I woke up this morning stunned at the following news:
Sri Lanka last night scored a major propaganda coup when the UN human rights council praised its victory over the Tamil Tigers and refused calls to investigate allegations of war crimes by both sides in the final chapter of a bloody 25-year conflict. In a shock move, which dismayed western nations critical of Sri Lanka’s approach, the island’s diplomats succeeded in lobbying enough of its south Asian allies to pass a resolution describing the conflict as a “domestic matter that doesn’t warrant outside interference”.
The UN also criticized the Tamil Tigers for using civilians as human shields in addition to supporting the Sri Lankan government’s decision to restrict international aid groups’ access to refugee camps.
The decision has already come under fire from human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Human Rights Watch condemned the UN decision as one that had failed victims:
The United Nations Human Rights Council on May 27 passed a deeply flawed resolution on Sri Lanka that ignores calls for an international investigation into alleged abuses during recent fighting and other pressing human rights concerns, Human Rights Watch said today. The council held a special session on May 26 and 27, 2009, on the human rights situation in Sri Lanka, a week after the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) by government forces.
“The Human Rights Council did not even express its concern for the hundreds of thousands of people facing indefinite detention in government camps,” said Juliette de Rivero, Geneva advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “The council ignored urgent needs and wasted an important chance to promote human rights… It is deeply disappointing that a majority of the Human Rights Council decided to focus on praising a government whose forces have been responsible for the repeated indiscriminate shelling of civilians,” said de Rivero. “These states blocked a message to the government that it needs to hear, to ensure access to displaced civilians and uphold human rights standards. They undermined the very purpose of the council.”
As for how this happened, the resolution passed with 29 votes in favor, 12 against, and 6 abstentions. The 12 votes that were seeking a more critical resolution included [corrected] Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; the countries that led efforts to push the resolution forward in its present form included Brazil, Cuba, India, and Pakistan.
The news of the decision (posted in the news feed) is still recent, so I’m sure we’ll hear more reactions in the next few hours. [Updated: the actual resolution can be found here. Thanks, ptr_vivek]
The adopted resolution can be found here:
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/specialsession/11/docs/L1.Rev.2.doc (.doc)
I was more hopeful after reading the folllowing op-ed yesterday in the NYT:
Now I’m sad, angry, and disappointed.
Question for SM_intern, (with profuse apologies for off-topic, since I don’t know where else to ask): Could you please let me know why my news link regarding the cyclone disaster affecting millions in Bengal and Bangladesh was removed ? I am talking about this link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/28/world/asia/28cyclone.html?scp=2&sq=cyclone&st=cse And I had also put up two links that I found if people wanted to contribute. It is a natural disaster in these two region, given front page coverage in nyt and others: I am confused why SM would like to get rid of it ? I am not asking anyone to blog about it or anything, and it is not even a controversial topic. Or does it have to be just so ?
Procedurally, this is what I found most infuriating about the Human Rights Council session:
So… even if the draft resolution submitted first is a piece of crap (which it certainly was in this case), that’s the one that gets priority? Because it was first? I understand the need for expediency, but in this case it comes at the cost of rewarding a state for demonstrating a clear disregard for human life. Way to go, HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL!
China too.
Thank goodness for saner minds. States rose above their local rivalries and blocked something that would have led to a slippery slope of UN resolutions on just about anything that goes on in South Asian countries. This is where Asian + South Asian solidarity was needed and it was delivered.
Good for China/Indian/Sri Lanka/Pakistan/Nepal/Bangla Desh…
Now, let’s see if “Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chile, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Slovakia, Slovenia” would be able to summon courage to support a resolution to punish the War Criminals of Iraq war.
I didn’t think it was possible to be even more stunned, but now I am. Epic fail.
For those of you who want to know where your country stood so you can either yell at them or applaud them, here’s the rundown of votes: In favour: Angola, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, China, Cuba, Djibouti, Egypt, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Madagascar, Malaysia, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Africa, Uruguay, Zambia;
Against: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland;
Abstaining: Argentina, Gabon, Japan, Mauritius, Republic of Korea, Ukraine.
