The Risks of Helping People

The Singala people, the majority in Sri Lanka, refer to the Tamils as terrorists.  The rebel faction, called the LTTE, for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, were rebels.  And I suppose at one time they did use some tactics that would be called terrorist.  But so did the SLA (Sri Lanka Army), although they deny it.  The Tamil people lost the war that started in the early eighties, and lasted until 2009.  Many Tamil people lost their lives, and near the end of the war, the few who remained, fled into the jungles around Mullaitivu.  The Tamil people were, and are defeated.  They have lost nearly everything except their pride.  The MSF project that I have been working on has concentrated on the Tamil people who are now being repatriated into the area.  They have nothing.

Sometime after 9/11, international law made aiding terrorist groups illegal.  This is referred to as the criminalization of humanitarian care.  There are groups who have been labelled 'terrorist', but have no access to medical care.  So MSF evaluates the needs, and if the need is there, helps to provide care to the people who need it. They don't care which side of the line people are on.  They want to help people who need help.  They help people on either side.  They help people of any religion, of any ethnicity, of any race.  They look at people as people.  Some people are in situations where they need help, and cannot get it.  And so MSF is there trying to help, and takes the risk of helping.