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Crisis in Sri Lanka
I. Background
III. Civil Society Calls for Action IV. Response by the International Community V. Post-Conflict Accountability I. Background The violent civil war in Sri Lanka over the past 25 years has killed more than 100,000 and caused enormous amounts of suffering to both Tamil and Sinhalese civilians. The intensification of violence since the start of 2009, leading up to the end of the 25-year civil war in Sri Lanka resulted in a massive humanitarian crisis. By mid-May, the UN estimated that 7000 civilians, with more than 1000 of them children, died in the escalation of hostilities in 2009. As the death toll intensified in the days leading up to the official end of the conflict on 19 May 2009, UN officials condemned the “bloodbath” and repeatedly expressed grave concern over the “unacceptably high” civilian death toll. In addition, 50,000 civilians were trapped in combat zones. According to estimates by the UNHCR, as of 19 June 2009, 550,000 ethnic Tamils remained internally displaced and struggled to come to terms with the devastation of war.
The escalation of violence in 2008-2009 raised alarming concerns about the failure of the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE to protect civilians from serious crimes under international law.
Reports from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch detail the LTTE forces preventing civilians from fleeing the conflict zone, putting civilians at unnecessary risk, displacing civilians and forcibly recruiting child soldiers. According to the UN, the LTTE has been using civilians as a buffer against government forces, forcibly recruiting civilians and holding men, women and children as hostages and using them as human shields.
The government of Sri Lanka used heavy artillery in densely populated areas, including in “no-fire zones,” and targeted civilian infrastructure, resulting in indiscriminate attacks on civilians. Moreover, the government has denied humanitarian agencies and aid workers access to trapped civilians, exacerbating the suffering of the civilians. In addition, internally displaced Sri Lankans have been held without freedom of movement in government-run displacement camps; their fate continues to be murky, as the Sri Lanka government has made little effort in their rehabilitation and plans to reunite them with their families or return them to their homes.
The failure of the government of Sri Lanka to fulfill its primary responsibility to protect its populations from mass human rights violations and widespread killings prompted many advocates to consider the crisis in Sri Lanka an RtoP situation, especially given the alarmingly high death toll.
An open letter to the Security Council, sent by the Global Center for the Responsibility to Protect on 11 April 2009, signed by Jan Egeland, Gareth Evans, Juan Méndez, Mohamed Sahnoun, Monica Serrano, Ramesh Thakur and Thomas G. Weiss, invoked the Responsibility to Protect norm and called on the Security Council to “authorize ‘timely and decisive measures’ to prevent or halt mass atrocities”, among a series of recommended measures.
On 22 April 2009, James Traub, the director of the Global Center for the Responsibility to Protect, wrote in a op-ed for the Washington Post that, “the fighting threatens to produce exactly the kind of cataclysm that states vowed to prevent when they adopted "the responsibility to protect" at the 2005 U.N. World Summit,” and urged the United Nations to act. That same day, a joint letter by NGOs including Global Action to Prevent War, Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, International Crisis Group, MEDACT, Minority Rights Group, Operation USA, Tearfund and World Federalist Movement - Institute for Global Policy, urged UN action to “protect civilians and prevent mass atrocities”.
On 8 May 2009, The People’s Union for Civil Liberties, one of India’s largest human rights organizations, in a letter addressed to the United Nations, invoked the “Responsibility to Protect” and called for UN military intervention. They also urged for a referral by the UN Security Council for the International Criminal Court to investigate Sri Lanka’s alleged war crimes.
On 11 May 2009, Asia Director of Human Rights Watch Brad Adams sent a letter to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) urging the IMF to deny Sri Lanka’s request for a 1.9 billion emergency relief fund. Mr. Adams cited the LTTE’s recent actions as “inhumane to an extreme” and stated that the Sri Lankan government continues to disregard its obligations under international law to protect civilians, despite its repeated claims otherwise. Top shareholders of the IMF, including the United States, have also exerted pressure over the IMF to delay the loan and have been successful to date.
Also on 11 May 2009, International Crisis Group, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect signed a letter that was sent to Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso. The letter also encouraged Japan to use its leverage as Sri Lanka’s largest donor and a current UN Security Council member to play a more active role in alleviating the humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka.
In addition, Amnesty International, in a letter addressed to the Security Council on 14 May 2009, reminded the Council that it had “repeatedly emphasized the need to protect civilians and confirmed the international community’s responsibility to protect,” as such; it could “no longer remain silent about the humanitarian and human crisis in Sri Lanka.” It urged the Council to convene to discuss the latest developments, gain access to carry out humanitarian work, ensure the protection of civilians in armed conflict, establish an inquiry commission on alleged human rights and international humanitarian law violations as well as to seek the Sri Lankan government’s cooperation to allow a UN humanitarian assessment mission to the conflict area.
On 19 May 2009, a joint statement by 165 NGOs all over the world, 122 of them from Malaysia, called for the protection displaced peoples, civilians and human rights in Sri Lanka. In addition, on 23 May 2009, International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR), a Japanese-based NGO, expressed regret that the conflict in Sri Lanka was not solved through peaceful means and highlighted the vital need for an investigation into war crimes and violations of international humanitarian law committed by all parties in the conflict, calling in particular for a “independent investigation into the recent carnage.” IMADR also called for full access for international humanitarian agencies and urged to incorporate a political framework in the rebuilding process that would respect the rights of minorities.
