Page 1 of 2 12 Last
Results 1 to 15 of 20
  1. #1
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Posts
    2,942

    Tamil Tigers 'defeated'

    Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels admitted defeat today after a final flurry of suicide attacks on the government forces which have surrounded them in a tiny patch of coconut grove on the northeastern coast.

    The Tigers’ surrender -– after 26 years of fighting for an ethnic Tamil homeland -- was announced in a statement by Selvarasa Pathmanathan, their chief of international relations, on the pro-rebel Tamilnet web site.

    “This battle has reached its bitter end,” said Mr Pathmanathan, who is believed to be in hiding outside Sri Lanka. “We remain with one last choice - to remove the last weak excuse of the enemy for killing our people. We have decided to silence our guns. Our only regrets are for the lives lost and that we could not hold out for longer."

    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle6305401.ece
    Quite remarkable really.

    Out of interest, how many insurgencies could claim to have been militarily quelled in recent history?

    Not too many i'd imagine!

    Horrendous civilian casualties though. :(

  2. #2
    Senior Member The_Snail's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Westpoint likes this.
    Posts
    11,147

    Re: Tamil Tigers 'defeated'

    If they didn't spend all their bloody time outside the Houses of Parliament, they might get something done.
    "What goes on in the gym - stays in the gym". Fatbadge 061108 (Blowing out of his ricker)
    "Haribo is not Breakfast" Mrs OriginalPhantom 190409
    "It's Daddy's hat" - Mini VH, Eastenders' Cricket Match 300809
    "I love you Dale" Woodandy3 040909
    [smallbrownprivates] 11:53 pm: belsen survivors look obese next to you 03/04/10
    "I just want to whack their heads" Bootiful 060810
    "Sorry Dale but with a gun at my head (and a plank strapped across my arse to stop me falling in) you would get the best twenty seconds of your life. " Mushroom 1829hrs 070411.

    "FutureSIB is the product of a vicious rape by Dwight Yorke. The shitcunt" Steven Seagull 1639hrs 02/11/11

  3. #3
    Senior Member Victorian_Major's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    In the Pinky Ponk, providing top cover for the Ninky Nonk whilst brassing up the Tombliboos.
    Posts
    3,495

    Re: Tamil Tigers 'defeated'

    Interesting exercise in political pragmatism; regardless of the Tamil cause, the world's chosen to allow Sri Lankan forces to achieve what might be a conclusive victory. Fingers crossed - what the country needs is some stability so it therefore benefits from some investment.

    So what did the Tamils do wrong?

    Too brutal?
    Not cuddly enough? No attractive and articulate intelligensia under house arrest.
    A bit boring - including outside our Parliament?

  4. #4
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Posts
    2,942

    Re: Tamil Tigers 'defeated'

    Simple.

    Middle Eastern chaos affects Western security, the Tamil conflict doesn't. Hence the West doesn't really give two hoots.

    If the LTTE had bombed London or NY then I guarantee you we would all be educating ourselves about the Tamil cause!

    The unpalatable reality is, international terrorism works.

  5. #5
    Senior Member Ord_Sgt's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Posts
    9,710

    Re: Tamil Tigers 'defeated'

    Quote Originally Posted by Victorian_Major
    Interesting exercise in political pragmatism; regardless of the Tamil cause, the world's chosen to allow Sri Lankan forces to achieve what might be a conclusive victory. Fingers crossed - what the country needs is some stability so it therefore benefits from some investment.

    So what did the Tamils do wrong?

    Too brutal?
    Not cuddly enough? No attractive and articulate intelligensia under house arrest.
    A bit boring - including outside our Parliament?
    A cause for which most of us had no clue and to be honest no interest.

    They hen pecked at the government for years and then Colombo said enough is enough and sod the consequences, endex.

    The thing is they will probably have far more representation in parliament post LTTE than they ever had the with the tigers doing their thing. The apparent threats of mass suicide is probably the best thing they could do.
    "Remember that you are an Englishman, and have consequently won first prize in the lottery of life".

    Cecil Rhodes

  6. #6
    Senior Member
    seaweed's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Posts
    3,040

    Re: Tamil Tigers 'defeated'

    Which all shows that the Sri L Govt were right to stop pussy-footing about and go for the throat, thereby (one can but hope) ending a steady trickle of terrorism, murder and general brutality.

    Does nothing about the causes of inter-communal resentment though. I was in Ceylon in 1957 and the Sri L Govt were already baiting the Tamils by replacing English bus numberplates with Sinhalese script.

    Parallels with NI anyone?
    Dr Johnson: 'Any man thinks less of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been to sea.'

    Admiral of the Fleet Lord Fisher of Kilverstone: 'Moderation in war is imbecility!'

    Douglas MacArthur: 'There is no substitute for Victory!'

