Thursday, April 27, 2006
Is Killing Civilians OK? |
In my opinion killing civilians is wrong, regardless of if the LTTE does it or the Army does it.
But I think it's more wrong for the Army to kill civilians than it is for the LTTE to kill civilians.
The LTTE
The LTTE are terrorists who have stated that they are the sole representatives of the Tamil people. And their goal is a Tamil homeland they plan on calling Eelam. They will work to that end and they will kill civilians because they are terrorists. No stupid blogger complaining about it is going to make the LTTE see what's wrong with killing a few civilians. As long as they continue to be a terrorist outfit with a political wing controlled by a military wing, they will do whatever they have to do to get to their goals. As the Sri Lankan military has at great cost demonstrated that it is incapable of defeating the LTTE in the battlefield, the only remaining option is to push forward with the peace process and force the LTTE to mutate into a political organisation, with military support.
Statistically, the attack on the Bandaranayake International Airport in 2001 showed a change in LTTE policy towards indiscriminately killing civilians. Sinhala Racist websites have the number of civilians killed by the LTTE. Study them. The BIA attack, while being the most damaging to the country overall, did not result in the death of a single civilian. While they have not gone out of their way to keep civilians from being in killed in crossfires in the North and East, they have changed their image. They have consistently attacked military, political and economic targets, and kept civilian deaths to a figure much lower previously. Even in the attack on the Army Commander, this is visible. The most heinous attack on civilians by the LTTE since this shift was the killing of six farmers in Gomarankadawala last week.
So... Sittingnut, Indi, Janapathi, and other bloggers (and attachments like Sophist) who complain about the LTTE killing civilians really need to stop just bitching, and start offering solutions. It's easy to bitch and the call the LTTE cold blooded civilian-killers. It's a lot harder to really apply your mind to it and think of what can be done (I would not suggest this for Janapathi, as 'thinking' may overload his single lonely braincell).
The Sri Lankan military
Quite a few people are amazed by how they Army is showing restraint in the face of LTTE provocation. Am I missing something? Isn't that what they're supposed to do?
Or wait... we're so used to the Army going on rampage and killing civilians and setting fire to houses and shops at the slightest provocation, that when they don't do that, we're amazed and feel a need to congratulate them. When random violence on the part of the becomes the norm, as it has in Sri Lanka over the past decade, then I guess they really do need to be congratulated for the present 'restraint'.
But the Army, (later joined by their proxy the Karuna Faction), have been carrying out strikes against the LTTE for the entire duration of the ceasefire agreement too. From the assassination of Kaushalyan, to the cold blooded murder of Joeseph Pararajasngham, the Army has been dishing out to the LTTE as much as it's been getting. Nimalarajan and Sivaram and the other journalists killed by the government forces were civilians. The refugees burnt to death in the camps by the Navy were civilians. The SLA in Jaffna killed several civiliand who the 'suspected' were LTTE messengers. And now they have been bombing known civilian targets in Trinco. These are just recent examples.
Now some people think the murder of civilians by the Army is equal to the killing of civilians by the LTTE. Wrong! The killing of civilians by the Army is much much more of a terrorist act. The Army is called the Sri Lanka Army for a reason. It is supposed to protect Sri Lanka. But it no longer protects Sri Lanka, it protects the Government, frequently at the expense of the people. When the Army begins killing the very people that it is pledged to protect, and calls it collateral damage, then there has to be a serious flaw in the system.
To say that the military doesn't kill civilians is plain stupid, and indicates ignorance. Just because you donh't read about it in the newspapers in Colombo or see it on the TV, that doesn't mean the military hasn't been killing civilians in the North and East.
And a little bit of history...
There's a lot of info on the number of civilians killed by the LTTE on any one of the racist Sinhala websites. For someone who wants to count, and weigh one figure against the other, I suggest you also include the number of Sinhala civilians killed by the Army in 88-89. As you may realise when digging into the Army's role in quelling the JVP insurrection, it has no qualms about killing civilians.
And my point is...
Killing civilians is wrong, and it must end. Using your enemies disregard for civilian lives as a license to kill civilians is not only dangerous but also moronic. The LTTE kills civilians because they are an terrorist unit. When the Sri Lankn military also kills civilians it becomes a terrorist unit, protecting a terrorist state.
