recent death of large number of teenagers in a ltte run compound due to military bombing once again highlights why tolerating ltte and its activities will only result in horrors.
ltte through it's propaganda mouth piece tamilnet variously claimed that the compound was a 'peace village' , school, orphanage, training center for "leadership, self-awareness and first aid workshop"( lasting for 2, no 10, days) and that 43, then 61, girls died. (goto tamilnet archives and see for yourself)
government (which is engaged in beating back a pussy attempt to take over jaffna) claimed it was a child soldier training and transit camp and came out with a surveillance video from probably an unmanned aerial vehicle (though some reporters seem to think it is a satellite footage if so sri lankan military is receiving some serious help) showing brown clad people and some vehicles running from the compound after the attack.
media was not allowed in by ltte, sri lanka monitoring mission(slmm) and unicef representatives who visited said "while it did not appear to be a rebel camp, they had not ruled out the possibility they were receiving civilian defense training" and rather contradictorily "that it had been empty for some time”. while slmm said they only saw "the bodies of 19 people at a nearby hospital, most of them women around the age of 18". unicef said "they did not have access to the dead”, and "as of this time, we don't have any evidence that they are ltte cadres”. they also issued a statement saying that "according to press reports, the compound in vallipunam ...was bombed, reportedly killing as many as 40 adolescent girls. Some 100 children were wounded, many critically”, "these children are innocent victims of violence", and calling "on all parties to respect international humanitarian law and ensure children and the places where they live, study and play are protected from harm."(italics added by me)
as always media local and foreign parroted tamilnet like idiots. though after recently getting burned for doing so without properly indicating that fact, this time they were for the most part careful to include qualifications like 'rebels/pro-rebel website said”, quotation marks, etc. for a clear example of one that did not qualify them as ltte claims see here. (btw my complaints to the bbc about several instances of biased reporting (this was one i made several later) has resulted in several emails from various people from bbc and at least two regular visitors from bbc to this blog. i hope they are reading and taking remedial action.) most reports missed crucial details like inconsistency of ltte claims, lack of independent confirmation of number of deaths, qualified nature of slmm and unicef comments, etc. and most 'forgot' to mention the ltte's regular employment child soldiers.
however tendentious (with qualifications) media reports were they were nothing in comparison to the local peacenik's primary blog in sri lanka which as expected had a post consisting of ltte terrorist claims only. no more evidence is needed as to where their sympathies lie.
in the end what emerges from all this propaganda, naivety, and parroting, is that lot of young people subjected to ltte influence died.
this should have been expected because similar young people have been dying for a long time.
as unicef and others have previously noted there are more than enough proof that ltte has whole brigades of child soldiers. if past battles are any guide ltte considers them expendable sending them in waves to attack entrenched army positions knowing that most of them will die as they progressively weaken the army defenses, while keeping the veteran adult cadres as a reserve to deliver the final blow. this tactic has worked well for them in the past.
ltte probably find children easy to recruit and indoctrinate. those who resist recruitment are regularly killed.
so there is no doubt that children subject to ltte influence are at high risk of violent death, in actual combat or by government's (quite justifiable and inevitable) attacks on ltte installations.
question is what can be done to protect them from ltte.
it is here that all those who recommend appeasement and accommodation of ltte have come a cropper. most such people have shied away from condemning child recruitment. even those who have and others (like unicef) who have tried to engage ltte and persuade it to discontinue this practice have failed miserably. ltte as usual have reluctantly given its word several times with token surrender of some children, only to break it immediately afterwards. as always appeasement has not worked with terrorists.
all this only goes to confirm that only way out is to defeat the ltte (using a realistic but morally defensible strategy, not some naive pseudo realpolitik that never say how to deal with the very real military power of ltte) not wishfully hoping that ltte will come around if we gave it enough (legitimacy, power, aid, territory , or take your pick). for ltte, enough has never been enough.
