Posts

Posted on

Human disaster in Gaza – 898 killed by Israel, 3900 wounded

Free GazaThe Gazan death toll is now 898, of whom 45 percent are women and children. The Israeli death toll remains 13, of whom 10 are soldiers.

The similarities of Gaza, where there is no exit except death for the civilian population, and the Warsaw Ghetto are undeniable. This horrific comparison was referred to shamelessly by Israel‘s IDF in 2002.

In order to prepare properly for the next campaign, one of the Israeli officers in the territories said not long ago, it’s justified and in fact essential to learn from every possible source. If the mission will be to seize a densely populated refugee camp, or take over the casbah in Nablus, and if the commander’s obligation is to try to execute the mission without casualties on either side, then he must first analyze and internalize the lessons of earlier battles – even, however shocking it may sound, even how the German army fought in the Warsaw ghetto.

For more comparisons with brutal tactics used on civilians by Nazis, the History of Israeli Aggression from the 1967 Six Day War provides valuable insights.

In a transparent attempt to minimise the pubilc relations disaster of the shelling of a UN school which caused 43 fatailities, the IDF now claims

” its bombing of a UN school last week, which killed 43 and injured 100 others, was the result of an Israeli mortar shell that missed its target by 30 metres. Previously the military had said militants inside the school compound were firing at their troops and that the troops simply returned fire.”

A silly mistake sounds so much better than a criminal massacre.

Elsewhere, the IDF is sticking to its first story that the school was hit deliberately:

Yet in response to the report, local daily The Jerusalem Post on Monday quoted an IDF officer, Captain Ishai David, as saying that the Israeli army did not accept that the incident happened as a result of errant shelling.

“We are still sticking by our official position that according to our initial inquiry, the whole thing started when terrorists fired mortar shells from the school compound,” said David.

“The IDF returned fire to the source, and the unfortunate result was the death of innocent civilians,” he added.

The UN agency has insisted that there were no terrorists in the school compound. Its spokesman Christopher Gunness said last week that the Israeli army admitted in private briefings that the militant fire from Jabalia came from outside the school compound, not from inside.

As to the killing of a UN truck driver near the Erez crossing, UNRWA officials said Sunday that it was IDF gunfire that killed the Palestinian worker of the aid group.

“Given the location where the incident took place, the shots could only have come from the IDF,” Aidan O’Leary, UNWRA’s deputy director in Gaza, said at a press conference.

Yet David denied the accusation, saying that “the initial inquiry indicates that it was not IDF fire that killed him,” which mirrors an allegation that he was killed by Hamas snipers targeting the aid workers.

So which is it, IDF, you oh so moral army?

Malaysia’s Prime Minister is calling for Israel to be held accountable for war crimes:

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 12 – Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi moved a motion in Parliament today calling for the United Nations to establish an international tribunal to prosecute Israel for war crimes against Gaza.

He also urged the United Nations to call for a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza and station a peacekeeping force to enforce it.

In the cyberwar area, Israel-stop is calling for google bombing of Israel.

@NEurope MEP Morgantini: “We Entered In #Gaza Strip” – 8 MEPs, 1 Mbr of Italian Senate. Staying w UNRWA and visit refugee camps, hospitals and towns.

The vicious and religiously fanatical settler movement has signalled its intent to move into Gaza after the current Israeli pogrom on the people of Gaza has ended.

In a gathering planned for Tuesday, the settler leaders will read out a declaration stating their intention to return to both Gaza and the northern West Bank as soon as the security situation allows. The statement also declares the areas belong to the Jewish people, as an unnegotiable divine promise, and are integral to the Land of Israel. “We view the return of Jewish life to those regions as a national mission and divine commandment,” declares the statement.

In other Jewish extremist news, Shmuel Eliyahu advocates carpet bombing Gaza. This fanatic demonstrates the illogicality of the Israeli position. If civilians are regarded as legitimate targets in Gaza, are not civilians in Israel also legitimate targets?

“If they don’t stop after we kill 100, then we must kill a thousand,” said Shmuel Eliyahu. “And if they do not stop after 1,000 then we must kill 10,000. If they still don’t stop we must kill 100,000, even a million. Whatever it takes to make them stop.”

