Sri Lanka: Nowhere else would the language, culture &religion of such a violent minority who without hindrance kill the majority to promote their own race, would be tolerated by the majority.Nowhere would such a minority be allowed to live side by side with the majority while that minority is still killing the majority-using the killings to fulfil their communalist racism &make demands from the majority that they will only stop the killings once they get what they want.Yet we still try &live with Tamils.Only in Lanka does this happen. That is why Tamils are one of the most ungrateful people ever. The nerve Tamils have to attack our philosophy, history, people &way of life, all of which you exploit to your advantage.It is only because of Buddhism &Buddhist values of the Sinhalese that Tamils are still alive in Sri Lanka, but without a second thought Tamils denigrate the Buddhists of Lanka.Had you done this homeland stunt anywhere else you would have been wiped out long ago.Remember that

Sunil, Kandy,

The international community is bais and ignorant of the ground situation in Sri Lanka. LTTE will never settle anything less than a separate state and that is why all peace talks upto now collapses leading back to war. Tamils are sufferring because of LTTE and the GOSL has a responsibilty to the people of Sri Lanka to safegard it's teritorial intergrity. mind you almost 50% of Tamils in Sri Lanka live among Sinhalese in the South

Damian, Hamilton,

Thirty years of conflict and no agreement was reached. Any further negotiations just prolongs the agony for the Lankans acheiving nothing. A fight to a finish is the only option available now. Sri Lanka is one country and it cannot have two leaders.

Tuan Dole, Sydney, Australia

It’s important to know that this is just the first of many incidents to come; ltte will continue to target innocent civilians. This is what ltte does best. Further, it needs to be pointed out that it is the ltte, who brought the so called “Buddhist form of police state” to power.

Truth, Colombo, Sri Lanka

"Buddhist police state"?????? What the hell is that? Who is this writer to make such a serious and baseless allegation?

Sunil, Kandy,

Oh yeah, so now it's a war between the "Buddhists" and the "Hindus"?

I don't know where you get your sources from, but I suggest you reconsider their credibility, or your own credibility will be gravely affected.

I don't think the GoSL's so called "atrocities" are even half as brutal or offensive as that of the LTTE "freedom fighters".

You are fast becoming a joke.

Simon, Camden, New Jersey

Although a rare piece of unbiased article overall, on the conflict in Sri Lanka, the author inadvertently writes the core issue people take for granted, in a misleading way. 'Meanwhile, the Government, backed by the Sinhalese majority, ..' : In Sri Lanka, almost 75 % of the population is sinhalese. Therefore, in all probability, by the definition of democracy, the Sri Lankan Government has been and will be backed by the Sinhalese Majority. This may be a flaw in a democratic system, and I believe, with population growth, will be commonplace all over the world, asking for their own 'Majority Backed' entity.

Damitha Adikaari, Guildford, Surrey

Yeah, Innocent should be spared. Where is the devolution package??????????????? When nearby india is secular, why srilanka is not implementing the FEDERAL policy in its country.

Why there is no condemnation, while the tamil settlements got affected through every day bombings.

Please listen, you cant win war by attacking someone. It is being rational and need give the LIONS share to the affected (tamils) people.

But innocent people shouldnot get affected. But srilankan army is also involving in killing and disappereances everyday. So, there is no comments on this.

But still, due to the short sightedness of the srilankan policy. These sufferings are happening. SRILANKA needs to giveup.

popy, Chennai, India

Very balance article, it says the brutality of the Buddist Majority and the LTTE's methods. Everyone should codemn the killing of innocent civilioans. Its not acceptable, so is the Aerial bombardments and the shelling by the Armed forces in civilian areas in the North and east. A third country must intervene and disarm the Govt forces and LTTE. we don't need any arms in this small island.

Kumar, London,

It is absolutely mind boggling as to how Western Governments can talk about terrorism with two tongues. When it comes to defeating islamic terrorism, Western Governments have used any and all weapons at their disposal. They have invaded sovereign countries in the guise of defeating terrrorism. They have used torture and extra-judicial killings and have wire tapped homes in direct violation of their citizens' constitutional rights. However, when the Sri Lankan Government tries to combat terrorism within its own sovereign borders, the Western Governments rise up and talk about respecting human rights. This is absolute garbage.

It is about time that the Sri Lankan Government does what is right to combat this brutal scourge of terrorism and ignore the hypocritical Western Governments who are interested in nothing more than nuevo colonialism.

Vish Abeygunawardena, Toronto, Canada

How long will this continue? Till the majority Sinhala-Buddhist community accepts that genuine power sharing with the minorities is the answer. Even if the LTTE loses territory in the north the conflict will go on till there is a political situation.
The deaths of innocents is always saddening but lets not focus only on the deaths on one side. There was recently an attack on a civilian vehicle in LTTE controlled area with many deaths. The airforce bombs civilian areas in the north killing civilians and claiming them to be terrorists.There are abductions and killings on a daily basis in Jaffna by paramilitary groups in army controlled area. Tens of thousands remain displaced even six years after the ceasefire.
There is no monopoly of suffering. The solution is clear. Power sharing on the lines of a strong federal system. No Sri Lankan governement has come forward along those lines because no governement can pass such a deal through parliament. That is the reality sad to say.

A.Chandran, Colchester,

The journalist clearly lost the plot when describing the political situation in sri lanka as a 'Buddhist for of police state.'

