War crimes and uncertain justice
This is reference to your op-ed titled ' War Crimes and Uncertain Justice' of June 28th. I was really fascinated by Mr. Syed Badrul Ahsan's closing sentence that 'You ponder all this. And you wait to know if some men in Sri Lanka will answer for their own crimes committed in the course of the war against the Tamil Tigers' and his frustration about why the Pakistani military officers were never tried in Pakistan for killing many Bengalis in the 70's. Well, that is exactly what the three member expert panel report and the recently released Channel 4 documentary are commenting about the Sri Lankan government appointed 'Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission' to serve justice to the victims of the war.
There are many unparalleled parallels between the then Bengali issue and the longstanding conflict with the minorities in Sri Lanka. As far as back in early 80's, after one of the major ethnic riots occurred in Sri Lanka, the International Commission of Jurists Review stated
“The impact of the communal violence on the Tamils was shattering. More than 100,000 people sought refuge in 27 temporary camps set up across the country. The evidence points clearly to the conclusion that the violence of the rioters from the majority population on the Tamils amounted to acts of genocide” Leo Kuper, in his book ' Prevention of Genocide (1985)', said in commenting on the failure of the UN Sub Commission on Human Rights to condemn the genocide attack (July 1983) on the Tamils, thus, "It is unfortunate that the United Nations did not take a firm stand at this stage'.
According to the experts on war crimes issues, Sri Lankan war has more similarities to the 'Srebrenica moment' than the Bengali issue.Sri Lankan President at the end of the war said 'we are all Sri Lankans, there are no majorities or minorities in this country'. Mladic overran and occupied the UN safe areas and pledged to the civilians "don't be afraid”, no one will harm you” before killing at least 8,000 civilians. The UN report on Sri Lanka and the Channel 4 documentary are also facing similar criticism from the Sri Lankan administration.
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