Firstly, I find it particularly telling that even after pejorative comments on your personal blog, and elsewhere on the web, against the content and contributors of Groundviews, myself and the erstwhile Moju, you continue to visit and comment, perhaps realising that your tedious rhetoric invariably gains more visibility in a site that attracts more visitors in a week than your blog does in a year.

I agree with you that peace is not worth sacrificing democracy, justice, freedom and human rights. Which is precisely why the Government should investigate urgently, seriously and in an open manner, claims of collusion in the most heinous of ways with Col. Karuna’s antics in the East. It is not enough to keep asking for proof, which sounds like a broken record that the likes of Keheliya and sections of the Army are vaunt to play on a loop, when the case has been made repeatedly and damningly that actions of sections of the Army are as reprehensible as tactics adopted by the LTTE. And these are just the most recent of allegations of human rights abuse by the State.

The point about any war on terror, is that the State runs the risk of becoming what it fights against. We all know the LTTE’s scant regard for human rights & democracy. We are seemingly less able & willing to note the actions of the State that run contrary to its international human rights obligations as a signatory to the UDHR and ICCPR, to note just two HR instruments, in its war against terror. Accordingly, we also note the deterioration of human security in Sri Lanka, and its corollary, human rights. The contest between what rights we need to sacrifice in order to rid Sri Lanka of terrorism is a debate that needs to always take precedence over unilateral action by the Government to “defend national security”.

This is not limited to Sri Lanka. We note the severe curtailment of civil liberties and freedom in the US after the 9/11 attacks. We note the cases of extraordinary rendition and the indefensible human rights violations by the incumbent US administration, as noted in a chilling video called Outlawed.

Again, the words “wrong” and “stupid” are your own. My point, which you’ve not surprisingly entirely missed, is the telling difference of opinion between ethnic communities, and indeed, the fact that the majority of Sri Lanka believe that it is the Government’s responsibility to protect human rights. As Dr. Saravanamuttu in his article avers:

Popular support there is, and no doubt will continue, for the President as long as the armed forces succeed in weakening the LTTE. Yet popular support as the recent Social Indicator poll reveals also recognises the importance of a political settlement.

imo the answer is no and so would any democrat answer. instead of acknowledging this fact author resorts to highly speculative, exaggerated, or quite unjustified, reasons (denial, ignorance, censorship, war mentality etc etc ) without evidence, to explain the public’s quite reasonable support for military action by the legitimate democratic government faced with terrorism and fascism .

in other words this articles takes the attitude that all others ( which as he admits are the vast majority of ppl) are wrong and stupid, all their arguments are the results of ignorance etc., and their government is out to kill , violate human rights , displace ppl, etc. in a frenzy of military triumphalism. all that calumny bc those others fail to agree to a particular political solution, discussed without ppl’s consent, preferred by the author,

no wonder he, certain mediators, and hand full of others who take that attitude experience public hostility.