97 thoughts on “Prabhakaran = Boomerang”

1. I agree with louiecypher, and am remiss in commending him for saying so, that several socially advantaged castes in TN perpetrated disagreeable and reprehensible policies toward the weaker section. Unfortunately that continues even to this day, even while many claim to be “backward” and lobby for benefits that were meant for the weak and I commend again louiecypher for seeing through that, and expressing his distate and disagreement with that.

   Second, it is my experience that SL society (prior to the outbreak of civil war) wasn’t going to the dogs as someone claimed in a posting. The SL Tamils I knew enjoyed a higher standard of living than TN Tamils until the outbreak of civil war in SL.

   Please let’s now abstract ourselves a level up as I’d like to highlight attention back to a parallel I see between events in SL and TN societies that somehow seem to have escaped the attention of analysts, pundits, meda, and the politicians.

   The Sinhalese spout forth certain “reasons” why they had it bad and how the policies enacted in 1970 or so redress their grievances. The Tamils in TN spout forth “reasons” that don’t seem that different.
   The SL Tamils suffered many public atrocities. The “forward castes” in TN suffered many public atrocities (but one can argue the magnitudes vary) The Tamils in SL fled, took to arms and there’s a civil war raging for a couple+ decades in SL. The Tamils in TN support(ed) the Tamils in SL.

   What I’m trying to do is point out to the SL Tamils and the TN Tamils that the TN “forward castes” suffer(ed) in ways similar to the SL Tamils, and it is rank hypocrisy to ignore the abuses inflicted by the TN Tamils today (and in the last couple decades) on the “forward castes” while professing empathy for the abuses suffered by the SL Tamils today (and in the last couple decades) at the hands of the SL Sinhalese.

2. 49

   “The JVP in the south of the country and the LTTE in the north. No doubt the LTTE was seen at the time as the lesser of the two evils”

   Oh come on, the JVP seen as a greater threat than LTTE by Colombo, no way I believe that.

   The Sinhalese ultra-nationalists (who dominate the oficer ranks of the armed forces) always felt given enough “room” they could finish off the LTTE and hence the “tamil problem”. This demographic has an intense hatered anythng Indian (from the colonial days) and could imagine no greater humiliation than Indian soldiers on this soil. The IPKF was seen as an opportunity to give Indian such a bloody nose that they would never again dare intervene in SL. (They surely succeeded, didnt they!)

3. So this is my perplexity – on the one hand you have a country with a very decent literacy rate, very little economic deprivation – similar in culture to indian states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu. But at the same time, unlike Kerala and Tamil Nadu, this country is embroiled in an infinite civil war since the past 20 years!!

   Wow, this is even worse than the Kashmir situation (low literacy, dispute began with independence, plenty of money from saudi friends and no shortage of paki jihadis) or most parts of the indian northeast (not well integrated into india, lots of tribes that want to kill each other off).

   What gives? What is the high-level story here? I am trying to understand those aspects of Sri Lankan society that are somehow OK with this current situation. What was the nature of the sri lankan freedom struggle? Was there a broad civil society movement? Why was it so easy to define the tamils as the privileged “others” who have to be suppressed. And what the hell is a “fascist bhikhu” anyway?

4. 52: No, sorry. I don’t buy it. You forget that the JVP was dominating the electoral heartland of many aspiring politicians and that the influence of the JVP could be felt in demonstrations and civil disruptions inside Colombo on an almost daily basis.

   To the politicians in Colombo; the LTTE was always something that happened in the north with the occasional spillover in the form of a bomb somewhere in the city. The JVP was in their faces, every single day. The JVP was also smart enough to make several populist gestures (like publicly humiliating corrupt village and city officials and minor politicians). Of course the JVP was a bigger threat. The LTTE didn’t control enough territory or people at the time to sway an election. The JVP most emphatically did.

