UN SUB
COMMISSION ON PREVENTION
OF DISCRIMINATION AND PROTECTION OF MINORITIES
50TH SESSIONS: AUGUST 1998
- Membership of the Sub-Commission
List of Members as at August 1998
- To the
United Nations: Peace March by Tamils from
Switzerland, France, England, Germany and Italy;
Press Release by International
Federation of Tamils 13 August 1998 and Virakesari Report in
Tamil 16 August 1998
- Oral Statement by Nord-Sud
5 August 1998 Agenda Item 2 - Question of the violation of human rights and
fundamental freedoms, including policies of racial
discrimination and segregation and of apartheid, in
all countries, with particular reference to colonial
and other dependent countries and territories: report
of the Sub-Commission under Commission on Human
Rights resolution 8 (XXIII).
- Oral Statement by International
Educational Development/Humanitarian Law
Project
5 August 1998 - Agenda Item 2 - Question of the
violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms,
including policies of racial discrimination and
segregation and of apartheid, in all countries, with
particular reference to colonial and other dependent
countries and territories: report of the
Sub-Commission under Commission on Human Rights
resolution 8 (XXIII).
- Oral Intervention by Asbjorn Eide, Member
of the Sub-Commission
6 August 1998 - Agenda Item 2 - Question of the
violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms,
including policies of racial discrimination and
segregation and of apartheid, in all countries, with
particular reference to colonial and other dependent
countries and territories: report of the
Sub-Commission under Commission on Human Rights
resolution 8 (XXIII).
"....Many Tamils, including those who are
struggling for a devolution of power and greater
influence for the Tamils, live under constant
threat of assassination by the LTTE.What baffles me
is that there are still international non
governmental organisations who lend their support
to this movement. They are then not supporting the
Tamil cause but an utterly undemocratic movement
unable to contemplate peace in any form.In 1994, a
new President was elected in Sri Lanka, and the
government has presented a package of devolution which
goes as far as any government can possibly go.
There is no doubt in my mind that the President is
genuine, and that many or probably most Tamils
would be happy if the package could be accepted..."
more
- "Mr.Eide's
comments at the UN Sub Commission on 6 August may
be usefully evaluated by examining the extent to
which his remarks further the peace process in the
island of Sri Lanka. As the International
Federation of Tamils has pointed out in its appeal
to the Sub Commission (today), the building blocks
for peace are the building blocks of justice. And,
justice is not a mantra to be repeated but a
passion that must find expression our words and in
our deeds...The formula of a 'multi ethnic plural society'
cherished by some experts to whom self
determination and secession are anathema, seeks to
preserve in the island of Sri Lanka, the artificial territorial boundaries
imposed (and later bequeathed) by the erstwhile
British ruler. It seeks to perpetuate the
colonial legacy and encourage the continuing
attempt to replace British colonial rule with
permanent Sinhala colonial
rule..."more
- under Agenda Item 2 on the
question of the violation of human rights and
fundamental freedoms, including policies of racial
discrimination and segregation and of apartheid, in
all countries, with particular reference to colonial
and other dependent countries and territories: report
of the Sub-Commission under Commission on Human
Rights resolution 8 (XXIII).
Distinguished Chair, members of the
Sub-Commission, observers and NGO representatives,
North South wishes to extend its congratulations to the
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the
occasion of its 50th Anniversary of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.
There have been many gains which
have been made for human rights over the last 50 years
but there are some notable cases of the reverse
situation, where for the same period of time the human
rights situation has deteriorated
dramatically.
As Sri Lanka celebrated 50 years of
independence early this year, Tamil people all over the
world remembered and commemorated with sadness, decades
of genocide of the Tamil people.
Fifteen years ago, commencing on 23 July 1983,
thousands of Tamils were slaughtered in
the island of Sri Lanka by armed Sinhala gangs, led in
many cases by Sinhala members of Parliament and their
henchmen. It was a planned attack. But this was not
the first occasion, when the Tamil people in the island
of Sri Lanka were murdered by Sinhala armed gangs and
security forces. A close look at documented records of
the last 40 years prove beyond reasonable doubt that
Tamils have been murdered and extra judicially
executed in a systematic, deliberate and planned manner
by the Sri Lanka authorities and their
agents.
The massacres at Chunnakam, Mannar, Iruthayapuram, Akkaraipattu, Jaffna
General Hospital, Valvettiturai, Saththurukkondan, Kokaddicholai, Inspector Etram Milakudiyetra, Jeyanthipuram, Navaly Church, Nagerkoil School, Kumarapuram, Puthukudyiruppu, Amparai, and Tampalakamam have now become a
part of the history of the suffering of the Tamil
people.
The genocidal attacks and the violations of the
rights of the Tamil people in the North and East of the
island, represent the Sinhala response to the struggle
of the people of Tamil Eelam to free themselves from
Sinhala rule. The national identity of the people of
Tamil Eelam is not simply a function of decades of
oppressive Sinhala rule - it is also rooted in
their language, in their
culture and in their heritage. And it is a
togetherness that is given direction by their
aspirations for a future where they, and their
children and their children's children may live in
equality and in freedom. The struggle of the people of
Tamil Eelam is not about
devolution. Alien rulers are not slow to offer (from
time to time) 'consultation' and 'devolution' as ways
of perpetuating their rule, pacifying their subjects
and progressing the assimilation of sections of a
conquered people. The conflict in the island is about the
Tamil people's struggle for self determination.
Mr. Bacre Ndiaye, Special Rapporteur on
Extra-judicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions
visited Sri Lanka from 24 August to 5
September 1997. In his report of March this year,
Mr.Bacre stated that although there had been a
re-establishment of a government administration in the
Jaffna Peninsula, the military remain in control of the
city. The security forces, comprised of the army and
the police force are 99% Sinhalese and do not speak
Tamil which is the language of the local population,
and often treat the local population with suspicion.
