Perhaps the Tamil Tigers are showing their cuddly face (thanks, Abhi):
Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar was shot in the head Friday night just outside his private residence in Colombo and died an hour later after emergency surgery… The assassination is bound to further strain the shaky cease-fire agreement between Sri Lanka’s government and the Tamil Tiger rebels. The truce, in place since February 2002, has been threatened by recent violence and the suspension of talks in 2003. [Link]
Earlier this month, two LTTE members were arrested outside Kadirgamar’s official residence — about a kilometer away from where he was shot — after conducting surveillance and videotaping the area. Kadirgamar had just returned to his private residence late Friday for a swim, after attending a function for the release of his new book, police said. As he walked toward the house from the pool, a sniper fired three shots, striking him in the head and chest. [Link]
… Kadirgamar, 73, who is from the ethnic Tamil minority and a close aide of President Chandrika Kumaratunga, was taken to the National Hospital for emergency surgery after being shot in the head… Kadirgamar, a Tamil Christian, led an international campaign to ban the Tigers as a terrorist organization. [Link]
Kadirgamar’s background:
He was educated at Trinity College, Kandy, and obtained a Bachelor of Laws… from the University of Ceylon… He also has a B.Lit. from Oxford University. He practiced law at the Ceylon Bar and in London until 1974, when he became a consultant to the International Labour Organization in Geneva.Kadirgamar is a long-time supporter of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP)… Despite being himself a Tamil, he strongly supported the Bandaranaike government’s policy of not negotiating with the Tamil Tigers insurgents in northern Sri Lanka. [Link]
Update: Sri Lankan cops are looking for some chubby, dilettante snipers:
Police officer Nimal Lewke said two of the snipers had hidden in a building near Kadirgamar’s heavily guarded home in Colombo’s diplomatic district and fired through a ventilation hole in an upper floor. Police found cheese and chocolates they ate while they waited for their target, along with a grenade launcher intended as a backup weapon.
India’s policy toward Sri Lanka is about as consistent as usual:
India called the assassination a ”terrorist crime” and reiterated its support to the island nation’s fight against forces seeking to undermine its unity. [Link]
and so it goes. thanks for posting this.
And thus it begins, again, light-years away from having centralized government in the north, a stones-throw from legitimate logic and cause… No room for Norway in this one.
terrible… if anyone had vacation plans in sl i would cancel them
brown must not kill brown?….
Part of this has to do with the schisms within the Sri Lankan Tamil population. Christian Tamils are considered ‘city,’ and despite the fact that they held positions of priviledge under the British (and therefore lost the most after Independance) they feel quite seperate from other Tamil groups.
The Nothern Jaffna Tamils are considered the ‘highest-caste’ Tamils, (for lack a better description) and look down on the others.
The Eastern Batticalao Tamils feel neglected, claim to have have done all the heavy-lifting for the LTTE, and say that the LTTE higher-ups aren’t as concerned about them as with the the Jaffna Tamils. The breakaway Karuna faction of the LTTE is from this group.
The hill-country Tamils were imported from Southern India by the British during the 1800 as scabs whenever the Sinhalese tea-pickers went on strike. They’re discriminated against by everyone, and other Tamils will try their very best to distance themselves from this group.
So with all these distinctions, the LTTE find it fairly easy to pick off “their own” ..despite the fact that they present this conflict abroad as though a unified Tamil minority is being genocidally picked off by a majority Sinhalese.
So with all these distinctions, the LTTE find it fairly easy to pick off “their own” ..despite the fact that they present this conflict abroad as though a unified Tamil minority is being genocidally picked off by a majority Sinhalese.
this is a problem i have with most identity politics. my experience is take ‘leadership’ of oppressed group X and you will find that leadership of X tends to come from privileged subgroup of X. and so on. people have interests that outsiders can never discern, so ‘solid fronts’ often obscure structural imbalances.
Good Riddens to Bad Rubbish.
Dat A-Hole had that coming to him.
so whoever did it, the tigers or the jvp, a big THANK YOU!
As perverse as this seems, the upshot of this is that it breaks the LTTE’s facade of a people’s uprising. This is a take-no-prisoners stance and I hope this puts the LTTE’s activities squarely in the crosshairs of international geopolitics.
