Chucking the Dragon; chucking the reality of the pearl…

First I saw this book; my purchase decision solely lied on its beautiful design. The chaotic, unconventional graphic design approach mesmerized me and it’s really rare to find such experimentation in a paperback novel format in Sri Lankan Literature. Second point which captured my eye was that even he appeared in a pen name, the author stated that he’s an Anandian, which is also happen to be my school and the first thing that popped to my head was “you are kidding me”, because producing this kind of art piece isnot a mean feat and I was not acknowledged about it all this time until I read the introduction of the book.

The story revolves around the life experiences of a high class drug addictyouthwho puts the period to his drug addiction and tries to move on with his life amidst of uncertain social, political and cultural landscape of war torned Sri Lankan suburbia and clash of his ideologies with the system. This was the first novel which came to my occasional reading experiences which features one unusual combination; high class society in Colombo dealing with the experiences of war, which is for me was nonexistent at that time or simply their opinion was regarded as high minded display of pretentious “human rights” or “party politics” mentality.  Here the protagonist of the story “Mark”, a youth from a well off yet unconventional family has friends of the middle class well as lower class and he studied at government school and reading for the degree in university of Colombo who genuinely sympathizes with the trauma and debacle that’s Sri Lankan middle class is facing not just during the war but even right now.

Pro leftist point of view (which is not my favorite political belief to speak) is amply visible and justified through characters’ struggle in “the survival of the fittest” capitalistic system to survive on a daily basis. One of the key thinking of the author which I also believe in is that ’89 riots and government crackdown of JVP rebels cost Sri Lanka most of the people of our elder generation who are creative, rebellious and stand up with a straightened backbone for what they genuinely believe. It changed the whole political, social and cultural landscape of this country adversely in years to come and the consequences we experiences today is due to the space left by all those vanished intellectual souls who were determined enough to attempt change.

I like how the author bought pop cultural elements in snippets and captions throughout the book. The grungy design approach also follows the whole aura which is created by the philosophy of Nirvana, Rage Against The Machine, Fight Club & Trainspotting Scripts etc… How we see the world in our generation is strongly guided by these cultural elements nowadays due to the fact that post MTV and internet era have pushed the boundaries of knowledge and aesthetic experiences irrespective of which world we belong to. The author has managed to capture this insight but sometimes went too far in statements such as “industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails” rather than plainly saying the band name without overstressing on the knowledge of his music taste.  Nonetheless the effort to understand the current situation in the Sri Lankan political, societal and cultural landscape through pop cultural influences without discarding them as just what people like when they were teenagers is much commendable.

Our protagonist; Mark’s ex- girlfriend Jane who never gives up hope and belief on him till the end of the story gives a touch to the whole dark story.  It also tends to make the readers believe that  the fact that affection and true love is not dead and vanished yet in this capitalistic system and leaves a glimpse of hope that humanity is still visible and can be found if one is ready to open his/her eyes and look around with an open heart. The story also shows the much grave tragedy of the youth who usestheir bodily pleasures as a mechanism to runway form their failures, fears and pains and how it turns in toan emotional addiction and grave societal problem in an indirect way.

Before winding up, the credit must be given to the publishers, Sri Serendipity publishing House for taking the adventure of this aesthetically as well as ideologically innovative yet harmful project (due to the insecurities of holding contradictory viewpoints in present day society) and to successfully finishing the journey and gifting the Sri Lankan readers with an awesomely looking, rich literature piece to cleanse their hungry minds. May there be more words and wits for the author; Mark Wilde (whoever you are) to write the best about the bad and to make this world a much safer, happier and healthy place for all to live.

What if the Nazis Won?

What would have happened if the Axis actually won the world war, where they succeeded in defeating the Soviets through operation Barbarossa and then afterward moved on to force England to surrender? Obviously the way in which we will be learning history would be much different.There is so much we could discuss on how the world would be after a Nazi Victory but here i just want to address a few points on the way in which historical events and personalities are perceived.  Would Hitler still be called an Evil Dictator? Will the Allied Forces still be hailed as those who fought for freedom and democracy?  Would the holocaust remembered and commemorated?

