anyone reading peacenik remarks online or offline will be surprised at the recurrences of the words "white van"*. these words are the only 'evidence' they have for their far fetched conspiracy theories about 'disappearances'. these sort of absurd inventions are common with other conspiracy theorists. for instance ufo conspiracy theorists in united states have "men in black"(on which the films were based**) in order to explain their lack of evidence for alleged alien encounters.
here peaceniks (and more direct pussy propagandists) use "white van" to cover up their lack of evidence and to link together real or imagined 'abductions' into a supposed conspiracy by the government to harass and murder tamils. naive may believe such theories without questioning, anyone else may do this experiment when they are next in a public place. note the color of ten vans at random. they will find that on average 8 of the ten to be white. in other words if it is a van it is likely to be white. that does not prove that the people using it are the same.
btw i am not disputing the existence of so called 'disappearances', though the numbers and lists put forward by certain self appointed politically motivated committees of peaceniks are full of holes. they still include people's names even after the discovery of the fact that they have returned after 'disappearing' for private reasons (as was the case about a disappeared student from a leading school in colombo. while a certain channel gave a lot of publicity for this incident showing the relatives crying and pleading and others referring to 'white vans', the student reappeared to much less publicity. there are lots of similar cases in that list). so called 'disappeared list' also include people from all communities not just tamils as its compilers and other peaceniks are in the habit of claiming publicly.
reality
all the evidence in investigated cases indicate that 'disappearances' or kidnappings are due primarily to former terrorist groups and some criminals moving into weakened (due to anti terror actions of the government) tiger money collection networks in colombo. (isn’t it curious how the peaceniks never ever complained about intimidation of tamil businessman in colombo by ltte to collect money. perhaps they believe that 'sole representative' did not need intimidation? ltte by the way engage in that kind of intimidation and killings in foreign countries with substantial tamil communities). yes governments (here and in foreign countries) should do more to stop all such illegal collections whatever the group. on the other hand there is no evidence that sri lankan police show more than their usual level of inefficiency in these cases.
some other so called 'disappearances' were in fact legal arrests made by police according to law. in one case three extreme leftist sinhalese armed and trained by ltte to carry out bombings were arrested. these people who had connections to some peaceniks also ran some trade union newspaper. peaceniks and already discredited free media movement at once made a big cry about it after they were arrested without making the proper inquires through the official channels, just because the suspects' families who have an interest in concealing the truth said it was ‘abduction’.
most of the remaining 'disappearances' are, like the student's case referred to above, similar to what happens in any society (runaways, criminal kidnappings etc). in fact the percentage of 'disappearances' in sri lanka is still far short of percentages in other countries including ones at peace like u.s.a.
'white van' in other words is a device to support unsubstantiated accusations against the government and for spinning it into a big brotherly totalitarian regime, because the peaceniks do not have any evidence for their conspiracy theory. if they really believe that government is abducting tamils (why? for god's sake. esp when it is bad pr. do they think that government is stupid as they are?) they should investigate the disappearances and find real facts. but i suppose peaceniks are too lazy and unprofessional by nature to do that. hence the plagiarized allegations, 'white vans', and other such absurdities straight out of ltte spin office.
notes
* i always read peaceniks, in the same way i read and listen to direct terrorist propaganda like tamilnet. most peaceniks on the other hand cannot stand opposing (or even dissenting) viewpoints and resorts to censorship. they just want yes men, if they do have real jobs they would probably not hire anyone capable of independent thought. no wonder that most of them work at ngos that cannot organize even a protest successfully)
** hopefully someone would make a films called 'while vans' so that groundviews can write a review, as they have taken to doing in search of visitors.
here peaceniks (and more direct pussy propagandists) use "white van" to cover up their lack of evidence and to link together real or imagined 'abductions' into a supposed conspiracy by the government to harass and murder tamils. naive may believe such theories without questioning, anyone else may do this experiment when they are next in a public place. note the color of ten vans at random. they will find that on average 8 of the ten to be white. in other words if it is a van it is likely to be white. that does not prove that the people using it are the same.
btw i am not disputing the existence of so called 'disappearances', though the numbers and lists put forward by certain self appointed politically motivated committees of peaceniks are full of holes. they still include people's names even after the discovery of the fact that they have returned after 'disappearing' for private reasons (as was the case about a disappeared student from a leading school in colombo. while a certain channel gave a lot of publicity for this incident showing the relatives crying and pleading and others referring to 'white vans', the student reappeared to much less publicity. there are lots of similar cases in that list). so called 'disappeared list' also include people from all communities not just tamils as its compilers and other peaceniks are in the habit of claiming publicly.
reality
all the evidence in investigated cases indicate that 'disappearances' or kidnappings are due primarily to former terrorist groups and some criminals moving into weakened (due to anti terror actions of the government) tiger money collection networks in colombo. (isn’t it curious how the peaceniks never ever complained about intimidation of tamil businessman in colombo by ltte to collect money. perhaps they believe that 'sole representative' did not need intimidation? ltte by the way engage in that kind of intimidation and killings in foreign countries with substantial tamil communities). yes governments (here and in foreign countries) should do more to stop all such illegal collections whatever the group. on the other hand there is no evidence that sri lankan police show more than their usual level of inefficiency in these cases.
some other so called 'disappearances' were in fact legal arrests made by police according to law. in one case three extreme leftist sinhalese armed and trained by ltte to carry out bombings were arrested. these people who had connections to some peaceniks also ran some trade union newspaper. peaceniks and already discredited free media movement at once made a big cry about it after they were arrested without making the proper inquires through the official channels, just because the suspects' families who have an interest in concealing the truth said it was ‘abduction’.
most of the remaining 'disappearances' are, like the student's case referred to above, similar to what happens in any society (runaways, criminal kidnappings etc). in fact the percentage of 'disappearances' in sri lanka is still far short of percentages in other countries including ones at peace like u.s.a.
