{"id":116693,"date":"2021-08-01T15:42:48","date_gmt":"2021-08-01T22:42:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=116693"},"modified":"2021-08-06T16:28:41","modified_gmt":"2021-08-06T23:28:41","slug":"erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-21hb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/08\/01\/erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-21hb\/","title":{"rendered":"ERASING THE EELAM VICTORY Part 21Hb"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

2nd<\/sup> Revision  6.8.21<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

REPARATION<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\n2005, the UN General Assembly passed a \nResolution titled Basic\nPrinciples and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims\nof Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of\nInternational Humanitarian Law\u201d  (General\nAssembly resolution 60\/147 of 16 December 2005) . <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This UNGA Resolution defines victims\u201d as\npersons who individually or collectively suffered harm, including physical or\nmental injury, emotional suffering, and economic loss in war, due to gross\nviolations of International Human rights law (IHRL) and International Humanitarian\nlaw. (IHL) The Resolution says the safety and needs of such victims and their families\nmust be looked after. IHRL and IHL are directed mainly at wars between nations,\nnot internal warfare.  Due to this, the Resolution\n  says nothing about violence by non-state\ngroups, such as LTTE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nResolution is about those caught up in\nthe war, involuntarily. Not about civilians who take part in the war.  The\nTamil civilians in the north supported the LTTE. LTTE were engaged in   high treason, considered the worst crime of\nall. Therefore, Tamil civilians are not\npersons innocently caught up in a war. They are complicit\u201d. Complicit means\ninvolved with others in an activity that is unlawful or morally wrong.\u201d This\nmeans Tamil civilians do not qualify under this Resolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tamil civilians  had acted as spies for the LTTE . They had\nreported on troop moments. They visibly supported the LTTE at the final phase\nof the war. in 2009 The Tamil civilians marched in huge numbers towards the war\nzone in Putumatalan area on the orders of the LTTE.  They went \nwillingly.  20,000 LTTE could  not have forced 330,000 civilians to follow\nthem . The Tamil civilians cooperated , because they thought the LTTE would\nwin,. Interviewers reported  later that many  had believed that the West would intervene\nand save them and the LTTE.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The whole family,\nincluding aged relatives, made the journey. They went in buses, cars, and on\nfoot. As late as 2012 it was possible to see large piles of corroding motor\nvehicles, motor cycles, and bicycles, parked on top of each other on either\nside of the road .  There were large\nswathes of land with thousands of abandoned plastic vessels, cooking utensils,\nclothing, shoes children books, and other personal items strewn around. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \nTamil civil sins did not go on this journey empty handed. It was reported that the IDPs who came\nacross at Puthumathalam, fleeing from the LTTE came with their land deeds\ntightly held.<\/strong>  They also carried\nmillions of rupees in cash and gold securely wrapped in pottanis.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Pudumatalan,\nLTTE used the Tamil civilians  to form a\ndefense that would  hold back the\ngovernment forces and allow an international rescue operation by sea carried\nout by  Norway and USA to take place.\nThe  civilians  became\na buffer, a   human shield. Acting as a\n\u2018buffer\u2019 or  human shield, is considered\na  criminal act. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, the civilians   dug trenches, prepared bunkers and helped  build \nthe  formidable earth bunds  which \nprotected the LTTE .  The\ncivilians also did sentry duty,  and\ncarried supplies. Each family was allotted \nspecific tasks like building bunkers, the civilians said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ICRC rules say Civilians  caught up in a war are entitled to protection\nunder International law.. But civilians\ntaking direct part in hostilities lose that immunity. Since they had\ndirectly participated in hostilities, the Tamil civilians  were not entitled to protection as civilians.\nThey had forfeited that protected status. Since these Tamil civilians supported\nthe military efforts of the LTTE, they lost the protection offered to non\ncombatant civilians under International Humanitarian Law..  