others’ rights violations.
Since the election, the defeated Fonseka has gone from being barricaded in a hotel to being arrested for sedition.
The Sri Lankan people are not as disaffected and jaded by the political system as we are.
They may have not stood up after the election irregularities previously listed, and I really can’t explain why, but the government arresting Fonseka right after the election was too much for his supporters. Thousands of protestors peacefully demonstrated outside their Supreme Court building.
The government responded by driving military vehicles into the crowd running over several protesters, firing tear gas canisters into the crowd and beating them.
These protests, and Fonseka’s sedition, created a sense of panic among government officials –Sri Lanka has been a nominal democracy since 1931; a democracy that survived WWII, independence from Britain and 26 years of war against the inventors of the suicide bomber — However, with Fonseka’s sedition and these protests, Rajapaksa dissolved parliament until the next election.
Sri Lanka’s 81 years of democracy are now over.
On April 8th new elections will be held for every seat of parliament, hopefully these elections will restore democracy.
However, Rajapaksa’s supporters are looking to do very well in these elections.
That’s the situation Sri Lanka is in today. We’re all waiting to see what happens with the coming elections and the remaining imprisoned Tamils.
This is what you learn from following another country. You learn the U.S. isn’t the only place that makes no sense.
This article by Avery Maxwell is an ultra biased article with ill-educated and misleading information. It lacks facts and is full of assumptions and private opinions of a gullible personality. Following are the proof of that.
Firstly the author lists atrocities by the Sri Lankan government. Let’s see what they are.
1. Quote ” Fired rockets into hospitals on at least 30 occasions”
This is nothing more than an assumption and false propaganda by terrorists. I challenge the author to list the names of the registered and designated hospitals that were bombed by SL government. Answer will be “None”. Those bombed were called hospitals by the terrorists to cheat the world through gullible journalists like the author here. If I am sick and stay at my home nursed by my relatives at home, can I call it a hospital? That was exactly what happened in the war zone and the terrorists have setup their own camps to treat their wounded terrorists at abandoned buildings, houses etc and they called them “hospitals”. They were not hospitals to others except to the gullible journalists.
2. Quote “disappeared” hundreds (maybe thousands) of Tamils, including buses of children, many of whom expected to be relocated away from the fighting”.
This is a gross assumption without backing up with facts. Can the author give more clues about how he got his information and more numbers and names of such people disappeared in “bus loads”. Why doesn’t the author “assume” that those people were hijacked by terrorists to be used as their cannon fodder? We all know the tiger terrorists did just that and put older, sick, young men, women and children in the front line by force.
2. Quote “raped women (checkpoints were famous for this)”.
Another assumption without facts. Why can’t you similarly and fairly assume that these Tamil girls offered sex voluntarily to obtain certain favours from the soldiers?
3. Quote “asked civilians to leave a No Fire Zone (to let tanks through) then fired on them outside the No Fire Zone.”
Another gross assumption or being terribly gullible by the author. This is the first time world media had this type of accusation nearly 10 months after the war finished. The only information and video graphics the world saw were the tiger terrorists firing at their own Tamil people who wanted to go towards the government side. What I am saying is facts backed up with video images rather than the author’s mere speculation.
4. Quote “Threw grenades into civilian bunkers”.
Why would civilians stay inside bunkers when they were given opportunity to get into the government controlled areas is the hidden fact here. If they were in bunkers and if this author was in the military who is facing rain of bullets at any given time, I wonder whether this hypocrat would walk to the bunker and arrange for an interview with the occupants to find whether the occupants are unarmed civilians, civilian looking terrorists or terrorists in full combat gear. I urge this author to have common sense before he expose himself as unwise, short sighted and gullible.
5. Quote “killed hostages”.
Which ones? Name them. Otherwise they are mere speculation. Are you referring to the fake video by Channel 4 in UK? If so how do you prove that the soldiers in the video are Sri Lankan? How do you prove that the soldiers in the video are not fake? Can it be the tigers who are killing army hostages and showed that as the opposite for the gullible to digest?
6. Quote “tortured and killed hostages and civilian Tamils”.
Unless you can prove without doubt no one can argue whether they were all “real civilians”. For your education, civilians are not people who wear ordinary pants and shirts. Civilians are the people who do not have weapons training given by illegal groups, who do not support terrorists, regardless what they wear.
7. Quote “shot surrendering LTTE soldiers (including officers and generals) and Tamil civilians escaping from the LTTE.”
This author appears to have “generals” in a world renowned terrorist organisation. Does it tell you something? I smell a rat here. You pretending to be a neutral person is treating hard core killers in an illegal organisations as “generals” Therefore you probably have many “major generals” that you respect in Al Qaeda”. Please go and protect them from US and UK armies because your “major generals” in Al-Qaeda are being hunted by your own countries’ or allies’ armies!
Now this author is listing what the tiger terrorists have done.
1. Quote “- invented the suicide bomber,”
How innocent is this when you read it? It simply sounds like a science invention by an innocent scientist, isn’t it? Or! They just invented it, but didn’t use it was the underlying intention of such a short and simple sentence. It doesn’t tell how many people were killed by these bombers and how many they have used and what sort of destruction they have done? The author is subtly trying to pull the wool under the carpet and anyone can see the difference in weights put by the author in his two sets of atrocities. I can now add that those suicide bombers included brain washed children who rather wanted to go to school just like the author’s children (if he has any), unsuspecting pregnant women and many young men. Those bombers killed tens of thousands of school children, mums and dads who were on their daily routines rather than supporting a terror group, monks and catholic priests, destroyed country’s economic centers like Central Bank, air ports, oil refineries, markets, schools, temples trains and buses killing tens of thousands of “innocent” civilians, men, women, monks and children. On the record, Tamil tigers used more suicide bombers than the rest of the world “together”. Does it tell you something? Or did you hide it for the advantage of terrorists?
2. Quote “ moved the entire civilian Tamil population with them as they retreated, and killed those who protested as “ethnic traitors,”
Happy to see some truth here. However you conveniently forgot to mention that Tamil tigers cut legs of children alive and left to die (I have video footage) just because they tried to go to government side to save life from tigers.
3. Quote “used child soldiers”.
Failed to say what for. May be another attempt by the author to water down the atrocities of the Tamil tigers. Those child soldiers were used for 2 purposes. One was that the Tamil tigers went short of soldiers and they had to find “anybody” to fight for them. Remember when this happened, Tiger leader Prabakaran’s sone was sent overseas to study at a university and daughter also was kept safe without recruiting to tiger terrorist team. When Prabakarans’ son got out of the university he parachuted to a very high and safe position in the tiger hierarchy so that he or the sister do not have to dig in a bunker and fight with the Army. The second purpose was the show the bodies of the killed child soldiers to the world so that tigers can claim that the Army has killed “innocent” civilians and children. The author here also fallen to this trap when he lists the atrocities by the government.
