Sri Lanka and state terrorism

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Main cities in Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lankan state has been accused of state terrorism against the Tamil minority as well as the Sinhalese majority, mostly during the two Marxist-Leninist insurrections.[1][2][3][4] The Sri Lankan government and the Sri Lankan Armed Forces have been charged with massacres, indiscriminate shelling and bombing, extrajudicial killings, rape, torture, disappearance, arbitrary detention, forced displacement and economic blockade.[1][5][6][7] According to Amnesty International state terror was institutionalized into Sri Lanka's laws, government and society.[5]

History[]

20th century[]

See also: Sri Lankan riots of 1958, Burning of Jaffna library, and Black July

Sri Lanka gained independence from Britain in 1948 as the Dominion of Ceylon, although the British Royal Navy retained a base there until 1956. In 1972, the country became a republic, adopting the name Sri Lanka. Since this time, the country has experienced several major conflicts – a civil war, Marxist uprisings, also several other conflicts.

Marxist-Leninist insurrections[]

See also: 1987-89 JVP Insurrection (Sri Lanka), Sooriyakanda mass grave, and 1971 JVP insurrection

From 1985 to 1989, Sri Lanka responded to violent insurrection with equal violence against the Sinhalese majority as part of the counterinsurgency measures against the uprising by the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) party.[8] In order to subdue those supporting the JVP uprising, a wide range of acts of cruelty were recorded as having been carried out by the state, including the torture and mass murder of school children.[9][10] This repression peaked among the Sinhala population during 1989–90. Approximately 90,000 casualties occurred during the 1971-1990 period, most of whom were Sinhalese male youths[11]

Civil war[]

The Sri Lankan Civil War lasted from 1983 to 2009. In 1986 an American-Tamil social anthropologist at Harvard University stated that acts of "terrorism" had been committed by all sides during the war,[12] but although all parties in the conflict had resorted to the use of these tactics, in terms of scale, duration, and sheer numbers of victims, the Sri Lankan state was particularly culpable.[13][14][15] This was echoed by the Secretary of the , a Non-governmental organisation (NGO), which further claimed that the Sri Lankan state viewed killing as an essential political tool.[16] This had originally prompted the demand for a separate state for minority Tamils called Tamil Eelam in the north of the country,[13][17][18] an idea first articulated by S.J.V. Chelvanayagam in 1976.[19]

Assaults on Tamils for ethnic reasons have been alleged,[9] and the experience of state terrorism by the people of Jaffna has been alleged to have been instrumental in persuading the United National Party to increase their hostilities there.[20]

Chandrika Kumaratunga was the President of Sri Lanka from 1994 to 2005. In an interview with the British television presenter and news critic David Frost, she has stated that at the time that her husband Vijaya Kumaranatunga was assassinated, "Sri Lanka had a killing fields, there was a lot of terror perpetrated by the government itself, state terrorism."[21] This statement has been supported by a report released by the (ALRC), a Non-governmental organization based in Hong Kong and associated with the United Nations, which has also claimed that there was widespread terrorism by the state during this period.[22]

21st century[]

Following the collapse of peace talks in 2006, human rights agencies such as the Asian Center of Human Rights (ACHR), the University Teachers for Human Rights (UTHR), and pro-LTTE political parties such as the Tamil National Alliance, claimed that the government of Sri Lanka had unleashed state terrorism as part of its counterinsurgency measures against the rebel LTTE movement.[23][24][25] The Sri Lankan government responded by claiming that these allegations by the LTTE were an attempt by the LTTE to justify their own acts of terrorism.[26]

The ACHR has also stated that following the collapse of the Geneva talks of February 2006, the government of Sri Lanka perpetrated a campaign of state terrorism by targeting alleged LTTE sympathizers and Tamil civilians.[27] A spokesman for Human Rights Watch was of the opinion that: "The Sri Lankan government has apparently given its security forces a green light to use dirty war tactics."[28] International intervention in Sri Lanka was requested by Tamil sources to protect civilians from state terror.[29][30]

Specific allegations[]

Murder[]

When referring to the 2006 Trincomalee massacre, of 20-year-old [31] students, and subsequent intimidation of witnesses and the perceived lack of investigative vigor, the local human rights group UTHR termed it an act of state terror.[32] The 2006 Trincomalee massacre of NGO workers took place on 4 or 5 August 2006, when 17 employees of the French INGO Action Against Hunger (known internationally as Action Contre la Faim, or ACF) were shot at close range in the city of Muttur, Sri Lanka, close to Trincomalee. The victims included sixteen minority Sri Lankan Tamils and one Sri Lankan Muslim. Sinhalese Home Guards and Sri Lankan army navy special forces have been accused to having committed this massacre.

