Following the recent events in SL, the Tamil Diaspora have been labelled a lot of things and many have been unsympathetic towards the actions of the GoSL but what do they expect when they do this?
It is said that actions speak louder than words and despite the cargo of the ship having been confirmed, yet by turning back this aid, what message are the GoSL sending to the Tamil Diaspora or indeed the Tamils that require this aid in the IDP camps?
Every day I see campaign after campaign from aid agencies asking for donations to help solve the humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka. Surely every little bit should help?!
I understand that the maybe the correct measures were not taken in order to receive the vessel but surely any and all the help should be accepted and embraced? That is, if their primary concern is for the safety of those in the IDP camps.....
Tuesday 9 June 2009
Can You Blame Them?!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
12 comments:
Reuters says "The government has the right to accept it and its cargo or reject it. It had not followed the proper procedure so government ordered it to leave," navy spokesman Commander Mahesh Karunaratne said."
I see your point but I think the gov is pretty tired of the pro-ltte propoganda and it may be a message to say they don't want to do anything with ltte sponsored aid?
From what I understand, the ship/shipment hadn't been cleared for sri lankan waters. its sorta presumptuous to think you can sail into another countries maritime boundaries without getting permission first. thats undermining the authority of the government and at this point, that's just not the smart way to go about things.
@ T & DC: agreed with u, T, the manner in which they went about it was totally wrong, but i think wat scrumpy is saying is that instead of turning away the aid, they could have been a possibility to strongly reprimand whoever was responsible while at the same time making use of the aid.. its difficult for me to judge since i dont kno the procedures, but well there u go...
I think the GOSL should have confiscated the cargo as illegal goods and then handed it over to the ICRC for distribution in the camps.
The Diaspora members who organized this were actually more publicity hungry for their own agenda than to help the IDPs. If they really wanted to help the IDPs they would have gone through the proper channels. But then I don't expect people like Arjunan and MIA really know that 'proper channels' actually exist.
That said, I agree with killromeo, we should have confiscated the goods and publicly handed over to the ICRC or WFP and sent the nitwits who organized this packing back to their countries.
u see scrumpy.. there are 2 sides to every story.. I tell u where was the Tamil Diaspora when there own were being mercilessly murdered by the LTTE? where were they when the LTTE opened machine guns on the innocent civilians they were holding hostage? where were they when the LTTE used tanks on those civilians? and dont tell me this is hogwash I SAW the damn surveillance footage. I totally agree with DeeCee and T. I admire that they want to send aid and they want to help but there are proper procedures of going about it.
Yeah agreed with killromeo - since every little bit helped we should have confiscated, handed it over to IFRC and then had them bring it back to us - because we're smart like that. But apparently not!
Fuck what DeeCee said.
Neither party was justified in what they did.
Both of them went about it the wrong way, with too much fucking attitute and pride.
What we need right now is to give up this false sense of pride and help one another instead of trying to look better than the other, which is basically what both parties come across as doing, from an outsiders perspective.
I applaud your post, and coming from a troll, that should mean something.
Dee: Your quite right. The GoSL has the right to do quite that. In fact they have quite a few rights because they are the GoSL. I don't know where it is said that the aid is LTTE sponsored. I was under the impression that it was organised and funded by the Tamil Diaspora (as well as I'm sure non Tamils) and of course there may have been donations from supporters of the LTTE, but your comment leads me to understand (maybe wrongly) that you/GoSL are labelling anyone who donated to the cause as LTTE supporters which I'm sure is not the case.
I'm also sure that when the Tsunami hit, LTTE supporters donated at that time also but there wasn't so much of the sterotyping being thrown around.
T: I totally agree.
Gehan: I think you captured the essence of it.
TKRP: That would have been a feasible option. And in an ideal statement, the mission of this cause would have been fulfilled.
N: Ditto what I said to TKRP. Please remember that Arjunan and MIA do not represent the whole of the Tamil Diaspora. :)
FINroD: You say the Tamil Diaspora but that's like me labelling all Sinhala Chauvanists as the general Sinhalese population! Yes, I agree - where were they? There are Tamils out there that realise that the LTTE did not spare their own.
Rine: Exactly!
Piss: Thank you.
The impression that the ship is LTTE sanctioned is because the supporting charities are all LTTE propaganda machines. Just visit the "Act Now" site and try and tell me otherwise.
The way I see it, whatever happened with the Mercy Mission GoSL was going to look bad in the press.Even if they 'confiscated' the aid, it'd be broadcast that they were a bunch of theives, if they were allowed to land it would have been a breach of law & who knows what kind of coverage the 'aid workers' would have given the situation plus the politics here would have gotten a lot more colourful. Local politics is probably why GoSL thought this was the best course of action. I dont believe for a moment this was purely humanitarian mission simply because i dont think a real aid agency would be stupid enough to risk botching a mercy mission by forgetting go through the right channels.
And seriously Scrump please do keep an open mind.I'm no fan of the GoSL but whats getting filtered out to the media outside SL is made up of a lot of crap. And some members of the Diaspora colouring the existing situation with impressions of 30 years back isn't right either.(& no, although I support lifting the media blackout, i dont think it'll change the spin on the reporting). I dont see how international media really know the situation in the north when noone here even really knows whats happening. Need to talk to those who have been there. The island isn't what it was 30 years ago, and the people in the south do not 'have it in' for those in the north. Thats just a retarded assumption from people who dont bother to come and check whats really happening.
Dili: I accept your point. But in some instances the war was just a war of propaganda.
The point I'm trying to make is - LTTE or not LTTE sponsored, propagandered (though I'm sure that isn't a word!), aid is aid nonetheless. And I realise that the situation in SL is not how it was 30 years ago. Many diaspora here are still with that belief but I don't know what has been done/said to show them otherwise (maybe due to ignorance on my part that I don't know lately what's happening in the SL political scene - apologies).
My main point was that maybe the GoSL should have found a way to keep and distribute the aid regardless of where/who it was from. They (and I have no doubt of this) would/should/could have found a way to reprimand the organisers and in a way even come out of the situation better off. I don't know what this way is though! If it's all about moving forward now, the aid would have helped a lot of those struggling.
This is just my 2 cents on the situation. I just think that everything that is possible should be done to help those in the IDP camps.
My views are similar to those expressed so far, but I'll share them anyway.
a) The way-too-arrogant GoSL missed a trick and fell right into the trap laid by the mission organisers: now they're seen as the bad guys who don't care about civilians. I think they do care - if they didn't, none of the aid organisations on the ground would be making any progress. Whether it's their primary concern...I don't know.
b) I agree with Dili; if the GoSL had so much as laid a hand on the aid, they would've been accused of misappropriating it.
c) The mission organisers showed absolutely no respect for international maritime law and undermined the authority of the government of a sovereign country. If getting aid to the civilians was their only concern (and showing the GoSL in a bad light was not their intention), they would've contacted ICRC, Sarvodaya or one of the many other organisations working in the area and planned a fail-safe route for the aid.
Post a Comment