ooh, I see I touched a nerve! Sorry, I couldn’t get back to you earlier because I rarely if ever come here.

You guys may have covered certain issues with the Puttalam refugees but you didn’t cover their flooding. That was my point. You guys at the time of this article were jumping up and down trying to get the latest scoop on possible flooding at Menik Farm which was not significant from what was known at time and certainly not now (what happened? Where was the massive damage?

Unlike you I don’t have a holier-than-thou tread on flowers view on conflict. These people lived willingly (initially at least) with the LTTE. I’m not crying puddles worrying about them. They could have with a little though realized that living with an unrecognized rebel group can have it’s disadvantages. I for one wouldn’t have chosen to live with the JVP when they launched their insurrection.

And what’s your view now that the IDP camps are open? Are you still frothing at the mouth?

Um, nice guts. How long did it take.. about 12 years!! It’s obviously a ploy to get back a significant section of the population they willfully secluded in their run for Tamil Eelam.

Chandrika apologized for Black July.

Wait another 12 years and who ever is in power just may issue some apology for extensive civilian casulaties if that’s what you call guts.

Yeah, they instead took over the houses and property and gave them to their own people. That’s much better. And destroying Muslim mosques in the areas to wipe out the fact that they were present in the area is about as the same as bombing them.

The army also bombed LTTE controlled areas i.e. admitted rebel centers. The Muslims did nothing to the LTTE (and earlier on actually helped them)..

‘barbed-wire concentration camps’

What’s your issue with barb wire? Would you rather have a brick wall around the camps?

I don’t think the army put the Tamil IDPS in ‘concentration camps’ either. Are you saying that they should be automatically considered innocent and released into the general populace even though they were coming from LTTE-held areas? You may love the LTTE and consider them Saints but the population south of Vavuniya don’t.

And now the IDPS have freedom of movement. They can leave the camps and about 180,000 have been resettled (not without problems though).. The time given to return was for those wanting to have government help in resettlement. About 4,000 haven’t returned and there is no indication that the Army is making any effort to locate them.

You mean the same Indian Parliamentary delegation that is part of an Indian Government which provided unlimited weapons, real-time intelligence, and diplomatic support to SL, in the latter’s campaign against the Tigers? I wouldn’t be surprised if the camps were an Indian idea… at least partially. In any event, I doubt the camps would have been constructed if India had properly voiced its objections.

P.S: Democracy is a sham in India too; luckily, federalism has worked wonders. Everything “good” about India, every success story can be directly attributed to decentralization of power at the Center.

At least the LTTE did not bomb the homes and properties of the Muslims to smithereens and stuff the remaining survivors into barbed-wire concentration camps.

At least the LTTE had the guts to admit that the so-called ethnic cleansing was wrong, apologize to the Muslims, and invite them back.

Unfortunately, I cannot say the same of the patriots in the South, despite the much vaunted “humanitarian operation” (so humanitarian that no journalists were allowed) launched by the “People’s President.” Surprise, surprise.. despite this “humanitarian operation” having “zero civilian casualties” (according to the “People’s President), the very same “People’s President” does not have the guts to visit an IDP camp (or even pay for it with his own country’s money).

I am aware that there is controversy surrounding Damilvany and her statement, and do not have information to comment much about her. However, the issue here is not who she is or what she said, but the GOSL’s response to her statements. The GOSL made a statement that they will not release any more foreign nationals who were being held in the camps. They also arrested members of D’s family who sheltered her, so that she stopped giving her statements to the international press.

The salient point here is not the innocence or guilt of this girl, but the fact that the government’s response is to refuse freedom to people in the camp because they did not want them to speak out.

Perhaps the GOSL will continue to imprison these people until the world and the rest of Sri Lanka forgets about them and moves on with life. They may then release them, but by then many innocent people would have suffered and died. By then there may be no one left who is interested in hearing the stories they have to tell.

People who respond to a crisis about x by saying “why didn’t people shout out about y?” are “koheda yanne, malle pol” sorts. Besides the facts that GVs has already pointed out to you, that the plight of the IDPs in Puttalam have been highlighted on the forum, there is the delicate matter that the IDPs of Menik farm are being held there as prisoners at gun point behind barbed wire fences. Being trapped in monsoon floods at gun point is quite a different matter to experiencing them as those who are not.

GVs
“vapidity and a thinly veiled racism in their submissions. These fringe lunatics, who like conch-shells make much noise but express nothing of any worth”

A heck of a fine turn of phrase that succinctly expresses the nature of some of the posts on the forum. “Chowderheads” hahaha that says it all. The Chowderheaded fringe lunatics with conch-shell audio equipment are perhaps the greatest barrier to this nation going anywhere except downhill!