Security is tight, and tensions high, in Colombo. Some minority Tamils fear wrongly being arrested during checks in which have been occurring quite frequently since the truce between the Sri Lankan government and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam is over, and gone are the Nordic monitors who kept watch over it. After the memorial of the 5 year anniversary of the declaration of war with Iraq things have gotten so much worst. The Red Cross confirmed that in the first six weeks of this year alone, 180 civilians had been killed, a toll it called appalling. Independent journalists are not allowed anywhere near the front lines. Tamil neighborhoods are raided at night. Few people are willing to speak their minds, for fear that any criticism of the war effort will be construed as support for the rebels, or worse, that they will be detained under stringent emergency laws.
On Thursday, a foreign panel invited by Sri Lanka to observe a government commission’s investigations into rights abuses said it was leaving the country, frustrated by a lack of support from the government. I feel that the government at this point and time should support any type of positive movement that is leaning towards this war coming to the end. Alongside the conventional war, a shadow war has been waged in government-held cities, including Colombo. In a report released Thursday, Human Rights Watch blamed the government for a string of unexplained disappearances; the victims were largely Tamils.
I regret picking this topic because every week I have to read and discuss the depressing news of people dieing in thousands by the minute all over the world.
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