From Sri Lanka to Syria, the inaction of the world community resulted in loss of precious lives
Riding the tiger is an art that isn’t easy to master in the best of circumstances. While a tiger’s back may be the safest place to be when you are riding it, you should be ready for what comes when the ride inevitably ends.
There was a time when many in India, including the Tamil, identified with Tamil Tigers with the establishment and Indian agencies offering every possible support to “our boys.” The LTTE training camps in Tamil Nadu were a secret that no one bothered to hide.
This support proved crucial in the Tigers’ transformation into one of the deadliest and successful insurgent forces in recent history. Their breathtaking exploits on land and on high seas over an organized army became the stuff of legends. Many a Tamil filmmaker modeled his potbellied heroes on LTTE chief Prabhakaran.
More important, LTTE managed to get its goal of a separate homeland for the Tamils. It didn’t stop there. Sri Lanka was turned into a living hell with daredevil assassinations and suicide bombings – LTTE practically invented it – targeting top Lankan leadership, security forces, and ordinary people for nearly two decades.
Ironically, India had a price to pay, too. Former premier Rajiv Gandhi lost his life for his apparent sincerity in trying to end the interminable cycle of violence in the island. Dispatching Indian forces to Sri Lanka, however, proved a spectacular disaster with the country losing 1,155 soldiers to the ragtag army trained on Indian soil – a figure that outweighs the toll in wars with Pakistan.
The civil war claimed more than 100,000 lives, including 28,000 LTTE cadres and 23,330 Lankan troops, not to mention the economic costs of the long conflict in a country dependent on tourism.
Prabhakaran was notorious for his murderous ruthlessness and cruelty, which was experienced not just by Sinhalas and Muslims, but also by fellow Tamils. While the Tamil revolt had been a response to long years of dispossession, its methods to get justice were far from just.
Yet nothing justifies the appalling savagery and all-out war that was launched against the entire Tamil population in the name of fighting Tigers’ terror. Independent estimates suggest more than 40,000 Tamils were killed and hundreds of thousands were driven from their homes in the long and bloody campaign.
Prabhakaran, who loved to pose in his military fatigues, was eventually captured and killed and paraded like a prized trophy. And it now turns out they didn’t even spare his 12 year-old-son Balachandran. A recent documentary on UK’s Channel 4 showed the bullet-riddled, naked body of a young boy identified as Prabhakaran’s son. There were five bullet holes in the young torso, fired point blank. The image of the boy sleeping the eternal sleep is incredibly moving and disturbing. What was his crime except being Prabhakaran’s son?
Last year, the Channel 4 created a storm with its first documentary detailing the extent and epic proportions of crimes against humanity committed by both sides. This month, it followed up with more horrifying documentary evidence of war crimes and state sanctioned abuse and terror.
Of course, Prabhakaran routinely visited such savagery on his victims. But is there no difference between a group of desperate militants and organized army representing a nation governed by laws and international conventions?
The Sri Lankans had heaved a collective sigh of relief when the island nation was rid of three decades of Tiger terror three years ago. My Lankan friends say today there’s total peace and security in the country and tourists are returning in big numbers. But at what price comes peace and security? Are there no laws and no fair rules of engagement as nations tackle terror and insurgency?
These questions demand answers from the world community and Lankan leadership. The UN Human Rights Council resolution last week was therefore the right thing to do and a belated recognition of the horrific crimes committed in the picture perfect island. And one is proud that India added its voice, albeit at gunpoint by the DMK, to the global chorus against the Lankan war crimes.
But what cruel irony that the UN resolution was moved by a country which has repeatedly blocked all attempts to confront Israel on its seven decades of crimes against the Palestinians! Besides, try as you might, it’s a tad difficult to look beyond the shock and awe of Iraq and Afghanistan and take lectures in human rights from folks responsible for Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, and the continuing drone strikes at faceless targets in distant lands. A million people paid with their lives for a lie in Iraq. But, of course, you can’t expect the world body to ever take on the empire.
Besides, the eternal proxy battlefield that the UN is, there’s more to the UNHCR vote than meets the eye. Washington hasn’t been too pleased with the growing Lankan proximity to Beijing and massive Chinese investment and influence in the neighborhood. This is precisely why India wasn’t too keen on the UNHCR vote fearing it would force Lanka into the welcoming Chinese arms.
