Sunday, November 27, 2005

More Bullshit

Has anyone heard the story that the lone voter from Kilinochchi had his hands chopped off? Ivap posted the link to the Asian Tribune story on this.

Both the Island and the Daily News have run this story over the past few days, but they have both taken the story from the Asian Tribue website and have not done any investigating on their own. It's a simple copy paste job.

Ivap asked, is this true. Well, to the best of my knowledge this story is not true. I met someone who just returned from Kilinochchi, and they said that on the day when this alleged chopping off was supposed to have happened, they did not notice anything of the sort in the town. I am certain that is something like this had happened, there would have been a bit of a commotion about Kilinochchi considering the fact that it is a really really small town. People who have never been there would not understand what I'm talking about.

What I can confirm is that two days after the elections a poster came up in Jaffna town, in Tamil, big bold red letters, saying 'What shall we do to those who voted?'. I have seen a copy of this poster because someone who was coming to Colombo took one off a wall and brought it with them. This is a very clear warning to all those people in the Jaffna peninsula who voted, but the LTTE, or whoever put up the poster, has not taken any action to this regard. It's increasingly clear that the poster was a threat, and that there was no serious intention to follow up and deliver. However, considering the tense situation in the Peninsula and other regions in the North and East, I would assume that a poster like that would have the desired effect of keeping even more people away from a future poll if the LTTE were to call for a boycott. This raises real questions about if the LTTE is capable of showing any committment to democracy.

Going back to the hand chopping story, as I have written about on many occasions prior ot this, stories like this are attributed to unidentified sources, and their credibility is seriously questionable. The LTTE Dress Code for Jaffna story was very similar to this. It too first appeared in a foreign source (The Dawn, Pakistan). It was only after it appeared in The Dawn that both the Island and the Daily News picked it up. The Dawn Correspondent in Sri Lanka did not follow up on that story and see if the people in Jaffna actually obeyed the dress code. In this case too the Asian Tribune is only interested in saying that the man had his hands chopped off and does not investigate the outcome.

Here's a random sampling of Sri Lankan news on Asian Tribune.
  • Prabhakaran set to reject Mahinda's road map to peace in tomorrow's annual speech
  • New road map to peace outlined by President Mahinda Rajapakse
  • LTTE killed journalist Sivaram, Kumar Ponnambalam and Kadirgamar -- Col. Karuna reveals in an exclusive to "Asian Tribune"
  • LTTE‘s olive branch due on November 27 will have more grenades than olives --- Douglas Devananda
  • We place the country first and not the portfolios - Somawansa Amarasinghe
  • So far 17,903 LTTE cadres have died
The very first article is written by H L D Mahindapala, a warmonger claiming to be a journalist. I would really question his ability comment on Sri Lanka issues as he does not live here. Perhaps he could write general commentry, but to go so far as to think that he can gauge the LTTE leaders intentions based on a few interviews is rather silly. And to give prominence to such speculation-based removed-from-reality article clearly shows which way the Asian Tribune leans. You can judge for yourself whether you want to believe their 'sources'.

As for the Island and the Daily News;

The Island takes a very clera pro-Sinhala pro-Unitary state stance and they spin their news to match their agenda. The Daily News is the Government mouthpiece and will sya whatever the Government at that moment want them to say. The word 'independent' is not in their vocabulary.

And as long as these people and these papers and 'news' sources exist, we're going to hear stories like this.

Comments:
 
Right. It's unthinkable that Morq's masters would cut off the hands of a person who had publicly disobeyed them.
 
it would be interesting to know exactly who planted this story, whether it was the ltte (in order to intimidate others in the future) or some other interested party. asian tribune is anti ltte, but i think(i may be wrong) the story first appeared in 'lakbima' newspaper. there was a another story just after the election (i forgot exactly where, probably in the bbc website) that said that the lone voter was a in fact a ltte cadre sent to checkout the polling centers and voter participation..
 
Asian Tribune is a phony site run by the Sri Lankan army with the help of K. T. Rajasingam -- a person of questionable ethics and who narrowly missed LTTE's execution.
 
ashanthi :
thanks again:-)

anon coward above:
i am sure i should be soooo thankful for that 'insightful' comment on 'mature' behavior, especially since this is at least the third blog i am seeing it. :-D

what makes you think i am here to fulfill your or any anon coward's 'expectations'?

if jigal was wrong as you say, why didn't you say so in a 'mature' way, before i said that in my 'immature' way? :-)

if you dare to read blogs where the original comments concerned were posted, you will see that your friends the anon cowards are proving that in fact jigal is a typical indian loser. meanwhile you are proving yourself a typical anon loser.

btw this not my blog i am just a rare contributer here. if you have any beef with me personally my blog open.
 