Inaction/aid to Tamil Peoples Liberation Tigers' Recruitment of children[]

According to the Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR), the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court identifies "conscripting or enlisting children under the age of fifteen years into armed forces or groups or using them to participate actively in hostilities" as a war crime.[citation needed] The agency has accused the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP), a LTTE breakaway group and government-backed paramilitary group, of recruiting children, describing it as "state terror" and has appealed to the international community to refer Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court for investigation into the violations of the Rome Statute.[27]

Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch has said, "The government is fully aware of the abductions but allows them to happen because it's eager for an ally against the Tamil Tigers". The Human Rights Watch further added that it would be impossible to transport abducted children without the complicity of the Sri Lankan Army.[33] TMVP has allegedly been used as a paramilitary force by the Sri Lankan army, from the time the group split from the LTTE in 2004.[citation needed]

Torture and rape[]

The International Federation of Tamils, a pro-LTTE consortium of Tamil groups,[34] has alleged that the systematic use of torture and rape by Sri Lankan forces has amounted to state terrorism.[35] The torture, rape and murder of a family during the Vankalai massacre has been described as an act of state terrorism.[36] Human Rights groups have condemned this massacre and demanded an independent investigation.[37] In the book Trauma of Terrorism by Yael Danieli, the Sri Lankan state is viewed as having been the most guilty in the use of terror; the author claims that state terrorism became institutionalized into the very structure of society and mechanism of governance.[38] Hillary Clinton has been quoted linking Sri Lanka with the use of rape as a tactic of war, to which some have responded unjust to "rope in" Sri Lanka's name to countries like the Congo and Burma.[39]

Interference with news media[]

Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has charged the government of Sri Lanka with turning the country into a junta: "This junta has control over the economy, business activities and defense. They have unleashed corruption and terror on the country." He has claimed that an attack on the Sunday Leader newspaper, an independent English weekly, could not have occurred without the knowledge of the Sri Lankan Defense Ministry since the offices were located in a High Security Zone, neighboring a military air force base, a defense academy and a military camp .[40][41]

The UTHR, a local human rights organization, has claimed that the media has been repressed by state terrorism.[42] Some activists have drawn attention to the lack of coverage of the displacement of Tamils in late 2008, particularly people being relocated to welfare villages in India, covered by Indian news, as a symptom of anti-democratic controls over the media.[43]

State terrorist groups[]

Sri Lankan government have been accused of the usage to commit war crimes. Most of them were created at the height of the second JVP uprising. During the civil war, the main state sponsored paramilitary was the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal, which was led by Karuna Amman.

Anti-separatist paramilitaries[]

Anti-communist paramilitaries[]

  • Eagles of the Central Hills - Formerly active in Kandy. Responsible for the massacre of suspected rebels in 1989. Also responsible for the killings of workers at the Peradeniya University.
  • Black Cat group - Responsible for attacks on politicians and civilians. Threatened the members of the CPSL in the late 1980s.[44]

See also[]

