Sunday, June 19, 2011

Killing Fields

In a world that brought a global institution into place which was meant to act as a clearing house for conflict resolution and encouragement for international peace and human rights because of a stricken conscience after the details of the Holocaust were made public, the best of intentions and the co-operation of world governments still hasn't been successful in restraining countries from embarking on mass slaughter.

The world has, since the end of the Second World War, and the inauguration of the United Nations with all its grand humanitarian concepts and intentions, witnessed wholesale slaughter of populations irrespective of those intentions. From Cambodia to the Balkans, Rwanda to Darfur, the ruthless tyrants whose brutal will has enlisted one tribe against another in a paroxysm of blood-letting, have demonstrated that the best of intentions cannot prevail against the worst of human depravities.

Tribalism, clan warfare, territorial aggression and the seemingly natural inclination of humanity to distrust and hate those who are different seems to lead us to betray our humanity. It was fairly well known through news stories at the time, when the government of Sri Lanka took its military to a final confrontation with the Tamil terror militia, the Tamil Tigers, that both the Tigers and the Sri Lanka military were abusing civilian Tamils.

But it's taken the documentary Sri Lanka's Killing Fields, to demonstrate conclusively just how disastrously intolerably was the menace launched against the civilian Tamils, caught between the embattled Tigers and the better-armed, more conventionally trained and numbered of the government forces. The Sri Lankan government did not permit foreign reporters into the war torn landscape.

And the Sri Lankan government was beside itself with satisfaction when the violence finally came to an end, that they had killed the LTTE leader and destroyed the prospect of future uprisings from a defeated terror group. The atrocities committed by government troops were self-documented by the troops themselves, taking casual souvenirs in video form of the horrors they committed against defenceless Tamils.

The Sri Lankan military shelled hospitals that were treating the dreadful wounds of Tamil civilians. Those attacks were deliberate, and there were 65 attacks against field hospitals and their personnel desperately attempting to treat the wounded without drugs and adequate medical supplies. The military knew where those hospitals were located, the commanders given co-ordinates, but they attacked deliberately.

The Tigers also held civilian Tamils by force, as a protective shield against government troops. But neither did the troops much care that they would have to slaughter civilians to get to the Tamil militias. And when they did, it was found that among the Tigers killed were children among the terrorists who had been forcibly conscripted to fight the government troops.

All of this, with the exception of graphic descriptions and footage of the atrocities that took place, was hinted at and written about in the media of the day, in 2009, but the proof positive is now being aired on public television channels. The government of Sri Lanka is denying the authenticity of the footage, but they have been independently authenticated by video experts.

When the United Nations recently denounced the Sri Lankan government, and hinted at a trial for crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court, the direction of proceedings that may yet eventuate was given form. Khartoum has yet to give credence to charges of crimes against humanity levelled against Omer al-Bashir, and it's likely that Colombo will respond in kind.

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posted by Pieface @ Sunday, June 19, 2011

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