U.S.A.
We further complain on reliable knowledge that the Government of Sri Lanka
has committed (a) genocide (b) conspiracy to commit genocide (c) direct and
public incitement to commit genocide (d) attempt to commit genocide and (e)
complicity in genocide, which acts are punishable under Article III of the said
convention to which Sri Lanka is a party.
A systematic pattern of genocide - to do away with the Tamils of Sri Lanka,
their language, culture, their way of life and their rights-can be seen from
some of the major schemes listed below:
Since Independence the Sinhalese who form the bulk of majority of the
population started using the powers of the state to almost eliminate the Tamils
altogether.
By the above measures the position of the Tamils was weakened and the
Sinhalese representation in Parliament became predominant. Using this ill-gotten
advantage the Government passed the 'Sinhala only Act,' making the Sinhala
language as the sole official language to demote the Tamil Language, the
mother-tongue of the Tamils, and to drive the Tamils out of public employment.
It is pertinent to note that before Independence Sinhala and Tamil were the
official Languages of the state.
Further a consistent pattern of genocide can be seen in the many out-breaks
of ethnic violence that have taken place in the Island of Ceylon from the year
1956. Such major outbreaks are listed below:
1956: Anti-Tamil riots erupted prior to and after the passing of the Official
Language Act in 1956, causing several deaths and loss of property to hundreds of
Tamil residents in Sinhalese areas. The Sinhalese dominated police-force stood
by as silent onlookers.
1958: Anti-Tamil riots broke out in May /June 1958 resulting in several
deaths by mutilation , burinings and rape as well as loss to property by plunder
and looting.
1961: Police and Military personnel unleashed violence on peaceful
satyagrahis (civil disobedience campaigners) who were protesting the imposition
of Sinhala as the official language in the Tamil-speaking areas. The Tamil
speaking areas were placed under military occupation for several months
thereafter. Several hundreds of persons were placed under preventive detention
without charges being brought against them. The International Commission of
Jurists published a statement on the position of the Tamil minority as a result
of these developments.
1966: Anti-Tamil violence was stirred up, and organised by the opposition
parties led by Mrs. Srimao Bandaranaike against the Tamil Regulations adopted by
the Dudley Senanayake Government in January, 1966.
1972-77: This was part of the period when the entire Tamil-speaking areas of
the north and the east were placed under virtual military rule. This was
accompanied by arbitrary arrests, meaningless detentions without trial for
indefinite lengths of time of innocent persons, harassment and looting of the
civilian population by the military and the police.
A peak in the abuse of power
was reached when on 10th January 1974 during the 4th International Conference of
Tamil Research held in Jaffna, the northen capital city of the Ceylon Tamils,
the police launched "a violent and quite an unnecessary attack on unarmed
citizens". An unofficial commission of inquiry headed by a non-Tamil retired Judge of the Supreme Court of Ceylon, (O.L.De Kretser) commented on "the
tragic loss of lives, and the physical injuries and indignities to which men and
women had been subject to on this night of terror" as a result of police action.
1976: Police firing at Tamil-Speaking Muslims, in a Mosque in Puttalam
resulted in a number of deaths. Further incidents were reported against Muslims
in other parts of the country. The Government declined to hold an inquiry.
1977: In August, 1977 the Tamils faced the worst violence so far. Due to the
overwhelming support by the Tamil people for the formation of a separate State,
as evinced by the result of the general elections held in July 1977. The hands
of many Government supporters were seen in many instances of violence. The
explosion of violence took place on the 19th of August soon after the speech of
Mr.Jayewardene, then Prime Minister, in the Parliament on 18th August, 1977,
offering "War" to the Tamil People, which was repeated every half-an-hour on the
Government controlled radio.
In 1977 even the plantation workers were not spared. Their line rooms were
burnt, their women were 'gang raped', their little possessions were looted.
Evidence of some brutal 'gang rapes' have been recorded before the Commission
that inquired into the events of 1977. Hundreds were killed and over 200,000
fled for safety to the traditional homelands of Tamils. Over 40,000 of the
Plantation workers became destitutes and refugees. Nearly 100 temples were
destroyed. The Tamils lost several hundreds of millions rupees worth of
property.
