In March, the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) passed a United States-sponsored resolution pressing the Sri Lankan government to investigate alleged human rights violations during the final stages of the war with the terrorist group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement immediately after, “the United States and the international community had sent a strong signal that Sri Lanka will only achieve lasting peace through real reconciliation and accountability.”
Sri Lanka, which rescued 300,000 hostages held by the LTTE as a human shield, by defeating the terrorist group, has continued to protest at the allegations of human rights violations. Special envoy on human rights, Mahinda Samarasinghe, condemned the resolution as “misconceived, unwarranted and ill-timed”, and potentially harmful to the progress being made within the country.
The LTTE, in its brutal reign of three decades killed an estimated 100,000 and brought ruin to the once resilient economy. Western governments warned President Mahinda Rajapaksa not to even attempt to fight the invincible terrorist group, which had mastered the use of female suicide bombers to cause widespread damage. But following a four-year grueling war, the LTTE was defeated in May 2009. It was the first time in recent history that a terrorist group had been so comprehensively beaten by a government. But not a single western government moved to congratulate Sri Lanka for the unparalleled feat.
As one Indian commentator noted
If such an outcome were to be secured in Iraq or Afghanistan or even in Pakistan, it would be embraced by the West as an unadulterated and righteous triumph. In Sri Lanka, however, it appears to have provoked … a seething and barely concealed outrage.… There is a sense, not of a dreaded terrorist organization having been defeated and destroyed, but of collaborators, comrades, and fellows at arms, lost to the enemy.[1]
The U.S. position seems ironic since it provided considerable help for the government to defeat the terrorists. The U.S. was one of the first countries to ban the LTTE and the FBI described it as the world’s deadliest extremist organization surpassing Al Qaeda or HAMAS. Many Tamils convicted for attempting to buy sophisticated arms and equipment in the US are currently languishing in jails mostly as a result of FBI sting operations.
Following the United States, the European Union and India, as well as a number of other countries, had proscribed the LTTE. Some of these governments, especially the U.S. and the U.K., also provided arms and intelligence to help crush the group.
And with the end of the war, Sri Lanka has achieved comprehensive peace. Few countries in the world have been able to restore normalcy with such speed following a long drawn out war. In under three years, almost all the 300,000 internally displaced people have returned to their own homes. Even more impressive is that 90 percent of LTTE cadres who had surrendered (10,490 of the 11,700) have been freed and reunited with their families.
Alongside these remarkable achievements, tourists who shunned the country for decades have been flocking back. This follows the New York Times and a number of travel magazines identifying Sri Lanka as a top tourist destination after the war. The Sri Lankan economy last year recorded the highest ever growth rate of 8.3 percent. Tamils in the northern province who had been herded around as hostages by the LTTE have at last settled back in their own homes. Economic growth of the northern region last year was a massive 22 percent. It is clear that Sri Lanka, and the Tamils in particular, are working to leave the past behind and move on. In that background it is not surprising that they saw the UNHRC resolution as a hindrance, not a help.
Besides all these, Sri Lanka is a functioning democracy friendly towards the West.
Why then did the United States sponsor the Human Rights Council resolution against a friendly nation?
Human rights
Perhaps it was a genuine concern for protection of human rights. The mounting number of casualties suggested by various human rights groups and media outlets and the screening of a documentary by U.K.’s Channel 4 were capable of stirring emotions in any unsuspecting listener.
The genesis of the casualty figures from the war is fascinating. The U.N. Under-Secretary-General responsible for humanitarian operations at the time the war ended, Sir John Holmes, had used for internal purposes 7,000, a number the TamilNet had quoted. The LTTE mouthpiece ‘Tamil Net’, published in Norway, had consistently carried exaggerated reports and doctored photos of war casualties. Holmes underlined that it was an “estimate based on the best evidence that we had, but that wasn’t very good evidence because we weren’t really present in the (battle zone) in any systematic way. That’s why we didn’t publish them.”
In spite of that, a few days later the London Times reported that evidence gathered by it has revealed that at least 20,000 Tamils were killed. The paper blamed the U.N. for underestimating the death toll.
What is intriguing is the way the Times arrived at that figure. The paper gave different bases for its calculation. One version was that the U.N. had assessed the number of those who died by the end of April at around 7,000, and the paper extrapolated it using the rate of 1,000 a day for May until the 19th when the war ended. Later the Times claimed that it had extrapolated the number of dead bodies by four. The rationale for using either option was not explained.
The rest of the media world was aghast at the claim of the Times. The Guardian and the BBC questioned the methodology. The New York Times reported that a coordinator for U.N. humanitarian relief, Elizabeth Byrs, had told that any estimate of the death toll must be based on extrapolation and guesswork. They were puzzled by the methodology used. “Someone has made an imaginative leap and that is at odds with what we have been saying before,” one official said. “It is a very dangerous thing to do to start making extrapolations.”
But the story did not end there. Stakes were raised again, this time by an ex-employee of the U.N. in its Colombo office, Gordon Weiss, who told ABC that the death toll could be ‘between 15,000 to 40,000’ according to his sources. He has not so far divulged these ‘sources’. The unsound nature of the estimate was evident when he admitted at the launch of his book on the war that that number was ‘far too high’.
