The Brewing Humanitarian Crisis In Sri Lanka
This is the video shot by Channel Four News from the United Kingdom that apparently warranted their expulsion from Sri Lanka. They talked about children being separated from their families, reported sexual abuse, food and fresh water shortages among other challenges. Watch the interviews they took with individuals within the camp. Listen to their stories. Then watch the government’s response and wonder how dangerous this situation is moving forward.
The Tamil people of Sri Lanka have been undeniably been subjected to a whole host of human rights abuses at the hands of their government. Having innocent civilians imprisoned in camps like these is an extremely dangerous situation and risks the lives of everyone who is imprisoned.
My concern for innocent civilians stuck in the war zone has seen me accused by Sinhalese persons of being a ‘terrorist sympathizer’. What has become clear to me, in reading the responses I’ve received from pro-Sinhalese folks is that there is a huge issue in separating the condition and treatment of the Tamil people, from that of the LTTE. It seems concern about humanitarian disaster, and possible genocide against Tamil civilians, at least to them is the same as supporting or sympathizing with the LTTE. If this is the mind set, and the government supporters are unable to separate the plight of the people from the LTTE and recognize that those are two very different issues as I have, how can any responsible person believe that these civilians are safe under these conditions?
The BBC, New York Times, CNN and other very legitimate media sources are being denied access to the war zone and the vulnerable populations in these camps, and the world is left to rely on the word of the Sri Lankan Government. This is a government that attacks virtually all international media sources, claims that they’re all in bed with the LTTE, refers to Human Rights Watch, a respected Human Rights organization ‘War on Sri Lanka’.
I think all Canadians need to recognize that there is a humanitarian crisis impacting hundreds of thousands of people who have had nothing to do with the conflict and whose lives are now at grave risk. We need to understand you can be sympathetic and concerned about the lives of Tamil people without being supportive of the LTTE or terrorism. We can’t allow internment camps to house an ethnic minority group for a period of up to three years, especially after what has been such a long and divisive civil war. Especially without journalists, and international aid workers and peacekeepers present to ensure their safety.
Sinhalese people in Colombo or anywhere else in the world can continue to call me whatever they’d like, but the fact remains, the situation on the ground in Sri Lanka has all the ingredients for disaster, and it is incumbent on the international community to ensure civilians are protected from violence, mass killings and the other realities that the world has come to know happen when folks are singled out by ethnicity and interned in camps.
We have to recognize internment camps have absolutely nothing to do with the LTTE whatsoever and that this is a decision the Sri Lankan government has made on it’s own. Government’s need to be held to a higher standard. It’s easier for the world to step in right now to address the humanitarian issues, than it will be later on.
Let’s get this right for once as an international community, and step in and solve a problem before it gets anymore out of hand.
Tags: Channel Four News Broadcast Sri Lanka, Concentration Camps, Free Press, Humanitarian Aid Sri Lanka, Humanitarian Crisis Sri Lanka, International Media, Internment Camps Sri Lanka, LTTE, Relief Villages, Sri Lanka Civil War, Sri Lanka Media Ban, Sri Lankan Government, Sri Lankan Tamils
May 18th, 2009 at 6:23 am
pls stop your LTTE propaganda..its all over now…
I’ve been living in Sri Lanka for over 20 years now… u here is just blabbering about something you heard from Tamil Eelam loving Tamils.. ?
grow up..yes I agree that Black July & the racial discrimination that was before paved way to the birth of LTTE & 88 made LTTE more stronger…
Thats one stupid mistake the then government (UNP) did with their political racist lackeys… Pls also note that many a normal Sinhalese protected their Tamil neighbors & friends during that time as well…
that was over 20 years ago… things are very different now… We live peacefully in the south & has being living peacefully for over 15 years now…. everybody want to live their lives normally without any trouble..thats all everybody wants in the south (Tamil & Muslim * Sinhalese included)
most of these diaspora donkeys have not been in to Sri Lanka for ghod knows how long…they still think that the situation is the same as 20 years ago..how pathetic ?
