hindustantimes.com,  Tue Feb 13 12:08:16 EST 2007

    Dr Kim Howells, British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, now on an official mission of peace to Sri Lanka, has debunked the Sri Lankan government's bid to solve the ethnic problem by scoring a military victory over the LTTE.
 
"Our experience tells us that a War for Peace approach inevitably means more war, rather than peace," Howells said in a statement released by the British High Commission.
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Quote:

"Our experience tells us that a War for Peace approach inevitably means more war, rather than peace," Howells said in a statement released by the British High Commission.
 
"And violence comes with too heavy a price. It is the people who suffer, as human rights are eroded, the humanitarian situation deteriorates and mistrust between communities increases. This, in turn, damages Sri Lanka's image in the world," he added.  

Could this be from their experience in Iraq that he has come to this realization?  And if so, is he willing to admit that and probably withdraw the occupying forces there? Is he willing to say the same to Bush who is at this point very much in the process of building a case against Iran?  

Who is this man .What does he know about Srilankan problem.British soil is still feeding LTTE. He should know very well that Srilanka is not  Iraqe. He cant controll terrorist activity in Britain ,but try to advise GOSL how to...... This man should go back to England and take action agaist banned LTTE before coming to Srilanka issuing statements. Sudda is still keep on eye like b... brother.War is only solution for terrorism .In England how many innocent Muslims intimidated by British police on suspicion of terrorism .How is that Mr Howells?. How many Tamils closed link with LTTE taken to custody by British Police?. How did  the biggest LTTE terrorist -Anton Balasinham  survive in England even  without questioned by B.police? Nodakin witharak!!.



Last edited by migida on Tue Feb 13, 2007 6:53 pm; edited 3 times in total

Dammika wrote:

Quote:

"Our experience tells us that a War for Peace approach inevitably means more war, rather than peace," Howells said in a statement released by the British High Commission.
 
"And violence comes with too heavy a price. It is the people who suffer, as human rights are eroded, the humanitarian situation deteriorates and mistrust between communities increases. This, in turn, damages Sri Lanka's image in the world," he added.  

Could this be from their experience in Iraq that he has come to this realization?  And if so, is he willing to admit that and probably withdraw the occupying forces there? Is he willing to say the same to Bush who is at this point very much in the process of building a case against Iran?  

i believe he was referring to the Northern Ireland issue since that holds more comparisons to our situation than the War in Iraq. However, even here there is a significant difference in the attitude of the rebel side compared to the LTTE i.e. the IRA were fed up with the fighting and wanted to stop. They followed the good friday agreement as far as possible in an honest manner, disarmament happened accordingly, and the IRA disappeared leaving only the political figureheads to hammer out necessary agreements and policy reforms.

As for our rebels - they refuse to take negotiations seriously and rather use the period to prepare for more was and kill political opponents. If they were indeed sincere, they would not have gone about randomly killing opponents. If that didnt happen i am sure the everything would have been different.

Even in the case of the Northern Island issue, a system of power sharing was set up. But the LTTE are not willing to step down one notch from their stupid idea of a seperate state. They still refuse to see ground reality is they will never get a seperate state. At the most they will get regional autonomy through a federal solution. But that is it. The IRA were able to come down from their unrealistic objectives bcos they saw past the issues and faced reality - there is no way they could achieve seperation.

If the IC refuse to see the details behind our conflict and what seperates it from other conflicts their words will carry no weight. Right now, the LTTE are confident they can hold their ground and until they realize the "reality" of their situation, there is no way to negotiate with them. On our side, we have come up with countless plans for ending the war peacefully, but not one was taken seriously. Atleast on our side we have actually "tried" to do something eventhough it was plagued with many faults.

It is up to the LTTE to create an environment conducive for discussion. We all know this conflict will not be finished by war. But what can we do if the other side doesnt care, let alone listen.

They created our problems in the first place and now they are advising us how to solve the problem. Oh Man!!!!

