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|title= BBC Breakfast with Frost Interview: President Chandrika Kumaratunga of Sri Lanka |accessdate=2008-01-17 |format=html |work= David Frost}}</ref> This was supported by a report released by the [[Asian Legal Resource Centre]] (ALRC), a [[non-governmental organization]] based in [[Hong Kong]] and associated with the [[United Nations]], also claimed that there was widespread terrorism by the state organ during the same period.<ref name=ZNET>{{cite web |url=http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=2618 |title= Tell the truth or you will be killed |accessdate=2007-08-11 |format= |work= }}</ref>
|title= BBC Breakfast with Frost Interview: President Chandrika Kumaratunga of Sri Lanka |accessdate=2008-01-17 |format=html |work= David Frost}}</ref> This was supported by a report released by the [[Asian Legal Resource Centre]] (ALRC), a [[non-governmental organization]] based in [[Hong Kong]] and associated with the [[United Nations]], also claimed that there was widespread terrorism by the state organ during the same period.<ref name=ZNET>{{cite web |url=http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=2618 |title= Tell the truth or you will be killed |accessdate=2007-08-11 |format= |work= }}</ref>


==Post 2000 events==
Since the collapse of peace talks since 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]], have claimed that government of Sri Lanka has unleashed state terrorism as part of its counter insurgency measures against the rebel LTTE movement.<ref name=ACHR1>{{cite web |url=http://www.achrweb.org/Review/2006/141-06.htm |title= Sri Lanka: Terror Vs State Terror |accessdate=2007-08-11 |format= |work= }}</ref><ref name=UTHR1>[http://www.uthr.org/bulletins/bul40.htm#_Toc138040843 University Teachers for Human Rights ] , ''[[UTHR]]'', October 28, 2001.</ref><ref name=RW>{{cite web |url=http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/EKOI-6PQ85Q?OpenDocument |title= Claims of state terror and genocide by LTTE attempts at justifying terrorism |accessdate=2007-08-11 |format= |work= }}</ref> To which the government has claimed that such claims by the LTTE is an attempt at justifying terrorism of the LTTE.<ref name=SLG>{{cite web |url=http://www.priu.gov.lk/news_update/Current_Affairs/ca200605/20060511claims_terror_genocide_by_ltte.htm |title= Claims of state terror and genocide by LTTE attempts at justifying terrorism |accessdate=2007-08-11 |format= |work= }}</ref> The [[ACHR]] has also reported that, "since the collapse of the Geneva talks of February 2006", the government of Sri Lanka has perpetrated a campaign of state terrorism by targeting alleged LTTE sympathizers and Tamil civilians.<ref>{{cite news |title=Sri Lanka: Terror Vs State Terror |url=http://www.achrweb.org/Review/2006/141-06.htm |work=ACHR Weekly Review |publisher=[[Asian Human Rights Commission]] |date=[[2006-11-15]] |accessdate=2007-07-28}}</ref>As noted by Brad Adams, Asia Director, [[Human Rights Watch]], {{quote|"The Sri Lankan government has apparently given its security forces a green light to use ‘[[dirty war]]’ tactics".<ref>{{citeweb|url= http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/08/03/slanka16573.htm|title=Sri Lanka: Government Abuses Intensify |accessdate=2008-01-18 |format=html |work= Human Rights Watch}}</ref>}}Many commentators have requested international intervention in Sri Lanka to protect the civilians from State terror.<ref>{{citeweb|url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2007/10/071003_mano_jvp.shtml
|title= Tamils 'entitled to' international help |accessdate=2008-01-16 |format=html |work= BBC}}</ref><ref>{{citeweb|url= http://www.boloji.com/analysis2/0281.htm
|title= Sri Lanka Trauma: International Community Revisits its Response |accessdate=2008-01-17 |format=html |work= V S Subramaniam }}</ref>Subsequently the [[United States]] has stopped military supplies to Sri Lanka.<ref>{{citeweb|url= http://www.lankanewspapers.com/news/2008/1/23276.html
|title= US stops military supplies to Sri Lanka after truce abrogation
|accessdate=2008-01-18 |format=html |work= Lanka Newspapers}}</ref> Archbishop [[Desmond Tutu]] in May 2008 stated Sri Lanka at the time had no place on the [[UN Human Rights Council]], adding that tactics the LTTE adopted in no way justified Sri Lanka's gross human rights abuses against Tamils.<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/may/15/norighttobethere No Right to be There]. ''[[The Guardian]].'' </ref>


