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Home Tamil Eelam History Sri Lanka - The State Against The Tamils
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Sri Lanka - The State Against The Tamils - part 5

Genocide - A Crime Against Humanity An Indictment Against Sri Lanka

VP Lingajothy
Solicitor United Kingdom
Genocide - the deliberate wiping out of one race or ethnic group by another, is the most extreme form of abuse of human rights. Until recently, the term has tended to be associated with a single historic event, the so-called ‘Holocaust’ - the attempted extermination of European Jews by the Nazis. More recently, the events in Bosnia, Rwanda and Burundi suggest that the urge within a group to ‘cleanse itself ‘ of others (whether differing in colour, creed or ethnicity) is much more prevalent. Indeed, it may be that a latent propensity towards genocide is as old as the human race itself.

It is generally accepted that the ongoing fratricidal war between the Tamils and the Sinhalese on the island if Sri Lanka has now turned out to be a war of attrition. This war has now assumed a more sinister undertone, in that the majority Sinhalese - influenced by certain rabidly racist elements within the society e.g. Buddhist monks, are now hell-bent on destroying the Tamil nation in Sri Lanka.

Ever since Sri Lanka attained its independence from Britain, the Sinhalese nation’s behaviour towards the Tamils shows that they have a hidden agenda: a plan to systematically destroy the Tamil nation from within Sri Lanka itself. Successive Sinhalese-majority governments, encouraged by racist Buddhist elements, have systematically set about dismantling the culture, language, economic base and religion of the Tamil people - culminating in the physical destruction of the Tamil populace as a whole in traditional Tamil homelands.

Before concentrating on the genocidal evidence, I would like to draw the readers’ attention to our topical question: whether the evidence before us will clearly establish a case for genocide to be brought against the Sri Lankan state - as it is now defined by the Genocide Convention?

The words/phrases ‘genocide’, ‘holocaust’, ‘ethnic cleansing’, ‘extermination’ and ‘final solution’, are ones that evoke memories relating to the plight of the Jews during World War II. The spectre of the ‘Holocaust’, genocide and ethnic cleansing, are once again revisiting us in Kosovo, Rwanda, Bosnia, Kurdistan, East Timor and Tamil Eelam.

Over fifty years have passed since the end of World War II and it is now time to take a fresh look at ethnic conflicts around the world and formulate new interpretations for the words/phrases ‘genocide’, ‘holocaust’, ‘ethnic cleansing’, ‘extermination’ and ‘final solution’.

Legal definition of genocide
Article 2 of the Genocide Convention contains this legal definition of genocide:

In the present convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, sic racial or religious group as such:

1. Killing members of the group.
2. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group.

3. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.

4. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.

5. Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

There are three main parts in the definition of genocide whose understanding is crucial for an interpretation of what acts amount to genocide under the convention. Firstly, the acts constituting genocide. Secondly, the intent to destroy, in whole or in part a group. Lastly, the definition of the group as being national, ethnical, sic racial or religious.

The definition of genocide in the Genocide Convention has been repeatedly attacked for its narrow focus, which is largely blamed for the failure of the Genocide Convention itself.

Non-Legal Definition of Genocide
The legalistic and narrow focus of the definition of genocide has led to debates as to what actually constitutes an international crime under the definition formulated by the Genocide Convention. Debate has centred around the Convention’s exclusion of other factors, such as the structural, systematic and psychological aspects of genocide. This has prompted sociologists in particular, to analyse the phenomena of genocide from different perspectives.

Their work has produced a wide array of explanations that focus on the causes, preconditions and execution of various types of genocide - especially in these millennium times at the end of the 20th century.

If a state or a majority nation within a state (as in the case of Sri Lanka and Tamil Eelam) carries out by armed aggression, a total physical destruction of a group of people or a group of people who come within the definition of a nation, also in the case of Tamil Eelam, then genocide has been committed. This seems to be the current position under the definitions laid out in the Genocide Convention. However, I believe that if the long-term ramifications of the majority state’s policy eventually leads to the decimation of the smaller nation, then there is also a case of genocide to answer.

When there are those who argue that the mere destruction of the rain forests or natural habitats of the indigenous peoples of the world is sufficient to constitute the crime of genocide, I am totally at a loss as to why the International Community has failed to extrapolate the definition of genocide to include cases that do not fall within the strict legal definition provided by International Laws relating to the crime of genocide.

Evidence
At Least 80 000 Tamil civilians have been killed and many more wounded and maimed since 1956 by Sinhalese mobs and members of the various security forces. The killings have taken place in the form of massacres, arbitrary and extra-judicial killings as well as disappearances. 600 000Tamils from the hill country of Sri Lanka were forcibly expelled from their homes - a feat unparalleled anywhere else in human history (Idi Amin only managed 100,000 expulsions from Uganda). Since the beginning of the ethnic war in Sri Lanka (1983), 500 000 Tamils have fled their homes in Tamil Eelam to Europe, North America and Australia. 400 000 Tamils have also fled to South India, however, many more Tamils tragically perished whilst trying to cross in boats from Eelam to South India. 800 000 more Tamils have become internally displaced in the North and East of Sri Lanka - unable to return to their own homes, due to occupation of their homelands by the Sinhalese armed forces and armed Sinhalese settlers. Apart from these people, there are many thousands of young Tamils held in Sinhalese army controlled concentration camps.

