Human Rights Leadership Coalition writes President Obama Urging Action on Sri Lanka
Several prominent human rights organizations have expressed their deep concern over the dire human rights and humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka in a joint letter to President Barack Obama:
Full Text of letter:
June 18, 2009
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President,
We, representing several human rights organizations, are writing to express our deep concern about the situation in Sri Lanka and urge you to take immediate steps to address the dire human rights and humanitarian situation in that country.
Since December, during the last phase of intense fighting, tens of thousands of civilians have been killed, injured or displaced. Independent observers and media were denied access to the conflict zone. Three medical doctors who were providing independent information were arrested and held incommunicado. Even after the government claimed military victory, it denied access to camps and to the former safe zone where the final battle took place.
Despite repeated warnings by several international organizations of impending mass killings of civilians and despite strong statements of concern by you and several other world leaders, more than 20,000 civilians are reported to have been killed. The Times of London and Le Monde have published investigations, based on reliable data, and suggested that most of the civilian deaths were caused as a result of shelling by the Sri Lankan government.Thousands more were injured and the International Committee of the Red Cross was prevented by the Sri Lankan government for providing medical assistance resulting in many more civilian deaths.
The failure of the international community to take concrete action to protect civilians in Sri Lanka has given the green light to regimes around the world and has signaled that there is nothing that the international community will do when a government kills its own people under the cover of sovereignty.
It is now imperative that the United States assume the leadership necessary to mobilize the international community to protect the surviving civilians and to hold accountable those responsible for mass atrocities. Failure to do so would encourage governments to commit mass atrocities without fear of consequence. That is why your immediate action is important at this juncture.
We appeal to you to take steps to urgently address the plight of those in de facto internment camps and to initiate action to hold accountable those responsible for the mass killings. There are reports that some in the camps have already died from starvation or malnutrition. The United Nations Human Rights Council has called for an emergency meeting on Sri Lanka, but a UN resolution calling for immediate and unrestricted access to the camps failed, leaving individuals there still at risk.
Plight of those in the camps
Over three hundred thousand persons who fled the conflict zone are held in government run “internment camps.” Unrestricted humanitarian aid to those held in the camps will make the difference between life and death, and yet access for the UN and NGOs to the camps continues to be hampered by the government. According to Ms. Magdalena Sepulveda, who delivered a statement on May 26, 2009, on behalf of all UN Special Procedures mandate holders: “The Government of Sri Lanka, citing security concerns, after three months continues to detain in temporary camps the more than 300,000 men, women and children who escaped fighting. This gives rise to concerns of arbitrary detention. Many have endured months of terrible conditions in the conflict zone before their present internment…We deplore that in the camps some have already died from starvation or malnutrition.” According to Amnesty International, there are consistent reports of widespread and serious human rights violations facing the displaced people, including enforced disappearance, extrajudicial executions, torture and other ill-treatment, forced recruitment by paramilitary groups and sexual violence.
Sri Lankan government has misled the international community by consistently stating that there are no more than 70,000 to 100,000 civilians at risk. This is despite statements by the UN and international organizations that there are around 250,000 civilians at risk. Now, with the civilians out of the conflict zone, more accurate number of over 300,000 came to light.
Need for International Commission of Inquiry
Human rights organizations have documented serious violations of international humanitarian law by both the Sri Lankan government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) during this period. Despite repeated denials, government forces repeatedly shelled densely populated areas, including at least 30 attacks on hospitals, in the government declared “no-fire area” where it had urged civilians to take shelter. The LTTE violated laws of war by using civilians as human shields and by using lethal force to prevent their escape. Three Sri Lankan doctors who provided detailed information about government shelling and civilian casualties in the conflict zone to outside media and human rights organizations have also been detained merely for fulfilling their ethical duties to their patients, in a clear violation of the rules of medical neutrality.
The situation for civilians was made worse by the Sri Lanka government’s inadequate delivery of relief supplies and the government‘s refusal to grant access to the region for aid agencies as required by international humanitarian law.
The Sri Lankan government’s record on investigating serious human rights abuses is poor and impunity has been a persistent problem. There have been serious ongoing violations of human rights and a backlog of cases of enforced disappearance and unlawful killings that run to tens of thousands, as described for example, in the 2008 Human Rights Watch report “Recurring Nightmare.” Despite this track record, there have been only a small number of prosecutions.
Past efforts to address violations through the establishment of ad hoc mechanisms in Sri Lanka, such as presidential commissions of inquiry have produced few results, either in providing information or in leading to prosecutions. To address abuses associated with the recent fighting, there is an urgent need for an independent, international commission of inquiry into many credible allegations of laws of war violations, including possible war crimes, by both sides, as well as illegitimate detentions.
Mr. President, we urge you to publicly call for an international commission of inquiry and to take necessary steps to achieve it. We also urge you to take steps for the full protection of internally displaced persons, including independent access to camps, former areas of conflict and to conflict-affected civilians by humanitarian and human rights organizations and the media.
Sincerely,
Mr. Larry Cox, Executive Director
Amnesty International USA
Ms. Karin Ryan, Director, Human Rights Program
The Carter Center
Ms. Jennifer Windsor, Executive Director
Freedom House
Mr. Robert Arsenault, President
International League for Human Rights
Ms. Felice D. Gaer, Director
Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights
Mr. A. Frank Donaghue, Chief Executive Officer
Physicians for Human Rights
Cc: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice
Click for copy of the Letter - PDF File
9 Comments
May be IMF fund was cancelled due to this!!! Look after the ongoing wars and skirmishes you have created and are sustaining in other peoples back yards all over the world. May be they don't pay you as handsomely as LTTE.
