tag:theconversation.com,2011:/nz/topics/tamil-tigers-7714/articlesTamil Tigers – The Conversation2021-06-15T06:05:57Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1626092021-06-15T06:05:57Z2021-06-15T06:05:57ZWhy do Tamil asylum seekers need protection — and why does the Australian government say they don’t?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406367/original/file-20210615-15-s765sl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=29%2C0%2C4887%2C3364&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Julian Smith/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Immigration Minister Alex Hawke has <a href="https://theconversation.com/biloela-family-moved-to-perth-in-holding-decision-by-immigration-minister-hawke-162755">announced</a> the Murugappans will be moved from detention on Christmas Island, to community detention in Perth. </p>
<p>This follows mounting public concern for the Tamil family, particularly regarding the health of four-year-old Tharunicaa, who was medevaced to Perth from Christmas Island last week. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/biloela-family-moved-to-perth-in-holding-decision-by-immigration-minister-hawke-162755">Biloela family moved to Perth in holding decision by Immigration Minister Hawke</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But the government is yet to make a final decision about where the family can live in the long-term. The family has previously had its refugee claims rejected. </p>
<p>Priya and Nades Murugappan have been trying to stay in Australia for the best part of a decade, through multiple appeals. All the while, Sri Lanka has one of the worst records of state-perpetrated violence against civilians in the early 21st century.</p>
<h2>Tamils and the Sri Lankan civil war</h2>
<p>Tamils are an ethnic group native to Sri Lanka. Many Tamils have sought to come to Australia due to fear of persecution in their home country. This is due to links either real or perceived with the <a href="https://cisac.fsi.stanford.edu/mappingmilitants/profiles/liberation-tigers-tamil-elam">Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam</a> (Tamil Tigers), a separatist group fighting for an independent homeland for Tamils in north and east Sri Lanka. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Protesters keep a vigil outside the Perth hospital treating Tharunicaa Murugappan." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406338/original/file-20210615-27-2t9g3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406338/original/file-20210615-27-2t9g3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406338/original/file-20210615-27-2t9g3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406338/original/file-20210615-27-2t9g3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406338/original/file-20210615-27-2t9g3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406338/original/file-20210615-27-2t9g3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406338/original/file-20210615-27-2t9g3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tharunicaa Murugappan was evacuated to a Perth hospital last week, suffering pneumonia and a blood infection.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Stefan Gosati/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Tamil Tigers fought and lost a brutal 26-year civil war with the Sinhalese majority government, which ended in 2009. This included serious <a href="http://permanentpeoplestribunal.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Sentenza-Sri-Lanka-and-Tamil-II.pdf">allegations of genocide</a> and the military’s intentional shelling of government-designated “no fire zones”. It is estimated at least <a href="https://www.tamilguardian.com/content/11-years-today-massacre-mullivaikkal">100,000 Tamils</a> died in the final stages of the war. </p>
<p>In 2012, the United Nations admitted its “<a href="https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/737299?ln=en">failures</a>” in protecting the Tamils. Namely, its failure to “act within the scope of institutional mandates to meet protection responsibilities”.</p>
<h2>Post-war persecution</h2>
<p>The post-war period has also been marked by the ongoing persecution of the Tamils. </p>
<p>In 2018, the Human Rights Watch reported that military occupation of the north and east of the island “<a href="https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/srilanka1018_web2.pdf">is a cruel legacy</a>”
of the war and encroaches on Tamil civilian life. In 2019, the International Truth and Justice Project reported <a href="https://itjpsl.com/reports/terrorism-investgation-division">Sri Lankan police had committed torture</a> against civilians, with many of the perpetrators who orchestrated such crimes occupying senior positions in government. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-a-young-child-is-evacuated-from-detention-could-this-see-the-biloela-tamil-family-go-free-162289">As a young child is evacuated from detention, could this see the Biloela Tamil family go free?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Earlier this year, the United Nations Human Rights Office published a <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=26695&LangID=E">damning report</a> on the deteriorating human rights situation in Sri Lanka, observing:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>deepening impunity, increasing militarization of governmental functions, ethno-nationalist rhetoric, and intimidation of civil society.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Tamils in Australia</h2>
<p>According to the 2016 census, there more than 27,000 Tamil people — who were born in Sri Lanka — living in Australia. But it could be many more. </p>
<p>Tamils seeking asylum in Australia reportedly face <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/15/tamil-family-remain-in-detention-as-australia-mulls-un-request">some of the lowest acceptance rates</a>. And Australia’s position when it comes to Sri Lanka — and the safety of Tamils — has drawn criticism from human rights experts at home and overseas. </p>
<p>The Department of Home Affairs relies heavily on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade <a href="https://www.dfat.gov.au/sites/default/files/country-information-report-sri-lanka.pdf">country information report</a> on Sri Lanka to decide whether to give permanent protection to Tamil asylum seekers. The current (2019) report says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Sri Lankans face a low risk of torture on a day-to-day basis. In the case of individuals detained by the authorities, DFAT assesses the risk of torture to be moderate. Where it occurs, some mistreatment may amount to torture. DFAT assesses that Sri Lankans face a low risk of torture overall.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is also despite reports from Tamils deported from Australia they have been <a href="https://theconversation.com/sri-lankan-asylum-seekers-are-being-deported-from-australia-despite-fears-of-torture-100240">targeted by local security forces</a> on their return to Sri Lanka.</p>
<p>In May this year, the United Kingdom’s Upper Tribunal (which handles immigration appeals) issued a <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/dfat-urged-to-retract-inaccurate-report-saying-sri-lankans-face-low-torture-risk-following-uk-court-finding">damning critique </a>of the DFAT report, <a href="https://www.doughtystreet.co.uk/sites/default/files/media/document/KK%20%26%20RS%20%28Sri%20Lanka%29.pdf">finding</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>None of the sources are identified, there is no explanation as to how the information from these sources was obtained, and there is no annex containing, for example, records of any interviews.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The landmark decision by the tribunal challenges decisions in recent years by the UK government — which has been “<a href="https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/research-subject-groups/centre-criminology/centreborder-criminologies/blog/2017/05/insignificant">considering ceasing</a>” the refugee status of Tamil refugees as recently as 2017. This year, the German government has been <a href="https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/31241/germany-collective-deportation-of-tamils-to-sri-lanka-met-with-outrage">deporting Tamils to Sri Lanka</a>, amid public opposition. New Zealand maintains its offer to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/may/30/new-zealand-offer-to-resettle-australias-offshore-refugees-still-active-as-us-deal-nears-end">resettle Australia’s offshore refugees</a>, which includes Tamils. </p>
<h2>Australia’s relationship with Sri Lanka</h2>
<p>Australia has a special <a href="https://www.minister.defence.gov.au/minister/cpyne/media-releases/indo-pacific-endeavour-2019-launches-western-australia">security relationship</a> with Sri Lanka that can’t help but affect its response to Tamil persecution and asylum seekers.</p>
<p>This relationship has been steadily intensifying since the 1970s, when the Indian Ocean gained strategic importance for both countries. In recent years, the Indian Ocean has become increasingly important for Australia’s national security as part of its geographical location in the Asia-Pacific region. </p>
<p>Along with joint exercises, Australia has gifted Sri Lanka patrol boats to stop people smuggling. This <a href="https://www.afp.gov.au/news-media/media-releases/australia-and-sri-lanka-strengthen-ties-over-aerial-drone-surveillance">April</a>, it gave the police five drones “to support crime fighting”. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1404623085626527744"}"></div></p>
<p>In 2015, Human Rights Watch reported both governments “<a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/country-chapters/sri-lanka">colluded</a>” when it came to the treatment of asylum seekers. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Australia and Sri Lanka colluded to ensure that asylum seekers leaving Sri Lanka were either returned or else not allowed onto Australian territory. </p>
<p>Australia sent back many asylum seekers to Sri Lanka after cursory interviews at sea; those found to have legitimate claims were processed in other countries. In an apparent bid to secure Sri Lanka’s assistance in stopping migrants and asylum seekers, Australia failed to call for better human rights protections […]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Australia has also <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/australia-opposes-un-resolution-to-conduct-war-crimes-inquiry-in-sri-lanka-20140328-35moj.html">opposed international investigations</a> into war crimes in Sri Lanka. Until today, it has also ignored a 2019 <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/un-urges-australian-government-to-release-tamil-family-from-christmas-island">UN request</a> to release the Murugappan family into the Australian community. </p>
<p>The Australian government will likely continue to grow its special relationship with its Indian Ocean neighbour. </p>
<p>But as more and more Australians show their support to asylum seekers like Priya, Nades, Kopika, and Tharunicaa, the Australian government needs to seriously confront its relationship with a country descending deeper into authoritarianism and human rights abuses.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162609/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Niro Kandasamy is affiliated with the Tamil Refugee Council.
