4th July 2011

    Sri Lankan Military (Reuters: Sri Lankan military)

    Sri Lankan situation: the truth must come out

    19 Comments

    Sunili Govinnage

    Sunili Govinnage

    Tonight, ABC’s Four Corners will show Killing Fields, the UK Channel 4 documentary that claims to provide evidence of war crimes committed at the end of Sri Lanka’s decades-long civil war.

    But yesterday, the Sri Lankan High Commission asked the ABC not to broadcast the documentary. The program was shown to the UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva last month and has already aired in the UK. The Sri Lankan government claims the documentary contains manipulated videos and is biased. The Sri Lankan government is also claiming it now has the ‘original’ version of a video that it says has been doctored and sent to the documentary’s producers by pro-Tamil groups.

    The conflict between the government of Sri Lanka and the separatist Tamil Tigers, also known as the ‘Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam’ (LTTE), left the country in tatters. It also gave the world suicide bombing – the LTTE pioneered the use of suicide belts and introduced female suicide bombers. The LTTE fought for an autonomous homeland in the island’s north and reacted with violence against government policies seen to have privileged the dominant Sinhalese population to the detriment of Tamil Sri Lankans.

    There is no doubt that as part of their fight, the LTTE was responsible for killing thousands of both Sinhalese and Tamil civilians, kidnapping children and forcing them to become soldiers, and assassinating several public figures, including India’s prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 and Sri Lanka’s president Ranasinghe Premadasa in 1993. The fact that the LTTE, a known terrorist organisation committed atrocities cannot come as a surprise to anyone. But the most worrying part of this tragic story is evidence that appears to show that the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) was also committed crimes against humanity during the dramatic conclusion to the conflict in 2009. Killing Fields claims to have proof the SLA executed unarmed LTTE soldiers and knowingly shelled civilian safe areas.

    In March of this year, a UN panel released a report (UN Report) concluding there are ‘credible allegations‘ that both the LTTE and the SLA were involved in the commission of war crimes. It’s alleged that the LTTE used thousands of Tamil civilians as human shields during the final throes of the conflict, and that the SLA indiscriminately shelled no-fire zones, resulting in civilian casualties and damage to hospitals, a UN hub and Red Cross facilities. The Sri Lankan government, which had previously prevented the UN panel from actually visiting the country to conduct interviews and gather evidence (UN Report, p 6), urged the UN not to make the report public, but it was eventually released.

    In a nation notorious for its lack of press freedom the government went on a propaganda offensive, keeping journalists’ and even the United Nations’ eyes away from the end of the war. The old ‘first casualty’ adage really did ring true in Sri Lanka in 2009. The stories of what actually happened are only now trickling out, with Al Jazeera’s People & Power program one of the first to make it into war-torn areas, with strict military supervision.

    One of the Sri Lankan government’s consistent arguments against discussing what happened during the end of the war is that now the conflict is over, it is time to move on. The Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission was established in an attempt to let bygones be bygones. But the UN panel found that this body failed to ‘satisfy key international standards’ and has ‘not conducted genuine truth-seeking about what happened in the final stages of the armed conflict’ (UN report, p v; also 88-96). The thing with forgiving a wrong is that the wrong must first be acknowledged. Notably, South Africa’s painful Apartheid history was addressed by its Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which even with its name highlighted the need to uncover the truth. That foundation was imperative for South Africans to ‘come to terms with their past on a morally accepted basis and to advance the cause of reconciliation’.

    Talking about a civil war that arose from centuries of ethnic tension and tore a nation to shreds is no easy feat. Any such discussion will have to deal with the biases of language, the competing paradigms of thought about colonial legacies and the visceral feelings of nationalism that come from being on one ‘side’ and not the other. Because of this, trying to identify causes and tell any story about any conflict such as the one that devastated Sri Lanka will trigger passions, fears, resentments and accusations that may prevent the whole story from ever being understood. Despite these challenges, the truth must come out.