Sure, I am happy to oblige. Only the most naive believe that resolutions like this are to alleviate suffering humanity.
Sulabh #5:
Look, I understand what you’re saying, but anti-imperialist arguments only go so far. The Government of Sri Lanka has done an amazing PR job in the past few years of crying “Imperialist” every time someone calls it out on its human rights violations. It’s certainly correct to point out the hypocrisy of countries like the United States calling out human rights violations in Sri Lanka. But that doesn’t those human rights violations aren’t happening.
No state deserves to get away with what either Sri Lanka has done in the north or what the US has done in Iraq. So when you talk about slippery slopes, please at least be aware of which way the slope is slanting.
@zuni, Please use our Contact link above to ask off-topic questions. Nevertheless, are you sure it was posted? We have a policy of removing Duplicate news items as well besides spam. Are you sure it was not a Duplicate?
Fair point. But WTF Slovenians were doing when the war was raging? Can the UN ambessedor from Slovakia say “Prabhakaran”?
Sri Lankans would reap the consequences of this soon enough – Tamilians themselves will be able to respond to this. There is a whole freaking state in India called Tamil Nadu.
I have lived on the island – I have made friends there – people have suffered because of this war, not all of those were Tamilians.
Nilanjana,
not sure why you were stunned–Navi Pillay isn’t the point person on SL, Vijay Nambiar is. The Human Rights council has been a joke for quite some time. If you follow Matthew Russel Lee’s painstakingly detailed reporting for Inner City Press on the UN going’s on, a very clear pattern emerges: an issue arises, the usual int’l community suspects ‘speak out,’ SL diplomats ask Ban-Ki Moon for a noncommital announcement creating space and time for GOSL, the UN makes that very statement.
At every stage, despite whatever off-hand remarks you hear from UN bigwigs, the people who are assigned to work on SL do not deviate from the ‘acceptable level’ of criticism that GOSL diplomats are willing to accomodate within their strategic plans. As Matthew has said on bloggingheads.tv before, Ban Ki Moon is struggling to keep the UN relevant and the only way he can do so is by acceding to the demands of every member country with regards to what are called “purely internal matters.”
For folks whose news comes through the daily, warm, bath of liberal affirmation, NPR, it might come as a surprise but the UN does what it’s member states want–not the other way around–and it is as useless for the purposes of humanitarian intervention as John Bolton (with whom I do not agree on most things) said it was in general.
It’s actually a tough call. Would you rather have a system where violations are enforced selectively, punishing only those countries too weak to exert influence?
The bigger part of me wants egregious violations of human rights called to account, but I am also very uncomfortable about letting countries with some serious blemishes on their own records take the moral high ground on there. In the long run that only guarantees that the strong will always stay strong and justice is only for the people who are too small to resist.
Sri Lanka was dealing with an insurgency. It’s unimaginable to me that violations of human rights wouldn’t have occurred even though they were doing the right thing. But I think we can get a proper resolution to the problems through an internal political process in which the Tamils are allowed into mainstream politics. A resolution with support from the rest of the subcontinent would be preferable to one imposed by politically motivated and opportunistic forces in the UN.
Sulabh, I cross-posted with your first comment and didn’t see it. Sorry about that. If there’s any doubt as to why I’m stunned, it’s because there were many sensible voices calling out for investigations into war crimes on both sides. After listening to the webcast of the session, I expected at least some of those concerns to appear in the resolution.
I want to second Nayagan’s recommendation of Matthew Russell Lee on Inner City Press. He went with the UN delegation to Sri Lanka last week and did some reporting from there.
Why would anyone expect a “human rights council” that includes Saudi Arabia, Cuba, China, and Egypt (among others!) to accomplish anything relevant to, err, human rights? I don’t mean to be harsh, but I’m with Nayagan on this one–being “shocked” or outraged seems to suggest one has cocooned oneself off in some alternative reality. How many divisions do the “human rights” crowd have? Oh, that’s right–none–they’re pacifists. . . .