  7. #7
    msr
    msr is offline
    Senior Member
    msr's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Posts
    17,903

    Re: Tamil Tigers 'defeated'

    Quote Originally Posted by Victorian_Major
    Interesting exercise in political pragmatism; regardless of the Tamil cause, the world's chosen to allow Sri Lankan forces to achieve what might be a conclusive victory. Fingers crossed - what the country needs is some stability so it therefore benefits from some investment.

    So what did the Tamils do wrong?

    Too brutal?
    Not cuddly enough? No attractive and articulate intelligensia under house arrest.
    A bit boring - including outside our Parliament?
    No, massive aid from the Chinese to Sri Lanka: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle6297463.ece

    MSR
    Good God! he laughed, and slowly filled his pipe,
    Wondering why he always talked such tripe.

  8. #8
    Senior Member heard_it_all_before's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Posts
    2,235

    Re: Tamil Tigers 'defeated'

    After all these years that's a bitter pill to swallow...!

    'I'll get me coat'
    :D

  9. #9
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Posts
    4,163

    Re: Tamil Tigers 'defeated'

    Our North London local GP is banged up in USA for trying to buy RPG's for the Tamil Tigers. I bet he's hoping the Yanks keep him there, he'll probably swing back in Ceylon.

  10. #10
    Senior Member AndyPipkin's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Posts
    2,281

    Re: Tamil Tigers 'defeated'

    MSR has it. The PRC is propping up regimes in Burma, Sri Lanka and (with Uncle Sam - although for different reasons) Pakistan in order to surround India. Expect a PLAN forward operating base in Columbo in the near future.

  11. #11
    Senior Member Ord_Sgt's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Posts
    9,710

    Re: Tamil Tigers 'defeated'

    Pretty much all over now.

    he leader of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels, Velupillai Prabhakaran, has been killed along with his son and other Tiger commanders.

    Prabhakaran was ambushed and shot dead while trying to flee government troops as special forces closed in on the last rebel fortifications.

    The Sri Lankan army killed a number of other senior Tamil Tiger commanders as fighting continued to rage despite the Tigers' weekend admission of defeat.

    Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, a military spokesman, told The Times that commando units and other crack government troops were trading machine gun fire with “a couple of hundred” of Tiger fighters hunkered down in fortified bunkers, thought to include several senior rebel leaders.
    Full story in the Times.
    "Remember that you are an Englishman, and have consequently won first prize in the lottery of life".

    Cecil Rhodes

  12. #12
    Senior Member oldcolt's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Posts
    1,358

    Re: Tamil Tigers 'defeated'

    Is it just me, or does the Tamil leader look scarily like SuperMario? See attachment!
    Attached Images Attached Images  
    S. T. A. B. Virgil.... Casual Labourers are GO!

  13. #13
    Senior Member angular's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Posts
    1,629

    Re: Tamil Tigers 'defeated'

    So the Tigers are all dead or captured and the Sri Lankan Army can go wherever it wants.

    Have they really won? Have they made the desire for a Tamil 'homeland' go away? How many generations before the New Tamil Tigers of Resurrected Tamil Elam start going bang in crowded railway stations?

    I hope the Sri Lankans have a good plan for the peace, as well as for the war. Good job we'd never screw up like that, eh?
    Every free man owes his country the knowledge of how to defend it.

  14. #14
    Senior Member
    seaweed's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Posts
    3,040

    Re: Tamil Tigers 'defeated'

    As to the PLAN, they could not do better than Trincomalee, one of the best sheltered harbours in the entire world. Wonder if our old floating dock is still there.
    Dr Johnson: 'Any man thinks less of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been to sea.'

    Admiral of the Fleet Lord Fisher of Kilverstone: 'Moderation in war is imbecility!'

    Douglas MacArthur: 'There is no substitute for Victory!'

  15. #15
    Senior Member 4(T)'s Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Posts
    2,506

    Re: Tamil Tigers 'defeated'

    Quote Originally Posted by angular
    So the Tigers are all dead or captured and the Sri Lankan Army can go wherever it wants.

    Have they really won? Have they made the desire for a Tamil 'homeland' go away? How many generations before the New Tamil Tigers of Resurrected Tamil Elam start going bang in crowded railway stations?

    I hope the Sri Lankans have a good plan for the peace, as well as for the war. Good job we'd never screw up like that, eh?
    I was there when it all kicked off. At the time there did not seem to be any significant sectarian issues at all - wherever you went the two main communities were intermingled in jobs, markets, etc. The whole thing started off with some fairly blatant rabble-rousing over in India by Indian politicians, and I gather the Tamil "movement" largely started with Indian investment. At the time I remember the expat community openly speculating that India intended to annex Sri Lanka under the guise of "peace-keeping".

    Tough on the Sri Lankan Tamil civvies who have now been bred to see themselves as in need of a "homeland", but actually the main Tamil homeland happens to be in SE Indian mainland - the Tamil community in Sri Lanka has largely grown in the past century out of fishermen and migrant workers.

Page 1 of 2 12 Last

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
From arrse1.arrse.co.uk