Should World Countries Ban SriLanka for its war crimes

[Brisingr]

WASHINGTON — The United States has urged Sri Lanka to probe allegations of war crimes committed by government troops and Tamil rebels during the final months of their decades-old conflict.

"Ultimately, as appropriate, (they should) bring to justice those who are found guilty," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters.

The request followed publication of a State Department report that, Kelly said, contained "credible" claims of atrocities committed by both sides in the ethnic conflict.

The Sri Lankan government moved quickly to dismiss the report's findings which the foreign ministry said were "unsubstantiated and devoid of corroborative evidence".

Among the claims detailed in the report was the accusation that, in the final few days of fighting, senior Tamil Tiger leaders reached a surrender agreement with government forces but were then executed.

It also cited allegations that government troops or government-backed paramilitaries abducted and sometimes killed Tamil civilians, particularly children and young men.

The report also said not enough food, medicine and clean water reached a no-fire zone and civilian camps even though the government had pledged to guarantee sufficient supplies there.

The report covered the period from January -- when fighting intensified -- until the end of May, when Sri Lankan troops finally defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The alleged incidents "may constitute violations of international humanitarian law or crimes against humanity", the report said in its executive summary.

Kelly said the allegations were based on reports by the US embassy in Colombo, international organizations on the ground in Sri lanka, as well as the media and non-government organizations.

The Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry warned of groups with "vested interests" who were seeking through "fabricated allegations and concocted stories" to undermine the government's rehabilitation and national reconciliation work.

"The people of Sri Lanka therefore have every reason to be concerned that this report to the US Congress, may be abused for a similar end," it said.

But Brad Adams, Asia director at the New York-based Human Rights Watch, said the report should "dispel any doubts that serious abuses" were committed during the conflict's final months.

"Given Sri Lanka's complete failure to investigate possible war crimes, the only hope for justice is an independent, international investigation," he added.


To read the full report of US State Department
http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/131025.pdf

Now after going thro this report it is evident that SL Army matched equally to LTTE in unleashing brutality over innocent civilians. LTTE is a banned terrorist organisation because they indulged themselves in unlawful activities. To follow suit should SriLanka be banned for committing the same crime???

 

[courageneverdies]

WASHINGTON — The United States has urged Sri Lanka to probe allegations of war crimes committed by government troops and Tamil rebels during the final months of their decades-old conflict.

I dont know whats with US. He do not force Israel to probe allegatins of war crimes in Gaza, neither he does to India to face the allegations of war crimes in Kashmir, nor himself is ready to talk about Abu-Gharib and Guantanamo Bay Prison.

What did Sri Lanka do? Just won a war of their survival. I don't think Sri Lanka be banned, rather she should be praised for an extraordinary achievement of crushing the rebellion.

"Ultimately, as appropriate, (they should) bring to justice those who are found guilty," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters.

Excuse me, sir, Ian Sir. What would be your recommendations about Israeli criminals siting in the Govt. of Israel? When you will drag them to justice? Never I guess...

"Given Sri Lanka's complete failure to investigate possible war crimes, the only hope for justice is an independent, international investigation," he added.

Yes you will gladly send a team of investigators to Sri Lanka because they dont have a threat of being bombed, unlike in Gaza where Israeli Jets intentionally bomb vehicles with a red-cross or UN on'em.

Now after going thro this report it is evident that SL Army matched equally to LTTE in unleashing brutality over innocent civilians. LTTE is a banned terrorist organisation because they indulged themselves in unlawful activities. To follow suit should SriLanka be banned for committing the same crime???

Not even in decimals SL matched with LTTE. It was a right of SL to defend themselves from the rebellion of LTTE which was aided by international powers. And I am amazed that why it is being reffered as a war. SL didn't launched an attack against another country, they just crushed a rebellion that has damaged their country for decades. Whats wrong in it?

KIT Over

 

[third eye]

Banned ? From where ?

