[This is a summary of the comments made by Col Hariharan in TV discussions and to print media on February 20 to 22, 2013.]
On photographs
showing Prabhakaran’s son’s death
On the eve of
the release of a full length film on Sri Lanka’s alleged war crimes, the
British daily the Independent carried an article along with two photographs
showing Prabhakaran’s son eating a snack before his Sri Lankan captors
allegedly shot him dead in cold blood. This serious allegation pertaining to a
war India supported. It is about a brutal and heinous act by a state with very
friendly to India. So apart from humanitarian concerns, India in its own
interest, needs to get the allegations investigated impartially. If proved true
it will undoubtedly be considered a war crime committed by Sri Lanka.
For the last
four years these allegations have been coming up in public domain one after the
other. Undoubtedly, it is a part of a global campaign by Tamils and
international civil society groups to bring to book the alleged perpetrators of
war crimes during the Eelam War in which thousands of civilians died. But there
is nothing wrong in it because that in no way lessens the seriousness of the
allegations or the magnitude of the crimes. So they cannot be ignored on this
count.
The UN after
a preliminary examination of the allegations discussed the subject with the Sri
Lanka government both on one to one basis as well as in UN Human Rights Council
(UNHRC). As a result of these efforts Sri Lanka President appointed the Lessons
Learnt and Recommendations Commission (LLRC) and assured its recommendations
would be implemented. However, the promised implementation of the LLRC
recommendations is unsatisfactory and incomplete. So the UNHRC last year passed
a U.S. sponsored resolution seeking accountability from Sri Lanka in
implementing the recommendations. And India for the first time supported the
U.S. move and voted for the resolution. Sri Lanka’s progress on the subject is
due for review at the UNHRC meeting in March 2013.
To summarise,
during the last three years the UN and international community particularly
India and the U.S. had given enough opportunity for Sri Lanka to investigate
and take follow up actions on these serious allegations through a transparent
process. Sri Lanka has not only not implemented LLRC recommendation but
maintains it is purely an internal matter. It is steadfast in saying these
false allegations are part of an international conspiracy to denigrate Sri
Lanka and downgrade the achievement of Sri Lanka army in defeating the LTTE. Time
has come for carrying out an international inquiry under UN auspices to
establish the veracity of the allegations.
On Tamil Nadu
Chief Minister’s response
The lack of
positive response from Sri Lanka to Tamil concerns in the post war period has
distressed Tamils everywhere. This turned to anger when increasing number
allegations of atrocities against Tamil prisoners and population with telling
visuals started surfacing one after the other.
Tamil Nadu
political leaders have been expressing their views on these issues reflecting
popular sentiments in their political statements. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Ms
J Jayalalithaa during and after her AIADMK party’s thumping victory in the
state elections had been demanding that India pressurize Sri Lanka by applying
trade sanctions and initiate international action to bring to book those Sri
Lankans including President Rajapaksa for involvement in heinous crimes
including mass killing of Tamils. The governor’s address in Tamil Nadu Assembly
specifically reiterated the demand for trade sanction.
The pictures
of Prabhakaran’s son Balachandran’s brutal killing in Sri Lankan custody has turned
the simmering anger to rage in Tamil Nadu and triggered a wave of protests. Ms
Jayalalithaa has reiterated that New Delhi must tackle this with the seriousness
it deserves and wanted India to join hands with the U.S. to initiate action to
bring the culprits of Sri Lanka before international criminal court. She has
also announced that Tamil Nadu will not be able to host the 20th
Asian Athletic Championships (20th AAC) scheduled to be held in July
2013 as “there was no place for Sri Lankan athletes in the State.”
Her actions
and requests to New Delhi for specific actions like trade ban which fall in the
central domain should not be trivialized because they reflect the feelings of
most of the people of the state. Her decision not to host 20th AAC in
a way regrettable because athletics has no borders and it promotes goodwill. In
spite of this, I welcome her action because it sends a strong message to the
people of India and Sri Lanka that Tamil Nadu’s serious concerns on the
handling of Tamil concerns by both India and Sri Lanka.
