War crimes committed during the Sri Lankan civil war
War crimes during the final stages of the Sri Lankan civil war are war crimes and crimes against humanity which the Sri Lanka Armed Forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Tamil Tigers) have been accused of committing during the final months of the Sri Lankan civil war in 2009. The war crimes include attacks on civilians and civilian buildings by both sides; executions of combatants and prisoners by both sides; enforced disappearances by the Sri Lankan military and paramilitary groups backed by them; sexual violence by the Sri Lankan military; the systematic denial of food, medicine, and clean water by the government to civilians trapped in the war zone; child recruitment, hostage taking, use of military equipment in the proximity of civilians and use of forced labor by the Tamil Tigers.
A panel of experts appointed by United Nations Secretary-General (UNSG) Ban Ki-moon to advise him on the issue of accountability with regard to any alleged violations of international human rights and humanitarian law during the final stages of the civil war found "credible allegations" which, if proven, indicated that war crimes and crimes against humanity were committed by the Sri Lankan military and the Tamil Tigers. It also found that as many as 40,000 Tamil civilians may have been killed in the final months of the civil war, a large majority as a result of indiscriminate shelling by the Sri Lankan Army. The panel has called on the UNSG to conduct an independent international inquiry into the alleged violations of international law and suspects prosecuted.
War crimes are prohibited by the Geneva Conventions, of which Sri Lanka is a signatory. In 2002 the International Criminal Court (ICC) was created by the Rome Statute to prosecute individuals for serious crimes, such as war crimes. Sri Lanka is not a signatory of the Rome Statute, so it is only possible for the ICC to investigate and prosecute war crimes in Sri Lanka if the UN Security Council were to refer Sri Lanka to the ICC. Formal Security Council involvement in the case of Sri Lanka, was opposed by the veto members Russia and China, as well as India among other council members. The UN Secretary-General called the Government of Sri Lanka to "respond constructively to the report" and stated that it is important that Sri Lanka set up its own probe for "genuine investigations" into the civil war actions.
The Sri Lankan government has denied that its forces committed any war crimes and has strongly opposed any international investigation. In March 2014 the United Nations Human Rights Council authorised an international investigation into the alleged war crimes.
On 21 March 2019 Sri Lanka co-sponsored a resolution made by the UN giving the country a 2-year deadline to establish a judicial mechanism to assess violation of humanitarian international law committed during the civil war.
Background.
The Tamil Tigers had been waging a full-scale war for an independent state of Tamil Eelam in the North and East of Sri Lanka since 1983. After the failure of the Norwegian mediated peace process in 2006 the Sri Lankan military launched offensives aimed at recapturing territory controlled by the Tamil Tigers. By July 2007 the military had recaptured all of the east. The military offensive in the north escalated in October 2008 as the Sri Lankan military attacked the Vanni heartland of the Tamil Tigers. After successive defeats the Tamil Tigers were forced to retreat to the north-east coast in Mullaitivu District. The civilian population of the Vanni also fled. The Sri Lankan government and human rights organisations have alleged that the civilians were forced to do so by the Tamil Tigers. By January 2009 the Tamil Tigers and the civilians were trapped in a small piece of land on the north-east coast.
According to the Sri Lankan the purpose of the "Safe Zone" was to allow the trapped civilians to cross into territory controlled by the military. However, very few civilians actually crossed into the military territory. The Sri Lankan military, UN and human rights organisations accused the Tamil Tigers of preventing the civilians from leaving.
The fighting between the military and the Tamil Tigers continued, causing the civilians to flee from the "Safe Zone" to a narrow strip of land between Nanthi Kadal lagoon and the Indian Ocean. On 12 February 2009 the military declared a new "Safe Zone" in this area, north-west of Mullaitivu town. Over the next three months a brutal siege of the "Safe Zone" or "No-Fire-Zones" (NFZ) occurred as the military allegedly blitzed by land and air the last remnants of Tamil Tigers trapped in the "Safe Zone". Satellite images of the "Safe Zone" published by the UN, foreign governments and scientific organisations showed heavy damage that could have only been caused by bombardment. There is credible evidence that the LTTE itself wanted to deliberately create a humanitarian disaster.
Inevitably many thousands of civilians were killed or injured. A United Nations panel in 2011 found that as many as 40,000 Tamil civilians may have been killed in the final months of the civil war.
The UN, based on credible witness evidence from aid agencies as well civilians evacuated from the "Safe Zone" by sea, estimated that 6,500 civilians were killed and another 14,000 injured between mid-January, when the "Safe Zone" was first declared, and mid-April. There are no official casualty figures after this period but a report in The Times claims that civilian deaths increased to an average of 1,000 per day after mid-April 2009. The UN at the time had refused to confirm the Times' allegations. Older estimates of the death toll dating from May 2009 for the final four months of the civil war (mid-January to mid-May) range from 15,000 to 20,000.
