Lessons of Srebrenica: How the 15th Anniversary of Srebenica Can Guide Sri Lanka
by Grace Williams
On the 15th anniversary of Srebrenica massacre, President Obama has led the way in reminding the world that the lessons of Srebrenica must continue to guide our moral compass.
He has reminded us that "the name Srebrenica has since served as a stark reminder of the need for the world to respond resolutely in the face of evil." But more so, he has reminded us that after great atrocities, we still have a great duty to foster peace and reconciliation. No place can the duty to help pursue justice and build peace be greater than in a fractured Sri Lanka struggling to recover from war.
It has been a little over a year since Sri Lanka's 25-year civil war ended following a period of intense fighting. According to Human Rights Watch, over 80,000 people died in the conflict, many thousands of whom were unarmed civilians seeking refuge in safe-zones. The conflict in Sri Lanka has no easy answers. There are no heroes, only deeply entrenched beliefs on all sides. But when UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon appointed an international panel to help investigate war crimes to overcome the past, the Rajapaksa government chose to respond by allowing a member of their government to lead a violent protest against the UN office in Colombo and incite public sentiment against "outsiders."
It should be of great concern how quickly the protest against the UN turned hostile. Such sentiments are easily corrupted and turned toward other purposes. The intolerant tone being set by the Sri Lankan government is poisoning what should be a period of national reconciliation. President Rajapaksa continues to govern through emergency law. He continues to police with the military. He has reinforced the belief that the Tamil population should be feared while living in fear, and should be mistrusted as unredeemable, ethnically-defined terrorists. During his presidency, he has fed Sri Lankan society a steady diet of suspicion for "the other." The Tamil civilian population still has little option but to accept their poor lot with no meaningful representation; no means of defending their political, economic, or human rights; and no hope for a future that looks any different from the past 60 years.
When Samantha Power, President Obama's director of multilateral affairs and a champion of justice and reconciliation, recently visited Sri Lanka, the Rajapaksa government sold it as an endorsement of their counterterrorism strategy. They hide behind counterterrorism measures to explain away the deaths of as many as 40,000 civilians during the final years of the fighting--never mind that such explanations do not explain the decades of official, systematic oppression of the Tamil people that long preceded the rise of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Now that the LTTE has been wiped out, the Rajapaksa plan seems to be to go back to the way things were before: a Sri Lanka where Tamils have no real space to genuinely participate in the political system and no means to redress this exclusion.
The LTTE, as self-appointed leaders of the Sri Lankan Tamil community, wrote a history that has made it easy for the myth that all Tamils are supporters of terrorism to be propagated. Likewise has it then been easy for the Sri Lankan government to justify the brutal campaign to put the LTTE down once and for all, no matter the cost in civilian blood. There is no moral victory when the consequences to our humanity are so great and so many are left living in fear. A war on terror that does not resolve the landscape from which terror was born can provide only hollow and fleeting victory.
The Tamils have the capacity to rebuild themselves into the peaceful and prosperous community they were for so many centuries before the war began--but not while they remain a community under siege. Traditional lands have begun to be sold off, Tamils were unable to exercise their right to vote for new leadership because hundreds of thousands of Tamils were still in government-run camps during the hastily-organized election, Tamil religious beliefs are being challenged, and traditional sources of livelihood are being contracted out to foreign investors while the right of return remains uncertain. There is no justice for crimes committed against civilians, and there is no justice for those who stand accused without representation.
The challenge of bringing justice to Sri Lanka is significant. But only when all factions of Sri Lanka's civilian population have the chance to confront the atrocities they were party to with their mutual silence can the island begin to define its future.
And in an odd way, there is hope in Srebrenica. Fifteen years ago, the Serbs stood condemned by the world as brutal killers. Today a new generation of Serbs sits over a vibrant young democracy, their redemption championed by the United States. It was no more true that the Serbs were a "people of killers" than it is true of the Tamils, but it was certainly no less difficult for the US to stand up for their rights.
The lessons of Srebrenica are many, but beyond "never again" they point to the complexity -- but great rewards -- of building peace and democracy from ethnic strife. Now is the moment when the history of Sri Lanka could change, but in Sri Lanka there are no voices to speak up for what is right, and no space in which the truth can be spoken. The recent actions of the Sri Lankan government have dispelled any faith that this is the path they will pursue. As the lessons of Srebrenica are remembered and measured, the need to build peace in Sri Lanka, to bring inclusive democracy to Sri Lanka, to help Sri Lanka find heroes again, and to once again remind neighbors of their mutual humanity should not be overlooked. ~ courtesy: The Huffington Post ~
Grace Williams is a member of the Tamil American Peace Initiative, a group of Tamil Americans formed to help bring lasting peace, justice, democracy, and good governance to Sri Lanka. She is a specialist in healthcare for women and children with special needs and disabilities.
10 Comments
It won't be long before the attacks will come from the Sinhala chauvanists and Rajapaksa apologists for what is an accurate description of what is currently happening in Sri Lanka. Plenty of lines about how good the Tamils have it in Sri Lanka will be thrown by people who do not know and will never know what it is to live as a Tamil in Sri Lanka.
Just like in Srebrenica, the world knows what happened to the Tamils in the last months of the war. The world knows that Sri Lanka is the first country in the 21st century to slaughter tens of thousands of its own citizens. Will the world ever find out the truth?
"The Tamils have the capacity to rebuild themselves into the peaceful and prosperous community they were for so many centuries before the war began."