...and for ' war Crimes' ? Yes, the world should Ban or Ostracize SL. There is a small rider though, only those countries who are completely unblemished themselves must do this. With the exception of the Swiss I cannot think of any country that is unblemished enough to do this.

 

[garibnawaz]

What did Sri Lanka do? Just won a war of their survival. I don't think Sri Lanka be banned, rather she should be praised for an extraordinary achievement of crushing the rebellion.

Yeah then the same should be applied to India in Kashmir as well.

We are also doing a commendable job in crushing the rebels against the Union of India.

Can I hear some praises?

Should World Countries Ban SriLanka for its war crimes

Forget world countries. Even India won't do anything apart from expressing concerns for the tamils.

India provides oil to lanka (through Indian Oil Lanka) the primary reason why Lanka has got cheap fuels, since they get ready fuels from a neighbor. Even if India stops oil the lankan oil prices will go sky rocket which will affect their economy badly.

Banned ? From where ?

from UN.

Put embargoes like US/UK/Japan put on India after nuke tests.

Let the Lankan's realize few things.

GB

 

[Brisingr]

Banned ? From where ?

...and for ' war Crimes' ? Yes, the world should Ban or Ostracize SL. There is a small rider though, only those countries who are completely unblemished themselves must do this. With the exception of the Swiss I cannot think of any country that is unblemished enough to do this.

What a senseless piece of argument is this..... do you think that to prosecute a criminal you would first want the court of law to be flawless. If the court of law is flawed in some way or the other then would you let the criminal walk free? . Then there is no meaning for the UN to exist. No need for human rights commission...no need for Geneva convention...Its rubbish and BS

 

[third eye]

What a senseless piece of argument is this..... do you think that to prosecute a criminal you would first want the court of law to be flawless. If the court of law is flawed in some way or the other then would you let the criminal walk free? . Then there is no meaning for the UN to exist. No need for human rights commission...no need for Geneva convention...Its rubbish and BS

Well thats ur view.

A state cannot be compared to a terrorist organization. Also going by the analogy put forth, the whole world should be banned.

 

[Brisingr]

Not even in decimals SL matched with LTTE. It was a right of SL to defend themselves from the rebellion of LTTE which was aided by international powers. And I am amazed that why it is being reffered as a war. SL didn't launched an attack against another country, they just crushed a rebellion that has damaged their country for decades. Whats wrong in it?

KIT Over

What happened in SL during the wartime is nothing but a hostage crises. It was blamed on LTTE that they have taken millions of innocent civiliens forcefully to use them as a human shield. In that case its clearly a hostage crises. So how to deal a hostage crises to free innocent civilians. If it had been sinhalese trapped in the war zone then the strategy of SL govt would be different. Unfortunately they are poor minority tamil civilians for whom the world cared the least...for god sake you guys understand they too are humans and have senses just like you and i do...
well you must learn from the past examples how a sane world country would deal a hostage crises...

List of hostage crises - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If you go thro the list you may not find a single entry where the rescue team behaved like the SL army...



But what happened in SL...??? This is what wikipedia says...

The UN estimated in May 2009, that 7,000 civilians had been killed and another 16,700 had been wounded between January 20 and May 7, 2009, and another 1,000 were killed in heavy artillery bombardments by the SLA forces in the last week of fighting. Both the Sri Lankan Army and the LTTE were blamed for the civilian deaths. Another 396 civilians were killed between January and September 2008

The Times newspaper has reported that as many as 20,000 civilians were killed in the Safe Zone.Some of the deaths were caused by the Tamil Tigers but most were as a result of shelling by the Sri Lankan military. The UN had previously estimated that 6,500 civilians had been killed in the three months to the middle of April, meaning that the death toll soared to 1,000 each day in the final two weeks of the war.

Is this the way to deal a hostage crises...?

Any world govt would take adequate care not to harm the innocents in an operation to rescue them. If it cannot do that without harming the innocents try a different strategy...it should not go barbaric massacring innocents...Its not the decimals that matter here. Even a single life is lost in its action the Govt is responsible and answerable...