Torture, rape and prolonged incommunicado detention are common occurrences in these concentration camps. Whilst the world and its media is preoccupied with mass graves in Kosovo and Rwanda, the mass graves in Chemmani, Jaffna and Batticaloa are ignored or given virtually no coverage. Apart from these unfortunate Tamils, there are those who are coerced or manipulated into leaving their homelands in the North and the East of the country - forced into taking up residence in the South (popular areas are Colombo and Negombo) amongst the Sinhalese. This forcible resettlement of a substantial number of Tamils amongst the Sinhalese makes the Tamils a vulnerable group for Sinhalese mob violence and aggression.

State aided colonisation with a long-term goal of altering the racial composition of the Tamil homelands has been going on ever since Sri Lanka was granted its independence from Great Britain. At the time of independence, Tamils made up 24 per cent of the total population; Tamil-speaking Moslems, 6.5 per cent; Eurasians, Malays and others, 1 per cent; and Sinhalese, 68 per cent (approximately). Fifty years hence, the Sinhalese make up 75 per cent of the population and Tamils account for 18 per cent. Numerically speaking, the Sinhalese number 13 million and Tamils about 3 Million.

Of the three million Tamils, about 70 per cent have been directly affected by the Sri Lankan government’s policy of covert genocide and ethnic cleansing; whilst 100 per cent of Tamils have been indirectly affected. In 1928, Tamils made up 60 per cent of the population of the Eastern Province. Following the systematic programme of Sinhalese colonisation, the Tamil population here dramatically fell to 45 per cent - before the Eelam war started. Now, although there is no authentic data available, with the enforced evacuation of Tamils from Trincomalee -by the Sinhalese forces - it is self-evident that the Sinhalese population has increased. It would be safe to assume that Sinhalese and Tamil numbers would now almost be equal in this area.

The Sri Lankan government has now intensified its genocidal attack on the Tamil nation. Its sinister plan to exterminate the Tamils is presented to the outside world in a most sanitised form.

Its dubious policy of achieving ‘peace through war’ is very unfortunately supported by many western governments - including the USA. In this accelerated programme of exterminating the Tamils, the Sinhalese government has spared no effort or expense. The government is using food, medicine and other essentials needed to sustain human life, as weapons of war. They also use the foreign aid given by donor countries for infrastructure building to purchase weapons of destruction to annihilate the Tamils.

Birth Control
The government has also imposed a clandestine programme of forcible birth control amongst the semi-illiterate up-country Tamils. By forcibly sterilising young men and women of child-bearing age, the Sinhalese government is attempting to marginalise the Tamil population of the hill country.

Eco-Terrorism
The Sinhalese government has also pursued a ‘scorched earth’ policy of eco-terrorism in the Tamil homelands. Mass felling of palmyra palm trees in Jaffna, wanton destruction of coconut palm trees using agro-chemicals and destruction of valuable hectares of paddy fields ready for harvesting is being carried out. The government’s strict enforcement of no fishing zones in the seas surrounding Tamil Eelam has also caused much starvation and malnutrition. The ultimate goal seems to be destruction of the means of subsistence of the Tamil people. This in turn leads to a crippling economic dependence on the Sinhalese government who are able to use their economic embargo to wipe out the indigenous Tamil population or at the very least, force them into submission.

Religious Persecution
There is also a calculated programme of targeting places of Tamil worship. Well over 1500 Hindu temples within the Tamil homelands, as well as in the Southern part of Sri Lanka, have been destroyed by the armed forces or Sinhalese mobs. Many hundreds of Catholic and Christian churches have also been destroyed by the armed forces. The modus operandi followed in this destruction is mainly aerial bombardment. A separate study is necessary, especially in the case of the St Peter and Paul church bombing as the case was never officially reported. The Tamil civilians had been specifically asked by the Sinhalese armed forces to take shelter in the church to avoid being caught in the crossfire, however, the church was later bombed by the Sri Lankan air force - all 149 Tamil refugees were killed. The Sinhalese have also converted Hindu temples, as in the case of Katharagama, into Buddhist places of worship.

Economic Decimation
The Sinhalese government and the Sinhalese mob, have also targeted the Tamil economic infrastructure. Tamil-owned businesses and properties were destroyed in 1983 (July Holocaust), causing millions of pounds worth of damage. As a direct result of this action, the economic parity that previously existed between Tamils and Sinhalese, disappeared overnight. Following this, the Sinhalese attained economic superiority over their Tamil counterparts: this disparity is increasing as Tamils are consistently denied employment and entrepreneurial opportunities in their own country.

