Aneliya, many of us have family and relatives in the north that report on what is happening, I curious to know what your sources are.
Too bad no one can verify anything as independent media is blocked.

Pls watch this video,
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/international_politics/grim+scenes+at+sri+lankan+camps+/3126257

No doubt, there are atrocities committed by both sides. The Tigers would not be doing what they are doing now if Tamils were given equal rights.

Again, what are your sources, most information on the net are from government sources (Sri lankan govt.) hence, the information is very anti-tigers. So far, the government has been shelling hospitals (UN, Amnesty Internationl, ... have all stated this). They have used chemical weapons on INNOCENT Tamil people. If this is how a government works, we don't want to be part of that country.

Dear Anonymous,

Thanks for feeling moved to post. From your comments I assume you are of Tamil origin. Please feel free to post here again, but use some sort of name as the cloak of anonymity makes discourse a little difficult on a personal blog.

You seem to be interested in my ‘sources’ as you ask for them twice.

Sources for what?

For having an interest in a world event? Sure I have an interest and my ‘sources’ are Tamil and Sinhalese students and whatever media I access. These tend to be British-based (like BBC and the Guardian, though I do tend to check Russian and Bulgarian media more than most other people I know). I do know about the media restrictions. My blog post was, I hope, measured, balanced and hopeful. If naive in its hope.

Or do you mean academic sources? I’m a student of Economics and Politics. An interest in female suicide bombers fits within my studies in Politics. You will know, I am sure, that the Tigers were pioneers in developing that terror tool.

Worthwhile sources (not Harvard form, sorry) that I have discovered here include: Pape, R: ‘Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism’, Pedahzur, A: ‘Suicide Terrorism’ and Gambetta, D (Ed): ‘Making sense of suicide missions’. Biziouras, N: ‘Organizational Dynamics, Elite Competition and Suicide Terrorism: The Tamil Tigers’ argues that the suicide tactics are ‘intra-organizational’ and has a rather different ‘take’ on this than the others.

I had trouble accessing Lahiri, S:‘Why Suicide Bombing? The Motives for Suicide Protest in Sri Lanka’ so have only seen that at online abstract level. I was told that Hugh Barlow: ‘Dead for Good: Martyrdom and the Rise of the Suicide Bomber’ is useful but I have not looked at it (actually I haven’t even looked for it). This is not a major part of my studies and after a while one maxes out on suicide theories and descriptions.

>Too bad no one can verify anything as independent media is blocked.

National Public Radio has a pool of international reporters who occasionally get information out. The identity of the reporter is withheld for obvious reasons. I listened to one such report a few hours ago.

Despite the government control there has been a flow of information.

I just hope that something positive can come out of this event.