Sri Lanka

[nino_savatte]

Yea, it's pretty clear the Tamil people have been screwed over. But it's time for the fighting to stop. I don't know much about this conflict & there doesn't seem to be much on the i-net about it. But the fighting has produced nothing, except a bunch of casualties, military & civilian. Time for the Tigers to stop violent resisting & try for a peace deal with the gov. I think.

What I find ironic about your post is the fact that you hail from a country that was forged out of violence. The Americans resisted British rule...not because they were cruelly treated because of their ethnicity, but for economic reasons. The Tamils have been regarded by the Sinhalese majority as second class citizens. Given the nature of their position within Sri Lankan society (the name of the country should lend a clue as to how the country was concieved), it is not surprising that they have resisted.

There isn't much information about the conflict because the Sri Lankan authorities have forbidden foreign journalists from entering the north of the country. If that sounds familiar, it should. It is exactly what Israel did with Gaza very recently.

 

[nino_savatte]

No, wouldn't solve the country's problems, but a civil war going on & on seems about the worst thing that could happen to the people on both sides at this point. I think the ordinary Tamils get it bad from both sides. The Tigers have lost & it's time to just stop it & for both sides to work out some attempt at peace.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7867743.stm

You could do yourself a few favours by doing a little background reading on the conflict.

Btw, it was the LTTE who invented the suicide bomber, not the Palestinians as many CIA operatives claim.

Solomon Bandaranaike was the country's first Prime Minister and was assassinated by a Buddhist monk who was linked to a grup of disgruntled Sinhalese nationalists.

His party promoted the interests of the Sinhalese majority.

On the sensitive issue of language, the party originally espoused the use of both Sinhala and Tamil as national languages, but in the mid-1950s it adopted a "Sinhala only" policy, a change that gave the party a landslide victory in the 1956 election. As a party that says it is a champion of the Buddhist religion, which had been attacked by local Christians and Tamils alike during the colonial era. The SLFP has customarily relied upon the socially and politically influential Buddhist clergy, the sangha, to carry its message to the Sinhalese village
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_Bandaranaike

 

[TomUS]

You could do yourself a few favours by doing a little background reading on the conflict.

Yes, that's right. The media always says the Tamil Tigers blew up this or that & killed a bunch of people & they want their own state. But never any info on what the fighting is all about.

Btw, it was the LTTE who invented the suicide bomber, not the Palestinians as many CIA operatives claim.

Interesting. Yea, I've always heard it was the Palestinians who started the suicide bombing thing. Well, now it's done by a bunch of groups. What always bugs me about it is how it's used so much against civilians. Doesn't seem like an admirable claim to fame.

 

[nino_savatte]

Yes, that's right. The media always says the Tamil Tigers blew up this or that & killed a bunch of people & they want their own state. But never any info on what the fighting is all about.

Interesting. Yea, I've always heard it was the Palestinians who started the suicide bombing thing. Well, now it's done by a bunch of groups. What always bugs me about it is how it's used so much against civilians. Doesn't seem like an admirable claim to fame.

Strictly speaking, suicide attacks have been around for hundreds of years. The LTTE practised them to an art form.

 

[likesfish]

think its a bit late for peace talks
Why bother talking when you can crush your enemy
There is going to be a military solution

 

[obanite]

Heh, yeah, it's certainly looking that way

I think the problem is, waging asymmetric warfare guerilla-style is feasible Vs. a superior force, but the LTTE were trying to establish some kind of sovereign state in the north... while the Sri Lankan military were still very much at large.

From a historical perspective it'd be interesting to compare Cuba with Sri Lanka. I guess there were very different aims with Sri Lanka though...

 

[frogwoman]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7902392.stm

tamil tiger planes have attacked Colombo.

presumably, the tigers are regarded as a terrorist organisation yes? who is arming these people? how do they get access to this weaponry?

 

[camouflage]

There's a thread in the other politics forum but it seems like it might descend into a bit of a fisticuffs so I thought I'd start this one.

I don't really know anything about how the conflict started.

I'm curious to know a little bit more about the issue - who supports the various parties involved, what India's involvement with it is, and that sort of thing. I know that India has a very large population of Tamil people in the south of the country and certain groups on the mainland have funded the Tamil Tigers - but does this translate into actual support from the Indian government at all, or has it at any point?

There seems to be a lot of bollocks spoken about this issue from both sides. Can anyone recommend me a good, unbiased, book about it?

Basically the Brits sowed the seeds using imported minority demographics as the usual colonialist tool, and after independance an Oxford educated Ceylonite and his mad language policies kicked it all off.

 

[Maurice Picarda]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7902392.stm

tamil tiger planes have attacked Colombo.

presumably, the tigers are regarded as a terrorist organisation yes? who is arming these people? how do they get access to this weaponry?

Remittances and Indian supporters.

 

[dennisr]

Yeah, I have saved your first link and am reading it now. VERY interesting.

I've been thinking for a long time that the commonly held Western conception of Buddhism as an entirely "peaceful" religion really isn't accurate or helpful in understanding a lot of what goes on in these countries - and could actually be actively harmful given that it ignores its expropriation by extreme nationalists of various descriptions. It's good to see someone supporting my view

Fair points about Buddhism. I don't think it is a ' root cause' of violence though as it was being - partially - presented in that link. Certainly provides an 'ideology' to legitimise that violence.

A couple of links here from the CWI site. The CWI fight - under very difficult circumstances for unity of working people, Sinhalese and Tamil:

Giving a bit of information about the anti-Tamil pogroms of 26 years ago:
http://www.socialistworld.net/z/bin/kw.cgi/show?id=3224

more on the pogroms from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_July

Twenty five years of war and conflict:
http://www.socialistworld.net/z/bin/kw.cgi/show?id=3154

Fall of Kilinochchi: Tamil Tigers in danger of defeat but Tamil people’s struggle goes on
http://www.socialistworld.net/z/bin/kw.cgi/show?id=3457

Sri Lanka has a very contradictory history - in having a strong worker's movement - one of the only mass workers parties* to go towards trotskyism rather than stalinism (in the wake of the collapse of the old communist international). Its strong post-colonial left history meant, for example, a record of mass education - with high literacy levels, better than the UK at the time - and other major social/welfare reforms in the wake of the collapse of british colonialism after WW2.

Perhaps the then strength of the worker's movement may be a pointer as to why local politicians played so heavily on the potential divisions (developing those seeds sow by the british) to cut across that post-colonial movement? Religious language simply disguising the reality of the underlying battles between rich and poor in a post-colonial country?

*Lanka Sama Samaja Party - LSSP Wikipedia bit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanka_Sama_Samaja_Party

ps - given the role of the working class in SL even the very worst and most murderous of the anti-tamil, communalist organisations - the pseudo-'maoist' JVP - had to claim some 'left' heritage - some stuff about the JVP: http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2007/12/second-jvp-insurgency-part-vi.html

More interesting stuff:
SRI LANKA:THE ARROGANCE OF POWER - Myths, Decadence & Murder
http://www.uthr.org/Book/Content.htm