Council: UNHRC Agenda: Human Rights violations against Sri Lankan Tamils in Jaffna Peninsula

Transcription

1 Council: UNHRC Agenda: Human Rights violations against Sri Lankan Tamils in Jaffna Peninsula From the time when the British granted political independence to the island in 1948, the Tamil people faced systematic oppression from the Sinhala controlled state. Their language rights were destroyed - excluding them from any state sector employment; discriminatory rules essentially stopped them from entering universities, and state organised colonisation schemes placed Sinhala settlers in the north and east of the island, the place which the Tamils considered their homeland. For nearly three decades, Tamils adopted strictly Gandhian methods to organise mass political protests, which were met with an increasingly violent and chauvinist Sinhala political backlash, resulting in a series of anti-tamil pogroms by rampaging mobs, aided and abetted by the state s security forces. Met with escalating force from an intransigent state, the Tamil s non-violent direct action campaign eventually settled on clear support for their own independent state of Tamil Eelam. Some 300,000 Tamil civilians were displaced by armed conflict, and subsequently detained in government camps. Those suspected of ties with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) more than 12,000 were detained separately. Many were held incommunicado and sometimes in facilities not designed to hold prisoners or in secret places of detention. Civilians were trapped for months prior to the conflict s end in May without adequate food, shelter, sanitation and medical care, or access to humanitarian aid. The LTTE used civilians as human shields and used threats and violence to prevent them from fleeing the conflict zone. Government artillery killed and wounded civilians, including patients in hospitals and medical workers. The government failed to address impunity for past human rights violations, and continued to carry out enforced disappearances and torture. Hundreds of Tamils continued to be detained in the south for lengthy periods without charge under special security legislation. Human rights defenders and journalists were killed, assaulted, threatened and jailed. Police killings of criminal suspects intensified.

2 Background In May, the Sri Lankan government declared victory over the LTTE, ending more than 25 years of armed conflict. But an end to fighting did not end the government s reliance on draconian security legislation or stem human rights violations. Armed conflict Both the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE violated international humanitarian law. The government used heavy weaponry indiscriminately in areas densely populated with civilians. The LTTE forcibly recruited adults and children as combatants, used civilians as human shields against the approaching government forces, and attacked civilians who tried to escape. Independent accounts from the conflict areas were limited as access by the media, the UN and humanitarian agencies was restricted. According to UN estimates, thousands of civilians died in the fighting. Displaced people reported enforced disappearances of young men separated from their families by the military as civilians crossed into government territory and underwent military screening to identify LTTE combatants. The government did not begin to reopen the A9 highway the only land route to the Jaffna Peninsula until July, thus severely restricting civilian access to humanitarian supplies during the first half of the year. Private vehicles were banned until late December. Internally displaced people By the end of May, civilians displaced by fighting were confined to government camps in the north and east where conditions were crowded and unsanitary. Many thousands of other civilians also remained displaced from earlier stages of the conflict. The Sri Lankan government initially banned humanitarian agencies from the newly established camps, which were run by the military, but gradually eased restrictions to allow delivery of relief material. Humanitarian workers were not permitted to speak to displaced people. Visits by journalists were tightly controlled, and no independent human rights monitoring was permitted. The ICRC lost access to the displaced when the government directed them to downgrade activities after fighting concluded. By year s end, restrictions on freedom of movement had been relaxed, but over 100,000 people remained in the camps.

