was elected, interventions by powerful western states and India led the UN to delay
publication, giving the new government a chance to pursue its own investigations.
However, Tamil nationalist sections both in Sri Lanka and in the diaspora vehemently
protested even this modest delay.
For the survivors, accounting for the war affected, for the dead and the disappeared, is
necessary. But their calls for truth and for engagement with the UN investigation are
mediated by nationalist politics and by the interests and agendas of the international
human rights community. Such politicisation and internationalization of the lives of the
survivors disregards their socio-economic suffering that continues after the war; or it
attempts to equate this suffering solely to attacks by the state.
Indeed, accountability is linked to memory, to the past and also to the future. It requires
powerful states shape the agendas of supranational organizations like the United
Nations, political engagement in Sri Lanka cannot be in opposition to imperialism
alone. The struggle is at many levels including vigilance against imperialism,
challenging the majoritarian national security state and so-called liberation
movements, all of which undermine the rights and aspirations of the people.
Local understandings of human rights and accountability are
shaped by the discourse on these issues by both the state and
nationalist forces at home, and powerful actors including NGOs
abroad. For instance, when the LTTE took advantage of the
Norwegian-mediated ceasefire and peace process in the 2000s,
and persecuted Tamil dissenters and recruited children, the failure
of local and international human rights organizations to initially
register their protest gave human rights a bad name. Similarly,
today, these organizations remain silent on the polarizing
discourses propagated by Tamil nationalist actors in the name of
accountability, including when they brand Tamils who seek to
engage the state and the Sinhala community as traitors.
Local
understandings
of human rights
and
accountability
are shaped by
the discourse on
these issues by
both the state
and nationalist
forces at home,
and powerful
actors including
NGOs abroad.
A local human rights group, the University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna)
consistently throughout the war recorded the abuses by all actors, the Sri Lankan
state, the LTTE and the other armed groups. While it exposed some of the worst
human rights abuses, UTHR(J) also saw its role as opening the space for dissent and
introspection among Tamils. Similarly, future human rights initiatives, whether they are
local or international, should recognize that it is only when communities mutually
engage through self-criticism that processes of accountability can lead to their coexistence.
In Sri Lanka, addressing the historic grievances of minorities and the legacy of the long
civil war and its aftermath are mammoth tasks. The oppression of women, the social
exclusion of oppressed castes, the exploitation of the rural and urban under-classes
all must be addressed. All citizens of Sri Lanka, not just those in the north and east
who survived the war, will benefit from the reform of a militarised and centralised state,
the democratisation of an authoritarian political culture and an end to the
dispossession of marginalised peoples. Discussions on the political future of Sri
Lanka, which often reduce the national question to a Sinhala-Tamil ethnic conflict,
should recognize the history of exploitation faced by the up-country Tamils (who came
as colonial indentured labor from India). It should address too the mass violence that
the Sri Lankan Muslim community suffered at the hands of both Sinhala-Buddhist and
Tamil nationalist forces.
The UN investigation and report can polarize as much as reconcile. It is the work of
progressive local actors willing to take a resolute stand including by challenging the
state, chauvinistic forces within their own communities and powerful international
interests, which will ultimately determine the UN reports lasting impact.
Posted by Thavam