Subjugation Of Tamils Is Followed By Attacks On Muslims And Christians
By G K Nathan -February 7, 2014
Dr. G. K. Nathan
Subjugation of Tamils is followed by Attacks on Muslims and Christians, What are the available Options to International Community?
Current Government of Sri Lanka (GSL) will be under intense scrutiny at the 25th session of the United Nation Human Rights Council (UNHRC) at Geneva in March 2014 for alleged violations of International Humanitarian and Human Right Laws during the last stages of military conflict which ended on 18 May 2009. Battle line has been drawn between GSL supported by their friendly countries on one side, most of them have dubious human right records in their own country, against others in the forefront calling for human rights in Sri Lanka and they are: International community led by the USA, former colonial power the UK, EU etc; a number of International Non-Government Organizations (INGO) which are on record challenging the human rights record of President Rajapaksa and about a million Tamil Diaspora in democratic countries of which a sizable number unwillingly abandoned their former home land caused by repeated pogroms and sought refuge. From the first GSL at the time of independence in 1948, to date we have had 15 Prime Ministers and Presidents, became the head of government after becoming a Republic, all are Sinhala Buddhists and all them have failed to find unity in diversity in a country with multiethnic, multilingual, multireligious population, instead the gap between the two major communities Sinhala and Tamil has continued to widen, even after the end of military conflict. During that period the constitution of Sri Lanka was revised twice, both times the rights of minorities were further eroded and the power was consolidated in the hands of Sinhala Buddhist majority; only Sinhala Buddhists either born or converted from Christianity have been the head of government, contrary to practices in other countries, current head of government of India is a Sikh, many others have been head of Indian government in the past. In Sri Lanka the three major ethnic groups are: Sinhala, Tamil and Muslims (Arab descendents); speak two different languages: Sinhala and Tamil. Sri Lankan follow all four major religions: Buddhism (69.3%) mostly Sinhalese, Hinduism (15.5%) mostly Tamils, Islam (9.7%) – the Arab descendents most of them are fluent in Tamil language and the last group Christians (7.4%) is made up from both Sinhala and Tamil ethnic groups. Military subjugation of Tamils followed by euphoria of military victory and ensuing celebrations led by the GSL, as Tamils silently watched, turned the attention of Sinhala Buddhist chauvinists, who were responsible for the genesis of Sinhala – Tamil conflict in the post Independence era, to other religious groups. In addition, failure of GSL to address the resolutions passed at the UNHRC and the soft approach pursued by the International community made the Sinhala Buddhist chauvinists who propagate that Sri Lanka is a Sinhala Buddhist country to act against other religious minorities with impunity. Failure of GSL to stop the attack on places of worships aggravated the religious harmony in the country. This dark truth was documented in ‘Restrictions on Religion 2012,’ in the January 2014 report by the Washington-based Pew Research Centre which records a 40% global increase in religious hostilities. While the countries with ‘very high religious hostilities’ rose from 14 to 20%, six countries including Sri Lanka recorded very high social hostilities in 2012. The other countries that shared this dubious honour with Sri Lanka were Syria, Lebanon, Bangladesh, Thailand and Myanmar, countries that cannot boast of political stability or civil liberties. The International community while pursuing the recent human rights record in the country must also take into consideration what has happened in the past and the constitutional structure promulgated by the UK at the time of independence, both need to be examined closely to avoid the recurrence of six decades long human rights violations, Sri Lanka is a signatory in June 11, 1980 to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