This amplifies the sense of an army occupation and
exacerbates the already existing feeling of alienation,
he reported.
With regard to the cases of execution the
Special Rapporteur was told that families are reluctant
to claim the bodies of their relatives. Close relatives
who want to claim the bodies of the victims are
required to declare that the victims were terrorists.
Failure to do so results in the bodies not being given
to the families. Due to these conditions families are
afraid to claim the bodies.
Mr. Bacre observed that the serious
destabilising element of impunity permeates all parts
of the Sri Lankan socio-political system and that the
culture of impunity has contributed to the
uncontrollable spiralling of violence.
The revelation last month of the existence of mass graves in the Jaffna
Peninsula is the latest evidence of the shocking
situation facing Tamils in Sri Lanka. In the Colombo
High Court on July 5, the first accused, Corporal
Rajapakse Somaratne in the rape and murder case of the
Jaffna schoolgirl, Krishanthy Kurnaraswamy said 'We
only buried the bodies, we can show you where 300 to
400 bodies have been buried. Almost every evening dead
bodies were brought there and the soldiers were asked
to bury them.
On 3rd August Amnesty International
appealed to the Attorney General of Sri Lanka to
allow the Criminal Investigation Department and the
Human Rights Commission to carry out investigations of
the site of Chenmmani, Jaffna with the help of leading
forensic experts. Amnesty asked the Attorney General to
ensure that the investigations, including exhumation
was impartially and independently conducted in such a
way that any evidence collected was admissible in
courts They said it is the experience of leading
forensic experts around the world that the exhumation
of bodies piled on top of each over in restricted
places, such as lavatory pits and wells, is one of the
most complex forms of exhumations to carry
out.
Killings of Tamil civilians continue. There
have been over 1800 victims of landmines in Jaffna. Dr.
N Selvarajah of the University of Jaffna said in a
seminar jointly organised by the University of Jaffna
and UNICEF on 6 July 98 that between 80 and 100 victims
of pressure mines are reported every month in Jaffna.
These landmines are believed to have been buried by the
security forces for their security in the Jaffna
peninsula.
Mr. Chairman, further to the flagrant abuse of
civil and political rights of the Tamil people of which
the above is only a small part (since disappearances,
arbitrary arrests, torture and rape as a weapon of war
remain also serious issues of harass rights violations
by the Sri Lankan security forces.) we feel it relevant
to speak also of the systematic abuse of the Economic
and Social Rights of the Tamil people.
We would like to draw attention to points
raised by experts at the 18th Session of the Committee
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, in April,
earlier this year. One expert said that there had been
marginalization of Tamils in their homeland since
independence. Concerning discrimination against ethnic
groups an expert said available data did not prove it
did not exist as the Sri Lankan government delegation
claimed. One expert said that the core statistics in
the Sri Lankan Government's report to the committee on
causes of low birth weight did not include figures from
the North and East of Sri Lanka.
The government could not blame the conflict
for not addressing problems, the expert said, otherwise
the fighting was justified. If practical reasons were
the cause for she lack of statistics, how had it been
possible to hold elections in the Jaffna Peninsula but
not health surveys ?
Figures showed that the Sinhalese population
was better treated and provided for than other ethnic
groups. One expert said the delegation insisted that
there had been improvement in the quality of life but
statistics showed that Sinhalese children were in
better health than non Sinhalese. He was concerned
about the correlation between non-Sinhalese and cases
of malnutrition among children. Other issues raised
included the fact that the Government is using food as
a weapon of war against the Tamil population and Tamil
refugees.
In this very room during the
Commission on Human Rights in 1997 a priest who was
a victim and witness of the horrendous mass exodus from
Jaffna in October 1995 as the town was invaded by the
Sri Lankan Amy, spoke of the bombing and artillery
shelling of the North and East of the island. He said
that more than eighty shells were dropped within one
minute. and this was confirmed later by a Sri Lankan
official himself. His devastating experience was shared
by another half a million Tamil people who likewise
fled the oncoming Sri Lankan army. Since then thousands
more Tamils have been displaced as a result of more Sri
Lankan army operations They live in appalling
conditions in the Vanni, subjected to the food and medicine embargo
or the government
Mr. Chairman visits by two Special
representatives of the UN Secretary General, a special
Rapporteur on Extra Judicial Killings and two visits by
the UN Working Group on Disappearances have expressed a
degree of concern at the serious situation of human
rights. With all these interventions and additional
appeals the human rights situation has not improved in
fact it is going from bad to worse and
deteriorating.
Sri Lanka has the habit of giving vague and
false promises and resorting to fiction in order to
mislead the UN Human Rights Sessions and NGOs. In the
past the international community and the UN mechanisms
have been deceived by the government of Sri
Lanka.
We call upon the government of Sri Lanka to
cease all military operations against the Tamil
civilian population, to withdraw the occupying forces
from the Tamil homeland, to lift the economic blockade
in the North and East and to allow humanitarian
aid.
We urge this Sub-Commission and the High
Commissioner for Human Rights to appoint a Commission
to investigate into the unauthorised and illegal burial
of the several hundreds of bodies in the Jaffna
peninsula.
Thank you. Mr Chairman.
- under Agenda Item 2 on
the question of the violation of
human rights and fundamental freedoms, including
policies of racial discrimination and segregation and
of apartheid, in all countries, with particular
reference to colonial and other dependent countries
and territories: report of the Sub-Commission under
Commission on Human Rights resolution 8
(XXIII).