A sure way to prolong the suffering of the IDPs. This is a grand attempt to fool President Obama. Not a word about how they became IDPs in the first place. How they were herded like cattle, how they were held hostage and shot at when they tried to flee are important facts to be mentioned in a submission like this to a president of USA. It is only in this background that an independent analyst can appreciate the true suffering of the IDPs. For,if they were unloaded from a luxury cruise at gun point and held in a internment camp the situation is different. White house administration should take strong objections to this attempt to hoodwink the president.
President Obama. You are one of the few who can make a difference and put right the precedent created in Sri Lanka, due to silence and apathy of the so called "International community".
We Sri Lankans are awaiting your response.
Great! Might have been a good idea also to have put out an international on-line petition to collect signatures from around the world for presentation to UN or American President.
Dyan,
"..Not a word about how they became IDPs in the first place."
I will tell you. The Government Security Forces never declared a safe zone from Mavil aru to Kilinochchi, for about two years and a half. Only at Mullaitivu, when the cry for safe zone was demanded by the powers that be, they grudgingly a safe zone was declared while shelling the same safe zone. People started running away from the direction of shelling to end up at Mullivaykal. Among all the Sri Lanka Field Commanders, only one declared safe areas and that was Denzil Kobekaduwa, in 1987. Not only that, he used to say that the ultimate solution should be political. No other Sri Lanka Field Commander articulated that. Now more than 22 years and you have a solution to your liking, I guess.
If you would have declared safe zones all along the way, from Mavil Aru, atleast some would have taken refuge resulting in less casualty. I experienced this with my kids, aged 5,4 and 2+, in Jaffna during 1995. Shells were flying overhead and we took shelter under the floors of Chundikuli Girls College. Many ran like hell to leave the Peninsula in a single night and many got trapped in Vanni. Go through all the news papers of those days and look for any mention of declared safe zones. You would not find. All the broadcasts are recorded by all the embassies and you cannot fool claiming that you declared safe zones. When you guys burnt the Jaffna Public library, after many years American Embassy donated the Micro Fiche copies of the EelaNadu News papers to the Library. Books and manuscripts, of course, all lost. This issue of not declaring safe zones will be taken up one day on an international forum, and you will see the related documents. Shelling the declared safe zones also will be a subject. One more thing, slow starvation of about 350000 people for more than two years will also be an issue. Your President, prime Minister and the Cabinent are all on the record of claiming only 70000 and sending food not adequate 70000, food records are with ICRC. You are proud of these acts.So long as you are proud of these guys, then Tamils have no future. How are the IDP people living? Not like cattles!. I wonder what Lord Buddha preached and what you guys understood of him! One thing for sure, you guys made Vanni folks attain Nirvana.
Easwaran
President Obama
Please advice President Rajapaksha and brothers to look beyond temporary political and monetary gains and focus on long term reconciliation and peace in SL.
By continuing the concentration camps the are only sawing the seeds for another ruthless but high tech terror organisation to bleed SL for years in the future.
LTTE is finished. Please do not make the situation conducive for rebirth of another terror outfit by violating the rights of innocent civilians.
Hon.Obama cannot miss this opportunity if he meant
what he preached during his pre-election times.
Let not your Name be added to the curse of the Tamil
bretheren. The UN cannot do anything as is seen
by utterances of the MR Regime at every turn.
Before another "Myanmmar" is created as your
Intelligence Services will bear witness,action is
needed. Does Obama condone the imprisonment of
300,000 tamils in the war against a separatist movement, which is worse than the USA camp after
9/11. The IC is unable to make any moves yet.
Mr Obama be careful. Tamil curse will fall upon you and that will be your down fall.
I have no axe to grind on the Rajapakse Bros or those in the armed forces. Both have, in many a way, helped Tamils to regain their composure and democratic way of life (so I believe – although I am no believer of the Devanandas, the Karuna’s and that strange creature Pillaiyan whose suspect smile reminds me of the ancient Tamil saying “Inji thinda kurangu” (the monkey that ate ginger) As I have repeated here before, VP/LTTE were idealistic and sacrificed for the Tamils in the beginning until the obsession of the first Tamil kingdom in the world went into VP’s head and took him astray midway. In killing my friend Neelan he did not merely destroy an individual. He destroyed one of the most humane, brilliant minds the Tamil world produced. An entire culture of learning, research and a tremendous potential to serve his country and the world went down with Neelan’s shattered frame. I was there with him when he graciously responded to the Bandaranaike family (Mrs B, Anura, Sunethra and CBK) when they chose/invited him to deliver the SWRD memorial at the BMICH. Neelan delivered an extra-ordinarily brilliant speech. The genius he was, he endeared himself and the entire Lankan Tamil nation to the Sinhalese and the Bandaranaiake family when he said some of the features he was pursuing with GLP and others then to work out a formulae acceptable to the Sinhala extreme came from the thoughts of SWRD. In inviting Neelan Mrs B, that decent lady who was a mother figure to all of us, was sending out a message she wants to repair her relationship with the Tamils. The life of selfless young Rajini, yet another fine human being, who could have served all Sri Lanka and her people eminently, was snuffed out prematurely by a man possessed and deranged.
I think in the enlightened world we are in, even wars should be fought according to norms based on a degree of decency and fair-play. That was one of the the messages of the Nuremberg trials. That was the message Alec Guinness, playing a principled British army officer, was trying to establish to the cruel Japanese colonel in David Lean’s brilliant movie “Bridge on the River Kwai” The Geneva and Warsaw Conventions on the conduct of war underline these features for the world of today and tomorrow. At least for the benefit of the present generation and posterity, those who engineered and committed War crimes in Sri Lanka in recent times from both sides of the divide should be subject to an impartial and international inquiry. Leaving this to be done by Lankans will be akin to asking Hitler’s Nazis to sit on the crimes against the Jews during WW2.
ISS