 

[AcidPop]

Unfortunately the bitter truth is hard to digest for many people here. I see nobody is really bothered for the suffering innocents, the entire world community is neglecting the suffering civilians here, not ready to discuss the issues in an unbiased way.Those poor people are on their own and let god be with them conforting. Let us hope SL gets what it deserves and Innocent civilians are freed from their IDP camps at the earliest

 

[samv]

India's (or more correctly Indira Gandhi's) baby the LTTE has been defeated by Sri Lanka. So it is no wonder that a few Indian posters, and RAW agents are angry and bitter over the death of their strategic foothold in the island. India points fingers at Pakistan 'over cross border terrorism' but was happy to arm, train and fund the Tamil Tigers which led to the deaths of thousands upon thousands of Sri Lankans. I always found that rather hypocritical. I think it was a major policy failure for India, especially since its ex primeminister Rajiv Gandhi was assasinated and more than 2500 Indian soldiers gave their lives fighting the very organisation the Indian government had armed, trained and funded.

In my opinion, if 'war crimes' are to be investigated in Sri Lanka, then so should the actions of the IPKF be placed under scrutiny. There are many allegations of rape, extrajudicial killings and massacres perpetrated by the IPKF in Sri Lanka that have been made by various Tamil groups. Just recently, Tamil groups in Sri Lanka commemorated the massacre allegedly carried out by the IPKF in the Jaffna Teaching Hospital.

Happily however, the present Indian establishment has chosen a path different to its predecessors, and the relationship between India and Sri Lanka continues to grow steadily. Infact, I can't think of a period of time where the Indo-Lankan relationship is as close and friendly as it is now. With the death of the LTTE, the biggest stumbling block towards the development and consolidation of Indo-Lankan relations has been eliminated. Previously, India had been constrained by its own Tamil nationalists from Tamil Nadu and had been unable to further its defence relationship with Sri Lanka. The recent exercises involving the Sri Lankan and Indian navies off the coast of Sri Lanka are a sign that previous inhibitions have been overcome.

The saboteurs (mostly from the Tamil community both in India and Sri Lanka) aren't happy about that, but thankfully they are a small minority

The Sri Lankan government just recently even played host to a delegation of Tamil MPs from India. Some of those in the group were vociferous in their protests against Sri Lanka during the war. But they came away with what appeared to be changed attitudes.


PS Bisingr, if you think the US or the West is genuinely interested in human rights then you are very sadly mistaken. Human rights is used as a tool to further their interests. Countries such as the US and Britain thrive on instability in other countries. The LTTE was one tool that they used to destablise not only Sri Lanka but India as well. What about the 600 000+ civilians killed in Iraq in a few years vs the 80 000-100 000 in Sri Lanka over 25 years. What about the thousands of dead in Afghanistan? The millions killed in Vietnam? Are these not 'war crimes'? Britain especially rushed to try and stop the final offensive against the LTTE. Do you honestly believe it was because they cared about any civilians?

The death of the LTTE has made Sri Lanka and the region a safer place. It was in the interest of human rights.

 

[courageneverdies]

Yeah then the same should be applied to India in Kashmir as well.

We are also doing a commendable job in crushing the rebels against the Union of India.

Can I hear some praises?

You can not get praise on Kashmir sorry to say that. Kashmir is a disputed region according to UN resolutions, whether you claim it or not but truth can not be denied. Kashmir is not a part of India hence you can not face any rebellion there. They are freedom fighters.

But any movement inside India of course those 100s of them can be said rebellion and you will be praised if you crush one.

