{"id":1532,"date":"2011-11-06T00:19:28","date_gmt":"2011-11-06T00:19:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/colombotelegraph.com\/?p=1532"},"modified":"2020-03-25T16:46:23","modified_gmt":"2020-03-25T11:16:23","slug":"the-critical-situation-facing-the-tamil-people-in-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-critical-situation-facing-the-tamil-people-in-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"The Critical Situation facing the Tamil People in Sri Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/strong>\u00a0Brian Senewiratne – Brisbane, Australia\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Brian Senewiratne<\/p><\/div>\n

The humanitarian situation in the Tamil-speaking area in the North and East, more than two years after the so called \u2018end\u2019 of the war, between the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Tamil people, is the most serious the Tamils have faced in their 2,500 years of recorded history. In the six decades that I have campaigned for the rights of the Tamils to live with equality, dignity, safety, and now to live at all, I cannot think of any period in which they have been in such a dreadful situation.<\/p>\n

The Tamil areas are under the heel of one of the most ruthless and irresponsible Armed Forces anywhere in the world, and one the most brutal, racist, and oppressive regimes ever to run Sri Lanka. \u00a0It is a regime which has no accountability, in Sri Lanka or abroad, and can do whatever it wants, to whoever it wants, anywhere in the country, not just in the Tamil areas.<\/p>\n

Dr Winston Panchacharam (Nanuet, New York) in his incomparable book Genocide in Sri Lanka <\/em>which has just been published sets out some of this. In his opening letter of appeal to \u201cGlobal Leaders for the Protection of the Vulnerable and those Oppressed by Genocidal Acts\u201d<\/em> he refers to the \u201cDying Race of Tamils in Sri Lanka\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is not alarmist language. Every recent publication (cited below) strongly indicates that the Tamils are indeed a dying race facing serious violations of human rights which, unless checked, will result in their demise. An internationally credible group appointed by the UN Secretary General (which I will refer to), uses the term \u201cextermination\u201d<\/em> (of the Tamils) and goes on to justify the use of this term which, as far as I am aware, has never been used before.<\/p>\n

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What is alarming is that a regime guilty of some of the most serious war-crimes and crimes against humanity, is getting away with it.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018Extermination\u2019 or \u2018Genocide\u2019 is an emergency and calls for urgent action which is not forthcoming. What is alarming is that a regime guilty of some of the most serious war-crimes and crimes against humanity, is getting away with it.<\/p>\n

The mass slaughter of some 40,000 (perhaps many more) unarmed Tamil civilians, with another 160,000 unaccounted for, was carried out in just five months (January-May 2009), in a mass murder with no witnesses. This has no parallel in recent times. This is now being followed by a \u2018slow extermination\u2019 of the Tamils by the denial of food and medical care, loss of their property, the blocking of their survival activities (agriculture and fishing), and the denial of unrestricted access to international humanitarian organisations and groups.<\/p>\n

The Tamil areas are a vast \u2018slow killing field\u2019, not as dramatic as the mass murder documented in the UK Channel 4 News video, \u201dSri Lanka\u2019s Killing Fields\u201d,<\/em> but a slow \u2018extermination camp\u2019 which covers the entire North and East. This has been kept out of sight by the denial of free and unrestricted access to international observers by the imposition of a strict censorship. The \u2018Sri Lankan\u2019 Armed Forces (99% Sinhalese) who run the area, do what they want with the \u2018victims of war\u2019 – Tamil people, citizens of the country.<\/p>\n

It astounds me, a Sinhalese, that at this most critical period faced by the Tamil people in the North and East, the only people who can save them, the million-strong expatriate Sri Lankan Tamils, living and working in some of the most powerful nations on earth, have \u2018gone quiet\u2019, and have \u2018given up\u2019. To say that they have abandoned their fellow Tamils in the North and East is a gross understatement. I find this deeply disturbing and totally unacceptable.<\/p>\n

The very least I can do is to stand with my Tamil people, yes, they are my<\/em> Tamil people, just as the Sinhalese are my Sinhalese people, in their greatest hour of need. Whether one succeeds or fails is not the question. The question is where one stands and why. I stand with my Tamil people because what has been done to them from the dawn of Independence (1948), and even before, is deeply wrong. This long and traumatic history of the Tamil struggle to survive, has been well set out in Dr Panchacharam\u2019s book which I have referred to.<\/p>\n

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All problems are \u2018settled\u2019 by the State by unleashing violence delivered by State \u2018Security Forces\u2019, the Police, gangs of hoodlums and paramilitary groups<\/p><\/div>\n

