This used to be the case, even marriage for the senior cadres was outlawed. Until the Great leader himself lapsed.

>>Perhaps the suicide bombing was a punishment for being pregnant.

Nothing the tigers do would surprise me much.

I remember one post about Hindus being forcibly converted in Pakistan. 100+ posts in under 10 minutes…. good old day eh?

Interesting comments from Mirax and Ananthan.

Mirax got it right about my comments about the impact of Tamil emigration. But that comment does display the kind of snobbishness that I mentioned. I’ll try to come up with a better phrase.

Ananthan – rock and hard place, you got it right. But at least the SL Govt is subject to elections… You’re right about the harder attitudes of the older generation.

I don’t intend that in a defensive sense, but to point out the reality. The crux of the issue is that the GoSL is no more trustworthy than the tigers. The GoSL and the armed forces are guilty of equally heinous brutality. HRW recently released a statement criticizing soldiers for standing and doing nothing while tamils were killed in the latest trinco riots. It’s the same old rock/hard place situation, who can SL tamils trust really?

As Ravi said, the government is democratically elected, but the tamils (because of the tiger enforced boycott) didn’t participate. How can they view it as representative or in their interest to support it, especially considering the hard line Rajapakse took?

I’m part of the generation that left the country at a very young age so I don’t feel it’s my place to comment at any real depth or with any authority about the situation there, but that’s my impression from what i hear and read. I really appreciate the comments by Prescott/Ravi though.

“I think that the SL Tamil diaspora may be quite quiescent with LTTE leadership because they have no intention of going back to SL for good. A gap year visit to Jaffna may be all that the rebel middleclass kids are willing to risk.”

I agree, and it’s pervasive. Also, that generation (the parents of my generation) were the ones who faced some of the harshest discrimination in education/other opportunities and had to leave to really make it. I think there’s a lot of bitterness and resentment that lingers because of that. It’s sometimes infuriating to know that people living comfortably in the west can fuel a conflict on the other side of the world, well out of harms way, and feel smug about it.

>>might the very success of Tamil emigration which brings so many resources to the North have itself contributed to the weakness of the LTTE leadership?

He means that the LTTE leadership is crude and brutal because the refined, educated people – lawyers, doctors, accountants- have all fled overseas, Sunny, leaving just the dregs behind.

I think that the SL Tamil diaspora may be quite quiescent with LTTE leadership because they have no intention of going back to SL for good. A gap year visit to Jaffna may be all that the rebel middleclass kids are willing to risk.

The only bit I don’t get is this:
might the very success of Tamil emigration which brings so many resources to the North have itself contributed to the weakness of the LTTE leadership?

I read em all! Interesting stuff to go on ravi, if I have time to gather my thought I’ll reply!
All the same thank you for your insights!

This has been a really interesting thread. Prescott Luva’s comments have been particularly insightful. (Althoigh the image his moniker conjures up is pretty gruesome.)

It’s not clear from this thread if any of the contributors are of Sri Lankan Tamil origin. As one myself, a few points are I think worth making:

- Rajapakse came to power rejecting Tamil autonomy, promising to review the 2002 peace deal, questioning the role of the Norwegian monitoring mission, and making common cause with the repulsive nationalist JVP party (although eventually the JVP didn’t get any cabinet positions).

- The Sri Lankan Govt is democratically elected. But there is a real problem with control over the security forces, responsible for violence and disappearances amongst the SL population. Violence against Tamils by paramilitaries, probably from Karuna’s LTTE splinter group with Govt support, is still a big problem. My family has heard reports of instances of military and paramilitary violence from people we still know in the North as recent as two weeks ago (attacks on university students, journalists, random people on the streets as well as general harassment, violence and ill-discipline from troops). Even the US State Dept, particularly anti-LTTE, reported concerns about the SL Govt. See:
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61711.htm

- There is still widespread SL Tamil support for at least very extensive autonomy for the North and the East, and a general preference for independence, even if there is also a definite war weariness. Although things in Sri Lanka are a lot better than they were in the 1980s and 1990s when many SL Tamils left the country, there is still a general perception (and I believe reality) of anti-Tamil discrimination, and wide distrust of all the main Sinhala dominated political parties. (Unfair towards Wikramasinghe in my opinion.) As far as I’ve been able to find out, no Tamils were involved in the protests about BBC reporting – though I may be wrong.

- A number of the contributors to this thread have complained about the BBC’s failure to term the LTTE terrorists. I agree the LTTE should be called terrorists. But, as I’m surprised nobody’s pointed out, for some time the BBC has failed to term ANYBODY a terrorist, including the 7/7 suicide nutters, Islamic Jihad, Zarqarwi’s civilian slaughtering “resistance” etc, unless quoting somebody else. Putting this right was one of the major recommendations of a BBC Governors report of 2 May. See:
http://www.bbcgovernors.co.uk/docs/reviews/panel_report_final.pdf

I say all this because I felt the above contributions tended to paint an overly positive picture of the SL Government. But I don’t want my comments in any way to transplant SL’s stupid ethnic factionalism to this rather greyer, more rainswept Island.

I agree wholeheartedly with the general condemnation of the LTTE in this thread and the general thrust of the analysis.

