I took back my hand and I showed him the door No dollar of mine would I part with this day For fueling the engines of bloody cruel war In my forefather’s land far away.

….

Their sons have no politics. None call recall Allegiance from long generations before. O’this or O’that name just can’t mean a thing Or be cause enough for to war. And meanwhile my babies are safe in their home, Unlike their pale cousins who shiver and cry While kneecappers nail their poor Dads to the floor And teach them to hate and to die.

….

Now they cry out for money and wail at the door But Home Rule or Republic, ’tis all of it shame; And a curse for us here who want nothing of war. We’re kindred in nothing but name. All rights and all wrongs have long since blown away, For causes are ashes where children lie slain. Yet the damned U.D.I and the cruel I.R.A. Will tomorrow go murdering again. But no penny of mine will I add to the fray. “Remember the Boyne!” they will cry out in vain, For I’ve given my heart to the place I was born And forgiven the whole House of Orange King Billy and the whole House of Orange.

it is NOT easy for one NOT to consciously leave their homeland’s problems and live consciously in a new land. can a child forget it’s mother? by bringing “wars on this soil”, i am unsure to the context you are referring with regards to the LTTE. to this day, there has not been any arrests or convictions on Canadian soil or by any Canadian agency with regards to the LTTE and how they operate in Canada.

no one in our community is taught to hate the Singhalese or anything of that nature. let it be known, this conflict is not between the Tamils and Singhalese, but rather the Tamils and the Sri Lankan Government.

it is funny you make that last comment. in light of the tsunami, it has been widely documented and reported that it was the Tigers that attended to the plight of the Tamil people when the disaster struck, with no government aid or help. moreover, i am not sure if you are aware of the PTOMS, but it was the tsunami aid sharing deal that was negiotiated between the LTTE and the GoSL. however, it was stuck down by the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka because it “violated” Sri Lankan sovereignty, thus stranding billions of dollars of int’l aid in limbo. TRUST ME, us Tamils know who will be there when our houses burn down. there is no JUSTICE, it’s JUST US.

When a group tries to intimidate witnesses, you have to go to second-tier sources because people die when they speak on the record.

Do you know how many Tamil people have died in Toronto for speaking their mind? I think the number is 0. I don’t have a source mind you, but something like that would probably make the news.

I do not doubt that there are people being taken advantage of, and that is wrong, and that should be stopped. But, if you seriously think the Tamil community lives in fear here in Scarborough of LTTE reprisals you are probably mistaken. The diaspora probably support the LTTE even more than those living in North and the East of Sri Lanka since the actions of the LTTE don’t effect them in the least.

I don’t think you’ll ever find reprisals happening in Toronto. The last time Tamil streets gangs started to act up the Toronto police arrested everyone and sent them home. People with tenuous connections to the country are probably less inclined to rock the boat.

Third, Sri Lanka, India and the U.S. don’t use child soldiers.

The US army actively tries to recruit underage children, even if those children don’t get to serve till they are of age. As far as I can tell, US Army recruiters are pretty predatory. I imagine this is also the case in India and Sri Lanka, though I am unsure. (Stories of the LTTE kidnapping children are obviously worse, but it’s all a suck in the end. The fact that there is no full blown fighting in Sri Lanka makes the US actions worse in my opinion, since shipping 18 year olds to Iraq seems more cruel.)

Fifth, the U.S. doesn’t specifically target civilians.

Are you shitting me?

India has. Sri Lanka has, but in much lower numbers than the LTTE. I disavow this tactic entirely.

Do you have numbers to back this up. I’m going to guess you are talking out of your ass. You’re just asking for someone to jump in and start listing off all the bad things both groups have done.

The LTTE kill all sorts of people. They are a paramilitary organization. That is what they do. The fact that it’s pretty easy to make the case that either the Indian government and the Sri Lankan governemnt has been just as vicious as the LTTE within Sri Lanka is disappointing.

And though Parthi is a bit strong in his defence of the LTTE, he is correct in pointing out that Manish tries a bit too hard to paint things in a simple manner.

At the end of the day, if you are going to let Singhala Nationalists speak at the diplomacy table, it seems hypocritical to ask the LTTE to stay home.

Sepia Mutiny goes out of it’s way to cover articles that discredit and antagonize the LTTE, yet fail to produce even one positive article/essay about them, even when it’s done by TIME magazine or the BBC. and their have been quite a few in the recent months, mostly pieces on the efficieny and strength of the Tamil Eelam state and administration. however, my suspicions are that this site’s editors prefer such material is not brought to light, as it will shed credibility upon the Tigers. they would rather keep the Tigers pigeonholed as a terrorist entity.

suicide bombing and killing innocent civilians is more or less the same thing.

sri lankan government may not vigourously recruit children, though they do that in poor singhala villages to kids as young as 14. their preference is to whore their children out. anyone who knows sri lanka is aware that South Sri Lanka has a booming child prostitution, pornography, exploitation trade.

“India and the U.S. don’t specifically target civilians” – hahahah, that’s killer material you got there manish. heck, it is heavily documented the amount of targeted civilian deaths CAUSED BY THE INDIAN ARMY upon the Tamil civilian populations during the IPKF time of 87-90, read The Broken Palmyra (a book much paraded by anti-LTTE critics) for documentation. there’s a reason rajiv got what he got. it’s widely understood and known, killing rajiv was not a political aim of the LTTE, but rather an act of revenge, for the gross amount of human rights violations and terrorism the Indian Army committed upon the Tamil civilian populations.

so if we’re gonna play by your rules and definitions: the LTTE is terrorist, the Government of Sri Lanka is terrorist, the Government of India is terrorist, the Government of the United States is terrorist.

which, ultimately, brings us to my contention, that you and your site unfairly and unduly target the LTTE, despite the flagrant acts of terrorism and human rights violations committed by the 3 other stated parties.

then again, this blatant whitewashing of the sins of state actors and highlighting of the LTTE acts will continue, and only reinforce my suspicions of your vigilance on the LTTE is deeply rooted in your anger over Rajiv’s death and India’s Vietnam.