M.I.A. TO WORLD

"There's a genocide going on," Maya Arulpragasam, aka the globalized rap (kinda?) star M.I.A., said about the chaotic civil war in Sri Lanka.

The Tamil minority could probably make a case for ethnic cleansing and forced deportation, but that's a far cry from genocide:

Although the government has brutalized and killed Tamil civilians over the past 25 years, human rights organizations spread the blame around, estimating that 70,000 people on both sides have been killed in the fighting.

“This is a conflict in which both sides have terrible human rights records,” said Yolanda Foster, a specialist on Sri Lanka with Amnesty International in London. “The Tamil Tigers have a long history of child recruitment, hostage taking, forcing civilians to the front lines. It’s complicated to assign blame.”

Don't forget they popularized the female suicide bomber, an innovation this world could probably live without. (Women of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), or Tamil Tigers, have perpetrated 30–40% of the organization's suicide bombings, which number more than 200.)

I'm all for M.I.A., and Tamils certainly have a complaint. It's pretty obvious why: Her father is a leader in the seperatist movement, but it wouldn't hurt to check out some other sources.