I’ve heard a saying that the history is written by those who control the present, and if the Germans and their allies had actually won the war then the way in which we would be seeing the so called democratic and western powers would have been much different. For example how would they interpret the dropping of Nuclear Bomb over Hiroshima and Nagasaki? It would be  depicted off as an example of American brutality and USA may very well be labeled equivalent to how Nazis are now. We now learn of internment camps such as Auswitch where millions of jews were killed, but speak rarely of how the American government rounded up Japanese Americans in internment camps seeing them as a collaborators with Japan. By all means we cannot compare this with what went through inside the hundreds of camps which the Nazis built to systematically eliminate the Jews but the point is that if the Axis won the war the way in which world history is interpreted would be much more different.  

A Nazi Properganda Poster says in Ukrainian: “The oppressors ran away and they will not return!”. When Germans captured Ukraine those who suffered under Stalin welcomed the German occupation.

We speak much about the Nazi war crimes and how Soviets murdered in cold blood, but we rarely talk about the war crimes committed by the Allied forces. Most of those who were alleged of these were not tried or not punished the way in which they did for the Axis during the Nuremberg trials . If the Axis were in power it would obviously be vice versa.

The theory is simple; those who are in power control much of the past and future, and this is clearly seen in the aftermath of various conflicts across the globe. Its quite evident how different communities and countries perceived the Cold War, Vietnam War and even the war we fought here. It’s interesting how information can be controlled and perceptions are created, and ultimately the heroes and villains are defined at the end of each conflict. In my view the line between good and bad are very grey and it can also boil down to individual perceptions and understandings.

Just after Poland was invaded by Germany and Warsaw was just a blazing inferno, President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt who at that point declared that they would not want to enter into the war made an excellent statement about this..

"This nation will remain a neutral nation, but I cannot ask that every American remain neutral in thought as well. Even a neutral has a right to take account of facts. Even a neutral cannot be asked to close his mind or his conscience."

Stay Home!

We told them to stay at home. We told them to take care of things. Let us handle all the hard work because only we can.

Stay at home, cook, clean and look after the kids. And they believed us because they believed we knew what was best for them. So did we.

But then one day we went to war. Many of us died, many of us remained on the frontlines. But back at home, there were no one to make the bread or the bullets and guns that we so desperately needed to fight.

So we called on them. We asked them to come and help us. 'Man' the factories, bake the bread for we were too busy fighting. They came and did their part. They put on the work overalls and the trousers and did what we told them they could not. While we fought, they mimicked our roles in life.

But once the battle was over, we realized that perhaps we didn't give them as much credit as we should have. We told our daughters, wives and mothers that staying at home was all they were good for, but they proved us wrong.

Since 'manning' up in that Second War they have remained at our sides rather than in the sidelines.

War in Iraq

Invading Iraq was all about the oil. That's what everyone was saying. But recently I began to think that this wasn't the case, that there was actually a far simpler reason for the invasion. I didn't have any evidence, but now I do.

Just imagine you're running the World's foremost superpower. To maintain your prominence you use just about every trick in the book. You've been in this position for such a long time, that many believe you are untouchable. Suddenly in a seemingly absurd move, major locations of said nation are under attack.

I can tell you I was surprised at the news. Someone told me "The US is under attack". I was like "yeah yeah whatever". But when I switched on my TV it was shocking to see it actually happening.

So naturally those running the US couldn't possibly let this pass. Doing so would be a great sign of weaknesses and unacceptable to the local populace. So they went after the culprits and headed to Afghanistan. But they failed to capture Bin Laden who escaped. This seemingly appears as a failure.

To prove their dominance they go in to Iraq. I mean it's a bit strange that after all this time suddenly Iraq is developing weapons of mass destruction and now it's time to invade? But if it was about the oil... well it had been there for ages. So suddenly they go in and take over. The message is clear, we can and will invade if we have to.

Both invasions were the result of defensive (in the sense of maintaining prominence) measures designed to show a sign of strength. If it hadn't been for the 9/11 attacks, I doubt any military action would have taken place. Not to mention both invasions have been costly in terms of manpower and expenses. However it seems like the damage to the invincible image has been done considering the number of nations actively defying US influence.

So what's the evidence for dispelling the oil motive? Well it turns out that since 2003 the only oil extraction in Iraq has been undertaken by China, a strong economic rival to the US. Unless major players in the US government have stakes in the Chinese firms, they would not benefit.

They Must be MAD

Nuclear Weapons, Nuclear Enrichment and Nuclear Programmes are something we hear a lot about these days. With states such as Iran and North Korea trying to develop their own warheads coming to much international condemnation, it seems everyone agrees that Nukes are a bad thing.

