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Sri Lanka | |||
Tamils suspicious of Sri Lankan president’s ‘unity’ offer | |||
2009-05-20 | |||
President Mahinda Rajapakse told parliament on Tuesday that ‘all should live with equal rights. They should live without any fear or doubt. Let us all be united.' Tamils greeted the speech with little enthusiasm but expressed hope that the end of the decades-long bloody war might at least bring about some practical improvements in their everyday lives. ‘Tamil people know that the war is over. We hope now there will be free movement for our people,’ opposition Tamil National Alliance legislator C. Chandranehru said. He wants authorities to reduce the endless checkpoints and roadblocks that divide up the country, where Tamils have to carry official papers to prove their identity.
‘Now we have to wait and see what happens next, if we will be treated equally,’ equity analyst and Tamil Anchana Ratnasingham told AFP. Social Services Minister Douglas Devananda, a former Tamil fighter, said tackling long-standing Tamil grievances was ‘a must’ if Sri Lanka is to secure a more peaceful future. ‘Until now, Prabhakaran stood in the way. Whatever all democratically elected political parties suggested, Prabhakaran rejected. Now the obstacle is no more,’ said Devananda after the Tiger leader was found dead. Tamils had a privileged status under British colonial rulers but have suffered discrimination in language, jobs and education since the Sinhalese majority took power after independence in 1948.
Jaffna, in the island’s war-torn north, is regarded as the Tamil cultural capital. Troops wrestled the town from the Tigers in 1995, but residents there still face severe travel restrictions. Businessman L. Satheeshnathan urged President Rajapakse not to use the rebel rout to ‘settle scores’ with the wider Tamil community. ‘Otherwise the ethnic pot will continue to boil,’ he warned. For lawyer Kanthi Vijayakumar, any victory celebrations were ‘tasteless’ after so much bloodshed and with so many people driven from their homes. ‘My two sisters and their families are at one camp, my mother in another camp,’ she said. ‘They have no money, no jobs, no land and no hope for the future. The war has torn our family apart.’ | |||
Posted by:Steve White |
#1 Notice how the fact that the Tamils waged a heartless terrorist campaign for decades - totally absent from the equation. If it were opposite, they'd be going on about how the Tamils had no right to demand anything. I mean, there are checkpoints because of all the suicide bombers...cause and effect again missing. |
Posted by: gromky 2009-05-20 01:11 |