3 Abuses by armed groups LTTE The LTTE recruited children as fighters and punished people who resisted forced recruitment. They imposed a strict pass system, hindering thousands of families from the troubled region from moving to safer areas. As conflict intensified and territory controlled by the LTTE diminished, they actively prevented civilians from escaping, including shooting at those who tried to flee. The LTTE also deliberately targeted civilians. They launched indiscriminate attacks outside the conflict zone, including suicide bombings and an aerial assault on Colombo. Government-allied armed groups Armed groups allied with the government were used for counter-insurgency, including the Eelam People s Democratic Party, the People s Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam, and the Tamil People s Liberation Front (TMVP). Members carried out enforced disappearances and hostage-taking for ransom, unlawful killings, and recruitment of child soldiers, including from camps housing internally displaced people. Enforced disappearances The government continued to carry out enforced disappearances as part of its counterinsurgency strategy. Enforced disappearances were reported in many parts of the country, particularly in northern and eastern Sri Lanka and in Colombo. Arbitrary arrests and detentions The security forces used emergency regulations to arrest and detain many thousands of Tamils suspected of LTTE links. People were arrested in various contexts, including in displacement camps, during search operations and at security checkpoints throughout the country. Hundreds of people remained detained without charge in police lock-ups and southern prisons under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and emergency regulations on suspicion of links to the LTTE.

4 On 18 September, 2010, some 36 Tamil prisoners on hunger strike protesting against their prolonged detention without trial at Welikada jail said they were beaten by prison guards. Beatings by prison guards in November injured 22 Tamil prisoners, seven of them seriously. Extrajudicial executions Police killings of criminal suspects escalated after President Mahinda Rajapaksa ordered a crackdown on underworld activity in July. At least five alleged gang leaders were abducted and killed in July alone. In mid-august 2010, thousands of Sri Lankans took to the streets to protest against the killing of two young men by police in Angulana, a suburb of Colombo, after a woman with police links accused them of harassment. Witnesses say the victims were beaten and otherwise tortured before being taken out of the station; their bodies were found the next day. Impunity Investigations into human rights violations by the military and police stalled. Court cases did not proceed as witnesses refused to come forward for fear of reprisals. In June, 2010 a Presidential Commission of Inquiry, established to look into serious violations of human rights committed since 2006, was disbanded without completing its mandated tasks. Of the 16 cases referred, only seven were investigated, with reports on five finalized. No reports were made public and no inquiry resulted in prosecutions. People suspected of committing human rights violations continued to hold responsible positions in government. Minister of National Integration Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan and Chief Minister of the Eastern Province Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan were reportedly responsible for abducting teenagers to serve as child soldiers, and holding as hostage, torturing and unlawfully killing civilians and people suspected of links to the LTTE. Both men were formerly LTTE members. There was no official investigation into any allegations of abuse.

5 Human rights defenders Human rights defenders continued to be subjected to arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, attacks and threats. Journalists were killed, physically assaulted, abducted, intimidated and harassed by both government personnel and members of armed groups. Little effort was made to investigate attacks or bring perpetrators to justice. Lasantha Wickrematunge, outspoken critic of the Sri Lankan government and editor of thesunday Leader newspaper, was shot and killed on his way to work in On 1 June, 2010, unidentified assailants abducted and assaulted Poddala Jayantha, General Secretary of the Working Journalists Association in Sri Lanka. His attackers called him a traitor, shaved his beard, beat him ruthlessly. A human rights crisis is unfolding in Sri Lanka where tens of thousands of people are trapped in the middle of heavy fighting between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lanka Armed Forces in the north eastern Wanni region. The Tamil Tigers, swept by Sri Lankan forces from much of their de facto state in eastern and northern Sri Lanka, are now confined to a 35 square kilometer sliver of coastal land. With them in many cases, involuntarily are thousands of civilians, nearly all ethnic Tamils, caught between the sea and two fighting forces with records of serious human rights abuses. Most independent observers estimate there are between 150,000 to 200,000 civilians still confined in this area; the Sri Lankan government has claimed that there are only 50,000 to 60,000 civilians there.ii What is indisputable is that these people face grave risk of harm from military action, lack of food and health supplies, and the outbreak of disease. They must be immediately evacuated from the conflict zone and provided with shelter and support. Most of the civilians now caught up in the conflict have already been forced to flee their homes in multiple waves of displacement during the 25-year-war in Sri Lanka, as well as after the Indian Ocean tsunami. They now face a potential humanitarian catastrophe as the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan government continues to disregard their well-being. The Tamil Tigers have used these civilians as a buffer against government forces, as well

