Bloomberg,  Mon Feb 23 20:18:06 EST 2009

    Feb. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Sri Lanka’s government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam should hold talks to end the conflict in the South Asian island nation and stop the suffering of civilians, the U.S. and United Nations said.
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- The Academic

Quote:

“We want to see an end to the hostilities,” State Department spokesman Robert Wood said in Washington yesterday.

Don't they want to see and end in Iraq? in Afganistan?...So why not start discusions? What is the difference?
Terrorists are terrorists ......they only understand the military responses..

Quote:

The UN calls “on all sides to pursue serious efforts toward political discussion” to end the conflict, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in New York.

May be "all sides" here includes the parties involved in Iraq, Afgan, Gaza, India, Pakistan, etc. etc. and also in Sri Lanka....
I don't think it is ONLY in SL!!
 


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mng

mng wrote:

Quote:

“We want to see an end to the hostilities,” State Department spokesman Robert Wood said in Washington yesterday.

Don't they want to see and end in Iraq? in Afganistan?...So why not start discusions? What is the difference?
...

The difference between the U.S Government and the Srilankan Government is that the later one is a terrorist government such as Sudan, Yemen, N.Korea - kills its own population, which does not believe in freedom of expression, suppresses the media etc etc.

thaya2004 wrote:

mng wrote:

Quote:

“We want to see an end to the hostilities,” State Department spokesman Robert Wood said in Washington yesterday.

Don't they want to see and end in Iraq? in Afganistan?...So why not start discusions? What is the difference?
...

The difference between the U.S Government and the Srilankan Government is that the later one is a terrorist government such as Sudan, Yemen, N.Korea - kills its own population, which does not believe in freedom of expression, suppresses the media etc etc.

Thaya, SL had no choice and she actually did what US did in her own civil war some 115 years ago
that was far larger in dimension than SLankan version -
if SL had an option, they could have fought outside SL. l.t.t.e was amidst civilians in an illegal, de facto state inside SL
threatening to vivisect SL.

Don't be asinine as to compare a war that was fought nearly 150 years ago (not 115) to a present day war.

Having vented that out, the LTTE supporters will have to grin and bear it... you asked for it and now the largely the poor uneducated Tamils in the north are paying the price for your desire for revenge (for 1983).


_________________
'Anyone in a free society where the laws are unjust has an obligation to break the law.'

- Henry David Thoreau

rimfire, thx for correction on the timeline.

comparison is just to demonstrate what US did when faced with internal threat of secession -
Thaya mentioned how SL 'killed' own countrymen while US was 'different'. comparison ends with that.
The present one of course is far too complicated and in a different era.

Quote:

mng wrote:
Quote:
“We want to see an end to the hostilities,” State Department spokesman Robert Wood said in Washington yesterday.



Don't they want to see and end in Iraq? in Afganistan?...So why not start discusions? What is the difference?
...



The difference between the U.S Government and the Srilankan Government is that the later one is a terrorist government such as Sudan, Yemen, N.Korea - kills its own population, which does not believe in freedom of expression, suppresses the media etc etc.

Killing is bad whether its your own country men or other country men.
I think international voice should be higher when one country invades another and kill the people in another country (like US in Iraq)
Then for GOSL....It is a matter of deciding whether you save 20million civilians from about 2000 (may be even less now) terrorists OR save the rights of those 2000 terrorists and let the 20 million suffer...
If you brain is large enough you can decide which is better...

This has happened in the past in many countries...even in the recent past in Sri Lanka (around 1972 and around 1988/89)....

It doesn't matter what race you belong to when you are a terrorist....you should be eliminated for the sake of majority of civilians......
Unfortunately some times innocent people get cought when you try to attack these civilians like the little girl died when the air defence system was activated on the 21st Feb, like some civilians get killed in the north, like people dies in Hiroshima when the nuclear bomb was slasted....

The main culprit is the terrorist for this and not the GOSL...(or any government for that matter..)


_________________
mng

There is an interesting youtube video posted by Perl in a different thread. It is news report by Phil Rees. It does give food for thought.

For what it’s worth I think all the actors in the present day theater called Sri Lanka are all Bad Actors. I would not trust a single SOB. In fact I would rather put my John Thomas in the hands of a raving lunatic with meat cleaver than trust a Sri Lankan politician (Sinhala, Tamil or Muslim).


_________________
'Anyone in a free society where the laws are unjust has an obligation to break the law.'

- Henry David Thoreau

mng wrote:

Quote:

mng wrote:
Quote:
“We want to see an end to the hostilities,” State Department spokesman Robert Wood said in Washington yesterday.



Don't they want to see and end in Iraq? in Afganistan?...So why not start discusions? What is the difference?
...



The difference between the U.S Government and the Srilankan Government is that the later one is a terrorist government such as Sudan, Yemen, N.Korea - kills its own population, which does not believe in freedom of expression, suppresses the media etc etc.

Killing is bad whether its your own country men or other country men.
I think international voice should be higher when one country invades another and kill the people in another country (like US in Iraq)
Then for GOSL....It is a matter of deciding whether you save 20million civilians from about 2000 (may be even less now) terrorists OR save the rights of those 2000 terrorists and let the 20 million suffer...
If you brain is large enough you can decide which is better...

This has happened in the past in many countries...even in the recent past in Sri Lanka (around 1972 and around 1988/89)....