Nayagan, I’m sympathetic to what you’ve written, but I’m also incredibly frustrated that there can be no better solution. Thanks for pointing me to the Inner City Press site. As for Matthew Russell Lee’s reporting, here’s the link to his commentary on what went down on the UN.
What was India thinking when it sent IPKF to Sri Lanka? Is it now “enlightened” to realize that this is a domestic matter that does not require external intervention?
I certainly don’t understand why the Sri Lankan government is being accused of human rights violations.. Wasn’t the occupation of almost a quarter of Sri Lankan territory by the territory a human rights violation?? Why isn’t anyone showcasing the atrocities that the LTTE performed over the years?? Sri Lanka just liberated it’s own people and it’s own land from the hands of a ruthless terrorist organization..
The IPKF was invited into Sri Lanka by the President. So I guess India was thinking something along the lines of “Our neighbor to the South has requested our assistance in brokering a peace accord between its two warring sides. Let us go help them.”
Usually we like to hold nation states to higher standards than we do terrorists.
The LTTE is going to get what it deserves no matter what. The more questionable members of the Sri Lankan forces it’s still up in the air.
So nice to see India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Djibouti, Jordan, Malaysia and Bahrain affirm that the lives of Palestinians (this “human rights council” voted to investigate Israel’s recent Gaza operation) are worth more than those of Tamils.
( @Chaitan: Absolutely sure that it was posted; in fact there were about 3 hits, and no it wasn’t a duplicate. Thanks for re-posting it, and here are the links for contribution: http://reliefweb.int and (for the wild-life:) http://www.wpsi-india.org/donations/index.php )
21 rob, As you know, it it not about human rights, but about posturing and politics. The Tamil voters in Tamil Nadu don’t care, the Tamils in Sri Lanka are miniscule in number, but Muslims are huge in numbers and vote in blocs (in India) and of course any Arab agenda is a Muslim agenda and votes are traded and quid pro quo deals are made all the time in these kinds of forums, including the UN.
While I am distressed at the fact that the UN human rights council failed to prevent the passage of this resolution, I am also somewhat happy that the resolution did pass. The Sri Lankan government has just destroyed one of the world’s most ruthless terror organizations, the LTTE, which has been a thorn in their side for 30 years. Inasmuch as the GOSL may have been overzealous in its prosecution of the war, causing major damage and suffering to the Tamils living in the affected areas, I cannot fault them too strongly for what they did. I know that it’s easy for me to say such things since I don’t live in the conflict zone, but in my book, the LTTE is as vicious and as dangerous as Al-Qaeda is to our world. Why are we holding the GOSL to different standards from say the USA? Does anybody question the USA’s determination to ‘eradicate’ Al-Qaeda?
Simply Ridiculous #18:
Simply, because it committed them.
In and of itself? No. But the LTTE did commit terrible human rights violations within and outside that territory which have been well documented.
I think you have to be more precise here… where/when are you not seeing coverage of LTTE atrocities?
And I believe it has been commended from nearly all corners for having done so – now too by the UN Human Rights Council. The question is whether or not the government will resolve the issues that led to the rise of the LTTE in the first place. The period between 1956 and 1983 was a little longer than the period between 1983 and now, yet it’s the latter which gets all of the attention.
Yoga Fire #19:
Don’t you think that’s a pretty generous reading of the Indian intervention, especially after Indira Gandhi trained Tamil militants in camps in India? Also, the next Sri Lankan President, Premadasa, did a little more than invite the IPKF to leave – he gave the LTTE arms to fight the IPKF. The LTTE was only too happy to oblige, given their general attitude towards Tamil representation and given the IPKF’s atrocities in the North. This didn’t end too well for Premadasa, because as soon as the IPKF left, the LTTE came after him. And once they got him, they went after Rajiv Gandhi…
No one’s hands are clean in this mess.
