Many commentaries and articles have appeared in response to the questions posed by the Channel 4 video in the documentary Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields and the Report of the UN Secretary General’s Panel of Experts on Sri Lanka. The ghastly frames of depicting indescribable brutality and abuse have opened up a Pandora’s box not only overseas but also within Sri Lanka itself.
In summarising the diverse statements made by many: some are of the view that Channel 4 should not have shown this documentary because it could serve as an impediment to the reconciliation process in the island. Some say that Channel 4 should have also presented the ghastly crimes committed by the LTTE on an equal footing of importance. Some others have raised doubts about the accuracy of several frames of this video. The debate is centred on an atrocity based analysis of the last phase of the war.
As the context to prolonged war in Sri Lanka leading up to May 2009 has been widely analysed by many commentators, I will briefly discuss here only the issues that have been raised in response to the Channel 4 Documentary.
The Documentary and the Expert Panel Report raise several fundamental issues with regard to the alleged war crimes committed by the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the LTTE, on the basis that there are credible evidence that:
- The GOSL committed potential serious violations in the final stages of the conflict, including the killing of civilians through widespread indiscriminate bombing and shelling and the denial of humanitarian assistance; and the LTTE unlawfully used civilians as a human buffer and killed civilians who attempted to escape their control.
- The GOSL committed potential serious violations of human rights in the final stages of the conflict by systematically torturing, raping, killing and executing those who were captured, arrested or surrendered, and
- The GOSL did not recognise a request made by some members of the political wing of the LTTE, through other sources, for peaceful surrender, and later they were summarily executed along with their supporters by government forces.
The UN Expert Panel report states that the GOSL should initiate a genuine independent investigation and an effective accountability process. The GOSL has denied any culpability for civilian deaths, but their wavering on this issue is becoming apparent. In response to the demand for an independent investigation, all hell has broken loose. The responses have ranged from the pedantically absurd to the surreal and that old standby ‘western imperialism’. The pro-government lobbyists and expatriates have launched a strong campaign to prevent any independent investigation being initiated to examine what really happened during the last phase of the war.
Let us look at the issues that have been raised by the apologists of the government.
The UN ambassador, Palitha Kohona states that even if one counted the bodies shown in the Chanel 4 documentary they would not add up to a 100. Brigadier Shavendra Silva’s smug dismissal is based on his claim, which he says is ‘credible evidence’, that three of the women depicted in Chanel 4 documentary are one and the same person. Others say it is not possible of Sri Lankan soldiers to behave in such a barbaric manner and that it is a part of a conspiracy hatched up by western nations and their loyal lackeys: human rights activists.
Dr Noel Nadesan of Melbourne epitomises the last response that I read. He says that those who know both sides of the story were appalled by the Channel 4 decision to air a partisan video to blame the GOSL, with only occasional references to the LTTE atrocities. This comment was despite the conclusion of the Panel that there were credible allegations of serious violations of human rights and humanitarian law committed by both parties that amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Everybody knows, except perhaps Noel, that the Sri Lankan government refused to comment or produce credible evidence to dispute the contents of the video, even after Channel 4 requested the GOSL to do so. To the GOSL this was an exercise carried out by a small section of the international media.
He cites an incident about the former EROS leader Balakumar and his family that the LTTE fired at them and Balakumar’s young daughter was critically injured and she is yet to recover from her wounds. However, he does not tell his readers what happened to Balakumar and his son who had also surrendered to the government forces, before the final phase of the war.
He also wants to hold accountable the leaders of the pro-LTTE expatriate groups who financed, lobbied, and gave moral and material support to the LTTE to prolong their futile war, for aiding and abetting a banned terrorist group. Justice demands that these leaders, posing as human rights activists in the West should also be tried for the crimes committed by the LTTE against their own people, he adds. Yet, Noel is reluctant to say that in the West, anyone who has contributed to the war may be prosecuted under the international law, and several countries including the USA, Canada and Australia have already done so. However, so far, there has been no evidence presented to prove that those who were charged in these countries had committed war crimes or crimes against humanity.
Noel also picks up a theme which is common to several other responses to the Channel 4 Video. That is that among the so-called soldiers there is a man in slippers. He concludes that Sri Lankan soldiers never go about in slippers when they go out on operations. This is indeed a silly reason to discard the video as bogus. On what authority does Noel assert that Sri Lankan soldiers never go in slippers during military operations? Besides even if we grant that it is not a Sri Lankan soldier then does it still prove that the atrocity in question has been staged by the LTTE? Noel seems to have forgotten many aspects of the war when he comes to this conclusion.
