UN Briefing on the Humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka

From the daily briefing at the United Nations in New York. 27th of April 2009, via the UN Youtube channel.

Direct link

NDTV Big Fight on Sri Lanka

The show is now up on the NDTV website. Ironic how the most debates on the Sri Lankan conflict is happening outside our borders and not within.  The panel includes personalities like N.Ram and representatives of political parties mostly from Tamil Nadu.

The show can be viewed here.

The Economist Interviews Minister Karuna

Minister Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan says among other things that the LTTE leader is not in the safe zone and goes on to comment on the larger political issues. He’s of the point of view that Tamil politics need to fundamentally change and quarrelling about details on devolution. 

The audio interview is available at the economist.

The Case for Devolution

Dayan Jayatilake makes it:

[..] there are intrinsic reasons as to why Sri Lanka should commit itself sincerely to the full and speedy implementation of the 13th Amendment. It is a simple matter of identity, autonomy and adequate space. This is true not only of ethnic communities but also of individuals. This is the basic case for devolution. It is not a question of a Tamil being elected Chief Minister. It is a question of devolving an adequate number of powers and functions to the people of those areas. No peoples like to be policed, patrolled, garrisoned and ruled by those of a different ethnicity and religion who do not speak their language. No one likes their areas of habitation to be dominated by others. This is why a measure of self-rule is needed, simply to make the people of certain areas feel stakeholders of the state, and to make governance secure. Let there be no mistake: governance and ruler-ship can be sustained only by consent of the governed. If those governed see no congruence between themselves and those doing the governing, they will resist and rebel, in one way or another.

The case for devolution is weaker if the state treats all communities – ethno logistic and religious as equals.  This is so in republican France. Indonesia’s population is over 90% Muslim (it has the largest Muslim population in the world) but it is a secular state. This is not so in Sri Lanka. But that doesn’t mean that those who are not of the dominant culture wish to live on the terms of that culture, which in effect means to live under it. It is in such situations that peoples require their own space where they are free from the linguistic and cultural dominance of others, and are able to administer themselves. [Daily Mirror]

British MP defends the Sri Lankan Government

Lord Naseby, a British Conservative Peer and the chairman of the all-party British-Sri Lanka group defends the military actions of the Sri Lankan government at a PressTV Forum.

The video is included below.

Lord Naseby’s take on the present Sri Lankan conflict can be found on The House Magazine.  The entire forum on Sri Lanka by PressTV is also available on youtube, complete with poster commentary.  Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

The Real News on Sri Lanka

The Real News Network has a three part report on Sri Lanka. The program is mostly a conversation with R.Cheran, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Windsor.  The conversations ranges from Cheran’s take on the current situation, the diaspora protests, roots of the conflict, role of the international community and looking at the future of the conflict. 

Part 1. (Transcript):

Part 2. (Transcript)

Part 3. (Transcript)

Slaughter in Sri Lanka — The Economist

The Economist quotes a doctor from the ’safe zone’ who claims over 60 refugees were killed on Wednesday, April 8th.  An excerpt:

 According to a doctor working in a makeshift hospital in the no-fire zone, however, it saw unprecedentedly heavy shellfire and civilian casualties on Wednesday.

By phone from the war-zone, he said that 296 wounded refugees had been brought to the hospital, a converted school building, and that 47 had died there. Typically with “big lacerations in the abdomen, in the chest, very bad head injuries”, the wounded included 52 children under the age of 15. The doctor, who requested that his name not be published, said that the hospital, which has eight doctors and 20 nurses employed by the government to work in the Tigers’ formerly extensive fief, had been overwhelmed by this influx. Already, he said, a dire shortage of drugs had driven them to carry out surgery on phe army says it has engaged in almost no fighting since April 5th, when it emerged victorious from a three-day battle outside the no-fire zone, where it killed 525 Tigers. An army spokesman says it has not used indirect fire in the region—including artillery and mortar rounds—for several weeks. According to a doctor working in a makeshift hospital in the no-fire zone, however, it saw unprecedentedly heavy shellfire and civilian casualties on Wednesday.

By phone from the war-zone, he said that 296 wounded refugees had been brought to the hospital, a converted school building, and that 47 had died there. Typically with “big lacerations in the abdomen, in the chest, very bad head injuries”, the wounded included 52 children under the age of 15. The doctor, who requested that his name not be published, said that the hospital, which has eight doctors and 20 nurses employed by the government to work in the Tigers’ formerly extensive fief, had been overwhelmed by this influx. Already, he said, a dire shortage of drugs had driven them to carry out surgery on people dosed with painkillers, but not anaesthetic. Over 100 of the newly wounded were therefore evacuated (along with 400 others) aboard small fishing boats to a ship manned offshore by the ICRC. The doctor said he had heard that at least three of these evacuees subsequently died.

Shortly after 7am, the doctor said he had seen the effect of the first bombardment of the day. He said five shells had landed, a few minutes and up to 30m apart, in an area thick with refugees: three of their jerry-built shelters, constructed of sticks and plastic sheeting, took direct hits. The doctor said 13 people, including a mother of four children and at least one child, were killed by the volley, and 55 were seriously wounded.

“It’s a very fearful situation,” he said. “Everywhere you look, people are dying, like hunted animals.” Because the government has barred journalists and most aid workers from the battlefield, it was not possible to verify his report. But the figures it contains are consistent with those quoted to the BBC by another doctor at the hospital, and with reports sent, from various sources, to foreign diplomats in Colombo. The ICRC has said that one of its workers was killed in the no-fire zone by shellfire on Wednesday.

The doctor said that in March nearly 2,800 wounded refugees were admitted to the hospital, of whom over 500 had died there. Many others, he said, had been killed and buried without reaching the hospital. These figures are broadly consistent with other estimates. Of 2,400 sick and wounded evacuated from Mullaitivu beach from January to mid-March, 1,900 underwent surgery for shrapnel and splinter wounds.

Read the fullstory at the Economist

Aljazera Inside Story — Mapping out the Post-LTTE Sri Lanka

Comments by Ranjan Philips, Patrick Mendis and Charu Lata Hogg.

Part 1:

Part2:

Sinhala-Tamil Fights in Australia

SBS has a report on the now somewhat popular youtube videos of a clash between two rallys organized by those supporting the LTTE and those supporting the Sri Lankan government’s military effort. 

Tamil Youth speak on their situation

A section of the Tamil youth speak out on their grievances.