Parts of this research have been funded by the Contemporary Histories Research Group Award in History and Policy, Deakin University
This article is part of a series on asylum seeker policy supported by a grant from the Broadley Trust</span></em></p>The Murugappans have been fighting to stay in Australia for years. All the while, Sri Lanka has one of the worst records of state-perpetrated violence against civilians in the early 21st century.Niro Kandasamy, Lecturer, Australian Catholic UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1228662019-09-03T10:07:15Z2019-09-03T10:07:15ZView from The Hill: Morrison and Dutton block their ears and grit their teeth over Tamil family<p>As the federal court prepares to deal with the last ditch effort in the Sri Lankan Tamil family’s fight against deportation, Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton are finding “border control” politics a lot more difficult than usual.</p>
<p>They may well boot out the family of four, that includes two small girls born here. But volleys of protest from some noisy and many (usually) quiet Australians mean while the PM and his minister might be on the high ground legally – multiple court decisions, including from the High Court, have found the family not to be refugees – they can’t avoid looking threadbare in terms of humanity.</p>
<p>If you’re Morrison, to have Alan Jones abusing you relentlessly, and citizens from a regional Queensland town disputing your case vociferously is, well, awkward.</p>
<p>Morrison and Dutton came to this argument well practiced in aggressive techniques. Dismiss and demonise your critics. Dip into history and attribute any blame you can to the Labor party. Drop to the Australian newspaper “on water” details about the latest boat arrival to suggest that allowing the family to stay would trigger an armada from Sri Lanka.</p>
<p>But unfortunately for Morrison and Dutton, Jones has a master’s degree in head kicking (which frequently gets him into trouble) and when townspeople of Biloela, where the family lived, appear on TV to press their cause it is hard to dismiss everyone who disagrees with you as the usual suspects – advocates, lefties, greenies, Callithumpians. And that’s not to mention the support the family has got from former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce and the federal MP for the Biloela area Nationals Ken O'Dowd.</p>
<p>Moreover, the government has opened itself to maximum criticism by the way it has handled the family, including a dawn raid and distressing night flights, one of which took them to Christmas Island, where they are the only detainees.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-regions-can-take-more-migrants-and-refugees-with-a-little-help-121942">The regions can take more migrants and refugees, with a little help</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>To put it bluntly, this looked like thuggish behaviour.</p>
<p>Jones went for the jugular in his Tuesday Daily Telegraph column, accusing the government of “heartlessness, inconsistency and hypocrisy”. His barbs couldn’t have been more pointed.</p>
<p>“Are Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton parents?” he asked rhetorically. and urged the family be given “ a bit of ‘au pair’ treatment” - a reference to Dutton’s controversial interventions to prevent the deportations of a couple of <a href="https://theconversation.com/peter-duttons-decisions-on-the-au-pairs-are-legal-but-there-are-other-considerations-102414">au pairs</a>.</p>
<p>Jones said the Tamil mother had witnessed her fiancé burned alive with several other men in her village who were identified as Tamil Tigers. “If your fiancé, Prime Minister and Peter Dutton, was burnt alive, would you worry too much how you got out of the joint?”</p>
<p>And Jones has no compunction in marshalling religion to the cause (despite some commentators saying Morrison’s faith should be off limits). “In an ostensibly Christian society, it might be time for a bit of practical Christianity,” Jones wrote.</p>
<p>In notable contrast to Jones, fellow 2GB shock jock Ray Hadley is raging on the other side of the argument.</p>
<p>In this age of social media, issues can easily catch fire, but even taking that into account, the Tamil family has stirred an extraordinary level of emotion. Leaving aside a huge petition appealing for a favourable decision and demonstrations in various parts of the country, it is notable that people in their town of Biloela continue to speak out so strongly, even though the family was removed from there early last year. They obviously left much more than just a passing positive impression. They had become part of the town.</p>
<p>One local told the ABC, “at the core, they’re our sort of people … Out here in the rural area we value workers … who roll up their sleeves and pitch in”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sri-lanka-ten-years-after-the-war-the-tamil-struggle-for-justice-continues-116758">Sri Lanka ten years after the war: the Tamil struggle for justice continues</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Wednesday’s court action is about whether the younger child needs to be assessed individually by the minister for refugee status. There are mixed views on how it will go, but even if it succeeded, it would only be the start of another round in the saga. The matter would go to Immigration Minister David Coleman. He would refuse the girl’s claim. That refusal would then be appealable to the federal court (but only on the grounds of the minister erring in law, not on substance grounds). The government could be in for a lot more pain, because the appeal could take a while. </p>
<p>It is indisputable that the issue of the Tamil family has raised legitimate arguments on both sides – the special circumstances of a particular family who have become valued members of a community versus the implications of setting a precedent for many other asylum seekers whose claims fail but have spent years living here.</p>
<p>It is equally indisputable that the government’s making an example of this family – because that is the bottom line of what it is doing – looks very distasteful, whether viewed from at home or abroad.</p>
<p><em>Update: The federal court has extended the injunction preventing deportation of the family until Friday. This followed the government disclosing the child’s claim for protection had in fact been examined and rejected, and Immigration Minister David Coleman had on Tuesday refused to use his ministerial discretion to allow for an application for a temporary protection visa. Justice Mordecai Bromberg has extended the hearing to allow the lawyers for the family to consider the new information from the government. Carina Ford, lawyer for the family, told reporters, “the fight is not over yet”.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122866/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As the Sri Lankan Tamil family from Biloela prepares to learn their fate tomorrow, Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton can’t avoid looking threadbare in terms of humanity.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1161352019-05-16T19:59:18Z2019-05-16T19:59:18ZRwanda and Sri Lanka: A tale of two genocides<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274801/original/file-20190516-69174-1jtoosb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=125%2C0%2C2026%2C1566&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Tamil man who was paralyzed by shelling during the final weeks of the conflict in Mullivaikkal in 2009 is seen in this 2018 photo in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Priya Tharmaseelan</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Rwandan <a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.1_Convention%20on%20the%20Prevention%20and%20Punishment%20of%20the%20Crime%20of%20Genocide.pdf">genocide</a> and the 10th year since the Tamil genocide in Sri Lanka. While the 1994 <a href="https://undocs.org/A/RES/58/234">Rwandan genocide</a> has become part of the world’s collective memory, the 2009 Tamil genocide has not.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.tamilguardian.com/content/mayor-toronto-marks-may-18-tamil-genocide-remembrance-day">Mullivaikkal Genocide Remembrance Day</a> on May 18, named after the village that was the site of cataclysmic violence, is a day to remember those who died in the Sri Lankan conflict. Mullivaikkal commemoration events have been taking place around the world this month.</p>