Fifteen years ago the world
witnessed the massacre of thousands of Tamil people in
the island of Ceylon at the hands of Sinhala gangs, led
in many cases by Sinhala members of Parliament. This
massacre was identified at that time as an act of
genocide by the International Commission of Jurists,
many international scholars and other highly
knowledgeable and credible groups. A month after the
massacre, the Sub-Commission adopted resolution
1983/16 in which it expressed its concern over the
'severe loss of lives and property' that
occurred.
Since that Sub-Commission
resolution, the genocide has continued against the
Tamil people. The war between the 98% Sinhala Sri
Lankan military forces continues against the Tamil
people. And let there be no mistake in any ones mind:
in this conflict, it is primarily Tamil civilians who
die - 50, 000 of them. Not Sinhala civilians. Certainly
some members of the Sinhala army die. Some members of
the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam die. But by far
the majority of the dead and wounded, the tortured and disappeared, the abused and
the maimed, the displaced, uprooted and
scattered into a new international diaspora are
Tamil civilians.
Who is killing, wounding,
arresting, 'disappearing', torturing, uprooting these
Tamils? Other Tamils? To say so is the same as saying
that the Tutsi in Rwanda or the Croatians in the former
Yugoslavia did it to themselves.
In 1986, Senator A.L.Missen, Chairman,
Australian Parliamentary Group of Amnesty International
stated:
"Some 6000 Tamils have been killed
altogether in the last few years...These events are not accidental. It can
be seen that they are the result of a deliberate
policy on the part of the Sri Lankan
government...Democracy in Sri Lanka does not exist in
any real sense.
Ten years later, Margaret Trawick,
Professor of Social Anthropology, Massey University
Palmerston North, New Zealand states:
"I have been struggling in my mind
against the conclusion that the Sri Lanka government
is trying to kill or terrorise as many Tamil people
as possible; that the government is trying to keep
the conditions of the war unreported internationally,
because if those conditions were reported, the
actions of the military would be perceived as so
deplorable that foreign nations would have no choice
but to condemn them. And this would be embarrassing
to everybody. But it seems now
that no other conclusion is possible..."
It would seem to International
Educational Development that the Tamil people are not
viewed as worthy of attention and this must be viewed
as rank and despicable discrimination. What other
conclusion is possible when in the face of this long
and protracted war, neither the Commission nor the
Sub-Commission has issued a resolution since 1987? Have
these bodies not paid any attention to the reports of
the Commission's Working Groups and Rapporteurs? Are
these bodies unaware that Sri Lanka is just behind
Iraq in disappearances and that almost all the
disappeared are Tamils?
Are the Tamil people not as fashionable
as the Bosnians? Is the fact that the Tamil people are
historically Hindu a problem, seeing that so few other
countries are Hindu? Is it because certain foreign
powers have such an interest in Trincomalee harbour (in
the Tamil areas) for their geo political control of the
region? Why is it that the international community
imposes sanctions on the Republic of Yugoslavia because
of the practically identical situation in Kosovo and
says not a word about Sri Lanka?
As bad as the violations against the
Tamil people are, however, the real question is the
struggle of the Tamil people for independence. The struggle of the Tamil people is not
about devolution. The Sinhala people are alien to
the Tamil. British rule was 'benevolent' and even
'just'. But British rule was alien. To ask the Tamil
people to live under Sinhala rule is to require the
French to live under Italian rule, or the Norwegians to
live under Spanish rule.
The national identity of the people of
Tamil Eelam is not simply a function of genocidal
Sinhala rule - it is also rooted in their
language, in their culture and in their
heritage. and given direction by their aspirations
for a future where they, and their children and their
children's children may live in equality and in
freedom. The genocidal attacks by the Sri Lanka
authorities have only served to strengthen the Tamil
resolve for freedom and to consolidate their
togetherness. And this should be applauded and
respected. After all, did the international community
want the majority population in South Africa to 'cry
uncle' and acquiesce to apartheid? Why should the
Tamil?
- Agenda Item 2 on
the question of the violation of
human rights and fundamental freedoms, including
policies of racial discrimination and segregation and
of apartheid, in all countries, with particular
reference to colonial and other dependent countries
and territories: report of the Sub-Commission under
Commission on Human Rights resolution 8
(XXIII).
"The Commission and ECOSOC has
consistently mandated us, since 1968, to bring to the
attention of the Commission any situation which the
Sub-Commission has reasonable cause to believe reveals
a consistent pattern of gross violations of human
rights in accordance with paragraph 6 of the Commission
resolution (XXIII). This is what we are examining under
this agenda item. But it is only a limited part of our
mandate; we have at least 10 other substantive agenda
items, and the totality of our efforts should be to
move towards the goal which is set out in the UDHR
article 28:
'Everyone is entitled to a social
and international order in which the rights and
freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully
realised.'
In 1998- thirty years later - the
Commission has initiated a process aimed at the
enforcement of the effectiveness and efficiency of its
mechanisms and procedures. We are engaged in a similar
process at this Sub-Commission. In so doing, we should
give particular attention to the way in which we deal
with this particular item on the agenda, in the light
of the other mandates we have and in the light of the
way in which we best can use our expertise.Our role
should not be to point fingers based on superficial
review of selective facts, but to contribute to a
deeper process of investigation with a view to make a
constructive contribution towards the realisation of
human rights for those who live in that particular
society.
Our efforts under this particular
agenda item is therefore only part of a larger
endeavour, consisting of a multitude of efforts,
including dialogue, technical assistance and advisory
services. Most important is the dialogue, on all levels
- international dialogue between governments, a
dialogue between ourselves as experts representing
different cultures and traditions but united in our
common concern for human rights, which is our field of
expertise. One important aspect of that dialogue are
the contributions now made by the NGOs to bring to our
attention the situations they think reveal a gross and
systematic violation, and the discussions we as expert
members hold among ourselves on how to approach these
issues, when we see it in the context of the wider
function of the United Nations as a
whole....