A further point. This isn’t just a foreign policy news story. There’s a real UK angle.

I understand most people of Sri Lankan origin resident in the UK are Tamils. Most of them rightly condemn the SL Government forces’ violence and brutality, and the hardening of the Government’s position on Tamil autonomy. Most see the UK Government’s position as too supportive of the Sri Lankan government and not critical enough of its abuses, and there’s something in that argument.

But most Tamils here also seem to have a naively uncritical view of the LTTE and Prabakharam, in spite of their oft-demonstrated violent, intolerant and autocratic nature. Hearing some UK Tamils, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the LTTE was a misunderstood Social Democratic movement, instead of a virtually maoist, militaristic grouping with enormous personal power given to Prabakharam.

Prabakharam’s disastrous decision to enforce (at gunpoint) a Tamil boycott of the November elections to help the extremist Rajapakse gain power and thus justify an LTTE return to war seems to have begun to stir some discontent amongst UK SL Tamils. Virtually everyone else has spotted this tactic for the transparently self-serving piece of cynical dirty politics that it is. Yet there has still hardly been an outcry against the LTTE leadership.

Given Sri Lankan Tamils’ notorious educational (and class/caste) snobbishness – at least amongst the high profile middle classes here – I’m constantly amazed at how much blind faith they persist in placing in Prabakharam and his clique. A man most of them would not allow in their house, employment or welcome into their family by marriage in better circumstances is entrusted with the future of their “ancestral homeland”. The more stereotypical educated Tamil émigré Balasingham is clearly just a mouthpiece – he obviously doesn’t drive the LTTE’s political strategy. (If he does, then clearly he isn’t half as clever as he seems – sort of a Tamil Ming Campbell.)

Should the Tamil “community” be doing more to push the LTTE leadership towards more democratic/pluralistic politics, full respect for the rule of law and due process, and particularly to give up suicide bombing, even if they do see the LTTE as a legitimate force for the protection of the Tamils in the North and East of the country? Shouldn’t they be pushing this agenda when contributing money to projects back in Sri Lanka, when going back there, or offering their services for free there? (as many young graduates do, taking financial and security risks that their parents would never dream of)

Ironically – and here I know I’m exaggerating – might the very success of Tamil emigration which brings so many resources to the North have itself contributed to the weakness of the LTTE leadership? When most potential Tamil Nehrus, Jinnahs, Mandelas are doctors, accountants and lawyers in the UK, Canada and Australia, is it much surprise that a Prabakharam emerges as the dominant personality in the Tamil independence camp? (Not that we can or should turn back the immigration clock now.)

I’m not asking Tamils to apply their reputed snobbishness to the LTTE. That reputation for snootiness is in any case to a large extent unfair. And caste, class and educational snobbishness is a wholly unacceptable way of addressing this (or any other) situation.

But I would be happier if Tamils here made a bit more use of their intellect and common sense, attributes they’re rightly praised for, when it comes to thinking about and influencing events in the country that they or their parents originally came from.

Although that shouldn’t mean we treat the Rajapakse Govt and the SL security forces as whiter than white either.

There – off my chest. After everybody else has already left the room. And I bet nobody’s reading!

Not to mention your jihadi chums in Kashmir raz….

pfffttt…Im surprised none of the protesters bothered bringing up the ‘terrorist’ terminology issue. I’ve been saying it for 6 longs years and they missed it

Thanks for your comments Mirax and Stiles. I dont think anyone would be foolish enough to go up against the Tigers o ntheir own. Karuna would, if war broke out again he would definitely use their own tactics against them. Heck there are other factions within the LTTE that are likely revving to go, the reason being that Karuna broke the ‘spell’ that the organisation could never be fragmented.
He represents the fact that no matter how disgruntled you are, theres always someone who’s a lot more cheesed off!

As a tamil myself (of Indian origin) I must say that the Indian Tamil diaspora could hardly give a damn about the tigers. They are not heroes. There is no support, emotional or material, for them. Our disaffected youngsters do not run off to tiger training camps to take up arms in the cause..:-)

A few Tamil Nadu politicians grandstanded the tiger cause in the 1980′s/90s but that was it. That too ended pretty abruptly with the R Gandhi assassination. That is not to say that SL tamils do not have a legitimate cause – no, I don’t mean full independence- maybe limited autonomous rule. It is a real pity that the LTTE has wrested control of the tamil ’cause’. I think SL tamils may now be realising that the ruthless LTTE endgame is going to make them the ultimate losers.
No, a Jaffna uprising against the tigers will not happen for the simple reason it is suicidal to go against the Tigers.

Some of the London gangsters may have had Tiger connections in the past/been sympathisers who claimed asylum to make a living here.

Others are just regular ‘economic’ gangsters trading on their ethnicity to keep refugee status.

Those with direct Tiger connections tend to be a bit older these days – and so are mostly out of the gang scene. And so the gangs are no longer centred on localities over in SL, but rather ones in East/North/South London, etc.

There’s a fair amount of ‘lost generation’ stuff going on – imo. Lots of the gangsters seem to come from backgrounds where they weren’t really parented properly for large periods of time in their early teens (usually due to being looked after by relatives other than their parents).