   Perhaps there was private cheering in the nationalist elements of the military when the Indians got a bloody nose. I myself don’t think so, but my second and third hand anecdotes don’t make a case either way. By the way, most (though not all) of the senior military who might have had any memory of the colonial era were given mandatory retirement when the government changed in ’77. I would personally doubt your theory on that basis alone.

5. And what the hell is a “fascist bhikhu” anyway?

   A fascist bhikku is a nominally Theravada Buddhist monk who is not following the dhamma and only concerns himself with maintaining Sinhala culture. Some people who don’t understand Buddhism or Hinduism will toss out terms like “Hindu fundamentalist” or “Buddhist fundamentalist”. Neither of these terms make any sense….in both cases they are not concerned with theology but rather maintaining a culture that only existed in some imagined past. Some groups like SAJA get it all wrong and as a result you now see background like “mostly Buddhist Sinhalese” or “mostly Hindu Tamils” in articles when this does nothing to explain the animus. In SL you have fascist monks who don’t want to aknowledge the multi-ethnic nature of SL society. They don’t like to see the syncretism (e.g. Kataragama) that has been typical of Sri Lankan society excepting the last 50 years

6. What I’m trying to do is point out to the SL Tamils and the TN Tamils that the TN “forward castes” suffer(ed) in ways similar to the SL Tamils, and it is rank hypocrisy to ignore the abuses inflicted by the TN Tamils *today* (and in the last couple decades) on the “forward castes” while professing empathy for the abuses suffered by the SL Tamils *today* (and in the last couple decades) at the hands of the SL Sinhalese.

   Are you seriously comparing abuses suffered at the hands of “forward castes” for thousands of year to the open quota for universities in the last couple of decades? Very narrow look you got there.

7. I’m seriously comparing the experience of the “forward caste” in TN in the last few decades to that of the SL Tamils in SL over the same period. Both have been discriminated against for reasons claimed by the majority in those regions that seem to have more in common than different. One took to arms, the other has been silent. It must take a very odd and narrow look to support the tribulations of the former while inflicting the latter to the same.

   Sno’s read of my position is myopic and his projection of his narrow look onto me is too transparent to invite a rebuttal. Should he be reminded that the ones that deserve help owing to discrimination suffered for many years still find that help wanting, as it has been usurped by everyone else? That is off topic here–as this discusion is about the experiences of SL Tamils, SL and TN societal parallels, etc.–and merits a separate thread.

8. I’m seriously comparing the experience of the “forward caste” in TN in the last few decades to that of the SL Tamils in SL over the same period

   .

   Irony:Sure restrict yourself to the comtemporary period…..of course dynamics between communities is a Markov chain with the past having no impact on the present.

   That is off topic here–as this discusion is about the experiences of SL Tamils, SL and TN societal parallels, etc.–and merits a separate thread.

   Agreed that it is a separate thread on a different blog…setup something on blogspot and I will join you there

9. 54

   Did you actually live in Colombo in those days? IF yes, then maybe I did not realize how serious the JVP threat was. Thanks for enlightening me.

10. 53 Al beruni

    Wow, this is even worse than the Kashmir situation (low literacy, dispute began with independence, plenty of money from saudi friends and no shortage of paki jihadis) or most parts of the indian northeast (not well integrated into india, lots of tribes that want to kill each other off).

    This needs to be taken up somewhere else, but clearly you think that the Indian government has done nothing wrong in either Kashmir or the northeast, huh? Off topic, I admit, but seriously…!

11. Al Beruni, here’s my brief take on your questions. I write as a SL Tamil that lived in SL and TN and very familiar with the trains of thought and events that led from one thing to another in both areas.

