Point is SLA engaged highly trained, sophisticated, well funded, well equipped, ruthless terrorist guerilla outfit. Outfit which had land, sea, air units. Legal combatants. SLA has done nothing you can draw parallels to what you suggest! Get real…

Maintaining your innocence is not something to be taken lightly.

What does lord Buddha has to do with this?

Sure they banned LTTE in some countries but did the funding stop? No! Did they actively stop LTTE activities? No. It was just on paper. SL Gov had to push western govs very hard to crack down on their activities. If the West did their job curtailing LTTE activities properly then the war would have ended long ago. So don’t give me this BS!

Anyway, I think the UN should mandate all countries that have signed human rights declarations and declare and engage in war must subject them selves for independent arbitrators, regardless of any evidence or accusations of war crimes pointed at them. Otherwise this is just ridiculous!

niranjan, I am under no illusion that collateral did not happen. But I firmly believe none was intentionally targeted – which would amount to a war crime. All this mess happened in the first place because LTTE used civilians as a human shield. Under the conditions SL forces did an exemplary job minimising casualties.

“Lack of evidence does not mean that atrocities did not take place.”

HOWEVER, accusations DEMAND evidence! In civil law, you need a warrant before invading someone’s personal space to gather further evidence. To obtain a warrant you require to make a reasonable case and provide preliminary evidence that he/she maybe guilty. In SL’s case there is yet to be any reasonable, verifiable evidence to obtain a “warrant” even.

As a citizen of a sovereign nation that is why I personally vehemently oppose any international probe. We’re not a bicycle and certainly won’t be taken for a ride by propaganda!

Lack of evidence does not mean that atrocities did not take place.

Take a look at today’s article titled ” From victory to normalisation” by Austin Fernando in the Daily Mirror page 8. Mr Fernando says “no war is fought sans atrocities.” even when a war is fougt with the best adherence to internationally accepted laws of warfare; it still breeds hatred, enmity and many a horific sentiment that violates human decency.

I realize you are quite apt at raving and ranting until you turn blue in the face, but can you objectively and forthrightly answer directly without just muddying up and calling names.

Sri Lankan (my) Government signed the agreement against War Crimes for a purpose – and we made sure that foreign countries punished LTTE by banning the outfit in almost all of the Western countries based on war-crime complaints. And we continue to demand that in view of the possibility of LTTE resurgence, the foreign countries should curtail LTTE activities as they constitute potential war crimes.

Despite that you claim Sri Lanka should be somehow exempted from war crime investigations, and Sri Lanka has no responsibility to be subjected to an independent verification, never mind the allegations, even if they come from UN, AI, and IGC. as was the case within just the last two days.

Well, my point is, if there is a reasonable suspicion of war crime, it is a civilized nation’s responsibility to allow unhindered investigation. If there was no crime committed, the country will be justly vindicated. If a crime was indeed committed and so proved, the country owes, at the least, an apology to the civilized world. Covering-up and hiding behind all sort of excuses may be a short-term relief, but has significant long-term consequences, as we are beginning to see (that indeed was the context of Shakya’s article – ER/PTA that was previously for the Tamils, will now be the norm for Sinhalese as well, for the foreseeable future.)

As I mentioned previously, there is a decent, humanitarian way of addressing the complaints justly, courageously and righteously, for the long-term good for everyone.

There are two other alternatives, of course. One is to wait till you get dragged down kicking and screaming, and lose all credibility as a civilized nation.

The third is to deny, deny and deny, and put-up road-block after road-block, hoping some how it will go away. Well, certainly there is that possibility, God willing! The SL Government seems to put all bets on the last option. Wonder if you expect Lord Buddha to see eye-to-eye with you on this option.

on a side note, it’s too late for ICG to worry about SL model being followed. it already is! those who “knows” know where and it works! wish them all the luck though i’m not the biggest fan.

are we asking for independent investigations into atrocities in iraq, afghanistan? whatever happened to that wiki leaks video? no noise! absolute gob smacking silence! did the ICG do a report on that? i dunno, but doubt they did. thou shall not rat ur own kind out.

if we said hang on i think we should form a panel to investigate your shady killing, the US and NATO countries would laugh so hard they might choke and die… so the least they can do is just stick to their own killing fields and let us have our peace.

these ICG “thinkers” most of whom are from europe should focus on their own kinds’ atrocities before trying to write reports about asia. it’s funny how NATO holds the bar for morality in wars. If it’s a NATO war it is a RIGHT war. JUSTIFIED, FREEEEDOOOOMMM!!! LIBEERRTTYYYY!!! (tell that to the poor iraqis and afghans) if it is any other war, oh no boy.. that’s human rights violations.

thai government just rampaged through protestors in BK city centre killing their own civilians creating a little tianamen square. but do we have a right to ask for independent investigations why a protest was brutally crushed? no it’s their own damn business. we did not vote to have a say in how Thailand is run! they have a right to take necessary actions to restore peace and order in their own country.

if such a thing happened in Sri Lanka, my god I can only imagine the press.
bottom line is, there was collateral in war. heck all wars have collateral. agreed. but it’s not to the extent to warrant any probe. there is no genocide, get over it. end of the day i’m not all that concerned what IGC and the likes think. they have to make a buck. what matters is that intelligence analysts who advise the real decision makers are informed and that’s a relief to me. still it’s just annoying that NGOs dish out this crap to the public slinging mud at SL. at least have the decency to back it up with some evidence. so i hope this answers why there never, ever will be a probe by any damn outsider sarath. unless they’re cool with us probing their rear cavities too. so we have a mutual probing agreement. fair is it not?

let me make it even more easier for you to understand sarath. are you married? do you have kids? let’s assume you have a lovely family settled in ur little modest castle. i’m gonna tell everyone i suspect you’re an abusive husband, u hit and abuse ur wife and kids everyday (hypothetical!!). and i somehow coerce your neighbours into agree with that assessment. then i try to intervene and take ur wife and kids away from you, on some R2P principle. i will say the wife is disagreeing because she is afraid of ur beatings. how would you feel? i can’t put it any more crudely, sometimes u just have to respect one’s sovereign rights. otherwise all countries should agree to do disband their borders, regardless of their military might. then i say it’s damn fair to witch hunt each other.

i guess people think differently, not all have same sort of minds. but whether u get this or not, it doesn’t matter. regardless of the critiques you have to do the right thing. failure is not an option when the country is at stake.

re: I am pretty sure the LTTE did not hold Sinhala population because THERE WERE NONE IN THE WANNI- party due to the few that was there prior to the war was either killed or chased off by the LTTE.. but I digress

You think that is truly elementary – You can believe that LTTE could hold 300,000 tamils at gun point, but they didn’t have the ability to hold Sinhala villagers, only becaue there weren’t any in Wanni. Your lattitude to think truly surprises me. Perhaps, another couple of more years under your belt may open up the thought horrizon a little wider.

Interestingly, you find the time to answer these somewhat subjective issues – To show sincerity in the dialogue could you find a moment to answer an objective question I have possibly repeated four or five times and that you conveniently ignore – “can you directly answer whether you will stand up for an independent investigation that alone can deliver anything close to the truth? “

Thank you – that was very kind of you, and I do hope you meant that in earnest. I sincerely look forward to reading, somewhat more thought-based and less hasty research work from you – and I wish you the very best in your efforts. My belief is that It is the educated who have a greater responsibility to humanity – they were so blessed with intellect for a pupose. God Bless.

Sarath.