I know I have brought this subject up before but did anyone else catch this item on Today this morning. I challenge you to listen to it since it positively drips with anti-Sri Lankan Government bias and pro-Tamil Tiger sympathies from the fragrant Sarah. Bias can be subtle but I don’t think this was – it was blatant. There is a comparison between how the BBC reports events in Sri Lanka and events in Gaza. In both cases, the terrorists somehow become innocent civilians and the bad guys are those trying to weed out the terrorists. In both cases the BBC uses the UN to advance its own sympathies for the “fighters”.
SARAH MONTAGUE – FREEDOM FIGHTER.
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Unusually for such a wet outfit, the UN spokesman was moderate, and did not try to pin blame for everything on the horrid Sri Lanka Government in the way the BBC was clearly trying to.
There’s a reason for the UN’s new-found even handedness regarding SL. There have been so many instances of UN staffers aiding the LTTE, directly (e.g. caught carrying explosives through checkpoints) and indirectly (e.g. massively over-exaggerating actual and projected civilian casualty figures), that the SL govt finally got tough with them and started to defend itself.
This was seen particularly in Geneva, where the Human Rights vultures circle. Dr Dayan Jayatilleka, SL’s permanent rep in Geneva, himself an ex-revolutionary has been particularly effective in shredding their pretensions and exposing their lies and omissions. So the UN’s Human Rights wing knows that they will not longer get away with outrageously partial comments.
Where the current SL govt case is weakened is by its refusal to act on principled criticism of its actions. But that’s another story.
Mango
The Sri Lanka Government have a final chance to kill or capture the remaining LTTE forces. They surely have no option but to continue trying to do this. It is ridiculous for the UN or the BBC to suggest that they are wrong to pursue military action against the Tamil terrorists.
Of course there will be civilian casualties, that’s what happens in war especially if the Tamil civilians are being used as human shields and preventing from escaping. AQs long as the Sri Lankan govt offers a window of escape every so often, say 2 days and no more, they cannot be blamed for trying to snuff out the terrorists.
Of course if this succeeded – that would be the ideal time for the Sri Lanka govt to show magnaminity to the Tamil population. The Colonel Tim Collins edict – resolute in the fight, magnanimous in victory ?
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Itis strange how the BBC is always trying to ascribe motives of ruthlessness to people fighting terrorism – from Bush/Cheney downwards – but never attacking the far worse ruthlessness of the terrorists themselves.
As I have blogged on several occasions, the real scandal is the way that the BBC all but ignored the Sri Lanka situation for years whilst giving disproportionate coverage to the evils of Israel’s slaughter of the innocent Palestinians.
It’s nice how the only time anyone hears the Sri Lankan Government’s point of view is when the UN guy is saying both sides are to blame. Otherwise, it was pretty obvious what message one was supposed to get out of this.
My weekend gift to you all. The comment below are from a poster on a SL Defence Blog, regarding the current refugee/civilian hostage situation in Northern SL.
It illustrates beautifully how sneakily the Beeb never lose an opportunity to put the boot in š
From a BBC article published online now….
‘Now is summertime in Vavuniya, where the thousands of displaced people are housed. The conditions are hot and humid, with the daytime temperature close to 35C.’
Wonder what winter in vavuniya is like? There was another article that described Vavuniya as arid and hot! This is bloody sri lanka, and whole of vanni is like that. The jist of the article was that the civilians are sent to hot and arid places! Are these BBC reporters smoking something?
Its infuriating to note the condescending attitude of the western media when they describe the Sri Lankan situation.
Actually, its infuriating to note the condescending attitute of the western media when it comes to describing any situations that concerns any developing country.
Get this straight Western Media. The Sri Lankan military fought a campaign against what is considered as the most dangerous terrorist outfit in the world! And they are winning the war!(knock on wood). If not for the civilians being held against their will as human shields, this would have been over long ago.
The Sri Lakan army (please stop calling it the Sinhala dominated army, you don’t call the British or any other European army a ‘White dominated’ army now do you?) and other defence forces are currently considered (not by western media, but its armed forces) to be one of the most capable and disciplined military forces in the world.
LTTE had it. They are worst form of beastality one could ever get. BBC had been turning blind eye to all the atrocities commited by LTTE. Some my relatives in Vanni were shot in point blank range when they tried to cross over to govrenment controled area. I wish LTTE would rot in hell.
The BBC is biased no point in arguing about that,hey you now they only qoute terrorists and terror sympathizers on their news. They paint this picture that the sri lankan government is killing tamils in heaps,but have you ever seen any article on crimes commiteed by the LTTE? So then they must be saints right?
Tamils abroad see only what the LTTE publish in web sites, or news on western media (especially BBC).they(Tamil diaspora) are not to be blamed because they have been mislead from the very begining, that the sinhalease are devils and the army indiscriminately kills tamils.I wont say all are saints but the srilankan army has shown restraint and great care when fighting a terrorist outfit that is using the very people they claim to represent for cannon fodder.If it wasn’t for this human shield(oh but the LTTE say they are there by their own will then these people must be CRAZY) the LTTE are keeping, they(THE LTTE not the tamil civilians) would be turned to dust by now with a couple of shells. (which the LTTE claim that the army is firing on to the no fire zone)So these balant lies by the western media should be stopped and it could be done only with supporting a balanced view and not by qouting only banned outfits and terrorists.
They have been trying to spin the same lies in the M.E for 40 years.
You just have to fight the bias on all levels.
The BBC have never outgrown their left-wing student adolescence, and still fondly regard the LTTE as a little band of freedom fighters bravely striving against the overwhelming might of the Sri Lankan opressor. With a mindset like this, you will never get an unbiased report from the BBC about this subject. As an organisation funded by forced payment of the licence fee, the BBC are not supposed to have an opinion on the subject but to report it without even a hint of bias. They fail miserably to do so and their bias is clear, because they allow their opinions to affect their reporting. And when you recruit employees with the same opinions, and they are never challenged, then eventually the whole organisation takes on those opinions and becomes institutionally biased, which is what you have with the BBC. Their bias is now so blatant on this and many other areas that I can hardly bear to watch BBC News and current affairs programmes in case I throw a brick at the TV.