Sri Lanka: A state against minorities
by M.S. Ismail
Dieser Artikel des Journalisten M.S. Ismail wird augenblicklich
international verbreitet. Er beschreibt die massive Eskalation der Gewalt auf
Sri Lanka, ist aber zugleich ein Appell an Menschenrechtsorganisationen
überall auf der Welt, alles zu tun, um die Unterstützung der srilankischen
Regierung vor allem durch die USA, Indien, China und Pakistan zu beenden. Wir
publizieren diesen Artikel, weil im srilankischen Konflikt auch die EU
einseitig Partei ergriffen hat, indem sie die LTTE auf ihre Liste
"terroristischer Organisationen" gesetzt hat. Der Artikel belegt
nachdrücklich, dass und wie sich die singhalesisch-nationalistische Regierung
in Colombo der Formel des "Kriegs gegen den Terror" bedient, um die bis zur
ethnischen Säuberung reichende brutale Unterdrückung der tamilischen
Minderheit zu legitimieren.
The protracted armed conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has drastically escalated since the
beginning of 2006. An estimated 4,000 people have since been killed and over
275,000 internally displaced in that period. This is in addition to more than
500,000 uprooted earlier in the conflict and by the tsunami of December 2004.
The areas mostly affected by the renewed war are Batticaloa, Jaffna, Mannar,
Trincomalee and Vavunia. Apart from the large number of internally displaced,
around 18,000 Tamils have been forced to find refuge in India since January
2006. Both sides to the conflict are accused of deliberately targeting civilians
and committing grave human rights violations with impunity. The government and
the LTTE have severely restricted access to the conflict areas under their
control, thus leaving more than half of the newly displaced people and other
affected populations without access to basic needs.
At this present moment the eastern district of Batticaloa is becoming a region
of internally displaced persons (IDPs). More than 35% of Batticaloa’s Tamil
population of 422, 674 have now been displaced. In the last three months alone
there has been a movement of 145,000 IDPs within the district. In addition,
approximately 30,000 Tamils from eastern Trincomalee have sought refuge in the
district. However there is a deliberate effort by the government to minimize the
figures.
The latest reports coming out from Batticaloa are alarming; there have been
numerous serious human rights abuses committed against these IDPs: forcible
return and resettlement in unsafe areas, using them as human shields, mass
arrests under emergency regulations, child recruitment, abductions, involuntary
disappearances, sexual abuse, political killings, torture, etc. The Government
has curtailed relief organisations’ access to IDP points in order to cover up
the human catastrophe that is unfolding in the east. UN relief agencies state
that the IDPs do not have shelter, food and water, and are living under
catastrophic hygienic conditions and suffering from fever, diarrhoea, coughs and
various skin rashes. Aid agencies have also warned that they are on the verge of
running out of food and the ever-increasing IDP influx in the eastern province
has already caused a severe shortage of shelter materials. Further overcrowding,
they fear, may cause major outbreaks of epidemics. The situation of the IDPs is
further complicated by the active involvement of a third armed actor, the Karuna
Faction, which split from the LTTE in March 2004. The Karuna Faction, with the
assistance of the government security forces, also carries out abductions,
political killings and child recruitment in IDP camps while pretending to do
resettlement work.
The Sri Lankan IDP problem is unique because of the nature of multiple
displacements. Many of the current Tamil IDP families have been on the run on
and off for the last 25 years and the younger generation of this population has
experienced for several months a return with a vengeance of intensive
air-strikes and indiscriminate shelling of their welfare centres, mass massacres,
disappearances and forced recruitment. Some of these youngsters were born in
refugee camps and rotated in between camps several times within a year. For this
community nothing has been permanent since 1985 other than the hostilities,
abuses and atrocities committed by the government, LTTE, Karuna group and other
paramilitary groups. In the recent past, the Sri Lankan government has been
moving the IDPs by force to the areas that they have newly captured from LTTE.
Most of these areas are full of landmines and do not provide the means to
re-build livelihoods for returnees as a consequence of the heavy militarization
process. It is also alarming that government officers and INGOs have to consult
a government backed armed group (Karuna Faction) on resettlement and relief
activities thus forcing even experienced UN bodies like UNHCR to withdraw/
reduce their involvement with IDPs.
The human right situation in Sri Lanka is deteriorating day by day. According to
the Minority Rights Group International report (released on 20th March 2007) Sri
Lanka has jumped 47th places since the previous year and is now in the top 20
list of countries where minority communities are most under threat. Minority
Tamils and Muslims are not only caught in the cross fire and made homeless
overnight but are specifically targeted for grave human rights abuses including
killings, abductions and disappearances. In the last two months (January and
February 07) alone, 388 people have disappeared. Citizens in the northernmost
part of the country have been completely cut off from rest of the country due to
the closure of the A9 road in last September. In Jaffna alone, the Sri Lankan
Human Rights Commission reports that every three hours one person is abducted
and/or killed. Eye witnesses’ accounts from Mannar reveal that LTTE cadres have
been forcefully recruiting young women from IDP camps. Some of these IDP women,
who have dared to resist, have been beaten up and stripped naked by LTTE women
cadres. IDP receiving points are the breeding ground for all forms of violations
against minority communities by all parties that are involved in this dirty war
and it is crucial that there should be an international mechanism put in place
to monitor IDP condition and assure some form of security to this most
vulnerable population of the north and east.
The Rajapakse government has been militarily supported by the USA, China,
Pakistan and India in its war. While some countries have been becoming more
critical of the government’s human rights record, the support for the war
against “terrorism” has given the government the confidence to continue with the
war. The government has been proactively blocking the entry of any foreign
missions, including the proposed visit of the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture,
which has been postponed twice; and since the EU countries are branded as
supporters of the LTTE their visas to undertake even humanitarian activities
have been denied or purposely delayed. Recently, security forces have been
accused of killing humanitarian workers of Action Faim who were killed in
execution style in August 2006, which resulted in the fear that the limited
international presence in most of the needy and war torn areas being further
reduced. For local human rights advocates most spaces for agitation against the
war have been completely blocked and local human right defenders are constantly
hunted down. The liberal media has been silenced either by killing vocal
anti-war journalists or arresting them on counterfeited terrorism charges.
The current government has introduced various forms of “counterterrorism”
measures. These measures have been used against the minority Tamils, specially
against the IDPs. There have been mass arrests from IDP camps and at crossing
points and the victims have been locked up in undisclosed locations without any
charges or access to lawyers. The government says the detainees are militants
and have surrendered voluntarily. The main counter terrorism measures have given
unlimited authority to the police and the military to arrest and detain suspects.
It has also widened the culture of impunity with the government-backed
paramilitary groups carrying out human rights abuses including abductions for
ransom even in the capital city Colombo.
In Sri Lanka today, raising human rights concerns have become unpleasant and
scary in the context of the ongoing war that the government intends to win at
any cost. Simply put, the governments of USA, China, Pakistan and India (through
its omissions and commissions) are encouraging this war against the Sri Lankan
minorities. Concerned civil society groups in these countries must help us stop
this madness.
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