The Sri Lankan armed forces continues to record impressive military victories. With the latest victory in Anandapuram (See David's Blacker's excellent analysis here) , LTTE is trapped along an estimated 100,000 civilians are trapped in a small area of land in the NorthEast of Sri Lanka.
There are increasing calls from the international community for the LTTE to lay down their arms, but the Tigers continue to hold civilians as human shields. There government has decided to pause the hostilities in view of the recent Sinhala/Tamil New Year in Sri Lanka, and some, most notably India has requested the government to extend the temporary halt on hostilities. The latter's interest in the Sri Lanka is amplified due to the elections in that country, and the need to appease the very large ethnic Tamils in India, who according to recent polls put the Sri Lankan issue among the top most election considerations.
A few important reports have also come out during the past few weeks. Most notably from UTHR (Jaffna), and International Crisis Group. Gruesome reality of civilians caught between the crossfire is being caught on camera and distributed by various sources. Human Rights Watch has an audio slide-show with some horrific images.
International media too take note of the situation, if only sparingly. The economist had a related piece recently and so did the New York Times and the Times in the UK.
With a few exceptions, most people in Sri Lanka seems to be adjusting to the reality of a post-LTTE Sri Lanka. Intellectuals are having their say, there seems to be a general consensus that there should be some form of devolution to address the larger dissatisfaction of the Tamil community in Sri Lanka. Whether or not this form of devolution will sufficiently address the root causes of the conflict remains to be seen.
The Sri Lankan blogs and websites continue to be good sources for updated information. Apart from the usual suspects, Federal Idea is a good source for anyone interested in conflict-related video content. The channel features content from Young Asia Television, which in itself is a good source for quality video content.
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1 comment:
its interesting the kind of people who come up with the idea of war when it doesn't seem to have any productive purpose at all. the mere fact that the armed forces made it to enclose the tigers and the tigers willingness to fight shows a great deal of pride
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