The senile Nanda Godage, who I used to admire must be in his dotage!

Whatever the wrongs of the MacRae and Miller productions, they were doing a job and not bidding the cause for the LTTE as is the common sentiment of the Sri Lankan population who have been misled by their work. This also now seems to be the consensus of the eminent diplomat Nanda Godage, which I find very surprising considering his more reasonable stance on Sri Lankan treatment of Tamils.

This is what he has written today!  http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=92237  Is he hoping for some benefit from the Govt. in writing this? As surely it is not borne out of a sensible argument, especially as Mac Rae was granted access to Sri Lanka and he left disgusted that he was followed everywhere he went in an intimidating way. We by our very behavior further strengthened the belief of the complicity in War Crimes.  

At best these two were investigating complicity of the democratically elected Government in war crimes. As Sri Lanka is bound by different norms to the LTTE, the responsibility of due care for its citizens differs from that of the LTTE.

One must wonder what intentions that MacRae has other than reporting news, of interest to their viewers. Of course a little sensationalism is required to get publicity and not just to do LTTE bidding. I am not prepared to accept that they received payoffs from the Tamil Diaspora as is normally accepted without proof by Sri Lankans. Godage accuses the MacRae team also of speculation and innuendo when he is also guilty of the same.

Whilst some claims can be challenged, it is important the SL govt. NOT just refute claims as being bogus, but produce credible alternatives, without keeping to the script of NO civilian casualties.

The SL Government did a great service of getting rid of the LTTE once and for all. It may have been brutal in the last month, and on hindsight the only way of removing the top guard without permitting them to surrender and live to fight another day. So why cant we admit to it, when there is enough mobile phone photo evidence of atrocities as revenge for their even worse torture and abuse.

So let us take a step back and understand the norm that there is no smoke without fire and be careful before we slander people we know nothing about. We MUST learn to separate fact from fiction in the HR abuse row, without a blanket NO. It is time we acted responsibly if we are to achieve lasting peace with respect.