“However there seems to be a noticeable change in the pattern of violence carried out by the state security apparatus. It is as if there was a concerted plan to actually sabotage the very legality of the sovereign state and to cause irreparable damage to the reputation of the current government within the international arena.”_________________________________________
by Rajeswary Balasuramaniam in London
(March 09, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Human rights violations in Sri Lanka continue to occupy the International Human Rights Council in Geneva and many international human rights groups have for many years expressed their concern over the continuation of violence and human rights abuses that occur with impunity in Sri Lanka.
Since the Tamil vote for a separate home land, the ‘Tamil Ealam' in 1977, the state machinery has unleashed unbearable hardship on the Tamil minority community. The state’s efforts to crush any opposition commenced in 1971. Nearly 60.000 Sinhalese young men, women and their kith and kin perished, when some of them took up arms against the state in order to protest against a political and economic structure that discriminated against a large section of the population. In the process, some of the Sinhala villages were destroyed with the military help provided by the Indian prime minister Mrs Indira Gandhi to Mrs Srimavo Bandarayanayake, the Sri Lankan prime minister at the time of the crisis.
Since 1977, the state machinery of Sri Lanka has been put to the concerted effort of decimating the Tamil community in the country. Mr J. R. Jeyawardene's government minister compiled a list of Tamil residents that were to be eliminated from the capital Colombo. Hundreds of lives were lost and millions of pounds worth of properties were damaged. Tamils ran for their lives and escaped to seventy six countries around the globe. Up to now, 1.2 million Tamils have fled the country and 189.000 are internally displaced within Sri Lanka.
In the 1980's the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) was established and soon became the strongest of five liberation groups – all of which had been set up to fight for a separate state for the Tamils. The LTTE commenced a brutal crusade against the other groups and probably killed more Tamils than the Sri Lankan army did.
Today, human rights organisations are pointing their finger at the Sri Lankan government accusing it of human rights violations in the country. They state that since 2006 -2007, Sri Lanka has seen more killings, abductions, disappearances than any other country in the world
According to the Sri Lankan foreign secretary, Mr Palitha Kohane,''there had been a steady decline in disappearances over the last 12 months, because of new measures taken by the government, unfortunately Human Right Watch has tend to exaggerated the situation. The group's unfair report was based on unsubstantiated claims and 'anecdotal evidence' while the government's own investigation in to disappearances were proceeding quickly''
The Sri Lankan security services kill not only members of the Tamil minorities but also target individuals such as human rights or civil rights campaigners, trade unionists, journalists and parliamentarians. People in Sri Lanka are living in constant fear of state terrorism. While the Security Council sits in session in Geneva, many atrocities are committed in the North and East of Sri Lanka. On the 5th of March, a Tamil parliamentarian, Mr Sivenesan, was assassinated by the security forces in the north of the country.
The British press, specifically The Guardian and The Independent attacked the Sri Lankan government over their human rights abuses. A recent article appeared by Bala Thambo, a trade unionist into his old age and well known within the Western human rights circles for his activism over the last fifty years or more. He defines Sri Lanka as a ''police state''.
The Tamil Information in London stated in their recent report that the '' intelligences services and the shadowy groups operated by senior government officials are also responsible for abuses against human right defenders. These violences are mainly arbitrary arrest, torture disappearances and murder. Over 5000 Tamils are killed since 2006 in the North and East, these include extra judicial killings''.
Who is in power?
Since gaining national independence in 1948 from the British, the state has not been in the control of the democratic leadership, or it seems that the leaders have been unable to wrest the constitutional right of governing the country from the military, the police and the security forces. The security and military apparatus seems to have all the power and they behave as if they were above the law. Sri Lanka is constitutionally a democratic country and the state has the responsibility to uphold the human rights of everyone in the country. Ever since the 1971 uprising by the Jathika Vimukthi Peremuna (JVP), the security forces have taken upper hand and they seem to do whatever they like and do so with impunity.
However there seems to be a noticeable change in the pattern of violence carried out by the state security apparatus. It is as if there was a concerted plan to actually sabotage the very legality of the sovereign state and to cause irreparable damage to the reputation of the current government within the international arena.
For instance what could be the reason for government forces being ordered to assassinate eighteen international aid workers, as has happened in Trincomalee in 2006, given that the government actually needs the support of these aid agencies in order to rebuild the country. There are some who are beginning to hypothesize that , perhaps, there is an enemy operating within in order to damage the country’s current Government.
- Sri Lanka Guardian
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