Speech delivered at the
International Conference on Human Rights and the Commonwealth of
Nations, organised by the Global Tamil Forum (Sydney, Australia; 20 Oct
2011)
The
President of the Global Tamil Forum, Reverend Dr S J Emmanuel; the
President of the Australian Tamil Congress, Professor Rajeswaran;
distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.
I thank the organisers and am honoured to have been invited to address this conference.
Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr famously pointed out in his Letter from a
Birmingham Jail that “an injustice anywhere is an injustice
everywhere”.
We
have all seen from the Channel 4 “Killing Fields” documentary, and from
the Report by the UN Secretary General’s Panel of Experts on
Accountability in Sri Lanka1, the evidence of the “credible allegations” of heinous war crimes having been committed in Sri Lanka.
Yet,
despite the end of the war more than 2 years ago, there is still no
credible international investigation into the situation in Sri Lanka.
Rather, we appear to see a situation of international complacency and a
tendency to brush these allegations under the carpet ostensibly with a
view to “national reconciliation”.
But
the United Nations (“UN”) Panel of Experts found that tens of thousands
of civilians, who took refuge in government-demarcated no fire zones,
were targeted and killed by the Sri Lankan armed forces.
Taking
into account the monumental proportions of the killing, injury and
damage to property, I am compelled to infer that it must have been
carried out with the cognisance, support and possibly or even probably
under directions from high authority.
The
Report also states that the Sri Lankan armed forces were almost
entirely made of ethnic Singhalese. It also states that the civilians
were ethnic Tamils.
In
the premises, applying the definition of genocide in the UN Convention
on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide 1948, what happened in Sri
Lanka could well have been genocide. Under that definition, killing or
destroying even a part of an ethnic group, amounts to genocide, if there
was an intention to kill or to destroy them.
The
fact that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (“LTTE”) was using the
civilians as a shield, even if it were true, or that they used child
soldiers, is no excuse for the targeting and killing of civilians.
There seems to be an international dimension to this war.
In
the last stages of the war, western nations had requested a cessation
or a softening of the attacks in the Tamil areas by the Sri Lankan armed
forces.
India’s leading Hindu newspaper pointed out that based on confidential US Embassy cables accessed by The Hindu
through WikiLeaks, “India played a key role in warding off
international pressure on Sri Lanka to halt military operations and hold
talks with the LTTE in the dramatic final days and weeks of the war in
2009”.2
The
individuals in the top hierarchy of authority in India, who supported
with these terrible crimes, if they did so, must own up and resign to
save their entire nation from ignominy.
Recently,
I am informed that India refused the Reverend Dr S J Emmanuel, the
President of the Global Tamil Forum, entry into India despite him having
a visa.
India
also previously refused a visa to enter India to a Malaysian Member of
Parliament, Dr. Ramasamy, who is also the second Deputy Chief Minister
of the Malaysian state of Penang.
It
is hard to imagine, but India (and sadly also Malaysia) also voted in
the United Nations Human Rights Council in May 2009 not to carry out any
investigations into possible war crimes in Sri Lanka3.
This
active interest of India in Sri Lanka, in connection with these war
crimes, gives this problem an international complexion.
It
may also be timely to investigate India’s role in the war crimes and
the continuing allegations of human rights infringements in Sri Lanka.
The fact that a country is a regional superpower, does not give them any license to support such heinous crimes.
The
plight of the many Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka who still continue to
flee the country (many of whom are now in Malaysia seeking relocation
through the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees,
UNHCR) is a cause for legitimate concern for the entire Commonwealth.
In
these circumstances the United Nations will not be held in high regard
unless it intervenes under Chapters 6 and/or 7 of the United Nations
Charter to investigate these heinous war crimes.
There
exists an international institution which is gaining more and more
credibility as the place for achieving justice for the most heinous of
these war crimes. The International Criminal Court is able to take
jurisdiction over cases even where the State involved is not a party
through a resolution of the UN Security Council. This was done for the
situation in Darfur, Sudan4. I therefore propose that this
Conference support a call to ask that the Commonwealth Heads of
Government, who will be meeting in Perth next week, insist that the
United Nations Security Council refer the situation in Sri Lanka to the
International Criminal Court. This will be the only way the UN will
credibly show that it seeks to act on the recommendations of the
Secretary General’s Panel of Experts.
I
intend to give a copy of this speech to the Malaysian government, and
ask them to seriously review their own policies of continuing with major
investments and friendly relations with a country alleged to have
carried out such heinous war crimes.
The
grave allegations against the Sri Lankan government and its current
leaders, and the continuing refusal by them to allow a credible and
independent international inquiry in these allegations, suggests also
that Sri Lanka should be suspended from the Commonwealth of Nations.
I
urge the Global Tamil Forum, the Australian Tamil Congress and other
Eelam Tamil organisations throughout the world to continue their
tireless advocacy for a complete international investigation on what
happened in the last days of the war in Sri Lanka as the only way to
achieve justice.
Only
when justice is done, and seen to be done credibly and effectively, can
there be genuine reconciliation in that island nation.
Lim Chee Wee
President
Malaysian Bar
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