As the Sri Lankan government closed in on the last Tamil Tiger stronghold, the rebels surrendered with a statement saying they have decided to “silence our guns.”
"This battle has reached its bitter end," said rebel official Selvarasa Pathmanathan. "It is our people who are dying now from bombs, shells, illness and hunger. We cannot permit any more harm to befall them. We remain with one last choice — to remove the last weak excuse of the enemy for killing our people. We have decided to silence our guns."
The Sri Lankan government now claims control of the entire region, but criticisms of President Mahinda Rajapaska continue to pour in from the international aid community and the United Nations. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon criticized the Sri Lankan government for a "campaign of unprecedented violence" in the conflict.
News continued to emerge, with reports of the death of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. His son, Charles Anthony, was also said to be among the dead.
In Canada, the reaction to the conflict has been significant. The Tamil Canadian community in Toronto has been standing outside of the U.S. Consulate for days in attempts to get international attention and effort for their cause. As news of the rebel defeat reached the protestors, there was a call on the international community to keep an eye on the situation.
Sinhalese Canadians take an opposite position, of course, and say that it is the rebels who are to blame. They claim that they are being threatened by Tamils in Canada due to speaking out.
Discussions on various websites are filled to the brim with debate and discussion from the Tamil and Sinhalese communities, with each piece of news from the region drawing fresh fire in the comments sections.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Ruvy
Nice job getting the story out, Jordan.
2 - roger nowosielski
With all due respect, Jordan, humanitarian assistance cannot continue to be the lasting answer to all the trouble spots all over the world. The international community has to be able to come together once and for all and devise some workable plan to prevent all such from happening. And until that happens, all these efforts and cries for help - as I indicated in the other thread - are impotent at best, acting but only after the fact.
We've got to be able to do better than that, and perhaps you should address this question as well.
3 - Jordan Richardson
Roger,
Two things:
I never claim to have the answers in writing these articles. I am, primarily, a music critic. That is where I tend to park myself, that is where I feel most comfortable. However, when I see a lack of stories of this nature in the BC Politics section and one of the biggest pieces of news in the world right now receiving NO coverage, I figured somebody should write something up and that it might as well be me. You'll notice I don't write articles in the politics section often, but when something of this magnitude goes by without so much as a peep, I guess I decided to say something. It's not complete, it's not an attempt to answer all of the questions or solve all of the world's problems. No article could ever do that. It is, instead, an attempt to explore and expose the issues.
Second, aid IS a lasting answer. It is not the only answer, but until people stop needing assistance with food, shelter, and water, humanitarian organizations are always going to be a part of the solution. We need to lift those organizations up, support the hard work they do, and call attention to their efforts. I do a bit of work in downtown Vancouver with the less fortunate and something as simple as a bowl of soup or a coat makes all the difference in the world. Nothing will EVER prevent the homeless from being homeless, at least in the near future, but that doesn't mean that the hard work those people do to help them in their many hours of need should simply be brushed aside while we work on greater solutions. The politicians and policy-makers of the world might prattle on and debate these larger issues and how to "prevent all such from happening," Roger, but right now I couldn't give two shits about that.
Now the major intention of this article is to highlight a few things (in no particular order):
1. The presence of debate among those in some Canadian communities and how this issue is reaching far beyond the Sri Lankan country and into our local areas.
2. The obvious need for humanitarian aid.
3. The updates in the story, that the Tamils surrendered for now and some of the aftermath.
Now you say there should be some "workable plan" to prevent things like this from happening. Like what, Roger? There's nothing you can do to prevent things like this from happening, so you have to attempt to shed light on these events and learn from them.
Nowhere in my article or in the other article do I suggest that humanitarian aid is the ONLY solution here, either. I address the need for media access, for starters, and exposure of these regions. Only by KNOWING about what's going on in these locations can we begin to work towards better understanding them. But we can't put the cart before the horse, Roger, and as much as you or anyone else might love for someone to articulate some global solution as to "do better than that," I'm not the least bit concerned with aiming for the sky when we can't even fucking see it yet.
These trouble spots emerge because people don't pay attention. Period. If you want some workable plan, start paying attention, start supporting human rights and aid groups, start pressing for media access, and start learning about the world beyond your borders.
There may be a time when I feel confident enough to articulate some sort of theory for a magical plan to stop conflict, murder, genocide, and atrocity. But for the time being, I'm going to keep attempting to shed light on some news and events that don't get much coverage around here because it interests me far more than the nuances of your abortion debate or whether or not two dudes should be able to marry.