4. Quote “ enforced extremist Victorian moral codes on their own soldiers no alcohol, sex, or fun. 1. there is only one document case of LTTE soldiers committing rape, and the rapists were dragged behind a tractor to death”
The author is trying to glorify the terrorists here rather than listing as an “atrocity”. It is very cunning and tricky. Cheating your readers is the biggest crime a writer can do and this author is guilty of that. Surprisingly he is saying there is “only one” “documented” case of LTTE soldiers committing rape. Wow! Now he is looking for “documented”: cases. How many times did he look for “documented” cases against government army rather than being gullible or being complacent? Look at the list of atrocities by government and I cannot see a single attempt to find “documented” cases. Why is this inconsistence? Is it a symptom of week journalism or intended to cheat the readers?
5. Quote “enforced exaggerated gender stereotypes, they forced female soldiers to give up these stereotypes to become soldiers, even when they were forced to become soldiers.”
Sorry, I cannot understand what you say. You are trickily taking one point against tigers away by making it not understandable to common reader. Well done!
6. Quote “ in 1991 they assassinated form Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Ghandia, – in 1993 they assassinated Sri Lankan president Ranasinghe Premadasa.”
Only two! Again trying to water down the atrocities or showing your incompetence or lack of knowledge. You failed to mention other killings of politicians. Amirthalingam, a Tamil politician who supported LTTE in early stages, Sri Lankan foreign minister Laxman Kadiragamar who also was a high ranking Tamil in the so called “racist” government ! Sri Lankan presidential candidate Gamini Dissanayake, defense minister Lalith Athulathmudalai , are only very few to mention of a long list I can provide. How about failed killing attempt of President Chandrika Kumaranatunga?
Now we will move to the rest of this author’s article.
Quote “After the war 283,000 Tamils were locked in refugee camps without the right to leave; they didn’t release the majority of them for six months. These camps were plagued by shortages of food and medical supplies. It has been widely reported that women and girls in these camps traded sex for food for themselves and their families.”
Here you failed to recognize that this people were hostages of the LTTE and kept as human shield. It is the government who saved the lives of those 300,000 people from the clutches of the terrorists, who were “locked up” in your words. Tamil Nadu government delegation and UN didn’t notice severe shortages of water etc. Do you have any “documented” cases of any rapes or sex exchanges (widely reported?, ha ! ha!!) at the camps? It is surprising that you only noticed these in a very quick tour to Sri Lanka and you want us to believe you!
Quote “There are still nearly 100,000 people in these camps waiting to be released. But they will never really be released. It is expected that when/if they go home they will be monitored, most likely for the rest of their lives, and very possibly throughout their children’s lives as well. It is still being debated whether or not they will ever be allowed to vote. But with memories of the war so recent in their memories, they aren’t likely to protest.”
Oh ! Dear what can I say other than assume ! assume ! and assume !
Quote “The Tamils didn’t vote in the presidential election this January. But the Sinhalla and other ethnic groups did.”
Another assumption. Please go to the election commission’s report and see whether you can substantiate your lie. Do you know that over 50% of the Tamil population in Sri Lanka lives and votes in Colombo, Galle and Kandy? I am sure you didn’t. I feel sorry about your lack of knowledge , yet trying to pretend you know all.
Quote” This presidential election was between two candidates who campaigned on virtually the exact same political platform. They made the same campaign promises. They called each other the same names and even had similar controls over the military and economy. For all intents and purposes, they were the same candidate.”
The author is totally clue-less. This presidential election had Twenty Two (22) candidates not two. All your winnings after that are therefore not valid
Quote “Then came the election, the incumbent president won, and it seemed to be a tainted election. There were many oversight groups on the ground monitoring to see if democracy was served by these elections. These groups judged that the election was free and fair. I’m highly skeptical of the outcome of this election and the judgment of the oversight groups.”
At last you are being honest. You are now saying you are skeptical about the election result contrary to what the international election monitors said. By being “skeptical” you are trying to pretend that you know better than the international election monitors!
Quote” Here are a few reasons to be skeptical of this election’s legitimacy: 1. Pre-election polling indicated the candidates were a hairs-breadth apart, yet President Mihinda Rajapaksa won with a 17 percent margin of victory.”
This means we don’t have to have proper elections anymore and can simply find out the winner by using pre-election polling done by the tabloid news media. I suggest you adopt that system first in the country you live and then preach to the others. Obama and his competitor also were neck to neck in pre-polls, remember?
Quote “ The opposition candidate, former Army Chief Sarath Fonseka, and many of his supporters’ names weren’t on the ballots and thus they couldn’t vote.”
This is a deliberate lie. I am sorry I have to label you as a liar. If you lie, you deserve it. Sarath Fonseka’s name was on the ballot paper but he couldn’t vote because he didn’t register himself as a voter in the elections department. They are the words of Sarath Fonseka himself but this author pretends to know more than what Sarath Fonseka knew of himself. Please don’t show your stupidity to the world this way! I challenge you to name other supporters whose names you said were not on the ballot list.
Quote “ Fonseka, on the other hand, actually said the army sometimes has to overlook the traditional rules of war, this was in response to an inquiry about a film of showing the extrajudicial execution nine bound naked Tamil soldiers by men under Fonseka’s command.”
As I said before how do you know for sure, the soldiers acted in the video are not tamil tigers posing as army soldiers?
Quote “Since the election, the defeated Fonseka has gone from being barricaded in a hotel to being arrested for sedition.”
Don’t try to put your dirty finger into a judicial process. Just wait for the proceedings rather than acting like “thief’s mother”.
Quote “The Sri Lankan people are not as disaffected and jaded by the political system as we are.”
That is why you country and Sri Lanka is not the same. They are different and have different names, cultures, values and governance systems. Do you want all countries to be one and the same? Grow up, will you?
Quote “They may have not stood up after the election irregularities previously listed, and I really can’t explain why…”
Because they are wiser than you.
Quote “Thousands of protestors peacefully demonstrated outside their Supreme Court building. The government responded by driving military vehicles into the crowd running over several protesters, ….”
Another lie. Never heard of or reported. Liar !
Quote “..Sri Lanka has been a nominal democracy since 1931; a democracy that survived WWII, independence from Britain and 26 years of war against the inventors of the suicide bomber..”
Are you trying to say that the democracy survived with LTTE terrorists? Do you know the Tamil tigers intimidated people from voting, and cut fingers of people who voted ? Who are you trying to cheat here?
Quote “…However, with Fonseka’s sedition and these protests, Rajapaksa dissolved parliament until the next election. Sri Lanka’s 81 years of democracy are now over.”
What is wrong with dissolving parliament? Doesn’t it happen in your country? If so you are not living in a democratic country or you have no idea of democracy.
Quote “On April 8th new elections will be held for every seat of parliament, hopefully these elections will restore democracy.”
This shows how ill-knowledged this author about democracy. When parliament is dissolved democracy go out of the back window and after elections democracy come back. How many years did you go to school my dear?
Quote “This is what you learn from following another country. You learn the U.S. isn’t the only place that makes no sense.”
You haven’t learnt anything from Sri Lanka other than telling lies and believing lies. I still believe US is the only place that makes no sense.
By the way, you titled your article “In Case You Missed It, ….” . I don’t think anybody would miss anything if they didn’t read your article. What is missing is common sense and analytical skills in you!
