BBC NEWS | South Asia | Sri Lanka rejects Tigers' offer
I've been watching this for awhile and not really saying anything because I doubt anyone hear cares but f
uck this article pissed me off. The Sri Lanka government can be described as anything but "Democratic." There's no external press there and the press that is there goes through the government (so really there's no freedom of speech/information) and either exile, imprison or kill anyone with any anti-Governmental sentiments. You can't have a Democratic society without a free one.
Pluralism doesn't even exist there - as illustrated by their denial to allow participation of certain groups. It isn't just the tigers either the majority of the country is Sinhalese and they've been in power basically since the British gave it to them and none of their kind have gone to prison or been convicted of a single crime in sixty years. That can't be said for the Tamil people who have been slaughtered by both sides of the conflict and oppressed in basically every aspect.
Anyway this is an expected but atrocious move - the government isn't any better than the tigers and to dismiss as them as "terrorist" and not allowing them any say is just going to create another group like the tigers (assuming the Tamil people aren't completely wiped out before given the opportunity to rebel.) Not to mention democracy basically cures radicalism; history has proven this over and over again.