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Ear to the Ground

Sri Lanka’s Civil War Takes a Toll

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Posted on Feb 13, 2009
Tamil Child
abcnews.com

An injured Tamil child awaits medical treatment in Trincomalee, Sri Lanka.

The toll in the recent spate of clashes in the decades-long battle between Tamil Tiger rebels and the Sri Lankan government has been officially estimated: 40 civilians are being killed every day, with more than 100 wounded, as artillery shells and gun battles between the two sides devastate the Sri Lankan northeast.

Associated Press:

Artillery shelling and gunbattles between government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels are killing about 40 civilians every day and wounding more than 100 others inside Sri Lanka’s war zone, the top health official in the region said Friday.

Aid groups have estimated more than 200,000 civilians were trapped in a tiny strip of land still controlled by the rebels along the northeastern coast. The military and the rebels deny attacking civilians, but reports from aid workers, health officials and evacuees implicate both sides.

Dr. Thurairajah Varatharajah, the government health officer for the Mullaittivu district, said Friday that artillery shelling was routinely hitting civilian areas in the region and the makeshift hospital he was running out of a school in the coastal town of Putumattalan was overwhelmed by casualties.

The facility was badly understaffed since most of the doctors and nurses either fled the war zone or had stopped coming to work, and the makeshift hospital was running out of some essential antibiotics and anesthesia, he said.

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By photoshock, February 14 at 7:44 pm #

We in the “first world,”  are addicted to fake outrage.
There is no more room for this kind of behaviour in the civilized world. We have no more time for the behaviour of a few, that only leads to ineffective protest, along with the requisite “semi-ntellectual” misgivings of some one or another academic.
Now is the time for real action, we must stand up to the powers that be and call for real action to take place. And how do we do this? As in France, general strikes of working class and poor citizens make a difference in the lives of so many.
Compassion must be the motive that drives us. In order to make real change, we can and must embrace the “other,”  without real dialogue we cannot hope for lasting peace and tranquility in the world.
But we must also respect the “other,” in culture and religion, in ethnicity and race and in all aspects of their lives, we cannot forget that they are true and living people with their own ideas of what constitutes freedom and we must recognize that American democracy is not the answer for the world.
American hegemony is not the answer for the whole world,  America has no corner on the market of freedom.  Yet, we must use the power we have wisely and with compassion, or as Louis J. Halle put it, on April 3, 1954, “When a nation intervenes in a foreign country, it not only tends to turn the people
of that country against it, but it also discredits the regime that accepts its support.” Mr. Halle, was a part of the State Departments Policy Planning staff
during the run-up to the Vietnam War.
How prescient of Mr. Halle, to speak these words, which apply today to all the major conflicts in the world today. Especially our intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Can we withdraw with peace as the end result? Only the people on the ground can make that decision,  as is the case in Sri Lanka.
No one can make the decision for those who are fighting and dying other than those on the ground.
Intervention must be done with wisdom and compassion,
otherwise there will be continued bloodshed and horrific actions on the part of the combatants.
Whatever one thinks of G-d, we must all realize that there is no room in the watchful eyes of G-d, for violence towards innocents and those not involved in the fighting. We have for too long, took a stance that “collateral damage,” was an acceptable option and those who happened to be the collateral damage, could not justify their continued existence to those who were fighting.
Give peace a chance, let love and compassion reign.
Too much fighting, not enough listening to the other.
Peace out!

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By kamban, February 13 at 6:15 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

this is the 21st centurys masive genocide of tamils i don’t know why world keep silent i think this is world terrable terrarisiom in here we can’t touch our own child,even we can’t beat own animal,but here majority people killing all age humans who comming to sihala controld area they toture youth kill them &dupm; the body,woman,girls were raped and burnd to kill,so what kind of justice,un have to act fast???????????

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