In December, the report of the Sri Lanka’s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) was published. It called on the government to investigate war crimes by both sides (government armed forces and the Tamil LTTE army). It also stipulated requirements for long-term reconciliation between Sinhalese and Tamil groups. But are there signs of any form of reconciliation?

        Many Tamils doubt the possibility of an unbiased investigation as long as the military continues to kill, abduct, torture or rape Tamil civilians, they say.

        “There are around 40,000 troops in Jaffna alone with a population of 550,000. That is a civilian-military ratio of 1:11," says Ramesh, a Tamil academic from the Tamil-majority city of Jaffna. "It will be a joke to suggest that investigations can happen under this climate. He declined to give his real name because of fear of reprisals.

        The government has been saturating Tamil-majority areas with military personnel mostly after the LTTE was defeated in May 2009 and its top leadership was killed. Human rights organisations say the manner of some of the rebels deaths are suspicious and could be classified as war crimes.

        While admitting there had been attacks on civilians by government troops, the LLRC report says they were the result of individual misdemeanours and not systematic military policy.

        A farce


        Anandan, a Tamil who also refused to give his name fearing intimidation, was as dismissive as Ramesh of the thought of an unbiased government investigation. “It is a farce and violation of natural justice to say that the culprit will [investigate] allegations against him or herself.”


        Anandan believes that the LLRC’s report is aimed at exonerating the military while pinning all the blame for war crimes on the LTTE. He supports his view by giving an eye witness account of a deposition before the LLRC.

        Doctor

        Dr. Thurairajan Varatharajah was one of the three government doctors who treated Tamil civilians as the military shelled and bombed areas near their makeshift hospital during the final months of the war. During that time he gave an interview to the international media about civilian casualty numbers.

        Later, in July 2009, he and other doctors were arrested. While in police custody however, Dr. Varatharajah made a public statement that he was forced to exaggerate civilian casualties by the LTTE to bring to disrepute the military.

        Anandan says that Dr. Varatharajah was not only aware of the bombing of civilian areas, but also of the government denying civilians medicine and food.

        However, at the deposition before the LLRC, the commissioners had directed their questions only to establish if the LTTE had artillery positions near Dr. Varatharajah’s hospital, thereby justifying the military shelling and bombing the area, rather than to find out what actually happened.

        “They were only interested in incriminating the LTTE not in knowing what happened to the civilians,” Anandan claims.

        The biggest threat


        The LLRC has recommended to the government to disarm Tamil paramilitary groups to reduce violence. Among the groups mentioned by name is the EPDP that works with the Sri Lanka army in Jaffna and is accused by various organisations, such as the UNHCR, of murder, abduction and intimidating the media.


        But to Ramesh and Anandan the recommendation is only pulling the wool over the actual culprits.

        “Disarming illegal armed paramilitary groups is necessary and will help normalise things. But the biggest threat today is not these armed groups but the army. Will they cut down on the size of the army?”

        Tamils like Anandan and Ramesh are convinced the government will not pursue an honest investigation into war crimes by the military. And the failure to do so will inevitably ruin any chances of genuine reconciliation between Sinhalese and Tamils.

        “How can you have reconciliation when the culprits who committed genocide and war crimes are at large? That will only promote further crimes and escalate genocide,” said Anandan.

        Tamils who live in the most violent and instable regions of the South Asian island feel that enduring ethnic reconciliation is still far away. They attribute this to what they believe is the continuing impunity enjoyed by the Sri Lankan government.

        By our Sri Lanka reporter J. S. Tissainayagam

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            “Some 6000 Tamils have been killed altogether in the last few years… These events are not accidental. It can be seen that they are the result of a deliberate policy on the part of the Sri Lankan government… Democracy in Sri Lanka does not exist in any real sense"

            - Senator A.L.Missen, Chairman, Australian Parliamentary Group of Amnesty International, expressed his growing concern in March 1986:

            "I am not worried about the opinion of the Jaffna people… now we cannot think of them, not about their lives or their opinion… the more you put pressure in the north, the happier the Sinhala people will be here… Really if I starve the Tamils out, the Sinhala people will be happy."

            - President J.R.Jayawardene, Daily Telegraph, July 1983

            "Mobs of Sinhala youth rampaged through the streets, ransacking homes, shops and offices, looting them and setting them ablaze, as they sought out members of the Tamil ethnic minority."

            - London Daily Telegraph 26 July 1983


            Christopher Kay 8 January 2012 – 8:17am / Scaborough, Ontario, Canada

        • reply

              It is a damn shame that Sri Lankan Tamils have lost the respect from the World community. These are criminals of the 1st rate and the world is becoming tired of their tricks that don’t work.


              Sri Lingam 8 January 2012 – 8:34am / ceylon

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                Yes, Sri Lankan genocide maniacs increased their respect by raping 13 year old Haitian girls while on UN Peace mission!

                Sri Lankan genocide propaganda team, your time is up. Get ready for jail time.

                http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7075866.stm


                Ponniah Mahalingam 8 January 2012 – 5:19pm

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                  Poor, frustrated lingam. He must still think it’s a coincidence that Tamil terrorists are the only ones being hauled up, locked away and deported from the west. LOL.


                  OaOAsithri 7 January 2012 – 8:47pm / EU

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                    So your "Sri Lankan Reporter" talked to two Tamils in Jaffna who said all this uh? And that too on condition that their identities should not be revealed uh? How very convenient – that is convenient for the LTTE TERRORIST remnants who have not given up their violent, horrific battle to carve out a racist-fascist "Tamils only" separate state in Sri Lanka! Is this Journalism or is it Jokeism I wonder! I traveled to Jaffna recently and strangely enough I met over 25 Tamils who spoke to me and told me how grateful they are to the Govt. of Sri Lanka for finally bringing peace to their lives. Today they are getting about rebuilding their lives and they all said how glad they are that today there is no more LTTE to come and kidnap their children to be used as the baby-brigade child soldiers – and many told me how they never saw their kidnapped children again. This article surely make me LMSSAO!!!