If Children = Terrorists - what is "right"??
The LTTE claims that the SL forces bombed an orphanage and have killed at least 61 schoolgirls and injured at least 150 more.
The govt categorically denies this allegation.
"It is a lie to say that schoolchildren were targeted," government spokesperson Chandrapala Liyanage told the AFP news agency. "The air force had bombed a LTTE training centre. We don't know if they had moved child soldiers there" - I've sourced this from the BBC.
I think I can safely make these two assumptions:
1. Terrorism should never be tolerated.
2. Children have nothing to do with war - they should be kept as far away from it as possible under the circumstances.
BUT IF (I'm saying IF here so don't get your pants in a twist!) children are/ were being used by terrorists, not as shields, but as cadres - they're being trained to become potential terrorists. If the children are of an age between 15-18 where if they are brainwashed "trained" well enough they are potential suicide bombers, is it still wrong if they are taken out by security forces?
What does everyone think??
What is the "right" and/or "ethical" answer?
What is the "political" and/ or "legal" answer?
Does anyone care about what is right or wrong when it comes to politics and the military and war?
6 comments:
I think this argument is quite similar to that of conscripts. Conscripts are fighting through coercion, and therefore ethically it is wrong to kill them. But killing them is in the interests of the opposing army and therefore in a practical sense it must be done.
The fact that children are younger than average conscripts doesn't make their case ethically or practically any different to that of conscripts.
My first question is about the LTTE's double standards. It is alright for a child soldier to be killed in war (even if he/she was recruited by force) but they make a huge fuss when it is 43 or 61 (different numbers are being reported) children who are civiians have been killed.
One of your assumptions is, Children have nothing to do with war - they should be kept as far away from it as possible under the circumstances
But whether we like it or not, the situation in Sri Lanka has become an exception. LTTE's child soldiers have made children an element of this war. And in this particular context, even though no child, brainwashed or not, terrorists or not, deserves to die, especially not in such a way, it is no surprise that they died.
I noticed in a few sites where this news was reported today, first aid was written within quotes. But like I said before, search Sri Lanka on Google News and you will see that the many child soldiers who died in this war have been forgotten. The GoSL is being attacked left, right, center for this crime. And IF schools were open today and the LTTE attacked one, it would have been justified. I think that is the core truth of the publicity given to this.
I hate to think that girls just a few years younger to me had to die like this, no matter what the circumstances were. And the saddest part is, the situation of the country is such (both parties are responsible for this) that we justify such happenings.
reality ltte's use of child soldiers is not in doubt . we have reams of videos to show that and unicef has long confirmed it
as for this incident bbc now reports
International truce monitors and UN staff said they had found no evidence the site was used as a military base.
However, they were unable to verify the number of people killed.
They reported seeing the bodies of 19 people at a nearby hospital, most of them women around the age of 18.
if that is true and all this is a set up. sach's suspicion that publicity given to this by ltte is in preparation and advance justification for an attack on schools becomes a greater possibility .
Geez how easy is it to clear the area of "evidence" before the SLMM and UNICEF arrived? Do you really think the LTTE wouldn't use an abandoned orphanage as a training camp? It has hidden weapons in and used places of worship to launch attacks.
Sri Lanka says air strike victims were 'child soldiers'
Associated Press, Mon August 14, 2006 08:27 EDT . - - Sri Lanka's government on Monday rejected Tamil Tiger claims that schoolgirls were the victims of an air force strike earlier in the day, saying the strike targeted a training camp for child soldiers.
The Defense Ministry said in a statement that a training base of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Mullaitivu district had been bombed and ''50 to 60 young LTTE terrorist cadres'' were killed and many were injured.
Noting that international agencies including the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and the U.N. Children's Fund had long focused on the LTTE's ''inhuman child conscription,'' the statement said the bombing target was a ''training camp for child soldiers'' that had been ''identified by air force surveillance.''
The government published pictures of girls in school uniforms receiving arms training and teenage women LTTE soldiers in camouflage uniforms on its website.
''Sophisticated surveillance confirmed 75 child soldiers reported killed and the same number injured by air strikes,'' the government statement said.
It said the victims were clearly not attending a first aid class as claimed by the Tiger rebels, noting that it would be ''highly unusual'' for schoolgirls to attend a first-aid class at 7 a.m. as claimed by LTTE media.
The rebel-linked TamilNet website said more than 61 schoolgirls were killed and 150 wounded in the attack on the Chencholai children's home.
It said the girls were attending a two-day course on first aid.
I see that Rambukwela was thinking along the same lines - children or not, terrorists are terrorists.
Some times we can not explain life with algebra. Wish we can. But we can’t.
Even terrorists or not, it is a tragedy to kill a child. If a child is a solder, that child died long before – that child died when he convert in to a solder.
If you live by the arm – you have to die by the arm. There is no exception to that – even you are a solder, even you are a terrorist, even you a child, even you are Christian or Buddhist – it is the same.
(Matthew 26:52 -- "Jesus said to him, 'Put your sword back in its place, for all those who take up the sword perish by the sword.'")
But child solders are reversible situation. If the society wants him back as a child, we humans are capable of reversing it. But the problem is do we – you and me – all the Tamils live in Colombo and other countries in relative comfort – wanted to him as a child?
There is no IF to it. We all know LTTE use children ~ UN knows it ~ GOSL knows it ~ LTTE knows it ~ Tamil Community knows it too. Most of arm groups use children because they are pretty easy to maintain ~ train ~ accrue and dispose. I know what I’m talking about because JVP did the same thing too.
We people in Colombo look at them as children ~ they are children to us.
But some people in North, Colombo and other countries look at them as disposable solders fighting behalf of them while they live in relative comfort ~ they are disposable freedom fighters fighting behalf of them.
For the Army ~ enemy target is enemy target ~ that is how it is and that is how it should be.
Shame on us ~ We are the society not able to protect our children from danger.
But again think about good side. Praba’s Son and Daughter is safe. So most valuable two kids are safe. So we really don’t have to worry about others.
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