time to choose

are you a terrorist=pussy=peacenik=warmonger=racist or not ?

are you for democracy, justice, freedom, and human rights?
or for peace at any cost, sole representative status (= killing all non ltte tamils in the name of pragmatism), handing over millions 'there' to tigers so 'we' don't have roadblocks 'here', full blown pussy fascist state under the fat sun god as neighbor, etc?

time to choose.

contrast 3: bbc’s "news"

today pussies attacked a ferry carrying 300 civilians to jaffna; they were beaten back by navy vessels escorting the vessel. navy lost 1 perhaps 2 dvoras and several sailors.

bbc's story is headlined: Sea battle erupts off Sri Lanka. since the story contains a reference to passenger vessel they were aware what the terrorists were attacking.

now check yesterday's bbc headline: Lanka army 'kills 45 civilians'.
that number 45 was taken from terrorist spokesman puleedevan. even in the first version of bbc's story ( bbc has a habit of changing the story, without indicating so, in the same url. however one can find old versions in various internet caches if one tries. ) it is clear that they knew icrc was able to confirm deaths of 18 only at that time. in fact only 23 people are independently confirmed dead as of now. they should have known that puleedevan, who is nowhere near the scene, has an interest in inflating the number for propaganda purposes, while icrc was there. but they chose his number instead of icrc's for the headline.

contrast.

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of course biased and racist reporting by bbc regarding sri lanka is not new. many people have pointed out variety of errors in bbc reporting throughout the years. let me make it clear, it is the bbc in particular not international media in general, that is found fault here. while others like the wire services do make errors occasionally, nobody else ever approaches this kind or level of errors

imo it has lot to do with individuals assigned for covering sri lanka ( dumeetha luthra , sandeshaya editors , etc.) and bbc bosses unwillingness or inability to enforce good journalistic practices on them. result is error upon error, many of them due to bias, in almost every story.

for instance, i counted 3 errors of facts in today's story. when i say errors of fact i don't mean blatantly biased headlines like above, but errors of facts. i will give only one since other 2 requires lengthy explanations.

The monitors are unable to confirm any of the details of the battle.
Their staff stopped traveling on Sea Tiger boats earlier this year after the rebels said they could not guarantee their safety.

!? monitors traveling on sea tiger boats?
as sri lanka monitoring mission has ruled several times, cease fire agreement does not allow tigers to use sea and they count all sea tiger activity at sea as ceasefire violations. so monitors never ever were on a sea tiger boat. they stopped going on government vessels after tigers made an unsuccessful attack on a navy ferry carrying 700 military and its escort vessels (which had 2 monitors on board) in may and after ltte issued what monitors said were”threats" if they go on board navy vessels at about the same time. these facts are easily verifiable.

so much for bbc’s "journalism ".

if you want to make a complaint go here.

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meanwhile some sl bloggers quote whole passages from bbc (errors included) as if quoting from the bible. but then that kind of blogger never ventures out of colombo and confuses galle with matara.

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contrast 1
contrast 2

will americans decide to waste two years?

americans are voting in mid term elections as i write. for those who don't know, all (435 of them) congressmen in house of representatives has to face an election every two years. in addition one third of senators (out of 100 made up of 2 for each state ) are also standing for reelection (math mcq for children if any are reading this: how long is a senators term of office? a) 2 years , b) 5 years, c) 6 years, d) 1.33 years. hint: you can deduce the answer from previous statement if you can understand my bad english :-)) .

there are lot of other elections for state and municipal bodies and governorships. then there direct democracy in the form of "ballot initiatives" that put single issues such as gay marriage to the voters directly in some states.

as american "liberal" media ( that is everybody except fox more or less ) has been spoon speeding anyone who care to listen democrats are "leading" by double digits in the "polls." of course polls and lead does not matter all that much in gerrymandered electoral districts of america for most part. only a score or two of the 435 seats are really capable of changing hands. in america if you get elected in any other seat you can stay put until you retire, die, or media find you in bed with not so proverbial dead girl or live boy. (it is a disgrace for such a democratic country; not the scandals but the gerrymandering).

what is clear is republican party is going to lose some seats, as happened to president's party in all recent elections, when president is in his sixth year of office as george bush is this year. average loss is 30 odd house seats and 6 senate seats. since republicans have only a 30 odd seat majority ( which mean they will lose if they lose 15 seats; do the maths) and 11 seat majority in senate ( loss of 6 seats will mean democrats become the majority there ) there are all indications of a change .

but there is more to it than that. in america unlike in sri lanka (except for some cowards in north who are afraid of pussies) most people generally do not vote in midterm elections (40% is the average turnout). this normally gives an advantage to republicans because they are generally very good at getting their supporters out to vote. will that happen this year?

it would be better if it was so, but as these election markets (congress, senate, house) in university of iowa (as well in similar markets in betting websites) predict, most likely result will be a republican senate and a democratic house (market predicted correctly in the past, better than polls. for instance in '04 presidential elections. though they too panicked on the last few hours (a fact not reflected in the graph, check the data) when the so called exit polls predicted a false outcome and "liberals" rejoiced for few hours. some people who kept cool heads must have made some serious money on that day)

why do i think it is better if republicans win? well you cannot be the world's leading country for long and if americans are wise they should make the most of it to ensure that their ideals of freedom and democracy triumph in the world at large for the sake of their own survival in the long term if nothing else. we are probably at a turning point in history and political gridlock in america (which would be the result for next two years if democrats capture the house) is hardly the best way to lead.

however i am not completely depressed at the possible outcome. generally no government (or its close cousin gridlocked government) is the best government imo, except when it comes to war. and then there is the very likely prospect that democratic party leadership (nancy pelosi and co. who are more left wing that their own party, which most people predict will move right with election of conservative democrats to those swing seats now held by republicans with dire results for party discipline ) will make fools of themselves with empty confrontations with the president and more likely than not since he or his vice president are not standing for reelection he may even prefer confrontation. result: another republican president in '08 preferably john mccain. in addition it is always good to scare those in power for a long time, to get them back on "track.

so even if americans prefer to waste two years, it is not all bad.

justice served

a butcher called saddam hussein got what he deserved today and some of his victims got some justice if not closure. trial wasn't perfect but still valid. just as importantly, it and the other planed trials (that may not be held anyway if coward who was caught in a hole get hanged) resulted in collection of voluminous evidence that will make it hard for any serious apologist for the mass murderer to disagree now or in the future, in the same way that documented evidence against nazis make all the holocaust denier's claims ridiculous.

that of course will not prevent apologists from emerging. there will always be people who will miss the obvious truths and select the half truths to further their own agendas (whether it be irrational hatred of americans (and /or current administration) or irrational devotion to religious fundamentalism or any other such idiocy) and there will be even larger number of people unable to think for themselves, who will naively parrot the first group's claims with total disregard to reality and facts.

here in sri lanka too we see people especially peaceniks in some ngos, justifying and acting as apologists to a convicted mass murdering terrorist and his cronies. here too there are lots of parrots who repeat the claims and demands of peaceniks and pussies (latest is the opening of a9) without critically examining them, with the result that they clam up and/or start spouting obscenities repeatedly when confronted with facts. let's hope at least some of them will eventually realize that appeasing terrorists in search of a peace at the cost of justice, freedom, human rights and democracy is not going to result in a sustainable peace. peace will only result when the justice is served and as part of it bunker holed big pussy get what he deserves. since that is not likely to happen soon given the reality, let’s be clear and realistic about what it will take to defeat him in a morally defensible and pragmatic way and the time it will take. after all other options are not feasible.

for my own part i have no doubt justice will be served here as in iraq eventually.

mou between the slfp and unp

though it is not my habit to post on this blog outside sources and documents without my comments this time i will do so. i have highlighted several things in this mou that imo require particular attention.
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Memorandum of Understanding between the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and the United National Party to Cooperate on Key Issues Vital for the Nation's Well Being

Preamble :

This Memorandum of Understanding between the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and the United National Party represents the inauguration of a new political environment eagerly awaited by the public of this country, which replaces the hitherto existing policies of confrontation with the politics of active cooperation on national issues, in the interests of the nation.

