LOOKING BACK| WHAT OUR CRITICS REALLY ARE LIKE ON THEIR TURF

WORLD famous minority rights advocate Desmond Tutu is unlike anyone else. The image is bigger than the man and it over whelms most people. Quite obviously his contributions to the liberation struggles of black Africa must have been significant, unless everyone is mistaken.

And from that moral high horse, the good Arch Bishop has lectured Sri Lanka a few times, about how it should conduct its internal affairs. But when a group of South Africans set upon a some others from a minority causing grievious harm exactly one year ago, the voice of the usually prominant freedom fighter was conspicuously absent in demanding action.

This made an interested someone write to the Arch Bishop. Following are the emails which passed between these two parties;


Sent: 27 May 2008 12:00 AM
To: mpilo@iafrica.com
Subject: Light 'em up, eh?

My dear Arch Bishop

The boys with the matches are at it again, and this time it is in your own back yard. And this time, they are your boys.

I thought of giving you a wake up call, since you, old chap, are rather fond of making lengthy and emotional speeches calling for action against those who commit horrific deeds targetting innocent victims. I didn't want you to miss out on this big one in your own back yard.

By the way, some vindictive people who still think South Africa should have remained under those horrible Aparthied folks say you'd never venture out to condemn and demand action when it is your own boys committing the horrible deeds. But dear Sir, I know they are saying such things out of the malice in their hearts. And I await breathlessly to hear you condemn the terrible deeds we just witnessed and call for the perpetrators to be taken to task without any further delay.

Please don't keep me waiting..

Respectfully

Ron Tills
Kentucky , USA

..It evoked the following response from the office of the Arch Bishop

Dear Mr Tills

I acknowledge receipt of your letter. Thank you for expressing your opinion.

Lavinia Browne
Personal Assistant to Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu
----------------------------------------------------------------
Postal address: Street address:
P O Box 1092 44 Frazzitta Business Park
Milnerton 7435 Koeberg Road , Milnerton 7441
Cape Town Cape Town

Tel: 0027 21 552 7524
Fax: 0027 21 552 7529
cell: 082 459 2731
mpilo@iafrica.com

NOW | SL'S VICTORY OVER TERROR OFFERS LESSONS TO OTHERS

The tactics the government used to defeat the Tamil Tiger rebels could help other nations grappling with insurgencies. - By Mark Magnier, May 23, 2009. Reporting from New Delhi

Sri Lanka's victory this week after a 25-year battle against the Tamil Tiger rebels represents a rare success story for governments fighting insurgencies.

Even as leaders in Colombo, the capital, declared a national holiday and citizens danced in the streets, military planners and analysts around the world began scrutinizing the war for lessons on how to fight Al Qaeda, the Taliban and other militant groups.

For more than two decades in the conflict in Sri Lanka, neither side was strong enough to overcome the other. That changed three years ago, when the army adopted more mobile tactics, overhauled its intelligence system, promoted young commanders and steadily hemmed in one of the world's most ruthless and innovative rebel movements.

At its peak, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, as the rebels are formally known, controlled one-third of the country, had their own army, a sizable navy and nascent air force, and served as a role model for insurgencies worldwide with their pioneering use of explosives vests and female suicide bombers. This week, the army displayed in triumph what it said was the portly, bullet-riddled body of Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran in his signature fatigues.

What may be the most important factor in ending the stalemate was the political will to do whatever it took. In a supreme irony, President Mahinda Rajapaksa was elected in November 2005 by a 1.9-percentage-point margin after Prabhakaran urged Tamils to boycott the election. Rajapaksa made military victory over the Tigers a cornerstone of his administration and signaled to the military that it could get whatever resources it wanted simply by asking.

"They did everything a general dreams of," said retired Indian Maj. Gen. Ashok Mehta, a commander of the Indian peacekeeping forces in Sri Lanka in the late 1980s. "Unfettered resources and no political interference."

The military budget grew by 40% a year, and the army exploded by 70% to 180,000 troops, adding 3,000 a month compared with 3,000 a year previously, drawing largely from rural Singhalese attracted by relatively high wages in a struggling economy.With more soldiers, the army was able to hit the Tigers on several fronts simultaneously, breaking with years of hit-or-miss operations.

