SP THAMILSELVAN and the question that needs to be asked.

The Sri Lankan government,if it wants to resolve the conflict,should address all the events in that country since independence in 1948.It should explain the rationale behind all of its acts.It should provide a clear account of the instances of riots that were visited on the Tamil people.A historical background to the conflict should be given by the government.A conflict that arose after decades of suppression cannot be wished away by portraying the tigers as a terrorist organisation.The suppression was the cause of the armed struggle and not the other way round.

Supposed changes in the peoples thinking is being offered by a section and an image is sought to be created of the LTTE as a recalcitrant group.The conflicts in northern ireland and elsewhere were not marked by a government engaged in suppression over decades.There is absolutely no similarity between the sri lankan conflict and any other.The Sri Lankan government should own up to the mistakes of the past.It is after such a clear statement of facts can a resolution begin.

The conflict is between two distinctly different sets of people who inhabit an Island.The people of Tamilnadu have withstood the aftermath of the Rajiv Gandhi assasination with a composed reaction.Politicians who question the eulogy by the chief minister of Tamilnadu are hare brained in their lack of context.The assasination of Rajiv Gandhi arose out of an intervention by our armed forces in Sri Lanka which was sought to be sabotaged by the same sri lankan government which had wanted it.The question that needs to be asked is whether the Sri Lankan government has atoned for the atrocities of the past.
It is only after such an admission of guilt that there can be any real chance for peace.