    The SL freedom struggle was led by Sinhalese and Tamils, with the latter disproportionately represented in the leadership levels relative to their presence in the population. For a variety of reasons SL Tamils were better educated and owing to that were a large presence in the colonial bureacracy. This of course led to a mindset amongst the Sinhalese that they were cronies of the colonists and working with them, deprived the Sinhalese of their rights to education, progress, jobs, and all that matters. Academia, administration, banks and other govt/service jobs were the primary vocations of the middle and upper middle class SL Tamils, and owing to their large presence in those jobs and the nature of the interactions that led between them and the Sinhalese, the Sinhalese resentments grew. And those resentments were blown up and exploited for votes by the Sinhalese politicos once democracy dawned on SL. How better to get someone’s attention and get their vote than to play up their fears and resentments, present a mythological past and an imminent threat, and present the Sinhalese community as one that has been abused, exploited, and now was at the cusp of regaining its former glory?

    The Sinhalese politicians weren’t that different from what I observed of the TN (i.e., the DK and its derivatives: DMK, AIDMK, etc.) and the populace equally vulnerable to narratives of the opportunity at hand to redress past abuses at the hands of a few, etc.

12. And does anyone know how much sympathy/solidarity Indian Tamils have with the Sri-Lankan Tamil independence movement? I stress the Tamil independence movement and not the LTTE.

    People have given a picture of the political sympathy thus far. I want to try and describe the public sentiments to some extent.

    Indian Tamils (the public) had a lot of sympathy in the 80s, especially after the riots and the attacks and waves of refugees (representing different socioeconomic classes) reached our shores. Home owners rented houses/apartments without asking questions, business owners gave daily-wage jobs to the ‘boys’ who escaped profiling by the SL army and recruiting by the various Tamil orgs, schools admitted students at all times of the year (school admisiions is a big deal in India), there was even a quota at college-level, I think (somebody correct me if I am wrong). All the different Tamil factions enjoyed the support and confidence of both the Central Govt (leaders) and the TN State Govt (leaders). RAW supposedly knew which faction was in which part of town, what their movements were, whom they met with, where their funding came from. And it was open knowledge that training camps functioned near places like Thanjavur, Madurai, Dharmapuri and Tiruchy but it did not faze people much in the beginning.

    But this feeling of sympathy and solidarity would not last very long and was never unconditional. The public soon realized that it was difficult to distinguish between families (that it sort of identified with) and the ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ who were actively part of the movement (that it found hard to identify with as they went back and forth by boats, and talked and lived ideology, and carried concealed weapons; sometimes the original tenant ‘disappeared’ leaving behind say 10 others, perhaps, making the home owner nervous). As the determined fighting between LTTE and the other factions escalated on TN soil, the public became nervous, impatient and unforgiving. TELO members were assasinated in their rented apartment in a crowded part of Chennai, and this could have been one of the final pieces of straw. Home owners who rented to other factions like PLOTE, EPRLF received bomb threats (presumably from LTTE), and were hence reluctant to be seen as sympathetic to anybody. There was also some bank robbery by disillusioned, starving and leaderless youngsters (I forget which faction) in the late 80s/early 90s which did not sit well with the newspapers and the public. By then, people were weary of everything Tamil or Sri Lankan. By then also, the ‘excitement’ and the ‘revolutionary’ factor also must have died down in the minds of the public.

    The real tragedy, to me, involves all those young men and women, some as young as 14, whose lives were snuffed out early or whose options for living and finding their place in the world were narrowed.

    What I’m trying to do is point out to the SL Tamils and the TN Tamils that the TN “forward castes” suffer(ed) in ways similar to the SL Tamils,

    Are you not trivializing the SL Tamil situation in the 80s by putting it on par with the problems of the forward castes in TN in the 80s or since then. Have there been violent and bloody pogroms directed at forward castes in TN in the 80s?

