Post by Tim Collins on Feb 17, 2009 4:49:30 GMT -7
Given the outrage over Israel's fighting in Gaza, why are the Anti-Israel crowd so silent here? I mean Sri Lanka's government is evidently killing innocent civilians and the Tamil Tigers are evidently recruiting children as soldiers. Is the difference that the US is not providing money to either party? Is that the driving force for the Anti-Israel people - money?
This fight has only been going on 26 years, Israel has been fighting since 1948 - maybe it isn't money, maybe there is a time line that has to be crossed
www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20670001&refer=india&sid=akwsclTq2jIQ
By Paul Tighe and Jay Shankar
Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Sri Lankan civilians are being killed in fighting between the army and rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in safe zones declared in the north, the United Nations office in the South Asian island said.
Both sides must find an “orderly and humane solution so that civilians, and children in particular, can be spared further bloodshed,” the office said late yesterday in an e-mailed statement from Colombo, the capital.
The LTTE is preventing people leaving safe zones and “reports indicate that a growing number of people have been shot and sometimes killed,” the office said.
Sri Lanka’s army says it is close to defeating the Tamil Tigers after driving them into a 100-square kilometer (40-square mile) area in the northeast. The UN and international aid agencies estimate 250,000 civilians are in conflict zones, facing a lack of food, water and medicines.
The government last week created a new 12-kilometer-long coastal safe zone north of Mullaitivu in the northeast.
While the declaration provided some respite, reports in recent days “indicate that there was some fighting inside the zone,” the UN office said. “This fighting led to the deaths and injury of yet more civilians.”
The LTTE is also holding 15 UN workers and 75 of their dependents, 40 of them children, the office said. Even though the plight of the workers is “just one part of a larger picture,” their release would be a “good gesture,” it added.
Child Recruits
A growing number of children are being recruited by the LTTE and scores of children are being killed or injured in the fighting, the United Nations Children’s Fund said in an e-mailed statement today. UNICEF expressed its “gravest concern” for children as the conflict entered a new phase.
“We have clear indications that the LTTE has intensified forcible recruitment of civilians and that children as young as 14 years old are now being targeted,” Philippe Duamelle, UNICEF’s Representative in Sri Lanka, said in the statement.
UNICEF has recorded more than 6,000 cases of children being recruited by the LTTE between 2003 and the end of 2008, according to the statement.
The UN office’s “outburst” finds nothing wrong with the government in Colombo and has nothing to say about how civilians are being treated by the army, the TamilNet news agency in the north cited Velupillai Sivanadiyar, the president of the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization that operates in the northern Wanni region, as saying.
‘Useless Talk’
“If they really care for civilians, this is not the time for useless talk and accusations,” Sivanadiyar said yesterday, according to TamilNet. “The UN accusations are aimed at hiding their own failures.”
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it brought 400 people by ferry to the eastern port of Trincomalee from Putumattalan yesterday, the third evacuation in a week.
“We did save lives today, but many people remain behind,” Paul Castella, head of the ICRC delegation in Sri Lanka, said in a statement. “It is now a matter of life and death.”
President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government is demanding the LTTE’s “unconditional surrender” and said earlier this month it will continue its military drive to end the 26-year conflict.
Military operations will be carried out “without harassment to the civilian population,” Rajapaksa told UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Feb. 5, according to the Defense Ministry Web site.
‘Illusion of Security’
“We have at all times treated those civilians fleeing from the grip of the terrorists to the safe zones most humanely,” Rajapaksa said yesterday, according to remarks posted on the Defense Ministry’s Web site today. Rajapaksa said he invited Ban to visit to see the government’s commitment to assisting the civilians.
The zones declared by security forces are an “illusion of security” and the army has repeatedly shelled the areas, the LTTE’s political division said last week, according to TamilNet.
The LTTE, which is fighting for a separate Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka’s north and east, was driven from its main bases in the north by an army offensive in January.