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The  UNGA Resolution permits a victim  to seek judicial remedy\u201d. But the Tamil\ncivilians have not gone to courts, for the simple reason that they   have no case. If they go to court the fact\nthat they were complicit will emerge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The\nResolution says victims are entitled to reparation for acts committed by the\nstate. Reparation must be paid by the state and it should be proportional to the\nviolations and the harm caused. The Tamil Separatist Movement and its NGOs, the\nUNHRC and its High Commissioner have    latched\non to this issue of Reparation. They demand reparation from the state for their\n\u2018innocent Tamil civilians\u2019 caught up in war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OISL report recommended reparation, the UNHRC included\nreparation in its resolutions on Sri Lanka and Tamil Separatist Movement keeps\ntalking about reparation. ICES conducted discussions in\nJaffna, Trincomalee, Colombo and Galle on reparations. These discussions were published\nin the ICES monograph, Memorialisation and reparations, report of four\ndialogues\u201d (2016) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This UNGA\nResolution   says victims must be provided with full reparation.\nFull Reparation\u201d means restitution, compensation, rehabilitation and   guarantees of non-recurrence.  Restitution<\/strong>\u201d\nincludes returning the victim to his original situation and residence,\nrestoring his liberty and   family life,\ngiving back his employment and his property.\u201dNon recurrence\u201d<\/strong> includes legal action against those who were\nresponsible for the violence\u201d; this means \u2018war crimes.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Resolution\nalso, inter alia, called for several other actions,   which\nhave been recognized in Sri Lanka. They are, searching for the disappeared,\nfinding bodies of those killed, issuing a public apology and permitting\ntributes and memorials to the LTTE.  Analysts\nobserve that the process of tracing people and identifying human remains after\nmany years is extremely difficult. The government of Sri Lanka under Mahinda Rajapaksa\nhas never apologized for the Eelam wars, as far I know and it was opposed to\ncommemorations of the LTTE. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone who has\nbeen a victim is entitled to reparations, said Jehan Perera. Where reparations are concerned, the victims\ndo not have to confront those who did wrong by them. Nor will they be required\nto speak up before the general public and before commissioners. Victims can receive reparations on the basis\nof already existing evidence. The advantage of reparations is that they can be\ndetermined administratively, and not through a legal process where the burden\nof providing evidence lies with the victim. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Yahapalana\ngovernment, which was a puppet government of the USA, passed the Office for\nReparations Act No. 34 of 2018. This repealed the Rehabilitation of Persons,\nProperties and Industries Authority Act No. 29 of 1987. (REPPIA).The new Act\nwould identify persons eligible for reparations and give reparation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2018,\nD.M.Swaminathan had for three weeks in a row, submitted a Cabinet Paper which\nproposed to pay reparations for families of dead LTTE cadres. The Cabinet Paper\nhad been deferred twice but on the third occasion, due to protests from\nministers, was stopped for good, reported the media. The Cabinet  paper had proposed to compensate those\naffected by the war, including civilians, places of religious worship and the\nfamilies of dead LTTE cadres. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The present government, Pohottu, plans to\nallocate a monthly sum of Rs 6000 to all those who have obtained Certificates\nof Absence (of their relatives) from the Office of Missing Persons, said Jehan\nPerera in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MISSING  PERSONS\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After\nthe war ended the Tamil Separatist Movement encouraged the ‘innocent Tamil\ncivilians ‘ in the north to start protesting about \u2018\u2019Missing persons\u2019,  who had \u2018Disappeared\u2019 due to the war, most\nlikely   killed by the army. Almost every\nfamily had lost a relative in the war, said analysts.   A villager living near Udaiyaarkadu\nhospital  had told Rajiva Wjesinha  that \nhe had 5 brothers and all survived the conflict except the one who\njoined the LTTE. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\n2010 the  LLRC  received  \n1,018 complaints of persons who had disappeared  due to the war.  In 2015, Presidents Commission to Investigate\nComplaints regarding Missing Persons (PCICMP),received 23,099.  5000 \nwere from the army. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

R.\nSampanthan, said that TNA had conducted its own investigations and found that\nthere were at least 350,000 to 400,000 people in the Nanthikadal area in the\nlast stage of the war. Only 290,000 people came out. What happened to the rest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The    figure of 400,000 was  promptly shot down. This count,\nprovided  By the Government Agent,\nMullaitivu and Bishop of Mannar was not the count for Nanthikadal in  the last phase of the war, said Ladduwahetty.\nFurther, the   figure of 300,000 was not  an invention of the government. The figure\nwas  determined by the government  jointly with the  international agencies working\nin the area, such as   ICRC and  World Food Programme  . <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tamil\nSeparatist Movement  said that scores of\npersons had disappeared  after they\nwere   handed over\u201d to the military by\ntheir families soon after the war ended. \n“If a mother handed over her son to armed forces or a police\nofficer she wants to know what happened to him. It is a legitimate\ndemand”, said R. Sampanthan.  For\nthe Tamils these were not LTTE , they were sons, husbands, wives, daughters,\nkin neighbors and friends, said a supporter, emotionally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