13. Show some respect for tamil national hero. We tamils stand by him and support the our right to independece. We are the founders of the island. Check out our supporters @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP-hBhtbjgg

14. There was also some bank robbery by disillusioned, starving and leaderless youngsters (I forget which faction) in the late 80s/early 90s which did not sit well with the newspapers and the public

    Confirming the above statement from Malathi. There are different types of Tamil identity and it varies by district and community. The coastal communities & areas like Madurai were the primary sources of “Indian Tamil” plantation labor in Sri Lanka during the Brit period and probably had the deepest sympathies. Other districts/communities like mine had no skin in the game…no relatives in Sri Lanka at all and were sympathetic to the cause prior to the wave of violent home invasions by the youth Malathi describes above and the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. They lost a significant amount of revenue base through that action…..you can’t go to any shrine room in my community without seeing garlanded pictures of the entire Nehru clan (even if they don’t necessarily vote Congress). The SL returned “Indian Tamils” who were trying to integrate into TN suffered the most, there was/is a great deal of suspicion towards them

15. In the mid-to-late ’80s businessmen, shopkeepers, etc. in TN were periodically harangued to contribute money to the SL Tamil cause. Initially they did it with few reservations but as the demands grew more frequent they found it onerous which led to threats and insinuations and outright manhandling and robberies and at the point, the sympathy and solidarity for the plight of the SL Tamils amongst the rank and file Tamils in TN started fading away. “Donor fatigue” and of course what transpired since the Accord accelerated the emotional distancing.

    Are you not trivializing the SL Tamil situation in the 80s by putting it on par with the problems of the forward castes in TN in the 80s or since >then. Have there been violent and bloody pogroms directed at forward castes in TN in the 80s?

    We feel our pain foremost. However deep our empathy our neighbor’s pain seldom compares to our’s. Granted libraries weren’t burnt and such. Temples were violated, sacred threads cut in public, priests slapped around and humiliated in public. So, while there may not have been violent, bloody pogroms of the kind experienced by the SL Tamils, there were many atrocities visited upon the TN’s “forward castes” by hooligans that the rest of TN society remained silent about or even approved. The narratives of the Sinhalese and the TN politicians are eerily similar in nature, with a lot more in common than different.

16. Temples were violated, sacred threads cut in public, priests slapped around and humiliated in public.

    That’s right, these weren’t aberrations. You can’t go to Madurai without hearing the sound of priests being slapped in the sancta sanctorum by thread cutting dravidianists. The anti-Brahmin sentiment is so strong that the only jobs open to them are the Chief Minister spot

    We feel our pain foremost.

    Yes we all feel the pain we have been subjected to. Some bawl enough for 100. You are a troll.

17. You are a troll.

    Based on past comments from that IP, possible. Don’t feed.

18. Some find it easier to empathize with, relate to, and pontificate on matters distant to them while condoning (and even benefiting from) similar events in their own neighborhood. And louielouiecypher’s postings here confirm he is one such. Louielouiecypher, you are a cypher and it takes something for a cypher to call someone else names.

19. All right, enough. Back on topic, please.

20. Irony,

    Let’s drop the name calling. Being a part of the “forward” caste, I think you are exaggerating some small incident. I would like to see some data to back up your claims.

    People beat other people up for reasons besides religion, you do know that right? And if we went by your logic, at some point every religion / caste has been subjected to atrocities.

21. So, while there may not have been violent, bloody pogroms of the kind experienced by the SL Tamils, there were many atrocities visited upon the TN’s “forward castes” by hooligans that the rest of TN society remained silent about or even approved.

    I don’t understand your point at all. Hooligans (for hire or for the heck of it) are everywhere in India and they slap around or humiliate anybody who sticks out: a mini-skirted girl out alone at 9 p.m.; the lone parents of a NRI sitting on a prime piece of property that the local politician is eyeing and wants to acquire at minimal cost; a rural inter-caste/inter-religious love pair; or a hapless priest in a small temple somewhere whose turn it is to be today’s scapegoat so people come out to vote in next week’s elections. And people remain silent or even ‘approve’ as in the case of a young, upper class woman attacked in Mumbai late at night several months ago.

