Eelam Tamils: Civilian HumanShield
By Chandi Sinnathurai
18 February, 2009
Countercurrents.org
The killing of Tamil civilians has not subsided in spite of world-wide protest from the Diaspora. President Rajapaksha has announced yesterday, that he has invited the UN Secretary-General to Sri Lanka in order for him to view the situation. The UN seem to have not taken that offer. He has also said that the Tamil civilians who have left the conflict zone are being looked after humanely. However, on the other side, there are worries about Tamil civilians that are being kept by the State behind barbed wires, and this is dubbed as "Concentration Camps."
The Government is constantly accusing the Tamil Tigers that they are keeping forcibly the Tamil civilians as human shields. One thing must be said, that this matter of human shields is morally a despicable action and there is no chivalry in it. However, the important ingredient is missing.
The human shield affair could very well just be a State Propaganda. No substantial evidence is yet to be produced or published, it is all hear say. No one on the ground is sure as to what really is happening. It could all be speculative conjecture.
On the other hand, it could be equally argued, the State could also be detaining Tamils as human shields. That is tantamount to genocide. The Israeli state does this all the time. And there is substantial evidence of that.
The interesting and painful twist to this story is that, the world powers, including the UN, is too quick to judge the Tamil Tigers. One is not saying that the Tigers are blameless. But, when it comes to civilian killings by the state machinery the international condemnation is muffled.
India has broken its silence, only to call the Tigers to lay down their arms. Only then, will they call Sri Lanka to stop the war. O! What a conundrum?
One has to view the Tamil struggle totally from a non-Indocentric frame. The Sri Lanka-Eelam war has to be viewed from an international frame of reference. The plight of the Tamils is no different from the Palestinians.
Everything boils down to one simple question: Who will stop the "final solution" of the Eelam Tamils?
Not the Sinhala state. Neither India, Nor the UN. Phew!
