"Everything in that area is a legitimate target"- Free Fire Zone
Sri Lankan government warns & threatens journalists who don't accept the Government's official version of events - sounds like the Israelis and Americans- who also believe journalists should only show their respective military in the best light possible- all criticisms are a threat to national security.
Journalists or Sri Lankan & Tamil citizens sending out footage of Sri Lankan forces killing civilians or shelling a hospital must be stopped as they are a threat to NATIONAL SECURITY sounds like Dick Cheney, Bush Rimsfeld ,Feith rationalizations or Ehud Olmert or other officials of Israel . Dick Cheney , Rumsfeld Bush after 9/11 claimed everything had changed and that in Condoleeza Rice's words the Geneva Convention and other notions to do with International Law and Human Rights wer " Quaint " and that in Cheney's words we need to work on the dark Side because after 9/ 11 everything and anything done under the guise of National Security was now permissible.-
Sri Lanka proud to talk about Genocide of Tamils (Tamil Eelam) on camera-April 2, 2009- World News , UK.
There are as I have pointed out before some similarities about what is happening in Sri Lanka and the governments treatment of the Tamil minority and that of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians. In both cases the minority group is caged into a small area where there is a great deal of shelling & bombardment taking place with little regard to the safety of non-combatants. Not all Tamils are part of the Tamil Tigers or LTTE .In the same way not all of the people in Gaza are members of Hamas or are armed members of Hamas . So when Israel bombarded Gaza using white phosphorus the Israeli forces and Israeli leaders showed no concern for the safety of the innocent citizens of Gaza. Like the Israelis the Sri Lankan government has not allowed journalists or humanitarian organizations into the area. In both cases the attitude is racist and there is the belief that all Tamils or all Gazans are fully responsible for the actions of the Tamil Tigers or Hamas respectively. In both countries there is the attitude that anyone who speaks up on behalf of the average citizens or tries to give humanitarian aid to the citizens of these areas is seen as giving aid and comfort to the enemy Terrorists.
By claiming they are fighting "Terrorists " Sri Lankan government and the Israeli government have been given carte blanche to do whatever they see fit in order to defeat the "Terrorists" including intimidation, abuse, the denial of basic rights , the denial of food and water and electricity, interfering with the daily lives of civilians etc. so that the civilian population is made to suffer along with the "Terrorists ". Journalists and government officials who speak out on behalf of the Tamils in Sri Lanka are often intimidated , jailed or disappeared or just assassinated. The Israeli government has carried out the same sort of of abuse, intimidation and assassination of those who dare speak out on behalf of the Gazans or Palestinians.
150,000 Civilians trapped between LTTE forces and Sri Lankan Government forces
Journalists and Humanitarian aid personnel kept out of area by the Gov't
some 20 journalists have been killed in the last three years
Sri Lanka: Tigers caged by military forces-March 17, 2009
The Real News Network
MP Raviraj slain due to his defiant stance against SRI LANKA
August 22, 2007
Sri Lanka: Assassination of an activist- July 1, 2008
On 10th November 2008, it will be exactly two years since the cruel assassination of Nadarajah Raviraj, a Tamil politician and human rights activist. No one has been brought to justice for his murder. In the spirit of citizens' journalism, unionblackcolombo remembers his friend.
and so it goes,
GORD.
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