The blood of the innocent Tamils are all over the hands of the world’s great nations. Deaf to the cries when innocent Tamils were refused the basic rights of being equal citizens in their traditional homeland, the international community and the United Nations Organization stood idle. When thirty years of talks to arrive at a peaceful settlement did not bear any fruit, the international governments refused to intervene calling it a domestic problem. Strengthened by the attitude of the international community, and with abundant money and materials given as loans and grants, the Singhalese majority governments began their pogrom of ethnic cleansing and encroachment on traditional Tamil homelands with impunity.
Peaceful demonstrations to counter these were broken up with the help of the security forces and draconian laws were enacted against the Tamils in their own land. The two Singhalese parties made life more difficult for the Tamil citizens with the enactment of the Sinhala Only Act and the Act to standardize entry to Universities jeopardizing the chance of the Tamil youths to seek government employment. Even then, there was no outcry or help to the Tamils, who were being reduced to a state of being made second- class citizens. The many protests by the Tamils were suppressed with emergency regulations and army action, which created armed insurrection by the youth who were most affected. The silence then by the international communities was the root cause of the present catastrophe of which, they in one voice, show alarm but fail to condemn.
On January 20th this year President Obama, summarized in the following words, the meaning of liberty and creed of the United States, at the time he took the oath of office, “A man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath”. Compare this situation to what has happened to the Tamils in Sri Lanka, who were at the forefront to fight for independence, being told in public by the army commander. “I strongly believe this country belongs to the Singhalese, but there are minority communities and we treat them like people. We, being the majority of the country’s 75%, we will never give in and we have the right to protect this country. We are also a strong nation. They can live in this country with us, but they must not try to, under the pretext of being a minority demand undue things.”
This statement, coming from the mouth of not a politician but the commander of the army, who, incidentally is also a green card holder, aspiring to become a citizen of the country, where Obama is the President, shows the mindset of the Singhalese in general. In 1963, Martin Luther King spoke from the Lincoln Memorial, outlining his dreams of freedom and equality in the United States of America. His dream became reality in 2009, but the freedom we enjoyed as a birthright from a much earlier period, is being stripped with brutal force under the watch of the United Nations and other international bodies, who are said to be protectors of the vulnerable, but behave as the champions of the oppressors.
History does not have evidence of any country using aerial bombings or artillery attacks on her citizens. The last thirty years have seen thousands of times the North and East of the country, where the Tamils are domiciled, being bombed with firebombs, cluster bombs, and whatever kind of ammunitions the government received from the unscrupulous arms vendors of the world. It was disclosed recently, that the Tamil areas in the North and East of Sri Lanka had received more bombs than Vietnam.
The unbridled attack on the Tamil civilians in the North and East under the pretense of fighting terrorism has resulted in the Tamils, to fleeing from their traditional homes and environments. Those who were displaced had nowhere to go, but to the interior regions to seek shelter. Under international law, forced displacement is a crime against humanity and is forbidden. So are arbitrary arrests and torture, enforced disappearances and other cruel inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. All the above have been committed and are being committed without impunity.
The domino effect in the bombing and artillery attack on the innocent civilians who lived in the Jaffna district was the cause of their moving towards the interior areas to avoid being killed. The exodus that started then continued for a number of years. The persecution continued driving them deeper and deeper. Today, they have been cornered and have no place to go but to remain under the open skies and near the militants, who they consider as more secure than the security forces, who have been responsible for their present state. The government’s reputation of arbitrary arrests and detention of a number of Tamil citizens in the South, both in Colombo, and other large cities is well known. Many of those who had been taken for questioning have never returned to their homes. It is this fear, that makes the people who are holed up in the jungles to remain there than come to the security forces to be killed.
The mindset of those who run for cover to save their lives, cannot be construed as providing cover to the militants. Their mistrust of the security forces is deep-rooted in that, most of them have suffered immensely, under the hands of the security forces. Neither have governments in power, since the start of confrontation ever taken any action to win the hearts and minds of the people or to assure them that they were only there to help the civilians. The latest statement made by Gothabaya Rajapakse that anyone who is not with them is a terrorist, is proof that every Tamil is considered a potential terrorist and will have to prove his or her bona fides. Gone are the days that any one is deemed innocent, until proven guilty. Today, every Tamil is a potent terrorist and the best a Tamil could do is to be away from the security forces to be protected from being killed.
The United Nations and other world bodies had a whole lot of machinery, to stop the carnage and protect the Tamils at the outset. However, they were not interested in intervening in the affairs of a country, from which they had little or nothing attractive to gain. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a binding charter on all members of the United Nations as at December 10, 1948, as well as those, who joined the United Nations thereafter. The preamble to the charter states that “whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind and the advent of a world, in which human being shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people”.
The thirty Articles that follow, describe the necessity for the protection of the freedom, liberty and security of the lives of all people. The lofty ideals contained in the charter ends with Article 30, which states that, “nothing in this declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State or group or person, any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act, aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedom set forth herein”.
The sufferings and atrocities meted to the Tamils in Sri Lanka during the last thirty years and especially in the last three years are well documented. The United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights, as well as many other officials, visited the Island and made reports. Madam Louise Arbor, the former High Commissioner in her report of October 2007, stressed the need for independent public reporting on the human rights situation in Sri Lanka and the readiness of her office to assist in this regard.
Given the culture of impunity surrounding the country’s security forces, and the backing they receive from the elected representatives of the governing party, it is incumbent for the country to have international human rights monitors to be stationed in the conflict zone to make sure the minorities are protected. The international community has an obligation to intervene in the barbarous acts of states violating their citizen’s human rights, but should not stop at calling the freedom fighters only as terrorists and close their eyes over the state terrorism lashed out. The state terrorism in Sri Lanka is appalling, by any standard.
Let there be an independent media in the country to report the news at the theater of war, than the biased handouts of what the Sri Lanka’s government wants. Free media survived even in the thick of the two world wars, why can’t they function today?
Published: Feb 26, 2009 15:22:08 GMT