There was no school. it wasnt in Jaffna, Jaffna is under the control of the SL Government, this was in a LTTE held area. The LTTE claimed it was a first aid camp. Govt is saying it was a traning camp, and it was some of the LTTE child soldiers (of about 17) who was killed.

the UN agencies said that the numbers dead were far less and and somewhere in the 20s. They also said it could have been a first aid camp.

nobody knows for sure. it’s doubtful that anybody will know for sure. whatever the case, training Camp or AId camp. it was a stupid move by the govt.

Deane.

Why not? The cold blooded murder – shot at close range- of 17 aid workers is not egregrious enough? To put it up for discussion, rather than bury it? There are only allegations at present, no hard proof, but let’s look at the source of the allegations, the SLMM and its credibility. I am disappointed that PP is more caught up with the nuances of Chavez cosying up with dictators or the chance to take a cheap shot at buddhist monks’ shuffles than spend serious time on what’s happening in SL.

>>Again, making assumptions to suit your own agenda

Nope telling it as I see it, though I allow that I may be wrong. I’d bet that if an NGO were to make a similar accusation about say, the Isreali government, ‘allegedly’ acting thus in Lebanon or Gaza, we’d have seen a dozen headline posts by now, all hyperventilating outrage. Raz said it best on the other SL thread at the time of the school bombing in jaffna – over 60 girls killed- when he said that if this was the ME, the shit would hit the fan. Ok I grant that that reflects the obsessions/bias of the mainstream media but I was under the impression that PP aimed higher and was an Asian blog of sorts.

>>Neither do I make exceptions for other people supporting Hamas, Hizbullah or the Kashmiri groups.

You attempted a sleight of hand, excusing Hamas and Hezbollah as “NGO’s”, not so long ago! Maybe what we need to see from you is a headline post exhorting the Palestinians and Lebanese peoples to stop supporting their terrorist groups, eh? I think that you do make exceptions – not so much on bad faith but because you don’t think enough about the consistency of your own political positions and the conseqeuences thereof.

mirax – should it be?

as opposed to governments that respond to their tactics

Again, making assumptions to suit your own agenda. Tell me – what is my position on the US, Indian, Israeli govts that never sway regardless of the situation?

going by Sunny’s reproachful exhortation to SL Tamils to disawow the LTTE

Neither do I make exceptions for other people supporting Hamas, Hizbullah or the Kashmiri groups.

Must go to bed now, fingers falling asllep…

Well yes but it took him a long time to admit it. It seems in the I-P conflict, terrorist groups are given a nuanced teatment as opposed to governments that respond to their tactics whereas SL appears to be a much more clear cut case here on PP, going by Sunny’s reproachful exhortation to SL Tamils to disawow the LTTE. I also remember Sajini’s paean to Mahinda Rajapakse when he came to power last year. I hold no brief for the LTTE but wonder how PP’s writers come by this selective moral clarity?

Do I have to call you Amey now? Have fun, Amey, tilting away crazily on the pinko-leftists…

Which atrocity mira? Sunny jumped the gun on that article by believing Pankaj “rumour mill” Mishra.

Not me though, it was precisely self-defeatist pacofost philosophy that Ashoka introduced in Indian politics, made India such a pushover for Islamic hordes centuries later…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5298470.stm

Will this be headline news at PP, the way another atrocity in Kashmir was laid at the Indian Army’s door?

I’m a big fan of King Ashoka (post enlightenment of course), so no I don’t.

He he! If only the chinese commies had been apprised of this fact; still Tibet might yet be free, once the buddhist ummah girds up for global warfare, eh?

Do you realise that you come across as an extremely silly twerp, Roy?

Get over it.

You just put Kismet’s efforts to launch a new slogan for pro-war buddhists to shame.

Funny how young men with an obscene fascination for death often try to justify themselves with references to female genitalia and fluffy kittens.

And BTW Sunny, do you think Buddhist kings had no army? Never fought wars? Just gave up their kingdom to invading armies and said “love to all!”? History shows a different story. Buddhists are not pussies, and nor should they behave as such in the face of violent aggression and terrorism.

What makes me really laugh about people, as part of wider communities, is that they think their actions are unique or that they’re different.

9 times out of 10, you put any person of any race or religion in a given situation, they’ll behave predictably. I think that is perhaps my only underlying philosophy to all this.

David Warren, The Ottawa Citizen

Published: Sunday, August 20, 2006

My spirits were lifted this week, when a bunch of “pro-war Buddhist monks” (so described by the news agency) in Colombo, Sri Lanka, attacked a rostrum full of Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Buddhist clerical peaceniks.

The peaceniks were promoting various acts of appeasement toward the psychopaths in Sri Lanka’s northern jungles who are called the Tamil Tigers.

But mostly, they were like peaceniks anywhere — on the lookout for a photo opportunity.

I must admit, there is a certain thrill in sanctimony, even when, as in the West, it involves taking no risks — and the harm you do, by undermining people who are risking their lives, can only come to others. That does not make it less evil, however. In my experience, the sanctimonious pose is the invariable indicator of a fraud, before God and his fellow man. You find that the moment his ideals are put to the test.

Whereas truly righteous indignation is not a pose, and will endure testing.

Naturally, the peaceniks fought back when attacked. Their prescriptions are only meant for others. It was a good scuffle, according to Reuters journalists, although “there were no reports of any serious injuries.”

Hundreds of people have been slaughtered this year alone by the Tamil Tigers, who use — who pioneered — many of the techniques that fanatical Muslim terrorists now use around the world. They are the original “suicide bombers,” according to one account, and pioneering recruiters of women and children. Their fanaticism is more ethnic than Hindu — but anti-Muslim as well as anti-Sinhalese. Arguing with them is as pointless an activity as this planet offers. They are armed, organized, determined, ruthless and the thing to do is kill them. Capturing them is only a holding action, because they will return to slaughter when released.

As usual, the western media tend to romanticize the Tamil Tigers, and give easily distracted attention to any “war crimes” that could possibly be charged against the legitimate forces of the government of Sri Lanka. What can I say? It is hard to account for the behaviour of some western journalists without a theory of demonic possession. I’m sure the pro-war Buddhist monks would agree.

All I can say is, “Bravo, pro-war Buddhist monks!” You do honour to your saffron robes.

Am I a warmonger, as many of my correspondents, and some journalistic colleagues, suggest? I am glad they are able to get something right. When there is a war to fight, and no alternative to fighting it, you bet I am a warmonger. The sooner we have destroyed the enemy, the sooner we can get back to sucking our thumbs.

So it wasn’t about hating jews then?

At one level there is the well known saying about fox-holes and atheists, at another, from the same link as above:

—
Given Buddhism’s declared commitment to non-violence and compassion, how could Japanese Buddhists justify an aggressive and offensive holy war against the west and the colonization (in the name of liberation) of Japan’s Asian neighbors?
…
Japanese scholars maintained that Japanese Zen was the perfection of Buddhism, one that overcame the pacifism and weakness of Asia.
…
The government sought to legitimate its exploitive occupation of East and Southeast Asia in part by appealing to Zen’s role in creating a “pan-Asian” Buddhism capable of resisting Western colonialism.
—

Which is, as the documentary the Power of Nightmares points out, a pattern of thought common to both neocons and Islamists: if we want to win wars, then we must have a warlike religion.

There seems to be this unnatural fixation with religion based war as if its historically shown to be more brutal than others. I’d like to see the evidence.

Anyway. My point was not to say that these buddhists were using their religion as a pretext for war. Some of you chose to read it that way.