Ohh boy, the LTTE have set off another car bomb 2 mins away from my house :(

[e-LAN-go]

bsodmike, you are misinformed. The LTTE were targetting Generals of the Sri Lankan Armed Forces and NOT the Pakistani Ambassador. The Pakistani Ambassador was travelling alongside a convoy of Sri Lankan military top brass. This is a civil war and they have no reason to attack the Pakastani Ambasador, remember the Pakistani Government do support the Palestinian cause.

The female suicide bomber that targetted General Fonsaka of the Sri Lankan Military was NOT pregnant. She was PRETENDING to be pregnant. Do you really think that a pregnant woman carrying a baby in her womb could also have the space and the manouverability to carry a suicide pack.

The Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission(a legitimate and internationally recognized peace monitoring organisation led by the Royal Norwegian Government that monitor the Ceasefire Agreement in Sri Lanka) have confirmed and acknowledged that the Sri Lankan Government sponsor paramilitary's along with the Sri Lankan Army to wipe out Tamil men, women and children(including babies). The SLMM condemn this act of genocide by the Sri Lankan Government.

This whole war is about genocide and the persucution of Sri Lankan Tamils by a bigotted government. If you you really want a true perspective of why the whole war started why don't you read 'Fighting Scared' by Robin Horsfall. Robin Horsfall was an Ex-SAS soldier who shot and killed one of the terrorist at the Iranian Embassy Siege. After the SAS he trained the Sri Lankan Army's Special Task Force during the 1980's to combat the LTTE. What he saw in Sri Lanka was a real shock to him. He realised that the Tamil people, being the social elite in education, business, employment etc were persucuted by the majority population of Sinhalese because of their achievements. The Sri Lankan government had instigated Anti-Tamil propaganda and had sponsored riots and killings by their Armed Forces to wipe out Tamil people. This effectively was genocide or to put it better, a Holocaust. The Tamil people cried out to the international community to help them but the Sri Lankan Government blocked their calls for help by controlling the media sending their diplomats to foreign countries to convince them that nothing was going on. The only people thing that was protecting the Tamil people from the Genocide of the Sri Lankan Armed forces were the LTTE(which is how they started out after race riots against Tamil people). Robin Horsfall saw this and was disgusted, despite taking out the Provisional IRA and Loyalist in Northern Ireland and killing terrorists at the Embassy Siege. Eventually after 3 months Robin Horsfall left Sri Lanka realising that he as he quotes in his book 'I came to the conclusion that I was fighting for the wrong side. The information that continually flooded in to me from the other Britons working in the country painted a picture of a bigoted Government, supressing a minority in similar way to how the Nazi's treated the Jews in WWII. They controlled the media and most foreign correspondents. The Tamils had my sympathy and I no longer wished to stay'.

I suggest that you read this book 'Fighting Scared' by Robin Horsfall(ISBN: 0304364622). Remember this guy has appeared on the BBC and Sky news giving advice about counter terrorism.

On a personal note I was very disappointed when I read your comments about the LTTE when you don't have an informed opinion about the conflict. There are two sides to every story and you have only looked at one of them.

Thanks, Shanker (e-LAN-go's brother).

[bsodmike]

Wow, seems like we have our own pro-LTTE member.... go figure, he's based in London too O_o

Next thing, we'll have someone else popping around saying that Osama is a saint and that Saddam really didn't *mean* half of what he did. I guess we can go round and round in circles - at least that's what the LTTE and the govt. of Sri Lanka have been doing for the past 23 years. It's upto you to side with whomever you want, but siding with terrorists is a 'nono' in my book and tbh it's probably the case with most people now since they have come to experience 'terror' first hand. It is quite ridiculous to see people putting the Tamil people up on a pedestal when they are the ones resorting to acts of terrorism against innocent civilians AND fellow tamils in the process.

You go to say that she didn't have a baby in her belly. I'm not going to argue about the possibility of having a baby + bomb in whatever area(s) of her body, but considering that substances like C4 can be moulded to any shape ....anything is possible. Afterall, what we hear is after the media put their spin on it, and this is the case anywhere. Still you make it sound GOOD that there was no baby (well it is) but at the same time you seem to CONDONE their acts of terrorism.