"Before, the army would take territory, then move on, allowing the LTTE to come back," said military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara. "That changed and we hit them on all four fronts so they could no longer muster all their resources into one place."

Some of the lessons are transferable, experts said."Sri Lanka provides a case study," said Rohan Gunaratna, head of the International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research in Singapore.

Other lessons are either unique to Sri Lanka or would be politically unpalatable in other societies, including the high civilian and military death tolls and alleged human rights violations. The United Nations and many human rights groups repeatedly called for a cease-fire so civilians caught in the crossfire could flee the conflict area -- calls the government largely dismissed.

"They were not worried about collateral damage," said Ajey Lele, an Indian military analyst and ex-wing commander. "So in many regards it's a very difficult model to adopt."

By some estimates, nearly 100,000 people died in the war, which began in 1983, including more than 7,000 civilians since January.

Because Rajapaksa's base was the nation's Sinhalese majority, there was relatively little domestic pushback over the deaths and displacement of ethnic Tamil civilians. The government restricted the access of international media and independent humanitarian groups, making it difficult to report what was going on.

The lesson of nonstop, no-holds-barred combat -- the army even powered on during monsoons -- was complemented by better use of small, flexible "deep penetration" special forces units, many trained by their U.S. and Indian counterparts. Dressed like the rebels, they went behind enemy lines, assassinating Tigers, crippling infrastructure in rebel-held areas and reporting target locations to the army and air force.

Cutting supply lines, creating faster and more mobile special forces units, going after financing and hitting jungle hide-outs are additional strategies applicable to other insurgency battles, experts said.

At the same time, the Tigers' scope made them a bigger target. For years, they parked freighters at sea and ferried arms, oil, food and other supplies into ports they controlled.In recent years, the government destroyed seven of these mother ships, reportedly with the help of satellite intelligence from India and the United States, and made better use of small, maneuverable, heavily armed "Arrow" vessels.

"It adopted many new tactics and techniques," said retired Indian Col. Ravindra Tripathi, a military analyst. "And it imbued fighting spirit in its troops."

The broader political climate also was changing, some critics said. Any lingering sympathy for so-called freedom fighters eroded after the Sept. 11 attacks. Though some militant groups, such as the Irish Republican Army, eventually opted for political settlement, Prabhakaran rejected the idea of compromise.

In this new climate, Sri Lanka also gained access to U.S. satellite intelligence and training and benefited from designation of the LTTE as a terrorist organization by the U.S., European Union and India. Smuggling and arms deals, as well as financing from the Tamil diaspora, became more difficult as the international community stepped up its scrutiny of money trails.

"A military precept the world over is that you can't win militarily against an insurgency, which is essentially a political struggle," said Maj. Gen. Mehta. "They turned that on its head."

mark.magnier@latimes.com (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-sri-lanka-lessons23-2009may23,0,2254784,print.story)
Pavitra Ramaswamy in The Times' New Delhi Bureau contributed to this report.

LOOKING BACK| EPILOGUE - OF A DIVIDED SRI LANKA

''There's an eerie feeling here,'' the diplomat said of the capital. ''People are going about their business as if they don't realize that their country no longer exists.''

STEVEN R. WEISMAN, Special to the New York Times published the followng article on Wednesday, October 28, 1987. Sri Lanka was in turmoil, the IPKF had landed and were fighting a war they would lose horribly to the LTTE in the north, while the SL Army was cracking down on a vicious JVP insurrection. Forecast; Sri Lanka will end in two seperate states.


By capturing the Tamil rebel stronghold of Jaffna this week, Indian Army troops signaled their determination to enforce a peace accord in Sri Lanka. Yet achievement of a genuine peace here appears to many analysts to be more distant than ever.

Indeed, a mood of pessimism has settled among diplomats, Sri Lankan leaders and Indian officials regarding the future of Sri Lankan national unity. More and more, one hears comparisons with the permanent divisions and alien occupation forces of two other troubled islands, Ireland and Cyprus.

''I don't think that until recently I realized how much I love my country,'' a weary and saddened Sri Lankan official said. ''But I have to be realistic. Sri Lanka is finished as we have known it.''
Since 1983, Sri Lanka has been torn by warfare as ethnic Tamil rebels in the north and east pressed their fight for a separate country. The island is dominated by the Sinhalese ethnic majority.