The UN Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Report for the 10 -11 January 2009 is compelling with evidence of compounding human rights violations by Israel:


There is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and for every day that hostilities continue, the cost for the civilian population inevitably intensiies. Only an immediate ceasefire will be able to address the large-scale humanitarian and protection crisis that faces the people of Gaza. The Israeli military operation has entered its third week, with Israeli planes dropping lealets on Gaza City on 10 January warning of an escalation. Israeli air, sea and ground forces continue to surround the populated areas of the Gaza Strip, and the Gaza and North Gaza Governorates remain isolated from the rest of the territory. The humanitarian crisis is intensifying with the Palestinian civilian casualty rate mounting, increasing damage to homes and public infrastructure, and water, sanitation and electricity services imperiled. Emergency rooms and intensive care units are overstretched and medical staff are exhausted. Of particular concern is the long-term psychological effect of the conlict on children, who make up 56 percent of the Gaza population.

Following “credible assurances that the security of UN personnel, installations and humanitarian operations would be fully respected”, including undertakings of improved liaison and more effective internal coordination within the Israeli armed forces, UNRWA announced on 10 January that it would lift restrictions on it staff
movements. The restrictions had been announced on 8 January due to lack of security.

PROTECTION OF CIVILIANs
Aerial bombardment continued throughout the day; as did artillery shelling and naval iring. The Israeli military remains present in the northern area, eastern border area and Rafah border area. On 10 January, an Israeli artillery shell struck the home of the Abed Rabou family in Jabalia, killing eight residents. On the morning of 11 January, ground troops and tanks entered the Ash Sheikh ‘Ijleen suburb of Gaza City, with heavy clashes and a high number of Palestinian casualties reported. On 11 January, the humanitarian “lull” was activated between 1100 and 1400 hours to allow the civilian population to access basic supplies and medical services.

Ministry of Health figures as of 1500 hours 11 January are 884 Palestinians dead, of whom 275 are children and 93 are women. Twelve medical personnel number among the fatalities. The number of injured stands at 3,860, of whom 1,333 are children and 587 are women. An estimated 413 are considered critically injured. The danger to medical staff and the dificulty of extracting the injured from collapsed buildings makes proper evacuation and estimation of casualties dificult. It is not possible at this stage to determine the number of Palestinian civilian casualties vis-a-vis combatants. Palestinian militants continue to ire rockets and mortars from the Gaza Strip into Israel. According to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, four Israelis have been killed and over 220 wounded by rocket fire since 27 December.

SHELTER
The number of displaced people staying with host families remains unknown, but reports indicate that it is likely to number in the tens of thousands. According to the Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights, an estimated 80,000–90,000 people have been displaced, including up to 50,000 children. UNRWA opened four new shelters on 10 January in response to increased demand in Gaza City, Jabalia, and Deir al Balah. UNRWA is currently operating 31 shelters providing refuge to 25,696 people, an increase of over 4,000 from 9 January. Shelters in Jabalia are overcrowded, with one school sheltering over 1,700 people and another approximately 1,900. However, new shelters cannot be opened in the area due to insecurity. Drinking water, bread and tinned meat have been provided to all shelters, but UNRWA is facing a shortage of blankets, mattresses, hygiene kits and generators for shelters.

ELECTRICITY
Following repair to the damaged line west of Netzarim, as well as parts of the local network, the Gaza Power Plant (GPP) partially resumed functioning on 10 January, producing 30MW out of its current total capacity of 80MW. However only 30 percent of Gaza City is receiving electricity because of localized damage, and power supply for the rest is intermittent. Five trucks of fuel still need to be escorted to the GPP, which would allow the second turbine to be turned on. Three power lines from Israel are damaged as of 11 January: two lines (one east of Jabalia and one east of Khan Yunis) were damaged on 10 January, while the line west of Beit Lahiya is still down.

HEALTH
Hospitals remain under intense pressure due to the high number of wounded who continue to be brought in for treatment. According to WHO and ICRC, the main problem currently facing the health sector is access, in terms of the access of staff, procured medicines and equipment to hospitals, and patient referrals out of the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian MoH is providing international donors and humanitarian organizations with detailed lists of needs for medical equipment and supplies to ensure that donations meet actual needs. Since the outbreak of hostilities on 27 December, regular health care has been interrupted. The Ministry of Health reports that about 70 percent of chronic patients regularly attending Primary Health Care (PHC) centers have had to interrupt their treatment due to the security situation/ According to WHO, all hospitals now have 3-4 hours of electricity per day, and most have suficient fuel to run back-up generators for five days after having received fuel. The Gaza Paediatric Hospital has only two days of fuel reserves left. As of the afternoon of 11 January, ambulances at Kamal Edwan Hospital have run out of fuel.