Darusman report
But in spite of the caveats, protests, disagreements and denials, and the absence of a sound basis, the upper end of Weiss’ estimate gained currency. The Darusman report to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon endorsed the figure noting “there is still no reliable figure for civilian deaths, but multiple sources of information indicate that a range of up to 40,000 civilian deaths cannot be ruled out at this stage”.
The Darusman committee did not undertake its own research but went by the ‘number of sources that quoted the figure’. In other words it had become a victim (and a promoter) of Goebbels theory that if you keep repeating a lie people will eventually come to believe it.
The manner in which “multiple sources for the information” that formed the basis of the Darusman report were mustered should have alerted the media to their questionable authenticity. By the deadline of 15 December 2010, the response to the committee’s invitation for submissions was so poor that it had to extend it by two weeks. It was then that the anti-Sri Lankan lobby got into action urging the Tamil Diaspora to make representations to pressure the U.N. to hold an enquiry against GOSL, even if they hadn’t been directly affected by the conflict and atrocities. To make it easy, two dozen sample letters to be sent online to the Panel of Experts were presented in three different websites. To make it even easier, to hide their identities, organizers extracted an undertaking from the U.N. which denied access to material in the Expert Panel’s possession for a period of 20 years. Even after the lapse of the 20-year-ban, the Office of Legal Affairs (OLA) has assured the Committee, that it could give an undertaking to its sources of absolute confidentiality in the subsequent use of information.[2]
Sri Lanka has criticized the report based on unsubstantiated, third-hand sources with the 20 year embargo which prevents anyone from checking the authenticity of the information. There is no data even on how many of the complainants were in fact in the warzone during the period. In spite of the contrived nature of the “evidence” the media has latched on to the report as the source of 40,000 deaths. The Darusman report negated its own conclusions by noting later that, “This account should not be taken as proven facts, and any effort to determine specific liabilities would require a higher threshold”. But when its numbers were used by the media, such qualifications were conveniently lost in transition.
The British Channel 4 produced a video ‘Sri Lanka killing fields’ to buttress these claims. Sri Lanka continued to object to these claims and produced its own documentary ‘Lies Agreed Upon’ which questioned the authenticity of the Channel 4 presentation. Much of the Channel 4 material had been drawn from the LTTE mouthpiece TamilNet that routinely published exaggerations to drum up western help and sustain Diaspora support. One of its outrageous claims was when it produced a photo of its leader Prabhakaran reading a copy of the newspaper which carried the news of his demise, two days after his death, claiming he was alive and well.
Critics also have questioned how the armed forces could have got rid of 40,000 bodies in such a short time in a 5 kilometers sliver of land without leaving a trace and without being seen via satellites.
Don seems to believe concern by the US is genuinely for protection of human rights. I wonder. If the US believes passing resolutions against Sri Lanka at the UNHRC is the way to redress its HR violations, why had it worked in the opposite direction when it comes to Israel? That shows the US concern is not ‘Human Rights’ but something else. The US has shown contrasting views when it comes to rid ace terrorists as well. The US got its SEALs to trespass boarders and kill Bin Laden unarmed but they wanted Sri Lanka to let a worse terrorist, LTTE leader, Pirapakaran surrender to a third party.
I have highlighting the above for one reason. That is; Sri Lankans must identify hypocrisy of Americans and its lapdogs and stooges, and its larger aim of dividing Sri Lanka to establish military bases.
Leela
Hi Leela, re “hypocrisy of Americans and its lapdogs and stooges,” ask Gota, Sarath, current senior ministers etc, who got their US green cards to surrender their status. and Don Wijewardana needs to get his facts correct
Who cares whether some ministers have got Green cards. A green card is just an economic tool. It means nothing when it comes to one’s political beliefs.
….Prabakaran a worse terrorist than Bin Laden?…
with that statement you have rubbished your entire posting
no reply from mrs pillay…..
http://www.countercurrents.org/adriaensens100212.pdf
why ?
So according to the author,Human right organizations from all over the world,NGOs,Government Intelligence and UN which point to solid evidence which Srilanka has not proven as false
…. and none of those allegations against Sri lanka were proved as true either.
Therefore unless proven you have to assume Sri Lanka as innocent, contrary the LTTE way which is unless proven you are guilty.
The article states:
“Much of the Channel 4 material had been drawn from the LTTE mouthpiece TamilNet that routinely published exaggerations to drum up western help and sustain Diaspora support. One of its outrageous claims was when it produced a photo of its leader Prabhakaran reading a copy of the newspaper which carried the news of his demise, two days after his death, claiming he was alive and well.”
TamilNet published no such photo. The fact that the author of this article cannot even get such basic facts straight speaks volumes about the accuracy and adherence to truth of this article.
TamilNet did however state that over 250,000 civilians were trapped with the LTTE when the Sri-Lankan Government claimed only 70,000 were during the closing stages of the war. Then, when the war was over, the same Sri-Lankan Government publicly asked the world for aid to feed and camp 300,000 people that it had “rescued” – thus proving TamilNet right.
If the author wants the true facts to come out and believes that the Darusman report contains false numbers and that the Tamil lobby is distorting facts, he should ask the Sri-Lankan government to agree to an international investigation to prove that he and the Sri-Lankan government are right. What is he and the Sri-Lankan Government afraid of? The Truth?
The article further states:
“Tamils in the northern province who had been herded around as hostages by the LTTE have at last settled back in their own homes. Economic growth of the northern region last year was a massive 22 percent. It is clear that Sri Lanka, and the Tamils in particular, are working to leave the past behind and move on. In that background it is not surprising that they saw the UNHRC resolution as a hindrance, not a help.”
