that it seems is the latest pussy trick.
on 20th ltte closed the sluice-gate of the mawilaru anicut that provides water to seruwila, muttur and ichalampattu in the trincomalee district. this was confirmed by sri lanka monitoring mission (slmm). ltte's trinco political head said that 'the people of the area' blocked it 'to spotlight the grave injustice meted out to the tamil people'. ltte also prevented engineers from entering the area to open the sluice-gates. a home guard was killed in the area on sunday.
there were protests (including hunger strikes) by the people deprived of their water, which they used for drinking in addition to irrigation.
ltte in effect holding the water hostage, made several (undisclosed) demands through the slmm. government pointed out that depriving civilians of water is against the ceasefire agreement and geneva conventions (which specifically prohibits this).
on 26th evening government launched limited air strikes against ltte positions in the area to give cover to ground troops conveying the engineers to open the gates.
imo government did the right thing here. ltte should not be allowed to dictate demands through the use of force. let us hope government will continue to hold the same strong defensive stance in the future.
news coverage and statements
asian tribune, bbc, lbo (afp), mod, nationalsecurity.lk, scopp, tamilnet.
--
ps
given the time that elapsed, this would have been a case in which peacenik ngos if they really cared about peace could have done some good and prevented violence by getting ltte to open the sluice-gates. instead there wasn't any sort of sound from them. may be they consider this beneath them?
however, now that the violence has started will they come out of their cocoons to denounce government and excuse terrorists as usual? let us wait and see.
on 20th ltte closed the sluice-gate of the mawilaru anicut that provides water to seruwila, muttur and ichalampattu in the trincomalee district. this was confirmed by sri lanka monitoring mission (slmm). ltte's trinco political head said that 'the people of the area' blocked it 'to spotlight the grave injustice meted out to the tamil people'. ltte also prevented engineers from entering the area to open the sluice-gates. a home guard was killed in the area on sunday.
there were protests (including hunger strikes) by the people deprived of their water, which they used for drinking in addition to irrigation.
ltte in effect holding the water hostage, made several (undisclosed) demands through the slmm. government pointed out that depriving civilians of water is against the ceasefire agreement and geneva conventions (which specifically prohibits this).
on 26th evening government launched limited air strikes against ltte positions in the area to give cover to ground troops conveying the engineers to open the gates.
imo government did the right thing here. ltte should not be allowed to dictate demands through the use of force. let us hope government will continue to hold the same strong defensive stance in the future.
news coverage and statements
asian tribune, bbc, lbo (afp), mod, nationalsecurity.lk, scopp, tamilnet.
--
ps
given the time that elapsed, this would have been a case in which peacenik ngos if they really cared about peace could have done some good and prevented violence by getting ltte to open the sluice-gates. instead there wasn't any sort of sound from them. may be they consider this beneath them?
however, now that the violence has started will they come out of their cocoons to denounce government and excuse terrorists as usual? let us wait and see.
15 comments:
My gosh what an outragoues post! Denying of Water, by the pussy's. Water being the stuff we drink alot, me thinks falls under the category of basic needs. To deny one would constitue crimes against humanity?
There is an explanation, one pussy was playing around with z gates, and got em stuck and couldn't get it open. They was merely waiting for a pussy engineer to come figure it out, not allowing the GoSL to figure their mistake.
In the meantime they were providing all the citizens over there with chilled Coke Cans, and Kit kat.
Have a break. Have a Kit-Kat
Denying water now ha? What can u expect from a bunch of terrorists who even deny life?
height of stupidity! I hope those who suppport terrorists can now see what their heroes r really like. lol what kinda seperate nation r they trying to rule? One with no water, electricity, food but one with tons of cyanide?
Keshi.
Sorry abt the earlier comment - there were some typos. The following is a verbatim version but can't guarantee it to be 100% clear of typos :)
Denying Water - Its a classic war tactic. Used by sadistic bastard generals until something called the Geneva Covnention came along. Deny the people water and they will do anything to live. They might have left the area which would have given LTTE more room to maneuver or at the very least put a lot of people at the mercy of the LTTE - not because of regular intimidation, but through sheer desperation.