The most significant fact in the 1977 pogrom was the participation of the
security forces. In the south, Sinhalese people carried out the attack which the
security forces encouraged, or failed to stop. In the North and East the
security forces were the attackers and every principal town in the Tamil areas
was attacked. The radio net work of the police was used to incite violence all
over the island. Thus the Tamils were no longer safe even in their own
traditional homelands.
1979: It is a matter of record that on the 11th July, 1979,
Mr.J.R.Jayewardene, by then the President of Sri Lanka, issued a Hitler-like
order to the Army Commander in charge of the Northern Region it will be your
duty to eliminate .... the menace of terrorism — more especially from the Jaffna district.... This task has to be performed by you and completed before
the 31st December, 1979" and then they proclaimed a state of emergency under the
Public Security Act and gave the Police and Armed forces the Power to dispose of
the dead bodies without an inquest. This resulted in the indiscriminate arrest
and torture of Tamil youths in Jaffna resulting in the death of 3 and the
disappearance of another three. Police /Army set up a torture camp in the same
residence as that of the commander (who is now the Commander of the Army). Hundreds of
innocent Tamil youths who were politically active were rounded up, detained
incommunicado and subjected to severe torture, and released after months as they
were all innocent.
1981: The pattern of genocidal violence began to show clear evidence of State
planning from 1981. Under the cover of the
Prevention of Terrorism Act (modelled
on the Terrorism Act of South Africa) many Tamils were taken into custody by
groups of heavily armed police and Army personnel and beaten up in the presence
of their family members, and subsequently taken to and detained incommunicado
indefinitely in Army Camps and subjected to the worst forms of torture. The
pogroms that took place in May/ June 1981 and August 1981 were planned and led
by Government Ministers and members of Parliament.
On the 31st of May 1981 after an incident in which some unidentified persons
opened fire on Police personnel during an election meeting, the police went on a
rampage and burnt a part of Jaffna town, the house of the member of Parliament
for Jaffna, and the office of the party of the Tamils called Tamil United
Liberation Front (TULF) as a reprisal. The Police also desecrated a Hindu temple
and set fire to it. Innocent persons who were on the streets were
indiscriminately assaulted. The fury of the Police personnel would appear to
have cooled down when on the 1st June, the Inspector General of Police, the
Secretary to the Cabinet and the Secretary to the Minister of Internal Security
were sent by the President ostensibly to study the situation and help to bring
it under control. However, on the night of the 1st June, Police personnel set
fire to the PUBLIC LIBRARY of Jaffna, the best library in the Tamil areas and
irreplacebale documents relating to Tamil Culture and History were destroyed.
The presence of high government officials and Ministers in Jaffna leads to
the inference that it was government sponsored. This is nothing but an attempt
at Cultural Genocide.
The plan also envisaged the destruction of the only Tamil Daily printed in
the Tamil areas. These acts indicate that the destruction was not the result of
mere rage, but a calculated one. A senior Minister .of the Government as
reported in the Hansard, conceded in Parliament that the Public Library had been
burnt by the Police.
1981 - Local Election
On the 2nd June, 1981, Minister Cyril Mathew and another Minister were in
Jaffna to assist in the elections. On the 3rd night/4th morning 4 persons were
shot and killed by Army and Police. Mr. Amirthalingam, Secretary of TULF and
three other Members of Parliament were arrested and taken to an Army Camp. There
is evidence that the Government planned to rig the elections to the Jaffna
Development Council which however proved fruitless. A no confidence motion
brought against these two ministers has not yet been debated.
