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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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 Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 9:25 pm Post subject: |
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For the record, I have always believed in a one state solution to this problem. If anyone has a dissenting view on that, and believes in a seperate state for the Tamils, feel free to debate it.
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I recall seeing this a few months ago. May be of interest: The BBC on the humanitarian issues in the north of Sri Lanka |
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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| Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 9:49 pm Post subject: |
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| Just for those who think it may be a dull topic because it doesn't appear to involve either muslims or jews, you may be relieved to know that there are at least some muslims living there. I knew this because I recall once reading that the Tamils expelled thousands of them on one occasion, so I googled up some info about them, to help make this thread all the more spicier for you all: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Sri_Lanka |
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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| Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 9:56 pm Post subject: |
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For those that love tut-tutting over the wickedness of suicide bombers, here's a list of Tamil suicide bombings.
The most famous of course is the one which resulted in the killing of an Indian Prime-minister. Well, it's kind of famous - though not as famous as if the suicide bomber had been a muslim instead of a Tamil of course.
http://www.spur.asn.au/chronology_of_suicide_bomb_attacks_by_Tamil_Tigers_in_sri_Lanka.htm
Warning: there is a graphic picture of a blown-off head of a suicide bomber. View at your own peril. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2009 5:25 am Post subject: |
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| I'm almost annoyed that you were annoyed at my comment, but I actually like some of the new threads. |
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ajgeddes
Joined: 28 Apr 2004
Location: Yongsan
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| Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2009 11:53 pm Post subject: |
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Having just came back from Sri Lanka, the threat of suicide bombings is everywhere. Getting searched everywhere you go (not tourists usually) and posters on buses warning you of bags being bombs and what to do if there is a grenade on the train. Very bizarre really. Also, being forced to go inside a building and not looking out the window when the president drove by was also quite strange. Even with all this happening, the people seem to have this sense of hope that the war will be over soon and they can start moving ahead without the threats everywhere.
I will add one thing though. It sucks to be a Tamil there right now. I doubt it is only coincidence that the darker skinned (Tamil)people always get searched more than the lighter skinned (Sinhalese) people.. |
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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| Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 2:13 am Post subject: |
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End the secrecy in Sri Lanka
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In a corridor of land in north east Sri Lanka, some 200,000 civilians are trapped between government forces and Tamil rebels. By one estimate, 40 people are being killed every day. A 30-year civil war is entering a decisive and atrocious phase. Intervention is essential to avert a humanitarian catastrophe.
A recent military surge has seen the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam effectively besieged. Fired by the prospect of eradicating the insurgency once and for all, the army is waging a war with no regard for civilian lives. They are also trying to operate without witnesses, refusing access to foreign observers and journalists. Last week, Sri Lankan authorities rejected the appointment of a British government envoy to the region as interference in their internal affairs. That line is easily deployed against the former colonial power; it would be less effective against the combined voice of the UN.
The Tigers, meanwhile, also have a brutal reputation, using civilians as human shields and recruiting by coercion. But the government's latest response is sinister - setting up internment camps to "rehabilitate" Tamils caught up in the conflict. Neither side can be trusted to guarantee the safety of civilians.
The Security Council must demand a ceasefire so that refugees can be evacuated. The secretary general should mandate a humanitarian mission to investigate the internment camps.
The Sri Lankan government must not be allowed the secrecy it craves to conduct a war against its own people.
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Actually, more interesting than the article are the comments below it. |
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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| Posted: Sat May 16, 2009 9:21 pm Post subject: Tamil Tigers Last Retreat Cut Off. |
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I don't know if anyone has followed this much. There's been a lot of horrendous reports lately, makes me pretty miserable to read it frankly. Anyway, the Sri Lankan President claims that the war will end today. Hmm.
Sri Lankan army pushes on with final assault on cornered Tamils
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The violence in Sri Lanka was close to a bloody conclusion last night as the country's armed forces sought to destroy the last pocket of Tamil Tiger fighters in defiance of international pleas for a halt to the fighting and accusations from the UN that they had triggered a bloodbath.
While leaders of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were reported to be preparing to kill themselves rather than be captured, explosions reverberated around the tiny coastal strip where as many as 80,000 civilians remained trapped alongside the cornered rebels.
Humanitarian aid workers were in despair as sporadic reports filtered out of thousands of civilians killed inside the "no fire zone", the government-designated haven where non-combatants were supposed to be able to escape the fighting.
"It is hard to think of a worse place on earth to be right now than on that stretch of beach," said James Elder, the Unicef spokesman in Sri Lanka, as he struggled to contain his emotions.
