Friday, January 16, 2009
வல்லரசுகளும் கொல்லாயுதங்களும்
போர்க்கருவி விற்பனைக்கான இராஜதந்திரங்கள்.
The Moral Dead Zone
by Bob Koehler
Mr. Ban said too many people had died and there had been too much civilian suffering.”
That almost bears repeating, but I won’t because I don’t believe it. Too many? In the moral dead zone of the human heart, perennially justified as “war” (evoking honor, triumph, glory), there’s no such thing as too much suffering. There’s no bleeding child or shattered family or contaminated water supply that can’t be overlooked in the name of some great goal or strategic advantage, or converted to fodder for the next round of hatred, revenge and arms purchase.
[snipped]
What all of these reactions do, it seems to me, is confer an unwarranted special status on the war, as though it were isolated, without a context any deeper than its accompanying propaganda. This forces us to try to understand the war strictly on its own terms — who started it? who’s the bad guy? who’s innocent? — rather than as an occurrence within a larger, dysfunctional system as deep as human history and as wide as planetary politics.
This war, and the nine or 10 other armed conflicts officially classified as wars that are going on right now — including wars in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (4 million dead since 1997), Darfur-Sudan (500,000 dead since 2003), Somalia (400,000 dead since 1988), Sri Lanka (80,000 dead since 1983), and of course Iraq (possibly a million or more dead) and Afghanistan (35,000 dead) — whatever they are on their own terms, are also symptoms of a human syndrome of self-destruction.
So are the local conflicts on city streets and other jungles that are too small to be called wars. So are the horrific aftermaths of conflicts that have officially ended, including poisoned environments, the ruined health of participants and bystanders, unexploded mines and bombs, the psycho-spiritual traumas that never go away, and the grievances that fester from generation to generation.
What links them in an immediate way is the global arms industry, as corrupt as it is invisible, which does a trillion dollars worth of business annually worldwide, is crucial to every major economy and is therefore served, either with overt collusion or discreet silence, by governments and the mass media.
[snipped]
full text is at
http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Moral-Dead-Zone-by-Bob-Koehler-090116-455.html
The Moral Dead Zone
by Bob Koehler
Mr. Ban said too many people had died and there had been too much civilian suffering.”
That almost bears repeating, but I won’t because I don’t believe it. Too many? In the moral dead zone of the human heart, perennially justified as “war” (evoking honor, triumph, glory), there’s no such thing as too much suffering. There’s no bleeding child or shattered family or contaminated water supply that can’t be overlooked in the name of some great goal or strategic advantage, or converted to fodder for the next round of hatred, revenge and arms purchase.
[snipped]
What all of these reactions do, it seems to me, is confer an unwarranted special status on the war, as though it were isolated, without a context any deeper than its accompanying propaganda. This forces us to try to understand the war strictly on its own terms — who started it? who’s the bad guy? who’s innocent? — rather than as an occurrence within a larger, dysfunctional system as deep as human history and as wide as planetary politics.
This war, and the nine or 10 other armed conflicts officially classified as wars that are going on right now — including wars in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (4 million dead since 1997), Darfur-Sudan (500,000 dead since 2003), Somalia (400,000 dead since 1988), Sri Lanka (80,000 dead since 1983), and of course Iraq (possibly a million or more dead) and Afghanistan (35,000 dead) — whatever they are on their own terms, are also symptoms of a human syndrome of self-destruction.
So are the local conflicts on city streets and other jungles that are too small to be called wars. So are the horrific aftermaths of conflicts that have officially ended, including poisoned environments, the ruined health of participants and bystanders, unexploded mines and bombs, the psycho-spiritual traumas that never go away, and the grievances that fester from generation to generation.
What links them in an immediate way is the global arms industry, as corrupt as it is invisible, which does a trillion dollars worth of business annually worldwide, is crucial to every major economy and is therefore served, either with overt collusion or discreet silence, by governments and the mass media.