Manish, do you need help with sorting through your list of hits for IP addresses and then passing a particular one onto the Feds? I might have some time to spare.
Your comment is also rubbish. Should you also have something coming?
Yes, but it’s morphed into something else now for the LTTE. Originally there was TULF, a legit political organization working to rescind the Sinhala-only laws that were passed during a nationalistic wave a decade or so after Independence.
The LTTE were a group of idealistic (I guess) students who splintered off from TULF. Mostly due to impatience. They’d read too much Marx and Derrida and everyone else, ware fascinated by Che and the revolutions going on in South America and SE asia. They were smart enough to learn about revolution, terrorism etc from such groups in the Middle-east, and brought back all they learned. MIA’s father, I think, was part of this set.
I’m not sure how Prabhakaran took over the LTTE, but from that point on, those idealistic (if totally delusional) young Tamil students were sidelined and men of raw purpose took over. They like to keep some of the well-educated types around to gloss-up manifestos and such, and present an ‘intelligent, rational’ face to the international press.
I heard a story about one such LTTE cadre-member who married a white lady who’d read his papers, articles, statements of intent, etc..and fell in love with the romanticized (naturally) view of living with a wanted man, fighting the good fight, viva la revolucion, working for change, man.. you know. The usual.
Anyway, the point is that she moved to Jaffna to be with him, lived in the LTTE stronghold area, and had a little yippy dog that she loved dearly. One day there was a horrendous air raid by the Sinhala government. Afterwards, as people came out to bury bodies, tend to the wounded and miamed, find the missing..she walked about distraught because she couldn’t find her dog. Put up flyers and tried to organize search parties.
The idealistic and priviledged are merely endured as long as they’re useful by the LTTE now, which has become something that defies description really. Nihilism, I suppose, comes close.
oh lookie, its cicatrix at it again, trying to pass off her agenda as truth.
its widedly known prabakaran and company are of the lower castes within Jaffna Tamil Hindu hierarchy.
Karuno is a non-factor, as much as cicatrix and her ilk will try to play this up as a “big” division within the LTTE. the fact of the matter is that when the split occured, within a week the VAST majority of Karuna’s cadres pretty much crossed the field back into the LTTE fold. so wat Karuna, wherever he is, is running with his hodgepodge rag tag bunch of cronies, perhaps numbering in the 10’s, with significant help from the Sri Lankan Army is not more than a nuisance. but the pro SL types will stretch this in order to degrade the LTTE and their cause. not much more than partisan politics.
as for the indian tamil question, they if anything r clearly more trusting of the LTTE than the GoSL, as their leader Chandrasekaran points out here: “As a minority community powerless to defend itself against discrimination and repression, the security is tied closely to the security framework to be established by the NorthEast Tamils under the political and military leadership of the Liberation Tigers.” http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=15348
i think you’d be better off looking into the the schisms the Sri Lankan Columbo elite create in order to keep the Singhalese lower classes in perpetual poverty while maintaining their stranglehold on all the wealth, half of it directly profiting from the war. pretty much, those in glass houses shoudln’t throw stones.
all in all, Sri Lanka is FUCKED UP
i remember some poem , i think it was by Twain, in his travels. he described Sri Lanka as “paradise on Earth, but where Man is Vile” lollss..
its funny because its true….
Oh lookie, it’s Parthi again, trying to pass of her agenda as truth.
Wow, that was so easy! I should start all my conversations about war and terrorism like that! We’ll get so far!
Sweetheart, stop reading Tamilnet.
see, this weblog is a weird one, pakistan related threads tend to relatively sedate, while sri lanka ones bring out the nutters.
Abhi, sure my comment is rubbish. I figured it was obvious that it was an expression of emotion rather than an analysis of the pleasant feeling of revenge that the majority of Ceylon (I refuse to acknowledge the state of S.L.) Tamils the world over are feeling at this moment. When I find more time over this weekend, I’ll put together a piece on why and how the vast majority of Tamils of Ceylon origin regard this man as the biggest traitor and the justice behind his death.
Ah yes, the only thing to do when you disagree with someone, is, naturally, to get a sniper to plug him with 3 shots to the head. Conflict resolution at it’s very best.