The Nobel Laureate, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, when I met him inCape Town, remarked, \u201cIsn\u2019t it wonderful that a Sinhalese should be campaigning for the Tamils for all these years?\u201d I said that I did not think it \u2018wonderful\u2019 because this was not a Tamil problem or a Sinhalese problem but a humanitarian problem that must arouse the concerns of every one who opposes the violation of basic human rights set out in the UN Human Rights Convention.<\/p>\n

This is what it means to share the world with others who, like us, are going to be on this planet for but a short time. The principle that has guided my actions all these years is \u201cDo unto others as we would have them do unto us\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

This simple truth transcends nations and peoples \u2013 that isn\u2019t brown or black or white, that isn\u2019t Christian, Buddhist, Hindu or Islam, that isn\u2019t Sinhalese or Tamil. It is not new, but has beat in the hearts of billions of people since the dawn of civilization.<\/p>\n

The world is heading down a hugely dangerous path of injustice and a failure \u201cto do unto others as they would have done unto themselves\u201d. Sri Lanka has gone down an\u00a0 even more dangerous path of ethnic fratricide, genocide, the dismantling of Democracy and its replacement by a Totalitarian State, corruption, indeed, \u2018mega-corruption\u2019, lawlessness, interference with the legal process and even with the Constitution and written Laws, the abuse of fundamental human rights of its people by the State, gross economic mismanagement, abysmally poor governance, and a violent nation where \u00a0all problems are \u2018settled\u2019 by\u00a0 the State by unleashing violence delivered by State \u2018Security Forces\u2019, the Police, gangs of hoodlums and paramilitary groups working with the Government, where there is no accountability of any sort. It is a drift of the country to a Failed State.<\/p>\n

It is often stated (wrongly) that there has been a \u2018civil war\u2019 inSri Lanka for three decades. There has been no \u2018civil war\u2019 in post-Independence Sri Lanka. What there has been are a series of increasingly virulent pogroms against the Tamil people by a succession of Sinhalese\u2013dominated governments, assisted by Sinhalese political opportunists from the entire Sinhalese polity, and ethnoreligious chauvinist bigots among the politically active Buddhist monks, and conducted by Sri Lankan Armed Forces (99%Sinhalese), with a degeneracy of Sinhalese society and its rapid descent to barbarism. This \u2018descent to barbarism\u2019 has now been documented in the UK Channel 4 video (see below). The entire objective is to force the Tamil people to accept Sri Lanka as a Sinhala- Buddhist Nation.<\/p>\n

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Sinhalese political opportunists from the entire Sinhalese polity, and ethnoreligious chauvinist bigots among the politically active Buddhist monks, and conducted by Sri Lankan Armed Forces<\/p><\/div>\n

The problems inSri Lankatoday, extend well beyond the ethnic crisis. This\u00a0 \u2018spectrum of crises\u2019, of which the problems faced by the Tamils is only a part, albeit a very important one since the survival of the entire Tamil Nation is at stake, cannot be dealt with in the time and space available here. All I can do is to highlight\u00a0 some of the recent (mostly) international publications by credible groups (all of which are in the public domain), and add a brief comment on the Agenda of the Sri Lankan regime, some serious problems in governance, and suggest a way forward. This \u2018way forward\u2019 is becoming increasingly difficult and could well have reached the point of no return, at least in the short, or even medium, term.<\/p>\n

Here are the most important documents to date (October 2011), most of them published this year.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Report of the Secretary-General\u2019s Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>Lanka.\u00a0 31 March 2011.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a 124 page detailed Report looking at the last stages of the \u2018war\u2019 (September 2008- May 2009). It is the most serious indictment of the Sri Lankan government ever published.<\/p>\n

It repeatedly accuses the Sri Lankan government of lying. \u201cThe Panel\u2019s determination of credible allegations reveals a very different version of the final stages of the war than that maintained to this day by the Government of Sri Lanka.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

It recommends that the Secretary General, \u201cshould immediately proceed to establish an independent international mechanism whose mandate should be to collect and safeguard for future use, information provided to it\u2026\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

For Secretary General Ban ki-Moon to claim that he has no power to implement the recommendations of his<\/em> Panel of Experts is arrant nonsense. If he is powerless to act why did he appoint the Panel? The implication was that he was expecting a Report exonerating the GoSL of wrong-doing. We have a right to know what Mr Boon\u2019s agenda is.<\/p>\n

If he cannot (or more likely, will not) act, then the Report must be submitted to the UN itself for action. If Mr Moon refuses to do so, then it is up to the member nations of the UN to demand that the Report be tabled. This is where the expatriate Tamils (and others) have a critical role to play \u2013 to pressure their Governments to get their UN representative to act.<\/p>\n

This must be done urgently so that the UN Human Rights Council at its next meeting (March 2012) can putSri Lankaon the Agenda. I am aware that the Head of this Council, Navaneetham Pillai, who has always stressed the need for an international independent Inquiry, has welcomed the Report.<\/p>\n