<p>However, 10 years and a series of <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=24371&LangID=E">United Nations reports</a> and <a href="https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/LTD/G19/065/61/PDF/G1906561.pdf?OpenElement">resolutions</a> have made little progress toward truth, accountability or reparations for the survivors of atrocity crimes in Sri Lanka. In the aftermath of the recent <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/24/world/asia/sri-lanka-easter-bombing-attacks.html">Easter Sunday bombings</a>, the spectre of ethnic violence has resurfaced.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sri-lanka-has-a-history-of-conflict-but-the-recent-attacks-appear-different-115815">Sri Lanka has a history of conflict, but the recent attacks appear different</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The Rwandan genocide offers important lessons for Sri Lanka.</p>
<h2>Tutsis slaughtered</h2>
<p>An estimated 800,000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutu were killed in just <a href="https://www.vox.com/2014/4/10/5590646/rwandan-genocide-anniversary">100 days</a> in 1994. Thousands more were subjected to sexual violence and tortured in a <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/04/oped-25-years-after-rwanda-genocide-politics-of-demonization-as-dangerous-as-ever/">systematic campaign</a> by the Hutu ethnic majority.</p>
<p>Fifteen years later, another slaughter unfolded — this time in northern Sri Lanka. The protracted civil war between the national government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was coming to a catastrophic end. The goal of an independent state for the minority Tamils was slipping away.</p>
<p>Throughout the conflict, <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2008/country-chapters/sri-lanka">both sides</a> failed to respect human rights and international humanitarian law. Unlawful killings and enforced disappearances carried out by the Sri Lankan security forces were <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/64000/asa370192007en.pdf">daily occurrences</a>. The LTTE was condemned for its suicide bombings and forcible recruitment of child soldiers.</p>
<p>For most of the 2000s, the LTTE was operating as a <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House_of_Representatives_Committees?url=pjcis/proscription/submissions/sub35.pdf.">de facto state</a> in the north and east. By early 2009, military losses had gradually crushed the LTTE’s civil administration of these areas. </p>
<p>The LTTE and an estimated <a href="https://www.crisisgroup.org/asia/south-asia/sri-lanka/sri-lankas-dead-and-missing-need-accounting">330,000</a> Tamil civilians were trapped in a small piece of land on the northeast coast in the Mullaithivu District. The government ordered the UN to evacuate their last few international workers from the region while international media were excluded and local journalists <a href="https://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/sri-lanka-witness-war-crimes">silenced</a>.</p>
<h2>Carnage unfolded</h2>
<p>Transatlantic cellphone photos and a few video clips had begun circulating with images of the unfolding carnage. <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2009/05/08/sri-lanka-repeated-shelling-hospitals-evidence-war-crimes">Hospitals</a> on the front lines were systematically <a href="http://responsibilitytoprotect.org/War%20Crimes%20In%20Sri%20Lanka.pdf">shelled</a>, as were food distribution lines and even Red Cross ships attempting to evacuate <a href="https://www.un.org/News/dh/infocus/Sri_Lanka/POE_Report_Full.pdf">the wounded</a>. </p>
<p>Within a few months, a brutal siege of the officially declared “safe zone” and the indiscriminate shelling of Tamil civilians concentrated there brought the war to an end. The Sri Lankan government celebrated its successful “humanitarian rescue operation.” In fact, it was genocide.</p>
<p>By August 2009, Britain’s Channel 4 News was broadcasting <a href="https://www.channel4.com/news/sri-lanka-execution-video-new-war-crimes-claims">gruesome footage</a> of summary executions and rape perpetrated by Sri Lankan soldiers. Dozens of surrendering Tamils, including senior Tiger political leaders and their families, had been <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/01/17/death-of-the-tiger">shot dead</a> by soldiers as they walked out of the safe zone hoisting white flags.</p>
<p>In 2012, the UN Secretary General estimated <a href="https://www.crisisgroup.org/asia/south-asia/sri-lanka/sri-lankas-dead-and-missing-need-accounting">that 40,000</a> civilians were killed over the final five months of the conflict. The exact number, as in many conflict situations, remains contested and is likely higher.</p>
<p>Once the conflict ended, hundreds of thousands of Tamils were interned in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/may/26/sri-lanka-tamil-tigers-camps">squalid camps</a> in the northern Vanni region. Even today, thousands of Tamils <a href="http://www.internal-displacement.org/countries/sri-lanka">remain displaced</a> in their own country.</p>
<h2>‘War without witness’</h2>
<p>If the Rwandan genocide was a genocide foretold, yet no action was ever taken by the international community, then the Tamil genocide was <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/11/04/sri_lankas_hidden_genocide.html">deliberately hidden</a> and dubbed the “<a href="https://www.journalism.co.uk/news-commentary/frances-harrison-sri-lanka-journalists-failed-to-tell-the-story-of-war-crimes/s6/a549285/">war without witness</a>.”</p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.globalr2p.org/media/files/sri_lanka_press_release15april09.pdf">both cases</a>, the UN and the European Union had <a href="https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/blogs.gwu.edu/dist/b/1590/files/2018/08/Why-the-U.S.-Government-Failed-to-Anticipate-the-Rwandan-Genocide-27hp2at.pdf">direct warnings</a> but opted against <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/09/bystanders-to-genocide/304571/">taking action</a>. The international community’s inertia <a href="https://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/201-rwanda/39240.html">in Rwanda</a> and <a href="https://www.un.org/News/dh/infocus/Sri_Lanka/The_Internal_Review_Panel_report_on_Sri_Lanka.pdf">Sri Lanka</a> has been acknowledged as “grave failures.”</p>
<p>The establishment of an <a href="http://unictr.irmct.org/sites/unictr.org/files/legal-library/100131_Statute_en_fr_0.pdf">international criminal tribunal</a> was an explicit attempt to grapple with Rwanda’s past. Convictions were secured <a href="http://unictr.irmct.org/en/cases/key-figures-cases">in the cases</a> of 61 “ringleaders.” A <a href="https://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1241&context=bjil">groundbreaking decision</a> on sexual violence as an act of genocide was among its many rulings. Local “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/06/02/59162/?utm_term=.3a1cca04ea70">gacaca courts</a>” conducted some two million trials. A <a href="http://www.nurc.gov.rw/index.php?id=69">truth commission</a> continues efforts to promote reconciliation between the Hutu and Tutsi peoples. </p>