(There are those) here long enough
to remember that I, in 1983, was the first to criticise
the government of Sri Lanka for its lack of effective
measures to investigate the authors of the massacres against Tamils
in the summer of 1983, including the killing of political prisoners in the
Welikade prison. I know also that many in Sri Lanka
subsequently regretted that they did not listen to the
suggestions we then made, which were to take prompt
actions to restore law and order, to punish those
responsible, and to involve the International Committee
of the Red Cross.
But very much has changed since 1983. Among the
Tamils, an extremely militant group calling itself the
Tigers, abbreviated LTTE. Its leadership has developed
an almost paranoid garrison mentality. That movement or
particularly its leadership respects no human rights.
It engages in the most heinous crimes, using female,
male and possibly even child suicide bombers to create
havoc and fear. Its killing is directed not only at
Sinhala enemies, including civilians, and their
religious temples, but also against its Tamil opponents
including the courageous Tamil woman who was until
recently the Mayor of Jaffna until assassinated by the
Tigers. Many Tamils, including those who are struggling
for a devolution of power and greater influence for the
Tamils, live under constant threat of assassination by
the LTTE.
What baffles me is that there are still
international non governmental organisations who lend
their support to this movement. They are then not
supporting the Tamil cause but an utterly undemocratic
movement unable to contemplate peace in any form.
In 1994, a new President was elected in Sri Lanka,
and the government has presented a package of devolution which goes
as far as any government can possibly go. There is no
doubt in my mind that the President is genuine, and
that many or probably most Tamils would be happy if the
package could be accepted. But the LTTE does not want
it to happen.
At present, the LTTE is battling for the minds and
the money of the expatriate Tamil community. In order
to continue its fruitless and endless war, the Tigers
depend on this external financial support from which to
purchase weapons and other means.The international
community, the international NGOs and governments
should now seek to convince the Tamil communities in
their respective countries that the way to achieve
Tamil human rights is through an accommodation based on
equality for all in the island of Sri Lanka, full
respect for the cultures of the Sinhala, Tamils,
Muslims and others, and a devolution of power which
makes it possible through peaceful democratic means
to ensure conditions for the survival and reproduction
of the Tamil culture."(see also A Response To Asbjorn
Eide by Nadesan Satyendra)
- Agenda Item 3
- Comprehensive examination of thematic issues
relating to the elimination of racial discrimination:
(a) Situation of migrant workers and members of their
families; (b) Xenophobia.
... The Sub-Commission should
appeal to the United States to eliminate anti-migrant
xenophobia and to ratify the Convention on the
Protection of Migrant Workers as soon as
possible...
We must also
comment on the intensity of anti--Tamil propaganda
carried out by of course the government of Sri Lanka
and echoed by certain others. There has been the
suggestion that non-governmental organisations are
somehow controlled or duped by the Tamil opposition
group the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (named
because the tiger was the symbol of the historic Tamil
kingdom).
This "accusation"
arises because 53 UN credentialised
organisations called upon the parties to the
conflict to abide by humanitarian law, and called on
the international community to urge the parties to the
conflict to seek a negotiated political settlement of
the long-standing dispute. NGOs expressed concern over
targeting of the Tamil civilian population by the Sri
Lankan forces; disappearances, torture, extra judicial
killings, rape, arbitrary arrest and indefinite
detention of Tamil civilians; an embargo of
subsistence food and essential medicine in
contravention of humanitarian law; and the plight of
the 850,000 displaced persons at risk now of starvation
and death. 95% of the victims of this war are Tamil
civilians -- killed, tortured, raped by government
forces.
We think that the
international NGO's are right in their appeals, and we
urge the Sub-Commission to yield to them. Should not
the international community work to find a solution to
this war as it has in other wars? We consider
condemnation of NGO concern for Tamil victims to be
politically motivated using racist and xenophobic
tactics.
Statement by Liberation (incorporating the Movement
for Colonial Freedom)
- Agenda Item 10 - The implementation of the human
rights of women: (a) Traditional practices affecting
the health of women and the girl child; (b) The role
and equal participation of women in development.
The Beijing Platform for Action
reaffirmed that the protection and promotion of the
Human Rights of women in all spheres and at all times.
The full and effective implementation should be seen as
a priority objective of the United Nations. Under the
Vienna Declaration and Programme of
Action, States are committed to do away with violations
of Human Rights. It is incumbent on States in war
situations and armed conflict to prevent impending
violations of human rights affecting civilian
populations, The commonest of these violations are rape
of women and other forms of torture to obtain
confessions and intimidate women and their communities.
Despite becoming signatories to International
Conventions, some States have yet to provide
constitutional guarantees on women's rights.
Liberation is concerned that several
States are failing to fulfil their commitments. In some
cases human rights violations are so severe that they
impede women's equal participation in development.
In certain war situations the state
security forces have not protected the girl child and
women. In particular, women have been subjected to
sexual violence in Rwanda, former Yugoslavia and in Sri
Lanka because international laws protecting women have
not been implemented nationally.
The international community has set
up War Crimes tribunals for human rights violations
committed in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. The
nature of human rights violations in Sri Lanka is as
serious as those in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia
and thus the situation in Sri Lanka also needs the
attention of this Sub-Commission. Unless we address the
conflict in Sri Lanka and the human rights abuses,
women will find it difficult to assert their rights to
equal participation in development.
