Thanks for your response.

Now first I want to reply to your two questions.

I am sure there are not one but two questions.

the first question is “Are you as ignorant as your questions sound ? May be,I are always willing to learn even from you

Second Question or do you think GV contributors are? Or is it that you think that all/most Sinhalese are dumb?

I can understand, but how did the Sinhalese came into the scene. Unlike you I am an internationalist,

DayanI thought it was an academic exercise where   I could be totally right or totally wrong or partially right and partially wrong or any other permutation and combination!

Now shall we look back to some of the matters raised by me  in my original comments ans your response.

.We are talking about just war and the criteria to be adopted to find out whether a war is just or unjust.

You and your Tamil friend, if he really exists, formulated two criteria for  Just War:-  declaration by ‘rightful authority’? A democratically elected government — this includes the federal secular democracy of India (which deployed the IPKF).

Here you are referring to two governments. Sri Lanka and India and therefore the just war commenced in 1987!

Now shall we apply the second criteria and go back to 1983 or 1979 when JR Jayawardene commenced his just war.

Are you certain that this war also was a just war?.

I need not remind you that you were with EPRLF at that time and that war was against not only against LTTE but also against other Tamil militant groups including EPRLF.

Here comes the second criteria-
That  India had exhausted all alternatives and they were compelled to wage war as the last resort

According to you the most iconic liberation fighter of modern times, Che Guevara, wrote in the opening segment of his definitive work Guerrilla War, that “ when a government has come into power through the ballot box, whether fraudulently or not”, the guerrilla outbreak cannot be justified”

The last word was said!

If you had made reference to Mao, Ho chi Min or Genaral Giap, anyone would have taken note of because they had a series of success stories behind them.

But you quote   Che Guevara as if he is the final authority on guerrilla warfare.

He may have lage number of student or intellectual followers who was only an ionic hero- Hero worshipers!

I like to remind you that the final battle waged by Prabaharan was a conventional war and not a guerilla warfare.

Now before proceeding any further regarding Afghanistan, Iraq, Algeria, Vietnam  and Cuba

we may again recap and come to the two questions you raised in your comments.

Do you still need further clarifications?

I may be wrong in respect of Cuba,but will respond again about Afghanistan, Iraq, Algeria, Vietnam and other wars in my next comment!    

Wait for my next installment!

Shame. Shame, shame on the “concerned church poodle” so unconcerned with the true moral purpose which can be so easily modified by Jesusitic causistry.

The truth is that Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the religious figure of the Sri Lankan Catholic Church, seems to be becoming something of a joke ever since he was appointed a cardinal by the Pope. He appears to have a assumed a new arrogance and is now running about trying to tell everyone else what they should be doing when there are a myriad of issues in the Catholic Church that need to be put right first.

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith needs to decide whether he is a politician or a man of the cloth.

The Cardinal’s latest bombastic statements to the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) seemed to be steeped in ignorance and are deeply prejudicial to ethnic harmony and peace building in Sri Lanka. Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith appears to believe that certain parts of Sri Lanka belong exclusively to particular ethnic groups – in this case, he appears to believe that the north and east of Sri Lanka belong exclusively to Tamils and thus should not be open to non-Tamils. He chides the return of non-Tamils to parts of their country which have been out of bounds for more than 25 years.

Such views are appalling and should be roundly condemned by all right thinking Sri Lankans. All Sri Lankan citizens, regardless of their ethnic origin or religious beliefs should be allowed free movement throughout the country. The north of the country is now finally open to Sri Lankans both of Tamil and non-Tamil origin and it should stay that way. People to people contact can only help the cause of peace and harmony.

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith’s opposition to the opening up of the north is rather strange [Edited out]. Is Sri Lanka’s Catholic Church afraid of losing its domination in Northern Sri Lanka, where for many years it maintained a close relationship with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a terrorist group banned in many contries? Is Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith afraid than non-Catholics will return to the north and rebuild their places of worship and thus threaten his Christian missionary activities? Is he afraid of religious pluralism and ethnic integration? Is he afraid of Muslim refugees returning to their land of origin?

During the war which ravaged the country and led to the deaths of thousands of lives, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith never uttered a word against all those Catholic priests in northern Sri Lanka who acted as agents of the LTTE and aided in the abduction of Tamil children to be used as child soldiers. He did not utter a word about Catholic churches being used as store houses for arms and ammunition and as safe houses for suicide bombers. He has been blind and dumb to the rampant sexual and physical abuse of Sri Lankan children taking place at the hands of predatory priests in Catholic schools and seminaries across the country. Parishioners who want justice for their abused children are threatened with excommunication and the Church’s hired thugs. Under Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith’s watch none of the rogue Catholic priests have been brought to justice, but yet he sits in sharp judgement over those outside his church.

