File spoon-archives/sa-cyborgs.archive/sa-cyborgs_1997/97-02-22.183, message 142


From: M.Trawick-AT-massey.ac.nz
Date: Thu, 07 Nov 1996 19:03:21 +1200
Subject: to Nazreena


Nazreena - Do you want peace in Sri Lanka?  If so, then please join with us
who are trying to bring the world's attention to the plight of the people there.

>it was blatantly transformed into political
>propaganda by Peggy.  

Please say what you consider "political propoganda" to be, and why you think
my response to Inder's poem falls into that category.

>Although I do not wish to take the privileged vantage point, I would
>like to point out that perhaps because I am from a minority ethnic 
>community in SriLanka (which is not directly involved in the crisis), I
>may be in a position to be a little less prejudicial about the ethnic
>crisis.

How does your being from Sri Lanka make you less prejudicial?

> While not denying that the thirteen years (approx.) civil war has
>in many ways destabilized the political, social and economic life of the
>nation

This is a vast understatement

>it is inaccurate to give the impression that the nation is
>smothered in flames and that there is no hope for its recovery.

You have said this, not me.  If I thought there were no hope, I would not be
working to put out the flames.
 
>would consider this to be an exercise in hyperbole and a deliberate
>attempt to misrepresent information.

Please justify this claim.

> It is equally incorrect to give the
>impression that only Tamil children have been victimized by the conflict.

Who has given this impression?  Are the child prostitutes only or even
mainly Tamil?  I don't think this is the case.

>I can give several accounts where innocent Muslim men, women and children
>were brutally massacred, while at prayer or sleep, by Tamil Tigers in at
>least five separate occasions (over four hundred Muslims were butchered in
>these attacks). 

Now who is being a propogandist, and for what purposes?  Warfare is evil.
The Tigers kill, Muslims kill, the Sri Lankan Army and Special Task Forces
kill, the former "freedom fighters" employed by the Sri Lankan Army kill,
the Indian Peace Keeping Forces killed.  ALL of this killing is needless and
wrong.  Does being at prayer make you innocent?  Does being asleep make you
innocent?  Does even being a child make you innocent?  There are no
"innocent" human beings anywhere in this world.  Killing is killing.

>Furthermore, why have only Sinhala soldiers been accused of torturing
>Tamil children? It will be pertinent to note that the Tigers themselves
>have continued to USE children to propagate their ideology, their
>cause. Significantly, just a few days ago Reuteurs (I think) produced an
>entire report on how children (especially girl children) were used as
>suicide bombers by the Tigers to further their interests. 

Find the report and quote it in full, please.  Was it not the Sri Lankan
military that made this claim?  Have they produced any evidence to
substantiate it?

>Once again,
>while I do not deny that there is corruption in state politics,

Another vast understatement ...

> for those
>who are (were) in power it has not (was not) a simple choice "between
>buying food and buying bullets". 

but for those who must choose between starving and killing, this is indeed
the case.  Was it not the President herself who reduced food subsidies
because, in her words, "we cannot have free goodies and wage war at the same
time"?  Sinhalese people are starving and so are Tamil people, precisely
because successive Sri Lankan governments have devoted so much of the
country's precious resources to warfare and killing.

> If this is (was) the case, as the author
>of the email claims, then where are many of the leaders who tried to
>negotiate for a settlement? The truth is that they are all dead.

No they are not.  Do you want them to be?  Are you saying that the war must
continue because there is no choice?  I will give you two quotes:

1.  LTTE Press Release, 30 April 1996

"The LTTE is committed to a negotiated political settlement.  In view of the
existing hostility and mistrust between the parties in conflict, we are of
opinion that a third party mediation is vital to promote the negotiating
process.  The LTTE wishes to emphasise the creation of a congenial
atmosphere as a necessary condition for the conduction of peace talks.
Meaningful talks with the Sri Lankan Government cannot be held under the
constraints of war, aggression and military occupation of Tamil Lands. ...
Therefore, we wish to emphasize that cessation of hostilities and
de-escalation of the conflict are necessary conditions for creating
congenial atmosphere for peace process."

The LTTE has constistently re-iterated this position throughout the war.
The framers of this statement remain alive and active.


2.  (Sri Lanka) Sunday Observer, Sunday 3 November 1996:

"A group of Members of Parliament belonging to all major parties in both
Government and Opposition have adopted a position of consensus in favour of
negotiations with the LTTE and the use of a third party to facilitate talks
to bring about a political solution to the ethnic conflict.  The group,
which included PA MPs as well as senior MPs of the UNP, Tamil parties, SLMC
and the pro-JVP Sri Lanka progressive front, has issued a statement which
indicated the widest possible political consensus so far on moves for peace. ...

"The group's statement indicated consensus among the MPs on four points:

 - All attempts should be made to end the armed conflict in Sri Lanka and a
political solution to the problem should be found.

- In order to seek a political solution, the process of negotiation should
include the LTTE.

- The services of a facilitator may be useful at this juncture to move the
talks forward.

- The deliberations of the Select Committee of Parliament should continue
with the active participation of all political parties presently represented
in it."


Any questions, Nazreena?  Admittedly, there are obstacles to negotiation,
obstacles to peace.  There are people who want the war to go on, because
they want vengeance, or money, or power, or whatever.  The Chandrika
government maintains the position that only a "military solution" can end
the "Tamil problem" in Sri Lanka.  Do you agree with that position? Are you
a supporter of that government?


> it is easy to point a finger at others as a
>means of absolving oneself of guilt. This only leads to mud-slinging and
>other ugly scenarios which do not help to improve the situation and redeem
>the nation.


I agree with this statement completely.


> We need to study our own battered postcolonial history,
>identify the mistakes, the gaps or lapses, be willing to share the guilt,
>and perhaps through this process, restore our nation for the future
>generations.
>
           
I agree with this statement also.

Peggy



   

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