The above statement is a good testimony that the mess the Tamils got into is solely due to Mr Prabakaran backed by the Diaspora.
This article ignores the fact that the Obama administration played dumb when the Tamils were massacred, and for suspicious reasons heaps praise on the US administration.
Obama should first listen to his own speeches and statements regarding historical genocides and start practicing rather than preach after each massacre is done.
The words are empty. Don't be fooled. The Rajapakse junta knows this well and has played the west well, and called their bluff.
The West has lost it's courage to stand up for injustice, and knows only to give speeches. Don't be fooled. Expecting the world to respond resolutely in the face of evil is only a pipe dream, as long as China gives it's unconditional love to SL Govt.
Let's revisit Grace Williams article at a later date when the US also agrees to be bound by the same international courts that it is so keen to send others to
It is 35 years since Americans pulled out from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. The death toll in this adventure was around 6,000,000. Did Samantha Power, President Obama's Champion of Justice, mention anything about it? It is seven years since Americans ventured to IRAQ, seeking free oil, to restore the fortunes of Energy-poverty-stricken USA, did Samantha Powers mention anything about the 700,000 civilians butchered in Iraq? Where is Ban-Ke-Moon's panel on Gaza? The Americans ordered it to be closed down. If Ban-Ke-Moon can not perform his duties without fear or favor, it is best he resign! This Ban-Ke-Moon panel is purely to hurt Sri Lankan exports and retard economic development. This DUD, ILLEGAL, PHONEY, PRIVATE panel will fail. This panel has nothing to do with upliftment of Sri Lankan Tamils, sadly Sri Lankan Tamils have again being used as PAWNS in a global power play. Remember, CHINA AND RUSSIA has called this a DUD panel. Non-aligned nations has called this useless. UNHRC voted 29-12 in favour of Sri Lanka. United Nations GENERAL ASSEMBLY and SECURITY COUNCIL has never heard of this ILLEGAL panel. It is just to retard economic progress in Sri Lanka and detabilise INDIA. Like all LTTE ventures, it too will fail. If one start with ill-will, failure is guaranteed.
Aravinda
you are always full of, sorry "fool of" pipe dreams. Look at your past writings. They were only racist. They were never pragmatic. Be more non racist and pragmatic. Exclude wishful Sinhala thinking !!!!
The UN is on its last legs... Even President Omar Bashir of Sudan is thumbing his nose at his International Arrest Warrant... he just recently visited Chad - a country which was supposed to Arrest him under their obligations under International Law, but they did not! No one takes the UN seriously and this FAKE CONSTRUCT of INTERNATIONAL LAW is deteriorating Rapidly. Who can take the UN seriously when those who are founded it and are charged with setting the Example (i.e. USA, EUROPE, etc) blatantly violate its laws...?
The UN is a JOKE, those who work there are CLOWNS, and those who Believe in it are FOOLS...
Any government is good only to the extent of its moral ability to be accountable. Non accountabilty is a clear sign of failed governance and irresponsibility to citizens.
The UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, timeously spoke seriously about the need for accountability last week in Bosnia, on the 15th anniversary of the massacre of Bosnians by Serbs, in Srebenica.
Any crime against humanity is an international crime, much worse than the international crimes of child trafikking, money laundering and smuggling of blood diamonds, for which, accountability is seriously demanded.
The UN is morally obligated and duty bound, by its charter, to call for accountability of criminal states to ensure safety and protection of mankind.
But the Sinhalese foolishly believed that they could commit war crimes and Tamil genocide, call these crimes "an internal matter", bully the UN, NAM and the "Commonwealth" and escape accountability for cold blooded murder of civilians.
The ethno racist, worse than apartheid, government of Sri Lanka(GOSL), is utterly out of control, out of mind and has lost its way.
Even the Sinhalese media still make people believe stupidly that the Sinhalese can close their eyes and escape punishment, eventhough they committed Tamil genocide intentionally and corporately.
Surely, they are frogs in a deep well !!!!
Legal accountability by the GOSL for the brutal massacre of about 40,000 Tamil civilians will never come internally in SL.
If the war criminals in SL cannot be brought to an international war crimes tribunal by the UN, like it is being done for massacre in Bosnia, it will be an insult and disgrace to mankind, the civilised world and the great judicial systems invented, developed and preserved over many centuries by humanity.
Amidst the cacophony about "war criminals of colombo" and "racist Sinhalas", commentators conveniently choose to forget that Eelam was and still is a mono-ethnic, racist, Tamil supremacist construct whereas the state of Sri Lanka is a multi-ethnic one
Chad is a member of the Organisation of African States who have taken their own
separate decisions about censures of their members by other global bodies. Does not take long to know why. Al Bashir of the Sudan continues to defy UN/ICJ findings but for how long. He is in deep trouble within his own country and his opponents. Yes! The writ of the UN under Bank Ki Moon has been challenged/ignored in some countries and that does no good to BKM. The UN remains the most influential and effective world body in the world today - and that is affirmed by China and Russia among others whose greater role is to uphold UNs integrity and effectiveness. By the same definition, BKM and the UN now and hereafter are not going to sit around and watch rogue regimes undermining UN authority. Transparency and accountability are guarantees to prevent global action and censure is a lesson Libya/Gaddafi learnt the hard way and Ahmadinejad is now trying to conform with. He is only looking for a save-facing device. The India and/or China Insurance will have to expire sooner or later before which one hopes we will clean up our own stables and regain our
own good name in global eyes.
ISS