as individuals who do not want to see many more such deaths,
ltte through it's propaganda mouth piece tamilnet variously claimed that the compound was a 'peace village' , school, orphanage, training center for "leadership, self-awareness and first aid workshop"( lasting for 2, no 10, days) and that 43, then 61, girls died. (goto tamilnet archives and see for yourself)
government (which is engaged in beating back a pussy attempt to take over jaffna) claimed it was a child soldier training and transit camp and came out with a surveillance video from probably an unmanned aerial vehicle (though some reporters seem to think it is a satellite footage if so sri lankan military is receiving some serious help) showing brown clad people and some vehicles running from the compound after the attack.
media was not allowed in by ltte, sri lanka monitoring mission(slmm) and unicef representatives who visited said "while it did not appear to be a rebel camp, they had not ruled out the possibility they were receiving civilian defense training" and rather contradictorily "that it had been empty for some time”. while slmm said they only saw "the bodies of 19 people at a nearby hospital, most of them women around the age of 18". unicef said "they did not have access to the dead”, and "as of this time, we don't have any evidence that they are ltte cadres”. they also issued a statement saying that "according to press reports, the compound in vallipunam ...was bombed, reportedly killing as many as 40 adolescent girls. Some 100 children were wounded, many critically”, "these children are innocent victims of violence", and calling "on all parties to respect international humanitarian law and ensure children and the places where they live, study and play are protected from harm."(italics added by me)
as always media local and foreign parroted tamilnet like idiots. though after recently getting burned for doing so without properly indicating that fact, this time they were for the most part careful to include qualifications like 'rebels/pro-rebel website said”, quotation marks, etc. for a clear example of one that did not qualify them as ltte claims see here. (btw my complaints to the bbc about several instances of biased reporting (this was one i made several later) has resulted in several emails from various people from bbc and at least two regular visitors from bbc to this blog. i hope they are reading and taking remedial action.) most reports missed crucial details like inconsistency of ltte claims, lack of independent confirmation of number of deaths, qualified nature of slmm and unicef comments, etc. and most 'forgot' to mention the ltte's regular employment child soldiers.
however tendentious (with qualifications) media reports were they were nothing in comparison to the local peacenik's primary blog in sri lanka which as expected had a post consisting of ltte terrorist claims only. no more evidence is needed as to where their sympathies lie.
in the end what emerges from all this propaganda, naivety, and parroting, is that lot of young people subjected to ltte influence died.
this should have been expected because similar young people have been dying for a long time.
as unicef and others have previously noted there are more than enough proof that ltte has whole brigades of child soldiers. if past battles are any guide ltte considers them expendable sending them in waves to attack entrenched army positions knowing that most of them will die as they progressively weaken the army defenses, while keeping the veteran adult cadres as a reserve to deliver the final blow. this tactic has worked well for them in the past.
ltte probably find children easy to recruit and indoctrinate. those who resist recruitment are regularly killed.
so there is no doubt that children subject to ltte influence are at high risk of violent death, in actual combat or by government's (quite justifiable and inevitable) attacks on ltte installations.
question is what can be done to protect them from ltte.
it is here that all those who recommend appeasement and accommodation of ltte have come a cropper. most such people have shied away from condemning child recruitment. even those who have and others (like unicef) who have tried to engage ltte and persuade it to discontinue this practice have failed miserably. ltte as usual have reluctantly given its word several times with token surrender of some children, only to break it immediately afterwards. as always appeasement has not worked with terrorists.
all this only goes to confirm that only way out is to defeat the ltte (using a realistic but morally defensible strategy, not some naive pseudo realpolitik that never say how to deal with the very real military power of ltte) not wishfully hoping that ltte will come around if we gave it enough (legitimacy, power, aid, territory , or take your pick). for ltte, enough has never been enough.
as individuals who do not want to see many more such deaths,
- don't appease the ltte and allow it to continue killing and abusing children.
- don't help those peaceniks and defeatists who advocate such appeasement.
