Sri Lanka News Updates with Discussions

If it doesn't happen to you then you must be abnormal. Simple as that.

Now why doesn't this happen to normal people like us?????? What do you do to get this kind of attention???

http://www.island.lk/2007/10/07/politics2.html

Last week, the American Ambassador Robert O. Blake, met JVP
parliamentary group leader Wimal Weerawansa for a one to one meeting to discuss the current situation. He arrived punctually for the meeting at the JVP?s Pelawatte headquarters. This was the first time that Blake had met the JVP firebrand. For a while, the ambassador had beaten around the bush talking about the economy and the cost of living and the issue of corruption and even the COPE report. Then finally he had got down to brass tacks and asked Weerawansa about the change in the UNP?s stance on federalism and the feeling among people that this was an attempt on the part of the UNP to win over the JVP. Weerawansa had responded that the Ambassador should know much more than he (Weerawansa) about the UNPâ??s change of stance because the ambassador had met the UNP leader soon after the UNP announced its policy shift. Blake said he does not want to comment on what transpired at that meeting with Wickremesinghe.Weerawansa had then dismissed the UNP change of stance as eyewash.
His argument was that if the UNP has really given up the federalist stand, then they should have declared in favour of the unitary concept which they have not done. Weerawansa had stated that the UNP will not be able to deceive anyone with such tricks. Blake had then asked Weerawansa about plans to topple the government at the budget. Weerawansa stated that the UNP no longer speaks of toppling the government at the budget and that it is only the media that speaks of this now. Blake had then said that the war was escalating day by day and that this was going to affect the economy and that it was best to come to a settlement with the LTTE. Weerawansa had stated that no political solution is going to work without the LTTE being defeated militarily.The ambassador had then pointed out that war destroys lives and property and that it causes the displacement of people. Therefore he could not agree with such a stand. Weerawansa shot back that the American invasion of Iraq had caused loss of life and the displacement of large numbers of people. Why were the Americans not swayed by such considerations when they decided to invade Iraq? Blake had responded that Saddam Hussein was a mass murderer and that he had even used chemical weapons. Weerawansa had said that Prabhakaran too is a mass murderer and that he had carried out ethnic cleansing in the north by expelling all Muslims and Sinhalese, and that he had wiped out the entire Tamil leadership and that he had even murdered Rajiv Gandhi.

Whp you dint answer me about forces in jaffan and about there being no incidents...

Weerawansa had asked the ambassador what was wrong in conducting military operations in order to liberate the Tamil people of the north and east from Prabhakaran the same way that the Americans wanted to liberate the Iraqis from Saddam Hussein? The ambassador had then pointed out that America was spending a great deal of money to rehabilitate and build a new society in Iraq. Weerawansa had pointed out that this is exactly whet the Sri Lankan government was also doing in the east after liberating it from the LTTE.
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Blake uses the un-winnable war argument Then the ambassador had said that the war had been going on for 25 yeas but that the government had not been able to defeat the LTTE. Weerawansa had pointed out that people had tried for many years to send a mission to the moon but that despite setbacks they had persevered and finally they succeeded. Had those people adopted the ambassador attitude, the Americans would never have landed on the moon. Then the ambassador had said that if the experience of the past twenty five years is anything to go by, it has been proved that this conflict could not be resolved militarily. To which Weerawansa said that if the experience of the past twenty five years of peace talks and negotiations is anything to go by, it has been proved that Prabhakaran will never agree to a negotiated settlement. Ambassador Blake had then pointed out that powerful countries like the USA had intervened in this problem and that Prabhakaran will not be able to escape that easily from peace talks this time, Weerawansa had shot back that these so called powerful countries had been on the scene when the ceasefire agreement was signed in 2002. But from the day the agreement was signed the LTTE went on a killing spree, bumping off Tamils opposed to them, including Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgarmar. Yet these powerful countries could do nothing. The ambassador had then said that even so, Prabhakaran was weak now and that negotiations were now possible. Weerawansa had said that if Prabhakaran is weak now, it is entirely thanks to the military operations that have been conducted against the Tigers and that this process of weakening the LTTE should be taken further because in the ambassadorâ??s own reckoning the weaker the LTTE is, the greater the possibility for a solution. The ambassador had then said that his country could not provide money for this purpose. Weerawansa countered that if the war is being conducted properly, the people of this country will even sell their valuables to fund the war effort.
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Ambassador Blake had then said that this issue could not be discussed in just one hour. Weerawansa had replied that America is a democratic country which is why he had spoken so plainly. He made one final request of the ambassador that at a time when the LTTE is weak, not to give them a chance to regain their strength by pressurizing the government to have peace talks. Weerawansa said that on every previous occasion when the LTTE was about to be defeated, peace talks were begun and they were given the opportunity to regroup and continue fighting.
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- The ambassador had pointed out that capturing Killinochchi and Mullaitivu will not be as easy as capturing the east. The LTTE is well armed and that they have kept back their best cadres in reserve. Weerawansa said that they had heard that argument before and that when the government went into Sampur that was said to be difficult. When they went into Vakarai, it was said that Vakarai was not going to be as easy as Sampur. In any case, the Sri Lankan security forces were not there to do only easy work but to do difficult assignments as well. The duo parted company at that, having decided to meet another day.