A US State Department report has suggested that the actual casualty figures were probably much higher than these older UN's estimates and that significant numbers of casualties were not recorded. However, a study by the Sinhalese run Marga Institute of Sri Lanka arrives at a much lower figure, below 10,000. Lord Naseby using information obtained using the right to information, British diplomatic cables etc., also claimed that about 7000 deaths could have occurred. However, human rights groups accuse Lord Naseby of purposely distorting a snapshot of figures gathered by the UN in 2009, which contradict the later and more thorough investigation undertaken by the United Nations panel in 2011 which found that as many as 40,000 Tamil civilians may have been killed in the final months of the civil war. In 2014, the Daily Telegraph's chief political commentator Peter Oborne described Lord Naseby as an apologist for the Sri Lankan government, who had given misleading and inaccurate statements about the war.
As the civil war began to wind down in late April/early May the number of civilians leaving the "Safe Zone" increased substantially. On 19 May the Sri Lankan government declared victory.
After the end of the war a number of countries and human rights organisations called for an independent investigation into the final stages of the civil war, which has been consistently refused by the Sri Lankan government.
Accusations.
International organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have accused both sides in Sri Lanka's long-running conflict of deliberately putting civilians at risk to pursue military objectives. Nearly 70,000 people were displaced due to aerial bombardment and artillery attacks by government forces in Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi, the organisations said. And in the LTTE-controlled Vanni area, the Tigers have hindered thousands of families from moving to safer places by imposing a strict pass system and, in some instances, forcing some family members to stay behind to ensure the return of the rest of the family. These measures seem designed in part to use civilians as a buffer against government forces – a serious violation of international humanitarian law. "Both sides to this long conflict have again shown that they will jeopardise the lives of thousands of ordinary people in the pursuit of military objectives," said Amnesty International spokesperson Yolanda Foster. "In the absence of independent international monitors, Sri Lankan civilians lack protection and remain at the mercy of two forces with long records of abuse." Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Rights Watch said "The LTTE claims to be fighting for the Tamil people, but it is responsible for much of the suffering of civilians in the Vanni. As the LTTE loses ground to advancing government forces, their treatment of the very people they say they are fighting for is getting worse. By refusing to allow people their basic rights to freedom of movement, the LTTE has trapped hundreds of thousands of civilians in a dangerous war zone. Trapped in the LTTE's iron fist, ordinary Tamils are forcibly recruited as fighters and forced to engage in dangerous labor near the front lines".
The Sri Lankan government has vehemently rejected all claims that its forces committed war crimes. In a June 2010 speech, President Rajapaksa insisted that his soldiers did not kill a single civilian. "Our troops carried a gun in one hand and a copy of the human rights charter in the other," the president said. These statements are at odds with multiple independent sources; the United Nations itself has said that at least 7,000 ethnic Tamil civilians died in the first four months of last year, just before the government claimed final victory over the Tigers, and high-level United States officials have said, "The US has strong, credible allegations of evidence of atrocities during the prosecution of the war against the Tamil Tigers."
United Nations.
11th special session of the UN Human Rights Council.
At the 11th special session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in May 2009 seventeen countries attempted to get the UNHRC to investigate war crimes in Sri Lanka. They put forward a resolution that deplored abuses by both the Sri Lankan government forces and the Tamil Tigers, urged the government to co-operate fully with humanitarian organisations and to provide protection to civilians and displaced persons, and made an appeal to the Sri Lankan government to respect media freedom and investigate attacks against journalists and human rights defenders. This was thwarted after the Sri Lankan government received support from China, Russia, India and developing countries. The UNHRC instead passed resolution S-11/1 on 27 May 2009 which commended the Sri Lankan government's actions, condemned the Tamil Tigers and ignored allegations of violations of human rights and humanitarian law by government forces. This resolution was passed by 29 votes to 12 votes with 6 abstentions.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
On 25 October 2009 the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights called for an independent, international investigation of possible war crimes committed during the last few months of the war in Sri Lanka.
UN Secretary – General's advisory panel.
In June 2010 UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed a three-member panel of experts to advise him on whether war crimes were committed in the final stages of the civil war. The panel consisted of Marzuki Darusman (Indonesia – chair), Steven Ratner (USA) and Yasmin Sooka (South Africa). The panel looked into "accountability with regard to any alleged violations of international human rights and humanitarian law" and whether the commitment on "human rights accountability" given by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to Ban Ki-moon has been implemented. The panel examined "the modalities, applicable international standards and comparative experience with regard to accountability processes, taking into account the nature and scope of any alleged violations in Sri Lanka".
The Sri Lankan government reacted angrily to the panel's appointment, calling it "an unwarranted and unnecessary interference with a sovereign nation". It stated that the panel would not be allowed to enter Sri Lanka, a move criticised by Darusman. The panel's appointment was welcomed by the United States and EU but criticised by Russia and China. The panel met for the first time on 19 July 2010.
On 12 April 2011 the panel handed over its report, the "Report of the Secretary-General's Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka", to the Secretary-General who passed on a copy to the Sri Lankan government. The Sri Lankan government immediately rejected the report as "fundamentally flawed" and "patently biased". The report was not initially made public to allow the Sri Lankan government time to make a formal reply. On 16 April 2011 the report was published