Not a Genocide, But Still A Crisis

One reason I think that the situation in Sri Lanka doesn’t get very much attention from the popular media and culture in the West is that it is seen as not as “bad” as other situations around the world, like the one in Darfur, for example. Certainly Darfur is an enormous tragedy- but don’t we have room in our heads for more than one tragedy?

Genocides get a lot of press because they are sensational. I do not mean this in a derogatory way, as in saying that tabloids are sensational. I mean that genocides have huge numbers of dead so that it is difficult NOT to notice them. Situations like Sri Lanka do not have nearly the same number of bodies, but the situation might be as bad or worse for the living, yet they go unnoticed because people are hidden in prisons or refugee camps instead of rotting in the street (sorry for the graphic detail). What I’m getting at is that Sri Lanka is a different breed of tragedy equally worthy of our attention and then advocacy.

According to the BBC, earlier this week the government took most of the north-east region of Sri Lanka and pushed the LTTE into about an 8-square-mile area that was designated as a safe zone. Then, they fired shells into the area. Over a period of about 24 hours, at least 60 civilians were killed, 300 injured, and two health facility compounds were hit. The Red Cross also reported that one of its aid workers was killed in the incident. As per usual, both the rebels and the government deny that these deaths were their fault, and neither can be proven because foreign journalists are banned from war-afflicted areas. However, the UN has estimated that 2,800 civilians have been killed and 7,000 injured in the fighting over the past two months.

These numbers may seem insignificant to some, or at least not more important than conflicts in other areas of the world. But it is important to remember that there are also many serious violations of human rights that are being committed regularly. Human Rights Watch keeps a close tally on these infractions.

- For one, the government has kicked out all humanitarian organizations, despite desperate poverty in some cases- a lack of adequate food, water, shelter, medical care, and clothing. Tens of thousands of civilians are still trapped behind rebel lines and are therefore inaccessible in any case. Those humanitarian aid workers or human rights defenders who remain are often targets for grenades or false imprisonment.

- Also, many people who the government doesn’t like are simply “disappeared” or abducted- in August of 2008, there were 43 reported disappearances in Vavuniya alone. Many more are not reported for fear of consequences (such as more disappearances).

- Many disappearances are a part of the misuse of emergency regulations, which basically allow for the suspension of habeas corpus in the interest of national security. Political opponents, journalists, human rights defenders, and Tamils may be arrested and detained by police under this law.

- Civil rights violators have impunity. Many take no responsibility whatsoever for their actions.

- There are wide reports of the use of child soldiers. In October 2008, the UN Children’s Fund reported 1,424 outstanding cases of abducted child soldiers by the LTTE.

To sum it up, the Genocide Prevention Project has put Sri Lanka (along with only seven other countries) on its “Red Alert” list for places where “mass atrocity” (i.e. genocide) is likely to break out. In short, Sri Lanka is a place to keep a critical eye on.

I think that part of the reason that the fighting in Sri Lanka is so intense is that the LTTE absolutely will not give up until they have achieved their aims or are destroyed. As a reporter for the Pulitzer Center said,

There is little doubt among observers that should the government break the LTTE
as a conventional fighting force, its remnants may regroup in the northern
jungles to wage a guerrilla war that relies on trademark suicide and
hit-and-run attacks. A lasting peace will prove elusive until the
disadvantaged Tamil community enjoys the political rights and equal economic
opportunities it has been denied by a regime steeped in ethnic nationalism.

The purpose of international law is to govern the conduct of nations in wartime. It is to ensure a relatively safe, secure livelihood for civilians, separate from the striving of armies. Clearly this is an ideal, but that does not mean that we should not still aspire to it. The gross human rights violations occurring now in Sri Lanka, perpetrated by both sides of the conflict are not acceptable and should not be ignored by the international community. Edmund Burke wrote that “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men to do nothing.” Our apathy allows this to happen. This is why the Sri Lankan government doesn’t want the press in the war zone- so that no one knows and no one can protest how they are treating their citizens. Not only the terror that Sri Lankan citizens are facing (on two fronts), but even more so, the invisibility of their suffering makes this situation absolutely worthy of our notice.

Please take the time to print and send one or both of these letters of petition from Amnesty International, either to the government or to the LTTE.