These efforts are far from impotent, too, Roger. Ask someone who's been helped by an aid group, given water when they had none or shelter when they had none, and I'm sure they won't say anything about impotence. You're basically asking "why do bad things happen?" and the answer to that is a little too big for these pages.
4 - Jordan Richardson
Ruvy, thanks for seeing the basics of what I'm trying to do here. Appreciate it.
5 - roger nowosielski
I perfectly understand, Jordan; and you know I wasn't criticizing you or in any way minimizing your motives. It was just an expression of frustration on my part that in the 21st century, with all the technology and progress we've made, such disasters keep on recurring while the world and the international community just watch.
It really is pathetic IMO that there's no mechanism in place, and that nothing is being done to think of of preventative solutions. That's what I meant by impotence, not to refer to humanitarian relief organizations but to the leaders of the world.
It is a sorry state indeed.
6 - Jordan Richardson
It's an uphill climb against human nature, Roger, and progress is slow. I don't know that I agree with the notion that nothing is being done to think of preventative notions, as there are several groups that go to work right in the midst of the calamity.
I do think that the bulk of the reason behind not seeing a global solution has to do with old patterns and, again, human nature.
There's a reason the Holocaust, for all of its absolute evil and horror, is given much, much more attention than the Rwandan genocide.
In the case of Rwanda, that horror was able to occur because the world essentially turned its back on the region. In fact, the U.S. lobbied the U.N. for total withdrawal of UNAMIR forces in Rwanda and refused to use the term "genocide" in public media until the worst was over.
Obviously one of the best things we can do, therefore, is talk about the issues and get the information out there while ensuring that aid and responsible media (if they exist) are able to get where they need to go as well. We also need to reaffirm global efforts and unite as one global family, ensuring that global human rights are given precedent. The end of the maverick go-it-alone nation needs to come, too, as we push for more awareness and more continuity in how we prosecute war crimes and so forth.
7 - roger nowosielski
Right, Jordan. What's inconceivable though, the civilized world is held captive by little shitty dictators that could and should be squashed the moment they arise.
It's the same with the piracy off Somalia; as though we couldn't really do anything about it. That'll be all for now. I'll stop my bitching.
8 - roger nowosielski
One final thought.
I see the situation as analogous to a few gang members who terrorize a peaceful community, while that community is indolent and apathetic enough to put an end to it, and so they just take it and take it and take it.
9 - Jordan Richardson
They should be squashed, but as long as bigger governments continue to find the backwater set-up flattering and convenient (read: $$$$) and as long as they keep propping up these jackoffs, dictators won't be going anywhere soon.
The public is too poor, too scared, too uneducated to do anything about it and international governments keep wanting to serve themselves and their own interests (how many times do you hear, right or wrong, "America's interests?") to the detriment of everyone else. Many think nothing of running a small country into Third World status for resources or capitalistic entry points, so this cripples the ability of the people to do things for themselves and the dictators become more popular and reliable.
Think of what's going on in Afghanistan and Pakistan right now. Obama's helping prop up sharia law with his passive approach to the Pakistani government and the Taliban there, so the poor are actually turning to the oppressive terrorist group because, fuck it all, at least the Taliban in Afghanistan builds roads and wells.
It is deeply frustrating to consider just how costly greed for money and lust for power can be and I don't blame you in the least for bitching. Lord knows that's pretty much all I do around here.
10 - Jordan Richardson
I see the situation as analogous to a few gang members who terrorize a peaceful community, while that community is indolent and apathetic enough to put an end to it, and so they just take it and take it and take it.
Yeah, in a way.
More accurately, it would be like the gang members providing the community with desired resources, like protection from crooked cops or drugs or whatever. The community is failed by the justice system, failed by the local governments, and failed by the federal governments on every level. The community then turns to the gangs for help because nobody else is going to help, so they take a little oppression because they at least manage to get a meal and maybe a few dollars in their pockets.
The governments are more than happy to keep this ball rolling and that's why nothing ever really gets done about the gangs. It's better to break the people up, possibly even by introducing strains of addictive drugs into the streets, and keep them separate than it is to risk the public having too much say and rising up to crush the fountains of power and burn the White House to the ground.
11 - Ruvy
Roger,
Jordan is being polite to you. The reason for the Rwandan holocaust occurring is that the victims were black and white newspaper owners don't give a rats' ass about blacks - or about the dark skinned victims in the long, painful civil war that has torn Sri Lanka - a place that has been described a paradise - and turned it into a charnel house.