KIT Over n Out

 

[Brisingr]

India's (or more correctly Indira Gandhi's) baby the LTTE has been defeated by Sri Lanka. So it is no wonder that a few Indian posters, and RAW agents are angry and bitter over the death of their strategic foothold in the island. India points fingers at Pakistan 'over cross border terrorism' but was happy to arm, train and fund the Tamil Tigers which led to the deaths of thousands upon thousands of Sri Lankans. I always found that rather hypocritical. I think it was a major policy failure for India, especially since its ex primeminister Rajiv Gandhi was assasinated and more than 2500 Indian soldiers gave their lives fighting the very organisation the Indian government had armed, trained and funded.

In my opinion, if 'war crimes' are to be investigated in Sri Lanka, then so should the actions of the IPKF be placed under scrutiny. There are many allegations of rape, extrajudicial killings and massacres perpetrated by the IPKF in Sri Lanka that have been made by various Tamil groups. Just recently, Tamil groups in Sri Lanka commemorated the massacre allegedly carried out by the IPKF in the Jaffna Teaching Hospital.

Happily however, the present Indian establishment has chosen a path different to its predecessors, and the relationship between India and Sri Lanka continues to grow steadily. Infact, I can't think of a period of time where the Indo-Lankan relationship is as close and friendly as it is now. With the death of the LTTE, the biggest stumbling block towards the development and consolidation of Indo-Lankan relations has been eliminated. Previously, India had been constrained by its own Tamil nationalists from Tamil Nadu and had been unable to further its defence relationship with Sri Lanka. The recent exercises involving the Sri Lankan and Indian navies off the coast of Sri Lanka are a sign that previous inhibitions have been overcome.

The saboteurs (mostly from the Tamil community both in India and Sri Lanka) aren't happy about that, but thankfully they are a small minority

The Sri Lankan government just recently even played host to a delegation of Tamil MPs from India. Some of those in the group were vociferous in their protests against Sri Lanka during the war. But they came away with what appeared to be changed attitudes.


PS Bisingr, if you think the US or the West is genuinely interested in human rights then you are very sadly mistaken. Human rights is used as a tool to further their interests. Countries such as the US and Britain thrive on instability in other countries. The LTTE was one tool that they used to destablise not only Sri Lanka but India as well. What about the 600 000+ civilians killed in Iraq in a few years vs the 80 000-100 000 in Sri Lanka over 25 years. What about the thousands of dead in Afghanistan? The millions killed in Vietnam? Are these not 'war crimes'? Britain especially rushed to try and stop the final offensive against the LTTE. Do you honestly believe it was because they cared about any civilians?

The death of the LTTE has made Sri Lanka and the region a safer place. It was in the interest of human rights.

Off course every country would love to have a strategic foothold on neighbours, but a sane country would always accomplish that through a rational approach just like India. Thats why India helped Maldives in 1988. Ask yourself a question why should India foil the bid of Tamil mercenaries who tryed to invade maldives in 1988.If India wanted to have an iron grip over the neighbours,then it should have encouraged LTTE instead of stopping them .
Think Why LTTE?? Here are some facts
The Ceylon (Srilanka) government (Singhalese majority) began to target minority Tamils in the 70s and 80s . Thousands of Tamils were massacred, their property looted, their women raped and their leaders imprisoned. There was a huge population of Ceylon-Tamils who came back to India as refugees, unable to bear the burnt of the Singhalese army. At the same time, a lot of Ceylon-Tamils took to arms to counter the oppressive Singhalese. Many left their country and settled abroad.Thatswhy we all see a vast majority of Tamils all over the world. You have created this problem initially so dont blame India for supporting LTTE. To save the minority from the brutal hands of Singhalese, supporting them would be the only logical reason for any neighbouring country. LTTE was initially found for a right cause and India supported it but later they went way out of form and shape and ended with a terrorists label on their fore head. So India had to take a stand of not supporting them and India did the right thing.
My dear SriLankan,
Havent you ever realised at what cost we have supported you and assisted you in your civil war??? Have you seen any world
country adopting such rational approach towards extremism and radicalism by slaughtering terrorism in any form or nature, even by letting-down our own kiths and kins if they are against the interest of majority in the society??? Haven’t you realized we have done a great sacrifice by supporting your every move at the cost of extreme displeasure from our fellow tamil brothers and sisters…..???Even when Aunt EU and Uncle SAM were against you in the IMF for your inhuman behavior by shelling 1000’s of innocent civilians in the war zone still India voted in favor of you for your IMF grant…remember…all this is done not because we are in need of your help or support or because we are afraid of your all-mighty SriLankan army. Its because we have a moral responsibility behind a few issues happening in your country…our previous leaders have not dealt the issues appropriately and mistakes were committed by not handling the humanitarian issues in the right way at that time…so we all bear the blood stains of our siblings in our hands now . For a greater good we have to forgive a smaller crime….the greater good is being the interest of the nation off-course…

