19 March, 2024

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Sri Lankan Soldiers Killing Each Other: Three Killings Within The Last Five Months

“In a third instance in under a year, a Sri Lankan soldier on duty turned the gun on his colleague on Friday morning, before killing himself” The Hindu journalist RK Radhakrishnan reports.

According to the Army, the incident took place at the check point adjacent to the Naga Deepa Vihara, the historic Buddhist Shrine near Jaffna town at 7 am. The soldier shot his colleague manning the post, before committing suicide. “There was an argument between the two over duty,” the Jaffna Security Forces Commander Mahinda Hathurusinghe told The Hindu, when asked about the incident.

In March this year, three soldiers returning back after a routine patrol last night were found dead. Later it was confirmed that there was an argument and one soldier killed the two others before shooting himself. Last December, a soldier shot dead his company commander before he was overpowered in Jaffna. That was the first instance of a soldier turning against his own people after the end of the war with the Tamil Tigers in May 2009.

The Army had taken a series of steps soon after the end of the war to counsel its soldiers. Gen. Hathurusinghe himself travels the length of his Command and talks to soldiers in groups. “We have brought in experts after the last incidents and these measures are on. Regular counselling is also being organised with the help of clinical psychologists, and psychiatric evaluations of personnel was also being carried out,” he said.

The police have registered a case. The Army has constituted a Court of Inquiry, The Hindu reports.

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    Karma…..

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    The much hyped disciplined Army who over ran the enemy, the world’s most ruthless terrorist outfit, in under 30 months while the NE is still heavily infested with land mines. I am sure they must have walked on air and not on gorund in capturing the entire North and East. This Island should be renamed as ‘Delft Island’ the land of the donkeys, knows only to bray and no intelligence as the so called educated too are absolutely gullible and can be fooled too.

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      But why should we call it a Delft, you have left the country.

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        Obviously left because one can tolerate the four legged kind, but not the two legged as your ilk.

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      This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn’t abide by our Comment policy.For more detail see our Comment policy
      http://colombotelegraph.com/comments-policy/

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      Malagamini

      What about yur LTTE monkey army rand on thongs? Were they well deciplined?

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    When rulers have no discipline, use soldiers for illegal, unlawful things eventually soldier’s themselves lose their discipline. What is happening is exactly that. So whom to be blamed dear King?

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      You guys are unbelievable. Take one case at a time. If this is about a three Tamils killed by Sri Lankan Army this should have been better news for Hindu news. This is something personal between two soldiers. Most of the developed countries have similar stories but barbaric. We are a nation on a recovering process. We need time to evolve out of gun culture and it’s easy for us than others. We have a 2500 years back of civilization but due to some international mastermind plan we fight for 26 years. But now that we know what was wrong and what went wrong we can recover faster than any country in the world. So please do not dance for the singing by someone and music by someone. Get the bolt’s tighten and get back to work. I hope CT will provide us more convincing news for a faster economy and social growth of our country.

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    I knew Sri Lankan soldiers were stupid – you can tell when you look at them – but not so stupid as to go about killing off each other. Looks like I was proved wrong!

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      You calling SL soldiers stupid because they dragged that monkey boy along Nanthikadal? That’s not stupid man, that’s having fun. Stupids are those who fought with catapults against a brave Army, stayed hiding until they ran out of steam and then ran towards the shooting army waving their blood stained white shirts (they call them flags)and crying.Even more stupid are those who, while living in luxury in the West, supported such lame idiots to destroy thousands of poor young lives in the North.

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        VP was more clever than all of the SL military generals since 1983, even the ones who attended Sandhurst in UK. That is why Shavendra Silva took personal pleasure in torturing not only VP, but VP’s son in front of VP. VP must have been like a god to all these people. For 30 years they chased him, but he always gave them a good beating.