Pol-lee-Ticks :
I would add to that, the Sril Lankan Tamil voters in Tamilnadu also don’t care. Over the years quite a few of them have settled in TN. It is difficult to get Indian citizenship in general but since this labor class have no papers. they just have to produce their ration cards–voila, they can vote. And now settled in India, they view these things in Sri Lanka from a distance.
There is a large Sri Lankan community in France but not where I live. Just a little while ago, I saw the sign: “Labo en LTTE”(LTTE lab?) high on a university building. It would have been interesting to see what the mood was like in Paris.
Can I ask how you know this? Given their precarious status with relation to the state, and given the fact that there’s been a heavy police presence (uniformed & undercover) at all major Sri Lanka-related public events in Tamil Nadu over the past 8-10 months, I would think they’re too scared to be vocal about anything.
Also, how do they get ration cards?
Indira Gandhi was all about the shameless pursuit of the best interests of one, Indira Gandhi. She aided the Tamil militants to secure the political support of Tamil separatists within India.
Despite that, however, the IPKF’s mission in India was to secure a peace accord. It’s not their fault that the LTTE decided to renege on the deal and refused to disarm. And when the IPKF decided it was going to disarm them by force the Sri Lankan government got antsy about the Indian Army waging a low-intensity conflict on its soil. Think about it. If India managed to squash the LTTE right then, do you think she would have just sat idly by while the Sri Lankan government resumed doing to the Tamils what prompted them to revolt in the first place? Once the foothold was in the government of Sri Lanka might have had to actually be held to account by India.
They opted, instead, to prolong the war and India’s government, being habitually squeamish in matters of conflict, obliged.
Vivek, Thanks for fielding questions while I stepped out for a bit.
I haven’t found as many stories on this afterward as I would have hoped; perhaps it’s still early, and there’s a bomb blast in Pakistan that’s dominating the SA news this morning. In the meantime, I found this article calling for unfettered access to aid camps earlier this morning (via PialiRoy).
ROFL :-)!
A friend’s brother had to pay the peon Rs. 250 to get it for him when he was out of the country. (A steal considering that votes bring in Rs 1000/ party)
Heck, even that may be unecessary, given the scale of incompetence.I found out that have an election card in Chennai, and I have spent less than a week there in 10 years (and had never been a resident of Chennai previously).
I have lived and worked in SL and Ireland (I’m Irish) during both their seemingly intractable troubles. Although in both cases enduring resolution is probably inter-generational – a negotiated political settlement is the key factor underlying progress in Northern Ireland. With over 30 years of full-blown civil-war, tragically it seems such lessons have still to been learned in Sri Lanka…
One particular event Bloody Sunday when the British Security Forces shot 27 unarmed civil rights marchers in 1972 still lives vividly in our collective memory in these islands and is still the subject of much soul searching…
By comparison the recent loss of civilian life in Sri Lanka is remarkable in its scale – (we’ll probably never the true number) and the actions of a government all too prepared to tacitly sanction actions similar to those of the terrorists it deplored (leaving aside egregious individual conflicts of interest such as Lanka Logistics Pvt…). It’s probably futile to try and aportion blame in the chicken and egg history of this conflict…
However shouldn’t we now worry whether as a result of these actions undertaken by an elected government with a popular mandate – a generation of Tamil youth may be more inclined to become sympathetic to militant seperatist movements in the future. Not least the expatriate youth – just as the ‘Tinsel Town Patriots’ of the Eastern US seaboard – fed on images of events like Bloody Sunday – perpetuated the ‘struggle’ in Northern Ireland.
Hi Joe, Thanks for your comments. I think lots of us are worried about the government’s commitment to minority groups and addressing, as Vivek mentioned, the conditions that led to the formation of the militant groups in the first place. We should acknowledge the significant Muslim population as well, particularly in the Northeast, who have also been very critical of the government’s treatment of them, and with good reason. Trying to regain the faith of all these groups (if it can indeed be done) will be a mammoth undertaking for the government of Sri Lanka, and there’s plenty of cause for worry.