This is funny. They have different policy for Iraq then another for Sri Lanka. You can not compare Ireland and Sri Lanka because LTTE are pre-dators. IRA are humans. You can have negotiations with humans whom you can trust. But LTTE while talking, plans another major attack, build bunkers with foreign aid intended for poor innocent civilians.
This is the high time to stop breeding terrorists in foreign soil before all terrorists form a world wide network including fierce Al-Quida. When Britain is attacked again they will not say so.
International Community should use their intellect and help legitimate elected multi-ethnic Government of Sri Lanka to dis-arm and control this barbarian LTTE before late. Otherwise they will repent later.

"Kim Howells-Go back to England and take action agaist LTTE
Who is this man .What does he know about Srilankan problem.British soil is still feeding LTTE. He should know very well that Srilanka is not Iraqe. He cant controll terrorist activity in Britain ,but try to advise GOSL how to...... "

This guy speaking from his experience!!! Your comments clearly show your ignorance and arrogance as your leader not to go out from your square to think.  As soon as someone speaks against the view of the majority, you guys labelled them as “Terrorist” LTTE . etc…etc.  No wonder so many of SL leaders in the past and in the present can’t solve this prolonged ethnic problem.

Interesting. The Brits should mind their own business.  Like somebody said, they are the ones who created this problem in the first place.

If you think about it, the Brits separated Ireland (Catholic); and created a separate state (Northern Ireland) for the Irish minority (Protestants) that had ties with the Brits and made it a part of Britain. The equivalent here would for India to come over and separate SL and then annexe Eelam as their own. Then the situation would be identical to what's happened in Ireland.  No wonder the Brits sympathise with the LTTE.

Why we should listen to these double dealers is beyond me (apart from the unfortunately obvious economic implications).

enation
Read the others comment.  You did not get I ment.Follow the Sudda as in the past who destroy our country. If you living in the UK see what is happening there. I just been to UK . I SAW  many  double minded politician in that country. If you do not want to wipe out the terrorism, then  shut up.

ain23,

Thanks for your comments but I was being cynical about their double standards.  On average, 3000 Iraqians are dying every month, every single day bombs go off in every place in Baghdad and this guy is preaching to us.  At least the misery of our people is caused by the actions of owr own stupid profound genius, but what they are doing to someone else's country is unforgivable and how in the world they got the nerve to preach us about human rights and the price people pay while wearing clothes.  Shame! Do these profound genius think that Sri Lankans don't know the price of war? What have they done all these years to bring lasting peace to Sri Lanka other than accomodating terrorist and breeding terrorist on their own soil?

Dammika wrote:

ain23,

Thanks for your comments but I was being cynical about their double standards.  On average, 3000 Iraqians are dying every month, every single day bombs go off in every place in Baghdad and this guy is preaching to us.  At least the misery of our people is caused by the actions of owr own stupid profound genius, but what they are doing to someone else's country is unforgivable and how in the world they got the nerve to preach us about human rights and the price people pay while wearing clothes.  Shame! Do these profound genius think that Sri Lankans don't know the price of war? What have they done all these years to bring lasting peace to Sri Lanka other than accomodating terrorist and breeding terrorist on their own soil?

first we need to ask Dr Kim Howells whether he treats lanka as a country or just a thirld world beggar. then we can talk about double/triple standards.

ray wrote:

Dammika wrote:

ain23,

Thanks for your comments but I was being cynical about their double standards.  On average, 3000 Iraqians are dying every month, every single day bombs go off in every place in Baghdad and this guy is preaching to us.  At least the misery of our people is caused by the actions of owr own stupid profound genius, but what they are doing to someone else's country is unforgivable and how in the world they got the nerve to preach us about human rights and the price people pay while wearing clothes.  Shame! Do these profound genius think that Sri Lankans don't know the price of war? What have they done all these years to bring lasting peace to Sri Lanka other than accomodating terrorist and breeding terrorist on their own soil?

first we need to ask Dr Kim Howells whether he treats lanka as a country or just a thirld world beggar. then we can talk about double/triple standards.

