Many a thousand miles away from home, my mobile is ringing non-stop. SMS’s keep pouring in. The good news is here: The Sri Lankan Military has defeated terrorism, and every inch of Sri Lankan soil is under its sovereign rule, after a little more than a quarter century.
My eyes are filled with tears. My heart is filled with gratitude and joy. This is one moment that I wish I were home – to witness the history in the making. I wish I could get out – on to the streets, eat kiribath and light fire-crackers; and celebrate this memorable moment with fellow islanders who have seen more than their fair share of blood, death and the suffering. No human deserves to undergo what we have been through, and no living being deserves the agony and pain this nation has been subjected to.
I’m overcome with emotion. It would be a few days before the euphoria subsides.
Finally, I see a purpose in all the lives sacrificed, and lost, in a meaningless power-struggle. None of those who laid their lives in defending this nation died in vain – their sacrifices have a new-found meaning now. Every note I begin to write gets nowhere, I cannot forget the faces of friends in uniform, and I cannot forget the lighter moments we have shared on-board battleships and inside various military compounds across the country. We have been dreaming of this day, but there wasn’t even a glimmer of hope, then.
I still remember the fear that was written on the faces of people up-North. LTTE is just the last to terrorise these people. When I first crossed beyond Vavuniya, it was TELO that ruled the “no-man’s” land. The hand that holds the gun changed many a times, from one extermist group to another, but there was always a gun pointed at the civilian.
For over 25 years, the victim in the power-struggle has always been the civilian population. They are the ones who endured agony of terror inflicted upon them by various Tamil groups, until the gun-culture came to an end just a few days ago.
Finally, there is no fear anymore. The suffering will end too, hopefully soon.
Sri TV – the only Sri Lankan international television – keeps playing music and video footage that makes me feel so proud to be Sri Lankan. We have proven to the world that terrorism can be defeated.
A tiny nation in the middle of the Indian Ocean has proven it’s might to the World.
The war was outside the country as much as it was inside. The so-called “protectors of democracy” who are waging a war against global terrorism wanted to halt the military progress. They sent their foreign ministers preaching us to protect the civilians in the jungle, while they failed to protect our embassies in their well-policed metropolitan capitals of England, Canada, Norway, Holland, Germany and France; some repeatedly!
The threat from the outside is much greater the threat from the inside.
The West started blackmailing the country, threatened that there would be economic repercussions. And “dire consequences” to face if the rescue-operations continued. They even said that our leadership would be taken to Hague for war crimes.
Right now, Miliband tops my list of clowns that also include Kouchner, Yolanda Foster, Charu Lata Hogg and the like. We do know is that pro-terrorist media is fabricating fairy tales; and I’m quite shocked that people of professional capacity and this calibre, falling prey to terrorist propaganda, echoing similar sentiments. In their capacity, these people represent nations and organisations – their personal opinions should not cloud good judgement.
We have rescued over 145,000 people in just four weeks alone, with very little harm to the civilians. Pro-terrorist propaganda, as well as certain international television networks such as BBC and Al Jazeera, predicted that there would be a “bloodbath” – a comment also shared by Gordon Weiss, a UN spokesman.
In the end, there was no bloodbath. Instead, there was a bullet in Prabhakaran’s skull, and no cyanide capsule in his mouth. The mighty military has rescued each and every one of the civilians, at the risk of their own life.
Hypothetically speaking, if there were 5,000 civilians deaths occurred in the rescue mission, that would be a mere 0.03 deaths per 100 rescued. Even if we double the figure to 10,000 deaths, it would still be a mere 0.06 per 100 civilians rescued. The actual civilian death-toll is far less than these numbers, and the bullet or the shrapnel that killed the innocent civilian had the LTTE initials.
No army in the world has managed such a success rate fighting any enemy. The US, with all the sophisticated military hardware and satellite views of every backyard, have caused more civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) – part of the the world’s 4th largest army – performed miserably against the LTTE in the early 90’s, when the LTTE was a much smaller ragtag outfit, with almost no battle experience, fighting barefoot and in their blue-chequered sarongs.
Given the fact that LTTE was the most brutal, and best-equipped terrorist group in the world until a few days ago, this is a remarkable achievement for a our military. Minimum civilian casualty and a mission accomplished. None of the “greater” (?) nations in Iraq, Afganistan, Pakistan or anywhere else managed such a feat.
Like they say, it’s not the machine, but the man behind the machine that matters. “The King of the Village” led the men of steel to accomplish something that the world believed impossible. And he succeeded. Like the Sri Lankans expats advertised on Sri TV, “Now we too have a King.”
It just feels great.
Obama gave the Americans, hope. President Mahinda Rajapakse has given every Sri Lankan much more than hope.
“At this victorious moment, it is necessary for us to state with great responsibility, that we do not accept a military solution as the final solution. Similarly, when we see the sad faces of the people who have been fleeing from the Puthumathalan area, we can realize that a document offered on a tray as a political solution could also not be the final solution. Therefore, the responsibility that we accept after freeing the Tamil people from the LTTE is a responsibility that no government in the history of Sri Lanka has accepted.”
– President Mahinda Rajapaksa, on 19th May, 2009.
Yes, no government so far had
the balls to accept the responsibility to look after its civilians.
While the pro-LTTE Tamil Diaspora continues to support terrorism in Washington, London, Sydney and Paris, there is us – the true Sri Lankans – to take care of our own. Like the President of Sri Lanka says in
his speech at the ceremonial opening of the Parliament, no longer are the Tamils, Muslims, Burghers, Malays and any other ethnic groups minorities in the country; they are part of the majority.
A majority that loves this land they are born to. The rest, is the minority. They are the ones who question, as to whose victory this is...
Religiosity Index measures is the measure of the importance of the religion for respondents and their self-reported attendance of religious services. For religions in which attendance at services is limited, care must be used in interpreting the data.
Optimism Index measures a respondent’s positive attitude for the future. Specifically, respondents are asked whether certain aspects of their life are getting better or getting worse.
