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Abstract
The Sri Lankan Civil War (1983–2009) is regarded as a violent reflection of deepening divides along political and ethnic lines. During this civil war the Sri Lankan Government and its security forces have been implicated in unlawful killings carried out in a pervasive manner against civilians, whilst at the same time specifically targeting ethnic Tamils, humanitarian workers and journalists. The human rights of all citizens suffered as a result and ultimately led to the weakening of the rule of law. With the end of the civil war, the Sri Lankan Government has made little progress in providing accountability for wartime abuses. Its absence of and reluctance to ensure justice is seen as a logical culmination of decades of impunity. The importance of acknowledging historical behaviour and taking accountability for past violations will be discussed. In an analysis for paving the way to a new democracy in Sri Lanka, the main outcomes of this article are calls for accountability arising out of the government’s actions during the war; an investigation into the present state of human rights, the rule of law and finally; an examination into the political solution going forward to ensure a process of reconciliation and peaceful co-existence.
Notes
1. United Nations Report of the Secretary-General, “Internal Review Panel on the United Nations Action in Sri Lanka,” 2.
2. International Crisis Group, “Sri Lanka Conflict History,” 1.
3. De Silva, Sri Lanka: A History.
4. UN Citation2012, 3.
5. The United Nations General Assembly, “Comprehensive Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Sri Lanka,” 11.
6. UN Citation2012, 2.
7. International Crisis Group, “Sri Lanka: A Bitter Peace,” 4.
8. UN Citation2012, 3.
9. Human Rights Council, “Report of the Human Rights Council on its Thirtieth Session—Investigation on Sri Lanka”.
10. UN Citation2015, 5.
11. International Crisis Group, “War Crimes in Sri Lanka,” 5.
12. UN Citation2015, 5.
13. Ibid.
14. Goldstone, “Advancing the Cause of Human Rights: The Need for Justice and Accountability,” 199.
15. Bickford and Schultz, Memory and Justice: Confronting Past Atrocity and Human Rights Abuse, 7.
16. International Commission of Jurists, Justice and Reconciliation in Sri Lanka, 5.
17. ICJ, Authority Without Accountability: The Crisis of Impunity in Sri Lanka, 19.
18. ICJ Citation2015, 7.
19. Hogg, “We Will Teach You a Lesson: Sexual Violence Against Tamils by Sri Lankan Security Forces,”1.
20. See United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, “Accountability in Sri Lanka”; and UN Citation2015, 16.
21. Povlock, “A Guerilla War at Sea: The Sri Lankan Civil War,” 3.
22. Lambert, “A Brief History of Sri Lanka”.
23. Available at http://mahavamsa.org/ (accessed April 29, 2016).
24. Ibid.
25. Pallamkunnel, “Sri Lanka: Hindus Versus Buddhists”.
26. Lambert Citation2015.
27. Pallamkunnel Citation2003, 2.
28. Kladowsky, “No More Tears Sister, an Anatomy of Hope and Betrayal”.
29. International Coalition for the Responsibility to Protect, “Crisis in Sri Lanka,” 3–6.
30. Genocide Against the Tamil People: Discriminatory Laws and Regulations.
31. Kuhn, Tsunami and Conflict in Sri Lanka, 8.
32. Lambert Citation2015, 2.
33. UN Secretary General Reports, “Report of the Secretary-general’s Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka”.
