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Sri Lanka
Tamils suspicious of Sri Lankan president’s ‘unity’ offer
2009-05-20
Much hand-wringing, rending of garments, etc ...
COLOMBO - Sri LankaÂ’s president marked victory over Tamil Tiger guerrillas with a vow that Tamils would not be victimised, but the minority community remains deeply suspicious after years of discrimination. Accounting for about 13 percent of the islandÂ’s 20 million population, Tamils have long been wary of governments run by the Sinhalese-majority, which they accuse of treating them like second-class citizens.

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.
Tamils have to do their part: they're beaten, and they'd better get that fact straight. If they start doing girlie-booms, etc., they're going to be sat on really, really hard, and there won't be much sympathy for them outside the EU.
Most believe they are singled out for grilling at the checkpoints, while last year hundreds of Tamils were evicted from Colombo because officials deemed them a threat to national security. Only later did a court intervene to stop the evictions, saying it amounted to collective punishment.

‘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.
Classic imperialism: promote a minority to favored status as a way to control the majority. Classic consequences: when the colonial power leaves the majority looks to even the score.
Successive governments have promised to address the problems, but progress has been slow or non-existent with Sinhalese and Tamil nationalism both on the rise.

Jaffna, in the islandÂ’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  

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