Tea plantation in Sri Lanka

Please watch this.:

Sri Lanka: The Killing Fields

A quick, 50 minute documentary that really explains in simple terms the last year of the civil war in Sri Lanka….really eye opening,

you’ll definitely need to be cheered up afterwards

Waterfall :)

A pathway through a tea estate in Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka

untitled by honesty honesty honesty on Flickr.

I never denied any of the accusations against the LTTE, nor did I state that the Sri Lankan government had been committing genocide (which is LTTE-fuelled propaganda). I’ve been in Sri Lanka during times where I’ve been unable to enter Colombo because of bomb-threats, and I’ve been through checkpoints. Living in Sri Lanka guarantees understanding its civil war as much as living in America guarantees understanding the war on terror. How would you know whether they’ve committed war crimes, unless you’ve been at the front of the line yourself? From the news? And who’s controlling that? Don’t think that you have to pick a side. There are other options, unpopular as they may be.

If you know so much about the war, after having lived in Sri Lanka and all, you must know how it started. The first LTTE ambush killed thirteen Sinhalese soldiers. My uncle was one of the few who were spared. He was young, lost all of his friends on that day and he claims to have gone crazy- undoubtedly committing war crimes. He’s the nicest man you’ll ever meet, and doesn’t speak about what happened to this day, but my dad knows a few bleak details. My dad and other uncle snuck him out of the army two weeks later.

As a Sri Lankan who’s parents lived through the absolute worst part of the war in the 80s, I think I can tell you a little bit about how much more ~wonderful the current system in Sri Lanka is. I didn’t say that the country isn’t in a better place now than it’s been in the last forty years, but I sure as hell will say that it’s far worse than it was fifty years ago. Forty years ago, a new type of government (and ethnic/economic policy) emerged with the election of J.R. Jayewardene. I suggest you look into him and what he did. I’ll give you a primer: the first thing he did as he came into office was take the opposition leader’s citizenship away, the second was changing the constitution so that he would become executive president instead of prime minister. He poineered a reign of violence on anyone who opposed him, Sinhalese and Tamil alike. My father, a Sinhalese man, swears that have undoubtedly “dissappeared” had he stayed in country but a week longer. Ask you parents; I’m sure they’ve seen at least one dead body in their lifetimes. Sri Lanka is second in its amount of “missing people” only to Iraq. His government lives on to this day, and it’s important that everyone who lives under it understand that. I’m sure you followed Sarath Fonseka’s campaign. What were his grounds, and what happened to him? You must know.

Acknowledging any wrongs that the Sri Lankan government may have committed is not the same thing as denying all of the wrongs committed by the LTTE. I’m not saying that securing the end of the war wasn’t a great thing, but to forget how it started and to turn a blind eye to what went on while it was happening would be beyond foolish. I know that most Sri Lankan people are far more interested in living a peaceful day-to-day existence, but I would hope that at least some people would be interested in creating a better tomorrow. The LTTE is dead; the Sri Lankan government lives on. If the UN has proof that the it committed war crimes, then they have every right to pontificate on that fact. As do I. I believe in avoiding absolutes and acknowledging reality for what is is. This is about reform and preventing things like this from happening in the future. Throwing Guantanamo into the mix doesn’t change that at all; the two are completely unrelated.

Adisham, built in the 1920s for Sir Thomas Villiers, who had come to Ceylon in 1887. 

Tea plantation in Sri Lanka