CONTENTS OF
THIS SECTION

ஓ....எங்கள் குரல் கேட்கிறதா ?

Audio Visual Presentation
The White Van

5. Patterns of Impunity

Sri Lanka's
Genocidal War '95/'01

Sri Lanka Accused at UN

Books

INDICTMENT AGAINST SRI LANKA
The Charge is Ethnic Cleansing

The Accused - Sinhala Sri Lanka Heads of Government - 1948 todate...
D.S. Senanayake	S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike	Srimavo Bandaranaike	J.R. Jayawardene	Ranasinghe Premadasa	Chandrika Kumaratunga	Mahinda Rajapaksa

Nadesan Satyendra

Ethnic cleansing is a crime against humanity. Ethnic cleansing is about assimilating and digesting a people. It is about destroying the identity of a people, as a people. And in the case of Sri Lanka the theoretical frame was articulated with clarity in July 2009 by Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa -

�Now, my theory is: there are no minorities in Sri Lanka, there are only those who love the country and those who don�t... For reconciliation to happen, there must be a mix [of ethnicities]. Here the Sinhalese, the Tamils, and Muslims inter-marry. In my own family, there have been mixed marriages: Sinhalese with Tamils, Sinhalese with Muslims. This is Sri Lankan society..." Sri Lanka President Rajapaksa's Theory of Reconciliation: Intermarriage, 7 July 2009

Given President Rajapaksa's genocidal record, it seems that his theory of reconciliation may be simply stated:  kill off as many Tamils as you can and then marry those that you have failed to kill.

Ethnic cleansing often occurs in stages . The preferred route of a conqueror is to achieve his objective without resort to violence - peacefully and stealthily. But when that fails, the would be conqueror turns to murderous violence and genocide to progress his assimilative agenda. Genocides do not just happen. And Sri Lanka is no exception to these general rules.

In the island of Sri Lanka, the record shows that during the past sixty years and more, the intent and goal of all Sinhala governments (without exception) has been to secure the island as a Sinhala Buddhist Deepa. 

"...One of the essential elements that must be kept in mind in understanding the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict is that, since 1958 at least, every time Tamil politicians negotiated some sort of power-sharing deal with a Sinhalese government - regardless of which party was in power - the opposition Sinhalese party always claimed that the party in power had negotiated away too much. In almost every case - sometimes within days - the party in power backed down on the agreement..." - Professor Marshall Singer, at US Congress Committee on International Relations Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific Hearing on Sri Lanka November 14,1995

The current Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa is simply the latest in a long line of leaders of the Sinhala Buddhist nation, a nation which dare not speak its name.  It is a Sinhala Buddhist nation which seeks to masquerade as a multi ethnic 'civic' 'Sri Lankan' nation albeit with a Sinhala Lion flag , with an unrepealed Sinhala Only Act, with Buddhism as the state religion, and with the Sinhala name  'Sri Lanka' which it gave itself unilaterally in 1972 .

"...In the Sinhala language, the words for nation, race and people are practically synonymous, and a multiethnic or multicommunal nation or state is incomprehensible to the popular mind. The emphasis on Sri Lanka as the land of the Sinhala Buddhists carried an emotional popular appeal, compared with which the concept of a multiethnic polity was a meaningless abstraction..." [Sinhala Historian K. M. de Silva in Religion, Nationalism and the State, USF Monographs in Religion and Public Policy, No.1 (Tampa, FLA: University of South Florida 1986) at p31 quoted by David Little in Religion and Self Determination in Self Determination - International Perspectives, MacMillan Press, 1996]  

The Sinhala Buddhist nation masquerading as a multi ethnic 'civic' 'Sri Lankan' nation set about its task of assimilation and 'cleansing' the island of  the Tamils, as a people, by 

- depriving a section of Eelam Tamils of their citizenship,
- declaring the Sinhala flag as the national flag,
- colonising parts of the Tamil homeland with Sinhala people,
- imposing Sinhala as the official language,
- discriminating against Tamils students seeking University admission,
- depriving Tamil language speakers of employment in the public sector,
- dishonouring agreements entered into with the Tamil parliamentary  political leadership,
- refusing to recognise constititutional safeguards against discrimination,
- later removing these constitutional safeguards altogether,
- giving to themselves an authocthonous Constitution with a foremost place for Buddhism,
- and changing the name of the island itself to the Sinhala Buddhist name of Sri Lanka - appropriately enough, on  the 'tenth day of the waxing moon in the month of Vesak in the year two thousand five hundred and fifteen of the Buddhist Era'.