'white van' in other words is a device to support unsubstantiated accusations against the government and for spinning it into a big brotherly totalitarian regime, because the peaceniks do not have any evidence for their conspiracy theory. if they really believe that government is abducting tamils (why? for god's sake. esp when it is bad pr. do they think that government is stupid as they are?) they should investigate the disappearances and find real facts. but i suppose peaceniks are too lazy and unprofessional by nature to do that. hence the plagiarized allegations, 'white vans', and other such absurdities straight out of ltte spin office.
෴
notes
* i always read peaceniks, in the same way i read and listen to direct terrorist propaganda like tamilnet. most peaceniks on the other hand cannot stand opposing (or even dissenting) viewpoints and resorts to censorship. they just want yes men, if they do have real jobs they would probably not hire anyone capable of independent thought. no wonder that most of them work at ngos that cannot organize even a protest successfully)
** hopefully someone would make a films called 'while vans' so that groundviews can write a review, as they have taken to doing in search of visitors.
13 comments:
We can now blame aliens for the abductions.
I think you should talk to any Tamil in Colombo and they will tell you how scared they are of abductions. The abductions, ransom and killings which were aided and sponsored by state security forces now has other players (e.g. underworld) also making the most of the lawlessness situation.
HELLO! I'M AN "ANY TAMIL" IN COLOMBO, AND I'M NOT SCARED FOR "ANY ABDUTION". I DRIVE TO WORK SAFELY, AND DRIVE BACK HOME SAFELY. ONLY FEAR I HAVE IS BEING BLOWN UP BY A LTTE SUICIDE BOMBER ON MY WAY TO WORK, WHICH IS MORE OR LESS THE SAME FEAR FOR "ANY SRI LANKAN" LIVING IN COLOMBO.
anon 3/03/2007 10:30 am
you can blame anybody. however what matters is the actual evidence.
anon 3/04/2007 8:36 am
can you provide any evidence for your statement "aided and sponsored by state security forces"? as for lawless situation; are so sure that disappearances here are higher than in other countries?
btw i do talk to tamils in colombo and in northeast.
your argument is a mere personal assertion . anybody else ( such as the next anon ) can claim otherwise
anon 3/04/2007 7:44 pm
above anon's argument based on mere personal assertion is worthless.
Maybe this will open your eyes...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6422815.stm
What you have to realize is that no one is going to come out and give evidence when the state security forces are involved in the kidnappings and murders. Most of the Tamils who can afford it just leave the country (mostly to India, UK, etc for a while) to be safe. There have been over a 1000 abductions and murder in the last 15 months and most of them have the security forces as accused.
anon at 3/06/2007 9:18 pm:
Maybe this will open your eyes...
how exactly? did i deny there were abductions? no read the post.
what i said was that all evidence so far indicate that abductions are carried out by criminals and various militant groups. and the news report you refer to confirm that. that some police officers and soldiers were colluding with criminals is not new . some even collude with ltte terrorists.
so as i said in the post it is good that they were being arrested .
what the news report of arrests by police does prove is that there wasn't any government and military sanctioned conspiracy to harness tamils as alleged by some ( including some commentors here )
anon at 3/06/2007 9:22 pm:
in other words all you have is speculative allegations.
if ppl are not coming forward bc of fear as you say, how is it that they are making allegations fearlessly ? fact is you and them do not have facts and enjoy freedom of expression. if you can make allegations freely you should be able to give specific details, so that police can conduct investigations. if you do not and continue to make these statements, it is clear you are lying about the security forces.
meanwhile as newsreport referred by above anon indicate police do carry out investigations and arrest criminals whatever their status, when there is evidence . that also proves as i said above that there isn't any government and military sanctioned conspiracy to harness tamils as you allege
btw some tamils do use such lies as yours in order to migrate due to economic reasons.
of course it depends on a country in which you are, in some countries it can happen often and during day time and even in public places, but in other countries you feel yourslef more safely
The colour white has been used for century's as a metaphor of light, transcendence, communication with spaces and beings not human, not from earth. It's funny to use a white Van as some sign of this kind of contact
the worst thing is that to prevent such 'disappearances' is very difficult. We can't blame all White Vans.
I agree that we can't judge everybody in the same way. People are different and situations are also different. And we can't think all "men in black" and all "white vans" have correlation to these facts.
After reading this peacenik I was really surprised how was "white van" transformed and used in other context. In my opinion, there is no such correlation as they think.
Thank goodness. Not because of all the abductions, but because I now know I am not alone. I live in Scotland, and have been tracking these vans for several years now. Only today have I decided to search it on the net. Thank you so much for putting this up on the web. Goodbye, fellow conspiritor.
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