A Shift in Tactics

This summer the Sri Lankan Army counterattacked, pushing the main guerrilla group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, into the northern Jaffna Peninsula. Then, President J. R. Jayewardene shifted tactics and agreed to a negotiated settlement with India as a collaborator.
At first the Liberation Tigers seemed to accept the Indian-Sri Lankan accord calling for them to surrender their arms in return for greater political autonomy in Tamil areas. The Tigers, in effect, bowed to New Delhi after years of using southern India as a sanctuary, supply center and training base.

But this month the Tigers resumed attacks on military and civilian targets, evidently feeling that India and Sri Lanka were not living up to their part of the bargain. The collapse of the accord compelled India to disarm the Tigers by force or risk being ordered to leave by Mr. Jayewardene.

The current pessimism derives from the configuration of armed forces in Sri Lanka and the increasing likelihood of continued fighting.

In the north and east, Indian troops are given little chance of crushing the Tamil rebellion, as they had recently hoped to do. Meanwhile in the south, the Sri Lankan Army has become almost an occupying force, itself pressing a campaign against extremist Sinhalese who have carried out assassinations and other acts to undercut the peace accord.

In Jaffna, the escape of Tamil guerrillas this week rendered the fall of the city a hollow victory for India, which lost more than 200 men by its own count. ''No doubt India has dealt a psychological blow to the guerrillas,'' a Western diplomat said of the Jaffna campaign. ''But the guerrillas are alive and well in the countryside, armed and dangerous, with a sense of fervor that is extremely worrisome.''

Sri Lankan and Indian military analysts say also that the Liberation Tigers are likely to melt into the jungles, the countryside and even urban centers in classic guerrilla fashion. Indian troops are handicapped by their inexperience at this sort of fighting, and by their role as an alien force unable to speak the local language.

Some analysts think there may be a lull in attacks by the Tigers in the next few weeks, but the group's leaders indicate that they may soon turn to suicide squads to bomb civilian targets. The Tigers are also considered certain to continue their highly effective technique of blowing up police convoys and troops with land mines and other kinds of bombs.

These tactics, in turn, almost always provoke retaliatory excesses such as mass arrests of young men suspected of involvement, further inflaming the civilian population. Jaffna residents appear to distrust or hate Indian troops after the death of hundreds of civilians and uprooting of tens of thousands of residents in two weeks of fighting.

India's main task now is widely seen as restoring its credibility by rushing in food, medicine and other supplies to Jaffna and surrounding areas it occupies. But two other tasks facing India are much more urgent and difficult, if not impossible.

Given the likely refusal of the Tigers to lay down their arms or participate in a peace settlement, the first of these is to somehow keep them on the run, unable to inflict military damage.
Second, Indian officials say they must somehow help knit together a force of mainstream Tamil leaders to assume control of the civil administration in the north and east as an alternative moderate political force. Mounting Political Pressure

But this task is shadowed by fear on the part of moderates that they will be assassinated if they try to present themselves as rivals to the Tigers. Such assassinations have occurred many times in the past.

A few months ago, the presence of Indian troops here was looked on as a temporary measure to enable Tamil guerrillas to surrender their arms. But now, no one can see circumstances permitting an Indian withdrawal in the near future. Some say that Indian forces could be here for years, constrained only by the possibility of mounting political pressure in India for their withdrawal.

An irony of the situation is the perverse pride that many Sri Lankan Sinhalese who despise the Tamil guerrillas take in the skill, courage and fighting ability of the Tigers. ''The Indian Army thought they were coming here to subdue a bunch of primitive tribesmen,'' said a Sri Lankan official who is Sinhalese. ''But these boys are Sri Lankans! The Indian Army had a superiority complex that was unwarranted.''

Another paradox is that the presence of Indian troops in Tamil-dominated areas has already created a kind of de facto separate state with a separate form of government in the north and east, except in those areas where there is such chaos that no government exists at all.

A diplomat friendly to Sri Lanka pointed out gloomily that with the Indian Army in the north and east, and the Sri Lankan Army in the south, only two parts of the country are in a truly normal state of affairs. These are the capital, Colombo, which bustles warily with tourists and commerce, and the central highlands, an area of forest and tea estates.