If the Tamils are so happy, why did they vote for the LTTE-proxy TNA in landslides that humiliated Rajapaksa, the man that defeated the LTTE? If the Tamils are so happy, why did the TNA, the elected representatives of the same people, fully support the UNHRC resolution?
Don, nice try, but after 3 years, the world has figured out about you Sri-Lankan liars. You can’t fool the world anymore. Nice try though.
There is nothing that Sri Lanka has to prove or disprove about defending the nation. Criminal negligence of the USA in the business of war mongering and violation of human rights and crimes against humanity is a question the peace loving nations around the world are seeking to hear from the so called United Nations that is becoming such a useless outfit working to satisfy the whims and fancies of the Yankees. Whatever said and done, at the end of the day Sri Lanka shall prevail. On the other hand India that is manipulated by the USA will massively fail in the sub regional geo politics. For example, the very latest Indian delegation’s (lead by some woman called Shusma) failure to attain any meaningful results but her false claims on so called 13th amendment etc.
There is nothing that Sri Lanka has to prove or disprove about defending the nation. Criminal negligence of the USA in the business of war mongering and violation of human rights and crimes against humanity is a question the peace loving nations around the world are seeking to hear from the so called United Nations that is becoming such a useless outfit working to satisfy the whims and fancies of the Yankees. Whatever said and done, at the end of the day Sri Lanka shall prevail. On the other hand India that is manipulated by the USA will massively fail in the sub regional geo politics. For example, the very latest Indian parliamentary delegation’s (lead by some woman called Shusma) failure to attain any meaningful results, but false claims to her boss Manmohan Singh reporting on so called 13th amendment etc., are typical examples if there is anything to go by on India’s handling on foreign policy matters.
Well said! Christopher.
Only we Tamil know the pain and how we suffer by the Srilankan Shinhala government. Don Wijayawardane know nothing. If any one come to save tamil, they see them as god even it USA or U.K. Yes USA and western countries did something in bringing the fact about what happened to Tamil in Srilanka. There is lots of evidence for genocide against tamils. Only some people trying to save Srilanka by blocking any investigation. What is the wrong investigate this matter. Then only any one know it is true or false. Real Buddhist people write the truth against anyone who made wrong even if it is shinhalease. But Don is doing opposite way.
Oy Raj,
No one should investigate an innocent person just because a lunatic complains. It is against humanity, civilisation, and civil liberty.
Do you like police coming to your house to investigate you everyday just because a neigbour who doesn’t like you make false claims? He can also argue that if you have nothing to hide why not allow investigations. Do you get it or the brain is too small to get it?
Ado Manjula,
and who says those who complain against Sri Lankan forces are Lunatics? Do YOU get to decide that? The world thinks these are CREDIBLE ALLEGATIONS (to use the words of UN panel), not allegations from lunatics. If there are any lunatics around, then it is racist apologists like you. and stop talking about other people’s brains. If you had any, you wouldn’t have mortgaged the entire country to china.
Raj! Singhalese people do realise how much Tamils suffer due to what Prabhakaran did to your people. You are a victim of the atrocities committed by your own people. LTTE has killed majority of Sri Lankan Tamil intellectuals that were moderate and could have done good for Tamil people as a whole. What the West (white man) does not want to believe is that majority of Tamils live peacefully in the south parts amongst Sinhala people. How about if Sinhala people are to evict Tamils that live in the South, especially in Colombo and other major cities? I don’t think you will like that. Those Tamils that live in the Diasporas – UK, Canada, countries of the European Union will never return to SL, instead make millions upon millions of dollars through crime activity and various other fronts and pocket that for themselves living lavishly, in the name of Tamils that supposedly “suffer” in SL. Even if Diaspora Tamils want to go back to Sri Lanka, Singhala people will never let them return to live in SL. What the West do not want to understand is that govt. of Sri Lanka has saved its country from terrorism. The West never imagined that the LTTE could have been defeated by Sri Lankan forces with the help of Chinese. Now the West wants that China to stop expanding in the Asian sub region. As a result, all those countries that are close to China are victimised by the West. It is quite clear that the West is fighting a silent war here with countries like Sri Lanka, a reason why there has been a USA driven resolution against Sri Lanka tabled by UNHCR based on hear-say allegations on human rights violations that had supposedly taken place towards the end of Elam 4 war. No matter what, at the end of the day Sri Lanka shall prevail and flourish. Tamils cannot be left behind in this process. If the Tamils are smart, then they should join forces to mutually benefit.
Come on, Raj – Genocide? Really? The majority of Tamils live in Colombo and the rest of the southern areas, among the so called ‘genocidal Sinhalese’. Please, stop lying.
Most Sinhalese are letting their tribal affiliations to get in the way of truth, and this writer is no exception. The fact is that there is historical animosity between Sinhalese and Tamils for the last 2500, as recorded by both Sinhala and Tamil chronicles (Note however that even Sinhala chronicles themselves respect some Tamil kings like Ellalan / Elara, and the Sinhala King who fought with him accorded him great respect, a virtue the present day Sinhalese who dug up graves seem to be missing). So beyond who is right and who is wrong in a historical feud, where indeed great injustices would have been committed by both sides at some point, it is glaringly obvious that the two races cannot live together.
