An Outlook in Succinct:
Sri Lanka’s rush to apply South African model of TRC to resolve decades long oppression of Tamil people is another ruse to elude international community, especially when forthcoming UNHRC sessions are reaching at a crucial state on its action for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide of Tamil people. If this model is applied, it will enable Sri Lanka to continue its seventy years of impunity to perpetrators of gross human right violations.
The subterfuges of Sri Lankan state of this nature to are not new to those who have known Sri Lanka’s political history, especially when it comes to protect perpetrators of atrocity crimes of those in ropes and uniform. Its history of the “culture of impunity” and its inclination to protect chauvinistic Buddhist clergies is self-explanatory.
While the world at large sympathises on Sri Lanka’s self-inflicted economic plunge, what the international community fails to comprehend is that the Tamil people in the island are being subjected to the double-edged sword of economic strangulation as well as the on-going premeditated oppression.
Concentrated militarisation (16 out of 19 divisions of defence personal are based in Tamil Homeland), destruction of Tamil heritages, proliferation of Buddhist temples in places of historical Hindu temples, land-grabbing of Tamil peasants, destabilisation of Tamil peoples’ livelihood, antagonising Tamil people in their homeland etc. are still unending dilemmas in the island and they all are swept under the carpet of Sri Lanka’s economic crisis.
It must be noted that it is the Tamil people who are still escaping from Sri Lanka to other countries in small boats risking their lives, it is the Tamil people who are landing in India in fishing boats, and it is the Tamil people, who still seek refugee status in western countries not for economic prosperity as it is generally portrayed by western countries, but for escaping atrocities inflicted on them. It is not the Sinhalese people who risk their life in that manner as their prosperity in the island is always granted. The international community must rationalise this unequivocally.
It is also imperative to understand that the judiciary system in Sri Lanka is not independent but politically adulterated. The victim community receives no fair trial. The draconian law of Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act 1979, having severe criticism from several UN mechanisms, member states, NGOs and international organisations continue to be unleashed against dissenting voices.
To cover up the historic impunity Sri Lankan governments used to form commissions and inquiries to drag the burning issues and exhaust until the atrocity crimes are forgotten and kicked in the long grass.
Despite of all the above, Sri Lanka’s two ministers had paid a visit to meet the South African President making a propaganda that it would study how South Africa’s TRC model could be applied to resolve the ethnic problem in Sri Lanka.
Such an attempt is nothing other than a hoax, merely to hoodwink the international community, especially the countries that are going to make crucial UNHRC decisions in forthcoming UNHRC sessions.
We, the British Tamils Forum (BTF), would therefore draw the following to the international community’s attention and warn them to act rationally and not to be caught by the gambit staged by the Sri Lankan state to protect its perpetrators of the war crimes, the crime against humanity and the genocide.
A Potential Upshot on TRC – South Africa vs Sri Lanka
| South Africa | Sri Lanka |
| Oppressors:· Minority White.· Accepted their wrongdoing.· Gave up their oppressed rule over the majority citizen. Oppressed:· Majority Indigenous non-white Native South Africans.· Consented for TRC upon oppressors’ acceptance of their wrongdoing.· Became the ruler of the nation fulfilling their aspirations to live with the right to self-determination. Outcome:· The rulers changed. · Oppressed became the rulers.· The political structure and the governing system were completely changed.· The people of the land live in peace and harmony.· TRC prevails. | Oppressors:· Majority Sinhalese.· Never accepted their wrongdoing.· Treat non-Sinhalese with “them and us” attitude.· Infliction of oppression on Tamil people continues despite of the decline of its economy.· Continues to deploy concentrated military forces in oppressed homelands.· Destruction of oppressed (Tamil’s) heritage continues. Oppressed:· The enduring psychological scar of the atrocity crimes inflicted on them persist.· Continuing cycles of violence has gone from endurance to acrimony. · The resentment cannot be consoled with conciliation process.· No system changes. Possible Outcome:· Oppressed will remain oppressed.· Oppressor will get recognition for the atrocity crimes that it inflicted on the oppressed with total disregard for international human rights laws.· The atrocity crimes of the oppressors will continue.· The oppressed will cease to exist in future. |
| Conclusion:· There is no basis for the Sri Lankan government to consider that the South African TRC model will fit for the purpose of acknowledging Tamil peoples’ legitimate aspirations and ensure non recurrence by restructuring the failed state for a peaceful coexistence of all in the island.· Sri Lanka knows very well that TRC will not resolve the ethnic issue in the island.· The international community must understand this clearly and must not be cheated by its trick of delaying or eradicating the commitments of the UNHRC’s Resolutions.· Creating a scenario of discussing with the President of South Africa is merely to delude the international community.· The way forward is to establish an International Criminal Justice Mechanism without further delay. |
In South Africa the majority who took over from their oppressors could be magnanimous; in Sri Lanka the oppressors remain in power after eliminating those standing up for the Tamils in bloody atrocities.
Reference:
· TWENTY YEARS OF MAKE-BELIEVE SRI LANKA’S COMMISSIONS OF INQUIRY
A LEGACY TO REMEMBER; SRI LANKA’S COMMISSIONS OF INQUIRY
https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/39530093/sri-lankas-commissions-of-inquiry-law-society-trust
· A Commentary on the Presidential Commission of Inquiry and the Special Presidential Commission of Inquiry on Political Victimization, Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA)
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.cpalanka.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Finalized-doc-CoI-SPCoI-on-Political-Victimization.pdf
Despite of many more committees formed by the Sri Lankan government, they were all fake and falsehood. Especially designed to deceive the international community with ulterior motives.
