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A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Sunday, February 4, 2018
Sri Lanka: Mass graves everywhere, but where are the killers? — Part 01
Mass graves in Sri Lanka, no doubt, one of the most controversial
issues. In this exclusive series the writer narrated by arguing that the
lack of interest on the part of government and State to learn from past
mistakes points to the absence of political will and commitment to
establishing the truth for the sake of national unity and
reconciliation. The writer is an editorial adviser of Sri Lanka Guardian
~ Edts
by Lionel Bopage -
Introduction
( February 4, 2018, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) Sri
Lanka’s armed conflicts have touched the whole Island, affecting all its
ethnicities and faiths. By 2013, Sri Lanka recorded the second highest
number of unresolved disappearances in the world.[1] Despite
the rhetoric of successive regimes, the people had disappeared not
because they had gone abroad or been displaced, rather they had been
killed and or executed in order to generate fear and anguish among the
population. Their bodies are said to be piled up and buried in mass
graves somewhere in the island. Several such mass graves have been
discovered in recent years that warrant genuine investigations.
Serious human rights abuses and crimes against humanity have occurred in Sri Lanka in the seventies and eighties during the uprisings by the Sinhala youth in the South. Many thousands of Tamils also disappeared during the 30-year war between the LTTE and the state, during the IPKF occupation in the late eighties and during the push to retake the Jaffna peninsula in the nineties, many thousands of Tamils also disappeared. In their attempt to establish a Tamil homeland, the LTTE evicted Muslims from the North and massacred many hundreds of Muslims in the east. A UN investigation in 2015 documented serious human rights abuses allegedly committed by the security forces and the LTTE.[2]
Credible investigations into all mass graves dotted across the country are necessary, if reconciliation based on social justice is to be achieved for all Sri Lankans. The urgency is underlined by the fact that the Presidential Commission of Inquiry on Missing Persons had received over 24,000 complaints.[3] Except for the well-known mass grave of school children in Sooriyakanda, Embilipitiya in the South, several attempts to investigate mass graves found accidentally have exposed macro and micro level systemic flaws of serious concern in the judicial, constitutional and political architecture of the country. The killers utilized such flaws to avoid or escape justice.
In 2009, Amnesty International (AI) came to certain conclusions, which remain the same even today. AI found that new violations of human rights persist and the political will to stop or prevent such violations – by investigating them properly, prosecuting suspected perpetrators of such criminal offences in proceedings that meet international standards of fairness, and ensuring reparations for the victims according to Sri Lanka’s obligations under international human rights and humanitarian laws – is almost non-existent. They cited, for example, the case of the brutal killing of the 17 Action Contre la Faim (ACF) workers in Muttur in August 2006 as “another case of a long list of cases where the Sri Lankan State has been manipulating evidence to exculpate the security forces personnel from blame.”[4] They also cite in support of their conclusions, earlier cases such as the Bindunuwewa Massacre (2000), Chemmani (1998), and the 20-odd bodies of abducted Tamils found in Bolgoda Lake (1995).[5]
Even the “Good Governance” regime displays the same reluctance to investigate, marking time to avoid international scrutiny, and do everything possible to dissuade the international pressure. This situation informs us of the need for “international technical assistance in the forensic field, particularly forensic anthropology and archaeology”[6], as the UNHRC has emphasized. The current regime, despite its commitment in 2015 to implement the recommendations of the UNHRC resolution and establish a broad transitional justice framework, has so far only made slim progress.[7]
In spite of the slow progress, the current regime to its credit has established and incorporated into law the Right to Information Act and the Office on Missing Persons Act. Sri Lanka needs to find local and/or foreign professionals skilled in DNA testing, forensic anthropology and archaeology for them to be able to carry out this mammoth task of identifying new graves. Sri Lanka also needs to provide professional judges and adequate resources to properly oversee the consequent investigations.
This paper will discuss in general the context and nature of mass atrocities committed, first under colonialism and then under post-independent regimes, with special focus on mass graves that have already been found and investigated, or avoided from being investigated. Such a discussion, it is hoped, would assist in achieving justice for the thousands of missing persons and their families, both in the South and the North East[8].
