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斯里兰卡冲突是变相屠杀

2009-06-04来源:和谐英语


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In the first photograph, we can see the remains of what was a refugee camp for some 100,000 Tamil civilians. In the center, you can see the destroyed dwellings these wretched people were trying to live in. To the south out of the shores is the sea. Between them and the sea are Tamil Tiger gun emplacements, you can see them, the mortar pits, circular, bottom center. Bottom right you can see what we believe is a command center, ammunition trucks. So effectively you had a population the size of a large football stadium packed with civilians trapped here for weeks upon weeks under the merciless bombardment of the government offensive.


In the second picture, we can see what looks like a strange crop in the centre of the photograph. These are in fact we believe Tamil Tiger graves, hundreds of them, neatly rows in a field, buried presumably near where they fell. In contrast to the Tamil Tiger dead, in this photograph, we can see what we believe are the civilian mass graves down to the right. These would be men, women and children killed in the fighting and hurriedly buried by their relatives in between lulls in the onslaught.


Glossary [only for reference]

refugee camp: a temporary camp built to receive refugees
dwelling [countable]: formal, a house, apartment etc where people live
wretched: someone who is wretched is very unhappy or ill, and you feel sorry for them

Tamil Tiger/ Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam: a separatist organization based in northern Sri Lanka. Founded in May 1976, it waged a secessionist campaign that sought to create an independent Tamil state in the north and east of Sri Lanka.

emplacement [countable]: a place where a large gun is put and fired

command center: (often called a war room) is any place that is used to provide centralised command for some purpose.

packed with: extremely full of people

merciless: cruel and showing no kindness or forgiveness

presumably: used to say that you think something is probably true

in between: in the time that separates two times or events

lull [countable]: a short period of time when there is less activity or less noise than usual

onslaught [countable]: a large violent attack by an army