[snipped]
full text is at
http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Moral-Dead-Zone-by-Bob-Koehler-090116-455.html
Labels: arms sales, atrocities, powers, refugees, war
Monday, January 12, 2009
Washington’s criminal role in the Sri Lankan state’s anti-Tamil war
இன்னொரு பார்வை
Washington’s criminal role in the Sri Lankan state’s anti-Tamil war
12 January 2009
Last Wednesday, the US embassy in Colombo issued a statement that welcomed the Sri Lankan state's recent victories in the war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and urged Sri Lanka's government and military to press forward with the annihilation of the LTTE. The key passage in the statement read: "The United States does not advocate that the Government of Sri Lanka negotiate with the LTTE, a group designated by America as a Foreign Terrorist Organization since 1997."
Within hours of Washington formally renouncing its support for a negotiated settlement to the 25 year-old civil war, the Sri Lankan government banned the LTTE.
The Sri Lankan state has now arrogated to itself the power to jail for up to 20 years those it accuses of "supporting" the LTTE. Since resuming offensive operations against the organization in 2006, the government and military have leveled this charge against virtually anyone opposed to the war or even the government's right-wing socio-economic policies, from socialists and striking workers to the Tamil National Alliance, a 20-strong parliamentary grouping that considers the LTTE the only legitimate representative of the Tamils in negotiations with the government.
Colombo had previously outlawed the organization, but lifted the ban in 2002 when a truce was declared and the Sri Lankan state and LTTE agreed to enter into peace talks.
The brief interval between the US's repudiation of the "peace process" and the Sri Lankan government's ban on the LTTE exemplifies Washington's criminal role—as both instigator and facilitator—in the communal war mounted by Sri Lanka's Sinhalese bourgeois elite.
Washington encouraged Colombo to resume the civil war in 2006 and has aided and abetted every step of the Sri Lankan military's bloody advance. The new-found prowess of the Sri Lanka military is due almost entirely to the support it has received from Washington directly or from key US allies.
The Pentagon admits to having provided counter-insurgency training to Sri Lankan troops, as well as intelligence and "non-lethal" weapons. The latter includes sophisticated maritime radar equipment that has enabled Colombo to disrupt key LTTE supply routes from India. Meanwhile, Israel and Pakistan, whose governments and militaries are close US partners, have provided the Sri Lankan military with an expanded and technologically-enhanced arsenal.
US pressure was critical in getting Canada, the states of the European Union, and other countries to proscribe the LTTE. These bans have deprived the LTTE of financial support from the hundreds of thousands of Tamils chased from their island homes by the civil war.
[snipped]
full text is at
http://wsws.org/articles/2009/jan2009/pers-j12.shtml
Washington’s criminal role in the Sri Lankan state’s anti-Tamil war
12 January 2009
Last Wednesday, the US embassy in Colombo issued a statement that welcomed the Sri Lankan state's recent victories in the war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and urged Sri Lanka's government and military to press forward with the annihilation of the LTTE. The key passage in the statement read: "The United States does not advocate that the Government of Sri Lanka negotiate with the LTTE, a group designated by America as a Foreign Terrorist Organization since 1997."
Within hours of Washington formally renouncing its support for a negotiated settlement to the 25 year-old civil war, the Sri Lankan government banned the LTTE.
The Sri Lankan state has now arrogated to itself the power to jail for up to 20 years those it accuses of "supporting" the LTTE. Since resuming offensive operations against the organization in 2006, the government and military have leveled this charge against virtually anyone opposed to the war or even the government's right-wing socio-economic policies, from socialists and striking workers to the Tamil National Alliance, a 20-strong parliamentary grouping that considers the LTTE the only legitimate representative of the Tamils in negotiations with the government.
Colombo had previously outlawed the organization, but lifted the ban in 2002 when a truce was declared and the Sri Lankan state and LTTE agreed to enter into peace talks.
The brief interval between the US's repudiation of the "peace process" and the Sri Lankan government's ban on the LTTE exemplifies Washington's criminal role—as both instigator and facilitator—in the communal war mounted by Sri Lanka's Sinhalese bourgeois elite.