[1] Second only to post-war Iraq: See U.N. Human Rights Council 28 January 2013, Report of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, Doc No. A/HRC/22/45, 17-18.
[2] In 2015, the U.N. OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) concluded that government security forces and associated paramilitary groups committed unlawful killings, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, sexual violence, and torture on a systematic and widespread scale. See Report of the OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL), U.N. Doc. No. A_HRC_30_CRP_2 (Sept. 16, 2015) ^ 1116, 1117, 1119, 1120-1123,1127, 1128, 1129-1130, 1131-1135, 1172-1174. The OISL also concluded that the LTTE was involved in unlawful killings of civilians, abductions and forced recruitment, child conscription, and interference with civilians’ freedom of movement. Id. ^ 1118, 1136, 1139, 1140, 1141, 1161.
[3] See Presidential Commission of Inquiry on Missing Persons, at: http://www.pcicmp.lk/
[4] Amnesty International June 2009, Twenty Years of Make-Believe: Sri Lanka’s Commissions of Inquiry, Index ASA 37/005/2009, at:http://www.observatori.org/paises/pais_75/documentos/srilanka.pdf
[5] Ibid, 60
[6] UNHC for Human Rights 16 September 2015, Report on Promoting Reconciliation, Accountability and Human Rights in Sri Lanka, U.N. Doc. No. A/HRC/30/61, 72-73
[7] UNHR: Office of the High Commissioner 15 September 2017, Darker and more dangerous: High Commissioner updates the Human Rights Council on human rights issues in 40 countries, at: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/Media.aspx?IsMediaPage=true
[8] Amnesty International 3 April 2017, Sri Lanka – Victims of disappearance cannot wait any longer for justice, at:https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/04/sri-lanka-victims-of-disappearance-cannot-wait-any-longer-for-justice/; and Groundviews 30 August 2017, “We vehemently refuse to be deceived again”: Protests by families of disappeared, continuing abductions and empty promises, and at:http://groundviews.org/2017/08/30/we-vehemently-refuse-to-be-deceived-again-protests-by-families-of-disappeared-continuing-abductions-and-empty-promises/
To Be Continued
Lionel Bopage is
a passionate and independent activist, who has advocated and struggled
for social justice, a fair-go and equity of opportunity for the
oppressed in the world, where absolute uniformism, consumerism and
maximisation of profit have become the predominant social values of
humanity. Lionel was formerly a General Secretary of the Janatha
Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP – Peoples’ Liberation Front) in Sri Lanka, and he
now lives in exile in Australia.
by Lionel Bopage -
Introduction
Serious human rights abuses and crimes against humanity have occurred in Sri Lanka in the seventies and eighties during the uprisings by the Sinhala youth in the South. Many thousands of Tamils also disappeared during the 30-year war between the LTTE and the state, during the IPKF occupation in the late eighties and during the push to retake the Jaffna peninsula in the nineties, many thousands of Tamils also disappeared. In their attempt to establish a Tamil homeland, the LTTE evicted Muslims from the North and massacred many hundreds of Muslims in the east. A UN investigation in 2015 documented serious human rights abuses allegedly committed by the security forces and the LTTE.[2]
Credible investigations into all mass graves dotted across the country are necessary, if reconciliation based on social justice is to be achieved for all Sri Lankans. The urgency is underlined by the fact that the Presidential Commission of Inquiry on Missing Persons had received over 24,000 complaints.[3] Except for the well-known mass grave of school children in Sooriyakanda, Embilipitiya in the South, several attempts to investigate mass graves found accidentally have exposed macro and micro level systemic flaws of serious concern in the judicial, constitutional and political architecture of the country. The killers utilized such flaws to avoid or escape justice.
