Font size: 
In addition there have been longstanding and consistent reports of human rights violations, including sexual abuse, emanating from the north and east, especially where there has been civilian displacement and resettlement due to war and the weakening of civilian administration. By and large the response of successive governments has been to play down these incidents.
Government members have made strong arguments that in a time of war with a foe as formidable and vicious as the LTTE it is difficult to safeguard human rights in the manner that international law requires. They have pointed out that human rights are violated in other conflicts as well, most particularly Iraq, and that these are the inevitable accompaniments of a war that has been forced upon the government by the LTTE.
The implied message that comes from the government is that victory in war demands sacrifice, and that no price is too high to pay to defeat the LTTE once and forever. The present government in particular appears determined not to permit considerations of human rights to block its march to victory.
One of the bleakest features of the present crisis in Sri Lanka is the virtual impunity with which some can abuse the human rights of others, and even kill them, and get away with it. The law enforcement mechanism in the country is at a low ebb and operates with a high degree of political interference. The ethnic polarization that exists in society, and in the decision-making apparatus of the state, makes the problem even more resistant to a solution by internal means alone. The sense of national paralysis that has accompanied the rise in human rights violations has prompted the growing calls for a greater international role in restraining the abuses of human rights in the country.
The value of international pressure in countering human rights abuses has been highlighted recently in the case concerning Sri Lankan peacekeepers in Haiti. It appears that some of them have engaged in sexual abuse of underage Haitian girls on a commercial basis. The Sri Lankan government's positive response to this charge stands in marked contrast to its position with regard to human rights violations that take place within Sri Lanka itself. As the United Nations is involved in this case, the government did not simply deny the allegation and try to get away with it, as it tends to do in the case of locally reported violations. The fact that the government decided to cooperate fully with the investigation suggests the value of international linkages in the investigation and prevention of human rights violations.
The arrest of the LTTE's breakaway faction leader Karuna Amman by the British government on immigration charges in London earlier this month is another example of how the international community can play a positive role in investigating and preventing human rights violations. Some groups have been looking into the legal possibilities of petitioning the British government to try him for war crimes and other international offences in what could be a test case of Western commitment to the practice of human rights in Sri Lanka.
On the one hand, Karuna's immigration offences are not very serious and he might merely be deported back to Sri Lanka. On the other hand, Britain is a signatory to many international conventions, including those that outlaw torture, that permit the British government to try such people from any country who come within its jurisdiction.
If he is tried by British courts, it is possible that Karuna's deeds when he was with the LTTE and also his actions after he broke away from them will be brought to light. Those who are concerned about the present state of impunity in Sri Lanka may see both the Haiti incident and Karuna's arrest as opportunities to set an example to perpetrators of human rights violations in Sri Lanka and to demonstrate that they cannot commit such abuses and remain untouched by international human rights law.
The government, the LTTE and other paramilitary groups must realize that a time of reckoning is bound to come to them all, and accordingly they must carry out their wars in accordance with international norms. A no-holds barred war will be costly not only to the victims, but to the perpetrators as well.
As a former champion of human rights when he was in the opposition, who lobbied the international community in Geneva, President Mahinda Rajapaksa cannot fail to be aware of the implications of these latest developments. It is difficult to imagine that a person who acted with such commitment to the protection of human rights in the bad times of the past should not be equally concerned today.
--
(Dr. Jehan Perera is executive director of the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka, an independent advocacy organization. He studied economics at Harvard College and holds a doctorate in law from Harvard Law School. ©Copyright Jehan Perera.)
