http://www.nzherald.co.nz/location/story.c...jectID=10396271
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Tuesday August 15, 2006
<b>Air strike on Sri Lanka orphanage kills 61 schoolgirls</b>
...
The Sri Lankan military insisted it had targeted a Tiger training camp and killed between 50 and 60 guerrillas.
It posted a photograph on its website which it claimed showed girls receiving military training at Tiger camps.
Within hours, a group regarded as a Tiger front threatened to target civilians in retaliatory attacks.
...<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->It's terrible that children were murdered. But why is it when the LTTE 'Tamil ra ra' murder Tamil Hindu children, not a single condemnation is heard from the international community? Why doesn't that same community, nor its every watchful media, ever condemn the use of Tamil children as militants? Why doesn't the international media clearly state that the LTTE is a terrorist organisation, when it so obviously is one: often using children for its dirty work no less? Instead, it speaks of the 'ethnic strife between the LTTE rebels and the Sri Lankan Government' as if to put both on equal moral footing.
If those children were indeed terrorists-in-training (as many others there have been), then those responsible for their murder are not the Sri Lankan government and army, but the LTTE. Another one of those times when I wish I was omnipotent and could wipe the real evildoers off the face of the planet.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/location/story.c...jectID=10396584
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Thursday August 17, 2006
<b>Sri Lanka says killed children legitimate targets</b>
COLOMBO - The Sri Lankan Government says it considers children killed in an air strike to be combatants and legitimate targets.
<b>"If the children are terrorists, what can we do?" </b>said military spokesman Brigadier Athula Jayawardana, defying growing international condemnation. The Government claims children killed and injured in the bombing on Monday are <b>child soldiers conscripted by the Tamil Tiger rebels.</b>
United Nations children's organisation Unicef condemned the air strike as "shocking". Unicef's head, Ann Veneman, said: "These children are innocent victims of violence."<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Comments:
(1) I agree with the UN that these children are indeed innocent victims of violence. The brainwashing of the LTTE that was leading them into a life of hatred and murder (as it has countless of other Tamil children in Sri Lanka) makes my blood boil.
I'd have preferred the Sri Lankan government to have captured the children and started deprogramming camps to un-brainwash them. But this of course, is not feasible at present.
(2) <b>It is no secret at all that children are (often kidnapped and) made to become terrorist soldiers for the LTTE.</b> Why does the UN not condemn this along with the strike? Is it OK for the LTTE to make murderers out of innocent children?
And is it impossible to imagine that people will still die when guns are fired or bombs are set off - just because the perpetrators are children? Is it alright when those children target non-LTTE Hindu and Buddhist children of Sri Lanka?
Why this one-sided reporting? Why this one-sided condemnation? (Same with media on Israel: we're supposed to accept that Israeli soldiers are baddies for shooting Palestinian gun-toting boys and bomb-laden girls who were on their way to blowing up a building with civilians. I am furious about the death of the Palestinian children too, but I blame their parents who goaded them into becoming shaheeds and the ultimate blame fo that rests on the Islamic religion of 'peace'.)
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Tuesday August 15, 2006
<b>Air strike on Sri Lanka orphanage kills 61 schoolgirls</b>
...
The Sri Lankan military insisted it had targeted a Tiger training camp and killed between 50 and 60 guerrillas.
It posted a photograph on its website which it claimed showed girls receiving military training at Tiger camps.
Within hours, a group regarded as a Tiger front threatened to target civilians in retaliatory attacks.
...<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->It's terrible that children were murdered. But why is it when the LTTE 'Tamil ra ra' murder Tamil Hindu children, not a single condemnation is heard from the international community? Why doesn't that same community, nor its every watchful media, ever condemn the use of Tamil children as militants? Why doesn't the international media clearly state that the LTTE is a terrorist organisation, when it so obviously is one: often using children for its dirty work no less? Instead, it speaks of the 'ethnic strife between the LTTE rebels and the Sri Lankan Government' as if to put both on equal moral footing.
If those children were indeed terrorists-in-training (as many others there have been), then those responsible for their murder are not the Sri Lankan government and army, but the LTTE. Another one of those times when I wish I was omnipotent and could wipe the real evildoers off the face of the planet.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/location/story.c...jectID=10396584
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Thursday August 17, 2006
<b>Sri Lanka says killed children legitimate targets</b>
COLOMBO - The Sri Lankan Government says it considers children killed in an air strike to be combatants and legitimate targets.
<b>"If the children are terrorists, what can we do?" </b>said military spokesman Brigadier Athula Jayawardana, defying growing international condemnation. The Government claims children killed and injured in the bombing on Monday are <b>child soldiers conscripted by the Tamil Tiger rebels.</b>
United Nations children's organisation Unicef condemned the air strike as "shocking". Unicef's head, Ann Veneman, said: "These children are innocent victims of violence."<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Comments:
(1) I agree with the UN that these children are indeed innocent victims of violence. The brainwashing of the LTTE that was leading them into a life of hatred and murder (as it has countless of other Tamil children in Sri Lanka) makes my blood boil.
I'd have preferred the Sri Lankan government to have captured the children and started deprogramming camps to un-brainwash them. But this of course, is not feasible at present.
(2) <b>It is no secret at all that children are (often kidnapped and) made to become terrorist soldiers for the LTTE.</b> Why does the UN not condemn this along with the strike? Is it OK for the LTTE to make murderers out of innocent children?
And is it impossible to imagine that people will still die when guns are fired or bombs are set off - just because the perpetrators are children? Is it alright when those children target non-LTTE Hindu and Buddhist children of Sri Lanka?
Why this one-sided reporting? Why this one-sided condemnation? (Same with media on Israel: we're supposed to accept that Israeli soldiers are baddies for shooting Palestinian gun-toting boys and bomb-laden girls who were on their way to blowing up a building with civilians. I am furious about the death of the Palestinian children too, but I blame their parents who goaded them into becoming shaheeds and the ultimate blame fo that rests on the Islamic religion of 'peace'.)