LTTE stooped being a group representing Tamils a long time ago..yes they were for Diaspora Tamils..but not for the Tamils living in Sri Lanka… If you check the IPs of the so called Tamil Ealam supporters in this blog I’ll bet anything that the majority of them are living abroad…
anyways none of this matters now… All civilians have crossed over to the Gov area & the entire Tamil High-archi including Prabakaran & his son has been killed like the murderers they are…
finally Sri Lanka is one country… where we will all have one flag & one national anthem like any other country…
May 18th, 2009 at 8:14 am
Great post, John. Thank you very much for getting that video out.
The weasel words of the high commissioner about the media are shocking — in short, he’s saying that “responsible” media are those willing to report only what his government approves. That’s not reporting; it’s propaganda.
The dehumanizing rhetoric of some your critics (example above) speaks for itself. Badly.
May 19th, 2009 at 4:05 am
This is the first independent news that has come out of Sri Lanka. Thank you Channel 4. This also explains why the Tamil have been fighting for a separate land. They have had to fight such atrocities as these for decades, especially since 1980. This is a Tamil holocaust. US and the rest of the world has got it so wrong for letting the genocide or ethnic cleansing continue. More over China actually financed and armed Sri Lanka in return for a Chinese military port in Sri Lanka.
I strongly believe in non-violence, but non-violence fails when one is faced with such atrocities as these. Did the British succumb to Hitler? The Tamils have thousands of years of history in the North of Sri Lanka. In 1981, The Sri Lankan government burned down all the records and books in the famous library that housed all these literature, records; a cultural genocide.
The World did not understand why the Tamil Tigers had so much support when they were using the Tamils themselves as a human shield. Well if you have lived under such tyranny since 1980 and various other forms of discrimination since 1956, you too would be calling on the Tamil Tigers as freedom fighters.
The World accepted the Tamil asylum seekers as refugees but now called all those Tamils that reside in their respective countries as refugees as “liars”, when these Tamils brought to their attention the evil acts of the government of Sri Lanka. It is now too late for those that have perished in such an evil way, let those that have survived the hell with scars for life receive International Aid Agency attention.
If you (the world) have any humanity in you then investigate and prosecute all the perpetrators, otherwise you will let another terrorist group into the world scene that would be far more vicious than the last.
We need a wide campaign for independent NGOs and World Aid organisations to go in to help these victims of the Tamil holocaust and not let their suffering continue at the hands of this barbaric Sri Lankan Government. The recent state sponsored mob attack on the British Embassy in Colombo should give some indication of how low this Sri Lankan Government will stoop.
For the fair minded amongst you please address these questions –
Q: Why have half a million Tamils but not Sinhalese become refugees in other parts of the world having fled Sri Lanka ?
Q When did inter-ethnic violence begin in Sri Lanka? Was it in 1956, when the Sinhala Government first began state sponsored aggression against Tamils, or was it after the Tamil Tigers were formed in 1972 ? We just saw on such action when the British Embassy was attacked by a Sinhalese mob.
Q. Why do the armed forces of Sri Lanka consist entirely of Sinhalese men (and women)?
Q. Britain acquired Ceylon via the treaty of Amiens with France in 1802, France having defeated previous colonial power, the Netherlands, in the Napoleonic wars. Britain then went on to unify Sinhala and Tamil nations in Ceylon for administrative purposes. This unification had never occurred before in either the pre-colonial or colonial history of Ceylon and was certainly one of the most important events in the progression towards the current situation. Therefore, does Britain have a duty to return their individual sovereignties to their rightful owners?
Q. An anti-Tamil pogrom in 1983, where over 3000 Tamils were killed by Sinhalese mobs aided by the Sri Lankan government, has been designated as an act of genocide by the International Commission of Jurists (an NGO organisation comprising of eminent Jurists dedicated to the primacy, coherence and implementation of international law and principles that advance human rights. Do you think democracy has failed in Sri Lanka because people vote on ethnic lines and democracy has become tyranny of the majority in a country where there are only two principal ethnic groups?
Q. As the world knows, Hitler supposedly came to power democratically. Do you think coming to power democratically is sufficient grounds to excuse genocide perpetrated by tyrants? Remember, so did Sad’am Hussein.
Q. In 1977, the Tamil people by democratic mandate voted for the separation of their nation, Tamil Eelam, from Sri Lanka. Should the world consider respecting the democracy of Tamils in this regard?