    Burying traumatic secrets will only foster the ongoing resentment and anger that still festers between Sri Lankans both on the island, and abroad. The pain of a Tamil diaspora which continues to view the LTTE as innocent martyrs will only serve to fuel Sinhalese nationalism, breeding a vicious cycle of hate that will put a pox on both their houses. The tragedy here is that both parties are to blame; both must acknowledge the pain before ever being able to forgive and let go.

    If the government of Sri Lanka and the SLA was indeed responsible for the atrocities alleged in Killing Fields and identified by the UN panel, those responsible must be brought to account. Fighting terrorism is one thing. But a civil government that intends to command the respect of the international community can never commit crimes against humanity in the name of winning that fight.

    Sri Lanka is a signatory to the Geneva Conventions, which outlaws war crimes. It is not, however, a party to the Rome Statute that established the International Criminal Court (ICC) in order to prosecute individuals for serious crimes against humanity. An ICC investigation to investigate and prosecute war crimes in Sri Lanka can only occur if the UN Security Council makes a reference to the ICC.

    As the propaganda war continues, the evidence must be carefully assessed according to international law. At this stage, it appears unlikely that the ICC will be in a position to look for the truth, and the Sri Lankan government is definitively denying any wrong doing. Given that the Geneva Statutes (and indeed all aspects of the UN) focus on protecting humanity, not sovereign pride, an investigation into allegations of atrocities is in the interests of everyone. Where the Sri Lankan government has nothing to hide, it surely has nothing to worry about. Or if it wants to take responsibility, it must let its people learn what happened and refuse to let comrades get away with murder.

    While escalating tension is inevitable, it is vital that the truth is brought to light. If the videos in Killing Fields have indeed been doctored, the truth must come out. However, the government of Sri Lanka’s previous behaviour in keeping stories of the war quiet affects its credibility in relation to these allegations. We, as viewers, would of course hope that Channel 4 and the ABC are confident that the documentary will not further muddy the waters.

    But above all, it is important to remember that where stories have been spun to sanitise an inconvenient PR mess and keep those on their payroll from facing justice, courageous and diligent journalism can inspire the world to demand global justice.

    Sunili Govinnage is a Sri Lankan-born Australian lawyer. All views are her own. Follow her on Twitter @sunili.

    17 Comments

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  • Kannthan :

    04 Jul 2011 2:16:34pm

    Excellent and timely article from the Sri-Lankan born Australian lawyer. Everyone should watch tonight’s Four Corners program to understand what went on during the last months of the war. Truth, justice and an equitable political solution is must for any long lasting reconcilliation and prosperity.

    Once again, thank you Sunili for the courageous article.

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  • Akootha :

    04 Jul 2011 2:08:00pm

    One has to draw the history of conflict in between these two nations from independence, 1948. And it would become clear this mass scale of deaths could have been avoided by still separating as two nations as the case was before British colonization.

    Only separation can heal wounds and bring real peace.

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  • col. wasinton fernando :

    04 Jul 2011 2:01:03pm

    how old are you.. you dont know tiger killings.. they killed entire village in bakkiella.. i am the co of ampara those days when we rush to that area we found 235 bodies 46 children were killed by heavy knives… no international investigations .. no iam ret.

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  • ranjan appadorai :

    04 Jul 2011 1:56:15pm

    sunili… my brother and sister was killed by tigers. no invesigation.. now your talking about war crimes.. shame

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  • A Nesan :

    04 Jul 2011 1:55:30pm

    PLEASE BE AWARE OF SRI LANKAN GOVERNMENT’S DIRTY TATICS & NASTY COUNTER ATTACK IN THE PAST:

