HRW's Dirty War and the clean
record of the Sri Lankan army
SECRETARY GENERAL
Secretariat for Co-ordinating the Peace Process
08th August 2007
Amongst the more outrageous statements of the Human Rights Watch in
its recent statement headlined 'Sri Lanka: Government Abuses Intensify'
was the claim that "The Sri Lankan government has apparently given
its security forces a green light to use 'dirty war' tactics".
This was said by Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
The release claims that 'President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother,
Defense Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa, have pursued military operations
in the country's north and east , with little regard for the security
of the civilian population ... Security forces have subjected civilians
to indiscriminate attacks'.
Astonishingly, the body of the report carries hardly any substantiation
of the latter claim. There is just over a page (along with an illustration
of an IDP) in the Summary subtitled 'Abuses during armed conflict' which
begins 'Some of the most serious international law violations have taken
place during armed hostilities, when civilians have died in unlawful
attacks and others were displaced. Both the government and the LTTE
have shown a brazen disregard for the well-being of non-combatants'.
There is then a paragraph re the attack on the Kathiravelli School
which was an IDP camp. The rest of the section is about IDPs, including
the statement 'The LTTE has at times blocked civilians from leaving
areas of conflict'. No other instance is given of 'indiscriminate attacks'
in the course of 'military operations'.
Whilst the Kathiravelli incident needs to be considered further, what
HRW has failed to register, and what is almost unique in the history
of this type of military operation, is the paucity of civilian casualties.
Western nations involved in what they characterize as anti-terror operations
all over the world seem to have been less cautious in their approach
to civilians, judging from the number of casualties reported over the
last year in say Afghanistan or Iraq or Israel. Whether HRW has engaged
in crude denunciations of the leaders of the countries involved may
perhaps be of interest to those governments who may be influenced by
the HRW recommendations.
What they should also be interested in is the manner in which the Sri
Lankan armed forces conducted themselves throughout the operation in
the east. There were hardly any civilians casualties, as is borne out
by the reports of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission. Furthermore, there
have been no allegations whatsoever of rape which, as Mr. Adams will
know from even the recent sentencing by the US army, is difficult to
avoid even for armies he will doubtless consider disciplined and discriminating
in their attacks on civilians.
With regard to Kathiravelli, which is the only actual incident cited
in the whole HRW report about civilian casualties during the military
operations in the east, the death of so many civilians must be deplored.
It is necessary however to examine all the facts, even as cited in the
HRW Report, before responsibility is decided upon.
On the morning of November 8th the LTTE had fired at the Sri Lankan
army from the Kathiravelli area, and, according to D B S Jeyaraj, five
soldiers and a civilian were wounded and one soldier killed. The army
fired back in the late morning, hitting the school though under the
impression, because of 'mortar locating radar' that it was hitting LTTE
gun positions.
HRW claims that, according to its eyewitness accounts, 'while the LTTE
was frequently milling about the area, no LTTE fighters were located
in or adjacent to the IDP camp at the time of the attack or directly
before'.
However, HRW also notes that 'The LTTE had sentries in the area of
the camp, ostensibly to monitor the movement of displaced persons'.
A man in the camp added that 'In the daytime, the LTTE didn't carry
weapons….When the LTTE has heavy weapons, they don't show them
because they're afraid someone will inform.' Another woman added 'that
about 15 LTTE fighters stayed in some huts about 6000 metres from the
school. "They had rifles but no heavy guns," she said.' The
report also notes the many bunkers in the school grounds but says that
the displaced persons dug bunkers so as to 'protect their families from
government shelling'.
Whilst this last phenomenon may seem only strange, the conclusion is
inescapable that there were at least at some times LTTE members with
heavy weapons in the camp. This does not in any way justify the killing
of civilians but, combined with the initiation of an artillery attack,
and what would probably have been the radar discovery of weapons, the
shelling of the camp is understandable.
The consequent deaths of civilians was a tragedy that every Sri Lankan
should mourn. It should also be noted however that no similar incident
has occurred after that. Recently, the Peace Secretariat looked into
what the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization alleged were several violations
of the CFA, and requested the SLMM too to provide reports. The TRO reported
an incident of 11 July 2007 and then listed five other incidents over
the preceding fifteen months in only two of which was loss of life reported.
One of these was Kathiravelli, where the figure of deaths given is less
than that alleged by HRW.
All lost of life is to be deplored, civilian or military, and it is
for that reason that SCOPP hopes that the LTTE will return to negotiations.
But statistics indicate that the Sri Lankan forces have been far more
careful about civilians than many governments which HRW does not seem
inclined to criticize with the same personal intensity.
The fact that it is only the Kathiravelli incident that HRW can cite
in its blanket personal attack on the conduct of military operations
seems a tribute to the Sri Lankan forces. Though the record of the government
in the eighties was unsatisfactory, and contributed much to the anguish
of minorities, the increasing concern of both government and forces
for the civilians of all communities they are meant to protect has been
increasing apace in recent years. This must continue, but perhaps HRW
should suggest that the training programmes conducted by the forces
in this respect, which have produced such remarkable improvement, be
shared with countries with much worse records - assuming HRW has the
guts to identify them.
Prof Rajiva Wijesinha
Secretary General
Secretariat for Co-ordinating the Peace Process
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