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However, despite ongoing killings and disappearances in the country, the U.N. Human Rights Council has thus far failed to take sufficient measures to ensure that the government of Sri Lanka puts a halt to these serious human rights violations.
According to a report published Aug. 23 by three well-known Sri Lankan civil society groups -- the Civil Monitoring Mission, the Law Society and Trust and the Free Media Movement -- there have been 547 cases of extrajudicial killings and 396 cases of forced disappearance from January to June this year. Despite the high number of victims included in the report, its authors note that the report is not intended to be an exhaustive list.
Involving the killings, according to the report:
"The largest proportion of people killed in the first six months of 2007 were Tamil -- 70.7 percent across the island as compared with 9.1 percent Sinhalese and 5.9 percent Muslims. The gravity of this situation becomes even more pronounced when considered against the fact that the Tamil people make up only 16 percent of the total population. Men were killed in much larger numbers than women -- 89.9 percent to 9.7 percent.
"By district, Jaffna was worst affected by the killings (23.2 percent), followed by Batticaloa and Vavuniya (21.5 percent and 21.3 percent respectively).
"The data on humanitarian workers and religious leaders killed reflects the overall trends in killings with Tamils disproportionately affected as compared with Muslims and Sinhalese. Killings of this category of persons were highest in Trincomalee during the period Jan. 1, 2006, to Aug. 21, 2007. However, it is notable that religious leaders of three of the four main faiths of the island have been killed since last year -- Father Jim Brown (August 2006), Selliah Parameshwaran Kurukkal (February 2007) and Ven Handungamuwe Nandarathna Thero (March 2007)."
Concerning forced disappearances, the report states:
"As with killings, Tamils suffered disproportionately from abductions -- 64.6 percent, compared with 3 percent Sinhalese and 3 percent Muslims. Men represented nearly 98 percent of all missing persons. By district, Jaffna was again worst affected by disappearances (49.5 percent). However, Colombo was next worst affected at 17.7 percent, underlining the concern expressed by many local NGOs (non-governmental organisations) at the situation with respect to this particular violation.
"Nearly 19 percent of persons abducted were taken from their homes. The vast majority of these were in Jaffna. However, there were a few abductions from homes in other parts of the country. Where times were specified, these were for persons who disappeared in Jaffna, which has been under curfew since before January 2007. Roughly 5 percent of all persons abducted were persons abducted from home during curfew in Jaffna in an area allegedly under government control. This points to the possibility of the government's inability or unwillingness to keep all its citizens safe."
This report raises serious concerns about the Sri Lankan government's ability and willingness to investigate extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances; the capacity of the Sri Lankan policing system to investigate such gross abuses of human rights; the responsibilities of the prosecuting branch of the state, which is organised under the Attorney General's Department; and the role of the judiciary in dealing with such serious crimes and abuses of rights.
The report is addressed to the Presidential Commission of Inquiry, which is assisted by the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons. The report raises very serious questions about the functioning of the entire criminal justice system in Sri Lanka.
It has repeatedly been pointed out by human rights organisations that if the state has the willingness to investigate all extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances the system does have the capacity to enable this necessary action. However, the capacity of the investigation mechanism into all crimes, including forced disappearances, has been paralysed due to political interference throughout the system.
The incapacity that the Sri Lankan state exhibits concerning the prompt and competent investigation and prosecution of all of these cases has been consciously created. Inaction against gross abusers of human rights has been deliberately designed. On the basis of this inaction, the state is complicit in ensuring impunity, which, in turn, encourages further perpetration of such gross abuses.
The Presidential Commission of Inquiry has the mandate "to obtain information, investigate and inquire into alleged serious human rights violations arising since Aug. 1, 2005." However, this commission's work depends on the actual will and capacity of the existing investigation mechanisms within Sri Lanka. At issue at present is the extent to which this commission is willing and able to carry out the mandate it has received.
Questions have also been raised concerning the extent to which local civil society actors and the international community are willing and able to intervene in order to break the deadlock created by a dysfunctional criminal justice system that is being further disrupted by the political complicity of the state, which is not fulfilling its duty to act in the face of gross abuses of human rights.
The IIGEP's presence in Sri Lanka for the last several months has only been used by the state to give the appearance that it is, in fact, doing something to address human rights violations. However, in reality, no such corrective process is taking place. Local civil society actors and the international community's actions need to be developed to be sufficient to evoke a response that is capable of breaking the designed inaction on the part of the state. This is the only way to stop such gross abuses of rights and to ensure justice to all who have become victims of extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances.
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(Basil Fernando is director of the Asian Human Rights Commission based in Hong Kong. He is a Sri Lankan lawyer who has also been a senior U.N. human rights officer in Cambodia. He has published several books and written extensively on human rights issues in Asia.)