The solution Tamils propose is A) Divide the country, so that each race can govern their own affairs. The solution Sinhalese propose is B) Give all the land to us, and we don’t like Tamils here. If they live in Lanka they can only live as our slaves, and we can silently finish them off or drive them away.
ANY right thinking person can see which solution is fair. if the Sinhalese think that the areas Tamils ask are too much, that can be negotiated. Yet, most Sinhalse are not prepared to give Tamils even 1% of the land. This is why they have outlawed separatism and try to argue that anybody who asks for separate state for Tamils are, just by asking, terrorists.
the world must see that the AVARICE of the sinhalese in wanting all Lanka for themselves and denying the right of Tamils, who are historic people of Lanka as their own chronicles record, wholesale is the ROOT CAUSE of all problems in Lanka. Sinhalese are like the greedy and bullish elder child in the family who wants to have all the toys. Until this mentality changesm or all the tamils in Lanka are killed, the Sri Lankan problem will not be solved. Therefore, the world must decide if it wants as a solution A) a decent two state formula B) Genocide. There is no other solution. it seems some powers are already supporting B), in order to satisfy majority in Lanka. Over to the free thinking people.
Kumr, what are the tamil rights that are denied to tamils by the constitution? However you must make comparisons to another country like India or US for that matter to compare the true facts.
Uttering cheap and popular words to sensetionalise tamils can only prove that you have no facts to prove, but just a hollow noise and a smell.
Kumar David, Tamils with the support of Tamil Nardu and all those Western countries may want to break up Sri Lanka to carve a dreamland called Elam. This is all some dream. Sri Lanka is for all Sri Lankans and cannot be divided as the Tamils and Tamil Nardu wants it to be. Current Tamil population in Sri Lanka has reduced to the numbers that once were in the 1950s. – Some less than 8 per cent or so, a figure what Tamil Nardu should seriously think of providing them with an Elam in some place in Tamil Nardu
Some of theses people who claim tamils have no problems have race induced dementia and blindness. My father who was a lawyer joined Sri lankan government services was sacked for not being able to read sinhalese. He was english educated and obtained a first class degree in University. – No use.
No sinhalese lost their jobs because they did not learn tamil.
My Sinhalese father- in-law and sinhalese budhist wife are still feel ashamed and annoyed every time someone blabber that tamil have no problems.
Although it is true that there are a few factual errors in this article, the overall argument, that there are much bigger international power issues affecting the west’s attitude and behaviour towards Sri Lanka, is surely correct.
Sri Lanka, at this time in world history, is strategically placed on the major maritime trade route linking oil producing west Asia (aka the Middle East) and fast developing East Asia. Strategic locations such as Gibraltar, the Cape of Good Hope, Suez Canal, Hong Kong, Singapore, etc had similar strategic importance in the 19th & 20th centuries.
This means that for the foreseeable future Sri Lanka is going to be fought over by the world powers because of its strategic location. The resolution at Geneva has to be seen is this light, in my opinion, where the United States and European states used the issue as a sort of trial of strength in the diplomatic arena between themselves and rest of the world.
They might come to regret using ‘human rights’ in such a politically manipulative way. One reason is that the Sri Lankan government used the issue to strengthen its own position back home where it faces some pressure on domestic issues such as cost of living. The other is that if historic accountability for alleged past human rights violations is to become part of the UN Human Rights Council’s remit, it is the western powers that have the most to lose. After all, why only go back 3 years in accountability for alleged human right violations? Why not 30 years, or even 300 years? Asian, African and South American nations would make mince-meat of the former colonial powers if that was to happen.
Hello Leela, it is true that the US is motivated more by geopolitical interests, any child can see that. How about the Hypocritical stand of Sri Lanka, which ran around the world asking to ban the LTTE and help them defeat LTTE, yet seems to scream ‘intervention in internal affairs’ only when the west asks for their payment? It is only YOUR GOVERNMENTS (this one and previous) which got the world involved in basically an ethnic fight between Sinhalese and Tamils. The west, having helped you, now wants payment, and you don’t want to give it! Make no mistake though, they west WILL exact their payment, and then you Sinhalese will see that you have sold the whole country in order to win your war.
Isn’t it also hypocrisy when your president, leader of the Palestine friendship group and who cries about double standards fort Israel, got help and arms from the same Israel to fight Tamils? Isn’t also hypocrisy that Sri Lanka supports a two-state solution in Palestine yet against such a solution in Lanka? Finally, isn’t this your own hypocrisy that you support a racist government yet talk about others faults? It is easy to be a Sinhalese living in the west and cheering your own ‘team’, like a cricket match. God punishes every unjust person, whether they are powerful westerners or majoritarian Lankans. Live and let live!
Leela, your sinhale government also support palestine and get help from Isrel. That also hypocacy. Can you delclare whose side you are on in Palestene?
shahadat,
It’s a known fact that Mahinda Rajapakse has been a backer of Palestine for a long long time. Now that he is the President of Sri Lanka he hadn’t moved an inch away from his standing answers your question very clearly.
backing Palestine in word no help. Can you declare you support independent palestine? Can you tell that to isrel. I live in Kurunagala. Same time you say you support Palestiene your government destroy mosque in Dambulla. Do not fool us
Kumar David, presumably a Tamil, also seems to be affected by the tribal affiliation he accuses others of. Yet, he seems to have some valid points. My gradfather served in then Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and I know that the british always treated the Tamils and Sinhalese there as separate entities. We might have screwed up in letting them stay together. As a divorcee, I agree that if you dont get along well, best is to separate, rather than arguing who is right and who is wrong. I also think that though the LTTE are no saints, it is unfair to collectively punish all Tamils for their actions.