Indian foreign policy establishment and ever-vigilant media warriors also obsessed over the UN vote opening the door to similar calls on Kashmir. Tellingly, Pakistan and many of India’s neighbors voted against the Lanka vote because of their close ties to Colombo. As they say, one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter and vice versa.
But regardless of all the cynical politics and diplomatic shadowboxing over this issue, it’s a shame if appalling crimes like these go unaccounted for. Desperate people resort to desperate measures. The Tamils took to arms only when they had had enough of persecution and injustice at the hands of the Sinhala majority.
While injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, as Martin Luther King would insist, it’s all the more unacceptable when the dispossessed groups and vulnerable minorities are at the receiving end. There comes a time when in the life of a nation as well as individuals, you have to rise above your narrow national interests and petty tribal loyalties to speak the truth, and more important, show which side you are on with your actions; especially when silence and inaction could endanger precious lives.
We have seen it happen repeatedly in the case of Palestinians over the past seven decades. Armed with the US-issued license, Israel has killed and killed with impunity, incarcerating and torturing a whole nation. And these are the folks who claim to have suffered the same fate not long ago.
In recent times, international inaction cost nearly a million lives in Rwanda. Tens of thousands perished in the Balkans. Ten years ago, more than 2,000 people were butchered and burnt and women raped in Gujarat for three months while the moderate, peace-loving prime minister in Delhi wrote poetry.
Thousands have been done to death in Syria and are still getting killed right now at the hands of their government because of the silence and overriding geopolitical interests of some world powers.
While the past has passed and perhaps there’s little anyone can do about it, it’s a disgrace if in today’s globalized, interconnected times the world with its fine institutions stands and stares while governments and despots kill people in the name of peace and security. Every time we remain silent and shut our eyes and ears, we send innocents to their death. Silence kills. Literally.
From foreign policy perspective, all these clashes may seem more or less the same, the Sri Lankan situation is unique in several ways. To answer the question of whether there should be any limits to States who confront terrorism, there should be and there is. Sri Lanka is bound by international conventions and honor them. But when the countries existence is at stake with all the western powers aiding and abetting terrorism and the gigantic neighbor training and arming terrorists, the question to ask is; should we obey all the rules and let the terrorists destroy the country or put up a fight with our merge resources ? We choose the latter and won, much to the dismay of west who preached to us to negotiate with terrorists (but not for them).
There are civilian lives lost in any war, but the casualties at the closing stages of the Eelam war is due to LTTE using them as human shield. But the West conveniently forgets it. Solders are not saints and there are aristocracies happening in any war, but in comparison Sri Lankan solders were much restrained. There was no ethnic hatred in the army towards Tamils and towards the LTTErs as purported by the western media. LTTE cadres are rehabilitated and released. Even TNA who carries LTTE torch now, was forced to admit that the rehabilitation was done in an exemplary manner. Can you find similar situation in any other conflicts mentioned?
The Geneva resolution is nothing about human rights or Tamils. It’s all about politics. US and the West want to punish Sri Lanka for going against their advice and for rallying developing countries against them. India succumbed to Tamilnadu pressure who had not yet given up their Eelam dreams, as recently declared by Karunanidhi.
The question you are raising is aptly answered by a British newspaper during the height of the war. The question was should Sri Lanka stop the offensive to save lives? And the answer was no, because if the war is allowed to drag on for another generation countless more lives and property will be destroyed. That’s why Sri Lanka went ahead against all odds and brought peace to the land. If you look back at the Second World War, would it have been better if Hitler is allowed to carry on, so that no lives were lost in the battle?
History, world opinion, internal ethnic relations and development potential all prove that, what happened and what is happening is the best outcome that could have happened for Sri Lanka and it’s neighbors. The process may not be perfect, but it works.
Let Sri Lanka heal.
I remember sometime last year the former US secretary of state, Madeline Albright arguing to justify the dropping of Atom Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the very end of the war on the grounds that it saved many lives American GIs.
Hypocrites as they are the Anglo French, the US oligarchy, their lapdogs and their stooges do not think that what is good for them is good for us too. No wonder they keep fighting their wars with no end in sight in spite of they having all types of nasty weapons.
Leela
@SenaM
Yes, it was best to end the conflict with decisive military action.
But for SL to heal, and for the peace to last, there must be a full & fair investigation into the events that took place during the final stages of the conflict.