Hey Chauvinist Moron,
Learn to respect women. No woman would want to offer her body to a soldier in exchange for favors. Your chauvinistinc, racist, and moronic qualities are clearly evident by your statement: “Why can’t you similarly and fairly assume that these Tamil girls offered sex voluntarily to obtain certain favours from the soldiers”
Oh! you poor thing! Your imotions have disabled your rational thinking ability (if you ever had any). Please refer to the original writing by Avery Maxwell “It has been widely reported that women and girls in these camps traded sex for food for themselves and their families.” What does it tell you? Raped? or voluntery sex?
By the way your poor knowledge about reality is exposed by saying “No woman would want to offer her body to a soldier in exchange for favours”, firstly you are also blaming Avery Maxwell for telling tamil women exchanged sex at camps. Secondly you have never knew the word “prostitute” ever before who mostly are women (in any race) and voluntarily offer body for a favour (money). It is not intended to insult women but is the reality. You are in a good position to go out and educate women (in the wide world)to not to do this anymore so we can eliminate the word “prostitute” from the dictionary.
Truth is bitter, isn’t it?
Are you aware of the act they call prostitution?
Your rant exposes you as a bigot. The writer has done justice explaining atrocities committed by both side correctly. However the writer has left out the important part played by the Buddhist clergy in creating the current problem. Please ad this to your article.
Why don’t you yourself go ahead and add the to the list? No guts or no facts or what?
http://www.columbia.edu/~as48/Sri%20Lanka%20and%20the%20Tamils.pdf
Chapter Four
How Nation State “Grammar” Helped Construct Polar and Conflictual Identities: Sri Lanka and the Tamils
”… Donald Horowitz, one of the world’s leading legal scholars on patterns of ethnic conflicts opened an article about Malaysia and Ceylon with the statement: “If we were to go back to independence and ask which of these two countries was likely to have the more serious ethnic conflict in the decades ahead, the answer would have been unequivocal. Any knowledgeable observer would have predicted that Malaysia (then Malaya) was in for serious, perhaps devastating, Malay-Chinese conflict, while Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) was likely to experience only mild difficulty between Sinhalese and Tamils.
What actually happened in Ceylon, particularly from 1956(the year LTTE leader was born) to 1983, was that very aggressive nation state policies ended up not only not fostering a unified nation state in Ceylon, and certainly not a state nation, but in constructing two warring aspirant nation states in one state….”
Emergency ’58 – The Story of the Ceylon Race Riots, Tarzi Vittachi(1958):
The GalOya race-killings of 1956 and the ugly episode of Little Rock in 1957 should have warned us that the Fifth Horseman took no notice of time, place, literacy or standard of living.
But these episodes did not wake us up in time. It couldn’t possibly happen here. ……
It couldn’t happen in Ceylon. That is what we all thought………
It couldn’t happen here. ………
So it couldn’t happen here. But it has happened……
When a government, however popular, begins to pander to racial or religious emotionalism merely because it is the loudest of the raucous demands made on it, and then meddles in the administration and enforcement of law and order for the benefit of its favourites or to win the plaudits of a crowd, however hysterical it may be, catastrophe is certain.
At the risk of losing the monumental support of the anti-Muslim Congress sympathisers, Mahatma Gandhi once said: ”No cabinet worthy of being representative of a large mass of mankind can afford to take any step merely because it is likely to win the hasty applause of an unthinking public. In the midst of sanity, should not our best representatives retain sanity and bravely prevent a wreck of the ship of state under their care?”
Can anyone doubt that if this glorious principle of statesmanship had been applied in Ceylon the bloodbath of 1958 could have been avoided?
The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse rode into Ceylon in May 1958, without fuss or warning. No one recognised the hoof beats on the dusty provincial roads where they were first heard. People knew about War, Pestilence, Famine and Flood – these were disasters they accepted as part of their human heritage…………….
Slight though our acquaintance with these disasters was, it was still acquaintance. But for most people in 1958 the Fifth Horseman – Race-Hate – was hardly even that. We had heard about the attempts of the Australian settlers to decimate the Aborigines ….; … the Red Indians had been corralled into reservations; …..the Nazi gas chambers, Buchenwals and Belsen: and the tribulations of the Jews ……; Hindu-Muslim massacres in the partition of India. ….
What are we left with (in 1958)? A nation in ruins, some grim lessons which we cannot afford to forget and a momentous question: Have the Sinhalese and Tamils reached the parting of ways?”
(The manuscript of the book was smuggled out of SriLanka and printed in the UK and the book was banned in Sri lanka)
You seem to be denying every thing that the author wrote, well done. Are you mouth piece of Mahinda Rajpaksha or worse wife of Defense secretary Gothabaja Rajapaksha? because you talking the same as they are, be a human before anything else.
This is the statement of your defense secretary “As long as I am the defense secretary I will not allow no one to investigate the Sri Lanka for genocide of Tamils. “Watch the space” UN are going to investigate Sri Lanka for genocide of Tamils (as long as I am a human & Tamil, I will make sure that). Now that should answer all your questions.
We all know what went on in Sri Lanka and how the Tamils been discriminated & been killed in the name terrorist by the Sri Lankan Government (UN have the proof of this) and the writer trying to get the balance of both side.
I don’t want to waste my time of defending what ever you said. Only one question ” if our Sri Lankan Government did every think right than, what the “F” they DIDN’T allow international media to witness the fighting OR allow the UN to witness the fighting (rather daylight Killing) of Tamils?
When the fighting was going in May/2009 when I was protesting against GOSL, My good Singhalese friend said ”I should support the MR, why? Now that he is killing the Tamils, he will have the taste of killing and when the war is over he will start to kill the Sinhalese, guess what that has started and go and look out of your house there is a white van is waiting for you.
Firstly I wasn’t denying anything other than correcting and asking for facts rather than speculating. I have to neglect your hatred with Mahinda or Gotabaya since it has nothing to do with my reply to the article. Plese stay in the path rather than derailing yourself. By blaming me as a mouthpiece of Mahinda you can be similarly blamed as the mouthpiece for Prabakaran. Well, if I am a mouthpiece of an elected president, you becoming a mouthpiece of a defeted routhless killer.
You said “We all know what went on in Sri Lanka and how the Tamils been discriminated & been killed in the name terrorist ……”. No, Sorry! we don’t know. Please explain how you knew all this backed up with “documented evidence” to be fair for the accused side.
You asked ” if our Sri Lankan government did everything right then, what the “F” they DIDN’T allow international media to witness the fighting OR allow UN to witness the fighting…”
The answer is why the “F” any one should investigate you for murder just on speculation? As you said, if white van turns up at your house today and take you away to investigate you for a murder you believe did not commit, would you be “F” happy?
During armed conflicts journalists are not generally allowed to stroll about in the middle of the fighting. I can’t think of any Asian country who would allow such activities. Pakistan doesn’t allow journalists into the conflict zone where they are fighting Al Qaeda either. Does this mean they are killing innocent ‘civilians’ too?
Just looking at the comments, it would very hard for reader to digest these Sinhaleese are really “Buddhists”. These people make the Islamic extremists look like an angel!
Go live with them. Leave Singhalese alone.
