Tamil Civilians Trapped in a “Bloodbath”

by Chandi Sinnathurai / May 11th, 2009

The serial killing of unarmed Tamil civilians has almost become a norm particularly in the Tamil territories. The Sri Lanka Tamil press and the international media outlets have reported in the past two days that nearly a thousand civilians have lost their lives. The Tamil Tigers have blamed the Sri Lanka State Forces for these war crimes: killing their own citizens. Sri Lanka State has retorted by saying that it is the Tigers who are killing their own people to gain international sympathy.

This war without independent witness in itself is a crime against humanity.

It so happens, the civilians who are caught in this conflict don’t seem to have any real “no-fire” zones to run for safety. Over 50,000 civilians are said to be trapped with the Tigers, in a 4 square kilometer pocket of coast-land, surrounded by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces.

More than 100 children had been killed in weekend shelling which the United Nations called a civilian “bloodbath.”

The UN Security Council must not treat this as a side issue, but for the sake of humanity, the Tamil civilian matter ought to be at the top of the agenda. All of them have suffered more than enough. It is so sad, that these innocent human beings, are being used as mere political tools.

The Western Governments and the UN must set an ethical example to the world. To be seen to send a strong message by action, that the value of human beings cannot be degraded for selfish and temporal reasons.

All human life without regard to race, creed, or color is precious. Tamil civilians must be saved, each one of them: women, children and men. Tomorrow is too late.

Chandi Sinnathurai is a peasant priest who believes life is beautiful and divine, hence no one, including one's enemies, should be denied fundamental human rights. He leads Conscience Appeal. Read other articles by Chandi, or visit Chandi's website.

This article was posted on Monday, May 11th, 2009 at 10:00am and is filed under Crimes against Humanity, Militarism, Prejudice, Racism, Sri Lanka, United Nations.

5 comments on this article so far ...

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  1. bozh said on May 11th, 2009 at 10:39am #

    i know only a little about this conflict. If sri lankans’ invasion is similar to the raid by israel on gaza and with no UN observers being present, then that alone wld be a crime. bozhidar balkas. tnx

  2. john andrews said on May 11th, 2009 at 11:47pm #

    This war is deemed too trivial by western media to concern itself with – so no doubt there must be something important going on in Sri Lanka that we all ought to know about.
    I also bet it is has its origins in yet another unexploded cluster bomb left behind by the British Empire.

  3. kalidas said on May 12th, 2009 at 5:44pm #

    Buddhists killing Hindus, vice versa, barely even measures on the Jewish/Christian/Muslim Richter scale, if it even measures at all.
    May as well be the Congo.

  4. A.Ram said on May 13th, 2009 at 6:15am #

    Chandi has forgotten the history of the LTTE for the last 33 years, and crying wolf. When the Thamil tigers were brutally killing villagers and cutting the womb of pregnant mothers whilst they were asleep, and chopping the children to pieces whilst they were peacfully sleeping, in order to have a ethincally pure thamil state of Elaam in the north of Sri Lanka, and chasing away more than 100,000 people of the other communities who are now living in refugee camps in the South of the Country, where were you then. Don’t weep crocodile tears of a Maniac who derserves what is happening out there and the menace of terrorism should be compleletly rooted out. The present govt is doing the right thing when earlier goverments failed to do it.

  5. Ananth said on November 19th, 2009 at 10:08am #

    First of all you should list out all the atrocity done by the Sri Lankan government and extremist Sinhalese before the LTTE was created and after. It is typical of you to claim atrocity by the LTTE without any proof and it is true that there were civilian casualties when LTTE targeted military and economic infrastruces. Tamil is not a pure or an ethnic group. Here are some words from Nadesan Satyendra:

    “To confuse a nation with a race and to attempt to mobilise a people on the basis of race is to prevent the growth of the Tamil nation – and leads the Tamil people to a ‘racist Dravidian’ dead end. The Tamil national identity is not a racist identity.
    Neither is the Tamil national identity, a religious identity. It is a secular identity. The Tamil nation includes not only Hindus (both Saivaites and Vaishnavites) but also Tamils belonging to many different faiths. Christian Tamils are also Tamils. Brahmin Tamils are also Tamils. Dalit Tamils some of whom may be Buddhists are also part of the Tamil nation. The Tamil nation also includes within its fold those who regard themselves as atheists and agnostics. A nation is a deep and horizontal togetherness which cuts across vertical divisions in a community.”

    Tamil is a language and cultural idenity.
    100,000 people chased out from the north? More then 100,000 fled because the Sri Lankan govermnet kept on bombing them and killing them under occupation.

    Your government still has people locked up and refusing to give access to outsiders to see what is happening. What do the government has to hide if the Tamil people love them so much?