Sengodan.M (28 Aug. 2009)

We must unite with people who matter; people who will genuinely care for our grievances; and ultimately people who will help deliver freedom to our incarcerated people. If we expect States and Heads of States and other political leaders who always act purely in the interests of their own agenda to help set our people free, we will realise too late that we were sadly mistaken in our mission. So let us all decide to follow the correct path right from now, learning from the mistakes commited in the past.

Ram Mohan (28 Aug. 2009)

Warnings are meant for those who do not see or those who cannot see and not for those who do not want to see. Dr Vickremabahu is wise enough not to waste time warning the Mahinda brothers or even the international community whoever they are. Probably Bahu is trying to collect enough friends to challenge the enemy and wish him success. We in the Tamil community have a weakness of going round and round and round the mulberry bush and getting drawn back to the loadstone rock of appealing to the International Community without defining who they are. I have no problem if the appeal is to the peoples of the world, particularly the oppressed Nations and the oppressed people but if we are appealing to the establishments (i.e. the oppressors themselves) then we are wasting our time. We can see this futility if we look at the wars of recent times and we can see a developing character. Just count the number of governments that banded to fight the Iraqi people. Count the number of governments that are fighting the Afghanistan peoples. 20 governments joined together to fight the LTTE!!! The Enemy (the oppressor ) is always united BUT THE OPPRESSED ARE ISOLATED. If we want a better future, we have to reverse this trend and not wasre time in appealing to the enemy.

Chaminda (31 Aug. 2009)

"Seven Singhalese soldiers who had been captured by the LTTE in the war were released without harm in the final days of the battle in the Wanni. By this action the LTTE had shown its respect for international war codes."

Did you forget 1. The cold blooded murder of 1000s of Police officers who surrendered to the LTTE? 2. the numerous bus bombing and civilian massacres by the LTTE?

This war was nothing but an illegal, inhumane, shameful killing spree by both sides! It’s just that in the last phase the government side was better led than the LTTE side!!

Anyone awarding the moral high ground to either side is ridiculously misinformed or indefensibly corrupt!!

Meikandan (1 Sep. 2009)

Ram Mohan, Sengodan and others: Good to join you in this forum after a long gap. I agree with your comments. There is no point in appealing to schemers and enemies. Before ceasefire 2002, we had an LTTE, that had spontaneous spirit and took forward its campaign for Tamil independence according to the needs of the struggle. But the CFA changed LTTE\'s free spirited attitude. LTTE\'s actions were weighed down by the concerns of \'what Norway or IC will think about a certain military action from them\' rather than what was the critical need of the hour of the struggle. This waiting and \'believing\' in the ever tricky IC powers, along with Tamils non-unity (Karuna, Karunanithy, et.al) contributed to the downfall.

I don\'t want to blame our fighters, but we believed wrongly that the IC had some integrity. Now it is time for us to expose the war crimes and keep the fight through political, if necessary through military means as well in the future. We need to keep at it until this Nazi sinhala state is dismantled for the good of the world.

Lets unite and actively participate in the efforts to form a Transnational government and mobilize politically.

Sonarl Puriyum (2 Sep. 2009)

Chaminda,

Are you seriously comparing the violence by both sides? You are referring to bus bombings and civilian massacres by the LTTE. Do you know about the bombings and shelling that took place in Eellam for the past several years? Even SL defence minister said, Air-Tigers dropped just a few bombs in Colombo but Sinhala Air-Force dropped more than 10,000 bombs in Eellam after MR regime got elected by less educated and uneducated Sinhalese. Before MR, thousands of bombs were dropped and shells were fired.

Any uncorrupted person will say whose violence and terrorism has been worse. GoSL was able to capture Tamil areas that LTTE controlled not because of good Sinhala leadership but because of Indian backed military and financial assistance so called authorities of sovereign states gave GoSL. For all that, allegations have been made about War Crimes. File will be kept open until justice is done.

Also please remember LTTE for a morally right cause - the just and fair Tamil Cause with the massive democratic mandates of Tamils in traditional Tamil areas but Pan-Sinhala armed forces of GoSL waged the GoSL's war to beat the Tamils into submission. The 60 year old racial and political conflict remains unresolved.

Ram Mohan (2 Sep. 2009)

Chaminda, Blaming both sides has been the ploy of all government supporters local and foreign. Rarely we can see a statement fom the media or from foreign governments (not only the 20 who engaged in the war against Tamils along with the GOSL) which does not first condemn LTTE before even making a request to the GOSL. Whether the police officers surrendered or not is disputable but they were armed officers and nobody can question what happens to the armed people. The number of prisoners of war released by the LTTE may run to thousands and it was well known that after the Tsunami, several of those released POW s went back to Wanni with relief. But I have not heard of a single LTTE cadre being released at any time. Even in the killing of civilians, nearly 400000 Tamils have been killed while the number of Sinhalese killed may be less than 3000. Certainly the figures speak volumes and quantity always determine quality. If the LTTE wanted they could have killed Sinhalese in numbers comparable to the Tamils killed but they behaved like a liberation movement. By all accounts the LTTE and the Tamils have the moral high ground like any other oppressed people. Meikandan, We have agreement on everything but in my opinion, the Transnational government is a misnomer. We can only assist the people of Eelam in their struggles in whichever form the GOSL imposes on them but we have no right to form a government on their behalf. What we should concentrate is preparation to assist them when they require. Instead of forming internet governments, should we not concentrate on campaigns to release the prisoners of war in the concentration camps and speak for their right of self determination. For that the world body of Tamils being formed is more appropriate than the internet government.

