Comments on: Tsunamis And Tamil Tigers

Three Years After A Tsunami Slammed Sri Lanka, Life Returns To A Kind Of Normalcy

[seba_raj]

The writer has given a correct picture of how western Tsunamin relief agencies wasted money by sending their executives who lived in expensive hotels and drove large cars. Another misapproipriation of funds occurred when Tsunami help in the North had to be done only through the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) agencies. Tigers diverted most of the aid to their war effort - building materials, food, medicine, money, you name it. No accounts are available. Any Tamil like myself arriving in Sri Lanka has to pay a poll Tax to the Tigers, proportional to the time I have lived abroad, and this is pure extortion and nothing else. If you don''t pay, you and your loved ones can face severe consequences. At least in the south, Tamils and Muslims and Sinhalese and foreign visitors mingle peacefully. NOT so in the areas controlled by the Tigers. Even the Nordic Monitors were told by the Taigers that their saftey cannot be guranteed, and no
agency can go their unless they play the tune of the tigers.

Sebastian Rasalingam

[surendiran-2009]

When credible organisation like CBS, ignoring their social and moral responsibilities to publish such a one sided and misleading article is to say the least disappointing and incredibly frustrating! Reporter implies that every thing in SL is hunky dory! Further implies as if the ''Other Sri Lanka'' where HRs are violated, prevalence of impunity for those abusing HRs, State terrorism - aerial indiscriminate bombing of innocent civilians, systematic government sponsored genocide are continuing. Tsunami is an unfortunate natural disaster that struck SL and the majority of life was lost in the N.East and East of the country where predominantly Tamils live. I wonder whether the reporter was even interested to find out how much of that $1.2bn (ok, half went to the corrupt Government Officials and Politicians) was spent in those worst affected areas. None! is what the answer would have been. Instead of reporting what really matters to decent readers, the reporter instead tries to promote Sri Lanka as a tourist destination. Caring public will be flabbergasted by the lack of social responsibility that has been shown and the damage that has been done to a reputable organisation like CBS in the eyes of a caring public.I strongly recommend that Mr.Osterkamp read the most recent reports of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, International Media Watch, World Organisation of News Papers, ICRC and UN High Commissioner''s statement post her recent visit to SL etc. before writing his next report.

[tntamil]

The Sri Lankan armed forces have been killing Tamils Mugabe/Saddam style for several decades. See this Time magazine article:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,966886-2,00.html

A military problem even more serious than lack of manpower is absence of discipline: bloody transgressions by government forces have sorely aggravated tensions. The International Commission of Jurists reported early this year that in response to Tiger attacks, the army often "went berserk and resorted to arbitrary shootings and killings of Tamils." Last December, for example, after a soldier was killed in the northern Mannar district, his comrades went on a rampage, shooting anyone in sight and leaving more than 100 Tamil civilians dead. Tamil women have been raped, Hindu temples put to the torch.

[oneside1]

I am very sad to see this author only went to government controlled area and writing a one sided storey. In Sri Lanka Tamil people never get their funding or any other aids from the western countries. What really happening in srilanka is a freedom struggle. Government of srilanka using the word terrorism to kill innocent people. Even UN is not allowed by the government to investigate the killing of Tamils. The government backed away from the cease fire and Declared War. Please take a moment to read the Human write violations by the Government forces.