Friday, April 28, 2006

Restraint? What Restraint?
Let's think about this whole 'we congratulate the Army for showing restraint' business.

Now if we were to think that the Army did not show this amazing retraint, what would they be doing? Would they be out there killing the LTTE because the LTTE tried to kill their commander? Would they launch assaults on LTTE camps? There are several possible scenarios.


Spontaneous

For the Sri Lankan Army, acting spontaneously and without a strategy or plan, means
a) killing anyone Tamil who crosses their path
b) killing anyone who tires to stop them
c) setting fire to Tamil shops and homes
d) confusing Muslims with Tamils (goes with the general xenophobic mood)

So, this is apparently what we need to congratulate the Army for not doing. But wait, the Army did do this in Mannar! They haven't done it anywhere else, but they most certainly assisted Sinhala-JVP groups in Trincomalee in attacking Tamil shops.

Yes, thanks boy for all the restrain you've been showing.


Planned

Going out on a limb, let's assume that all this restrain that the Army is being praised for is actually about not carrying out a tactical strike on the LTTE.

The Army follows orders. If they were ordered to carry out a retaliatory attack against the LTTE they would. And they were asked to and they did (killed a whole bunch of civilians too, tactical my ass!). And this attack was only carried out because Mahinda Rajapakse ordered and approved it and his brother Gotabhaya made it happen. It was the political command in Colombo who did not order an attack to be carried out earlier.

So, any congratulation for restraint on that level should go to Mahinda, because the army does, or doesn't do, what he askes them to do or not to do. Capiche?



*****

So, the Army's doing nothing but not behaving like barbarians. If you want to congratulate them for that, then go ahead.

I hate having to make sense of the arguments of idiots.

posted by Morquendi @  11:05 PM   || 19 opinion/s ||
Comments:
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : April 29, 2006 12:39 AM
 
Wow were u in Mannar dude, it seems like u witnessed everything. And wow you have inside contacts that tell u how exactly the orders were given. Great situation analysts you are.

Well I guess its alrite after all this is ur blog and u free to write what u feel is correct. Guess ur doing a great job at dat. Hope and pray that the majority of SLkans dont think like you.
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : April 29, 2006 4:28 AM
 
agree with Morquendi :)
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : April 29, 2006 6:50 AM
 
The situation in Mannar and Trinco are nothing the army can be proud of. I am not sure if those orders were given by Mahinda or the lower rank guys just reacted based on seeing their collegues die in claymore attack in Mannar. I agree with your sentiments. Army needs to learn the rules of engagement big time.
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : April 29, 2006 12:31 PM
 
This is pathetic. Mork and company will go to any length to keep their peace credentials. Why are you guys better than simple minded racists ready to blow everything up till they get what they want? You think you are smarter than them?

And why become a troll in your own blog?
# posted by Blogger Sarinda Perera : April 29, 2006 11:59 PM
 
I have seen media reports that collateral damage to life and property was minimal from the air strikes and other reports have been dismissive of the 'mass exodus' said to have taken place. Morq, what're your reports?
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : April 30, 2006 1:06 PM
 
Terrorists don't apologize for what they do. They depend on others to do it for them.

Thank you, Morq.
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : April 30, 2006 10:45 PM
 
Tamil Suicide Bomber Was Pregnant

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Apr. 28, 2006

(AP) The Tamil suicide bomber who targeted Sri Lanka's top general used her pregnancy to meticulously plan the attack, an investigator said. Officials previously said the bomber had only pretended to be pregnant, but the investigator said hospital records showed she actually was.

Her attack Tuesday killed 11 people and wounded army commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka and 25 others. It unleashed fighting between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels that has posed the most serious threat yet to a four-year cease fire.

The military launched two days of air strikes against the rebels on Tuesday and Wednesday in apparent retaliation for the suicide bombing. The rebels say the strikes killed 12 and sent thousands fleeing their homes.

The bomber identified as 21-year-old Anoja Kugenthirasah used her pregnancy to conceal explosives and get inside a maternity clinic in the army's heavily fortified headquarters where she attacked the commander, said the investigator, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The woman is believed to have been a member of the dreaded Black Tigers suicide squad.

Fonseka, a battle-hardened soldier with 35 years in the infantry, was appointed to the military's top post after President Mahinda Rajapakse took office in November. He became a formidable enemy of the Tamil Tigers.

The investigator said Kugenthirasah had fake identification showing she was the wife of a clerk working for the Sri Lankan army and indicating she was pregnant.

Every Tuesday, the military hospital inside army headquarters in the capital Colombo holds a maternity clinic, and Kugenthirasah had visited three times, getting to know the guards and learning Fonseka's routine, the investigator said. The general went home for lunch around 1:30 p.m.

