Vice-like grip - after no "real" victory

The Sri Lankan government may be jubilant at having crushed the Tamil Tigers - at what horrendous cost! - and the UN Secretary-General has counselled the Government that it must address the rights of the Tamils by getting them out of those camps and allowing them to return to their homes, but things aren't that straight-forward.

"The Tigers have been defeated but don't expect dissenting voices to be welcome in Sri Lanka any time soon, says Sri Lankan journalist Sunanda Deshapriya in an interview with newmatilda.com".

To reflect on how things stand now in Sri Lanka, but one example from the Q & A:

"In recent times it seems as though it has been very dangerous to report anything that wasn't going along with the Government line, though. Has that situation now changed? Do you expect it to change?

No, I don't think so. The President has said there are only two types of people: one group of people who support their motherland, the others who are traitors to their country. He says there are no ethnic groups in this country, no minorities, no Muslims, no Tamils, no Sinhalese: only two groups now.

This is the same terminology used in the last three years [to justify the war on the LTTE] — the Defence Secretary said: there are two people, one's the terrorist, the others are people who are fighting the terrorists. And even before that he said you have to take a side: you are with us or you are with the terrorists.

So the same terminology is still being used, and the message is very clear: if you don't support the official line, you will be branded a traitor."

Read the full Q & A here.

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