U.N. council sees no need to punish Sri Lanka

For an outsider, politics in Tamil Nadu appears as a strange mix of hero worship, feudalism and filmdom. Tamilians, of course, see nothing incongruous in a film star inspiring in his fans a life-long devotion, and rising to be the Chief Minister of the State. Is Tamil Nadu unique in this respect? Maybe not quite. But Tamil novelist Vaasanthi, who has spent most of her life outside Tamil Nadu, has woven a book around this subject.

People in the southern part of India, especially in Tamil Nadu (and in AndraPradesh) are going crazy in their attitude towards cinema and politics.Hero worship of matinee idols and the corrupt politicians are constantly on the rise ever since the days of Mr.M.G. Ramachandran who did capitalize his cinema popularity to become the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.

During the opening/release of the new movies ,the mad crowd which mainly consists of youngsters and students throng the cinema theatres, decorate the festoons cutouts,and posters.Thus they celebrate the release of their hero’s film. Height of idolism can also be witnessed in the form of milk bath to the inanimate shadows fo the heroes.

It is highly shameful that the crowd which includes the educated & illiterate alike indulge in activities where one cannot imagine the proportions.It is here,a temple was erected to to show the loyalty to an actress.

The same type of trend is being followed by almost all of the politicians by projeecting themselves as the mass leaders with the help of mass hired by the hench men and hooligans.Obviously the er exists the nexus to encash the screen image of the cine actors for selfish gains.The television channels which are run mostly by the politicians do encourage the hero worship of actors thru their programmes.These create the mirage, as if these two (cinema and politics)are the only professions for the youngsters in Tamil nadu.

The Sri Lankan government has admitted carrying out air raids in the so-called no-fire zone in the country's northeast, where the army is battling Tamil Tiger fighters.

Detailed images

Unosat says the pictures show craters which were formed inside the zone between February 15 and April 19, the day before the army breached the Tigers' defences and civilians started to pour out.

Einer Bjorge, head of the mapping unit at Unosat, told Al Jazeera the pattern of the craters would have required air power.

"The imagery is fairly clear and shows the time, so anybody can study and compare them," he said.

He said the images were also commercially available from the satellite operator.

"Anyone interested in verifying the images can purchase them if they want. It is commercially available to the public," he said.

"You can't get any more transparent than that."

Meenakshi Ganguly, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch (HRW), told Al Jazeera that the pictures did give evidence that civilians were at risk, saying the government may have "deliberately deceived the international community when they expressed concern about the situation".

"The pictures do prove that heavy weapons were used and indeed civilian casualties did occur, as shown by UN figures of the death toll since January," she said.

"In fact, HRW once recorded the sound of shelling which was dropping near a hospital."

 Many civilians who fled the war zone said Tamil Tiger fighters used them as shields [AFP]
Yolanda Foster, an expert on Sri Lanka with Amnesty International, said "real fear" is growing for those trapped in the no-fire zone in light of the admission by Colombo that its forces had carried out raids.

"We are very concerned that this flagrant disregard for civilians living inside the 'safe zone' has now been admitted [by the Sri Lankan government]," she said.

"The government earlier on in the year was making claims that there were not so many civilians in the safe zone as, for example, the figures that the UN and Red Cross were giving out.

"It is not clear that the government can be trusted on its promises."