Sri Lanka's Killing Fields

The dead calm of Sri Lanka

British Channel 4's expose, Sri Lanka's Killing Fields, coincided with the 19th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. The video footage allegedly includes bullet marks on the body of a twelve-year-old boy, who is allegedly slain LTTE leader Prabhakaran’s son. Sri Lanka's civil war ended in 2009 when the government troops crushed the rebelling Tamil Tigers. Both sides have been accused of committing war crimes in the final stages of the decisive conflict. The United States has put a resolution before the UN Human Rights Council, in Geneva, urging the Sri Lankan government to investigate those allegations and seek reconciliation. India seemed tentative over which side to go with. After many a lawmaker protest, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s letter and the DMK’s protests to the prime minister, the PM told the Lok Sabha on March 19, that the government was “intending” to vote in favour of the US-backed resolution against Sri Lanka. As India finalises its vote, we bring you a photo essay, shot in northern parts of Sri Lanka by Divakar Mani, a freelance cameraperson from Chennai who spent a few weeks in Sri Lanka shooting a documentary for Al Jazeera. The text details a chronology of this human tragedy through an array of UN documents.

A sign board in Tamil Kilinochi town heartily welcomes you all.

Fact:Tamil is partly said to derive from Tamir, which means red and that is what the soil of Kilinochchi has remained in more ways than one. Falling some 100 km southeast of Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka, Kilinochchi, was the LTTE’s administrative capital. Today, it remains the fallen citadel of Sri Lankan Tamils. All photos credit – Divakar Mani 

Next slide – When a home is deserted

Is this a home or a jailed memory ?

Fact:The UNHRC report of 2011 says, ‘It was noted that severe human rights violations had taken place in the so-called "no fire zone", with both parties to the conflict ignoring international humanitarian law. Enforced disappearances and torture remained a problem.’ ’

Next slide – When childhood is made empty

The report chillingly continues, 

Fact:‘Estimates also reveal that at least 40 per cent of the LTTE fighting force was killed in action during 1983 to 2002. These mostly consisted of children between the ages of 9 and 18. Most of the adult leadership of the LTTE was probably child combatants.’ 

Next slide – The blasted homes of child soldiers?

Where did the children disappear? 

Fact: The UN Secretary General’s report of 2006 states that the LTTE continued the recruitment and the re-recruitment of children who had previously run away. The Sri Lankan armed forces have estimated that between 1983 and 2002, out of a total of 14,000 LTTE combatants, as many as 60 per cent of the combatants were below the age of 18 years. Next slide –When a simple stroll could mean death. 

Next slide –When a walk could mean death

Take a walk in a land-mined village?

Fact:The northern Vanni region is the rice belt of Sri Lanka. De-mining of this area is on, but these are a deadly obstacle to the speedy resettlement of more than 300,000 people who were displaced by the conflict which ended in May 2009. 

Next slide - The hangman was a desperate woman

The worst kind of tight rope. A woman who is said to have hung herself after hearing of her family being wiped out. 

Fact -In 2003, the leading cause of hospitalisation across Sri Lanka was traumatic injuries.

Next slide – When a neighbourhood café looks for neighbours

A popular food joint in Jaffna, now Cafe deserted ? 

Fact: 168285 to 433405.Those are the official passport issue figures from Sri Lanka between 2003-2007.

Next slide - When a mother cries for life with her child

Fact: The official figures of incidence of deaths in custody in 1996 stood at 4,369,780. In 2005, this figure doubled to 8,079,001. Between September 2008 and May 2009, the government shelled hospitals on the frontlines. Next slide - The daily violence of life in the war zone 

Next slide - The daily violence of life in the war zone

When homes became a theatre of war.

Fact: In the end game, the government even shelled ‘no fire zones’ and denied access to humanitarian organisations to camps. The UNHCR report highlights: ‘While the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's violent and terrorist methods, in particular its use of human shields and its forced recruitment of civilians, including children, were roundly condemned, the government was also held to bear responsibility for violations, including the use of excessive force in densely populated areas.’

Next slide - When a bus to Jaffna could mean abduction

 

Towards the end of the conflict

Fact: 330,000 civilians were trapped into an ever-decreasing area, fleeing the shelling but kept hostage by the LTTE. The government silenced the media by abducting them in white vans and there was no public scrutiny of casualty figures and international laws. The conflict ended with a large numbers of Sri Lankans living as internally displaced persons (IDPs), especially in the north of the island country. 

Next slide - The war memorial of the Sri Lankan Army

 

Image war memorial by SL army – Sun Tzu had said ‘ all war is deception’

Fact: While Sri Lanka has been a party to all seven core international human rights instruments and several optional protocols, the UNHCR sessions report reveals the extent of fudging of these very protocols. More than 100,000 civilians, especially in the country’s north and east, are believed to have been killed during the 26-year-long war. Sri Lankan authorities say there is no need for further investigations since the government-appointed Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission cleared troops of deliberately targeting civilians and largely found only abuses by the LTTE. 

Next slide -This memorial by them maybe one reminder of what Sun Tzu meant, wonders the photographer.

Divakar Mani, the photographer of this essay, was chilled to the bone by this experience. Echoing what UNHCR chief N Pillay said of the intolerance that exists “below the radar of public attention” – intolerance “in forms less glaring than terrorism, but with consequences just as tragic.” One civil war is over, another uncivil one of accountability, justice and hopeful reconciliation looms ahead.