    Leaders or respected officials,who raise their voice to condemn, make report or call for an enquiry against Sri Lankan Government’s VIOLATION on Human Right Issue, War Crime, and Genocide are subjected to get severe dirty counter attack by Sri Lankan Government, they call them LTTE sympathies. Sri Lankan Government use this dirty tactics to NEUTRALIZE their VOICE. It is being used against HILLARY CLINTON of US Secretary of States , ERIK SOLHAIM of International Development Minister, DAVID MILIBAND of U.K foreign Secretary, SWEDEN Foreign Minister, Shadow Foreign Minister of Canada BOB RAY, UN Human Right Chief NAVANEETHAM PILLAI , Former UN Chief LOUIS ARBOUR, very recently against UN Panel of Experts (appointed by Ban-Ki- Moon) list goes on like this, be aware that, now it is your (CHANNEL4) turn be strong. It is their OWN DIRTY, NASTY AND SHREWDNESS of their COUNTER ATTACK to NEUTRALIZE your powerful democratic Voice and, it is being valued as their POWER FULL TOOL and It did WORK indeed in THE PAST SO WELL. But, not any more, as now THE WESTERN WORLD had seen CHANNEL4 DOCUMENTARY, and is being a POWER FULL EVIDENCE, The SRI LANKAN GOVERNMENT now is in REAL SHOCK. We are aware of the fact that, there are now approaching countries like CHINA, INDIA & RUSSIA, Who do pay less attention on human right issue,also abuse human right and systems to get their support to escape for their committed War Crime and Crime against humanity, which were found they did commit against Tamil civilians in the UN Panel of experts report.

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  • Siva Sivakumar :

    04 Jul 2011 1:50:19pm

    Sunili, I do take your point but my problem is that any enquiry only into the end of the war is an incomplete reckoning. How about the many atrocities against civilians and combatants that took place over 30 plus years, again carried out by both sides. And how about the involvement of foreign governments in promoting the civil war and, in some cases like India, actively getting involved in it? Do you see these foreign governments coming forward to confess their misdeeds? I do not. South Africa had the moral authority of someone like Nelson Mandela to guide the process. Sri Lanka does not.

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  • sinha_view :

    04 Jul 2011 1:47:13pm

    There is a 300,000 strong Tamil ethnic population in Britain; larglely consisting of people who fled the then seperatist rebel-controlled northern Sri Lanka in the 1980s and 1990s. A vocal political activist community exists within the British Tamil community, many of whom have contacts in the media outlets there. People like (Doctor?) Sam Pari have been distributing Canadian and British Tamil propaganda here. Having read some of their post-war propaganda, it is clear to me that they pursue genocide allegations purely because they feel that it would give them the best chance of having leaders of the current Sri Lankan government arrested and hauled into The Hague. Their propaganda states that war crimes can be blamed away on military leaders (as with Imperial Japan post-WWII), whereas the government would be accountable for genocide. These people have no moral fibre and no respect for the truth.

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  • M. Arunan :

    04 Jul 2011 1:47:11pm

    Thank you Sunili Govinnage.

    Sri Lanka has not finished the war.

    In the name of ‘Sri Lankans have every right to live anywhere in the country’, the Army and government are busy carrying on an enforced changing of the demographics in North-East Sri Lanka. This only means ‘ethnic cleansing’ in a guise by Sri Lanka.

    The UN records indicate there are still 220,000 people in transit camps or with host families, but funds are being used to settle others.

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  • selva janani :

    04 Jul 2011 1:41:33pm

    /a civil government/

    rather the state terrorism that triggered the rebel terrorism. sl governments have been killing tamils even before the LTTE came into the scene. just showing its actions as just a retaliation to LTTE is anachronistic & highly underestimates and underexposes sl government’s atrocties

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  • sadith :

    04 Jul 2011 1:41:19pm

    The video that aired by C4 is nothing but garbage! It doesn’t give any proof whether those killings happened in Sri Lanka at all or it’s the SL army solders, not even a glimpse of evidence. The only thing it proves is that, still there are humans with prehistoric intelligence.

    Interestingly, now C4 fiasco has taken a U turn, Sri Lanka has found the original video clip aired by C4, it seems those killings were done by tamil terrorists (dailymirror.lk). Now, most likely C4 will face legal action for telecasting fabricated story. I think legal action should be taken against every individual who got involved with this video.

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  • mack :

    04 Jul 2011 1:40:21pm

    A well reasoned argument for the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission type process in Sri Lanka, Sunili. And I feel that such processes are important to people of both sides who have survived such a long period of bloodshed, hatred and dislocation.

