Posts Tagged ‘Sri Lanka’
The World Needs to Tell Sri Lanka 'No Internment Camps'
I have great difficulty understanding why in 2009 anyone could think this kind of treatment of an ethnic minority is OK? Wasn’t the lesson we were supposed to take from past atrocities of ethnic minorities ‘never again’? Didn’t the world dedicate itself to the protection of civilians in times of war, and from government sanctioned violence and despair? Hasn’t that pledge been made again and again?
How is it we can allow a government that has been accused by Human Rights Watch of ‘disappearing’ (read: carrying out mass murders) of 18 000 Tamil civilians to block UN, Red Cross, NGO and media access to some 300 000 internally displaced people they have decided to intern in concentration camps. There have been numerous reports of parents being separated from children, rapes, and chronic shortages of the most basic necessities to sustain human life. They are refusing aid for those they’ve interned. They are not protecting the lives of their captives.
The 300 000 Tamils the Sri Lankan government has interned in these camps have lost virtually all of their rights and their basic dignity is under constant attack daily. They are not free to leave and return home. Stuck behind barbed wire fences, guarded by machine gun wielding soldiers, they’ve lost any rights one would expect citizens to have in a country with any claim to be free or democratic.
Such treatment makes reconciliation impossible, and is bound to lead to massive loss of human life, through either deliberate genocidal acts or humanitarian crisis brought about through irresponsible government action. That is bound to lead to more violence.
Below is yet another video, from yet another news organization about the plight of Tamils in these government run concentration camps.
It’s 2009. We’ve seen this show before. Never have concentration camps been used for good. Never has an ethnic minority group been well served by being detained without rights, media access or the basic necessities to sustain life. We know the outcome of these situations. We need to stop this one before it gets any worse.
The international community needs to give Sri Lanka a final warning. Tell the Sri Lankan government to open up, let the UN in, allow the Red Cross and NGOs to save lives, and the media to tell the story and be there to witness the treatment of these civilians. Should they choose not to once again, then it is incumbent on the United Nations to invoke ‘right to protect’ and step in – against the government’s will and protect the lives of these 300 000 civilians.
1 Comment »My Heartfelt Thanks To You
I wanted to send a heartfelt thanks to those who have written me since I posted My Support of the Tamil Community in Canada – Explained.
In post I had written about a poorly made government decision in October 2008, that I believed put the life of a prominent anti-war politician in Sri Lanka at risk by publicly suggesting he was both supportive of, and possibly even a member of the LTTE, I wrote:
‘Even writing about Sri Lanka is uncomfortable for me because I am well aware of how having an opinion that is not supportive of the Government of Sri Lanka’s military efforts against it’s own people can and almost always is equated to supporting the violent actions of the LTTE and by bringing up Sri Lanka at all, one is forced to explain their views clearly and precisely to ensure they are not misrepresented.’ grindstone road divx movie online Terrorist By Assumption – Conservative Government Policy - October 7th 2008
Throughout my involvement in politics, I’ve never been comfortable sitting quietly and letting something I’ve felt is wrong go by unchallenged. When one recognizes their view isn’t necessarily the popular opinion on an issue, it is often more of a challenge to speak out. One can be ‘thick skinned’ or ‘tough’ but still needs to know they’ll be able to withstand the blows that will certainly come their way. That being said, it is a heck of a lot easier to stand up with strength and courage when you know there are others who are supportive of what you’re doing.
The dozens of messages I’ve received through email and comments on my blog have been a re-affirmation of the decent, caring, Tamil community in Canada I know. The mix of kind words, and personal stories has touched me, and allowed me to further try to understand how painful it must be knowing about the atrocities going on in Sri Lanka and seeing them unreported in the media.
Hearing stories of lost loved ones, carnage and destruction, of food shortages and fear; it’s clear to me why the community is exercising it’s democratic rights in Canada with such vigour. It’s clear why there is such urgency in the voices and on the faces of demonstrators. It’s clear why so many Tamils have put their daily lives on hold to struggle to be the voice of the unheard victims back home. You feel a sense of obligation to do so, and all Canadians and our government have an obligation to listen.
Your words further hit home how wrong those who think Tamils want to see more bloodshed are. It’s clear to me, Tamils want to be safe from violence, have access to the basic necessities of life, have their human rights protected, and the political rights all the world’s minority populations are guaranteed by the United Nations to self determination.
Canadians must see that the Tamil community is giving us the opportunity to live up to our international reputation. The challenges in Sri Lanka give Canada the opportunity to lead again on the international stage. It allows us to stand up for values and morals we hold dear and believe to be inalienable, not just at home, but abroad as well. It’s my hope we seize that opportunity and begin to pressure the Sri Lankan government to recognize that peace won’t come militarily, but only through a recognition of the rights of Tamils to self determination and setting up a fair and open process to that end. If the government of Sri Lanka wants unity, it can’t win that in war, it must earn it through it’s actions. If the Tamils want independence they too need a non military process to realize that goal.
There is hope that the community may finally see some action. The Gardiner Expressway closure was controversial, but effective. It doesn’t need to happen again, but it worked. Daily protests for weeks were ignored, hunger strikes not reported, but each day since the Gardiner closure, the plight of innocent Tamil civilians has been on the front page of the daily newspapers. The Gardiner being closed for five hours was covered by international media, and helped wake many Canadians up to what’s going on in Sri Lanka.
I am proud to stand with Tamil Canadians, who are peacefully calling for an end to violence in Sri Lanka, who are calling for a recognition of their internationally accepted human rights. It is my hope that the Sri Lankan government will bow to pressure soon, and recognize that they must be held to a higher standard then this. The LTTE has already said it is prepared to enter into a ceasefire. The Sri Lankan government should take them up on that and end the violence. The actions of the Tamil diaspora around the world have gained recognition of the issue. It’s seen President Obama call for an end to the violence in Sri Lanka yesterday and the United Nations get more and more aggressive in their diplomatic efforts.
Thank you again for your kind messages. With the support I’ve been receiving, it is easy to speak out. If you wrote me and have yet to receive a response to your message, I assure you it’s coming soon.
1 Comment »My Pictures From the Tamil Protest on the Gardiner Expressway
I’m going to comment later. I’m actually working on that next. But I wanted to share some of the pictures I took before my camera died and I got so busy with twitter that I stopped taking pics of my surroundings. I am not a photographer by any stretch of the imagination, and was using a digital camera that is far from professional. Same goes for the Motorola Q9.
The View From My Phone
My primary objective was to involve myself in the protest and twitter what was happening to folks who were following the event on the interweb. I did so using my phone and moved progressively from well behind police, to the front row, with about three feet between me and an Officer in riot gear. I thought to help put that part in context a bit, I’d give you the view my phone had when held in the ‘twitter position’.
This picture is of a woman sitting in front of a Toronto Police Officer at the front line of the protest facing East in the Westbound lane (the direction the crowd was mostly facing)
This was my view of the ground when she left. The crowd was good at not ceding space by moving up as folks shuffled in and out. For about half an hour this was my view primary when I wrote.
willow movie download I noticed these pretty early and hoped none would be used on protesters.
But Before I got There…
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