Nukes were definitely a good thing to have at one point... namely in 1945 when the US was the only nation to possess them. It gave incredible power that could not be matched by any nation. But once the Soviets developed (or stole) their own in 1953 it didn't seem like such a great idea anymore.

Gone was that Ace Up The Sleeve... instead we had Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). Once a nuke was launched the other would retaliate. It is for this reason that no nuclear weapons have been fired on any other nation since 1945. Not to mention that the horrid immediate devastation and after effects are something nobody wants to see.

So when there were only two, Gorby (Gorbachev) wanted to reduce the number of warheads with that Nuclear Proliferation Treaty. A smart move since the number of nukes possessed during the early 90's was enough to blow the world up several times over and constant production of warheads was costly, more so for the USSR.

But now we see Obama on the path to try and eliminate nukes. But the truth is these actions are to benefit the US. Why? Simply because in a world without Nukes the US will have a much better competitive edge over other nations. The power of a Nuclear Weapon gives a smaller state like North Korea the ability to inflict tremendous damage without needing the support of a large army. The reverse is true for the United States.

So naturally the US wants them out. But is this really feasible? If there is a way to construct the weapons, then surely someone will always manufacture it somehow. In fact with more nations having nuclear weapons, the chance of actual large scale wars is significantly reduced as "Nuclear Deterrence" goes beyond simple 'MAD'. In fact this is one large factor to why the Cold War stayed Cold. In a way they are truly peacemakers.

So can we ever rid the world of Nuclear Weapons? I highly doubt it. Campaigning for their removal seems like a total waste of time.

SpongBob SquarePants, LTTE and the NewBorns...

Well, the Tigers are finally being defeated...at least militarily. It sounds too good to be true, but its happening. Media reports over the exodus, unmanned aerial videos and breaking news updates are all over the television. For the first time in my life I saw three TV presenters saluting before they start their show on state television. If it weren’t for Ahmenidjad’s rather controversial statements at the Anti-Racist Summit news would still be the top story in all major international television channels.

Ah…this war. Yes, this war is older than me, just like anyone in their early twenties I also grew up with it. Of course the battles didn’t affect us directly but the constant fear and distress always tormented our minds. Check points became an essential part of the urban landscape, a routine part of travelling. Bombs would just go off and life would just continue…

In the next few hours many will perish, regardless of their color, race or religion. Quit a few people will be counting their last hours in life. But at the same time there will also be cries…cries of newborns, a generation waking up to a land without war. I don’t know…. may be I am too optimistic but its really hard to let this moment go…a thought which seems so unreal but yet seem to materialize before our eyes. I am feeling jealous of those newborns...bastards...! But who knows what trauma they will grow up to? SpongeBob SquarePants dubbed in Sinhala??

A Cigarette a Day Keeps the Terrorists Away…

Well, anything from a baby diaper to men’s undergarments that the government could impose tax on will help fight off the terrorists. Yes the hefty defense budget which has done miracles for the current government will need its yearly dose of collected tax money to fend off Prabha and the gang. And I have no problem with that, but I guess alcohol and cigarettes in particular play a major role as they are the loyal uninterrupted tax revenue generator for any cash strapped government.

I was not so surprised to walk in to a shop and find out that a cigarette has been increased by 2 rupees. Alcohol has also been increased some even by 50 rupees, but as anyone would guess there will not be any significant decrease in consumption. On the contrary more people are flocking into bars and local restaurants to enjoy the “Awrudu Spirit”. It’s the ideal inelastic good which the government could bully as much as they want and still win the hearts of the masses by doing so.

Yes, the deadly and cursed cigarette and alcohol companies bring nothing but dismay and tragedy to our society, its them who create so much dismay in rural households, its them who thrive on profits while seeing people die. Ah…the badass multinationals and the corrupt idiotic consumers. Lets teach them a lesson, lets increase the tax, not because we don’t have money to run the country, noooh way! Because we really need to teach those bastards a lesson..!
 

 

Well, next time you light one up or pour a small drink just think about the positive contribution. Btw Calypso sucks! its a freaking cocktail drink but the damn thing is still in the market and is often sold off to unsuspecting consumers who come in search of  normal white rum!

Does India Really care about Sri Lanka Cnt..

This post is actually a follow up to my previous post on this matter, which was was published couple of months back. The events which unfolded in the past few days really brought the matter back into lime light. The threat of Karuna Nidi and rest of the Tamil Nadu MPs seemed have gotten the Indian central government into a political nightmare.