    But to tell that I, as a non forward caste member of Indian society–along with my family and larger community in India–am ‘remaining silent or approving’ of atrocities on the forward castes on the scale of SL govt’s systematic pogroms is unwise and counterproductive for your cause, when there are no similar systematic bloody pogroms in TN. Forward castes have their legitimate problems today, yes, but I respectfully suggest that you are currently exaggerating. If and when there will be a similar situation, you can draw such a parallel.

22. Oh, I didn’t see that bit about possible troll in time (i take so long to type). Sorry. Ok, no more feeding the troll on my part.

23. Isn’t it a bit too sweet to ask me to drop the name calling? who started it and what’s the reason behind condoning it?

    Second, I am not a “forward caste” but my experiences in SL and TN have sensitized me very much to parallels I see between my experiences in SL as a Tamil and institutionalized, discriminatory practices (since the 70s) in TN society and politics. The SL Tamil experience is chronicled, covered by the media and one can argue whether it is sufficient or not but it’s there and we can’t say the same about what’s going on in TN to the same extent. What comes up is dismissed as aberrations, “some small incident”, and such and that for me reminds a lot of the hand wringing, apathy, and sheer disinterest on the part of the Sinhalese when they were confronted with what their cohorts practiced against SL Tamils

    Sure, every religion/caste has been subject to atrocities and engaged in them (when they had the chance) so what gives the sole focus on what was practiced by the “forward castes” in TN and the blanket silence on the involvement of the rest (save for those at the very bottom)?

24. the Singhalese in SL too claim the SL Tamils discriminated actively against the Singhalese, benefited disproportionately from the British and colonial period, exercised power far in excess of their representation in society, etc. and the new policies were meant to address those discrepancies. Not that different from what the TN politicos have been advocating as well….

    Going back 2 generations, my family has been fluent in English because they attended either Methodist or Jesuit/Catholic schools–english-medium schooling divided higher SES Tamils from lower SES Tamils as well as higher SES Singhalese from lower SES Singhalese.

    When my grandmother was attending a Methodist grammar school, she was fined the equivalent for 10 cents for every word she spoke in Tamil. That doesn’t really sound like oppression of Singhala speakers to me–it was the climate of colonial-era SL, where English was king because it was the language of the rulers and the only sure route to elevating your SES and economic opportunity.

25. crap,

    I missed the troll indicator as well.

    my sincere apologies people.

26. Having served with FM Slim in Burma from late 44 on, I can testify to the efficacy of Piat-launched solid-state LATTE shaped charges against all variants of the Tiger, up to and including the Mark 6.

    Best way to take a Tiger, BTW, was to bounce the LATTE in from a distance of 50M or less and holistically realign his “soft underbelly”.

    The weapons system was so effective that tigers became an endangered species.

    The use of solid-state LATTE munitions was subsequently prohibited in the PETA Protocols to the Fourth Geneva Conventions.

27. 37 muralimannered

    what is exactly was/is your metric for ‘going to the dogs.’ And are you suggesting that there was a monolithic Sri-Lankan culture of genocide?

    –> From what I remember, that(monolithic SL culture of genocide) was the coverage in tamil magazines and newspapers at that time. I made the ‘going to the dogs’ comment with respect to the ‘cleansing’. I used to watch SL TV and listen to radio(whatever we got at that time) and appreciated their programmes more than the lousy DD.

    By that standard, nebulous as it is, could you not say that in TN, at least judging from the movies, there is a culture that glorifies high caste-low caste rape, senseless maulings and suicide as a means of escaping soluble problems?

    –> You can use the same movies to call TN a culture that operates on a different set of physical laws(rajni movies), obsession with fair skin(almost every tamil movie) too.

    39 muralimannered

    What a good little nationalist you are! Please remind us all of this sentiment, the next time a natural disaster occurrs in the TN area.

    –> This is a discussion on a man(or woman) made problem that should stayed as an internal SL issue. My interest is strictly about wasting indian soldiers lives on a faulty foreign policy. Nice going, though, with the holier-than-thou attitude.