On the 12th of October, 2006, H.E. the President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is the Head of the Government and the Leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, and the Hon. Ranil Wickramasinghe, Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament and the Leader of the United National Party, after careful and sustained deliberation have agreed to collaborate in addressing the national issues in regard to peace, good governance and development.

The Parties, recognize that the fundamental challenge that stands in the way of the realization of the goals of peace, good governance and development is that of a just political solution acceptable to all communities.

In pursuance of the objectives referred to above, we, Maithripala Sirisena, General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and Malik Samarawickrama, Chairman of the United National Party hereby declare our agreement to cooperate as set out below:

1. The plenary meeting of the Delegations of two Parties discussed the following papers submitted by the sub-committees for presentation to the two Leaders :

(i) Conflict in the North & East
(ii) Electoral Reforms
(iii) Good Governance
(iv) Social Development
(v) Proposed structure for collaboration

2. The two Parties will cooperate with each other in the areas enumerated in Clause (1) (i) to (iv) above. The issues referred to in Clause 1 (v) above, including the modalities for collaboration, will be implemented at an early date after further direct discussion between the two Leaders and acceptance by the appropriate bodies of each of the two Parties.

3. The United National Party in Parliament will support the Government to implement the policies and programmes in the areas enumerated in Clause 1 (i) to (iv) above.

4. The United National Party reiterates its commitment to extend support to the Government in the pursuit of a negotiated settlement to the on-going conflict while opposing terrorism in all its manifestations and upholding human rights.

5. The United National Party in Parliament shall extend its support to the government to achieve a negotiated settlement to the on-going conflict.

6. The Leader of the United National Party will nominate two Members to the Representative Committee of the All Party Conference.

7. Both Parties agree to expedite the resolution of the present impediments to the effective operation of the 17th Amendment to the Constitution and to finalize the passage into law of the amendments under consideration to the 17th amendment.

8. Both Parties will observe the accepted political and democratic norms applicable to governing good relations.

9. The time frame during which this Agreement will remain operative will be two (02) years from the date of signing hereof.

10. Both Parties agree to the establishment of a High-Level Committee headed by His Excellency the President and the Leader of the Opposition (including an equal number of representatives of each of the two Parties) to oversee the implementation of the above agreements arrived at between the two Parties and to cooperate with each other in regard to the resolution of any disagreement which may arise in the course of implementation of this Agreement and the policies and programmes set out in Clauses 1 to 8 above, and the fulfillment of the agreed national agenda, so as to achieve just and durable peace, good governance and sustainable development in Sri Lanka.

Maithripala Sirisena
General Secretary
Sri Lanka Freedom Party

Malik Samarawickrama
Chairman
United National Party

terrorist attack underway in galle

it seems there is some sort of attack on navy camp in galle.

three suicide boat attacks on an 'old ship' (and some navy boats according to military spokesman) and some mortars were fired from rumasella hill according to igp. both say that situation is under control and military trying to capture terrorists. no need for panic. police curfew on in galle.

combined with recent pussy attacks, this shows clearly exactly who do not want peace talks to begin and want to provoke a backlash. i personally expect pussies to step up attacks in a desperate bid to get that backlash and it will certainly include attacks against civilians as well true to form.

fortunately sri lankans are more intelligent than that and will not be provoked, in spite of best efforts of ltte propagandists and its ngo helpers like cpa, inform, and the rest, who try to portray them as ever ready reenact '83 and try to magnify small riots into genocide attempts as with april trinco incident. however ngo peaceniks will remain deliberately blind no doubt.

for more news
mod, nationalsecurity.lk, jasminenews.

update
changed links to updated stories at respective sites. deleted original afp wire story since it was old and wrong. updated ones can easily found by searching.
and there wasn't any mortar fire it seems.

firefox 2 release candidate 1

firefox 2 rc1 came out last week. above is a screen shot with this blog in it (click to enlarge). they hope to have the final release by end of this month (october).

new features include, spell checking for web forms, website ‘microsummaries’, phishing protection, enhanced tabbed browsing, extension management, and search engine support.

i installed on friday. so far so good. main problem for me was that most of the extensions (i had about 15 installed and use several extensively) and themes are incompatible. i had to tinker with rdf files manually to get them to work. however i think most people do not use extensions, so will not have any problems. besides original extension developers will probably release compatible versions during this month.

fear of giving offense

after the recent ridiculous and violent protests by some muslims against the comments by pope, which should not have been offensive to anybody who actually read the pope's lecture (for which imo he should not have apologized), we now have the cancellation of an adapted staging of the opera idomeneo by mozart. this adaptation by director hans neuenfels featured severed heads of muhammad, jesus, and buddha (see above pic from der spiegel's website).

no doubt the religious chauvinists of all kinds here will approve this latest example of chickening out on the part of western 'liberals', while politically correct peaceniks everywhere will support it as showing tolerance and sensitivity to other 'cultures'.

imo, as i said when cartoon controversy was going on, there should not be any curb on freedom of expression, even if the intent was to give offense, as long as others are allowed the same freedom. i agree with the mayor of berlin who said, "our ideas about openness, tolerance and freedom must be lived out on the offensive, voluntary self-limitation gives those who fight against our values a confirmation in advance that we will not stand behind them". that is true not only in berlin but everywhere.

intolerance should not be tolerated

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update
there is news that cancellation was canceled after criticism. good.

quote

war is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. the person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

john stuart mill

reminds one of sri lankan peaceniks who think peace is worth any cost including freedom, justice, human rights, and democracy. they are ever ready to hand over millions of sri lankans in northeast to pussies in pursuit of 'peace'.
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btw i am not dead, just busy, be back soon.

return of the muttur refugees - what the peaceniks didn't want to happen

by all accounts thousands of (mostly muslim) refugees who fled the ltte's attack on muttur have started to return to their homes voluntarily during last few days. this is natural given that the main source of insecurity in the area, terrorist camps at sampur, were captured by the sri lankan military.

pussies had several aims when they attacked muttur. immediate aim was to relieve their then beleaguered forces at mavilaru who were holding water hostage. another aim was to have a better position to attack trinco. but perhaps the main reason was to ethnically cleanse the area. though tigers were chased away from muttur (in spite of several peaceniks efforts to prevent that) refugees were reluctant to return with terrorists, who have shown their intentions clearly, so close to their homes. as i pointed out one of the aims of that sampur operation was to get rid of that source of insecurity. by last monday military achieved their aims more or less.

as usual paikiasothy saravanamuttu, jehan perera, jayadeva uyangoda, sunanda deshapriya, sunila abeysekera, kumar rupasinghe and other assorted peaceniks did their best to prevent that by calling for an immediate halt to hostilities. apart from their usual preference for all out appeasement of terrorists, in this case there was probably more immediate and concrete reasons for this: they know they and their ilk will benefit as long as refugees remain refugees because lot of refugee aid passes through their and related ngos.

