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TUESDAY, 18 OCTOBER 2011 By Ayesha Zuhair
Q: Why is it that organisations such as the ICG were mute on the atrocities committed by the LTTE, and yet are now very vocal in allegations of war-crimes against the government? Is it that only state actors have to be 'accountable' while non-state actors can get away with large-scale violations of human rights?
It is simply not true that the International Crisis Group has been mute on the atrocities of the LTTE. From our very first report the Crisis Group has consistently criticised the crimes of the LTTE. In our first report in November 2006 on "The Failure of the Peace Process", we wrote that the LTTE "continued to kill and silence opponents, recruit child soldiers and run the areas it controlled like a totalitarian regime". We strongly criticised the failure of Norway, the UNP and foreign states to do all it could to stop the LTTE's grave violations of human rights during the peace process. This criticism was repeated in our June 2007 report on "Sri Lanka's Human Rights Crisis", where we also analysed the LTTE's "deliberately provocative attacks on the military and Sinhalese civilians as well as its violent repression of Tamil dissenters and forced recruitment of both adults and children". Our May 2007 report, Sri Lanka's Muslims: Caught in the Crossfire, discussed at length the LTTE's 1990 forced expulsion of northern Muslims and massacres of Muslims in the east. Our January 2008 report directly called on the LTTE to "abandon publicly the demand for an independent Tamil state" and to "cease all attacks on civilians, suicide bombings, forced recruitment and repression of media freedom and political dissent and respect fully international human rights and humanitarian law". In March 2009 we called on the LTTE to surrender and to allow Tamil civilians trapped in the fighting to go free. In January 2010 we wrote that "the LTTE's defeat and the end of its control over Tamil political life are historic and welcome changes." Our May 2010 report on War Crimes discussed the atrocities and war crimes of the LTTE in detail. No honest reader of any of our thirteen reports on Sri Lanka can say that we have been mute on the atrocities and other crimes of the LTTE.
Q: Why is it that organisations such as the ICG were mute on the atrocities committed by the LTTE, and yet are now very vocal in allegations of war-crimes against the government? Is it that only state actors have to be 'accountable' while non-state actors can get away with large-scale violations of human rights?
It is simply not true that the International Crisis Group has been mute on the atrocities of the LTTE. From our very first report the Crisis Group has consistently criticised the crimes of the LTTE. In our first report in November 2006 on "The Failure of the Peace Process", we wrote that the LTTE "continued to kill and silence opponents, recruit child soldiers and run the areas it controlled like a totalitarian regime". We strongly criticised the failure of Norway, the UNP and foreign states to do all it could to stop the LTTE's grave violations of human rights during the peace process. This criticism was repeated in our June 2007 report on "Sri Lanka's Human Rights Crisis", where we also analysed the LTTE's "deliberately provocative attacks on the military and Sinhalese civilians as well as its violent repression of Tamil dissenters and forced recruitment of both adults and children". Our May 2007 report, Sri Lanka's Muslims: Caught in the Crossfire, discussed at length the LTTE's 1990 forced expulsion of northern Muslims and massacres of Muslims in the east. Our January 2008 report directly called on the LTTE to "abandon publicly the demand for an independent Tamil state" and to "cease all attacks on civilians, suicide bombings, forced recruitment and repression of media freedom and political dissent and respect fully international human rights and humanitarian law". In March 2009 we called on the LTTE to surrender and to allow Tamil civilians trapped in the fighting to go free. In January 2010 we wrote that "the LTTE's defeat and the end of its control over Tamil political life are historic and welcome changes." Our May 2010 report on War Crimes discussed the atrocities and war crimes of the LTTE in detail. No honest reader of any of our thirteen reports on Sri Lanka can say that we have been mute on the atrocities and other crimes of the LTTE. Read more...
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The tragic consequence of internal displacement in Sri Lanka and the failure of the government to address the situation will most likely be renewed instability.
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Relocation failures in Sri Lanka
The tragic consequence of internal displacement in Sri Lanka and the failure of the government to address the situation will most likely be renewed instability.
There is something rotten going on in Sri Lanka. More than two years after comprehensively dispensing with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elaam (LTTE), the government is at risk of losing the peace. Rather than reducing the presence of the armed forces in occupied areas and promoting a peaceful transition, the government is instead militarizing the country. Far from realizing the promised peace dividend, the north and east now consists of a patchwork of military installations and high security zones. Full Story>>>
