LTTE coercion of civilians rationalizes the military’s refusal to distinguish fighters from civilians

Evidence

With the LTTE (often forcibly) training the young and old within their territories to fight, the armed forces and current government feel justified not differentiating between LTTE cadres and civilians when waging war. The state’s indiscriminate attacks have led the international community to protest. It is in the military’s interest to bar NGOs from investigating such incidents, and the armed forces, with the government’s connivance, have worked to make the NGO presence in these violence-ridden areas difficult and minimal. The military, which is 98 percent Sinhalese, has adopted a hostile attitude toward NGOs working among Tamils. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 220

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to the reader’s mechanism question: the enemy’s own coercive conduct is used to justify indiscriminate violence, which manufactures the very threat identity that sustains group solidarity. — connects to: Military character can operate through civilians without open army participation — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 837; Drone surveillance cannot reliably distinguish combatants from civilians; Air power is ineffective against dispersed enemies hiding among civilians — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2460 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Blending among civilians makes discrimination in targeting nearly impossible #exemplifies (0.85) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2275
• Military character can operate through civilians without open army participation #corroborates (0.80) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 837
• Drone surveillance cannot reliably distinguish combatants from civilians #qualifies (0.75)
• Air power is ineffective against dispersed enemies hiding among civilians #qualifies (0.72) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2460