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Ban ki-Moon to claim that he has no power to implement the recommendations of his Panel of Experts is arrant nonsense<\/p><\/div>\n

An important point is that the mandate of the Panel of Experts was to assess the \u2018nature and scope of alleged violations\u2019, not to do any fact-finding or investigations. In view of the seriousness of the findings in their Report, it is imperative that this Panel be now asked to do a fact-finding investigation.<\/p>\n

There is provision under R2P (Responsibility to Protect) \u2013 a set of principles which set out the responsibility of sovereign States \u2013 for the UN to act. \u00a0R2P was adopted by the UN General Assembly in October 2009, none other than Ban ki-Moon himself, playing a key role. If a State fails to protect its citizens, then R2P states that the international community, \u201cas a last resort\u201d,<\/em> can intervene with military force.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka, a signatory to R2P is certainly not protecting a significant number of its citizens (those in the North and East). Words must mean something, and if the words in R2P are to mean anything, then the international community must act. It is our business to exert the necessary pressure on our governments to see that the UN acts.<\/p>\n

2. \u00a0\u00a0Situation Report. North and East (of Sri Lanka)<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0 Tabled in the Sri Lankan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Parliament on 21 October 2011 by the Tamil National Alliance<\/strong><\/p>\n

This 29 page Report, is the most comprehensive document that sets out the current situation on the ground in the Tamil areas. It exposes what the GoSL is struggling to conceal by excluding international observers and human rights groups from the North and East. It is one of the most disturbing Reports I have ever read on the human rights situation inSri Lanka, and explodes the myth propagated by the Government that the Tamil people have been \u2018liberated\u2019 from the \u2018clutches of terrorists\u2019, and have now been \u2018rehabilitated\u2019.<\/p>\n

It is a Report that must be circulated to all the UN countries, in particular, those that support Sri Lanka, the \u2018aid-givers\u2019, and the Media, none of whom are able to have free and unaccompanied access to the Tamil areas, and to talk to the supposedly \u2018rehabilitated\u2019 people.<\/p>\n

3. \u00a0\u201cSri Lanka: Post-War Progress Report.<\/span> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

International Crisis Group \u00a0<\/strong>15 September 2011<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is an outstanding 9-page Report which challenges every claim that the GoSL has made. It states the many Government claims and then proceeds to demolish them by stating the real situation.<\/p>\n

It states, \u201cThere are strong grounds to question the government\u2019s claim of progress on crucial post-war issues such as the state of emergency and repressive anti-terrorism laws, militarisation and insecurity, resettlement of internally displaced persons (IDP), reintegration of alleged ex-combatants and a political settlement on devolution and minority rights\u201d. <\/em>It alarmingly goes on, \u201cthe risk of an eventual return to violence is growing again\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is a \u2018must-read\u2019 document by an internationally credible group.<\/p>\n

4. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWhen will they get Justice?<\/span>\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Amnesty International (September 2011)<\/strong><\/p>\n

A 67 page Report by the Nobel Prize winning human rights group, sets out the \u201cFailures of Sri Lanka\u2019s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC\u201d).<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

It makes nonsense of the claim that an Independent International Commission of Inquiry should be considered after the LLRC Report is published (probably November 2011). AI has already shown that the LLRC is deeply flawed so that its findings lack validity.<\/p>\n

It starts by drawing attention to Sri Lanka\u2019s abysmal track record where Commissions (of Inquiry) are concerned. \u201c\u2026.in the face of domestic and international pressure, including from such allies as India, the Sri Lankan government has still refused to make a credible effort to seek accountability. Instead, as it has done often in the past two decades, the Sri Lankan government has established an ad hoc special commission, ostensibly to investigate and address wrongdoings, but in fact to deflect international pressure and silence internal critics\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

It goes on, \u201cAmnesty International urges the international community not to be deceived that the LLRC \u2013 the latest of a long line of failed domestic mechanisms in Sri Lanka \u2013 will deliver justice, truth and reparations\u201d.<\/em> It calls for the UN to immediately establish an independent, international investigation and goes on to state why this is needed.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cSri Lanka<\/span>: Briefing to Committee Against Torture<\/span>.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Amnesty International<\/strong>\u00a0(October 2011)<\/strong><\/p>\n

This 31 page Report also by AI, covering the period 2010-2011, was submitted to the \u201cConvention against Torture, other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment\u201d in October 2011.<\/p>\n

It documents the ongoing<\/span> torture by Sri Lankan Government bodies (Police, and paramilitary groups working with the Government), the fabrication of evidence by the Police, and the complete failure of the Judicial system to address these.<\/p>\n