The UN Special Rapporteur on Extra
Judicial Executions, Mr Bacre Ndiaye in his report of March 1998
(E/CN.4/1998/68/Add.2) described how, in Sri Lanka, the
national provisions which guarantee a number of
fundamental rights, on the one hand, take away the
rights to equality and non discrimination and the
freedoms of expression, association of movement and
peaceful assembly on the other. He also stated that the
national provisions in Sri Lanka allow for the
application of the Emergency Regulations and the
Prevention of Terrorism Act which give
the security forces wide powers of preventative
detention, where those arrested can be detained
incommunicado without charge, or trial for long
periods, which could be a source of torture, cruel
inhumane and degrading treatment, disappearances and
extra judicial executions.
Currently over 500 Tamil women are
languishing in prisons in Sri Lanka without being
charged with any crime.
Mr. Ndiaye further stated that the
Prevention of Terrorism Act provides that "confessions
made to police under torture or threats may be
admitted" (into courts as evidence). He also implied
that any inquests into death are dependent upon the
police or security officers, who can decide whether or
not post-mortems are undertaken, and can also decide
what evidence should or should not be taken into
account by the Magistrate.
We are aware that in war situations
that many states security forces use Emergency and
Prevention of Terrorism Acts provisions to practice
with impunity the systematic rape of women and other
forms of violence against women.
Liberation welcomes the prosecution
and conviction of members of the security forces of Sri
Lanka for the rape and murder of 18 years old
Krishanthy
Kumarasamy and the murder of three others including
her mother and younger brother. We have learnt that
this is the first time such a conviction for crimes
against Tamil women has been carried out in decades. We
had hoped such a such a serious trial and conviction
would certainly check the behaviour of the security
forces. But sadly this is not the case as further
violations against women have been committed. The pattern of frequency of violations
against Tamils by the security forces remains
unchanged.
Liberation urges this Sub-Commission
to encourage positive action and that sufficient
measures be adopted by Sri Lanka to combat violence
against Tamil women in particular where there is a
large presence of armed security forces in civilian
habitations and at army check points.
In occupied territories, violence
against women by the security forces affects women's
freedom of movement and they often stay confined to
their homes. But mothers who accompany their children
to school have no choice and they face regular sexual
abuse by soldiers in broad daylight for all to see
including their children.
In such situations it is often the
case that the same military which is responsible for
the human rights abuses against women are the only
authority to whom the victim call report the acts of
violence. This means that in practice women have little
recourse to whatever national and international
mechanisms which exist for them to exercise their
rights in Sri Lanka.
Many homes have been razed to ground
to make way for military operations and army
occupation. Women who are displaced from these affected
areas have been unable to return to their own homes.
Thus the role and equal participation of women in
development is severely hindered in the occupied
areas.
The role and the equal participation
of women in development in Tamil controlled areas where
large displaced Tamil populations are located, is
gravely affected by the imposition of an economic
embargo and its dire consequences for the last 8 years.
Also, the military frequently targets
civilians in its air raids and artillery shelling,
causing immense hardships. Many women are displaced
repeatedly which denies them any opportunity for equal
participation.
Sri Lanka became a signatory to the
Geneva Conventions and the various conventions
concerning women's human rights. Despite this the
rights guaranteed to women under these laws have not
been implemented in practice as evidenced by the
records of continuing human rights abuses of women.
Finally, Mr.Chairman, Liberation
urges the Sub-Commission to recommend that a Special
Rapporteur be sent to investigate countries including
Sri Lanka where war situations and armed conflicts
exist, and to report on the state of implementation of
international human rights laws for the protection of
women and their equal participation in development.
Mr Chairperson,
Since the elaboration of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a
complex system for the protection and promotion of
human rights has been developed under the auspices of
the United Nations. However, violations of women's
human rights, including torture directed against women,
have suffered from historic neglect by the various
international bodies and mechanisms responsible for
their promotion and protection.
The international community openly
acknowledged in 1993 during the World Conference on
Human Rights that the body of international laws and
mechanisms to promote and protect human rights had not
properly taken into account the. concerns of women. The
final document, the Vienna Declaration and Programme of
Action, stressed that "the equal status of women
and the human rights of women should be integrated into
the mainstream of United Nations system wide activity."
They called on the United Nations bodies and mechanisms
to regularly and systematically address the equal
status of women and the human rights of women,
including gender-specific abuses.
However, the World Organisation
Against Torture. (OMCT) has noticed that certain
mainstream human rights mechanisms and bodies,
including the Committee against Torture, still tend to
ignore matters of fundamental concern to women, often
because of the absence of gender-sensitive approach in
their work. The marginalisation of the human rights of
women at the international level illustrates in fact
the subordinate position of women at the
country....
...Violations of women's rights
often go unrecognised and in case they are recognised,
they often go unpunished and without any remedies.
Gender inequality gives rise to difficulties in the
investigation prosecution and sanction of the crime of
rape. In addition to being an especially traumatic form
of torture for the victim, rape perpetrated by a State
official has serious related consequences. Women may be
reluctant to seek redress by reporting a rape because
of fear and shame, of the severe social repercussions
that may follow therefrom and/or reprisals from or
reprisals against their relatives. Consequently, when
rape or, sexual assault against a woman constitutes a
torture method, the impunity of the torturer is
disproportionately higher than is the case with other
torture methods.....
OMCT would also like to draw
the attention of the Sub-Commissions to the situation
of Tamil women in Sri Lanka, who are subjected to a
similar pattern of violence. Sri Lankan soldiers have
raped both women and young girls on a massive scale,
and often with impunity, since reporting often leads to
reprisals against the victims and their
families.
An example. On the
25th of June 1998, the army chief of the Mirusuvil army
camp in the Jaffna area, ordered Kanthasamy Kalanithy,
a 26-year old Tamil woman, to marry one of his
Sinhalese soldiers. He forced her to stand in front of
ten Sri Lankan soldiers and to choose one of them, When
she refused to respond he ordered one of the soldiers
to put a pottu (a red spot signifying her marriage to
him) on her forehead. When she screamed in protest, she
was gang-raped and then killed. The army refused to
hand over her body for examination and they have
attempted to threaten her parents into
silence.