there maybe some naive mollycoddled young people and even some foreigners in colombo, who because they are either unable to face reality or even think for themselves, accept what their peers or families say without questioning and end up believing all violence is bad and peace is worth any cost. most people who go to fake peace protests and hold placards fall into this category. on the other hand peaceniks i mentioned are intelligent enough to know the facts. still they chose to back a course of action that would have made the sufferings of refugees and terrorist's attempted ethnic cleansing permanent. that they did this while proclaiming they care for the refugees makes this just the latest example of their hypocrisy comparable to their acceptance of ltte's sole representative status while claiming they are human right activists.

people are course free to be selfish. it is only that most leading individual peacniks' self interests coincide with terrorists'. they try their best to hide this with hypocrisy. it is in the other sri lankans' (in this case muttur refugees' for instance) self interest to expose that hypocrisy. more they are exposed for what they really are, even less will they matter.

last two weeks

what a fortnight! i went round and round the country several times. then went again. one night i was seeing faint traces of rockets going off in the horizon, next enjoying the fireworks in the sky. one day in the dry zone in the southeast, next in the dry zone in the northwest. and it is not over yet. i may be at it for the rest of the month.

why? because that is what i do. i am what is called a businessman/mudalali/entrepreneur or any combination of those. i do lot of things (most of the ventures being comparatively small it is too early to concentrate on core competences) and many of them do not fall under what is called 'new' economy. though a few do fall under that category too. i flatter myself that i do some of the old things in totally different innovative ways. most of the time i don't need to run around but this time i had to, to get the best out of them. and i did and will.

as i said in january i enjoy such periods of intense activity and almost lose all desires and appetites during them. this time wasn't an exception though i had more leisure. mainly because my free time wasn't clogged up by internet or television as it normally is when i am in colombo. most of my recent blog posts were written offline and posted later. spending nights in hotel rooms and other people's houses, and being driven around the country also gave me an opportunity to do some sustained reading. though i have always enjoyed reading, normally i do it in a haphazard way. i never finish books at one go. i read/reread several books piecemeal at the same time. this time i reread a huge novel (more on that in a later post) from beginning to the end. hopefully i will get to read several more during the rest of the month.

as usual there is nothing like going out of town to realize how disconnected from reality sri lankan blogosphere is. though i must say it has started to change perceptibly. this wasn't the same blogosphere i encountered last year or even last april. most of the newer bloggers seem to be more firmly grounded in reality than the old (according to internet time) ones. as the internet use spreads, sri lanka on the net will inevitably reflect the country. good.

good because reality truly and clearly exposed without filters created by some people in their cocoons will be favorable to sri lanka and sri lankans. i for one have no hesitation in asserting that, in spite of the war, and in spite of the government and politicians, this is the place to be if you are willing to work hard and make something out of yourself as an individual. opportunities are endless whether one makes an effort to use them is one's decision.
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ps
somebody (one of those who started visiting from north america after my posts on u.s. and canadian terrorist arrests. this blog got/gets lots of traffic because it was/is within the top 10-20 results in google and others, for several keywords connected to those arrests including some names) writing a comment challenged me to defend my 'views on the ltte within the libertarian framework'. i was also asked how i can maintain my 'libertarian integrity while supporting sri lankan nationalism'.

i will write a full reply/post later when i get the time. for now i will just say i am not a nationalist. i do consider myself a sri lankan (and not a sinhalese as my birth certificate probably says), but as a description not as an identity. i call myself a libertarian because i believe "individuals should be free to do whatever they wish with their person or property, as long as they do not infringe on the same liberty of others". i believe ltte infringes on my liberty as well as on others'. i also believe appeasement of terrorists do not work. as such my and other sri lankans' self interest requires that ltte should be defeated through a pragmatic and morally justifiable strategy in order that all sri lankans can exercise their rights and freedoms.

sampur in military hands?

reuters and afp quoting government officials report that, military has moved in to sampur (or sampoor) without much resistance today, after a week of fighting. so does bbc (hardly the most reliable source on sri lanka). nothing yet on mod, national security, or tamilnet.
if confirmed and after consolidation, this is a great development for the sri lankan military. it certainly took less time than i estimated. maybe tigers are even weaker than we think.

who will jump to the tro's defense?

assets of the exposed pussy front tamil rehabilitation organisation (tro) were reportedly frozen by central bank of sri lanka. will the assorted peacenks jump to its defense? will consortium of humanitarian agencies (cha), of which tro is a full (not just an associated member as the website says, read their 'annual report') member along with lot of other peacenik non governmental organizations? will the few non peacenik ngos there have the courage to stand up to the peaceniks and stop their being dragged to defend terrorists? how long will it take for the peaceniks to parrot the ltte propagandists call for government to release the ltte front’s assets, so that it can address "the current humanitarian situation in the northeast of sri lanka"? any guesses?

ulf henricsson and speculative prejudgments

ulf henricsson the out going (today, 31st, is his last day) head of sri lanka monitoring mission (slmm) yesterday issued a statement under his own name. that statement is yet to appear in slmm website. media should be careful not to confuse his personal statements with the usual slmm press releases. in it he makes a speculative judgment that unspecified members of sri lankan 'security forces' killed the 17 aid workers of acf in muttur. the formal investigation of those killings is yet to conclude.

in support of this extraordinary prejudgment he can advance only following evidence

Firstly, the SLMM cannot find the reasons for the restrictions of movements into the said areas especially in above-mentioned circumstances acceptable, thereby strongly indicating the GoSL's [government of Sri Lanka's] eagerness to conceal the matter from the SLMM....

Taking into consideration the fact that the security forces had been present in Muttur at the time of the incident it appears highly unlikely to blame other groups for the killing....

The head of SLMM has also had confidential conversations with highly reliable sources regarding the party who most likely has been responsible for the act. The views have not proved contradictory and the security forces of Sri Lanka are widely and consistently deemed to be responsible for the incident.....

in fact it is because there was fighting going on (terrorists having captured parts of muttur) that people were not allowed into muttur. in fact it is on friday august 4th that several peaceniks issued statments calling for a halt to hostilities knowing that ltte is lossing ground. also on 4th when acf was last in contact with those killed it was informed that ltte was in control of the area they were in. btw time of death is is yet to be established. that ulf henricsson's speculative prejudgment does not refer to any postmortem report to establish that and assume that deaths took place in 4th says a lot about his sloppiness. 15 bodies were discovered by consortium of humanitarian agencies (cha, a group that includes the ltte front, tamils rehabilitation organization (tro) as a full member) on sunday the 6th. curiously they failed to notice 2 more bodies which were discovered only 2 days later near by. even their report indicate that there wasn't any attempt at cover up by security forces then in control of muttur which was mostly uninhabited at that time.

that henricsson cites 'confidential conversations' with unnamed sources as 'highly reliable' evidence is in itself enough to destroy the credibility of his statement. if he is unable to reveal his sources and the evidence to the investigation and the public he should not speculate in public too.

in other words the cited evidence in fact makes the henricsson's prejudgment unsustainable. this is made all the more ironic by the fact slmm under him has refused/delayed to list ltte's suicide bombings as ceasefire violations because there is no conclusive evidence to implicate ltte (as if there are others who use suicide bombers). double standards anyone?

in addition he has not considered several inconsistencies in the revealed details about these killings.

there is continuing confusion as to where exactly the dead bodies were found and how they were shot (from behind or front or whether they were actually shot at all, but died from a bomb explosion). to clear that forensics and examination of witnesses is required.

