Comments on: Tamils must disown LTTE

By: Sameer

Sameer — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 14:02:07 +0000

Just wondered what reaction this Human Rights Watch report from March got…

Tamil Tigers Extort Diaspora for â€˜Final Warâ€™ Funds
Tamil Families and Businesses in Canada, UK Threatened

(New York, March 15, 2006) – The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE or Tamil Tigers) subject Sri Lankan Tamils living in Canada, the United Kingdom and other Western countries to intimidation, extortion and even violence to ensure a steady flow of funds for operations in Sri Lanka and to suppress criticism of human rights abuses, said Human Rights Watch in a new report released today.

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/03/14/slanka12889.htm

By: Owen

Owen — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 11:53:21 +0000

Please, there are too many “reign in”s all over the place now – it’s “rein in” (unless of course I’ve missed an animal rights issue)

By: Kismet Hardy

Kismet Hardy — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 07:21:08 +0000

I once got accosted by a Sri Lankan cricketer

He said he wanted to ‘ram-a-toungue-a-down-your-throata’

(I’m sorry)

By: mirax

mirax — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 02:34:45 +0000

I will not be surprised if a SL Tamil snorts at this headline and retorts ” Right, I will do that right after the Palestinians denounce Hamas and the Lebanese give up Hezbollah!”

As Roger points out, the Tamils do have legitimate grievances and and the LTTE has made itself their sole representative. My personal view is that the LTTE are terrorist scum – pretty much like Hamas or Hezbollah- but jettisoning them at this point is not a realistic political option.

I do think that the diasporic SL communities could be persuasive in bringing some sense to the Tigers by cutting off funds as a sign of disapproval, I read a report in my local paper, some weeks ago, that the LTTE was likely to provoke hostilities because its war chest was pretty full.

By: Roger

Roger — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 18:51:38 +0000

“before the violence spirals out of control”?
You mean it hasn’t?
There are problewms with Tamils disowning LTTE. One is the fact that they’d be well advised to make their wills when they do so. The other is that there are Sinhalese who hate the Tamils- all Tamils- so much that they too will need disowning and controlling. The LTTE began because of general anti-Tamil prejudice. Whasever else they’ve done, I doubt that the LTTE have alleviated that.

By: Arif

Arif — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 13:54:52 +0000

I agree raz – or if there were more Tamil and Sinhala people who visited this site. But media interest seems to have picked up on this now, so perhaps we will all start having more opinions on this subject soon.

By: raz

raz — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 13:45:00 +0000

I hate to say it, but this conflict would be getting a lot more attention of the LTTE were Muslim.