In December 2004, my son and I visited Colombo, staying in a beautiful hotel and spending some time in Sri Lanka’s tourism spots. Indian pop star Shahrukh Khan and his large entourage also stayed there, occupying two or three floors of the hotel. A bomb blasted Khan’s concert, killing two men and injuring 19 others.
It was my first exposure to the civil war in Sri Lanka in which the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) organization was fighting the Sri Lankan military. Then, on Dec. 26, the Indian Ocean Tsunami hit the southern parts Sri Lanka, as well as southern Thailand and northern Sumatra in Indonesia. The tsunami brought political change, at least in Indonesia, where the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) agreed to accept special autonomy for the province. In Sri Lanka, the suicide bombing campaign continued and the military defeated the Tamil Tigers in 2009.
Since then, Colombo has been transformed. Beautifully restored colonial buildings and Buddhist temples, broad sidewalks crowded with residents and tourists, busy cafes and teeming shops. People talk with relief about an end to the furious conflict, which may have claimed nearly 150,000 lives over three decades.
But allegations of war crimes refuse to go away. The UN estimates that up to 40,000 may have died during the final weeks of fighting, when civilians, held hostage by the Tamil Tigers along the northeastern coast, succumbed to indiscriminate military shelling and lack of access to humanitarian aid. Thousands of “disappearances” remain unresolved. Sri Lankans talk in whispers about a massive de-mining operation that possibly also got rid of human remains.
And the skeletons, literally and figuratively, keep tumbling out. In December 2013, laborers at a water project uncovered a mass grave on northern Mannar island. Cellphone videos keep surfacing, showing soldiers seemingly executing prisoners, piling up corpses.
The LTTE had a horrific record of atrocities. The group was responsible for widespread forced recruitment of children, killings of political opponents and random civilians, and extortion of ethnic Tamils. The Sri Lankan government believes that the world should celebrate its triumph and ignore the rampant laws of war violations by both sides along the way.
The United Nations made no real effort during the fighting to press for accountability. Only after the war ended did Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon get a promise from President Mahinda Rajapaksa to investigate alleged abuses. But with no signs of Sri Lankan government action and damning international documentation piling up, the UN Human Rights Council supported resolutions in 2012 and 2013, calling upon the Sri Lankan government to implement the recommendations of its own commission.
The government took some good steps, such as its rehabilitation efforts: several hundred thousand people initially detained in military camps have returned home or resettled where they could. The nearly 12,000 alleged Tamil Tiger soldiers captured have been “rehabilitated” and released. In September, the government held its first provincial elections in the ethnic Tamil-dominated Northern Province.
But the crucial issue of accountability has gone nowhere. A handful of inquiries held in secret only publicized the results — absolving soldiers of wrongdoing. On Feb. 24, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay reported that the Sri Lankan government’s failure to undertake a credible national process to address serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law “can no longer be explained as a function of time or technical capacity, but that it is fundamentally a question of political will.”
Meanwhile, Sri Lankans are discovering new reasons to be concerned. The government, packed with the president’s relatives in senior positions, runs an increasingly authoritarian administration. Journalists speak of self-censorship. Victims of rights abuses and witnesses who demand justice are threatened. Human rights defenders wonder when they might go too far in their criticism.
Ruki Fernando of Colombo-based INFORM and Father Praveen Mahesan, a Catholic priest, were arrested in Kilinochchi on March 16, and are believed to be detained without formal charges under Sri Lanka’s notoriously draconian terrorism act. The police questioned Fernando and Father Praveen after they sought to ensure the welfare of 13-year-old Balendran Vithushaini, who had been ordered into probationary care following the arrest of her mother, Balendran Jeyakumari, on March 13. Both mother and daughter are active opponents of enforced disappearances in Sri Lanka and have been prominently featured in international media coverage of demonstrations by families of the disappeared. The military has encroached into civilian life particularly in the North’s former battle zones. Police torture is routine. A culture of impunity prevails.
Unsurprisingly, there has been increasing criticism of the Rajapaksa government’s rights record. UK Prime Minister David Cameron, after meeting with Tamil victims last year, joined in the call for an international investigation. The European parliament adopted a similar resolution.
Most importantly, the United States and other countries are preparing a resolution for submission to the UN Human Rights Council, which is meeting in its March session. It should recognize the meager government response to the previous two resolutions and ensure some form of an international investigation.
Sri Lanka has responded to the outcry by dismissing critical foreign governments and local activists as nothing more than LTTE supporters and apologists. Instead of complying with the previous resolutions, the government has dispatched envoys to oppose an investigation. It publicly named civil society members as supplying “false information” in exchange for financial support, putting those individuals at grave risk.
For nearly five years their government has refused to take serious action. It is clear that UN member countries need to take up the matter for there to be accountability.
Indonesia should join other concerned governments in backing an independent international inquiry and promoting a more rights-respecting Sri Lanka. Like the Acehnese, all Sri Lankans who were victims of the country’s three-decade civil war deserve justice.
Andreas Harsono is Indonesia researcher at Human Rights Watch. Follow him on Twitter at @andreasharsono. (Jakarta Globe)