The final assault went ahead in spite of a warning from British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to Sri Lanka that "there will be consequences for its actions". Downing Street said Brown had made several phone calls during the day to Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa, urging him to bring the violence to an end. His pleas were ignored.
The Sri Lankan military said the Tigers, which have used the trapped civilians as human shields in an attempt to keep the army at bay, were detonating their ammunition dumps.
There were no reliable figures available for civilian casualties, but with tens of thousands of people crammed into an area of less than one square mile, humanitarian agencies feared the worst.
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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| Posted: Mon May 18, 2009 3:36 am Post subject: |
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The bitter end: Tamils lay down arms
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After 26 years, Sri Lanka claims it has defeated the feared Tamil Tigers, but the tide of refugees driven into internment leaves legacy of hate.
It had been talked about for months, its slow inevitability played out against the most savage of backdrops. Last night, on the blood-soaked sand on the north-eastern coast of Sri Lanka, it appeared to have finally happened.
Twenty-six years after the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam � once the most feared terrorists in the world � launched a brutal war for a separate Tamil homeland, they admitted defeat. Having reportedly launched waves of suicide attacks in an effort to repel a final assault by government troops, the once mighty rebels laid down their arms. The government was examining one of several bodies recovered from the battlefield, tentatively said to be that of the rebels' leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, who apparently committed suicide with several of his senior commanders as they were surrounded by government troops.
"This battle has reached its bitter end," a senior rebel spokesman, Selvarajah Pathmanathan, said on the pro-Tiger website TamilNet. "It is our people who are dying now from bombs, shells, illness and hunger. We cannot permit any more harm to befall them. We remain with one last choice � to remove the last weak excuse of the enemy for killing our people. We have decided to silence our guns." Denying Prabhakaran's demise later, Pathmanathan insisted that the group's leader was behind the decision to end the war.
Their unilateral ceasefire was rejected by the government, whose forces continued their assault. By yesterday evening, the fighting was said to have slowed, though with journalists and almost all aid workers prevented from reaching the war zone, it was impossible to confirm details. The government said that the last Tigers were boxed into an area measuring just 400m by 600m.
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Next time someone whinges "why do people only post about the I/P conflict?" I shall direct them straight to this thread as a way of explanation. This stuff has been major news for days, and no-one gives a toss. |
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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| Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 12:00 am Post subject: |
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Well, SummerWhine, this thread is my answer to your muddle-headed post on the Interesting Article Thread.
Nobody was interested in Sri Lanka, and eventually I stopped mentioning it. Would you like to debate it with me? What stance will you take?
Shall I back the Sri Lankan government, and you argue the case of the Tigers? Or shall I argue in the Tamil corner while you justify the actions of the Sri Lankan government?
Take your pick. When I've got a bit of free time, I can argue either. In the meantime, do pray for their souls, won't you. |
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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| Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2009 9:40 pm Post subject: |
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This really sucks.
Doctors who braved bombs in Sri Lanka imprisoned
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Three doctors who struggled to help tens of thousands of civilians wounded in Sri Lanka's war zone could be held for up to a year before being charged with harming the country, the government has revealed.
Sri Lanka's Human Rights Minister, Mahinda Samarasinghe, said the doctors were being detained on "reasonable suspicion of collaboration with the LTTE [Tamil separatists]". He said the men had to be presented before a court on a monthly basis, but that investigations could take more than a year.
In the final bloody months of the war, the three government-appointed medics � Thurairaja Varatharajah, Thangamuttu Sathyamurthi and V Shanmugarajah � worked with the most basic medical facilities to run a makeshift clinic inside the conflict zone.
Without many of the drugs they required, or sufficient staff numbers, the doctors struggled to manage while their clinic came under regular bombardment, reportedly from both the LTTE rebels and government forces.
Yet, to the fury of the government, the doctors were also one of the few sources of independent information about the civilian casualties of a conflict that was all but hidden from view.
The medics regularly spoke with the media, including The Independent, about the situation inside the war zone. They talked of shortages of food and medicine, and how their clinic was often hit by shelling. They talked about their efforts to prevent the spread of disease.
Their testimony often stood in stark contrast to the position of the Sri Lankan military, which denied using heavy weapons as it sought to breach the LTTE defences and free up to 250,000 civilians trapped there. Indeed, the military claimed that those who were injured or killed � the UN estimates 15,000 were wounded and at least 8,000 killed � were hit by LTTE firing. The government insisted that the testimony of the doctors could not be trusted, and that they were under the control of the LTTE.
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