Comments on: War Disguised in Peace Clothing http://groundviews.org/2008/02/08/war-disguised-in-peace-clothing/ Groundviews is an award winning Sri Lankan citizen journalism initiative Thu, 24 May 2012 11:03:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: STREET DOG http://groundviews.org/2008/02/08/war-disguised-in-peace-clothing/#comment-13200 STREET DOG Sat, 16 Jan 2010 13:30:45 +0000 http://www.groundviews.org/2008/02/08/war-disguised-in-peace-clothing/#comment-13200 Ground Views have done a great disservice by allowing this article to be published - Mr. Ethirveerasingam is right when he says that SL lost out a lot when English was dropped out. I am sure that the rural and villagers who are the cream of any nation state would have come around to understanding the English language well and would have benefited a lot. I am from a rural village and on a rare occasion would go along with the comments made by Dayan Jayathilake but much stronger. This author of this article is a clumsy lightweight Ground Views have done a great disservice by allowing this article to be published – Mr. Ethirveerasingam is right when he says that SL lost out a lot when English was dropped out. I am sure that the rural and villagers who are the cream of any nation state would have come around to understanding the English language well and would have benefited a lot. I am from a rural village and on a rare occasion would go along with the comments made by Dayan Jayathilake but much stronger. This author of this article is a clumsy lightweight

]]> By: groundviews » THE GALLE LITERARY FESTIVAL: FROM THE LEFT FLANK http://groundviews.org/2008/02/08/war-disguised-in-peace-clothing/#comment-1969 groundviews » THE GALLE LITERARY FESTIVAL: FROM THE LEFT FLANK Fri, 15 Feb 2008 12:39:59 +0000 http://www.groundviews.org/2008/02/08/war-disguised-in-peace-clothing/#comment-1969 [...] Again, Living with Conflict, The Edge of Prejudice and Can Language Provide A Bridge to Peace? were all explicitly political topics. The latter was consciously scheduled for the final morning and featured five local heavyweights: Neloufer De Mel, Sanjana Hattotuwa, P. Saravanamuttu, Jean Arasanayagam and Rajiva Wijesinghe, all moderated capably by Rama Mani. This session was followed by the final one devoted to the topic The Nature of the American Empire featuring that caustic critic of USA, Gore Vidal, in conversation with Simon Winchester. This session ‘played' to a packed house. Winchester's voice may have been quintessential “British colonial,” but his stance was trenchant anti-colonial. In penetrating clarity his opening lines reminded Vidal and all of us that Britain had secretively, indeed, hideously, removed some 2000 odd Maldivian islanders so that the atolls we identify today as Diego Garcia could be turned into a military outpost of the hegemonic American order of contemporary times. It was a pity that this stark prompt was not sustained by the sound system, Vidal's diction and his penchant for one-line sound bites in what was a performative TV-cum-rap gamesmanship. I slipped out after ten minutes of that nonsense. Lesson here: organisers frame the topics, but they cannot dispose content, even from those famous. [...] [...] Again, Living with Conflict, The Edge of Prejudice and Can Language Provide A Bridge to Peace? were all explicitly political topics. The latter was consciously scheduled for the final morning and featured five local heavyweights: Neloufer De Mel, Sanjana Hattotuwa, P. Saravanamuttu, Jean Arasanayagam and Rajiva Wijesinghe, all moderated capably by Rama Mani. This session was followed by the final one devoted to the topic The Nature of the American Empire featuring that caustic critic of USA, Gore Vidal, in conversation with Simon Winchester. This session ‘played’ to a packed house. Winchester’s voice may have been quintessential “British colonial,” but his stance was trenchant anti-colonial. In penetrating clarity his opening lines reminded Vidal and all of us that Britain had secretively, indeed, hideously, removed some 2000 odd Maldivian islanders so that the atolls we identify today as Diego Garcia could be turned into a military outpost of the hegemonic American order of contemporary times. It was a pity that this stark prompt was not sustained by the sound system, Vidal’s diction and his penchant for one-line sound bites in what was a performative TV-cum-rap gamesmanship. I slipped out after ten minutes of that nonsense. Lesson here: organisers frame the topics, but they cannot dispose content, even from those famous. [...]

