{"id":114815,"date":"2021-06-02T16:15:46","date_gmt":"2021-06-02T23:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=114815"},"modified":"2021-06-02T16:15:46","modified_gmt":"2021-06-02T23:15:46","slug":"erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-20a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/06\/02\/erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-20a\/","title":{"rendered":"ERASING THE EELAM VICTORY Part 20A"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

 Eelam war IV, which started\nin June 2006, was the LTTE\u2018s \u2018final war\u2019 to establish   Eelam, using conventional warfare across\nlarge swathes of land, intermixed with guerilla methods.  It was a high intensity, military\nconfrontation across a vast battlefield. The warring was almost continuous,\nwith few short pauses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eelam war IV was a Civil War, a protracted armed confrontation between the\nstate and a   non-state army, sustained by\na secessionist movement.  It was not\nTerrorism\u201d nor was it a War of liberation\u201d. \nThe intention was to partition the country, creating the littoral state of\nEelam, leaving the rest land locked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This war did not come as a\nsurprise. It had been brewing for some time. Tamil politicians   launched a new political party in December\n1949, Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi<\/a> (ITAK).  The word \u2018arasu\u2019 could mean\nkingdom\/government\/administration\/state. A.J Wilson   made it clear that their \u2018Tamil arasu\u201d   meant an \u2018autonomous Tamil state\u2019 and   that \u2018Illankai\nTamil Arasu Kadchi \u2018meant \u2018Ceylon Tamil State Party\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Modern International law uses the\nterm Non-international armed conflict\u201d (NIAC) instead of \u2018Civil War\u2019.   In a Non-international armed conflict\u201d the country\u2019s\nSecurity Forces should be confronted within its own territory by an organized\narmed group operating under an effective command structure, having the capacity\nto carry out sustained and concerted military operations and exercising control\nover a part of country.  The\nconfrontation must reach a high level\nof intensity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, the non state group must have access to weapons, to recruits\nand to military training. It must have the ability to plan and carry out\nmilitary operations, as well as the ability to negotiate agreements, including\ncease-fire or peace accords. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are several\nlaws which applied to non-international armed conflicts. Firstly, Common\nArticle 3 of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, secondly, Additional\nProtocol II of 1977,<\/a>  and lastly, the Rome\nStatue of the International Criminal Court, (1998, 2002) which includes the\nitems held in Common Article 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two sets of\nHuman Rights laws have also been thrown into the arena, namely, \u2018International Human Rights Law\u2019 (IHRL) and \u2018International Humanitarian Law\u2019 (IHL). The\nInternational Committee of the Red Cross is the custodian of IHL. IHRL  \nis for peace time violations   of\nhuman rights while IHL is for those engaged in war. Analysts point out that Eelam war must be judged in terms of International\nHumanitarian Law.  However, UNHRC has\nincluded both IHRL and IHL in its 2021 Resolution on Sri Lanka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Sri Lanka has signed Common Article 3 but has not\nsigned Additional Protocol II or the Rome Statute. The most important of these\nfor Sri Lanka was Additional\nProtocol II, 1977 to the Geneva conventions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 This is the only\nregulation that is of any use to a government engaged in civil war, said\nanalysts. This Protocol supports the right of governments to preserve national\nunity, protect territory, and maintain law and order in a civil war situation.\nThis Protocol prohibits others from meddling in the war or interfering with any\nactions the government chooses to take on the matter. The Protocol said,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Nothing in\nthis Protocol shall be invoked for the purpose of affecting the sovereignty of\na State or the responsibility of the government, by all legitimate means, to\nmaintain or re-establish law and order in the State or to defend the national\nunity and territorial integrity of the State. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Nothing in this Protocol shall be invoked as a justification\nfor intervening, directly or indirectly, for any reason whatever, in the armed\nconflict or in the internal or external affairs of the High Contracting Party\nin the territory of which that conflict occurs. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Civilians shall enjoy the protection afforded by this Part,\nunless and for such time as they take a direct part in hostilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of July 2020, the Protocol had been ratified by 169 countries,  however, Bhutan, India,\nIndonesia, Iran, Kiribati, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Myanmar, Nepal,\nPakistan, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tuvalu have not\nsigned the Protocol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka has not signed this Protocol and therefore\ncannot make use of these valuable clauses. \nWhen asked why Sri Lanka did not sign, officials have no answer, said\nNihal Jayawickrema.  Observers ask, was\nit deliberate? The present trumped up \u2018war crimes\u2019 charges are due to this\nomission. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conflict\nin Sri Lanka is a Non \u2013international armed conflict as defined by the ICC for\nYugoslavia. However, the government of\nSri Lanka has not recognized the Eelam war as a Non international armed\nconflict, observed Laksiri Mendis . Laksiri\nhas done legislative drafting in many Commonwealth countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government of Sri Lanka has failed  to say at the UNHRC sessions,  in Geneva,  that the Eelam \nWar was a non-international armed conflict,  and that it comes under Additional Protocol\nII of 1977. This  is a serious\nshortcoming on the part of successive governments, observed Neville Ladduwahetty.\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Successive Sri Lanka \ngovernments have been reluctant to categorize the conflict as an \u2018armed\nconflict\u2019 said Ladduwahetty. This is despite the fact that the  Government of Sri Lanka signed a Ceasefire Agreement   with the LTTE which gave the LTTE control\nover territory which was then identified as \u2018LTTE controlled areas\u2019 . The\nICRC in Sri Lanka  joined in this, and\nnever referred to LTTE fighters as \u2018combatants\u2019. The land held by the LTTE  was referred to as \u2018uncleared areas\u2019 added\nanalysts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last\nphase of the war should have been classified by Sri Lanka as an Armed Conflict,\nsaid analysts.    All high level commentators, such as Desmond\nde Silva, said that   this phase was  an Armed Conflict. An Armed Conflict  is protected from HR charges  because it comes under the rules of war. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Instead of  using the term Armed Conflict,  the Mahinda Rajapaksa government called   the  last phase of Eelam War IV a Humanitarian\nmission\u201d.  The last word they should have\nused was \u2018Humanitarian\u2019.  When asked why\nthey did this, Gotabaya Rajapaksa  said \u2018it\nwas just a name we used. It had nothing to do with Human Rights. We were  rescuing people as well as fighting.    Of\ncourse it was not \u2018just a name we used.\u2019 It has been deliberately introduced by\nsomeone  and thoughtlessly accepted\nby  those in charge. ( Continued)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS  Eelam war IV, which started in June 2006, was the LTTE\u2018s \u2018final war\u2019 to establish   Eelam, using conventional warfare across large swathes of land, intermixed with guerilla methods.  It was a high intensity, military confrontation across a vast battlefield. The warring was almost continuous, with few short pauses. Eelam war IV was a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114815\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}