Friday, June 08, 2007

racist reuters reporter simon gardner equates tamils with terrorists yet again

as if in a hurry to fill the shoes of racist dumeetha luthra (btw i like the fact one of my posts detailing her racist reporting comes on top in google search for her name. serves a racist like her right, don't you think?) reuters correspondent in sri lanka simon gardner has posted a racist report equating tamils with ltte terrorists this is not the first time he has let slip his disgusting racist prejudices.

his headline originally read "Sri Lanka fights and evicts Tamils from capital". in other words sri lanka fights tamils not terrorists, according to this so called journalist. (original report with that title was withdrawn after about two hours though most of the content remained the same. see below for the original report). even the modified titles retains a version of inaccurate ethnic cleansing sounding "tamils evicted from colombo ".

may be reuters will soon report that americans and british are fighting against 'muslims'.

this racist also quotes an (as in one) unnamed(!) analyst saying that eviction of 376 tamils without identification and without any reason to be in colombo, is equivalent to ethnic cleansing. nowhere does he mention the fact that hundreds of thousands of tamils live in colombo. and that only real case of ethnic cleansing in sri lanka was carried out by ltte terrorists in north where presently almost 100% of the population is tamil.

he ignores the fact that most tamils do not support ltte and its terrorism.

he also ignores that most of the tamils in sri lanka live under areas under government control. the largest group of tamils the upcountry tamils are democratically represented in sri lankan government and the areas they live in are not affected by war. he also forgets to mention the fact that most of the northeast tamils (who are numerically smaller than upcountry tamils) also live in area under government control.

my opinion
i do not approve this move by police, precisely because it gives an opportunity for racists like simon gardner to make exaggerated claims about ethnic cleansing, though such claims can be easily refuted.

peacenik parroting expected
no doubt sl peaceniks (who also never mention the ltte's ethnic cleansing of northern province) will also claim that this eviction of 376 tamils is equivalent to ethnic cleansing. after all they always parrot absurd theories and exaggerations dreamed up by terrorist propaganda office as a matter of course.

remember how they claimed that there is a plan to ethnically cleanse trinco after the small riot there in april 2006. peacenik ngo, centre of policy alternatives, allegedly sent a fact finding mission led by sunila abeysekera to investigate and then issued a statement purporting to be its results. only it turned out that the statement was a word for word plagiarism from a post by pro ltte writer dbs jeyaraj who was not mentioned. most of the claims made in that statement including allegation of ethnic cleansing have proved false. one can verify that by going to trinco (and i regularly do) and observing how ethnically mixed a city it is, and how wrong cpa and other peacenisk were.

as always leading the peacenik pack in parroting terrorists, is the free media movement (yes the same group that protested against arrest of ltte related sinhala terrorists who were plotting to blow up buses in colombo). it seems that sunanda deshapriya of fmm wants nothing better than to see bombed civilian buses in colombo.

holding racists to account

best way to fight racists (especially racists like simon gardner who pretend to be journalists) is to expose and point out their racist attitudes to the public scrutiny.

it is up to sri lankan public to hold people who make such claims about ethnic cleaning to account. we must record their statements during the next few days and ask them in a week, a month, or a year later, to explain themselves when it becomes evident that there was no such ethnic cleansing and hundreds of thousands of tamils continue to live in colombo.

i will personally keep tabs on sri lankan bloggers who fall for this and parrot exaggerations about ethnic cleansing and i will remind them of their statements in the future.

original report

Sri Lanka fights and evicts Tamils from capital

By Simon Gardner

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka evicted hundreds of ethnic Tamils from the capital on Thursday citing security concerns, as troops battled Tamil Tiger rebels in jungles in the island's restive east.

Military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said the army killed five insurgents overnight in a jungle area called Thoppigala in the eastern district of Batticaloa, and that fighting continued on Thursday as Japan's special peace envoy visited camps for war-displaced families in the area.

"We are continuing with our operation in Thoppigala and neutralising their positions," Samarasinghe said. He said four soldiers were injured during Wednesday's clash, the latest in a series of land and sea battles amid renewed civil war.

