Kusal,When I was a kid in early sixties,when I went to dispesary with my father, it was a tamil doctor there. When I went to Post office post master was a tamil person.When I went to grocery store it was a Tamil mudalali.When I went to AGA[Kachcheri] office it was a Tamil AGA.Can you tell me why?

It was because the British and USA provide best english educate schools for tamils in Ceylon.Can you tell me why? Because British want this country ruled by minority.It was a political plot designed by British. And it was big problem for Sinhalese at that time,based on the rights of the Sinhalese.

That system changed by Bandaranayake,giving prominent place to Sinhala language and to the Sinhalese.If you are a Sinhalese[I doubt},you must thank to the Premier Bandaranayake.If that decision did not take PM Bandaranayake at that time,today this country govern by Tamils,and Sinhalese become slaves or might completely eradicated.

Maybe you are intellectual than me,but I understand that you have nothing to respond.Kusal Don't be a sinner[Akusal].Go home and try to write another piece of yarn,because the more you write, the more dollars pouring into your account.

Thanks to the Buddhist teachings Sinhalese never supress or revenge tamils at this juncture,and they helping the poor tamils whichever way they can.It is not because of the GUILT,but for the compassion we heritage from centuries because of Buddhism.

Hello Kusal,
They lack the commom sense and intellectual capacity to understand not only the Tamil problem but also the Sinhala problem.It was a Sinhala Buddhist leader who sent thousands of Sinhala youth to their maker exactly twenty years ago.Then too we were told that the country was trying to eradicate terrorism.Unfortunately history did repeat itself and it will do so again.
Cheers,
Siva.

This is a balance view without the hatred of sinhalese chauvinism which led to the present mess. It is necessary to get out of the make belief world of Mahavamsa superiority.Otherwise history will repeat itself. Everyone will have to live in a militarised state with the Rajapakse triumvirate plundering the country in the pretext of maintaining Sinhala-Buddhism. This has been going on for over half a century. The Tamils have their share of the blame as well in responding through violence but that was the only way they had. It is best to move out of this mess if there is to be progress. Otherwise, all have to go on living in the same cesspool for a long time.

Thank you Kusal Perera for telling the truth and don't let anyone silence you.

As for the situation with the IDPs, they have been held against their will. They have not committed a crime and should not be held against their will.

There has been plenty of charity work performed and fund raisers held within SRi Lanka and by SL Embassys and High Commissions around the world.

Here's an analogy for this situation. A kidnapper holds a group of people against their will. But because the kidnapper cannot afford to feed his kidnap victims, he gets his friends and relatives to raise funds to feed and house them. But his friends and relatives, without raising the issue that kidnapping people, holding people against their will is a CRIME, decide to participate in the "feel-good" charity work and fundraisers. Where are the howls of protest? saying the LTTE did the same is not good enough. The LTTE committed an act of crime against humanity by not letting the people go. Isn't the SL government doing the same?

Thank you. There is still hope while people like you have the courage to stand up and be counted.
When the LTTE tearup the civil socity organs within the tamil community, there were only a few brave and principled people like yourself voice their opposition. This was ruthelessly suppressed and now their is no voice within the tamil community to even demand the resettlement of the IDPs.
Having seen how a fascist movement like LTTE can destroy a community, Sinhala community will do themselves and Sri Lanka a world of good by challenging the fascist tendencies of the Sri Lankan government.

Thanks for expressing and articulating the facts clearly. A state less Tamil

Keliyan,

It is not a matter of courage but $. I wonder had he visited at least one IDP camp in his life time. These doller vultures can write many stories but never offer a single coin to needy people.

Re: the comment by Rana.
The success of the Tamils are not due to the British's favoritism, but due to their hard work. They come from the arid North, where there are no rivers or not enought rainfall. They have to work twice as hard as the singhalese to succeed in farming. For them Education is the only way to succeed. I have personaly known that their children as young as 5 years old get up at 5 a.m to go for private tuition before going to school or they go for private tuituion after coming back from school. Even poor parents priority is to give their children education.