then there was the fact that during the 2 or more days that elapsed before 2 extra bodies were found, acf bosses in sri lanka in their numerous media appearances or in any other occasion (to police for instance) did not reveal the fact 2 aid workers were missing (they always referred to 15 aid workers only). acf staff also had trouble identifying all the bodies. one is left with the impression that acf's bosses did not know who or how many were working for them in muttur.

it is also not clear why acf staff stayed behind in their offices when almost whole of muttur left the town or took refuge in safe places like religious compounds, when ltte attacked the town. relatives say they were instructed stay by ltte (unlike most others who were told to leave by ltte. why?), while acf says they were instructed to stay by their bosses (why?).

all that leaves much work for the investigation, jumping to stupid prejudgments is simply not the way to go.

then there is henricsson's clearly biased behavior recently.
he came to an agreement about mavil aru with tigers against the governments clearly stated position, tried to implement it against the governments wishes, and then blamed the government for his failed attempt. last friday he slammed european union (eu) for listing ltte as a terrorist organization because he has advised them otherwise (as if the fact of ltte's terrorism is in any doubt to anyone).

as recent terrorist arrests in united states and canada made clear, ltte is prepared to expend huge amounts as bribes to get its way with foreign governments. so may be it is time we did some speculative prejudging about ulf henricsson's assets. or may be it is best that we leave that to investigators instead of following him to the gutter.

btw here is government's response to this prejudgement.
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still too damn busy to reply to comments. sorry. but hopefully not for long.

an operation to retake sampur?

military has reportedly launched an operation to retake sampur (sometimes spelled sampoor). army commander lieutenant general sarath fonseka speaking to associated press reportedly said "the security forces have taken this decision to retake muttur, kaddaiparichchan, sampur and thoppur to safeguard trincomalee naval base and the harbor". other media reports (as alway based mainly on propaganda), indicate the same. however since there is no official notification from military we should be careful. this may only be a preliminary operation to clear and prepare the ground for a future operation to actually capture the sampur area. as always we should wait till a situation stabilizes to know what happened and treat all 'news' (esp. ones with figures) with skepticism.

however a limited operation to take sampur is the logical next step for the military. this carries risks as well as opportunities. as i said before a realistic but morally defensible strategy to defeat ltte (defeat of ltte is a precondition whether we like it or not for real peace) requires that sri lankan government present ltte with a stalemate situation for present without initiating and avoiding as far as possible, a full scale war (a war that ltte planned from last year). it must be made clear to them that they will get nowhere militarily and they will get nowhere through negotiations as well, as long as they will remain what they are now. on the long term such a strategy will make ltte progressively weaker till either gosl is able to defeat it militarily or it changes of it own accord to an unarmed democratic political party. militarily that comes down to a sort of a fabian strategy.

that means we should not engage in large scale offensive military operations that may end in effective defeat, as operation 'jayasikurui' in the late 90's ended up being, which may make ltte and others believe it is going somewhere militarily. however that does not mean we should not undertake small limited operations "to ensure that the terrorists end up in a similar or worse off position to the one they started off prior to the violence" if "it tries to increase its power" by violence.

question is whether an operation to retake sampur will fall into that category. imo it does. area and troops involved will certainly be comparatively small. nor will there be any higher risk of this developing into a larger operation as the terrorists in sampur are more or less isolated militarily speaking. pussies may try to open a completely separate front somewhere else on the north. but tigers already launched two operations to capture jaffna during last month (both failed miserably) and another such operation is likely anyway, with or without a sampur operation. an operation to take sampur will be limited in nature.

why recapture sampur?
as long as ltte remains in sampur, trinco and navy's operations from there will be under threat. though as i have said before what happened during ltte's attempt to take muttur and during last few weeks (when navy and trinco were subjected to artillery attacks) makes it clear that they are unable to prevent navy from operating out of trinco ( and thus supply jaffna). they came close to that only when they tried a mass sea tiger suicide attack on a troop ferry. even that did not succeed. unless they can successfully carry out several such suicide attacks or perhaps capture muttur and other strategic positions around the bay, navy will be able to carry on with its work. so it is not so much the actual hindrance as much as potential threat and general insecurity that will be eliminated if military is able to retake sampur.

getting rid of tigers in sampur will also make the area south of the bay secure, ensuring the resettlement of internally displaced people of muttur and adjacent areas. all those ngos and others 'humanitarins' who have taken it upon themselves to speak on behalf of idps should keep that in mind before criticizing an operation to retake sampur, unless they want the displaced to stay in their temporary camps forever. i know such permanent displacement is highly beneficial to some who work in ngos who provide 'help' to the idps with aid supplied by governments and others, but let us hope most of them see beyond that.

then there is the fact that under cfa sampur does not fall under ltte control. one can argue that military is merely holding ltte to account for a long neglected breach of ceasefire since sri lanka monitoring mission has patently failed to make ltte comply with cfa in regard to this breach as it had failed with all the other breaches.

risks
main risk is of course failure. let us hope military is fairly sure of its ability to dislodge the tigers from sampur. if military and its planners are not sure such operations should not be undertaken imo. even if they are successful this may take weeks if not months to complete, given that tigers are well entrenched. in fact the so called operation may look more like a siege than anything else. military and politicians must not raise false expectations. they must make it clear that this will take time. in fact that may also be why they have not said anything much about this so far.

another risk is the bad publicity generated by so called collateral damage. though it is impossible to believe after all that has happened, that there are any civilians in the tiger controlled areas in sampur, unless they are forcibly kept there to be used as human shields. government should make this point repeatedly and point out that it is allowing civilians to leave the area. and ngos and the 'humanitarians' (if they dare to go out of colombo) must try their best to evacuate those still in those areas and condemn ltte for any attempt to prevent that. it is not enough to protest after some civilians die.

in the end it is the civilians( not just in sampur, but in muttur, trinco, and jaffna ) who will gain most from a tiger less sampur so let's hope the operation to retake sampur ( if there is one now or in the future ) is a success.

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ps
welcome! especially all those who have started visiting this blog from u.s and canada after my recent posts on terrorist arrests there.
thanks for all the comments and the emails. still busy with work (was in trinco last sunday believe it or not), so sorry about not replying to comments and emails, and for not visiting other blogs. will soon (as in a day or two) do all that.

terrorists in waterloo tamil students’ association and canadian tamil congress

as two more tamil canadians are arrested for helping ltte, it is becoming clear that waterloo tamil students’ association (watsa) of university of waterloo, waterloo, ontario, canada is a breeding ground for tiger terrorists.

of the two recently arrested (ramanan mylvaganam, 29 and piratheepan nadarajah, 30), mylvaganam (computer engineering student) was vice president (internal) of watsa for winter 2004. earlier thirukumaran sivasubramaniam, 27 (computer science, treasurer fall 2002, president fall 2001 and winter 2003 of watsa) and suresh sriskandarajah, 26 (electrical engineering, president fall 2001 of watsa) were arrested. see my previous post for more details on them.

canadian press has already labeled suresh sriskandarajah, "waterloo suresh" after his own words. he founded the vanni innovation group (www.vannigroup.org) ( the website is maintained by image icon.com, suresh founded that company too). this group has since merged with tamil youth organization (tyo) canada and purportedly sent "student volunteers" to assist in various "projects" in vanni, sri lanka. what they really did (do?) was to smuggle books, compasses, global positioning system devices, computer board kits, laptop computers etc. to the tigers.