While it is true that Sri Lanka is widely known as a 'Buddhist' country and that the government consists of a minority party which
are defined as 'buddhist fundamentalists'', it cannot be used as a way to describe the goverments political stance concerning the issue at hand as it is totally unrelated to the current political state sri lanka is currently in.

By implying that the government is now going for a buddhist method of policing the state makes absolutely no sense at all and shows that the journalist doesnt really have an idea on what buddhism is and how it is totally unrelated to the current political situation in the country. other than that it was a good article.

Samath, Colombo, Sri Lanka

I am a Tamil. I condemn this horrific any other action against all innocent people, weather Sinhalese, Tamils or Muslims whoever.
But how many of us do that openly?
When Tamils are killed on a daily basis in the north & east how many come out and condemn?
One of the reasons is that no media freedom. Any one killed is described as a Tiger/terrorist.
The actual truth is not told.
LTTE was born as a militant organization to defend the Tamils from the state oppression.
One example is after 1983, no communal riots. Before that from 1956 ever few years or communal riots planned and executed by the government took lives and property of Tamils.
LTTE can only be tamed when the Government of Sri Lanka is tamed by the international country.
Thimphu Resolutions or ISGA submitted by the LTTE in 2004 should be the basis of any ploitical solution.
The Sri Lankan government has been unable to put forward something equalt to that.
I'm afraid the situation will worsen.

Ananth , Witchikita, Texas.

Buddhist form of police state??

Where the hell did the writer get that? Western writers are quite good at pointing finger at non-christian religions, when things go wrong - and do word acrobatics!! Police state is police state and there is no Buddhism involved in that.

The sinhalas however, are responsible for protecting and preserving Buddhism, when it was cleansed from India over a 1000 years ago. After the WWII Sinhalas had to go to India and renovate Buddhist places of prigrimage in India which are now Unesco world heritage sites. Sinhalas protected Buddhism Tamil Chola Imperialists from South India who invaded SL 1000 years ago. That is sinhalas contribution to Buddhism.

Answer to this conflict is simple: sinhalas need to be convinced that the Tamils are discriminated in SL. They think and believe it is not so. Those who propose a solution must explain the problem: please write 100 things explaining why the Tamils feel discriminated. Sinhalas actually hv same problems.

R Jayanetti, Schaffhause, Switzerland

When Government forces kill scores of Tamil civilians deliberately, it is dubbed as collateral damage or just human rights abuse and is justified by western media. But when the rebels who are fighting a genocidal state oppression does something like this they are called 'barbaric terrorist'. So does this means that the government has all the rights to kill it's minorities? Why nobody calls the Sri Lankan government a terrorist state?

Wern, Jaffna, Sri Lanka

The fact is that a powerful terrorist group has been able to buy influencial western politicians, corrupt UN officials etc while never stopping terrorist activities. They have the money earned mostly by fraudulent business, credit card scams, drug running, voluntary fund raising and extortions of the Tamil Diaspora, according to a recent report of the Jane's Defense weekly. The FBI has alleged that the group had offered to them millions of dollars as bribes to lift the terrorist ban. Sounds funny that in the west one can become a terrorist or not depending on how much money you can spend.
When I see the innocent school children killed in the bomb attack I can only say what a shame on the civilized world!
I wish good luck to the govt. in liberating this beautiful country from ruthless terrorists and their foreign partners.

anuruddha, bologna,

The tamils and sinhalese have a very diffrent langauge, religion and culture and are both majorities in their own areas. The UN similar or Scotland, Kosova and Qubec must stop one majority community dominating the other..the 99% sinhalese army in tamil areas and many ethinic riots agianst the tamils ever since independence make it avery compeling right for UN intervention.

Deshabandu, Batticola, Northeast

When an innocent tamil or anyother person die , we feel sad. We feel sad for deaths of Tamil tigers and also the Sri Lankan armed forces. In Sri Lanka, if you have money and power, ethnicity or religion does not matter at all. When you are poor and powerless, the injustice is the same whether you are Tamil, muslim or Sinhalese.
I cannot simply imagine how one can achieve liberation by killing innocent poeple. I know this area as I grew up in this region as a child. Poeple here only interested in finding some food for their lunch and the dinner. Majority of them work hard in limited land spaces. There would have been many children in the bus who did not even have any breakfirst. Dear Tamil tiger freinds- what did you achieve by killing these powerless, poor poeple who are also the victim of current system althpogh they are mainly sinhalese.
Sri Lanka need a decent leadership with no corruption. Since 1948, we never had a leader who really wanted to do a good job. LTTE is the same too.

Prof. Podibanda Seneviratne, Melbourne, Victoria

The Tamil Tigers raise almost 300 million dollars from UK, Australia, US and Canada. They use this money raised in the west to bomb civilian buses. They collect money openly in all these countries from hundreds of thousands of tamils.

Why doesnt the government of the western countries stop this terrorist fundraising. is it simply because terrorists become freedom fighter,s if they murder only non-white civilians

john, melbourne, Australia

Very unbiased article. Everything said here is the truth. The journalist describes the Tigers as a "Terrorist outfit" which is absolutely correct. Majority of Western journalists write very biased articles praising the Tamil Tiger Terrorists and calling them "Freedom fighters" while scathing the Sri Lankan government. In this article, the journalist very unbiasedly shows that both sides are to share the blame for all these unfortunate events. Excellent journalism. Well done!

Sam Hemantha Alahakoon, Colombo, Sri Lanka