What is your explanation for the Tamil diaspora's success in education and jobs where ever they have settled? This is true from the time they went to Singapore, Malaysia and Burma to this day!!Even now in Sri lanka, if Univeristy admission and jobs are given on merit alone, the Tamils will outdo the Sinhalese!! Some of them might even do better in Sinhalese language than the Sinhalese students!! It is all in the attitude. First of all the Sinhalese should learn to live without the "self pity" and the "handicap" mentality!!

How come the Budhist teaching did not help Sri Lanka from organising pogroms against the Tamils in 1956,1958,1977,1983 and the several bombings of schools and churches with thousands of refugees inside in Jaffna in 90s? How come Budhism did not prevent the killings of 20,000+ innocent civilians in the so called "safe zone" How come the Budhist are silent when 300,000 innocent civilians are held as prisoners in the "concentration camps" without adequate, food and medicine without freedom of movement, freedom of speech no feedom even to cry together as a family!!

LTTE is the creation of the "Sinhala Budhist" intrasigence towards the Tamil problem. As you can see from paper cutting attached in this article violence against the Satyagrhis started long before the LTTE was born. Is Attacking people who are protesting non violently, Budhist teaching? There is no point in calling Sri Lanka a Budhist country when in reality Budhism is not practiced!!

Well you sound very much a post macauley christian. With regards tothe attack on the churches this is a response to the neo colonial program of conversion by the west. I shall end this comment by quoting Jomo Kenyatta the Kenyan Nationalist 'when the white man came he had the bible we had the land. Then he said let us close our eyes and pray. When we opened our eyes we had the bible and they had the land' Now it is the paid cocunuts who are doing the donkey work.

The solution to the problem is not devolution nor 13th Amendment. Its equal rights to every citizen from every race and religion. Sri Lanka is for all Sri Lankans and not for certain sinhalese buddishts. While most sinhalese buddishts are peace loving and kindhearted people who believe in an equal Sri Lanka, there are a few extremists who believe that Sri Lanka is a sinhalese buddisht country and not a secular country. These people are egged on by some buddist monks who dishonour their robe and the teachings of the great buddah by preaching hatred and racism. They abuse the respect the average sinhalese person gives them as priests. All these people are no different from the tamil tigers. They are just racists and seperatists who sit on the other side of the fence.
The constitution should be torn up and a new one drafted. One where anyone who preaches hatred or racism or extremism or seperatism of any kind should be punished severely no matter what race or religion they are from. All parties, political and otherwise should be banned if they are based on race or religion. All priests, monks, imams, etc etc should be banned from politics and just stick to giving relgious guidance to people.
Sri Lanka has centuries of history and all the major religions in the world and yet we behave like uncivilised monkeys who cannot repect each other. If we cannot repect ourselves and solve our problems how will the rest of the world ever respect us?

This type of one dimension analyses by the so called intellectuals haven't provided any solution to date and will not in the future too.

Not sure what the motivations of this one eyed views of Kusal. Many suspect that it is how the person is making a living. Accordingly, one could bear such bogus views on the basis that at least it is helping someone to earn something for living.

However, a response is required for some of the bogus claims this person makes.

1. Disfranchisement of Tamils in 1948 - Do not pass this on to Sinhalese. Even the Northern Tamil leadership represented in the parliament voted for it. Only the Sinhala left leaders in parliament opposed it. At the same time one can also argue that the stand taken by Sri Lanka was also accepted by India via Sirima Shastri pact as the people who were disfranchised were in fact Indians.

2. Colonisation of East - Are you saying that 2/3 of the country should have been left permanently to a minority community while they can enjoy the fruits of development in the other 1/3? The cultivable land was only available in the sparsely populated East & the Vanni. Without settling people there how could you propose the country to be developed? The country's land belongs to whole population and not to a one community.