.I saw at\nfirst hand at a recent meeting the powerful sentiments of a people who have\nlost their loved ones and found no answers \nfrom the government, said an activist  . One mother said that she had surrendered her\nson to the military at the end of the war and she wants to know what has\nhappened to him. She hopes he is still alive. Other people\u2019s  sons had been returned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many if not most\nof them continue to hope that their loved ones are being held in some place of\ndetention, Whenever government authorities tell them that there are no such\nplaces they get highly agitated, said Jehan Perera. Both President Sirisena and\nPrime Minister Wickremesinghe have each said that their government is not\nholding anyone in places of secret detention . If OMP says that their loved one\nis either dead or they are unable to trace what happened to him, this truth\nwill be difficult for the families to bear, added Jehan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri\nLanka army  firmly denied that these\n\u2018missing\u2019 persons were killed  by  them. The Sri Lanka army said it was a highly\nprofessional army, not a weak undisciplined one as the Tamil Separatist\nMovement tried to show. Sri Lanka army \nconsidered these accusations beneath them. They were contemptuous, not\ndefensive regarding these accusations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spokesman\nBrigadier Sumith Atapattu told BBC in May 2019 “.People who  surrendered to the army were not  killed. That is for sure. Those who\nsurrendered or were captured  have been\naccounted for. There are no underground detention camps in Sri Lanka . Foreign\ndelegates including the UN have come and checked our camps. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\n2020 former army commander Daya\nRatnayake was asked by an interviewer, \nit is 10 years after the war, Tamil families are still looking for their\nloves ones. Their complaint is that these loved ones surrendered to the army during\nthe final days of the war but still there is no trace of them. These families\nwant answers. What happened to these people. Ratnayake replied, none\nwent missing under our custody. The army has already said so. These allegations\nare false. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anti \u2013Eelamists\nalsopointed out that quite a number of persons who had been\nreported  missing during the conflict and\nafter, were  living abroad under assumed\nnames.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However,\nTamil  families of disappeared\npersons  lodged complaints with all\npossible authorities, police, army, Human rights Commission and various\ndomestic commissions of inquiry. The only response they got was that the person\nconcerned had not been detained. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 A few \nhad filed writs of habeas corpus but this did not yield results either. The\nhabeas corpus petition filed with the Vavuniya High Court in 2013 regarding the\ndisappearances of the group led by Father Francis, seen surrendering to the\narmy in May 2009 did not bring  forth\nFather Francis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Complainants were sent from place to  place, without receiving any information\nregarding their missing relatives. One witness stated that she had to pay an\ninterpreter when she visited different Government offices. There was also the issue of language\n.  The police would record the statement\nin Sinhala and ask them to sign, though they did not know Sinhala. When the\nLTTE  took away my elder son, I knew\nwhich part of the jungle he was in. In the case of the army, I did not  know Sinhala to ask where they were taking  our children, one said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nTamil civilians, especially women, have been very active in the matter of\nMissing Persons. They have  protested\nvigorously and are continuing to demonstrate and protest to this day. Their\nsupport could be considered a continuation of their complicit behavior during\nthe war. They supported the LTTE then, they were supporting the Tamil\nSeparatist Movement now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This group\nhas demonstrated vigorously. Demonstrations were held in Colombo Mannar,\nVavuniya and Jaffna reported Amnesty International in  2013. These\ngot publicity, which was the purpose of the demonstrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\n2017 there has been a spectacular demonstration which went on for 500 days,\ninto August 2018. These  impoverished women  could be seen,  dressed in \nfresh, bright saris, holding placards and  photographs. On their 100th day of protest,\nthe mothers called a massive demonstration and hundreds of people took to the\nstreets and blocked the A-9 in Kilinochchi, reported the media. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