Between 9 and 10 January, the European Gaza Hospital, El Nasser Paediatric Hospital, Sabha Al Harazin and Hala Al Shawa PHC centres sustained damage due to shelling or artillery ire. The Dorah Paediatrics Hospital is closed (except for emergency services) after sustaining damage. According to WHO, 189 patients, mostly war injuries but also some chronically ill, have been transferred through Rafah crossing as of 10 January.

WATER AND SANITATION
According to the CMWU, Gaza’s water utility, approximately 500,000 people have no access to running water, 500,000 people receive water for 4-6 hours every 5-7 days and the remaining population receives water for 4-6 hours every 2-3 days. Fifty UNICEF emergency family water kits (enough for 500 families) were distributed on 9 January through PRCS. UNICEF distribution of bottled water for 4,000-6,000 people was planned for today, 11 January. Water tanks, pumps and generators for CMWU are ready to be deployed but cannot be accessed due to the security situation or have not been allowed into Gaza by the Israeli authorities. In a press release on 10 January, the CMWU announced its inability to maintain its water and wastewater services due to considerable damage caused to the networks, the dificulties it faces to repair the damage and the inability to access needed spare parts. Damage has been sustained to: the water line in Nuseirat refugee camp, a well east of Jabalia city, a well south of Tel el Hawa, a water line to Gaza City, the main sewage line in Beit Hanoun and the main power generator at the Beit Lahiya waste water treatment plant. Three trunk lines are damaged: one in Tuffah east of Gaza City (which supplies water to almost 100,000 people), one in Bir el Naja in northern Gaza (150,000 people), and one in Al Mughraga in the Middle Area (30,000 people). These people are currently not receiving water. The Gaza City Wastewater Treatment Plant was hit last night, damaging a treatment pond embankment and causing leakage, the extent of which is unknown. The pond contains 250-300,000 cubic metres of wastewater.

On 10 January, UNRWA delivered the remaining 25,000 litres of fuel (from the 75,000 litres pledged) to the CMWU. An additional 4,000 litres were delivered to the Khan Yunis and Rafah municipalities for solid waste collection. UNRWA plans to deliver fuel to the municipalities in the Middle Area, Gaza and North Gaza as well.

FOOD
Organizations continue to face dificulty in distributing assistance of depleting stocks due to the security situation. The 18-month long blockade on Gaza has prevented humanitarian organizations from pre-positioning goods. Although some goods are being allowed into Gaza, the reduction in the number of
trucks allowed in means that agencies are not receiving the amount of goods they require to respond to the needs of the population. UNRWA delivered food to 4,451 Special Hardship Cases (SHC) on 10 January, and restocked 7 of 10 food distribution centres which could not be opened for distribution on 10 January due to lack of flour at the sites. On 11 January, UNRWA operated 6 of 10 food distribution centres as well as a SHC distribution point in Rafah.

On 9 January, WFP distributed 4,400 tonnes of food parcels to 770 families in Khan Yunis in collaboration with CHF. It also distributed 1,700 kilos of bread in Beit Hanoun and 2,450 kilos of bread in Beit Lahiya. On 10 January, WFP distributed 89 metric tones of food parcels to 1,046 families in the Khan Yunis and Gaza Governorates. 1,180 metric tonnes of high-energy biscuits were distributed to about 6,000 persons at UNRWA shelters. On 11 January, WFP launched ‘Operation Lifeline Gaza’, a global appeal to increase food distribution to Gaza.

INTERNAL ACCESS
Access between northern Gaza and the rest of the territory remains possible only via the coastal road west of the former Israeli settlement of Netzarim and is restricted to humanitarian relief assistance (including ambulances) following coordination with the Israeli authorities.