However, I
have my reservations on implementing other actions. India enjoys very close
relations with Sri Lanka. So far India had brought its concerns to Sri Lanka’s
attention at the highest levels on one to one basis. These efforts have been
put paid because President Rajapaksa has political reservations about
implementing his promises to India on devolution of powers to Tamils. In fact
there had been little progress on many other issues relating to Tamils.
So time has
come for Indian Prime Minister to publicly announce India’s unhappiness over
the way Sri Lanka has conducted itself in the post war period. And specifically
it should speed up devolution of powers to Tamils, investigate all allegations
of war crimes and human rights violations by cleaning up issues of governance, and
implement all the recommendations of the LLRC. Otherwise India will be
constrained to take action both at the national and international level. This
can include bringing up the issue at the UNHRC and participation in the next
Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting to be hosted by Sri Lanka. This will
make it clear to the Sri Lanka government and people as well as people of India
including Tamil Nadu, that India is contemplating a series of actions if Sri
Lanka ignores its concerns.
After that
India’s approach should be to progressively bring pressure on Sri Lanka rather
than taking drastic actions like imposing trade sanctions which would harm India
and specifically Tamil Nadu more than Sri Lanka. For initiating action in the
International Criminal Court, a lot of preliminary action will be required like
collection of evidence, establishing identity of victims and witnesses and
recording statements, to establish prima facie case on involvement of specific
persons. It can take years. This is not practicable as Sri Lanka’s cooperation
at certain level is essential.
So India
should join Britain, Canada and the EU in supporting the suggestion of Mrs Navi
Pillay for an international inquiry under UN auspices to look into allegations
of Sri Lanka war crimes and human rights violations. This will require Sri
Lanka’s cooperation for its successful conduct.
It should not
be forgotten that Sri Lanka has an elected government which has Tamil members
in bureaucracy and parliament. So it is important that India joins
international community in addressing Sri Lanka polity to support their moves
and that it was not intended at penalizing the people of Sri Lanka. For the
same reason, Tamil Nadu should not ban or cause any harm to visiting pilgrims
and ordinary people of Sri Lanka; in fact they should briefed of the concerns
of Tamil Nadu through appropriate means.
On LTTE also
committing such crimes
This is not
the issue relating to allegations of war crimes by Sri Lanka. Yes; LTTE had
also committed such heinous crimes. But LTTE has been eliminated and Sri Lanka
is planning to prosecute LTTE cadres short listed in its custody for
perpetrating heinous crimes. Secondly, this is not a zero sum game; it relates
to a state violating its own laws on issues of international concern. On the
other hand LTTE was a terrorist organization operating outside the norms of an
organized state. So there is no comparison between the two entities.
On Indian
action impacting its strategic interests
It is true
that China and Sri Lanka enjoy close, multifaceted relations. However, this cannot
be the sole consideration for our Sri Lanka foreign policy formulation. On the
other hand, India and China also are fairly successful in building a win-win
relationship. And Sri Lanka knows it; it also knows that it is in its own
interest that India-China relations are smooth and not jeopardized. So even if
Sri Lankan politicians talk of playing the China card, there are practical
limitations in implementing it due to India’s strategic domination of Sri
Lanka. Probably China also knows this.
(Col R Hariharan,
a retired Military Intelligence specialist on South Asia, served with the
Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka as Head of Intelligence. He is associated
with the Chennai Centre for China Studies and the South Asia Analysis Group.
E-Mail: colhari@yahoo.com)
1 comment:
From the developments on Sri Lanks for the past three years it is clear that the root cause for the birth of Tamil Terrorisom is persisting and perhaps has gone from bad to worse.There is a polarization in the form of two different nations of Tamil and Sinhala.It would be in the statigic interests of India that it meet the aspirations of Sri Lankan Tamils in the formation of their own Nation encompassing their traditional homeland .Can Col Hariharan react on that?
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