War on the Displaced - A 3rd View on Sri Lankan Ethnic War

The Fact & Truth on Sri Lankan Ethnic Issue is always had two views, One on the Lankans point of View and other is LTTE Point of View or rather LTTEs Supporter point of View. There was no third perspective view at all.

When recently President Mahinda Rajapakshe of Srilanka and V. Prabakaran of LTTE made two separate invitations for Tamil Nadu politicians right from Tamil Nadu Chief Minister to Opposition Leaders to have a look at the real ground situation, Since there is no real ground reports from there since Sri Lankan Govt evacuated Press and Social support workers out of Troubled area and banned them there. These Invitations would have been a right juncture to have a look at real ground situation, For the Sad Fate of Internally Displaced People of Eelam none of the politicians responded for that one and both ruling and opposition parties made mockery of each other .... The Struggles of 3 Lac odd people at Vanni is not gonna end in near future, is what we can sense... This is an attempt to spread these facts around and try to get some breath Space for those Displaced 3 Lac people in Vanni and get some base rights to live too..


Though that didn't happen .... UN's Fact Finding Mission under the umbrella of Human Right Watch did reach Vanni to check the ground situation. The reports where published on their website and facts are as worse than expected.

The Summary Goes this way:

Sri Lankan Army and LTTE Abuses against Civilians in the Vanni

After 25 years, the armed conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) may be nearing its conclusion. But for the quarter of a million civilians trapped or displaced by the fighting, the tragedy has intensified.
Since early January 2009, civilian casualties in the northern Vanni region have skyrocketed while food supplies and medical care have dwindled.
War on the Displaced, based on a Human Rights Watch fact-finding mission to northern Sri Lanka in February 2009, details government and LTTE abuses responsible for much of the civilian suffering.
While in retreat, the LTTE has forcibly taken along all civilians under its control. As the territory defended by the LTTE has decreased—now a short narrow strip on the northeast coast of the island—the civilian population has been dangerously forced into an increasingly smaller space. The LTTE has refused to allow civilians to flee the
fighting, and has repeatedly fired on those who have sought to make their way to government-held territory. Many of those who remain under LTTE control, including children, are subjected to forced recruitment and often deadly forced labor on the battlefield.
Sri Lankan forces have repeatedly and indiscriminately fired artillery at areas packed with civilians. This includes numerous reported bombardments of a government declared “safe zone” and of remaining hospitals in the region. The plight of the region’s civilians has been exacerbated by the government’s decision in September 2008
to order most humanitarian agencies out of the Vanni.
Displaced persons who escape the LTTE to government-controlled areas are being held in government “welfare villages” or in hospitals lacking basic supplies. The military-controlled barbed-wire camps deny those sent there, including entire families, their liberty and freedom of movement.
Human Rights Watch calls on the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE to act immediately to stop the slaughter of civilians. Both parties should agree to a humanitarian corridor and otherwise respect the laws of war.

Few Important Points made in the report:

If people knew that there was ICRC or other international agency waiting for them on the other side, thousands, virtually all of them, would have run for safety, even if it meant breaking through LTTE cordons. But risking your life to end up in government detention-not many are willing to do this

People from outside were not allowed to approach their relatives in the camp. I was a witness to a heartbreaking scene, when a mother with a very small child came to the gate because her husband came to see her. The child ran to the father, but the military grabbed him. We had to interfere and pushed them very hard to allow the father at least to kiss his son.

I spoke to one woman in the camp-she was crying and screaming. It turned out that her elderly mother, who had been injured and admitted to the hospital, died there on February 7. The elderly woman's body was given to the son, who lived in Vavuniya, but her daughter was not allowed to leave the camp even to attend her mother's funeral. She was in agony because she couldn't pay respects to her mother.

They Have come out with Certain Recommendations for both Warring Armies and as well Donor Countries like India, Norway, etc:

Recommendations

To the Government of Sri Lanka

Conduct of the Hostilities

• Cease all attacks that violate the laws of war, including artillery bombardment and aerial bombing that does not discriminate between military targets and civilians, or that causes expected harm to civilians and civilian objects that is disproportionate to the anticipated military gain. Investigate and prosecute as appropriate military personnel, regardless of rank, who commit serious violations of the laws of war, which are war crimes.

• Cease attacks on hospitals, including makeshift hospitals. Hospitals used to commit hostile acts are only subject to attack after a reasonable warning has been given that goes unheeded.