6 as a steady source of income, forced recruitment (including of children), and involuntary labor. For its part, the Sri Lankan government, buoyed by its initial rapid military advances, has pursued a conclusive military end-game without fulfilling its obligations for the fate of the civilian trapped in the conflict zone. Even as the fighting rages on, the Sri Lankan government has sought significant international financial, material, and technical aid from various countries as well as international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, without agreeing to international standards or international monitoring. In these circumstances, the United Nations and Sri Lanka s international donors should do all they can to protect the tens of thousands of Sri Lankans facing disaster away from the eyes of the world. Torture and other ill-treatment Police and army personnel continued to torture or otherwise ill-treat detainees. Victims included detained Tamils suspected of links to the LTTE and individuals arrested for suspected ordinary criminal offences. Some people died in custody after being tortured by police. Police killings of criminal suspects in apparent staged encounters or escape attempts continued to be reported; police descriptions of the cases were often strikingly similar. Investigations into human rights violations by the military, police and other official bodies and individuals made no apparent progress; court cases did not proceed. Military and civilian officials rejected allegations that Sri Lankan forces had violated international humanitarian law in the final phase of the armed conflict that ended in May 2009 and made repeated public statements claiming that zero civilian casualties had occurred. In videotaped testimony made available by Janasansadaya, a Sri Lankan NGO, Samarasinghe Pushpakumara said he was detained on 10 November, 2011 and tortured by Beruwala police after an officer pretended to hire him as a driver and then arrested him for burglary. Samarasinghe Pushpakumara said he was assaulted, threatened with criminal charges for possession of drugs or bombs, and told he could be killed. He was blindfolded and tied to a bed for two days before police released him without charge, but with a warning to keep silent about his treatment.

7 Possible violations of international humanitarian law by the LTTE and the Sri Lankan Armed Forces LTTE has reported forcibly displaced civilians and pushed them into areas under their control where they are effectively kept as hostages and used as a buffer against the Sri Lankan armed forces in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law. The LTTE reportedly prevents civilians from leaving their territory with a pass system that restricts freedom of movement. The LTTE is also reported to have deliberately attacked civilians, including by shooting at civilians that have tried to flee areas under their control. Such attacks would constitute war crimes. The LTTE has carried out attacks from areas densely populated with displaced Tamil families under their control, exposing the trapped population to injury and death as a result of government ripostes. The LTTE appears to have made no effort to protect civilians from attacks in violation of customary international humanitarian law. On the contrary, with their refusal to allow civilians to leave from the shrinking territory under their control, the LTTE have put civilians at risks from attacks. The LTTE has forcibly recruited civilians, including children, to build bunkers and serve as troops - acts which constitute war crimes. Reports from eyewitnesses, aid workers and civilians in the conflict zone strongly suggest that both the LTTE and the Sri Lankan Armed Forces have failed to take necessary precautions as required under international humanitarian law to protect civilians and civilian objects from attack. Furthermore, reports indicate that both sides may have deliberately attacked medical facilities and hospitals. International humanitarian law prohibits the deliberate targeting of civilians or civilian objectsxviii, as well as indiscriminate attacks, i.e. attacks by whose nature strike military objectives and civilians or civilians objects without distinction. Hospitals, medical facilities and personnel enjoy special protection and cannot be attacked unless they are used to commit a hostile act and even then only after appropriate warnings have remained unheeded. The government of Sri Lanka has intensified the suffering of the people by cutting off international humanitarian assistance to those trapped with them, despite lacking the capacity to meet the needs itself. In September 2008, the government expelled international humanitarian agencies from the region citing security concerns. The government of Sri-Lanka has argued that it is not safe for aid workers to an assessment not shared by the humanitarian agencies themselves. According to doctors inside the Wanni, the Ministry of Health instructed all doctors and health workers to leave LTTE-

