- London Channel 4 News Report: IDP Camps
- May 7, 2009 Filed under: Human Rights, Journalism, Politics, War
The video reports emerging from Sri Lanka these days are hardly uplifting stories of beautiful beaches and exotic cuisine. I have always hoped to highlight Sri Lanka’s beauty, despite what amounts to a three-decade-long bloodbath stemming from generations of dispute. But, being frank, there’re very few positives to report about this island country, when unthinkable acts are transpiring just a few hundred miles (or less) away.
Yesterday I awoke to an email containing a video showing the wounds of a young boy whose leg had been hacked off by an axe near where the leg joins the hip. Gruesome is an understatement. The video claims the incident was the work of the Tamil Tigers, who punished the boy for trying to escape from their last stronghold. The video ends reporting the boy “died mercifully” then goes on to show close-ups of his wounds.
While not nearly as gruesome, below is an alarming video summarizing the situation in camps for Internally Displaced Persons from Sri Lanka’s formerly occupied Tamil Tiger territory. The sources are anonymous Sri Lanka aid workers on site and, as is typical, the Sri Lanka military labels the work as LTTE propaganda. The most obvious question, for me at least, is if everything is on the up and up, why not allow independent/international aid workers and journalists access to these sites?
Remember, this is a small country around the size of West Virginia in the United States. Everything that happens is essentially only a day-trip’s distance from wherever you are. Suffering is palpable right now. Most Sri Lankan’s I know are used to it t some degree, but I’m not.
Don’t get me wrong–Sri Lanka CAN be a sort of paradise. But right now it’s only potential. Kind of like a high IQ. The country has the resources to emerge in the world as a setting of limitless wonders. Will the people running it persistently apply themselves to that end?
May 24th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Hi Sean, It seems horrible what is happening to those children. Many are focusing on political issues, human right violations, which big dude is dead or not. At the same time violating thousands of children’s right to life. Due to various reasons it will take more time for International aid to reach these people.
Mean while a group called ActLanka has been able to reach and provide medicine and toys etc to these camps. I am providing some help through them.
Their address is http://www.actlanka.org
Thank you again for your hard work.
May 27th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
Thanks for the reply Kalusudda.
I was going to respond and include a link to Act and Indi’s post but I’ve been encountering an Internal Server Error for both sites. Any suggestions or updates?