===Civilian deaths===
The [[Padahuthurai bombing]], in which 15 civilians died, was termed as state terrorism and a [[Crime against humanity]] by the [[Mannar]] Bishop Rayappu Joseph, who was accused as pro-LTTE by the Sri Lankan Government.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=20787
|title=Padahuthurai bombing|accessdate=2006-01-07 |format= |work=Tamilnet.org }}</ref><ref name="BBC">{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6224121.stm|title=Sri Lanka raid 'kills civilians' |accessdate=2006-01-07 |format= |work=BBC.com }}</ref><ref>{{cite news | title= The Road to Pesalai Attack | date=2007-07-06 | publisher= Official Srilankan army website | url =http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20060627_03| work =| accessdate = 2007-07-06 }}</ref>When referring to the [[2006 Trincomalee massacre|massacre of five school kids in Trincomalee ]], and the subsequent incidents of intimidation of the witnesses and the perceived lack of investigative vigor, the local human rights group UTHR termed it an act of state terror.<ref>{{cite news | title= 2.0 State Terror in Trincomalee| date=2007-07-06 | publisher= UTHR | url =http://www.uthr.org/bulletins/bul40.htm#_Toc138040843
|work =| accessdate = 2008-01-17 }}</ref>

===Forced disappearances===
There have been numerous [[forced disappearance]]s over the last few years, these acts according pro-LTTE<ref>{{cite news |first=Amantha |last[equal tongue]erera |title=MEDIA-SRI LANKA: Press Left to Fend for Itself |url=http://ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=33117 |work=[[Inter Press Service]] |date=[[2006-05-04]] |accessdate=2007-07-27}}</ref> Tamil daily ''[[Uthayan]]'', published from [[Jaffna]], include the forced disappearances of [[White Van Abductions in Sri Lanka|number of individuals in the north and east of the country]].<ref>Hayner, ''The Unspeakable Truths : Confronting State Terror and Atrocity'', pp.161</ref>

===Recruitment of children===
According to the [[Asian Centre for Human Rights]] (ACHR), the Rome Statute of 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]]. The agency has accused that Sri Lankan government backed paramilitary forces of [[Military use of children in Sri Lanka#TMVP recruitment|recruiting children]], describing is a "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.<ref>{{cite news |title=Sri Lanka: Terror Vs State Terror |url=http://www.achrweb.org/Review/2006/141-06.htm |work=ACHR Weekly Review |publisher=[[Asian Human Rights Commission]] |date=[[2006-11-15]] |accessdate=2007-07-28}}</ref>

===Torture and Rape===
The International Federation of Tamils, a pro-LTTE consortium of Tamil groups,<ref>{{cite web|
url = http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1709/17090640.htm
|title= Extending a ban }}</ref> alleged that the systematic use of torture and rape is instruments of state terrorism.<ref name=ACHR1>{{cite web |url=http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/1998/38/ |title= Sri Lanka: Investigate Crimes Against Humanity |accessdate=2007-08-11 |format= |work= }}</ref> [[David Jeyaraj]] a prominent Sri Lankan journalist from [[Canada]] has termed the act of torture, rape and murder of a family in the [[Vankalai massacre]] as an act of [[State terrorism]]. [[Human Rights]] groups have condemned this massacre and demanded an independent investigation.<ref name=ml>{{cite web| url = http://www.themorningleader.lk/20060614/focus.html |title= Another family wiped out in Vankalai}}</ref> In ''Trauma of Terrorism'' author Yael Danieli states that the Sri Lankan state is the most guilty in the use of terror. It further claimed that state terrorism became institutionalized into very law of structure of society and mechanism of governance.<ref>Danieli, ''The Trauma of Terrorism'', p. 216</ref>

===Media Freedom===
Opposition leader [[Ranil Wickremesinghe]] has charged that the government of Sri Lanka has turned into a [[junta]], "This junta has control over the economy, business activities and defense. They have unleashed corruption and terror on the country." He claimed that the attack on the Sunday Leader press facility, an independent English weekly could not have occurred without the knowledge of Sri Lankan Defense Ministry, since its located in a High Security Zone, neighboring military air force base, defense academy and a military camp .<ref>{{citeweb|url= http://www.lankaenews.com/English/news.php?id=4941&PHPSESSID=c724f4710cc8d593362f235e23c89fa9|title= No one can attack on the Leader Publications press without the knowledge of the Defence Ministry." -Opposition Leader|accessdate=2008-01-17 |format=html |work= Lanka News}}</ref> <ref> [http://www.lankaenews.com/English/news.php?id=6642 Gota is behind this draconian gazette]</ref>


Furthermore, [[UTHR]], a local human rights organization claimed that the media has been repressed by State Terrorism. <ref>{{citeweb|url=http://www.uthr.org/SpecialReports/spreport26.htm |title= Can the East be won through Human Culling?|accessdate=2008-03-16 |format=html |work= [[UTHR]]}}</ref>

