Sri Lanka - The Forgotten Atrocity

Some are calling it genocide, others are calling it the systematic slaughtering of thousands of innocent men, women and children and others are calling a contravention of the rules of war.

Whatever happened in Sri Lanka during the final brutal days of its long and bloody civil war, it is plainly clear that there are serious questions that need to be asked of the current Sri Lankan leadership by the international community. An investigative report produced by Britain’s Channel Four and re-broadcast on Australian television’s flagship current affairs program Four Corners has revealed seemingly irrefutable evidence of Sri Lankan Army personnel, presumably under the orders of their superiors, committing atrocities against the fleeing Tamil population. Atrocities which included the shelling of civilians, summary executions and the rape and murder of women filmed by Sri Lankan forces on mobile phones.

Of course the civil war that had been raging since 1983 saw the rise of the Tamil Tigers, a terrorist group, as recognized by the international community, that was to become responsible for the murder of many innocent civilians and saw the infamous advent of the now widely deployed use of suicide bombing. Indeed it is alleged, with some strong circumstantial evidence that the remaining remnants of the Tamil Tigers fired on their own population if attempts were made to escape from the few pockets of Tiger held Sri Lanka in the closing months and weeks of the war.

The Tamil Tigers are no innocent party in this protracted and complicated conflict.

The disturbing footage from the Channel Four report shows men and women undressed and executed via AK47 rounds to the back of the head. Other video show the naked corpses of women who had been murdered with evidence of sexual abuse and in some cases severe beating. Their battered bodies being unceremoniously dragged onto the back of Sri Lankan military trucks or being dumped in mass graves.

Throughout the course of pixled phone recorded footage, derogatory comments and slurs from what appear to be Sri Lankan soldiers can be heard directed towards the victims dead or in their final moments. These comments and slurs that I will not publish on this site.

Reports,  now  verified, show that the declared no fly zones in which the fleeing population were concentrated, believing these areas to be safe havens from the conflict were targeted by Sri Lankan forces in the dying days of the conflict. It would also appear that not only were the no fly zones contravened by the Sri Lankan army, but there was also deliberate targeting of hospitals within the designated areas resulting not only in the deaths of incalculable amount of vulnerable citizens but also subsequently resulted in a lack of medical and sanitation supplies being delivered to the most vulnerable, resulting in further death.

Given the sway of new evidence of atrocities, all of which occurred after United Nations staff were withdrawn from Northern Sri Lanka in September of 2008, the question needs to asked, what role does the UN have in investigating these allegations and the more than circumstantial evidence of Sri Lankan forces committing atrocities against civilians and Tamil combatants.

So far the UN has proven itself to be nothing more than an ineffective and toothless paper jungle that has had little or no impact on the real world unless the totally undemocratic Security Council gives affect to sanctions as it recently did unanimously toward Libya (minus a couple of abstentions).

Indeed the freshly reappointed UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has admitted that without the authority of the Security Council that the UN is powerless to convene the creation of an international mechanism to investigate alleged violations of international humanitarian and international human rights laws committed by Sri Lankan Government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

The Sri Lankan Government has already slammed an UN-commissioned report, a report written by a three member panel that was denied access to Sri Lanka, on war crimes allegations as biased, malicious and tending towards sensationalist "fiction". The Channel Four report and numerous witness statements point to the opposite findings.

The frustrating aspect of this whole sorry saga is that while there is clear evidence that both sides of the conflict have committed atrocities against the civilian, mainly Tamil, population there seems to be little or no interest to do anything about gaining justice for the thousands of victims.

Traditionally as with most wars, the victor has held the “right” to write their own history. But this is the 21^st century and the international community surely must hold itself to a higher standard of investigative inquiry when it is clear that thousands of lives have been mercilessly slaughtered in a conflict that had already claimed the lives of so many innocents.

The internationally recognized government of Sri Lanka must be held to a high standard and its political leadership, many of whom have close and long lasting ties with the military need the spotlight shone on them as starkly as the forces at their command that perpetrated these crimes against humanity.

What will the world do about this atrocity? Can the UN define the line that needs to crossed before it takes action and bring the perpetrators of these hideous crimes to justice?

Don’t hold your breath for the answer.

Update on Thursday, July 7, 2011 at 5:46PM by Daniel James

It has now been three days since the Four Corners program aired and unfortunately as I feared the reaction from the public and mainstream media’s response has been luke warm best.

Unlike a report on the same program about the cruelty endured by Australian cattle in Indonesian abattoirs where the airwaves and subsequent response from shock jocks and politicians alike, bordered on hysteria, it would seem that the suffering an murder of innocent men, women and children doesn’t resonate with the Australian public in the same way. 

The only response thus far has been from Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd who tweeted on Monday night:

#4corners tonight on Sri Lanka deeply disturbing. UN Human Rights Council can't simply push this to one side. Action needed. KRudd

Let’s hope that the Minister is true to his word and that other governments around the world apply pressure through the United Nations to ensure some justice for the victims of the atrocities committed in Sri Lanka.