What the hell did he ever do to you that you see this as justice??
hahaha, funny how you can totally avoid the issues, but what really is expected from someone who
you’re telling me not to read TamilNet? TamilNet may be sympathetic to the LTTE but they don’t fabricate quotes, truths or stories. Unlike MUCH of the Singhala Press. haha, and listen to your Sri Lankan Gov’t approved news and headlines? Okay there.
but then again that’s been the case since ’83, the Gov’t and its Media have always been fabricating the truth and distorting it, framing the issues, quite similar to how you are on this site.
Parthi, no personal attacks or pure flames, please.
Parthi, you can wave a flag from Eelam all you want, but please don’t assume I’m doing the same for the GoSL.
You do nothing but prove my point (again and again) that the LTTE cannot and will not accept criticism of any kind.
Yeah, like your words have any credibility left??
ahhh, those adorable tamil tigers and their new pop-culture face, m.i.a. i realize this is a little off topic, but can the website please stop her worship? this is the kind of thing her music endorses, just in case anyone was unclear.
loll, i love how you like to put words in my mouth.
first off, please address the issues, i dont’ wanna play rhetoric with you.
2nd off, where r u drawing the link i’m a rabid LTTE supporter. i’ve merely been debating your baseless allegations that u have been trying to pass off as fact on a forum where, i’m assuming here, the vast majority are totally unaware of the facts behind this conflict. seeing as how the GoSL and Kadirgamar conducted an awesome PR and Media blackout exercise, hoodwinking the world of the plight the Tamil civilian population suffered under the SLA.
3rd, all you do is prove the hypocrisy that characterizes the Sri Lankan Elite. that being their so ADAMANT on pointing out the misdoings and failures of the LTTE, yet nary a thought, much less a word, on the leadership, or rather the lack thereof, they’ve provided the Singhala masses. y on earth do you think the Socialist JVP has gained so much in the polls?
I’m not an expert on the situation by any means but I can’t for the life of me understand how killing this guy helps tamils at all.
He campaigned against the LTTE, sure. The term HN could easily apply to him, sure. But right now, this does nothing but inflame the already tense situation. Was he so dire a threat that it was worth risking a return to war to kill him?
That said, this post and most others have assumed the LTTE did it, considering how complicated SL politics are, that’s not entirely certain.
and roop, this has been discussed before, and i dont want to turn this into another m.i.a thing, but you fill in too many empty spaces with assumptions if you think she endorses the tigers
abhi, i’m sorry you feel that way, anyway gotta run. but read this article by Satch Sri Kantha of Japan. it’s probably the best and hands down funniest article discussing Kadirgama.
here’s an excerpt:
“One can only soothe the troubled mind of Kadirgamar by reminding him of the Tamil proverb,
Thinai Vithaithavan Thinai Arupaan; Vinai Vithaithavan Vinai Arupaan [One who sows millet reaps millet; One who sows misery reaps misery].”
anyway you can find it here
Parthi, the tone of your posts is laying waste to your arguments, which are lucid and factual without the scathing personal criticisms.
Cicatrix, I hear what you’re saying but I’m not sure I agree with all of it, in part because your breakdown of the LTTE seems to paint the entire Tamil “cause” as dysfunctional. While it’s true that the LTTE has gone far from its origins, the reason for war hasn’t and if anything, its gotten worse and when you say things like this:
They like to keep some of the well-educated types around to gloss-up manifestos and such, and present an ‘intelligent, rational’ face to the international press.
this:
despite the fact that they present this conflict abroad as though a unified Tamil minority is being genocidally picked off by a majority Sinhalese.
and this:
those idealistic (if totally delusional) young Tamil students
You highlight only the troubled evolution of the LTTE, which isn’t synonymous with “Sri Lankan Tamil” and in turn submerge the reality of most Tamils and the need for change in Sri Lanka. I’m not exactly with Parthi on everything she says, but I am on-board when it comes to railing against this kind of spin that always seems to be slapped on the “Tamil-problem” in Sri Lanka. The “cause” is still a cause, with or without the LTTE, and while I really appreciate how you laid out the facts, factions & fractions of Tamils in Sri Lanka (which, if you look at Palestine, Northern Ireland, etc., are not uncommon), it’d be nice to see some facts about the other side show up also.
Ananthan, you’re right to take into account the complexities and distortions of SL politics…but this looks like an LTTE hit so far. As 43 Seconds (I shall refrain from making a puerile joke right now) points out, Kadirgama wasn’t exactly loved by the LTTE.
