In the past thirty years, thousands of Sri Lankans were killed in the war. They may be Sinhalese, Tamils or Muslims but they are all Sri Lankans. Millions of rupees worth of property has been destroyed. They may belong to Sinhalese, Tamils or Muslims, but this is all Sri Lankan people’s money.

We always used to blame each other. “I do this to you, because you did this to me.” We can still see that some people have the same attitude. But I believe that most people in Sri Lanka, whether they are Sinhala, Tamil or Muslim want to bring up their children and live peacefully.

So I think now it has come to a point for us to stop and think wisely. So I humbly request all Sri Lankan Tamils and Sinhalese to read this patiently.

Look at what some people are now doing after the war. They have started collecting money and essentials for the IDPs. Some organisations have volunteered to collect goods for these IDPs. Lots of people have volunteered to rebuild the railway track which was destroyed during the conflict. Some people who are living overseas are collecting money and other essentials for these needy people and some organisations are even going to rebuild some communities at their member’s expense.

However at the moment this is what some other Sinhala and Tamil people who live overseas are doing. Some go to human rights organisations and ask for an investigation, some go to the media and give fabricated stories, photos and videos, some appeal to the whole world to boycott our products and even the Cricket Team, some people burn the National flag and protest on the roads disturbing the day to day work in their countries and some people just write hate emails everyday.

So please think about this carefully, in reality who has really benefitted from this war? Not the Tamils, Sinhalese or Muslims, we have only paid the price. Arms dealers, NGOs, some western countries and the media are the people who have really benefited.

So they encourage us to carry on fighting each other and for our children to carry on this war so that they can make even more profit from the death and suffering of ALL our people into the future.

Today, hundreds of our people need homes, hundreds of our children need parents. So if you can, would you try to contribute to build at least one house and/or be a foster parent to at least one child instead of being puppets to those who use us for their benefit.

In doing so, together build a better place in which to live.

Niranjan Herath
New Zealand.