Posts Tagged ‘war’
Posted on June 12, 2009 - by Frank
Grief and Despondency in Sri Lanka’s Camps
The following is reprinted with permission from Reuters AlertNet. Images used in this article were obtained from the author and are used with permission from the author. The views expressed in this article are the author’s alone.
Through our partner in Sri Lanka, TEAR Fund is one of the few organisations with good access to those suffering through displacement.
Written by: A writer in Sri Lanka
She stood in the door frame of a former clothing factory in northern Sri Lanka. A tiny little woman with long, slightly grey hair pulled back in a ponytail. In her hand she held a small plastic photo album. She showed it to everyone who passed. There was no way I could understand what she said in Tamil but as I looked at the photos of three children, I understood the tone. It was one of absolute grief.
Posted on May 14, 2009 - by Drew
Life and Death Issues
Sometimes when I squash a bug I think about the tiny, mysterious, irreplaceable spark of life I’ve snuffed out. Even if I could perfectly rebuild the body of the bug I couldn’t put the life back into it. But I still kill mosquitoes and wasps with extreme prejudice.
A girl I knew was so pro life she disliked walking on grass for fear of squashing insects. She disarmed all the rat traps in her college where they were suffering an infestation. Maybe she didn’t wash to avoid killing off colonies of micro-organisms on her body.
Posted on April 20, 2009 - by Frank
Sri Lanka Update
This just appeared in the Guardian UK:
Hundreds of civilians are being killed or seriously injured in artillery and gun attacks as the Sri Lankan army attempts to finish off the last Tamil Tiger rebels trapped in a shrinking pocket of land.
Injured civilians lucky enough to get out have told of carnage in this so-called “no-fire zone” – a 17 sq km strip of coast where the Tigers are penned in with their backs to the sea.
Horrific stories of limbs ripped off by shellfire and bodies buried where they fell are emerging, despite the government’s efforts to hide the scale of the killing by confining the injured to hospitals in a military area around the government-declared no-fire zone, from which the media are strictly excluded.
Posted on February 10, 2009 - by Frank
Sri Lanka’s Tragic War
Article by: Ian McInnes – Country Director World Concern Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka’s three decade old conflict between the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) and the Sri Lankan Government is at its fiercest. 70,000 have already lost their lives in a separatist struggle for control of ‘Eelam’, a self-designated homeland for Tamils by the LTTE. Having lost control of the East of the island in 2007 the LTTE now faces a fight for survival in an ever decreasing space in the North.
Posted on September 1, 2008 - by Frank
Clarity in the Georgia and Russia Conflict
The recent conflict between Georgia and Russia, centering around the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia, has been a perfect example of the use of propaganda in modern media, with both sides twisting stories to suit their own agendas. Sadly this has only been further exacerbated by the interjection of other states such as the U.S and other NATO members that clearly have interests in the area – namely oil. Surprise.
Trying to sift through conflicting reports is a minefield where truth is nearly impossible to determine – reports of genocide being perpetrated by Georgian forces amongst the people of South Ossetia; displaced people pouring across into Russian territory; Georgian incursions into South Ossetia at the start of the Olympics to reclaim control of the semi-independant territory; reports of unprovoked Russian agression; headlines declaring the Russia was invading beyond South Ossetia and entering Georgia proper; talk of ceasefires and allegations that agression was continuing beyond those negotiations and mentions of plans to get Georgian troops out of Iraq and into the area prior to the break out of violence (suggesting premeditation between Georgia and the U.S).
Thankfully, it may be of interest to those who have followed this conflict and all the confusion that would understandably result from any research, to know that the Office of the International Criminal Court Prosecutor is analysing allegations made of crimes committed under ICC jurisdiction.
The allegations seem to involve attacks on civilians.
Georgia is a state that ratified the Rome Statute that saw the formation of the ICC, Russia is not. If Georgia is in any way implicated in crimes investigated by the ICC, it will have serious ramifications for those involved, for as long as they reside in Georgia, they fall under the jurisdiction of the ICC.
Confirmation of this analysis taking place was first released on August 20.
Posted on July 31, 2008 - by Frank
Review – Standard Operating Procedure
Written By Jacob Powell (Film Critic)
Reprinted with permission from Filmguide. For more reviews from the NZ Film Festival or more reviews by Jacob Powell, visit Filmguide.
Chances are you’ve seen some of the shocking photographs of torture, humiliation and death that emerged into the wild from the goings on of the American military prison in Abu Ghraib, Iraq; or at least you’ve heard of these pictures via the media aftermath that followed their release. The latest offering from inimitable documentarian Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line, The Fog of War), Standard Operating Procedure (Hereafter: S.O.P.) is, not so much a direct indictment of the comportment of the American military during the war in Iraq, but an exploration of the Abu Ghraib photographs themselves and the specific contextual situations that produced them.
Posted on July 17, 2008 - by Frank
Rape as a Method of Warfare
Often in war times, woman, children and the elderly are abused and mistreated. Seen as the weakest in society, they make easy targets and the crimes committed against them amount to crimes against humanity.
Sexual violence against females, both young and old, is a dark and often unspoken method used in many current war situations. Darfur has helped to highlight this situation, being the biggest case of rape being used as a systematic weapon of warfare, ever.
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