COLOMBO, Sri Lanka- On November 28, Sri Lanka began to count dead and missing people as well as the property damage stemming from its 26-year long civil war. The effort comes amid international accusations of human rights violations during and after the conflict and two years after the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission called for the census.
Sixteen thousand government officials have six months to complete the survey, during which time they will visit homes of affected families to gather data.
The primary area of scrutiny arises out of a period in 2009, at the end of the war, when thousands of civilians were surrounded by government forces in a small no–fire zone on the northeastern coast.
A 2011 UN report estimates that tens of thousands were killed—some estimate as many as 70,000—though exact numbers cannot be independently verified because aid groups and journalists were forbidden from entering the region.
The death toll for the first 25 years of war is estimated at roughly 70,000.
Rebels have been accused of using human shields, killing those leaving Tamil–controlled areas, and utilizing child soldiers.
Government troops are accused of intentionally killing civilians, blocking food and medical aid and damaging hospitals in the no-fire zone.
Most of the deaths in the final stage were caused by government bullets, says the UN, a claim that the government fervently denies. The government states that any atrocities were those of a small number of individuals unfit to “withstand the pressures of warfare,” and estimates the dead during that period at 9,000.
Unrest in Sri Lanka has been a staple since independence from the British in 1948. Sri Lanka’s largest ethnic groups, the Sinhalese and Tamil, have continually vied for power. Sinhalese nationalists made their language the national one and passed the Ceylon Citizenship Act which essentially stripped Tamils of their citizenship.
Tamil separatist militant groups formed- the most prominent being the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). They began carrying out assassinations and suicide bombings from the 1970s through 2009 and essentially formed a “shadow government” in parts of the east and north of the island.
The early 2000’s marked a period of broken cease-fires and peace deals, culminating in a final government offensive in 2009, the period in question, after which Tamil forces admitted defeat.
Though the conflict officially ended, there continue to be allegations of abuse and torture of Tamils by government forces.
The Sri Lankan Ministry of Defense boasts a “world-class terrorist rehabilitation programme” that includes education, healthcare, physical activities and entertainment to former rebels.
However, the British Broadcasting Corporation has published reports of retaliatory physical and sexual torture in these detention centers since the end of the war.
Dr. Alison Callaway, author of numerous reports on alleged torture in Sri Lanka, states, “There is such a systematic set–up in Sri Lanka, whereby it’s absolutely clear to me… that detention and torture is going on in a very large scale.”
She continues, “It must be assumed that it’s the deterrent effect that they will never again be able to have the strength or the purpose to want to fight against the Sri Lankan government …”
The government adamantly refutes such claims, saying it refuses to be beholden to anonymous testimony.
Because of such accusations, many leaders in the international community, such as British Prime Minister David Cameron, have called for an independent commission to investigate what occurred during and after the quarter-century-long conflict.
In response, Sri Lanka’s president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, stated, “Those in glass houses should not throw stones,” referring to British colonial rule in Sri Lanka as well as other human rights disputes such as in Northern Ireland. Information about such conflicts took many years to investigate.
He went on to state, “Every day for the last 30 years people were dying…so now we have stopped it.”
– Kaylie Cordingley
Sources: Time, Al Jazeera, British Broadcasting Corporation, Sri Lanka Online Legal Information Library
Photo: Boston