3. Can you show any country where the language spoken by 75% of the population is not the official language of the country? Why don't you talk about the legislation passed to facilitate reasonable use of Tamil or the later acts making Tamil a national language? Tamil is not a national language even in India.

4. B-C and D-C pacts were parochial arrangements never designed to solve any problem of Tamils or Sinhalese. In fact it was just an extension of Chelva's separatist project which was started with the "Arasu" party in 1949, well before the so called discrimination in 1956.

5. Republican constitution in 1972 was lawfully passed by 2/3 of the country's democratic representatives. It's architect in fact was none other than Colvin R De Silva who was not a communalist at all. He has consistently argued & fought for rights of all people of Sri Lanka. The servile mind of Kusal would have still liked to call Elizabeth II as his/her monarch.

6. The changes to university entrance was designed to facilitate opportunities to marginalised regions of the country (not to Colombo or Jaffna who enjoyed the most developed education standards of the country.)Kusal is just parroting Jaffna Vellahla canards. In fact even I lost my opportunity to go to university due to standardisation. But I understood the rationale and I have no complaints.

7. JRJ's 1978 constitution in fact allowed more representation to minority political views (both Sinhala and Tamil). The history to date amply demonstrates that fact. In fact it provided immense king making powers to minorities.

8. Agree, that the violence unleashed in Jaffna (especially durind the DDC polls) must be condemned.

1983 was a logical outcome of a separatist/terrorist agenda originated long before independence in 1948, matured through 50/50 demand, arasu party formation in 1948, systematically chasing Sinhalese away from the North (Kusal doesn't have any words for those Sinhalese) commencing from 1958 onwards, killing of Tamil leaders who opted for co-habitation starting with Alfred Duraiappah, declaring war on Sinhalese at Vadukkodai in 1976 & the killing of 13 soldiers in July 1983.

The subsequent 26 years saw the graduation and eventual destruction of the terrorist project in the face of determined Sinhala resistance who have no other country other than Sri Lanka where Sinhala as a language and a culture survives.

Sinhalese are prepared for an inclusive society as long as exclusivist Tamil racism is denounced by Tamils and their like Kusal.

Agree with Kusal.
But I must add a bit more.Country is being hijaked by the cuniving courrupt politicans to further their gains by prtending to creating a Buddhist state while the actual motive is to create a facist state like Burma.That's why MR has people like Mervin around him.PM wants children to go to darma classes on Sundy and ban tution classes.Are these people being elected to act this stupid?No they live a double life and heaven help the island and her people.It's upto the people of this noble faith rise up to this hypocracy of the politicans.
When Kadiar died the only statement that was made by the government was by Sirpala S where he said that all liquor and butcher shops should be closed and how can a heavy drinking and womanizer say this?I would rather hear that the criminals and terrorists would be hunted down.These two bit politicans are taking us for a ride and that's the reason people are asking for a seperate state to run their own affairs which I doubt will solve,judging by how equally courrupt their leaders in Tamil Nadhu.So we are in together in it and forming a political party with truly by a honest and intellectual lot of people is the best solution where undivided country is paramount without communal and religious minded parties, working for the good of all.

Dear Kusal,

I am also a Sinhala Buddhist and like you am so very disgusted with these chauvanistic views of some people who have been commenting on your wonderful analysis. It certainly appears to be comming from your heart. I and many of my friends feel the same way. The problem is, those who want to instill fear into the heads of right thinking Sinhala Buddhists with these absurd statements that you had listed and statements like "the British and the US are interested in putting minority communities in power for their own benefit," such as the utterences of those from JHU and NFF are not thinking of the damage they are doing to this little beautiful Lanka of ours. When will they ever stop behaving like Prabhakaran who did the same with so many young Tamils to draw them into his madness? SWRD brought in the "Sinhala Only" not because it was the crying need of the moment, but because that was the only way he could have defeated UNP at that time...he and his family have later regretted that moment. Now the Rajapakses are at it and we soon will have to go with begging bowl to Bangladesh or Myanmar....