Washington encouraged Colombo to resume the civil war in 2006 and has aided and abetted every step of the Sri Lankan military's bloody advance. The new-found prowess of the Sri Lanka military is due almost entirely to the support it has received from Washington directly or from key US allies.
The Pentagon admits to having provided counter-insurgency training to Sri Lankan troops, as well as intelligence and "non-lethal" weapons. The latter includes sophisticated maritime radar equipment that has enabled Colombo to disrupt key LTTE supply routes from India. Meanwhile, Israel and Pakistan, whose governments and militaries are close US partners, have provided the Sri Lankan military with an expanded and technologically-enhanced arsenal.
US pressure was critical in getting Canada, the states of the European Union, and other countries to proscribe the LTTE. These bans have deprived the LTTE of financial support from the hundreds of thousands of Tamils chased from their island homes by the civil war.
[snipped]
full text is at
http://wsws.org/articles/2009/jan2009/pers-j12.shtml
Labels: eelam, sri lanka, war, washington
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Christians tell of human rights abuses in Sri Lankan war zone
இந்தியாவின் இந்துக்கள் ஈழத்தமிழர்களிலே அக்கறை காட்டாதிருப்பதற்கும் சில சநாதன இந்துக்கள் ஈழத்தமிழர்களுக்கு எதிராகச் செயற்படுவதற்கும் காரணமென்ன?
Christians tell of human rights abuses in Sri Lankan war zone
Thursday, 20 November 2008 11:48
Christian activists in Sri Lanka expressed increasing anxiety and frustration over widespread abuses of law and violations of human rights in the country's northern war zone.
"Police and armed forces behave as if they are a law unto themselves. The special powers granted to the armed forces because of the concerns regarding national security have led to a range of human rights abuses (even) in areas outside the conflict," said Father Nandana Manatunga, director of human rights for the Kandy Diocese, during a recent ecumenical meeting.
At least 8,000 people – mostly Tamil rebels – have been killed since government forces launched an all-out war in 2007 against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in northern Vanni, where the rebel group runs a de facto state of more than 300,000 ethnic Tamils.
Fr Manatunga said human rights groups have recorded 662 killings and 540 disappearances of civilians in the country in 2008. Five serious human rights abuses are reported daily, he said.
"Torture and ill treatment in army and police custody were widespread," he said, adding that innocent people are hung upside down to extract confessions to justify illegal detentions.
Due to the support the government is giving to security forces, police frame innocent people for ordinary crimes and wash their hands of the investigation while the crime "remains unresolved and the culprits at large," he said, adding that the rate of court convictions in criminal cases is as low as four per cent.
Ruki Fernando, co-ordinator of the Christian Solidarity Movement, and a Catholic, said: "The government wants to silence anyone who speaks against the war or supports the war victims." He said government officials use censorship, threats and intimidation.
"I was thrown out of a train recently (by security forces) on my way to peaceful Kandy – despite having a reservation – for carrying a laptop," he said. "I was shocked but that is the state of affairs here. The security forces are the lawmakers here."
text at
http://www.totalcatholic.com/tc/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=390:christians-tell-of-human-rights-abuses-in-sri-lankan-war-zone&catid=15:world&Itemid=35
==============================================
Sri Lankan pastors stay in danger zone to help victims of war
By Ecumenical News International
20 Nov 2008
Some Sri Lankans see parallels to Moses leading his people through the Egyptian deserts as written in the Bible's Book of Exodus in the clerics who are accompanying those displaced by a brutal civil war in northern Sri Lanka - writes Anto Akkara.
While all aid workers including U.N. staff, on the orders of the Sri Lankan authorities, withdrew from the Vanni region which is held by Tamil rebels, the pastors decided to stay. They want to minister to their people who are seeking refuge as the government forces inch closer.