Sri Lanka did not go to war with Tamil people, it was fighting a ruthless terror group (LTTE) which was finally wiped out. Human shields that the terrorist used was the only reason for Tamil civilian deaths. There is nothing to heal here because the ruthless terrorists are all perished and any remaining are being rehabilitated.
Lasting peace is already here too; Sri Lanka did not have a single suicide bombing or terror activity since 2009. Additionally, not a single Tamil Sri Lankan was deliberately or accidentally killed by the Sri Lankan forces since 2009.
What more healing and peace are you talking about?
this is a good article, International Intervention is the only solution to both crisis.
people should support this ideology .
in the case of Srilanka
as suggested by UN expert panel, HRW , AI and British Pm David Cameron see video @
http://youtu.be/y9qRA847Tn8
What a nerd. Have you forgotten that it was the LTTE which did not stick to the CFA in 2003. When they had power (at least they thought they did) they were gunning for a military solution. When LTTE murdered innocent children, women, monks etc., where were you. You received what you asked for, people got killed. Just leave that behind rather than opening old wounds. Get on with life and business.
Great article. I agree that there are many parallels with the Tamils and Palestinian situation; both being recipients of policies of collective punishment, left only with the choice of violence, and being in the unfortunate position not to be worth anything to those who could change the situation – namely the US. Quite the irony then that Rajapaksa has been a vocal supporter of Palestinian rights, and only restored diplomatic relations with Israel so he could buy guns from them to defeat the LLTE.
In fact, I’ve read that Prabhakaran’s son was interrogated before being shot and the information he gave to his captors actually led to them finding his father. Here, I think:
http://truth-out.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=6187:sri-lankan-general-admits-war-crimes-us-may-hold-crucial-supporting-evidence
This is an excellent article, however, why US voted against 36 to 1 in Israel case? But supported 24 to 23 in Sri Lankan case? Is US has a genuine concern of human rights? No! Never! In this circumstance why not Sri Lanka follows the same pathway followed by Israel? Thanks for those who voted in favour of Sri Lanka. They get rid of the problem, let them live peacefully. India, you will harvest what you sow! It is not that far!
Political, economic, social, cultural and environmental oppression has been of the previous 61 years has been continuing in the last three years = LTTE tried to stand in the way but was wiped out. Such oppressors around the world support each other at the UN and the Commonwealth and justice for the oppressed is not on the horizon.
”After decades of internecine conflict, almost from the time of our independence from colonial rule, our country now faces many challenges, particularly in the areas of promoting reconciliation among communities, reducing economic hardships and eliminating lawlessness” – Govt must present road map for implementing recommendations in LLRC Report, 28 March 2012, Jayantha Dhanapala and Emeritus Prof Savithri Gooesekere, http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/5148 (Dhanapala is former UN Under-Secretary General for Disarmament and Prof Goonesekere was Professor of Law, University of Colombo)
Mr Syed wrote: “The Tamils took to arms only when they had had enough of persecution and injustice at the hands of the Sinhala majority.” Mr Syed; that is nothing but a complete misunderstanding of what I call Tamil dilemma of being a patriot to where they live or join the struggle to make their past glory come true.
Let’s start with very brief history of Tamils. According to professors S.Pathmanathan and Karthigesu Indrapala, both Tamils, the Jaffna kingdom (kingdom in Sri Lanka) known as Kingdom of Aryacakravarti began in 1215 with the invasion by a chieftain called Magha, who claimed to be from Kalinga in modern India. It was a tribute paying feudatory of the Pandyan Empire in 1258, and its independence came only with the fragmentation of that Empire. Anyway last Jaffna King, Cankili II, usurper to the throne, confronted the Portuguese in 1617 but was defeated. So you see, Jaffna kingdom in Sri Lanka lasted less than 450 years. On the other hand Tamils had over 1000 years of Chera, Chola and Pandiya kings written history in southern India. They fought among themselves and at times send armies to Sri Lanka, Malaysia and other countries as well. As for Sinhalese they didn’t have their kingdoms in India but in Sri Lanka only and it was written chronologically for 2500 years.
A man named EVR Periyar had agitated Dravidains to demand a Dravidastan from then Madras Presidency in 1920s. That is long before Jinna had even dreamt of a Pakistan for Muslims. However, all Dravidains other than Tamils dropped out from Periyar’s band wagon after they got queshi Federal states after independence. And, from then on Periyar changed his slogan to ‘Tamil Nadu for Tamils’. And, Tamils continued their separatist demand in Tamil Nadu until Nehru banned it in 1963 by the 16th amendment. After that racist Tamil Nadu politicians had appointed their kith and kin in Sri Lanka as their proxy to get what they now cannot in India.