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          You are having a laugh, right? VP was peeing in his pants in 1987 in Vadamarachchi. Luckily Rajiv Ghandhi picked him up and gave him a lifeline. Since then, he was running between bunkers for 30 years and for you that is being clever..haha

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          Yes.. running to the bunkers when Elephant Pass, Mullaitivu, and Kilinochi fell. Running to the bunkers when war criminal Janaka Perera achieved the Nibbana in 1001 pieces. And CBK became a glass-eyed pirate. Only in your imagination did Rajiv Gandhi save VP.

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          wtf you talking about? VP did only one thing for Tamil people for thirty years. And you want to continue it . You and the others of your type people mostly the Diaspora’s not the tamils living in the war torn north. So please try to get adjust for the sake of other Tamils and the rest of Sri Lankans. Because few of your type make the whole country a mess.

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          VP got his brains blown into bits and Tamils were dragged all around Wanni to cover his Terrorist gang as human shields. Anybody can brainwash a stupid women and blast a VIP or hide a bomb in bus and blast with a remote control. This is the way LTTE terroristed the whole country for 27 years hiding in the jungle. What you guys achieved end of the day? EElam? In your dreams. You left the innocent Tamils homeless and now they have to depend on UN and they lost their children, houses most of all the dignity. I want to ask you something in the name of those fooled innocent Tamils who still there suffer from the act by your so called hero VP. Stop it. Stop your dreams and get your Eelam thinking beside and help those suffered Tamils. It’s good for you and your remaining Tamils.

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      [Edited out] you. You got it all wrong. We have the most tactically smart forces in South Asia my friend. Respect them. It’s a shame to see you ppl here. Till General Sarath Fonseka we had a well deciplin forces and leaders, Anyways General got carried away or may be MR is wrong I don’t know but our forces are not just for salary based war hero’s. Remember when Indian IPKF came to fight with the LTTE they died in heards. You can see the monument with names in Jayawardanapura next to “Janakala Kendrya” The superpower lost it’s men like cockroaches with the LTTE tactics. Then we defeated LTTE. You can say any blah blah’s but the truth is been already proven. If the international interferences were not there General Dencil Kobekaduwa should have done the same thing in years back. Never underestimate the power of our forces.

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        I am not Tamil by any means, but after seeing the utter idiocy of Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism, it is not difficult for me to support the Tamil desire for separation. For example, you’ve made the assertion that the Sri Lankan Armed forces are actually capable . All comparisons are relative. So capable compared to what? If these armed forces cannot win a war outside of the island, then they are thoroughly useless. What is the value of the SLA compared to the Indian, Chinese, or even Pakistani militaries? Sri Lanka will go to war on the first day and surrender on the second day.

        It is not at all a major achievement for the Sri Lankan Army to have racked up a monumental defense budget (which will take decades to pay back), and then waged a war of attrition against 5000 LTTE teenagers, deliberately murdering 40,000 Tamil civilians in the process, in order to reach the LTTE teenagers faster. This way of fighting a war is not acceptable by modern standards. Now SL will face many forms of international scrutiny for decades to come, thanks to the lobbying pressure of the Tamil diaspora. As long as war criminals like Shavendra Silva are occupying ambassadorial positions, and the Rajapakse caliphate is reigning supreme from Colombo, Sri Lanka will be known as a pariah state. You can expect a standard of living comparable to Bangladesh and Pakistan, for a long time to come.

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          You are misleading the [Edited out] issue here. It’s was a war against terrorism. Terrorist funded by unknown force creating situations in Sri lanka for almost 30 years. Terrorist acts are different than a WAR. I don’t need to tell you everything in detail. Ignorant fools cannot be educated. The diaspoar is manipulating the story for their short term goals. Look at KP. He understood the role of his and he was there fixing the mistakes. Same to KarunaAmman. While few dumb short minded political leaders looking for separate and work path they already working together till get achievement. You cant win if you are divided. You can be a Tamil or Sinhala but you do not show a true contribution to fix the problem. Just “yanne koheda Mallea pol” 40,000? where the fuck you get that digit? 5000 LTTE teenagers killed 16000 IPKF. Terrorized a country for 27 years. Killing even Tamil leaders, muslim villagers, babies, hamudurwas, political leaders including Rajive Ghandi.

