If u just take a look at history you’ll know where minority grievances were sincerely sympathised and where they had been used as cat’s paws in order to gain a chance to interfere with internal affairs of a foreign country.
Of course Tamils in Srilanka suffered in Singhala hands and they had grave grievances, but they were NOT grave enough until India decided Jayawardena regime should be taught a lesson for letting US to come too close. They tested several options, LTTE came through as the most efficient. But it was India who learned the lesson when the LTTE was hijacked/bought by the West and started using against India. ( http://www.lankainsider.com/external%20factors/india%20influence.htm
)
We should admit that Srilankan Tamil’s trend to support any outsider as far as they are against Singhalas, was “a” main hindrance to development of SriLanka. Tamils of Sri Lanka today need to realise the adverse effect of line of thinking- “if it harms Sinhalese, it doesn`t matter even it kills us“.
Early pseudo separatist campaigns after the so-called independence, gave the convenient excuse to successive governments (who in turn were emissaries of the West themselves) for suppressing legitimate grievances of ALL-SriLankans regardless of their race. Mean time politicians of both sides used racism as a rallying slogan therefore depriving people of any chance to raise real issues in due seriousness. (i.e. poverty, neo-colonialism, corruption etc) SL leaders always managed to present `other community` as the biggest problem facing the other. No wonder that, practicing these deceptive politics for a half a century landed us where we are today.
Today, the Results of our ignorance have grown so big and devastate ‘Both’ communities ruthlessly, it is hard to ignore them. What amazes me is, why we still keep dancing to those racist tunes instead of letting them know that, we are aware of who writes the music.

If we have a Martin Luther King among Tamils he would say, “we should never raise our voice against the violence of the opposition, without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in Sri Lanka today – the LTTE”.

“Nothing in this world is more dangerous than sincere ignorence and conscientious stupidity”

“I submit to you that if a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isen’t fit to live”

Martin Luther King Jr.

Nither the ignorence of the majority nor the active distortion of the truth by a wicked few will erode the resolve of the Tamil minority’s fight for their just rights. We have seen actors like HRW, however well meaning their intentions may be, have been in the past used by the GOSL (Government of Sri-Lanka) to oppress its minority. The supposedly “Peace keeping force” of India was responsible for the most gruesome of murders and human rights violations the Tamil people have witnessed in their sordid history since Sri-Lanka gained independance. The Tamil phyche hardened by decades of oppression and illtreatment will not be cowed by a single report into giving up its fight for their rights. On the contrary we will intensify our strugle to win back our rights.

We dont need nor do we aske anybody’s permission to determine our own future. Its our inalienable right. We have the right to preserve and protect our culture and our way of life. We refused to be intimidated by people who have one set of rules for themselfs and another set of rules for everyone else. True Dr. King was a champion of non-violence, but if the Sinhalese had responded to our cry for equality and respect without resorting to brutal oppression this problem could have been long solved.

Another writer here made an observation about what transpaired at the recently concluded US sub committee for Asia & the Pacific. This is what Dr. King had to say on the Vietnam war and and his own government’s recourse to violence to achive its objectives.
“As i have walked among the desperate, rejected and angry men I have told them that moltov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action, but they asked and rightly so, what about vietnam? They asked if our own nation wasen’t using massive doses of viloence to solve its problems and bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyour of violence in the world today – my own government”

Need I say anymore, I rest my case!

SHERMAN:
The government has taken substantial action to prevent aid from reaching the parts of the island that were most affected by the tsunami, namely the northeast, which generally supports the Tamil Tigers, the LTTE. What has the United States done to make sure that aid that’s supposed to go to individuals is not interrupted for political reasons?
CAMP:
I would say that the government of Sri Lanka made efforts to in fact make sure that aid was not only equitably delivered, but it would seem to be equitably delivered. And their attempt to establish this mechanism, with which they reached agreement on the LTTE — a fairly significant achievement that took quite awhile — was thrown out in the courts. Therefore, they’ve had to find other mechanisms.
I think I would take issue with the idea that they have actively attempted to prevent tsunami assistance from reaching the northeast.

Infact in the aftermath of the Tsunami, LTTE’s priority was not to help people but to prevent SL government or other Sinhalese helping affected Tamils. Now we see why it was so important to LTTE.

The last three lines – not a part of the Hearing report, but my comment on it.