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Post-LTTE Sri Lanka: Let those at home have the final say
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by LongWhiteCloud | May 28, 2009 at 07:38 pm
305 views | 8 Recommendations | 5 comments
My commentaries are non-prescriptive for I have no direct voice in the matters of Sri Lanka. Those who have stayed home, stood strong and weathered this storm of terrorism have the final say, whether they are Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims or any other minority. As I have stated before, it is too easy to be an armchair critic, pass judgement over how the country should be run and how the war should be fought. I avoid these supposedly “patriotic” conversations and debates like the plague when such conversations are being driven by those who have run away to greener pastures. It is interesting to see those who prefer to fight for their beliefs via e-mail vs. those who fight the war on the battlefield. I have volunteered silence on such matters other than be an observer, with my highest regard to the brave people of Sri Lanka.
The post-LTTE reconstruction is one for the people of the land and for those who are home. As you would agree, this will require a mammoth effort in terms of financial support. We, the Sri Lankans, who had chosen to leave certainly have a role, but that is to support and assist. That includes the Tamil Diaspora, ridding themselves of the urge to resurrect yet another pointless war. You have worked a global machinery to fund a billion dollar war, which you believed was the righteous path. Well now you know that it wasn’t. So let us see you bury the past and drive that machinery towards funding peace, unity, reconstruction and reconciliation. It would be unreasonable not to have the confidence in the Tamil people who live at home in Sri Lanka, who have suffered enough, having experienced the brunt of two conventional forces in all their might. We should collectively have the confidence in those who have suffered to see this through to represent the aspirations of the Tamil nation or the Diaspora as it is referred to. I am certain that Sri Lanka has the depth of character to produce a Tamil leader in the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., both that achieved the aspirations of their peoples through peaceful means. It does not have to be twenty years later as the scene is set and we await a true leader to rise, now. Let us seize the opportunity where the world is watching us all, placing an immense pressure on the Sri Lakan leadership to show the same courage it has. Let us not make way for another brutal terrorist or a paper tiger such as Kumaran Pathmanadan who seems to be the self-proclaimed leader of an empty force.
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at 19:58 on May 28th, 2009
"In the Pulmoddai camp, children wave from behind the barbed wire fence.
A child no more than two-years-old toddles naked towards the razor wire imprisoning her and her family. Terrified of retribution, parents pull the child away. Many of the refugees are dressed only in rags and tattered clothing. Chicken pox and skin diseases are sweeping through the camp and hepatitis is a growing problem because of poor sanitation.
Around the perimeter, women gather at hastily-constructed water pumps but only one is functioning properly.
Our attempts to interview the detainees through the wire were met with angry threats of imprisonment and deportation by guards.
Two Tamil women shouted "help us" to our translator as we were pushed away from the perimeter fence. Sickened by the violent attempts to stop our access, the charity worker who spoke to us spat out the truth of what was happening here.
He works for ZOA-a non-governmental organisation which helps set up wells and food distribution systems in some of the world's worst trouble spots. He told us the creation of the camp and dozens like it was causing grave concern.
"The Sri Lankan government have said these poor people could be in these camps for another two years, there is a fine line between refugee camps and prisons here," he said. A construction worker, who helped the Sri Lankan army build the camp, told us later at a secret location that locals had effectively been forced to help the army create a prison for the refugees.
"We pass them on the road and they look out at us through the barbed wire. They are absolutely helpless," he said. "They have escaped a war which they had no part in and now they are prisoners.
"The children are the saddest sight of all. They sit by the fence waving at the cars that pass, usually military vehicles."
The UN confirmed this week that as many as 300,000 Tamil refugees are now jammed into the camps dubbed "welfare villages". Western journalists have been banned from going near them." By Dan McDougall, British foreign reporter of the year, 24/05/2009 www.newsoftheworld.co.uk
Do you see the Sri Lankan government capable of brining peace to Sri Lanka? Till to date no honest efforts were made to bring rebuilding a future to the 300,000 Tamil IDPs. Press freedom and access to foreign monitoring is still highly banned. The UN Human Rights Council is hijacked by China's support to Sri Lanka's war, do you think the suffering Tamils will forget what the Sri Lankan government, Sri Lankan Army and the Paramilitary is doing to the Tamils IDPs and the Tamils in the captured regions?
The news coming to Tamils are shocking and degrading. In its latest list of atrocities, the Sri Lankan Army has paraded over thousands of Tamil youth nakedly to celebrate their victory. Only Tamils are hearing the news. The world is banned from these areas, the Sri Lankan government provides guarded tours to UN while denying UN monitoring.
If you still suggest the Sri Lankan government is capable of deriving a long term sustainable future to Tamils in Sri Lanka, unfortunately only time can prove your fault to you.
at 21:13 on May 28th, 2009
Very colorful. But this kind of DTS propaganda is not enough to convince the host countries of the (late) LTTE diasoprans living on free money. The usage ,"captured regions" mentioned in this comment is actually suitable for the western cities where LTTE supporting diasporan tried their monumental last ditch effort to save their beloved "leedar" by conducting mass terrorist-flag waving "demonstrations". I hope that the real citizen of those countries will cherish those moments for ever..!
Have any KTTEs ever thought why the GoSL got this kind of support from the World nations to crush the "flydom fighters" ?
"Only Tamils are hearing the news"
99% lie. Only LTTE sympathizers and KTTEs hear the "news".
Anyway the "fleedom fighters" had their faults proven to them in a very convincing way and are not talking anymore. Wonder why..!
.Agent.
at 20:53 on May 28th, 2009
I already regret responding to your comments as I usually refrain from such dialogue.
I wouldn't say all, but like minded Tamil Diaspora - like minded to you, have poured in millions of Dollars from a safe distance, fuelling a fire that burnt your own people as well as a majority of Sri Lanka over twenty something years. Did that bring about the long term sustainable future to the Tamils in Sri Lanka that you talk of? Now you demand such a solution within a week, where Sri Lanka is just beginning a massive clean up of a mess that has been created by the likes of you. I have more hope and confidence in the Tamil people than you do.
at 21:12 on May 28th, 2009
Some comments are longer than the story. So many words to convince people? Prabhakaran did the same with one bullet.
at 22:08 on May 28th, 2009
"In the Pulmoddai camp, children wave from behind the barbed wire fence..."
Pre-Puomoddai camp times, children were forced out of school and made to fight a war. They were used as suicide bombers and also were used to make bunkers etc.
I don't remember anyone crying to the IC or the white powers, demanding attention to the plight of their children then.
Oh, cry me a river!!