lt seems to have always been that way, as a heartless condition of basic reality. 
Posted on 09/23/2006 3:57:40 PM PDT by Valin
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - Hundreds of Muslim families are fleeing their homes in eastern Sri Lanka amid fears of a Tamil Tiger rebel assault to reclaim territory taken by government forces in recent fighting, a local government leader said Saturday. The chairman of the government in the coastal town of Mutur, who goes by the single name Thoufeek, said 700 to 800 families - about 10 percent of the population - left on Friday and Saturday after the Tamil Tiger separatists warned that they were planning an offensive. Many of Mutur's residents, who are mostly Muslims, only returned to their homes two weeks ago from refugee camps. They had been driven from the town by weeks of heavy fighting and artillery assaults in August that killed dozens of civilians.
Clashes between government troops and rebels have killed at least 1,000 combatants and more than 100 civilians since July. Foreign mediators are struggling to keep alive a 2002 cease-fire that ended a nearly two-decade-long civil war.
The rebels had been fighting for a separate homeland in the north and east for Sri Lanka's Tamil population, the country's largest ethnic minority. The Tamils, who are mostly Hindu, claimed discrimination from the majority Sinhalese, who are Buddhist.
The Tigers also have a long history of hostility toward the Muslims, Sri Lanka's second largest minority group. In August 1990, rebels killed 130 Muslims at two mosques on the same day.
On Friday, hundreds of people boarded boats in Mutur, about 140 miles east of the capital, and sailed for the nearby Muslim-majority island of Kinniyai, Thoufeek said in a telephone interview. Government forces refused to let them pass by road, said Thoufeek, who also heads the regional Muslim Council.
Many had reluctantly returned home in time for the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan which begins Sunday in Sri Lanka. Some 8,000 Muslim families live in the area.
Witnesses said the roadblocks were removed Saturday after meetings between the government and local authorities. Government ministers also traveled to the area to try to convince people to stay, but Thoufeek said the residents were too afraid after Tamil rebels distributed a leaflet saying they could launch hostilities on Mutur "at any moment."
The contents of the leaflet could not immediately be verified, but Thoufeek said it apologized and told people to immediately leave for their own safety.
The federal government in Colombo was not immediately available to comment.
In violence elsewhere, a Tamil Tiger rebel was killed in a gunbattle on Jaffna peninsula in the volatile north, the military said in a statement Saturday. It also accused separatists of murdering a civilian woman Friday in the eastern town of Batticaloa.
The rebels were not immediately available to comment on the incidents.
Norwegian Ambassador Hans Brattskar on Friday met the Tamil Tigers' political leader, Suppiah Thamilselvan, in the northern rebel stronghold Kilinochchi. The two discussed a recent rash of abductions, the rebels said on their official Web site. No additional details were available.
Hundreds of civilians have been killed or have disappeared in shadowy circumstances since December, when the latest surge of fighting began in earnest.
Someone really needs to tell the "Foreign mediators" that when 1,000 combatants and more than 100 civilians have been killed in 2 1/2 months the cease-fire is over.
Isnt it time we dropped "civilian" in this new world order no one is a civilian, everyone is a target.
Good!
Go Tigers Go!
I wonder what the mooselimbs did to pjss off the Tigers? Maybe tried to convert the Tigers to allah(POA)?
"Go Tigers Go!"
Probably inspired by the success of the Detroit (baseball) Tigers this season.
lt seems to have always been that way, as a heartless condition of basic reality.
So you support terrorism as long as the terrorist are killing the (In your opinion) PC group? Interesting.
If Muslims were Sri Lanka's majority, 130 Tigers would not exist.
Once they achieve majority, its a quick demise for the minority groups in their lands.
Which might be why the Tigers are dealing with the situation before it gets to that point
/s You know as well as I do that it could be real headline any second now...
The Tigers are another despicable terrorist group in my opinion. I visited Sri Lanka twice in the 70's...it was an absolute paradise until the Tamil terrorists started bombing and killing people.
Most of the population is Buddhist.
Well said! Terrorists are terrorists are terrorists.
Religions: Buddhist 69.1%, Muslim 7.6%, Hindu 7.1%, Christian 6.2%, unspecified 10% (2001 census provisional data)
But perhaps more important in this situation:
Sinhala (official and national language) 74%, Tamil (national language) 18%, other 8%
The Tamil minority want ther own autonomous area made up of several provinces. The govt has been favoring the mooselimbs in this regard. The fight is mainly over land, not religion.
Meant to post #15 to you
Don't know beans about those Tamil Tigers but I'm shouting huzzah, keep up the good work. Round up muzzies and send them to a totally muzzie country.
Don't know beans about those Tamil Tigers but I'm shouting huzzah, keep up the good work
You shouldn't be! Terrorism is terrorism is terrorism, no matter who's doing it. If the Tamil Tigers had the chance they kill you with out giving it a second thought.
Learn something.
http://www.tkb.org/Group.jsp?groupID=3623
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)
Aliases: Tamil Tigers
Base of Operation: Sri Lanka
Founding Philosophy: Formed in 1976, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is an active terrorist group that seeks to create a separate state for Sri Lanka’s ethnic Tamil people. This notional state would be comprised of Sri Lanka's northern and eastern provinces, where the Tamil people make up a majority of the population. In the rest of Sri Lanka, the predominantly Buddhist Sinhalese people are the majority ethnic group.
Responding to an upsurge in Sinhalese nationalism that culminated in the declaration of Buddhism as the main religion in Sri Lanka in 1972, the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) political party was created to represent the interests of the Tamil people. During TULF's formative years, a group of young, radical members formed the militant Tamil New Tigers, which became the LTTE in 1976. LTTE has since detached themselves from any association with TULF. In 1984, the Sea Tigers, the naval wing of LTTE, was formed. The Sea Tigers were most recently responsible for the deaths of 19 Sri Lankan Navy personnel who were ambushed in a May 2006 naval engagement.
LTTE physically controls territory in northern and eastern Sri Lanka, mostly in Jaffna District, though boundaries often shift. Through assassinations, bombings, and other terrorist tactics, LTTE targets people who do not support an independent Tamil state. Their victims include policemen, politicians, and even common citizens. After the imposition of martial law on Jaffna District in 1979, LTTE began targeting the Sri Lankan military. The group is concerned with it status as the primary Tamil terrorist organization and considers members of rival Tamil radical groups to be legitimate targets as well.
An LTTE ambush of a military patrol that killed 13 in 1983 is seen as the first battle of the civil war in Sri Lanka, which has yet to be resolved. In 1999, it was estimated that this conflict had already claimed 60,000 lives.
Good post but seems some on this thread would rather not be confused with the facts.
I know. I don't understand it.
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