And ..... rana, you may find Tamil AGA's and Postmasters where you went, but they were only a few....My father was a Postmaster and my brother was an AGA whom you didn't meet. Besides, all these Tamils worked very hard to get where they were. I personally know how hard a close Tamil friend who had to go back to Jaffna after the 1956 riots worked to be a Teacher. He was much smarter than me when he was in school in Colombo. I ended up an Engineer and he a teacher in school in Jaffna. What is worse, when I visited him Jaffna during one of my circuits around 1975 or so, I saw his youngest sister studying for the GCE Advanced Level with the help of an oil lamp. This was her second shy. The first time she missed out by two points for medical college entry from the very high cut off points set for Jaffna district - the highest in the country, while those from the South with 30 points less than what she had got gained entry to Medical College!! ...what are you crying about Singhalese being discriminated by the British. It is the Singhalese who coined the phrase "Singhalaya Modaya"... not the Tamils or the British. We know our capacity.... Dayalal

Rana
"Kusal,When I was a kid in early sixties,when I went to dispesary with my father, it was a tamil doctor there. When I went to Post office post master was a tamil person.When I went to grocery store it was a Tamil mudalali.When I went to AGA[Kachcheri] office it was a Tamil AGA.Can you tell me why? "

The above is a pure canard. There is a book written by one by Mr. Piyadasa, if I remember the name correctly. In that one he rips open this onesided argument and proves it wrong. To be candid, Galle always out smarted Jaffna in education. If you assess the performance based on the size of the population, then both performed equally well. It will take some time but I will trace that book and bring to this forum very soon. The author of the book was a higher ranking officer. Only on the clerical level, there was a marginal disparity on the proportional basis. The reason was , the Sinhalese officers of those days preferred to have Tamils as their Chief Clerks for a particular reason. Sinhalese officers would like to commute daily from outlying areas. Their homes have been away, but still they could make it morning and evening. They could be a lttle late in the morning or a bit early in the evening. For his Chief Clerk, Jaffna is too far and he used to live in a Chummary with 4 or 5 people, very frugally in Colombo. He would be in the office at 7am in the office keep things ready for his boss to sign without looking into the contents. There was a real trust between them. Then sometime the Jaffna Chief Clerk would receive a letter from someone of his kith or kin with a complain and a request. The complain would be that a son of his kith or kin completed his SSC and just knocking around without doing anything. The request would be to get him a clerical job for in his work place. The next day, this Jaffna Chief Clerk will keep the things ready for his boss to sign and approach the boss, when he was in a good mood, while scratching head in an embarassing manner. Then his boss would ask him "what is it Bala or Kandiah?". In the end his relative will start as peon or a casual clerk in the office. This is how things worked and our clerical officers liked to work under Sinhalese bosses for this and another one reason. The other reason is, he looks after his boss very well and the boss in return was not frugal in approving his overtimes. Things worked fine till the Sri Laknan politicians intervened. One more thing, I am now in Canada. I migrated under professional category. I never wanted to leave Jaffna. In late seventies, I decided to settle for good in Jaffna. Then I became a refugee in late i995. I was chased out by LTTE and Sri Lanka army from Jaffne. We managed till 2001 and found things were getting really bad and applied for Canada migration and came to Canada in 2003. The Sinhalese lady whose house we rented was a very nice, always smiling lady. If we ever visit Colombo we will certainly pay a visit to her. It is the people like you created the divide by driving the wedge between these two communities. LTTE and Pirabhakaran are very recent phenomena but people like you predated them.