]]> By: ealem boy http://groundviews.org/2008/02/08/war-disguised-in-peace-clothing/#comment-1968 ealem boy Tue, 12 Feb 2008 18:46:34 +0000 http://www.groundviews.org/2008/02/08/war-disguised-in-peace-clothing/#comment-1968 Amen Sham, Thats what tamils have been trying to tell you guys for long time. your ``terorist`` is my savior and my traitors are your interlectuals. The list on MOD web site is not even worth of the paper if you want to print them because all lies. Don`t let people brain wash you with false propaganda like how they are telling how many LTTE they are killing every day in manner. Just keep read groundviews, you will some day start to ask questions. Amen Sham, Thats what tamils have been trying to tell you guys for long time. your “terorist“ is my savior and my traitors are your interlectuals. The list on MOD web site is not even worth of the paper if you want to print them because all lies. Don`t let people brain wash you with false propaganda like how they are telling how many LTTE they are killing every day in manner. Just keep read groundviews, you will some day start to ask questions.

]]> By: sham http://groundviews.org/2008/02/08/war-disguised-in-peace-clothing/#comment-1967 sham Tue, 12 Feb 2008 08:18:25 +0000 http://www.groundviews.org/2008/02/08/war-disguised-in-peace-clothing/#comment-1967 how about lakshamn kadiragamar and neelem thirichelvam? full list available at the MOD website... One mans meat is another mans poison ealem... how about lakshamn kadiragamar and neelem thirichelvam? full list available at the MOD website… One mans meat is another mans poison ealem…

