Comments on: LTTE Is No Excuse For Killing Vanni Civilians

LTTE Is No Excuse For Killing Vanni Civilians

chunking express — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 08:35:10 -0800

"A young mother is injured and her three month old baby killed by shell fragments as she breastfeeds the child in the government declared no fire zone. Parents hide their children in roughly dug bunkers to escape LTTE press gangs who comb the no-fire zone for conscripts. A woman loses her husband to sniper fire and the toddler he was carrying too drowns when they attempt to wade across a lagoon to escape the no-fire zone. A father is shot in the head by LTTE members as he attempted to flee with his family." - The University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) discuss the situation in Vanni, Sri Lanka, in their 47th information bulletin.

By: spicynuts

spicynuts — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 09:05:03 -0800

Good God the world is a fucked up place. Seriously.

By: Nelson

Nelson — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 09:27:58 -0800

Just put a little baile funk with some gunshots recorded in the "no-fire zone" where 150,000 civilians are being held hostage by the Tamil Tigers and you've got a new M.I.A. track!

By: You Can't Tip a Buick

You Can't Tip a Buick — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 09:29:03 -0800

Huh, it took four comments. That was two over my guess...

By: chunking express

chunking express — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 09:41:33 -0800

Yeah, I'm not entirely sure why I post anything about Sri Lanka here, it's usually a big waste of time. Nelson, thanks for letting us know the LTTE are bad. If you read the article, the UTHR(J) say the same thing, only without trying to be funny.

By: Nelson

Nelson — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 09:46:53 -0800

Sorry if I disappointed you with an attempt to be flippant; at least I'm not putting my fingers in my ears. I hear about the disaster in Sri Lanka in two places: The Economist, which once a month writes a frightening and dismaying article about the grim situation. And MIA, who writes a lot of awesome music with a veneer of activist politics that on further examination seem pretty creepy. I fear for many MeFi readers, the MIA connection is probably the one that's most meaningful to them, and I think it bears further examination. Honestly, I'm at a total loss on what I as an American should feel or do about Sri Lanka.

By: mrducts

mrducts — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 09:51:03 -0800

Also in today's NYT-The Lede (with short video): Is the World Ignoring Sri Lanka's Srebrenica?

By: bitteroldman

bitteroldman — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 10:28:35 -0800

Once the LTTE is finally eradicated, what happens next - will the government start to treat the Tamil people as equals or will they continue with the injustices that brought around the Tigers to begin with? I don't think I need to say that these atrocities conducted by the LTTE and by the SL army are indeed horrible, but what will be even worse will be if the government doesn't learn from its original mistakes (or "misguided decisions", to be more politically correct). I do believe that a sustainabile peace is possible in Sri Lanka, but it needs nurturing guidance and investment. It also needs commitment from the Sri Lankan people of all ethnicities, Tamils and Sinhalese. Anyone care to back me up or refute me? What is the general consensus in Sri Lanka overall? In the cities? In the universities? Are all of its citizens and denizens ready to take that step forward?

By: bitteroldman

bitteroldman — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 10:29:47 -0800

And this was not , btw, a snarky, rhetorical or sarcastic question - I really don't know and would like to know what the feelings are in the rest of the country

By: chunking express

chunking express — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 10:32:14 -0800

Ground Views is probably one of the better sources for news within Sri Lanka.

By: adamvasco

adamvasco — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 10:53:58 -0800

Tamil civilians slaughtered as army shells 'no-fire zone'. Red Cross doctors treat 1,500 injured evacuees. Two regional health directors, defying government instructions, have described at length the extent of the unfolding humanitarian disaster.

By: chunking express

chunking express — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 08:11:54 -0800

Bitter end of Sri Lankan Rebels? Day of Reckoning in Sri Lanka. Today the government has pledged to push into the rebel held territory if they don't surrender. Considering there are still upwards of 100,000 civilians still there, I don't expect things to go well. Today will probably be one of those important days that mark this conflict.

