Adopting nationalist ideology produced mass civilian killing and displacement without prosecution
Evidence
The present government of President Mahinda Rajapakse is the first to embrace eagerly this insidious mindset, which is partly responsible for the 5,000-plus (mostly Tamils) killed and more than 215,000 newly displaced persons in the last twelve months alone. The government has manipulated the global war on terror to mask its human rights abuses and has targeted innocent Tamil civilians in its military campaigns. The international community has castigated the government for widespread human rights violations, yet not a single member of the military or paramilitaries (including Tamil paramilitaries) has been charged for the numerous kidnappings, rapes, torture, and murders that have accompanied military operations. Most troubling, the Rajapakse government believes in a military solution to the civil war and, consequently, has frowned on devolution of power along provincial lines, which is widely advocated by moderate Tamils, civil society, and the international community. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 40
Categorization
- QUESTION: The claim that the Rajapakse government was ‘the first’ to embrace this mindset eagerly — earlier pages apparently treat prior governments as more restrained. Worth confirming the implied contrast and its causes.
- XREF: connects to: Sacralized nationalism licenses violence even within a pacifist religion — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 179; The nationalist ideology needs a manufactured enemy to mobilize — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 303; Nazi ethnic cleansing radicalized earlier nationalist population policies into genocide — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 49 (+7 more)
Broader Connections
- Sacralized nationalism licenses violence even within a pacifist religion
#corroborates(0.85) — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 179 - Nazi ethnic cleansing radicalized earlier nationalist population policies into genocide
#exemplifies(0.85) — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 49 - Ethnically absolutist communitarianism produces its own violence
#corroborates(0.85) - Extreme nationalism sacralizes the nation and justifies enslaving others
#corroborates(0.85) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 2440 - The nationalist ideology needs a manufactured enemy to mobilize
#expands(0.80) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 303 - Sovereign violence operates without needing rational or ethical justification
#expands(0.80) - Mass killing requires ideology to overcome taboos against killing
#expands(0.80) — Erin K. Jenne and Promise Frank Ejiofor, Ethnopopulism and genocidal…, 18 - Fusing religion with nationalism amplifies collective violence and self-sacrifice.
#corroborates(0.80) — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 138 - War serves nationalist ends even when unwinnable
#expands(0.75) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 269 - Nationalist ideology turns dissent into treason and undermines civil society
#expands(0.75) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 56