Back in Colombo, police packed 376 minority Tamils deemed without valid reasons to be in the capital into buses, most of them headed towards the northern district of Vavuniya - which is now the front line of the renewed civil war.

Rohan Abeywardene, Inspector General of Police for Colombo, said the ethnic Tamils were being sent back to their own villages for their own safety amid a rash of abductions blamed on state security services and Tamil Tiger rebels, and to avoid insurgents infiltrating the capital.

"Some people who had no valid reasons to be in Colombo and are just hanging around, they have been requested to leave and told they had better get back to their own villages," he said. "It is for their own good. You all have been complaining about people being abducted and arrested and detained."

"There is also a possibility that LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) cadres are among them also," he added.

Officials said most of those evicted would cross over into Tamil Tiger-held territory to return to their villages and that the Tigers had agreed to let them cross defence lines. The Tigers were not immediately available for comment.

ETHNIC CLEANSING?

Analysts decried the eviction as a shocking violation of human rights, with one likening it to a form of ethnic cleansing.

The move comes after a series of suspected Tamil Tiger bomb attacks in the capital in recent months as a conflict that has killed nearly 70,000 people since 1983 deepens.

Japanese envoy Yasushi Akashi, who is on a 5-day visit to try and find ways to salvage a battered peace process visited an elite police commando base and camps housing internally displaced in Batticaloa on Thursday, an aide said.

The camps are located far away from the jungles where the fighting is taking place.

Akashi was also due to visit the former rebel stronghold of Vakarai further north, which troops captured in January along with a vast swathe of eastern territory the rebels controlled under the terms of a tattered 2002 truce.

Japan has played down expectations of any breakthrough from the visit, but says the envoy will try to push forward an initiative to create a devolution proposal to end the conflict.

Reuters (IDS)

17 comments:

Scourge (Skûrj) said...

Thing is, moves like this makes the LTTE look like good and the gosl bad. Well the gosl is bad but they need not do stupid things that lead to people making claims of ethnic cleansing.

Anonymous said...

lib·er·tar·i·an n. 1. One who advocates maximizing individual rights and minimizing the role of the state. 2. One who believes in free will.

name: sittingnut

Your views don't quite jive with your claim, do they?

Anonymous said...

this is the way we sri lankans thing... we dont believe in freedom and civil liberties... as long as we get our rice and curry and some arrack during the weekend... we're all fine...

mentality is...
* ltte terrorists are tamil
* ltte terrorists are mostly from the north and the east
* there are tamils from the north and east in sri lanka who visit colombo for the mere fact that its relatively safer in colombo because there are no bombs falling on them
* apparently thats not a valid reason because not all bombs fall on civilian targets
* and if they are not in colombo for any economic or social reason then why are they here?
* ppl are complaining that there are abductions of tamils in colombo and most of them are from the north and the east

solution: flush all tamils from the north and the east who do not have economically and socially valid reason for being in colombo...

so one should not take it personally... its just a part of our sri lankan way of doing things... its like chasing a begger who comes begging for some food... we cant show any compassion and we think the half starved begger will rob some thing heavy in thats in the house so we chase the poor fellow away...

a person has right to live where ever he/she wants without prejudice and discrimination... i think that falls under one of human rights clauses the sri lanka govt signed with the un...

the retuers report is bull crap... it says that this is ethnic cleansing... i'd like to smoke the same substance he smoked when he wrote this because i cant figure out the 'form of ethnic cleansing' he's talking about...

sittingnut said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
sittingnut said...

scourge (skûrj)
sort of agree about the stupidity. however i am not a security expert, if professionals think that is the way to go, let them. i am not going play round with people's right to life. as long as police follow the law i don't think there is anything wrong with it. if anyone wants to change the law they should lobby for it.

in any case exaggerations about ethnic cleansing are unwarranted

jj:
how does pointing out racism in a journalist not 'jive' with my libertarian claims?

how does pointing out unwarranted exaggerations about ethnic cleansing not 'jive'?

do explain

shehal:
"solution: flush all tamils from the north and the east who do not have economically and socially valid reason for being in colombo..."
may i know where you got this solution? you are making unwarranted generalizations from a specific incident.