34. GATP 2012.
35. Chapter II of the Constitution.
36. Patterson, “Sri Lanka: Civil War Along Ethnoreligious Lines,” 4.
37. ICRP Citation2014, 4.
38. Bajoria, “The Sri Lankan Conflict”.
39. GATP 2012.
40. Ibid.
41. Ibid.
42. Ibid.
43. Sri Lanka Prevention of Terrorism Act: ‘Ugly Blot on Statute Book of Any Civilised Country’.
44. Section 9(1) of the PTA.
45. GATP 2012.
46. GATP 2012, 16.
47. Patterson Citation2013, 5.
48. Kladowsky Citation2006.
49. ICRP Citation2014, 3–6.
50. Povlock Citation2011.
51. Biziouras, “Rebels, Soldiers, and Counterinsurgency Tactics”.
52. Kladowsky Citation2006.
53. Layton, “How Sri Lanka Won the War Lessons in Strategy from an Overlooked Victory”.
54. ICG Citation2010b, 12.
55. Povlock Citation2011, 6.
56. Patterson 2013, 5.
57. Ibid.
58. Povlock Citation2011, 6.
59. Patterson 2013, 26.
60. UN Citation2012, 24.
61. Bajoria Citation2009, 17.
62. Kuhn Citation2009, 6.
63. Human Rights Watch, “Sri Lanka—Besieged, Displaced, and Detained”; HRW, “Sri Lanka—Return to War”.
64. Vijayasiri, A Critical Analysis of the Sri Lankan Government’s Counterinsurgency Campaign.
65. This war refers to the fighting that took place in the northern province of Sri Lanka between July 2006 and May 18, 2009.
66. Layton Citation2015.
67. Ucko, “Counterinsurgency after Afghanistan,” 3.
68. Ucko (n/d), 4.
69. Porch, Counterinsurgency: Exposing the Myths of the New Way of War.
70. Ucko, “‘The People are Revolting’: An Anatomy of Authoritarian Counterinsurgency,” 29–61.
71. Porch Citation2013, 3.
72. Ibid.
73. Ucko Citation2016b, 29.
74. Ucko, “Regimes and Revolt: Authoritarian Ways of Counterinsurgency”.
75. Ucko Citation2016a, 12.
76. Ibid.
77. Layton Citation2015.
78. Layton Citation2015, 13.
79. Layton Citation2015, 14.
80. UNSGR 2011.
81. Vijayasiri Citation1999.
82. HRW Citation2008.
83. Biziouras 2014, 22.
84. Hogg Citation2013, 13.
85. Vijayasiri Citation1999.
86. Bajoria Citation2009, 18.
87. Hogg Citation2013.
88. Vijayasiri Citation1999.
89. Destradi and Vüllers, The Consequences of Failed Mediation in Civil Wars: Assessing the Sri Lankan Case.
90. Cronin-Furman, “Sri Lanka’s Bloody Civil War Finally Ended Seven Years Ago. But Moving on from the Past is not Easy”.
91. UNSGR 2011.
92. Cronin-Furman.
93. Krishnaswami, “Killing a 12-year Old”.
94. Buncombe, “Handed a Snack, and Then Executed”.
95. Charlton, “Fresh Footage Reveals New Evidence of Sri Lanka executions”.
96. Kalappa, “Balachandran Prabhakaran’s Killing: Isn’t Sri Lanka’s Conscience Troubled”.
97. BBC News Asia, “Balachandran Prabhakaran: Sri Lanka Army Accused Over Death”.
98. British film-maker Macrae’s interview to the BBC News Asia.
99. Buncombe Citation2013, 3.
100. UN Citation2015.
101. Porch Citation2013, 378.
102. UN Citation2015, 18.
103. ICG Citation2010b, 7.
104. ICG Citation2010b, 5.
105. Macrae, “Sri Lanka Massacred Tens of Thousands of Tamils While the World Looked Away”.
106. UNHCR Citation2011, 39.
107. UNCHR Reports of the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, 1997; 1998; 2001; 2002; 2003; 2004; 2005; 2006; & 2007.
108. Wood, “Armed Groups and Sexual Violence: When is Wartime Rape Rare?” 131–61.
109. Hogg Citation2013, 18.
110. ICG Citation2010b, 10.
111. UNSGR 2011, 38.
112. ICG Citation2010b, 11.
113. UN News Center, “Sri Lanka: Actions by Government Forces, Rebels Possible War Crimes”.
114. UNSGR 2011, 42.
115. ICG Citation2010b, 20.
116. ICG Citation2010b, 12.
117. UN News Center Citation2009, 1.
118. Art. 8(2)(e)(i) of the Rome Statute of 1998.
119. ICG Citation2010b, 13.
120. Art. 11 of the Additional Protocol of 1949.
121. US Department of State, “Report to Congress on Incidents during the Recent Conflict in Sri Lanka,” 16–9.
122. Human Rights Watch, “Sri Lanka: Repeated Shelling of Hospitals: Evidence of War Crimes”; Human Rights Watch, “Sri Lanka—War on the Displaced”.