What is REALLY happening in Sri Lanka?
find out at these websites… …
TamilNet.com
TamilCanadian.com
TamilGuardian.com
Sangam.org
TamilNation.org
TamilsAgainstGenocide.org
NoToSriLanka.com
SriLankanAtrocities.com
SriLankaStateTerrorism.blogspot.com
Yet another appalling piece of leftist propaganda by a Tamil Tiger rebels supporter. The author conveniently ignores the fact that Tamil agitation to create a seperate nation in Sri Lanka precedes the era of Sri Lankan self-rule (1948 – present); meaning it precedes alleged Sinhalese discrimination. The Tamil public were opposed to this idea since the new nation, proposed by a group of Tamil elitists, was to be governed according to Marxist theology. Sri Lankan people had a taste of democracy during the latter parts of the British Colonial era, and independence presented an opportunity to enjoy complete democratic freedom. In the initial period post-independence, the political agenda of Lankan Tamils involved being actively involved in the new multicultural democracy. Post-independence, Lankan Tamils certainly felt they were being discriminated, and this quickly lead to an equal rights movement (note: not a cesessionist movement, but merely a movement for equal rights in a multi-cultural democratic nation). The equal rights campaign had only limited success and was met with hostility from the Sinhalese public. Pro-Marxism Tamil agitators saw their chance to rally the Tamil masses around their plan for a seperate nation. The majority of Lankan Tamils, then disillusioned by the lack of power sharing in democratic Sri Lanka, fell in line with the seperatist movement.
That was three decades ago. The circumstances have changed dramatically in Sri Lanka since then; both in terms of politics and in civil society. Attention on Sri Lanka has centred in the end of the military conflict between the government and the cesessionist Tamil rebels, but more encouraging is the current state of civil society. The Sri Lankan state began multicultural policies two decaes ago. This saw large communities of Tamils spring up in majority Sinhalese cities and vice versa. The demographic changes, in bringing people of the different ethnicites into closer contact, created greater cultural understanding and tolerance. The result was the socially cohesive and peaceful state of affairs in Sri Lanka at present, one generation on. The people of Sri Lanka are now familiar with and comfortable with the concept of multiculturalism and it’s benefits. It is now state policy for Sinhalese pupils to learn the Tamil language at school, and vice versa. That Sri Lanka’s government is now planning a process to create a power-sharing system between the ehtnicities (a move welcomed by the Tamil community) are further signs that Sri Lanka has put behind it the period of social and political instability following independence. The island nation is an rare feel-good story of the post-Imperialism era, having clearly demostrated that it is now a more mature and responsible nation capable of sustained development and progress, thus delivering a brighter future for all it’s people.
This article by Avery Maxwell brought lots of real things into light. From the time Sri Lanka became Independent country, I have not seen a leader who is truthful, honest and stateman. Every leader is selfcentered, biggest liar. Not a single leader was sincere enough to address the problem of Tamil people who suffered so much under this racist leaders. Manjula, you cleverly justified all the lies, and murders by these ultra racist Singalese leders. The present political leader and his brothers deserve to be brought to International court and punish them for their crime against humanity in Sri Lanka. I know for sure is that these criminials know how to lie to the rest of the world. When it comes lieing, no one in this world can beatthese corrupt criminal leaders of Sri Lanka. You can cheat the world all the time.
“The author conveniently ignores the fact that Tamil agitation to create a separate nation in Sri Lanka precedes the era of Sri Lankan self-rule (1948 – present); meaning it precedes alleged Sinhalese discrimination”
Incorrect explanation: A Tamil nation was present during most of the mahavamsa. Only 3 kings managed to unit Sri Lanka under one ruler. The British invaders made the 2 separate nations in to one for easier government.
PS : None of the Tamil kings to rule the Tamil nation are mentioned in any the ordinary level history books. Only one King Elara is mentioned as a defeated king.
“The Tamil public were opposed to this idea since the new nation, proposed by a group of Tamil elitists, was to be governed according to Marxist theology.”
Incorrect explanation: The Vaddukodai resolution mandates how Tamils voted overwhelmingly for a separate sate.
“Lankan Tamils certainly felt they were being discriminated”
Incorrect explanation: They were actually discriminated. Examples,
* Singhala only act
* Budhisam as National religion
* Forcible colonization of traditional Tamil farm land.
“The equal rights campaign had only limited success and was met with hostility from the Sinhalese public. ”
Correct explanation: It only had limited success because it was brutally put down not by the government.
“The circumstances have changed dramatically in Sri Lanka since then”
Incorrect explanation: None of the bellow have been successfully reverted.
* Singhala only act
* Budhisam as National religion
* Forcible colonization of traditional Tamil farm land.
The Sri Lankan state began multicultural policies two decades ago. This saw large communities of Tamils spring up in majority Sinhalese cities and vice versa.
Incorrect explanation:
* Buddhism is still the National religion. A Tamil cannot be the president. All president must receive the blessings approval of the maha sanga to become president. For true multi cultural society check Singapore.
* Tamils migrated to Colombo because
i) The WAR and harsh conditions of living in the north.
ii) The same reason why1000′s of singhalese come to cColombo bbecauseit is the only economic ccenterof the island. Jafna was never developed as an economic center.
* Singhalase migrated north when the government created singala colonies against the wishes of the Tamil population.
“That Sri Lanka’s government is now planning a process to create a power-sharing system between the eccentricities (a move welcomed by the Tamil community)”
Incorrect explanation: The Sri Lankan government had 50 years to propose a power sharing agreement. Tamils are not welcoming any moves that the government has made. Please look at the voting patterns in the last presidential election.
“The island nation is an rare feel-good story of the post-Imperialism era, having clearly demonstrated that it is now a more mature and responsible nation capable of sustained development and progress, thus delivering a brighter future for all it’s people.”
Incorrect explanation: The country is governed by thugs goons drug dealers and suspected sexsula offenders so it does not have a semblance of a “mature and responsible nation”.
Some cats jump out of the sack as you expose yourself here.
Quote “The British invaders made the 2 separate nations in to one for easier government. PS : None of the Tamil kings to rule the Tamil nation are mentioned in any the ordinary level history books. Only one King Elara is mentioned as a defeated king.”
Correction: There were no 2 kingdoms in Sri Lanka when British invaded. The last king of Sri Lanka was the only one “Sri Wickrama” who was originally a tamil anyway. It wasn’t a singhala or tamil kingdom but the “hela diva”, what ever it means. None of the “ordinary level” mentions about tamil kingdoms all because there was no such thing other than Elara’s. You probably are reading “extra ordinary” level history books written by a “fake historian”, you can writely call them “extra ordinary” and any one (including tamil net lie factory) can write one of them tomorrow. By the way, no one could still find any real archiological evidence about this fake “largely existed for a very long time” tamil kingdoms any where in Sri Lanka. Why?
My Dear Manjula,
A little knowledge is some times dangerous. Historians, such as K.M. de Silva, S.Pathmanathan and Karthigesu Indrapala have confirmed and documented the existence of a Tamil kingdom. Only a few virulent Buddhist monks want to propagate the theory that such a kingdom did not exist. Its documented. Don’t believe me please read the history books.
About your point about archaeological evidence it is true massive archaeological finds mirroring the Sinhalese kingdoms have not been found. So at least there we agree. But this can be explained by the size of the kingdoms inhabitants. Even today the maximum Tamil population taking the diaspora abroad also in to account does not go beyond 4 million. The Tamils always were numerically inferior to the Sinhalese, same reason why we are the minority. This will impact a kingdoms economics therefore no large sites to be found. But although some of them have been found thereby the earlier said historian have pieced together the formation of the kingdom.
