Saturday, December 29, 2007

Am I a terrorist or freedom fighter?

I am a tamil in Ceylon (Sri lanka). I want a tamil nation to be established in the northen and eastern regions of Ceylon. The Sinhalese government in Colombo is against a second nation for tamils in the island. A point of note is the government in Colombo has no control over northen part of the island for decades now. I believe that nothing will given to you on a platter. You have to fight for it. I fight against the Srilankan forces who are ought to crush our struggle. My targets are mostly military and sometimes political in nature. I do not go after Sinhalese populace, even though most of them support the government to eliminate us. Sometimes ordinary Sinhalese get killed in the cross fire. I consider it collateral and try my best to avoid them. I am labelled as a terrorist

I am an ethnic albanian in Kosova, a province in Serbia. I want a muslim nation independent of Serbia. The Serbian government in Belgrade is against us breaking away to form an independent nation for muslims. I destroyed orthodox churches and bent on destroying any thing serbian. Kosovo is only for ethnic albanians. I was labelled as terrorists but of late I am not. I am living under the protection of NATO close to a decade. I have been promised independence as early as next year. I do not want the Serbs in my country.

Why is the former labelled a terrorist and the latter a freedom fighter?
I donno may be its because Kosovo is in Europe while Srilanka is in Asia. Naah, that wouldnt explain East Timor would it? But thats still part of the reason. Any conflict in Europe doesnt bode well for the business climate and therby hinder prosperity of Europeans in general.

I know why, the international community, lets pause and think about the word. It comprises of US and European Union only, funny but thats the reality. It failed miserably to protect the bosnian muslims against serb atrocities. So, the tragedy of bosnian muslims turned into a blessing for kosovo muslims.
The international community needed a poster boy to deflect criticism that the war on terror is against all muslims. The kosovo issue fits the bill with no big effort on its part unlike palestine, chechyna, kashmir, iraq, afghanistan, iran, malaysia,...

Is that all? NO, $$$. Srilanka's biggest trading partner for centuries has been Tamil Nadu, a province in India. But now its US and also supplies most of the hardware to crush the tamil struggle.

So, there is no true definition of these words. These are labels which are given by the world powers as they please and which suit their interests.

1 comment:

Saparigiri S said...

I agree totally with this point of view. Usually its what those in power (or who think they are in power) dictates, that the world tends to follow. Sadly thats how it is.