The end of the bloody war in Sri Lanka finally ended after decades and the end was a blood bath. A few weeks before the end I stumbled upon a protest march supporting the Tamil Tigers and saw the protesters camping out at Les Invalides for weeks. They waived signs that included photos of the wounded children and I had no doubt that they were real, as awful as they were. While I sympathized with the children I also remember decades of brutality by the Tamil Tigers. They were never hesitant to kill anyone who stepped in their way and it was the Tamil Tigers who popularized such methods as suicide belts, suicide bombings and using children as soldiers. I didn't recall seeing any photos of this during the protests.
The UN should have gone without praise - it was a bloody war and destructive war - but let's not forget about the horrific policies of the Tamil Tigers. Liberation and equality may have been high ideals but their use of low tactics is not worthy of praise either. What a waste of human life on both sides.
The accusations followed a resolution in the UN human rights council welcoming the Sri Lankan government victory, with no reference to human rights concerns over civilian casualties and the 300,000 Tamils made homeless, many of whom are interned in government camps.The UN did indeed perform poorly but that has been going on for decades.
But criticism was also aimed at the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, who visited the biggest camp over the weekend and complimented the Sri Lankan government on its humanitarian role, and the security council for not speaking out officially about the human cost of the military victory.
"The human rights council performed abysmally," said Tom Porteous, London director of Human Rights Watch. "It's there to monitor human rights and the laws of war, and it completely failed – and failed to register any concern over the situation."