I don’t want to get down into the details of why or should Tamil Nadu be acting this way, but I would rather look at the matter on my personal perception with regards to the pressure on the two governments. The way I see it the two governments have met up with a deadlock. I don’t know how the things will be sorted out. But if the Indian Government doesn’t put any tangible pressure for a cease fire in the coming days they will be up for some serious political turmoil. As Karuna Nidi and the rest of the tamil MPs have said on last 14th , If the Indian Government is unable to get the GOSL into a cease fire agreement within 15 days they would quit the parliament unbalancing the Congress coalition.

On the other hand the only thing that keeps Mahinda’s government alive is their continuous victories over the battle front. So the last thing they want is to abort the military operations. With the current phase of victories the public opinion seems to favor the government despite the failing economy and living conditions. Also if he bows down to the Indian pressure the public will drastically loose faith in him and he would ultimately loose all his credibility. So it would be quite interesting to see what will happen in the coming days…

Delon diss M.I.A.; The TRUTH and the TALE…

Artist should stand up against the discrimination, injustice and they should communicate certain prevailing issues to the society they behave in and as I think that is a main social responsibility of any artist in any country. but in this case things are happening vice -versa.
Delon says he’s standing up against the discrimination which induced by the L.T.T.E. where as M.I.A. is a hardcore supporter of this terrorist group and says they are “FREEDOM FIGHTERS” because her farther used to be a L.T.T.E. supporter who fled from the country in 1980s. But in this case both doesn’t have the right to express such an “affection” (I don’t know may be) for their respective people or nationality or whatever because now both of them are living outside the country and both are having the freedom and becoming successful doing what they like to do; the music. I don’t think that somebody who’s outside from the country can feel the exact pain of the people who are living in Sri Lankan border villages or the pain of the refugees and displaced or the fear of the ordinary people who are traveling to or in Colombo by public transport such as buses and trains. Can they feel what we feel or are they using it for their cheap publicity gimmick.
If they are caring artist who truly think about their country, then they should put down all those cheap narrow mindsets and use their music to communicate the real issue and bring all Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims and make them understand each other to enhance the ethnic harmony in this war toned country.
But now what is happening is that all so called patriotic assholes( both Sinhalese and Tamils) viciously glamorize this incident and turned this to a big controversy and they are putting more and more hay (or may be petrol or diesel I suppose, because crude oil is cheap in the world market) to the burning fire.

Defense Columns; for that Weekly Dose of War

For any one who get their hands on some local newspapers on a weekend, its nothing but an action packed drama unfolding. Of course I don’t know whether it’s something to be proud or not, but the content is set up just to thrill you off. The war which intensifies day by day in north and the terror attacks that have gripped Colombo have made the Defense reports quite interesting. Of course any regular internet user would be able to swfitly get the latest updates from various sites and defense blogs, but the masses most of the time depend heavily on these columns to get an analysis over the week's warfront situation. It all starts with the local version of “Early Edition” with all Sunday Sinhala medium newspapers being available form Saturday morning onwards.

Well, I am not a thorough reader since my enthusiastic thirst for dedicated reading simply started to decay after it was replaced by other interests. But the short breather I get during a Saturday morning hangover is mostly devoted for some news paper gazing. After a quick glance through the main page it’s straight into the defense column. The varying contrasts you can find on the local Sinhala and English medium newspapers on defense reporting are quite interesting. Of course the Sri Lankan press seems to be heartfully following one of the basic lessons in marketing, being Customer Oriented. This is one thing that the press seems to have perfected, at least on defense reporting. Why I say so is that most of the time the newspapers present the news in a way target readership would like to view regardless of how further it can be from the actual incident.

The Sinhala medium papers are all out against the tiger terrorists and one could hardly find any Blunders or a Diabolical committed from the warfront. Whether it be Lankaadeepa or Lakbima, everyone (at least the defense writers) seem to be reporting how great we did on the battlefront, no matter how politically motivated the paper is. This is in sharp contrast to their English medium counterparts, who some times seem to have a soft spot for Mr.Prabhakaran and the Tamil Rebels. For instance the defense reporters from Lankadeepa and Sunday Times, Sunil Jayasinghe and Ikbaal Athas seem to be having two varying and highly contrasting point of views over their analysis on what happened on that week though they are from the same publishing group; Wijaya News Papers.This trend i suppose is mainly to cater to the tastes of thier target audiences and to offer whtat they would like to see.

