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Shadow War in Sri Lanka: The Paramilitary Role. ⇒

   13 December 2005, lunch time

A summary of what is going on in the East of Sri Lanka at the moment. The article is pretty biased, so keep that in mind while reading it. (Tamilnation is a pro-LTTE web site.) For example, the reason Devananda is holed up in Colombo rather than operating in Jaffna is because he'd probably get killed by the LTTE if he operated in Jaffna. This would happen regardless of his support (or lack thereof) in the region.

This is a post from my link log: If you click the title of this post you will be taken the web page I am discussing.

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Comments

  1. hmmm. i wouldn’t say the article is biased, possibly the site. but they have pieces critical of the LTTE.

    also, the piece is a hundred times more factual than say something the globe or np publishes. which contain erroneous information, for example, the recent globe article.

  2. You don’t think the article is biased? I’m not debating whether article is factually incorrect or not, I’m just pointing out that you need to be careful when reading things such as this. There are lots of contentious points in the article.

    As I mentioned in the link, it is silly to frame Devananda hiding in Colombo as proof he, and EPDP, have no popular support in Jaffna. All it proves is that he is afraid for his life.

    These men are no leaders and they don’t have a base or a following. What they have is a bunch of likeminded gangsters, who are in it together for personal profit and some cheap thrill.

    This may be true, but no evidence is given to support this claim. In this way, the article is just as loaded as the Singhala newspapers the author is lambasting in this article. This sort of thing is common in articles on Tamilnation. EPDP, and groups like it, are portrayed as nothing more than like-minded Uncle Toms walking hand in hand with the government. It glosses over the history of the group, and other groups like it. The LTTE may be the universal voice of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka now, but this was not always the case, and the reason they are in power now has as much to do with the violence they reigned down on other Tamil political organizations as it does with their own popular support.

    The poverty stricken and ill-educated youth of the northeast, who were reduced to this state in the first place by decades of discriminatory policies of the GOSL, are an easy prey.

    Again, this sort of thing glosses over the fact that there are people who have real grievances with the LTTE. It’s not like the LTTE haven’t killed any Tamil people over the last 20 odd years. Just as the LTTE can recruit people victimized by the government, so too can groups like EPDP recruit from groups victimized by the LTTE. Painting the group and its members with such a broad brush stroke is the sign of a poorly argued essay.

    I linked to the Globe article earlier this week. You can comment there to post what you think is incorrect.

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