1981 - August Pogrom
In August 1981 again there was serious violence in the Batticaloa and Amparai
Districts. The Sinhalese colonists attacked the adjoining Tamil Villages and
thousands living there were made homeless and they took refuge in temples and
churches in other parts of the Tamil areas. In areas near Colombo the Tamil
businessmen and workers were attacked. The worst attack was in the Ratnapura
District. The victims were mainly the Plantation Tamils. The attack was well
planned. The attackers were even in uniform and were led by prominent members of
the ruling party. The display of brutality was difficult to surpass. "Gang
raping" was again carried out. In one incident a group of persons who took
refuge in the church at Kahawatta was attacked by a group of racists led by
Police constable Gunapala and several were injured and some killed. In that
attack a Sinhala racist known as "Mala Redda" cut up a Kahawatta trader by name
Perumal, and drank his blood. Though Perumal was killed there are eye witnesses
who speak to this incidents.
Over 40,000 plantation Tamils were displaced and most of them fled into the
jungle between Ratnapura and Bogawantalawa.
1,000 families were helped by the Indian Government to leave the country.
Several hundred moved to the North or the East as refugees. This attack on the
Plantation Tamils was planned by Cabinet Ministers and other racists in the
Government to terrorise
May 1983: In 1983 the scale of violence escalated beyond anyone's
expectation. From the beginning of that year, there emerges a plan of violence
against the plantation Tamil refugees in Vavuniya and the Tamils in the
Trincomalee District with the object of driving the Tamils out of the Districts
of Vavuniya and Trincomalee. Houses occupied by Plantation Tamil settlers in the
Trincomalee District were set on fire by Government officials, and these persons
were rendered homeless. Plantation Tamil settlers in the Vavuniya and
Trincomalee Districts were also subjected to regular acts of intimidation and
harassment so that these persons who had earlier been displaced as a result of
communal violence in the plantation areas, would opt to leave India.
In May 1983 soon after a confrontation between some unknown youths and the
Army, the Army went on rampage and burnt over 130 houses and 60 vehicles and
other motor vehicles in the Kantharmadam area in Jaffna. They looted property
valued at more than 71/2 million rupees and burnt a part of the Jaffna Bazaar
(for the third time) and attacked every Tamil seen on the road and even fired
into the Jaffna hospital.
Violence of an unprecedented nature broke out in the Universities in May,
1983. The Tamil students were mercilessly attacked, their belongings including
books and notes were burnt by Sinhala students and driven out. This was repeated
at the Engineering Faculty at Katubedda, Moratuwa and the Medical Faculty at
Colombo. The object of the attack on Tamil students was to compel them not to
compete for admission to the above universities, so that all places would be
available for the Sinhala students.
June, 1983
In June 1983 Members of the armed forces and the Police burnt (it was burnt
by the Police in 1977) and destroyed the office of the Gandhiyam society and the
orphanage managed by them, The Gandhiyam Society is the main voluntary
organisation helping the Plantation Tamil Refugees, the victims of August, 1977
and '81 pogroms. The Government wanted to destroy even these humanitarian
organisations helping the refugees.
In June there were attacks on Tamils and their establishments by the
Sinhalese people in several towns in the South. The trains and coaches plying to
the North or East were attacked and looted.
It is clear that the final assault on the Tamils was planned for June/July,
1983. The killing of Tamils was greatly facilitated by the President proclaiming
an Emergency Regulation under the Public Security Act, empowering the Police to
dispose of dead bodies, even without an inquest. From that day onwards killings
of Tamils went on unabated with many persons killed at Kurunagala, and
Ratmalana. A prolonged pogrom was set in motion in Trincomalee which went on
until the end of the month of July resulting in death of many Tamils and
including women and children which has been recorded among many other deaths,
and the destruction of over 600 houses, as well as shops and business premises
and the destruction of many places of Hindu worship. These acts were done mainly
by Sinhalese persons encouraged by the Police and Armed Forces.
July, 1983
The final phase of the State planned genocide on Tamils in Sri Lanka
commenced with the arrest and rape of Six young Tamil girls at Mathagal in
Jaffna by the Army. Three of the girls committed suicide. In anger the Tamil
youths attacked the Army convoy from the Palaly Army Camp. In the shoot out, 13
of the Army men and one Tamil youth died.