take suresh's own words as revealed in an email he sent on october 23, 2005 to those participating ( email was made public by fbi) ,

you idiots already told way too much people...pack up properly! there is lots of money being dumped on these things ... teddies and chocolates to cover up, although they are not problematic, just computer stuff...when you land in sri lanka ... only speak in english, never speak in tamil in front of singalese guys ... tell customs guys you are here on vacation and will travel around (the) whole island with your family.
you get to an army checkpoint after vayuniya. this is the most trickiest part ... you will be asked to take out the suitcases and open for them to see ... give them ... a bag of chocolate for all of them and smile. give cigarette too ... say they are (a gift) for family ... computer parts. make up some bs. ...now you go to the tigers checkpoint, only five minutes away ... tell them waterloo suresh sent you ... in kilinchchi town ... tell them waterloo suresh sent you and you need to see elil. i need to know that you arrived safely and more importantly all the things got there safely.

mylvaganam and suresh reportedly purchased submarine and warship-design software from a company in britain and night-vision equipment from a firm in british columbia using school projects as cover.

meanwhile university of waterloo spokesman martin van nierop said the university is assisting the royal canadian mounted police with the investigation. he said the school was investigating whether it may have been involved in any "humanitarian and developing-world projects" with the two men.

vanni innovation group's website indicates this was definitely the case. university of waterloo along with vanni institute of technology(vannitech), tamil children's endowment fund (tcef), tamils rehabilitation organization (tro)( the ngo named as a ltte 'front' by fbi), the economic consultancy house, international tamil technical professionals’ organization (ittpo) and microsoft corp, are listed as 'support partners'. it is clear from their websites that except for the university and microsoft others are ltte fronts, more or less.

canadian tamil congress
meanwhile along with ltte, canadian tamil congress (ctc) and its spokespersons david poopalapillai and kavitha pathinathar denied any connection with those arrested. however sahilal sabaratnam, "sahil” arrested on monday in new york (see previous post) issued a press release titled "sivaram's murder, loss to free speech" on behalf of ctc on april 29, 2005. he is designated there as director, communications, canadian tamil congress, toronto tel: (416) 662-6372, e-mail:ctc.toronto@gmail.com.

ctc has a history of jumping to terrorist's defense.

us congressman
democratic congressman danny davis of illinois made a trip to sri lanka earlier this year. (march 30-april 5). according to his disclosure documents(pdf) it was funded by the federation of tamil sangams in north america (fetna) and cost them around $7000. during the trip he spent most of his time in ltte controlled territory and met ltte 'police' chief. he says though he knew fetna was associated with ltte, he did not know his trip was funded by ltte.

however nachimuthu socrates arrested on monday(see previous post) was a director of fetna in 2004 and murugesu vinayagamoorthy also arrested on monday talked to the congressman last saturday .


one thing is clear, lot of people in north america ranging from microsoft to congressmen need to think twice about who they associate with.

some media sources
national post, the globe and mail, toronto sun, toronto sun 2, cbc.ca, chicago tribune, asian tribune, asian tribune 2, mod.

some details about terrorist arrests in u.s.

here are some details i was able to collect regarding the people and events leading up to the arrests made in united states during last few days.

people involved.
ci-1 - confidential informant 1, of sri lankan tamil origin living in staten island, new york. he had previously agreed to co-operate with the government after a drug trafficking conviction a decade ago and, in return for immigration status in america. he is the same person designated as ci-1 in both complaints.
uc -1 and uc -2 in first compliant - undercover fbi agents pretending to be state department officials.
uc -1 and uc -2 in second complaint - undercover fbi agents pretending to be an arms dealer and an arms expert respectively ( i will refer to the later two as uc -1b and uc- 2b to avoid confusion.

defendants:
sathajhan sarachandran, - “satha”- dob: 10/31/79

sahilal sabaratnam, - “sahil” - dob: 2/8/79
"financial guy"
class of 1998 - east york collegiate institute, ontario, canada
director, communications, canadian tamil congress, toronto, tel: (416) 662-6372, e-mail: ctc.toronto@gmail.com
a statement issued by him on behalf of ctc after the dharmaratnam sivaram (former tamilnet editor) murder was carried by "northeastern herald", now defunct (?) online publication given space in tamil canadian.com. original page there is not available but google cache is .

thiruthanikan thanigasalam, - “thani” - dob: 6/11/68

nadarasa yograrasa, - “yoga” - dob: 10/8/54

murugesu vinayagamoorthy, -“dr. moorthy”- “vinayagamoorthy murugesu” - dob: 4/24/49
a doctor based in london. uk. (not to be confused with another murugesu vinayagamoorthy, an engineer living in sacramento, usa). wife - dr. pushpam vinayagamoorthy.
lrcps 1978 glasg, lrcp 1978 edin, lrcs 1978 edin.
the green practice, forest road health centre, 2a forest road,edmonton, london, N9 8RZ
tel: 020-8805-8180, 020-8443-3937
attorney joseph kilada: "i could quantify him as a political activist"

natchimuttu socrates - dob: 11/20/51
16, heartstone drive harford , connecticut. 06070 USA
engineer of south indian origin.
owner of "ew granites & marbles", www.ewgm.us.
1547 new britain avenue , farmington, connecticut 06032
tel: 860-674-0853/800-966-8460
fax: 860-676-2861/860-678-9543
socrates@ewgm.us
son aristotle socrates : "he's a well-educated community oriented father," "charges are absurd", "they've made a gross miscalculation"
daughter thernal socrates: "we think he’s innocent and that all the charges will be dropped”, “i think this seems to be the new trend these days”, “i don’t know where this is coming from."
attorney gerald del piano: "we plan to fully and vigorously contest the charges". "outstanding member of the community who looks forward to resolving these issues as soon as possible"

vijayshanthar patpanathan, - “chandru” - dob: 4/5/62

thirukumaran sivasubramaniam - dob: 6/20/79
(former?) computer science student of university of waterloo, waterloo, ontario, canada .
sometime president of waterloo tamil students’ association (watsa)

suresh sriskandarajah - age 26
arrested separately in ontario, canada. see below for possible explanation.
personal website www.planetsuresh.com. including photos by him.
founder media-icon.com , web design company
founder vanni innovation group( www.vannigroup.org) - which sends volunteers to vanni to help in 'various projects' in conjunction with tamil rehabilitation organization(tro) and other ngos
(former?) electrical engineering student of university of waterloo, waterloo, ontario, canada .
sometime president (?)of waterloo tamil students’ association (watsa)
former student westview centennial secondary school

timeline

note: throughout the time involved authorities seem to have tracked e-mails, telephone conversations, bank accounts (including those used to launder and fund ltte activities, through ltte fronts like tamil rehabilitation organization (tro) and world tamil coordinating committee, which are mentioned by name). complaints also say these fronts also sent goods and material to ltte in sri lanka.

2004
murugesu vinayagamoorthy and natchimuttu socrates meet uc -1 and uc -2 through ci -1 and offer a bribe with up front payment of us$ 1 million to remove ltte from state department’s foreign terrorist organization list. vinayagamoorthy claims he traveled to states for the express purpose of meeting uc -1 and uc-2 under instructions from "senior ltte leadership in sri lanka". discussions continue.

2005 july
socrates asks whether they "could stop the united states government from sending arms to the sri lankan government" and "provide intelligence about this issue".