Parthi, I’m so flattered that you think I’m from the Sri Lankan elite. Sadly, for me, they would probably disagree with that. I’ve pointed out GoSL misdeeds time and again, and have no interest in repeating myself to you, since you claim to be familiar with my writings, as attested by your first first remark on this board. I believe I used words like “government” “air-raid” “horrendous” and “miamed” just a few comments ago. Since you missed that, I dunno why on earth I assumed you were rabid. My bad.
Off topic, but doesn’t he look suspiciously like Sammy Davis Jr?
Kadirgamar is a long-time supporter of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP)Â… Despite being himself a Tamil, he strongly supported the Bandaranaike governmentÂ’s policy of not negotiating with the Tamil Tigers insurgents in northern Sri Lanka.
To answer the answer the question of “why” assassinate this guy… He’s foreign minister and representing the government and also what is ostensibly the kind of Tamil that some people feel should replace the Tamil majority. So, it makes sense, yeah? If there was another civil war in the U.S. [blue vs. red], one of the first political assassinations by the Democrats would be Zell Miller for no reason other than to make certain no one mistook him as a representative of anything left of center–I think the same philosophy holds for this assassination.
whoa, tiger –
you’re right. I have been glib, and I’m sorry for that. I believe the LTTE is dysfuntional, not the Tamil cause…but since the idea of the latter is so owned by the former, I can’t seem to criticize one without someone accusing me of criticizing the other too.
If you search for ‘LTTE’ and ‘Cicatrix’ you’ll see that I’ve discussed this, at length on many other parts of this website, so I’m afraid it seems superfluous and redundant to preface all my comments with a statements declaiming my own views on this matter. Part of that is just me being lazy, but I’d like to take space here by saying something new.
that, I’m afraid, was your turn to be glib. I’m not sure what you mean by this-
What is the Tamil majority? what are they like? There are plently of Tamil Hindu’s who believe that change comes from within, that working to change the system is of more consequence that giving guns to 10 year olds.
I’m sorry, did that come off like spin again? I just have a really hard time taking the LTTE as a valid entity that represents anyone. (just like i would the JVP by the way. They are a bunch of psychotic ignorant Sinhala thugs)
LOL @ “Can Minister Kadirgamar get ten votes anywhere in this country? Can he walk along Wellawatta? No. Can he get five Tamil votes either in Colombo, or in the North? I challenge him to contest the next general elections and we can then judge his standing in this country. Can he travel beyond Anuradhapura? Has he been to see the plight of his fellow Tamils, in Jaffna or elsewhere? “He says I look for cheap headlines. It is Minister Kadirgamar who seeks the cheapest possible headlines and publicity making a right royal mess of our foreign policy and a fool of himself.”
from the Sin Eaters and Snollygosters articles on Tamil Nation.
perhaps the biggest farce of Kadirgamar was that he was appointed Foreign Minister by Chandrika. the loser coudln’t even win a seat. all in all, it was a superb PR move by the SL Gov’t terrorists to a “Tamil” as the foreign minister to conduct their spin internationally.
Parthi,
Do you know anything about Sri Lanka besides what you’ve heard and read? Your views are so strong, yet singularly akin to those of Tamilnet. Just curious about whether you’ve formed any of your own.
I dont know why Sepia Mutiny is allowing comments that praise killings on this blog. Would you allow someone praising the London bombings to post here? Stop pro-LTTE posting please!
Good point. There is no point in erasing the comment now since several people have already responded to discredit the poster. We will be more vigilant from now on though. Thanks.
that, I’m afraid, was your turn to be glib
Yes, true and what to do, I assumed that, for some of the reasons Parthi mentions, there’d be no question as to why this guy was killed. Knee-jerk response to stop a thread that was about to evolve into “those fractious Tigers are so stupid they can’t even pick a valuable target” (point taken, however).
What is the Tamil majority? what are they like? There are plently of Tamil Hindu’s who believe that change comes from within
I agree but then, really, how many Tamils interested in rocking the boat have/have access to that kind of academic pedigree? That’s a pretty high bar to leap in order to get into the system, especially for people who can’t even seem to get their hands on rubber bands…
Working from within, I think most people believe in and would prefer this, but Kadirgamar wasn’t about letting the “other side” into the system and he wasn’t interested in hearing grievances. He also was pretty crucial to the shaping of India-Sri Lanka trade agreements that, as a byproduct, would cut the LTTE’s supply-lines but more significantly, strangle the ability of the north to survive autonomously or otherwise.