]]> By: N. Ethirveerasingam http://groundviews.org/2008/02/08/war-disguised-in-peace-clothing/#comment-1966 N. Ethirveerasingam Tue, 12 Feb 2008 04:13:27 +0000 http://www.groundviews.org/2008/02/08/war-disguised-in-peace-clothing/#comment-1966 Mevan's suggestion to make all three languages compulsory may not even improve communication between the two communities let alone improving the current situation in one generation. Take GCE ‘A' Level students, all of whom were taught English, one period a day, five days a week for 5 to 8 years, who are from schools outside Colombo and try to communicate to them in English. None of those, from Matara to Jaffna, who I tried to communicate in English, over a period of 12 years, could speak, read or write English that one could understand. The English education infrastructure gradually became extinct. Now you only have the skeletons that the education system is trying to resuscitate. Ruhuna University conducts Agriculture classes in Sinhala and the final year students write their senior thesis in Sinhala. The medium of instruction in agriculture is supposed to be in English. This approach shuts out the Sinhala students from the agriculture literature that appears in Journals and books in English. The University of Jaffna approach is more practical. They teach the first year students in Tamil while the students try to learn English. The second year students are taught in Tamil interspersed with English. The third and fourth year students are taught in English and their thesis are written in English. The suggestion to Romanize the alphabets of Tamil or Sinhalese are I hope is not a serious one. The scripts of the two languages are a unique invention of our two cultures. They are also an art form. “Parity of Languages” will not solve the ethnic problem but it would help communication between the two nations and allow them to understand one another better. Hashan Thilakaratne, a cricketer who I admire, came to Kilinochchi soon after the tsunami with cricket administrators and players to present scholarships of Rs.1000 per month until the age of 18 to children who had lost both parents or lost the family's main breadwinner. These children were from the Vadamarachchi East and Mullaitivu coastal areas. He magnanimously spoke in Tamil even though he read his speech scripted in Sinhala. It created a lump in my throat. More than 4000 people who attended the ceremony, including senior members of the LTTE, most of whom have appreciated his cricketing and captaincy skills, thought Hashan's gesture expressed his concept of equality, his compassion for the children who were deprived of their parents and for a community that the war and tsunami have put in distress. He wanted to touch the traumatic children and adults to express in their language his anguish and desire to help. He and his team of players and coaches later coached the children for two hours, communicating through the game of cricket and using it as a therapy for the children to cope with the trauma of war and the tsunami. Language is like a spoon. It brings out only what is in the pot. After the pot is emptied, it brings out only the clay, lead, aluminium, cast iron, pewter or teflon scraps from which it is made. If we are to go with what Dayan Jeyatilleka and Rajiva Wijesinghe have been saying recently in various local and international forums, their English spoons are bringing out the scrapings of lead in their Sinhala pots. “Sophist” is in excellent company as a ‘drop out' – Microsoft and Apple inventors and entrepreneurs, not to mention Sivaram were “dropouts”. Below is a piece of ‘lead' that Rajiva Wijesinha spewed out in criticizing Senator Leahy, the author of the amendment to restrict US military aid to Sri Lanka, “Sadly, Senator Leahy, like most foreign observers of the Sri Lankan scene, has no sense of time. This is accompanied by an imprecise use of English, doubtless promoted by those who have said loud and often that the Sri Lankan government is responsible for the breakdown of peace talks. Senator Leahy is more circumspect than most, in qualifying with the words 'at times', his perception of the past willingness of the LTTE, regarding which the use of the perfect tense seems inappropriate. But then he moves to a present tense modal verb, which makes no sense given factual realities.” (www.defense.lk). Language is not the main issue in our ethnic conflict. It is the balanced rights of the two communities that is the bone of contention. The rights of a community are not based on the number of people in a community. This is the core of our problem since 1917. Not just the language. The language issue is subsumed in the rights of a people. Language was the tool that the Sinhala majority tried to use to gradually deny the rights of the Tamil community and to assimilate them into the Sinhala culture. Giving parity of status to Tamil language and denying the rights of the Tamil community will not bring peace to Sri Lanka. SWRD and his majority tried to snatch their ‘Spoon' from the Tamil people and give them a Sinhala Spoon. Their expectation was that the docile Tamil population would replace the Tamil rice in the Tamil pot with the Sinhala rice. The thinking was that, in time, through revisions and manipulations of the constitution, the Tamil rice and later the Tamil pot could be replaced. Tamil reactions were docile at first. Then protests took the form of peaceful demonstrations. When the reactions to non-violent demonstrations were meted out with violence, Tamils resorted to armed resistance. Sam Wijesinha's book, All Experience, gives a sketch of the leaders of Ceylon in the style of Plutarch's Lives. A quote from his reflections on SWRD gives a glimpse of history worth reflecting by all, including Sam's son Rajiva. “ In an election rally in Polannaruwa in 1956 he unleashed a vibrant tirade that dug deep into the issues of race and language. When he was returning to Colombo late that night in MWH de Silva's car, MWH said to him, ‘ You have sowed the wind, our people have to reap the whirlwind.' Pat came the reply from the master of the mixed metaphor, ‘We will cross that bridge when we come to it.' Bandaranaike indeed might have managed to maneuver the country across that bridge. Unfortunately, indeed tragically, he was one of the first victims of the whirlwind and his life was not spared for him to make that crossing.” SWRD did not create the ethnic problem. He was a willing tool that let the genie out of the bottle in exchange for power. But the wishes he wanted to safe guard the rights of the Tamil people were not granted by the genie. Instead it took his life. It continues to take the lives of the Tamil people, through its anointed leaders, to feed its ego. Language expresses the culture of an individual and the culture of that linguistic community. It is in a language that the thoughts and creations of an individual, and that of the community, are encoded, preserved and transferred to future generations. Language in turn helps the mind to create new ideas in speech and in print in much the same way that hands paint or sculpture new forms which were conceived in the thoughts of the conscious and the unconscious mind and are expressed on the canvass or in the round. Depriving the Tamil community of the right to govern all of its affairs, leaving it only the “privilege” to abide by the dictates of of the Sinhala community, in the guise of democracy, will result in the constitutional genocide of the Tamil community; this will be the case even if parity of the two languages is achieved against the odds. Without these rights, but with parity of languages only, Tamils will realize that a Sinhala spoon will be more beneficial than the Tamil spoon to get the Sinhala food out of the Tamil pot. Soon they will realize that the Sinhala pot gets better and more food than the Tamil pot. For the Tamils there will then be no need for either a Tamil ‘Spoon' or a Tamil pot. Soon the Tamils in Eelam will become assimilated into the Sinhala pot in Sinhala Sri Lanka. Many Tamils have already achieved this dubious distinction and the rewards that go with it. Can we prevent our armed conflict ending up with both pots being reduced to smithereens? Preventing this outcome is now in the hands of the two protagonists who both seem bent on war. Prevention is also in the hands of the international gods, whom Dayan and Rajiva, or whomever they serve, will be unable to continue to feed the swill from their pot. The longer the Rajapakses' and their elk fill the Sinhala pot with their swill, the longer Dayan, Rajiva and others will be dishing it out hoping that the international community will swallow it. Such is their understanding of the appetite of the international community. Mevan’s suggestion to make all three languages compulsory may not even improve communication between the two communities let alone improving the current situation in one generation. Take GCE ‘A’ Level students, all of whom were taught English, one period a day, five days a week for 5 to 8 years, who are from schools outside Colombo and try to communicate to them in English. None of those, from Matara to Jaffna, who I tried to communicate in English, over a period of 12 years, could speak, read or write English that one could understand. The English education infrastructure gradually became extinct. Now you only have the skeletons that the education system is trying to resuscitate.