CROSSINGs
Kerem Shalom was open on 11 January, with 80 truckloads expected to enter Gaza. New procedures have been put in place at the crossing as of 11 January: Trucks will no longer be allowed to enter into the Israeli side of Kerem Shalom unless trucks are available and ready to load the cargo at the Palestinian side of the
crossing. Rafah was open for medical cases and aid supplies on 11 January. Nahal Oz: Until the pipeline is emptied, it is uncertain whether more fuel will be pumped through to Gaza. 400,000 litres of industrial fuel are expected to be brought into Gaza on 11 January. On 10 January, crossings were closed for the Jewish Sabbath. Four trucks with medical supplies crossed through Rafah. 19 medical cases were evacuated through Rafah for medical treatment out of Gaza.

PRIORITY NEEDS
Protection of civilians: Civilians, notably children who form 56 percent of Gaza’s population, are bearing the brunt of the violence. As one of the most densely populated places in the world, more civilians risk being killed or injured if the conflict continues. The parties to conflict must respect the norms of International Humanitarian Law, in particular the principles of distinction and proportionality. Access for ambulance and rescue teams: An unknown number of dead, injured and trapped people remain in houses which have been shelled and in areas where hostilities are ongoing. Due to attacks on ambulances, medical staff are fearful of reaching these places. Opening of crossings: The number of trucks allowed into the Gaza Strip needs to be increased. Additional crossings must be opened urgently, including Karni for the provision of bulk grain.

Electricity is necessary for the operation of services within the Gaza Strip notably health, water and sanitation services. What is needed includes repairing damaged electricity lines, bringing in needed transformers, and allowing ixing of other transformers. Back-up generators are not meant to function more than 8 hours per day, and are not reliable following repeated and prolonged use.

Supply of fuel: Industrial fuel is needed to power the Gaza Power Plant, which had been shut since 30 December but partially re-opened on 10 January. Nahal Oz crossing must remain open as it is the only crossing which can facilitate the transfer of suficient amounts of fuel to restart and maintain operations of the power plant, and restock other types of fuel needed in the Strip. Delivery of fuel to its intended destination must be facilitated.

Cash: The issue of cash remains of high priority. Although an approval of a small cash transfer appears to have been granted by the Government of Israel, much more is needed and the mechanism for the transfer still has to be established.

Posted on

Song for Gaza

Are there any words left for the atrocities in which the the Israeli government is self-righteously revelling, in a pre election obscene blood orgy. Genocidal and depraved, flaunting its mighty weapons before the eyes of the world,it, Israel has rendered itself devoid of humanity, killing with impunity (827 people thus far) including humanitarian workers, medics, ambulances, hospitals, mosques, shops and hundreds of homes while governments, restricted by the hasbara-ridden ignorant, religiously superstitious, errant and culpable US government – let them never think that they are ‘good’ again, are suckered into the malignant victimhood of a pariah, necrophilic, human rights violating state. For Israel’s malevolent war crimes and crimes against humanity continue despite UNSC 1860, and their iniquities are beyond words. People have had no water for five days – a friend said that denying water was a favourite method of destruction used by the IOF as it saves using bullets on children, who dehydrate quicker than adults. Dead and wounded lie everywhere under rubble. Nowhere is safe, and there is no exit or place to hide because the Palestinian people’s foul jailor has locked in 1.5 million.

Whilst playing a terrified victim, Israel has viciously, inexcusably oppressed the Palestinian people, with a series of Machiavellian strategies denying their legitimate aspirations for 65 years.

Stalinesque is not too strong a descriptive word to use for the Israeli government’s actions.

America may have invited a bitter fate in return for its immorality, and indulging of its perverse most favoured state in its refusal to condemn, its inability to perceive war crimes involved in thesupply of weapons which are employed by the 4th most militarised state on the planet to commit collective punishment on a million and a half people. Possibly that is what the ghouls of finance, the trogs from the weapons industry, want – these parasites must feast from their loungerooms on the corpses of the wretched and dispossessed.

Would any other western nation, except for the similarly afflicted US, commit acts of such barbarity?

Anyone who is complicit in this abomination should seek medical attention as soon as possible – yet can there be a cure for virulent national sociopathy?

For a far better written first hand narration and background than I can provide, visit Rafahkid in the rubble that is Rafah.

Posted on

The Gaza Dilemma

In a convincing wrapup of events leading to the holocaust being perpetrated on the essentially defenceless people of Gaza, John Pilger refers to the Dagan Plan.