All that is to say that he was a pretty hard-ass politician and in a world where all the superpowers, smaller powers, etc. are taking a hard-line against anything that isn’t formal government, he presented a nice palatable picture that could ramp up the economy with one hand, direct the government to crackdown with the other and speak out both sides of his mouth about the Tamil population’s future and Sri Lanka as a united whole. He was a perfect union of everything that wasn’t going to help Tamils and he was a perfect representation of the government.
I just have a really hard time taking the LTTE as a valid entity that represents anyone.
Yes, but then, if not the LTTE, then who? You mention working from within the government, but the government itself has had such a swinging&swaying policy on Tamils (and Muslims), that it seems about as reliable as the Tigers. Of course, I agree Tigers are not the best solution but they seem to be the only ones that have ever tried to find a solution, which doesn’t make them right but it does put them in a different position that the government, which hasn’t done anything at all.
Ban the LTTE, yes, but you’re inside Sri Lanka, you know it–how many Tamil Hindus are working in the upper levels of government for the “cause?” What would happen to the Tamils without them, would there be someone to speak (or fight), for them?
Um, whoa there, tiger. I think you’re misreading my comments. There is no question why Kadirgama was killed. I didn’t see anyone contest that..did I miss something? My comment #11 was to highlight idealism gone wrong. I mocked a person so clueless, she searched for a dog amidst the dying. I mocked the intellectuals who are drawn to the LTTE and stay resolutely blinkered about how far the group will go to achieve its aims.
The people who started the LTTE might have had good intentions, but it’s now become a ruthless machine marching inexorably towards…let’s stop there. What would fit? Eelam? We divide country and then who rules Eelam? The tigers allow no dissent, no opposition, so how exactly will they have fair democratic elections? When concessions are made, they appear to find some new bone of contention. If this isn’t nihilism, then I’m much too optimistic.
I’m not going to contest your depiction of Kadirgama. I can’t think of a single politician who doesn’t at one time or another, speak out of both sides of his mouth. I can think of many politicians who would fit your description of him to a T. I’m not here to defend politics. However, I do find some pro-LTTE arguments against the govt. strangely naive. You don’t need that kind of pedigree to enter politics. Take Premadasa, who by the way, was one of the best examples of all that is wrong with the GoSL, that innocuous sounding Wiki bio notwithstanding. (I couldn’t find another bio that wasn’t from a website that already had an axe to grind.)
So anything against the govt. even if terribly terribly wrong, still has some innate value? My perspective is that the LTTE made the whole situation worse. Sinhala people who never thought of Tamils as any less deserving, now find themselves thinking that all Tamils are terrorists, and are sick of what’s become to the country. How is this helping your average Tamil person who got along with the neighbours and wanted universities to drop the stupid heavy-duty Budhism requirements? Was bombing the temple of the tooth really necessary? Were letterbombs to schools, and carbombs detonated as people were trying to get to work..how is this for political cause again?
Let’s consider what’s happened to the Tamils with them, shall we? They are more cut-off from participation in Sri Lankan society than before, yet the LTTE hardly provided anything adequate in its place. They are forced to give children to the LTTE as soldiers. When the parents die, the LTTE sets up orphanages that train 8 yr olds how to carry weapons. THIS is your better society??! The LTTE disrupted aid to Tsunami victims in the area jsut for political point-scoring. How can you possibly say that the Tamil people need this??!
Cicatrix, I know you weren’t misunderstanding or missing why Kadirgamar was killed, but someone else asked the question and my [glib] response was directed there. Sorry for the scatter-shot.
I understand what you meant by comment #11, but that’s really only because I have some knowledge of the overall situation. For people who don’t know much, you gave them quite a bit to think about without mentioning the premise for civil unrest/war or the ideology that first brought the Tigers into existence. I realize that you’ve already said quite a bit about the LTTE, origins of war, etc. in M.I.A. posts, however, this was about a political assassination and the audience is different (M.I.A. posts–with their cheesecake comments, “I can’t understand what she’s saying”-quips and infrequent pro/anti-Tiger flames–are not exactly a good table for discussion). And since you are regarded as an SL authority on this site, my best guess is that a lot of people choosing to step into the debate here have something serious to say and, in reading your comments, would be missing the full scope of your thoughts and most definitely, the conflict.
