Aiyo!
Isn’t it horrible to watch people being killed like this? Pictures of dead bodies strewn all over the place flood my mind. What a damned war this is! What a curse on our poor little country full of such nice people. With thousands of innocent civilians, brave soldiers and valiant cadres already killed in this bloody war, now this huge group of people caught in the middle, struggling with every breath, for their lives and for their loved ones.
Can’t the LTTE, who keep making so much noise about people dying, let them go, so they won’t have to die or get maimed and suffer like this? Fight bravely or surrender… but don’t be a party to the death of thousands upon thousands of innocent civilians.
Can’t GOSL, who say they want to liberate the land, go about this slowly, in a way that these people are rescued rather than killed? How can a State afford to victimise its own citizens?
Are these options, which could save thousands of innocent, trapped people, just naïve rhetoric for the power-blocks in our country?
I think of the famous story in which two women came to a wise king, both of them claiming to be the actual mother of a baby. The wise king had to judge who the real mother was. The king asked for a sword and said he would cut the baby in two so that each woman can have a half. One woman agreed and the other said, in that case she doesn’t want the baby… but please don’t kill it. Of course this was all a part of the king’s plan. He didn’t kill the baby, but gave it to the woman who loved it the most.
I wonder who loves the people caught in the fighting. Who cares for them? I know there are people all over the world who have relatives there, even their wives, husbands, sons and daughters. I know there are many Sinhalese who can’t bear the thought of people being killed. But in terms of our political power-blocks… who really cares for them? Is it the LTTE? Is it GOSL? Is it the IC?
In fact, we are killing the baby.
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Ummmm Oochi Poochi,
The war is over. Sri Lanka is the first nation in modern history to eliminate a psychopathic murderous bunch of killers who tried everything possible to create mayhem in this beautiful country.
G.W. Bush forged CIA documents to suit his desire to attack Iraq, and killed 150000 in the process. Sri Lanka LIBERATED innocents from this psychopath’s human shield. Likt it or not, the West will have to follow Sri Lanka if they genuinely want to eliminate the scrough of world terrorism
Congratulations Sri Lanka.
Wars have been fought and combatants killed since time immemorial since we were apes.We have now got civilised and developed a set of rules called Human Rights and bemoan natures play in this modern day and age.For some forests to regenerate there must be fires that burn them down to ashes.Life is like that and what we have seen is that very nature in action in a human arena.Yes it correct life belongs to those who preserve and sustain it.This is the precept that was established by the wise king in the bible Solomon and before him the wise Minister Pundit Mahausada in the reign of King Brahma-dutta of India according to Buddhist lore.This precept was enunciated some 2600 years ago by the young Siddharta Gautama(The Buddha) in the parable of the Swan.The Swan was shot down by the arrow of his cruel cousin Deva-dutta.The young Gautama retrieved the wounded bird and claimed the right to possess it so that he may tend to it and save it from imminent death.It is claimed the Brahma himself appeared as the wise Judge to settle the squabble between the the two Princes each prepared to do battle to stand up for their right.As related in The Light of Asia of Sir Edwin Arnold the decision of the wise judge rings loud and clear to this day as a truism and he said”If life be aught, the saviour of a life owns more the living than he can own who sought to slay-the slayer spoils and wastes, The cherisher sustains; give him the bird.” No matter how we look at the current conflict it seems that the intention of the Sri Lanka is to preserve rather than spoil and waste and therefore the LTTE must relent and let the people go.
Our value of life has come down. Killing human life is killing what ever way you justify. There’s no difference in LTTE killing vs GOSL killing. Both are engaged in the act of killing human beings. We show more sympathy and horror when cats and dogs die than humans because we are blinded by our hatred and abstract concepts like patriotism, save country, save religion, save world, etc…
That’s the way of life in the “Dharmadeepa!” where Buddhist Priests goes to street asking for war and killing humans completely invalidating their own doctrine!
Grim Hope >>
It’s very easy to be on the sidelines passing moral judgement. It’s much harder to achieve peace in practice, as we have seen from the cost we’ve had to bear. At least, the most brutal, extreme manifestation of the problem is now dead or dying. As has been demonstrated to us amply, extremists cannot be reasoned with, even in the face of their own impending demise.
More reasonable people can take over now and do their best to carry on from here onwards. You can convince and negotiate with other reasonable people, but you cannot negotiate with a bullet.
You condemn the GOSL and say there’s no difference, but you don’t mention how this problem can be resolved and how lives can be saved in the long run. We’ve seen the results that pacifism has yielded with the likes of the LTTE, who do not themselves attach any value to life. Your appeals to morality should be complemented with suggestions on how the problem can be resolved reasonably while respecting those said morals, in this case your suggestion of zero cost to lives. Only then will it have any true meaning.
Disgusted,
It’s about being genuine about your intentions…it’s about taking courage to do the right thing when the world is saying no to it. It’s about believing that Good intentions and good actions will be rewarded.
You think the Tamil people deserve this? To die like cats and dogs? To be placed in Camps like animals in farms in the name of doing good for them?
Do you see a difference in a Tamil and a Sinhalese? Army soldier vs LTTE soldier? Soldier shooting at a LTTE soldier with a gun to kill vs LTTE soldier shooting at an Army Soldier with a gun to kill? LTTE sending a suicide bomber to kill bunch of civilians vs Army shelling which kills civilians? Remove the classification and it will sound the same.
It’s worst for Army because they are bound to protect these civilians vs LTTE is a terrorist organization with no one to answer.
In the first place, who created the LTTE? who created the voice and story for them? Southern politics and Sinhalese mindset!
Grim Hope >>
Of course I don’t think Tamil people or indeed any person deserves this. Not even Vellupillai Prabhakaran “deserves” to die. Is that even a question?
Who created what, who is to blame etc. is irrelevant now. We aren’t living in the past. We are living in the present. And the question is how to solve these issues in the present, while learning lessons from the past.
Once again you talk of morality with no mention of how your high ideals are maintained in the face of bullets and bombs? No mention of who is going to maintain these ideals while simultaneously fighting a terrorist organization. Are we to expect a benevolent messiah from heaven?
Please read this discussion, I’ve clarified the point I’m trying to make.
http://www.groundviews.org/2009/05/13/fear-psychosis-state-of-our-nation-terrorism-and-sri-lanka-our-motherland/#comments
And while we think it is time for ‘reasonable’ people to take over, lo and behold, we find a whole bunch of ‘reasonable’ people have been turned in to ‘extremists that cannot be reasoned with’ by the ‘reasonable’ people that are left.
Idealist >>
True enough but we must preserve our right to live before reasoning with anything, don’t you think? By ‘Extremists who cannot be reasoned with’ I meant people who answer words with bullets. Everything else must be a gradual process of consciousness raising. I think we can already see the improvements in our society from what it was back in 1983.