BBC Horizon Is Alcohol Worse than Ecstasy Part 1/7

Q. Who funds Sri Lanka’s war against the Tamil people? A. Every year the World Bank and the IMF give huge sums of aid to Sri Lanka, through the Paris Aid Group (PAG). This artificially props up the Sri Lankan regime and enables them to carry on their "War for Peace", as they call it. Military expenditure uses up 29% of Sri Lanka's total budget. The amount the PAG gives in aid, $800 million, is equivalent to the sum required by the Sri Lankan government to prosecute the war for a year. Britain gives aid through the PAG to Sri Lanka, sells arms to Sri Lanka and trains the Sri Lankan military through the UKMTAS (United Kingdom Military Training Assistance Scheme). Sinhala brigadiers are from time to time trained at Sandhurst. Q. Why don’t we hear about all these things? A. Every day in areas controlled by the Sri Lankan army, atrocities such as rape, torture, disappearances and extra judicial killings are occurring. In general we hear nothing of this because the Sri Lankan government is ruthlessly efficient at suppressing this type of information. It is almost impossible for NGOs to work freely. The Sri Lankan government controls reporting of the war and this cannot be easily counteracted as journalists are denied free access to Tamil areas. To influence international opinion the Sri Lankan government employs PR firms and well-known journalists. This enables them to promote their interests and to hide the horror of their brutal crushing of the Tamil people. Their aim in this protracted war is to demoralise and terrorise the Tamil people into giving up their struggle .