Death and Deprivation for Sri Lanka's Tamils: Has Anyone Noticed?

There is a great deal to ponder in why, amidst headline crises elsewhere in the world, the humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka has attracted little attention. There are estimates that up to 6500 Tamil civilians have died and ten of thousands have fled in recent weeks in a worsening civil war that has stretched out over decades.

Tom Fenton of Global Post reveals and considers the situation:

What the Tamils and Palestinians Have in Common

LONDON — For the past three weeks, dozens of flag-waving Tamils have been camping out in Parliament Square, trying to draw attention to the desperate plight of their ethnic minority in far-off Sri Lanka. Several are on a hunger strike. Busy Londoners seem to ignore them, except when the demonstrators hold up traffic. The Tamils are one of the world’s least popular causes.

An estimated 70,000 of them have been killed in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's decades-long struggle for independence against the Sri Lankan government. Civilians trapped between the Tamil Tigers and government troops are in particularly dire straits right now. But their suffering is largely unseen by the world.

The Sri Lankan government has barred independent news organizations and most aid agencies from the combat zone in the northeast, where a dwindling band of rebel militia members is making a last-ditch stand against the Sri Lankan army. Tens of thousands of Tamil civilians are trapped in the war zone and trying to flee. Almost 3,000 have been killed in the fighting in the past two months. The government is pushing hard to finish off the rebellion and believes that if the cameras are not there, the world won’t care what happens.

Read rest of article....

Comments

[Josh Mull]

I'm not sure that comparing Sri Lanka to Palestine is such a great idea. Sure, that may influence some to take a sympathetic look at the situation, but there is the other side as well, and you risk losing their support by clouding their vision with simplifications like "Sri Lanka is like Israel and the Tamils are like Palestinians." Israel-Palestine is automatically extremely polarizing, it's just not helpful to cram it into that intellectual box.

And just for the record, he's full of it when he says the Tamils are one of the least popular issues. They have hundreds of demonstrators blocking traffic in downtown London? Tell that to Rwanda, Congo, Baluchistan and the other few dozen countries where civilians are slaughtered on a daily basis. I haven't seen much marching for them lately...