- help those who want to defeat the ltte and free the children.
15 comments:
Don't believe Tamilnet!
Here is an internal email sent by ICRC information head Davide Vignati,
"Dear all, we would like to draw your attention to the last case of manipulation/disinformation brought about the "50 schoolgirls killed" article by Tamil Net today.
Quote
... In September 1999, SLAF jets killed 21 people in a similar daylight raid. Commenting at the time, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said: "We can confirm that 21 civilians were killed consequent to the air strike at Manthuvil junction ... The ICRC deplores the fact that the air strikes were carried out in a civilian area."
Quote
This old quote - smartly put at the bottom of the daily article - gave the idea that today ICRC effectively confirmed the killing of 50 schoolchildren in Mullaitivu. Almost all the national media this morning called us to have confirmation of the above-mentioned statement. It's not the first time that Tamil.Net has the impudence to turn to such kind of manipulations.
Therefore, be careful when approached with questions concerning the ongoing conflict situation.
Thanks for your attention
Have a nice day
Davide
I hope ppl who support the LTTE can now realise that they r supporting a bunch of child-killers.
Keshi.
wait a minute. The airforce kills the kids (they were innocent kids and not child soldiers according to unicef and slmm)and somehow it is the LTTE's fault. That's laughable. Just like the 83 riots were supposed to be the LTTE's fault. Grow up. If the UNICEF is not credible, their reports about LTTE having child soldiers is not credible either. It cuts both ways.
This might interest you about BBC bias. It's just not in SL.
http://www.shinesforall.com/archives/2006/08/bbc_reporters_b.html
Add more things to the controversy, TamilNet today announced that the girls were attending a “leadership development workshop”. What the hell is this man? Yesterday, they said it was a Home science class. Day before it was a first aid class. Mr. aadhavan, you grow up first. There are more reliable way of lieing. TamilNet has frogotton the basic principles of lieing as well. Principle is, “If you say a lie, stick to that lie or admit the truth” Otherwise, you’ll have to say 1000 more lies to cover your first lie!
By the way, why the Unicef/SLMM/ and TamilNet so silent about the classified video released by SL AF?
Why don’t they explain the reasons for those attendants to the “workshop” wear LTTE uniforms?
The comment "on all parties to respect international humanitarian law and ensure children and the places where they live, study and play are protected from harm" , if UNICEF has actually issued it, is very interesting. I like to draw your attention to the "live, study and play" part of it.
Is this that the GOSL should not attack the places where LTTE get the children to "study" how to kill GOSL forces?
The very comment, if actually issued by UNICEF, shows that they have not grasped the gravity and complexity of the situation. This is nothing new. UNICEF and other agencies who are well aware of the LTTE activities of child recruitement have been handling LTTE with kid gloves - with the so called worry that if they are too hard , that LTTE might shut the doors altogether. In their earnest to "be in touch" with teh LTTE , they forgot the reason why they "had to get in touch " with the LTTE.
The results is what happened on Monday.
/UNICEF said "they did not have access to the dead”, and "as of this time, we don't have any evidence that they are ltte cadres”.
What I don't understand is show such a statement can be taken to mean that UNICEF categorically said the killed were not "children."
What they' said is they don't have ANY EVIDENCE to show - which means tangible evidence. Let's say, HYPOTHETICALLY, the "children" had been receiving "training" on how to shoot - would they line up the bodies with the guns on them?
My question to people like Aadhavan & Rajeev is would the UNICEF or SLMM or whoever be able to find TANGIBLE EVIDENCE of a "first-aid training" class in session? And how WOULD ANYONE find tangible evidence of say a "training" seminar which is oral? Such as, say for argument's sake, a "convincing seminar" such as brainwashing?
the onus is on the government to be able to convince the objective international agencies that it was a military target. The burden of proof if you may.
sira:
i saw that before .
but thanks anyway !
keshi :
I hope ppl who support the LTTE can now realise that they r supporting a bunch of child-killers.
let's hope so.
aadhavan:
If the UNICEF is not credible,.
read first. what i said was that some media reports failed to mention the qualifications unicef included in the their statement .
