It’s the post-Black July diaspora you see on TV waving red “Tamil national” flags or engaging in acts of vandalism. The British Empire & pre-Black July groups are non-violent but active in legal steps against GoSL due to use of white phosphorous bombs on civilians, etc.

The Government of Sri Lanka (Lion of Sinhala) & LTTE (Tamil Tiger) crimes are well documented by UTHR(J), Amnesty International, HRW & other NGO’s. Pogroms against Tamils 1st occurred in 1950’s despite Independence of Ceylon Act 1947 protections for Tamils. GoSL failed to prosecute those crimes as well as sex crimes committed by their troops in UN Haiti scandal despite promising UN otherwise.

Diaspora Tamils should not commit violent acts and should only support legal actions by Jan Jananayagam of NGO Tamils against Genocide & Bruce Fein.

In 1998, a Court in Sri Lanka was informed by a Sinhalese soldier of mass graves of Tamils in Chemmani, Jaffna. This was during the rape of Krishanti Kumaraswamy case which only proceeded due to pressure by Amnesty International. The Asian Human Rights Commission in a 2005 press statement commented that the exhumations (done more than 10 months after the first disclosure) were generally viewed as a publicity stunt and lamented that up until 2005, more than 6 years later, no serious action has been taken to prosecute the perpetrators … and you wonder why some Tamils supported LTTE?

Satyagraha protests which were our initial peaceful methodology in 1950’s are once again the way to proceed globally.

Refugees cannot be deported unless they commit a crime AND the country of origin is considered to be safe. With the numerous rights violations of the GoSL, deporting a SL Tamil would be impossible.

Deportation: Under immigration laws, deportation is the removal of a foreign national who has entered Canada illegally or who has committed a serious violation of Canadian law. A person deported from Canada is barred from entering Canada again in the future unless ministerial consent is given.

I am an Indian of Tamil origin living in US. I always fail to understand why there is a problem in Sri Lanka. In India, we are so diversified with so many languages, religion and races, we still feel that we are Indians and never had issues with other language people. One example I can cite is there are more Malayalees and Telugu speaking people in Tamil Nadu where they live as brothers and sisters. In SL, just two races couldn’t live in peace.

We are living in 21st century. Discriminating other language and people are things of the past. It is time to forget the past and live in peace. Good luck to all Sri Lankans in building a new country.

The Sinhalese need not suffer from delusions of persecution. There is no grand scheme to make the Sinhalese extinct and to what end anyway? no one really cares. And protecting Sinhalese does not mean having constitutional clauses which will miraculously protect its demise, but efforts by the Sinhalese themselves to learn and educate themselves in their language and culture while understanding and learning from other cultures. This is precisely why some describe the Sinhalese as a “majority with a minority complex”.

Historically, these minority complexes, both in Sinhalese and Tamils, are somewhat a result of post-colonial identity loss, induced of course, by the villainous British 😉 Please read Pradeep Jeganathan’s illuminating analysis here: http://www.pjeganathan.org/south-paw/2009/5/4/sri-lankas-conflict-an-interview-with-pact-part-i.html

We’ve moved a long way since 1983 and to the best of my knowledge, many of these issues that you say exist have been addressed and therefore, in today’s context, I think Lalith’s question is a valid one. Before any of us can think about how to address Tamil grievances, we need to know what they are now, not what they were 50 years ago. Secondly, we need to keep in mind that many grievances cited by people today are actually a result of the LTTE (i.e. extra security checks) and will hopefully fade away with time.

As Lakshmi mentioned, there seems to be no observable difference in opportunity or education between ethnicities. One potentially outstanding issue is the possibility of lacking Tamil speaking officers for certain services. Again, I believe that the necessary forms etc. are all available in Tamil.

Therefore, rather than dismissing the question as clearly irresponsible, it would be more convincing if you were to list a few grievances that are specific to Tamils, indicative of discrimination. Please do not list any which are a direct or indirect result of the LTTE. Considering your tone, you should be easily capable of coming up with a laundry list for discussion shouldn’t you, and thus put us out of our misery of being utterly bewildered. This will also stimulate the dialogue necessary to address these issues, so that we can move forward and not be stuck in the past to the detriment of all.