Apart from the BBC, very few mainstream media has picked up the story in detail. Sri Lanka seems insignificant to the world; even more insignificant is the plight of Tamils caught between LTTE and Sri Lankan Army, both forces equally barbaric. The rate at which the Army claims to be progressing would ensure that Tamils are an extinct ethnic group within Sri Lanka. This action by any other army in any other part of the world would be qualified as genocide... but in Sri Lanka it's "war on terror", thanks to Bush.
I am not sympathetic to just Tamils. I am as sympathetic to innocent people in Gaza and other conflict zones of the world as I'm towards Tamils in Sri Lanka. However Gaza is covered extensively by mainstream media around the world, including in India, while all Sri Lanka is given is a one-liner. In fact, I walked through a protest against Israel's use of force in Gaza on the campus of University of Michigan the other day. Compared to that, Tamils in Sri Lanka look like orphans of the world, with no representation.
You would think that the state orchestrated killing of a journalist calls for a strong response from the Indian media (and media around the world) and Indian Administration, specially considering all the action is happening in its backyard. However, India chooses to ignore the conflict out of both popular belief and political compulsion - a belief that the majority of Tamils are LTTE and political compulsion that they (Tamils) have to pay for the wrong doings of the past by LTTE. the terrorist organization, and that the world needs to support the Sri Lankan actions. India should also stop viewing the conflict only through Rajiv Gandhi's assassination by LTTE, and start to view it as a fight by ethnic minorities for equal rights. How outrageous could that be in a democracy?
Intimidation and silencing seem to be the means of suppressing free-speech and ethnic groups in Sri Lanka. History has shown that it's always ugly and gory, and no state has achieved peace through those means. I hope for peace in Northern Sri Lanka and an end to the slaughter of innocent lives. I also hope that the world be more sympathetic and humane and pay attention to those muted souls and lost lives in this conflict.
I would like more people to read Lasantha Wickramatunga's article ... that's if you care.
p.s: If Rajiv Gandhi were to write from his grave I would like to know how would he justify to the families of 1200 IPKF soldiers who were killed by ammunition supplied to LTTE by India at the same time they were deployed in Sri Lanka. That's for another time.
