EDITORIAL: Crimes against humanity

 "Crimes against humanity are committed either in peace time, in the aftermath of war or outside the battle zones. They are easier to prove. It is time to highlight who has committed crimes against humanity in Sri Lanka. The world’s deadliest terrorist outfit, the LTTE was the prime perpetrator of the worst crimes against humanity committed against all communities in Sri Lanka, particularly against the Tamil community."

by Helasingha Bandara

Sri Lanka state


(December 19, Washington DC, Sri Lanka Guardian) ‘Crimes against humanity’ is another much hyped phrase that has been given life by the Tamil Diaspora in the absence of intelligent and effective anti propaganda activities of the state of Sri Lanka. The rumblings of the opportunists like Wimal Weerawansa normally fall on deaf ears as far as the international community is concerned. His insistence that the national anthem should be sung only in Sinhala and the comment that there are no countries in the world that sing national anthems in more than one language are a telling tales of the man’s worth. Despite the use of the ability of Mahinda Rajapaksha for nepotism, Gothabhaya to abuse power, Weerawansa to twist the truth and Mervin to create a fear psychosis in order to deceive and control the local masses for self gain and self aggrandisement, the Sri Lanka state has never had an effective strategy of information delivery at international level. In spite of the fact that Mahinda Rajapaksha , his family and a few other politicians have shared the glory of the victory against the LTTE, it was the invaluable contribution of a few volunteer writers of Sri Lanka Sinhala origin that changed the world attitude against the Tigers without which the government could not have dreamed of preventing the world from coming to the rescue of Prabhakaran and the murderers. The few writers who are scattered around the world relentlessly fought against the massive misinformation and the smear campaign of the vast Tamil Diaspora during the partial reign of the LTTE. By being complacent about the Diaspora’s international capabilities and not effectively addressing the local issues the Sri Lanka state has again typically left the LTTE sympathisers to accumulate enough ammunition to shoot at them. The Sri Lanka state does not even know whether it is the war crimes allegations or the allegations of crimes against humanity that is more damaging.

War crimes allegations are normally raised by the sympathisers of the defeated faction. They have always been difficult allegations to prove. War crimes tribunals have a difficult task to judge the accusations if the accusations are made regarding the activities taking place in actual wartime. Ethical wars are hard to find, particularly when one party does not honour local or international ethics of war. The judges have to put themselves in the shoes of a soldier in the real battlefield whose actions are influenced by the mere survival instinct while being surrounded by enemy fire, booby traps, bayonet attacks and indeed by the very fact that fellow soldiers are falling dead around him.

The saviors of the Tamil community

Crimes against humanity are committed either in peace time, in the aftermath of war or outside the battle zones. They are easier to prove. It is time to highlight who has committed crimes against humanity in Sri Lanka. The world’s deadliest terrorist outfit, the LTTE was the prime perpetrator of the worst crimes against humanity committed against all communities in Sri Lanka, particularly against the Tamil community. Tamil children were conscripted against their will and their parents will, enslaved were the Tamils in the LTTE camps against their will, Tamils who dissented were subjected to unbearable and inhuman torture, scores of Tamil people who did not toe their line of doctrine were killed and simply the fear psychosis was driven among the entire Tamil community. Starting from the 1983 killing of 12 soldiers in peace time, over the 30 year period, except for the intermittent war times they have committed unprecedented crimes on unarmed and innocent Sri Lankans. The recent history of Sri Lanka has volumes of records as evidence of the crimes against humanity that they committed. We do not need to attempt to go into further details of such crimes as they were committed in the recent past and the world is aware of them. Indiscriminate bomb explosions in busy streets , commuter buses or trains or in residential areas, killing of pilgrims of all faiths, massacres of destitute border villagers, annihilation of surrendered police personnel and the killings of prisoners are some examples to highlight the brutal and heinous nature of LTTE crimes.


Crimes of the UNP

Going back two decades, it was Premadasa’s UNP that introduced crimes against humanity in Sri Lanka in peace time. He instigated the killings of 30,000 youth of whom the majority had not raised any form of weapon against the state. Perhaps most of them only raised their voice against the government. Freedom of expression is a fundamental human right. The killer squads of the Premadasa regime used rifle butts, long metal nails, machetes and clubs as lethal weapons to brutally massacre people. It cannot be an exaggeration to say that there is not a single Sri Lankan of that era who has not witnessed at least one body burning on the roadside. Severed limbs, severed heads and limbless human trunks placed at roundabouts were common sights of the time. Parents of young people who belonged to other political parties lived in constant fear of losing their loved ones. It was virtual terror that gripped the whole nation. Many of the killers are still at large even today. One such name that comes to mind is the then (1989) Sergeant Dayananda of the Nikaweratiya police who is known to have murdered scores of people himself, shooting them down after arresting them. He is still at large. No large scale investigations were carried out on crimes against humanity by any of the succeeding governments. Ironically it is the same UNP that is now very critical of the current regime of its human rights record. Yes, everyone should have freedom of thought and freedom of expression when society is going down the tube. However, it is morally wrong for the UNP’s perpetrators of crimes to point the finger at others.


The international Policeman

By the same token the USA together with the UK have no moral authority on crimes against humanity issues as they have been the biggest perpetrators of crimes against humanity. Thousands of examples can be brought in to highlight this allegation. One such example is that during the recent war against Iraq the Americans bombed a very busy restaurant in Baghdad on assumption that Saddam was there. The operation was carried out while being perfectly aware that hundreds of innocent customers of the busy restaurant would die together with Saddam, had he been there. Saddam did not die but hundreds of others did. Therefore the Americans do not have the moral authority to inquire into the crimes against humanity by anyone else unless they clean their own house first and hold George Bush responsible for crimes against humanity. The authority of the West to have a double standard is diminishing gradually. Nonetheless, it is important that neutral nations and individuals keep their eyes open to trace possible perpetrators of crimes against humanity. The Sri Lanka government should clear their name against the allegations of crimes against humanity, a more serious charge. War crimes allegations are not difficult to disprove.