It is well known that the dastardly actions of the LTTE in the past, had forced all other Tamil political groups to become associates of either the LTTE or the government’s armed forces and that many anti-LTTE armed militant groups have been working closely with the government’s forces. So to substantiate the armed affiliations of those who were present in that part of the video, it would be important to identify the person that is being bled to death. Is he a government soldier or a home guard? If not, then is he a person who turned his back to the LTTE? Or is he an anti-LTTE para-military? Then the government should be able to identify that person that had been killed. If not, then is he a LTTEer or a civilian? The issue I raise here is that there are many sides to the story behind this particular video frame that Noel and crowd tries not to present!
According to Noel, the LTTE moved their armaments and logistics to the government declared first No-Fire Zone and the AGA Parthipan and Dr Shanmugaraja can confirm this. According to him, these are facts and everybody should accept them because he says so! My issue is that he wants us to believe him and his statements simply because he travelled to Sri Lanka after the war and met with government Ministers, the President and perhaps many others. I am not blaming him for doing so. Nevertheless, here is the problem. Any explanation or interpretation coming from GOSL or the LTTE, or their apologists is not good enough.
Then he extends his rhetoric to justify what was done by the government by telling us that because America committed atrocities in Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere; India did so in Punjab; Russia did so in Chechnya; NATO is currently doing so in Libya; and China does so in Tibet, we should accept what the GOSL has done in the north and east. Isn’t this a shallow argument? If one commits a wrong and then others replicate it does that make it right or justifiable or excusable?
He adds that the US and other democratic countries have the right to eliminate threats to its sovereignty, peace and stability, transgressing, if necessary, international law. Did the US bomb 32 countries since 1950 just to protect their sovereignty? Each time the United States did so, they told us that these acts of war were fair and humanitarian. Today, we are told that this particular war is different from the previous ones. However, this is what was told the last time and the time before. Isn’t it time to question their claims rather than being manipulated into acquiescence as we did in the past? It is sad how low one can go to lick the boots of the aggressor against all the sovereign nations in the world.
Besides, Noel would do well to remember that the GOSL conducted the war to ‘liberate’ the Tamil people. Producing lame excuses such as ‘everybody else commits atrocities so why blame us?’ does not do much to assuage the anger and disappointment among the Tamils who, despite the much vaunted ‘liberation’ and watch helplessly as they are treated like a conquered race. The government is loud about reconciliation and if it means what it preaches then it ought to pay serious attention to the allegations raised by the video, especially when the GOSL and its apologists have little grounds to reject it other than the ‘analyses’ of their own people and a torturer in slippers. Strident and comic denials will only add to the disappointment of the ‘liberated’ Tamils.
However, I am in complete agreement with Noel on one point. That is that the government has to accept responsibility for their share of the civilian casualties and apologise for that and compensate the next of kin. He wants the government to accept their share of the civilian casualties and apologise for that and compensate their next of kin. Here he raises an extremely significant point. The implication of this statement is that the government cannot decide on this matter without conducting an independent investigation regarding what happened during the war.
I like to emphasise that none of the responses from sympathisers of both the GOSL and the LTTE so far have dealt with the substance of the allegations but have created a smokescreen of rhetoric to divert attention from the core allegations that urgently need to be investigated.
At a personal level I can give you three concrete/real life experiences of clear human rights violations committed by the state and their security forces which have never been properly investigated:
1. The killing of many thousands of JVP cadres, sympathisers and civilians who were executed during the 1971 insurrection. The government of the day (largely consisting of the SLFP) claimed at the time only a few hundred had been killed; except for Manamperi’s case no investigations were held;
2. I personally witnessed the looting, burning and killing of Tamil civilians during the 1983 pogrom by elements of UNP government and their supporters. The government then falsely blamed the JVP and other left parties for it. They claimed only 600 people were killed when the true figure was closer to 3,000 with over a hundred thousand being made homeless; and
3. The terror unleashed on the civilian population during the second JVP uprising in the late 1980s which resulted in over 60,000 deaths the majority of whom were executed with their hands tied behind their backs by the security forces and their bodies burnt or mutilated beyond recognition. It is worth noting that the captured or surrendered members of the JVP central committee and politbureau of 1987-90, including Rohana Wijeweera and Upatissa Gamanayake, were executed by the security forces.
The obvious question that I would like to raise is that given the government security forces, who have been professionally trained to get rid of those who are against the ruling elite, had killed many many thousands of Sinhalese in the South in the recent past, would they have behaved in a different manner in operating in the north-east? Would they have a special rapport with the Tamil people that would have stopped them from doing so to the Tamils!
So, sadly it comes as no surprise to me that the current regime is denying the charges without discussing the substance of the charges. Unless we start to deal with our history in an intelligent and humane way, there can be no genuine reconciliation and peace.
Instead of being outraged by the allegations made, we should be pushing for a credible independent investigation of both sides conduct in the war so we can move on.
Otherwise we will always be haunted by the ghosts of the past.
Lionel Bopage
23 July 2011
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