2006年VOA标准英语-For Sri Lanka's Civilians, It Feels Again Like

By Patricia Nunan
Trincomalee
28 June 2006
 
Hundreds of people have died in Sri Lanka this year as the government and rebels of the Tamil Tiger guerrilla group slip back into what some are calling an undeclared civil war.  Leaders from both sides say they want to resume peace talks and save a cease-fire agreement that has all but collapsed¹. But in Eastern Sri Lanka, where much of the violence has occurred, people are bracing² themselves for a return to full-blown hostilities³.

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Jainudeen Jameeila   
  
Jainudeen Jemeeila sifts⁴ through the remains⁵ of her house. A single room made of plywood and metal sheeting, it was simple to begin with.  Now, it has all but collapsed.

In April, a Sri Lankan Air Force jet accidentally dropped a bomb on her village of Muttur, outside the eastern town of Tricomalee.  The Air Force meant to target positions held by the Tamil Tiger guerilla group, just a few kilometers away, in retaliation⁶ for a suicide attack in the capital that wounded a senior army commander. 

 
Sri Lankan policemen and security personnel stand near wreckage⁷ of Army Major General Parami Kulatunga's car after it was hit by a suicide bomber⁸ 26 June 2006
  
The bomb killed Jemeeila's son and his wife, who lived next door - leaving Jameeila, a widow, feeling especially vulnerable. The fact that the bombing was an accident makes little difference to Jameeila. For her, Sri Lanka's civil war has returned.

"We are scared to live here," she said.  "I don't have a husband, or any other place to live. Now we're living with neighbors.  I'm afraid, and I lost my son. We're living by the grace of god."

Trincomalee and surrounding areas have become a flashpoint for hostilities as tensions increase between the government and the rebels.

Norway brokered⁹ a cease-fire between the two sides in 2002.  But despite repeated attempts by Norwegian facilitators to return the government and the rebels to the negotiating table, the process has become bogged¹⁰ down in minutia¹¹ - such as finger pointing over cease-fire violations¹², and arguments over procedural details. In recent months, violence has resumed, at times on a daily basis.

Jehan Perera is with the advocacy group the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka.  He says the peace plan itself was flawed, because it failed to set a goal both sides could work towards.

"The weakness in this peace process is that two parties at the outset itself didn't agree on the goal," he said.  "There was no agreement as to the final destination. That was left open on the grounds that the two parties were too far apart.  So there's been a reluctance¹³ to discuss the final solution, the large picture, the broad parameters¹⁴, and instead [there is] the preoccupation with details."

Sri Lankan police officers stand guard on a road in Vavuniya   
  
The Tamil Tigers first launched their violent campaign against the government in 1983, demanding independence for the predominantly Tamil areas in the North and East.  They said the government, made up primarily of ethnic¹⁵ Sinhalese, discriminates¹⁶ against the Tamil minority.  More than 60,000 people were killed before the cease-fire took effect. 

In 2003, the rebels gave up their demand for independence, instead putting forward a plan for self-rule in their areas. But the government rejected that demand, calling it a blueprint¹⁷ for eventual¹⁸ independence.  Talks aimed at resolving the conflict have been stalled ever since.

Jehan Perera and others say violence has not yet reached the level that constitutes a return to civil war.  Fighting so far remains isolated¹⁹ and restrained. Neither side has attempted to seize territory belonging to the other. 

But the cease-fire is tattered²⁰ at best.  More than 800 people have been killed in tit-for-tat incidents in the past six months.  The United Nations has said the rebels continue to recruit teenagers into their ranks.

A few kilometers up the road from Jemeeila's shattered home in Muttur, about 75 young men stand in military-style formation. Some hold wooden models of assault rifles, others just sticks.  They are being trained by the Tamil Tigers to fight.

 
Maran 
  
Maran, the rebel supervising the training, says these men are not soldiers, and have not been forcibly recruited. He says they are volunteers, who want to learn to protect their villages, because of what he says is constant attack by the Sri Lankan military.

"The army camps are located close to our area, so whenever the army launches an attack against us and our civilians²¹, we have to be prepared for self-defense," added Maran.  "So we are now giving them training to protect themselves."

Analysts²³ say the rebels are angry, and not just over violent incidents in the countryside.  Last month, the European Union joined the United States in branding the Tamil Tigers a terrorist organization, leading to the rebels' recent demand that Norway remove any cease-fire monitors who come from EU countries.

Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu is an analyst²² at the Centre for Policy Alternatives.  He says it is unlikely the peace process will resume if the rebels (also known by the initials LTTE) feel that they are not receiving respect from the Sri Lankan government or the international community.

Tamil Tiger volunteers in training   
  
"The LTTE has always wanted to make very clear that they consider themselves to be much more than any kind of mere²⁴ organization, and certainly they don't consider themselves to be a terrorist organization," he said.  "They want to make clear that they consider themselves to be a national liberation movement.  They have achieved a political status which needs to be recognized and acknowledged."

The government has said it is willing to meet with the rebels at any time to put the peace process back on track.  The rebels have threatened to do whatever it takes to defend themeselves in the event of war, including the use of suicide bombers²⁵, a common Tamil Tiger tactic²⁶. But they, too, continue to say they want the peace process to resume - a prospect²⁷ that, as civilians like Jainudeen Jemeeila know all too well, is looking increasingly far off.