"a person has right to live where ever he/she wants without prejudice and discrimination... i think that falls under one of human rights clauses the sri lanka govt signed with the un..."
do i have a right to erect a house on the middle of the road ? or can i live legally in one that does not meet with various municipal regulations? do you object to the periodic demolition of payment venders or slums anywhere? do we all have the right to travel to any country and live? why not if there is a un convention? are those not human rights violations by the same reasoning?
in fact this kind or restrictions are common everywhere around the world. so let no one get their wires crossed and make sweeping generalizations.

Deane said...

Wake up Sittingnut.

sittingnut said...

deane aka ~cc~
to what ? do explain for our edification.

there is no censorship in this blog ( unlike your friend the sanjana's groundviews) so why don't you spell it out.( you can say anything even downright offensive ones if you prefer) to point out what i, according to you, am missing in all this. or is that too much for your intellect ? is that why you prefer two words that don't mean anything?

as i remember you defended the cpa's trinco report. do you regret that opinion now.

btw is your reticence to expand now due to a hunch that you will be proved wrong yet again a year from now ?
:-)

Voice in Colombo said...

Government delivered a full toss by overreacting to arousals by LTTE. This is my opinion
http://landlikenoother.blogspot.com/2007/06/police-overreact-and-evict-031-of.html

Anonymous said...

sittingnut:
may i know where you got this solution? you are making unwarranted generalizations from a specific incident.

>>> sarcasm dude... i was explaining the mentality of certain ppl in power...

erecting a house in the middle of the road....
>>> you didnt get my point about "without prejudice and discrimination"... i've not got my wires crossed... you didnt understand what i wrote i guess...

i'm not trying to justify what the govt did... what they did was blatantly wrong and stupid... but i'm trying to understand the mentality behind it... thats all...

cheers man... have some milo... it calms you down...
:)

sittingnut said...

supreme court interim order just issued proves the falseness of all the exaggerations see my new post.

voice in colombo
you are probably right.

Anonymous said...

Sitting Nut -

My explanation:

"lib·er·tar·i·an n. 1. One who advocates maximizing individual rights"

Blanket evictions of groups of citizens without evidence of complicity in illegal activities or due process fails to maximise the rights of the individual

"and minimizing the role of the state."

I doubt that the state could maximize its role any more than in this incident.

2. One who believes in free will.

Where's the right of free will for those that were herded out?

Deane said...

I quote from above..

" my opinion
i do not approve this move by police, precisely because it gives an opportunity for racists like simon gardner to make exaggerated claims about ethnic cleansing, though.."

That’s why you oppose it?

Sittingnut, over the years you have attempted to become principled in your opinions about the ethnic conflict, making a moral case for war based on the rights of citizens trapped in the wrath of LTTE, so on.

Yesterday, the so called democratic government of this socialist republic evicted 375 odd of its Tamil citizens from Colombo to 'where they belong' because they had 'no valid reason' to be here. The criteria for selection was them being 'Tamil'.

The constitutionally guaranteed rights of these people, of freedom of movement have been trampled with, the racist criteria applied by the Police is deplorable for an entity which calls it self the 'government'.

and your non-approval of the move is derived from it giving a bad name to the government??

Truly, a sad plight for a blog which claims to be to be 'libertarian'. You should rename it to lanka-NeoCon

Many thanks
Deane.

sittingnut said...

shehal
my mistake then.
in fact it is not only here but even in your blog your own opinions are hard to make out. so will reply to what is expressed.


jj:
in the first place you still do not clarify what i ( note that 'i' ) have said here that is contradictory to libertarian beliefs.

Blanket evictions of groups of citizens without evidence of complicity in illegal activities or due process fails to maximise the rights of the individual
first you assume lot of contradictory things here.

for instance what is the due process in this case?you do not say what your assumption is . this is in fact a new situation as such it is for courts to decide. as they are in the process of doing see my next post linked in my previous comment.
police have a duty to protect the lives of others and they think( rightly or wrongly - they are the experts, not you or me ) unidentifiable ppl without any reason for being in colombo can be used as cover by ltte. as long as their actions are covered by the law ( and given the novelty of the situation that will be decided by courts ) that is how they are expected to act.

all that merely show that i understand how law is interpreted and executed in the real world .and that i can understand the reasonings behind actions of the police.
do you think such understanding is contrary to my libertarian beliefs? do clarify your argument
-
all laws do infringe on rights of individual. and 'fails to maximize the rights of the individual'. that is a fact that i understand very well.
perhaps you expect me to repeatedly say that or something ?