On the 24th of July commenced the holocaust with the indiscriminate killing
of 53 innocent Tamils in Jaffna by the Army. In certain places students were
lined up and shot and killed by the army personnel. In certain other areas they
were just pumping bullets at passing vehicles crowded with people and people in
those vehicles died. In certain places they shot and killed people in their beds
- a University lecturer by name Kalaparameshwaran and his aged father-in-law
were killed, while they were sleeping in their house and even women were shot
and killed this way.
On 24 July army personnel stopped a bus at Manipai near Jaffna, forced the
passengers to get down and shot at them.
In another incident a bus coming from Colombo with tourists from Tamil Nadu,
India was stopped near Jaffna hospital and attacked by armymen.
Houses of Tamils were attacked and ransacked by police and armymen at
Kandarmadam and Tinnaveli in Jaffna district. The attack on the Tamils in
Trincomalee started long before the violence in the rest of Sri Lanka broke out.
It commenced on June 3, it was started by the army, and the police and the
hoodlums were drawn in whenever it was necessary.
In certain instances the navy personnel acted directly; in certain places
they had gone for some sort of investigation, ahead of the thugs, and made sure
that there was no likelihood of any resistance, and arrested any young fellow
who could offer any resistance. Then immediately, hard on their heels, thugs
followed and set fire to houses.
There are evidences to show that one of the Assistant Secretaries of Mr.Cyril
Mathew, the Minister of the Government of Sri Lanka was present and had
discussions with the army and police personnel at the height of the troubles in
Trincomalee.
On the night of the 24th the shops and houses of Tamils in Colombo in close
proximity to the residence of the President, Mr.J.R.Jayewardene, were attacked
by an organised group of racists. The police and all other service personnel not
only did not maintain order but also joined in the attacks and most shops and
houses in the Borella area in Colombo were looted and destroyed and the inmates
were attacked. The army people gave hand-grenades to the Sinhalese and
instigated them to attack the Tamils. Petrol was sprinkled over the bodies of
the victims and they were set on fire on the streets.
In Colombo, in Badulla and other places wherever the looters were repulsed by
the Tamils the Army intervened and shot and killed those who resisted the
looters. This happened in Badulla where in front of a business place called
Yogam Stores, 14 people who resisted - one Sundaram and his four sons and others
- were shot and killed and tyres were piled on their bodies and they were all
burnt beyond recognition, by the Army.
Here is a first-hand account of the massacre in Badulla in which the army and
police were involved in the murder of 14 people, according to a survivor, Mrs.
Silvamany Ganesan , aged 36, a mother of three children:
At about 10 A.M. on July 27, a crowd gathered outside a bus depot 100 yards
away from her house attacking passing vehicles. When the police were
telephonically informed to evacuate them no action was taken. The crowd then
began to attack the home of her neighbour, Mr.Ramanathan -well-known locally as
a camphor dealer. He fired at them without appearing to hit any one. A son of
Mr.Ramanathan, aged 15, climbed on to the roof of their house carrying an
umbrella - it was raining - and was shot by a soldier from
the street and fell to the ground. She fled to her aunt's house nearby with
her children, hiding with them in the bathroom. She 'heard firing from outside
and then an explosion. They ran out of the bath-room to find that the house was
on fire. On the main road in front of Mr.Ramanathan's house there was a pile of
bodies, including those of her husband, brother-in-law, father-in-law and her
sister-in-law's husband. They all appeared to have gunshot wounds and she and
her children - two daughters aged nine and seven and a son of five - were able
to see her husband's intestines falling out and his head staved in. Her crippled
and bedridden father-in-law and other relatives were shot and killed by the
soldiers. The Ramanathan's menfolk had been hacked and beaten to death by the
racist crowd. She and her children are willing to testify.
By early morning of 25th July, 1983 the organised racist group had attacked
most Tamil shops and houses in Borella, Damatagoda and Narahenpita and the dead
bodies of Tamils were seen on the roads but no action was taken to stop the
violence.
On the morning of the 25th, members of the Government's paramilitary
organisations from various parts of the country arrived in and around Colombo in
Government vehicles with carefully prepared lists which gave details of all
Tamil households and Tamil-owned business premises in Colombo and its suburbs.
