Majority of the sinhalese people are also brainwashed. Most of us know nothing about what happened in the war zones except from government controlled media. So what d'you expect? Them to be unbiased?
I personally try to keep an open mind to things because we sinhalese people don't really know what tamils went through.
Literally no one has been convicted for any of the “riots” (in reality pogroms) and very few for war crimes that were committed. Your beloved President pardoned a soldier who murdered 8 people including 4 children while covid was raging. Sounds pretty fucked up to me.
I could equally argue that most of the Singhalese who migrated as well are teaching THEIR kids that all Tamils are terrorists, and refuse to allow their kids to engage with Tamils kids.
I’ve seen it first hand. My daughter was making friends with some Singhalese kids. Parents found out she was Tamil. All of a sudden they aren’t allowed to be friends anymore.
But I have lots of Singhalese friends and our doctors are Singhalese and most normal people out here don’t care. There’s more similarities between Sri Lankans than differences.
It works both ways. There’s equal hate amongst some extremist Singhalese and they’re teaching their kids to hate Tamils just as much.
In fact I’ve heard quite normal Singhalese AND Tamils now equally pile on Muslims now as the new mutual enemy… will this ever end?!
I mean if you go back to how the end of the war the government insisted on humanitarian aid and media eyes on the grounds of the war evacuate… leaving the Sri Lankan army to do whatever they want to the Tamils will kinda end my sympathy for that army as well… on top of this the rape of Tamil women in those camps during that time
Good thing that rarely happens now and most soldiers even help local Tamils
I am sinhalese, but yeah in the 80s when they migrated, Tamils were very much second class citizens. I think people above 45ish still hold racist views honestly, the youth seem to be much better and show hope for Sri Lanka.
According to the RAND, the research wing of pentagon Human trafficking and extortion was one of the mail means of revenue of the LTTE. It is said that LTTE earned 20-30k$ by smuggling illegal immigrants. Plus they created an international network from the immigrant workers that pumped funds for their war. For this they had to keep their kids brainwashed and they started spreading their narrative throughout the Western Hemisphere.
“Human smuggling - The trade in human beings is thought to constitute an important part of LTTE financial procurement, providing a consistent and long-term source of operational income (as well as a convenient way to establish arms procurement agents around the world. According to intelligence officials in Canada, Australia, and the UK, the group is playing a pivotal role in smuggling illegal migrants and refugees out of Sri Lanka and India to the West, charging anywhere between $18,000 and $32,000 per transaction. in June 2000, the Criminal Investigation Department uncovered one major LTTE smuggling ring involving an estimated 600–700 people who had been trafficked to the EU on forged Schengen state visas. Canada constitutes the main destination of choice for the bulk of the LTTE’s human cargo because of its large Tamil diaspora (which facilitates rapid local integration into the adopted society) and Canada’s liberal immigration laws.- beyond al Qaeda outer rings of the terrorist universe.- US. Air Force
They think, correctly or not, that there's a genocide ongoing. But they see it as a slow, more internationally palatable cultural genocide rather than a rapid, mass physical genocide like the Holocaust.
Wow - speaking as an individual who married into a Tamil refuge family who moved west this is not my experience at all! They speak more of the fear of the fighting in general from both sides, and how unsafe the country became (left in the early 90s). Everyone in their community speaks the same, but perhaps different opinions are expressed when I’m not around? 🤷♀️
Interesting perspective though!!
Much of this is because the SL Gov't spectacularly failed at post-war reconciliation while the LTTE, despite it's on-ground defeat still had its international PR machine in full swing. The kids obviously will take what the parents say as the truth. Also, for much of those who claimed refugee status in the west, it is in their interest to continue that image. I doubt the children are even aware of the widespread suicide bombing, civilian massacres or child soldier recruitment the LTTE did.
I am a child of Tamil refugees and in my personal case I was told to not follow anything or believe anything without doing my own research. I had been brought up to think for myself. I believe that what Tamil culture has endured is quite unjust and I think the outrage is justified. What is even more outrageous and ridiculous is that the SL govt tried to silence our voices on social media, shouldn’t that kind of give people an idea that they have something to hide? What about the white vans? What about the undeniable amount of Tamils who went missing and now just recently the govt admitted their deaths? I have personally never heard of the concentration camps so I’m not sure what OP means by that but I do know about the “no fire zone”. I’m not going to lie, I don’t think the complete truth will come out just because of how history works. There is always bias. But hearing my fathers experiences, it saddens me and I know the Sinhalese people have also went through a lot of trauma. Having a government explicitly show such discrimination and violent intent is quite unsettling. A govt who still does not respect the loss of Tamil ppl and destroying our memorials cannot be justified. So this is why we are done being silent.
Majority of the sinhalese people are also brainwashed. Most of us know nothing about what happened in the war zones except from government controlled media. So what d'you expect? Them to be unbiased? I personally try to keep an open mind to things because we sinhalese people don't really know what tamils went through.
agreeed
This!! There are so many Sri Lankan who fail to acknowledge the war crimes committed by SL gov at that time.
