Rajiva Wijesinha

“ Surely any idiot could understand why the LTTE kept these people for so long, moving them from place to place as they themselves retreated, ignoring our pleas to let our people go (pleas not echoed by anyone else, so busy were they then in complaining that they were not allowed to continue to play lady bountiful to the LTTE as well as the people) . It was obvious from the start that the LTTE were keeping them to use as human shields to defend themselves, and when they suffered relatively few casualties, why obviously the LTTE was not above inflicting some to prove their point. ”

“ Whilst one cannot be absolutely sure that there is no collateral damage, the care that is being exercised now, the results of the care exercised in the first several months of the offensive, the few instances in which there was evidence of where the shooting came from, all suggest that the Tigers bear the main responsibility for the casualties. ”

“ And the point is, great care will be, for no government can afford to be lax about its primary duty, the security of its citizens. But this means endless attrition, with some members of what is called the International Community even advocating cutting down on supplementary rations until they get their will. ”

“ Chief amongst these is the security problem, which means that the movements of those who flee the Tigers have to be restricted. This has been grossly misrepresented, with claims of internment by those who do not understand that internment means taking people from their homes and shoving them forcibly into camps. Where people come of their own volition however, seeking refuge, there is generally a process of screening, and now at least it is granted that this is essential. ”

“ What it evidently wants is tiny boxlike tents in which the poor IDPs spend the whole day, with no occupation, waiting for bountiful white ladies to bring them salt and flour and sugar and pulses, nothing more, quietly going mad because their lives have come to a standstill. ”

“ This is not as fast as it could be, but then no other country has so swiftly provided decent refuge to so high a proportion of its citizens, citizens who have been increasingly traumatised by the brutality of the LTTE in keeping them back. ”