frandroid

Tories 'not prepared' to meet with Tamil Tigers

One Tamil protester told The Canadian Press the government is trying to use the flag to distract the public from their inaction towards the crisis in Sri Lanka.

"We can see that they are using the flag kind of like a shield to kind of divert any bad situation," said Siva Vimal, 20.

The red flags in questions feature a tiger jumping through a ring of fire under two crossed rifles. Vimal said the flags are a symbol of the Tamil Eelam movement, not the Tamil Tigers.

He said the writing on the flag that linked the flag to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was removed in 1990 when it came to represent the Tamil Eelam.

Tamil supporters in Canada have told the media repeatedly that they will not stop their protests until the government speaks out against the civil war in Sri Lanka that has killed thousands of Tamil civilians.

Interesting nuance...

Oda told Canada AM that the Conservatives have taken "significant steps" by calling for a ceasefire for months.

She said she is sympathetic to Tamil Canadians and their fears they have for their families and friends who live in the conflict zone back in their homeland.

"I think the international community all face the same frustrations," she said. "We don't have the ability to get accurate information or numbers. It's so frustrating because journalists and humanitarian workers are all being prevented from entering the conflict zone."

"We need unhindered access to provide humanitarian workers into those camps to help those victims," she said.

Why don't do press harder to achieve just that, Oda? Where is your United Nations motion? Where is your lobbying of the Security Council, of the United States?

Very interesting BBC article on the implementation of Sharia in the Swat valley of Pakistan.

This follows Chapati Mystery's Reading Swat from February, which compiled a bunch of articles on the topic, from both the U.S. and Pakistan.

If you haven't really followed this topic on the news, the Pakistani government in February agreed to let the Swat valley be governed by Sharia law, after Pakistani Taliban elements where basically chasing the government out of there and were becoming more threatening to the rule of law elsewhere. At first this might sound like a heretic proposition, but as the first article demonstrates, it's not all bad, although there's no coverage of rape/adultery cases, which is where things often get ugly. (They also are ugly under non-sharia Pakistani law, though.)

I'm posting about these things because Pakistan is shaping up to become the most important area of Obama's foreign policy as it relates to Afghanistan, the Taliban, and in some smaller (but not unimportant) measure Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden and the future of Islamic terrorism and militancy against the United States and its allied regimes. The implications for global security are quite important.

I have found Chapati Mystery, in particular, to be a rich source of information: Sepoy (Manan Ahmed) holds South Asia history PhD from the University of Chicago, has a progressive take on things and has quite a depth of historical and political knowledge.

I need to read Tariq Ali again, although the value of his writing works at a different level...