I see your point Dammika. Iraq is yet another tragedy and the funny thing is it isnt even their fault. The US and UK created the chaos in iraq with their War based on a lie. Tony Blair pretty much had to shut up on the whole issue and not do another press conference with Bush for years just to get back some face and respect from the British public. As for Bush, well the most recent opinon poll i saw for Bush put it at about 27%! that means only 27% of the country support his actions. He will be known in history i think as the worst US president ever. right now most americans are just waiting for this ass to end his term and he too is just keeping his mouth shut cos he's made a fool of himself enough. However, now they are trying to pull their troops out while the whole country is in turmoil. Iraq will never be the same and americans actually think that "their job" is done.

these are the "lessons" i think Howell is talking about.

honestly though, if the british want to send in a representative to talk a few nice words of peace and harmony etc etc they should be allowed to. we should even take them in with open arms. BUT they need to realise that we wont be taking what they say seriously unless they offer more than just a practiced speech that doesnt even have a relevance to OUR conflict. from the things he says it is so clear that he just doesnt get the fact that ONE side maybe persuing some military objectives, but our final goal is a negotiated settlement. This side understands there is no winning this through war. it the OTHER side that doesnt take part in any form of dialogue even though they have no reason not to, it is the OTHER side that continue to undermine the rights of tamils and kill innocent people accross the country.

You can apply what Howell said to almost every conflict in the world. "sit down and talk it over guys. that's right. there no use shooting eachother. we figured that out the hard way.." That man can get on a plane tomorrow and go to africa and say the same thing.

im not calling him an LTTE sympathiser, or anythnig like that. i realise he is just trying to help. but if BS speeches is all he has to offer he should just stay home. he should be talking about the LTTE's oppression of tamils, he should urge the LTTE to realise the futility of their struggle on the battlefield, he should encourage the elimination of terrorist elements in our society so that everyone in the country gets some space to resolve their ethnic differences. He should urge the GOSL to continue persuing peace negotiations as well as the elimination or terrorism.

or maybe Howell just doesnt take his job too seriously...

You have no right to say others to shut up just simply because of not agreeing with your view.  This is root of all trouble in SL.  You guys have the mentality of superior and trying suppressing the minority.  There is no issue such as terrorism in SL.  It’s all your politician create this perceptions to trampled the aspiration of the Tamil Minority.  This is what happened exactly in opposite way in Iraq for the past 3 decade or so.  Looks what happing in there? It’s a civil war!!! Innocent people killing each other because of Arrogant and Ignorant leaders.

migida wrote:

enation
Read the others comment.  You did not get I ment.Follow the Sudda as in the past who destroy our country. If you living in the UK see what is happening there. I just been to UK . I SAW  many  double minded politician in that country. If you do not want to wipe out the terrorism, then  shut up.

Don’t blame suddh for every thing.
Since them left our country what have we achieved?
Any extra kilo meter of train track or sea port ?
Any changes in educations or major laws?
except become the beggest beggers in indian cocen !!
It is our problem. We cannot look after and develop the better opportunities they have shown to us.
We just dig the ground become frogs with out looking at other developing countries like Singapore.
All what we have done until now was removed tracks/ destroyed education / created all sort of unnecessary laws and loaded with corrupted bureaucrats with in the government and public services.
Not only that we still go behind suddhas and beg for their jobs in their countries. Our PMs / Presidents and Ministers buy lands and properties and looking for retirements there…
We all crazy after suddha’s helps, donations and meal/ arms deals but when it comes productive advice, suddenly change the plate and singing baila.. !!
More than 90% of srilankans dream today is to get out and live in a foreign soil is a discusting fact whether we like it or not.
If USA issued 20 Million Green Cards to Sri Lanka, India can have Srilanka as deserted land annexed to them.

More than 95% of Sri Lankans dream today of living in a country without the LTTE... Instead of issuing 20 million US Green Cards to SL, why not just issue 1... to Fat Praba... and ship him out to the US... and see what happens if he tired his stuff, in any other country other than SL...