I would tell you another incident. A cousin of mine, neither an immediate cousin nor a distant one, married to an Appothecary and he worked in a Sinhalese village. This Appo very rarely come home, but regulary send money home. My cousin used to joke that the Sinhlese villagers used to say that Mahathaya belongs to them and his salary only belongs to his wife/kids. Things worked fine, till you guys invented the divisive politics.
Easwaran

My hats off to Kusal Perera for his intellect in summarising 10 points plus history with 1948 as an appropriate starting point and concluding the conflict as a political issue that should have been resolved before 1983 or to that effect and above all speaking his mind frankly by saying "I for one, belong to the Sinhala Buddhist community that wish to live in a modern civilised society which prefers to solve conflicts democratically as equals and wish to see no blood on this soil.. "

I was also pleasantly surprised ( because Mahinda regime was using APRC to borrow time with hidden agenda ) at the intellect of Professor Vitharane when he atriculated in a cool and calm manner with sense of humour the political vision he envisage through APRC for the 60 year old problems in a TV interview with Sanjana Hattotuwa :

http://www.groundviews.org/2009/07/03/interview-with-prof-tissa-vitharana-on-the-13th-amendment-constitutional-reform-it-and-english-language/

The above two shows that among the educated Sinhalese there are fair minded intellectuals who cares more about Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Burghers, Malays and others and can bring a solution, unfotunately these people do not have the political power or the clout.
This allowed the chuvanistic powerful majoritarian political leaders to seek the help of external forces ( to satisfy the geoplotical interests of these external powers ) to crush or oppress their own people through terror to resolve the political problem. If war is one option there are many options through due political processes which none of the leders since 1948 implemented because of lack of statemanship and will.

A country, society or a people reap what they sow. If they sow freedom to others they will harvest freedom for themselves. This is a spiritual truth.

Any country that sows oppression will lose its independence is an undisputed truth, well substantiated by history.

Last week, a part of Sri Lanka(SL) was parcelled off to China, when the government of SL(GOSL) announced that an exclusive investment zone was given to China at Mirigama. Also, a few weeks ago, after the war with Tamil Tigers, oil storage facility at Hambantota Port was given to China.

The recent UN Security Council resolutions on SL would have initiated and brought peace and stability in the island between SL and Tamil Eelam(TE). But, China and Russia appear to have silently put fear and paranoia into the GOSL and traded secretly for concessions in SL and TE, before they voted against the UN resolutions calling for ceasefire and peace talks.

The Sinhalese saw this "sell out" by Mahinda Rajapakse but did not perceive this betrayal. They were drunk with hatred and pursued the war to kill and displace many Tamil civilians.

China, a one party state, drove armoured tanks over its own civilians in Tinnamen Square, and Russia massacred many civilians in Chechenya. They both are yet to account for their cruelty to humanity. With repressive history, both countries always manouvre their way and manipulate states to be oppressive.

Chinese internet users gathered last week in large numbers in Beijing, demanding freedom of expression, after China imposed an iternet ban in their country; threatening free speech and violating international trade laws.

Surely, the recipe of China for any solution to the political conflict in SL would not have been different.

China supplied weapons and satelite intelligence information to SL, prevented SL from entering a peace making highway from the UN and opened a doorway for GOSL to commit war crimes.

Whenever China or Russia supplied weapons in the past to liberation movements in African countries, they had strings of economic submissions firmly attached to them. Now, independent African countries are still being awfully exploited. They are paying back in "blood".

When the GOSL carried out repressive genocidal war against the people of TE, massacred more than 20,000 civilians in one week, displaced 300,000 people of TE and occupied the de facto state of TE that was in existence for 22 years; the Sinhalese never knew that their country would gradually lose its independence and sovereignty and rot in a corner in return. Now, it has started to happen.

Dagobert you are a dangerous anti national element and traitor pretending to be anti LTTE.

•It was LTTE that waged war against a sovereign government (how did LTTE come into being ?)

You are recognising the LTTE as an equal opponent of the government and advocating the position that it was an entitity that waged war against the government. This is to argue that the LTTE played by the rules of war and that it therefore is entitled to the protections of the geneva convention. It is people like you who are preparing to put Mahinda and Gotha and Sarath in Jail for war crimes.

•Majority of Tamils live outside "North" and in the Diaspora (now they live in fenced out camps too)

You are openly claiming that the Tamils are in diaspora which means that you claim that the Tamils had to leave the country for some reason. There is no diaspora. Just immigrants, some of them illegal.