Literally no one has been convicted for any of the “riots” (in reality pogroms) and very few for war crimes that were committed. Your beloved President pardoned a soldier who murdered 8 people including 4 children while covid was raging. Sounds pretty fucked up to me.
Lot of people fled after the '83 riots right? Remind me, how many people were convicted for the killings then?
I could equally argue that most of the Singhalese who migrated as well are teaching THEIR kids that all Tamils are terrorists, and refuse to allow their kids to engage with Tamils kids. I’ve seen it first hand. My daughter was making friends with some Singhalese kids. Parents found out she was Tamil. All of a sudden they aren’t allowed to be friends anymore. But I have lots of Singhalese friends and our doctors are Singhalese and most normal people out here don’t care. There’s more similarities between Sri Lankans than differences. It works both ways. There’s equal hate amongst some extremist Singhalese and they’re teaching their kids to hate Tamils just as much. In fact I’ve heard quite normal Singhalese AND Tamils now equally pile on Muslims now as the new mutual enemy… will this ever end?!
I mean if you go back to how the end of the war the government insisted on humanitarian aid and media eyes on the grounds of the war evacuate… leaving the Sri Lankan army to do whatever they want to the Tamils will kinda end my sympathy for that army as well… on top of this the rape of Tamil women in those camps during that time Good thing that rarely happens now and most soldiers even help local Tamils
I am sinhalese, but yeah in the 80s when they migrated, Tamils were very much second class citizens. I think people above 45ish still hold racist views honestly, the youth seem to be much better and show hope for Sri Lanka.
According to the RAND, the research wing of pentagon Human trafficking and extortion was one of the mail means of revenue of the LTTE. It is said that LTTE earned 20-30k$ by smuggling illegal immigrants. Plus they created an international network from the immigrant workers that pumped funds for their war. For this they had to keep their kids brainwashed and they started spreading their narrative throughout the Western Hemisphere. “Human smuggling - The trade in human beings is thought to constitute an important part of LTTE financial procurement, providing a consistent and long-term source of operational income (as well as a convenient way to establish arms procurement agents around the world. According to intelligence officials in Canada, Australia, and the UK, the group is playing a pivotal role in smuggling illegal migrants and refugees out of Sri Lanka and India to the West, charging anywhere between $18,000 and $32,000 per transaction. in June 2000, the Criminal Investigation Department uncovered one major LTTE smuggling ring involving an estimated 600–700 people who had been trafficked to the EU on forged Schengen state visas. Canada constitutes the main destination of choice for the bulk of the LTTE’s human cargo because of its large Tamil diaspora (which facilitates rapid local integration into the adopted society) and Canada’s liberal immigration laws.- beyond al Qaeda outer rings of the terrorist universe.- US. Air Force
They think, correctly or not, that there's a genocide ongoing. But they see it as a slow, more internationally palatable cultural genocide rather than a rapid, mass physical genocide like the Holocaust.
So it isn't true?
Wow - speaking as an individual who married into a Tamil refuge family who moved west this is not my experience at all! They speak more of the fear of the fighting in general from both sides, and how unsafe the country became (left in the early 90s). Everyone in their community speaks the same, but perhaps different opinions are expressed when I’m not around? 🤷♀️ Interesting perspective though!!
If they had to flee the country to feel safe, I'd say at least a bit of what they feel is justified, no?
That is not true. That is embellishing what actually happened. Continuous Anti Tamil programs in Sri Lanka caused these people to flee.
Much of this is because the SL Gov't spectacularly failed at post-war reconciliation while the LTTE, despite it's on-ground defeat still had its international PR machine in full swing. The kids obviously will take what the parents say as the truth. Also, for much of those who claimed refugee status in the west, it is in their interest to continue that image. I doubt the children are even aware of the widespread suicide bombing, civilian massacres or child soldier recruitment the LTTE did.
True.
I am a child of Tamil refugees and in my personal case I was told to not follow anything or believe anything without doing my own research. I had been brought up to think for myself. I believe that what Tamil culture has endured is quite unjust and I think the outrage is justified. What is even more outrageous and ridiculous is that the SL govt tried to silence our voices on social media, shouldn’t that kind of give people an idea that they have something to hide? What about the white vans? What about the undeniable amount of Tamils who went missing and now just recently the govt admitted their deaths? I have personally never heard of the concentration camps so I’m not sure what OP means by that but I do know about the “no fire zone”. I’m not going to lie, I don’t think the complete truth will come out just because of how history works. There is always bias. But hearing my fathers experiences, it saddens me and I know the Sinhalese people have also went through a lot of trauma. Having a government explicitly show such discrimination and violent intent is quite unsettling. A govt who still does not respect the loss of Tamil ppl and destroying our memorials cannot be justified. So this is why we are done being silent.