UN engages in mild hand-flapping over Sri Lanka civilian deaths

With untold thousands of innocent people dead and the Tamil Tigers backed into a corner, the recent shelling of a civilian 'safe zone' and resultant 378 civilian deaths has finally drawn the ire of the UN down upon the Sri Lankan government. Oh and don't forget the 45 dead in the bombing of a hospital by the Sri Lankan government (who as usual deny all knowledge and blame the Tigers for, erm, deliberately murdering the people they're fighting to protect). They're calling it a bloodbath, and that's strong language from those quarters. But where is the real action? You know, sanctions and whatnot? I mean, it's pretty much all over. This has been going on for ages and the UN has scarcely said 'boo'. Calls for 'restraint', which have been the strongest 'criticism' emanating from the UN and Western governments so far, is tantamount to condoning every single action of the Sri Lankan government- it's what western governments do when it's a case of "We're perfectly happy for you to keep doing what you're doing, just please manage the PR side of things a bit better".

After all, the UN is happy to slap a new sanction on Iran every time someone in that government draws breath, yet Iran isn't committing mass murder. And sure it locks up the odd journalist, but it doesn't actively hunt them down and shoot them or blow up their offices like the Sri Lankan government does. Sri Lanka, thanks to its litany of murder and intimidation of any member of the local press who dares question the status quo, is ranked 165 out of 173 countries- lower than any other democracy- on the list of press freedom produced by Reporters Without Borders. The three British journalists recently deported from the country probably ought to thank their lucky stars that as foreigners they are merely abused and not murdered in cold blood.

So where is the West in all this? Why are our governments compelled to engage in nothing more than vigorous hand-wringing on this issue when so many human lives are at stake? I haven't even heard so much as threats of diplomatic sanctions and restrictions on travel of Sri Lankan government ministers and their families to Western countries. Zimbabwe was slapped with sanctions of exactly that sort the minute it started reclaiming the immense tracts of land owned by white farmers in that country. Somehow that was worse than mass murder. How far will the Sri Lankan government be allowed to go before we lift a finger?