Out of sight, out of mind. That seems to be the bottom line when it comes to the crisis in
A civil war has been raging in the former Ceylon since 1983, despite several attempts by outsiders to diffuse the tensions and to put an end to the conflict. The rebel group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, and referred to as the Tamil Tigers, has adopted a violent approach to achieve an autonomous homeland for the ethnic Tamils who, it alleges, are discriminated against by the majority Sinhalese. The Sri Lankan government, over the years, has attempted to squelch the rebellion without much success.
Until recently.
For the first time after many years, the Tamil-dominated Jaffna Pensinsula, in northern
International groups watching the war rather helplessly from the sidelines are worried about the fate of civilians, which is my concern too. The government, sensing that an ultimate military victory might be within reach—something that has been quite unimaginable over the 26 years—has apparently banned aid groups from entering the war area and assisting civilians.
Reuters reports that “aid agencies say there are about 230,000 refugees in the war zone, where rights groups say the Tigers are keeping them as human shields.”
Of course, the Tamil Tigers flatly deny that civilians are being used as shields.
It is not only Tamils who are being caught in the crossfire. A Sri Lankan newspaper editor, Lasantha Wickrematunge, a Sinhalese himself, was shot dead while he was on his way to work. Ironically, it was not the Tamil Tigers who killed this journalist, even though he has described the rebels as “among the most ruthless and bloodthirsty organisations to have infested the planet.”
While the killers are yet to be identified, it is believed that Wickrematunge was a target because he was highly critical of the government’s handling of terrorism in his country. Wickrematunge predicted his end in an editorial, where he wrote that "When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me."
Wickrematunge’s death and the ongoing war highlight how much the ferocious fanaticism of the rebels is being matched by the government's, and how civilians—Tamils and Sinhalese alike—are paying a huge price for this mano a mano behavior.
Over the Christmas break, I was in Chennai—the capital of Tamil Nadu, and the largest city in the state. “Tamil Nadu” means the “land of the Tamils” and, as one would surmise, there is, therefore, immense sympathy for the Tamils in
Of course, while there is enormous sympathy for the Tamil civilian population in
Yet, I find that there is very little coverage in the
Granted that this news item has to compete against updates on the global economic meltdown, the presidential transition, or the situation in
I would think that the Sri Lankan situation where hundreds of thousands of civilians are caught in the crossfire merits our attention. However, and unfortunately, it turns out that the importance of destruction of life and property depends on the geographic area where that happens.
William Shakespeare said it best, although in a different context: “there is something rotten in the state of
update: this was published in the Register Guard on January 19, 2009, under the title "Sri Lanka flies under the radar"
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