While I can totally understand what you are saying about situation the people are facing there and the need to rescue them, seeing this issue in isolation might not be very helpful.

If you ask what the military or people who support the current military action in Vakarai think, they will say that the action is a result of the threat by the LTTE to Trinco, people living in the area, and general LTTE belligerence.

They will say that, while they feel for the people in Vakarai, they have no choice but to take military action to crush the LTTE which they see as a ruthless terrorist organization that has restarted bombing buses and killing civilians and children.

Understanding the different perspectives can hold some answers as to how to react to these situations. To accuse the government or military of not caring about civilians gets their backs up. If you notice their press releases and statements, they make a lot of effort to say that convoys were allowed in, that shipments are being sent to Jaffna, and arrangements have now been made for shipments from India, etc etc.

Why? Because I believe all people have a sense of care and responsibility to others and they will respond when needed to. But their response is going to be muted if they are accused of not bothering to show any care and responsibility.

So appealing to their human side might be the best way for the TRO to meet the needs of people there. Ofcourse what I am saying here is simplified, but hope you get the gist of it. Appealing to the international community will also annoy the hell out of those who support this military action, this is something I have gathered.

Ofcourse the government accusing the TRO of being the money laundering arm of the LTTE does not help in any way, but thats why this is a cycle of violence.

We have to find ways to break out of it.

However, the government has tried numerous times to send aid convoys through without opening the roads for other traffic. LTTE has not allowed them except for a couple of times insisting that the roads must be opened unconditionally and any aid should be granted through the TRO, which is its money laundering arm.

More importantly, it is the LTTE that is mainly responsible for the plight fo the civilians in Vaharai, because if they let them cross over to the government held cleared areas instead of holding them at gun point as human shields, they wouldn’t face any of these difficulties.

(AP) The refugees say that they took this desperate action because the rebels did not let them leave, even after more than 50 people were killed by government shelling into Vaharai and several neighboring rebel-held villages in Batticaloa.

“The Tigers did not let us go. They shot in the air to scare us or threatened that we will be locked up,” said a man who identified himself as Kandasamy, a father of six. He did not give his full name fearing reprisals.

The United Nations last week said some 35,000 people were trapped in the fighting and asked the separatist Tamil Tigers to allow people to move to safer areas.

what does this have to do with anything:
“While we can feel for Tamil people living in a war situation, lets also try and see the situation of the government which has to defend people against terrible bus bombings and assasinations, respond to past terror acts and be seen to be doing something. Lets not forget Kabithigollewa where 64 civilians were killed including 15 schoolchildren in a bus (June 2006)”

these things have nothing to do with the responsiblity of both parties to respect and adhere to the international humanitarian and human rights law vis a vis the IDPs in vaharai… as stated by the UN in yesterday’s press release:
“We urgently expect the parties to adhere to their responsibilities under international humanitarian law to ensure protection of civilians and their freedom of movement, and unimpeded and secure access for international humanitarian actors to the north and east of the country”
(http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=20582)

the two issues are separate, don’t try and deflect the GOSL war crime in vaharai by bringing up time bombs (which may or may not have anything to do with the LTTE) in the south…

Anyway, more importantly on Vakarai, if 2 weeks of supplies were allowed in on Dec 29, can we assume that there is some basic food reaching the people until Jan 13?

So Arjunan, if you can, and I don’t mean to be insensitive to the suffering of the people there, would be great to know how much of basic food was allowed in on Dec 29 and realistically how many people it can feed, just to allay fears of many such as the military that the LTTE in Vakarai is not living off that as well.
I am guessing the military is concerned that it is also feeding the LTTE and therefore would weigh that against sending in more supplies for the people.

Or is that only to be expected and is that justified?

While we can feel for Tamil people living in a war situation, lets also try and see the situation of the government which has to defend people against terrible bus bombings and assasinations, respond to past terror acts and be seen to be doing something. Lets not forget Kabithigollewa where 64 civilians were killed including 15 schoolchildren in a bus (June 2006)

This is also where the LTTE killing a good 150 plus military intelligence and other people DURING the PROPER ceasefire right after it was signed seemed to me a sign of bad faith, and I have not yet heard a reason why they had to do so.

I truly thought Ranil Wickremesinghe did a lot to take off embargoes and reduce security measures to the north and east, but soon afterwards there were people being picked off and killed everywhere. Anyone knows the background to this?

all international agencies have stated without qualification that it is the GOSL that has not opened the checkpoints…

stop trying to obsfucate the issue…

don’t you live in australia…? what do you know of the situation in Vaharai or Sri Lanka???

It’s the LTTE that does not allow aid convoys to pass through. It’s the LTTE that forcibly keeps the civilians from fleeing into government held areas where they would be safe and have their essential needs taken care of.

if you know anything about internatonal humanitarian law and international human rights law you would realize, whether you like it or not, that governments and non-state actors are held to different standards…

one reason for this is the amount of resources available to governments as opposed to non-state actors…

i’m sure if the LTTE where recieving 1/10 of the aid that the GOSL is reciving that the would be easily able to feed the IDPs…

but when the area under their control is under an embargo how do you expect them to bring food and medicine in to the area…?

“wage war on civilians…” ???
the LTTE???

isn’t it the GOSL that is bombing and shelling the civilian IDPs and herding them first to the south to vaharai and now to valaichenai…???

the amount of tamil civilians killed by GOSL forces or affiliated partners is about 100 times higher than the LTTE caused civilian causlaties… you think the few bus bombs causualties (horrible though they are and must be condemned as ALL civilian killings must be) equate to over 1000 tamil civilians killed this year due to disappearance, shelling, bombing, extra-judicail execution…???

if the original posts author’s tone, as you state is “markedly anti-government” because he/she states the facts as they are, then wouldn’t your post be considered “markedly PRO-government” because i you are critical of the LTTE…???

it is easy to discount the views of the TRO as being “yet another mouthpiece for the tigers,” and thus making it easy for you and others not to address the specific FACTS and ISSUSES raised in the post…

the TRO is ON the ground, and everything cited in the TRO person’s posts is fact and verifiable via the media or international observers… so, why not comment on why the GOSL continues to deny access to the IDPs in violation of international humanitarian and human rights law…???