    In fact, I would encourage you to inform all of your acquaintances of your rather cavalier attitude towards human suffering–it should give them ample time to prepare for the day of their greatest need in which you giggle and shamble away.

    —> I bow to thee on the breadth of your empathy. You are a greater man(or woman) for it. Now, there, satisfied ?

28. Hooligans (for hire or for the heck of it) are everywhere in India and they slap around or humiliate anybody who sticks out

    Would you agree it’s worse when those hooligans are the body of political parties and sanctioned by party leaders and protected by the institutions? It was despicable for the Congress party leaders to encourage/participate in/lead a pogrom against the Sikhs during the riots in 1984, it was so for the Sinhala leaders to do the same in 1983 (and earlier too), and likewise for the DK regime (and its derivatives) in the TN of 1970 and later.

    there are no similar systematic bloody pogroms in TN.

    Bloody, it isn’t. I agree. Does it have to be bloody to get our attention? The discriminatory policies of the Sinhala govt were already strangulating the SL Tamil upper and middle classes, leading many in my family to leave the country for education abroad. The riots only made it worse and for a larger section of the population. Conflagrations, blood-letting, etc. may signify a turn for the worse but it’s equally possible to kill something by slowly raising the temperature (blocking university admissions, etc. as was the case in SL and in TN, though for different populaces; funny thing is, the ones enforcing and benefiting from those policies in TN seem to be the most vehement in their support for the SL Tamil cause, as I’ve been trying to point out.)

29. SM Intern:

    Is Irony == TamBrahm ??

    He/She brought up this weird theory that In Tamil movies it is very common for an ‘upper caste’ fair skinned person to rape low caste women and then gloat over it.. And now people are using the same theory to justify something else.. I have seen many movies and have not come across anyone movie in which the castes of the protagonists are explicitly mentioned unless it is for “glorifying”.. This guy is a troll comparing the so called “forward caste” discrimination in academia in Tamilnadu to the ethnic cleansing / aerial bombing in Lanka etc..

    I think the public in Tamilnadu do support Srilankan Tamils, I have not heard any major political leader siding with the Sinhala leaders. There are some parties like the MDMK (Vaiko) / PMK (Vanniyars) / Viduthalai Siruthaigal (Dalit party) who explicitly support LTTE and DMK (the current ruling party) is ambivalent.. It is only the ADMK and in particular Jayalalitha who is against LTTE and even she supports Srilankan Tamils for their ‘legitimate rights’. Even the latest actor / party in town of Vijayakanth is ambivalent about LTTE. He became famous for his movie “Captain Prabhakaran” and has named his son Prabhakaran..

    I was a kid who grew up in suburban Chennai in the 80s when the air is full of pro-Tamil eelam sentiments.. Slowly violent incidents / shootings / spillovers from the trouble in Lanka took its toll. and Rajiv Gandhi assasination was the last straw for any public claim of support for LTTE but I believe there is still a lot of underground support..

30. Is Irony == TamBrahm ??

    No.

31. Is Irony == TamBrahm ?? No.

    Ok, Thanks.

32. That’s what we’re here for. 🙂

33. Ha, ha, caste wars at SM, ya gotta love it. I’m a TamBrahm (will someone standarize the spelling of this monicker, please?) and I agree that it trivializes the historical treatment of the “non-forward” community by the TamBrahm community to have the post-DK/DMK experience of the TamBrahms equated to it.

    Yes, “kudimis” were cut off, people like my uncle were chased down the street and had their sacred threads (“poonals”) cut, and getting admissions into a TN college has been a real b*#@% for the TamBrahms since 1967 or so… But great suffering and ignominy? That’s just plain absurd.

    I clearly remember the arrogant nastiness with which many TamBrahms treated those outside their caste. TamBrahms were terrified of merely making physical contact with the others outside the home, let alone having them come inside. Every TamBrahm expected to be addressed as “Sami” or “Amma” (i.e. “Lord” and “Mother”).