Do you think the so called peace now prevailing in SL would last longer...you are mistaken,
Your Army Commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, in an interview with Stewart Bell of the National Post newspaper of Canada, published on September 23, 2008 has stated that: "I strongly believe that this country belongs to the Sinhalese."
Your Govt never wanted to provide legitimate rights to the minorities in the past and dont want to do that in the future as well...Untill your attitude towards the minority changes there is no place called a safer place in the region.

 

[SinoIndusFriendship]

India's (or more correctly Indira Gandhi's) baby the LTTE has been defeated by Sri Lanka. So it is no wonder that a few Indian posters, and RAW agents are angry and bitter over the death of their strategic foothold in the island. India points fingers at Pakistan 'over cross border terrorism' but was happy to arm, train and fund the Tamil Tigers which led to the deaths of thousands upon thousands of Sri Lankans. I always found that rather hypocritical. I think it was a major policy failure for India, especially since its ex primeminister Rajiv Gandhi was assasinated and more than 2500 Indian soldiers gave their lives fighting the very organisation the Indian government had armed, trained and funded.

In my opinion, if 'war crimes' are to be investigated in Sri Lanka, then so should the actions of the IPKF be placed under scrutiny. There are many allegations of rape, extrajudicial killings and massacres perpetrated by the IPKF in Sri Lanka that have been made by various Tamil groups. Just recently, Tamil groups in Sri Lanka commemorated the massacre allegedly carried out by the IPKF in the Jaffna Teaching Hospital.

Happily however, the present Indian establishment has chosen a path different to its predecessors, and the relationship between India and Sri Lanka continues to grow steadily. Infact, I can't think of a period of time where the Indo-Lankan relationship is as close and friendly as it is now. With the death of the LTTE, the biggest stumbling block towards the development and consolidation of Indo-Lankan relations has been eliminated. Previously, India had been constrained by its own Tamil nationalists from Tamil Nadu and had been unable to further its defence relationship with Sri Lanka. The recent exercises involving the Sri Lankan and Indian navies off the coast of Sri Lanka are a sign that previous inhibitions have been overcome.

The saboteurs (mostly from the Tamil community both in India and Sri Lanka) aren't happy about that, but thankfully they are a small minority

The Sri Lankan government just recently even played host to a delegation of Tamil MPs from India. Some of those in the group were vociferous in their protests against Sri Lanka during the war. But they came away with what appeared to be changed attitudes.


PS Bisingr, if you think the US or the West is genuinely interested in human rights then you are very sadly mistaken. Human rights is used as a tool to further their interests. Countries such as the US and Britain thrive on instability in other countries. The LTTE was one tool that they used to destablise not only Sri Lanka but India as well. What about the 600 000+ civilians killed in Iraq in a few years vs the 80 000-100 000 in Sri Lanka over 25 years. What about the thousands of dead in Afghanistan? The millions killed in Vietnam? Are these not 'war crimes'? Britain especially rushed to try and stop the final offensive against the LTTE. Do you honestly believe it was because they cared about any civilians?

The death of the LTTE has made Sri Lanka and the region a safer place. It was in the interest of human rights.

Let this be another reminder to our "human rights crusaders" (who are in reality the greatest guilty party) that we "non-white sub-human savages" are NOT stupid "non-white sub-human savages".....