The tigers allow no dissent, no opposition, so how exactly will they have fair democratic elections?
I understand what you’re saying, however, as with what I said just prior, it’s the kind of analysis that seems to use one-sided logic… The Tigers are in a state-of-war and to assume that how they run a military machine as it struggles to stay alive will be the same way they’ll work a government in peacetime isn’t exactly fair. The Balkans was a killing-clutter at the end of military action, Afghanistan has blown itself up many times, a number of nations and regions have been through similar situations and have managed to establish government in the absence of military conflict and chaos. What have they needed? Administrative (which includes military police), financial and logistical support from external agencies, a somewhat unified belief that they can pull the whole thing off and general belief that they are deserving of the responsibility. The first two things are possible, the last depends on who’s judging the situation and the evidence for and against the LTTE setting up government is strong, but to assume they can’t is wrong.
So anything against the govt. even if terribly terribly wrong, still has some innate value? My perspective is that the LTTE made the whole situation worse.
Well, the government and the LTTE made it worse… Contrary to some belief, I’m not a Tiger-apologist, I just want the conflict to be discussed in it’s entirety, not in pieces and soundbites. But, I’m not sure how to respond here as it seems as though you don’t believe there is/was a legitimate reason for Eelam. If that’s the case, then we’re at a stalemate.
What would happen to the Tamils without them, would there be someone to speak (or fight), for them? Let’s consider what’s happened to the Tamils with them, shall we?
No. For twenty years, instead of addressing the humanitarian crisis that started & continues the war, this has been the government’s response. Why not answer my question first?
and i thought the israeli-arab conflict brought out some repulsive tendencies in humans in web forums….
And the world does end with a bang and not a whimper…
whoa, tiger-
I’m flattered and horrified by this 🙂 I’m not an authority on anything, and never claimed to be. This MIA thing brought me out of my shell many many months ago, on a different website, just because so many clueless music fans were running around comparing Sri Lanka to Ruwanda, talking presumptuously about freedom fighters and what-not. To my great pleasure other Sri Lankans joined the conversation, and although many disagreed with me in irreconcilable ways, some others (ok, one) had much to say as a Tamil Hindu that left me speechless and awed.
My point is that I don’t want to split hairs with you. You seem to be thoughtful and concerned, and that is really all I ask for.
You’re right. I don’t. I’m half Sinhalese, half Tamil (of the ‘citified’ kind, so do with that as you will. And my apologies to Sepia regulars who are sick and tired of me saying that) and I grew up thinking that there wasn’t much of a difference.
I went to a Sinhala school, but since I wasn’t raised Buddhist, all those standardized Sinhala tests that emphasized Pali/ Sanskrit knowledge were horrific for me. I used to ask my Tamil friends, who studied in the Tamil medium, what their test were like, and they said “eh, fine.” I was never sure if they were forced to answer questions about Buddhist (in Tamil!) or not.
By the way, my Tamil wasn’t bad (for a school kid) and their Sinhalese was the same, and we’d all know some English…so we never had a problem.
Maybe I had some sort of ridiculously idyllic experience growing up. In which case, at least I know it’s possible.
My first best friend was Muslim. My mother says we became friends when I was two, but of course I don’t remember that. I remember being about four, and trying to stay at her house for lunch all the time because I liked her mother’s curries better than mine.
For entirely selfish reasons, I don’t want the country to divide. So many places I remember, that hold such memories, are either bombed to rubble or, now, washed away. I like to think that this is where I’m from, and with a division, it won’t be the same anymore.
Nostalgia is an annoying and terrible thing. Perhaps I’m guilty of indulging in it. But so many Tamil people I’ve talked to feel as though people have stopped caring, and just want the violence to end so much, they’re willing to let the LTTE do what they will with the Sri Lankan Tamils. And, at least to the Tamils I’ve talked to, this would be the ultimate nightmare.
Came across an interesting news story written on August 2, 2005 (about 2 weeks before this incident).
