Counter-Tamil end-game in Sri Lanka
The Sri Lankan government is proceeding with what looks like the end-game (for now) of a decades-long campaign against Tamil separatists in which both sides have committed numerous war crimes and other atrocities. Reuters tells us today that the SL army is closing in on the last small enclave of land still held by the separatist LTTE (Tamil Tigers). The Colombo government says there are 70,000 people still trapped inside that enclave. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says there are 150,000 civilians there.
Al-Jazeera English has some very disturbing reporting from the war-zone.
A Sri Lankan friend wrote to me recently that the Security Council needs to act speedily to try to forestall the possibility of an anti-Tamil genocide. Certainly, the US government and all portions of the "international community" should be forceful in reminding the Colombo government (and the LTTE) of its obligations under international humanitarian law. There can be no meaningful "victory" for the people of Sri Lanka in a situation in which the country's Tamil citizens are targeted for rights abuses, killing, repression, and marginalization from full social and political inclusion.