2005 september 29
in staten island, vinayagamoorthy when asked about whether ltte will continue to use suicide bombers, says "i feel i have to mention … in the event of war happening, i think it is inevitable that suicide bombing will be used."

sometime during this time an interim payment of $5500 is made to agents by natchimuttu socrates. however the scheme is put on hold ( not clear when) due to prevailing situation in sri lanka.

2005 december
natchimuttu socrates meets uc -1 and ci -1 in order to purchase a classified intelligence document with details of the investigation by u.s. and another foreign government into the tamil rehabilitation organization (tro). he pays uc -1 us$ 1000 to review it (fbi use a specially created fake document for the purpose), and then passes on the information to vinayagamoorthy.

2006 april
canada names ltte as a terrorist organization.
canadian authorities raid the toronto and montreal offices of the world tamil movement(wtm)

2006 july
nadarasa yograrasa(yoga) calls ci -1 to request that ci -1 put him in contact with a black market arms dealer. call recorded.

2006 july 31
ci-1 , yoga, and sathajhan sarachandran(satha), meet in queens, new york and discuss the required weapons with specific reference to surface-to-air missiles to bring down sri lankan government's kfir fighter aircraft. satha says he is under directions from pottu amman (ltte's intelligence chief). he says there is a 'big guy ' in canada who is the pottu amman's direct contact (name of this person is still classified, not known whether he was one of those arrested ). conversation recoded.

later emails are exchanged between satha and ci -1 (under fbi direction). some extracts below.
same day from ci- 1 to satha : "met you today, thanks for meeting. i will contact my guy to see what he has, if it is ok. do you want me to send you pictures of the merchandise?"

2006 august 1
from satha to ci-1: " i am waiting for your merchandise pictures."
from ci -1 to satha: "here are photos of what my guy has available. sa-18 russian made shoulder fired. let me know if your guys are interested. give me a list of what they want and i will ask him what he can get" . two photographs of an sa-18 surface-to-air missile were attached to this email
satha forwards these emails to sri lanka quoting prices: "sa18 $75,000 us 1 reusable and 1 needle and 1 needle $50,000 us". according to fbi "needle" is code for a missile.

2006 august 7
ci -1 and yoga meet again to discuss weapons including AK-47s and truck-mounted missile systems.

2006 august 14
uc -1b calls satha posing as the arms dealer known to ci-1.
satha: "the deal is urgent. unfortunately, we need to meet fast, uh, asap"

2006 august 18
sahilal sabaratnam (sahil) , thiruthanikan thanigasalam (thani), and satha, all three of them canadians, travel to u.s by car from canada telling u.s customs they are going to a bachelor party in buffalo. another person traveling with them (suresh sriskandarajah?) was not allowed to enter u.s by customs agents because of past criminal record and travels back by taxi.

2006 august 19
sahil, thani, and satha, meet ci-1 in queens and travel to long island to meet uc-1b and uc-2b. a sa -18 surface-to-air missile along with firing tube and trigger mechanism (in a wooden crate), and two ak-47 s were brought to the room.
conversation recorded . some extracts.

thani: "we need something for kfir"
uc-1b: "You want to shoot this airplane down?"
thani: "yes"

one of the three defendants: "sometimes getting five or 10 needles is not worth it. it has to be obtained in bulk. at our rate, if we fire 10 at least two will hit."

uc - 1b: (observing the crate )" it looks like a casket".
uc- 2b : "it would put quite a few people in caskets"
defendants say "yes" and laugh.
--
they also discuss weapons to destroy 'boats', unmanned aerial vehicles for jamming radio transmissions and radar, submarine design software, flight lessons, cell towers, radio controller equipment, global positioning system equipment, short wavelength radio equipment, radio and satellite equipment, air traffic equipment, cameras, computers, and a host of other items
after discussions they agree to pay $900,000-937,500 for 10 missiles (with possibility of buying 50 to 100 later)and 500 ak-47s. uc-2b is to provide training on the use of missiles in sri lanka. cargo to be delivered ship to ship in indian ocean. payment to be made using bank accounts in switzerland, st. croix, or other offshore locations

2006 august 21
of the defendants mentioned above, six are arrested in new york, two outside new york (natchimuttu socrates in his simsbury, conn., home), one in canada (suresh sriskandarajah by royal canadian mounted police in an undisclosed location in southern ontario). altogether at least 13 were arrested and eight named and seven unnamed people are charged. eight named are the first eight defendants here. no details about others.

some sources
us doj press release, usnewswire, reuters, new york times (registration free link), washington post, washington times, new york sun, associated press, upi, ny daily news, national post, canada.com, courant, cnn, sri lanka peace secteraiat, mod sri lanka, media center for national security, asain tribune, tamilnet, spur on other tro and ltte connections

feel free to point out errors or ask for clarifications.
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ps
i wrote most of this yesterday. was so busy with work that i did not have time to finish and publish it. i have the same excuse for my inability to reply to comments here or visit other blogs. hopefully i will get less busy during next day or two.

ltte bans bearing fruit?

while tigers were baned in united states, britian, india, canada, and eu, until recently those bans seem to be of mere symbolic importance (except in india). however during the last few months some foreign governments have started to act on them (as well on general anti terrorist legislation in some countries that do not specifically ban ltte), most notably in canada, australia, and thailand.

few hours ago two unsealed complaints in united states district court in brooklyn against eight recently arrested suspects revealed that fbi had been conducting extensive investigations and undercover operations against ltte. details as revealed in complaints makes for interesting reading.

suspects were accused of trying to raise funds ( through ngo fronts like tamil rehabilitation organization(tro) and world tamil coordinating committee), obtain weapons including surface-to-air missiles (with training ), bribe u.s. officials to take ltte off the list of banned terrorist organizations, and obtain an intelligence document on u.s. and other investigations into tro.

let's hope the suspects - murugesu vinayahamoorthy, nachimuthu socrates, nadarasa yogarasa, sathajhan sarachandran, sahilal sabaratnam, thiruthanikan thanigasalam among others - get the justice they deserve. and let's wish all the best to the investigations.

reuters, usnewswire.
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meanwhile in sri lankan peacenik hangouts like moju, one is sure to be at the receiving end of an unending stream of venom if one so much as breathes a word against tro. kumar rupasinghe the main organizer behind the recent so called 'peace' march which resulted in violence is in record defending tro. let's see how long they will maintain that head in sand attitude.

well done!

mayumi raheem - swimming - women’s 100m breast stroke.

chinthana vidanage - weight lifting - 62 kg category.
andrew abeysinghe - swimming - men’s 200m back stroke.
they are the first three sri lankan gold medalists at the ongoing tenth south asian games. hopefully more will follow.

for more details about the games see following two web sites (they are however only occasionally updated)
tomorrowsrilanka.com
sagtencolombo.org.lk

athletes of south asia showed what they are made of in deciding to participate in these games in spite of security concerns, unlike the flowery chickenboks of south africa.

of course south african cricketers are free chicken out if they wanted to. however, imo if international cricket council (icc) does not cancel a cricket tour and a team leaves anyway for whatever reason, opposing team should be awarded wins for the scheduled matches and icc team rankings and player statistics should changed accordingly. this should be done in addition to fines and damages awarded to sponsors and organizers.