Behind this sordid game is the “Dagan Plan,” named after General Meir Dagan, who served with Sharon in his bloody invasion of Lebanon in 1982. Now head of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence organization, Dagan is the author of a “solution” that has seen the imprisonment of Palestinians behind a ghetto wall snaking across the West Bank and in Gaza, effectively a concentration camp. The establishment of a quisling government in Ramallah under Mohammed Abbas is Dagan’s achievement, together with a hasbara (propaganda) campaign relayed through a mostly supine, if intimidated western media, notably in America, that says Hamas is a terrorist organization devoted to Israel’s destruction and to “blame” for the massacres and siege of its own people over two generations, long before its creation. “We have never had it so good,” said the Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Gideon Meir in 2006. “The hasbara effort is a well-oiled machine.” In fact, Hamas’s real threat is its example as the Arab world’s only democratically elected government, drawing its popularity from its resistance to the Palestinians’ oppressor and tormentor. This was demonstrated when Hamas foiled a CIA coup in 2007, an event ordained in the western media as “Hamas’s seizure of power.” Likewise, Hamas is never described as a government, let alone democratic. Neither is its proposal of a ten-year truce as a historic recognition of the “reality” of Israel and support for a two-state solution with just one condition: that the Israelis obey international law and end their illegal occupation beyond the 1967 borders. As every annual vote in the UN General Assembly demonstrates, 99 per cent of humanity concurs. On 4 January, the president of the General Assembly, Miguel d’Escoto, described the Israeli attack on Gaza as a “monstrosity.”

When the monstrosity is done and the people of Gaza are even more stricken, the Dagan Plan foresees what Sharon called a “1948-style solution” – the destruction of all Palestinian leadership and authority followed by mass expulsions into smaller and smaller “cantonments” and perhaps finally into Jordan. This demolition of institutional and educational life in Gaza is designed to produce, wrote Karma Nabulsi, a Palestinian exile in Britain, “a Hobbesian vision of an anarchic society: truncated, violent, powerless, destroyed, cowed … Look to the Iraq of today: that is what [Sharon] had in store for us, and he has nearly achieved it.”

Although the UN has passed Resolution 1860 calling for a cease fire, Israel is continuing its strikes against anything that moves or doesn’t move in the beleaguered Gaza Strip.

This is unacceptable. The US may already been dragged into being accomplice to war crimes on the eve of Obama’s inauguration – is this Bush’s last petulant tantrum too?

Francis A. Boyle An Israeli War Crimes Tribunal – An Israeli War Crimes Tribunal (ICTI) May be the Only Deterrent to a Global War

Not that again – still at least some folks are waking up to the Machiavellian possibilities neocons may be hoping to ignite in these last desperate days of Straussian ponderosity.

Ari Shavit writes in Haaretz of that perennial classic, the White Man’s Burden

George E. Bisharat Israel Is Committing War Crimes – Hamas’s violations are no justification for Israel’s actions.

Pentagon denies arms shipment to Israel linked with Gaza fighting – interesting because the first time we looked the story said US was sending 3000 tons of ammo on a merchant ship.

In fact, here it is sitting on Reuters UK. So who’s the anonymous informant, and which story is true? ??

U.S. seeks ship to move arms to Israel

Fri Jan 9, 2009 11:42pm GMT

By Stefano Ambrogi

LONDON (Reuters) – The U.S. is seeking to hire a merchant ship to deliver hundreds of tons of arms to Israel from Greece later this month, tender documents seen by Reuters show.

The U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command (MSC) said the ship was to carry 325 standard 20-foot containers of what is listed as “ammunition” on two separate journeys from the Greek port of Astakos to the Israeli port of Ashdod in mid-to-late January.

A “hazardous material” designation on the manifest mentions explosive substances and detonators, but no other details were given.

“Shipping 3,000-odd tons of ammunition in one go is a lot,” one broker said, on condition of anonymity.

“This (kind of request) is pretty rare and we haven’t seen much of it quoted in the market over the years,” he added.

The U.S. Defense Department, contacted by Reuters on Friday in Washington, had no immediate comment.

The MSC transports amour and military supplies for the U.S. armed forces aboard its own fleet, but regularly hires merchant ships if logistics so require.

The request for the ship was made on December 31, with the first leg of the charter to arrive no later than January 25 and the second at the end of the month.

The tender for the vessel follows the hiring of a commercial ship to carry a much larger consignment of ordnance in December from the United States to Israel ahead of air strikes in the Gaza Strip.