But I think it's more wrong for the Army to kill civilians than it is for the LTTE to kill civilians.
The LTTE
The LTTE are terrorists who have stated that they are the sole representatives of the Tamil people. And their goal is a Tamil homeland they plan on calling Eelam. They will work to that end and they will kill civilians because they are terrorists. No stupid blogger complaining about it is going to make the LTTE see what's wrong with killing a few civilians. As long as they continue to be a terrorist outfit with a political wing controlled by a military wing, they will do whatever they have to do to get to their goals. As the Sri Lankan military has at great cost demonstrated that it is incapable of defeating the LTTE in the battlefield, the only remaining option is to push forward with the peace process and force the LTTE to mutate into a political organisation, with military support.
Statistically, the attack on the Bandaranayake International Airport in 2001 showed a change in LTTE policy towards indiscriminately killing civilians. Sinhala Racist websites have the number of civilians killed by the LTTE. Study them. The BIA attack, while being the most damaging to the country overall, did not result in the death of a single civilian. While they have not gone out of their way to keep civilians from being in killed in crossfires in the North and East, they have changed their image. They have consistently attacked military, political and economic targets, and kept civilian deaths to a figure much lower previously. Even in the attack on the Army Commander, this is visible. The most heinous attack on civilians by the LTTE since this shift was the killing of six farmers in Gomarankadawala last week.
So... Sittingnut, Indi, Janapathi, and other bloggers (and attachments like Sophist) who complain about the LTTE killing civilians really need to stop just bitching, and start offering solutions. It's easy to bitch and the call the LTTE cold blooded civilian-killers. It's a lot harder to really apply your mind to it and think of what can be done (I would not suggest this for Janapathi, as 'thinking' may overload his single lonely braincell).
The Sri Lankan military
Quite a few people are amazed by how they Army is showing restraint in the face of LTTE provocation. Am I missing something? Isn't that what they're supposed to do?
Or wait... we're so used to the Army going on rampage and killing civilians and setting fire to houses and shops at the slightest provocation, that when they don't do that, we're amazed and feel a need to congratulate them. When random violence on the part of the becomes the norm, as it has in Sri Lanka over the past decade, then I guess they really do need to be congratulated for the present 'restraint'.
But the Army, (later joined by their proxy the Karuna Faction), have been carrying out strikes against the LTTE for the entire duration of the ceasefire agreement too. From the assassination of Kaushalyan, to the cold blooded murder of Joeseph Pararajasngham, the Army has been dishing out to the LTTE as much as it's been getting. Nimalarajan and Sivaram and the other journalists killed by the government forces were civilians. The refugees burnt to death in the camps by the Navy were civilians. The SLA in Jaffna killed several civiliand who the 'suspected' were LTTE messengers. And now they have been bombing known civilian targets in Trinco. These are just recent examples.
Now some people think the murder of civilians by the Army is equal to the killing of civilians by the LTTE. Wrong! The killing of civilians by the Army is much much more of a terrorist act. The Army is called the Sri Lanka Army for a reason. It is supposed to protect Sri Lanka. But it no longer protects Sri Lanka, it protects the Government, frequently at the expense of the people. When the Army begins killing the very people that it is pledged to protect, and calls it collateral damage, then there has to be a serious flaw in the system.
To say that the military doesn't kill civilians is plain stupid, and indicates ignorance. Just because you donh't read about it in the newspapers in Colombo or see it on the TV, that doesn't mean the military hasn't been killing civilians in the North and East.
And a little bit of history...
There's a lot of info on the number of civilians killed by the LTTE on any one of the racist Sinhala websites. For someone who wants to count, and weigh one figure against the other, I suggest you also include the number of Sinhala civilians killed by the Army in 88-89. As you may realise when digging into the Army's role in quelling the JVP insurrection, it has no qualms about killing civilians.
And my point is...
Killing civilians is wrong, and it must end. Using your enemies disregard for civilian lives as a license to kill civilians is not only dangerous but also moronic. The LTTE kills civilians because they are an terrorist unit. When the Sri Lankn military also kills civilians it becomes a terrorist unit, protecting a terrorist state.
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Great post. you hit the nail on the head. We certainly expect better discipline and behaviour from the army. SLA hardly makes an effort to distinguish itself from terrorists. |
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