These groups having alighted from their vehicles stopped cars and collected
petrol from them and went to Tamil shops and houses and attacked the inmates and
set fire to them. In the process many by-standers joined in the violence and
looted the shops and houses. All this went on with the police either looking on
or actively encouraging the arsonists and looters .
A mini-bus of about 20 Tamils was stopped by the Sinhalese who poured petrol over it and set it on fire. All the doors were kept closed
and several hundred Sinhalese watched the Tamils burning to death.
In many places the house-holders were thrown into the flames along with their
belongings. Those who resisted or attempted to defend their property were dealt
with by the armed forces and the police, who conveniently labelled them as
tigers (i.e. members of the Tamil Liberation Movement) and shot or bayonnetted
them to death. In the Sea Street area of Colombo there was an incident on the
29th where 21 Tamils who defended their property were gunned down by the Army
and there are eye witnesses to the incident.
Despite the stringent censorship, and the fact that foreign correspondents
were not allowed into the interior and hill country regions of Sri Lanka, the
world press was able to report some of these gruesome episodes. Tourists too
have made video recordings of some of the incidents such as the burning of 7
Tamils who were tied to the rail tracks and burnt to death at the Fort Railway
Station. The presence of a well laid plan is substantiated by the fact that
shortly after the organised groups commenced their attack in Colombo on the
morning of the 25th, similar organised groups commenced attacks in various parts
of the country and the pattern was the same for everywhere.
Thus was enacted on the 24th night a Crystal Nacht as in Nazi Germany. The
collusion of the President and the Government was evidenced by the fact that
while the town burnt through out the morning of the 25th, the Government's
paramilitary men were rampaging through the city, and the Tamils were being
openly butchered and killed on the streets and no curfew was imposed nor did the
Government call upon the military or the Police to desist from participating in
the orgy of violence or to restrain the mobs from doing so.
Although a curfew
was finally imposed on the afternoon of Monday this was observed in the breach
as the mobs sponsored by the Government during curfew hours continued to burn
houses and business establishments of the Tamils that were not so far destroyed
while looters followed behind taking away whatever was left undestroyed.
The violence that commenced on the 24th left many Tamils killed, thousands critically injured and more or less all the Tamils
living in Sinhala areas (except in the estate areas in the hill country where
there is a high concentration of Tamil population) displaced from their homes and living as destitutes in
Refugee camps and all other places of temporary shelter.
The attitude of the Government and its official condonation of the genocide
was explicitly conveyed by the President of the Republic of Sri Lanka when in a
televised message to the nation (breaking his silence which had lasted 4 days
since the orgy of violence began) , the President without expressing a single
sentiment of sorrow for the sufferings endured by the Tamil people, and without
a single word of condemnation of the hideous crime committed against humanity in
the shape of an attack on innocent men, women and children only for the reason
that they belonged to a particular ethnic or racial group, said that it was a just retribution for the killing of the 13 Sinhalese soldiers by members of the guerilla Tiger Organisation, and
announced a new stringent law called the 6th Amendment to the Constitution
making any demand for separation as offence, which in itself was a violation of
not only the Right of Self Determination, but of Human Rights in general (as the
new law provided for the provisions such as loss of property, inability to hold
a passport, or sit for a public examination for anybody who did not sign a
declaration disavowing separation) saying that it was now necessary for him to
appease the Sinhala people.
Thus making it clear to the whole world that he no
longer considered himself the President of the whole country but only of the
Sinhala people, thereby explicitly showing to the world that the Government of
Sri Lanka was committed to the policy of genocide as it no longer considered the
members of the Tamil ethnic group as being a part of the nation, or as entitled
to even the basic requisites of security of life and limb let alone the other
human rights which have been set out in the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and in the Covenants of Human Rights and which the civilised world now
recognises as forming part of the international law which binds all nations.
As a consequence of the televised speech the Sinhala mob who now found an
explicit affirmation and approval of the violence of the last few days unleashed
on the 29th another wave of terror in which further hundreds of Tamils were
killed. For example nine Tamils were burnt alive at Colombo's main railway
station. All nine died under horrific and agonising circumstances. Four more
Tamils were burnt alive in two Colombo suburbs, two of them Edehiwela and two in
Panchikawatha.