On Tuesday, Kugenthirasah arrived a half-hour ahead of the clinic opening and stood in front of the hospital, which is beside the road that Fonseka took when he left the headquarters.

As the general's car approached, she moved closer. One of Fonseka's motorcycle escorts shouted at her to get away, but she detonated the bomb shortly afterward. Five of Fonseka's escorts were among those killed in the blast.

Media Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa said he was aware of the initial findings of the bombing investigation but declined to comment until it was over.

The Black Tigers are renowned for their skill at suicide bombings against military, government and civilian targets. Victims have included former Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa and former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

The Tiger rebels have fought the government since 1983 to create a separate state for ethnic minority Tamils, accusing the majority Sinhalese-dominated state of discrimination.

On Dec. 4, the Tigers carried out the first major attack since the 2002 cease-fire, killing 12 navy sailors. Dozens of rebel attacks followed.

Sri Lanka's military at first exercised restraint, but Fonseka urged retaliation and the military began to return fire when attacked.

In a sign that tensions may be easing, however, the military said Thursday it would halt airstrikes if the insurgents stopped their attacks. On Friday, the government reopened roads linking rebel-held territory with government-controlled areas.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said between 7,000 and 8,000 people were displaced in the recent air force bombing of rebel bases. The agency asked for immediate access to affected villages.

"The loss of life, the new displacement of families, the destruction to businesses and property, as well as threats to humanitarian workers, are creating a climate of fear and tension for civilians," Jan Egeland, the U.N.'s Emergency Relief Coordinator, said in a statement, calling on both sides to "to ensure full protection of civilians."

Norwegian mediators said Friday the Sri Lanka government and Tamil rebels have agreed to meet for peace talks in Geneva, but no date has been set. The two sides had been set to meet in the Swiss city earlier this week, but the rebels backed out, citing attacks on Tamil civilians and other disputes.

"Both parties have in principle agreed to a Geneva meeting" as soon as possible, Norway's International Development Minister Erik Solheim said.

The European Union, the United States, Norway and Japan are co-chairs of the peace process.
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : May 01, 2006 12:11 AM
 
Bomb attack kills four civilians, one navy officer in Sri Lanka

44 minutes ago

TRINCOMALEE, Sri Lanka (AP) - A bomb blast in northern Sri Lanka killed four civilians and one navy officer Monday, police and witnesses said, adding to concerns that the island nation could fall back into civil war.

The bomb apparently was aimed at a naval foot patrol when it exploded, said police officer Nihal Samarakoon, who confirmed the deaths. He said three navy officers also were wounded. There was a pool of blood on the road, as residents and police tried to help those wounded by the blast.

A police officer, who identified himself as Senanayake and said he was the area's chief police inspector, blamed the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels for the attack.

Kamalachandran, a resident, who was inside his home said he heard the sound of the explosion and came out to see his daughter in a pool of blood.

She was spreading washed clothes on a string to dry, when splinters from the explosion hit her. She bled profusely as she was taken to a hospital.

"The people who did it are not humans, there are small children and ladies around. They are no better than animals," said Kamalachandran, who like many Tamils, use only one name.

Kamalachandran, who held his granddaughter as he spoke, said he was not sure if his daughter was dead or alive.

At the blast sight, ladies' handbags and the belongings of families returning from morning market were strewn across the street. Blood could be seen several metres away from where the bomb exploded.

Separately, fighting between Tamil rebels and the army in an area about 100 kilometres north of Trincomalee eased Monday, said military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe.

The rebels from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam launched shells on two army positions for about three hours from the sea and land late Sunday, drawing retaliatory fire from troops.

Samarasinghe said the military suffered no casualties, and it was not immediately known if the rebels were killed.

Meanwhile, the government cancelled all May Day rallies in Colombo because of fears it could trigger violence, said police spokesman Rienzie Perera. Traditionally, almost all political parties hold May Day rallies on May 1, followed by respective huge party meetings.

The flare-up in violence has added urgency to efforts by European cease-fire monitors to get the government and rebels to resume peace talks.

Near-daily violence over the past week - including a suicide attack by a suspected rebel targeting Sri Lanka's top military general last week - could push relations between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to the point of collapse.

Relations between the government and the LTTE have sharply deteriorated after a suspected rebel suicide bomber attacked the country's top military general in Colombo on Tuesday. The general was seriously injured and 11 people were killed.

The government ordered retaliatory air strikes that killed 12 people and displaced thousands in the northeast.