<p>While highly imperfect, these <a href="https://www.ictj.org/about/transitional-justice">transitional justice</a> mechanisms have generated a record of what really happened and why it happened.</p>
<p>In contrast, Sri Lanka has repeatedly reneged on pledges to investigate and prosecute war-time atrocity crimes. Abductions, torture in custody and <a href="http://www.fhr.org.za/files/5514/0015/7674/An_Unfinished_war-_Sexual_violence-YS.pdf">sexual violence</a> remain rampant amid a long history of <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/asia-and-the-pacific/sri-lanka/report-sri-lanka/">failed promises</a>.</p>
<h2>Occupied land not returned</h2>
<p>The harassment of Tamil activists as well as <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48257299">targeted violence</a> against the Muslim community <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/05/sri-lanka-authorities-must-protect-muslims-against-violence/">continue</a>. Commitments to <a href="http://adayaalam.org/mapping-militarisation-in-mullaitivu/">demilitarize</a> and return occupied land are unfulfilled. Weak state structures, the lack of an independent judiciary and a <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/southasia/2019/02/06/long-read-why-has-sri-lankas-transitional-justice-process-failed-to-deliver/">culture of impunity</a> remain significant <a href="https://r2pasiapacific.org/files/2479/Risk%20Assessment%20Sri%20Lanka%20September%202018%20FINAL.pdf">obstacles</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-commonwealth-must-take-action-against-sri-lankan-war-crimes-3473">Why the Commonwealth must take action against Sri Lankan war crimes</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>As Harvard University scholar <a href="https://hls.harvard.edu/faculty/directory/10589/Minow">Martha Minow</a> suggests, the relentless repetition of atrocity requires a pathway between “too much forgetting” and “too much memory,” between vengeance and forgiveness. In Sri Lanka today, memory and memorialization are radical counterpoints to official state narratives that resist accounting for the past.</p>
<p>Holocaust survivor Primo Levi once said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“It happened; therefore, it can happen again… it can happen everywhere.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So long as impunity and the failure to address the root causes of atrocity crimes continue in Sri Lanka, lasting peace will remain elusive. Acknowledging the past must be a precondition to meaningful reconciliation.</p>
<p>A poem in Cheran’s anthology <a href="https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/books/cheran-in-a-time-of-burning-488"><em>In a Time of Burning</em></a> evokes the challenge of closure in the wake of mass violence:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“there is neither sea nor wind</p>
<p>for us to dissolve the ashes</p>
<p>proclaim an end</p>
<p>and close our eyes.”</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116135/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sharry Aiken is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, Queen's University. She is a recipient of research and conference funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. She is a co-researcher with the Canadian Partnership for International Justice, former president of the Canadian Council for Refugees, and past co-chair of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Centre for International Justice. She is also an Advisory Council member of the Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cheran Rudhramoorthy is a recipient of research funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the International Development Research Centre. </span></em></p>This spring marks the 25th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide and the 10th year since the Tamil genocide in Sri Lanka. The world knows what happened in Rwanda. What about Sri Lanka?Sharry Aiken, Associate Professor of Law, Queen's University, OntarioCheran Rudhramoorthy, Associate Professor, University of WindsorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1159152019-04-25T01:13:01Z2019-04-25T01:13:01ZIslamic State has claimed responsibility for the Sri Lanka terror attack. Here’s what that means<p>In the wake of any tragedy, it should be enough to grieve and stand in solidarity with those who mourn. With a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/death-toll-rises-to-359-in-sri-lanka-bombings-more-arrested-1.5108536">massive toll</a> – about 250 dead, according to revised government figures – it feels disrespectful to the people of Sri Lanka to be dissecting what went wrong even as the dead are being buried. </p>
<p>But the reality is that most, if not all, of these lives need not have been taken. We owe it to them and their loved ones to make sense of what happened and work towards doing all that can be done to ensure it does not happen again.</p>
<p>The Easter attacks represent <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/22/sri-lanka-terrorist-attacks-among-worst-world-911">one of the most lethal and serious terrorist operations</a> since the September 11 attacks in the US, outside of attacks within active conflict zones. And this in a now peaceful country, which for all its <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/sri-lankan-conflict">history of civil war</a> and ethno-nationalist terrorism in decades past has never had a problem with jihadi radical Islamist terrorism.</p>
<h2>A return to deadlier, more coordinated strikes</h2>
<p>The long-anticipated <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/23/sri-lanka-bombings-first-burials-take-place-on-day-of-mourning">claim of responsibility</a> for the attacks was made by the Islamic State (IS) on Tuesday night. This could help explain how one local cell based around a single extended family circle of hateful extremists not previously known for terrorism could execute such a massive attack. It was larger even than IS’s previous truck-bomb attacks in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.</p>
<p>The attacks follow a familiar, if now rarely seen, IS operandi of coordinated suicide bombings. The targeting of Catholic churches, which made little sense initially in the context of the domestic social issues at the heart of the country’s recent civil war, fit an all-too-familiar <a href="https://www.counterextremism.com/content/isiss-persecution-religions">pattern of IS attacks on Christians</a>, along with fellow Muslims.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/who-are-sri-lankas-christians-115799">Who are Sri Lanka's Christians?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The fact that 40 or more Sri Lankans travelled to Syria to <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/04/23/sri-lanka-attack-is-the-wave-of-the-future-isis-terrorism-returnees/">fight with IS</a> could help explain how the terror network was able to build vital personal links in the very small community of Sri Lankan Islamist extremists so it could subcontract its attack plans to them. At this point, the precise involvement of returnees from Syria and foreign IS supporters in the bombings remains under investigation.</p>