    On the other hand, publishing such an article in Australia is (IMHO) only of academic interest.

    Such a process can only be agreed and implemented from within, with the detail of the process lead by people who were directly involved, and who have a direct stake in the outcome. This is not Australia’s issue. It cannot be "our" process, and our involvement in the domestic affairs of Sri Lanka is no more appropriate than it would be for us to be involved at this level in Sudan, Yemen, Zimbabwe, or a dozen other places where ethnic violence has caused violent divisions in society.

    If we were asked by both sides to participate, fine, however Australia has no relevant cultural, economic or military links with Sri Lanka. Other countries are much better placed to help.

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  • Zaf :

    04 Jul 2011 1:36:00pm

    [Fighting terrorism is one thing. But a civil government that intends to command the respect of the international community can never commit crimes against humanity in the name of winning that fight.]

    I guess the SLA decided that it was willing to commit some war crimes if by doing so they were able to put a definitive end to the LTTE; this is common knowledge, it’s hardly a matter of someone (yes, thank you BBC) "discovering" the truth. So far the regional powers at any rate, and some of the superpowers as well, seem to agree with the SLA – despite paying lip service to human rights. Respecting human rights didn’t get rid of the Tigers, in fact it enabled their survival – a hard point to argue, even if one doesn’t agree with it.

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  • Hemawati :

    04 Jul 2011 1:32:42pm

    Nice article, all the same as in govt media, embassy talk, and all. Well, truth will come out once the true international investigation starts inside the country in an international fashion, not a budhist way. Then the truth will come out, as the Mannar bishop and LTTE terrorist Rayappu pointed out, Tamils are looking some 146,000 people. Using all the satelite pictures, census reports, tamils faily count etc, we should come up with the true numbers. LTTE terrorists and Lanka govt terrorists will be punished. LTTE terrorists leaders 3 of them with the SL govt. I am sure when the budhist truth seekers agree to open the vanni theatre, we will find the traces of all the dead people. It is claimed the Lankan govenrment used many techiniques to get rid of the traces. The western forensic experts will find the bottom of this genocide. Until then we can take time to talk about Rajiv gandhi killing and oher assasins. Now, time to talk about 146,000 people disapperaed as per Govt census before and after war.

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  • Anon :

    04 Jul 2011 1:19:54pm

    The LTTE would like nothing more for there to be a war crimes investigation.

    Such investigations never hurt terrorist groups. They only hurt the governments who fight them.

    If the UN makes any findings about the LTTE, then the LTTE will not care. Their people are either dead or in hiding. They will never be charged or arrested for their crimes. And everyone knows it.

    But the Sri Lanka government is legitimate and visible. It can be targeted by sanctions and it can be punished for crimes. It is vulnerable to investigation.

    In this day and age, the government who complies with the laws of war will be pilloried for alleged breaches. But the terrorist groups who breach all laws of war as a matter of course, will never be held to account.

    In the world of unconventional warfare, the laws of war are nothing more then another weapon to be used by terrorists. Lawfare.

    Fire an unguided missile at an Israeli town. When Israel bombs your rocket site in response, leading to dead civilians, you scream out war crimes.

    Why? Because you know that Israel will be condemned for the mere allegation of disproportionate force. While the Palestinian rocket, a clear atrocity under the Geneva Convention, will never be punished.

    Because who can bother to punish a faceless Palestinian militant, hiding among the human shields he calls his people?

    Much easier to throw allegations at the Israeli government, who has the ultimate disadvantage in war: A moral standard by which they can be judged.

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  • ajith :

    04 Jul 2011 1:05:46pm

    Great article. Thanks for bringing the truth forward.

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  • Arun :

    04 Jul 2011 1:01:02pm

    Sunili, Great article!

    Thank you for well thought out and balanced article.

    What is needed is an international independent investigation given the numerous and credible sources of allegations. Why the Sri Lankan Govt has to oppose this totally if it’s record is clean?

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  • eddie :

    04 Jul 2011 12:51:14pm

    During the entire war how many live Sri Lankan Army prisoners of war did the LTTE ever release? The killed all SLA prisoners.