• Cease attacks using weapons, such as multi-barrel rocket launchers and heavy artillery, which are indiscriminate when used in or near densely populated civilian populations.

• Cease justifying unlawful attacks on civilians on the spurious ground that civilians who are not in so-called "safe zones" may legitimately be attacked. Violations of the laws of war by the LTTE do not justify attacks by government security forces in violation of the law.

Humanitarian Access and Civil Society

• Facilitate the immediate creation of humanitarian corridors to allow civilians trapped by the fighting to travel to areas away from the fighting.

• Immediately lift the September 2008 order barring humanitarian agencies from the Vanni conflict area in northern Sri Lanka and allow humanitarian agencies to return to assist at-risk individuals and reach all civilians in need. Restrictions on relief should be made on a case-by-case basis and only when there is a specific and justifiable security reason for the restriction. Refusals for valid security reasons should only be for as long as necessary and should not block legitimate humanitarian assistance.

• Allow independent observers, including journalists, access to conflict zones so that accurate and timely information about the situation of civilians in such areas is publicly available.

• Instruct security forces to respect and protect humanitarian aid personnel and their facilities, supplies, and transportation. Personnel who commit abuses against humanitarian organizations and their staff should be disciplined or criminally prosecuted as appropriate.

• Ensure that nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are able to perform their work without arbitrary government interference: regulation of NGO activities should comply with international standards, be transparent, and follow clearly defined procedures. Registration should ultimately facilitate the work of NGOs and should neither disrupt legitimate NGO activities nor put NGO workers at risk.

• Work with donor governments to establish an international human rights monitoring mission under United Nations auspices to monitor violations of human rights and international humanitarian law by all parties to the conflict.

Displaced Persons

• Abide by the United Nations General Principles on Internal Displacement, including by permitting the freedom of movement of displaced persons, respecting the right of displaced persons to return to their homes, and permitting humanitarian agencies access to displaced persons.

• Permit humanitarian agencies to monitor the intake of displaced persons at checkpoints, such as at Omanthai.

• Immediately end the arbitrary and indefinite detention of civilians displaced by recent fighting at the Kalimoddai, Sirunkandal, and Menik Farm camps in northern Sri Lanka, and at other proposed camps.

• Make public the names of all persons detained by the military and police under Emergency Regulations and other laws, and provide those detained prompt access to their families and legal counsel.

To the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)

• Stop preventing civilians from leaving areas under LTTE control. Respect and facilitate the right to freedom of movement of civilians, including the right of civilians to move to government-controlled territory for safety.

• End all deliberate attacks on civilians, such as on civilians who are seeking to flee LTTE-controlled areas. Appropriately punish individuals responsible for such attacks.

• Do not use civilians as "human shields," and take all feasible steps to avoid placing military targets near civilians.

• Facilitate the immediate creation of humanitarian corridors to allow civilians trapped by the fighting to travel to areas away from the fighting.

• Provide United Nations and humanitarian agencies safe and unhindered access to areas under LTTE control, and guarantee the security of all humanitarian and UN workers, including Vanni residents working as humanitarian or UN staff.

To the Co-chairs of the Tokyo Donors' Conference (Japan, the European Union, Norway, and the United States), India, the United Kingdom, and Other Concerned Governments

• Urgently seek a special session of the UN Human Rights Council on the situation in the Vanni and violations of international humanitarian law by all parties to the conflict.

• Speak out publicly and in private meetings with Sri Lankan authorities and other concerned officials on the situation in the Vanni. Insist that the government adhere to its international legal obligations on human rights and humanitarian matters.

• Urge the government to withdraw its September 2008 order and allow humanitarian agencies access to the Vanni so that they can provide urgent humanitarian assistance and help provide civilian protection.

• Urge the government to ensure the protection of displaced persons, regardless of ethnicity, and end arbitrary detention. Press the government to follow the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, which provide that, consistent with the right to liberty, internally displaced persons "shall not be interned in or confined to a camp."

• Urge the government to allow the UN and its agencies to conduct a strategic, long-term needs assessment of displaced civilians in the north and permit a follow-up program to implement these needs.

• Press the government to allow independent observers, including journalists, access to conflict zones so that accurate and timely information about the situation of civilians in such areas is publicly available.

• Work with the Sri Lankan government to establish an international human rights monitoring mission under United Nations auspices to monitor violations of human rights and international humanitarian law by all parties to the conflict.

The Complete Report as pdf can be read by clicking this.