The failure of governments to
prevent, condemn or punish rapists allows rape and
other forms of sexual torture to become tools of
military strategy. When this type of violence is not
recognised at the national level, it should however not
lead to the negation of this violence at the
international level. It should lead to a clear
commitment to find means to put an end to such
crimes.
Finally in the context of the
current revision of the United Nations human tights
mechanisms and procedures, it is essential that the
Sub-Commission insists that all United Nations human
rights mechanisms and bodies pay special attention to
gender specific forms of violence and collaborate
actively with the Special Rapporteur on violence
against women to find concrete means to put an end to
such practices.
- - Agenda Item 5 - The implementation of the human
rights of women: (a) Traditional practices affecting
the health of women and the girl child; (b) The role
and equal participation of women in development.
".. In Sri Lanka, Tamil women are treated as booty
of war and many cannot give their testimonies because
of intimidation against their family and children."
International Educational
Development is pleased with Sub Commission attention to
the situation of government led violence against women,
in particular rape and other severe forms of torture
and violence in the context of armed conflict. We were
pleased to co sponsor and chair a round table on this
topic during this Session with the participation of
several members of the Sub-Commission....
... The situation
of Tamil women in Sri Lanka also merits the serious
attention of the Sub-Commission. As most are aware,
there has been an armed conflict in Sri Lanka since at
least 1983, when Sinhala militants massacred, raped and
pillaged the Tamil community in Colombo. The war
should properly be carried out by the military forces
of each side -- the military forces of the government
of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
Unfortunately, the Sri Lankan military forces target
the civilian Tamil population far more then it does the
LTTE -- 95% of casualties in this war are Tamil
civilians.
The
consistent policy of rape and violence against Tamil
women that we have documented for many years is a
fundamental military tactic of the Sri Lankan
forces. The Krishanthy
case has been well documented here, and the Sri
Lankan government has used this case to show that
perpetrators of rape are prosecuted. Of course, this is
the only case in which perpetrators have been
prosecuted. And the defendants were given the death
sentence which does not exist in Sri Lanka. Is this a
show trial? We think so. The government
military forces are still raping Tamil women with
impunity. Many of the victims disappear, as part of the
grim statistics making the Commission's Working Group
on Disappearances note with alarm that Sri Lanka leads
the list in 1997 for
disappearances.
Women also comprise the majority of
the displaced, where in addition to the extreme
hardships on them, they must care for the children and
the elderly. International aid is not reaching them, as
the government has recently expelled most humanitarian
groups helping them and severely restricts food,
medicine and potable water. The Sub-Commission should
not be silent to this catastrophe, and can even play a
useful role in encouraging the parties to the conflict
to enter into meaningful dialogue with international
observers to finally end this long war.
Oral Intervention by Pax Romana
- Agenda Item 5 - The implementation of the human
rights of women: (a) Traditional practices affecting
the health of women and the girl child; (b) The role
and equal participation of women in development.
"......Reports about Tamil women
being raped by the army are an the rise. Only one of
the thousands of rapes which have been reported, has
resulted in a conviction. Victims are frightened of
reprisals and there seems to be little point in
reporting their cases, since the only place to lodge a
complaint is with the very same security forces who
commit the rapes. There also seems to be little point
to expect justice on the basis of the constitution
since the constitution itself provides the mechanisms
and justifications for the commission of these war
crimes and encourages impunity. Let us only refer to
one incident of a 26 year old Tamil woman. On 25 June
1998 the young, Tamil woman from Mirusuvil in Jaffna
peninsula resisted to be forced into marriage to a
Sinhala soldier and 10 Sri Lankan army soldiers
therefore gang raped and murdered her.
We therefore urge the
Sub-Commission to renew the mandate of the Special
Rapporteur of systematic rape, sexual slavery and
slavery-like practises during war time, Ms. McDougall
for a one year period. The Special Rapporteur could
then schedule to visit the above. mentioned countries
and support the setting up of a fact finding commission
on systematic rapes...."
- 14 August 1998 - Agenda Item 6 - Contemporary forms of Slavery.
Mr. Chairman, distinguished members of the
Sub-Commission, observers and NGO representatives.
North South XXI welcomes the report of Ms. Gay
Mc.Dougall and appreciates the concern over the past
years of the Sub-Commission regarding the situation of
systematic rape and slavery-like practices during
wartime.
Some of the important questions to be considered on
the issue of systematic rape in wartime are, who is
doing the raping? And who are they doing it to? The
answers to these two questions usually throw light on
the deeper issues involved; the motivations behind
systematic rape and the effect of systematic in wartime
on the victims.
For example if we take a situation where the
question of racism arises, where a dominant group of
one race uses rape as a weapon of war against women of
a disempowered or excluded group of another race, we
can see that this inevitably makes rape systematic.
This is especially the case when the perpetrators are
themselves on the state payroll and when the state does
not prevent, investigate nor punish the
perpetrators.
UN Special Rapporteur on Extra Judicial Killings
reported earlier this year on the situation in Sri
Lanka after his long awaited visit. He stated in his
report (E/CN.4/1998/68/Add.2) that he is "..concerned
about certain laws and regulations which have been
enacted in Sri Lanka and which allow impunity to
persist and which in some cases grant security officers
immunity from prosecution." He also stated that "The
systematic absence of investigation, either civil or
military, into violations of the right to life
facilities impunity." He concluded that the "impunity
enjoyed by human rights violators in Sri Lanka is very
pervasive."