Notes[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b Bandarage, Asoka (2009). The Separatist Conflict in Sri Lanka: Terrorism, Ethnicity, Political Economy. Routledge. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-415-77678-3.
  2. ^ Hughes, Dhana (31 July 2013). Violence, Torture and Memory in Sri Lanka: Life After Terror. Routledge. p. 109. ISBN 978-1135038151.
  3. ^ Mukarji, Apratim (2005). Sri Lanka: A Dangerous Interlude. New Dawn Press. p. 71. ISBN 978-1845575304.
  4. ^ Grant, Trevor (2014). Sri Lanka's Secrets: How the Rajapaksa Regime Gets Away with Murder. Monash University Publishing. p. 191. ISBN 978-1922235534.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b Somasundaram, Daya (2012). "Short and Long Term Effects on the Victims of Terror in Sri Lanka". In Danieli, Yael; Brom, Danny; Sills, Joe (eds.). The Trauma of Terrorism: Sharing Knowledge and Shared Care, An International Handbook. Routledge. p. 216. ISBN 978-1136747045.
  6. ^ Kleinfeld, Margo (2004). "Strategic Trooping in Sri Lanka: September Eleventh and the Consolidation of Political Position". In Brunn, Stanley D. (ed.). 11 September and Its Aftermath: The Geopolitics of Terror. Routledge. p. 106. ISBN 978-1135756024.
  7. ^ Dwivedi, Manan (2009). South Asia Security. Kalpaz Publications. p. 170. ISBN 978-81-7835-759-1.
  8. ^ Gananath Obeyesekere, Narratives of the self: Chevalier Peter Dillon's Fijian cannibal adventures, in Barbara Creed, Jeanette Hoorn, Body Taade: captivity, cannibalism and colonialism in the Pacific, Routledge, 2001, p. 100. ISBN 0-415-93884-8. "The 'time of dread' was roughly 1985-89, when ethnic Sinhala youth took over vast areas of the country and practiced enormous atrocities; they were only eliminated by equally dreadful state terrorism." Gananath Obeyesekere
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b Ishtiaq Ahmed, State, Nation, and Ethnicity in Contemporary South Asia, Continuum International Publishing Group, 1996, p. 55. ISBN 1-85567-578-1.
  10. ^ "JVP: Lessons for the Genuine Left". Imayavaramban. Archived from the original on 13 October 2007. Retrieved 17 January 2008.
  11. ^ Handelman, Don (2006). The Manchester School: Practice and Ethnographic Praxis in Anthropology. Berghahn Books. p. 142.
  12. ^ Tambiah, Sri Lanka: Ethnic Fratricide and the Dismantling of Democracy, p 116. Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah
  13. ^ Jump up to: a b Hattotuwa, From violence to peace: Terrorism and Human Rights in Sri Lanka, pp 11–13
  14. ^ Danieli, Yael, Brom, D and Sills, Joe. The trauma of terrorism: sharing knowledge and shared care, p 216
  15. ^ "Child soldiers: Understanding the context" (PDF). Daya Somasundaram. Retrieved 17 January 2008.
  16. ^ ACHR, Sri Lanka: Disappearances and the Collapse of the Police System,ACHR, pp 34–42
  17. ^ Kumar Rupesinghe, Ethnic Conflict in South Asia: The Case of Sri Lanka and the Indian Peace-Keeping Force (IPKF), pp.337
  18. ^ "Sri Lanka: testimony to state terror". Race & Class. Institute of Race Relations. 26 (4): 71–84. 1985. doi:10.1177/030639688502600405. S2CID 220917010.
  19. ^ "S.J.V.Chelvanayagam Q.C". Tamil Nation. Tamil Nation. 15 November 2006. Retrieved 18 January 2008.[dead link]
  20. ^ W. A. Wiswa Warnapala, L. Dias Hewagama, Recent Politics in Sri Lanka: The Presidential Election and the Referendum, Navrang (Original from the University of Michigan), 1983, p. 29. ASIN: B000II886W.
  21. ^ "BBC Breakfast with Frost Interview: President Chandrika Kumaratunga of Sri Lanka". David Frost. 28 October 2001. Retrieved 17 January 2008.
  22. ^ "Tell the truth or you will be killed". Archived from the original on 15 November 2004. Retrieved 11 August 2007.
  23. ^ "Sri Lanka: Terror Vs State Terror". Archived from the original on 21 July 2008. Retrieved 11 August 2007.
  24. ^ University Teachers for Human Rights , UTHR, 28 October 2001.
  25. ^ "Claims of state terror and genocide by LTTE attempts at justifying terrorism". Retrieved 11 August 2007.
  26. ^ "Claims of state terror and genocide by LTTE attempts at justifying terrorism". Archived from the original on 14 August 2007. Retrieved 11 August 2007.
  27. ^ Jump up to: a b "Sri Lanka: Terror Vs State Terror". ACHR Weekly Review. Asian Human Rights Commission. 15 November 2006. Archived from the original on 21 July 2008. Retrieved 28 July 2007.
  28. ^ "Sri Lanka: Government Abuses Intensify". Human Rights Watch. Archived from the original on 9 November 2008. Retrieved 18 January 2008. Quotation by Brad Adams, Asia Director.
  29. ^ "Tamils 'entitled to' international help". BBC. Retrieved 16 January 2008.
  30. ^ "Sri Lanka Trauma: International Community Revisits its Response". V S Subramaniam. Archived from the original on 13 December 2010. Retrieved 17 January 2008.
  31. ^ "SRI LANKA: 'Murder of five Tamil youths highlights need to end impunity' -- Govt must protect witnesses to Trinco killings -- HRW — Asian Human Rights Commission". Asian Human Rights Commission. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  32. ^ "2.0 State Terror in Trincomalee". UTHR. 6 July 2007. Retrieved 17 January 2008.
  33. ^ [ Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch said, "The government is fully aware of the abductions but allows them to happen because it's eager for an ally against the Tamil Tigers". The Human Rights Watch further added that it would be impossible to transport abducted children without the complicity of the Sri Lankan Army].
  34. ^ "Extending a ban". Archived from the original on 20 February 2009.
  35. ^ "Sri Lanka: Investigate Crimes Against Humanity". Retrieved 11 August 2007.
  36. ^ David Jeyaraj, a prominent Sri Lankan journalist from Canada
  37. ^ "Another family wiped out in Vankalai". Archived from the original on 20 February 2009. Retrieved 23 August 2007.
  38. ^ Danieli, Yael. The Trauma of Terrorism, p 216.
  39. ^ http://www.asiantribune.com/news/2009/10/10/mutual-bailing-out-game-over-hilary-clinton%E2%80%99s-rape-story-sri-lanka
  40. ^ "No one can attack on the Leader Publications press without the knowledge of the Defence Ministry." -Opposition Leader". Lanka News. Archived from the original on 24 January 2008. Retrieved 17 January 2008.
  41. ^ "Gota is behind this draconian gazette". Archived from the original on 20 February 2009.
  42. ^ "Can the East be won through Human Culling?". UTHR. Retrieved 16 March 2008.
  43. ^ Roy, Suzanna Arundhati (30 March 2009). "The silent horror of Lanka's 'war on terror'". The Times of India. Mumbai. pp. 1, 13. Archived from the original on 23 October 2012. Retrieved 30 March 2009.
  44. ^ CartoonistsRights. Sri Lanka Archived September 19, 2012, at the Wayback Machine