<p>The Easter weekend attacks more resemble the <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/id/4677978/ns/world_news-hunt_for_al_qaida/t/al-qaida-timeline-plots-attacks/#.XMD6aJMzYWo">al-Qaeda attacks of the 2000s</a> than they do recent attacks of IS. Like the <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/18/world/meast/uss-cole-bombing-fast-facts/index.html">2000 attack of the USS Cole in Yemen</a>, the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2011/09/911-the-day-of-the-attacks/100143/">September attacks in New York and Washington</a>, the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-19881138">2002 bombings in Bali</a>, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/16/world/20-in-istanbul-die-in-bombings-at-synagogues.html">2003 truck bombs in Istanbul</a>, the <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/04/world/europe/spain-train-bombings-fast-facts/index.html">2004 train bombings in Madrid</a>, the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-33253598">2005 tube and bus bombings in London</a>, the Sri Lanka bombings involved multiple attackers acting in concert. With the exception of September 11, all of these also involved improvised explosive devices (IEDs). </p>
<p>The Sri Lanka bombings exceeded all but the September 11 attacks in sophistication and deadliness, despite the fact the perpetrators were previously known only for acts of hateful vandalism.</p>
<p>Over the past decade, al-Qaeda has been unable to carry out significant attacks outside of conflict zones. It has also become increasingly focused on “<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/11/isis-strategy-paris-attacks/416016/">reputation management</a>” and has tended to avoid indiscriminate mass killings, all the whilst growing its global network of affiliates.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/out-of-the-ashes-of-afghanistan-and-iraq-the-rise-and-rise-of-islamic-state-55437">Out of the ashes of Afghanistan and Iraq: the rise and rise of Islamic State</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The emergence of IS saw the tempo and scale of terrorist attacks transformed. Most attacks took place in conflict zones (Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, southern Philippines). </p>
<p>A number of significant attacks were conducted well beyond the battlefield. There were at least four such attacks in 2014, 16 in 2015, 22 in 2016, 18 in 2017, and 10 in 2018. The vast majority of these attacks were conducted by lone actors. </p>
<p>Why was it that, outside of conflict zones, not just al-Qaeda but even IS at the height of its powers focused largely on <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-draws-lone-wolves-to-the-islamic-state-86746">lone-actor attacks</a>? </p>
<p>It is probably not for want of trying. The reason is that most larger, more ambitious plots were tripped-up by intelligence intercepts. This is especially the case in stable democracies, including our neighbours Indonesia and Malaysia.</p>
<h2>Why Sri Lanka?</h2>
<p>The other big question is how one of the deadliest terrorist attacks ever was able to be executed in Sri Lanka? </p>
<p>Sri Lanka was a soft target. Having successfully defeated the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/focus/2008/11/2008112019115851343.html">Tamil Tiger rebel group</a> a decade ago through military might, Sri Lanka has become complacent. It has not seen a pressing need to develop police and non-military intelligence capacity to counter terrorism. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/war-is-over-but-not-sri-lankas-climate-of-violence-and-threats-29033">War is over, but not Sri Lanka's climate of violence and threats</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>At the same time, it has struggled with good governance and political stability. Just six months ago, it faced a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/sri-lankas-prime-minister-reinstated-ending-political-crisis/2018/12/16/28e00486-0077-11e9-a17e-162b712e8fc2_story.html?utm_term=.fe4e3c3207e4">major constitutional crisis</a> when President Maithripala Sirisena sacked his deputy, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, and attempted to replace him with the former prime minister and president Mahinda Rajapaksa. </p>
<p>The attempt failed, but in the stand-off that ensued, Wickremesinghe, and ministers loyal to him, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sri-lanka-blasts-politics/sri-lanka-pm-not-alerted-to-warning-of-attack-because-of-feud-minister-idUSKCN1RY15D">were excluded from intelligence briefings</a>. In particular, they say that they were left unaware of the multiple warnings issued by the Indian intelligence service, RAW, to the authorities in Colombo about the extremist figures who played a key role in the Easter attacks.</p>
<p>Thus, despite several discoveries earlier this year of large amounts of explosives stored in remote rural locations on the island, and multiple warnings from the Indians, <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/sri-lanka-attack-india-warned-sri-lanka-of-threat-2-hours-before-suicide-attacks-report-2027552">including final alerts just hours before Sunday’s attacks</a>, the government and security community were left distracted and caught off-guard. </p>
<p>Between “fighting the last war” and fighting each other, they deluded themselves that there was no imminent terrorist threat.</p>
<h2>What other countries are vulnerable?</h2>
<p>If the massive attacks in Sri Lanka over Easter serve to remind us that IS is very far from being a spent force, the question is where this energetic and well-resourced network will strike next.</p>
<p>For all that it achieved in Sri Lanka, IS is unlikely to be able to build an enduring presence there. So long as the Sri Lankan government and people emerge from this trauma with renewed commitment to unity – and with <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/sri-lankas-presidential-elections-progress-regression-or-paralysis/">elections at the end of the year</a>, this is far from certain – the “perfect storm” conditions exploited by IS are unlikely to be repeated.</p>
<p>So where else is IS likely to find opportunity? India and Bangladesh continue to present opportunities, as does much of Central Asia. In our region, it is Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines that we should be most worried about. </p>
<p>Malaysia has emerged stronger and more stable from its swing-back to democracy but continues to be worryingly in denial about the extent to which it is vulnerable to terrorist attacks, downplaying the <a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/kl-says-foreign-militants-eyeing-malaysia-as-safe-haven">very good work</a> done over many years by the Special Branch of the Royal National Malaysian Police. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/defeated-in-syria-and-iraq-the-islamic-state-is-rebuilding-in-countries-like-indonesia-96724">Defeated in Syria and Iraq, the Islamic State is rebuilding in countries like Indonesia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><a href="https://www.economist.com/asia/2018/05/24/terrorists-in-southern-thailand-go-on-a-bombing-spree">Thailand</a> and <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/terrorism-suspected-in-fatal-philippines-church-bombings-20190127-p50ty7.html">the Philippines</a> remain less politically stable, and rather more brittle than they care too acknowledge. And both tend to delude themselves into thinking that the problems of their southern extremes will never manifest in a terror attack in Bangkok or Manila, respectively. </p>
<p>The people of Sri Lanka have paid far too high price for the lessons of the Easter weekend attacks to be ignored or forgotten.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115915/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Greg Barton is engaged in a range of projects working to understand and counter violent extremism in Australia and in Southeast Asia that are funded by the Australian government.