Where's the right of free will for those that were herded out?
yes in fact anyone who obey laws is not acting on their own free will. i know that. so ? :-)

do quote anything i ( remember that 'i') have said here that is contrary to my beliefs

you assume or imagine things that are not expressed here, that is your weakness.

sittingnut said...

deane ka ~cc~
is this what your argument amounts to :-)
there is no other way to say this but may be you should perhaps stick to parroting sanjana as he parrots terrorists. some ppl are incapable if independent thoughts it seems.

That’s why you oppose it?
i will come to that ( your main argument it seems) at the end where you restate it. :-D i can not stop laughing

Yesterday, the so called democratic government of this socialist republic evicted 375 odd of its Tamil citizens from Colombo to 'where they belong' because they had 'no valid reason' to be here. The criteria for selection was them being 'Tamil'.
really? do point to to where you got those quotes please. esp the one about only criteria was being tamil.

btw this is a democratic government so please say why you label it 'so called' ? and the country's official rather redundant name is 'democratic socialist republic of sri lanka'. i know that muddled thinkers like you are prone to even get basic facts wrong, so you are excused for your mistake

as i have said in above comment 'police have a duty to protect the lives of others and they think( rightly or wrongly - they are the experts, not you or me ) unidentifiable ppl without any reason for being in colombo can be used as cover by ltte. as long as their actions are covered by the law ( and given the novelty of the situation that will be decided by courts[as they are doing] ) that is how they are expected to act.'

do you think police not duty bound to protect lives against terror ?
do you think that it is unreasonable for police to think that accumulation of ppl from north without identity and without any ability to say why they are here can be used as ltte as cover to slip terrorists in to city ?
do you think it is unreasonable to expect that police will take any action within law (as they see) to prevent terrorist acts including novel tactics ?

The constitutionally guaranteed rights of these people, of freedom of movement have been trampled with, the racist criteria applied by the Police is deplorable for an entity which calls it self the 'government'.
you run ahead of yourself .
as i said before there are lots of laws that curtail freedom of movement and action. can you travel to anywhere you wish and do any thing you wish ? in fact all laws curtail rights by definition . do you deny that basic fact?

so the question is ( in evaluating this from a real world perspective ) whether the actions of police were exceeding the the constitution and laws prevailing in the country. bc this is a new situation, law has to be interpreted by the supreme court ( not by you or me ). that is what is happening, as it should. institutions of law in democratic sri lanka are working fine it seems :-)

as i pointed out in my next post already this sort of appeal to courts to clarify law happens in all democracies when governments take security related measures ( ref detention and wiretapping is usa , etc) that is one of the functions of courts. one of the best features of sri lankan court is that ppl have direct access to supreme court for this purpose.

in other words in spite of all your excitement there isn't anything extraordinary here compared to other democracies.

only thing different here is that other democracies have effectively sidelined ppl like you who get overly excited through imaginary horrors

and your non-approval of the move is derived from it giving a bad name to the government??
:-) you make me laugh .is this what your argument is reduced to ( you seem to think so bc you do state it twice )
anyway, yes, i did state that in this post dealing with exaggerated cliams made by racist and peacerniks, that i do oppose it bc it allows racists to make exaggerated claims against a democratic government.
did i exclude anything else by that ? :-)
i await you hair splitting arguments on word 'precisely' lol

btw do you oppose exaggerated claims made against gosl ? why not ? is it bc you make those claims yourself ? :-D

Truly, a sad plight for a blog which claims to be to be 'libertarian'. You should rename it to lanka-NeoCon
do quote one sentence that is contrary to libertarian beliefs
but as a person who regularly advocates appeasement of terrorists you would not know what libertarianism is. you probably do not have any understanding about ideas of neo conservatives either.