8 controlled areas on 10 February In early February 2009 hundreds of injured civilians in the region were left with no proper medical facilities, doctors were performing operations without anaesthetics and patients had to wait up to a week for urgent treatment. A letter from the Office of the Regional Director of Health Services in Mullaitivu notes that since January 2009, more than 500 civilian deaths have been registered at hospitals. The continued refusal by the government to allow international humanitarian operations, and the restrictions placed upon doctors and health workers have precipitated an acute humanitarian crisis. Government convoys and shipment by sea of food and medical supplies have alleviated some of the gaps but is inadequate for the needs. Tens of thousands of people are living without adequate food, shelter and medical care. The deliberate denial of basic services and assistance such as health care and food is prohibited by international humanitarian law. Under international humanitarian law, the parties to the conflict must allow and facilitate rapid and unimpeded passage of impartial humanitarian relief. Temporary restrictions to the freedom of movement of relief personnel can only be allowed in case of imperative military necessity. Given that the government has thus far failed to provide for the basic humanitarian needs of the population in violation of international law, it must allow aid agencies that have experience of operating in conflict zones to make their own assessment as to whether it is too dangerous for them to operate. Organisations such as Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) reported that the critically injured were not getting the assistance they needed because ambulances did not receive adequate security assurances to move across frontlines to evacuate the wounded. The need for security and protection of displaced people Civilians who try to flee the fighting run a gauntlet between the Sri Lankan armed forces and LTTE fighters. Many civilians risk their lives to reach government controlled areas. The Sri Lankan government has claimed that Tamil Tigers have fired upon civilians seeking to escape the conflict zone. There are reports that the Tamil Tigers have interfered with evacuation attempts by the ICRC by applying a pass system even on the seriously wounded. The Tamil Tigers efforts to prevent civilians from leaving the desperate conditions of the conflict zone could constitute a war crime. Civilians who exit areas of fighting, often exhausted, traumatised and sometimes badly injured, face an ordeal once they enter government-controlled areas.

9 The Sri Lankan government, which is ultimately responsible for the rights and welfare of the displaced population, has shown itself incapable of addressing the logistical demands of the displacement crisis, a situation likely to get significantly worse with the expected exodus of tens of thousands of civilians out of LTTE-held areas. International humanitarian and human rights law guarantee the displaced fundamental rights and protections. Displaced individuals do not forfeit the rights of the rest of the population as a result of displacement. While the government has a primary obligation to provide security and assistance to the displaced, it should do so in ways that respect and protect their human rights. Sri Lanka is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and other human rights treaties, yet reports indicate that the government is failing to protect the rights of the displaced. A climate of Fear Both the government and the LTTE have routinely used harassment, threats, enforced disappearances, violence and killings to silence critical voices and hamper the work of journalists, and domestic and international NGOs over the course of the 25 year conflict in violation of international human rights and humanitarian law. The LTTE never brooked dissent and systematically assaulted free expression in the areas under its control, frequently through threatening, and carrying out, violence against critics in particular, voices within the Tamil community that disagreed with the Tamil Tigers often abusive behavior. Disappointingly, Sri Lanka s once vibrant civil society, and in particular its media, has faced severe threats to freedom of expression over the past few years in Sri Lanka. There have been increasing instances of physical attacks on the media and other critics, including the recent assassination of the editor of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunge. Human rights defenders and journalists across the island report increased attacks including death threats. 14 journalists have been killed since 2006 and over 10 journalists have fled the country this year alone for safety. The perpetrators of such human rights violations have never been brought to justice. These attacks take place against a backdrop of official government statements against critical voices, accusing dissenting journalists or human

10 rights activists of treason or supporting the Tamil Tigers. The government s frequent vitriolic responses to any criticism only serve to erode its legitimacy on the international arena, but within Sri Lanka, such rhetoric serves to implicitly support, if not actually encourage, physical attacks on government critics.