By: chunking express

chunking express — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 11:12:44 -0800

Dark Victory

In its rush to exterminate the Tigers—partly in justified fear of their skill at manipulating foreign opinion—the army has shown a cruel disregard for Tamil civilians crowding the battlefield. Earlier this month the UN estimated that since early January, when the Tigers' fled their northern capital, Kilinochchi, driving perhaps 200,000 civilians before them, some 4,500 had been killed and 12,000 wounded. The International Committee of the Red Cross, which has evacuated over 10,000 wounded civilians and their relatives from the no-fire zone, said on April 20th that hundreds more had been killed or wounded since the army made its breach.

In comparison, the infamous 1983 riots that marked the real turning point in the conflict resulted in the deaths of 3000 or so Tamils. The number of civilians killed when this is over will probably be much higher than the 4500 mentioned here. It will be interesting to see how this is all looked at in the future.

By: Nelson

Nelson — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 11:02:16 -0800

Some Big Pictures of refugees.

By: chunking express

chunking express — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 12:25:09 -0800

Because of the government imposed media blackout the quality of the war photography isn't that good, and seems highly editorial -- i.e. many of the photos come from the government, or the LTTE. Still, there are a handful of powerful images here (16, 17 & 29 in particular).

By: oaf

oaf — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:41:49 -0800

If you had told me last month that there would be a protest in Canada demanding that the United States and Canada intervene militarily in a country halfway around the globe that had done neither of us any harm, I'd have called you a liar.

By: chunking express

chunking express — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 07:14:14 -0800

It's true, Canada has a long history of not intervening in countries at war, if you ignore the First World War, World War II, Peace Keeping in Egypt, Cyprus, Lebanon, etc, etc. Try harder.

By: chunking express

chunking express — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 07:17:44 -0800

Also, I don't think the protestors are asking for a military intervention at all. I think they want the US and Canada to put some political pressure on the Sri Lankan government. (Though I doubt they'll stop shelling and bombing civilians & the LTTE any time soon, they are so close to "winning".)

By: chunking express

chunking express — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 07:32:37 -0800

This is the Tamil tragedy. The helpless civilians are caught between both sides whose objectives are totally military-oriented.

By: oaf

oaf — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:22:50 -0800

Cyprus It's a good thing that conflict is over. Lebanon It's a good thing that conflict is over.

By: chunking express

chunking express — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 12:45:06 -0800

Toronto's police chief Bill Blair on the protests: Inconvenience is a small price to pay.

By: chunking express

chunking express — Wed, 06 May 2009 10:18:25 -0800

The boat was adrift on the Indian Ocean for nine days. Jaya Niranjana's 3-year-old daughter died. M. Yesudas lost his father, sister, nephew, brothers, and uncle — six in all. An 8-month-old baby, Kuberan, survived only because his mother somehow managed to breast-feed him until just hours before she died.

By: adamvasco

adamvasco — Wed, 06 May 2009 11:21:03 -0800

chunking express - thank you for your continued updates on this unfolding tragedy. There's little or no money to made here by any of the western powers so I guess they aren't really worried about the death, carnage and mayhem. Only the arms dealers profit. There still seems to be questions over India's involvement in this.

By: chunking express

chunking express — Thu, 07 May 2009 08:09:18 -0800

That this is a racist war is not a secret. I would not go so far as to use the word genocide, but it would not surprise me to see it used in future international legal action against the government. At any rate, the government itself has plastered the countryside with enormous placards lauding the military with the slogan, in Sinhala, the language of the Sinhalese majority to which I too, belong, stating: "Soldiers, our race salutes you!" Not "the people", not "the country", but the race. And all these placards exhibit the stated provenance of the Ministry of Defence or other government institutions. Interestingly, none of these hoardings are in Tamil, the language of the people the government claims it is seeking to liberate. -- Sonali Samarasinghe Wickrematunge, the widow of Lasantha Wickrematunge, who was recently posthumously awarded the World Press Freedom Prize 2009.

By: oaf

oaf — Sun, 10 May 2009 17:58:34 -0800

Tamil protests block Gardiner

By: chunking express

chunking express — Mon, 11 May 2009 06:55:41 -0800

Torontoist has more extensive coverage of the protest, with links to photos and video. The protest ended peacefully.