Peace out!

 

[Brisingr]

You can not get praise on Kashmir sorry to say that. Kashmir is a disputed region according to UN resolutions, whether you claim it or not but truth can not be denied. Kashmir is not a part of India hence you can not face any rebellion there. They are freedom fighters.

But any movement inside India of course those 100s of them can be said rebellion and you will be praised if you crush one.

KIT Over n Out

We are not talking about freedom fighters here. We are talking about innocent civilians who lost their lives in war between two offenders .If Kashmir terrorists are freedom fighters then who are Balochistan's protesters. Are they freedom fighters too???
BTW please don post a reply for this since it would sideline and derail the thread. To discuss the kashmir issues there are many threads here. Let us stick on to the topic here.

The question here is whether SLG went way beyond its limits committing inhuman crimes in the process of crushing the rebels. Whether it had forgotten its moral responsibilities as a state govt failed protecting sovereignty of the ethnic minorities....Why should not SLG held responsible for all these atrocities committed...

To all members i dont see many threads discussing SL Humanitarian crises here. So everyone please voice your concerns...

 

[AcidPop]

The office of the United Nations human rights chief has said that an inquiry is needed to find out whether war crimes were committed in the final stages of the war between the security forces and the LTTE in Sri Lanka.

The suggestion came two days after the release of the U.S. State Department's report that detailed alleged war crimes. Colombo rejected the report as "unsubstantiated and devoid of corroborative evidence".

The BBC quoted a spokesperson for the U.N. Human Rights Commissioner, Navi Pillay, as saying that the allegations of war crimes were so serious that the fighting in Sri Lanka required an inquiry similar to that recently carried out into the Gaza conflict.

It was stated that the U.S. report did not constitute the necessary full inquiry but that it "catalogues in quite some detail specific events that have been reported".

Earlier, as the Sri Lankan government began the process of resettlement, U.N. voiced concern over the wariness of donor nations in providing funds to Sri Lanka because of the "continued restrictions in the freedom of movement of the internally displaced persons (IDPs)".

Neil Buhne, the U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Sri Lanka, said the response from donors to humanitarian needs in Sri Lanka had been good, but there was frustration over the closed nature of the camps.

"Among the donors we talked to, there is a hesitation in terms of their assistance to camps over the next three or four months if there's not significant progress on people returning, or larger numbers of people being allowed to leave," said Mr. Buhne.

"Donor fatigue is really in respect to continuing these closed camps Donors have not said no, but they have indicated their concerns to us," he said.

Nearly 3,00,000 people were displaced during the war between the LTTE and the security forces. On Wednesday, Competent Authority for the IDPs Kamal Gunaratne told the media that so far almost 60,000 people had been released from the camps and another 30,000 to 35,000 were expected to be released over the next fortnight.

Keywords: U.N. Human Rights Commissioner, Navi Pillay, Neil Buhne, U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator

 

[samv]

Off course every country would love to have a strategic foothold on neighbours, but a sane country would always accomplish that through a rational approach just like India.

I wouldn't call arming, training and funding a terrorist group such as athe LTTE a rational approach. But that's my opinion of course.

Thats why India helped Maldives in 1988. Ask yourself a question why should India foil the bid of Tamil mercenaries who tryed to invade maldives in 1988.If India wanted to have an iron grip over the neighbours,then it should have encouraged LTTE instead of stopping them.

But India did have a policy of encouraging the LTTE. Under Indira Gandhi, India poured in money to train the LTTE and other militant Tamil groups, set up training camps in India and armed them.