The recent violence between the Tigers and the government has raised fears of a return to civil war in the South Asian nation, where a two-decade civil war was halted by a 2002 cease-fire.
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : May 01, 2006 7:58 AM
 
You hide safely behind your keyboards and video cameras, in Colombo, London, Toronto, while crying for our brothers and sisters. You only see them as ammunition for your own wars against your own insecurities. What humanism are you practising? Taking potshots at the idiots in government? Is that the war you choose to fight when civilized behavior is threatened by those who kill to win? Idiots in the Army or Cabinet come and go, but what about the maniacs who hide behind human rights when absolute power is all they want? What kind of lunatics are you people to see the tree and ignore the woods? If you give in to people who think they can kill at will against all of the civilized world, why do you feed it with selective information? What revolution are you going fighting for? For all your hotheaded defence of the indefencible, why feel proud of who you are? Aren't you just little cogs in a big machine that will use you and dump you till its vengence gets done?
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : May 01, 2006 8:07 AM
 
Bombing in Sri Lanka kills five, threatens peace deal further

Associated Press, Mon May 1, 2006 05:41 EDT .

CHRIS BRUMMITT - Associated Press Writer - TRINCOMALEE, Sri Lanka - (AP)

Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels detonated a bomb in a busy street in northeastern Sri Lanka - on Monday, killing four members of a family and a navy officer, and adding to fears the country could fall back into civil war.

The rebels also attacked a navy ship nearby, wounding at least five sailors, and gunned down two members of the country's majority ethnic Sinhalese community, authorities said.

The bomb in the city of Trincomalee was apparently aimed at a naval foot patrol, but a passing motorized rickshaw took the force of the explosion. Blood and pieces of flesh littered the road.

*******************************
*******************************

``The people who did it are not humans. There are small children and ladies around. They are no better than animals,'' said Kamalachandran, a witness whose daughter was badly injured in the blast. Like many ethnic Tamils, she goes by one name.

*********************************
*********************************

Police Chief Inspector Senanayake blamed Monday's attack on the rebels.

``They don't want peace,'' he said at the scene of the blast. ``They want to break this town's spirit.''

The bomb was concealed in a bicycle and apparently detonated by remote control, he said.

The civilian victims, all ethnic Tamils, came from the same family, said relatives and hospital officials.

``My life is finished now,'' said Subedra, who lost his mother, daughter and son in the blast.

``Nothing is important,'' he said after hugging and kissing the bloodied corpse of his mother at a local morgue.

Meanwhile rebels killed two Sinhalese as they drove their tractor through a remote village about 160 kilometers (100 miles) northeast of the capital, Colombo, the defense ministry said, giving no more details.

http://www.theacademic.org
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : May 02, 2006 9:18 AM
 
If This is Called Peace...

BY ALEX PERRY

Sunday, Apr. 30, 2006

The one thing everyone remembers is how good-looking the assassin was. She had ochre skin, dark eyes, black hair that brushed her waist and, in that way of many pregnant women, her face glowed. "She was an intensely beautiful woman," says Army Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Nanda Mallawarachchi.

She was 21-year-old Anoja Kugenthirasah, an ethnic Tamil from the village of Poovarasakulam, a few kilometers from the de facto border between government and rebel territory in northern Sri Lanka. Around 1:25 p.m. last Tuesday, Kugenthirasah arrived at the front gate of the Sri Lankan army headquarters in the capital Colombo, produced an identity card, and named an officer she said was her husband. Indicating her bump, she told the guards she was due at the army clinic for a check-up.

They had no reason to be suspicious: Tuesday was family day at the clinic and Kugenthirasah had been coming for weeks. A guard offered her a lift. She arrived at the clinic just as the commander of the Sri Lankan army, Lt.-Gen. Sarath Fonseka, was leaving his nearby office for lunch. Eyewitnesses say Kugenthirasah walked away from the clinic and strode toward Fonseka's heavily guarded convoy. A motorcycle outrider spotted her, says military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe. Her determined manner, that bump—it didn't look right. The outrider swerved, blocked her path and, when she kept coming, dismounted and kicked her to the ground. As she lay there with Fonseka's car a few feet away, a blinding flash erupted from her belly. Nine people died and 29 were injured. A 10th died three days later. Fonseka was in critical condition and on life support, but stable. Forensic experts initially said Kugenthirasah's "baby" was several kilograms of explosives strapped to her belly. Last Saturday investigators said hospital records showed that, under the explosives, she might indeed have been pregnant and had been attending maternity classes at the clinic for three weeks as she planned her attack. Kugenthirasah's head was found in a tree. Her face, that face, barely had a scratch on it.

Though they denied involvement, Kugenthirasah was thought to be a member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (L.T.T.E.), a rebel group that has been fighting for a separate Tamil state in the north and east of Sri Lanka for 23 years.

http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/article/0,13673,501060508-1189385,00.html
# posted by Blogger Sarinda Perera : May 02, 2006 11:13 AM
 
Thank you Ashanthi, yes I know who Morq is and trust that he would have better access to info that I would as it stands, which is why I ask. Morq: I ask again.