Ruhuna University conducts Agriculture classes in Sinhala and the final year students write their senior thesis in Sinhala. The medium of instruction in agriculture is supposed to be in English. This approach shuts out the Sinhala students from the agriculture literature that appears in Journals and books in English. The University of Jaffna approach is more practical. They teach the first year students in Tamil while the students try to learn English. The second year students are taught in Tamil interspersed with English. The third and fourth year students are taught in English and their thesis are written in English. The suggestion to Romanize the alphabets of Tamil or Sinhalese are I hope is not a serious one. The scripts of the two languages are a unique invention of our two cultures. They are also an art form.

“Parity of Languages” will not solve the ethnic problem but it would help communication between the two nations and allow them to understand one another better. Hashan Thilakaratne, a cricketer who I admire, came to Kilinochchi soon after the tsunami with cricket administrators and players to present scholarships of Rs.1000 per month until the age of 18 to children who had lost both parents or lost the family’s main breadwinner. These children were from the Vadamarachchi East and Mullaitivu coastal areas. He magnanimously spoke in Tamil even though he read his speech scripted in Sinhala. It created a lump in my throat. More than 4000 people who attended the ceremony, including senior members of the LTTE, most of whom have appreciated his cricketing and captaincy skills, thought Hashan’s gesture expressed his concept of equality, his compassion for the children who were deprived of their parents and for a community that the war and tsunami have put in distress. He wanted to touch the traumatic children and adults to express in their language his anguish and desire to help. He and his team of players and coaches later coached the children for two hours, communicating through the game of cricket and using it as a therapy for the children to cope with the trauma of war and the tsunami.

Language is like a spoon. It brings out only what is in the pot. After the pot is emptied, it brings out only the clay, lead, aluminium, cast iron, pewter or teflon scraps from which it is made. If we are to go with what Dayan Jeyatilleka and Rajiva Wijesinghe have been saying recently in various local and international forums, their English spoons are bringing out the scrapings of lead in their Sinhala pots. “Sophist” is in excellent company as a ‘drop out’ – Microsoft and Apple inventors and entrepreneurs, not to mention Sivaram were “dropouts”. Below is a piece of ‘lead’ that Rajiva Wijesinha spewed out in criticizing Senator Leahy, the author of the amendment to restrict US military aid to Sri Lanka,

“Sadly, Senator Leahy, like most foreign observers of the Sri Lankan scene, has no sense of time. This is accompanied by an imprecise use of English, doubtless promoted by those who have said loud and often that the Sri Lankan government is responsible for the breakdown of peace talks. Senator Leahy is more circumspect than most, in qualifying with the words ‘at times’, his perception of the past willingness of the LTTE, regarding which the use of the perfect tense seems inappropriate. But then he moves to a present tense modal verb, which makes no sense given factual realities.” (www.defense.lk).

Language is not the main issue in our ethnic conflict. It is the balanced rights of the two communities that is the bone of contention. The rights of a community are not based on the number of people in a community. This is the core of our problem since 1917. Not just the language. The language issue is subsumed in the rights of a people. Language was the tool that the Sinhala majority tried to use to gradually deny the rights of the Tamil community and to assimilate them into the Sinhala culture. Giving parity of status to Tamil language and denying the rights of the Tamil community will not bring peace to Sri Lanka. SWRD and his majority tried to snatch their ‘Spoon’ from the Tamil people and give them a Sinhala Spoon. Their expectation was that the docile Tamil population would replace the Tamil rice in the Tamil pot with the Sinhala rice. The thinking was that, in time, through revisions and manipulations of the constitution, the Tamil rice and later the Tamil pot could be replaced. Tamil reactions were docile at first. Then protests took the form of peaceful demonstrations. When the reactions to non-violent demonstrations were meted out with violence, Tamils resorted to armed resistance.

