That grasshopper is absolutely correct. It’s you who is dipping your neck in sand!

SHOW ME ONE WAR IN THE HUMAN HISTORY WHERE CIVILIANS WERE NOT HARMED!

From Alexander to Gengis Khan,Napolean to Hitler,from Churchill to George Bush,there has’t been a single war in the HISTORY OF MAN where civilians were not killed. It is a natural consequence of ANY war!

Why ask for a “clean war” when there is no clean war by definition?

Hypocrisy or Bigotry?

Is the scrutinizing of UN and US misdeeds a ploy to avoid accountability to citizens, a smoke screen to hide guilt?

“As I have said, for every Singhala person that has attacked Tamils there are/were a greater number that has treated Tamils as fairly and respectfully as they would do to their own. I grew up with Tamil friends and none of them had any issues with any Singhala folks and I do not know what facilities did I have that they didn’t. Belle, you only have to go to Sri Lanka and see how Tamils and Singhalese get on.”

The ethnic conflict that has raged for 30 years is not about social relations but is a political matter. It is not tea party etiquette that we’re talking about but minority rights and legislation. For every kind Sinhalese who smiles at a Tamil, there are thousands of Tamils who are war victims, for whom your smile will bring no succour for all the family members they have lost and the nightmare they have lived with for three decades.

“Also, Israel – another powerhouse of the world – has committed HEAPS of war crimes in broad day light (please do not ask me what they are, just Google it yourself).”

Why don’t you google the country that has the most UN resolutions made against it?

The difference between Israel and SL is that the former committed its crimes in broad daylight whereas the latter sneaked about in secrecy, all the while denying the secrecy as well as the crimes committed.

“IMHO, the only people who prevent the healing between the two races are a *few* men and women among the Tamil diasporic community.”

What prevents the healing between the two communities is the refusal to acknowledge mistakes and to put in place legislation that will address those mistakes.

“As for colonising North and East, are u joking me? Every Sri lankan should have the right to go and live and buy land wherever they like anywhere within Sri lanka.”

So a person with money can go and buy land in the home areas of those who have been displaced and dispossessed by war? Your ethics is very clear here indeed! It’s the ethics of thieves.

I am not talking of individuals buying land. I am referring to government involvement in settling people according to communal interests. That, by the way, is deemed illegal in your Constitution.

How can peace ever prevail and reconciliation ever take shape with the thousands of civilians butchered and buried by a murderous regime and pretends as if nothing has happened? As the saying goes, “tell the truth and shame the devil” this bloody regime will end up hiding like Saddam Hussein. Take note though this exercise is not against the people of SL but to pull out the tyrants out of their closets. Let it be also known that no matter what and how this regime tries to wriggle out from this malady, the noose around their necks is slowly but surely reaching its target. Thinking that the people’s mandate is going to save these butchers is but a pathetic attempt to “hide behind skirts”.

Thanks for your comments.

Let us not fool ourselves by saying that each and every killing will be accounted for. SL has been drenched in violence, civil unrest and political idiocy ever since Independence. For SL to attain lasting and meaningful peace the situation has to be reversed on many accounts. First thing to be handled is/was to end the War. Decimation of LTTE was the one single, important step in the right direction. Violence that now exist, if any, pales in comparison to what Sri lankans have had to endure.

I am all for taking every step to investigate the killings and taking any remedial action humanly possibly by the Sri lankans for the damage that occured. Make no mistake, I am no a fan of Mahinda but I am against the UN telling us what to do. US was never put under scrutiny by the UN for committing war crimes! Ever! The current UN leadership continues to ignore this elephant in the room and tried (and still do) to bring Sri lankan to a war crimes tribunal just months after ending a 30 year war. Such hypocrtical action – I do not agree with. Gotta love the double standards.

I reiterate, I am NO fan of Mahinda and his actions of unethical controling 2/3rds of Sri lanka’s finances and not tolerating voices of dissent.

@ Belle

The Nuremburg trials in Germany did not merely gather evidence but brought the culprits to justice and rightly so.

While information may be available about the killings that US did in Japan, Viet Nam and Iraq, proper punitive action was NEVER EVER imposed nor enforced by the UN on the US. Also, Israel – another powerhouse of the world – has committed HEAPS of war crimes in broad day light (please do not ask me what they are, just Google it yourself). But again, UN did NOT bring them to a war crimes tribunal.