To quote the article:
In the meantime, LTTE cadres were caught videoing the residences of the Foreign Minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, and other key places in Colombo yesterday. They are also shadowing Douglas Devananda, the Minister for Agricultural Marketing Development, Co-operative Development, Hindu Affairs and Assisting Education and Vocational Training. They failed in their ten attempts to get him earlier. These videos and reports are sent to Killinochchi for Pottu Amman, head of the LTTE intelligence unit, to plot and plan the next assassination in violation of the internationally guaranteed Ceasefire Agreement. V. Anandasangaree, the outspoken leader of TULF, spends most of his time abroad because he is another marked target of the LTTE.
Kind of freaky, isn’t it?
And that could be exactly why some other party would kill him, increase tension and force a return to violence. You know there is a considerable bloc in the sinhalese community that wants to cede no ground to the tigers. The idea of negotiating with the LTTE is abhorrent to them. What better way to sabotage the peace process than to kill this man?
Additionally, Kadirgamar was well known internationally. The heat on the tigers from powers outside SL is going to be turned way up now. The LTTE is anything but stupid, why would they actively seek such a thing? Why would they choose now, of all times, to hit out at a man who has been bad for the tamils for years?
The timing is what makes all of this suspicious.
And runnerwallah, look at the other articles on that site, it is entirely one sided in its ‘reporting’.
Other media reports on the situation seem to give the SL government an automatic level of credibility and trustworthiness. Those reports of LTTE surveillance come from the government; those who have followed the sri lankan conflict know that the governments word on any matter should never be taken at face value. They have just as much reason and ability to bend or create ‘truth’ to further their own interests.
cicatrix and whoa, tiger
great discussion, and i for one hope you don’t “stalemate” but continue the back and forth for the illumination of us all.
you guys got me to do some reading and catch up with the s.l. situation, which i’m ashamed to say i hadn’t been paying much attention to.
i’ve followed/studied a number of civil wars and ethnic conflicts, as well as spent time in a country divided fairly irreconcilably between government and rebels, traveling on both sides among both groups (ivory coast);
a couple of thoughts, based those experiences plus reading you guys and catching up with the news.
one is that the situation of “neither war nor peace” with clear territorial separation can go on for a long time. perhaps indefinitely. if there are impartial foreign peacekeepers securing the ceasefire line it can go on for ever. even if there are not, it can go on. two reasons why:
1/ the longer the situation persists, the more a political/military/economic elite forms on either side that has an interest in the situation staying as it is. because they have used it to capture benefits that would end if there were to be a resolution. for instance, personal travel and goods transport between two zones are usually subject to all sorts of “fees” levied at roadblocks, or even official travel permits. all that money goes somewhere.
chances are if i’m the ltte leadership or the ruling faction in the government of s.l., i’m doing very well for myself out of the continuation of the conflict at a level where it simmers — neither getting out of hand, nor moving toward a credible settlement. just a nice mutual suspicion and misunderstanding that keeps me raking in the dough.
2/ just as elites adapt, so do ordinary people. it’s amazing what people will put up with and find ways to get used to, or work around. even with guerrillas or paramilitaries or extortionate district administrators or whatever. people tend to their fields, go to the market, raise their children, hustle side jobs when they can; they put up with the hassles, take their losses, and they accept that life is cheap.
so, it’s going to take a major, major new development if this is going to change.
one could come from the “international community” but it has to feel a good reason to get off its collective ass.
another could come from change minded people in the two camps. but for the reasons above, it’s unlikely those people have much voice and/or get a fair hearing. (or stay alive.)
i read the 2003 exchange between the LTTE and GOSL on the proposed Interim Self Governing Authority. (ISGA). i’m assuming it’s a representative exchange — if it wasn’t please do correct me.
the LTTE proposal was, basically, secession minus the declaration of a separate state. clearly a non-starter. the GOSL response was a point by point refutation of each of the LTTE’s propositions. not very helpful. how about a counter-proposal?
but my real point is not about the substantive proposals but about the way they were presented. the LTTE document had this endless preamble of clauses, you know, “reaffirming that bla bla bla, conscious of the fact that bla bla, gravely concerned that bla bla” — went on for every. grandstanding blather.
the GOSL response was to take refuge in hyper-legalism, with sophisticated chapter and verse objections to whatever the LTTE said. also loads of blather.
the tendency to these kinds of discourse is typical of self-important elites that have lost touch with what ordinary people need or feel. if you’re really looking for a solution it’s a self-defeating approach. if obfuscation and delay are part of your strategy then it’s a great tactic.
ordinary people in these settings after a while are long past supporting one side or one faction or sub-faction. they’re just tired and they want it all to go way.
what do y’all think?