If the UNICEF is not credible, their reports about LTTE having child soldiers is not credible either. It cuts both ways.
in the first place, unicef reports on child soldiers were compiled after extensive investigation.
this statement was merely an observation. most of it, as itself admits, based on other 'press reports'.
btw are you seriously questioning the existence of ltte child soldiers ? well i suppose a ltte apologist like you believes ltte does no wrong.
they were innocent kids and not child soldiers according to unicef and slmm
in fact it is not simple as that. read their statements not the propaganda quoting them .
the onus is on the government ..
i think they have shown more than enough to create doubt on ltte claims . and that is reflected in most later news reports.
anon at 8/17/2006 9:44 am
thanks for the link
yes there seem to be a certain lack of balance in bbc's culture.
voice_in_colombo
good points
read your posts on the subject.
lets hope that more they do this sort of thing less their credibility be .
kautilya
unicef did issue it .
UNICEF, shows that they have not grasped the gravity and complexity of the situation.
yes agree with you . that is why they should not issue statements without proper study by qualified individuals.
otherwise they will get abused for propaganda purposes.
you are right about that their mission should be to serve the children not keeping good relations with ltte.
rajeev:
when it comes to that issue of a state actor using maximum aggression
state is hardly using maximum aggression. wake up.
air strikes can be defensive. they are being used to hamper the very real offensive attempted by ltte in to jaffna.
but at the time and import of this callous bombing , these children WERE NOT ARMED CADRES.
how do you know that?
as you admit it was a known ltte training center. ltte is attacking. it is justifiable to attack ltte installations.
all attempts by government , showing some outdated imagery
out dated? no.
they had the courage and the pluralism to stand up and say, yes we bombed, and yes they were children and yes we are sorry for it,it could have earned priceless gratitude for it
they did not admit it bc they do not believe that.
evidence as it stand is inconclusive at best . imo they were child soldiers or very close to that .
u make, saying that children who died were around 18, this is WRONG
i did not say that . slmm said that. see the linked reports where they are so quoted .
the commentators said they seemed to be between the ages of 16 and around 18, and they said that they saw only 19 bodies in the site, ALTHOUGH OTHER BODIES COULD HAVE BEEN TAKEN AWAY.
can you link the report that say that ? even if yo can it only shows slmm's inconsistency . since they said some thing different to other reporters.
u can appease with the tamils.
appease is not the correct word with regard to tamils.
tamil grievances should be addressed but ltte should not be appeased .
at no time should anyone confuse tamils with ltte .
whether we like it or not only way out is to defeat the ltte. see the link in my post as to how that may be done.
your defeatism it is way too premature .
he opened the new front(chk newspaper reports)
you have no idea what is happening, do you ?
manshark
slmm and unicef statements are in fact not conclusive, one way or the other. they were used( abused rather ) by propagandist and some journalists without mentioning all the qualifications and circumstances.
snut,
It's not enough to create what you think to be doubt. If you want to kill kids you should be pretty darned capable of proving they were soldiers.
aadhavan:
don't limit yourself to ltte propaganda, then you will notice the change in the attitude of the new news reports compared to ones two days ago.
as for killing kids you approve them as a matter of course, don't you? as an open ltte apologist .
RAJEEV ABOVE: "do u know that trinity college in kandy produces recruits for the army, ppl like parami and kobbekaduwa are from trinity, so does that make it an excuse for the LTTE to bomb trinity since it produces recruits ????"
I always thought there was a difference between a person choosing to join the ranks of the forces and being forced to do so/ forced to undergo training as part of their "school" curriculum.
