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| Author: | Arundhati Roy |
|---|
March 31, 2009
Arundhati Roy writes that the Sri Lankan government is committing crimes based on deeply ingrained racial prejudice and is effectively hiding them from international press and public scrutiny.
Excerpt: The horror that is unfolding in Sri Lanka becomes possible because of the silence that surrounds it. There is almost no reporting in the international press--or in the mainstream media in India, where I live--about what is happening. From the little information that is filtering through, it looks as though the Sri Lankan government is using the propaganda of "the war on terror" as a fig leaf to dismantle any semblance of democracy in the country and commit unspeakable crimes against the Tamil people.
The government is working on the principle that every Tamil is a terrorist unless he or she can prove otherwise, and civilian areas, hospitals, and shelters are being bombed and turned into a war zone. Reliable estimates put the number of civilians trapped at over 200,000. The Sri Lankan army is advancing, armed with tanks and aircraft.
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