A UN Mandated Force Needs to be on the Ground in Sri Lanka
When has a minority group ever been interned in camps run by the dominant opposing side in a military conflict, and it ended with those people walking out alive? When have internment or concentration camps without independent media or Red Cross access ever not resulted in mass killings of minorities? Simply put, the fox can never be trusted to guard the hen house. Why haven’t we learned to respond immediately?
Sri Lanka has been engaged in civil war for well over two decades. The Tamil people have suffered systemic racism in Sri Lanka for decades, and well before the start of this war. With the government of Sri Lanka bombing Tamil civilians, denying humanitarian access, or the mobility of independent media – how can the world sit by and just hope that somehow the Sri Lankan government won’t go even further, especially when the UN is saying they’ve likely already committed crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Pro-Sinhalese folks will say, that the LTTE are terrorists, that’s not a claim I am going to dispute, but the LTTE are not holding over 200 000 members of an ethnic group they’ve been indiscriminately bombing, denying basic medial and food aid to and forbidding the media from witnessing. The Sri Lanka government is. They are also not denying the over 200 000 minorities they are holding in guarded camps, surrounded by barbed wire, the right to leave the camps. The journalists who tried to report on the severity of the camps was deported from Sri Lanka for ‘damaging the countries image’.
The world community needs to get their act together and invoke the ‘responsibility to protect’ and prevent what could be an undisputed genocide if the world community fails to step in. The reason Tamil Canadians are in the streets of Toronto daily is to push for our government to protect their loved ones back home. It isn’t an unreasonable request to ask Canada to stand up and use it’s presence on the international stage to protect innocent civilians from further harm.
I was very young when the Srebrenica massacre happened. I am too young to remember it, but it is a topic I’ve certainly learned about in university and read about on my own. I was shocked that such a large scale mass murder of innocent people could take place in ’safe zones’ while the UN stood by and watched. It demonstrated the atrocities of Rwanda had not served as a lesson in managing ethnic conflict. The resulting decade of discussion about the UN’s effectiveness has seen Darfur virtually ignored by the international community, and now Sri Lanka setting the stage for the latest moment when the world community has a choice to make.
The United Nations Security Council has a responsibility to protect innocent civilians. They have a responsibility to ensure that innocent civilians are protected from armed conflict. The reports that are getting out of Sri Lanka make it clear that isn’t happening. Whether you believe the government figures of 378 deaths from the Sri Lankan government shelling a hospital, or the Tamil community’s figure of 3000 – there is no room for moral relativism when it comes to the deaths of innocent civilians. One is too many. 300 or 3000 is totally without explanation. Simply put, governments never have the right to kill their people, and the world community always has an obligation to act when it is clear a government either has, is or soon will kill innocent civilians.
The silence of Canada’s government has been deafening on this issue. The Canadian government should act at the United Nations to pressure members of the Security Council to pass a resolution invoking the ‘responsibility to protect’ and sending in an international force that can protect Tamil civilians from violence, and develop a framework to a sustainable peace and security for both the Tamil and Sinhalese populations of Sri Lanka.
A UN mandated force could open the country up to foreign journalists, keep the peace and allow for humanitarian aid to flow in hopes of alleviating the current humanitarian crisis and preventing further humanitarian crises and acts of genocide. This force could also stabilize the situation and prevent future outbreaks of violence.
If you haven’t already, write to the Prime Minister of Canada (pm@pm.gc.ca) and your Member of Parliament
to tell them that you believe Canada must act to prevent further crimes against humanity from being committed in Sri Lanka.
These protests we’ve seen every day have been about raising awareness and getting people to pressure the government. If you agree with the Tamil community, or even if you just want the protests to stop, remind Stephen Harper that his Government has a moral obligation to pursue peace in the world and that the UN has a responsibility to protect. Call on him to do his part to ensure that happens.
Below are some links to stories about the chaos brewing in the internment camps the Sri Lankan government has forced over 200 000 Tamils into.
