Satellite View
There will be lamentations
and sadness, there are already,
and recriminations. Why
did we allow the unthinkable
to fall down on those
hapless families
in tents and bunkers?
Why did we agree
only to informal
meetings
in the basement
of U.N. headquarters
before proposing
an emergency session
of the Human Rights
Council for next week?
After months of
slaughter, next week?
How long do we need
to assemble diplomats
of 47 countries
who live in greater
Geneva, some just
a walk away
from the roundtable?
I imagine the table
round like the large
hearts of hapless
bystander diplomats
before the rain
of terror, bombs
and mortar, metallic
lassos thrown
about Tamils
squared
in 2.5 kilometers
between lagoon
and sea, 50,000
civilians left
in that spit of Vanni,
numbers reduced by
tens and hundreds
every day. You ask
about other options,
such as India, or
stiffening terms
of the IMF loan,
an armed force
to separate the parties?
Yes, dear Romans,
we can choose to censure
miscreants. When a man
or state or rebel group
kill wantonly
we must stop him
or it, walk into
the line of sight,
settle the matter
with our most
special forces.
Who is right–
government
controlled by fanatics,
who believe
the island belongs
first to Sinhalese
while other
residents are subject
to extra-judicial
measures
such as roundups
in unmarked vans
and denouncing
for bizarre
collaborations
with terrorist
fighter jets–
or the aforementioned
liberation fighters?
Or do we have
the last word,
survivors of
streets of Geneva
or New York
or Beijing, suited
and stuffed
with ideals
or pragmatic like
moneylenders
weighing assets
of the nation
come to pawn
its Tamil jewels
in return for
a naval base,
a wedge around
India, uninterrupted
supply of fighter
jets and expert
advice in the art
of war, in the age
of CNN, where
the first principle
denies journalists
the chance to speak
with survivors
of the slaughter
which could have
been prevented
if prying eyes
along with
aid workers
from abroad
had been allowed
inside the Vanni
to accompany
local and expendable
employees,
Tamil speakers,
subject to pressure
from Tiger overlords,
whose pictures
of injured and dead
are stage sets,
according to
government,
whose reports
to BBC are spoken
while a Tiger
points a gun
at the telephone.
Come, come,
ye spokespersons,
do you take us
for imbeciles walking
into roundtables
in Western capitals
or even in Beijing?
When food, water,
medicine, and soft
drinks are scarce
in the theatre
of war, can supplies
of stage blood
be made available
like rain and heat,
mortar and missiles?
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The brutal guns of Singhala army has silenced the only democratic voice of the Tamil people, the LTTE. Who will speak up for the rights of the Tamils now?
Parthipan >>
If the LTTE is your democratic voice, I don’t think you have any right to democracy. It’s one thing to want rights, it’s another thing altogether to kill innocent people, children and perpetrate every crime under the sun to get them. You have debased yourself to a level lower than the one you claim to fight. I really don’t think you have any high moral ground left to lament from about the “brutal Sinhala army”.
While we are at it, why don’t you list the rights that the Tamils are missing right now, other than the ones taken away from them thanks to the LTTE? At least, come up with the issues today that require a normal person to blow herself up to solve the problem. The problem is not merely the govt. The problem is your own use of violence as a means to solve problems.
I cannot understand Parthipan. I wonder what kind of guns the LTTE has. Maybe the kind variety of guns, unbrutal, gentle. Maybe they kill not with bullets but a gentle whiff of perfume. Maybe their killing and slaughtering of people praying in mosques, under the sri maha bodhiya, in churches etc and the slaughtering of innocent people in buses carrying women and children to clinics were acts of kindness? to fight for the rights of Tamils. What a load of crap. The LTTE got what they deserved. I think there are enough of moderate Tamils to fight peacefully for the rights of the tamil people, whose grievances will HAVE to be addressed now that the war is over.
Not sure what this Satellite View is trying to accomplish or the message that it is trying to convey.
Here is my satellite view.
The government has a small window of opportunity to put their mark in history.
It will be re-elected whether anyone likes it or not very soon with a majority and hopefully without having to require the support of the hardcore Sinhalese.
If it Implements the 13 amendment fully with honest intentions, it will be on the road to accomplishing something that no one would have expected and it will be remembered in the history books for it for centuries to come.
If it does what a lot of people, particularly the Tamils expect, which is to rule the North militarily and confirm to many its true racist colours, then
for this government all of these upcoming victory celebrations will be for naught and it will soon become a forgotten entity (like the Governments before) which should take place soon after the election after next or after the next uprizing begins.
So to the government, here is your chance that nobody else has had for the past 30 or so years. I do sincerely hope you don’t squander it.
President Barack Obama, the most poweful president in the world, spoke last week about the humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka(SL). Last Thursday, the UN Security Council, the highest UN body, called SL to spare civilian lives and halt its final offensive.
On the same day, Britain, the former colonial ruler of SL, refering to the war crimes already committed by Colombo by shelling Tamil civilians in the “safe zone” said “We would support an early investigation into all incidents that may have resulted in civilian casualties to determine whether war crimes have been committed”.
SL, from its past two years of massacre experience, knew fully well, that the International Community(IC) and the UN would only be engaged in repetitive rhetoric and not in any concrete action. So, it defiantly rejected the call by the UN, within minutes of the announcement.
Unsatisfied with rejection by words, the government of Sri Lanka(GOSL), went into speedy action too. Within 48 hours, disregarding the calls by President Obama and the UN, and warning by Britain, the soldiers commenced a massive genocidal massacre, with no respect for human lives.
The soldiers killed more tahn 3000 and injured about 20,000 Tamil civilians according to reports from the area. This represents about 50 percent of the 50,000 Tamil civilians estimated in the “safe zone” at the time of massacre.
There was a harvest of massacre from a “killing field” by the criminal state of SL.
Though there were numerous dead and injured civilians, they were not shown by the state run TV in SL, which only had access to the “killing field”. Instead, the TV showed a hungry looking old man putting a sweet into the mouth of a hefty soldier. Caring for even dying Tamils is not in Sinhala culture, let alone injured combatants. It is reported that the soldiers shot the injured combatants dead.
Time has now for President Obama, the UN and Britain to put life into their words and take action immediately to help the injured, bury the dead decently and ensure that civilians who were herded like animals into military concentration camps, are treated in a secure, civilised and humane manner according to Geneva conventions.
Yesterday, a news reader from a TV station in France asked her correspondent in Colombo “Is the war over?”. The journalist replied “The war is not over”. He is right. The deceitful GOSL will invent another “killing field” to plan another Tamil massacre.
Therefore, the GOSL and its soldiers should be speedily investigated by the UN and brought to the war Crimes Court in the Hague without any delay whatsoever
Yo, Thiru,
Here’s the answer to your poetic lament, man. The EU tried for three weeks — including lobbying in remote world capitals– to get 16 signatures to call an emergency meeting, but could not. Now finally it seems to have but its too late to save the Tiger and appease the protesters– the war is over and won. We held off until that as achieved. Even if there is an emergency session, Sri lanka will ensure the defeat of any resolution. You wanna know more, read Rajiva Wijesinha’s recent article How the West Was Sidelined For the Moment.