As the traumatised people of Gaza mourn their dead and nurse their injured following Israel's horrendous three-week massacre, another brutal genocide has unfolded in Sri Lanka.
The Sri Lankan Army (SLA) has intensified its military offensive against the Tamil people in the north-east in the last months; unleashing a humanitarian crisis of immense proportions.
As the death toll from its latest offensive began to rise, the Sri Lankan government explicitly instructed the UN and non-government aid workers to leave the area in September 2008, in order to avoid having international witnesses to its crimes.
On January 27, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned that hundreds of civilians have already been killed. At least 250,000 civilians are trapped behind the front line unable to reach safety.
"People are being caught in the crossfire, hospitals and ambulances have been hit by shelling, and several aid workers have been injured while evacuating the wounded", the ICRC South Asia operations head, Jacques de Maio.
An ICRC appeal to evacuate 200 seriously injured civilians for lifesaving treatment was denied. Even Tamil hospitals in the government-declared "safe zones" were repeatedly shelled by the SLA.
Officials from the UN and the World Food Program, in charge of the delivery of humanitarian supplies to the civilian population, have fled the SLA's bombardment of the "safe zones", raising fears of a humanitarian crisis.
The official justifications of the Israeli and Sri Lankan governments for their recent military assaults are eerily similar. Both claim that their wars were not with the civilian populations but with terrorism: Hamas in Gaza or the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka.
Just as Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections, the Tamil National Alliance, which shares the LTTE's goal of self-determination for the Tamil people, won an overwhelming majority in the Tamil dominated north-east of the country during the 2004 parliamentary elections.
Both the Israeli Defense Forces and the SLA have targeted and murdered hundreds of civilians in their latest wars of annihilation.
By unleashing terror upon the civilian population the aggressors hope to undermine wide support for the rebels with the counterinsurgency strategy of "draining the sea that the fish swim in".
The LTTE, which has fought for 30 years against successive chauvinistic Sinhalese-dominated governments, lost control of the Jaffna Peninsula in mid January. This brings nearly all of the Tamil people's historic homeland under military occupation.
The decades-long conflict has cost the lives of tens of thousands of people and created a Tamil diaspora of more than one million people.
The corrupt Sri Lankan government's attack on the Tamil people has proceeded with the backing of the major Western powers. Israel is one of Sri Lanka's most important suppliers of military hardware.
Despite its history of human rights violations, the Sri Lankan military has received specialised training assistance from Australia, the US, India, Britain and other nations.
Australia has joined with other imperialist nations in turning a blind eye to the Sri Lankan government's attempted genocide of the Tamils.
Australia is also acting to criminalise solidarity with the Tamil struggle within its own borders. Three Australian Tamil activists* still face charges under Australia's "anti-terror" laws for raising funds for the LTTE. This is despite the LTTE not being listed as a proscribed group under Australian law.
The three could be jailed for lengthy periods — two of the charges they face carry 25-year maximum jail terms.
The Sri Lankan government must stop the bombing, shelling and other military operations against the Tamil minority. Instead it must start political negotiations with the Tamil independence movement that recognises Tamils' right to self-determination.
We also demand the Australian government condemn the war against the Tamil people and call on the Sri Lankan government to enter such peace negotiations.
It should also drop the "anti-terror" charges against Australian Tamil solidarity activists.
* In GLW #779 an article titled "Sri Lanka: Genocide against Tamils" incorrectly stated that four Australian Tamils were in jail facing charges. The three people facing charges are currently on bail.