It must be my logic that's flawed.
rajeev :
state is not engaged in maximum aggression. it is not starting offensives. only offensives to date has been the mavil aru one.
on the other hand terrorists started the muttur attack, and several offensives in jaffna. all have failed
mere air bombings can be used to help offensive and defensive operations they cannot be termed offensive operations in themselves. in this case they are used defensively to prevent and disrupt ltte's ground operations and supplies.
look sitting nut, do u know that trinity college in kandy produces recruits for the army, ppl like parami and kobbekaduwa are from trinity, so does that make it an excuse for the LTTE to bomb trinity since it produces recruits ???? your logic is insipid!!
who is insipid can easily be seen from above.
correct comparison would be with kothalawela defense academy not trinity college .
but ltte like you is not capable of distinguishing the difference . they might actually bomb the trinity.
dbs jeyaraj is pro ltte now. which coward wouldn't be after getting beaten up .
he now gives public advice to ltte on how to conduct operations ( not that they listen to him ) and win war. he excuses ltte's attempts ethnically cleanse muttur of muslims. if you think that is not pro ltte, that shows what you are.
of course ppl killed had names they may have attended schools but are you saying ltte child soldiers do not have names? or they have never attended school ? and how do you explain the fact that slmm saw only 19 bodies of both men and women aged around 18 and unicef nothing ?
as i said before the evidence is inconclusive with regard to who were the victims in the specific case, but they were certainly in a ltte compound ( government has provided conclusive proof that it was a ltte installation including pics). government was justified in bombing a ltte installations.
u cant appease the LTTE but that u have to provide devolution to the tamils
so? i have said that in this blog many times.
only problem is that since there will be no legitimate representatives of tamils as long as ltte with its insistence sole representative status remains, any practical effort to devolve power must involve defeating ltte. fudging that like you do wont work, face the reality .
as for your insipid questions, i directed you to my earlier post where i described a realistic and morally defensible policy that is in fact the only viable one.
but if you insist here is what i think of yor questions.
without an adequate political process (the apc is retarded) how can he win the war?
all political processes to devolve power without legitimate tamil representatives are retarded. that is why ltte should be defeated.
government might propose a devotion proposal unilaterally (with or without other political parties' support ) but advantages of that is limited. it wont make much difference except on pr. pr does not win wars.
without indias support(IC) how is MR going to win the war?
?!who said india's active support is essential. they will continue to do what they are doing now.
that and the fact that nobody is going to help terrorists ( in spite of false hopes of some ltte sympathizers in tamil nadu ) will be enough .
with MR being in active coalition with ,ideologists, whose theories are outdated, how is he going to win the war?
what is important is what he is doing. not what his allies are saying ( or what you think they are saying ) . get that .
and most importantly of all, with willing acolytes of the regime who are prepared to subvert the truth to suit their fancy ( i see a ready exhibition here, plus im sure the refugess who died in jaffna church were all terrorists), how is he going to win the war?
i suppose you now drop the false allegation inside the question( picked up from some ltte propaganda) given that you have no evidence even flimsy ones ?
what is the truth according to you ? ltte propaganda ? fact is all the operations ltte launched recently failed and that is not a subversion of truth . who is in control in muttur, mavilaru, jaffna fdls? military or the ltte ? then face the truth.
this new front which the govt announced was mayb to attain mavil aru ....it probably was to reduce the LTTE presence in sampur
:-) in case you do not know mavil aru operation started some time ago it is not 'new'?
you have no idea what you are talking about or where sampur is, do you? government has been pounding sampur from the beginning it has not started a ground operation there .