Too many idiots are gabbling on and on about the "poor Palestinians" to give a tinkers' dam about starvation, genocide, holocausts and the like. Or they are mewling about how anarchy, or the Infantile Left, or some other pack of bullshit will save the world.
The big trouble spot on the planet is not the Middle East or Iran; it is the South Asian sub-continent where thousands die yearly in communal violence of one variety or another; it is Africa, a collection of failed states created by failed imperialists; and finally, it is the United States of America - which is for all intents and purposes - bankrupt.
The UN, an institution that should have dealt with the Sri Lankan conflict, has proven itself an utter failure. That Mr. Richardson has to write articles about South India and Sri Lanka and the ongoing violence there at all tells us the blistering truth and painful truth about the institutions of the "Western World" - they are chock full of racism, corruption and ignorance.
I'm broke, Roger. And I mean that in the literal sense of the word. All I can do is express my appreciation to Jordan for covering an area of the world I'm too ignorant to talk about, and to bring it to the attention of North Americans who need badly to re-adjust their priorities.
12 - roger nowosielski
You might be interested in this news item, Jordan
13 - roger nowosielski
I'm aware, Ruvy, that racism and whatever is deemed as being in the US interest is what drives the American foreign policy. If there was oil in Darfur or any other place where genocide is a daily occurrence, we'd be the first there in the name of "democracy." But since that's not the case, we just turn our blind eye.
I am hoping for a better world, Ruvy, when the fucking world grows up and starts acting responsibly.
14 - roger nowosielski
And I'm too, Ruvy, in the literal sense. But even if I had Bill Gates' money, I'd feel impotent to fix the world's problems.
15 - Ruvy
This article at Desicritics, Sri Lanka: An Opportunity for Love provides a view of events by someone who knows lots more than the average North American (Jordan excepted, of course) about South Asia. Go, read. You'll learn something.
16 - roger nowosielski
Ruvy,
That is a tremendous link. Everyone must visit it.
17 - roger nowosielski
I see, Ruvy, that you referred Somik to Jordan's article(s). I did likewise, plus invited him to comment here as well - not only because of his thorough knowledge of the state of affairs in that part of the world but his spiritually as well.
It's so foreign to the Western mind, I thought it would be refreshing to be so exposed.
18 - Dave Nalle
America is not a bottomless well of money and manpower. We literally cannot intervene everywhere. That being the case, it only makes sense for our self-interest to be the primary consideration. It would be irresponsible to behave in any other way. Our government was not elected by nor does it work for the people of any nation but the US.
That said, there are far better places we could use our men and resources than Afghanistan and Pakistan. That mess is too large and too unresolvable and too costly compared to the good we could do with the same amount of resources elsewhere in the world.
Dave
19 - Jordan Richardson
That is a great article indeed. I've been learning about Vipassana quite a bit lately and it's interesting to see how the author tied it all together.
20 - roger nowosielski
You should also look up his personal blog - especially the section dealing with non-coercive societies.
Cindy will have a field day when I'll alert her to that - it will be a dream come true.
21 - roger nowosielski
Dave,
I was talking of NATO if at all. Remember the high hopes that Gen. Wesley Clark had for it - the most powerful player in modern diplomacy (and an enforcer in need be); and that would be a join effort.
And that was only ten years ago.
22 - Jordan Richardson
Forget it, Roger. When Dave helps old ladies across the street, he makes sure that he checks their wallets first.
23 - Cindy
NATO = North American Terror Organization
24 - Cindy
(Ah, North Atlantic, that would be...above)
Afghanistan is not a 'just' war.
"A week after the Rudd government announced Australian troops would join the US and NATO-led troop surge in Afghanistan, a May 4 US air strike on two villages in the country’s south-west killed up to 150 civilians, including many women and children.
It appears that the US army used white phosphorous in its attack.
This attack on civilians follows a grotesque pattern. Human Rights Watch estimated that US-NATO air strikes killed at least 1633 civilians in 2007. Occupation forces killed a further 828 civilians last year.
Recently reports came to light of a defence department cover-up of the murder and maiming of Afghan civilians in Oruzgan province in July 2006 by Australian special forces troops. A man was left dead, a woman blinded, and a girl needed her leg amputated " as well as other children being injured " after Australian special forces soldiers opened fire on their car.
This, and many other horrific stories, confirms that Afghanistan is not a “good”, or “just”, war."
25 - roger nowosielski
I see you don't have much faith in Dave's charity impulse, Jordan.