123. ICG Citation2010b, 13.
124. USDS Citation2009, 16–9.
125. ICG Citation2010b, 20.
126. Hogg Citation2013, 14.
127. UNSGR 2011, 44.
128. ICG Citation2010b, 20.
129. UNSGR 2011, 45.
130. UNSGR 2011, 45.
131. Hogg Citation2013, 15.
132. Ibid.
133. Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 31 on the Nature of the General Legal Obligation Imposed on State Parties to the Covenant, 15–9.
134. HRC Citation2015, 36.
135. HRC Citation2015, 38.
136. HRC, General Comment No. 29 on the States of Emergency (Article 4), 4.
137. CitationHRC 2004b, 8.
138. CitationHRC 2004b, 9.
139. HRC 2004, 11.
140. ICG Citation2010b, 30.
141. HRC Citation2015, 40.
142. Ibid.
143. HRC Citation2015, 41.
144. ICJ Citation1986, 14.
145. Common Art 3 of the Geneva Conventions.
146. International Committee of the Red Cross, “Database on Customary International Humanitarian Law,” 9.
147. ICRC Citation2009, 6.
148. ICRC Citation2009, 6; Arts. 51(5), 57(2) of the Additional Protocol I.
149. ICRC Citation2009, 23–4; Art. 57 of the Additional Protocol I.
150. HRC Citation2015, 42.
151. ICRC Citation2009, 25–6, 28–30; Arts 9–11 Additional Protocol II.
152. ICRC Citation2009, 140, 144.
153. Sivakumaran, The Law of Non-International Armed Conflict, 475–8.
154. Art. 7 of the Rome Statute.
155. UN, Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation para, 6.
156. ICRC Citation2009, 152.
157. HRC Citation2015, 40.
158. HRC Citation2015, 39.
159. Bickford and Schultz Citation2008, 7.
160. United Nations Security Council, Report of the Secretary General on the Rule of Law and Transitional Justice in Conflict and Post-conflict Societies, 8.
161. Ibid.
162. Ibid.
163. Gamage, “Democracy in Sri Lanka: Past, Present and Future,”107–16.
164. University of California LA Department of History, “Significance of History for the Educated Citizen,” 1.
165. Bickford and Schultz Citation2008, 7.
166. UCLA Citation1998, 1.
167. Bickford and Schultz Citation2008, 7.
168. The International Center for Transition Justice, Confronting the Past: Truth Telling and Reconciliation in Uganda, 2.
169. Méndez, “Accountability for Past Abuses,” 255–82.
170. UNSGR 2011, 6.
171. UNSGR 2011, 6.
172. UNHCR Citation2011, 16.
173. Bickford and Schultz Citation2008, 5.
174. Ibid.
175. HRC Citation2015, 6.
176. HRC Citation2015, 7.
177. UNSGR 2011, 5.
178. ICG Citation2010b, 23.
179. Gray, “War Crimes ‘Most Likely’ Committed in Sri Lankan Civil War”.
180. UNHCR Citation2011, 13.
181. ICTJ Citation2012, 3.
182. Campbell, “The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC): Human Rights and State Transitions—The South Africa Model,” 42.
183. South Africa established a National Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1995 to investigate government and opposition human rights offences of the apartheid era.
184. Hamber and Kibble. (Citation1999).
185. ICTJ Citation2012.
186. Bickford and Schultz Citation2008, 15.
187. Campbell Citation2000.
188. ICTJ Citation2012, 3.
189. Bickford and Schultz Citation2008, 25.
190. Hamber and Kibble Citation1999.
191. ICTJ Citation2012, 3.
192. Gray Citation2015.
193. ICG Citation2010b, 32.