SL Conflict and Civilian Casualties

A single life lost in conflict is one too many. But alas, conflicts and casualties are realities of the world we live in. But it must be pointed out that the casualities resulting from military offensive in Sri Lanka - where the security forces are engaged in a battle with the hardliner Tamil Tigers - have been relatively lower than those in other conflicts such as in Iraq, Afghanistan or even Lebanon.

But interestingly, UN and the international community has never admitted to this and have continued to focus on the insignificant incidences to blame the government. The UN and others have never accepted the governments efforts to protect the Tamil people - especially those in the LTTE controlled areas and they have been reluctant to expose the deliberate atrocities of the LTTE against civilians.

Given that Sri Lanka is a developing country with extremely limited resources available to the security forces in terms training and such, one has to accept they have done a tremendous job protecting civilians. The Israeli offensive on Lebonon where up to 80% of casualties are said to have been civilians and yet drew no criticism from the western countries. Comparatively a civilian casualties in Sri Lanka - despite the violent nature of the conflict - is extremely low. Their professionalism has never been recognized by the international community and if all the UN and others can do is criticise the genuine effort to protect the territorial integrity, then it is a matter of time when government and the security forces will feel that there is little difference in how they conduct themselves. Ultimately, it will be the civilians who will suffer.

- Pradeep Silva