</span></em></p>The deadly Sri Lanka attacks show a return to the coordinated, sophisticated strikes employed by al-Qaeda in the 2000s, focusing on soft targets with vulnerable institutions.Greg Barton, Chair in Global Islamic Politics, Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/359712015-01-09T11:10:12Z2015-01-09T11:10:12ZSri Lanka stunned as Rajapaksa election gamble fails to pay off<p>Sri Lanka’s president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, has been <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-30738671">defeated</a> in the country’s historic presidential elections. Sri Lankans are shocked at the scale and manner of Rajapaksa’s defeat, which has brought his tenure to an abrupt halt after nine highly controversial years. </p>
<p>When Rajapaksa called the election nearly two years <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-20/rajapaksa-to-call-early-sri-lanka-election-as-popularity-falls.html">early</a>, he did so with the expectation that he would win comfortably. While he was concerned that support for his ruling coalition was rapidly waning, he took comfort in the knowledge that the opposition United National Party (UNP) remained divided, and seemed incapable of fielding a candidate who could rival the president’s appeal to the Sinahala majority. </p>
<p>Until the night of January 8, few were confident of an opposition victory. That was reflected in the prematurely printed headlines of daily newspapers: the January 9 edition of the state-owned English-language newspaper, The Daily News, boldly <a href="http://www.dailynews.lk/?q=editorial/forward-here">pronounced</a> that “there is hardly any doubt about the fact that the incumbent … is almost guaranteed a comfortable victory.”</p>
<p>Rajapaksa’s personal popularity has declined steadily in recent years due to growing concerns about corruption and nepotism, mounting frustration and alienation from minority groups, and a failure to address everyday economic issues such as the high cost of living. His reign saw the defeat of the <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/focus/2008/11/2008112019115851343.html">Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam</a> (LTTE) rebels in 2009, and impressive post-war economic growth rates. </p>
<p>But it was also marked by a growing concentration of power in the hands of the president and his close family members and the undermining of Sri Lanka’s democratic institutions. </p>
<h2>Another way</h2>
<p>The pivotal moment in the election came when Maithripala Sirisena, Rajapaksa’s health minister, put himself forward to stand as the common opposition candidate in November, giving the president’s opponents an unexpected boost. </p>
<p>The now-victorious Sirisena appeals to the same core nationalist voters as Rajapaksa, but he was also able to draw support from a grand coalition united by opposition to the Rajapaksa regime. </p>
<p>Sirisena was backed by parties and prominent figures spanning the political spectrum, including Chandrika Kumaratunga, a former president, the UNP, several smaller parties (including the hardline Buddhist JHU), and leaders from the Tamil and Muslim minorities. His campaign was also accompanied by a series of crossovers from government ministers and MPs.</p>
<h2>Reversing the slide</h2>
<p>On the face of it, the election marks a major turning point in Sri Lanka’s political history. This is the first time an incumbent president has been defeated at the polls and had Rajapaksa won as expected, he would have become Sri Lanka’s first three-term president. He abolished <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/16992141">the two-term limit in 2010</a> and took control of the constitutional council, which had independent responsibility for making key appointments in the civil service and government commissions. His presidency also saw widespread suppression of government critics, human rights violations, and the erosion of the judiciary’s independence. </p>
<p>Sirisena said he was unable to stand with a leader who had plundered the country, government, and national wealth, and he stood on a promise to reverse the slide towards authoritarianism by abolishing the executive presidency and restoring constitutional checks on the president’s power. </p>
<p>Although the campaign was not free from violence – a local monitoring body, the <a href="http://cmev.org/">Centre for Monitoring Election Violence</a> (CMEV), documented a total of 420 incidents of the course of the campaign – fears of an escalation on polling day proved unfounded. Similarly, predictions that the president might use the state machinery to deliver a fraudulent result also turned out to be wide of the mark. </p>
<p>The scale of the swing towards Sirisena seems to have ruled out any major foul play and convinced Rajapaksa that a dignified retreat from power was the most judicious option.</p>
<h2>Trouble ahead</h2>
<p>While many in Sri Lanka are rejoicing at Sirisena’s victory, major difficulties lie ahead. The new president will quickly embark on an ambitious 100-day reform agenda which plans to conclude with the dissolution of parliament in April. He will also face the huge challenge of holding together his unwieldy coalition for long enough to push through ambitious constitutional reforms. If and when a new parliamentary system is introduced, these problems will only intensify. </p>
<p>Sirisena’s allies remain sharply divided on a range of issues, not least those that continue to face the minority Tamil and Muslim communities. The new president has neglected minority demands in the campaign, ruling out any further devolution to Tamil and Muslim-majority provinces and vowing to prevent any international investigation into alleged <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/08/world/asia/un-rights-chief-says-sri-lanka-is-obstructing-war-crimes-inquiry.html?_r=0">war crimes</a> committed by leading government figures during the final stages of the civil war in 2009, which <a href="http://world.time.com/2013/11/28/sri-lanka-to-start-tally-of-civil-war-dead/">cost the lives of tens of thousands</a> – especially in its bloody final phase, when Sirisena himself was acting defence minister.</p>
<p>The Tamil National Alliance, the leading Tamil party, reluctantly backed Sirisena in the hopes of opening political space, resisting Rajapaksa’s call for them to side with “the known devil”. While the focus of the election has been on the future of the Rajapaksa regime, other core issues such as the long-term economic challenges facing the country have been largely neglected.</p>
<p>There are high hopes that his departure will kick-start a revival of Sri Lanka’s long-standing democratic traditions, but the chances of renewed political instability and uncertainty remain high.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/35971/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Oliver Walton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Sri Lanka’s president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, has been defeated in the country’s historic presidential elections. Sri Lankans are shocked at the scale and manner of Rajapaksa’s defeat, which has brought his…Oliver Walton, Lecturer in International Development, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/253782014-04-22T01:49:56Z2014-04-22T01:49:56ZUN inquiry holds few terrors for a Sri Lanka used to impunity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46194/original/5c36tnf3-1397192110.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Righting human rights wrongs has never been high on the Sri Lankan agenda despite international pressures.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/M.A. Pushpa Kumara</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Sri Lankan government is on the defensive again over human rights. It is hoping to ride out a diplomatic storm after failing to thwart a UN Human Rights Council vote approving an <a href="http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp/html/realfile/story.asp?NewsID=47447&Cr=sri+lanka&Cr1=#.U0Y_WqiSziI">international investigation</a> of alleged war crimes.</p>
<p>The US-sponsored resolution targeted both the Tamil Tigers and government troops, but such objectivity failed to impress a Sri Lanka bristling with indignation.</p>
<p>The brutality of the <a href="http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1869501,00.html">Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam</a> (LTTE) is beyond doubt. The massacre of civilians in border villages, large-scale bombings, political assassinations and the alleged use of civilians as human shields during the final stages of the war have been well-documented by analysts, academics and observers for decades.</p>
<p>But the <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/world/sri-lanka-under-fire-for-killing-thousands-20100517-v9fl.html">prima facie evidence</a> seeping out of the government’s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_the_press_in_Sri_Lanka">tightly censored</a> and controlled battle zone – be it satellite images showing no-fire zones pockmarked by artillery fire, or grainy video of troops executing Tamil Tiger prisoners – also casts a potential war crimes shadow over the military’s so-called “decisive victory over terrorism”.</p>