Sam Wijesinha’s book, All Experience, gives a sketch of the leaders of Ceylon in the style of Plutarch’s Lives. A quote from his reflections on SWRD gives a glimpse of history worth reflecting by all, including Sam’s son Rajiva.

“ In an election rally in Polannaruwa in 1956 he unleashed a vibrant tirade that dug deep into the issues of race and language. When he was returning to Colombo late that night in MWH de Silva’s car, MWH said to him, ‘ You have sowed the wind, our people have to reap the whirlwind.’ Pat came the reply from the master of the mixed metaphor, ‘We will cross that bridge when we come to it.’ Bandaranaike indeed might have managed to maneuver the country across that bridge. Unfortunately, indeed tragically, he was one of the first victims of the whirlwind and his life was not spared for him to make that crossing.”

SWRD did not create the ethnic problem. He was a willing tool that let the genie out of the bottle in exchange for power. But the wishes he wanted to safe guard the rights of the Tamil people were not granted by the genie. Instead it took his life. It continues to take the lives of the Tamil people, through its anointed leaders, to feed its ego.

Language expresses the culture of an individual and the culture of that linguistic community. It is in a language that the thoughts and creations of an individual, and that of the community, are encoded, preserved and transferred to future generations. Language in turn helps the mind to create new ideas in speech and in print in much the same way that hands paint or sculpture new forms which were conceived in the thoughts of the conscious and the unconscious mind and are expressed on the canvass or in the round.

Depriving the Tamil community of the right to govern all of its affairs, leaving it only the “privilege” to abide by the dictates of of the Sinhala community, in the guise of democracy, will result in the constitutional genocide of the Tamil community; this will be the case even if parity of the two languages is achieved against the odds. Without these rights, but with parity of languages only, Tamils will realize that a Sinhala spoon will be more beneficial than the Tamil spoon to get the Sinhala food out of the Tamil pot. Soon they will realize that the Sinhala pot gets better and more food than the Tamil pot. For the Tamils there will then be no need for either a Tamil ‘Spoon’ or a Tamil pot. Soon the Tamils in Eelam will become assimilated into the Sinhala pot in Sinhala Sri Lanka. Many Tamils have already achieved this dubious distinction and the rewards that go with it.

Can we prevent our armed conflict ending up with both pots being reduced to smithereens? Preventing this outcome is now in the hands of the two protagonists who both seem bent on war. Prevention is also in the hands of the international gods, whom Dayan and Rajiva, or whomever they serve, will be unable to continue to feed the swill from their pot. The longer the Rajapakses’ and their elk fill the Sinhala pot with their swill, the longer Dayan, Rajiva and others will be dishing it out hoping that the international community will swallow it. Such is their understanding of the appetite of the international community.

]]> By: groundviews http://groundviews.org/2008/02/08/war-disguised-in-peace-clothing/#comment-1965 groundviews Mon, 11 Feb 2008 19:51:42 +0000 http://www.groundviews.org/2008/02/08/war-disguised-in-peace-clothing/#comment-1965 Editors note - For those who don't know Alfred Duraiappah's significance, read the note <a href="http://www.groundviews.org/wp-admin/post.php?action=editcomment&comment=36825" rel="nofollow">here</a> (by the UTHR) and the Wikipedia entry <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Duraiyappah" rel="nofollow">here</a>. Editors note – For those who don’t know Alfred Duraiappah’s significance, read the note here (by the UTHR) and the Wikipedia entry here.

]]> By: ealem boy http://groundviews.org/2008/02/08/war-disguised-in-peace-clothing/#comment-1964 ealem boy Mon, 11 Feb 2008 18:40:05 +0000 http://www.groundviews.org/2008/02/08/war-disguised-in-peace-clothing/#comment-1964 By saying Alfred Duraiappah is a Tamil intellectual shows how much sham knows. A.D is wannabe politician who will do anything if he can gain some thing [edited out]. By saying Alfred Duraiappah is a Tamil intellectual shows how much sham knows. A.D is wannabe politician who will do anything if he can gain some thing [edited out].