•IDPs, Tamils living elsewhere did not want a "separate State"

You are claiming that some Tamils wanted a separate state whereas we know that only the LTTE wanted a separate state.

•Diaspora and certain elements international community funded the LTTE on a hidden agenda

You are claiming that the LTTE had international recognition and international funding.

•Govt is no party to their (IDPs) predicament

You are claiming that the LTTE is running the IDP camps.

•The govt had a responsibility to do anything, as this was the aspiration of the majority community (so the majority wanted them killed and displaced?)

You are accusing the government of having broken the rules of war and having done "anything"

Let me tell you. You are not a sinhalese. You are a traitor. You are the sort of traitors who have to be "weeded out" roots and all. The new intelligence units that are being set up will find you soon and deal with you as all terrorist sympathisers should be dealt with. I hope you enjoy the treatment - I am sure you will love it.

I'm a Govt doctor in SL. Worked with all commmunities and served for many years. I've come across IDPs transferred from vavniya to our maternity unit, seen t thier dier needs and vulnarability. THe trauma they've gone through for >5 yrs, not only during the last phase of war which was the most brutal. I've not been to an IDP camp yet but hoping to do in August.

Most of the SL diaspora are out of touch with reality of the ground situ. Their imaginations run riot. Many writers of this blog too are similar.

How long these IDPs were deprived of basic human needs? for long years. Not only now. I've seen the missery and know the plight of this human conflict.

No one can solve this problem over night. The situ will change for the better from my point of view. But the tamil diaspora is not helping at all by passing negative comments and propagating separatism and glorifying VP.

I know many of the vanni civillians never had 3 square meals even before the war started. They never had drinking water, health care, or proper education facilities the rest of the country had, as they were under the control of the LTTE.
but no one raised a voice against these discriminations then.

These IDPS were suffering silently and the daispora funded the LTTE to propagate war & violence.Now the LTTE is defeated pro LTTE lobby is making such accusations against the SL govt. and the military.

Please come to Sl and see for your selves before passing unfair jugdements. Past is over we need to live in the present, as I've said in my previous comments unless all communities overcome hatred, bitterness and revenge, it is unlikely the suffering of the masses will end soon.

Blame game should stop. Start thinking positively. Think of positive steps to heal the wounds within us.
don't ignite racial and religious disharmony.

I'm a sinhala christian. I've nothing agaist sinhala buddists or tamil hidus or muslims. We are all humans made in common, with similar needs and desires. Learning to accept and respect others is essential to live in a pluraristic society in peace.

Dear Kusal,

I wanted to reply to your previous article regarding charities starting to deliver aid now to these "camps" and you are condemning our attempt to deliver aid. I am very sorry that you put us in the same category as Sinhalese Buddhist Chauvinists which is bit unfair. Lot of people helped in Tsunami time and we have tried to help in Tamil Areas and Tamil children but we could not manage.

I can give details to you why we could not manage but will not give details in here. I understand that this camp problem is not the same and these people are being held inside barbed wire. But it is wholly unfair to categorise them alongside Jewish Concentration camps and it is wholly unfair to criticise our (Southerners) relief efforts to simple Sinhalese do-gooders making merry.

Most of us received lot of emails regarding these camps and we have specially visiting this website to get first hand information. Specially some of the DBSJ's articles were depressingly difficult to read without getting tears to the eye.

Just because you have gone to "pada Yathra" with Mahindas and now you criticize him because of whatever political fallout you had, don't put us in that category. What I think is to do whatever we can to help these people and let them free to make their own destiny. But government also have certain points like – Demining, declaring High Security Zones, creating some military camps etc etc. Whether we liked it or not this is the situation.

I was happy this war finished because people were afraid to go to working places because of bombs, people were afraid to send children to schools and war was dragging on. Sinhalese also voted for CBK for peace and Ranil for peace. But LTTE and Prabhakaran did not heed to any body including Solheim and Ranil. They were more than 50% responsible for this and war is over now. Why we should not be happy?

