Does the Sunday Island have nothing to say? – What kind of headline!

Sunday Island comes out with a headline - April 15th that says ‘many war missing could have obtained new identities – Gota’. Come on Editor why even print this?

Of course we have always known, and I don’t know why it has taken 3 years for Gota to even say such, when a terrorist who escapes, and wants to hide his identity for all manner of reason, will do what it takes to do so. We just don’t have missing from the LTTE wars, but missing from the JVP wars in other countries with assumed identities. I have known that all along and many ex-JVPers have returned to Sri Lanka on foreign passports with different names. It is the only way they can return to their motherland as they could potentially be taken in otherwise.

Many state they have done nothing wrong and are unfairly implicated and I do not know whether that is true or not, the same would hold for the Tamils, and I am sure that there have been many who have returned on foreign passports under different names, as if they used their original names they would be taken in as suspected terrorists which they do not wish to be arrested for. That was when they were fighting a war. Such asinine statements from people who should know better are what makes our journalism so much in want of a fresh angle.

It is better not to say when you have nothing to say rather than publish such tripe. When we have politicians saying the obvious just to arouse people, or justify misdeeds or their continuance of controls by using excuses it belittles the cause.

It is important to note while 10,000 citizens are missing not more than 100 may have got out of the country alive at the end, as it was hard to go anywhere else but to camps. Pray tell me how they got out when the Forces had the sea covered, the air was not an option, and land was to the Menik Farm. No doubt the odd INGO spirited out the occasional person who slipped through the net placed by the forces when they interrogated all before letting them in. That is how the fighters were generally separated from the rest, and were sent to rehabilitation camps.

None of this exonerates the order givers from those culpable. That is fact, and whether I agree with it or not does not matter as I am inconsequential in this debate and only those who are able to judge determine if it was acceptable or not to kill.

The continuous saga, ostensibly because of the international dimension not letting up wasting precious news and other more important tasks is tiresome. The country pays for the foibles of a few who MUST shoulder the blame by facing the accusations themselves they MUST NOT drag the country through this - GOTA