Oh great… now that there is no Prabhakaran, KP is the new bogeyman and everyone bearing arms to defend themselves against KP is justified????? Whatever!!!

Should read as “every man”

Here is a simple thought experiment. If the BNP gained controlled of the British Government or the Ku Klux Klan gained controlled of the US Congress, what would the consequences be for immigration? One need not think very hard… immigration would third-world countries would cease altogether. It is a similar thing in Sri Lanka… Mahinda’s allies will BLOCK any proposal that favors power-showering with the minority because that is part of their party platform… they have SAID they will do so… and if you choose to do DENY that further, I will not hesitate to extract the pertinent quotes from Google and post them there.

“Power sharing should be with people but not with racially based political parties.”

Find all the excuses you want. The alternative, however, would be for ALL power to remain at the CENTER, such as it does now, which is not an acceptable arrangement.

“Where did military follow tamil civilians? In Colombo? In Nuwara Eliya? Have you been in Sri Lanka?”

I have been to every part and parcel of Sri Lanka. There are no military bases or checkpoints in Hikkaduwa, Benthotha, Dambulla, and such places (for interested readers, these are all areas in the Deep South of Sri Lanka). On the other hand, Jaffna is a virtual prison in which daily power cuts and curfews are the norm. Tens of thousands of acres of farmland have been forcibly taken away from their Tamil owners…. on top of these have been built massive high-security zones and military bases, enough to accommodate more than 40,000 armed forces personnel. Fishing restrictions have been imposed by the Navy. When I went to Trincomalee not too long ago, the situation was similar. The town is simply not alive after 7 pm, save for the beach resorts and other tourist sites.
The point is that, In every town and city with a significant Tamil population, there are massive numbers of heavily armed soldiers.

“Having weapons to protect themselves is unserstandavle.”

If we follow your logic, women all over the world should be allowed to carry handguns because every men is a potential rapist and it is impossible to completely avoid men in a given arbitrary public environment. In a similar vein, the said women should also be allowed to shoot at will any man who makes a move at her, because obviously he is displaying behavior that could easily be associated with a rapist. Finally, there should be no penalties for random shooting because, after all, just like every Tamil is a potential LTTE supporter, every man is a potential rapist, and the boundary between supporter and non-supporter – rapist and non-rapist – is often too murky to decipher.

“Why don’t you comeout from your cozy house in canada and visit Sri Lanka, and recognize their heartbeat and them comment?”

Instead of avoiding the question a second time, why don’t you state, for the benefit of all readers, the Government’s accomplishments in the East?

How do you know? Do you have a god – given power to be so sure or to see the future? Stop posting utter rubbish like this. Power sharing should be with people but not with racially based political parties. Biggest problem is vellar tamils want a big chunk of power to regain their lost glory over low-caste tamils in North and Highlands. That is the very reason they oppose a geographically based power devolution not taking racial stats in to consideration.

“If he is so sure of that, why does he need thousands of armed soldiers to follow Tamils around everywhere they go? ”

Where did military follow tamil civilians? In Colombo? In Nuwara Eliya? Have you been in Sri Lanka? Or are you on weed?

“When the “rest” are also given political power, e.g. Karuna Group, they have no incentive to give up their weapons. What is happening here is that the Government is using these paramilitary groups as a buffer against possible LTTE infiltration”

The Karuna group has sybolicaly given up arms. But that does not mean that they are not having weapons. Sayng no incentice to give up weapons is wrong here, because they have shown it. Still there are LTTE carders intermingled with civillians ready to assasinate these tamil leadres at order from KP. Having weapons to protect themselves is unserstandavle. Douglas Devananda also do the same. but when you consider that LTTE has tried to kill him more than seven times, it is justified for him to bear weapons. With time, these LTTE carders who are camorfluged with civillimns will be caught and eliminated. That will take a good decade of time. Until such time where these politicins are free of threat of assasination, we could not think of completely disarming them, which is actually what LTTE wants.

“Why don’t you describe exactly what progress has been made in the East? Let me guess what’s at the top of the list: no LTTE?”

Why don’t you comeout from your cozy house in canada and visit Sri Lanka, and recognize their heartbeat and them comment?

They are opposed to power-sharing with minorities period. It does not matter if some power remains at the center, they will still oppose such an agreement.