When the attempts at ethnic cleansing by Sinhala majority governments (within the confines of a single state) were resisted by the Tamil people by non violent means and parliamentary struggle, Sinhala governments resorted to violence in 1956, in 1958, in 1961, in 1974, and again in 1977 - a murderous violence directed to terrorise the Tamils into submission.  Rule by a permanent ethnic majority within the confines of a single state was and is the dark side of democracy.

The inevitable rise of Tamil armed resistance to State terror was then met with enactment of laws which were an 'ugly blot on statute book of any civilised country', with arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, extra judicial killings and massacres, indiscriminate aerial bombardment and artillery shelling, wanton rape, and by genocide in 1983 and thereafter  - together with press censorship, disinformation and murder of journalists. And the impunity granted to Sinhala armed forces, para military groups, goondas and Sinhala thugs, exposed the encouragement, support and direction given by successive Sri Lanka governments for the crimes committed against the Tamil people.

In 1987, at the invitation of  Sri Lanka President J.R.Jayawardene, Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi sent the Indian Peace Keeping Force to subdue Tamil resistance to alien Sinhala rule.

"Over a period of about 20 days (commencing 9 October 1987) , the Indian Army's direct attack on LTTE positions, and defence from LTTE attacks, was coupled with the Indian Army's attack and storming of still unevacuated Jaffna - and many villages and settlements throughout the Peninsula - with widespread (insofar as territory), indiscriminate (insofar as targetting) and sustained (insofar as intensity) artillery shelling. Only less widespread, sustained and indiscriminate, there was air-strafing from helicopter as well. It was not "cross-fire" that incidentally killed thousands of civilians. The majority were killed unavoidably inside their houses and huts under shelling, or were shot at random by the roads and on the streets. A large number of people were "only" wounded - yet, many of them died in the absence of medical care, especially under the 24-hour curfew over a period of about one month, to mid-November. ....On top of everything else there has been the "unmilitary" or "unsoldiery" side of events :- wanton killings out of rage, reprisals against non-combatants, looting of homes of middle and wealthier classes, soldier's assault of women, a murderous attack on the main hospital victimising both patients and medical personnel, and killing of a number of unarmed and disarmed guerrilla suspects without trial according to the Law of War."  Eduardo Marino, Report to International Alert - Some Observations and Conclusions following a trip to Jaffna Peninsula in November 1987

After the IPKF left in 1989 Sinhala President Ranasinghe Premadasa renewed the attacks on the people of Tamil Eelam with vigour  in1990. In September 1990, Amnesty launched a 3 month campaign against state terror in Sri Lanka. During the period 1990 to 1994, Tamils were attacked in the East, in Kannapuram. 180 Tamils were butchered at Saththurukondan. Hundreds of Tamils 'Disappeared' after detention. Tamils in the North were bombed. Over 1,000 Tamil civilians were killed in the three years bombing of Jaffna.  Jaffna Hospital and other Tamil civilian centres were bombed. Tamil detainees were systematically tortured. 

Following upon Sinhala President Premadasa's terror, the new Sinhala President Chandrika Kumaratunga Bandaranaike continued the genocidal attack on the people of Tamil Eelam in the years 1995 to 2001. The genocidal intent of the Chandrika led Sri Lanka government was proved by -

• the 'broad front steamrollering' attack launched on the Jaffna peninsula;
• the deliberation with which the Sri Lanka security forces have killed Tamil non combatants, shelled densely populated Tamil villages, destroyed Tamil homes and cultivable land, bombed Tamil schools and places of worship, and blocked the supply of essential food and medicine to the Tamil homeland;
• the persistent and frequent breaches by Sri Lanka authorities of the laws and regulations relating to arrest and detention and the unprecedented number of "disappearances";
• the systematic use of torture and rape as instruments of state terrorism;
• the mass graves;
• the use of Tamil civilians as human mine detectors and as forced labour;
• the murder of Tamil prisoners whilst in the custody of Sri Lanka authorities;
• the imposition of a press censorship which went beyond any needs of 'national security';
• by calculated resort to disinformation and war mongering;
• the public pronouncements of President Kumaratunga and her ministers, together with the 'victory' ceremony on establishing 'Sinhala rule' of Jaffna; and
• the failure of President Chandrika Kumaratunga and her government to condemn the gross and systematic violations of humanitarian law by the forces under their command and the impunity afforded to the offenders.

