The UN’s human rights body has angered Sri Lanka by voting on a new
resolution that calls on the island’s government to fully investigate civilian
killings in its recent conflict and expresses growing concern over continuing
atrocities.
But while officials in Colombo insist they are striving to account for the
civil war violence and are actively working towards a lasting peace, evidence
gathered from across the country indicates a ruthless campaign of oppression is
being pursued with impunity.
As the UN Human Rights Council prepares to vote in Geneva, a new assessment
published by the Geneva-based Sri Lanka Brief claims that Sri Lanka’s leaders
havebetrayed citizens by wilfully ignoring international pledges of
reconciliation and demilitarisation.
Instead, there is overwhelming evidence that the government has encouraged
an increasing sense of lawlessness in which abduction, arbitrary arrest and
intimidation is commonplace. There are also regular reports of minorities,
particularly ethnic Tamils, being persecuted.
Sri Lanka’s government in 2011 pledged to abide by the recommendations made
by its own Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission – a body set up to look
into the events and aftermath of the three-decade civil war between government
troops and Tamil rebels which ended in 2009.
The commission was criticised by international rights groups for its
failure to examine the final months of the conflict when tens of thousands of
civilians are believed to have died in atrocities committed by both sides.
Nevertheless it urged steps be taken to end deep seated hatred and
hostility.
Two years later, the problems are not going away. Sri Lanka Brief says its
latest report shows that the government has “failed miserably” in implementing
its own recommendations aimed at imposing accountability on its security forces
and restoring full democracy.
The study highlights ongoing killings, torture, arrests and detentions. It
says there have been frequent attacks on press freedom and the right to peaceful
assembly as well as land grabs, military violations and a failure to respect the
grief of those affected by conflict.
Recent months have also seen increasingly violent efforts to impose aspects
of the Buddhist culture of the majority ethnic Sinhalese upon the mainly Hindu
Tamils and other minorities.
Disturbingly, the study also reports that Sri Lanka’s military appears to
be building and profiting from a macabre tourism industry around the northern
“killing fields,” the scene of the recent war’s terrible climax. In doing so, it
is apparently seeking to glorify the deaths of the defeated Tamils.
“The attitude of victor versus the vanquished is quite evident in every
sphere of life,” the report says.
“People are not permitted to speak ore assemble freely, some have no access
to their homes as the military and their families are occupying their lands, and
they still have no security with the military still being able to pick people up
from the street or their homes on the suspicion of being linked to a terror
outfit that the president himself claimed to have annihilated in May
2009.”
Listing several incidents of press intimidation, the report detailed how
one government minister, Rishard Badurdeen, assaulted a 72-year-old journalist
last May. Two months earlier, another minister, “Douglas” Devananda, called for
attacks on a newspaper in Jaffna – the region once claimed by the Tamil
rebels
A second list focuses on attacks on peaceful protests. These include one in
July 2012 in which masked men disrupted a demonstration in Jaffna about the
recent killing of a Tamil prisoner. In October, an unknown gang doused people
attending a political rally in Jaffna with burning oil. Following one
demonstration organised by Roman Catholic clergy in the northern town of Mannar,
Rayappu Joseph, a local bishop who had sought information about the fate of
thousands of people missing since the war, was subject to harassment and
intimidation from security forces.
Other alarming trends involve the treatment of women. Last November more
than 100 young Tamil women were coerced into joining the military after they
were recruited for clerical work. The women were then confined to a military
base where visits from family were heavily restricted.
There have been other incidences of militarisation. Teachers have been
drafted into the armed forces and schools ordered to become affiliated to the
military. Troops remain widely deployed throughout the island’s north and many
public civilian events subjected to military scrutiny.
Sri Lanka’s army and navy have also been accused of seizing land and
displacing families. This, alongside by accusations that scores of Tamils have
been wrongful imprisoned and possibly tortured, is feared to be part of a wider
programme of Sinhalese colonisation.
Furthermore there are reports of the destruction of cemeteries and war
memorials honouring Tamil fighters. Sri Lanka Brief says this denies the
families of those killed a place to grieve and pay homage to their loved
ones.
Vulnerable families of Tamil fighters killed in the war have also been
subjected to abuse, the report says. It highlights the case of one 13-year-old
girl, Jesudasan Lakshini, who was raped and allegedly killed by a cadre of the
pro-government Eelam People’s Democratic Party.
Witnesses say Lakshini was abducted as she went shopping for fish at a
market in the Delft area of Jaffna. Her semi-naked body was later found in a
small lane, having suffered multiple blows to the head. The man accused of
killing her was arrested but is yet to stand trial.
The report said Lakshini’s case highlights the lawlessness in northern Sri
Lanka and the dangers it poses to women, who in many cases are too scared to
report assaults to the police for fear of further harassment.
In the run up to the UN Human Rights Council vote, Sri Lanka’s government
has sought to play down such issues, saying the work of its Reconciliation
Commission proves its commitment to restoring harmony in the wake of the
conflict.
“Sri Lanka needs adequate time and space to resolve such wide-ranging and
deep-rooted issues,” Mahinda Samarasinghe, Colombo’s special envoy on human
rights told the UN council. “Undue pressure exerted by external parties on this
one aspect is not helpful in the resolution of these issues.”
Despite his claim, the litany of abuses and violations still being
perpetrated across Sri Lanka suggests otherwise. As the report concludes, the
government has been unwilling to
implement the more constructive elements of the Reconciliation Commissions
findings.
"The
disappearances, sex abuse, arrests, intimidation, assaults land occupation and
so on in Sri Lanka are all clear evidence of a lack of progress all indicate a
lack of progress and an unwillingness to cooperate with international
investigations," said XXXXXXXXXXXXX. "Unless this changes then there is little
hope that the country can draw a line under its bloodstained past."
Read the full report here