So please I am not reading from any extraordinary LTTE manual a Tamil kingdom did exist this has been confirmed by Sinhalese historians.
Manjula I hope I managed to educate you. I am hoping to here from you again.
Yours Sincerely,
Siva
Vadukkodaei resolution is not something accepted by even all tamils. It was only a “party level” private agreement by less than 50% of tamils in Sri Lanka. If it is valid for you when it is discriminating against Sinhalese, then why not agree with “Sinhala only act” by a mandated government?
“Sinhala only act and Buddhism as national religion”. What is wrong with making a language and religion practiced by over 75% of the population of a country? Your mentors US, UK , Norway and Australia have English (or Norwegian) “only” practice. They don’t use Kuran or anything else other than Bible when they swear-in at courts, parliment etc, which is the right thing to me since that was the majority practice. But it discriminates against hindus, muslims and buddhists etc. They never use Hindu or buddhist rituals at their national level ceremonies. Why don’t you go and first complain about their practises because they don’t practice what they preach.
You said ” * Tamils migrated to Colombo because
i) The WAR and harsh conditions of living in the north….”
Now you are saying staying in Colombo shoulder to shoulder with Sinhalese in Colombo was “safer” and “comfortable” for thousands of tamils migrated to Colombo. Thank you ! All your previous lies are now exposed (Sinhalese are rasists, Tamils are being haunted and killed where ever they are in Sri Lanka etc).
You said “* Singhalase migrated north when the government created singala colonies against the wishes of the Tamil population.”
If it is ok for tamils to migrate to south then what is wrong when Sinhalese migrate to north? Please don’t become a hypocrat.
You said “The country is governed by thugs goons drug dealers and suspected sexsula offenders …”
Please note that all those you are talking were eliminated on 19th of May 2009 near Nanthikadal lagoon”
My Dear Manjula,
I am so glad that you replied. Its so important for us two communities to engage each other rather than fight. So I would like to discuss this amicably if possible, without name calling or such. Do we really need to do that? And my apologies for being late, was very busy with work. So let get down to it,
“Vadukkodaei resolution is not something accepted by even all Tamils It was only a “party level” private agreement by less than 50% of Tamils in Sri Lanka.
This is incorrect : The resolution was what “TAMIL UNITED LIBERATION FRONT” campaigned on on Tamils voted for them overwhelmingly making them the the only Sri Lankan Tamil opposition party ever to be elected. So this indicates the resolutions widespread adoption.
“If it is valid for you when it is discriminating against Sinhalese, then why not agree with “Sinhala only act” by a mandated government?”
The resolution did not discriminate against Sinhalese. It only aspires for a separate home land for Tamils. You may think that’s discrimination for Sinhalese if you think the whole land belongs to Sinhalese. Its a difficult mindset to change and I am so sorry you think that way. However saying that just bellow you have mentioned “What is wrong with making a language and religion practiced by over 75% of the population of a country?” My question to you is how do you allow only Sinhalese to aspire for a nation language and religion and not allow Tamils to do so. Isn’t that discrimination or racism? Think about that we are all living on one piece of land shouldn’t we try and accommodate each other?
“Your mentors US, UK , Norway and Australia have English (or Norwegian) “only” practice. They don’t use Kuran or anything else other than Bible when they swear-in at courts, parliment etc, which is the right thing to me since that was the majority practice. But it discriminates against hindus, muslims and buddhists etc. They never use Hindu or buddhist rituals at their national level ceremonies. Why don’t you go and first complain about their practises because they don’t practice what they preach.”
I don’t have any mentors in any of these countries. I am not a tiger. I am a Tamil who studied in Sinhalese and English and some of my best friends are Sinhalese. Why should a Tamil be branded as a terrorist for talking his mind. If you do that all Tamils (as they are now) will be silent when they are living in Sri Lanka and only talk when they go to another country. I hope you understand this but I know you may not accept this. Anyway why should any western country take Tamil to be a national language or religion. They did not have any Tamil kingdoms in those countries centuries ago. Lets not make baseless arguments. However lest take some positives from western culture in the US for instance you can chose the Koran etc when swearing in ceremonies at courts etc. Or you can chose not to. President Barack Obama swore on a bible because he is a christian it is not legally binding. Its a tradition. France is a fiercely secular country (you may have heard about the head scarf ban) it does not have any religion taught at school so is the US.
“Now you are saying staying in Colombo shoulder to shoulder with Sinhalese in Colombo was “safer” and “comfortable” for thousands of tamils migrated to Colombo. Thank you ! All your previous lies are now exposed (Sinhalese are rasists, Tamils are being haunted and killed where ever they are in Sri Lanka etc).”
I never said all Sinhalese are racist. Only a few are, I feel most others are misguided by a few leaders and media. Anyway all the statements you have made above I never said those. You are just constructing them up because I spoke in a different view and I have a Tamil name.
However I stand by my explanation as to why Tamils migrated south. Its because they don’t have any other option. Give them a choice to determine their own future that’s all they are asking.
“If it is ok for tamils to migrate to south then what is wrong when Sinhalese migrate to north? Please don’t become a hypocrat.”
Migrating is ok but it has to be done legally. You will disagree but there is ample evidence on how government chased away Tamil villagers to make new Sinhalese settlements. That’s one of the major reasons why the insurgency started in the first place. That’s the number 1 discrimination that has to be acknowledged to move forward and resolve this issue.
Again lest refrain from name calling and lets stick to the facts. We will be able to exchange ideas better in this way.
You said “The country is governed by thugs goons drug dealers and suspected sexsula offenders …”
Please note that all those you are talking were eliminated on 19th of May 2009 near Nanthikadal lagoon”
Sadly I disagree with you. Take a look at the Sri Lankan news and you will find individuals with such a low moral compass running our country it is almost impossible to imagine how they will ever be able to steer the country in a correct direction.
Hoping to continue our dialogue,
Your Sincerely,
Siva.
Hi Siva,
It feels nice to have a gentleman’s conversation like this. Your style of writing was simply replied by me using similar force, nothing else.
Anyway, we’ll get to the conversation. I still have a lot of reservations about the so called Tamil kingdom. What was a kingdom in ancient times? Kingdom was something like what Prabhakaran had for 28 years, in varying land sizes, varying administrative controls, varying communal mix along the time. Old days, a king was the strongest guy with the strongest army, not necessarily a learned, wise or clever one. It was very similar to Prabakaran’s time, he was the strongest of all and killed all week and became the forceful king of the grabbed piece of land. Both Sinhala and Tamil as well as any other (soli, pandi, portugese etc) rulers had their part of land owned by force for a limited period of time. It does not necessarily mean that piece of land was legally owned by those forever. It was a changing formula. Tamil kingdoms were in Sri Lanka and were casual rather than permanent along the time. This was because Tamil population were not large enough to sustain a long going kingdom and they were stemming from South India. A temporary occupation does not give historical rights to any group in the modern world. As an example, can extremist tribes belong to Taliban claim Afghanistan as their historical land just because they controlled it for few years?