Of greatest concern is the frequency of all this: \u201cPerhaps the most shocking aspect of the criminal justice system is the overwhelmingly large number of charges which are fabricated by the police on a daily basis\u201d.<\/em> Far from being the exception, these now seem to be the norm.<\/p>\n

Of interest to those of us who live in countries where asylum seekers arrive, is the section that describes (with a case study) the risk of torture for failed asylum seekers. If a proper follow-up study of failed asylum seekers is done, the number who are in this category will rise markedly. It will, of course, not be possible to do such a study, because of the nature of the Totalitarian regime that runs the country.<\/p>\n

6.\u00a0\u00a0 UK Channel 4 News<\/span> video.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Despite feeble claims by the GoSL that the evidence presented was fabricated, there are few, if any, who would doubt the authenticity of what was shown since the original recordings have been checked by international experts. This is evidence which will not go away, as the GoSL hopes it will.<\/p><\/div>\n

I need hardly dwell on this ground-breaking video that has established the war crimes committed by both sides, especially the Sri Lankan Armed Forces, in the closing stages of the war. This video was so important that it was shown at a special screening in the UN Human Rights Council meeting in June 2011. Despite feeble claims by the GoSL that the evidence presented was fabricated, there are few, if any, who would doubt the authenticity of what was shown since the original recordings have been checked by international experts. This is evidence which will not go away, as the GoSL hopes it will.<\/p>\n

The evidence of war crimes implicates not only those in the Armed Forces that committed them, but on the internationally accepted \u2018Command Responsibility\u2019<\/em>, those all the way to the top, be they military leaders or civilians (such as President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, and his brother, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the Secretary of Defence. The fact that some of these military men (and others with a case to answer) have been sent as Diplomats to several countries, might not immunise them from prosecution.<\/p>\n

It is up to us, especially those of us who live in countries where asylum seekers arrive, to get the necessary information and pass it to our governments for the necessary action, and to those of us who are exploring the possibility of taking those who have a case to answer to the International Criminal Court.<\/p>\n

There is one \u2018problem\u2019 with this outstanding video. The hundreds of thousands of people across the world who have seen this video and been shocked by what thy have seen, have no understanding of the context in which these dreadful acts have taken place.<\/p>\n

I have addressed this issue in the many meetings i have organised in Australia where this video has been shown. What I have done is to spend 20 minutes settin out the background to the slaughter, the complex Sri Lankan thnic problem, and have then shown the video. At the end I have returned to the podium with the question, \u201cNow that you have been shocked by what you hav seen, wha are you going to do about it?\u201d<\/p>\n

This \u2018background information\u2019 and a more extensive, though less dramatic, account has been recorded by me in a dvd, \u201cSri Lanka: Genocide, Crimes against Humanity, Violation of International Law\u201d, <\/em>which I am more than willing to send anyone who wants this information.<\/p>\n

This is one of nearly a dozen dvds I have recorded on the highly complex ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka and what a succession of Sinhalese-dominated governments have done to the Tamils since Independence in 1948. It was hoped that they will address the highly \u2018successful\u2019 disinformation campaign of the Sri Lankan government that tries to equate Tamils with Terrorists, and the tamil struggle for justice, as \u2018nothing but terrorism\u2019..<\/p>\n

A deluge of Reports<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Sri Lankan government, and the military, are clearly rattled by the recent deluge of Reports. I can think of no time in the long history of conflict in Sri Lanka, that there has ever been such a vast amount of information released by internationally credible organisations and bodies. This only report by a local body, the Report by the Tamil National Alliance in Sri Lanka, is the most powerful, because it gives first hand information obtained from those on the ground who are suffering these dreadful conditions to this very day.<\/p>\n

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Run a Totalitarian State under the Rajapaksa family- 4 brothers and upward of 50 family members- for the foreseeable future, manipulating the Constitution as necessary.<\/p><\/div>\n

The international and local groups have done what they could, and have done so with commendable thoroughness in very difficult circumstances since the GoSL has done whatever it could to block their work. It is now up to us to use these Reports and the invaluable evidence they contain, to take the matter further and bring to an end the suffering of the Tamil and Muslim people in the North and East. It is now our<\/em> responsibility and obligation.<\/p>\n

I will now set out the Agenda of the Sri Lankan government as I see it.<\/p>\n

The Agenda of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his Government<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

n the time (space) available, I can do no more than list these out. A detailed discussion of them will be published later.<\/p>\n

1. To make Sri Lanka into a Sinhala-Buddhist nation<\/span><\/p>\n

If this is the intention of the GoSL (an intention that is well documented), then the question that arises is \u201cwhat does one do to the Tamils (18% of the country)?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

There are only four possibilities,<\/p>\n