Topic: Letters
Dear Dr. Boyle,
(Francis Boyle, Univ. of Illinois, fboyle@illinois.edu)
I was shocked by your remarks posted on a pro-LTTE website, Tamilnet on Feb. 3rd. I have one question to start: have you visited Sri Lanka?
After living in Sri Lanka for 30 years and having a number of Tamil, Sinhala and Muslim friends, I can guarantee you that there hadn't been any discrimination on Northern Tamils to start a separatist war. Since our independence, however, Tamils lost a lot of privileges awarded to them by the colonial rulers, the British, which they may have lost to the majority when democracy returned to Sri Lanka and open competition took place.
My guarantee means nothing to anyone; therefore, I would like to share some facts and links.
There are more Tamils living with Sinhalese than with the LTTE.
Sinhalese living in Jaffna:
1971 census: 20,514 (2.9%)
1981 census: 5,648 (0.7%)
2007 census: 67 Sinhalese (0.01%)
Tamils living in the South:
1971 29.2%
1981 32.8%
2007 52.2%LTTE has killed more Tamils than Sinhalese (Female Suicide Bombers: Dying for Equality? Yoram Schweitzer). Out of 30 political leaders, mostly MPs, LTTE assassinated, the majority (18) were Tamils.
LTTE is responsible for the largest number of suicide attacks (168) and attacks using female suicide bombers (Female Suicide Bombers: A Social Catastrophe, Sanjeewa Karunaratne).
Tamils were well-represented in Sri Lanka:
There were 12% Tamils in the 1977 parliament.
There are 14% Tamils in the current parliament (2004).
When the war broke out in 1983, four out of six deputy inspector generals (DIGs--Vamadevan, Suntharalingam, Thangavelu and Shanker) and the inspector general of the police (IGP--Rudra Rajasingham) were Tamils
Sri Lanaka had a Tamil chief justice (CJ--Hon. Justice Sharvananda) and many reputable supreme court justices including Justice Manicavasagar
Sri Lanka had two Tamil attorney generals (AGs--Pasupathi, Kamalasabesan)
When the war broke out in 1983, Sri Lanka's ambassadors to Britain, West Germany, France, China and many other countries were Tamils
When the war broke out in 1983, three out of fifteen cabinet ministers (Devanayagam, Thondaman and Rajadurai) and the leader of the opposition (A. Amirthalingam) were Tamils.
A few links:
Sri Lanka has lost over 75,000 lives and the war is finally ending. Please do not help adding another 75,000 and please ask Tamilnet to take your picture off their site.
Thanks, Sanjeewa
Posted by sk3/sanjeewa
at 10:38 PM EST
Updated: Tuesday, 3 February 2009 10:49 PM EST
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Updated: Tuesday, 3 February 2009 10:49 PM EST
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