"We gave our pastors the option to move out of Vanni due to the war. But, they insisted on staying with the people," the Rev. W. P. Ebenezer Joseph, chairperson of the National Christian Council of Sri Lanka and president of the Methodist Conference, told Ecumenical News International during an interview at his office in Colombo.
Joseph pointed out that many of the pastors are taking great risks in frequently crossing over to government-controlled territory to collect money from church centres and to buy medicine and other essential items for the people.
"They could come under attack from their side when they move in the war zone on their [motor] bikes," said Joseph. He noted that six pastors belonging to his Methodist church are moving with war-displaced ethnic Tamils. The pastors serve 300 Methodist and other families in the war-ravaged area.
Most of the quarter of a million Tamils in the Vanni region have been displaced by the hostilities, with government forces already capturing several outer parts of Vanni. This is the last bastion of the rebels, called the Liberation Tigers of Talim Eelam, where they are attempting to run a parallel state.
"Eleven of our pastors are in Vanni living with our people," the Rev. S. Jeyanesan, chairperson of the Church of the American Ceylon Mission (which was formed recently following a split in the Jaffna diocese of the Church of South India) told ENI on 12 November.
Pointing out that nine of his 11 churches in Vanni have been damaged and vacated due to the conflict, Jeyanesan said the pastors had to evacuate six orphanages in the war zone and take children from them and move them to safer areas.
"Funerals are a common occurrence in Vanni today," said Jeyanesan, while giving details of his visit to the congregations in Vanni in mid-October.
The Sri Lankan government says it has killed nearly 10 000 rebels in its action to oust the LTTE from its Vanni stronghold, while civil rights groups say the casualties also include civilians killed in indiscriminate shelling and bombing.
With nearly 30 000 Roman Catholics among the people of Vanni, the larger church also decided to defy government orders and to accompany its people during harrowing times.
"Many of them are on the run and do not have a roof over their head and have to take shelter under trees," the Rev. Damian Fernando, director of Caritas Sri Lanka, a Catholic relief agency, told ENI.
More than 20 Catholic priests and as many as nuns are staying with their congregations on the move in the Vanni jungles providing spiritual and emotional support to the distressed people, Fernando said.
Church workers, especially nuns, take care of the medical needs of the people, as well as distributing relief supplies that church aid agencies such as Caritas is providing for the war victims, with special permission from government forces.
The majority of Sri Lankans (76 percent) are Buddhist and speak Sinhalese, while the Tamil residents of the northern and eastern provinces are mainly Hindu (eight percent of Sri Lanka's total population). Christians (seven percent) and Muslims (nine percent) are minority populations. "The Christian community within Sri Lanka has both Tamil and Sinhalese people coming together," says Joseph.
[With acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News International is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the Conference of European Churches.]
text at
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/8009
Christians tell of human rights abuses in Sri Lankan war zone
Thursday, 20 November 2008 11:48
Christian activists in Sri Lanka expressed increasing anxiety and frustration over widespread abuses of law and violations of human rights in the country's northern war zone.
"Police and armed forces behave as if they are a law unto themselves. The special powers granted to the armed forces because of the concerns regarding national security have led to a range of human rights abuses (even) in areas outside the conflict," said Father Nandana Manatunga, director of human rights for the Kandy Diocese, during a recent ecumenical meeting.
At least 8,000 people – mostly Tamil rebels – have been killed since government forces launched an all-out war in 2007 against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in northern Vanni, where the rebel group runs a de facto state of more than 300,000 ethnic Tamils.
Fr Manatunga said human rights groups have recorded 662 killings and 540 disappearances of civilians in the country in 2008. Five serious human rights abuses are reported daily, he said.
"Torture and ill treatment in army and police custody were widespread," he said, adding that innocent people are hung upside down to extract confessions to justify illegal detentions.
Due to the support the government is giving to security forces, police frame innocent people for ordinary crimes and wash their hands of the investigation while the crime "remains unresolved and the culprits at large," he said, adding that the rate of court convictions in criminal cases is as low as four per cent.
