Sri Lanka's Genocide

[oberliner]

Sri Lanka is making a lot of international news lately, but the gravity of the situation is not being conveyed - not even close - primarily due to the Sri Lankan government's propaganda and brutal censorship of the media.

I'm an American who has been working in the country for the past two years. Within the last six weeks, I've watched Sri Lanka's 25-year ethnic conflict become a full-scale genocide against the Tamil population (the primary minority group in the country). Some of the more obvious indications include:

1. The government is in the process of putting approx. 300,000 Tamil civilians into military-run camps, which are, for all intents and purposes, Holocaust-style concentration camps: forced labor, lack of basic necessities and sanitation, indiscriminate killings and generally dire conditions.

2. A few weeks ago, the military began systematically raping the women being held in these camps.

3. In mid-January, the Sri Lankan military created a "safe zone" for Tamil civilians who were still in the war zone so that they wouldn't be "caught in the crossfire". Once the civilians moved into the area, the military started bombing it, even hitting a hospital multiple times.

4. The government instituted a mandatory registration last month whereby all Sri Lankan citizens are legally required to provide the government with such details as their name, ethnicity and home address.

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/moggy/2009/02/sri-lankas-genocide.php

[Idealism]

1. The hospital bombing was particularly disgraceful

And they paint the Tamils as the sole "terrorists," while the Sri Lankan forces are the "liberators of the people."

Disgusting things humans do to one another.

[oberliner]

2. It's hard to know what is going on over there

So much conflicting information - who to believe?

[Idealism]

3. I tend to agree with Amy Goodman about obscure events such as these

She hasn't steered me wrong yet!

www.democracynow.org

Great news program; takes on international issues that the MSM avoids. Also has scholarly debates and high-profile interviews.

[oberliner]

4. Thanks - it'd be nice if we had some DU experts on the subject

I've not seen much info posted!