===Ethnic cleansing===
On [[June 7]], [[2007]] at least [[Expulsion of non-resident Tamils from Colombo|376 Ethnic Tamils were expelled from Colombo]] by the Sri Lankan Police. Human rights groups, Local think tank and other observers have termed this act as "[[Ethnic Cleansing]]".<ref>{{citeweb|url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6729555.stm|title= Police evict Tamils from Colombo|accessdate=2008-01-17 |format=html |work= BBC}}</ref><ref>{{citeweb|url=http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1631473,00.html|title= "Ethnic Cleansing" in Sri Lanka?|accessdate=2008-01-17 |format=html |work= The Time }}</ref><ref>{{citeweb|url= http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2097984,00.html|title= Ethnic cleansing claim after police move Tamils at gunpoint|accessdate=2008-01-17 |format=html |work= The Guardian (UK)}}</ref>


==See also==
==See also==

Revision as of 05:06, 24 February 2009

Main cities in Sri Lanka.

Various non-governmental organizations and individuals have accused the Sri Lankan government of committing state terrorism. These allegations characterize much of the Sri Lankan government's handling of insurgent groups dating from 1956, including the civil war against Tamil militant groups and the state response to the Janata Vimukthi Peramuna insurrections, as state terrorism. Specific acts alleged include massacres of civilians, mass graves, torture, unlawful incarceration, forced disappearances and recruitment of child soldiers. The government denies the allegations.

1956-2000

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

According to the author of The National Question and the Tamil Liberation Struggle, published by Tamil Information Centre in 1983, State terrorism was let loose when Sri Lankan Army occupied minority Sri Lankan Tamil dominant Jaffna Peninsula leading to the formation of rebel movements such as the Tamil New Tigers.[1] According to them, due to Sri Lankan army occupation of Jaffna and the state terrorism let loose on the people, hostility began to grow and the emotional division between majority Sinhalese and minority Sri Lankan Tamils became more acute.[1] A group of highly organized young Tamil militants, first calling themselves the Tamil New Tigers and later the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, emerged in 1976 to confront the government terrorism by bearing arms.[1] Since then according to James Lutz and Brenda Lutz, this conflict eventually led to the outbreak of violence between the communities, (see Sri Lankan riots of 1977) and this violence quickly generated terrorist actions in a variety of situations. Both government forces and Tamil dissidents became perpetrators.[2] In 1961, the Sri Lankan government declared a state of emergency and for the first time dispatched military troops to occupy the Tamil areas Northeast of Sri Lanka. This was in the wake of a mass non-violent protest (Satyagraha) in Jaffna, Vavuniya, Trincomalee and Batticaloa causing the entire Northeast to shut down. These were in peaceful retaliation of the Sri Lankan state marginalization of the Tamils in jobs and education.[3] Furthermore, state terrorism and the violence on Tamils were parcels of general onslaught on the democratic right and freedom of the people. This violence by the Government of Sri Lanka provoked the attacks on Sri Lankan Army by small group of Tamil youths.[4][5]

In 1986 Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah, an American Tamil social anthropologist at Harvard University specializing in studies of Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Tamils, as well as the anthropology of religion and politics, stated that the Sinhalese populace, the Tamil rebels and the Sri Lankan government armed forces were all engaged in "terrorism"; he describes the latter as practicing "deadly terrorism and intimidation".[6] Though all parties in the conflict have resorted to the use of terror tactics, in the scale, duration, and sheer numbers of victims, it is the Sri Lankan state that is most guilty of the massive use of terror.[7][8][5]

This was echoed by the Secretary of Movement for Development and Democratic Rights, a NGO, that terrorism was used in the north as a political tool and the resultant state terrorism restricted their operation in the north. It further claimed that the state viewed killing as an essential tool [for politics].[9] This according to Kumar Rupesinghe led to solidification of demand for separate state for minority Tamils called Tamil Eelam under conditions of state terrorism and genocidal situations.[10][5][11] The idea of an independent state for Tamils was originally articulated by S.J.V. Chelvanayagam in 1976.[12]

The author of State, Nation, and Ethnicity in Contemporary South Asia states that as a result of ethnic assault of Tamils, the Sri Lankan social democracy was tainted by State Terrorism.[13]

Dias Hewagama and Wiswa Warnapala claim that experience of State terrorism could not be erased from the mind of people from Jaffna and this is what prompted the UNP to attack Jaffna. [14]