The scenario in Sri Lanka is that the dominant group
are the Sinhalese who not only numerically outnumber
the Tamils but who also have step by step over the
decades politically, economically and socially
disempowered and excluded the Tamil people. The Tamil
speaking people at the time of independence made up
almost a third of the population of the island , but
today it is quite clear that the policies of the
dominant Sinhalese in government have brought about a
situation where Tamils have absolutely no democratic
power to change the security situation for Tamil women
even in their own homeland.
Today there is a war going on in the areas where
Tamils have lived for many centuries. The war is
carried out in the Tamil areas against the Tamils,
against the civilian population as well as the Tamil
resistance movement, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam. The war is carried out by the state security
forces which are predominantly Sinhalese. There is a
Sinhalese army occupation of areas of the Tamil
homeland which has been going on a very long time.
So when we look at who is doing what to whom, we can
see in this war situation that rape is being carried
out by Sinhalese armed forces on the state payroll, on
Tamil women. It is a clear case of racial domination.
In this context we can see that rape is being used as a
weapon of war by the dominant group which has the
backing of state authority, resources and power,
against Tamil women who are disempowered and
excluded.
Sri Lanka has signed up to various conventions
including the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, the Convention for the Elimination of
All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the
Convention against Torture. It has managed quite
successfully to present its progress in the Sinhalese
dominant group. By doing that it has been quite easy to
give the impression that violence against women is not
really much of a problem in Sri Lanka. However, if we
look at the situation of Tamil women the picture is
startlingly different.
In the Tamil homeland areas we have a situation
where the Tamil population was not and is not
co-operating with the Sinhalese dominant group in
government because they had been disempowered and
excluded. Systematic rape therefore has been used and
is still being used by the Sinhalese state security
forces as a way to break Tamil women and their
community.
There are deliberately no mechanisms put in place
for women to report rape to any impartial and
independent authority. For women who are living under
Sinhalese army occupation the only place to report rape
is to the same military which is perpetrating rape. UN
Special Rapporteur Mr Bacre Ndiaye said that "Torture
is reportedly used by the armed forces ..to intimidate
the population".
Mr. Bacre Ndiaye's report indicates that the legal
provisions that exist in Sri Lanka allow the security
forces to arrest, torture, rape, kill and bury bodies
with impunity.
In one highly publicised case an 18 year old
schoolgirl was abducted on her way home from school
where she had just done her A level Chemistry paper.
Krishanthy was abducted at an army checkpoint by a gang
of soldiers. Later her mother, younger brother and a
neighbour were also abducted at the checkpoint when
they went to find her. There was an international
protest about the disappearances because Krishanthy had
relatives in Colombo and London. When the Sri Lankan
government was forced to produce the bodies they had to
exhume them from a place where 300 to 400 other bodies
were also buried. Krishanthy had been raped by eleven
members of the security forces and her body had been
torn in pieces and so had her younger brother's. Her
mother and the neighbour had been strangled.
The Sri Lankan government was forced to put on a
serious trial with the eyes of the international
community watching closely. They eventually convicted
some soldiers to 30 years in prison and others were
given the death penalty. But no change was made at all
in the legal provisions that allowed the security
forces to arrest, rape, kill and bury Krishanthy
without a post-mortem.
What the Sri Lankan government did with Krishanthy's
case was to make it into a showpiece, so that the
Government can answer any difficult questions about the
human rights situation for Tamil women. If you take a
look at all the cases of rape, sexual abuse, sexual
torture and sexual mutilation of Tamil women by the
Sinhalese security forces there is no change at all in
the pattern. If we look at the data for a whole year
before, and a whole year after, the beginning of the
trial of Krishanthy's rapists, there is no change in
how persistently and continuously the Sinhalese
security forces raping Tamil women.
Particularly brutal cases are these: Last September,
a six-year old Tamil girl was raped by a gang of
Sinhalese soldiers in the North as she passed an army
checkpoint on her way to school, in October a Tamil
woman's body was washed up on the shores with both her
breasts cut off, in October a 49 year old woman was
raped and murdered by Sinhalese armed forces, her son
told how they had butchered her genitals after gang
raping her. In January, a 17 year old Tamil girl was
gang raped by Sinhalese soldiers and she was found
physically paralysed from her waist down because of the
raping. There is case after case, and sometimes women
have died from the raping.
Rape of women living under army occupation is a
terrifying experience, the brutality of the street
enters the home, enters a woman's most sexually
intimate places. This brutalisation of women's
sexuality, the place of life creation, is unbearable
for many Tamil women. They do not kill themselves
because of a social stigma, they kill themselves
because they cannot live with the psychological
destruction that rape by the army has brought on them,
rape at the point of a gun, a rape that can be repeated
any time of day or night, a rape that no one can
protect them from.
Mr. Chairman, Systematic rape of Tamil women living
in their homeland by the Sri Lankan armed forces has
been going on for decades. Before the Sinhalese armed
occupation of the Tamil homeland, the security forces
were organising pogroms against the Tamils, where
Sinhalese men gang-raped hundreds of Tamil women before
burning them alive. The pogroms happened regularly
throughout the last fifty years, and the rapings and
murders were never punished by the Sinhalese state,
each pogrom bigger than the last, until the all out war
began.
Why is it that the international community rarely
hears about the systematic rape of Tamil women by the
security forces? Because generally we do not hear about
excluded and disempowered nations in a multi-nation
state. And when a racial dictatorship is covered by the
formal democratic procedures it is very easy for that
government to talk on behalf of the people it
oppresses, as if everything was fine.
As it can be seen the perpetrators of systematic
sexual violence are able to carry out the violation
because of the armed occupation by the racially
dominant group. In view of this it seems the most
reasonable course of action to request the withdrawal
of the Sri Lankan armed forces from the areas of the
Tamil people's homeland.
