Friday, March 13, 2009

War Crimes in Sri Lanka

Finally reported.

Both government forces and Tamil rebels may be committing war crimes against civilians trapped in a conflict zone and should suspend their fighting to allow them to escape, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said Friday.

In what it says is a final assault in a 25-year separatist war, the military has cornered the remnants of the insurgency on a sliver of land that is packed with civilians — as many as 180,000, according to Ms. Pillay.

Along the same lines as the common riddle "if a tree falls in a forest but no one is there to hear it, does it still make a noise?" my question is: If atrocities are occuring but they're not reported by "reputable news sources" or American news sources, what does that mean? How do we deal with an inefficient media? I am overwhelmed by the implications, especially if the media reports to the people, who supposedly hold the government responsible.. but then the government also has this relationship with/control over the media so is it just the government deciding when we get what information?! Thoughts?

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