I told my friend Saroj Pathirana from BBC few years back that if the LTTE is going to break Ceasefire agreement on this scale , killing Military Intelligence officials, EPDP and other Tamil cadres etc Ranil will loose and people will vote for more hardliners to come to power. Norwegian – Ranil appeasement of LTTE, and CBK short-sightedness pave the way for collapse of ceasefire before President Rajapakshe came to power. Why blame us Sinhalese for now for the war?

Yes we are sorry for the deaths occurred. But Prabhakaran and enough chances to surrender and let people go. He did not do that. Why blame us that we did not mind the war but feeling sorry for now. We did mind but we had enough of it too.

I also have few questions for you -

1. Disfranchisement of Tamils in the plantation sector and making them "Stateless" in 1948 that thereafter allowed for more Sinhala representation from those areas. – Isn't it true that Sinhalese lost their land originally to Tea Estates under British rulers and these are their ancestral lands (As Tamils claim their ancestral lands in the North). Isn't it true that these Sinhalese still live side by side with these Upcountry Tamils in abject poverty?

Isn't it true that these Disenfranchised Tamils got all citizenship under JRJ regime, rest again under CBK and even JVP MP Ranmalingam Chandrsekaran (A Tamil) went to Tamilnadu refugee camps to get rest of the Tamils there to arrange citizenships. Why are you hiding the fact that JAFFNA TAMIL representative voted for disenfranchisement of these Upcountry Tamils. Like Elie Wiesel Foundation statement – you only says disenfranchisement of Tamils – but don't say they are upcountry Tamils and Don't say they have given their citizenship back 20 odd year ago.

2. colonisation of the East that changed the demographic pattern to the disadvantage of Tamils and Muslims in electing their representatives from East – Can't argue with that.

3. Sinhala language made the "only" official language in 1956 that subsequently evolved a Sinhala State –
This was done to stop discrimination against Sinhalese by educated Privileged English Speaking class but Sinhala nationalists turned it against Tamils. I regret this Sinhala only decision. However the law repelled already and Sinhala, Tamil, and English are state languages already?

4. Throwing away the B-C pact in 1957 when some Buddhist monks and the UNP protested – Big Mistake.

5. Throwing away the D-C pact in 1968 when the SLFP and the "Left" parties protested – Another big Mistake

6. Establishing the Republican Constitution of 1972 without considering the representations made by all Tamil MPs in parliament that took away the constitutional guarantees for minorities – Can't say anything about this. I heard this removed the guarantees given by the The Soulbury Commission reforms were removed. Why on earth Leftists supported it then?

7. Standardisation of university entrance in 1972 on geographical and language basis
- Where does it says that by language you can be selected to University? We are Sinhalese and we could not get into university even though we had more marks than students from Gamapaha for example. (Students from Gampaha, Kurunegala, Galle areas came for the same tuition classes in Colombo and they could get selected for lower marks).

Half baked socialist government of Sirima did this to appease electorate and it did more damage than good I think. But is it correct to say it was solely against Tamils when Sinhala Muslim students from Colombo, Kandy also suffered from it. Does not Indian government do similar things for Dalits and Low casts?

8. JRJ adopts a new Constitution in 1978 with an Executive Presidency that was never consulted with any in the Opposition, including Tamil representation – well he done lot of other things including interfering with Judiciary.