''There's an eerie feeling here,'' the diplomat said of the capital. ''People are going about their business as if they don't realize that their country no longer exists.''

http://www.nytimes.com/1987/10/28/world/analysis-sri-lankan-epilogue-a-divided-land.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2

WHEN REALITY IS HARD TO TAKE,DENIAL WORKS FOR SOME FOLKS

Pro-LTTE lobby in Tamilnadu trying hard to deny the death of their favorite terrorist, with photoshpped pictures.

A TENTATIVE TIME LINE OF EVENTS

It is quite possible that we may never know the entire sequence of events in the last few days of the 'Final War for eelam'. But even for us who live half a world away from the action with an ear to the ground, a timeline is not too difficult to construct.

As our forces closed in from all round, the pressure mounted, in particular as a result of the Indian elections getting close. It may have seemed like the life line opportunity the tigers waited for. Yet when the SLG didn’t seem too concerned about the fall-out on the Indians in Tamilnadu from the anti-LTTE operations in Sri Lanka's North east, the screws started tightening. This time it was the Americans who were joining the cacophony from europe. The pressure instantly became overwhelming, and even the Chinese and Russians are believed to have told SLG that they may not be able to hold off a UNSC resolution against Sri Lanka. SLG for once blinked, and asked the SL forces to go slow.

And then the 13th May rolled past and Indian voters ruled the pro-LTTE monkey circus in Tamilnadu out of style. The same Indian power bloc was back in the saddle and our part of the world rapidly started to look familiar. In the Wanni, the SL forces loaded their guns.

In India Manmohan spoke against the tamil tigers and Obama wanted them to surrender. UN’s Ban condemned the LTTE’s human shields.

Somewhere in Washington big brother reluctantly nodded.

And on a thin strip of wasteland in the north east of Sri Lanka, lights went out for the monsters.

DEATH OF A MONSTER

LTTE's numero uno, aka Thalaivar, aka sooriya thevan (Sun God) lies in a muddy lake front part of his head blown off. The third eye of wisdom this self appointed savior of the tamil people and God of the Sun lacked in real life, was evidently given him by a Sri Lankan Defence Force sniper in the form of a bullet hole centered on the forehead, which perhaps blew the back part of his head far into the muddy lake.

The LTTE leader may not be alone on his journey across the river styx. At least 18 of his closest terroristas including son fat Charlie also were despatched to hell at the same time by Sri Lankan forces. After all, those who kill together deserve to die together.

Life can be a whole stranger than fiction. The irony of the first picture is one such case. Standing beside the corpse of the slain LTTE leader in business casual is his former stalwart Karuna who switched sides at the right time and now enjoys the priviledges of being a Sri Lankan cabinet minister. Standing next to him is a recent LTTE decamper who also is now being tolerated undeservedly by the Sri Lankan government at tax payer cost.

STUNNING END TO TERRORISM IN SRI LANKA

IN an almost unrealistic and yet historic turn of events in contemparary times, Sri Lankan forces have successfully concluded the anti-terrorist operations begun 2 years ago today by killing the top leaders of the Tamil Tigers in one final fight.

The last few days saw urgent and desperate attempts by pro-LTTE nations and groups making countless attempts to rescue the LTTE leadership from the determined Sri Lankan forces closing in on them. Perhaps disappointingly for them, the nations which could have potentially brought about even a temporary halt to the military campaign, the US and India remained diplomatically uninvolved, while the Sri Lankan leadership's determination to finish the LTTE off remained unwavering. The last 24-48 hours of the battle was almost the stuff of a first class thriller, which kept not only the Sri Lankans in the island, and in other parts of the world glued to the internet searching for breaking news.

The LTTE leadership met their deaths in a desperate attempt to break through the SLDF lines following a high intensity battle between the remaining units of sea-tigers in which 15 SLDF soldiers and over 70 tigers were killed. In the break-out attempt that followed, the LTTE leader and his entire leadership group were killed by Sri Lankan special forces.

Over the next days, weeks and months the story of the final fight will emerge to be told and retold for generations.