(in an experiment to see if there is life outside the sepia board, i will be away from my computer the rest of today. but i’ll definitely catch up with the thread later on.)
peace
Mitter my man, help me out here. Doesn’t he look suspiciously like Sammy Davis Jr. to you?
“I just have a really hard time taking the LTTE as a valid entity that represents anyone. Yes, but then, if not the LTTE, then who?”i>
We might know the answer to this question if the LTTE stopped killing off all moderate Tamil activists and political voices. Kadirigamar may have been a Sri Lankan government appointee, but the LTTE has assassinated virtually all of the moderate Tamil United Liberation Front’s (TULF’s) leadership. This includes four mayors of Jaffna who had no affiliation with the S.L Gov’t and had grassroots support from the majority of Tamils in Jaffna. They have knocked off moderate Tamil journalists, poets and writers. The Tigers brook no dissent and have initiated a deafening, political monologue through multiple mouthpieces — whether the voice is that of Balasingam, Tamilnet or the TNA, it’s basically one, unified political yell. But, just because it’s deafening, it doesn’t mean it’s beloved or even popular.
The Kadirgamar assasination cannot be veiwed in complete isolation. Despite comments to the contrary on this board, the breakaway Karuna faction (of Eastern Tigers) is having a debilitating effect on the LTTE’s ability to operate in the East — a region that they see as the economic engine of any separate state, but where they have always had serious challenges to their power (the majority of the population is Muslim and Sinhalese and the SLAF have controlled the major cities for decades). Successive leaders, sent by the Vanni Tigers to take charge of the East, have been bumped off or driven out by Karuna’s cadres. The tit-for-tat assasinations of the last year are taking their toll on the LTTE power structure, both internally and vis-a-vis the population. Don’t let Tamilnet convince you otherwise.
The Tigers have been clamoring for and virtually begging the Sri Lankan Government to clamp down on the Karuna faction. But on August 11th, the Sri Lankan Peace Secretariat explained that the Sri Lankan Government would not take enforcement action against the Karuna faction — their view is that the disupte is internal, factional fighting within the LTTE. (And some would say that the gov’t has no interest in reeling in what may have become a 5th column for the gov’t).
Within 24 hours of this announcement from the Peace Secretariat, the Tigers issued a statement that the country was being brought to the brink of war; they assassinated a Tamil journalist and her husband; they killed off a Karuna supporter; and then they assassinated Kadiragamar, who had occupied spot #2 on their hit-list for almost a decade. (In Sri Lanka, only the LTTE and the SLAF have the sophistication to kill a man who is protected by a 100-man bodyguard unit — and if you think the army did this you probably think that the trees and the rocks are quietly conspiring against you). N.B. most of yesterday’s media photographs of police cordons were actually of the security response to the killing of the two journalists not to Kadirgamar’s assassination.
It looks like the LTTE is trying to drag Sri Lanka into full-scale war — and they may succeed. Apparently, they are more concerned about their organizational stability than about P-TOMS (the tsunami relief power-sharing agreement that the Tigers and the gov’t have been working on).
Internet discussions about the Sri Lankan conflict get more intensely emoitional than postings about many other conflicts. The expatriate communities are always ready to reach for the sword. And typically the posts get personal and highly defensive. Anyone with a moderate position is witch-burned and forced to defend his/her credentials and background. Nationalist expatriates tend to dominate the discussion. It’s both sad and frightening. But, it’s also a reflection of the political discourse in Sri Lanka, which has trouble staying moderate for terribly long.
Asingamaanawar,
Many, many thanks for your comment. I hope you stay and keep posting and aren’t repelled by fools who have little to say besides calling every critic a puppet.
Cicatrix? C’mon, help me out with the Sammy Davis Jr thing … do you see a similarity or not?
Latest developments:
but
it’s a conspiracy-
More here.
Man! I just got dissed!
I don’t see the resemblance to Sammy Davis Jr. 🙂