The core of the issue is that there is no substantial archaeological hard evidence available all over north and east to prove that there were very long standing Tamil kingdoms existed. Rather those Tamil kings were mostly invaders and occupiers came from south India and the Sinhala kings had so many conflicts with such invaders throughout the history. In another similar example, British were controlling SL for many centuries. That was a forced occupation, can they claim there was a British kingdom in Sri Lanka and they want self rule in Sri Lanka? In my information Tamil occupations were very similar. That was why Tamil archaeological evidence is missing in Sri Lanka except for few patches around north. Your argument of Tamils living for a long time before Arya Chakrawarthi became a king for a while is similar to saying people of Chinese origin lived in Sri Lanka for centuries now. It doesn’t automatically give them legal rights to grasp a piece of land. In another argument, Sri Wikrama Rajasinghe did not became a king because of such “large numbers of Tamils”. He was appointed as king by Sinhalese. Therefore if we start to assume, then we should be able to assume in a variety of ways, thinking Arya Chakrawarthi also may have been appointed not because large numbers of Tamils but appointed by Sinhalese but then he may have dumped his Sinhalese support base and got large numbers of Tamils imported into the country from India. We cannot rule out any such possibilities.
Most important thing here is not to argue what was there or not there thousands of years ago because it never gives light to our lives and we can simply live with anger, jealousy etc on each other. Rather wouldn’t it be wiser to see what is available today and go along those lines? There are large concentrated Tamil populations in Canada, UK and Norway today. Does it mean in another 500 years, Tamils should be able to break a part of land in those countries claiming “traditional lands” based on historical events? If not the same argument must be valid for Sri Lanka as well.
The Vadukkodai resolution you said was favoured overwhelmingly by Tamils in 1977. I don’t see any surprise here and if you ask Muslim people to vote for a separate country they will do the same. It is actually misusing people’s emotions for vote winning purposes rather than genuine election promises. TULF got a total of 6.4% of votes in 1977 and the number of votes they got was 421,488 out of total 6.2 million votes. If we do very simplistic calculations here, 20% of Tamil population should have approx. 20% of 6.2 million votes, i.e.; 1.24 million. Out of that only 420,488 voted for TULF and their Vadukkodei resolution. Out of those 420,488 definitely there could have been thousands voted for TULF for other reasons rather than for Vadukkodei resolution. That means only less than 33% of the Tamils voted for this Vadukkodei resolution. How come that is “over whelming”. If 6% of people in Sri Lanka adopt to “a resolution” for “a separate country” is valid, then what about if over 80% of people vote for “a unitary country”? Can’t you argue that such a resolution is more valid? Therefore if the majority wants to have a unitary country then so be it. If Sinhalese were the minority and Tamils were the majority, still so be it. There shall not be a separate country for minority Sinhalese in that case.
The argument on “illegal” colonisation by “chasing” Tamils is wrong and giving the wrong picture. The government gave government land to whoever, may be more Sinhalese than Tamils because there were naturally more Sinhalese people than Tamil people who didn’t have land ownership. But who they chased away? They had to send away Tamils or Sinhalese living illegally in government land. If Tamils were living in government land without permission then what do you do? You have to get rid of them by force (if they don’t go by request) to settle people selected using a process. There was no discrimination here. Tamil politicians used this as an “anti Tamil act” to grow hatred among Tamils against Sinhalese just for votes. Sinhalese politicians also do the same. “Sinhalese were settled against the wishes of Tamils” is very racist isn’t it? Why cannot we be more inventive and creative and say Sri Lankans were settled against some resistance by other Sri Lankans. As long as we have this Sinhala and Tamil sentiments we will never be able to understand each other. As you might have witnessed, Tamils very seldom refer to them as Sri Lankans, rather they call themselves as Tamils or Sri Lankan Tamils. They are the few racist Tamils and they don’t want reconciliation, all they want is separation and exclusiveness. On the other hand most Sinhalese don’t refer them as Sinhalese but rather as Sri Lankans.
Barak O Bama swearing using a bible is not a legal requirement, but they do that as tradition. It is right. OK, if Sri Lankans use Buddhist rituals for presidents and ministers what is wrong with that as a “tradition”? On the other hand our traditions don’t have to be same as to the letter as US or UK. We are different and have to be different. Our values, traditions, expectations are different. Just like Islamic countries have their own way of governance selected by the majority, why not us? If it is not jealousy, what is it?
Your original statement of Sri Lanka being ruled by thugs, goons, drug dealers, sex offenders is a great insult done by you to “your country”. Knowing very well, LTTE consisted of such people, how many times did you accuse LTTE like that in last 30 years? Therefore I also sadly disagree with you and majority of the people who rule Sri Lanka are very good people and there are few goons in Sri Lanka as well just like few goons, thugs and sex offenders in US and UK governments also. It doesn’t mean those types of people rule US or UK. Just making assumptions using Sri Lanka “news” along is not very wise and you need to look at the reality. Most of the time media does not report reality; they only report incidents that create interest for obvious reasons.
Regards,
Manjula
Tamil is an official language. That means ‘Sinhala Only’ has been repealed. How do you not know this?
And before the Kingdom of Aryacakravarti formed in 1215 there is no mention of a Tamil kingdom to my knowledge. Maybe you can help me and present some evidence of a Tamil kingdom before this.
Also this kingdom didn’t extend belowe Killinochchi when the Portuguese arrived. The Eastern Province was under the Kandy Kingdom. Why do you guys claim this area when it’s not part of the historical Tamil kingdom?
My Dear PongalThambi,
You are correct “Sinhala Only’ has been repealed”. But you are missing the point it was repealed only after the insurgency started and the brutal consequences of the ‘Sinhala Only’ act was never acknowledged. Why is this?
“And before the Kingdom of Aryacakravarti formed in 1215 there is no mention of a Tamil kingdom to my knowledge. Maybe you can help me and present some evidence of a Tamil kingdom before this.
Also this kingdom didn’t extend belowe Killinochchi when the Portuguese arrived. The Eastern Province was under the Kandy Kingdom. Why do you guys claim this area when it’s not part of the historical Tamil kingdom?
”
You are absolutely correct. But my point is there should be an acknowledgement of this. The history taught to Singhala students don’t do this. So you will get the Manjula’s of Sri Lanka point blank denying its existence. Do you think we can build a peaceful country with so much misinformation floating around?
My other point is “Aryacakravarti” did not formulate overnight. There should have been Tamils settlements present for a large amount of time for a kingdom of this nature come about. So the Tamils existed way before “Aryacakravarti” that is a define conclusion. I hope you agree.
Sri Lankan government, I mean Rajapaksa family employed many people to encounter the media, who point out the evil acts of them. They also brand people who point out their abuse of human rights violences, acts against democracy etc as “White Tigers, Ltte supporters etc”.Sri Lankan officials called the Foreign Secretary and prime minister of UK as White Tigers, Norweigien Officials and USA and UN officials. This refects very well in the above 2 comments written by 2 Sri Lankan government supporters.
Only way to bring Sri lankan to bring to its knees is weaken its economy by bocotting its products. Sri Lankan borrowed billions from China, India and IMF. Westerns and Tamils should boycot Sri Lankan products especially ‘tourism’. Tamils should Open textlie factories in Tamils living countriles like Malysia, Reunion, South Africa, etc to make cheaper than the NAZI Srilankan made textlies, by doing so, we can achieve two things, first tamils benefit out of the projects and Western companies will VOTE WITH THERIR FEET to cheaper items.
