Reader Rants 'n' Raves

Mr Dominic Chilcott's remarks imply that the demand for Eelam is not illegitimate but that the question is about the methods adopted by the LTTE. It can be interpretated to mean that the LTTE should try to urge its demand without using extra-parliamentary methods. 'Not illegitimate' does not translate as identical to 'legitimate'. If anything, the way the Commissioner's statement has been made is rather controversial and could have been avoided, by merely urging that both sides of this secession and human rights issue must sit across the table, however protracted and seemingly futile the talks may be, since that is what the law of any sovereign modern democracy provides for secessionists, as a step in a parliamentary approach to vivisection of an existing country.