Thereafter the period 2002 to 2007 (under the dispensation of Sinhala President Chandrika Kumaratunga Bandaranaike & Sinhala Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe and later Sinhala President Mahinda Rajapaksa) witnessed Sri Lanka's undeclared war on the people of Tamil Eelam under the shadow of the 2002 cease fire agreement. It was an undeclared war which witnessed the massacres at Vaharai, Vankalai, Pessalai, Trincomalee, Vallipunam, Padahuthurai, Killinochchi and Muthur. It was an undeclared war which witnessed the murder by Sri Lankan state agencies of a growing number of Tamil intellectuals -A.Nadesan, J.Pararajasingham, D.Sivaram, C.Nehru, P.Ganeshamurthy, V.Vigneswaran, N.Raviraj, Sivamaharajah amongst others.

In 2005, upon his election as the new Sri Lanka President, Mahinda  Rajapakse pursued the Sinhala assimilative agenda by reneging on the 2002 Oslo Declaration, and by refusing to recognise the existence of the Tamil homeland.

Finally, in January 2008, the Sri Lanka government unilaterally abrogated the ceasefire agreement which it had solemnly entered into in February 2002 and which agreement had received internationally recognition.

The genocidal intent of the President Rajapakse government was reflected in the war crimes committed by the Sri Lankan armed forces under the President's command and by the Sri Lanka para military. They have raped, murdered Tamil Parliamentarians, Tamil journalists, executed Tamil students with impunity, arbitrarily arrested and detained Tamil civilians,  abducted Tamil refugee workers, orchestrated attacks on Tamil civilians and Tamil shops, bombed Tamil civilian population centres and displaced thousands of Tamils from their homes.

And after the Tamil armed resistance silenced its guns on the 17 May 2009, the Sri Lanka regime under Sinhala President Rajapaksa has continued its allotted task of ethnic cleansing with Tamils languishing in Sri Lankan death camps, and with the hidden massacre of tens of thousands of Tamil civilians .

The Record Speaks...

The gross, consistent, and continuing violations of the rights of the Tamil people, by the Sri Lankan government and its agencies during the past several decades, include grave breaches of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Genocide Convention, and the Geneva Conventions relating to the humanitarian law of armed conflict.

These violations by Sri Lanka have been well documented by several human rights organisations and independent observers as well as by eye witnesses - and have been the subject of hundreds of statements and interventions at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.  

This publication brings together extracts from some of these reports - including those that cover Genocide '58,  Genocide'83 , Rajiv Gandhi's War Crimes, the Genocidal War '95 to '01,  Sri Lanka's Undeclared War on Eelam Tamils in the Shadow of a Ceasefire '02 to '07, Sri Lanka's Genocidal War '08 ...after Abrogation of the Ceasefire and after the Tamil armed resistance ended on 17 May 2009, Sri Lanka's Continued Ethnic Cleansing  2009...