I am glad at least that you were/are hoping that the Sri lankan government will be held accountable while saying the same about the tigers. Few posters here input their token sentence that government may be bad and then go on harping about the tigers. They also said once the tigers are gone from the scene they will stand with the Tamils for them to get their legitimate grievances addressed. Tigers are now decimated and the people with their token criticism of the government are also either gone or continue to justify what the government did and doing through other excuses. Instead of asking for independent access to the area, they are entrenched in their belief that the government is right and don’t want to be exposed otherwise. It is amazing that hatred for an organization and its leader, as deserving as it may be, would stand it the way of recognizing the carnage that was caused by the government. What else would qualify for these people to say the government has cross the line of fundamental decency towards a section of its citizens?
There are some facts wrong so here’s some (admittedly sketchy) background
IG trained LTTE and others. RG followed the policy. Jayawardene was tremendously anti Indian intervention — IAF planes had flown in SL airspace for food drops in Jaffna. But he thought that bringing in the IPKF could restore that balance and that he could manipulate an inexperienced RG. He was right. IPKF were sent in to maintain the peace.
Shortly afterwords they were in a war with the LTTE that they never expected to fight. After some initial successes, the LTTE had lost a lot militarily. Premadasa then came to power. He wanted India out and thought that he could handle the LTTE later. To get it out, he restrained the IPKF and cut deals with LTTE including supplying it with arms.
RG was booted out and VP Singh came to power, and pulled the IPKF out. When VP Singh / Chandrasekhar fell, it seemed as if RG would come back to power. The LTTE blew RG up after promising not to. This led to the dismantling of the infrastructure that the LTTE had set up in TN in the backlash in 1991. (the than pro LTTE DMK got only one seat)
Once the IPKF were out, Premadasa and the LTTE both reneged on the deal that they had secretly cut. Premadasa turned on the LTTE. The LTTE blew him up in 1993. The LTTE had a string of successes.
After 9/11 though, the tide started turning. SL successfully had the LTTE declared as a terrorist org. Britain / US cut off remitances to the LTTE from the diaspora. The funding dried up. The IN prevented supplies from reaching the LTTE . The LTTE seemed to cope with this – they often declared ceasefires, armed themselves and then violated the ceasefires to gain ground. Over time though the LTTE started losing ground that it could not retake. SL also kept increasing its ruthlessness, with a no hold barred approach to civilians. Finally they wiped out the LTTE.
apologies for the sloppiness
Part of the problem was that the LTTE, being bastards, would frequently use innocent civilians as human shields. They’ll conscript kids as informants, shoot from places that put civilians in danger of being caught in a crossfire, and hide out in civilian areas. When an enemy does things like that civilians are going to get hurt no matter what and it creates an escalation of bloodshed by everyone involved.
So while it is tragic that a lot of Tamil civilians died and while I will acknowledge that the Sinhalese government has historically gone out of its way to hurt them and shows no signs about caring for their welfare now, I still think it is important to keep pointing out that the LTTE are assholes. It will actually be easier to secure the rights of the Tamil minority if we are willing to denounce the LTTE while standing up for the Tamils. It’s more credible if you’re not a sympathizer and all.
Yoga Fire,
I’m going to be as nice as possible because i’ve heard sentiments like yours at least 50 thousand times before the events of the past couple of months.
“Self-policing” is lame. I talk to my family, a few blog buddies and that’s about it. Those are the only people that I seek to convince. I don’t insult their intelligence or appear to be patronizing by insisting that the sea is salty or that bacon comes from pigs. They bloody well know why moving back is not an option and don’t need the likes of you or anybody else to remind them–especially not in such a transparently self-serving way. The Tigers have been proscribed throughout the West. They are and have been considered terrorists for a very long time.
