KIA:WIA Ratios – Conjuring With The Dead And Ignoring The Wounded

Millions of words have now been written about the numbers of Tamil civilians killed during Sri Lanka’s victory over the Tamil Tigers in May 2009; probably more words than the millions of bullets fired during the war. But something didn’t ring true.

Missing from this civilian casualty toll inflation is any mention of an immutable fact of warfare: the ratio of dead to wounded. This was first analysed in a groundbreaking study in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) in 1999, which examined casualty ratios in wars from 1940 to 1988. The study showed that the “number of people wounded is at least twice the number killed and may be 13 times as high” depending on the conflict type, weapons used and other factors.

Applying this ratio to Sri Lanka’s civilian casualty numbers during the last stages of Eelam War 4 shows a truly appalling misuse of civilian casualty numbers by international humanitarians, whose jaundiced view on Sri Lanka’s victory has led them to disregard basic mathematics, statistics, facts and logic.

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“Search Interrogate and Destroy” – Hard COIN for Hard Times

In late 2012, workers digging foundations for a new wing in Matale Hospital unearthed partial skeletons of more than 150 people. Of the various theories that sought to explain how this mass grave came to be, the one that most people instinctively thought might be true was that this was the final resting place of victims of death squads from 2^nd JVP insurgency, which from 1987 to 1989 almost brought the Sri Lankan State to total collapse. The counter-insurgency (COIN) campaign, which in turn destroyed the JVP had few equals (except perhaps the 1990s Algerian counter-insurgency campaign and the India’s anti-‘Khalistan’ counter-insurgency in the Punjab) for its ruthlessness.

Mass grave being excavated in Matale Hospital, 2012

Unlike today’s COIN warriors who use seemingly benign terms like “Fight, Secure, Build”, Sri Lanka’s COIN warriors used the more honest, “Search, Interrogate and Destroy” to characterise their brutal, blood-stained and ultimately successful campaign to crush the JVP.

Sri Lanka’s Civilian Deaths Bingo

The civilians killed in the last months of Sri Lanka’s bloody, brutal and comprehensive victory over the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) can’t find peace, even in death. The exact number of civilian deaths ranges from 1,000+ (Government of Sri Lanka – GoSL) to 7000+ (UN) to 20,000 (The Times) to 40,000 (various international human rights organisations) to a ludicrous 150,000+ (LTTE supporters).

‘Choose the number that best suits your argument’ is how Sri Lanka’s Civilian Deaths Bingo is being played. The latest UN report has increased the Casualty Bingo number yet again, this time to 40,000. But there’s an unexamined aspect of the last battle – what is an acceptable level of casualties in a hostage rescue operation?

Prabhakaran practicing the Human Shield Manoeuvre

Could Jimmy Savile Fix It for the LTTE? WTF?

“Now then, now then, now then boys and girls..”

Guess who attended the World Tamils Forum (WTF) Conference in March 2009?

If Sir Jimmy and Prabha had lived long enough, they could’ve swapped stories about children.

Taming The Tigers – Sri Lanka Airforce’s finest hour

SLAF squadrons involved in Eelam War 4

During the years of ‘peace’, from 2002 to 2005, the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) completely overhauled its operational doctrine, weapons systems, training and combat effectiveness, and despite some bitter setbacks made a decisive contribution to the final defeat of the hitherto-invincible LTTE, who for over 30 years had fought to carve out a separate state in Sri Lanka. How did this happen?

Mr Poop Goes for a Walk

Amnesty International’s attacks on Sri Lanka’s poor war-time human rights record were rebutted with a kneejerk response from nationalistic Sinhalese politicians: “Amnesty is attacking Sri Lanka because it’s in the pay of the LTTE”. Most people (myself included) scoffed at such paranoid and ridiculous attacks on Amnesty. After all, this was Amnesty International, a neutral organisation dedicated to exposing wrongdoing across on the planet, not beholden to any government and funded solely by its member’s donations.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. The paranoids have finally been proven correct. In a bizarre move, Amnesty proudly proclaimed receiving over $50,0000 from an LTTE front organisation, the Canadian Tamil Congress, which recently held fundraising ‘walk-a-thon’ in Toronto for Amnesty International.

 

Alex Neve, Amnesty International accepting $50,000 from the Canadian Tamil Congress, 21st January, 2012

“We are not a criminal organisation” – Head of LTTE in Switzerland

In a revealing interview by the Swiss newspaper, “20 mins online” on 6^thNovember, the new commander of the LTTE in Switzerland revealed the massive financial support given by Diaspora Tamils to the LTTE from Switzerland, his unwavering belief in the possibility of attaining Eelam (an independent Tamil homeland carved out from within Sri Lanka), the new direction of the overseas LTTE,  how Sri Lanka’s secret agents combat the overseas LTTE and of Switzerland’s shameful capitulation to terrorism.

Eelam-on-the Alps