We strongly recommend that the sub-commission takes
decisive action on this situation and that Ms McDougall
be given another year to further her report on
systematic rape. We urge the sub-commission members to
propose a fact-finding mission by Ms McDougall to the
North and East of the island of Sri Lanka in order that
she may ascertain for herself as an expert the
situation faced by Tamil women.
Thank you, Mr Chairman.
- Agenda Item 10 - Freedom of
movement: (a) The right to
leave any country, including one's own, and to return
to one's own country, and the right to seek asylum
from persecution; (b) Human
rights and population displacements.
- e-mail: [email protected]
Mr. Chairperson, Liberation welcomes the Principles
on Internally Displaced Persons that the Special
Representative of the Secretary General Mr. Francis M
Deng proposes. In his report of February 1998 he
recognised that internal displacement is one of the
most tragic phenomena of the contemporary world,
affecting some 25 million people world-wide.
No where is it more tragic than in Sri Lanka.
According to a report of a European humanitarian aid
agency, it is estimated that today in Sri Lanka, there
are one million internally displaced people, and of
these, about 700,000 live in the Jaffna peninsula and
the northern Vanni district.
There have been cycles of displacement of Tamils
following the anti-Tamil riots in 1956, '58, '77, '81
and '83. In the past few years, several Sri
Lankan military offensives have displaced over several
hundred thousand of Tamils. There were 12,000 internal
refugees in 1957-1958, in 1983 - 35000, in 1986 -
205,000, in 1994 525,000, in 1995 - 1017,180 in 1996 -
768,356 and in 1998 it is now estimated to more than
one million.
The large numbers of displaced persons represent
almost a third of the Tamil people. The resultant
humanitarian crisis in the island has been kept hidden
from the international community by the Sri Lankan
Government's comprehensive and long-standing
news-blackout and now there is a complete military
censorship in the Island.
The displacements themselves have taken place as the
Sri Lankan security forces launch large scale military
offensives in Tamil areas, resulting in the deaths of
large numbers of civilians, and the destruction of
civilian dwellings, as well as hospitals, schools, more
than 1,500 Temples and churches.
The Sri Lankan Government had on numerous counts,
violated most of the proposed Principles on Internal
Displacement. An eight-year economic embargo banning
food and medical supplies to Tamil areas of the island
continue. At the ECOSOC meeting held in Geneva in April
1998(HR/ESC/98/3) Food First International Action,
quoting a study by UNICEF and NGOs have reported that
the government uses food and medicine as weapon of war
against the Tamil people and Tamil refugees, mainly the
displaced persons in the Vanni area and the Tamil
resistance group.
Prof. Jordan J. Paust, in his essay in the
Vanderbilt Journal of Transitional Law, May 1998,
states that
"intentional withholding of medicine and medical
supplies from LTTE controlled areas, as recognised by
the US State Department, is a clear violation of
Article 3 of the 1949 of the Geneva Convention and a
war crime...... He continues to say that medicine and
medical supplies are neutral and protected property
in time of armed conflict and may not be
withheld."
Mr. Chairman, Liberation would like to make the
observation that Sri Lanka has abstained from voting
for the International Criminal Court in Rome, in July
1998.
Disappearances, torture, rape, detention without
trial, extrajudicial killings, reprisal and denials of
freedom of movement, travel and emigration, by the Sri
Lankan security forces are widespread in the areas
where the displaced people have sought shelter. These
are also war crimes.
We appeal to the Sub-Commission to request the
Special Representative on Internally Displaced People
to make a return visit to the island of Ceylon to
investigate the plight of the one million internal
refugees. We also appeal to the Sub-Commission and the
Special Representative to call upon the Government of
Sri Lanka to adhere to his recommendations and to
remove all existing impediments that cause severe
hardship and suffering to displaced persons.
Refugees Right to seek Asylum from
persecution
Liberation is very concerned about some authorities
in host countries treating refugees inhumanely, who
seek asylum in their countries and often deporting them
back to the very situations they were forced to
flee.
Mr. Chairman, there is a war in Sri Lanka. Since the
present government came to power the defence forces
have doubled. According to Air Vice Marshal Harry
Gunatilleke, in 1997 there was a total of 247,500 Sri
Lankan Security Forces. These forces are backed up by
bomber planes, helicopter gun-ships, artillery and
mortar fire, tanks and warships. "Safer world" in its
publication of 10th May 1998 classified as Sri Lanka -
Tamil Eelam war as one of "High Intensity Armed
Conflict".
There are significant numbers of reports by UN
rapporteurs, i.e. UN Doc. E/CN.4/1998/68/Add.2 and many
NGOs conclusively prove war crimes such as torture,
extrajudicial killings and other gross violations of
human rights of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka.
As
a result, more than 500,000 Tamil people have sought
asylum in many countries around the world. No
country may send a person back to a country at war.
Especially where there are violations of the Geneva
Conventions such as occurring in Sri Lanka. Furthermore
no countries that are party to the Torture Convention
can send Sri Lankans back to the Island because Article
3 of that Convention forbids it.
Some countries continue to deport Tamil people to
Sri Lanka. On 15 May 1998, one country seized Mr. Subas
Chandrabose at 10pm while he was preparing his meal. He
was hand cuffed, his legs were chained and he was
forcibly taken from his home and sent to Sri Lanka
within 24 hours. On arrival he was arrested. Many such
deportees have "disappeared". Relatives are not
informed to meet them because they do not know they are
arriving.
Liberation requests the Sub-Commission and
international community to consider the Tamil people's
safety. Actually the Tamil people want to return to
their mother land but they are unable to do so because
of the war. Tamil people wish to invite the members of
the Sub-Commission and the international Community to
visit the Tamil home land to ascertain the situation
for themselves.
Liberation appeals to the Sub Commission to insist
in all countries that no refugees including Tamil ones
are forcibly returned to their countries from where
they were forced to flee in the first place.
