Help the Tamils now
[ The Guardian ]
In Britain, interfering in Sri Lanka’s future is looking like a poisoned chalice. As the burning effigies of “white Tiger” David Miliband on the streets of Colombo last week demonstrated, our help is not always welcome. As an old Whitehall colleague put it to me this week, “we’re damned if we do and we’re damned if we don’t, aren’t we?” Mulling this question is not just costing lives, it is burning up goodwill in the Tamil community. Warm words from the Sri Lankan government aside, progress on the ground is slow, with horrific human cost. And more impatient protesters in Parliament Square than ever are eschewing peaceful slogans – and this time they’re directed at the British government, the US and the UN.