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That is besides the point. The presence of LTTE in such areas is close to zero. There is no reason to run the place like a military fortress. In any case, the Sri Lankan President has declared that “separatism will never raise its ugly head again.” If he is so sure of that, why does he need thousands of armed soldiers to
follow Tamils around everywhere they go? I have been to many countries, including such places as Colombia (which is fighting its own separatist war) yet I have not seen soldiers following one group of people around everywhere they go.

“… and rest will gradually give up the weapons.”

When the “rest” are also given political power, e.g. Karuna Group, they have no incentive to give up their weapons. What is happening here is that the Government is using these paramilitary groups as a buffer against possible LTTE infiltration. Unfortunately, the paramilitary groups are also given a free hand to commit human rights abuses: torture, kidnapping, extortion, murder, etc.

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Why don’t you describe exactly what progress has been made in the East? Let me guess what’s at the top of the list: no LTTE?

“All of Mahinda’s extremist allies are vehemently opposed to any power-sharing agreement with the minorities.”

They are opposed to a racially based power sharing agreement AFAIK.

“The Eastern Province is a colossal failure. For one thing, it is heavily militarized” – This was an area, which had a ravaging war 18 months back. Don’t except miracles, it has to be a gradual process. It will be a slow painful process, but we should bair it, because even though it is slow, it is steady. Some of the groups have given up arms that they were holding BECAUSE OF THE FEAR OF LTTE ASSASINATIONS, and rest will gradually give up the weapons. There is no wizards of Oz who could turn east in to a paradise in one day.

“People still disappear everyday. Pro-government paramilitaries are allowed to roam everywhere with their guns and harass people” – People disappear every day even in South, and most are refound within few days or have left the country. Don’t believe so much of Mangala Samaraweera, Daily Mirror or Lanka dissent. They don’t give the same publicity when the missing person reappears and confesses.

“we have all read about the two little girls who were kidnapped and killed for ransom money” – Sadly you forgot or omitted two little kids who were killed for the same reason in Akuressa. When it happens to a tamil you people go to town with it, but keep your mortifyin silence when it happens to a Sinhalese. There are psychopaths every where like this. It does not matter whether they are from south or noth or east or west. They should be eliminated.

“The so-called “elected representatives”, for example, Pillayan, are a real joke. They have no power on any significant scale worth mentioning” – The real joke would have been a facist military leader controlling this area.

“Which is why you see a total lack of development” For people who has travelled to east the signs of development is pretty evident. Don’t turn a blind eye towrds them. Go to the place and compare how it ws 36 monts back. Then we’ll come back and talk about the development.

We have faced death, riots ,disappearances ,white vans, forced displacements etc. This is still going on after the so called wars end, and I am sure it will continue well into the future.

Muslims and Sinhalese of North and border villages faced the exact same, but more brutally in the face of LTTE. Does any Tamil condemn what LTTE did. Do you condemn or accept killing of civillians by LTTE? Yes or No. Let your buts follow that. Sinhalese in 1986-1990 era faced the same thing in South with JVP uprising. The number of deaths was in the same magnitude with Eelam war, which was speard around 26 years, but this was within 5 years! Now that nightmare is over. Verybody thought that it will not end, but it ended. So will be problems with Tamil people.

//So it is your time now. However our final goal is self determination and self rule so that we can develop our areas as we see fit. Till such time as this is acheived we will not stop

Is this self determination is a seperate state? Then the answer will be a big NO. It has to be done on the corpuses of 14 million Sinhalese of this country. Political solution is needed, but should not be a racial based one, because the cycle will re-appear. If East was given a federal solution, the Sinhalese and Muslims will be a minority, and the cycle will take a 180 degree turn and they will be subjected to the problems that you describe. That will lead to another mini-civil war, which will be justifyable within your framework. Geographical devolution is better, then the racial factors are not taken in to account. One race being the majority will be co-incidental. For this current administrative areas should be redrawn.

//The sinhala leaders have blamed all the ills that have beset the country on the LTTE for a generation. Lets see whot they will blame for their mismanagement in the future.

Do you have enough balls to admit that LTTE was wrong? Does any tamil have balls to do it in public. Sinhalese admit that SWRD was wrong. But do you admit that your early leaders were also wrong asking 50-50 in the parliament?

