Yesterday I was watching evening news and was greeted by Parliamentary chaos over the Tamil arrest scene last Sunday. The Tamil representatives were outraged stating that a large number of Tamil citizens were being held in custody, sometimes with children, while they had full papers of identification and reasons of stay. But the most interesting one statement was made by a governing parliamentarian defending the issue: "If you can explain out who is LTTE and who isn't, we'll release them in 24 hours".
Now this asks for thinking. Does this mean that the government and the forces are still operating on the assumption that 'Tamil = LTTEer'? Well that was the situation in the mass deportation which happened last June. The people were simply deported without concrete evidence, which was echoed by the successful and unchallenged Supreme Court order reversing the deportation. Of course, if the police forces had concrete evidence that they were LTTE operatives, then arrest and press charges. Then they'd have been able to challenge the court decision even Just deportation of Sri Lanka's own citizens is simply outrageous.
It has been crystal clear whatever the GOSL is saying about its military operation in the NorthEast, it has been very lapse on the southern security. Almost all major targets in Colombo were unashamedly been attacked since the start of insurgencies, and the best the government can do is simply choke the south with massive and useless road checks once something happens, and let everything be forgotten in a matter of weeks before start trumpeting about NorthEasteren military operations [and blaming everything from cost of living to the size of the Cabinet over it]. The GOSL forces are simply at a loss of finding out and thwarting LTTE undercover operations in south. By current developments what we can see is either they can put a majority of the southern Tamil population behind bars, or let the bombs go on. To echo the government's own words, the southern security situation is utterly lapse. I seriously doubt if the LTTE aircraft were to infiltrate into Colombo skies once more, there's anything much more the air force can do than the two previous times. We need a better structured defense plan down here, not just stupid policemen who cannot even properly thwart a bomb threat or evacuate the scene properly after an incident as demonstrated about a week back, not to mention identifying the terrorist from the Tamil.
The government is very vocal about the country having a terrorist problem which is solvable via a military approach. If anybody in the government had even a little bit of brains, they should've noticed that almost 100% of the terrorists are Tamil. In fact, they 'cannot even distinguish who's the terrorist and who isn't', as was admitted in Parliament yesterday. There definitely is a problem about it. If almost all the LTTE are Tamil [well any stupid idiot knows], then surely there's something deeper than "a simple terrorist problem", isn't it?
The LTTE are terrorists and shit, there's no doubt about it. They should be destroyed as much as that was their choice; they thwarted peace efforts every time. But there should be a distinction between the Tamil citizen and the terrorist, an absence of which the current GOSL actions seem to show. Unless more care is practiced, there'll be a time when there indeed IS NO such distinction. Such times may be the ones the real LTTE is eagerly looking forward to.
In short, the GOSL need a broader perspective on the problem definitely. As well as a true pointed military approach to destroy terrorism [not one which is just there to justify every shit going on in the country, the president personally did it in Parliament], an elite and intelligence-based long sighted southern defense plan, we need a solution to the fact that 'every LTTEr is a Tamil'. That's what would complete a true mission to end this chaos.
On a happier term, I also heard last evening that the Supreme Court has outlawed permanent search barriers [i hope it includes utterly useless, traffic-choking road checks] and VIP road-choking at ruch hour. Thank goodness, there are some people in the country with sense.
4 comments:
from what I have heard, they detained people from the N/E provinces.
People with ID's from the S and W were ok.
Underlines the government's seeming perception of the separateness of the two entities.
I was traveling in a car with my cousin who has a North east address and I have a Colombo address on my ID. At a check point they pulled my cousin out and detained him. He had all the documentation (from ID to police report). The officer told me they have been instructed to pick up all Tamils from north east regardless of their identification for questioning. Later on at the detention center, my cousin got questioned and forced to sign some documentation in Sinhalese that he cant even read.
When will the govt learn?
Its now become evident for tamils that the sinhalese racist will never let the tamils live in peace. The only option is to break. The tamils will never scarfice our dignity and live like this anymore.
It's absurd.. They arrested one of my teachers, along with a whole bunch of other tamils who according to them, 'looked like LTTE people' and some of 'em are still in custody.. The only reason my teacher was released was because the military spokesman interfered on his behalf.. How about the others who don't know any influential people? Do they remain under arrest for no valid reason untill the govt. decides to release them whenever they please?
Its completely, utterly ludicrous... Such a messed up system.. It really pisses me off..
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