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update :
three more gold medals for sri lanka on 21st:
sriyalatha wickremasinghe - cycling - women's 20km time trial.
meemanage perera - cycling - men's 40km time trial.
andrew abeysinghe(his second) - swimming - men’s 100m back stroke.

physical interference in fake 'peace' activism is idiotic

today peaceniks, defeatists, ltte apologists, and a whole contradictory mishmash of people with various agendas held a 'peace ' march and a 'rally' in support of appeasement of terrorists. though to all appearance poorly organized, poorly attended, and unsuccessful, as usual, they managed get disrupted by some idiots.

media reports indicate that there was even some physical scuffling on stage. it is not clear who is responsible for all that. given that several unstable politicians from both government and opposition like dilan perera(upfa), rajitha senaratne (unp), vasudeva nanayakara (upfa) were backers of this march and that another one well known thuggish upfa politician from colombo mervyn silva and some warmongering monks, were allowed on to stage this was to be expected. at this stage it is not clear whether this was a concerted attempt at disruption, and if so with what motives. whether it was due to some people getting annoyed at the intention of the rally, a publicity stunt by the organizers , a political stunt by warmongers , a personal vendetta between colombo upfa politicians or any combination of above and other motives.

given the above facts i will not comment on the specifics in this case but confine myself to general observations.

as i said in the title i consider physical interference or banning of peacenik, defeatist, and terrorist apologist activism idiotic. they and their ideas are so hypocritical, naive, or vague, that they cannot ever hope to get any credence in the real world. all that is called for is continuous exposing of that hypocrisy, nativity, and incoherence.

after all, what intelligent and moral person is going to accept handing over of millions of sri lankans to ltte oppression, depriving them of human rights, freedom, democracy, and justice, in the false unrealistic hope that we will have 'peace' here in colombo.

let them them have their insensitive, tin eared, protests, marches and the rest of it, while people are sacrificing their lives in the north to bring real peace. there is no better argument against them than a photo of them engaged in such idiotic activity in colombo. so let them do that without physical interference.

death of children

recent death of large number of teenagers in a ltte run compound due to military bombing once again highlights why tolerating ltte and its activities will only result in horrors.

ltte through it's propaganda mouth piece tamilnet variously claimed that the compound was a 'peace village' , school, orphanage, training center for "leadership, self-awareness and first aid workshop"( lasting for 2, no 10, days) and that 43, then 61, girls died. (goto tamilnet archives and see for yourself)

government (which is engaged in beating back a pussy attempt to take over jaffna) claimed it was a child soldier training and transit camp and came out with a surveillance video from probably an unmanned aerial vehicle (though some reporters seem to think it is a satellite footage if so sri lankan military is receiving some serious help) showing brown clad people and some vehicles running from the compound after the attack.

media was not allowed in by ltte, sri lanka monitoring mission(slmm) and unicef representatives who visited said "while it did not appear to be a rebel camp, they had not ruled out the possibility they were receiving civilian defense training" and rather contradictorily "that it had been empty for some time”. while slmm said they only saw "the bodies of 19 people at a nearby hospital, most of them women around the age of 18". unicef said "they did not have access to the dead”, and "as of this time, we don't have any evidence that they are ltte cadres”. they also issued a statement saying that "according to press reports, the compound in vallipunam ...was bombed, reportedly killing as many as 40 adolescent girls. Some 100 children were wounded, many critically”, "these children are innocent victims of violence", and calling "on all parties to respect international humanitarian law and ensure children and the places where they live, study and play are protected from harm."(italics added by me)

as always media local and foreign parroted tamilnet like idiots. though after recently getting burned for doing so without properly indicating that fact, this time they were for the most part careful to include qualifications like 'rebels/pro-rebel website said”, quotation marks, etc. for a clear example of one that did not qualify them as ltte claims see here. (btw my complaints to the bbc about several instances of biased reporting (this was one i made several later) has resulted in several emails from various people from bbc and at least two regular visitors from bbc to this blog. i hope they are reading and taking remedial action.) most reports missed crucial details like inconsistency of ltte claims, lack of independent confirmation of number of deaths, qualified nature of slmm and unicef comments, etc. and most 'forgot' to mention the ltte's regular employment child soldiers.

however tendentious (with qualifications) media reports were they were nothing in comparison to the local peacenik's primary blog in sri lanka which as expected had a post consisting of ltte terrorist claims only. no more evidence is needed as to where their sympathies lie.

in the end what emerges from all this propaganda, naivety, and parroting, is that lot of young people subjected to ltte influence died.

this should have been expected because similar young people have been dying for a long time.

as unicef and others have previously noted there are more than enough proof that ltte has whole brigades of child soldiers. if past battles are any guide ltte considers them expendable sending them in waves to attack entrenched army positions knowing that most of them will die as they progressively weaken the army defenses, while keeping the veteran adult cadres as a reserve to deliver the final blow. this tactic has worked well for them in the past.

ltte probably find children easy to recruit and indoctrinate. those who resist recruitment are regularly killed.

so there is no doubt that children subject to ltte influence are at high risk of violent death, in actual combat or by government's (quite justifiable and inevitable) attacks on ltte installations.

question is what can be done to protect them from ltte.

it is here that all those who recommend appeasement and accommodation of ltte have come a cropper. most such people have shied away from condemning child recruitment. even those who have and others (like unicef) who have tried to engage ltte and persuade it to discontinue this practice have failed miserably. ltte as usual have reluctantly given its word several times with token surrender of some children, only to break it immediately afterwards. as always appeasement has not worked with terrorists.

all this only goes to confirm that only way out is to defeat the ltte (using a realistic but morally defensible strategy, not some naive pseudo realpolitik that never say how to deal with the very real military power of ltte) not wishfully hoping that ltte will come around if we gave it enough (legitimacy, power, aid, territory , or take your pick). for ltte, enough has never been enough.

as individuals who do not want to see many more such deaths,

• don't appease the ltte and allow it to continue killing and abusing children.
• don't help those peaceniks and defeatists who advocate such appeasement.
• help those who want to defeat the ltte and free the children.

'sole representative' at work again?

the deputy secretary-general of the sri lankan government's peace secretariat, ketheesh loganathan (who was a former eprlf member) was shot dead few hours ago. with last week's failed attempt on life of a senior epdp member pussies are clearly redoubling their efforts to claim the tamils' sole representative status with violence.

they obviously think that slavish acceptance of that status by ngo peaceniks is not worth much and only physical elimination of tamils who do not accept their version of the truth will do.

when will peaceniks learn that acceptance of ltte as tamils' sole representative merely on a claim backed by terror, amounts to depriving tamils of their rights? can anyone who presumes to stand up for human rights as some peaceniks claim they do, accept this?

it's one thing if government accepts this as a temporary and pragmatic way to get tigers to talks. but everyone who wants human rights, freedom, justice, and democracy, (and thus real peace) to prevail in sri lanka should condemn that acceptance and ltte's insistence on it unambiguously.