Children Separated From Parents in Chaotic Sri Lankan Camps – Save the Children, May 16 2009
Sri Lankan Government Denies Entry to Aid Groups, Raising Humanitarian Law Questions, May 15 2009
The banality of evil in Sri Lanka – UPI Asia, May 15 2009
Sri Lankan shelters stretched to ‘breaking point’, May 12 2009
Tags: Concentration Camps, Crimes Against Humanity in Sri Lanka, Genocide, Government of Sri Lanka, Humanitarian Aid Sri Lanka, Internment Camps, Mass Murder, Responsibility to Protect - Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan Civil War, Sri Lankan Internment Camps, Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil Community, UN Security Council Responsibility to Protect, War Crimes in Sri Lanka
May 17th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
[...] A UN Mandated Force Needs to be on the Ground in Sri Lanka [...]
May 17th, 2009 at 11:56 pm
1. Sri Lanka already committed humanity and war crimes? Where have you been getting your information from? from the a terrorist group website? This statement is like saying that America is committing humanity and war crimes against the Taliban!
Have you seen the plight of the people who were held hostage just for the protection of the tamil tiger leader? have you heard what they have to say? and why was the LTTE holding civillians as hostage to protect their leaders? because they know that the Sri Lanka Army will not fire at the civillians and therefore the LTTE leaders will be safe where they are. And so, instead of firing at the civillians who were held hostage, the Sri Lanka Army began its mission rescuing these persons before moving forward to vanquish this inhuman, ruthless terrorist organization.
I think you have got the definitions of ‘crimes against humanity and war’ messed up – Big Time!
LTTE and Tamils are not the same. The LTTE are terrorists, but the Tamil-sri Lankans are citizens of Sri Lanka, a minority community, but they are Sri Lankans and they are harmless innocent people. Do not speak of Tamils and the Terrorist group LTTE (Tamil Tiger Rebels – as you call them) alike.
May 18th, 2009 at 11:16 am
TM – You’ll note I speak about my concern for Tamil people, from a place with free press, where my news is not censored.
I am well aware that the LTTE and the Tamil people are very different and only wish Sri Lankan soliders and political leaders would see this too.
May 21st, 2009 at 7:01 am
GREAT JOB, MR. LAFORET.I’m a Sinhalese woman,myself and i find it great to see objective standpoints of non-partisan parties commenting on a humanitarian catastrophe as large and heinous as the one occuring,even as we speak,in SL.I grew up in SL and had seen the many atrocities happen to my Tamil friends and their relatives by the SL military authorized by the Sinhalese dominated oppressive SL government.I was only spared from those same atrocities to which i lost a few great friends (R.I.P.) by virtue of me being Sinhalese.I agree with you that the UN,the international community,and more especially,PM Harper needs to step in and place pressure on the SL government to allow the said agencies in.Great blog, and keep up the great work.(fyi-u will probably get a lot of my fellow Sinhalese counterparts criticizing your blog and ur view, but take that with a grain of salt,bc they may stomp their feet and yell and scream,but I,along with like minded,rational,moral and humanitarian people like you will continue to support and achieve true peace for Tamils in SL).thank u.
IN SOLIDARITY!!!!!
May 26th, 2009 at 6:06 am
It is not hard to surmise what is happening in the camps, aside form the government’s logistical inability to deal with 280,000 people.
You only have to ask what the government is trying to hide in not letting the Red Cross, the UNHCR and indiependent journalists have access.
The worst case scenario is that anyone who is in the right age range to have been a Tamil Tiger fighter is being separated out. Some will be sent for rehabilitation and will be seen by the world. Others may suffer the fate of the ‘disappeared’ of Sri Lanka’s recent history. I know of people whose relatives have disappered without trace – both Sinhala and Tamil – having been arrested by the police.
And if enough younger Tamil people are removed the ‘minority’ question in Sri Lanka will be solved – there will be so few Tamils left that the Sinhalese can colonise former Tamil majority areas.
Already in the east coast Army camps by the side of roads have thier Buddha statues errected, and temples established.
You are right to call for a UN presence.