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	Sinhala Prime Minister D.S.Senanayake... Plantation Tamils deprived of citizenship - 1948/50 Sinhala Lion Flag imposed as National Flag by majority will Sinhala colonisation of Tamil Homeland
	Sinhala Prime Minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike... Enactment of Sinhala Only Law - 1956 Tamil Parliamentarians attacked & 150 Tamils killed - 1956 Genocide - Genocide '58 "What are we left with (in 1958)? A nation in ruins, some grim lessons which we cannot afford to forget and a momentous question: Have the Sinhalese and Tamils reached the parting of ways?" Tarzie Vittachi: Emergency 1958
	Sinhala Prime Minister Srimavo Bandaranaike... Sinhala army attacks Tamil Satyagrahis - 1961 Tamils squeezed out of Higher Education - 1971 Discrimination in Education in Sri Lanka - paper presented by Professor C Jeyaratnam Eliezer Name of Country changed from Ceylon to Sinhala Sri Lanka & Buddhism given foremost place in Constitution - 1972 Repeal of Constitutional safeguards for minorities - 1972 Eleven Tamils killed at 4th International Tamil Conference in Jaffna - 1974 Suppression of peaceful Tamil resistance -1972 to 1975
	Sinhala Prime Minister/President J.R.Jayawardene... Organised pogrom against Tamils - 1977 Rise of the armed resistance of the Tamil people Tamil resistance met with Sri Lankan state terrorism - 1979 Rigging of Jaffna DDC Elections - 4 June 1981 V.Yogeswaran -  the Story of an MP who Escaped Murder,  9 June 1981 Destruction of Jaffna Public Library - 1981 Continued attacks on Tamil civilians - July/August 1981 Ethnic Conflict and Violence in Sri Lanka, Professor Virginia A. Leary - Report of an ICJ Mission to Sri Lanka in July-August 1981. Tamils Under Attack - September 1981 Plantation Tamils Subjected To Terror Anti Tamil, anti Hindu offensive in Mullaitivu - 1982 Violation of the right to free elections - 1982 Interference with the judiciary and violation of the Rule of Law - 1982/83 Tamils detained without charge or trial - 1979/83 Sri Lanka Terrorism Act -'ugly blot on statute book of any civilised country' Torture - almost universal practise of Sri Lankan authorities says ICJ University of Peradeniya � May 1983: When Majesty Stoops to Folly  - The Beginnings of Mass Mobilisation for the Tamil Militancy UTHR Special Report Genocide - Genocide '83... "Clearly this was not a spontaneous upsurge of communal hatred among the Sinhala people.. It was a series of deliberate acts, executed in accordance with a concerted plan, conceived and organised well in advance. But who were the planners?... Communal riots in which Tamils are killed, maimed, robbed and rendered homeless are no longer isolated episodes; they are beginning to become a pernicious habit." Paul Sieghart Q.C. Report of a Mission to Sri Lanka on behalf of the International Commission of Jurists, March 1984 International Commission of Jurists -  The Review, December 1983 "A government spokesman has denied that the destruction and killing of Tamils amounted to genocide. Under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, acts of murder committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group as such are considered as acts of genocide. The evidence points clearly to the conclusion that the violence of the Sinhala rioters on the Tamils amounted to acts of genocide." Chunnakam massacre and extra judicial killings of Tamils - 1984 Events affecting the Judiciary - 1977 to 1984 The plea that went unheeded - K.V.Nadarajah, August 1984 Case Study of Torture, Sri Lanka Style - 1984 Sri lanka Army terrorises another Jaffna school - November 1984 Sinhala army murders Christian priests - 1984/85 Arbitrary killings and torture - 1985 Synopsis of extra judicial killings by an independent law group - 1979 to May 1985 Sri Lanka Navy murders passengers on Kumithini - May 1985 Amnesty Reports on 163 Extra Judicial Killings of Tamils in May 1985 An Episode of Persecution - Paul Nallanayagam on Special Task Force and Extra Judicial Killings The Massacre in Tiriyai - the village that died on 15 June 1985 52 Tamil villages in Trincomalee area razed to the ground in two months - September 1985 Amnesty File on Sri Lanka Torture - October 1985 Amnesty confronts Sri Lanka's denial of torture - December 1985 Iruthayapuram Massacre: eye witness account - January 1986 Akkaraipattu Massacre & Arbitrary killing of Tamils - 1986 The Kokkadaicholai Massacre - 1987 Security forces continue to kill, chain and incarcerate  non combatant Tamils - 1987 UN Commission on Human Rights calls for Red Cross intervention - 1987 Indian army intervenes at invitation of Sri Lanka government - 1987 Rajiv Gandhi's War Crimes "...as an Indian I feel ashamed that under the Indo Sri Lanka agreement, our forces are fighting with Tamils whom they went to protect..."I believe that the Indian Government had betrayed its own culture and ethics...The guilt, therefore, rests entirely on those who sent them to do this dastardly business of fighting in Sri Lanka against our Tamil brothers and sisters..." India's former Foreign Secretary, A.P.Venkateshwaran,  