Federation for People’s Rights (FPR) Secretary, G. Sugumaran issued a Press Release on 18.05.2011:
In the back drop of the United Nations report on the Sri Lankan war crimes, we on behalf of Federation for People’s Rights, Puducherry urge the international community to pressurize the Sri Lankan government to order for an enquiry in this regard.
The UN sent a three member high level committee to Sri Lanka to enquire about the human rights violations committed during the war between the government and LTTE. The said team visited Sri Lanka, enquired and submitted the 214 pages report to UN on 31st March 2011. Considering the report, UN released the report officially on 26th April 2011.
This report created shock waves not only among the Tamils around the world, but also among the people concerned on human rights. The report leveled 5 charges against the Sri Lankan government and 6 charges against the struggled movement.
The report says that the Sri Lankan government indulged in human rights violations by floating his promise that it will carry the humanitarian rescue operation with a policy of zero civilian casualties. The government explicitly violated the international humanitarian and human rights law.
The report further says that in the war between September 2008 and 19 May 2009, about 3 lakh and 30 thousand civilians trapped in the war zone and 40 thousand civilians were killed in the war.
The report reveals that the panel found credible allegations that comprise five core categories of potential serious violations committed by the government of Sri Lanka: (i) killing of civilians through widespread shelling; (ii) shelling of hospitals and humanitarian objects; (iii) denial of humanitarian assistance; (iv) human rights violations suffered by victim and survivors of the conflict, including both IDPs and suspected LTTE cadre; and (v) human rights violations outside the conflict zone, including against the media and other critics of the government.
The UN report recommended to the Sri Lanka government to immediately commence genuine investigations into the alleged violations of international humanitarian and human rights law committed by both sides involved in the armed conflict. To facilitate the recovery and returns of human remains to their families and allow for performance of cultural rites for the dead, to release all displaced persons and facilitate their return to their former homes or provide for resettlement according to their wishes, continue to provide interim relief to assist the return of all survivors to normal life, to investigate and disclose the fate and location of persons reported to have been forcibly disappeared are some of the other key recommendations found in the report.
The Sri Lankan government simply threw the report into the dust bin without implementing any one of the recommendations of the United Nations. This attitude of the Sri Lankan government is painful to the Tamils in and around the world and the people concern on human rights should condemn this.
We, urge the Sri Lankan government to immediately order for an enquiry on the war crimes which was committed by the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and also request the international community to pressurize this demand.
Leave a Reply