]]> By: Mevan http://groundviews.org/2008/02/08/war-disguised-in-peace-clothing/#comment-1963 Mevan Mon, 11 Feb 2008 15:38:10 +0000 http://www.groundviews.org/2008/02/08/war-disguised-in-peace-clothing/#comment-1963 Why cant the Government make Sinhala, Tamil and English compulsory in all schools for all students? This will transform the situation in one generation; the results could have been seen by now if this had been done in 1985. It will be even more effective if we can romanize as done by Malaysia and Indonesia. Why cant the Government make Sinhala, Tamil and English compulsory in all schools for all students? This will transform the situation in one generation; the results could have been seen by now if this had been done in 1985. It will be even more effective if we can romanize as done by Malaysia and Indonesia.

]]> By: Sophist http://groundviews.org/2008/02/08/war-disguised-in-peace-clothing/#comment-1962 Sophist Mon, 11 Feb 2008 07:18:02 +0000 http://www.groundviews.org/2008/02/08/war-disguised-in-peace-clothing/#comment-1962 The drop out did indeed confront the learned Peace Secretary. Sham makes a good point....the masses control the franchise. We all know this. But would you let your 12 year old decide where to invest your hard earned money? Sadly, it is the twelve year olds without any hard earned money, that 'control the franchise system'.That can't be right Sham can it? A chap I met confessed to voting for MR because he had a moustache and that is a sign of bravado and virility. Forgive me for not feeling safe in the judgement of those who decide my destiny for the next 12 years. The drop out did indeed confront the learned Peace Secretary. Sham makes a good point….the masses control the franchise. We all know this. But would you let your 12 year old decide where to invest your hard earned money? Sadly, it is the twelve year olds without any hard earned money, that ‘control the franchise system’.That can’t be right Sham can it? A chap I met confessed to voting for MR because he had a moustache and that is a sign of bravado and virility. Forgive me for not feeling safe in the judgement of those who decide my destiny for the next 12 years.

]]> By: nandasena http://groundviews.org/2008/02/08/war-disguised-in-peace-clothing/#comment-1961 nandasena Mon, 11 Feb 2008 05:41:13 +0000 http://www.groundviews.org/2008/02/08/war-disguised-in-peace-clothing/#comment-1961 I would like to ask Sham where was law and order in Sri Lanka when Tamils were killed,raped,and robbed and houses burnt in Colombo and other towns periodically since the mid 50's. Where was law and order when peple were killed during the International Tamil conference which was held in Jaffna in 1974, burning of the Jaffna Library in 1981. Atrocities perpetratrated against unarmed Tamils were too numerous to mention. Pirapaharan was a baby then!! LTTE was the by product of Sri Lankan GOVERNMENTS TERRORISM against its Tamil citizens!! I wonder why the sinhalese never accepts this. Does it means that Tamils, being a minority has to grin and bear all the atrocities heaped on them!! Has the Government ever apologised for the atrocities committed against the Tamils? Have they ever paid compensation to the victims? Government is responsible for Thousands of civilians deaths by aerial bombardment. The Sinhalese never care or even accept this(except for few enlightened Sinhalese). There are thousands of displaced refugees languishing in refugee camps for years in Tamil areas while their houses are being occupied by the security forces in the guise of HIgh security zones!! School, hospitals in Tamil areas are being bombed. Attitude of the average sinhalese is "we don't want to see, we don't want to hear, we don't want to speak!! But if it affects the sinhalese areas they make a big hue and cry. Even now there are hundreds of abductions, killings,demanding ransom,"made to dissappear" mainly against the Tamils in the heart of Colombo, Batticaloa, Jaffna, Mannar,Vavuniya and other Tamil areas. What has the Government done about them? Recently there were 16 corpses with signs of torture found burried in Kebitigolawe. They are believed to be Tamils killed by the security forces. The government did not make any effort to identify the victims and the case in now forgotten, just like thousands of forgotten deaths of Tamils!! Are they not humans? They also have a family and loved ones like normal people! Mahinda took 2 years to present this "old wine in new bottle" just to placard the International Community(money lenders/donors)and to buy time for his genocidal war!! The government has no meney for development, but has money for its killing spree!! I would like to ask Sham where was law and order in Sri Lanka when Tamils were killed,raped,and robbed and houses burnt in Colombo and other towns periodically since the mid 50′s. Where was law and order when peple were killed during the International Tamil conference which was held in Jaffna in 1974, burning of the Jaffna Library in 1981. Atrocities perpetratrated against unarmed Tamils were too numerous to mention. Pirapaharan was a baby then!! LTTE was the by product of Sri Lankan GOVERNMENTS TERRORISM against its Tamil citizens!!

