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Allegations of state terrorism in Sri Lanka
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Various groups and individuals have accused the Sri Lankan government of committing state terrorism. They characterize the Sri Lankan government's handling of the JVP uprisings and the long drawn civil war against Tamil militant groups as state terrorism. The government on its part denies the allegations.
Contents |
| Background |
| Sri Lanka • History of Sri Lanka |
| Origins of the Civil War |
| Origins of the Civil War Black July • Riots and pogroms Human rights • Allegations of state terror Tamil militant groups |
| LTTE |
| LTTE • Military attacks • Terrorist attacks • Child soldiers Expulsion of Muslims from Jaffna |
| Current major figures |
| Mahinda Rajapaksa Velupillai Prabhakaran Karuna Amman Gotabaya Rajapaksa Sarath Fonseka |
| Indian Involvement |
| Operation Poomalai Indo-Sri Lanka Accord Indian Peace Keeping Force Rajiv Gandhi • RAW |
| See also |
| Military of Sri Lanka TMVP • EPDP Notable assassinations |
According to the author of Asian Security Order: Instrumental and Normative Features State terrorism was let loose when Sri Lankan Army occupied Jaffna peninsula leading to the formation of rebel movements such as the Tamil New Tigers.[1]Since then according to James Lutz and Brenda Lutz, both sides in the conflict have resorted to terrorism. [2]
In 1986 Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah, an American Tamil[3] social anthropologist at Harvard University specializing in studies of Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Tamils, as well as the anthropology of religion and politics, stated that the Sinhalese populace, the Tamil rebels and the Sri Lankan government armed forces were all engaged in "terrorism"; he describes the latter as practicing "deadly terrorism and intimidation".[4]
Daya Somasundaram, a Tamil[5] staff member of the University of Jaffna asserts that all parties in the Sri Lankan conflict including the government have been guilty of resorting to acts of terror.[6]
The Secretary Movement for Development and Democratic Rights, a NGO, claimed that terrorism was used in the north as a political tool. The resultant state terrorism restricted their operation in the north. It further claimed that the state viewed killing as an essential tool [for politics]. [7]
- Aspiration for Tamil Eelam
Kumar Rupesinghe claims that the demand for Tamil Eelam gained support under conditions of state terrorism and genocidal situations. [8]
From 1985 to 1989, according to Gananath Obeyesekere, Sri Lanka practiced state terror against the Sinhalese majority as part of the counter insurgency measures against the uprising by the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) party. [9]As part of pacifying the support base of JVP a wide range of acts of cruelty including the torture and mass murder of school children were carried out by the state.[10]
Chandrika Kumaratunga, the President of Sri Lanka from 1994 to 2005, has also stated in an in interview with David Frost that at the time that her husband Vijaya Kumaranatunga was assassinated, "Sri Lanka had a killing fields, there was a lot of terror perpetrated by the government itself, state terror."[11]
A report released by the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC), a non-governmental organization based in Hong Kong and associated with the United Nations, also claimed that there was widespread terrorism by the state organ during the same period.[12]
Since the collapse of peace talks since 2006, human rights agencies such as the Asian Center of Human Rights (ACHR), the University Teachers for Human Rights (UTHR), and pro LTTE political parties such as the Tamil National Alliance[13], have claimed that government of Sri Lanka has unleashed state terrorism as part of its counter insurgency measures against the rebel LTTE movement.[14][15][16][17] The ACHR has also reported that, "since the collapse of the Geneva talks of February 2006", the government of Sri Lanka has perpetrated a campaign of state terrorism by targeting alleged LTTE sympathisers and Tamil civilians.[18]
Furthermore, Mangala Samaraweera, a break-away MP, claimed that the government uses Terrorism in it's fight.
- Mass civilian deaths
Military acts such as the Padahuthurai bombing in which 15 civilians including children died were termed as state terror and a Crime against humanity by the Mannar Bishop Rayappu Joseph, who was later accused as pro-LTTE by the Sri Lankan Government.[19][20][21][22][23]
- Forced disappearances
These acts according pro-LTTE[24][25] Tamil daily Uthayan, published from Jaffna, include the forced dissaperances of number of individuals in the north and east of the country.
- Recruitment of children
According to the Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR), the Rome Statute of International Criminal Court identifies "conscripting or enlisting children under the age of fifteen years into armed forces or groups or using them to participate actively in hostilities" as a war crime. The agency has accused that Sri Lankan government backed paramilitary forces of recruiting children, describing is a "state teror" and has appealed to the international community to refer Sri Lanka to the ICC for investigation into the violations of the Rome Statute.[26]
- Torture and Rape
The International Federation of Tamils, a pro-LTTE consortium of Tamil groups[27], alleged that the systematic use of torture and rape is instruments of state terrorism.[14]David Jeyaraj a prominent Sri Lankan journalist from Canada has termed the act of torture, rape and murder of a family in the Vankalai massacre as an act of State terror. Human Rights groups have condemned this massacre and demanded an independent investigation.[28]
In Trauma of Terrorism author Yael Danieli states that the Sri Lankan state is the most guilty in the use of terror. It further claimed that state terror became institutionalized into very law of structure of society and mechanism of governance.[29]
- Threats against Media Freedom and Terror
Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has charged that the government of Sri Lanka has turned into a junta, "This junta has control over the economy, business activities and defence. They have unleashed corruption and terror on the country." He claimed that the attack on the Sunday Leader press facility, an independent English weekly could not have occurred without the knowledge of Sri Lankan Defense Ministry, since its located in a High Security Zone, neighboring military air force base, defense academy and a military camp [30].
