Then it might have been in a dream that I heard a top White House official saying that Julian Assange should be executed……!

Wish you a HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Well, when my children learn about the history of war in the world, they learn that in all those wars innocent civilians have got killed;that a war is not a game;that it is a serious matter;and that any war is evil! Whether you like it or not the soldiers of any country(including those serve in illegal wars in Iraq!)are considered as heros in that country. When you take up the destructive path of war, as happens sometimes when all other avenues of negotiation fails,(as in the case of Sri Lanka’s LTTE) there is no turning back and there are no excuses! I think that’s why they “train” the children from a young age by “providing” them with video games in which killing is a game!

The accountability and transparency may be greater in the Western democracies as you say, but ‘people like Longus’ also don’t understand as to how we can compare a first world country with a third world country. The imperfections that you see in the carrying out of justice in cases you quote in the West are as big as the miscarriages of justice we see in a third world country, proportionately. In other words in the West you can protest, but there is no one to listen to you;yet you are allowed to protest at your own risk!-as happened in the G-8 summit in Toronto!-Simply saying that in the UK this happens and in Sri Lanka this happens in simple terms is just not a fare comparison. Deception and eye-wash too do exist in the West!

If the Sri Lankan Forces bombed out the whole area with the civilians in it held as a human shield by the LTTE, your argument may make sense. But instead of doing that they rescued more than 300,000 people who were held as a human shield which delayed the outcome of the final assault by a few months. They could have quicken the victory if they just bombed off the whole area when the LTTE continuously refused to surrender, as in the case of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But that was not the case here. If some civilians got killed in the final assault it was inevitable and my children very well understand that. Your exaggerated concern for this particular event shows nothing but how your living in a country of an old colonial power has changed you into a brain-washed stooge!

Nice as well as hollow words. The same wikileaks have exposed how the US have covered up kliiing of journalists in Iraq, torturing of suspects at illegal centres, how civilian killings were covered uo in Iraq and Afganistan. And you see how the world powers are trying to stifle Assange by threats and framed up charges. This is how the citadels of democracy act, not semi-feudal third world regimes! Simply Sri Lankan people are not interested in probing whether any civilians got killed with the LTTE when the SL Forces crushed them last year! It’s the outcome of that war that is important now. Because the Sri Lankan people know how many got killed in suicide bombs during a thirty year period, and nobody wanted to investigate those killings! So there is reasonable doubt in the minds of the people as to the ulterior motives of the calls for investigation of the alleged atrocities by the SL Forces now!

As there is no place for soft hearted emotions in raw world politics we have to move on, like other more powerful countries because we are not to set standards to the world!

Did SL commit war crimes? Who knows? First what is a war crime after all? All the war crime definitions are made about conventional warfare. It doesn’t give a rats arse consideration about the differences in terrorist wars. New guidelines are needed for war crimes. It’s a matter of protecting rights of many against protecting rights of few when it comes to terrorism.

Secondly, who are civilians? How do you identify them? A terrorist with a hidden bomb coming as a suicide bomber with a group of civilians would pose a big question. If all civilians are let in, bomb would go off killing rest of the civilians and army personnel. Now does that come under a war crime or not? SLA probably had no other choice to gun down suspicious people who were “surrendering” with suicide bombs, even if the come with white flags. But at this moment we know nothing.

Thirdly, why foreign agencies are needed to investigate war crimes of SL? Why should SL allow an inept organisation called UNHRC who has no balls to investigate war crimes committed by powerful countries? The judge should be a person who is neutral. And the judge called UNHRC never had been neutral. Unless UN shows that it’s impartial, they should have no business in investigating war crimes in SL, because they’ll work with ulterior motives. So message is clear. Show us that UNHRC is neutral by investigating war crimes by USA, UK, Russia and China if they can. Otherwise they can STFU with their double standards. We can investigate our problems.

Fourthly who wants war crimes to be investigated? Is it US? is it UK? or is it Diaspora? US and UK don’t want an investigation to take place, because that will mount pressure to investigate skeletons in their own cupboards. They are playing a gimmick just to throw out Rajapakshe and get one of their boot licking clowns in to the power.

Finally, if UN investigates war crimes by force and punish the top army leaders and politicians, will it help the Tamil problem in SL? No, Sinhalese will be more tougher, more resistant for a power devolution, and will be more for a unitary state. Another crop of nationalistic leaders will spring up who’ll be even more negative for a power devolution and more pro-Chinese and pro-Russian. Diaspora fails to understand this truth, that they are playing on the nerves of 15 million Sinhalese. If they want the SL Tamils to get their grievances answered, they should be with GOSL, not against it.

However, I do not say that the mechanism for checking human right abuses is fair at the moment. It seems that the behaviour of western democracies with regard to the human right abuses specially in third world countries is partial. However, with all these apparent deficiencies world has become a better place due to the activites of right minded people. We should not also be so naive to think that all these western democracies talk about human rights for the sake of human rights alone. There are many hidden agendas. (This has to be discussed as a seperate topic.)

Forget about all these things for a moment. If Sinhalese wants to reconcile with the Tamils they have to show they are genuine in their intentions. As long as the SL government maintains that there were no abuses committed during the war it is not going to win the trust of the Tamils. If there is no trust between the parties there will not be any possibility of reconciliation.

During the war and last 30 years Tigers had committed enough ‘war crimes’ or crimes against innoncent people to elevate them to the most ruthless terrorist organization the world has ever known. Tamils, who are talking only about crimes committed by SL government should know that. So the the Tamil community both in SL and outside should try to build the trust of Sinhalese by being truthful.

When a day comes both Sinhalese and Tamils sit together genuinely talk about the crimes they have committed against each other and ready to forget about them for the sake of the their own people then there will be peace in this beautiful island. So long as they both maintain their innocence and righteousness with regard to the whole conflict there will not be real peace for a long time to come.

As powerless civilians our duty is to make the political leaders of both sides to undersand this bitter reality and much more importantaly try to change the minds of people, who think only from one side of the story.

None of those you mentioned and many more atrocities cannot
be condoned. All those should be investigated using the same
standards in a chronological order. But is that what is happening
now? The rich and the powerful just get away with a mere apology
years after the acts were committed and some that are not their
favourites due to politics are singled out for attack!