1 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

2 bracing   

adj.令人振奋的

参考例句：

• The country is bracing itself for the threatened enemy invasion. 这个国家正准备奋起抵抗敌人的入侵威胁。
• The atmosphere in the new government was bracing. 新政府的气氛是令人振奋的。

3 hostilities   

n.战争；敌意(hostility的复数)；敌对状态；战事

参考例句：

• Mexico called for an immediate cessation of hostilities. 墨西哥要求立即停止敌对行动。
• All the old hostilities resurfaced when they met again. 他们再次碰面时，过去的种种敌意又都冒了出来。

4 sifts   

v.筛( sift的第三人称单数 )；筛滤；细查；详审

参考例句：

• He sifts you to free you from your husks. 他将你们筛选，使你们摆脱麸糠。 来自互联网
• The sunshine sifts through the cloud. 阳光透过云层照射下来。 来自互联网

5 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

6 retaliation   

n.报复，反击

参考例句：

• retaliation against UN workers 对联合国工作人员的报复
• He never said a single word in retaliation. 他从未说过一句反击的话。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 wreckage   

n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏

参考例句：

• They hauled him clear of the wreckage.他们把他从形骸中拖出来。
• New states were born out of the wreckage of old colonial empires.新生国家从老殖民帝国的废墟中诞生。

8 bomber   

n.轰炸机，投弹手，投掷炸弹者

参考例句：

• He flew a bomber during the war.他在战时驾驶轰炸机。
• Detectives hunting the London bombers will be keen to interview him.追查伦敦爆炸案凶犯的侦探们急于对他进行讯问。

9 brokered   

adj.由权力经纪人安排（或控制）的v.做掮客（或中人等）( broker的过去式和过去分词 )；作为权力经纪人进行谈判；以中间人等身份安排…

参考例句：

• a peace plan brokered by the UN 由联合国出面协商的和平计划
• Your husband brokered the deal to go in, transfrer the assets and get our man out. 你丈夫后来插了一脚，把生意都抢了过去，我们的人也被挤了出来。 来自电影对白

10 bogged   

adj.陷于泥沼的v.（使）陷入泥沼， （使）陷入困境( bog的过去式和过去分词 )；妨碍，阻碍

参考例句：

• The professor bogged down in the middle of his speech. 教授的演讲只说了一半便讲不下去了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The tractor is bogged down in the mud. 拖拉机陷入了泥沼。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 minutia   

n.微枝末节，细节

参考例句：

• They are take great pains for the every minutia.他们为每个细节煞费苦心。
• Much of his early work is concerned with the minutiae of rural life.他早期的许多作品关注的是农村生活中一些鸡毛蒜皮的琐事。

12 violations   

违反( violation的名词复数 )； 冒犯； 违反（行为、事例）； 强奸

参考例句：

• This is one of the commonest traffic violations. 这是常见的违反交通规则之例。
• These violations of the code must cease forthwith. 这些违犯法规的行为必须立即停止。

13 reluctance   

n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿

参考例句：

• The police released Andrew with reluctance.警方勉强把安德鲁放走了。
• He showed the greatest reluctance to make a reply.他表示很不愿意答复。

14 parameters   

因素，特征； 界限； （限定性的）因素( parameter的名词复数 )； 参量； 参项； 决定因素

参考例句：

• We have to work within the parameters of time. 我们的工作受时间所限。
• See parameters.cpp for a compilable example. This is part of the Spirit distribution. 可编译例子见parameters.cpp.这是Spirit分发包的组成部分。

15 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

16 discriminates   

分别，辨别，区分( discriminate的第三人称单数 )； 歧视，有差别地对待

参考例句：

• The new law discriminates against lower-paid workers. 这条新法律歧视低工资的工人。
• One test governs state legislation that discriminates against interstate commerce. 一个检验约束歧视州际商业的州立法。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

17 blueprint   

n.蓝图，设计图，计划；vt.制成蓝图，计划

参考例句：

• All the machine parts on a blueprint must answer each other.设计图上所有的机器部件都应互相配合。
• The documents contain a blueprint for a nuclear device.文件内附有一张核装置的设计蓝图。

18 eventual   

adj.最后的，结局的，最终的

参考例句：

• Several schools face eventual closure.几所学校面临最终关闭。
• Both parties expressed optimism about an eventual solution.双方对问题的最终解决都表示乐观。

19 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

20 tattered   

adj.破旧的，衣衫破的

参考例句：

• Her tattered clothes in no way detracted from her beauty.她的破衣烂衫丝毫没有影响她的美貌。
• Their tattered clothing and broken furniture indicated their poverty.他们褴褛的衣服和破烂的家具显出他们的贫穷。

21 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

22 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

23 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

24 mere   

adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过

参考例句：

• That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
• It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。

25 bombers   

n.轰炸机( bomber的名词复数 )；投弹手；安非他明胶囊；大麻叶香烟

参考例句：

• Enemy bombers carried out a blitz on the city. 敌军轰炸机对这座城市进行了突袭。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Royal Airforce sill remained dangerously short of bombers. 英国皇家空军仍未脱离极为缺乏轰炸机的危境。 来自《简明英汉词典》

26 tactic   

n.战略，策略；adj.战术的，有策略的

参考例句：

• Reducing prices is a common sales tactic.降价是常用的销售策略。
• She had often used the tactic of threatening to resign.她惯用以辞职相威胁的手法。

27 prospect   

n.前景，前途；景色，视野

参考例句：

• This state of things holds out a cheerful prospect.事态呈现出可喜的前景。
• The prospect became more evident.前景变得更加明朗了。