Ashanthi, you make some very interesting comments with regard to the identity of the suicide bomber (or lack of establishment, thereof). While it is poor practice to conclude on prima facie evidence, if your hypothesis is true, this would indeed be the first instance of using a suicide bomber by Singhalese hardliners. Further, if the motive for such was frustration on the soft stance of the government vis-a-vis the LTTE, what can be achieved by eliminating a military commander - who as very correctly pointed out on this forum recently - merely follow dictates of the Commander-in-Chief? Would not the real policy-makers be a better option in line with your hypothosis?

I am no supporter of any hardliner - Singhalese or Tamil. It is a path of reason that I have put forth.

As a matter of interest: what is your take:
Q: Do you consider the LTTE an organisation that has committed terrorist atrocities?
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : May 03, 2006 12:42 AM
 
"The Tamils' reputation for violence is "well-deserved" says James Ross, a senior legal adviser for HRW in New York."

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0503/p07s02-woam.html
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : May 03, 2006 1:09 PM
 
So Ashanthi,

Do you or do you not accept LTTE is using terrorist tactics?

You know, charity begins at home.

Why not say it. It might even do you good.
# posted by Blogger Just Mal : May 05, 2006 1:34 AM
 
Ashanthi. The evidence suggests that the woman had been planning this for months. She was attending an army hospital in her hometown for routine check ups, and came to the colombo hospital for advice on some complications. That's how she managed to get in. No one would do a thorough body search on a pregnant woman - Tamil or not.

Perhaps you should leave your prejudices (well justified as they may be) and look at the facts of this particular incident.
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : May 05, 2006 5:08 AM
 
Ashanthi:

Just another gangster's moll.

proud, eh!
# posted by Blogger Sarinda Perera : May 06, 2006 6:28 AM
 
Hi Ashanthi,

Ok I typed this yesterday but doesn't seem to have been posted so here goes again:

The mere fact that someone is Chandrika's cousin is I'm afraid rather insufficient in my eyes, to give that someone's claims anymore legitimacy.

Yes I do ask a pointed question and your response was clear, even though it appears that some 'anons' here have queried further. May I mention though, that you have condemned all other groups for killings with the exception of the LTTE? Might I then put this down to human error?

Do I want an end to the killings? Of course I do! All of it - rebel/terrorist killings and the genocide - must stop! Else Mahatma Gandhi's words "An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind" with hold true sans much doubt. None of it is justified - the killing of innocent civilians must stop and it makes no difference whether this is carried out by the machinery of the State or the LTTE. These are crimes against humanity.

Yes I have read Rohan Gunaratna's work, in fact I have some of it sitting on my bookshelf right now. What he maps out/what you speak of is a common path to deligitimisation: where there's an oppressor, there is an oppressed; and someday, this oppressed will retaliate.

Are we hot-headed cause we eat too many spices? Hmmm Ashanthi, food for thought indeed:)
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : May 17, 2006 7:11 AM
 
This Restraint!!:

The Amnesty International has slammed the Government of Sri Lanka as having a record of "disturbing pattern of incomplete or ineffective investigations" of the extrajudicial killings and said it has received credible reports that Sri Lanka Navy personnel and armed cadres affiliated with Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), were present at the massacre site on Kayts islet. Thirteen civilians were massacred in three spots on the Kayts islet controlled by the Sri Lanka Navy Saturday night. The EPDP, a paramilitary and a political party in the ruling UPFA alliance of the SL President Mahinda Rajapakse, had exercised tight control of the Jaffna islets before the Ceasefire Agreement.

http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGASA370142006?open&of=ENG-LKA
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : May 18, 2006 10:37 AM
 
Welcome back Ashanthi.

Your must be very upset when strangers think that being moderate is not just being popular with the in-crowd. And it must be upsetting for you to see anyone questioning their moral high ground, aren't you? Deep down somewhere you must know your buddies are not the angels they want you to think they are. Why not actually admit that LTTE is a terrorist outfit? Why can't you admit that your boys have been using extreme terrorist tactics against an unarmed civilians for so long, of every kind, that they are unable stop taking down everyone their path? The only language LTTE-mindset understand is tribalism. Why should all Tamils be held hostage to their demonic visions? Why are you just silent and run away, when you can add your voice to those who can say terrorism is terrorism? Why not at least pretend, like some others, that your humanism does not stop with the great Tamil race? What justification does anyone have to push civilians to take the heat, whether Sinhala or Tamil? Why can't you even just say it? Is LTTE a terrorist group to you? Are you just another racist despite your pretences, just like many of those you keep company with?
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