Q. In the war zone Sri Lanka has not allowed journalists and medical and other NGOs to enter. Do you think the world can turn a blind eye to such flagrant violation of international law? Now we learn that those doctors who were able to provide independent information on casualty and the scale of the carnage have disappeared. Similarly reporters have been killed or arrested or even expelled (Channel 4 reporters). Why such actions if you are a democratic country? Is this the real reason for not allowing independent reporters into the war zone? The Sri Lankan Government is challenging your (the non Tamil world) intellect, not the Tamils, because we know them for what they are.
Q. According to the UN 170,000 to 200,000 Tamils are held in �Displacement camps� run by the Sri Lankan Sinhala military. These non-combatant Tamils have no liberty and are in effect held in concentration camps – all men and young boys disappear and women raped. Should this be considered a crime against humanity? The supposed justification is that their own home villages had been mined. There is – a) no international verification of this and b) no justification for the use of these camps rather than independent relocation with the support of Tamil and non-Tamil NGOs
Q. By the UNs own assessment more than 7,000 innocent Tamils were killed by aerial bombing and indiscriminate shelling using heavy weapons since January 2009, before the weekend of carnage, is this accurate for the 60,000 and 70,000 never seems to move when we know that many more Tamils have been murdered? Shouldn’t this be considered war crimes and Sri Lankan leaders were complicit in this and as such be taken to the International Criminal Court? Can Sri Lanka remain a member of the commonwealth given such violations of human rights of a segment of its citizens?
Q. The Sri Lanka government has used deprivation of medicines and food as weapons against Tamils in this civil war. Do you think a United Nations Security Council resolution asking for immediate cessation of these inhumane acts breaking Geneva conventions is something that the world should call for?
Q. Is it right that China agreed to support Sri Lanka with armaments, 7 fighter jets, technology and block Security Council attempts to act to stop the carnage was motivated by their agreement with Sri Lanka for a military port? Why did China use the excuse that it was a Sri Lankan internal matter as the reason for interference but felt it necessary to interfere in arming the Sri Lankan Government.
Q. Why was the principles applied in East Timor, Somaliland, and Kosovo not applied to Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka? Selective use of the term Democracy to Sri Lanka allows the conscience of the world to be silenced. Do leaders of the world have a duty to be consistent in the application of international law?
Q. All national liberation struggles (Israel, South Africa, Palestine ) have often in the early stages have gone beyond accepted norms and in terrorising ways conducted violent acts against non-combatants of regimes attempting to suppress the liberation of such nations? Can there be selective application of punishment only in the case of Tamils and Tamil leaders?
Q. India sponsored the armed Tamil liberation organisations including the LTTE in early eighties. All of these movements were given bases in India. Does India have a moral duty to complete the process that it encouraged, by intervening in Sri Lanka the same way it did in Pakistan and free Tamil Eelam from Sri Lanka the same way it freed Bangladesh from Pakistan? If the death of Rajiv Gandhi was the reason for India’s actions for letting thousands of Tamils perish at the behest of Sri Lanka what is going to do to Sri Lanka, because it was a Sri Lankan soldier that gave Rajiv Gandhi a knock on his head at a military parade?
Q. Sri Lanka has no true press freedom and has incarcerated independent journalists of Tamil ethnic origin, and killed Sinhala journalists who have reported the truth about Tamil genocide. Reporters Without Borders (an NGO) considers Sri Lanka more hostile for journalists than any other democracy. President Obama in his speech on World Press Freedom Day mentioned concern for the plight of Sri Lankan Tamil journalist Mr. J.S Tissainayagam who has been in Sri Lankan government custody for over a year, half of that duration without charge.
Given the foregoing, can such a country be considered democratic, or does Democracy mean anything goes, as long as there are elections held at regular intervals irrespective of participation of different ethnic groups? Can Obama, Ian Kelly and Hilary Clinton trust such a regime such as the Sri Lankan government to act fairly on the Tamil issue after all this? Is the US so gullible? Does the CIA know what day of the week this is? Or is being gullible just a convenient path?
September 27th, 2009 at 11:12 am
A very moving video. International help is badly need in Sri Lanka. Children need a healthy environment to grow in that includes everything from stable families to fresh water and organic foods