A man named SJV Chelvernayakam, a self professed Ghandian but a trousered one at that has taken over from where Periyar left. Chelva became the leader of the largest Tamil party. He told one thing to Tamils and another to Sinhalese. He tried to get Sinhalese to believe Tamils only want Federal. But from what had been going on in India, Sinhalese knew true goal of Tamils is a separate country.
When trousered Ghandian failed to get what he wanted through protest sittings, he came up with the now infamous ‘Waddukkodai Resolution’. last sentence of the resolution that was proposed and adopted at the party convention of, TULF on May 14th 1976 says; “And this Convention calls upon the Tamil Nation in general and the Tamil youth in particular to come forward to throw themselves fully into the sacred fight for freedom and to flinch not till the goal of a sovereign state of TAMIL EELAM is reached.” And that paved the way for LTTE for Pirapakaran was there at that rally.
Now, as I said before, you shouldn’t be mistaken that this demand for a separate country for Tamils started in 1976 because Tamils were discriminated by Sinhalese. Here is the reason.
According to DBS Jayaraj a Tamil writer who writes in English said; an unknown man named Visvalingam had first mooted for the division of Sri Lanka to form a Tamil country called ‘Elom’ in the 1928. He said there were no Tamil takers at the time. True, but I say; that is because Tamils were the favourites of the British Raj, and also because Tamils held 90% of government jobs as wells economic and political leadership at the time. So much so, in Colombo, Sinhalese even voted a Tamil named Ramanathan as their representative over their own kind. But after universal adult franchise was established and Sinhalese started electing their kith and kin, Tamil intellectuals, politicians etc started to back ‘Elom’ while some others openly objected British leaving meaning any independence to Ceylon. When independence had become a stark reality, Tamils demanded 50-50 power for its 11% flock.
Now you can see Tamil efforts to pin point discrimination as the reason for their demand for separation is a ruse. Truth is; Tamils wanted a country for Tamils, just like Jews.
Leela
I agree, Sri Lanka has failed to convinced the International community, what happened in the island for 32 years fighting with LTTE and exposed suicide killings all over the country.
Sri Lanka, should have educated Tamil Nadu, before all other Indian Community or International forums.
This is the problem of the Sri lankan Govt Strategies.
If the world is known, who is LTTE, their performance in terrorism and suiciding bombing, the Geneva resolution might have gone against, who funded, looked after LTTE, not for Sri Lanka
“Prabhakaran routinely visited such savagery on his victims. But is there no difference between a group of desperate militants and organized an army?” asks the author…
The question to me is, who are the greatest savages on this planet? Can anybody argue that it is not the Western white forces? Whether they be the colonialist thugs who roamed the world committing genocide and mass murder or the more recent German Fascist thugs or the Anglo-saxon scum who killed in cold blood entire cities of people in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Dresden, or indeed the baby killers of Iraq (aka George Bush and his hunchos), it is always these utterly ‘civilized’ whites who are in reality the biggest savages on this planet. So, please, let’s get the facts right first.
*It is the people of Fallujah’s cherished right to hold to account the International Community that now has both the mandate and moral responsibility to initiate proceedings to prosecute and hold accountable all those perpetrators, and to seek full restitution and compensations commensurate with the endured suffering and pain throughout the occupation period, continuing till the present day.*
http://tinyurl.com/246ehac
the *international community* has been derelict of its duty in iraq, afpak, kosovo, libya, somalia, yemen, etc etc.
so fuck the *international community*
http://www.ifpsl.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=24&Itemid=1
Tamils want justice.They have been conducting justbiable freedom fighting of Tamil Eelam since 1948.The existed separate Tamil Kingdom was unified with Sri Lanka at1833 by Britis colonizers.The international impartial investigation only solve the Singhala-Tamil ethnic problem in Ceylon.
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Advocating genocide
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Specifically:
· Killing members of the group;
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This offence is also committed when someone communicates statements, other than in a private conversation, that willfully promotes hatred against any identifiable group.
“Communication’ includes: words spoken, recorded electronically or otherwise, gestures, signs or other visible representations.
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