Shenali,

Thank you for taking the effort to reply to me comment, but I am afraid that you have, once again, departed on a tangent by resorting to baseless statements.

Let us stick to the facts so that whatever we write contributes towards conflict resolution based on “truth finding”. The other option is to fiddle with phoney numbers, as you appear to want to do; this will only add to “scaremongering”, which only polarises communities even more.

When writing about Sri Lanka's landmass you may want to refer to http://www.statoids.com/ulk.html

There are 25 districts in Sri Lanka. Of them, nine are disputed as “Tamileelam”. Your argument on areas “controlled” by LTTE is irrelevant in this case.

The total land mass of the nine districts is 30% of the entire island. Therefore your claim “LTTE is demanding 35% of the country’s landmass” is factually incorrect.

In my previous comment I gave links to Sri Lanka's Department of Census and Statistics. Unfortunately, you have decided to dismiss the census data from 2001 and 2007 as “estimated figures”. May I suggest that you actually read the census documents in order to familiarise yourself with the methodology which shows that the numbers are not estimated.

You initially claimed: “Constituting only 6.5% of the country’s population, over half of the country’s Tamils currently live amongst the majority Sinhalese.”

You justification, as per comment: “Of a total population of 20million people the Tamils constitute 12% making them 2.4million in total.

“Of this number 800,000 live in foreign climes leaving only 1.6million. It is believed that half of this 1.6million live outside of the North & East & amongst the Sinhalese. Which leaves 800,000 distributed between the North & East of Sri Lanka.”

Both claims are founded on hearsay rather than actual research; consequently, even your initial claim and follow up justification are contradictory. To begin with, 1.6 million is not 6.5% of 20 million.

As per Sri Lankan government figures, 575, 289 Tamils live in the 16 districts outside of the disputed region. I think this number holds more water than your “believed” number.

Again, government figures show that 1, 193, 895 Tamils live in five of the nine disputed districts. Four districts are affected by the conflict; enumerators have not had access to them. These numbers are more reliable than the elementary argument made in your comment.

Given that the population data given in the first paragraph of your article is contradictory to data published by the government, I am afraid that the WIP editors would have to consider withdrawing the paragraph if they would like to maintain the reliability of the website.

Shanali, I will appreciate any references to government or reputable non-governmental organisation documents that actually support the numbers given by you.

I have to admit to only having read the first paragraph of this article.

The writer concludes her first paragraph by noting: “Constituting only 6.5% of the country’s population, over half of the country’s Tamils currently live amongst the majority Sinhalese.”

This is factually incorrect. I have cross-checked the numbers with population data published by the Department of Census and Statistics, Sri Lanka.

Tamils constitute significantly more than 6.5% of the island's population and “over half” do not live outside the disputed region of Tamileelam.

Unfortunately, the first paragraph has set the tone for a patrician “analysis” of the situation in Sri Lanka, weaved with all forms of misconceptions and backed up with imaginary evidence.

While I appreciate that what remained of the article may be of value, the credibility of the entire work, and the writer, is lost in the first paragraph.

In the future, please take care not to make bold untrue statements.