source https:\/\/nhrf.no\/article\/2018\/the-long-shadow-of-disappearances-in-sri-lanka<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They sit when\nit rains, and they sit when the hot wind off the A-9 highway blows sand into\ntheir makeshift tent, reported the media, dramatically.  They\u2019ve been sitting for over 200 days now in\nKilinochchi, protesting the loss of their family members. They are mostly\nwomen, and they say they have one thing in common: they all lost their loved\nones in the final days of the war, in 2009. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They want to\nknow if their sons, daughters, parents, husbands and in-laws are dead, or if\nthey\u2019re alive somewhere, in a prison or detention camp. Some of their sons and\nhusbands were fighters for the LTTE  they\nsaid, who surrendered after the Army\u2019s final offensive. Some were just\ncivilians, picked up in camps for internally-displaced persons or loaded onto\nbuses and never seen again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kathasamy\nPonnamma, a mother whose son-in-law disappeared in Vavuniya. If they\nsupported the LTTE in some way, we are ready for judicial processes, we are not\nsaying just release them.\u201d  If you’ve\nkilled my son, you can give me the body,\u201d she said, with tears in her eyes. I\nneed to do the final rituals. You can at least give the body to us.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The relatives\nof the missing were organized into the Association for the Relatives of the\nEnforced Disappeared. This  would have been done by Tamil Separatist\nMovement. These village women lack the ability \nto  organize in this manner.  In 2021 this Association came  Colombo to complain to the Sri Lanka HRC.\nThey wanted  to  go to the ICC.    HRC had told them this was not possible. <\/em>These  uneducated , backward women  from the north, could not have known of the\nICC. They were doing as they were told.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pohottu\ngovernment plans to put an end to this matter by declaring all the missing as\ndead,  issue certificates and  give some \nmoney to the relatives. This should  not be  done\nin a hurry. Each claim should be examined closely. Tamils have listed those\nkilled in war as  \u2018missing\u2019.  <\/strong> The Census data for 1981 could be used as the\nbaseline. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stories related by the relatives of the\nDisappeared can be true or  false. Some\nsound flimsy. One said the  neighbors had\nseen the army  arrest and take away her\nhusband.  I am still searching for him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are some first person stories related in\n2017. On a recent afternoon, surrounded by about 25 other mothers, Thangavelu\nSathiyathevy recalled the last time she saw her family. She said she remembers\nthe day exactly. This was May 18, 2009. We were in Vadduvakallu, and there\nwere buses taking people away,\u201d she said. Thousands of displaced people had\ngathered on the beaches there, seeking safety from the fighting. Vaddavakallu\nwas technically in a no-fire zone.My daughter, son-in-law, and their three\nchildren were taken into the bus. He was an LTTE member,\u201d she said, and we\nalso asked to join with them. But they said no, you can go\nseparately.\u201dSathiyathevy said she was taken to Manik Farm, an IDP camp near\nVavuniya. But she has never seen or even heard from her family again. The\nchildren were 2, 9, and 10 years old. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeyakanthi\nNarmila\u2019s husband from Thilaiyampathi in Kondavil, Jaffna, disappeared on\nAugust 17, 2007. She alleged that he was taken away by the Army in a white\nvan.Some Army soldiers reached my home in a white van\u2014it was around 3.30 am.\nHe has not returned since. I haven\u2019t heard anything about him. I made\ncomplaints about the abduction of my husband to both, the Uralu Army Camp and\nthe Kopai Police,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Six months\nafter the disappearance, she had seen her husband on a motorcycle pillion,\nridden by an Army soldier. Three years later, she saw her husband once again,\nin an army truck.On that day, a piece of cloth was tied  round his mouth. Thereafter, I never saw my\nhusband again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sivayogam\nRatnaraja said she and her family was also taken to an IDP camp in Vavuniya\nafter the war. In June, her son Ratnam Ratnaraja came to visit them from the\nUniversity of Moratuwa, where he was studying engineering. But after he left\nthe camp, he was arrested by local police. \nShe was never given a reason for his arrest. But she has a suspicion.\nHer elder son, Ratnam\u2019s older brother, was an LTTE cadre and died during the\nfighting. Six months later, Ratnaraja said one of her neighbors, had met with\nand spoken with her son at Anuradhapura prison. She has not heard from  her son for the past eight years.( continued)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS 2nd Revision  6.8.21 REPARATION In 2005, the UN General Assembly passed a  Resolution titled Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law\u201d  (General Assembly resolution 60\/147 of 16 December 2005) . This […]<\/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-116693","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\/116693","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=116693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116693\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}