[Reader-list] Fwded:Statement A slaughter of Tamils April 13, 2009

[Venugopalan K M]

III.
http://socialistworker.org/2009/04/13/slaughter-of-tamils

Statement

A slaughter of Tamils

April 13, 2009

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The Sri Lankan government is intensifying its ongoing war on the country's
Tamil minority with a new assault on alleged fighters of the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam--or "Tamil Tigers"--inside a "safety zone" in the
country's Vanni region that had been set up as a haven for civilians.

In recent weeks, the government has reportedly pushed Tamil rebels--who have
been fighting the government since the 1980s--out of urban areas into a
small pocket of land. The escalation of violence has had a devastating
impact on civilians, putting "more than a quarter of a million civilians at
great risk," according to Yolanda Foster, Amnesty International's Sri Lanka
researcher.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has so far rejected the possibility
of a cease-fire and called on the rebels to surrender, despite the reports
of mounting civilian casualties.

Here, we reprint a statement by Concerned South Asian Citizens calling on
the Sri Lankan government to stop the slaughter, and for the international
community to intervene.

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WE ARE appalled at reports of mass deaths of Sri Lankan Tamils trapped in a
small area of the Vanni region in northern Sri Lanka.

Both electronic and print media have reported the death of over 700 Tamils
in the last couple days, with only a section of them being identified as
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE, or "Tamil Tigers") cadres, meaning
therefore that a vast number of those killed are civilians trapped in the
area. There are serious apprehensions that a thermobaric bomb--a bomb that
uses a fuel-air explosive capable of creating overpressures equal to an
atomic bomb--has been used in this mass killing.

For the last several weeks, we have expressed our concerns about this
imminent massacre. In fact, we pointed out that the possibility of almost
close to 150,000 Tamilians getting affected was not just most probable, but
real. We also pointed out that the Sri Lankan government had been dangling
this as the fruit of its declared "war on terror" as the "final
victory"--and that the government was pushing for the "final solution"
before the soon-to-ensue Sinhala New Years Day, falling on April 14, 2009.

Our worst fears are turning true. The sheer scale of artillery and explosive
attacks and the massive deaths of Tamils points to the situation of the
Vanni region becoming the graveyard for thousands of Tamil civilians. Now
the possible usage of thermobaric bomb by the mindless Sri Lankan army and
government has taken the situation beyond limits. Sri Lankan President
Rajapaksa himself has threatened a "complete rout and annihilation" of
Tamils.

Sri Lanka has turned into a terror state, though [the government] keeps
blaming the LTTE as a terrorist outfit. The brazen and insulting manner by
which Sri Lankan authorities have attacked any person or agency seeking
accountability of the Sri Lankan government to human rights standards can be
gauged by the fact that several British parliamentarians were forced to take
up the issue of being branded terrorists by the Sri Lankan officials in a
debate in the UK House of Commons! Even former UN High Commissioner for
Human Rights Louise Arbor and UN Special Rapporteur on Extra-judicial,
Summary or Arbitrary Executions Philip Alston were not spared.

The reality is that the Sri Lankan government has utilized the so-called
"war on terror" as a cover to systematically destroy all democratic
processes and institutions in Sri Lanka. The government and its minions have
turned the state into a terror apparatus, crushing not just the Tamils, but
also others challenging its actions. As a result, numerous non-Tamil,
Sinhalese citizens have also fallen prey to the Sri Lankan terror state.

Journalists have been the major targets, with 19 reporters, both Tamil and
Sinhala, being killed in the last two years; over 35 exiled, driven away
from the country or silenced; and numerous publications closed down. The
assassination of Lasantha Wickramathunge, editor of the *Sunday Leader*, a
widely respected Sri Lankan weekly, in January highlights the fate of anyone
challenging the ruling dispensation.

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RESPECTED AND expert UN bodies have investigated and brought out reports
about different aspects of the breakdown of democratic and judicial systems.

