In what is recognised as a systematic impunity for human rights violations, Sri Lanka faced its worst ever civil war in 1983, when a militant organisation fought to create an independent Tamil state. The war continued for 26 years, ending when the Sri Lankan military defeated the Tamil Tigers in 2009.
As the war concluded, the army wiped out the Tamil Tigers, who had by then pioneered the use of suicide bombers and child soldiers in their violent insurgency. The brutality of the killings still haunt all those who survived. An area which was designated as a 'no fire zone' for civilians by then-president Mahinda Rajapaksa, was converted into a free fire zone as the army oversaw indiscriminate slaughter, in its aim to end the insurgency. A 2012 United Nations investigation estimated a number of 40,000 civilians killed in the war’s horrific last few weeks.
So while Rajapaksa who was made an unsuccessful attempt to come back to power in the country's recent elections, human rights activists have asked for “strong action” in response to the UN report as champions of the investigation in the backdrop of the celebrations. Hugo Swire, Foreign Office minister for Asia, said that Britain would urge the Sri Lankan government to ensure “accountability”. “Whatever mechanism is employed should be independent, credible and in accordance with international standards. There needs to be accountability in order for Sri Lanka to move on from this extraordinarily dark period. Sri Lankans need to know the truth about what happened.”
Ruki Fernando, an adviser with Inform, a human rights centre in Colombo said, “A key will be to focus on those most responsible for most serious crimes. Dropping the ball now, would be a great insult to survivors and victims families and human rights defenders, who have been abandoned and let down by the international community in the past, and who had yet taken great risks to share stories of suffering with the UN investigation team. Their right to truth, justice, reparations, guarantees of non occurrence and to be consulted must be ensured.”
The government led by Rajapaksa, then, had insisted it would respect the rights of civilians, however, the reality was far different as the army launched an all-out bombardment under orders of the president and his brother, Gotabhaya, then defence minister.