A German shipping firm which won that tender confirmed the order when contacted by Reuters but declined to comment further.

CHARTERS “RARE”

Shipping brokers in London who have specialized in moving arms for the British and U.S. military in the past said such ship charters to Israel were rare.

Israel is one of America’s closest allies and both nations regularly sell arms to each other.

A senior military analyst in London who declined to be named said that, because of the timing, the shipments could be “irregular” and linked to the Gaza offensive.

The ship hired by the MSC in December was for a much larger cargo of arms, tender documents showed.

That stipulated a ship to be chartered for 42 days capable of carrying 989 standard 20-foot containers from Sunny Point, North Carolina to Ashdod.

The tender document said the vessel had to be capable of “carrying 5.8 million pounds (2.6 million kg) of net explosive weight,” which specialist brokers said was a very large quantity.

The ship was requested early last month to load on December 15.

In September, the U.S. Congress approved the sale of 1,000 bunker-buster missiles to Israel. The GPS-guided GBU-39 is said to be one of the most accurate bombs in the world.

The Jerusalem Post, citing defense officials, reported last week that a first shipment of the missiles had arrived in early December and they were used in penetrating Hamas’s underground rocket launcher sites.

(Reporting by Stefano Ambrogi; editing by Michael Roddy)

UPDATE ON SHIP

Greek bloggers used Twitter to pressure the Greek government to halt the arms transfer.

Delivery of the munitions was suspended, just as the Greek government was coming under fire from opposition parties, and Amnesty International was calling for an arms embargo.

At first, official sources contested the story from the international news agency Reuters on January 9. But it was picked up by Twitter users and investigated after Indy.gr – an offshoot of the Indymedia Athens group – provided a translation of the article in Greek.

ADDENDA

From Enduring America 9/1/09:

1:10 p.m. Here’s one for the Israel Info Guys in Tel Aviv and New York.

You know the “human shields” line that Hamas hides behind civilians, especially women and children, to conduct their nefarious activities? Well, a released Gazan detainee has offered an inconvenient twist — at least for Israel:

In the first day (of the ground offensive) special forces stormed Beit Lahiya. Maybe a thousand soldiers landed on rooftops then began arresting people….They used us as human shields in military positions they established inside Gaza Strip before they drove us to a prison in Beersheba. They made us sleep on gravel, or on the sand. They stripped us of our clothes.

And here’s a little footnote: “They used a bulldozer to pile up the bodies of the dead.”

Oxford professor of international relations Avi Shlaim – How Israel brought Gaza to the brink of humanitarian catastrophe

@AJGaza: UN says more than 15,000 people are now internally displaced after fleeing their homes in an attempt to avoid the fighting in #Gaza

Posted on

Sunday Leader editor & Columbo government critic assassinated

Outspoken government critic and editor of the Sunday Leader in Columbo, Lasantha Wickramatunga was assassinated as he drove to work yesterday by unidentified gunmen on motorbikes.

There have been several attacks on and attempts to intimidate journalists in Sri Lanka in recent times while the government has been engaged in bloody campaigns against LTTE troops in the northern Tamil areas.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa condemned the killing of Mr. Wickramatunga as an attempt to discredit the government while the Leader of the Opposition and a former Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, accused the government of silencing its critics.

Mr. Rajapaksa described Mr. Wickramatunga as a close friend and a courageous journalist and maintained “the heinous crime points to the grave dangers faced by the democratic social order of our country, and the existence of forces that will go to the furthest extremes in using terror and criminality to damage our social fabric and bring disrepute to the country.”

Addressing a news conference along with other Opposition leaders, Mr. Wickremesinghe alleged that the murder of the Sunday Leader editor was part of an anti-democratic conspiracy.

The Committee to Protect Journalists “called on concerned ambassadors in Colombo to weigh in forcefully and immediately with President Mahinda Rajapaksa to put an end to the attacks raining down on Sri Lanka’s media.”

The killing follows the January 6 early morning assault by about 15 masked gunmen on Maharaja TV (MTV) studios outside Colombo. Earlier, some state media had called the station “unpatriotic” for its coverage of the war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). CPJ called for an impartial parliamentary inquiry into the attack, saying the government has been a prime suspect in attacks on journalists in the past. Rajapaksa has condemned today’s killing as well as the attack on MTV.

