Roshomon in Jaffna
16 January 2006, the wee hours
Here are three reports of the same incident: Murder in Pungudutivu, Tharsini raped before murder, and Untold Story Of Punguduthivu Rape Case. A girl was presumably raped and killed. The problem is of course determining who did the raping and killing. TamilNet has one opinion, the Independent has another. The University Teachers for Human Rights presents the case very matter of factly.
Here is another pair of stories on a similar subject: Two women shot dead in Manipay and Jaffna Women Banned From Interacting With Army By LTTE. The difference in reporting is interesting. TamilNet commonly reports on stories of “Unknown Gunmen”. I ask you, besides the army, who could possibly be shooting up Jaffna? It is a shame TamilNet’s crack team of reporters hasn’t cracked that nut. The Independent is a bit more forthright on who it thinks is doing the shooting. I suspect they are probably on the money.
In my opinion, the best reporting on Sri Lanka comes from the University Teachers for Human Rights briefings, but they are very infrequent. Everything else is so biased it might as well be propaganda; the Independent and TamilNet are so biased it’s embarrassing reading their “news” coverage.
Update: I have it on good authority that the Independent is run by crack-pots.
ram, the SL intelligence is known for fabricating “news” sites, in order to disseminate their propangandha. if you visit, the “independentsl.com” website, it looks really trashy, something anyone can “create” to purvey what they want as “news”. and if you look at the website, they contain mainly “news” articles that are critical of the LTTE. also, the very fact their starting the piece lamenting the inability of non-Tamil media to combat “LTTE propandha”, to me, betrays their sinister intentions. it is well known how efficient and more capable the SL Intell propagandha machine is, in fact i would argue the opposite, that the tiger propandha is lacking, given their success in the international community. a recent example is the total failure of the int’l community to condemn the execution of 5 Tamil students in Trincomalee by the Sri Lankan Army. it is interesting to note in that incident, the SLA and Sri Lankan media which blindly picked up on it, tried to pass the students off as the LTTE cadres. moreover, a well known front for pro-SL gov’t and anti-LTTE news is www.asiantribune.com. also, with the UTHR, no longer operate in Jaffna, thus their very name is misleading. Actually, after Rajani’s death and Dr. Somasunderam’s departure (he still resides in Jaffna working as a professor at the University of Jaffna), the UTHR show is left being run by one individual, Rajan Hoole, in Columbo.
anyway, the point of this, is that do not be fooled by everything you read. it is very easy to fabricate “news”.
the punguditivu community here, which knew her, recently held a vigil for tharshini’s rape and murder. my belief is that it really was a rape and murder committed by Navy personnel, and sickened that people would consider her to be a prostitute that was killed for tiger propagandha.
by Parthi on January 16 2006, 7:37 am #
Good points Parthi, but my point was simply that without actually being on the ground we can never really know what happened, hence the title of the post. The news coming out of Sri Lanka is pure junk on both sides.
I wonder why the UTHR can’t operate inside Jaffna? How did Rajani die? Why did Somasunderam leave Jaffna? (Actually, I don’t wonder about any of these things. I just think it’s a bit funny you leave all those important details out of your comment.)
by Ramanan on January 16 2006, 11:02 am #
Please view my site and promote my business in jaffna...
[ed. This isn't advertising space. Also, on a thread about a rape case show a little bit more respect, jackass.]
by don on February 14 2006, 1:50 pm #
Dae, I think you are just crying for a lost cause. I think The Independent is doing a good job together with Tamil Democratic Congress is exposing LTTE atrocities as well as JVP- GOSL trash.
Its better than tamilnet.com who just do a lip service to LTTE.
I think www.independentsl.com is a good site promoting federalism among singhalas as well as tamils.
by Maran on March 10 2006, 8:11 am #
The Independent is the site my dad is most fond of. I read it less frequently since it lacks a RSS feed.
by ramanan on March 10 2006, 1:50 pm #
I think The INdependent is doing a good work. It exposes many LTTE supporters while attacking JVP/JHU/ Mahinda.
We need more pro-federal yet anti LTTE sites.
Thanks.
M
by Maran on March 12 2006, 6:55 am #