LTTE being made stronger... alreadly the international tide is turning
dream on .
as for tamil nadu what do you expect? they will pass resolutions if a cow in jaffna gets hurt. that is politicians doing their thing there .
bizarre cases of identifying anyone killed by the govt as terrorists
so in addition to you believing ltte propaganda unquestioningly you take army propaganda claims seriously without question as well? .
see the post above, i presented both cases with other facts. and said that,.
in the end what emerges from all this propaganda, naivety, and parroting, is that lot of young people subjected to ltte influence died.
maybe you too should examine the evidence before jumping to conclusions.
and yes there is so called 'collateral damage'( thogh probably not in this case ) but that is inevitable. if you think ltte is going to get defeated or repulsed with out that kind of thing you are dreaming. propaganda from both sides will make whatever use they can. just don't believe any of that without questioning them.
i disagree with your analysis that anyone killed by teh govt must be terrorists and a ignorant refusal to accept it as otherwise,
quote where i said that . can't you even read ?
i however do not accept propaganda without question
this according to me is non negotiable and un acceptable, civilians are the biggest casualties in wars and especially the civilians living in war areas that makes them predominately tamil.
fisrt don't say things you don't know without evidence to back you up.
second whether you like it or not ltte is the one attacking, government is open to talks and ceasefire
third as long as ltte exits it will engage in activities that will put civilians in jeopardy. government is duty bound to protect civilians and the state. that may result in some civilian deaths but that also protects other civilians from death and other crimes like ethnic cleansing .
for instance what do you think government should have done when it was attacked in muttur ? give the town up and accept ethnic cleansing ? or bomb ltte positions supporting the ltte attack while beating the attack back, even though that may kill some civilians that ltte probably use as human shields?
get real!
in reality the best way to protect civilians in war and in peace is to defeat the ltte ( by war or by negotiations)
manshark:
i think as ddm pointed out in your blog conscripts are treated as legitimate military targets by enemy.
Rajeev
Apart from a great show of your writing skills & the use of every imaginable word in the dictionary you didn’t say very much in your first post. Infact it was such a plethora of words, the message you were trying express was muddled in the mixed up words of the English language.
Your subsequent posts are more in line with a discussion.
"look sitting nut, do u know that trinity college in kandy produces recruits for the army, ppl like parami and kobbekaduwa are from trinity, so does that make it an excuse for the LTTE to bomb trinity since it produces recruits ???? your logic is insipid!!"
Hehehehehe I am pissing myself laughing at this comparison.
No need to say anything. The para itself speaks volumes of Rajeev’s logical reasoning.
Sri Lanka is a Democratic Socialist Republic. It has a constitution, a parliament , a judiciary and other institutions based on democratic princples. There is a standing regular military, maintain by the tax payers money, to defend against the challenges thrown at the democratic principles, the institutions and human life by internal and external threats.
What is taking place today is a natural reaction of a responsible and democratic state to such a threat. A threat that is so dangerous that the only historical parallel to it is the rise of the Nazism in Germany in 1930's.
In successfully meeting this challenge and protecting the citizens and property, if force has to be used, so be it. The discussion on the terms such as "defensive", "offensive", "maximum force vs minimum force" are only of academic interest.
The western democracies gave a free hand to Corporal Hitler to come to power and massacre milions of Jews. It allowed the Germans to suppress and slaughter minorities. Until Corporal Hitler turned his guns on the very democracies who were preaching restraint, disarmement and peace talks.
Today when they hear the words "genocide", "suppression of minorities" etc, their collective memories go back to those pre-war times. And they try to draw parallels - and end up supporting the Clone of the Corporal Hitler. The UN agencies that are predominantly manned by the Western Eurpeans follow suit.
It s a long march - for democracies such as ours. What is important for the GOSL is to keep the initiative with the GOSL. LTTE is beaten and bruised but it is far from defeated. What the LTTE is doing today is "Test Marketing".
1. It is trying to figure out the military capabilities - how many fronts can the military defend? What is the deployment pattern?Intelligence capabilities?
2. It is gauging the reaction of the aid agencies? united nations? Co-chairs?
3. It is checking the reactions of the opposition? southern masses?
4. Gauging the reaction of the tamil diaspora. etc etc
Its using all this feedback to formulate its next strategy . The job of the GOSL is to attack that "Strategy" of LTTE.
The GOSL has successfully attacked the current "Strategy" of the LTTE and we hope that GOSL will be able to carry forward the good work.
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