Life, liberty and dignity!
By Nikhil Mustaffa
400 civilians have died in the last two months` alone in SL. recently. Displacement had been both internal and external.
Deprivation has led to livelihood of many being affected, education becoming sporadic and disturbed, sleep becoming a luxury due to terror
‘The events of August were a stunning reminder of how quickly conditions for civilians can deteriorate in Sri Lanka when impunity and communal extremism prevail
As often happens, in reaction to the concerns raised by local and international agencies, the Sri Lankan government showed some token response before lapsing again into negligence and violence.
Today’s reality is there is no section of the State and its apparatus showing good faith in relation to the Tamils and Muslims. If Tamils have been rendered vagrants, the Muslims come in handy as good human shields.
SEDEC or Caritas hosted a thought provoking discussion on Friday on the theme of Humanitarian Law (HL) and current consequences of the conflict in Sri Lanka. Sandwiches made of cheese and tomato and the cutlets were served with tea and coffee before proceedings began. The Church community has a wonderful tradition of serving simple food in wholesome manner when people meet.
The proceedings began with prayer and opening remarks. In the folder given to participants an interesting document found within was a copy of Geneva Conventions Act, No 4 of 2006. This is pursuant to SL ratifying the 1st-4th Geneva Conventions in February 28,1959(!!) necessitating legislation enacted by Parliament. The document makes illustrative reading. The Geneva Conventions are born out of Humanitarian Law (HL) or the law of armed conflict.
This column focuses on remarks made by the principal speaker. HL evidently according to a commentary (Pictet) is a branch of international law ‘which is inspired by a feeling of humanity and is centered in the protection of the individual in times` of war’. The relevance being the application of HL to ‘internal armed conflict’ as found in SL. It evidently is older than Human Rights Law but could be regarded as ‘a specialist application of HR Principles’.
In 1625,Grotius in De Jure Belli ac Pacis had in para 29 had said, ‘ a remedy must be found for those who believe that in war nothing is lawful and those for whom all things in war are lawful’.
During the American civil war Franz Lieber had produced for the Army of Abraham Lincoln the basic principles and accepted rules of war on land. The St.Petersburg declaration of 1868 had prohibited the use explosives or incendiary bullets. The preamble being longer than the operative part states, ’that the only legitimate object which states should endeavour to accomplish during war is to weaken the military forces of the enemy’.
The speaker stated that Geneva Conventions act No 4 2006 makes certain provisions of the Conventions ,part of the Law of SL set out in four schedules of the Act. Common Article 3 is not in the schedule. Hence whether it is Customary International law has to be ascertained’. Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions applies to non international, namely internal conflicts. DR. C.F. Amerasinghe points out in his article on “History and Sources of The Law of War” in Volume 16, page 286 of The Sri Lanka Journal of International Law, the difficulties of ascertaining whether certain provisions of the Geneva Conventions could be regarded as Customary International judgment accepted as customary law the concept of war crimes, crimes against peace and crimes against humanity which had not been included in any multilateral convention in force at the time. Resolution 95(1) of 1946 of the General Assembly of the UN affirmed the principles of the charter of the Nuremberg Judgment and was declaratory of the customary law that had come in to existence at that time.’
The speaker is an exponent of Admiralty Law, previous chief of the lawyers confab, and evidently regularly stood on his head as part of his yoga routine. His presentation as stated earlier was disarmingly simple but so effective in the words he had conjured from many other writings.
He was followed by a speaker who is an avowed stark raving pacifist. He picked up on the feelings for humanity, believed that nothing was lawful in war, school of thought propounded by the man who stands on his head and fully subscribed to the ideology of radical humanism.
His comments were on murder and homicide committed on many, with Phillip Alston stating in Geneva that 400 civilians have died in the last two months` alone in SL. recently. Displacement had been both internal and external.
Extrajudicial killings had reared its head with scores of unresolved murders with no apparent reason nor assailant to be found. Abuse was manifold. He narrated how a little child had been kept up in terror in Trincomalee due to the sound of firing from heavy weapons.
The children who asked their father whether war had broken or was imminent. The irresponsibility of having to confess the truth of the matter and the abuse it heaped on the lives of the two children and thousands more and the abuse it represented.
Deprivation which has led to livelihood of many being affected, education becoming sporadic and disturbed, sleep becoming a luxury due to terror, uncertainty and fear, families being broken, displaced ,dispossessed. Reconciliation so crucial for peace being suspended by the resumption of hostilities and conflict adding rather than lessening the legacy of crimes requiring justice and eventual reconciliation.
His words were underscored by sections as found below from the UTHR Report No.41 of September, which states:
‘The events of August were a stunning reminder of how quickly conditions for civilians can deteriorate in Sri Lanka when impunity and communal extremism prevail. Fighting between the Sri Lankan forces and the LTTE closed the A9 Jaffna – Kandy trunk road on Friday 11th August. The resulting humanitarian crisis from displacement and death because of the fighting and also from threats to air as well as sea borne transport raised international alarms.
The killing spree by state-linked killers that followed surpassed even the continued killings by the LTTE, increasing the anxiety of a populace already faced with the threat of starvation.
As often happens, in reaction to the concerns raised by local and international agencies, the Sri Lankan government showed some token response before lapsing again into negligence and violence. Thereafter even if the situation gets incomparably worse and basic humanitarian and human rights norms are shamelessly breached, the international actors will inevitably relapse into the silence of disbelief, finding that even their strongest strictures have fallen on ears that are stone deaf. We have reached this point in the North East.
Today’s reality is that there is no section of the State and its apparatus showing good faith in relation to the Tamils and Muslims. If Tamils have been rendered vagrants, the Muslims come in handy as good human shields.
The manner in which displaced Mutur Muslims were forced to return by what is in effect a military administration, which shelled them once and may shell them again, was unworthy of a responsible government. Attention has been repeatedly drawn by international actors to the activities of state-related killer groups. But they continue to act with even greater brazenness.’
All in all one instinctively feels there is something very disturbing afoot that threatens to completely erase the cultural and ethnic affiliations of the North East as we have known them. In the name of sovereignty whole areas are being subject to utter destruction by missiles. The sense of proportion evidenced in current strategies could be discerned from one simple fact.
The cost of one of the shells that pulverized people in Mutur is of the same order as the compensation due from the Government for one civilian life lost as part of ‘collateral damage’.
One could conclude by highlighting first a few of the important points within this column:
l Remedy must be found for those who believe that in war nothing is lawful and those for whom all things in war are lawful’.-This is central to curbing the instincts to destroy, bring misery, become top dog and drag the country to the stone ages. Even, our forebearers clearly possessed decency as can be seen by the historical facts stated here.
l Concept of war crimes, crimes against peace and crimes against humanity-the crimes on peace is so telling brought about by war crimes and belligerence on humanity in SL. A suggestion on Friday was to diligently document, if necessary off shore, lest the evidence and testimonies are lost from memory and distance, similar to Nazi hunters of yore.
l Legacy of crimes requiring justice and eventual reconciliation-victims and families and families cry out for this every second every day. The victims need to know the facts/truth and responsibility has to be assumed if ever we are to reconcile and bring peace to this country. [dailymirror.lk]