Iqbaal Athas according to my view is one of the best veteran defense reporters out there, we all know about his defense reporting and his first hand information which he claims to be getting from highly placed sources. So if you feel that some times tamilnet might be saying at least a bit of a truth then it might be the time that you get that week’s copy of Sunday Times as Athas’s defense column is straight and in your face about some of the blunders that may have happened in the battle front. But then again some of his reporting raises the highly debatable question of being responsible journalism. Well I am not here to judge the ethical aspect of defense reporting (which may be a topic for another post), but I’ve got to say the varying contrasts are further visible in some of the Sinhala newspapers also.

Defense reporters like Thissa Ravindra Perera from Rivira and Keerthi Warnakulasooriya from Divaina are most of the time hardlined and all out against terrorism. Though Thissa’s Column most of the time seem to be a bit exaggerated, one thing I hold high about the Divaiyna defense column is that it features some interesting attempts on investigative journalism.

The best defense column by far for me is the LakbimaNews defense column by Ranga Jayasooriya. His column is quite interesting to read, touches upon much smaller details and has an attractive narrative. He narrates many incidents such as smaller skirmishes and fierce encounters with first hand details. His criticisms are strong and to the point, and don’t seem raise much controversy as Iqbaal’s.

To finish of I must say that this post is just a pen down of my opinions on local defense columns and only have touched upon some of the papers that I get my hands into. Also not being literate in Tamil language has prevented me from citing those opinions. The war has reached its peaks; refugee crisis, terrorist attacks and Army’s advancement to the tiger hinterland have all made defense reporting more significant than ever before.

Does India REALLY care about Sri Lanka??

Some time back a NDTV program called Walk the Talk, featured the President Mahinda Rajapakse with veteran journalist Shekhar Gupta. Everything went well until he posed the harsh question. The question that many Indians would have had in their minds.."deporting the IPKF(Indian Peace keeping Force)". Shekhar digs into the matter and asks why they were treated so badly by the Sri Lankan people. May be due to the fact that wants to keep India happy or due to utter lack of intelligence, Mahinda shrewdly hides the facts which made IPKF so unpopular in SL at that time. He goes on to state that it was opportunistic politicians etc.,but the real matters which led to such unpopularity he fails to highlight.

Many Sri Lankas are aware how India interfered with the Sri Lankan conflict during the 80s. From training LTTE carders in TamilNadu, to interfering with the Vadamarachchi Mission and dropping "Relief Aid" over Jaffna in a show of force, Indian state had done more than enough to tick Sri lankans off. And when they heard that the ongoing mission to capture Prbha will be aborted and an Indian Peace Keeping Force would enter the country it really went off. Of course at that time there also were opportunistic opposition politicians who tried to make matters worse by tagging extreme nationalistic ideologies to the matter but at the end of the day it was apparent that IPKF was not welcomed with open arms by most Sri Lankans.

"Supplies of Aid and Food stocks being dropped over Jaffna by Indian Air Force"

Of course there can be logical explanations to why this chain of events unfolded,but the fact of the matter is that non-of these events were highlighted by the President in an attempt to appease the Indian State. Of course his stance cannot be criticized also because even now India can decide where this conflict could go and who can come out winners at the end. The SL government is doing all they can putting forward various offerings(The Lanka IOC, the Trinco Oil Refineries, Mannar Oil Exploration rights etc..) to keep the Indian State on their side but it seems that Indian State's ultra motive is still not about Sri Lanka but about their own well being and appeasing TamilNadu Politicians.

This week's newspapers were littered with the news of three top Indian officials visiting Colombo for highlevel meetings with government officials. Namely Indian Security Advisor M.K Narayan,the Defense Secretary Vijay Singh and Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon. We can all believe that this quick rush to meet the SL government officials is not solely because they would want to discuss the SAAR summit arrangements?? No way! Even the much popular Indian News broadcaster NDTV highlighted the fact that this hasty meeting is more about the ongoing conflict in the North than anything else.

Why would India want to rush into diplomatic meetings with the Sri lankan government at a crucial stage of the 4th Eeelam War, when the Sri Lankan Army holds an upper hand in the conflict keeping the Tigers on the defensive?? Of course there should be a political solution to this conflict but the main matter is that we should not give terrorism time to breathe and rejuvenate themselves because of our own foolish mistakes. Its up to the state to make sure that the ongoing offensives against terrorism do not become another failed "Operation Liberation"

The commanders of "Operation Liberation" commonly known as "Vadamarachchi Operation". From left to right: Lt Col. Vipul Boteju, Lt Col. Sarath Jayawardane, Col. Wijaya Wimalaratne, Brig. Denzil Kobbekaduwa and Maj Gotabaya Rajapakse [1987, Jaffna].