Bob Dietz, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator said

“The assassination of Lasantha Wickramatunga signals that the government is unable or unwilling to protect the country’s journalists who dare to report critically. The international community in Colombo must act quickly to bring pressure on President Rajapaksa to reverse this murderous trend.”

The Sunday Leader is well known for being critical of Rajapaksa’s government. In a recent editorial, the paper accused the president of stepping up the war with the secessionist LTTE in order to stay in power.

Wickramatunga’s editorial admonished the Columbo government severely for its pre-election tactics:

What is perhaps most offensive about Rajapakse’s attempts to manipulate the electorate in the face of an election is how much he takes for granted the fickleness of his Sinhala-Buddhist following. Nothing could better personify the “Sinhalaya modaya” stereotype than the President’s disdain for his own people. And they love him for it. So long as a steady stream of Tamils are exterminated, there is little to impede Rajapakse’s cruise to yet another victory.

The dead journalist also criticised the UNP opposition for its non-committal policies:

Sadly for both Ranil Wickremesinghe and Karu Jayasuriya, they have failed to convey effectively to the country their concerns about the issues of our time. As a party, the UNP is yet to decide whether or not it supports the war and if so, whether it subscribes, for example, to the present practice of aerially bombarding Tamil villages labelled as LTTE hideouts in the north.

To say it opposes the war but nevertheless congratulate the army on capturing Paranthan or Killinochchi, however, is morally and intellectually dishonest. After all, the government would not dare bombing LTTE hideouts in the south – let us say in Wellawatte – for fear of collateral damage. Yet, in the remote townships of the Wanni, such bombardment has now become routine, with enormous cost to the civilian population.

The attacks on Tamil villages by Sri Lanka’s government mirror those of Israel on the people of Gaza. Both parties under attack have had national aspirations under occupation for 60 years, and both peoples can trace continuous existence in their native lands. Before British rule, Tamil and Sinhalese coexisted in two kingdoms –

the Tamil Kingdom comprising the north and eastern parts and the Sinhalese Kingdom(s) the western & southern parts of Ceylon. There were brief periods when the whole of Ceylon came under a single ruler. Otherwise, there existed two or more Kingdoms and the Tamil Kingdom always one of them. The Tamil Kingdom, later came to be called the Jaffna Kingdom existed as a separate polity for centuries. The first war between a Tamil King who ruled Anuradhapura and a Sinhalese king from the south was fought in the 2nd century BC.

In the case of Palestine however, Zionist colonialisation of Palestinian land began in the 1880s with the advent of kibbutzs set up by European Jews.

When Sri Lanka declared independence from the British in 1948, its constitution incorporated the state with its official religion as Buddhism. The Tamil people are predominantly Hindu. Success in the first election by Sinhalese Buddhist candidates enabled the passing of

“the Ceylon (Parliamentary Elections) Amendment Act No.48 of 1949 which deprived the Tamils of their franchise as well. This category of Tamils who had 7 seats in the Parliament and held balance of power in a further 20-30 electorates failed to elect even a single member in the elections to the parliament held in 1953.”

Tamils were further marginalised in 1956 with the passing of the Sinhala Only Act:

The enactment of this Act, quite contrary to the hitherto official policy of recognising both Sinhalese and Tamil as Official languages, made Tamils second class citizens in their country of birth overnight.

The Tamil people staged a non-violent demonstration against the stripping of their rights and were met with violence.

The peaceful Satyragraha by the Tamils to protest against the Sinhala Only language policy at Galle Face Green overlooking the Parliament in Colombo was broken up by Sinhalese hoodlums. This was followed by Island wide riots in which hundreds of Tamils lost their lives and property worth millions destroyed. The 1956 riots was the beginning of a series of racially motivated Tamil pogroms by Sinhalese covertly encouraged by successive governments and overtly supported by the security forces. These pogroms with increased ferocity and venom were repeated in 1958, 1961, 1977, 1979, 1981 and 1983.

The government of Sri Lanka has still failed to address the just, legitimate rights of the Tamil people, instead pursuing violent means to crush “the Other”. As usual, violence met with violence in return. The Tamil Tigers (LTTE) are claimed to be “the official army of the Tamil people”.

@Jinjirrie http://is.gd/eX8R Lasantha Wickramatunga ed of Sunday Leader & govt critic shot by unidentified gunmen in Columbo http://is.gd/eXak