Today we mark the 15th anniversary of the bloody end of Sri Lanka’s three-decade civil war. This anniversary comes at a critical historical moment, amid the humanitarian catastrophe triggered by the Israeli attack on Gaza.
The global response to Gaza, across many states, peoples and international institutions, shows that there is a strong desire to uphold international standards for the protection of civilians and a strong desire to address underlying political injustices. underlying issues of the conflict itself, rather than seeing it simply as a security and terrorism problem. The international inability to translate this will into concrete action is appalling but unfortunately not unprecedented.
The State of Sri Lanka, 15 years after the end of armed conflict, shows what happens when mass atrocities go unaddressed and the political divides that led to them remain unresolved and are arguably exacerbated. There are also striking and unavoidable similarities between the events still unfolding in Gaza and those that took place in the Vanni, the northern region of Sri Lanka where the war ended.
In the final months of the conflict, the Sri Lankan army besieged and bombarded a civilian population of 330,000 as well as around 5,000 Tamil Tiger fighters, herding them onto increasingly thin strips of land in the Vanni . The offensive was brutal and unconstrained. It destroyed and defeated the Tamil Tiger armed group, the LTTE, but also raged against international humanitarian law, the laws of war and basic norms of protection of civilians.
The Sri Lankan army bombed and bombarded food distribution centers, hospitals and civilian shelters despite having received precise coordinates of these from the United Nations and the International Committee of the Cross. Red. He ordered civilians into increasingly smaller “no-fire” zones, which he would then relentlessly attack with unguided artillery shells and multi-barrel rocket launchers, firing hundreds, even thousands of shells per day.
The last of the fire-free zones was only 2 to 3 square kilometers and the death toll often reached 1,000 civilians per day, sometimes more. Sri Lanka has also limited the supply of food and essential medicines, including anesthetics, in a bid to deepen and exacerbate humanitarian distress.
Subsequent UN investigations concluded that the Sri Lankan military campaign amounted to “persecution of the Vanni population”. At least 40,000 people are believed to have been killed in the fighting, but some estimates based on population figures suggest the death toll could be as high as 169,000.
At the end of the war, Sri Lankan authorities summarily executed LTTE cadres and others who had surrendered and herded remaining civilians into internment camps surrounded by barbed wire, allegedly to “treat” them. . The government only released them after immense international pressure.
Sri Lanka justified its campaign as the only way to defeat “terrorism” and proclaimed its “victory” over the LTTE as a military model that other countries could follow. He has consistently and vehemently rejected international demands for meaningful accountability and has also refused to implement policy changes that would ensure true political equality for Tamils and address the root causes of the conflict.
However, Sri Lanka’s trajectory after 2009 shows that mass atrocities and the “victory” they achieve lead to consequences that reverberate and not only on the Tamil population. After the end of the war, Sri Lanka simply increased its repression against the Tamils.
The high-intensity bombing escalated into a stifling and widespread de facto military occupation that continues to this day. Five of the army’s seven regional commands are stationed in the northern and eastern provinces, and in some districts there is one soldier for every two civilians.
The army is also participating in the ongoing process of “Sinhalization” and “Buddhization” of the northeast. Military personnel accompany Buddhist monks and Sinhalese settlers as they violently seize Tamil lands and places of worship so that they can be converted into Sinhalese lands.
Finally, military personnel exercise constant surveillance of daily Tamil social, cultural and political activities, which has a chilling effect on daily life and makes any discussion of “reconciliation” or even a return to “normal” meaningless. “.
However, the Tamils in the former war zones and the now numerous diaspora did not allow themselves to be intimidated. They worked to keep the fight for justice and accountability alive. These efforts have kept Sri Lanka on the back foot internationally with repeated UN investigations and resolutions at the UN Human Rights Council. Sri Lankan officials must also live with the ever-present danger of sanctions and possible prosecution for their involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The war and its aftermath empowered the Rajapaksa family and their unvarnished form of Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism. From 2005 to 2022, they dominated the Sinhalese electorate, hailed as the leaders who finally defeated Tamil separatists. Yet their reckless and nepotistic approach to economics and international politics has led to financial ruin and increasing isolation.
Colombo sought to play on the geopolitical rivalries of India, China and Western states, but this did not achieve tangible material benefits nor could it avoid the escalation of the Debt crisis. In April 2022, Sri Lanka defaulted on its debt due to severe shortages of food, fuel and essential medicines. Outrage and agitated protests sparked by the economic crisis ousted Rajapaksa’s last president, but Sri Lanka has yet to find a viable or stable settlement after Rajapaksa.
Meanwhile, the same militarization and repression used against Tamils is now being deployed against other communities. Sri Lanka has widely used “high security zones” in Tamil-speaking areas to confiscate land, displace civilians, and militarize public space. This same tactic has now been deployed to restrict protests in the capital Colombo. Counterterrorism measures that were normally reserved for Tamils are now being deployed against other dissidents and critics.
In the years following the end of the war, Muslim and Christian communities also became targets of violence and hatred. Buddhist monks carried out attacks on Muslim homes and businesses as well as churches. They led campaigns against Halal meat and the headscarf. During the pandemic, Muslims who died from COVID-19 infection were forcibly cremated for bogus “public health” reasons.
The impunity with which Sri Lanka’s security forces operate now poses a threat to all communities on the island. There is no better illustration of this than Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith’s current campaign calling for an international investigation into the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks which killed 250 people.
Cardinal Ranjith was previously a staunch ally of the Rajapaksa and had opposed Tamil demands for international accountability for crimes committed at the end of the war. He is now calling for an international investigation because he is convinced, like many on the island, that elements of Sri Lanka’s security state knew of the plans for the horrific Easter Sunday attacks, but took no action to build on the success of Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s 2020 presidential campaign.
The effects of the massacres in Sri Lanka extended well beyond May 2009 and the battlefields of the Vanni. They are evident in the de facto occupation of Tamil-speaking areas by a military that is absorbing the scarce resources of a now effectively bankrupt state. They are evident in the political instability and growing repression in Colombo. They are also evident in the security forces which have become such a power in themselves that they have been accused by a once loyal cardinal of allowing brutal terrorist attacks to secure the electoral victory of their favored candidate.
The Israeli attack on Gaza has rightly attracted international attention and highlighted the need to uphold and defend humanitarian law. Sri Lanka shows what happens when states that commit mass atrocities are allowed to escape accountability.
Remembering and responding effectively to the atrocities committed in Vanni is not only about the past, but also about the future. In the immediate term, it is about the future of Sri Lanka. But it is also about rebuilding and ensuring the viability and integrity of international humanitarian law and ensuring the possibility of achieving true and lasting peace, security and prosperity.
The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Tel Aviv Tribune.