Beaches, Palm Trees, Displacement - Welcome to Sri Lanka’s War Zone
Amnesty’s Science for Human Rights project just released a satellite image of Menik Farm in Sri Lanka, a de-facto internment camp run by the military, which offers a rare glimpse of the massive displacement caused by the conflict. Mark Cutts, the UN official at Menik Farm, recently told the BBC that “nothing less than a new city had been created.”
[click here for full PDF satellite image of Menik Farm-by Amnesty’s Science for Human Rights project]
Through this image, along with aerial photographs displaying the devastation in the so called “safe zone”, we want to offer the public a rare opportunity to see on the ground details in a country where journalists and international monitors are widely prohibited from documenting the results of the recent military showdown. Graves, shelters and a shipwreck are among the things visible on the aerial photographs. We have combined all this information in a Google Earth Layer (recent version of Google Earth required), in order to give activists around the world access – something the government of Sri Lanka is denying us so far– and to call for accountability for the crimes committed by both the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers. (Many thanks to AAAS and Ogle Earth for their help in putting this project together).
U.N. emergency relief coordinator John Holmes recently described IDP camps in Sri Lanka as “internment camps”, stating that people are not allowed to move freely in and out. The people in Menik Farm are being vetted by the government to determine if there are any links to the Tamil Tigers.
Clcik here for Amnesty International Online Action Center on re: Sri lanka
[Courtesy of AIUSA]
4 Comments
Freedom and Human Rights.... it's not in Srilanka's dictionary.
If you take a better picture, the whole island is under siege, all Srilankans are prisoners.
If you are happy with your basic needs, Food/Shelter/Clothing, you are a happy Srilankan.
If you want freedom of speech, equal rights, etc. better get out of Srilanka to a western nation.
:-)
Sri Lanka should have passed a Patriot Act through Parliament. All the mourning about lack of freedom would have been impossible then. No western "journalist" would have had the audacity then to criticize Sri Lanka.
Aratai seeks freedom, hopefully not of the TTT kind,to kill and maim innocents, ethnic cleansing and genocide in the fantasy Eelam of Sinhala and Muslim inhabitants, and privileges inthe rest of the island at the expense of the rest. No section of civil society is entitled to such "freedom", certainly not the Tamils.
Aratai,
I go to Sri Lanka very often... it is so much freer than most of the other countries I have lived in .
Ram2009 -
The freedom of expression has various levels. Even the very basic levels have been denied by the current Government. And what does the other have and the Tamils don't for you to talk about the entitlement of freedom?
Devnida Fernando -
'I go to Sri Lanka very often... it is so much freer than most of the other countries I have lived in . '
I agree, because I have lived in Sri Lanka as well. But the current situation does pose a threat to most of the Tamils - it all depends on who you are and where you are from as well.
and Finally Aratai -
Even though your comments are current facts, it seems that your 'western nation' part makes me to believe that you are also one of those who is driven by hatred and anger