Chris Old,
There are few setbacks for proposition. For one Sinhalese do not accept north and east is Tamil home land. For another roots of so-called Sri Lanka Tamils are in India.
I shall give you just one example. the economic Times of India mentioned of an anecdote of a 77-year-old woman named Janaki Amma who lives in a lower middle class residence about 20 km from Kollam, Kerala. Reminiscing her childhood she is said to have said to Economic Times reporter that her maternal uncle Velupillai is the father of LTTE leader Pirapakaran. And it was Pirapakaran’s grandfather who went to Ceylon during the last century to earn a living.
If that is the case of your ace liberator do we need to talk bout others. So, we cannot let bunch of pirates to grab our land.
Leela
for gods sake Leela make some intelligent comment…..
It is a well known fact, accepted in Mahawamsa also, that Tamils have lived in Sri Lanka from time immemmorial. Just because Praba has some relatives in India does not mean that all Tamils came from India in the recent past. It is also known that a Tamil Kingdom existed in Jaffna when the Portugese came. Are you going to deny these facts?
As for ‘bunch of pirates’, this clearly shows your racial mindset. According to your own Mahawamsa, Vijeya and his friends, who started the colony in Lanka, were deported from their own country for thievery and rape. You are his descendants. Who are bunch of pirates now? And according to Mahawamsa again, after raping native Lankan women, they brought ‘700 princes’ from Madurai to be their wives. Where do you think Madurai is? This itself proves that Sinhalse are half-Tamils. Yet you want to claim Sri Lanka is ‘our’ land. No, it is not yours alone. You can learn to share, or give all of it to China, as you are doing now. Your greed to claim all Lank as yours will result in all Lanka being ruled by your ‘friends’.
The racial mindset of the sinhalese in this forum can be clearly seen by insulting Tamils and others whenever they express an opinion that the Sinhalese do not like. Thus some people comment here accusing me of being devoid of fats, yet by reading their posts and mine anyone can see which post is full of facts and logic, and which posts are full of racial hatred and personal insults. Well, truth cannot be hidden by racists who have a PC and a keyboard. I do not care about such racist comments and will not reply to them. You are just showing the world how cheap and barbaric you are. Please continue!
I suspect most Sinhalese who comment here are living overseas. The Sinhalese who live in Lanka face today two real problems, and none of them are Tamils or separatism. 1) A government which will terrorise, not just Tamils, but anybody who opposes it, including Sinhalse, and gradually grab all rights of the Sinhalese in favour of one ruling family 2) Foreign powers, esp. China, which will colonize Lanka and take resources away, in ‘payment’ for helping defeat Tamils. Other powers will fight over Lanka, and kick it like a football, in order to share the spoils. This is what happened in Geneva. Between these two monsters, the Sinhalse will become and enslaved race. This will be your payment for winning a racial war which ended in genocide. Many educated Sinhalese can already see this, but not most racist apologists like Leela.
Let the facts speak.Majority of the tamils in srilanka (Jaffna and Indian) live out side so called home land.So no sane sinhalese will think that when Tamils achieve their goal of “Eealam” it will be confined to the north and east of SriLanka. So sinhalese will fill fight for their survival at any cost.
At the same time when Sinhalese are saying US has gone too far, the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka has ordered demolition and relocation of a Mosque. Most Muslims in Lanka are hurt by this. Most Muslim countries supported Sri lanka at UNHRC, and this is how ungrateful Sinhalese pay back. If the Tamils who lived in Sri Lanka for a long time are denied their rights, it is clear that Muslims, as relative new comers, and have less in common with Bhuddists religiously, cannot expect to fare better.
All Islamic countries must question Sri Lanka about mosque demolition, and stop aid until Sri Lanka Bhuddists respects muslims, christians and Hindus.
”with the end of the war, Sri Lanka has achieved comprehensive peace” ????
What are these Sinhalese talking about:
”When the war ended in May 2009, it was the worst that was over, but the ethnic conflict that spans more than five decades is not yet over”, Jehan Perera, 14 November 2011
”But that truth cannot excuse human rights violations that currently afflict the nation as a whole; or for that matter obscure the looming threat of the cultural and political colonisation of the north by the Sinhala Buddhist majority” – Biased and Prejudiced Collection on Sri Lanka, *Gananath Obeyesekere, Economic & Political Weekly, VOL 47 No. 04, 28 January-03 February (*a Sinhalese Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, Princeton University)
Submission by Harim Peiris to LLRC, 7 October 2010:
‘’If General and Presidential Elections can be held in the North and the East it is impossible to argue that the Northern Provincial Council’s elections need to be delayed any further.’’
The Defence Secretary has let the cat out of the bag when NO announcement about the elections are made but sinhalisation is at full throttle to change the demography to reduce the representation of the Tamils in the Northern Province IF and WHEN elections are held:
http://www.dailynews.lk/2012/04/05/news02.asp
Non-communal voters of North must be given leadership – Defence Secy, 5 April 2012
‘’…. The Defence Secretary said that when appointing National List MPs for the North, decision and policy makers should consider appointing persons from the province, representing those new voters who want to join mainstream, non – communal national politics.
