Topic started by AJ (@ on-tor-blr-a58-02-1061.look.ca) on Thu May 22 10:33:45 .
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels donated 10 truckloads of rice on Wednesday for victims of heavy flooding in what was deemed a goodwill gesture toward the country's Sinhalese majority.

on Wednesday, the state-run Daily News reported that the Tigers were arranging shipments of rice from their areas in the north-east to the flood-stricken regions in the Sinhalese-dominated south.
"In an unprecedented gesture signifying goodwill and reconciliation, the LTT has come forward to organise flood relief," the Daily News said.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=3&art_id=vn20030521133016322C949059&set_id=1

Responses:

• From: Skanthavelu Nadarajah (@ edtntnt11-port-202.dial.telus.net) on: Thu May 22 11:04:34 EDT 2003
  
  AJ,
  That is a very nice article. May God bless these LTTE soldiers for their kind donation.
  
  
• From: Skanthavelu Nadarajah (@ edtntnt3-port-154.dial.telus.net) on: Thu May 22 11:51:17 EDT 2003
  
  Why do I ever bother with talking to AJ???
  
  
• From: Dool (@ proxy.ozonline.com.au) on: Sat May 24 01:16:20 EDT 2003
  
  read this....
  http://www.dailynews.lk/2003/05/23/new02.html
  
  
• From: Kotiya Paiyan (@ aca21328.ipt.aol.com) on: Thu May 29 00:33:00 EDT 2003
  
  What a noble sacrifice. LTTE got that rice from pointing guns at NE rice farmers. My eyes are welling with tears for such a noble gesture.
  
  
• From: Skanthavelu Nadarajah (@ edtntnt7-port-208.dial.telus.net) on: Thu May 29 02:45:12 EDT 2003
  
  aayubOvan Nisala! s@pa saneepa kohomadha?
  
  
• From: JayT (@ kln2-t3-1.mcbone.net) on: Tue Jun 10 09:56:56 EDT 2003
  
  Dey Kotte!
  
  "LTTE got that rice from pointing guns at NE rice farmers"
  
  thank tigers, NE rice farmers are still alive!Without any tension with the stupid govnt.! Now they got the fair price for their hard work!
  
  
  
• From: lp (@ 63.minneapolis-09rh15rt.mn.dial-access.att.net) on: Wed Jun 11 09:31:28 EDT 2003
  
  Since this goodwil gesture, Tiger Terrorists have killed over 20 Tamils.
  
  Interesting when murderers decides to share food that they can give to their own hungry people, playing for international politics.
  
  I would have appreciated this act if they had refrained from further killing and kidnapping tamil boys.
  
  
• From: tigerboy (@ ) on: Mon Apr 19 09:31:54
  
  Would President Kumaratunge be able to give another interview to CNN?
  
  Kumaragunte - Friend or Evil?
  Hahahahaha....
  
  The following interview done by CNN is from the following page:
  http://www.uthr.org/Statements/cnn%20transcripts.htm
  
  VERJEE: If I can just interrupt here -- I am sorry -- for a moment. I just want to raise another point that while you were doing all these things, Human Rights Watch's report for 2001 has criticized your government for the way you treat Tamil civilians in the north and the east of the country. The reports are that they've been discriminated against, there are restrictions on the freedom of the movement, arbitrary arrests, abuse at the hands of government, and army and police imposing forced labor. Could you give me a brief response to that?
  
  KUMARATUNGA: Lot of it is lies. What is that report? By whom is it written?
  
  VERJEE: It's written by Human Rights Watch. It's the 2001 Country Report for Sri Lanka.
  
  KUMARATUNGA: The Human Rights Watch, what is that? I don't know, because the Geneva Convention on Human Rights is the UN Convention, which looks after the human right situations in countries all over the world. And various complaints are made to it by the Tiger organizations, by various organizations that are working for the Tigers. And they have the widest possible supervision, monitoring of what goes on in our country, as in many others. And their reports do not say this. I don't know what this Human Rights Watch is.
  
  VERJEE: It's a London-based organization...
  
  KUMARATUNGA: I do not want...
  
  VERJEE: ...Madam President, but we...
  
  KUMARATUNGA: It could be a Tiger organization. I don't know what it is.
  
  VERJEE: ...a short break...
  
  KUMARATUNGA: I am telling you that...
  
  VERJEE: Go ahead. Go ahead.
  
  KUMARATUNGA: Can I speak?
  
  VERJEE: Please do.
  
  KUMARATUNGA: Yes. These kind of mushroom organizations have all kinds of reports. I am not willing to reply to those, but I would like to refer you to the reports of the Geneva Human Rights Conference to the University Teachers on Human Rights, most of whom are Tamil teachers who had to flee Jaffna because the Tigers were trying to kill them. They're a totally independent nongovernmental organization.
  
  They bring out reports every month or every two months, and they're very appreciative of the fact that my government has been able to completely control the human rights violations, which were massively done under the last government. But I must say there are the exceptions too, because we have in the forces and in the police, people who were trained under the last government where human rights violations were abundant during 17 years of that government's rule.
  
  We have been able to take action against 950 policemen and army personnel who were known to have violated human rights of Sinhalese as well as Tamil people under the last government, but we still have a few people left in the forces who do...
  
  VERJEE: Well, Madam President...
  
  KUMARATUNGA: ... this kind of the exceptionally...
  
  VERJEE: Well, thank you...
  
  KUMARATUNGA: ...and we take action every time we know about it.
  
  VERJEE: We're going to have more with President Chandrika Kumaratunga. We will continue our conversation. You're watching Q&A.
  
  

Want to post a response?