Civilian 'slaughter' in Sri Lanka

[oberliner]

Source: BBC

The campaign group, Human Rights Watch, has accused the Sri Lankan military of "slaughtering" civilians with artillery fire in the north-east.

It called on the government to end its "indiscriminate artillery attacks" on civilians and its policy of "detaining displaced persons in internment camps".

The government strongly denies targeting civilians.

Human Rights Watch also condemned the Tamil Tigers for "increased brutality" towards trapped civilians.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7901321.stm

[Lost in CT]

1. The final destruction of the Tigers would make the civilian deaths worthwhile.

The Tigers are truly a horrible force on Sri Lanka.

[oberliner]

2. Sri Lanka: End ‘War’ on Civilians

(New York) - The Sri Lankan government should immediately cease its indiscriminate artillery attacks on civilians in the northern Vanni region and its policy of detaining displaced persons in internment camps, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Since early January 2009, civilian casualties have skyrocketed in the fighting between the Sri Lankan armed forces and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The 45-page report, "War on the Displaced: Sri Lankan Army and LTTE Abuses against Civilians in the Vanni," is based on a two-week fact-finding mission to northern Sri Lanka in February. The government has prohibited journalists and human rights monitors from going to the battle zone in the Vanni, making access to information difficult.

"This ‘war' against civilians must stop," said James Ross, legal and policy director at Human Rights Watch. "Sri Lankan forces are shelling hospitals and so-called safe zones and slaughtering the civilians there."

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/02/19/sri-lanka-end-war-civilians

The HRW report can be found at the link.

[acmavm]

3. "...would make the civilian deaths worthwhile". Really?

[dipsydoodle]

4. Nothing justifes the death of innocent civilians

x(

[Lost in CT]

17. Would I shoot Mugabe if he was holding an innocent child?

Yes... considering the thousands of lives it would save.

Nobody likes to kill innocent civilians. But it is naive to think that evil does not exist in such forms that such sacrifice is preferable.

[LeftishBrit]

11. No fan of the Tigers; but civilian deaths are always a tragedy.

I don't think their families would agree with you that their deaths are 'worthwhile'.

[marasinghe]

13. way to go with the jungle logic

As a Sinhalese Buddhist from Sri Lanka, allow me to tell you that you are an asshole.

Lord Buddha's Dhamma clearly teaches that the deliberate killing of even an insect or other minute life-form, is a miserable sin. And we have apologists like you, and the current fascist government & military, making a mockery of our entire culture & nation, with the massacre of innocent Tamil civilians in my native land.

If you scum are so gung ho to take down the tamil tigers, whyn't you go in and battle them man to man - like Dutugemunu & Elara - and interdict the actual LTTE fighters, instead of spouting your great warrior crap from bombers & fighters 10,000 feet in the air. The really sad thing to me is - how 80% of my people, including family members, support this murder of innocents, under the guise of "defeating the horrible tamil tigers".

You people are no different from bush, cheney, and the pentagon fascists, who killed maybe a million Iraqis - as "collateral damage" - in order to take down saddam hussein & his baathists.

Some day, your Kamma is going to bring on it's own Phala (for non-Buddhists: Phala = results of conscious actions); and you'll find out how good your brand of murderous patriotism actually was, for my once wondrous country.

[kentauros]

15. Thank you for that!

:thumbsup:

And welcome to DU! :hi:

[Reterr]

18. Welcome to DU

:hi:
You are off to a good start :hug:.

[karynnj]

5. There is a SFRC hearing on this tomorrow where one of the witnesses is from Human Rights Watch

Here is a link that you can use - it is supposed to start at 2:30. The video will then be archived at this same place. http://foreign.senate.gov/hearings/2009/hrg090224p.html

These recent reports have been horrific. (My family and I visited Sri Lanka last spring at the end of a daughter's study abroad program there. Though my daughter, we met both the Sinhala Buddhist family and the Tamil Muslim family she stayed with during 2 parts of the program - both the kindest, most generous people you could ever meet.)

[oberliner]

6. Tamil Muslim family in Sri Lanka?

I thought that the Sri Lankan Tamils were primarily Hindu with a sizable Christian minority.

[karynnj]

7. Yes

They are a small minority. There were some Moorish traders from the 14th century who came to Sri Lanka, though they married Tamils and there were Tamil converts. (I think this is correct). They were spread around the country, but many lived in the Northeastern areas controlled by the Tamil Tigers. They were evicted from that area by the Tigers in October 1990 being given just hours (or days) to pick up and leave everything behind.

My daughter loved the incredible extended family she lived with in a Northwestern coastal city where many relocated.

[oberliner]

8. Fascinating

Thanks for sharing!

What is your daughter's take on the current situation there?

[karynnj]

9. She's back in the US at her college

and will graudate in May.

[karynnj]

16. I was really asleep writing this - the hearing is on Tuesday

[maxsolomon]

10. given the logistics & history of this civil war

there will be much more death & misery before it is over. then the tamil tigers will re-start the suicide bombings that they invented.

what a tragedy for the island.

[marshall]

12. Interesting use of quotation marks

I guess they're trying to be nonjudgmental by calling this a "slaughter", wheras from the other point of view it might be "execution", "self defense", or "honor killing".

[oberliner]

14. It's a quote from Human Rights Watch

Here is the context:

"This 'war' against civilians must stop. Sri Lankan forces are shelling hospitals and so-called safe zones and slaughtering the civilians there."

[oberliner]

19. Sri Lanka says 65 Tiger rebels killed

COLOMBO (AFP) — Sri Lankan security forces have killed at least 65 Tamil Tigers in a week of intense fighting that further reduced the territory under rebel control, according to the military.

The Tigers have been driven back into just 73 square kilometres (28 square miles) of jungle, military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said, having controlled large swathes of the north and the east of the island less than two years ago.

Officials say the rebels are increasingly desperate and may launch more attacks such as the air strike on the capital Colombo on Friday, when two light aircraft were used in suicide missions that killed two people.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jt0DjADPmS6lpcDEPb5vbR9FZioA