“Only then the new voters of the North who dislike communal politics and who wish to join mainstream national politics, will receive a non – communal national level leadership,” he said.’’
”This paper will show that the concept of Sinhalization extends well beyond the subjects of strategic state-planned settlements, land, military intrusion, boundary changes and the renaming of villages. Sinhalization has made its way into Tamil cultural events, religious life, economic activity, public sector recruitment and even the Sri Lankan education system” – ‘Salt on Old Wounds: The Systematic Sinhalization of Sri Lanka’s North, East and Hill Country’, 20 March 2012, http://www.internationalpolicydigest.org/2012/03/20/salt-on-old-wounds-post-war-sri-lanka/?fb_ref=.T2ihTCH4Ew4.like&fb_source=home_multiline
The question is did USA go far enough? Thanks to India the USA agreed to water down the resolution.
However this is only the beginning
Charles Taylor former head of Sierra Leone found guilty of war crimes today. These things take time
Just we ask to let other people to go Srilanka (we are not asking to go to the Shinhala area but to the area where tamil live )and find out what happened and what is happening there. Let the people who live there to express their’s feeling freely to the world. Let the media to go there. This is what we ask now. And then the world find out the situation and they can come to the conclusion. Asking the criminal to investigate and give the punishment to the crime he has committed is not the right process. As I am Tamil lived in North and East, I know how we suffered, humiliated and discriminated. As my dad was Srilanka Naval Officer, my family was safe during 1977 riot, but in front of me several tamils killed by Shinhalease in front of Srilankan securty forces. That time I was 10years old. I was proud at that time thinking that my family is superior in tamils because others do not get security like me.Uneducated soldiers treated tamil people as slave even educated doctors were also treated by soldier liie as slave. Now I understand everything. In 1970, Trinco was mostly Tamil area (now it was colonised into Shinhala area).As colonised shinhalease bring there for fishing job, the fish market in Tricomalee is always go to shinhala person without proper tender with the help of government. That is the place every riot start and kill tamils and they stock knives and hand made bomb there. I saw by my eyes headless body in front of the market when during a riot, I was 12. One day a innocent old tamil man was beaten in the market because he was asking reduced price for fish. At that time no Prabaharn. Prbaharan was created by these people. Many Shinhala people who are from other than North and east are writting here but I was living North and east, I am a good witness for what happened there. Still Tamils are suffering. The government says all tigers were killed but today also army arrested 300 tamil youth. This is Srilanka. They do whatever they want against tamil. If it is continue, another Prabahan might come again.
Raj, certainly you cannot be a smart fellow. Through and through your narration is heavily flawed and seems the memory is poor. This sort of story cannot be understood even you own people.
A second mosque/Islamic building in East of Sri Lanka has been attacked today, few days after the first mosque was attacked and damaged by Sinhala Bhuddist protestors in Dambulla. This shows how ungraetul Singhalese are to the support of Muslim nations at the UN. It is clear now that Singhalese use and discard everyone. Next time, we should be neutral and should not support Lankan government.
Hi Usman
By supporting Sinhalese Budhists, the moslims thought they will be better off.
Just before the second world war some germans thought that Hitler was only after jews and communists t. Two years later the gestapo thugs knocked on their doors . There was was no one to help them.
throw away your communal thinking and look at thing what is right and what is wrong.Be kind and be just even if you have to go against your own moslim communiity
Usman Hassan The problem with a religious shrine does not erupt suddenly like the mushrooms that appear at dawn with the spring rain. For e.g. in Sri Lanka it starts with an insignificant small shrine amidst a vast historical cultural site of Buddhist
worshipers. Gradually it becomes larger as time goes by, to the displeasure of the Buddhists. Then the trouble begins with a sought of religious enmity between the Buddhists and the Moslems. In India during the expansion of the Mogul Empire that plundered the treasures of the Taj Mahal, there was a Muslim mosque near Delhi at a place called Ayodhya. This was hundreds of years ago. In 1990 the Hindus did not like a mosque in the midst of a Hindu domain and they demolished it in front of police and security personnel. Same is true regarding the Dome of the
Rock in Jerusalem, the enmity between the Jews and the Moslems. So what is the big deal at Dambulla? I doubt there are many Muslims there, unless the intention is to attract more Muslims with a hidden agenda.
Lakshman Singh, looks like you are an Indian. Usman commented on what affected him. Know that a HINDU temple was also demolished at the same time in the same place. The Hindus in Lanka are so subjucated now that they do not even protest. A second Ganesh Templle In Trincomalee has been ordered to relocate withina few days.
Historic realities are different in Lanka. Muslims never ruled Lanka, so it cannot be argued that they put up Mosques by force. If the Bhuddists have a problem they could have opposed immediately.
In their heyday the LTTE had billions of dollars in their kitty to fund all forms of terror against Sri Lanka. However, after their decimation by the Lankan Armed Forces, the money is being used by the diaspora Tamils to avenge the defeat . In their vicious campaign to tarnish the image of Sri Lanka, they have roped in British and other Western politicians who have a score to settle with Sri Lanka because of its proximity to China which is altering their geo-strategic space in South Asia. It is a pity that double-standards of the West do not commend Sri Lanka for it huge victory over one of the most ruthless terrorist organization in the world which is known for drug trafficking, gun running, abducting children, massacring etc.
