Sri Lanka: Call for investigation of human rights violations - full text
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UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon on June 5 called for the investigation of alleged human rights violations during the fighting that concluded Sri Lanka's civil war. Ban was speaking after returning from a visit to a government-run camp for internally displaced Tamils and the site of the last stand of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). His trip was the first visit by a senior international figure since the government excluded journalists, aid workers, and diplomats from the conflict zone. Government attempts to control media access to the fighting, which ended on May 19, had not prevented international outrage at the suffering of Tamil civilians trapped in the conflict zone.
Immediate Context
Ban Ki Moon visited Sri Lanka to assess the post-conflict situation in late May, touring a camp for internally displaced people and meeting President Mahinda Rajapakse. At the Menik Farm camp, where more than 200,000 Tamil civilians were being housed, Ban pledged to work towards resettlement within six months. After flying over the site of the final battle between the army and the LTTE he returned to Colombo (the commercial capital) for talks. In his meeting with the president, Ban called for the UN and international aid agencies to be granted full access to the camps. He stated that the Sri Lankan government was "doing its utmost" but lacked resources.
The fighting for the LTTE's final stronghold was declared over on May 19, days before Ban's visit. Rajapakse announced to Parliament (the unicameral legislature) that the country had been "liberated" from the LTTE. The army claimed to have killed the leader of the LTTE, Velupillai Prabhakaran, on May 18, a claim initially denied by the rebels. After Prabhakaran's body was shown on national television, the surviving LTTE leadership acknowledged his death. Thousands of civilians died in the final phase of fighting, and the UN and many national governments called for a humanitarian ceasefire; this request was ignored by the Sri Lankan government, which insisted on pursuing a rapid military victory.
Reaction and Outlook
Several foreign governments and international organisations echoed Ban Ki Moon's call for an investigation of alleged human rights abuses. The EU stated that it was appalled at the level of civilian casualties, and EU foreign ministers called for an independent war crimes investigation. The US government blocked Sri Lanka's application for an emergency loan of US$1.9 billion from the IMF, by citing the Sri Lankan government's actions in the closing stages of the war. Meanwhile the Norwegian Minister for International Development - and former mediator in Sri Lanka - Erik Solheim outlined his government's view of the way ahead: "If the Sri Lankan government can show generosity in victory, give a substantial devolution of power to Tamil self-government in the north-east and create an inclusive state for the Tamil, Sinhalese and Muslims, then we may see a lasting solution to the Sri Lankan problem."
The Sri Lankan government's actions were defended by both China and Russia. China, which supplied many of the weapons used to defeat the LTTE, defended Sri Lanka's right to deal with internal matters. An emergency session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, Switzerland, dismissed a motion calling for a human rights investigation, with China, Cuba, and Egypt pushing through a motion condemning the LTTE and stressing that the war was a "domestic" matter.
A number of aid agencies criticised arrangements for housing displaced Tamil civilians. Jakob Kellenberger of the Red Cross raised concerns about contact with refugees, stating that full access was still denied: "what's still not clear is to what extent the government of Sri Lanka will really make it possible for us to carry out the tasks we find important". Within the camps, aid groups reported outbreaks of typhoid and shortages of food and water. Caritas International blamed problems on tight restrictions on movement in the camps, which they described as "prisons under the open sky".
Historical Context
By 500 BC settlers from India had begun to arrive on Sri Lanka. The Sinhalese had become the dominant group by the time Tamils started to migrate to the island, around 300 BC. Europeans first arrived in 1505, when Portuguese traders first visited Colombo, and started to colonise the island. Sri Lanka, apart from the kingdom of Kandy, was then captured by the Dutch in 1658, and subsequently by the British, who by 1815 had conquered the kingdom of Kandy and by 1833 united the island. The British encouraged the immigration of Tamil labourers from south India, while the Sinhalese remained politically dominant.
Sri Lanka gained independence from the UK in 1948 and a democratic government was established. Many of the Tamil minority were disenfranchised and deprived of citizenship in 1949 and in 1956 Sinhala was made the sole official language. In 1957 the main Tamil party, the Federal Party, launched a campaign of civil disobedience against the government. A period of ethnic tension and fatal rioting lead to the declaration of a state of emergency in 1981. The government assumed powers to conduct trials without juries and to censure the press.
The state of emergency was lifted in 1982, but violence by the LTTE and other Tamil groups increased. Peace talks in 1985 and 1986 failed to end the conflict. After a LTTE suicide bomber killed approximately 110 people in Colombo's main bus station, India agreed to mediate and enforce a peace settlement. Indian peacekeepers clashed with the LTTE in November 1988 and in June 1989 the Sri Lankan president called for them to leave. By early 1990 Indian troops had left Sri Lanka, and serious clashes between the security forces and the LTTE resumed shortly afterwards. In May 1991 Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a LTTE suicide bomber in retaliation for his role in sending Indian peacekeepers to Sri Lanka.
Between 1992 and late 1994 the LTTE won several significant victories over the army and took control of new territory. A campaign of suicide bombings killed the navy chief, Clancy Fernando, in 1992 and President Ranasinghe Premadasa in 1993. An internationally brokered ceasefire was maintained for a few months from January 1995 before large-scale fighting resumed. The LTTE carried out a massive suicide bombing of the holiest Buddhist site in Sri Lanka, the Temple of the Tooth at Kandy, in 1998. The attack was interpreted as an assault on the dominant Buddhist Sinhalese culture in Sri Lanka. Suicide squads injured President Chandrika Kumaratunga at an election rally in the capital in 1999 and attacked Colombo's international airport in 2001, destroying military and civilian aircraft and damaging the tourism industry.
In 2002 a new ceasefire was signed under Norwegian mediation. The LTTE agreed to drop their demand for independence in favour of a homeland and self-determination. Talks in Norway in December 2002 produced a deal whereby a federal constitution would be adopted and the LTTE would give up violent struggle. However, the LTTE refused to participate in the next round of talks four months later, though they maintained their ceasefire.
The LTTE suffered an internal split in 2004 when Colonel Karuna (the nom de guerre of Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan), the commander of the eastern province, refused to take orders from the group's leadership. He claimed that discrimination against eastern Tamils required him to form a new organisation. The main faction of the LTTE overran Karuna's territory shortly afterward but guerrilla-style fighting continued.
The ceasefire between the government and the main LTTE faction broke down over 2005-06 to the extent that the head of the Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission (SLMM) stated that he was no longer monitoring a ceasefire but a "low intensity war". In October 2006 a final round of peace talks failed. After the LTTE launched its first ever air raid on March 26 the government expelled 376 Tamils from Colombo, admitting that the expulsions were wrong but claiming that human rights violations are inevitable in times of war.
The army made a number of important gains in 2008 and early 2009, capturing the port of Pooneryn in November 2008 and Kilinochchi, the LTTE's de facto capital, in January 2009. After the fall of Kilinochchi the rebels were pushed into an increasingly desperate position and called on the UN, the EU, the USA and others to broker a ceasefire. The government refused to consider a ceasefire and, by March 2009, had confined the remaining LTTE cadres to a 45-sq. km area of jungle and sandbars. Several hundred thousand Tamil civilians were trapped in the combat area under repeated artillery and mortar attacks. The army launched repeated offensives, pushing the LTTE fighters and civilians into an ever-smaller area in preparation for the final assault in May.