speaking in London in April 1988 Thileepan's fast - and Jaffna, September to November 1987 Two Harrowing Weeks in Jaffna - September/October 1987 - An Eye Witness Account Velupillai Pirabakaran On the Arrrest & Death of Kumarappa, Pulendran and Others India Must Stop Repression of Tamils   - N. Sanmugathasan Tamils Killed and Injured by Indian Army in Jaffna  between 10 - 16 October, 1987 The Agony of Urumpiray Diwali Day massacre at Jaffna General Hospital - November 1987 People Face Starvation & Slow Death - Citizens Committee to Indian Prime Minister Case of a Mother and Son murdered in cold blood by IPKF India's war in Jaffna - Eduardo Marino's Report to International Alert Indian army's war crimes - 1987 Rape of Tamil women by Indian Army - 1987/88 3000 Civilians Forced by IPK to  Squat under Scorching  Sun for Nine Hours - 1988 Annai Poopathy's fast for freedom - 1988 Detention without Trial, Torture - 1988 Torture & Reprisal attacks by India and Sri Lanka - 1989 India's My Lai - the Valvettiturai Massacre - 1989
	Sinhala President Ranasinghe Premadasa... Sri Lanka's Deputy Defence Minister on the rule of law, 1990 Kannapuram Massacre, July 1990 Planned genocidal attack on Tamils in the East - 1990 180 Tamils butchered at Saththurukondan - September 1990 Hundreds of Tamils 'Disappear' after detention by Sri Lanka - 1990 Sri Lanka bombs Jaffna Hospital & other Tamil civilian centres - 1990 Calculated disinformation campaign by Sri Lanka government Amnesty launches 3 month campaign against Sri Lanka - 19 September 1990 Thousands of Tamils extra judicially executed says Amnesty - 1990 Tamil detainees systematically tortured -1991 Kokaddicholai massacre - June 1991 On the use of Governmental Aggression to Suppress a Minority's Quest for Self Determination - Deanne Hodgin, July 1991 Human Rights violations continue at 'an alarming rate' - 1992 India's Act of Piracy, January 1993 New spate of disappearances & extra judicial killings - 1993 The torture of Arulapu Jude Arulrajah - October 1993 Over 1,000 Tamil civilians killed in the three years bombing of Jaffna says British Refugee Council, July 1993 200 Tamils civilians killed in air and navy attacks in 1993 alone, September 1993 "This is organised State terrorism" say Bishop D.J.Ambalavanar, Bishop Thomas Saundranayagam , and Nallai Thiru Sampandar Atheenam Churches and Temples Bombed, January 1994 Sri Lanka airforce strafes Tamil villages Sri Lanka Airforce Bombs Schools in Jaffna Sri Lanka Airforce targets Tamil civilian population, March 1994 Hospitals bombed in Tamil Homeland
	Sinhala Prime Minister/President Chandrika Kumaratunga Bandaranaike... Genocide Genocidal War   - 1995 to 2001 The genocidal intent of the Sri Lanka government is proved by - the 'broad front steamrollering' attack launched on the Jaffna peninsula; the deliberation with which the Sri Lanka security forces have killed Tamil non combatants, shelled densely populated Tamil villages, destroyed Tamil homes and cultivable land, bombed Tamil schools and places of worship, and blocked the supply of essential food and medicine to the Tamil homeland; the persistent and frequent breaches by Sri Lanka authorities of the laws and regulations relating to arrest and detention and the unprecedented number of "disappearances"; the systematic use of torture and rape as instruments of state terrorism; the mass graves; the use of Tamil civilians as human mine detectors and as forced labour; the murder of Tamil prisoners whilst in the custody of Sri Lanka authorities; the imposition of a press censorship which went beyond any needs of 'national security'; by calculated resort to disinformation and war mongering; the public pronouncements of President Kumaratunga and her ministers, together with the 'victory' ceremony on establishing 'Sinhala rule' of Jaffna; and the failure of President Chandrika Kumaratunga and her government to condemn the gross and systematic violations of humanitarian law by the forces under their command and the impunity afforded to the offenders. Sinhala President Chandrika Kumaratunga Bandaranaike & Sinhala Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe... Sri Lanka's  Undeclared War on Eelam Tamils in the Shadow of a Ceasefire - 2002 to 2007 " A strange low intensity war has been unleashed against us taking advantage of the conditions of peace effected by the ceasefire. Disarming the Tamil para-military groups is an obligation of the state under terms of the Ceasefire Agreement. Having failed to fulfil this crucial obligation the Sri Lanka state has been utilising the Tamil para-militaries as instruments of this subversive war against our liberation organisation. This is a serious war offence. This is similar to a treacherous act in which one stabs you in the back with one hand while pretending to embrace you with the other.." Velupillai Pirabaharan  - Maaveerar Naal Address, 27 November 2005
	Sinhala President Mahinda Rajapaksa... Sri Lanka's Genocidal War '08 ...after Abrogation of the Ceasefire Sri Lanka's Continued Ethnic Cleansing  2009... - after Tamil Armed Resistance Ends...