You Tube Videos of Walk the Talk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKZ_KO8AEVk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJxCIuReoi8

The ultra racist JHU does it again

The image below is a poster that was put up by the JHU, which because of some karmic misfortune of the Sri Lankan people has become a political force.

Note the fine print which says "idiriyatama yawu helayini blah blah blah"- if Champika Ranawaka and his assortment of racist bull frogs don't already know. Our armed forces are composed of more than just the Sinhalese, large numbers of Burghers, Malays, Moors and even Tamils are engaged in fighting to save the country and the civilians from terrorism.

It is exactly this kind of ill advised, illogical and blatantly racist propaganda that gives Sri Lanka so much bad press.

These poster boys for nationalism that go about branding people traitors and patriots should take a long hard look at themselves in the future, before calling anyone names.

Daily Mirror Mirrored

well how many bomb blasts did take place??

Ok ok.. we get the message daily mirror.. dont have to post the same news every few seconds....

well this may be a technical mishap .but humor aside..it stands as an ironical testament to how gruesome and violent terrorism can be...

Civillian Bloodbath

Unfortunately this is a rather delayed response to the bus bombs at Moratuwa and Kandy on Friday, unfortunate because we have had to witness the said incident at all. In a conventional combat scenario we should not have to deal with such attacks, but unfortunately the reality in Sri Lanka is such that these indiscriminate civilian attacks are becoming more and more commonplace.

Personally I believe that the objectives of the LTTE that orchestrates these attacks are threefold;


1. Whip up anti Tamil sentiment and a subsequent backlash against the Tamil communities living in predominantly Sinhala neighborhoods.

It is unbelievable that the vociferous Tamil diaspora is largely silent over this extremely dangerous and inhumane course of action plotted be their so called freedom fighters. Not only are innocent civilians belonging to all ethnic groups in Sri Lanka killed and maimed in these attacks, the LTTE willingly and if not deliberately chooses to put the lives of thousands of other Tamil civilians at risk.

2. Divert the concentration of the security forces towards the south

The large numbers of army and STF soldiers that are deployed in the theater of battle in the North would have to be withdrawn to ensure the safety of civilians in the south, in wake of such attacks. Which would dilute the war effort of the government to liberate the North, I would like to make it clear that I make no qualms about the fact the only solution to the issue of terrorism, is to crush it ruthlessly.

3. To whip up anti government sentiment and to create an opinion that the war effort is futile.

I doubt if the government needs any help from the LTTE in whipping up public opinion against it. Their hap hazard economic policies, wasteful management, blatant cronyism, media suppression, human rights violations, corruption, incompetence and at times racist ideology seems to have accomplished this objective.

In any case the only way to deal with the LTTE is to crush it at the earliest possible opportunity, I must confess that I do feel sympathetic towards the regular cadre of the terror outfit who were forcibly conscripted and brainwashed. It is saddening that the leadership of the LTTE has destroyed an entire generation of Tamil youth in the North of the country and sacrificed their souls in to this never ending war. Unfortunately the Tamil diaspora living in the cool climes of North America and Europe seem to be oblivious to the fact that they are aiding and abetting the destruction of their own people.

According to defence analyst Paul Harris, yes the LTTE wants peace but peace on their own terms. Peace for the sake of peace is no peace at all.

Why is the LTTE hell bent on achieving the Eelam? Why not settle for a negotiated settlement with the government that allows for greater autonomy of the North and East.

Why not? Because the survival of the leadership depends on the Eelam if the LTTE does not achieve it then the survival of Prabhakaran and the top rungs of the Tiger hierarchy cannot be assured. Supposing that the LTTE comes forth for a settlement, will Prabhakaran ever be accepted by the Tamil people for killing and maiming their own brethren, will he be accepted by the Sinhala and Muslim communities after decades of ethic cleansing in the North and the East.
(To the contrary, the entire strength of the Ministerial and Presidential guard would have to be utilized to protect his life.)

Will he ever be seen as a statesman by the Indians after killing their Prime minister? Will he be accepted by the international community after assassinating Lakshman Kadirgamar one of the finest intellectuals and diplomats to come out of Oxford.

Therefore the survival of the tyrannical LTTE regime depends on the establishment of the Eelam, which is further exemplified by their willingness to spill any amount of blood to achieve it.