It is also amusing how you suggest that I look at the situation from both sides, yet you only quote a singe source, who obviously is looking at it from one angle. You seem to be confused between (and that author too) Tamil people and the LTTE. The LTTE is a GROUP of people who are of the race TAMIL and have resorted to terrorism and other war crimes against humanity. Recently the LTTE have accused the govt. of bombing a school in the north full of children, and the media will circulate this around the world. What they CONVENITENTLY leave out is that it is a camp where they are training child soldiers by forced conscription...I think that's a fair bit to leave out, don't you? (Oh wait, of course not, that would make the LTTE actually *look* bad.... *SHOCK*)

Terrorism is terrorism how ever much you try to sugar coat it, and the world must unite as one to combat it....or else we will all be at the mercy of people like yourself ....at which point it would really be our Holocaust.

[unreal]

Hooooooge bit of text...

I won't agree to a man who approve's of acts like this, well, at least thats how it seemed from your written opinions.

[alterion]

there's a difference between approving/justifying of somebodies actions and understanding why it occurred. contrary to the scaremongering of the right terrorists are very seldom insane sadists with a desire to cause destruction but people who feel rightly or wrongly that they are persecuted and then use this as a justification and recruitment for their for evil in the same way western governments use ideas like liberty and human rights as justification for wars to fuel burgeoning arms industries and develop economies(oh dear that sentence is a prime targets for forum quote wars- lets hop it doesn't come to that). The Palestinian suicide attacks in isreal are a good example of a completely unjustifiable event caused by the manipulation of real injustices and feelings by those in positions of authority on both sides. Its a sad fact that the study of history (in particular events such as the holocaust) has led us to the inevitable conclusion that humanity when faced with a choice and manipulated appropriately will ultimately chose evil more than it choses good and while that continues the terrorists and the men in suit will continue to have their wars.

[G4Z]

Pretty closed mind responses imho, while I find some of the Tamils actions questionable at the least, I think its easy to simply label them terrorists and ignore whatever legitimate demands they may or may not have.

I am sick of the way the word terrorism is used now, theres an old saying "one mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter".

In my eyes an assasination attempt by any group of people is on the same moral level as any government that does it ( such as Israel for example). I think its a bad thing to kill people and I doubt many would disagree but we have a long and bloody history full of this kind of thing and it is not about to stop any time soon while people are so closed minded about seeing both sides of the story.

[e-LAN-go]

Yeah I will openly admit that myself and my brother are LTTE supporters because after trying to understand and find a solution for this war for my entire life it's led me to believe they're the only credible solution for the Tamil people.

I'm well aware of what they've have done to their own people (such as eliminating rival Tamil groups, forced child conscription, forcibly taking money from Tamil diaspora and etc) and I don't condone these actions but I can see why they've decided these actions to be necessary.

The Tigers are made up of Tamils which are a minority people in Sri Lanka and they don't have the human and financial resources of the government so they've been forced to do things that a lot of people in the western world find questionable.

For the Tigers to effectively fight this conflict they've had to do things a lot of people would find questionable such as using child soldiers and NAMELY GUERILLA WARFARE.

At the moment LTTE only have a 10k strong army with a navy that uses small gunships and they have anti-air missiles. So with this do you honestly expect them to fight open warfare with a government that has a 100K strong army with tanks/artillery, airforce with Jets and a navy with battleships. So then would still you label them as a rebels,freedom fighters or call them TERRORISTS still.

LTTE aren't fools, over the years they've had to be smart in how to combat the government and using guerilla warfare has been the most effective tactic for them.
I can honestly tell you if it wasn't for the LTTE the Tamil people would've been still suppressed or eliminated altogether. In the end most Tamils I know including myself can say that LTTE have done more good than bad for them in the longterm.

But I'm not naive about the LTTE and in the end ultimately it's all about political agenda/propaganda and power but they've proven to me and other Tamils I know that they're there for our security and they demonstrated this especially after providing needed Tsunami relief to the Trinconmalee area (which was the worst hit part in Sri Lanka although it was barely mentioned in the news and which saw nothing if any of the international aid relief provided to the government who were poor to act in the wake of the disaster).

Remember the LTTE was born out of continual systematic persecution of the Tamil people after we tried having diplomatic relations with the government then and it didn't work and after 23+ years it's still not working.

bsodmike you have a fair point about my brother's post being one sided and just quoting one source but he just wanted to put across the LTTE point of view.