Mobs then went on the rampage seeking out and killing with swords and knives
any Tamil person whom they could find, stopping cars on the roads, and pulling
out persons who they found to be Tamils. In one instance a man taken out of a
car was tied and his car was driven over him; a Catholic priest who is a
monsignor of the Church was a witness to this episode. The orgy of violence then
spread to the Hill country particularly to Badulla and Nuwara Eliya where
hundreds of Indian Tamils were similarly beaten and killed and their homes and
business establishments were burnt and looted.
While this orgy was going on violence against Tamils erupted even in the
Tamil areas. On the 26th July the Navy personnel in Trincomalee had carried out
a full scale attack on the Tamil inhabitants of this strategic town, including
an attack on the house of the member of parliament. In Trincomalee, the navy
personnel had gone on a planned rampage and within six hours, from 9.30 in the
night to 3.30 in the early hours of the morning 150 navy personnel destroyed
every Tamil-owned business establishment.
The object was to terrorise and chase
out the Tamil inhabitants and change this town into a Sinhalese town with a well
laid plan of making it no longer inhabitable by the members of this ethnic group and therefore falling within the
definition of genocide set out in Article 2(3) of the convention.
It must be
noted that not only did the navy personnel who led this attack together with the
assistance of the army and police, destroy hundreds of Tamils business places
and shops, and render thousands of people homeless but they also forcibly
removed about 600 of the refugees in vehicles and put them back in the upcountry
plantation districts from which they had emigrated after the pogrom of 1981.
In
the course of this manoeuvre many families were separated, great sufferings were
caused to these people who were left destitutes in the aforementioned areas
either for the purpose of forcing them once again to work as slaves on the
plantations from which they had been earlier driven out, or to make them once
more victims of further racial violence. This action indicates that it was not
merely an attack carried out in the heat of a riot, but part of a calculated
plan to rid the Trincomalee District of Tamils.
Among the early victims of Sinhala violence was Mr . Sivasithambaram , Member
of Parliament, Nallur and President of the Tamil United Liberation Front. His
house and belongings in Colombo together with his vehicle were burnt to ashes.
The magnitude of the June/July 1983 pogroms against the Tamil people was
colossal. Almost all industries of all Tamils and Indian Industrialists in and
around Colombo were completely destroyed. The majority of the Tamil Business
centres in Colombo was also destroyed. The total loss of life has been estimated
to be several thousands. The Government figure of around 400 is ridiculously
low. Several hundreds of persons originally said to be missing are. now
confirmed to be dead.
One of the most abhorent acts committed in the course of the Government
sponsored killings of Tamils was the killing of the 53 political Tamil prisoners
in Welikade Prison on 25th July and again on 27th July, 1983. This act clearly
shows the collusion of the Government, particularly in view of the fact that
there was a second round of killings two days after the first. One of the
prisoners killed was Mr.Kuttimani. His eyes were gouged out and one Sinhalese
cut his tongue and drank his blood. They were all tortured and done to death by
homicidal violence with the aid and approval of the State agencies. Those who
escaped death are willing to testify. T
he story given out by the Government that
the Sinhalese prisoners had got out of their cells and murdered the Tamil
prisoners cannot be substantiated. It is also strange that the jailors did not
do anything to restrain the killers. The attitude of the Government is shown by
the fact that when a few days later some Tamil prisoners in Jaffna tried to
escape, four of them were shot dead. The condonation of the Government in the
killing of the Tamil prisoners was expressed by a Senior Minister of the
government Mr.Lalith Athulathmudali, who stated at a refugee camp , and for
which statement, there are a number of witnesses willing to give evidence, that
the Sinhalese people were pacified only after the massacre at the Welikade
Prison.
In the first week of September about 700 Sinhalese went to Vadamunai in the
eastern district of Batticaloa in 40 Government vehicles and attacked Tamils of
Indian origin from the plantations who had settled down there after the 1977
riots with the help of social service organisations. The raiders drove out 30 Tamil
families and occupied their properties. Tamil leaders allege that the attack was directed by the ruling party's
Member of Parliament from Uva.
