Comments on: Iraq casualties http://polizeros.com/2007/04/18/iraq-casualties/ Musings on politics: anti-war, global warming, peak oil and otherwise Thu, 08 Jan 2009 13:30:17 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: dj http://polizeros.com/2007/04/18/iraq-casualties/comment-page-1/#comment-132976 dj Wed, 18 Apr 2007 14:41:42 +0000 http://polizeros.com/2007/04/18/iraq-casualties/#comment-132976 A little off-topic story about being "caught in the cross-fire": When I went to Eastern Sri Lanka in 1998, skirmishes between Government and LTTE were common (as they are now). Civilians were often killed by the Government in error. Theoretically, the families of those killed in error were entitled to compemsation. However, because the government "only" kills LTTE, the families could not say their loved one was killed by the government (that meant he/she was LTTE), they would have to say he/she was "caught in the crossfire." They'd get their compensation, and the government would blame the death on the LTTE. So, in the process of compensating victims killed by the government, the government was artificially inflating the number of people killed by the rebels. (Don't take this to mean I support the LTTE. I do not. Both sides have committed plenty of atrocities, and both sides have blocked the peace process. I just report the facts as I learned them.) A little off-topic story about being “caught in the cross-fire”: When I went to Eastern Sri Lanka in 1998, skirmishes between Government and LTTE were common (as they are now). Civilians were often killed by the Government in error. Theoretically, the families of those killed in error were entitled to compemsation. However, because the government “only” kills LTTE, the families could not say their loved one was killed by the government (that meant he/she was LTTE), they would have to say he/she was “caught in the crossfire.” They’d get their compensation, and the government would blame the death on the LTTE. So, in the process of compensating victims killed by the government, the government was artificially inflating the number of people killed by the rebels.

(Don’t take this to mean I support the LTTE. I do not. Both sides have committed plenty of atrocities, and both sides have blocked the peace process. I just report the facts as I learned them.)

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