Civilians, some of the more than 100,000 that have fled the area held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, hold food and water they were handed by Sri Lankan government soldiers in the town of Putumatalan, located near the "no fire zone" in northern Sri Lanka April 24, 2009. (David Gray/Reuters)

What the Tamils and Palestinians have in common

Opinion: Tamils protest, and protest, humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka, but no one is listening.

By Tom Fenton - Special to GlobalPost
Published: April 24, 2009 12:05 ET
Updated: May 2, 2009 11:34 ET

LONDON — For the past three weeks, dozens of flag-waving Tamils have been camping out in Parliament Square, trying to draw attention to the desperate plight of their ethnic minority in far-off Sri Lanka. Several are on a hunger strike. Busy Londoners seem to ignore them, except when the demonstrators hold up traffic. The Tamils are one of the world’s least popular causes.

An estimated 70,000 of them have been killed in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's decades-long struggle for independence against the Sri Lankan government. Civilians trapped between the Tamil Tigers and government troops are in particularly dire straits right now. But their suffering is largely unseen by the world.

The Sri Lankan government has barred independent news organizations and most aid agencies from the combat zone in the northeast, where a dwindling band of rebel militia members is making a last-ditch stand against the Sri Lankan army. Tens of thousands of Tamil civilians are trapped in the war zone and trying to flee. Almost 3,000 have been killed in the fighting in the past two months. The government is pushing hard to finish off the rebellion and believes that if the cameras are not there, the world won’t care what happens.

That’s the same tactic the Israelis used when they attacked the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip last December. Like the Sri Lankan government, the Israeli army said it was keeping foreign journalists out of the war zone “for their own safety.” But some reporters, mostly Arabs, managed to transmit stories and pictures of the horrors of the Israeli bombardments of the densely populated Gaza Strip.

Now, under pressure from world opinion, the Israeli Army has completed an investigation into the actions of its soldiers during the siege of Gaza. Gen. Dan Harel, the deputy chief of staff, has announced that the army “discovered a small number of mistakes, not many, among the dozens of incidents we investigated.” That sounds suspiciously like a whitewash, and human rights organizations are calling for an independent investigation.

The plight of the Tamils attracts far less media attention, and one reason for this is that reporters and editors have a hard time figuring out who are the good guys and the bad guys in that conflict.

Comments:

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Posted by jasonW on April 24, 2009 14:06 ET

I completely agree with your opinion. Tamils are at a great disadvantage due to the blanket ban that discriminates their struggle from the root. The ban needs to be lifted and a dialogue must be in place to hear their story if the interest of the west was to solve the problem. The more this goes unheard, the more blood we will have on our hands, if what shouldn't happen were to happen.

Posted by matt lunn on April 24, 2009 17:59 ET

So disappointing Tom. I work in a bank in Australia with both Tamil and singhalese people from Sri Lanka. They without exception want the LTTE gone. The 70,000 deaths are a mix of both races. Your report is another among thousands of inaccurate, biggoted, and poorly researched articles. I work in a bank - I have to keep repeating this yet it seems I can read reports on the web and absorb the information and read between the lines more effectively than most average reporters. And this is truly an average report. Good luck in your career, try office management you might find it more rewarding.

Posted by eelaminthan on April 26, 2009 10:11 ET

Tom, thanks for telling the truth and showing the humanity in your self. What Sri Lanka is trying to do is crush the voice of Tamils so that Tamils will forget their fundamental rights why Tamil Tigers are fighting for. Those countries banned LTTE are also responsible for the inhuman acts of Sri Lanka government today.

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