<p>In the face of international criticism, Sri Lanka recycles its “ends justifies the means” argument. It underscores its defence with repeated reminders about LTTE brutality.</p>
<p>Sri Lanka’s dismissive attitude to a long <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_in_Sri_Lanka">record of war crimes</a> is more than just political arrogance. It should be viewed through the prism of four decades of political violence. This includes the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janatha_Vimukthi_Peramuna">Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna</a> (JVP) insurgencies (1971 and 1987-90), Tamil militancy (1975-2009) and the systemic failure to bring perpetrators to justice.</p>
<p>Righting human rights wrongs has never been high on the Sri Lankan agenda. Until recently, Sri Lanka’s human rights record was also not high on the international agenda.</p>
<h2>The JVP insurgencies</h2>
<p>The 1971 insurgency staged by the predominantly Sinhala Marxist JVP rebels and the extrajudicial reprisal strategy adopted by prime minister <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/oct/11/guardianobituaries">Sirima Bandaranaike’s</a> government irrevocably changed the political landscape of Sri Lanka. It created a culture of state-sponsored abductions, torture and killing. This first foray into broad-scale political violence resulted in the slaying of between 6000 and 15,000 insurgents.</p>
<p>The United National Party (UNP) governments of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._Jayewardene">J. R. Jayawardena</a> and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/02/world/suicide-bomber-kills-president-of-sri-lanka.html">Ranasinghe Premadasa</a> used even greater force to crush the JVP’s second and more violent insurrection in the late 1980s. As many as 60,000 people were killed or “disappeared”. JVP leaders <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rohana_Wijeweera">Rohana Wijeweera</a> and <a href="http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1989/Government-Says-Leaders-of-Radical-Group-Killed/id-b5e26083c260bec8c1f3efd76b98fbf4">Upatissa Gamanayake</a> were summarily executed.</p>
<p>This insurrection saw the rise of state-sponsored paramilitaries and of illicit government-backed torture chambers. These included the Batalanda Detention Centre operated by the government’s Counter Subversive Unit.</p>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrika_Kumaratunga">Chandrika Kumaratunga</a> set up a presidential commission into Batalanda mass graves in the late 1990s. The findings implicated senior police and even then opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe. In 2013, president <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/hero-or-war-criminal-sri-lankan-leader-mahinda-rajapaksa-under-pressure-8940591.html">Mahinda Rajapaksa’s</a> brother, defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, was linked to a JVP-era grave in Matale containing the remains of more than 200 people.</p>
<p>No alleged perpetrators have ever been held to account.</p>
<h2>Tamil rebels and state paramilitaries</h2>
<p>Fuelled by the first JVP insurrection, Tamil youth in the country’s north formed a number of fledgling militant groups. These included the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eelam_People%27s_Democratic_Party">Eelam People’s Democratic Party</a> (EPDP), <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Liberation_Organisation_of_Tamil_Eelam">People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam</a> (PLOTE) and the LTTE.</p>
<p>In 1975, <a href="http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1899590,00.html">Velupillai Prabhakaran</a>, who would become the leader of the lethal LTTE, committed his first assassination when he gunned down pro-government Jaffna mayor Alfred Duriayappah.</p>
<p>From these beginnings the LTTE emerged as the dominant militant group in the north. It eliminated rivals though absorption or violent eradication. Those who survived the purge found refuges or niches of convenience operating within government-sponsored paramilitaries in the Tamil-speaking north and east.</p>
<p>While EPDP paramilitants abducted and allegedly killed scores of civilians at the government’s bidding, their leader, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Devananda">Douglas Devananda</a>, comfortably slipped onto the front bench of both the Kumaratunga and Rajapaksa governments.</p>
<p>Successive government were also quick to collude with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinayagamoorthy_Muralitharan">Karuna Amman</a>, the LTTE’s once-feared eastern commander. He now sits as a cabinet minister and a party leader. The man implicated in the massacre of 113 police officers who had surrendered to the LTTE and in many terrorist attacks, including the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_Temple_of_the_Tooth_attack">Temple of the Tooth bombing</a>, now tours those same temple grounds as a government minister inspecting the restoration.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46193/original/snwssxdk-1397191994.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46193/original/snwssxdk-1397191994.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46193/original/snwssxdk-1397191994.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46193/original/snwssxdk-1397191994.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46193/original/snwssxdk-1397191994.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46193/original/snwssxdk-1397191994.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46193/original/snwssxdk-1397191994.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa knows the UN call for ‘justice’ lacks commitment and the threat of investigation is hollow.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Riding out the storm</h2>
<p>Rajapaksa is no political dunce. He knows the UN call for “justice” lacks commitment and the threat of investigation is hollow. He has seen similar gestures before in a domestic setting and nothing he has seen of the UN suggests things will be different internationally.</p>
<p>Rajapaksa knows China and Russia will shield Sri Lanka, as they have done previously. He also knows that some allegiances can be bought with the right domestic bait – in <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/australia-opposes-un-resolution-to-conduct-war-crimes-inquiry-in-sri-lanka-20140328-35moj.html">Australia’s case</a>, with a promise to stem the flow of refugees.</p>
<p>Yet as long as the threat of intervention hangs over Sri Lanka, Rajapaksa can tug at his countrymen’s nationalist heart strings, rally ultra-nationalists and galvanise support for a government seemingly under attack from foreign interests. His government can deploy an “us-and-them” framework and brand broader anti-government views as anti-nationalist.</p>
<p>This, coupled with the glacial pace of international justice and an almost pathological ability by mainstream Sri Lanka to overlook violent abuses of power, means Rajapaksa’s political opponents will gain little traction for a campaign based on alleged war crimes.</p>
<p>Rajapaksa, like so many before him, enjoys an impunity no international bellowing is likely to overcome.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/25378/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kasun Ubayasiri does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Sri Lankan government is on the defensive again over human rights. It is hoping to ride out a diplomatic storm after failing to thwart a UN Human Rights Council vote approving an international investigation…Kasun Ubayasiri, Lecturer, School of Humanities , Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/196752013-11-01T15:05:15Z2013-11-01T15:05:15ZIn Rajapaksa’s Sri Lanka, repression is a family affair<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/34250/original/tv2432j7-1383314147.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The defeat of the Tamil Tigers left many thousands dead amid allegations of war crimes.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">PA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When delegates assemble in Colombo later this month for the Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM), much of the talk at the summit will be of “moving forward” and of “reconciliation”. The government will highlight evidence of reconstruction in the war-torn north of the county.</p>
<p>But two big questions will be studiously avoided at diplomatic receptions. Nobody will want to talk about the tens of thousands of civilians that the army <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-13158916">is alleged to have killed</a> in the final days of war in 2009. And the government’s continuing assault on Sri Lanka’s democratic freedoms will go largely unremarked. </p>
<p>Sri Lanka has won the war against the Tamil Tigers, but runs the risk of sliding into authoritarian rule. </p>
