Watching the willingness of white westerners to publish apologia for the most ruthless terrorist organization in world history never fails to take the breath away.
Tamil Tiger (aka LTTE) terrorists slaughtered 1000s of innocent civilians going about their daily business. They make Hamas and Hezbollah look like rank amateurs. Have a look at the stats.
But now Granta succumbs to the notion that "sure, the Tigers were no angels, but..." Don't be fooled for a minute. There are only about 15 million Singhalese (the super-awful-oppressive majority) in the world, but there are about 90 million much better funded "oppressed minority," "genocide-suffering" Tamils out there. The LTTE is not a home grown group.
The notion that tens of thousands of civilians were intentionally killed at the end of the war has been so roundly debunked that it has led to apologies from the people who initially made these crazy claims and puts the fact checkers of this "august" journal to shame.
This was a hot shooting war at the end, involving hundreds of thousands of hostages held at gun-point by their "own people." It resulted in approximately 5,000 Sri Lankan army soldiers being killed. Did innocent civilians die in the fighting? Of course! Does the government say otherwise? Of course not.
What the LTTE apologist author doesn't want you to know is that there are 3-4 times as many Tamils living peaceably in Colombo alone (around 1 million) as there were in ALL of the north (before they were marched at gun-point as hostages by the LTTE). But it's a genocide, right?!?! What a joke.
I am a white American who lives in Sri Lanka by choice -- not for work but simply because it is a fantastic place, full of terrific people including Singhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Burghers and white folks like me. I felt compelled to create an account to express my sadness and shock that such a generally well-regarded, supposedly sophisticated journal as Granta would fall for something so brazenly manufactured, maudlin and political as this clownish piece of propaganda.
All decent people can do is stick our necks out and ask other people not to fall for such brazen attempts to reignite old hostilities.
11/8/2011 1:37
View Comment
Watching the willingness of white westerners to publish apologia for the most ruthless terrorist organization in world history never fails to take the breath away.
Tamil Tiger (aka LTTE) terrorists slaughtered 1000s of innocent civilians going about their daily business. They make Hamas and Hezbollah look like rank amateurs. Have a look at the stats.
But now Granta succumbs to the notion that "sure, the Tigers were no angels, but..." Don't be fooled for a minute. There are only about 15 million Singhalese (the super-awful-oppressive majority) in the world, but there are about 90 million much better funded "oppressed minority," "genocide-suffering" Tamils out there. The LTTE is not a home grown group.
The notion that tens of thousands of civilians were intentionally killed at the end of the war has been so roundly debunked that it has led to apologies from the people who initially made these crazy claims and puts the fact checkers of this "august" journal to shame.
This was a hot shooting war at the end, involving hundreds of thousands of hostages held at gun-point by their "own people." It resulted in approximately 5,000 Sri Lankan army soldiers being killed. Did innocent civilians die in the fighting? Of course! Does the government say otherwise? Of course not.
What the LTTE apologist author doesn't want you to know is that there are 3-4 times as many Tamils living peaceably in Colombo alone (around 1 million) as there were in ALL of the north (before they were marched at gun-point as hostages by the LTTE). But it's a genocide, right?!?! What a joke.
I am a white American who lives in Sri Lanka by choice -- not for work but simply because it is a fantastic place, full of terrific people including Singhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Burghers and white folks like me. I felt compelled to create an account to express my sadness and shock that such a generally well-regarded, supposedly sophisticated journal as Granta would fall for something so brazenly manufactured, maudlin and political as this clownish piece of propaganda.
All decent people can do is stick our necks out and ask other people not to fall for such brazen attempts to reignite old hostilities.