I wonder why the sinhalese never accepts this. Does it means that Tamils, being a minority has to grin and bear all the atrocities heaped on them!! Has the Government ever apologised for the atrocities committed against the Tamils? Have they ever paid compensation to the victims? Government is responsible for Thousands of civilians deaths by aerial bombardment. The Sinhalese never care or even accept this(except for few enlightened Sinhalese). There are thousands of displaced refugees languishing in refugee camps for years in Tamil areas while their houses are being occupied by the security forces in the guise of HIgh security zones!! School, hospitals in Tamil areas are being bombed. Attitude of the average sinhalese is “we don’t want to see, we don’t want to hear, we don’t want to speak!! But if it affects the sinhalese areas they make a big hue and cry.

Even now there are hundreds of abductions, killings,demanding ransom,”made to dissappear” mainly against the Tamils in the heart of Colombo, Batticaloa, Jaffna, Mannar,Vavuniya and other Tamil areas. What has the Government done about them? Recently there were 16 corpses with signs of torture found burried in Kebitigolawe. They are believed to be Tamils killed by the security forces. The government did not make any effort to identify the victims and the case in now forgotten, just like thousands of forgotten deaths of Tamils!! Are they not humans? They also have a family and loved ones like normal people!

Mahinda took 2 years to present this “old wine in new bottle” just to placard the International Community(money lenders/donors)and to buy time for his genocidal war!! The government has no meney for development, but has money for its killing spree!!

]]> By: sham http://groundviews.org/2008/02/08/war-disguised-in-peace-clothing/#comment-1960 sham Sun, 10 Feb 2008 16:41:31 +0000 http://www.groundviews.org/2008/02/08/war-disguised-in-peace-clothing/#comment-1960 "It is the Sinhala papers and state run media that carry the message of war mongering to the people of the South, and it is time that those evangelists of peace stopped preaching to the converted and took their gospel to the dark regions of rural, uneducated, prejudiced Sri Lanka, which, by some cruel twist of a colonial experiment, exercises a majority of the country's democratic franchise." One has to love the way that people in colombo's air offices , somehow always keep thinking that they have to make the correct decisions for the UNEDUCATED, IGNORANT MASSES. " - they all keep thinking that MASSes are ASSES. i would have thought that by now they would have realsied that rural masses control the franchise system. “It is the Sinhala papers and state run media that carry the message of war mongering to the people of the South, and it is time that those evangelists of peace stopped preaching to the converted and took their gospel to the dark regions of rural, uneducated, prejudiced Sri Lanka, which, by some cruel twist of a colonial experiment, exercises a majority of the country’s democratic franchise.”

One has to love the way that people in colombo’s air offices , somehow always keep thinking that they have to make the correct decisions for the UNEDUCATED, IGNORANT MASSES. ” – they all keep thinking that MASSes are ASSES. i would have thought that by now they would have realsied that rural masses control the franchise system.

]]> By: sham http://groundviews.org/2008/02/08/war-disguised-in-peace-clothing/#comment-1959 sham Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:23:38 +0000 http://www.groundviews.org/2008/02/08/war-disguised-in-peace-clothing/#comment-1959 "Educated people, with a heightened sense of awareness must a set an example for the better…not for the worse" Where were these people when Prabakaran started eliminating Alfred Duraiappah and them? Didn't he kill all the intellectuals 1st? [Editors note: Comment has been edited for clarity] “Educated people, with a heightened sense of awareness must a set an example for the better…not for the worse”

Where were these people when Prabakaran started eliminating Alfred Duraiappah and them? Didn’t he kill all the intellectuals 1st?