9. JRJ as President sends Brigadier Weeratunge to Jaffna in 1979 to wipe out "terrorists" before December 31st and leads to ruthless repression by the military, torture and many extra judicial killings of Tamil youth - Agree

10. TULF agrees with the JRJ government in 1980 for District Development Councils, despite the mandate received by the TULF at the 1977 general elections for a separate State and provided for the DDC elections in 1981 June, which the JRJ government rigged and slaughtered in Jaffna, burning the Jaffna library and creating chaos in Jaffna town and then the DDC's were not honoured with even the basic powers agreed to - Agree

Kusal,

You've responded to my first comment.. Thank you so much. (Even if I don’t agree with your answers)

Anyway, you don’t seem to have any common grounds with Sinhalese. (Specially with Buddhists). I can see that from you article and comments published in transcurrent website.
You're just unleashing your hatred towards Sinhalese Buddhists.
In other words, your article just hoodwinks only LTTE supporters and NGO henchmen.
Sinhalese will read your first article and may be second... there after they'll just ignore you. This makes you an unsuccessful writer/journalist.
.Transcurrent is one of few websites saved in my favorites. Unfortunately, from now onwards I have to filter out some biased articles such as Kusals.. published in transcureent.
Anyway, you're still living well in so called safe heaven i.e. Southern Sri Lanka?
This proves, Sinhalese Buddhists left some room for dissidents? Isn’t it?

Viraj

*** People supported the war because they wanted and end to war (What logic!)***

Awww Look at that! what a PHONY HUMANITARIAN you are Kusal. You want to argue Semantics and Logic instead of reading between the lines on the real situation. Yes, people supported this War because they were tired of 25 years of INSINCERE and FARSICAL Peace Talks. They were sick to death of trying to talk peace with a BRUTAL FASCIST DICTATOR who was only interested in EELAM or NOTHING... so the population was forced to fight this to the end. Sorry if that is confusing for your simple little mind to grasp.

*** • War means casualties (why civilian casualties ?)***

why? Because that is what happens in War Smart guy. Have you opened a single History Book? Could you please point out a single War that HAS NOT HAD CIVILIAN CASUALTIES? Eh? LOL! I can't believe I'm arguing with a Half-Wit who knows nothing about conflict. You also fail to make the obvious connection that the Civilian Casualties could have mostly been avoided if your Heroes the LTTE had not dragged them at gunpoint into the jungles to use them as HUMAN SHIELDS ...

*** (so the logic is bomb them and kill them) ***

Those are YOUR assumptions. And as usual your FAULTY LOGIC arrives you at your FAULTY CONCLUSIONS once again. What's worse is you are so GLIB about your condemnation of those who finally put an end to this conflict and are as we speak bringing about real world solutions and implementing workable and practical fixes to the issue, where as you, YOU FAKE FRIEND OF TAMILS, sit there on your SOAP BOX making Commentary jabs, and have no real solution nor would lift a single finger to help the situation want to be taken seriously? LOL Don't make me laugh.

Dear nandasena,I agree with you how the tamil children got their education.It is common to Sinhalese.But I disagree with your reason why tamils recruited by companies or government service. It is because their[tamils] english education.Most of the Sinhalese deprived english education because the lack of resources,or negligence or simply a section of society want sinhalese kept in darkness.

And to Easwaran,I never read a book which you refer and I do not want to read it. I told the truth I saw when I was a kid.I can still remember their names.

And Dayalal,I did not said whole government officers are tamils.But most of them are tamils.

Anyway I fully oppose anybody linked Buddhism to this conflict.I'm a devoted Buddhist but my religion is my personel thing.Buddhism has nothing to do with when you face terrorist problem while you rule a country. Whether you Buddhist,Christian,Hindu or Islamic ,a President,PM or king his, solemn responsibility to protect his country.

Rana,
Country includes its people, and governments have a duty to to protect its people irrespective of the language spoken by its inhabitants. Successive sinhalese governments have acted as if they are there, only for the sinhalese. Upto the 1983 pogrom, Tamils were sent in ships to North and East, whenever there was an organised pogrom!! which endorsed and proved that North and East are their homelands. But later the governments got smarter and started their genocidal policies by killing and maiming thousands of people by bombing shelling and with multi barrel launchers in the North and East, away from the eyes of the world so that they were killed without witnesses. censureship on the media prevented news of the atrocities reaching outside world. The victims of these atrocities willingly joined the LTTE as there was nobody to protect the civilians. The government always treated the North and east as a seperate country!!