It doesn't matter what race you belong to when you are a terrorist....you should be eliminated for the sake of majority of civilians......
Unfortunately some times innocent people get cought when you try to attack these civilians like the little girl died when the air defence system was activated on the 21st Feb, like some civilians get killed in the north, like people dies in Hiroshima when the nuclear bomb was slasted....

The main culprit is the terrorist for this and not the GOSL...(or any government for that matter..)

Hmm... Hiroshima was a good thing? Hell' if this is the kind of thinking that the self appointed righteous folks of Sri Lanka think... there is no hope for old Mother Lanka. Might as well bury the old Girl now and be done with it.


_________________
'Anyone in a free society where the laws are unjust has an obligation to break the law.'

- Henry David Thoreau

Heylo Jones,

rimfirejones wrote:

Having vented that out, the LTTE supporters will have to grin and bear it... you asked for it and now the largely the poor uneducated Tamils in the north are paying the price for your desire for revenge (for 1983).

You seem to be from the Tamil community.  What is the rationale by the Tamil diaspora community for not critisising LTTE even when it clearly sacrifice innocent Tamils for propaganda purposes?  Clearly if there were any criticism by Tamils themselves LTTE would think twice.


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Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth. - Albert Einstein

There are many Tamils who feel that the LTTE was/is a poisoned chalice. Some drank from it for revenge, some for justice, some for lack of choice and quite a lot died for refusing to drink from it. But unfortunately it has taken 30+ years for the dense GOSL to realize that being Tamil does not equate to being LTTE. Infact some of the tube-lights on this forum have a hard time getting to grips with this idea too.

To answer your point I think that many Tamils have a hard time trusting the GOSL. They are leery of showing their hand lest the GOSL betray them and their Families will have to face the music from the LTTE. To understand, try to imagine that you are a 30 year old Tamil from the North and the kind of life this person may have led.

I have Tamil father and a Sinhala Mother. In Sri Lanka I was considered Tamil by the authorities and gradually I came to realize that you cannot be Sri Lankan in Sri Lanka (unless you had a Sinhala name). You have to choose because the authorities put you in a category. I chose to be a Tamil. Just check your ID card…

So to summarize… I am a proud ', who loves Mother Lanka as any so called son of the soil.


_________________
'Anyone in a free society where the laws are unjust has an obligation to break the law.'

- Henry David Thoreau

Dear Jones,

No point going on the defensive because it wasn't a trick question.  Its just you keep running into iron walls when one try to understand Tamil psychy.  I was only wondering whether the image people have in their minds which may have been created in moments of hate, is indeed a true reflection of Tamils.  

The question was not about your Tamilsness per se, but trying to get an insight into the collective behavior of your adopted culture.

rmjones wrote:

To answer your point I think that many Tamils have a hard time trusting the GOSL.

ok fine, but it's common knowledge LTTE violates all fundamental rights of everyone even children.  Surely, you not trusting GoSL has nothing or little to do with caring for your own community.



Last edited by Athos on Tue Feb 24, 2009 8:16 am; edited 1 time in total
_________________
Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth. - Albert Einstein

Athos,

The point I was trying make is that for the last 40+ years in Sri Lanka there was no sense of inclusiveness towards minorities. I am not talking about lip service and few strips of colour in the national flag. The meaning of Para is outsider.

You say you were trying to understand the psyche of the SL Tamil people… well I think they were made to feel outsiders in a country that they have lived for millennia. Even now most of my Sinhala friends equate the Malaysian Tamils and the Bhumi Puthra to SL Tamils. The comparison of SL Tamils to a minority of recent immigrants to Malaysia is simply not cricket.


_________________
'Anyone in a free society where the laws are unjust has an obligation to break the law.'

- Henry David Thoreau

Quote:

ok fine, but it's common knowledge LTTE violates all fundamental rights of everyone even children.  Surely, you not trusting GoSL has nothing or little to do with caring for your own community.

The JVP had a lot of support in the South and they were not exactly saints now, were they? People do strange things when they think or feel oppressed. This not something uniquely Tamil, basically it's universal. It all depends what the powers be can offer as replacement. Provide and show tangible proof to the Tamils in the NE that throwing their lot with the GOSL is in their best interest and I believe that there will be huge sway of support for the GOSL.


_________________
'Anyone in a free society where the laws are unjust has an obligation to break the law.'

- Henry David Thoreau

rimfirejones wrote:

Athos,

The point I was trying make is that for the last 40+ years in Sri Lanka there was no sense of inclusiveness towards minorities....

Hi rimfire,

Good to see you after a long time.  I just want to make a comment to the above statement.  I don't think sense of inclusiveness is something that can be created in the mind only by majority actions, if minorities try to seperate and identify themselves with another part of the world where their ethnicity is the majority, then it is a painful feeling for us as Sinhalese and naturally a resentment grows. I come from an area which is heavily populated by the Muslims.  It is fact that most of the Muslims in our town take the side of Pakistan in a game of cricket.  I have seen many Tamil forumers here have a problem spelling out Sri Lanka, instead they refer to Lanka as Ceylon.  These are small things that contributes to a bigger problem. So it is not only the majority's responsibility to create a sense of inclusiveness, but also minorities have to be sensible and display some affection and loyalty towards the country that were born.