END OF WAR; BEGINNING OF ANOTHER JOURNEY

As much as it is a significant victory in contemporary Sri Lankan history, we must be empathic to how the tamil citizens of our country may feel about the Sri Lankan defence forces eliminating the LTTE. Without a doubt the majority of ordinary tamils must feel a difficult to explain mixture of sadness, hopelessness, resignation and even some relief. Understandably most would refrain without showing how they feel.

Sri Lankans must clearly understand that there is nothing to be gained by adding insult to the psychological and other injuries already sustained by the tamil bretheren living among us. Those who rub salt into the wounds of friends will only make enemies, and our true enemies of the pro-LTTE mob must be waiting for that to happen. Such behavior on its own could turn out to be another July-83 even if it is sans violence against anyone.

This is exactly why it becomes very important that the President, other prominant statesmen, opposition leaders, tamil politicians such as Devananda and Ananda Sangaree etc address the nation, not to give victory speeches, but to deliver cold sober 'Let's talk of where we go from here as a single nation' talks. There must not be any declarations which further alienate the tamil citizens of Sri Lanka, but only verbal attempts and actions that are aimed at healing the wounds. This is not a victory of one community over another, but the defeat of a tribal, racist terrorism no Sri Lankan will ever want to live with. However, all Sri Lankans must necessarilly be aware of how our tamil neighbors may be feeling deep in their hearts. Reaching out to the tamils among us and speaking openly of understanding those feelings and apprehensions will open an opportunity for free and honest dialogue which can lead to greater understanding of not our differences, but how common our future aspirations can be.

The next goal before our nation will be to find the common grounds on which all of our people can feel a sense of belonging, and pride of ownership. Finding the answers will not be an easy task, but as Sri Lankans have already proven that we are capable of accomplishing the impossible when we really want to. The journey may not be easy, but it will be one which rewards everyone on all sides, unlike the end of a war in which there is always the defeated and the dead.

The Buddhist clergy, long associated with sinhala nationalism also have a unique opportunity to change that public perspective and become pillars of a unifying force that embraces tamils and other minorities for their own cultural values. It is imperative that the leading buddhist monks and figureheads of other faiths all deliver a message of hope for a unified future in which the military aspects of our past are down played.

Here's an important message for some of you younger hot heads; Sacrifices made by our soldiers were for the purpose of unifying our nation and restoring dignity as a single nation which includes everybody. We just militarily beat the opposing view. At this critical time, we will remember the scrifices our soldiers made, but we will not talk of them and their actions in ways that will defeat the purpose for which they died.

BREAKING NEWS - FROM SLBC

An explosion occurred in an LTTE high security bunker in Safety Zone.
16-May-2009

Security sources say that an explosion has occurred in a high security bunker in which a number of senior LTTE leaders believed to have hidden. The bunker is totally destroyed due to this explosion. Security forces suspect that all top leaders of the LTTE in the bunker have been killed.

CASH AND GOLD STOLEN FROM CIVILLIANS RECOVERED FROM TOP LTTE FAMILIES

It appears that the LTTE leaders have robbed the cash and jewellery they forced the civillian population to deposit in the so called eelam banks. The buildings housing these banks were later demolished using explosives.

By destroying the buildings the Tigers may have attempted to hoodwink the population into believing that the SL forces bombed them, and thereby not become aware that their money and gold has been robbed by the LTTE leaders.

It also may have been an attmept to pin the blame for the missing money and gold on the advancing SL forces, while the top tigers live in luxury with the stolen assets in some distant land.

Sri Lanka should invetigate the cash and gold further and let the public know where and how this woman and anyone else acting like her accumulated any wealth found in their possession.

TOP TIGER FAMILIES SURRENDER

TOP LTTE member families have started to surrender to the SLDF. A large number of rank and file has also started to drop weapons to join the civillian exodus.

In the meanwhile three massive explosions have taken place where the Tiger honchos are dug in. Two of the explosions are from SLDF attacks on arms dumps of the LTTE while the third is speculated to be from an LTTE initiated destruction of own weapons storage. Spculation is rife that the LTTE also may have corralled a large number of civillians and blown them up, in a mass suicide to discredit the government.

The army's pincer movement to deny sea access to the LTTE has been completed by early Saturday. Media footage from the area shows that the LTTE has blown up a large number of vehicles etc in the area. Debunking all media reports claiming that SLDF artllery hit the civillian area, none of the houses in the area show any significant damage which would have been proof of such attacks. In fact most houses still have all of their red roof tiles intact, which would be an impossible had any artillery struck the area.