Think Why LTTE?? Here are some facts
The Ceylon (Srilanka) government (Singhalese majority) began to target minority Tamils in the 70s and 80s . Thousands of Tamils were massacred, their property looted, their women raped and their leaders imprisoned. There was a huge population of Ceylon-Tamils who came back to India as refugees, unable to bear the burnt of the Singhalese army. At the same time, a lot of Ceylon-Tamils took to arms to counter the oppressive Singhalese. Many left their country and settled abroad.Thatswhy we all see a vast majority of Tamils all over the world. You have created this problem initially so dont blame India for supporting LTTE. To save the minority from the brutal hands of Singhalese, supporting them would be the only logical reason for any neighbouring country. LTTE was initially found for a right cause and India supported it but later they went way out of form and shape and ended with a terrorists label on their fore head. So India had to take a stand of not supporting them and India did the right thing.

It's clear you're quite emotional about this issue. Perhaps you are of Tamil origin? But if we were to use your arguement, then other countries can be justified in sponsoring terrorism in India by claiming, for example, that Muslims aren't being treated well. They could point out the riots in Gujarat and Ayodhya. Christians may point out the pogrom against their community in Orissa. And Sikhs may point out the attacks on their comunity. So I guess you wouldn't be able to blame others for sponsoring terror groups in India?

I don't think India "did the right thing" at all. Infact, I consider it one of the major policy failures of India. India ended up arming, training and funding a monster that went on to pioneer suicide bombing and carry out much of the world's suicide bombings. Besides the assasination of Rajiv Gandhi and the killing of over 2500 Indian soldiers, the LTTE has also trained and provided arms to insurgent groups in India such as the ULFA. I think that the USA's arming, training and funding of insurgent groups in Afghanistan was a policy failure too.

Further, I must mention here that I cannot speak for other Sri Lankans. What I say here is my opinion. I think it's pretty childish to use terms such as "you" and "us" when talking about countries.

My dear SriLankan,
Havent you ever realised at what cost we have supported you and assisted you in your civil war??? Have you seen any world
country adopting such rational approach towards extremism and radicalism by slaughtering terrorism in any form or nature, even by letting-down our own kiths and kins if they are against the interest of majority in the society??? Haven’t you realized we have done a great sacrifice by supporting your every move at the cost of extreme displeasure from our fellow tamil brothers and sisters…..???Even when Aunt EU and Uncle SAM were against you in the IMF for your inhuman behavior by shelling 1000’s of innocent civilians in the war zone still India voted in favor of you for your IMF grant…remember…all this is done not because we are in need of your help or support or because we are afraid of your all-mighty SriLankan army. Its because we have a moral responsibility behind a few issues happening in your country…our previous leaders have not dealt the issues appropriately and mistakes were committed by not handling the humanitarian issues in the right way at that time…so we all bear the blood stains of our siblings in our hands now . For a greater good we have to forgive a smaller crime….the greater good is being the interest of the nation off-course…

No offence meant here at all, but I don't think you did anything at all. But the current Indian establishment certainly did help out the Sri Lankan establishment in many ways though. That is why I think, as I have mentioned earlier, that Indo-Lankan relations have never been better. I think both India and Sri Lanka managed the tantrums thrown by Tamil Nadu quite well. I do not see any 'sacrifice' there on the part of India, rather intelligent moves from its establishment and bi partison efforts at managing the Tamil Nadu factor which has previously thrown numerous spanners into the Indo-Lankan relationship.

Do you think the so called peace now prevailing in SL would last longer...you are mistaken,

I guess time will tell. I can hope though, right?

Your Army Commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, in an interview with Stewart Bell of the National Post newspaper of Canada, published on September 23, 2008 has stated that: "I strongly believe that this country belongs to the Sinhalese."

And that's his right to voice his beliefs.

Does not the BJP claim India to be a Hindu country?

Your Govt never wanted to provide legitimate rights to the minorities in the past and dont want to do that in the future as well...Untill your attitude towards the minority changes there is no place called a safer place in the region.

I would have to disagree with you there; I think that minorities have legitimate rights in Sri Lanka. However, I do not consider separatism to be a 'legitimate right.' Others may hold a different view.

And I do believe the region is a safer place thanks to the demise of the LTTE -- at the very least, Sri Lanka certainly is.