Interestingly, wonder what the demands were? I mean, they literally held a segment of the population hostage if they made 'demands' in order to re-open the sluice gates. Jeez, don't these guys know that kidnapping is on the way out esp if you are a terrorist org? Case in point, the mess Hezbollah is in right now.
Now as a Nation state, countries are held accountable for violating the Geneva convention (unless you helped write it in which case you can amend as you go along like the US does). If the LTTE is trying to be (snort) a nation state, how come the niceties of civilized behavior don't apply but mass bombings, suicide bombings and encouraged suicide does?
Euthansia is illegal in most parts of the world. WHat does the LTTE condone, nay promote? Death by Suicide. Thats one helluva way to control population isn't it? Heavens Gate seems like a Stamp Club compared to these guys. What people don't realize is that by making the Martyrs image synonymous with suicide, LTTE is inflicting genocide... on its own population. The difference between them and Hitler/Milosovic/Pol Pot being, they don't use guns - just brainwashing and cyanide.
"The Tamil Tigers justified their action by saying the government had reneged on a promise to build a water tower for areas under rebel control." - thats their excuse according to an AP article on theacademic.org. Again hihglights the irony of expecting GOSL to build infrastructure in 'Eelam' whilst carrying out bombings and assassinations against the GOSL.
Komi - agree mate but the LTTE do use guns on 'occassion' ;)
Hey guys. This is not the first time. This won’t be the last time.
We need to learn to live with our neighboring countries. It won’t be pretty for the next couple of generations. LTTE only need two more steps to concrete Elam nation. They will do that pretty soon.
Look at Israelis – they do worst things to Palestine. UN not going to save our ass when power and money is at the other side. It never happen any where else.
We have to deal with our own problems. Government did the only possible action under this situation right now.
But in the future – we may need to change our social structure after Elam defines legitimate international boundaries.
chaar~max :
lol
To deny one would constitue crimes against humanity?
yes
thanks for the comment.
keshi:
you are right
ppl should realize what kind of state they are building .
thanks mate :-)
komisiripala
thanks for the comment .don't worry about typos.
agree with what you say.
and ltte pr seems to have got in to a mess recently.
childof25 :
thanks the comment and update.
yes its ironic the way they expect gosl to do all the development and infrastructure work .
sam:
thanks
yes this wont be the last time.
but i wouldn't be so sure that there will be a separate state here. esp with ltte in charge .
I really really really hope there won’t be .el domain. But we did hope for lot of things in the past..
The reality is LTTE have:
An Army & Navy, a police, Law and court (basically those three together call ‘a government’), Taxation (including border taxation), currency and banking, steady income, diplomatic relations and a leader.
Most of the above resources are now un-reversible.
LTTE passed the primitive terrorist stage long time back and entered in to stable ‘Army Like’ organization. Right now they are in the final winning ground. Now people do not support for military action no more. That is what any Army like organization wants at the end and now they have it. This is the biggest wining ever. Now government has no option other than enter in to bargain table. LTTE only wants two more things for finalize their goal.
1. They want legitimate boundaries. If UN did not agree for legitimate boundaries initially, our government will. They have no choice left right now. After that LTTE will go for another massive bloodshed – I mean massive one – forcing UN for permanent boundaries and UN arm forces.
2. They need to write a book. That is not very hard. Tamil is very poetic language. Very soon someone will make epic out of Praba. Just like Sinhalese have Mahawansa, Jews have Old Testimony, Britten have Beowulf, Greeks had Odyssey, Americans have declaration of independency – new Elam nation will write their own book too – that will be the final stop.
I’m more than happy to see someone prove me wrong.
A hell state.
Keshi.
LTTE has now faded from importance, as far as the government is concerned.
They are now getting on with the important business of stuffing their pockets.
I think the low intensity war will continue until it blows up into a high intensity one. Then a deal will be struck - you stick to your area we will stick to ours.