To contact the reporters on this story: Paul Tighe in Sydney at ptighe@bloomberg.net; Jay Shankar in Bangalore at jshankar1@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: February 17, 2009 05:15 EST
This fight has only been going on 26 years, Israel has been fighting since 1948 - maybe it isn't money, maybe there is a time line that has to be crossed
www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20670001&refer=india&sid=akwsclTq2jIQ
By Paul Tighe and Jay Shankar
Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Sri Lankan civilians are being killed in fighting between the army and rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in safe zones declared in the north, the United Nations office in the South Asian island said.
Both sides must find an “orderly and humane solution so that civilians, and children in particular, can be spared further bloodshed,” the office said late yesterday in an e-mailed statement from Colombo, the capital.
The LTTE is preventing people leaving safe zones and “reports indicate that a growing number of people have been shot and sometimes killed,” the office said.
Sri Lanka’s army says it is close to defeating the Tamil Tigers after driving them into a 100-square kilometer (40-square mile) area in the northeast. The UN and international aid agencies estimate 250,000 civilians are in conflict zones, facing a lack of food, water and medicines.
The government last week created a new 12-kilometer-long coastal safe zone north of Mullaitivu in the northeast.
While the declaration provided some respite, reports in recent days “indicate that there was some fighting inside the zone,” the UN office said. “This fighting led to the deaths and injury of yet more civilians.”
The LTTE is also holding 15 UN workers and 75 of their dependents, 40 of them children, the office said. Even though the plight of the workers is “just one part of a larger picture,” their release would be a “good gesture,” it added.
Child Recruits
A growing number of children are being recruited by the LTTE and scores of children are being killed or injured in the fighting, the United Nations Children’s Fund said in an e-mailed statement today. UNICEF expressed its “gravest concern” for children as the conflict entered a new phase.
“We have clear indications that the LTTE has intensified forcible recruitment of civilians and that children as young as 14 years old are now being targeted,” Philippe Duamelle, UNICEF’s Representative in Sri Lanka, said in the statement.
UNICEF has recorded more than 6,000 cases of children being recruited by the LTTE between 2003 and the end of 2008, according to the statement.
The UN office’s “outburst” finds nothing wrong with the government in Colombo and has nothing to say about how civilians are being treated by the army, the TamilNet news agency in the north cited Velupillai Sivanadiyar, the president of the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization that operates in the northern Wanni region, as saying.
‘Useless Talk’
“If they really care for civilians, this is not the time for useless talk and accusations,” Sivanadiyar said yesterday, according to TamilNet. “The UN accusations are aimed at hiding their own failures.”
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it brought 400 people by ferry to the eastern port of Trincomalee from Putumattalan yesterday, the third evacuation in a week.
“We did save lives today, but many people remain behind,” Paul Castella, head of the ICRC delegation in Sri Lanka, said in a statement. “It is now a matter of life and death.”
President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government is demanding the LTTE’s “unconditional surrender” and said earlier this month it will continue its military drive to end the 26-year conflict.
Military operations will be carried out “without harassment to the civilian population,” Rajapaksa told UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Feb. 5, according to the Defense Ministry Web site.
‘Illusion of Security’
“We have at all times treated those civilians fleeing from the grip of the terrorists to the safe zones most humanely,” Rajapaksa said yesterday, according to remarks posted on the Defense Ministry’s Web site today. Rajapaksa said he invited Ban to visit to see the government’s commitment to assisting the civilians.
The zones declared by security forces are an “illusion of security” and the army has repeatedly shelled the areas, the LTTE’s political division said last week, according to TamilNet.
The LTTE, which is fighting for a separate Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka’s north and east, was driven from its main bases in the north by an army offensive in January.
To contact the reporters on this story: Paul Tighe in Sydney at ptighe@bloomberg.net; Jay Shankar in Bangalore at jshankar1@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: February 17, 2009 05:15 EST
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