Filed under: Indian Subcontinent | Tags: Chavuinism, Civil War, Francis Boyle, Genocide, IDPS, Internment camps, Iran Elections, Lebensraum, LTTE, Mahinda Rajapaksa, Nation-State, Nationalism, Nazi, Nazism, Racism, Self-Determination, Sinhala, Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan Army, State Terror, Tamil Diaspora, Tamils
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30 June 2009
Source: Open Democracy
What kind of violence has the Sri Lankan state been committing against its Tamil civilian population as the island‘s civil war ended; on what scale and with what intentions? Martin Shaw explores the difficult terrain where war, atrocity and genocide meet.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa, in his “victory speech”, told Sri Lanka’s parliament that “our heroic forces have sacrificed their lives to protect Tamil civilians”, and he took “personal responsibility” for protecting Tamils. Yet his government is now scandalously confining this huge population – who have already suffered not only from the LTTE but from Sri Lankan bombardments which caused probably tens of thousands of deaths and injuries – in squalid conditions. The government has officially backtracked, under international pressure, on plans to hold the displaced, while screening them for potential “terrorists”, for up to three years; it now says that 80% will be resettled by the end of (more…)
Filed under: Indian Subcontinent | Tags: Aid Workers, Batticaloa, Civilian Casualties, Handicap International, IDP, IDPS, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, LTTE, Mahinda Rajapaksa, No Fire Zone, Polmoddai Camp, Prosthetic Limbs, Refugees, selvarasa Pathmanathan, Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan Army, Vavuniya Camp, Velupillai Prabharkaran
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( Dated Piece | 24 May 2009 )
Source: The Daily Telegraph
Up to 30,000 Tamil civilians have been left severely disabled by Sri Lankan army shelling in the so-called ‘no-fire zone’, it has been revealed.
Aid workers said one in ten of the 280,000 civilian refugees who fled the Sri Lankan army’s final onslaught against the Tamil Tiger rebels had either lost limbs or been so badly injured they urgently needed prosthetic limbs or wheelchairs to regain their mobility.
The scale of civilian casualties who have been maimed in the war was disclosed by the award-winning French charity Handicap International, which works with the victims of war throughout the world.
The charity, which has a small factory producing artificial limbs in Batticaloa in Sri Lanka’s eastern province, has opened an emergency unit at one of the centres for people who fled the fighting, and is working with other suppliers to meet what it described a “huge demand”.
Aid workers said nearly all of the people had been (more…)
Filed under: Indian Subcontinent | Tags: Colonialism, Genocide, IDP, IDPS, Imperialism, Internally Displaced Persons, Nation-State, Racism, Sinhala, Sinhala Chauvinism, Sri Lanka, State Terror, Tamil, Tamil Civilians, Tamil Diaspora, War
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( Dated Piece |03 June 2009 )
Source: Tamil Guardian
Desperation is rife among the 280,000 Tamil civilians imprisoned in internment camps in northern Sri Lanka with countless civilians unable to locate or contact relatives missing or separated during the bloody chaos that ensued during the final weeks of the Sri Lankan military onslaught.
Many clutched a razor wire fence, desperately searching the crowds on the other side for a familiar face as they tried to discover whether their loved ones were still alive and at liberty, or in another of the camps, a British newspaper reporter describing the plight of the civilians in one of the camps wrote.
Some are still hoping to find relatives amid the rows of tents that provide a temporary home.
But others say relatives were separated out by the military, suspected of being Tamil Tigers.
One refugee said that thousands of fleeing civilians were (more…)
