Which way will M’sia turn at Sri Lanka meet?

isaipriya-MEENAKSHI GANGULY, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch, November 6, 2013.

COMMENT The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting is a gathering of leaders from 53 nations largely made up of former territories of the British Empire. They meet to promote common values including equitable growth, democracy, accountability, rule of law and human rights.
Sri Lanka, which will host the next meeting on Nov 15-17, has a tumultuous and tragic history. For three decades, it was wracked by violent rebellions. Tens of thousands lost their lives, families were torn apart, and many people suffered arbitrary arrest, torture and enforced disappearance.

The uprising in the southern part of the country by an extremist faction of the Sinhala- majority community was ruthlessly crushed in the 1980s but the skeletons, literally, still emerge from mass graves where the bodies of the disappeared were dumped after executions.

prabhakaran tamil tigers leader shot dead in sri lanka conflict  190509 03The conflict in the predominantly minority Tamil populated north, which ended in May 2009, took a heavier toll. A secessionist battle by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or Tamil Tigers, included suicide bombings in civilian areas, political assassinations, extortion, and forced recruitment of children into combat.

The war ended with the decisive military defeat of the Tamil Tigers and the killing of its top leadership under questionable circumstances.

After the fighting ended, the government had the opportunity to promote long-term peace and reconciliation between the Sinhala and Tamil populations.

Instead, as Malaysia and other countries prepare to attend the summit, there should be no illusions about the venue: war crimes committed during the armed conflict for which there has been no accountability, and in fact, absolute denial, and the ongoing human rights violations by the Sri Lankan government.

sri lanka violent conflict 130509 01Human Rights Watch and others have reported on extensive violations of the laws of war by the Sri Lankan armed forces, particularly during the final months of fighting in 2009.

While the Tamil Tigers held several hundred thousand civilians effectively as hostages, the military repeatedly shelled the areas where the civilians sought safety, including in government-declared No-Fire Zones and hospitals.

Summary executions and evidence of rape were captured on video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=915_gGRZ5Lw&feature=player_embedded

Neither side allowed adequate access to humanitarian agencies and as many as 40,000 civilians died from hunger, disease and untreated wounds, according to a UN panel of experts.

In 2012 and earlier this year, the UN Human Rights Council passed resolutions calling on Sri Lanka to take concrete steps towards investigating these allegations and to hold those found responsible to account.

Although the government keeps announcing that these resolutions are being implemented, there is scant evidence of any progress.

Two months ago, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay visited Sri Lanka and reported that she “detected no new or comprehensive effort to independently or credibly investigate the allegations which have been of concern”.

Don’t abet whitewash  

The government’s aggressive denial of wartime atrocities has been matched by a deterioration in the current human rights situation.

Sri Lanka has a proud history of democratic institutions, but the government of Mahinda Rajapaksa has taken it in a disturbing authoritarian direction.

Protest against jailing of JS Tissainayagam, sri lanka journalistTop ranks of the government are held by his brothers. The chief justice was impeached after ruling against the government. Independent commissions, including on human rights, have been rendered toothless.

The media and human rights groups have less and less freedom to speak out – and many journalists and activists have fled the country out of genuine concerns for their safety.

The principles of human rights are enshrined in the Commonwealth’s Harare Declaration of 1991.

Members, including Malaysia, should not allow Sri Lanka’s hosting of the 2013 summit and its subsequent two-year chairmanship, which provide the government a platform to whitewash past laws-of-war violations and current human rights abuses.

NONEEarlier, Malaysia had blocked a private screening of the Channel 4 documentary ‘No Fire Zone’ and filed charges against Lena Hendry (right in photo) of the human rights group Pusat Komas for violating censorship laws, raising concerns that Malaysia might have become a  a disturbing partner for Sri Lanka in covering up wartime atrocities.

The Commonwealth Summit comes at a crucial moment. Attending governments like Malaysia can either choose to look the other way, implicitly endorsing Sri Lankan abuses, or they can use this opportunity to support efforts for accountability and democracy in Sri Lanka and more broadly within the Commonwealth.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron will attend, but his government has said that he will deliver a “tough message”. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has announced that he will not attend because Sri Lanka has failed to uphold the Commonwealth’s “core values”.

If the principles on which the Commonwealth is founded are to have any meaning, states should publicly endorse Pillay’s call for an independent, international investigation into wartime violations.

Every effort should be made to prevent the meeting from becoming a public relations bonanza for an undeserving Sri Lankan government and an embarrassment for the Commonwealth.


MEENAKSHI GANGULY is the South Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

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