From: Charles Sarvan
Subject: International Herald Tribune
To:
Date: Friday, 22 May, 2009, 10:39 AM
The attached cartoon is from the International Herald Tribune, 21 May 2009.
For the one tiger in the cartoon, read hundreds of Tigers; for the many bodies of Tamil civilians, read thousands and thousands.
In other words, to get at a few, the Sinhalese state (with callous disregard - if not worse!), killed thousands of civilians.
Altering the words of the poet Thomas Gray, the government waded through slaughter to victory, shutting the gates of compassion and humanity on innocent human beings -
but then, they don't see Tamils as equal, fellow, human beings. And that has been our tragedy: their victory and our tragedy.
In the accompanying 'Editorial Opinion', James Ross writes (inter alia):
The "government of President Mahinda Rajapakse treated the Tigers' atrocities as a license for its own abuses. Instead of taking the high ground [...] Rajapakse used the war to solidify his support among ultra-nationalist Sinhalese. The government appears to view all Tamils as presumptive Tiger supporters and has locked up in camps all who have fled the fighting but the elderly - now some 300,000 people. Sri Lankan army forces indiscriminately shelled and starved the Tamil civilians trapped by the Tigers, causing several thousand civilian deaths and massive suffering. And in its plans for the future, the administration has [...] given short shrift to the Tamil populations legitimate political concerns."
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