Anybody watch this programme the other night on Channel 4. It was pretty brutal viewing. It showed that both the Sri Lanka government and the Tamil Tigers both guilty of war crimes. Some horrific footage showing executions and evidence of rape and torture of Tamil people. It available on 4OD but if you're a bit squeamish I would it give it a miss.
I watched that and got the nightmare. Horrible footage. As you said not for the faint hearted. The Tamil Tigers used Civilians as war shields and The government pushed the Tamil Tigers to the east so they had no where to go.
The tigers were terrorists afterall but there were plenty of innocent Tamil people caught up in the war. Pretty horrible to hear the government forced them into a no fire zone and then shelled them. Targeting hospitals and then hitting them again 10 minutes later when people are in helping the wounded.
I take it you watched the programme? Turning and firing on their own people to stop leaving, yeah I would call them terrorists.
Please read the history of Sri Lanka before judging the the Tamils or the LTTE. In short, the government of Sri Lanka is incredibly corrupt, made it into a banana republic and have pushed native tamils so far north and tried to kick them out the country. I have family who live there and who have witnessed first hand the misdemeanour's of both the gov't and the LTTE however, while the LTTE (which has now officially disbanded since 2009) are seen as terrorists, they were only reacting to the corruption of SL government.
I did watch the show, both sides acted in a disgraceful manner but a cornered animal is always at its most unpredictable. I blame the gov,t for creating the situation. The Tamil's as they started out certainly were fighting a just cause in their eyes and played by a different set of ideals and rules conpared to when they were in their final months as a force.