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ps
meanwhile, dbs jeyaraj whose writings are much admired and indeed plagiarized by peaceniks at cpa, is back with his ltte propaganda.
the only argument (other than those taken from fantasy world of conspiracy theories that is) he can advance in support of his claim that government is supposedly engaged in a 'genocidal' war, is that sl military did not stop the mavil aru operation after the alleged 'unconditional opening' of the sluice gates by terrorists. as i pointed out earlier, until civilian engineers of the irrigation department have unimpeded access to the gates without interference from terrorists, now and in the future, the opening cannot be called unconditional. conditional access to water is a war crime. only ltte propagandists and their naive believers will accept arguments like that.
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update
added the picture as well as the link to media release from scopp.

air attack on palaly - propaganda?

above image of palaly airbase was saved from my google earth. (click on it to enlarge)

late yesterday tigers claimed their 'aircraft' flew over the base and fired rockets (given that pussies have some kind of air capability this is a possibility). military denied that claiming it was 'bogus propaganda'.

in this connection it is interesting that tamilnet posted a pic very similar to the above in their report without giving any credit to google earth ( in fact the pic is named palaly airbase aerial view).

when dealing with tigers, people especially journalists, should be careful that they do not get taken in by the propaganda. as i have already pointed out they are quite capable of using whatever is at hand (in that case the icrc) to add credibility to what in the end are false reports.

as i said before nobody can say how ongoing military operations will end up, who is winning, or even the number of causalities, even if we have eyewitnesses in the area. results should only be judged when the situation stabilizes.

so we can now say military was able to drive terrorists out of muttur, but people who parroted claims by both sides that each was in complete control of the town during the battle itself were giving false information.

when someone gives you specific information about an ongoing operation be very sceptical.

update:
ministry of defense scores a point about this after comparing the time of tamilnet report with reported time of the attack. it seems the tamilnet reported even before the 'attack'.

for air attack on 03/26/07 see this post

jayadeva uyangoda - terrorist boot licker

if anybody needed any proof that peacenik jayadeva uyangoda was a well trained terrorist boot licker read his latest post on water blockade at focus lanka. his own words prove how slavish and how blind these peaceniks have become.

they are so well trained by the ltte that even outsiders like me can predict their behavior with complete accuracy. on july 27 i asked whether after deliberately staying silent during the time government did not do anything , "will they come out of their cocoons to denounce government and excuse terrorists as usual" now that the violence has started ? (i asked the same here too in a dedicated post). lo and behold. they have done exactly that.

i can hear big pussy saying, "good dog!"

i left a comment there which is yet to appear; i left the same comment with minor editing in the moju post dealing with this. you may read it there.

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ps

while people are rightfully making a big issue of killing of the 17 aid workers in muttur by unknown persons (however giving credence to allegations of relatives who were not there is taking it too far) . there is not much action taken about the muslim civilians held or killed by the ltte as alleged by other muslim refugees. ltte is also reportedly holding some tamil refugees from moving into government areas. reportedly they are being used as human shields to protect their increasingly untenable artillery positions.

hmmm. does that mean we can make another prediction? will peaceniks denounce government if these civilians are killed when government attacks those positions?

alternative

nobody wants war. only self styled 'saints' with limited experience about other people will even think that anybody except real nut cases will prefer war.

however that does not mean we should prefer peace at any cost, especially at the cost of human rights, freedom, justice, and democracy. we have no right to hand over fellow sri lankans to a megalomaniac bent of creating a personal dictatorship ( ltte is certainly not fighting on behalf of tamils, insistence on sole representative status is a good indication of that) on the blood of others, including children, in order that 'we' in colombo can have 'peace'.

imo such a peace is as morally repugnant as war.

so what is the alternative?

i have expressed my personal opinion on this in various comments in this blog and others as well as in some blog posts. this one for instance. but i thought i will devote a post exclusively for it.

for me due to reasons i set out above, appeasement of ltte in order to obtain peace is morally unacceptable.
in addition given ltte instinctively prefer violence and threats when they want something, regardless of any agreements they have signed or whatever obligations they were under (as demonstrated by the recent water blockade and the fate of ceasefire agreement from the first) i doubt whether even a nominal 'peace' may result from such appeasement. appeasement of other terrorist groups and violent fascists is one of unending failure down the ages.

i also believe that given the limited resources of the country and our unwillingness to concentrate all our resources on behalf of the war effort, we probably (we can never be certain) cannot win a full scale war. we can and have contained the terrorists (a highly creditable achievement for our military given the difficulties some very resource rich countries are experiencing against much weaker opponents) but i doubt whether we can exterminate the ltte by military force alone.
nor do i support putting the country on a war footing with full concentration of resources for war (with conscription, curtailment of political rights, etc. that such a situation would involve) unless as a last resort.

what to do then?

unfortunately there is no easy answer to that.

in my opinion the ultimate result should be an effectively defeated and/or contained ltte, without initiating and avoiding as far as possible, a full scale war. to obtain that result sri lankan government should aim at,

• preventing ltte gaining any more power, militarily, politically, diplomatically, or financially.
• avoidance of military action involving the regular military as long as above objective is achieved.
• doing everything possible to proactively reduce ltte's power without jeopardizing the above two objectives

that means holding the ceasefire as long as ltte hold it. if it tries to increase its power by some violent action( such as blocking water, killing military personnel etc) government should respond robustly, in proportionate and limited manner, to ensure that the terrorists end up in a similar or worse off position to the one they started off prior to the violence.

government must also do everything in its power to diplomatically isolate ltte, discredit ltte's claims to legitimacy, break up its support networks, counter its propaganda, etc.

on no account should government enter into any substantive agreement in relation to devolution of power with the ltte. that would only increase ltte's power. government must make it clear to both ltte and international community that as long as ltte remains what it is, it will not enter into any such agreement. the government should never legitimize ltte's claim to represent north east tamil community.

instead it must make it clear that very real tamil grievances can only be addressed through democratically elected tamil representatives not through ltte. it must request international community to put pressure( not that it will work at present) on ltte to change itself and disarm in order to claim any legitimate political power. government may propose and/or implement measures to address those tamil grievances unilaterally (since democratic tamil representatives from ne are non existent at present) as a temporary measures as long as ltte is unable to profit from them. government must do its best to help and protect alternative tamil political leadership.

how would ltte respond to such a policy?

options available to them are limited in such a situation.

one option is to hold the ceasefire and talk to government knowing well no substantive agreement will be on offer. this has the added risk (from ltte point of view) of progressive weakening of their organization, due to the stalemate and stagnation during ceasefire. there is reason to believe this was already underway during the last few years and that their deliberate drive for war this year, apparent from last presidential election, was partly motivated by an attempt to counteract this. so given the dead end why would tigers even consider this option? mainly because of their desire to hold on to what they have already acquired ( illegitimately ) since they can be sure government won't try to take those away by force as long as the ceasefire holds.

but ltte won’t take the above option as long as they have a military option. that is why government must respond robustly and make sure ltte does not gain anything by military actions. government must respond in proportion to the ltte's violence and must be prepared handle the full range from small scale breaches of ceasefire to full scale war, if ltte so prefers. while military may be unable to win the war outright, it can certainly force ltte to a stalemate. the end lesson must be clear: ltte won't get anywhere by military actions.

the third option for ltte is to disarm and transform itself into a democratic political party. this is highly unlikely at present and as long as present leadership is in place.

given options available to ltte, we can expect it to alternate between the first option (talks that go nowhere) and second option (military actions that go nowhere) until ltte progressively become weak and flexible enough to choose the third option.

imo what i described above is the only viable alternative to war (that won't get us anywhere) and 'peace' (that won't get us anywhere either) and it is certainly less morally repugnant than either the war or the peacenik peace.

government policy

the present buffalo administration as a result of a combination of several factors ( influence of jhu/jvp warmongers , pressure from international community, economic situation of the country, actual military reality etc. ) has somehow stumbled on to a policy similar to above described alternative. i don't think they deliberately planned for it. as i said it may be the only viable policy and as result all governments that come to power will be forced on to it eventually. let’s hope they recognize that policy's essential features and aims and understand the available options when implementing it.

under such a policy sri lanka will go through alternating periods of high and low intensity conflict for several more years, we will have to get used to that reality, because everything else is worse.