JVP insurrection

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

From 1985 to 1989, according to Gananath Obeyesekere, Sri Lanka practiced state terrorism against the Sinhalese majority as part of the counter insurgency measures against the uprising by the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) party.[15] As part of pacifying the support base of JVP a wide range of acts of cruelty including the torture and mass murder of school children were carried out by the state.[16] [13]

Likewise, state terrorism came to peak among the Sinhala population during 1989-1990 [17]

Chandrika Kumaratunga, the President of Sri Lanka from 1994 to 2005, has also stated in an in interview with David Frost 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.[18] This was supported by a report released by the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC), a non-governmental organization based in Hong Kong and associated with the United Nations, also claimed that there was widespread terrorism by the state organ during the same period.[19]


See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c Ching-In Moon and Chaesung Chun, Sovereignty: Dominance of the Westphalian Concept and Implications for Regional Security, Muthiah Alagappa (edit), Asian Security Order: Instrumental and Normative Features, pp. 128
  2. ^ James M Lutz, Brenda J Lutz, Global Terrorism, p. 216
  3. ^ Ponnambalam, Sri Lanka: The National Question and the Tamil Liberation Struggle, pp. 105-106
  4. ^ World Marxist Review, pp. 64 - 66
  5. ^ a b c Hattotuwa, From violence to peace: Terrorism and Human Rights in Sri Lanka, pp.11-13
  6. ^ Tambiah, Sri Lanka: Ethnic Fratricide and the Dismantling of Democracy, p. 116
  7. ^ Danieli, Yael, D. Brom, and Joe Sills,The trauma of terrorism: sharing knowledge and shared care, pp.216
  8. ^ "Child soldiers: Understanding the context" (html). Daya Somasundaram. Retrieved 2008-01-17.
  9. ^ ACHR, Sri Lanka: Disappearances and the Collapse of the Police System,ACHR, pp.34-42
  10. ^ Rupesinghe, Ethnic Conflict in South Asia: The Case of Sri Lanka and the Indian Peace-Keeping Force (IPKF), pp.337
  11. ^ "Sri Lanka: testimony to state terror". Race & Class. 26 (4). Institute of Race Relations: 71–84. 1985. doi:10.1177/030639688502600405. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  12. ^ "S.J.V.Chelvanayagam Q.C". Tamil Nation. Tamil Nation. 2006-11-15. Retrieved 2008-01-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. ^ a b Ishtiaq Ahmed, State, Nation, and Ethnicity in Contemporary South Asia, Continuum International Publishing Group, 1996, p. 55. ISBN 1855675781.
  14. ^ 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.
  15. ^ Gananath Obeyesekere, Narratives of the self: Chevalier Peter Dillon's Fijian cannibal adventures, in Barbara Creed, Jeanette Hoorn, Body Trade: captivity, cannibalism and colonialism in the Pacific, Routledge, 2001, p. 100. ISBN 0415938848. "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."
  16. ^ "JVP: Lessons for the Genuine Left" (html). Imayavaramban. Retrieved 2008-01-17.
  17. ^ Handelman, Don (2006). The Manchester School: Practice and Ethnographic Praxis in Anthropology. Berghahn Books. p. 142. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  18. ^ "BBC Breakfast with Frost Interview: President Chandrika Kumaratunga of Sri Lanka" (html). David Frost. Retrieved 2008-01-17.
  19. ^ "Tell the truth or you will be killed". Retrieved 2007-08-11.

References

  • Alagappa, Muthiah (2003). Asian Security Order: Instrumental and Normative Features. Stanford University Press. p. 238. ISBN 080474629X.
  • Lutz, James M (2004). Global Terrorism. Routledge. ISBN 0415700507. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  • Ponnambalam, Satchi (1983). The National Question and the Tamil Liberation Struggle. Zed Books Ltd. ISBN 0862321980.
  • World Marxist Review. Central Books. 2007. ISBN 05123305. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: length (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  • Tambiah, Stanley James (1991). Sri Lanka: Ethnic Fratricide and the Dismantling of Democracy. Chicago University Press. p. 205. ISBN 0226789527.
  • Danieli, Yael (1989). The Trauma Of Terrorism: Sharing Knowledge and Shared Care. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-1211-5. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  • Asian Center for Human Rights (1991). Sri Lanka: Disappearances and the Collapse of the Police System. ACHR. p. 205. ISBN 0226789527.
  • 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. doi:10.1177/002234338802500402. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  • 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. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  • Hayner, Priscill (2009). The Unspeakable Truths : Confronting State Terror and Atrocity. Routledge. ISBN 0415924774.

Further reading

  • 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 0-8248-1211-5.
  • Gunasingam, Murugar (1999). Sri Lankan Tamil nationalism. Sydney: MV. p. 238. ISBN 0-646-38106-7.
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