<p>Sri Lanka is one of the <a href="http://www.commonwealthgovernance.org/countries/asia/sri_lanka/">oldest democracies in the Commonwealth</a>, with an unbroken record of regular elections dating back to 1931. Its democratic tradition, buttressed by a largely independent judiciary and a lively press, survived a 30-year war with the <a href="http://www.eelam.com/ltte">Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)</a>. But since the coming to power of the current president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, in 2005, pressure on journalists, political opponents, and independent judges has become intense. </p>
<p>Rajapaksa heads the biggest government in the world, with more than 100 ministers and deputy ministers in office. In reality, this is simply a vast network of patronage and control – politicians only thrive if they are inside this ruling club. The real government is much smaller, concentrated around three Rajapaksa brothers, who manage nearly 50% of the state budget between them. </p>
<h2>Jobs for the boys</h2>
<p>The president’s brother, Gotabhaya, who survived an LTTE terrorist attack in 2006, presides over the powerful defence ministry. Another brother, Basil, is effectively in charge of the economy, as minister for economic development. Just to round things off, elder brother Chamal holds the post of parliamentary speaker, while Mahinda’s son is also a member of parliament.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/34249/original/b2b88cmx-1383314040.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/34249/original/b2b88cmx-1383314040.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/34249/original/b2b88cmx-1383314040.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=250&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/34249/original/b2b88cmx-1383314040.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=250&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/34249/original/b2b88cmx-1383314040.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=250&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/34249/original/b2b88cmx-1383314040.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/34249/original/b2b88cmx-1383314040.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/34249/original/b2b88cmx-1383314040.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Brothers in arms: l-r: Basil, Chamal and Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Serious challenges to this emerging dynasty have not been tolerated. Former army chief Sarath Fonseka, a one-time ally of the president, ran against him in the 2010 elections, but ended up <a href="http://www.deccanherald.com/content/251138/fonseka-walks-free-calls-himself.html">spending two years in prison</a> on politically-motivated charges. </p>
<p>Checks and balances on the government have gradually been dismantled. The judiciary has lost much of its independence. The <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/16992141">18th amendment to the Constitution</a> – ratified in 2010 – abolished an independent judicial appointments body and instead gave those powers to the president. In a final blow to the judiciary, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-21002642">parliament impeached</a> an independent-minded chief justice in January 2013, after she presided over a judicial decision that went against the government.</p>
<p>The independent press has also been cowed. <a href="http://www.cpj.org/asia/sri-lanka/">Since 2005 at least a dozen journalists have been killed</a>; others have disappeared or fled into exile. There has been no progress in finding the killers of Sunday Leader editor <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/stevecoll/2009/01/letter-from-the.html">Lasantha Wickrematunga</a>, shot dead in 2009 after writing a letter to be published in his newspaper predicting his own death. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/34236/original/zxnydzmz-1383312351.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/34236/original/zxnydzmz-1383312351.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/34236/original/zxnydzmz-1383312351.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=747&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/34236/original/zxnydzmz-1383312351.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=747&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/34236/original/zxnydzmz-1383312351.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=747&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/34236/original/zxnydzmz-1383312351.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=939&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/34236/original/zxnydzmz-1383312351.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=939&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/34236/original/zxnydzmz-1383312351.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=939&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lasantha Wickrematunge: wrote of his own murder.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sunalie Ratnayake</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>His successor as editor, Frederica Jansz, also faced death threats and was sacked in 2012 after pro-government business interests bought the newspaper. Journalists on Tamil newspapers are particularly vulnerable. The Jaffna-based Uthayan has been a frequent target. In April 2013 arsonists set fire to its presses; its journalists frequently face beatings, harassment and worse; five have been killed since 2002.</p>
<h2>Tamil unrest</h2>
<p>Meanwhile, the government has not offered any serious political solution to Sri Lanka’s embattled Tamil minority, who have exchanged the brutality of LTTE rule for the uncertainties of life under the Sri Lankan military. But one source of optimism is the e<a href="http://thecommonwealth.org/media/press-release/commonwealth-issues-final-report-sri-lanka%E2%80%99s-northern-provincial-elections">lection held to the Northern Provincial Council</a> in September 2013. The nationalist Tamil National Alliance thoroughly trounced pro-government parties, winning nearly 80 per cent of the vote.</p>
<p>Moderate members of the government hope that channelling Tamil demands through the political process in this way will prevent any resurgence of armed insurgency or terrorism. Tamil activists hope that the election will help to resurrect Tamil demands for some measure of self-determination. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/34241/original/xpys5dcy-1383312485.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/34241/original/xpys5dcy-1383312485.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/34241/original/xpys5dcy-1383312485.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/34241/original/xpys5dcy-1383312485.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/34241/original/xpys5dcy-1383312485.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/34241/original/xpys5dcy-1383312485.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/34241/original/xpys5dcy-1383312485.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/34241/original/xpys5dcy-1383312485.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tamil unrest has spilled over to India.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tsering Topgyal/AP/Press Association Images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But at present the whole of the Northern Province is effectively under military rule. The provincial council is unlikely to gain crucial powers over policing and land rights. It runs the danger of becoming a largely virtual body, while government funding and military power bypass local government. </p>
<p>The Rajapaksas have understood the lessons of modern authoritarianism: control of finance, the judiciary, the police, and the media are more important than winning every local election. But it is hard to envisage a peaceful future for the island unless this democratic experiment in the north can be made to work. And that means boosting constitutional governance not only in the north, but throughout the island, with a free press, an independent judiciary and a strong political opposition holding the government to account. </p>
<p>The decision to hold CHOGM in Colombo was wrong-headed and counterproductive. The Commonwealth’s credibility as an upholder of human rights has been badly damaged. Calls to boycott the event have been heeded only by <a href="http://www.pm.gc.ca/eng/news/2013/10/07/statement-prime-minister-canada">Canadian prime minister Steven Harper</a>. The least that delegates such as David Cameron can do is to highlight publicly the dangers that Sri Lanka’s creeping authoritarianism poses to the country’s future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/19675/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Lewis worked for the International Crisis Group in Sri Lanka in 2006-07.</span></em></p>When delegates assemble in Colombo later this month for the Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM), much of the talk at the summit will be of “moving forward” and of “reconciliation”. The government…David Lewis, Senior Lecturer, Politics, University of ExeterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.