Meikandan (2 Sep. 2009)

Mr. Chaminda, before explaining moral high ground, check the facts. It is not 1000's of police officers, rather 500-600 police officers who surrendered to Mahinda's new minister and then LTTE commander of the east V. Muralitharan 'aka' Karuna. Karuna massacred the police officers despite the order from LTTE leadership to hold them (LTTE should have known then, he was a problem). Now the same devil Karuna is sleeping in the corridors of Sri Lankan parliament. Are you not ashamed of your leaders who embraced him??

So much talk about bus bombing. These bus bombings took place once in a blue moon. But Tamils endured daily slaughter by SLAF planes, shells, and marauding SLA goons. Truth is bitter. You need to be bold enough to talk about the death of 130000 Tamils killed by your SLA, whereas the number of total sinhalese civilians killed by LTTE attacks is less than 5000 in the last 35 years. Rather, the UNP government killed 80000 sinhalese in the name of JVP annihilation. So, the sinhalese governemtns have proved themselves to be barbaric by killing in total more than 200000 of the Sri Lankan population.

What do you have to say about recent Channel 4 video?? You cannot fool the world for so long. Also remember, the world citizens are more humane than the 'Nazi' minded lot in the sinhala south.

About being better lead: It does not take much excellent leadership to demolish villages, massacre people and win a war when 25 countries support you and no aid agency is allowed to help the wounded people.

Don't ever dream you can live in peace after massacring 50000 people in Wanni. The destabilization of the Mahinda lead Sri Lanka is the ambition of every tamil around the world.

Your honeymoon with countries will run out at some point (Remember Saddam Hussein, when they needed him the countries allowed him to gas and massacre Kurds, but when he got cocky, they destroyed his regime. So, Mahinda aiya, be careful).

Meikandan (4 Sep. 2009)

Ram Mohan, I agree with you that we have to continuously campaign for the release of Wanni people from the camps. On the transnational government is not a bad idea as long as it is coordinated well with the Tamil struggle in Tamil Eelam and could be useful in forming a supportive global political alliance for our struggle by the time the right conditions arrive for a solution. Lets not call it prematurely any names like internet government. Because, fighting among ourselves only weakens us.

Like you suggested, forming a global tamil organization (much like the World Jewish Congress) is very good and we need such organization to keep the diaspora mobilized all the time. But, what we need is good coordination and clearly defined objectives and effort for whether it is transnational government or world tamil organization. Let's say if the objectives of the two organizations merge in to one, then we can settle for a world tamil organization.

In my personal opinion, in order for either type of organization to succeed, Tamils need to organize and unite themselves and be strong financially and play significant role in the world economies and politics (as MPs, councillors, etc.) in their diaspora countries. Otherwise, none of our countries will take us seriously.

Anonymous (4 Sep. 2009)

Meikandan need to be congatulated for repeating the facts beofore 2002 peace deal and now this murderer supporting the govt against ltte and the govt senf out its rept to propaganda saying they have a tamil s national partt rept and the lections are heald in jaffna and it is the tamils diaspora against peace in sl.

unless tamils diaspora leadership stand up tell the world as it is the facts, sl repts will tell lies after lies and it will become truth. why on earth you give sinhalese racist on this site to propagate their lies to the world discrediting eelam tamils except karuna and his hench men.

Arul (5 Sep. 2009)

Can someone please do something about all these development projects that are taking off in Sri Lanka? We need to punish Sri Lanka for its atrocities.

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=759

Protest in front of embassies, especially Indian and Chinese

Ram Mohan (6 Sep. 2009)

Meikandan, I share your concerns and I am fully aware that we are very clear on our obkjectives. When we are clear about the objectives, discussions and disagreements on the type of organisations is not going to weaken us. Let us develop organisations answerable to the members in terms of the objectives and actions to pursue them instead of umbrella organisations of umbrellas taking ages to draft constitutions. The Diaspora was very active during the war but was waiting that the world organisations will give leadership to liberate the prisoners of war. If the world bodies are going to remain in the traps the Tamil people have been led into by the international community, then there will be no salvation. It may be better to revert to the activities by the Diaspora during the war and build unity between National organisations as a precursor to a world body.

Sengodan.M (7 Sep. 2009)

The best model for a global body for Tamils is to have branches in individual countries with a subscribing membership and elected leadership.These two are key factors for an organisation to function openly, democratically and effectively. In some countries we have unfortunately been used to 'lifetime leaderships' and unsubscribing and unquestioning members all of which are unhealthy and therefore to be avoided. I believe that both Meikandan and Ram Mohan will agree with me on this.