Rights and wrongs

Published : Dec 01, 2006 00:00 IST

There is much scepticism about the appointment of an inquiry commission by the government into human rights violations.

B. MURALIDHAR REDDY in Colombo

ON November 6, at 4 p.m. in Colombo, Mahinda Samarasinghe, Minister for Disaster Management and Human Rights, triumphantly announced at a news conference the appointment of a commission of inquiry by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to investigate the alleged serious violations of human rights in the country since August 1, 2005, and report to the President. The Minister was irritated by persistent questions from representatives of the national and international media on how citizens and the international community could be satisfied with the commission given Sri Lanka's pathetic human rights record and culture of impunity.

The Minister argued vehemently that the `hybrid commission' - it is to be headed by a Supreme Court Judge and its work will be overseen by an International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) headed by former Chief Justice of India P.N. Bhagwati - is the best mechanism put in place anywhere in the world. Samarasinghe argued that besides the 15 specific instances of human rights violations listed, the commission was free to investigate any other issue it deemed fit.

The commission is the result of an international outcry that began with the `execution-style killing' of 17 aid workers of an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) in the first week of August and grew to alarming proportions with the outbreak of the undeclared war between the Sri Lanka military and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The culture of impunity has penetrated so deep that the national capital Colombo witnessed over 50 cases of killings, abductions and extortions this year.

People had barely absorbed the `soothing message' sought to be given by Samarasinghe when, on the evening of November 8, news came about the death of scores of civilians in a refugee camp inside LTTE-held territory in Vaharai in Batticaloa district in the East. Going by the government version, the poor and innocent civilians became victims of `cross-fire' between government forces and LTTE cadre. Further, the Rajapaksa government accused the Tigers of using civilians as a `human shield' and opening fire at the Army's camps from the refugee camp, conveniently pushing under the carpet its commitment to let the commission decide the truth.

As of now, there are no takers for the government version. The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), based on its initial assessment, found no evidence of any military installations at the camp. It appears that a Sri Lanka Army artillery bombardment hit the Kathiravelli school in Vaharai, where more than 1,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) were staying, as a result of an intelligence blunder. In complete disregard of the initial findings of agencies like the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), whose team visited the school, the government continues to harp on the theme of the LTTE using civilians as a `human shield'.

United Nations agencies did talk about "equally disturbing reports" of the LTTE preventing some 2,000 civilians from fleeing to safety. In the eyes of the government and several influential world capitals, the LTTE is a terrorist outfit and there is hardly any surprise about its tactics. Nevertheless, the international community, rightly, expects the sovereign and democratically elected government in Sri Lanka to fare better. It expects Colombo to demonstrate utmost care and responsibility, even if this means its troops take a hit, when it comes to safeguarding the interests of ordinary citizens.

The incident drew ire from the world community. "[The] massive attack on civilians shows that force continues to be used indiscriminately in the conflict in Sri Lanka," said Jan Egeland, United Nations Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, echoing sentiments expressed by Norway, the ICRC, the United States and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi.

As per latest U.N. estimates, the fighting between the LTTE and the government has displaced almost 200,000 people since April 2006. They are in addition to the hundreds of thousands displaced earlier by the conflict and by the tsunami of December 26, 2004. The world community was particularly distressed at the Vaharai episode as it came despite criticism of the November 2 Air Force bombardment of a hospital in Kilinochchi, the LTTE-held town in northern Sri Lanka. The bombing killed five civilians and damaged the hospital's maternity ward. The government's response to the rest of the world was "sorry, we know better".

Amidst the Vaharai reverberations came the assassination in broad daylight of Nadarajah Raviraj, the pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Member of Parliament, on November 10 in the heart of Colombo. Far from remorse and alarm, the murder triggered yet another round of charges and counter-charges from the government and the LTTE. The government hinted that the MP asked for it by publicly criticising the lifestyles of LTTE leaders, including LTTE supremo V. Prabakaran, when people of the North and the East were reeling under a humanitarian crisis because of the war.

The LTTE and the TNA, on the other hand, portray the killing as further proof of an "intolerant Sinhala-dominated government" towards anyone who raised his or her voice for the underprivileged. Raviraj's participation in a rally outside the U.N. office in Colombo against the Vaharai incident is cited as the reason for the slaying. Prabakaran even bestowed the highest title of `Mamanithar' (Great Human Being) on him.

Considering that Raviraj was associated with a pro-LTTE outfit, the disgust and anger his killing evoked is amazing. An articulate second-time MP from Jaffna, Raviraj, with his language skills in Sinhala and Tamil and innumerable trips to television studios and media newsrooms, had become a symbol of hope that some day the ethnic bridge could be gulfed. Whoever took his life apparently wanted to extinguish that hope and the very possibility.

Concerned by the repercussions of the murder of Raviraj, the second TNA leader to die in less than a year, Rajapaksa asked his Foreign Office to get in touch with Scotland Yard to help the local authorities investigate the killing. While Rajapaksa's good intentions over the decision cannot be questioned, the move has raised more questions than it seeks to answer. The cynical reaction of a civil rights activist, who did not wish to be identified, was: "Why do we need Scotland Yard to investigate when the killers are in our backyard."

Obviously, the government's intention was to send the message that it had nothing to hide. At the same time, it was also an expression of utter helplessness on its part to conduct an impartial probe. The question returns: If Scotland Yard is required for a "satisfactory" investigation of the Raviraj case, how does the government hope to sell the investigations and the findings of the Independent Commission of Inquiry on human rights violations?

The reasons for the scepticism vis-a-vis Scotland Yard are not difficult to fathom. The last occasion when such help was obtained was during the late President Ranasinghe Premadasa's tenure. It came after the assassination of Democratic United National Front leader Lalith Athulathmudali on April 23, 1993. Not even the assassination of former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar on August 12 last year led to seeking Scotland Yard assistance. It appears that Scotland Yard did its bit in assisting the local authorities. Alas, no one has a clue about what happened to its findings.

Politics over the body of Raviraj continued in Colombo and beyond even as it lay in the funeral parlour and are expected to go on after his funeral rites in Jaffna on November 15. The TNA wanted the government to open the A 9 highway to Jaffna to enable it transport the body. Citing `security reasons', the government said there was no way it could open the highway it was compelled to close on August 11. The closure of the road triggered a humanitarian crisis in the Jaffna peninsula.

In yet another inexplicable move, the National Anti-War Front, a coalition of 120 civic groups, human rights organisations and Opposition political parties, chose to parade the body through the streets of Colombo on November 13 after giving a call for a shutdown of the capital. Spreading the message of peace through a dead body seemed to be strange logic.

The situation is expected to worsen in the coming days, particularly in the run-up to Prabakaran's birthday on November 27, which the LTTE observes as `Martyrs day'. In his speech on that day last year he warned that if the government "rejects our urgent appeal, we will, next year, in solidarity with our people intensify our struggle for self-determination, our struggle for national liberation to establish self-government in our homeland". That is, if the government did not come forward soon with a "reasonable political framework" that satisfies the political aspirations of the Tamil people.

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