Tamils – Do We Observe Or Celebrate International Human Rights Day

By Nimal Vinayagamoorthy –DECEMBER 10, 2020

Nimal Vinayagamoorthy

As this year marks the 72nd International Human Rights Day, we Tamils, observe this day with a hope that in future there may be a time when we can celebrate this day when our lost rights are fully restored. Around the world it is an important day and many nationalities celebrate this day. Unfortunately the Tamils who became victims of the Sinhala state agenda mourns this day. It was in 1948, the United Nations celebrated its first UN Human Rights Day and it was the same year the Tamils lost their right to self-determination to the Sinhalese and became subservient to their agenda of setting up, a one nation, one language, and one culture model. 

Among the present dangers, the Tamils living in the North and East continue to face the bouncing back of the Prevention of Terrorism Act, which has been exclusively used against the Tamils to disastrous effects. PTA which was introduced in 1979 and enforced as a permanent law in 1982, is a tool by which the state can detain any suspect for a period of 18 months without trial. 

The PTA allows courts to admit as evidence; any statements made by the accused at any time and provides no exception for confessions extracted by torture. The PTA has long been criticized as an abusive law that has been used to crush dissent and forcibly disappear people, along with other violations. The ambiguous terminology of the law allows governments to arbitrarily detain civilians and peaceful activists, and put them through brutal treatment to imprison them of false allegations.

The Sri Lankan authorities have acknowledged the inherently abusive character of the PTA but have failed to repeal it as promised. The last government claiming to be a government of good governance proposed its own legislation to replace the PTA but failed to amend the draft law due to the inability secure sufficient support.

To this date there are 96 political prisoners languishing in jails. Some of the convicts have spent more than 20 years without seeing sunlight for years. Some suspects have spent more than 10 years without any charges against them being proved and there is no hope that they will get Presidential pardon which has been generously bestowed on hardcore Sinhala criminals recently.

Moreover, army officers accused of war crimes are appointed to important offices. Even the civilian intelligence agency is headed by a senior military officer. 

Though the previous government made tall claims of returning land grabbed by the Sri Lankan armed forces from innocent Tamil farmers and fishermen, the affected communities have disputed these claims. The struggle of the ordinary people continues at the Mullikulam fishing hamlet, where the displaced have been waging a peaceful struggle against the autocratic state which is in no mood to return the land to its rightful owners. 

It is the same story with the simple farmers who lost their land to the armed forces at Keppapulavu. Despite protests for more than three years and repeated assurances from the previous President, their fertile land continues to be under the control of the armed forces. Where will these people go? In the name of state security, the armed forces established the High Security Zones (HSZ) but after the war, is it necessary to maintain them? 

Moreover, these High Security Zones on Tamil public land has been converted into resorts, military farms, hotels and even a factory! How can they still be classified as High Security Zones when they have no purpose to exist? There are also instances of Buddhist monks deliberately installing Buddhist statues and planting Bodhi tree in lands belonging to the Tamils and Muslims and preventing them from re-claiming from state authorities as part of a nefarious ‘Sinhala Colonization’ plan. 

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