Attacks on the Vulnerable Sections of Tamil Society
The government has also targeted vulnerable groups within Tamil society i.e. women and children. Many children have been killed during aerial bombardments of school playgrounds. This has prevented many Tamil children from attending school, which deprives them of the right to education: a fundamental human right of every child, as stipulated in Article 1 of the UN Convention. A particularly heinous incident occurred in Nagarkovil School when the playground was bombed by the Sri Lankan air force.

Many young school children were killed. Although the government later claimed that they had hit a legitimate Tamil target, the pictures taken at the time and later smuggled out of the country showed the victims were in their school uniforms. Gang rape has been utilised by Sinhalese forces as a weapon of war against civilian Tamil women, despite this being regarded as a war crime - as stipulated in the legislation pertaining to all armed conflicts, it has brought little condemnation from the International Community.

Slavery
The hill country Tamils who were brought over by the British colonialists to work in the tea and rubber plantations have been kept in virtual slavery by successive Sinhalese governments. This has resulted in that community being the most deprived within Sri Lankan society. All types of human rights abuses are perpetrated against these hapless people on a day-to-day basis. Their plight, however, has escaped the attention of human rights campaigners around the world - resulting in their continued suffering.

Educational Apartheid
The Sinhalese government has also targeted the Tamils’ education system by introducing a media-based education system that discriminates against Tamils. This systematic discrimination has favoured Sinhalese students at the expense of their Tamil counterparts. This has effectively excluded Tamils from attaining positions of academic excellence throughout Sri Lanka. The government has also shown its tendency to destroy anything that is connected to Tamil culture, by destroying the biggest Tamil cultural institution - the Jaffna Public Library. This library, constructed in the ancient Dravidian architectural style, was one of the biggest in South Asia and a proud possession of the Tamil people. It was burned down by police under the direction of Sinhalese politicians on 1st June 1981, during night curfew hours. The library contained many rare and irreplaceable manuscripts pertaining to Tamil culture and heritage.

Imposition of the Sinhala Language
The Sri Lankan government overtly discriminated against the Tamil language by enacting the Sinhala Only Bill which declared Sinhalese as the only ‘official’ language of Sri Lanka. This cultural imperialism is not only connected with the situation in Sri Lanka - it has world-wide resonance. In particular, the Irish have a phrase, which came about during the time of British rule when the British tried to extirpate all traces of the Irish language and its culture: ‘A country without a language is a country without a soul’. By forcibly imposing Sinhala upon the Tamil people the Sinhalese attempted a similar cultural imperialism, with a view to eventually subsuming all Tamils into Sinhalese society.

As the World Sees It
The world seems to be preoccupied with countries that conform to certain predefined criteria:

1. Countries that are populated by white Caucasians such as Bosnia, Kosovo, Albania, Northern Ireland and South Africa.

2. Those that have extensive and valuable natural resources e.g. Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran and other Middle East countries etc.

3. Countries that have strategic importance to larger world powers e.g. North Korea, Cuba, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Taiwan.

4. Countries and regions with major religious influence e.g. East Timor (supported by Catholic Portugal and the Vatican), Chechnya (Supported by Islamic countries), Kashmir (Supported by Pakistan and the Afghani Mujahadeen), Tibet (supported by Buddhists world-wide).

In the absence of a country falling within the four groups, the international media and UN do not seem interested. It therefore becomes increasingly difficult to focus the attention of bodies such as the UN, EU and the Security Council on the plight of Sri Lanka. Although one could argue that Sri Lanka is strategically placed and that Trincomalee harbour attracts interests from the American Navy for its expansionist purposes in the Asia-Pacific region, the presence of a great naval base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean has lessened the appeal of Trincomalee as a potential strategic military port. The latest military technological advancements especially in ICBMs has further reduced the importance of Trincomalee.

Western interests in Sri Lanka for purposes of trade have little appeal as there are other countries in the area, such as Singapore, Malaysia and India which all have a greater market potential than Sri Lanka.

Conclusions
The difficulty the Tamil nation has in bringing the Sri Lankan government and its armed forces to face trial before the International War Crime Tribunal is that as explained earlier, Sri Lanka does not fall within the four groups of nations which garner the attention of the West and the all-powerful USA.

I would strongly argue that there is sufficient evidence available (mostly documented by independent NGOs such as Amnesty International, ICRC, Human Rights Watch, Medicine Sans Frontiers and UNHCR), to indict the Sri Lankan government, its leader President Mrs Chandrika Kumaratunga (Commander-in-Chief) as well as her uncle, Chief of the Armed Forces General Anuruda Ratwatte and other senior military leaders in charge of the Sinhala-occupying forces in the Tamil homelands.

The time for indictment has come. Any further delay in bringing the plight of the Tamils to the outside world will only result in further annihilation of the Tamil people and their cultural heritage. With the occupation of the Jaffna peninsula by the Sinhalese forces, the Tamil nation has now been fragmented into manageable chunks by the Sinhalese-occupying forces. They are still attempting to further fracture the Vanni Tamil homeland in order to complete their programme of total occupation of the whole Tamil nation. It therefore becomes imperative that we in the Tamil Diaspora take the necessary steps to bring about the indictment of the Sinhalese government before the International War Crime Tribunal at the earliest possible juncture.

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