Do you know what ‘self-policing’ did for DBS Jeyaraj? Broken legs. Neelan Tiruchelvam? Death. Mano Ganeshan? Death. Kumar Ponnambalam? Death. I could go on compiling this list indefinitely.
What historical precedent can you provide which proves that tamils should, en masse, transform into Captain Obvious? It simply has no bearing on policy making in SL. Thinking that it would have an effect is to also assume that 30 years of war and the attitudes/stereotypes which have sprung up can be disposed of simply by hopping on one foot and doing what Simon Says.
“So while it is tragic that a lot of Tamil civilians died and while I will acknowledge that the Sinhalese government has historically gone out of its way to hurt them and shows no signs about caring for their welfare now, I still think it is important to keep pointing out that the LTTE are assholes.†. It is satire. Right? There is no such thing as LTTE anymore. What does opposing LTTE has to do with the 200,000 people detained in deplorable conditions in the camps? Why can’t everyone now ask the government to allow ICRC and others access to the camps? Why can’t everyone ask the government to allow journalists to find out what is happening in those camps and what happened in the safe zone? Why condemnation of LTTE is some sort of a prerequisite to question the government? So you would rather keep pointing out that the LTTE are assholes and not hold the government responsible or accountable? Why are you any different than the people who say LTTE are terrorists but they were justified because government is capable of even more heinous crimes?
UPDATE: Here’s a newer, very critical article: Times of London: Slaughter in Sri Lanka.
Very happy to read this news. Thanks for sharing Nilanjana.
41 >>Very happy to read this news <<
h a p p y about what ????
37 >> I still think it is important to keep pointing out that the LTTE are assholes.
So were the IPKF sex starved beastly goons that raped and maimed people.
I don’t mean to be callous, but don’t almost all modern conventional wars result in a high number of civilian casualties? Iraq, the bombing of German cities during WWII, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the list goes on and on. The Indo-Pak wars, by contrast, were paragons of military restraint…
No axe to grind, but I’m glad the LTTE is gone, and I do want a decent deal for the SL Tamils so that they can have a dignified, safe and prosperous peace as first-class citizens of Sri Lanka.
Tigers/LTTE were pig-headed, and wouldn’t listen to (indeed, killed) those with other ideas among SL Tamils. They were dumb enough to think that the rules of war-fighting that protect the Palestinians fighting/terrorizing the (constructed as white) Israelis would apply to GoSL–nope–we learn from vote of all those “pro-desi” Islamic countries (plus India–thanks!) that civilian deaths only count if the victims are Muslims and the army is “European.”
maVadu, I am happy because Sri Lanka not only stood up to a coterie of western nations, but got its own resolution passed at the UNHCR. This UNHCR meeting had absolutely nothing to do with any concern for civilians – it was just a means by western countries (Britain especially) to showcase their power. Why don’t any of these western countries who are supposedly worried about civilians in Sri Lanka talk about the deaths of over 600 000 Iraqi civilians as a result of the US-Brit invasion? Why are they not voicing concern about the 1.2 million civilians displaced in Pakistan as the Pakistani army takes on the Taliban?
Good on Sri Lanka and good on all those countries who supported Sri Lanka.
Kavs, I’m told that for US$2.99 plus a UNHCR resolution, you can get a half-caf, half-decaf latte at Starbucks. For a UNHCR resolution plus US$1.00–well, good luck on you. . . .
26 No hands are clean in this mess indeed
http://transcurrents.com/tc/2009/05/death_of_prabhakaran_and_other.html
the U.N. is extremely corrupted. i really thought humanitarian rights was first on the agenda.
since when is it ok for the government to kill civilians? especially when its in a refuge zone?
the tamils want hope.
same with what happened between Gahza and isreal.
WE WANT MAJOR REFORM IN THE U.N.!!!!!
Point of fact, Nayagan @ 38 (http://www.sepiamutiny.com/sepia/archives/005794.html#comment240709), although I agree with your basic point: Mano Ganesan’s not dead.