Ruki Fernando, co-ordinator of the Christian Solidarity Movement, and a Catholic, said: "The government wants to silence anyone who speaks against the war or supports the war victims." He said government officials use censorship, threats and intimidation.
"I was thrown out of a train recently (by security forces) on my way to peaceful Kandy – despite having a reservation – for carrying a laptop," he said. "I was shocked but that is the state of affairs here. The security forces are the lawmakers here."
text at
http://www.totalcatholic.com/tc/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=390:christians-tell-of-human-rights-abuses-in-sri-lankan-war-zone&catid=15:world&Itemid=35
==============================================
Sri Lankan pastors stay in danger zone to help victims of war
By Ecumenical News International
20 Nov 2008
Some Sri Lankans see parallels to Moses leading his people through the Egyptian deserts as written in the Bible's Book of Exodus in the clerics who are accompanying those displaced by a brutal civil war in northern Sri Lanka - writes Anto Akkara.
While all aid workers including U.N. staff, on the orders of the Sri Lankan authorities, withdrew from the Vanni region which is held by Tamil rebels, the pastors decided to stay. They want to minister to their people who are seeking refuge as the government forces inch closer.
"We gave our pastors the option to move out of Vanni due to the war. But, they insisted on staying with the people," the Rev. W. P. Ebenezer Joseph, chairperson of the National Christian Council of Sri Lanka and president of the Methodist Conference, told Ecumenical News International during an interview at his office in Colombo.
Joseph pointed out that many of the pastors are taking great risks in frequently crossing over to government-controlled territory to collect money from church centres and to buy medicine and other essential items for the people.
"They could come under attack from their side when they move in the war zone on their [motor] bikes," said Joseph. He noted that six pastors belonging to his Methodist church are moving with war-displaced ethnic Tamils. The pastors serve 300 Methodist and other families in the war-ravaged area.
Most of the quarter of a million Tamils in the Vanni region have been displaced by the hostilities, with government forces already capturing several outer parts of Vanni. This is the last bastion of the rebels, called the Liberation Tigers of Talim Eelam, where they are attempting to run a parallel state.
"Eleven of our pastors are in Vanni living with our people," the Rev. S. Jeyanesan, chairperson of the Church of the American Ceylon Mission (which was formed recently following a split in the Jaffna diocese of the Church of South India) told ENI on 12 November.
Pointing out that nine of his 11 churches in Vanni have been damaged and vacated due to the conflict, Jeyanesan said the pastors had to evacuate six orphanages in the war zone and take children from them and move them to safer areas.
"Funerals are a common occurrence in Vanni today," said Jeyanesan, while giving details of his visit to the congregations in Vanni in mid-October.
The Sri Lankan government says it has killed nearly 10 000 rebels in its action to oust the LTTE from its Vanni stronghold, while civil rights groups say the casualties also include civilians killed in indiscriminate shelling and bombing.
With nearly 30 000 Roman Catholics among the people of Vanni, the larger church also decided to defy government orders and to accompany its people during harrowing times.
"Many of them are on the run and do not have a roof over their head and have to take shelter under trees," the Rev. Damian Fernando, director of Caritas Sri Lanka, a Catholic relief agency, told ENI.
More than 20 Catholic priests and as many as nuns are staying with their congregations on the move in the Vanni jungles providing spiritual and emotional support to the distressed people, Fernando said.
Church workers, especially nuns, take care of the medical needs of the people, as well as distributing relief supplies that church aid agencies such as Caritas is providing for the war victims, with special permission from government forces.
The majority of Sri Lankans (76 percent) are Buddhist and speak Sinhalese, while the Tamil residents of the northern and eastern provinces are mainly Hindu (eight percent of Sri Lanka's total population). Christians (seven percent) and Muslims (nine percent) are minority populations. "The Christian community within Sri Lanka has both Tamil and Sinhalese people coming together," says Joseph.
[With acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News International is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the Conference of European Churches.]
text at
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/8009
Labels: christians, vanni, war