All of Mahinda’s extremist allies are vehemently opposed to any power-sharing agreement with the minorities. India has no incentive to impose any political settlement in SL. It may have had an incentive in seeing the LTTE wiped out, but the story ends there.

“Why don’t you look at the Eastern Province and look at how the government is spending money(yes that will lead to corruption and abuse just like in other provinces, but that is part of our third world crony capitalism) and I also cited the MR regime’s decision to include Indian Tamils who were previously citizenless into becoming productive SRI LANKANS.”

The Eastern Province is a colossal failure. For one thing, it is heavily militarized. People still disappear everyday. Pro-government paramilitaries are allowed to roam everywhere with their guns and harass people (we have all read about the two little girls who were kidnapped and killed for ransom money). The so-called “elected representatives”, for example, Pillayan, are a real joke. They have no power on any significant scale worth mentioning. Which is why you see a total lack of development. If this is your idea of “productivity”, so be it. But it’s not mine.

Case in point: Mihin Airlines.

No just because a lot of Jaffna Tamils and Diaspora Tamils and Tiger Tamils celebrated or exulted the death of people we dont have to do it. But my sorrow is NONE of you EVER scolded them on paper unequivocally the way you guys scold this regime. TIGERS started this current round of war and got a beautiful asswhupping from the “sinhalam” army.. Ipso facto..That is why people were out on the streets. People in the US celebrated in their western christian style when Uday and Qusay were killed along with Qusay’s young son in a hail of bullets and RPGs against 3 Ak-47s. They said “we kicked arab ass” and whupped but not with the same S.Asian emotions. They also exulted when Saddam was caught and when he was hung. Again different scale but same motive. In S.Asia we do things with more emotion.. This will subside.

However, what was our ultimate goal? I think everyone would agree when I say, sustainable peace. As some of you agree, the military operations were only a fraction of what is required to archive our desired objective. Premature (government sponsored) celebrations not only jeopardise the peace process (racial insensitivity), it distracts us from our ultimate objective.

A headline from Times online reads “Sri Lanka crisis – Red Cross stops aid”, as you delve into it; the Sri Lankan government has banned aid agencies access to internment camps. I fail to see how decisions of this kind could steer our country towards a permanent peace?

“The Sinhala leaders have blamed all the ills that have beset the country on the LTTE for a generation. Let’s see what they will blame for their mismanagement in the future.” Vanangamanithan

This I feel, is one of the most significant sentences from all the comments I’ve read and I agree with it completely. I feel that the defeat of LTTE will have another significant affect, as Vanangamanithan mentioned; it would hold governments accountable for the economic slums they have created and not blame it on the war. I hear comments saying the war had an effect on our economy, I agree it did, but the greatest harm was done not by the war but economic policies implemented by people who could barely run a shop let along the economy of a country!

UOFLANKA, the freedoms you speak of, will only be short lived unless we solve the underlying problems that started the war. Once we have a permanent peace, then and only then have we got a real reason to celebrate.

The Talking Frog, I agree, “forced” should not haven have been used. But I believe you would agree with me when I say, we gave them very few options.

RogerG, I’m not sure who the “English speaking pseudo-intellectuals” you seem to be referring to are, but I for one, always had the opinion that military solution is not the means to deal with a political solution.

“Shall we remind people of the whooping and hooraying of Tigers and Tiger Diaspora when Chandrika almost got killed? or when so many like Laxman Kadirgamar and Neelan were bumped off by Tigers?”

I sincerely hope this statement was a mistake, surely your response cannot be “they did it, so why can’t we?”!

Nalaka Gunawardene, I’m afraid we only defeated one form of terror. And the destruction of the LTTE has only strengthened this beast. The phrase “freedom of expression” has no place in our present society I’m afraid.

“If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.” Avram Noam Chomsky

Till the government understand the statement mentioned above, most people will be commenting under pseudonyms and half names.

Too many lost their lives to this cruel war but what needs to be remembered is that they died for peace, the defeating the LTTE is only a step in that direction

Of course, it’s everyone’s right and choice – no argument – but I just wonder why this is any longer necessary? Whom are we afraid of?

According to my Sinhalese friend, All this manipulated discrimination propaganda is merely a cheap shot by the Tamil diaspora to protect their “refugee Visa” in the western countries. They simply know when the war is over, those western governments will send them back to Sri Lanka. How pathetic is their ideology.. ???