[Editors note: Comment has been edited for clarity]

]]> By: Mahen http://groundviews.org/2008/02/08/war-disguised-in-peace-clothing/#comment-1958 Mahen Fri, 08 Feb 2008 23:31:19 +0000 http://www.groundviews.org/2008/02/08/war-disguised-in-peace-clothing/#comment-1958 Please do not forget the Singhalese racist act of D.S.Senanayake deprving all Planation Tamils (over 1 million) of their citizenship soon after independence and their voting rights, the ethnic cleansing by Srima Bandaranayake deporting 600,000 Tamils to India, and Singhalese miltary uprooting Tamils from Manalaru and other Tamil villages in Eelam, the series of massacre of Tamils in the repeated organised violence by the Singhalese state and thugs from 1956 to present times. The Tamils need their own police force to protect Tamils. The occupation army of Singhalesee should be withdrawn from Eelam. Why send Singhalese policemen to Notheast. Why cannot Tamil police officers be recruited to serve there. Please do not forget the Singhalese racist act of D.S.Senanayake deprving all Planation Tamils (over 1 million) of their citizenship soon after independence and their voting rights, the ethnic cleansing by Srima Bandaranayake deporting 600,000 Tamils to India, and Singhalese miltary uprooting Tamils from Manalaru and other Tamil villages in Eelam, the series of massacre of Tamils in the repeated organised violence by the Singhalese state and thugs from 1956 to present times. The Tamils need their own police force to protect Tamils. The occupation army of Singhalesee should be withdrawn from Eelam. Why send Singhalese policemen to Notheast. Why cannot Tamil police officers be recruited to serve there.

]]> By: Dayan Jayatilleka http://groundviews.org/2008/02/08/war-disguised-in-peace-clothing/#comment-1957 Dayan Jayatilleka Fri, 08 Feb 2008 22:45:38 +0000 http://www.groundviews.org/2008/02/08/war-disguised-in-peace-clothing/#comment-1957 doubtless this self confessed university drop-out confronted and unmasked the perfidious professor rajiva wijesinha when he/she had the opportunity to in galle. and if not, why not? I wonder what sri lanka's most brilliant ( and bilingual) young literary critic, cornell university and now peradeniya lecturer dr wasantha amarakeerthi liyanage ( who probably wasn't even invited to galle) has to say about the revelatory description of "the dark regions of rural, uneducated, prejudiced Sri Lanka, which, by some cruel twist of a colonial experiment, exercises a majority of the country's democratic franchise"... doubtless this self confessed university drop-out confronted and unmasked the perfidious professor rajiva wijesinha when he/she had the opportunity to in galle.

and if not, why not?

I wonder what sri lanka’s most brilliant ( and bilingual) young literary critic, cornell university and now peradeniya lecturer dr wasantha amarakeerthi liyanage ( who probably wasn’t even invited to galle) has to say about the revelatory description of “the dark regions of rural, uneducated, prejudiced Sri Lanka, which, by some cruel twist of a colonial experiment, exercises a majority of the country’s democratic franchise”…

]]> By: Brian http://groundviews.org/2008/02/08/war-disguised-in-peace-clothing/#comment-1956 Brian Fri, 08 Feb 2008 21:16:44 +0000 http://www.groundviews.org/2008/02/08/war-disguised-in-peace-clothing/#comment-1956 Perhaps the seven points of the Prague Manifesto: http://lingvo.org/xx/2/3 might have some relevance here? People elsewhere are struggling with similar issues, and the effect of World English hegemony on the world's linguistic diversity is almost too alarming to contemplate. And won't you feel victimized by Gordon Brown's renewed campaign to linguistically colonize the whole world?: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7193681.stm What is happening to equal language rights and linguistic democracy for all? Perhaps the seven points of the Prague Manifesto:
http://lingvo.org/xx/2/3
might have some relevance here? People elsewhere are struggling with similar issues, and the effect of World English hegemony on the world’s linguistic diversity is almost too alarming to contemplate. And won’t you feel victimized by Gordon Brown’s renewed campaign to linguistically colonize the whole world?:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7193681.stm
What is happening to equal language rights and linguistic democracy for all?

]]> By: Global Voices Online &#187; Sri Lanka: Language and The Other http://groundviews.org/2008/02/08/war-disguised-in-peace-clothing/#comment-1955 Global Voices Online &#187; Sri Lanka: Language and The Other Fri, 08 Feb 2008 18:36:32 +0000 http://www.groundviews.org/2008/02/08/war-disguised-in-peace-clothing/#comment-1955 [...] groundviews on how learning “the other”'s language can bridge many gaps in conflict struck Sri Lanka. Share This [...] [...] groundviews on how learning &#8220;the other&#8221;&#39;s language can bridge many gaps in conflict struck Sri Lanka. Share This [...]

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