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INTERFAITH INTERNATIONAL NGO with UN ECOSOC consultative status Special session of the UN Human Rights Council on Sri Lanka – 27 May 2009 On 27 May 2009, Interfaith International issued a statement during the Human Rights Council’s Special session on Sri Lanka of the UN Human Rights Council, as did IMADR, ASIA Forum, Human Rights , Amnesty International. Oral intervention made by Visuvalingam KIRUPAHARAN Distinguished President, Members, delegates, ladies and gentlemen, Interfaith International would like to thank the countries that have called for this Special Session. For many years this august forum, the former Human Rights Commission and Sub-Commission as well as other UN Human Rights forums have heard ample statements and received many reports on the ongoing war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against the Tamil people in Sri Lanka. Mainly NGOs, many experts and some states have consistently spoken out. This special session has been called after the cold-blooded massacre of more than twenty thousand civilians in several days. Today, where are those who survived? They are in concentration camps, far away from their habitual residence, surrounded by razor barbed wire and without food, medicine nor freedom of movement. It is now more than a week since these killings took place and international agencies and observers are still not permitted to enter this area. In fact, Sri Lanka is in the process of clearing away the evidence in the same way, as it did before in various parts of the North and East, including where 600 Tamils were disappeared and killed by the Sri Lankan security forces in the area called Chemmani in Jaffna. Mr President, Jus in Bellum, or the laws of right conduct in war – has been flagrantly and consistently breached by Sri Lanka - the 1949 Geneva Conventions, its protocols of 1977, as well as the Hague Conventions. Sri Lanka’s war crimes and genocide against the Tamil people have been well documented - with unequivocal corroborative evidence - for a very long time. Since 2006, the request for an International Monitoring body by two High Commissioners for Human Rights and other international actors has never been accepted by Sri Lanka. The substitute proposed by Sri Lanka, the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons - IIEGP, which was described as a whitewash by NGOs, quit the country on 06 March 2008. The Ceasefire Agreement of 2002 was unilaterally and arbitrarily abrogated by the Sri Lanka government on 03 January 2008. International NGOs and other institutions which were in the area of conflict were ordered to leave in September 2008. Mr President, These facts are themselves proof that the actions taken by the Sri Lanka security forces against the Tamil people, were very well-planned and carried out purely on an ethnic basis. It also demonstrates the persistent focus on a military solution and the absolute denial of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the Tamil people. We take this opportunity to inform this august forum that some civilians and two peace emissaries -unarmed combatants carrying white flags, went to meet the Sri Lankan military, through international arrangements, and were executed in cold blood by the Sri Lankan army. Under Hague IV*, it is forbidden to kill those who have laid down arms, and those who have been authorised to enter into communication, (regarded as parlementaires), advancing with a white flag, have a right to inviolability. Therefore Interfaith International strongly recommends this august forum, your Excellencies, all countries who are in favour of Human Rights – to establish an independent investigation into the war crimes and crimes against humanity, committed against the Tamil people, as has been done in other countries, where similar situations have prevailed, and to send a mission immediately to the area to report back to the 12th session of the Human Rights Council. Thank you, Mr President. *Hague IV, Regulations respecting the laws and customs of war on land - Section II, - Chapter 1, Article 23 (c) and Chapter 3, Article 32. |