NEWS FLASH

UNconfirmed news from senior military sources from Colombo say that the LTTE leader has been killed. A formal verification has not been concluded and announcement has been delayed pending the return of Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa from Jordan.

A formal announcement may happen as early as Sunday, Sri Lankan time.

ENDGAME - NEXT 48 HOURS

SLDF has entered the civillian hostage zone and is gunning for the tamil tiger terrorists. Led by elite Sri Lankan special forces, the thrust is likely to end in complete annihilation for the LTTE leadership. The LTTE leaders, with whom MI had established communication links, have informed that this would be a fight to the finish.

And finish is estimated to be within 48 hours, according to SLDF spokesmen.

KILLING THEIR OWN FOR SYMPATHY

Corralled like pigs waiting slaughter, the Tamil Tiger hyenas are doing the predictable; killing civillians in a desperate bid to garner international sympathy and bring in pressure on the government to slow down or hold off the pending coup de grace.

In the western nations where pro-LTTE demos have been strongest, public opinion is starting to build against the inconvenience caused by the actions of tamils blockading streets while carrying flags of a terrorist organization. Realization is also starting to dawn on ordinary people that they now harbor a large group of violent and unpredictable foreigners who may stop at nothing to gain what they want. Western political sentiment, though rarely expressed openly, is becoming contemptous towards the demonstrators as they realize that the demonstrations are in support of and aimed at saving the terrorists, and actually not on behalf of the civillians the Tamil Tigers are holding and killing to win sympathy from the western nations.

Over the past week subtle diplomatic manuevering by pro-LTTE nations and western politicians pressurized Sri Lankan government to scale down military operations while India also was glad see a slow down until the elections are over. Attempting to take advantage of the respite and in an effort to bail out the tamil tigers, three western nations, Britain, France and Austria tried to bring Sri Lanka to the UN Security Council table yesterday but their efforts were shot down by a much larger vote comprising UNSC permanent members Russia and China and others who consider the anti-terrorist operations in Sri Lanka to be a purely internal matter.

As the LTTE realizes that its overseas diaspora is now becoming ineffective at bailing them out as did the Tamilnadu politicians, they are limited to resorting to the final act that is now available to them; bargain for the personal safety of the tiger leadership with the lives of the civillians still held by them. At least 300 tamil civillians who attempted to escape the tiger area have been killed by artillery barrages fired by the LTTE.

Though there needs to be some sensitivity to geo-politics even when dealing with internal issues, the Sri Lankan government at this point must not be swayed too much by international opinion. The entire nation's future is at stake and there can hardly be any credible denunciations for taking the next most logical step towards rescuing the remaining tamil civillians and eradicating the tamil tiger menace from Sri Lanka.

RE-BUILDING SRI LANKA, THE RIGHT WAY

THE war was long over even before the first shot was fired. When the LTTE started preparing and began bragging about winning a seperate state in a "final war" and the Americans weighed in from the sidelines, the endgame was a foregone conclusion. The fighting left to be finished is only an epilogue.

Fortune certainly was on the side of Sri Lanka this time around. The Bush administration's pressure was on most other nations to turn a blind eye to the propaganda of the tamil tigers and their supporters in western nations. And then there were Sri Lanka's long term friends China and Pakistan ready to provide material support, with high tech surveillance being provided by Israel. That was the material side of the military campaign.

On the decision making side, the government and the military were headed by men who talk the same language and did communicate seamlessly. They all were connected, not only professionally but also from personal acquaintances which went far beyond in some cases into some individuals' school days. A virtual dream-team of political and military heads whose commitment to decisively defeating terrorism extending to a level unseen before in Sri Lanka. The skills they brought to the battle field is only matched by the political skills demonstrated by the President and his law makers when dealing not only with international interference, but also with domestic annoyances.

There is little doubt as to the debilitating effects of the punishing military campaign these men and women conducted with vision and valour, on the tamil tigers, who are no longer significant to any peace equation within Sri Lanka. Even then Sri Lanka must prosecute the military campaign until the last hostage is rescued from the civillian human shield, and ending only once the capture or elimination of the LTTE leadership has been accomplished. Letting Tamilnadu burn and making a few secret enemies such as the Norwegians into open enemies is an acceptable expense in that process. After all, those who attempt to stand in the way of our national defence should not be mistaken to be friends.