-
to summarize this incident without getting overheated like you do :
police is trying their best to prevent loss of life due to terror acts (to the point of overreacting , depending on pov of observer ),
sri lankan institutions of law are working fine in spite of exaggerated claims of peaceniks and racists.

another conclusion is that ppl like you can be easily excited into making absurd exaggerated statements.
-

Deane said...

"do quote one sentence that is contrary to libertarian beliefs.."

Lol. Google for ‘civil liberties’. Evidently you don’t know much about these things..

People often resort to petty personal insults when they are intellectually impotent.

Anonymous said...

Sitting Nut – I see no point in debating the validity of Libertarian qualities against your points of view for the simple reason that my observation (that the definition doesn’t jive with the views you express) is a personal point of view expressed in the hope that it may wake you up to the inherent contradictions therein, and really, that’s all that I intended. I’m sure that readers of your blog and the comments they generate, will have their own views on this matter – whether the image you try to project jives with your views. I will continue to see you as anything but ‘Libertarian’ until I am convinced otherwise through the views you express.

Having said that, I do admire the tenacity with which you labour your points of view and always find your posts interesting – even though I may not agree with all your views. No offence meant and I hope that none is taken.

sittingnut said...

deane aka ~cc~
i see that as usual you have run away.instead of answering the specific points i raised about your earlier comment
let me repeat my points.

do point to to where you got those quotes ('where they belong' 'no valid reason' etc.) please. esp the one about only criteria was being tamil.
this is a democratic government, so please say why you label it 'so called' ?

do you think police not duty bound to protect lives against terror ?
do you think that it is unreasonable for police to think that accumulation of ppl from north without identity and without any ability to say why they are here can be used as ltte as cover to slip terrorists in to city ?
do you think it is unreasonable to expect that police will take any action within law (as they see) to prevent terrorist acts including novel tactics ?

as i said before there are lots of laws that curtail freedom of movement and action. can you travel to anywhere you wish and do any thing you wish ? in fact all laws curtail rights by definition . do you deny that basic fact?

do you disagree with para below
so the question is ( in evaluating this from a real world perspective ) whether the actions of police were exceeding the the constitution and laws prevailing in the country. bc this is a new situation, law has to be interpreted by the supreme court ( not by you or me ). that is what is happening, as it should. institutions of law in democratic sri lanka are working fine it seems.
...
in other words in spite of all your excitement there isn't anything extraordinary here compared to other democracies.

if you disagree, details please.

btw do you oppose exaggerated claims made against gosl ? why not ? is it bc you make those claims yourself ?
--

now you say

"do quote one sentence that is contrary to libertarian beliefs.."
Lol. Google for ‘civil liberties’. Evidently you don’t know much about these things..

obviously you are unable to find one sentence by my that is against libertarianism. i have remained true to libertarianism and understand them well enough. i also understand how the real world works and will explain incidents like this using that knowledge.
as i said from the first if you think i am missing something please enlighten . be specific. why can't you ? is it bc you are out of your depth? or low iq? :-)

People often resort to petty personal insults when they are intellectually impotent.
that is your opinion for the motivation. i do indulge in what you call personal 'insults' ( always in retaliation) but from my point of view, i do that to make the best use of fools ( esp ones who run when confronted with arguments ) who comment here. otherwise it can become tedious esp in a blog like this where there is no censorship.

jj:
I see no point in debating the validity of Libertarian qualities against your points of view for the simple reason that my observation..is a personal point of view ...I will continue to see you as anything but ‘Libertarian’ until I am convinced otherwise through the views you express.
:-)
in other words,
you cannot point to or quote ( as i requested ) to anything that says, i am not a libertarian or that i have contradicted the explanatory definition in the subheading of this blog (ref your first comment). however even tough you cannot back or support your opinion you want to obstinately persist in them.
as you wish. :-)


===
ppl (like jj and to a degree deane aka ~cc~ ) who confuse my understanding, interpretation, and explanation, of a real world event like the 'eviction' incident. with my beliefs, will always come to silly conclusions, that they cannot even clearly explain, let alone back with details like quotes etc.. :-)