COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights
Fifty-second Session
Oral Presentation by Parthiban Paramananthan
Item
2: Question of the violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms in all
countries
STATEMENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Thank you Madam chairpreson
Article 147
of Geneva Convention IV of 1949
identifies wilful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, wilfully causing great
sufferings or serious injury to body or health, extensive destruction and
appropriation of property, compelling civilians to serve in the forces of the
hostile power, depriving the rights of civilians, unlawful confinement of
civilians as grave breaches of the rules of war. Protocols Additional I and II add further acts to the list of grave
breaches, in particular making the civilian population the object of
attack or carrying out indiscriminate
military operations knowing that there will be excessive civilian casualties or
destruction of civilian property.
Several situations of armed conflict where there are numerous
allegations of grave breaches have justified the attention of the international
community: Bosnia-Herzogovina, Rwanda, East Timor, Sierra Leone, Burundi,
Chechnya, Kosovo to name a few. Other situations where allegations the grave
breaches are as numerous have not met that attention. The war in Sri Lanka has
been one of these situations, where for political or economic self-interest
many countries have kept silent.
However,
investigators under United Nations human rights machinery have not kept silent.
There have been repeated denunciations of alarming numbers of violations
committed by the government’s forces made by the Commission’s working groups
and rapporteurs and the special representatives of the Secretary-General. Sadly,
neither the Sub-Commission nor the Commission have seen fit to respond.
Fortunately, there is increased international attention to this war, in part
fuelled by the dramatic military gains of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam,
in part by the efforts of notably Norway but other countries as well to find a
way to resolve this long war, in part by international outrage over the total
press ban recently imposed by the government and in part by the overwhelming
and credible evidence of grave breaches. Now also, international figures are
speaking out about these widespread grave breaches. We bring to the attention
of the Sub-Commission a few of the recent pronouncements on this war.
Madam chairpreson
On 29 June 2000,
the Chairman of the Committee on International Relations, Congress of the
United States, Congressman Benjamin Gilman, in his letter to Hon. Madeleine
Albright, US Secretary of State, stated that the Sri Lankan government has a
long history of repressing the human rights of the Tamil people. He stressed
that the government’s embargo on food, medicine and other essentials to the
Tamil people has caused a humanitarian crisis. He also indicates that the ban
on access for the media to the war zones could indicate that the Sri Lankan
government is concerned that the outside world may learn things that may not
reflect well on its image not doing enough to minimise civilian casualties.
On 18 July 2000,
two British members of European Parliament strongly criticised the Sri Lankan
government’s record. They said that the government has not done enough to
protect civilians caught up in the war against Tamil Tigers and is covering up
their suffering. The two members accused authorities of implementing an
oppressive press-censorship policy and of not allowing essential supplies,
including baby food and medicine, to be distributed in areas controlled by the
Tamil Tigers. They also said that the authorities were or even more so have
failed to result in meaningful international action. They claimed that the plight
of displaced people in and around the conflict area was as bad as the suffering
endured by civilians in Sierra Leone and Chechnya.
In addition to
our own NGO, a number of non-governmental organizations whose mandates cover
torture, extrajudicial killings, freedom of the press and other human rights
issues, have issued reports on the situation -- placing great blame on the
government for war-related atrocities. These atrocities include use of
multi-barrel artillery shelling and carpet bombings against the non-combatant
civilian population, use by the Sri Lankan Army of civilians as human shields,
indiscriminate artillery shelling and bombings purposively damaging properties
of the civilian Tamil people, and a dramatic increase in torture due to
promulgation of seriously repressive legislation and conditions in
detention. Government- sponsored
atrocities in north and east Sri Lanka are at the same level of gravity that
forced the international community to establish the special international
tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia – ethnic cleansing, starvation,
murders of children; extrajudicial killings, rapes, bombardments, shelling,
arbitrary arrests and detention, labour camps, ill-treatments, summary
executions, collective punishment, and pillage. These atrocities, committed on
a large scale and against the Tamil people, meet the international definition
of genocide. In this light, we appeal to governments that are presently or that
are considering supplying the Sri Lanka government with weaponry to stop or
refrain from doing so, as to knowing supply weapons to a government that is in
substantial non-compliance of humanitarian law rules can be viewed as aiding
and abetting war crimes according to Article 1 of the Geneva Conventions. This
would also qualify as “complicity” in genocide under Article III (e) of the
Genocide Convention. (Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime
of Genocide, United Nations Treaty Series, No. 78 at p. 277),
Madam chairpreson
In addition to
serious concerns about the conduct of the war by the Sri Lankan forces, the Sri
Lankan government also generates extreme concern about its conduct in the road
to peace. Recent proposals to “resolve” the Tamil question, ostensibly worked
out by the two biggest Sinhala parties, will be shortly presented to Parliament
by the government. This, in spite of the fact that the government failed to
consult either the LTTE or any Tamil political party in the making of this
“devolution package.” All the Tamil parties reject this “package” as being
manifestly inadequate – merely watered-down versions of earlier, rejected
packages. How can the government expect to achieve any form of national unity
if the population in question is blatantly left out of the discussions?? Or
told, like little children, what the plan will be? Any government that is serious about peace talks and peace plans
discusses them directly with the party with which they are at war. This is, to
quote the leading Sri Lankan independent newspaper, a plan to which nobody
agrees but the ruling party.
We are also distressed by the aggressively
anti-Tamil posturing of the right-wing Sinhala clergy and parties – some of
who’s recent pronouncements we consider “direct and public incitement to commit
genocide” under Article III (c) of the Genocide Convention. These groups intend
to oppose even the seriously defective package on the grounds that it provides
“too much” for the Tamils.
We ask the
Sub-Commission to address the situation in Sri Lanka as an issue of the highest priority, and in particular to
express its concern about the civilian Tamil population, the oppressive
legislation and the sweeping media ban. We urge the Sub-Commission to support
the mediation initiatives of Norway and other countries. We ask the Sub-Commission
to call upon all states to not supply armaments or monies for military use to
the government of Sri Lanka. Finally, we urge the Sub-Commission to condemn the
government of Sri Lanka for its failure to include the Tamil political and
military forces in any meaningful dialogue regarding resolution of this
conflict.
Thank you Madam chairperson.