Sri Lanka celebrate independence despite fighting - 4 Feb 09

More than 4000 soldiers and police took part in national day parades, despite the violence up north.

Sri Lanka has been ravaged by war for almost half the time its been independent of Britain.

An end to the conflict would be a huge relief but rebuilding shattered lives and restoring trust will take time and it wont be easy.

Al Jazeera's Minelle Fernandez reports from Colombo.

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[MegaVairamuthu]

1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) does not apply for Tamils????

Fighting genocide is difficult, and it is painful, but it is not impossible — not if we promise ourselves that we can give life and hope to others. We can -- Save Darfur Coalition...

Genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka:

· More than 135,000 Tamil men, women and children estimated Killed or Disappeared

[willesdon]

but the sinhalses was the first people in sri-lanka , there are very old historys from sinhalses . The singhalese came and did everything for their self,but we want eelam from sri-lanka but not from tamilnadu , we dont want that our race goes over , the numbers from tamils goes up, maybe in 20 years tamils take over europe, sinhalses want own nation own language , so thats why sri lanka 4 sinhales , but when amils are shelfish and want tamilnadu & sri lanka both ony 4 themelf we kill them!

[15TamilGangster15]

@ukillnub but we the tamils was the first people in sri-lanka , there are very old historys from us . The singhalese came and did everything for their self,but we want just the half from sri-lanka not more , we dont want that our race goes over , the numbers from tamils goes less, maybe in 20 years tamils wont exist anymore, we want own nation own language , so thats why we want just the half , but when singhaleses are shelfish and dnt give us anything then we must force them to do that,

[ukillnub]

@15TamilGangster15 then carve your nation in uninhabited land! it is like saying should all hispanics in america -a large population- should break away from the union and form a spanish state- of course not. just be cause you have the same rights as us does not mean you can take the northern half of sri lanka for yourself simply because you want want. Rediculous argument and love live Sri Lanka

[15TamilGangster15]

ltte and velu they want only tamil eelam

we want a nation ,its our land aswell and not only sinhalese

we have the same rights like sinhalese

we are not animals , we are people like sinhales

its not fair that we havent got our own nation

we will fight still for our own nation

WE WANT TAMIL EELAM

[deadleader1]

@15TamilGangster15 same thing maan, sinhalses love tamil but hate ltte & velu!!

[deadleader1]

@starnear leader alive!

[starnear]

They have recapture the territory, but lost war. As no tamilian or even indian tamilian will remember it as a genocide

[15TamilGangster15]

hahaha thx man, yeah i never said i hate sinhalase people, i hate the gov and the president, thats it... so many ppl dies in sri-lanka, from ur side and our side, but we are all human, ineh?

it doesnt matter which religion you are.

[SuperKnightranger]

sri lanka is a great nation long live sri lanka yesterday sri lanka beat india i dont want sri lanka win. india cant stop that on 143 when its cross 143 score so i pray that sai lanka beat india bcoz i wanted that again asian country win the t20 world cup 2010. sri lanka u r only asian country left in semifinal of world cup t20