so what's up with this place now?
 
btw i heard that there will be a sort of antiwar rally tomorrow 31st at independence square at 6.30pm.
 
anyone know why yaaro's website is offline for the last few days?
 
akshay:
i don't know you, the moron who posted in your blog is an impostor. a little common sense would have made that very clear
don't fall for such traps and don't post in strange blogs if you have no idea about the topic.

ashanthi:
i am surprised that you too fell for that. but since you seem to believe in propaganda and sometimes disregard plain facts perhaps it is not a surprise after all. :-(
 
ashnthi very very sorry about losing my temper. my fault entirely, forget if you can what i said. :-( it wont happen again.
i think yaaro is ok, but for some reason has turned off her blog. which is very sad.

as for akshay he deserves it.
 
Thanks guys for inquiring. I am fine I must say. Lots of things seem to have happened in the last few weeks. I am really sick of the political drama in Sri Lanka. Some Sri Lankan Tamils I guess are just born with labels that say “harass me, irrespective of who you are!”- both by the SLA (for being tamil- nice government that is with an attitude that goes in the lines of “ tamil in colombo=tiger”. Sadly that’s the mentality of most of the Sinhalese in Colombo too) and the LTTE (for not being a tamil ie: for not being supportive of their bullshit). I shall not be blogging anymore as circumstances have changed and it’s in the best interest of my family too. Will drop in time to time to see all your wonderful posts. Young blood is very powerful. We can make a change, Only if we were GENUINLY interested in one. God Bless Sri Lanka. And life moves on . . .
 
Interesting question. What's going on with the UNP. Well... apart from lawyer mishaps and the internal battle for a new leadership, there's not much to say about it.

Lawyer mishaps

The UNP has, in the recent times, been involved in at least a few major scuffs with the legal system of Sri Lanka. (Which, for the most part, was written by their own fore-father, JR) First it was a series of motions during the 2002-2004 era, while they were in power. One trying to limit the executive powers of the then president, CBK and etc etc. Then there was the SB scandal, where he was convicted of contempt of court and handed a 2 year sentence. (SB is out now, and already blasting the leadersip! )

Then there was the motion to put off the local govt. elections, which was rejected cos of an error in the papers. Basically, the lawyers at the UNP have proved that they don't even know their paperwork, leave alone contesting. This was proven again when the nominations for the Colombo municipalty was rejected by the returning officer. (UNP is planning to contest this decision, the result of this, thank to the competence of the lawyers, God knows what will be! )

Revolting against the Born-to-loose leadership

Ok, we agree, Ranil JUST-CAN'T-WIN. He can't get the right peopel in the right places, he doesn't know to make the right manifesto, he doesn't have the right lawyers, and he just can't win. What do we do about it? Sack him, of course.

Easier said than done. These days, it seems as though, Ranil just won't go home either. The people who raised their voices to have him removed are tired now. People wait eagerly to see something change (this is the same people that decide to change the entire government, every so often, so imagine one person) and when it doesn't they try to "officially join" the other party. This is what has been going on with the UNP's ground-level people. (local govt. members, etc) That's not a solution either. Cos desolving UNP and giving JVP is NOT the solution for bad leadership.

Let's keep our fingers crossed for a ray of hope for the UNP!
 
I was thrown out of Asian Tribune, for not joining the All Sinhala Communal Chorus. I also asked after a few days visiting, what is Asian Tribune. The latest crime I committied was to paste Nittewa link on Samaraweera. That was it, my username was disabled.

You all seems to know what is going on, please tell me what is Asian Tribune ?. Why do they have
Aung San Suu Kyi's picture and an appeal permanently there ?. Does having Kyi's picture there supposed to mean Sri-Lankan government is better than Mayammar Juntas ?.

I like to join your blog, but I am not sure that I am as fluent as you all, specially Ashanthi, sittingnut, Morq.. et el. I hope I won't end up looking like a standingnut, if I join ?.

Anyway, my name is Srimal...an old lady who lost her son soldier in the wasteful war. I consider that a scrifice to these demons in power. I really don't make much distinction between any of them..they come and reluctantly go.

All of you are pretty darn good, but I see a lot of clarity in Ashanthi's posts. I wish I had a daughter like you Ashanthi. I sacrifised my only son to these blood demanding warmongers. Now they have the JVP with them, I have no hope at all, if we ever have peace. What will happen to our country ?. Is there any hope to free us from these political gangs in the south ?. Do you think if the Americans will help them, so that the CIA can have secret torture chambers in Lankan jungles ?. I understand that the Sri-Lankans are being trained in special torture techniques, right out of Romfeld's book on Special Rendering.

I am eager to learn from you all. Please comment and call me any names for being anon. I am already shaking of old age. So please guys spare me.
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