Unbelievable... that’s the word. I mean if a ‘deal’ is struck we as a nation would indeed be a failed state. We will be consigning 15% of our citizens to a military dictatorship not of their choosing. If that indeed happens, instead of Tamil Nadu, refugees will start towards Colombo to escape the LTTE domination. True they have an ‘army’ – consisting of kids and women who have been either kidnapped/brainwashed. They have a ‘navy’ – inflatable rafts/boats taken from fishermen. They have a ‘police force’ – too dumb to realize that a paedophile is a bigger criminal than the cop pursuing the paedo (the cop is in LTTE jail, where is the paedo?). They have ‘courts’ – who are these judges and lawyers? What are the qualifications?
Another point, what about the population of Sri Lankans of Tamil ethnicity in GOSL areas? What happens to them? Do they stay or do they go? If they go, won’t they be considered traitors for living life in Colombo?
I am going to make an assumption here that may be way off the mark, but did it not occur to people that maybe the civilians in the North don’t realize that Colombo is indeed a safe haven? Either that they have been brainwashed to believe that the minute they step out of rebel areas they will be killed on sight?
Hey Komisiripala..
Refugees may flow towards India a lot. Tamils in Colombo will stay. They will have hard time. But they will stay. Top of that LTTE may send more refugees to south as needed –that way they get more political power in south too at the same time. If not, at least they will fund operation in south.
Just imagine – how about if members from Pakistan seat in the Indian parliament and take decision about border war? It happens in SL – Instrument is taken place and it is functioning.
LTTE already have pretty much control over people’s mind in south already. When LTTE want war – they get people in south to support war – when LTTE want peace they get people in south to support peace.
Remember people lead – they driven. Simple advertising agency can make us buy Coka-Cola. With massive bloodshed and peace movement followed LTTE can easily drive us to do what they want. People have nothing much to do other than support the leaders and pray we have good leaders.
About ‘qualifications’ & ‘standards’ - those are relative concepts. NYPD cop can look at Colombo police and say ‘is that really a police station?’ but that is a police station for us.
One of the British Judge once said it is shame for Sri Lanka to have Sarath N Silva as the Chief Justice. But he is the CJ for us. He is qualified for us.
Never underestimate the prince and the baby snake.
sam:
The reality is LTTE have:
An Army & Navy, a police, Law and court (basically those three together call ‘a government’), Taxation (including border taxation), currency and banking, steady income, diplomatic relations and a leader.
most of them are just for show, in fact most of their administrative infrastructure is paid for and maintained by gosl. from schools, hospitals to birth and death registration . don't get carried away by propaganda.
Most of the above resources are now un-reversible.
that is not correct. most of them as i said are just for show and maintained by the power of the gun. once the gun is gone it will all fall down.
Right now they are in the final winning ground.
i don't think so. you overestimate ltte's position.
1. They want legitimate boundaries. If UN did not agree for legitimate boundaries initially, our government will. They have no choice left right now. After that LTTE will go for another massive bloodshed – I mean massive one – forcing UN for permanent boundaries and UN arm forces.
massive bloodshed? how? in fact they are in a corner in the same way that government is.
even if they start a full scale war on their own responsibility, they wont get anywhere militarilythan they went in earlier phases of war and they certainly wont get any recognition. as it is they are losing recognition.
book ? tamils already have great books. books cannot become sacred texts overnight.
your comment about about ltte having control of tamils in the south is false . most tamils are afraid of ltte they do not support it .
keshi :
yes a hell state :-)
jack point:
they were stuffing their pockets for some time. what's new ? :-)
if ltte agree to stick to their the territory they have now with a low intensity conflict, that would be a victory for the government
ltte will progressively lose credibility and decay, it started from the time of cfa. they know that, that is why they want to provoke a full scale war . if they do not get it they are going to lose. if they start one we will get a stalemate and end up in the square one year or two later.
komisiripala
agree with you
if we come to a permanent deal with them we will be a 'failed' state.
but war now will result in a stale mate. so its in our gosl's interest to continue with the status quo with either low intensity conflict or periodic cease fires. at no point should we give in to any of ltte's substantial demands . tamil grievances (which are real) can only be realistically addressed when there are democratic representatives not with ltte. let ltte slowly rot with the low intensity conflict. this will take time but it will work.
Hey Sittingnut.
I’m happy to see your comment. Loved it. I really hope things will smoothly. Keep my fingers cross.
sam :
:-)
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