- Allegation of Ethnic cleansing
On June 7, 2007 at least 376 Ethnic Tamils were expelled from Colombo by the Sri Lankan Police. Human rights groups, Local think tank and other observers have termed this act as "Ethnic Cleansing" [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36]
- Allegations of state terrorism by Iran
- Allegations of state terrorism by Russia
- Allegations of state terrorism by the United States
- ^ Ching-In Moon and Chaesung Chun, "Sovereignty: Dominance of the Westphalian Concept and Implications for Regional Security", in Muthiah Alagappa, Asian Security Order: Instrumental and Normative Features, Stanford University Press, 2003, p. 128. ISBN 080474629X
"Because of the Sri Lankan army occupation of Jaffna and the state terrorism let loose on the people, hostility began to grow and the emotional division between Sinhalese and Tamils became more acute. A group of highly organized young Tamil militants, first calling themselves the New Tamil Tigers and later the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, emerged in 1976 to confront the government terrorism by bearing arms." - ^ James M Lutz, Brenda J Lutz, Global Terrorism, Routledge, 2004, p. 216. ISBN 0415700507. "This tension eventually led to the outbreak of violence between the communities, and this violence quickly generated terrorist actions in a variety of situations. Both government forces and Tamil dissidents became perpetrators."
- ^ http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/1997/10.23/StanleyTambiahT.html
- ^ Tambiah, Stanley Jeyaraja. Sri Lanka: Ethnic Fratricide and the Dismantling of Democracy, University of Chicago Press, 1986, p. 116. ISBN 0226789527
- ^ http://www.bmj.com/cgi/reprint/324/7348/1268.pdf
- ^ "...though all parties in the conflict have resorted to the use of terror tactics, in the scale, duration, and sheer numbers of victims, it is the Sri Lankan state that is most guilty of the massive use of terror...", Danieli, Yael, D. Brom, and Joe Sills. 2004. The trauma of terrorism: sharing knowledge and shared care, an international handbook. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Maltreatment & Trauma Press., p216
- ^ ACHR,Sri Lanka: Disappearances and the Collapse of the Police System,ACHR, P.34-42. ISBN 962-8314-05-x
- ^ Kumar Rupesinghe, Ethnic Conflict in South Asia: The Case of Sri Lanka and the Indian Peace-Keeping Force (IPKF), Journal Of Peace Research 1988;25;337
- ^ Gananath Obeyesekere, "Narratives of the self: Chevalier Peter Dillon's Fijian cannibal adventures", in Barbara Creed, Jeanette Hoorn, Body Trade: captivity, cannibalism and colonialism in the Pacific, Routledge, 2001, p. 100. ISBN 0415938848. "The 'time of dread' was roughly 1985-89, when ethnic Sinhala youth took over vast areas of the country and practiced enormous atrocities; they were only eliminated by equally dreadful state terror."
- ^ JVP: Lessons for the Genuine Left
- ^ BBC Breakfast with Frost Interview: President Chandrika Kumaratunga of Sri Lanka , BBC, October 28, 2001.
- ^ Tell the truth or you will be killed. Retrieved on 2007-08-11.
- ^ http://www.dawn.com/2007/11/03/top17.htm
- ^ a b Sri Lanka: Terror Vs State Terror. Retrieved on 2007-08-11.
- ^ University Teachers for Human Rights , UTHR, October 28, 2001.
- ^ Claims of state terror and genocide by LTTE attempts at justifying terrorism. Retrieved on 2007-08-11.
- ^ Claims of state terror and genocide by LTTE attempts at justifying terrorism. Retrieved on 2007-08-11.
- ^ "Sri Lanka: Terror Vs State Terror", ACHR Weekly Review, Asian Human Rights Commission, 2006-11-15. Retrieved on 2007-07-28.
- ^ Padahuthurai bombing. Tamilnet.org. Retrieved on 2006-01-07.
- ^ Sri Lanka raid 'kills civilians'. BBC.com. Retrieved on 2006-01-07.
- ^ "The Road to Pesalai Attack", Official Srilankan army website, 2007-07-06. Retrieved on 2007-07-06.
- ^ http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20070103_04
- ^ http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20060703_04
- ^ http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/sep2004/sril-s27.shtml
- ^ "MEDIA-SRI LANKA: Press Left to Fend for Itself", Inter Press Service, 2006-05-04. Retrieved on 2007-07-27.
- ^ "Sri Lanka: Terror Vs State Terror", ACHR Weekly Review, Asian Human Rights Commission, 2006-11-15. Retrieved on 2007-07-28.
- ^ http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1709/17090640.htm
- ^ Another family wiped out in Vankalai.
- ^ Yael Danieli. The Trauma of Terrorism, Haworth Press, 1986, p. 216. ISBN 0789027739
- ^ http://www.lankaenews.com/English/news.php?id=4941&PHPSESSID=c724f4710cc8d593362f235e23c89fa9]
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
- ^ [3]
- ^ [4]
- ^ [5]
- ^ [6]
- Myrdal, Gunnar (1968). Asian Drama: an Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations. Pantheon. ASIN B000E80DGO.
- Wilson, A. Jeyaratnam (1989). The Break up of Sri Lanka: the Sinhalese-Tamil conflict. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-1211-5.
- Yael Danieli, Danny Brom, Joe SillsThe Trauma Of Terrorism: Sharing Knowledge and Shared Care, an International Handbook (See here)
- A.J.WilsonSri Lankan Tamil nationalism (see here)
- Unaffiliated sites
- Pro Sri Lankan government sites
- Pro LTTE sites