June 4, 2011, 7:08 pm The Tamil Lawyers’ Forum alleges indiscriminate military action directed against the Tamil speaking people by successive Sri Lankan governments, particularly the present regime.
The Forum, while welcoming the UNSG Ban Ki-moon’s Panel Report on accountability issues in Sri Lanka, believes the government and the LTTE should be investigated for HR violations.
The following is the full text of a statement by the Forum to The Sunday Island: ``We welcome the Report of the Panel of Experts appointed by the UN Secretary General on alleged war crimes. The Report correctly identifies at least some of the horrendous sufferings to which the Tamil people were subjected during the final phase of the ethnic war in Sri Lanka.
``This indeed is the prime document that is on record of ‘credible allegations’ of the atrocities committed by the Sri Lankan armed forces and the Sri Lankan State on the Tamil people that the international community has at last recognized. Significantly the said Report also refers to human rights violations committed by the non-state parties.
``Tamils in Sri Lanka have been systematically annihilated over the last several decades by state-sponsored pogroms of 1958, 1961, 1977 and 1983, extra-judicial killings, large scale massacres, enforced disappearances and unresolved abductions. The enactment of National Security laws including PTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act) and Emergency Regulations were designed to facilitate unlawful arrests and prolonged detentions without trial and to obtain convictions based on confessions otherwise not admissible in Courts of law.
``Torture and rape of Tamil women were unabashedly used as weapons of war. The country’s weak and corrupt law- enforcing agencies and armed forces acting with the unparalleled facility of impunity ensured that crime detection, investigation and prosecution were at zero level. Tamils living in Sri Lanka never received justice in any form from successive governments. This is the raison d’état that has driven the Tamil community to seek justice through the international community represented by the United Nations.
``Pseudo nationalists and even professional organizations protest that the report tantamount to interference with the sovereignty of the country which argument has no merit in the present context. Sri Lanka is a member of UN that has accepted the Charter and had pledged to promote and protect human rights individually and in collaboration with other nations and the UN.
``In the modern International law, human rights violations are not within the exclusive jurisdiction of the countries but it is a legitimate concern of the international community. The developing concept of R2P has gone beyond and has legitimized intervention in case of grave human rights violations by the states in the event of the states failing to protect their citizens, invoking the concept of universal jurisdiction.
``We urge therefore, that those responsible for the commission of such acts be made accountable and that an independent and impartial investigative mechanism be set in motion in terms of the United Nations procedures to act on the findings and recommendations of the said UN panel report.’’
