NEWS  Indian leaders have committed to supporting the rights of minority Tamils in Sri Lanka against the gross abuse of human rights to “live with equity, equality, justice, peace and dignity”.

BACKGROUND

• The period from 2005 to 2015 under the government led by Mahinda Rajapaksa was marked by the human right abuse in Srilanka.
• Critics of the government were murdered, tortured, and forcibly made to disappear. Tens of thousands of civilians were killed in the civil war which ended in 2009 between government forces and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), with both sides responsible for numerous war crimes.
• But in the year 2015 , with the defeat of Mahinda Rajapaksa in the presidential election, there was hope for change. The period saw greater freedom of expression. Also the repressive and heavily militarised situation in Tamil-majority areas began to improve.
• The new government supported a consensus resolution at the Human Rights Council that offered victims of abuses and their families truth, justice, and reconciliation.

FEAR RENEWED

• The human rights situation in Sri Lanka has worsened since Gotabaya Rajapaksa  became President in 2019.
• Tamil communities in the north and the east fear increasing abuses with the actions of authorities like bulldozing of a memorial at Jaffna university that commemorated Tamil civilian victims of the civil war.
• Also the Rajapaksa government, in 2020, renounced its commitments under the 2015 Human Rights Council resolution and is threatening victims’ families and activists who supported it.

LOSS OF ACCOUNTABILITY

• The Rajapaksa government has shown outright disdain for accountability.
• In September last year, Sri Lanka told the Human Rights Council that allegations against senior military officers are “unacceptable” and without “substantive evidence”.
• Rajapaksa pardoned a former army sergeant, who killed eight Tamil civilians, including children.
• The government amended the Constitution to remove constraints on political interference in Sri Lanka’s courts.
• Since 2012, the Human Rights Council has sought to work with Sri Lanka to promote reconciliation and accountability, efforts that India has backed. But Sri Lanka is now rejecting that endeavour, instead proposing a new domestic commission that UN experts have dismissed as lacking credibility or independence.

NEED OF THE HOUR

• The UNHRC should recognise the government’s actions for what they are — an effort to impede justice.
• A new resolution is urgently needed to protect vulnerable minority communities in Sri Lanka, by upholding the principle of accountability for the worst crimes.
• India should join other member states in supporting a resolution to reduce the growing risk of future atrocities.

Reference:

1. https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/a-growing-rights-crisis-in-lanka/article33865413.ece