The last bund of the LTTE in Pudumantalan has been broken down and the army claims to have rescued 5000 civilians. I live near the Rathmalana airport and sometimes have a chat with the Air Force guys guarding the top of our road. According to them, there are still a lot of troops dying, and they're not dying through enemy fire, only through mines, and they bring them via Rathmalana obviously, including the civilians who are injured.
I saw this video of this kid, would've been 16 years old, right leg ripped off above the knee, left leg by the hip, genitals gone in a flash of shrapnel, screaming his head off while his father sits by him in a shocked trance and his mother screams. There is a nurse trying to cover up his wounds but he's struggling and screaming too hard, shreds of flesh flailing from his torn limbs.
Is this what they are fighting for? The cowards, forsaking the lives of 'their own people' for a cause which they claim to be fighting for them, why would a force such as the LTTE, who claim to have the best interests of the Tamil people at heart, do this? And why would the Diaspora whose support they've relied on for so long, still support their activities knowing the carnage this is inflicting on their own people?
It's become a dirty fight, and it seems that it is almost at the end. Even the UN now claims that it is the rebels who are not letting the civilians be rescued, and coming from the normally despised or lauded (depending on which side you were on) 'peacenik' side's big cheese, it is a significant thing. Not that UN really has the truck or the credibility anymore to comment on 'humanitarian' crises, considering the tremendous hits it has taken to its credibility over the years, but its probably the closest thing we have to an unbiased coalition of an international organization.
The Tamil Diaspora is desperate. They don't know what to do or where to turn. They've supported the LTTE for so long that their psyche is unable to change their stance into one of acceptance of a possibility of a united Sri Lanka. It would be like turning traitor.
The Sri Lankan people should stop seeing the Tamil Diaspora as the enemy, or the germ of the LTTE would spread in their eyes to encompass every single Tamil living abroad. These people were oppressed, hate was bred within them, and the government and the rest of Sri Lanka were not completely innocent of crimes. Somewhere within the madness and delusion and terror and chaos there really was an original Tamil cause and everyone has to accept that.
EELAM is right here, but it’s called Sri Lanka, and people of different races live here together. ‘Come home’ is what the government and all of us need to say to them. Win them back, prove to them we’ve changed, prove beyond doubt that this country is a place where everyone can live in harmony in reality, not just in a speech of a politician or in the frames of a propagandist TV commercial.
Admittedly this may be easier said than done, but is needed to avoid an exacerbation of a fresh wave of violence/Eelamist extremism from abroad. Changes and compromises may need to be made. But isn't lasting peace worth all that? Society is too rigid.
Update: President says more than 35k civillians rescued and the 'complete defeat' of the LTTE imminent.
Monday, April 20, 2009
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4 Comments:
Excellent piece mate.
So very true...
I totally agree with the attitude we need to have towards the diaspora. They'll never come back, but we need to convince them that they are welcome here. They're the ones who fund the war...we can finish the LTTE, we can develop the North and East and improve the quality of life for the people living in the area, but all you need is a lot of money and one unhappy person, and you've got the rejuvenation of the separatist movement and you're back to square one. I'm not sure how many people are willing to accept how important the diaspora are in this equation.
Whow...it will be midnight in one hour.. just turned on to Rupvahini to see the presenters saluting and starting the program, well of course i rejoice the victory make no mistake about it, but it felt a bit overboard for me, just kept my parents hooked up there and left...
nyways this post is a great snapshot of the moment bro....may be in five, ten years down the line we could look back at this post and see whether we came down a correct path...
What's nerve wreching is the letter by the LTTE! About how the military is brazenly killing their people when it is the LTTE who is in fact responsible for the genocide by using them as human shields! The audacity the ruthless terrorist! They may have started out with a cause but they lost it along the way and quite a while back at that.
Yeah... easier said that done. People have been conditioned to think that way... The mentality of a larger part of the country will have to be changed in order to bring about lasting peace.
Call me cynical but with corruption and power hungry people being something world has never in dearth of, I'm not quite sure in the problem will ever be fully erradicated.
Of course we should try, 'cause we can make SOME difference.
The aftermath of the war is going to be something that has to be dealt with in an appropriate way if we are to have any hope for stable country and to ensure that the war does not break out yet again.
Which is why voting in the upcoming elections is important.
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