Recently, on February 9, 2009, 10 top UN experts issued a statement sharing
the deep concern of the United Nations high commissioner for human rights
over the rapidly deteriorating conditions facing civilians in the Vanni
region and the significant number of civilian casualties. They also deplored
the restrictions on humanitarian access to conflict areas which heightens
the ongoing serious violations of the most basic economic and social rights.

We are extremely concerned that in this racist, genocidal war, the Sri
Lankan government is using banned and illegal weapons and munitions,
including thermobaric bombs, which kill vast numbers of people across a wide
territory. Sri Lankan security forces have a long record of using cluster
bombs and engaging in targeted aerial bombings of civilian areas, which are
banned under the Geneva Conventions. The Sri Lankan government has never
denied the use of cluster bombs.

Across the world, there is a tremendous outpouring of anguish and agony at
the prospects that surviving Tamil civilians will be annihilated through the
use of weapons of mass destruction. It is therefore critical that the UN
urgently intervene and restrain the Sri Lankan government from using banned
bombs, explosives and weaponry.

It is very important that the truth about the actual use of these weapons of
mass destruction, including thermobaric bombs, be independently verified and
the source of supply identified. If, indeed, these horrific weapons have
been used, the international community should immediately initiate
prosecution of the highest functionaries of the Sri Lankan state, and the
government of the country that supplied these bombs, for the commission of
war crimes and crimes against humanity.

We would also like to point out that the humanitarian crisis has been made
worse because the Sri Lankan government has banned independent observers of
UN agencies, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other
independent institutions from operating in the war zone. It is of utmost
importance that independent observers are sent both to monitor the situation
as also to ensure humanitarian aid reaches the area.

The innocent Tamil civilians have been living a precarious life, without
food, water and health supplies for the last several weeks. Emaciated,
starved, severely malnourished and seriously injured, the women, children,
aged persons and remaining men are already dying. They deserve the
protection that can be offered by concerned world citizens who, by demanding
an end to the war, will also be asserting a chance for these innocent men,
women and children to live.

As citizens of South Asia, we therefore demand that the UN and the
international community effectively intervene to ensure immediate cessation
of the brutal and savage war in Sri Lanka and ensure immediate humanitarian
relief to the suffering thousands caught in the middle of the war.

We also call upon the governments in the South Asian region--the government
of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives--to intervene
forcefully to stop the genocidal war that threatens peace not just in Sri
Lanka, but in all of South Asia.

Jointly issued by: *K.G. Kannabiran*, national president, PUCL, Hyderabad;
Justice *Rajinder Sachar*, former chief Justice, Delhi High Court; *Arundhati
Roy*, New Delhi; *Pushkar Raj*, general secretary, PUCL; *Pamela Philipose*,
Women's Feature Service; *Swami Agnivesh*, New Delhi; Prof. *Amit Bhaduri*,
professor emeritus, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; Rev. *P.J.
Lawrence*, bishop of the Church of South India, Diocese of Nandyal; *Praful
Bidwai*, columnist, New Delhi; *Sumit Chakravorty*, editor, *Mainstream
Weekly*, New Delhi; *Tapan Bose*, New Delhi; *Rita Manchanda*, South Asia
Forum for Human Rights, Nepal; Prof. *Kamal Mitra Chenoy*, School of
International Studies and president, JNU Teachers Association, Jawaharlal
Nehru University, New Delhi; *Ernest Deenadayalan*, Bangalore; *Pradip
Prabhu*, Kashtakari Sanghatana, Dahanu/Mumbai; *Prashant Bhushan*, advocate,
Supreme Court, New Delhi; *M.G. Devasahayam* IAS (Retd), Chennai; *Sukumar
Murlidharan*, journalist, New Delhi; Rev. *Dhyanchand Carr*, Madurai; *Henri
Tiphagne*, *People's Watch*, Madurai, MSS Pandian, Chennai; *Sushil Pyakurel
*, former commissioner, Human Rights Commission of Nepal, Kathmandu; *Mubashir
Hasan*, Lahore, Pakistan


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