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Rebels face final blow, Sri Lankan leader says
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by 158 | February 2, 2009 at 12:43 pm
127 views | 2 Recommendations | 3 comments
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This war should have
ended years through
negotiations but as
often happens it was
a war used to settle
the disputes.
The Sri Lankan president declared Monday that the army was on the verge of crushing the Tamil Tiger rebels after a 25-year war.
In recent months, the army has wrested all major towns once controlled by the Tigers, who are now defending a 300-square-kilometer pocket, or 115 square miles.
And as in most wars,
civilians suffer the most.
"The strongholds of terror once believed to be invincible," President Mahinda Rajapaksa said, "have fallen in rapid succession, bringing the final elimination of terror from our motherland and the dawn of true freedom to all our people well within our reach." He made his remarks Monday in a message to mark the 61st Independence Day, which will be celebrated Wednesday.
It is the first time the Sri Lankan government has come this close to a military solution to Asia's longest-running civil war, centered over demands for a separate Tamil state in the north and the east.
As the military continued to pressure Tiger rebels Sunday, three artillery attacks struck a hospital overflowing with wounded patients, the last of them hitting a ward of women and children, according to international agencies and health workers. At least nine people were killed and 20 wounded, and the dead were still being counted Monday.
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158
St. Louis, Missouri, United States
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (3)
at 18:20 on February 2nd, 2009
Sri Lankan (&Indian) Armies are killing the Civilians not LTTE.
at 19:49 on February 2nd, 2009
That may be but someone there is shooting back at them.
at 23:24 on February 2nd, 2009
"as in most wars, civilians suffer the most."
That is the truth, yet this also is true. What was happening to the Wanni and Eastern civillians during this 30 year long curse?
1. Children abducted, given a gun and taught to hate and kill at gunpoint. Who cared about the suffering of those parents? How come no one was talking about those parents' tears? How would you like your kid to be abducted and turned into a killer?
2. There are many youths who claim they joined the organization to prevent their younger siblings from being forcefully taken. Who spoke on behalf of them?
3. Education of the remaining - Does the international community know what kind of a crime has been going on there? What were they taught in schools? School walls are full of drawings of guns. The kids have been painting guns and the face of the terror leader at school, obviously as per taught by the teachers, who are also helpless. They do what LTTE tells them to do.
4. Living conditions - unimaginable.
So if anyone thinks that the Government offensive should be stopped, remember that would mean another 30 years or maybe another 60 years of this misery being dragged on. Remember those civilians you are talking of now, whose lives have been totally ruined for 30 years will continue the same way and another generation of children will be made into killers and suicide bombers, if the offensive is stopped now.