Forum-Asia issued a statement on 27 May 2009, at the Human Rights Council’s Special Session on Sri Lanka, and underlined the critical need to address the issue of access for humanitarian agencies as well as the importance of an investigation to address the violations of human rights and international humanitarian law for accountability and “truth and reconciliation” in Sri Lanka.
UN officials, including the Secretary-General, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, and the High Commissioner for Human Rights, as well as a number of Member States, called on the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE to make protecting civilians a priority and to take all necessary measures to halt the escalating humanitarian disaster. This, however, was to little effect, according to HRW, “the Sri Lankan government has responded to broad international concerns with indignation and denials instead of action to address the humanitarian crisis”.
The Human Rights Council (HRC) called for a special session on 26 May 2009 to discuss the human rights violations in Sri Lanka. A European-backed resolution was put forward, pushing for unfettered access to detained civilians and an internal investigation of alleged war crimes by both sides. However, a resolution proposed by Sri Lanka won the votes of the majority. The resolution congratulated the Sri Lankan government on its victory of the civil war and ignored human rights concerns, making no mention of the high civilian death toll or the fate of the hundreds and thousands of internally displaced people. This turn of events has been viewed as a “disgrace” and “deeply disappointing” by Voice Against Genocide and Human Rights Watch respectively; many have also questioned the purpose and legitimacy of the HRC in the wake of its failure with regards to Sri Lanka’s human rights violations. Despite Navanethem Pillay, High Commissioner for Human Rights, assertions that investigating human rights abuses committed by the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers is needed for the country’s post conflict development process, the Human Rights Council’s resolution made no mention of the commissioning of an inquiry.
The United Nations also failed to obtain timely access to the civilians affected and displaced by the hostilities, despite appeals to the Sri Lankan government, humanitarian aid groups were denied access to the hundreds and thousands of displaced civilians weeks after the end of the war. Presently, humanitarian access to the displacement camps continued to be partially hindered.
a. Calls for action
Calls for an investigation into the deadly conflict began when Secretary General Ban ki-Moon expressed his intent to appoint a panel of experts in March 2010. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, in a statement released on 31 May 2010 called on the Sri Lanka government to allow an international inquiry into the government's offensive against the Tamil Tigers. Western governments, including the United States, also applied pressure on the Sri Lankan government to launch an impartial investigation into allegations of war crimes perpetrated by state security forces and the LTTE. On 28 May 2010, ahead of a meeting with Sri Lankan Foreign Minister G.L. Peiris, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged the Sri Lankan government to ensure that the Commission on Lessons Learned and Reconciliation be given powers to investigate allegations of war crimes committed by the government and the LTTE. Civil society including Amensty International, and Human Rights Watch issued calls for accountability into crimes committed in Sri Lanka. On 17 May 2010, International Crisis Group released a report entitled War Crimes in Sri Lanka, highlighting the commission of war crimes and violations of international human rights law by the security forces of Sri Lanka and the LTTE, which included the intentional shelling of civilians, hospitals, and humanitarian operations, the execution of unarmed LTTE soldiers, and the obstruction of food and medical supplies to civilians. The report called for a concerted effort by the international community, led by the United Nations, to further investigate alleged war crimes by Sri Lanka security forces and the LTTE and prosecute those responsible.
b. Release of UN Panel of Experts Report
On 31 March 2011, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon released the report of the Panel of Experts on accountability in Sri Lanka commissioned in 2010 . The Panel concluded that “a wide range of serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law were committed by the government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE, some of which would amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity”. Despite the government’s claim that it conducted a ‘humanitarian rescue operation’ with a policy of “zero civilian casualties”, the government was found responsible for the killing of civilians including through shelling of hospitals and humanitarian objects in three consecutive No Fire Zones, the denial of humanitarian assistance, forced displacement and torture. The LTTE was found responsible for using civilians as a human buffer, killing civilians attempting to flee, firing artillery in proximity to civilians and firing from civilian installations, forcibly recruiting children, forced labor, and indiscriminate suicide attacks. The Panel has estimated the number of civilians deaths to as many as 40,000, and the number of displaced persons at 290,000.
While the government has put in place measures to address accountability, the Panel found them deeply flawed, not meeting international standards for independence and impartiality, and thus far, ineffective. The Panel recommended that the Sri Lankan government immediately commence genuine investigations into violations committed by both sides and that the Secretary-General establish an independent international mechanism to monitor the domestic accountability process and conduct independent investigations into alleged violations. Ban Ki-moon responded on 25 April by indicating that he would only initiate this process with host country consent or a decision from Member States through an appropriate intergovernmental forum. Human Rights Watch urged for the establishment of the mechanism, saying that “Ban’s statements should not place an unnecessary obstacle to establishing a justice mechanism”.
The UN response to the conflict was also criticized by the Panel. The report concluded that “during the final stages of the war, the UN political organs and bodies failed to take actions that might have protected civilians” including its failure to publicize casualty figures. The Panel recommended for the UN Secretary-General to conduct a comprehensive review of the UN during the war and its aftermath. A statement by the spokesperson for Secretary General indicated that he would enact this recommendation.
The Sri Lankan government rejected the report, calling it “biased, baseless, and unilateral”. Its findings nonetheless confirm initial assessments made that crimes against humanity were committed in Sri Lanka with a clear failure from both sides to protect civilians. The RtoP framework clearly stipulates the obligation of each state to protect populations, also pointing to the need for the international community to take timely and decisive measures when the State fails to do so.
More information:
- See the Panel of Experts report
- See Human Rights Watch –Sri Lanka: UN Chief Should Establish International Inquiry
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