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INDICTMENT AGAINST SRI LANKA:Genocide '83
Sri Lanka engaged in a cover up and
dishonoured its pledge to the UN to hold an inquiry...
In any case, why did not the government arrange for an impartial inquiry? This may have
resolved the 'confusion' in the mind of the government. If it was the case that the attack
was a left inspired one intended to destabilise the government, then it was all the more
important that the matter should have been fully investigated and the culprits brought to
book. After all, the Sri Lankan Ambassador, Mr.Tissa Jayakody, had proclaimed before the
Sub Commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities at Geneva
on the 22nd of August:
"The Sri Lankan authorities....would leave no stone unturned to bring to justice
all those responsible for killings, violence and acts of destruction, no matter who they
were and regardless of their status, ideology or political alignments. There would be no
exceptions."
These were soothing words which were intended to allay the fears that the Sub
Commission may have had for the future of the Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka.
In its Note Verbale dated 30 January 1984, distributed to the delegates to the 40th
Sessions of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in February 1984, the Sri Lanka
government continued to reiterate:
"The events of July 1983 were caused by a minority of lawless elements in
particular circumstances. The guilty have been or are being punished and the Government
has initiated a complex and sensitive political process to deal with the fundamental
issues which led to the events of July 1983. In this context, the constructive approach of
the international community is to desist from any action or comment on the situation in
Sri Lanka."
However the Sri Lankan government did not honour the pledge that it gave the UN
Commission on Human Rights. No public inquiry was ever held into the genocidal attcaks
launched on the Tamil people in July 1983. The Sri Lanka government took no steps to
determine the identity of the planners of the contingent plan.
The government ignored the recommendation by the International Commission of Jurists,
contained in a statement circulated in August 1983, to members of the UN Sub-Commission on
the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, that:
"It is imperative that the government .. (should establish) an independent
judicial inquiry to investigate the causes of the recent violence, the events leading to
and occurring during the violence and to assess responsibility for the resulting loss of
life and devastation. The killing of detainees in Welikade prison should be the subject of
a special investigation.Those responsible for arson and killing should be prosecuted
regardless of any official position."
In March 1984, Paul Sieghart Q.C., Chairman of Justice, the British section of the
International Commission of Jurists was constrained to remark:
"But, what I find most extraordinary is that, to this day, there has been no
attempt to find out the truth through an official, public and impartial inquiry, when the
situation in the country cries for nothing less... I regard the appointment of such an
inquiry as one of the most important steps for the Government to take in the immediate
future." (Paul Sieghart: Sri Lanka-A Mounting Tragedy of Errors
- Report of a
Mission to Sri Lanka in January 1984 on behalf of the International Commission of Jurists
and its British Section, Justice, March 1984)
The continued failure of the Sri Lankan government to initiate an independent and
impartial inquiry led Amnesty International to comment in June 1984:
"Despite repeated appeals from international human rights bodies such as the
International Commission of Jurists and Amnesty International, and from regional
organisations concerned with the protection of human rights such as Lawasia, the
government has failed to order independent investigations into the reports of extra
judicial killings"; and further in reference to the killings in Welikade Jail: ''..
Amnesty International believes, the need for further investigations to be conducted by an
independent body before which witnesses can testify in conditions of safety. Amnesty
International believes that the government must order a comprehensive inquiry into the
circumstances of the killings and bring to justice any of those identified as responsible
for them."...
But the government of Sri Lanka took no steps to investigate the murders and bring
the culprits to justice. In the case of the killings in Welikade jail, the prison
guards, who were eye witnesses to the murders which were committed in broad daylight, and
who were unable to identify any one who had participated in the attack, were retained in
employment - they continued to serve as loyal and obedient servants of the government of
Sri Lanka.
Paul Sieghart Q.C. commented:
''I have now been told that it has not been possible to find enough evidence to
enable anyone to be prosecuted - a proposition which must stretch credulity.''
(Paul
Sieghart: Sri Lanka-A Mounting Tragedy of Errors - Report of a Mission to Sri Lanka in
January 1984 on behalf of the International Commission of Jurists and its British Section,
Justice, March 1984)
''President Jayawardene stated in January 1984 that a judge of the Supreme Court was
about to be appointed to carry out an independent judicial inquiry into the significant
and relevant incidents surrounding the prison tragedy to establish whether any of the
prison officers were to blame, and to recommend what steps should be taken to prevent the
recurrence of such incidents. As of this date, that body of inquiry has not yet been
appointed.'' (Statement of Amy Young, Executive Director, International Human Rights
Law Group to the Sub Committee on Human Rights of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the
US House of Representatives, 2 August 1984)
- The attempt by the Sri Lankan government to explain away the violence wreaked on the
Tamils as a 'left inspired plot';
- the statement of Sri Lanka's Ambassador in Geneva that the violence was a 'spontaneous
reaction';
- the declaration of Minister Mathew that if the Sinhalese are the majority they must act
as the majority;
- the failure of President Jayawardene to offer a single word of sympathy to the victims
of the attack;
- the assertion of President Jayawardene that the violence was but a 'clamour and a
natural request' of the Sinhala people;
- the failure to establish an independent commission of inquiry despite the pledges given
by Sri Lanka to the UN Commission on Human Rights and the requests made by Amnesty
International and the International Commission of Jurists;
- and the conduct of the state security forces and the police -
are circumstances, which, when taken together, support the charge that the Sri
Lankan authorities were engaged in a cover up and that it was they who were the planners
of genocide '83.
...continued...
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