When the power houses of the world commit war crimes and is NOT brought to justice they elicit resentment among the non-power houses of the world who get scrutinised by the UN no sooner their wars end. Such shameful double standards degrade the credibility of the UN.

As I have said, for every Singhala person that has attacked Tamils there are/were a greater number that has treated Tamils as fairly and respectfully as they would do to their own. I grew up with Tamil friends and none of them had any issues with any Singhala folks and I do not know what facilities did I have that they didn’t. Belle, you only have to go to Sri Lanka and see how Tamils and Singhalese get on. IMHO, the only people who prevent the healing between the two races are a *few* men and women among the Tamil diasporic community.

As for colonising North and East, are u joking me? Every Sri lankan should have the right to go and live and buy land wherever they like anywhere within Sri lanka.

Thanks for reading.

What more do the Sri Lankan people have to do express their solid stance in support of the War against the LTTE, and say, We genuinely don’t care about the means used to achieved the end, that’s right, after electing the same gov’t and the president…..

What about the collective rights about the majority of Sri Lanka who democratically elected govt and president ???

Now who’s the “farcical idiot” now?

Why? Information on these is already available. In the 1990s, lots of horrible information surfaced about US’ inhumane behaviour in the Gulf War. US claimed that it was a “SMART” war, i.e. that only strategic targets were taken out, but it emerged that they had bombed schools and hospitals and heritage buildings, and killed and maimed many children.

Again, I ask, what information has come out about SLA and LTTE conduct during the war? Why do we not know? And why is there no need to know?

“The majority of Singhalese do not oppress the minorities. You seem to have a very sinister motive to falsely express such sentiments and bring about racial hatred that has begun to heal. Yes, there has been shameful attacks by the Singhalese on Tamils but for every Singhalese person that attacked Tamils there has been a greater number who treated Tamils just as fairly as they would another Singhala person.”

Racial hatred that has begun to heal? You must be joking! How has it begun to heal? By colonizing the North and the East and providing for Sinhalese settlement there? What has been done for the Tamils that you have the nerve to claim that racial hatred has begun to heal?

If the majority of Sinhalese were not against giving equal rights to Tamils, how is it that all these decades after independence, Tamils still do not enjoy even human rights, let alone equal rights? Your country operates on a democratic system, right? You vote for leaders who represent your values, right? Why is it so easy for political leaders to play to Sinhalese chauvinism if the majority of the community is ever so fair and kind to minorities?

Why is it that when 250 thousand Tamils were placed behind barbed wire, like animals, no Sinhalese turned out to protest this inhumane treatment of their fellow-citizens? But lots of them are turning up to protest against attempts to find out the truth of the war, to stop any information from coming out about how Tamils were treated. This is their fair treatment of Tamils?

I don’t have any sinister motives. I simply want to find out what happened out there in Vanni last year. And I think it is about time you folks at least STARTED talking about rights for minorities and the Tamil issue, don’t you, considering how fair and kind you are?

And, what are your sinister motives, by the way?

“Just because America allow journalists to their battlefields, it does not make their wars justifiable or immune from war crimes investigations.”

I didn’t say it justified their wars. Nothing justifies wars. But at least everyone knows them for the jerks they are. Unlike Sri Lanka, pretending that it is the world’s hero, being the first to subjugate a terrorist force, when for all anyone knows, there might have been a genocide out there.

And what you’re conveniently forgetting here is that the American government was not involved in killing its own civilians. The SL investigation is about state terrorism.

Why should SL block this inquiry? You see, there was a war in which thousands perished along with many LTTE cadres and leaders and soldiers during which many innocent civilians were killed.

I am not sure of your age but I still remember when one killing was from page news.

Now thousands were killed and but nobody should question this impunity because this was for the sovereignty and integrity of this island.

What if one of those killed is your family? Would you say he/she died in the name of preserving our soverignty. What if you were turned out on the street as plunderers set fire to your house and its possessions? Would you say it is part and parcel of a fight against separatism?

Come, come Grasshopper; you are burying your head in the sands.

The inquiries agaist the unnecesseary unprovoked invasion into Iraq and Afghanistan are going on. And there are visible protests against these invasions every day on the Streets of New York, Paris, London and other European cities.

Why are you against this inquiry which would make SL accountable for war crimes?

Being a doormat is not excuse for atrocities committed against innocent civilians.