Dear Hoshimi
The fantastic view you have about rescuing tamils and LTTe is breath taking. I am not a LTTe supporter or Sri Lankan Army supporter . All over the world Government militaries have killed their own people more than terrorists that is a fact always excused and over looked . In Sri Lanka I my self witnessed massacres of tamils by Sinhalese predominant army and killing of sinhalese by LTTe. However the truth is army’s killings surpass by several thousands in remote areas than that of spectacular bombing in the towns and city which you hear. No one saved the tamils; They . Mr Don W is a Sri Lankan government supporter promoted to write articles in prestigious journals by them . Do not waste your time by taking sides in this ethnic conflict.
I am offended by your comment that the SL government is promoting me to write supporting it. I have no affiliations whatsoever with the government. All what I have stated are my views all based on facts. I welcome arguments based on facts, not insinuations.
Why did your parents give you a Japanese name???????? No Japanese will say ‘Lanka’. Have the honesty to post under your Sinhala name, which I bet you are oh-so-proud of. You guys are being exposed as cowardly liers and information launderers, trying desperately to cover genocide.
Yeah yeah you LTTE terrorists are so desperate to hide your genocide of Sinhalese by fooling the world with your big fat lies! Submit your bogus sob stories for a Hollywood award. You LTTE terrorists will be stateless faggots forever!
Your so called ‘state’ is no longer yours. It is divided between a) a family b) China. They will take all, and soon you will have no money to buy bread. But, your poor sick brain is unable to process this, until you see a psychiatrist and start taking your pills. Keep shouting, You are only helping Tamils by your racist raving. God save Lanka.
Sri Lanka is now a free country thanks to the end of your LTTE ANGEL SAINTS! Sri Lanka managed to defeat terrorism when no other country managed! Almighty super power NATO still cannot defeat AL Qaeda and Taliban and therefore USA is humiliated that a small country won a war on terror. Hey Sri Lanka is fine economically. EU is bankrupt as shown by the debt crisis in Greece, Spain. USA too will soon sink as Ahmedinajad and Chavez said! LONG LIVE AHMEDINAJAD!! USA HATRED IS GREAT MR AHMEDINAJAD!
There is nothing that Sri Lanka has to prove or disprove about defending the nation. Criminal negligence of the USA in the business of war mongering and violation of human rights and crimes against humanity is a question the peace loving nations around the world are seeking to hear from the so called United Nations that is becoming such a useless outfit working to satisfy the whims and fancies of the Yankees. Whatever said and done, at the end of the day Sri Lanka shall prevail. On the other hand India that is manipulated by the USA will massively fail in the sub regional geo politics. For example, the very latest Indian parliamentary delegation’s (lead by some woman called Shusma) failure to attain any meaningful results, but false claims to her boss Manmohan Singh reporting on so called 13th amendment etc., are typical examples if there is anything to go by on India’s handling on foreign policy matters.
Where was USA when LTTE terrorists committed genocide of Sinhalese?? LTTE terrorists murdered over 1,000,000 innocent Sinhalese by blowing up daily suicide bombs in Colombo for the past 60 years! Seems TAMIL TERRORISM is GOOD TERRORISM TO THE WORLD! No wonder war crimes garbage for defeating LTTE terrorist genocidal maniacs!
you agree that the Sri Lankan state comitted state terrorism?
The UN also condemned LTTE Terrorism
Only LTTE committed terrorism in Sri Lanka! Sri Lanka only faced a terrorist problem and that is LTTE terrorism and nothing else.
The main problem in Sri Lanka is RACISM and STATE TERRORISM. Most Sinhalese (not all) are communal minded people who openly or secretly are committed to genocide of all Tamils. This is why the problem in Sri Lanka cannot be solved without separating two races.
Need proof of this? Translate the name used by ‘Demala Huththa’. It translates as ‘(abusive word) Tamils’. Note that he is not abusing LTTE, he is abusing all Tamils (Demala). Do we need more proof? Thank you, moron. the world is beginning to see what sort of racist barbarians you are. No matter how much you shout, you cannot change it now.
Of course Tamil terrorists LTTEers like you are total racist genocidal minded and that is why you barbarians blew up daily suicide bombs in Colombo and killed over 1,000,000 innocent Sinhalese. Eliminating you Tamil terrorists is perfectly acceptable. World is supporting you LTTE terrorists? Haha the world to you is your white masters USA. Of course Tamils are slaves of the whites as always proven you all are lackeys, pawns, puppets, cahoots, croneys and henchmen of the world’s worse human rights violator USA!!
You will never get your fantasy peelam at all. You bloody LTTE terrorists murdered and raped and drank the blood of over 1,000,000 innocent Sinhalese by blowing up daily suicide bombs in Colombo! But now you barbarians are unable to do that and that is why you terrorist LTTE hooligans are very angry. Coward LTTE terrorists are now begging the world as usual with their big fat lies! Killing LTTE terrorist genocidal maniacs is no crime at all!
Why are LTTE terrorist lovers at the moment angry, frustrated and depressed??
Firstly because they are war mongers who love war but the fact is Sri Lanka is at peace AND LTTE TERRORISTS HATE IT!
Secondly, LTTE terrorists LOVE SUICIDE BOMBS and they cant celebrate the MASS MURDER of Sinhalese by blowing up suicide bombs as they did before 2009! LTTE terrorists danced to glory when millions of Sinhalese were murdered by suicide bombs in Colombo and that is no longer possible!