When this is all over, Sri Lanka will need assistace to re-build. But we do not need to beg from those who cannot even feed their own, and are facing literally unsurmountable economic hurdles. Sri Lanka instead needs to look inwards to her own sources, as much as to her staunchest of friends to rebuild our nation.

Instead of waiting for outside help, Sri Lanka also needs to utilize the opportunities the nation can offer her own expatriate children to become partners in the nation's growth. Sri Lanka's economic strength always lay in her vibrant and dynamic private sector. Without attempting to attract funds to the government in the form of high cost borrowings, Sri Lanka should invite investments in her stock market from expatriate Sri Lankans. Equity is always cheaper than debt and diversifies risk and increases pressure for sound business decision making. The presently depressed stock values and depreciated dollar-ruppee exchange rates offer plenty of lucrative investment opportunties which can easily pay off handsomely in a period of 15 to 20 years into the future for the investor.

Sri Lanka is the next economic miracle waiting to happen. Sri Lankans abroad should not miss the opportunity to benefit from her growth.

More information on investing in Sri Lankan stocks can be found here. http://www.cse.lk/welcome.htm

DOCUMENTARY ON THE SRI LANKAN STF

Chris Ryan, a former SAS trooper travels to Sri Lanka for an in depth documentary on the Sri Lankan elite Police Force, the Special Task Force.

Here's a link to the first part of his real life documentary http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkomY92FSy8&feature=related. There are three more parts to the series and the remainder can be found on the same web page.

On the battle front, troops are on the move and have restricted the LTTE into an ever shrinking land mass of less than 4 kilo meters. SLDF troops also are capturing large amounts of weapons, including boats and other assets. The remaining number of civillians held hostage by the LTTE has now diminished to less than 15,000.

In other interesting developments, the top UN bureaucrat has been summoned by the SLG in connection with fictitious and cooked literature indicating unverified civillian deaths leaked to the international press. The UN official's tropical holiday in Sri Lanka is about to end, by the looks of it. The Sri Lankan government means business and in that context, kicking out a couple of UN wallahs are a worthy inconvenience.

The Norwegians are making noises too. Having tried hard to get the LTTE off the hook by all possible means, now the decietful salmon eaters are crawling back, mouthing soothing sounds which are meant to ease the distruct the Sri Lankan state and her people have of them. Sri Lankans need to be reminded of the old adage ' never fall into the same pit twice' when dealing with the Norwegians.

Surrendered LTTE cadres including various self-styled 'master' title holders are singing different tunes to the military interviewers. Daya Master, a one time tamil tiger big wig assures that the LTTE leader is a pussy who will never dare step outside his bunker and sacrifice every man, woman and child before risking his own life. He also assures that the LTTE leader is still hiding among the civillians and is awaiting a rescue by the international community.

BROWN AND OBAMA - DISASTERS IN PROGRESS

Gordon Brown and Obama have one thing in common. Maybe two; both are leading nations that have been run to the ground, and have no idea of what they are doing either. They are both fancy talkers who are 'frightfully good at all sorts of things, with the notable exception of knowing what to do about the economy...' as Simon Heffer very aptly points out in the online version of the UK's Telegraph.

About Gordon Brown he says "..At the root of all this is Mr Brown's pathological inability to admit error. Given the Prime Minister's record, it would be a bit like Fred the Shred claiming he did a great job at RBS. Mr Brown not only cannot make a sensible decision: he becomes trapped in his bad ones..."

And about Obama, he "...thought it was rather naff of President Obama to hold a news conference to mark his first 100 days in office. His recognition of a landmark that is merely a journalistic stunt is not the sort of thing new messiahs should sink to doing.

When I watched his campaign last year, he was frightfully good at all sorts of things, with the notable exception of knowing what to do about the economy. As you may discern, this is potentially difficult. After 100 days, he still hasn’t a clue. Will he have one after 200? Or 300? ..."

This entire document can be found here

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/simonheffer/5259028/Theres-one-more-thing-Gordon-Brown-can-do.html