References[]

  • Alagappa, Muthiah (2003). Asian Security Order: Instrumental and Normative Features. Stanford University Press. p. 238. ISBN 978-0-8047-4629-8.
  • Danieli, Yael; Brom, D; Sills, Joe (1989). The Trauma Of Terrorism: Sharing Knowledge and Shared Care. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-1211-9.
  • Hattotuwa, Sanjana (2003). "From violence to peace: Terrorism and Human Rights in Sri Lanka". The Online Journal of Peace and Conflict Resolution. 5 (1): 14. 1522-211X.
  • Hayner, Priscill (2009). The Unspeakable Truths : Confronting State Terror and Atrocity. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-92477-1.
  • Lutz, James M; Brenda J Lutz (2004). Global Terrorism. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-70050-4.
  • Ponnambalam, Satchi (1983). The National Question and the Tamil Liberation Struggle. Zed Books Ltd. ISBN 978-0-86232-198-7.
  • Rupesinghe, Kumar (1988). "Ethnic Conflict in South Asia: The Case of Sri Lanka and the Indian Peace-Keeping Force (IPKF)". Journal of Peace Research. 25 (4): 337–350. doi:10.1177/002234338802500402. S2CID 110681740.
  • Tambiah, Stanley James (1991). Sri Lanka: Ethnic Fratricide and the Dismantling of Democracy. Chicago University Press. p. 205. ISBN 978-0-226-78952-1.
  • Asian Center for Human Rights (1991). Sri Lanka: Disappearances and the Collapse of the Police System. ACHR. p. 205. ISBN 978-0-226-78952-1.
  • "World Marxist Review". World Marxist Review : Problems of Peace and Socialism. Central Books. 2007 [original issues 1958-1990]. ISSN 0512-3305.

Further reading[]

  • Gunasingam, Murugar (1999). Sri Lankan Tamil nationalism. Sydney: MV. p. 238. ISBN 978-0-646-38106-0.
  • Myrdal, Gunnar (1968). Asian Drama: an Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations. Pantheon. ASIN B000E80DGO.
  • Wilson, A. Jeyaratnam (1989). The Break up of Sri Lanka: the Sinhalese-Tamil conflict. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-1211-9.

External links[]

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