    And when the TamBrahms gained entry into the English-language educational and government system in the late 19th c., they monopolized it. Honorable individual exceptions to the rule existed, I’m sure, but TamBrahms (as a group) to this day have not apologized for their historical contempt and nastiness towards the other castes. Whether they also dominated in an economic sense is less clear.

    All that being as it may, my own point of view is that TamBrahms are bona-fide Tamils, albeit with their own sub-culture and dialect. And as long as they are willing to acknowledge they are just one group amongst the crowd of communities and be neigbourly I suppose they have a right to be treated in a neighbourly fashion.

    BTW, will someone please explain to me the etymology of the term “forward community” in English and/or Tamil? There’s some kind of curious PC/sensitive/semantic coding thing going on which I don’t quite understand.

34. BTW, will someone please explain to me the etymology of the term “forward community” in English and/or Tamil? There’s some kind of curious PC/sensitive/semantic coding thing going on which I don’t quite understand.

    I think the Indian constitution provides for reservations / affirmative action to the “socially and educationally backward” classes/castes and I believe the opposite is taken as “socially and educationally forward classes/castes and hence the name “forward castes”..

35. Coming back to the blog,

    Ranjith Soysa, spokesperson for the Melbourne-based Society for Peace, Unity and Human Rights, (SPUR) told the Asian Tribune that “India had to pay heavily for her stupidity.” He added: “This shows that India cannot be trusted as a reliable friend, partner or neighbour. Our politicians like Ranil Wickremesinghe who run to India asking for help should open their eyes and realize at least now that Indians will always be unreliable cut-throats. India has not yet learned from history. India is still playing the double game.”

    This is similar to how a Russian who fought in Afghanistan in 80s / Afghan communists would refer to the American intervention in Afghanistan during 80s.. when America supported the “jihadis” against the communists / Soviets.

    India supported the various Tamil groups at that time because that was what made sense then..

36. pass the roti:

    I looked at your full post–excuse my ignorance–but I didn’t get the thrust of your post–who is wrong here–what is the “disaster”–deeply puzzled….

37. yeah… SPUR is not your best source of unbiased information, there are alot of partisan groups here that purport to be for peace in Lanka but parrot the same tired old sinhala nationalist claptrap.

    muralimannered, your views are very much appreciated and informative. your grandmother’s experience was pretty universal, i gather.

    can we please stick to talking about the situation in Lanka and India’s invovlement and not get into indian caste politics?

38. I’ve seen some of the propaganda films put together by the SL Defence News and they are just so bloody awful and really insulting to our intelligence. The images of one video I’ve seen show 3 SL soldiers helping one elderly Tamil woman, soldiers handing out food and clothing to masses of Tamil civilians who have fled from their homes to get, topped off by cheesey background music and a biased commentary about who is to blame for these Tamils being forced under these conditions.

    Here’s one:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YIiNu120sM

    A real publicty shot for the Sri-Lankan defence forces which Sinhalese seem to buy into all too easily. TamilNet is far more sophisticated then this bullshit.

    To think that Sri-Lankans are bombarded with images like this on a daily basis in Sri-Lanka is depressing. Nobody seems to give a shit what is happening to the Tamil civilians; in my opinion the GoSL are far more guilty then the LTTE who have been reduced to pariah status.

39. can we please stick to talking about the situation in Lanka and India’s invovlement and not get into indian caste politics?

    I would second that.

40. I would second that.

    oh, SM Intern, when did the vinegar evaporate from your admonitions to keep it on topic?

    I miss the days of hellfire and brimstone.

41. For another fictional but informative take on the war in Sri Lanka try “Playing Lions and Tigers” by Rohini Hensman (excerpt here). I don’t think it’s available online but anyone who lives in the bay area can pick it up at Black Oak Books — she did a reading there a little while back.