The Government of Sri Lanka has taken over all the damaged and abandoned
properties of the Tamils by an executive fiat, subsequently approved by
parliament. If press statements issued by influential Ministers are any
indication, the Government intends expropriating business and industries and
other immovable properties of the Tamils and hand them over to the Sinhalese so
that the "preponderence of Tamils in the commanding heights of our economy may
be a thing of the past". This is an arbitrary deprivation of wealth of the
Tamils with a clear intention to limit their resources, means of livelihood and
enjoyment of income.
It is relevant to point out that the Ceylon Workers Congress which is the
organisation representing the plantation workers of Indian origin who constitute
one million persons and which is a constituent part of the Government
represented by a cabinet minister, has made a statement saying that all the one
million Tamils of Indian origin wish to be taken back to India as they fear that
the Government is unable to provide them with security of person and property.
The genuine fear of these one million people of their deliberate and systematic
genocide by the State should be taken note of by the U.N.
Furthermore we aver that the victims have no remedy in the courts of Sri
Lanka, in as much as the State itself is responsible for the violations of human
rights and acts of genocide.
Thousands of Tamil people have been killed and tens of thousands of them have
been under murderous attack and on the run for their lives. The brutality took
the form of massacre of unarmed people outside and within prison walls, torture,
targeted attacks on property including means of livelihood. What is worse, the
timing of the 6th Amendment of their Constitution is such as to proclaim a
decision to liquidate then and there the political organisation of the Tamil
population which is a total suppression of an opposition party and a minority
ethnic group.
In as much as genocide is a crime against Humanity, considering the
declaration made by the Central Assembly of the UN in its resolutions 98 (i)
dated 11th December, 1946 that genocide is a crime under international law,
contrary to the spirit and aims of the United Nations, and condemned by the
civilized world, and furthermore considering that the Draft Convention on State
responsibility which has been recently drawn up by the International Law
Commission affirms that a state can be responsible at International Law for both
international crimes and international delicts and that genocide has been
specifically categorised therein as an international crime for which the state
is internationally responsible.
We call upon the Secretary General to take
cognizance of the fact that the crime of genocide has been committed and is
being continued and that the Government of Sri Lanka is either directly involved
or is guilty of complicity in such genocide. These acts can have international
repercussions as the same ethnic group is also found in the state of Tamil Nadu
in India.
a) that the Secretary General take action under Article 99 of the Charter of
the United Nations.
b) in the alternative we request that this complaint be referred to the Human
Rights Commission under the procedure set in ECOSOC resolution 1503 and that a
fact finding body be constituted to go to Sri Lanka and make an on the spot
investigation and submit a report.
c) in the event of such body giving a finding that the complaint of genocide
is true, we ask that this report be submitted to the General Assembly and the
Security Council, and sanctions be imposed on the guilty state under Chapter VII
of the charter of the United Nations.
d) we also request that in the light of the complaint of genocide which makes
it impossible for the Tamil people of the Island of Ceylon to live within the
Sinhala state, the United Nations to call upon the Government of Sri Lanka to
allow a plebescite to be held in the tradition Tamil homelands so that the Tamil
people of Sri Lanka may exercise their right of self determination, which is one
of the rights granted under the Human Right Covenants, to both of which Sri
Lanka is a Party; and that such plebescite be held under the auspices of the
United Nations.
Further, we request you to intervene and stop genocide of the ethnic
minorities viz. the Tamils. in Sri Lanka and ensure protection of the lives,
liberty and property by using if necessary sanctions on Sri Lanka.
Pray for United Nations immediate inquiry and punishment of persons
responsible for genocide in Sri Lanka.
This Complaint is made after reliable knowledge of those incidents told and
retold to many of us by those victims who escaped the genocide from Sri Lanka.
The contents of this , complaint were explained in the local language to those
millions who have put their signatures.
Chairman of the Committee for the Protection of the Tamils of Sri Lanka.
I,