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    Soldiers exposed to months and perhaps years of tense, cliff-edge suspense in real life do become jittery and are sometimes prone to let their weapons loose on whoever that seems to threaten them…logic or common sense might not prevail, as the killing instinct has already been instilled, and activating his weapon comes as second nature.

    Incidence of post traumatic stress syndrome (and other such)is common in most theatres of war (Iraq and Afghanistan in recent times)and is an unfortunate side effect of the need to protect a country or be politically manipulated to protect politicians and their status quo, whichever is relevant to particular wars.

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    They are only acknowledging their MR Chinthana motto, ‘Api Wenuen Api’. The day it turns to, ‘Api Wenuen Thopi’ is the day to look for.

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      ‘Api Wenuen Thopi’ was Prabha’s motto to the people who lived there. But certainly would be interesting, if it turns to ‘Thopi Wenuen Thopi’.

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    Post war, this is to be expected.

    The challenge is, the war isn’t over, and the Army is on guard against an enemy vanquished. The Govt keeps it this way.

    One can be counselled or humanized as a columnist opined, if the war was over. The Army stood down. Soldiers sent home after retraining in technical skills.

    What do the soldiers do, when they aren’t fighting ? I have seen them helping people to build homes in the North. Good on them.

    The soldiers are in the same predicament the LTTE was during peace talks.

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      Vishvajith, Yes soldiers do help in construction, demining and general development now, which is obviously good as you rightly said. The problem is, the country could not afford to draw a plan for post war Army. No country does, not Britain, nor USA. There was a case where some British soldiers while serving in Afghanistan were sent notice when the ministry decided to wind up the regiment. No wonder those soldiers go rampage waving their guns when they hear such news. Phasing out the large Ary is going to take time, but these incidents occur among civilians all over the world. Only difference is, these guys had guns. You were wrong in comparing the situation to the LTTE during the peace talks, I am afraid. LTTE guys during the peace talks were always being trained for the post-peace talks war. On the other hand, they were often not paid. It’s a totaly different case here, but the Army does need a programme to reduce the size.

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    I remember Oliver Stones ” Platoon” Film and the last sentence

    “I think now, looking back,

    we did not fight the enemy, we fought ourselves,

    and the enemy… was in us.

    The war is over for me now,

    but it will always be there, for the rest of my days”

    I believe you will understand these sentences in some years

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    …right, right, the Law of Karma … the most powerful principle which cannot be avoided… can take effect… but I doubt that this incident was a cover-up by loyal forces & media under the control of Govt. propaganda to silence a …… sort of hit & run perhaps…. for land rights… as a soft ploy to get the LLRC and or 13th amendment going… I have my doubts… personal issues of soldiers – I can’t buy that… anyway if there is a foreigner behind all this… then I could be right… they must be trying to provoke a fresh conflict… our secret service must expedite inquiries with doubts in mind… instead of accepting any story to relax… 3 pawns down is a loss… they were trained, housed and fed with taxpayers’ money… as we continue to pay additional taxes on Gas , Petrol, etc and the Glorious defense budget… .. Is the Govt. doing the basics right ? the Law, Order & Intelligence ?….. I have my doubts…. Is their focus someplace else ?….

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    It’s all quite simple. These soldiers are suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. After all they have gone through what does anyone expect? They need sympathy and help, as do the Tamil civilians. They are all victims.

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    …Today Tuesday 8th May 2012, the AdaDerana reports that two Sailors At Trinco died when One shot the other and himself… I guess ColomboTelegraph is denied access since 5th May to report on that …. again I cannot buy the story that it was personal reasons for the killing… I guess its a way to keep the population in check… by the powerful, so they can enjoy the future in luxury….

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