The Cardinal must take a serious step forward and move away from his regressive and bigoted views. With greater power comes greater responsibility and as a Cardinal he must act with more dignity. There are many issues in the Sri Lankan Catholic Church that require his urgent attention and the Cardinal has no role to play in national politics. The Sri Lankan Church ought to act as a peace builder and not as an institution that propagates racism and ethnic and religious hatred.

The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka urgently needs to implement mandatory anti-racism sensitivity education for their young priests in the seminaries.

They need to be taught that Sri Lanka belongs to all her citizens and there are no ethnic bantustans belonging to any one particular community. They need to be taught that all religions are beautiful and that Christianity is not superior to any other religion.

But if Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith has any say with his current views, it does not appear that this will happen. And that is very unfortunate, both for Sri Lanka and her multi-ethnic and multi-religious people.

As I mentioned, the most iconic liberation fighter of modern times, Che Guevara, wrote in the opening segment of his definitive work Guerrilla War, that ” when a government has come into power through the ballot box, whether fraudulently or not”, the guerrilla outbreak cannot be justified.

The Cuban Revolution was waged, not against an elected regime but against a dictatorship installed by a coup, forestalling the scheduled elections.

The Vietnamese liberation struggles were waged NOT against governments elected by the people of Vietnam but against French colonial occupation and US invasion. The guerrilla struggle (re) commenced precisely because the US refused to hold elections as previously agreed upon in the 1954 Geneva peace accords.

The Algerian war of liberation was waged, not against an elected Algerian government but against French colonial occupation.

So much for your points. Now I have two questions: are you as ignorant as your questions sound or do you think GV contributors are? Or is it that you think that all/most Sinhalese are dumb?

Your answers to the points from—– “SLG: exhorting their flock to oppose or simply refuse to obey the orders of the LTTE'” through…. — ” SLG: Indeed, that liberation was achieved in spite of the doings of these Churches.” are brilliant…

You justify all their actions… as the Christian thing to do and also what Jesus Christ would do… I think you are spot on… 🙂

Therefore — I suggest we tell the Cardinals and the Bishops to emulate this same strategy vis a viz their relationship with Al Qaeda …. Maybe the Pope or the Archbishop of Canterberry can call Osama bin Ladin a humane person as I’m sure the Pope and the Archbishop are …in your words… ” a compassionate being/s that can understand the circumstances leading to violent criminal behaviour”

we can also propose that the Church/es in Rome, UK, Europe and US also openly consort with Al Qaeda as in your words “in the hope of positively influencing their thinking and behavior” in the same manner “Jesus consorted with criminals”

Why don’t we also call for the Church/es in Rome England and US to be sympathetic and understanding to the cause of Al Qaeda who claim Arab Lands were stolen, their rights taken away etc.. who have been repeatedly frustrated by Israel and the West … The Church can take the same stand as you have claimed they did with the “Tamil youth who were marginalized and repeatedly frustrated with regard to education and employment in Sri Lanka.

I think we should also tell the Church/es in Rome, England and US to… give the people of the West the distinct impression: that Al Qaeda is a responsible body of persons which is responsive to reason with whom a just ‘negotiated settlement’ is possible” in your words.. use the same tactics to appeal to the rational side of Al Qaeda. in the hope they could respond positively to negotiations.

What Do you think????? I think they should begin immediately!!!! 🙂

Dr Dayan,s Tamil friend-, a former militant activist has responded to Rev Cardinal Malcom Ranjith comprehensively by sending an e mail not to Ground views,but to Dr Dayan Jayathilake.

It is strange!
.
Yet!

According to Dr Dayan Jayathilake and his Tamil friend, the first criteria for a just war is that it should have been declared by a rightful authority- A democratically elected government .

Does this definition merely to suit Sri Lanka?

This means that all wars waged for national liberation were unjust!

These include Dayan’s beloved Cuban as well as Algerian and Vietnamese wars of liberation!

Whereas the wars waged by USA against Iraq and Afhanistan falls under the category of just war because USA was a democratically elected government!

What happens when two democratically elected governments fight with each other,

Then it becomes just war for both sides-According to this stupid definition!
.
Now we shall look at the next criteria for just war.

The just war party should have exhausted all alternatives.

The Tamil friend of Dayan say’s that since 1987,LTTE had alternatives.

Does this means that LTTE was waging just war before 1987?

After reading the article by Mr S.L.Gunasekara and other patriots who claims that there was only a terrorist problem and once the LTTE is defeated there is no problem to solve and 13A is a white elephant wasteful and counterproductive,
Does anyone sincerely believe that there was an alternative to war since 1987?

All negotiations and talks including APRC are the results of the armed might on the Tamil side.

The so called alternatives were imaginary, just to hoodwink the international community and the Tamil side.

The Government of Sri Lanka had always had many alternatives but unfortunately they had opted for an unjust war.

They could have solved the problems without a war in 1956 1965 1977,1980,1987,1994,…………………………….