42. Meanwhile the militant ituation in SL continues to …ummm… inspire great filmmakers

43. Video of the Sri Lankan sailor, who as part of gaurd of honour attached Rajiv Gandhi

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP4nGOI8wBY

44. Anna, I was on ‘pass the roti’ today (Aug 15) and came upon this, dated Aug 8, and was quite surprised and personally sheepish that even I didn’t quite catch it. I was more surprised that you didn’t UPDATE your blog. You have UPDATED for lesser reasons in the past. I see now that your blog is ‘reader linked’ to the serious discussion on ‘pass the roti’ about this issue of ‘scoop’. But I did not catch it in time, and I wonder how many others were as stupid as me; and as restricted with their time as me to stick to one site.

    I am sorry if this sounds harsh, but my personal opinion is that there should be an UPDATE or a highlight underlining the controversy. Anything less is irresponsible. Which you have a right to be, whether I (despite my stupidity) find it troubling or not.

45. In case any one, skimming quickly, doesn’t catch what’s going on (perhaps like Rob in #86?) see Act III of the post and the comments that follow .

46. HI MY FRIENDS THIS IS NEW TOPICS WHAT YOU GUY’S THINK ABOUT THIS MAN & WHAT YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS PLEASE START WRITING TO SOMETHING Former military officer seeking asylum? Sri Lanka’s Intelligence Officer in Jakarta, Capt. Mohamed Nilam has gone missing after he completed his tour of duty. Both the Foreign Ministry, and the Directorate of Foreign Intelligence (DFI) are now trying to ascertain whether he secretly negotiated asylum and fled to a foreign country after failing to persuade the Government to grant him a new posting.

    Captain Nilam, who figured in the mistaken Police raid on the Army’s intelligence cell at Athurugiriya was regarded as a high profile LTTE target and was posted to Jakarta. Captain Nilam worked with the Army’s Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) and his private house was used as an intellgence cell for operations in the East. When the Police conducted a raid, a large variety of military hardware including clay more mines were found. Intelligence sources told The Sunday Times Captain Nilam had sought an extended term of three months. “It was granted. During that period his replacement had arrived in Jakarta and he was expected to brief him and remain at the station until the extended period was over. Without anyone’s knowledge he had disappeared with his family,” the source said. Lieutenant Commander Tuan Putra Halaldeen has already assumed duties at the Embassy in Jakarta.

    Whilst in Jakarta, Captain Nilam was reporting to the Directorate of Foreign Intelligence though he belonged to the Directorate of Military Intelligence

47. Malathi, I don’t know what is wrong, because I don’t remember you being this unfair in the past but

    a) I was doped up on painkillers when I wrote this (see: stupor, ankle reference)

    b) Right now (and when I wrote this) I don’t have time to do updates to every post AND moderate the site, I’m sorry if you think I am being selective with updating. I’m sorry that you think my “priorities” for updating are not up to your standards. I do the best I can, in the hopes that I will be understood, not lambasted

    c) We are on hiatus, which by definition means we’re going to less

    d) In this post, which I regret a 1000x now, I never said I had all the answers. That’s why I naively put up the post, I was interested in learning more. When did that turn in to a crime? You guys know so much more than I ever will, what, I’m not allowed to ask? The PTR trackback link is sent automatically, I didn’t add it and then not update this.

    Thanks for reminding me why I should not post about Sri Lanka ever again…between PTR’s unnecessarily harsh condemnation of this post, hate mail which celebrates my being assaulted and now you, a commenter I have long respected and looked forward to…reacting…like this…I’m left thinking that I should avoid it, completely. I’m not perfect, I’m not brilliant and that is why this is not my day job. I don’t get paid for this– but I do deserve courtesy, respect and when I’m in a huge, heavy cast with a serious injury, maybe a tiny bit of slack for giving this my best. Your words are hurtful. They make me wonder why I bother, at all. If you get to rant all over me and speak your mind, so do I. I’m just frustrated that I didn’t see your comment earlier (which proves that you’re not the only one whose time is “restricted”).