Tamil People Crushed Between Rebels, Military

By Prof. S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole

(February 06, Washington, Sri Lanka Guardian) The 35-year Sri Lankan civil war has reached a critical point, with the government taking control of all major towns in its harsh war against the Tamil Tigers, who demand a separate state. The Sri Lankan government has achieved these massive territorial gains by not caring about the welfare of Tamil civilians in battle zones.

A Jan. 29 news release from the International Committee of the Red Cross stated:

"Hundreds of [Tamils] have been killed and scores of wounded are overwhelming understaffed and ill-equipped medical facilities in Sri Lanka's northern Vanni region, following intensified fighting between the Sri Lanka Security Forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. People are being caught in the crossfire, hospitals and ambulances have been hit by shelling and several aid workers have been injured while evacuating the wounded. The violence is preventing the International Committee of the Red Cross from operating ... The terrified population is in need of protection, medical care and basic assistance."

Such recognition of our plight is better late than never.

This mistreatment of Tamils has been ongoing. In December, I visited Vanni and heard the shelling. I heard testimony that as the Tigers lost land, they forced the population along as human shields and for forcible recruitment. Those who crossed over into government land were held in guarded camps as Tiger infiltrators.

It has been easy to manipulate the Western media that is barred from war zones. The Tigers say the civilians went with them in fear of the government. The government says the Tigers are using Tamil civilians as hostages and that the government is not bombing designated fire-free zones. Facing the true facts and the cooked-up counter-claims from the different parties, Western media are silent or report both versions, saying that the stories could not be independently verified.

Take the shortage of food in the Vanni. Tiger sources would say there was no food. The government, however, reports that there was plenty. But the elusive truth was that there was plenty of food — and the displaced, who had been moved several times as the Tigers lost territory, had no money to buy food.

The facts have always been there for all to see, from independent local sources such as the government's medical doctors. The church has issued statements setting them out. Church elders from the Sinhalese side confirmed in December that a Tamil orphanage was bombed, but fortunately no one was injured. Public pleas were made asking the government not to bomb civilians and to the Tigers to release the civilians to go where they please. The Tigers are preventing about 300 severely injured civilians from leaving. Used by the Tigers as a shield and unable to run, about 30 Tamils die daily and hundreds were maimed this month due to government bombings of hospitals and refugee camps, according to the University Teachers for Human Rights, who get reports from the war zone.

Why did Western media not trust these sources — public servants and men of the cloth from both sides? I have written about what I saw and reliably heard to newspapers to no avail.

Why was the Kosovo genocide noticed and acted on but not the Rwandan and Sri Lankan? Two weeks ago, my editor Lasantha Wickrematunge of an English language weekly — I wrote features for him — was brutally murdered for writing against war atrocities. Laudably, there were editorials in Western media. But previously, editors of Tamil language dailies were also murdered with no one taking notice. Must one write in English to have one's murder noticed, one's life valued?

Now that Europeans have been allowed into the war zone, post-conquest, Western press reports of the ongoing calamity are trickling in at last.

The Tamil people are being eliminated — some through bombings by the government (with the Tigers ensuring that civilians will be killed to serve their propaganda machine) — but the vast majority, on seeing how we are treated by the government and the Tigers, by leaving the island or becoming Sinhalese, the majority group. The army commander has said that we Tamils are welcome in Sri Lanka but only on their terms.

For how long will the world not hear our cries? As the Red Cross says, we need protection. A neutral outside force guaranteeing safety and free elections is the only way out.

• S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole is professor of engineering and science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Hartford. He was previously vice chancellor and University Grants Commission member in Sri Lanka. He fled Sri Lanka after receiving death threats from the Tamil Tigers for his stand on human rights.

-Sri Lanka Guardian