In 2009, Amnesty International (AI) came to certain conclusions, which remain the same even today. AI found that new violations of human rights persist and the political will to stop or prevent such violations – by investigating them properly, prosecuting suspected perpetrators of such criminal offences in proceedings that meet international standards of fairness, and ensuring reparations for the victims according to Sri Lanka’s obligations under international human rights and humanitarian laws – is almost non-existent. They cited, for example, the case of the brutal killing of the 17 Action Contre la Faim (ACF) workers in Muttur in August 2006 as “another case of a long list of cases where the Sri Lankan State has been manipulating evidence to exculpate the security forces personnel from blame.”[4] They also cite in support of their conclusions, earlier cases such as the Bindunuwewa Massacre (2000), Chemmani (1998), and the 20-odd bodies of abducted Tamils found in Bolgoda Lake (1995).[5]
Even the “Good Governance” regime displays the same reluctance to investigate, marking time to avoid international scrutiny, and do everything possible to dissuade the international pressure. This situation informs us of the need for “international technical assistance in the forensic field, particularly forensic anthropology and archaeology”[6], as the UNHRC has emphasized. The current regime, despite its commitment in 2015 to implement the recommendations of the UNHRC resolution and establish a broad transitional justice framework, has so far only made slim progress.[7]
In spite of the slow progress, the current regime to its credit has established and incorporated into law the Right to Information Act and the Office on Missing Persons Act. Sri Lanka needs to find local and/or foreign professionals skilled in DNA testing, forensic anthropology and archaeology for them to be able to carry out this mammoth task of identifying new graves. Sri Lanka also needs to provide professional judges and adequate resources to properly oversee the consequent investigations.
This paper will discuss in general the context and nature of mass atrocities committed, first under colonialism and then under post-independent regimes, with special focus on mass graves that have already been found and investigated, or avoided from being investigated. Such a discussion, it is hoped, would assist in achieving justice for the thousands of missing persons and their families, both in the South and the North East[8].
[1] Second only to post-war Iraq: See U.N. Human Rights Council 28 January 2013, Report of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, Doc No. A/HRC/22/45, 17-18.
[2] In 2015, the U.N. OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) concluded that government security forces and associated paramilitary groups committed unlawful killings, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, sexual violence, and torture on a systematic and widespread scale. See Report of the OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL), U.N. Doc. No. A_HRC_30_CRP_2 (Sept. 16, 2015) ^ 1116, 1117, 1119, 1120-1123,1127, 1128, 1129-1130, 1131-1135, 1172-1174. The OISL also concluded that the LTTE was involved in unlawful killings of civilians, abductions and forced recruitment, child conscription, and interference with civilians’ freedom of movement. Id. ^ 1118, 1136, 1139, 1140, 1141, 1161.
[3] See Presidential Commission of Inquiry on Missing Persons, at: http://www.pcicmp.lk/
[4] Amnesty International June 2009, Twenty Years of Make-Believe: Sri Lanka’s Commissions of Inquiry, Index ASA 37/005/2009, at:http://www.observatori.org/paises/pais_75/documentos/srilanka.pdf
[5] Ibid, 60
[6] UNHC for Human Rights 16 September 2015, Report on Promoting Reconciliation, Accountability and Human Rights in Sri Lanka, U.N. Doc. No. A/HRC/30/61, 72-73
[7] UNHR: Office of the High Commissioner 15 September 2017, Darker and more dangerous: High Commissioner updates the Human Rights Council on human rights issues in 40 countries, at: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/Media.aspx?IsMediaPage=true
[8] Amnesty International 3 April 2017, Sri Lanka – Victims of disappearance cannot wait any longer for justice, at:https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/04/sri-lanka-victims-of-disappearance-cannot-wait-any-longer-for-justice/; and Groundviews 30 August 2017, “We vehemently refuse to be deceived again”: Protests by families of disappeared, continuing abductions and empty promises, and at:http://groundviews.org/2017/08/30/we-vehemently-refuse-to-be-deceived-again-protests-by-families-of-disappeared-continuing-abductions-and-empty-promises/
To Be Continued
Lionel Bopage is
a passionate and independent activist, who has advocated and struggled
for social justice, a fair-go and equity of opportunity for the
oppressed in the world, where absolute uniformism, consumerism and
maximisation of profit have become the predominant social values of
humanity. Lionel was formerly a General Secretary of the Janatha
Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP – Peoples’ Liberation Front) in Sri Lanka, and he
now lives in exile in Australia.