Thirdly, Tamils are a bunch of stateless hooligans and they are stateless faggots who cant get a state anywhere in the world! Never give any separate state to any anti civilizational fanatical LTTE terrorist genocidal maniacs!
Thats why the US banned LTTE long ago, idiot. LTTE was banned without any commissions of enquiry or asking of ‘proofs’. Lankan governent is handled a lot more leniently only because it is a state actor. Anyway your figures are outright lies. the total number of people killed in Sri Lanka is much less than are million, and most of them are Tamils.
We must be fair to fellow Sri Lankans before blaming foreigners. Racists like you (look at your screen name) will destroy this country.
USA banning LTTE is all decorative and ceremonial! USA is only pampering the LTTE non stop. Most victims of Sri Lanka’s war are innocent Sinhalese. Tamils who died in the war are LTTE terrorist genocidal maniacs! Understand donkey?? Check facts before talking rubbish.
Yea son, facts. According to you, LTTE killed people for sixty years is a fact (they didn’t even exist for more than 30 years). One million Sinhalese got killed is a fact (the TOTAL number of people killed from all races by both insurrections is less than that). According to you, NO TAMIL got killed (zero casualty ‘humanitarian operation’) is a fact also. And you expect the world to believe you. Do you know that even the chinese don’t believe you, but pretend to support you so that they can rob you completely? Like I said, keep shouting and abusing and help the Tamils by shaming all Sinhalese with your racism. You are mentally ill, you will know that one day. I will not read your stupid reply, shout all you want. God save Lanka.
LTTE was there ever since independence son! Forgot how innocent Sinhalese got chased out from Batticaloa, Ampara and Jaffna?? SJV Chelvanayagam who demanded 50% power for Tamils when they were barely 12% in the country was the LTTE starter. Of course LTTE blew up daily suicide bombs in Colombo and many more were planned but foiled thanks to our great intelligence personnel. Tamils excel in big fat lies as the world knows. Your angels USA never killed any civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam right?? USA has no right to invade any other sovereign nation and kill people freely. Sri Lanka has all rights to kill LTTE TERRORIST GENOCIDAL MANIACS IN IT’S OWN SOIL! Understand donkey??
I am a Sri Lankan born Sinhalese, who migrated to Australia 22 years ago. I still care for my motherland and owe a lot to her. As a citizen of Australia or of the western world, please don’t be fooled by their care for human rights of any sort. West’s moral compass is so out of whack; they would not know how to find their way to the car park. All they care about is the word “Interest”.
Reading some of the comments made, it seems some do come from the Tamil diasporas, which is of course is another topic of its own. I will leave that to another day other than to say – They couldn’t care less about the Tamils in Sri Lanka other than to go to a party in their nice cosy western country they live and be able to tell all “I am from the State of Tamil Elam – even if it comes at the cost of all the innocent Tamils in the north and the east”.
West wants to remove the current government and there is no doubt about that. That was confirmed by a Wikileak memo sent by the US ambassador to US in which she wrote “as long as this government is in place we will not have any say”.
I will tell you all how I believe the west will break Sri Lanka based on how they have done in the recent past. They (Western governments) will fund the NGO’s. NGO’s will target all opposition movements, starting with the obvious UNP and main opposition parties. At the same time they will pay people to go on protest. These people will not look like westerns either(People who wil come to pay). They will make you protest over and over on anything they can make. At the same time, they will also pay another group of people to go to those protests, and shoot some of those protesters. Of course at this point in time they will have the western media well positioned with ample cameras to send it out to the world and every social media website they can think of. They will continue to destabilise the country at which point, they go to UN for a resolution to either invade or support a so called “friends of Sri Lanka movement”. Don’t be fooled by the west, they do not care for the country or its people.
It took 30 years for you to find peace and don’t let the west come and take it away. As I have said before, I am Australian citizen now, I have voted in every election since 1993. Except for Paul Keating, I never got a chance to vote for the best party or the best leader. I always had to pick the better of the 2 evil. As Sri Lankans you will have to do the same, it’s just the way it is in politics. Your UNP leader has been there for major part of the conflict in politics, what did he do to end the war? We all know he is a western stooge and he will always be. The so called Colombo elite like to talk about MR being a dictator; yeah don’t we all forget how many innocent youth Premadasa and Ranjan Wijeratne killed in the late 80’s. Where I wonder at that time was the UNHCR? Don’t forget your past. All politicians are corrupt, but at least the Rajapaksa family are patriotic and from what I know Gota is a honest man.
Ban Ki Moon is too late and he was wrongly advised during war by his own corrupt official incharge for it. UN had failed in its mandate and mission in SRI Lanka due to its corrupt official incharge for the region, by name MR.Vijay Nambiar, from corrupt Indian bureaucracy. His collusion with sri Lankan counter part Gothapaya Rajapaksh enabled and resulted in silent GENOCIDE OF Tamils. possibly without outside worlds knowledge. Now the worms started to come out. let see what happens next, because whole worlds watches what happens to the perpetrators. If this Tamils GENOCIDE in Sri Lanka is pardoned, there are countries waiting to wipe out its own indigenous origin minority peoples. like BURMa, MaLaYSIa, BaNGaLaDESH,PaKISTaN,CHINa, SERBIa, RUSSIa,aFKHNISTaN,PHILLIPINES,INDONESIa, Iran, Saudi arabia and numerous african counties. lets see justice prevails or fails.