Also I didn't quite like the tone you used towards me as in trying to villify me as an ignorant or a bad person even when in the end I more than anyone would want a peaceful solution because it's cost so many lives and affected my life and my family's in so many ways.

Although I live in London doesn't mean I don't care or unaware of what's happening back in Sri Lanka but unfortunately this is a WAR and it's always ugly.

[bertie]

I think I agree with G4Z really.
Obviously, NO-ONE is condoning the use of suicide bombers to get a message across, achieve or achieve any aims whatsoever.
But I too am sick of the way the word terrorism is used - and to dismiss ANY acts of terrorism without at least looking at or showing SOME of the possible reasons for them (regardless of how ridiculous and unreasonable these reasons may be, as they often (or always, depending on your point of view) are) is not really allowing people who do not know about the conflict (people like me!) to shape their own opinions.

Just my 2c

[james.robinson]

Roll out the nukes I say.......

[neonplanet40]

Roll out the nukes I say.......

Yea thats the silliest response ever. Im sure a nuclear winter is what we all want.....

[e-LAN-go]

Roll out the nukes I say.......

You seem to have a habit of making silly comments lately or are you just here to troll this thread .

[dave87]

Yea thats the silliest response ever. Im sure a nuclear winter is what we all want.....

That's about the caliber of his usual posts. Half thought through at best, snap judgement more like.

Really, even if we let off a nuke, the state would descend into anarchy, and the situation would be worse than before. So that rules out that suggestion.


As always, different people support different sides - but its the winner that writes the history book. I can't really see how this is going to end - unless the tamils are removed, or given freedom. The former is genocide, the later is not likely to happen anytime soon.

[neonplanet40]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_tigers

Sorry you're so close to the action Mike, and terrorism can never be justified, but there are two sides to every story. Perhaps the Tamils could be given some of the autonomy they demand- a similar process seems to have stopped the IRA killing people in NI for several years now.

Just to correct. The IRA has stopped killing people in northern ireland now becuase the catholic public told sinn fein that they wanted them to try diplomatic means as the killing was getting out of hand (lets not forget that loyalist paramilitaries are still killingand very active yet everyopne only cares about the IRA).


The people (or the majority in n.ireland (ian paisley is not part of this ) want peace and an end to all the violence so we can live together without hate, sectarianism and decrimination.

[neonplanet40]

That's about the caliber of his usual posts. Half thought through at best, snap judgement more like.

Really, even if we let off a nuke, the state would descend into anarchy, and the situation would be worse than before. So that rules out that suggestion.


As always, different people support different sides - but its the winner that writes the history book. I can't really see how this is going to end - unless the tamils are removed, or given freedom. The former is genocide, the later is not likely to happen anytime soon.

Jsut to add. Russia china etc will never allow america to fire a nuke becuase they ahve no idea where its going and it could be heading for them (the same goes for other countries). Once one is fired then everyone joins in and its the end of the world as we know it

Neon

[james.robinson]

Sorry, I was trying the joke approach again.

Sorry.

[krazy_olie]

Someone I just started working with is from Sri-Lanka and told me a bit about what is going on. I can't believe it gets so little news coverage

[bsodmike]

krazy_olie, if you wait for something to happen (like it always does) and compare reports from news papers/media closer to home (as in Sri Lanka) and then look at whatever watereddown version BBC puts on (if at all!) you'll be even more shocked tbh...

e-Lan: I'd like to make something clear. I have no problems with Tamils as a group of people, infact I have a few close friends who are Tamil - I really really hate racism..., however I do equally despise the LTTE for going about their goals the completely wrong way. Fine, so last week they cliam to have been targetting Army personnel, so does this mean that all the innocent casualties are just 'casualties of war'...with an active cease fire agreement? How about starving the villagers in Muthu to the point of death that even the aid organisations had to move in, just to get killed?

I simply can not see how any one, who specially enjoys the lifestyle that UK has to offer, can condone any acts of violence against fellow human beings. While I was in Leeds, time was oblivious, unlike here. Every minute counts, as we could be no more the very next. In England you get this feeling that time stands still, basically your future is pretty much assured. I don't want to turn this into a pointing 'finger' debate but from what you say I wouldn't be surprised if you condonded the London bombings (and even if you did, it's not like you are going to say it here...).

I will state again, we must not give in to terrorism, and it's quite sad to see that some people actually 'follow' their ideas. I guess Hitler had his muppets as well O_o.