Last week there were two important events organized by civil society organizations. One was the 20th anniversary of the establishment of Families of the Disappeared. This organization was formed during the period of the JVP insurrection in 1988-89. During that period tens of thousands died, with many thousands simply disappearing. Nearly all of them were Sinhalese people. Along with the killings and disappearances associated with the JVP insurrection, the separatist campaign of the LTTE led to other killings and disappearances, also in their tens of thousands which continued in large numbers until the end of the war last year. The other event that was organized was by the Erukkalampiddy Renaissance Society and the All Ceylon Muslim League Youth Front. They were commemorating the 20th anniversary of the expulsion of the Muslim population of the North by the LTTE.
Of the two events both commemorating tragic incidents, the Muslim event was by far the more hopeful one. Present on the occasion were Muslim ministers of the government such as Rishard Budurdeen and civic activists and university academics such as Dr S H Hasbullah. Giving hope was the presence with them of young schoolchildren who, while being children of those displaced, were now performing well in their schools and had won prizes for their efforts. Also present was the Iranian ambassador in Sri Lanka who expressed his country’s solidarity those who had been displaced, with the larger Muslim community in Sri Lanka, and with the country as a whole, to whose economic development Iran was contributing substantially. The ambassador’s speech was gracious and he made a token demonstration of Iran’s commitment by gifting school equipment and a financial contribution to the schoolchildren of Erukkalampiddy.
But these hopeful aspects of the commemorative ceremony apart, the ground reality is that only a relatively small proportion of the displaced Muslim population has been able to go back to their original places of residence. The end of the war a year and a half ago has opened the door to the resettlement of those people but it is also the case that the majority of them still do not feel capacitated to go back to their homes. Those who go back need to be able to deal with property disputes that will invariably arise from their absence from their homes for so long. They also need resources to reconstruct their homes, which are shells of what they once were. All of this requires the resources and commitment of the government. The commemoration event highlighted these and other unresolved problems that the displaced Muslim population continues to suffer from.
DIFFERENT PRIORITIES
The government’s priorities, however, lie elsewhere. The massive mismatch in the government’s proposed budget for 2011 which allocates Rs 215 billion to defence and a mere Rs 1.7 billion to resettlement highlights one aspect of the problem. Another aspect of the problem is that both the government and international community have focused their attention on the much worse plight of the displaced Tamil population who were caught up in the midst of the last battles between government forces and the LTTE. Some of these people were displaced on multiple occasions. The plight of those displaced people is urgent and immense as they try to fend for themselves in temporary shelters in rural areas that have turned into jungle where they are now resettling with very limited resources. While the displaced Muslim people can understand this situation, it does not lessen their own problems or desire for their own resettlement. The end of the war that seemed so promising in terms of the peace dividend it could bring to them, still remains to be realized.
Unfortunately, the plight of those who have disappeared and their families who are left behind is even worse. The commemoration organized by the Families of the Disappeared was a more sad and somber one led by human rights activists of long standing such as Britto Fenando, Nimalka Fernando and Ruki Fernando. There were no powerful speeches nor were there children with a future to look forward to with brightness in the eye. Instead there were testimonies by mothers who had lost their sons and wives who had lost their husbands. One of those who spoke was the wife of a missing journalist, whose disappearance just prior to the Presidential election sent a chilling message to all public commentators of what their fate could be, and how the system of impunity could rise above the system of police and law and order. Videos were also shown of relatives of the missing trying to locate their loved ones and the tears of children awaiting the return of their fathers.
There were no government members at this commemoration and no foreign ambassadors who spoke or even present. This was ironic, as during the 1988-89 phase when a wave of disappearances affected the Sinhalese people, President Mahinda Rajapaksa was a doughty champion of the disappeared as an opposition parliamentarian. Sri Lanka can be justifiably proud of the actions of its human rights activists, including President Rajapaksa twenty years ago, to have contributed to the global effort to prevent disappearances and to compensate those who have been victims. A booklet released at the event highlighted the option presented by the International Covenant for the Protection of All Persons against Enforced Disappearance, which is part and parcel of that effort.
RATIFY COVENANT
The Covenant against Enforced Disappearances makes a blanket prohibition against them and declares that widespread or systematic use of disappearances is a crime against humanity. It states that no circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or threat of war, internal political stability or any other public emergency may be invoked as a justification for enforced disappearances. It declares that states are responsible for investigation, prosecution and reparations when its citizens disappear. It also calls on the state to put in place the legal and institutional reforms necessary to fulfill its obligations to justice and provide information and redress to the families of victims. Due to the seriousness of the problem, in 1992 the UN General Assembly unanimously adopted the UN Declaration for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. This was upgraded in 2006 by the UN General Assembly into a Convention that will have the status of legally binding states that ratify it. Although over 80 states have signed it, 20 states need to also ratify it as part of their law for the Convention to enter into force.
The comprehensive defeat and elimination of the LTTE and associated terrorism would seem to be the best opportunity that Sri Lanka has had in a long while to put its grim and violent past behind it for all time. In 1989 when the JVP was defeated, it did not mean the end of terrorism and war, for that continued with the LTTE. This made it difficult for successive governments to close the chapter on repressive security focused laws and violent means of conflict resolution as these were necessary to cope with the LTTE’s challenge to the Sri Lankan state and its people. However, today, neither the JVP nor the LTTE exist as armed and militant forces. The government takes justifiable pride that the LTTE is completely destroyed on the ground, while the JVP has eschewed armed militancy for the past two decades and instead devoted itself to democratic party politics. In today’s context, therefore, there is the real possibility to close the chapter on the past and to move on. There is no more need for the country to be governed by Emergency Regulations which have to be ratified on a monthly basis in Parliament or resort to anti-terrorism laws.
In addition, the country is in a position to devote much more of its resources to compensating and rebuilding the lives of all its people, Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim, who have suffered from the failure of successive governments to provide them with a safe and law abiding environment in which they and their children could live. The resettlement of all the war displaced and ascertaining the fate of all who went missing can be done to heal the wounds of the past. The material and psychological damage suffered by people belonging to all of Sri Lanka’s communities can be dealt with on a priority basis now that the war and terrorism is over. The sittings of the Commission on Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation appointed by President Rajapaksa can go part of the way in this healing direction. The government could also consider signing the UN Convention of Enforced Disappearances and ratifying it as a sign that the past is over and a new future in which conflicts are resolved through political and democratic means is assured.
