Lanka govt turns Tamil killing fields into tourist hot spot

Kayalvizhi wrote:Clearly this sort of triumphalist tourism does little to foster reconciliation between communities, nor does it do much to benefit the local economy. There's a stark contrast between luxury tourist guest houses and the local living conditions nearly four years after the end of the war.

"The government has destroyed the childhood home of the rebel leader Prabhakaran, as well as rebels' cemeteries, but has kept the Tiger bunkers and constructed war museums

Local people who've recently travelled into Sri Lanka's killing fields, where an estimated 40,000 people perished in 2009, say skulls and human bones have risen to the surface after this year's flooding and abandoned belongings are strewn all over the landscape. "It is a horrible scene," said one visitor

The cries of woes and agony of the babies and children, the women and the elderly fill the air polluted by poisonous and unhealthy gases and pierced the hearts of fathers and mothers, of elders and peasants, of old men and women of all walks of life".

[url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/south-asia/Row-in-Lanka-as-govt-turns-Tamil-killing-fields-into-tourist-hot-spot/articleshow/18083064.cms

Kayalvizhi wrote:If Indian gov's real interest was foothold in the island it would have helped creation of eelam. two-third of the island coast and the best natural fort for navies (Trincomalee) is in Eelam. Chinest navy would not be allowed in Eelam waters and it would be 100s of KM from TN coast. Now Chinese ships are within 30 km of TN coast

panini press wrote:If you think back to over 500 years ago -- before the Portuguese muddied the waters of the Indian ocean with their caravelas -- Lanka was a major hub of international trade. Zheng He stopped there on his voyages from China to the Middle East. So the Chinese are restoring the pre-European status quo in that sense, I guess.

panini press wrote:India was willing to do quite a bit for Eelam. It trained LTTE and a host of other Sri Lankan Tamil organizations. LTTE made a fatal mistake by turning on IPKF. Sure, IPKF was not a perfect force. But Prabhakaran made his biggest strategic blunder when he chose to make an enemy of India when Sri Lanka was already his sworn enemy. If he had not made that mistake, the situation of your people in Sri Lanka would have been far better today.

Kayalvizhi wrote:i do not make up things.

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:SL tamils still have indian tamils' support. in fact the LTTE had indian tamils' support until the point of RG's assassination and the general trouble they started creating within india. i was one of those indian tamils. it's after RG's killing when even tamil politicians turned against them. DIG walter devaram, a very able police officer who later caught sandalwood smuggler veerappan had offered to clean up the LTTE in TN where they had started creating law and order problems. this was prior to RG's assassination. i remember karunanidhi asking him to not touch the LTTE.