Enough Already with the Genocide Talk

By John Thompson —— Bio and Archives February 17, 2009

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The accusations of genocide in Sri Lanka are getting annoying... and not in the usual ways. Anybody who takes the charge seriously betrays a highly annoying ignorance about the state of affairs between Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Genocide is not happening in Sri Lanka. Plenty of other nasty things are; but genocide is not one of them. The LTTE and its supporters in the international Tamil Diaspora they dominate would like us to slap the label of 'genocide' onto the Sri Lankan government. Ignore this campaign. Forget the 'black hat' vs. 'white hat' morality play. In fact, forget this when looking at any civil war in any country. Where human beings are involved, nothing is ever simple. It seems that everyone knows that in Sri Lanka, some 75% or so of the population are Sinhalese and therefore mostly Buddhist; some 15% are Tamil and mostly Hindu; and the rest are Muslim, Burghers, Malays, etc. But things still aren't that simple. More...