Between 1983 and 2009, Sri Lanka was engulfed by the raging civil war between the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The World Health Organisation estimates that there have been more than 215,000 deaths, overwhelmingly affecting the Tamil population, as a result of the civil war. Between 2005 and 2009, more than 1.3 million people were displaced.
.http://www.student-direct.co.uk/2010/03/sri-lanka-a-crises-overlooked/
Very amusing comment.
Yeah, the only way to bring the population of Sri Lanka including Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims to their knees is to boycott their products.
Damn the poor Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims working in those factories. Eelam is more important!
“Neither group is indigenous to Ceylon — the name of the Island on which the nation of Sri Lanka occupies — they just came to the island at different times, and both claim to be there first.”
What on earth are you talking about? Do you not know the history of Sri Lanka and who came to inhabit the land first? Well, since you don’t know, I’ll tell you. It happened this way:
Buddha flew down from the heavens in his golden chariot and landed on Ilankai, that’s what it was called before it was Ceylon. He then said, I bless this land and make the Sinhalese to be the sole owners. At that point the people who existed on Ilankai before the Sinhalese became people who didn’t belong there. This of course happened thousands of years ago.
And Bhdha came and told you this, is he?
Ha ! Ha! very funny!
Ramayana mentions a Lanka. It makes no mention of anything called ‘Ilankai’.
Manjula writes: This article by Avery Maxwell is an ultra biased article with ill-educated and misleading information. It lacks facts and is full of assumptions and private opinions of a gullible personality.
Well, at least he’s just guilty of not doing his research.
You on the other hand, reading your post, are the most bigoted, ultra racist with unspeakable kind of hatered towards a group of people I have come across in a while. So, you’re more dangerous than the author of this article. But hey, thanks for coming out anyway.
Still no facts ha! Only a display of deep harted hatred for people who ask for facts rather than simply believing your lies.
What is ‘bigoted’ ‘ultra racist’? Can you cite examples?
Is speaking against the LTTE automatically ‘bigoted’ and ‘ultra racist’?
And btw I haven’t seen more hatred than what was spouted by pro-LTTE posters during and after the conclusion of the final war ever in my life. Growing up in Colombo, Sri Lanka during the 1990s, I was never fed any hatred by my parents towards any race. I went to an English standard school in fact and most of my friends were Muslims and Tamils.
You have listed the attrocities commited by both sides very fairly and honestly. By looking at it You should ask who is the terrorist. You have ommitedd 90% of the crimes against humanity commited by the govt. Periodic enthinic riots ethenic clensing murders rape looting, kidnapping, toture, lyeing killing jurnos. There is no room for listing those horrors here. The LTTE didnot allowe its cadre to commite rape drunkedness and other social evils where as the govt encouraged and used them as their weapons. The LTTE can be proud of some of their policies, can the govt be proud of any. A government of terror horror rape riots lies murder looting bribe corruption evry thing evil is embodied in this country with a LIEon flag. A Island of Paradise is turned into an Island of Evil by its own government, but the interesting aspect is the people always endorsed it as long as the victims were Tamils. Now they are paying for it. But they are proud of what they are doing. What kind of country is it.
Your profile name really suits to what you are saying.
Have you witnessed any of the things you are accusing the Sri Lankans of with your own eyes?
Have you even been to Sri Lanka?
I think these are interesting questions.
The government of Sri Lanka hasn’t fed hatred on a huge platter to me (growing up in the 1990s mind you). They didn’t shove a gun into my hand and make me fight. I’ll take that over the LTTE.
I’ll also take living in the multicultural South over a monoethnic Tamil only Eelam.
Manjula I only take a very little piece of your cake of rubbish
Quote “killed hostages”.
“Which ones? Name them. Otherwise they are mere speculation. Are you referring to the fake video by Channel 4 in UK? If so how do you prove that the soldiers in the video are Sri Lankan? How do you prove that the soldiers in the video are not fake? Can it be the tigers who are killing army hostages and showed that as the opposite for the gullible to digest?”
Yea you are right. These soldiers are not Sri Lankans they are Cambodians who came to Vanni for shopping with their walking stics. How channel 4 has distorted the story.
By the way the media is going on telling the world that Sri Lanka has arrested Gen Fonseka. He went for a walk in tha Park and I saw him walking the dog. See how they distort the truth.
Manju you are a true Sin Ha Lie with a Lanka LIEon flag. Do you belong to the Udu Ravana denasty. Please keep doing the good work if you profit out of this that is even better.
If we have a few more Majula we will be on top of the world.
Please prove if the soldiers were Cambodian. Just talking “jibberish” is not going to help.
What is the relation ship between “Sarath Fonseka’s arrest” and “Sarath Fonseka was walking the dog”?
Just one thing you said was dam right. That is “If we have a few more Majula we will be on top of the world.”
What proof do you have that the people depicted in the video are of the Sri Lankan army? Please offer some. The fact that the U. N. concluded a version (we’ll come back to this in a second) of the video to be mostly unaltered doesn’t really place it in SL army’s lap.
According to the Associated Press (a major news organization around the World) the ‘authenticated’ video shows Tamil speakers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDn3iSKD-Pc
Does the SLA now speak Tamil?
Sinhalese have been oppressing the Tamils for 62 years. It’s only recently some in the outside world have begun to see and write about the atrocities unleashed on the Tamils and are called Tiger sympathisers by the Sinhalese.
When will the Sinhalese realise what they have been doing to the Tamils?
Quote ” Sinhalese have been oppressing the Tamils for 62 years”.
Please explain how. Just complaining like a kid is not enough, back it up with facts.
Of Sri Lanka’s industries I’m most familiar with music and film. They were both dominated by Tamils till the current war started. Is that discrimination? Really, to a certain extent the two industries still have a fair amount of Tamils in them (Chandran Rutnam, M. S. Anandan, etc.)
Some of the biggest film studios – Vijaya (K. Gunaratnam), R. T. (Robin Tampoe), AVM (S. M. Nayagam) were owned by Tamils. Is this discrimination?
Muttiah Muralitharan is a hero of all Sri Lankans. Is this discrimination?
I don’t deny that certain discriminatory acts took place. Riots in 1958, 1977 and 1983. There were certain laws passed that were discriminatory like the education act. But these laws are gone now (we are only left with facist laws that came with the war — were a direct result of the war) and the current situation in the South excludes the possibility of there ever being a riot again.
20C saw the end of external colonialism. Will 21C see the end of internal colonialism?
Fourth World Colonialism, Indigenous Minorities And Tamil Separatism In Sri Lanka, Bryan Pfaffenberger (Virginia University), Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, Vol. 16, 1984:
”Despite the withdrawal of colonial power from Third World countries, forms of oppression that might well be termed “colonial” still persist in many of them — the oppression wrought by nationalist Third World governments whose regimes fail to respect the rights of indigenous minorities. For ethnic and regional minorities in many Third World countries, the arrogance and injustice of these governments matches — and often exceeds — those of the departed European colonial regime. The island nation Sri Lanka presents a case in point. Little public investment appears to reach the Tamil lands………”
a lot of ‘half-truths’ written above here. PLEASE read a bit of the true history of Sri Lanka at this site >>> aboutSriLanka.WordPress.com
Sri Lanka is the next Somalia!!!
Genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka
*More than 200,000 Tamil men, women and children Killed or Disappeared
*Nearly 1 Million Tamils made to flee the country
*More than 600,000 Tamil Internal Refugees (Internally Displaced or Evicted)
*More than 20,000 Tamil orphaned children
*More than 35,000 Tamil widows
*Thousands of families (including infants) in barbed wire fenced concentration camps operated by Sri Lankan Military.
*Half a million Tamils kept in an open prison in Northern Sri Lanka
*Thousands in custody – detention without trial, other widespread abuses
*Economic embargo imposed on traditional Tamil areas for more than 2 decades
*Supply of food, medicine, fuel, electricity and other essential items controlled by the Military
*Forced Starvation
*Mass Graves and systematic violations of fundamental human rights remain un-investigated
*No International Media allowed into conflict areas
*Systematic destruction of Infrastructure
*Indiscriminate and wanton air attacks on traditional Tamil areas for more than 2 decades.
*Hundreds of thousands of livelihoods and schools, hospitals, libraries, temples, churches, houses, villages destroyed
Very funny indeed. At least you are proving that you are very good with multiplication table of 2; you are very good in multiplying by 2. Please learn the other multiplication tables also and it will help your maths even further.
Oh! my god ! you said “Hundreds of thousands of schools, hospitals, temples, churches.., destroyed”. I just wonder whether Sri Lanka even had hundreds of thousands of schools, temples, churches and hospitals. Are you trying to say Sri Lanka had more schools, hospitals, schools etc than the rest of the third world (or developed world) collected together? If so Sri Lanka must have been a “developed” country by far!
Some people are denying everything what the author has written. Doesn’t it sound like Sri Lankan government’s voice? Any Tamil who ask for their safety, dignity and equality are branded ‘Terrorists’ or LTTE or LTTE sympathisers by Sri Lankan government and their mouth pieces.
It’s pretty easy to call people LTTE sympathizers when they wave the LTTE flag in all their gatherings. Wait, is the flag designed by Prabhakaran which uses symbols that hadn’t been used to represent Tamils before the formation of the LTTE for at least the last 900 years, actually not connected to the LTTE?
Manjula, your ignorance oozes out of you.
One request i would make to the author to please include a time line since independence from the British, including the “sinhala only act”, “education act”, 1983 riots.. so people don’t just assume, LTTE just woke up one day and decided to pick up arms. There is obviously a reason.
Both sides have commited mistakes. The LTTE were deemed as terrorist as such they carried out their actions. The Sri Lankan government on the other hand, supposedly represent the people of the island, assuming thats what most governments do. Is that what they did? I hope you know how to use the internet, and find articles. Here are couple to diminish your ignorance.
I am quite sure you will continue to say these are all bias reports etc, so pls don’t waste my time.
Patients Killed in Cluster Bomb:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/weather/2009/feb/04/srilanka-terrorism
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/04/cluster-bomb-kills-52-at_n_163852.html
Surrendering LTTE Members Killed
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/srilanka/5369753/British-officials-in-race-to-stop-war-crime-by-Sri-Lankan-forces.html
US State Dept Report
http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/131025.pdf
Let’s see.. the education act was repealed in 1977. Tamil was provided for use in the North and East in several provisions since the 1960s and was made a national language in 1977. Why do you guys choose to ignore these facts which show that it was not necessary for the LTTE to resort to an armed war when there were certain concessions being made. The 1983 riots came after the beginning of the LTTE’s campaign of aggression. Who’s oozing ignorance?
The first two articles you link to state that it is unsure who did the shelling. So are we supposed to assume that the government did it coz it fits your preferred narrative?
I don’t really care about LTTE members.
The U. S. wasn’t in Sri Lanka anytime during the war. Some of the things stated in the report may be correct but why should we place some great significance on that document when it’s written by an outsider based on hearsay and not cold facts?
Avery Maxwell, Your account and trends, in general, accords with groundrealities. From 1931 to 1948 the voting during British colonial rule was based on adult franchise. However after 1948 after independence it has turned out to be a ‘majoritarian democracy’ based along lines of liguistics, race and religion, which has been ‘eating’ into the minds of the people along highly sectarian and divisive lines in reality but denied by the politicians in power, naturally.
To the list of human rights (and war crimes) committed by government should be added :
Use of napalm, incandescent white phosphorus bombs (sold by China) and cluster bombs (sold by Russia) delivered by the SLAF and hired Pakisitan Air Force, in part using Chinese military jets lent free to SL governmnt; all WMDs;
Use of aerial (ofen carpet) bombings by the SLAF on villages and towns from 1983 to 2009, except from 2002 to 2005 under a (phony) Peace Process which has decimated over 120,000 civilian Tamils in the north and east, maimed and injured many more hundreds of thousands and dehoused and diplaced practically the entire Tamil population;
The damage to property in the north and east is inestimable; the 4.5billion $ promised as aid under the 2002 Peace Proces to reconstruct and rehabilitate the north and east turned to be a big hoax and although Japan stated in 2005 all the aid had been delivered to SL government none of it has been accounted for to the public, certainly not to the recipient Tamil public. So where did all this aid go? For arms? It is the same sad story with the $ 1.2 B Tsunami foreign aid unaccounted yet!
The election itself, like governance, has turned from a once model process to bizarre and highly tainted.
So-called corrupted majoritarian democracy keeps ruining the country to serve the corrupt ends of political neophytes with accountabilty to none except at great peril! You have forgotten to mention the classic ‘white van’ synadrome used in disposing of those who question the system or demand accountability! Some 3000 persons are said to have met with this fate alone!
The bombed towns were those occupied by the LTTE, an authoratarian group that posed a threat to 90% of Sri Lankans (including Muslims).
The government is indeed corrupt though; I agree with you on that.
the only way to stop sri lanka’s genocide of tamils is to Boycott Sri Lanka!!. see http://www.BoycottSriLanka.com
Boycott Sri Lanka . com
The Unspeakable Truth. Checkout the site, tinyurl.com/SLtruth
My Dear PongalThambi,
You are correct “Sinhala Only’ has been repealed”. But you are missing the point it was repealed only after the insurgency started and the brutal consequences of the ‘Sinhala Only’ act was never acknowledged. Why is this?
“And before the Kingdom of Aryacakravarti formed in 1215 there is no mention of a Tamil kingdom to my knowledge. Maybe you can help me and present some evidence of a Tamil kingdom before this.
Also this kingdom didn’t extend belowe Killinochchi when the Portuguese arrived. The Eastern Province was under the Kandy Kingdom. Why do you guys claim this area when it’s not part of the historical Tamil kingdom?
”
You are absolutely correct. But my point is there should be an acknowledgement of this. The history taught to Singhala students don’t do this. So you will get the Manjula’s of Sri Lanka point blank denying its existence. Do you think we can build a peaceful country with so much misinformation floating around?
My other point is “Aryacakravarti” did not formulate overnight. There should have been Tamils settlements present for a large amount of time for a kingdom of this nature come about. So the Tamils existed way before “Aryacakravarti” that is a define conclusion. I hope you agree.