October 22, 2009
Katsuya Okada
Foreign Minister
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Kasumigaseki 2-2-1
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8919
Re: Sri Lanka
Dear Foreign Minister,
We write to you on the occasion of your inauguration as foreign minister of Japan to encourage you to make the promotion and protection of human rights a central priority in Japan’s relations with Sri Lanka. In particular, there is an urgent need to address the plight of approximately 250,000 displaced civilians detained in camps by the Sri Lankan government, and establish an independent international investigation into serious violations of international humanitarian law during the recent conflict.
Japan has long been a good friend of Sri Lanka. It has demonstrated its concern about the economic advancement and well-being of Sri Lanka’s citizens by acting as co-chair of the peace process and by being the largest donor to Sri Lanka.
The end of the quarter-century long armed conflict with the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) creates new opportunities for Sri Lanka to ensure a rights-respecting society. But since the defeat of the LTTE in May, the Sri Lankan government has made little effort to improve the human rights situation or to reach out to the minority Tamil population, undermining efforts by Japan and the international community to facilitate development and reconciliation, which are necessary for a future peaceful Sri Lanka.
The government has illegally confined approximately a quarter of a million vulnerable Tamil civilians in overcrowded, sewage-infested camps, with the government denying them their right to freedom of movement and allowing no independent protection mechanisms. With the monsoon season fast approaching, the health and welfare of these civilians is increasingly at risk. In addition, five months after what the head of the United Nation’s humanitarian agency described as a “bloodbath” in northern Sri Lanka, there has been no government investigation or accountability for the widespread violations of international humanitarian law committed by government forces and the LTTE.
Japan’s generous aid to Sri Lanka not only improves the lives of its beneficiaries, it also provides Japan with unique opportunities to draw the Sri Lankan government’s attention to mistaken and counterproductive policies. Sri Lanka listens to Japan. To date, however, while other major donors and friends of Sri Lanka have expressed their concerns in public, Japan has not spoken out against the illegal detention of a quarter of a million civilians, nor has Japan called for accountability for serious violations of international humanitarian law by the government and the LTTE.
It is the time for Japan’s new administration to break the silence and to make use of its unique relationship with Sri Lanka to uphold the basic rights of all Sri Lankans.
We urge Japan to take strong action so that the Sri Lankan government will end the illegal detention of civilians. We also call upon Japan to insist on justice and accountability for serious violations of international humanitarian law by both sides and to press for the speedy establishment of an independent international investigation.
Situation in the Detention Camps
Several hundred thousand civilians were displaced by the armed conflict in northern Sri Lanka. Since March 2008, the government confined virtually all newly displaced persons who fled the LTTE in government-run camps. While the government euphemistically refers to these camps as “welfare villages,” they are effectively military-controlled detention centers for civilians.
In violation of international law, the government has denied those detained in these camps their rights to liberty and freedom of movement. Camp residents are allowed to leave the camps only for emergency medical care, and then frequently only with military escort. Although the majority of detainees have relatives who are able to provide them with care and housing, to date, only several thousand camp residents have been allowed to leave.
Because of lack of adequate access for humanitarian agencies and overcrowding caused by the government’s refusal to release people from the camps, conditions in the camps currently fall short of UN standards. Conditions will continue to deteriorate with the onset of the monsoon season, causing additional hardship and suffering for the camp residents. Heavy rains in mid-August caused serious flooding and indicated the problems to come, as water destroyed tents and other shelter, made cooking impossible, and caused roads to collapse, preventing delivery of crucial aid such as drinking water. Water also flooded latrine pits, causing raw sewage to flow among the tents. Aid agencies are particularly concerned about the threat of disease due to flooding.
Camp residents are increasingly frustrated with their lack of freedom of movement, leading to confrontations between the military administration and the residents. On September 26, 2009, Sri Lankan security forces opened fire on a group of camp residents who reportedly attempted to move between two zones of the Menik Farm camp. Several civilians, including a child, were wounded.
In May, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, joined by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, assured the international community that these camps would be dismantled at the earliest possible time. Nearly five months later, none of this has happened.
Instead, the Sri Lankan government has deliberately prevented outside scrutiny of the camps, leaving camp residents vulnerable to abuse. It has denied access to aid organizations to independently assess medical needs. Reports that camp residents still do not know the whereabouts of relatives detained at checkpoints during their flight from the fighting or from the camps weeks and months after they were separated give great cause for concern. The government has prohibited staff members of humanitarian organizations working in the camps from talking with camp residents, preventing effective monitoring and protection. We have received reports of enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests and ill-treatment, but these reports cannot be corroborated because the camps are closed to human rights organizations, journalists, and other independent observers.
We urge the new Japanese administration to:
- Call upon the Sri Lankan government to end the arbitrary detention of civilians and permit those who wish to leave the detention camps to do so immediately. Charge suspected LTTE combatants in accordance with international standards and ensure that family members and humanitarian agencies have access to them;
- Publicly refer to the camps as “detention camps” to make clear their true character, and use every opportunity to express Japan’s profound dismay at the deprivation of the fundamental right to liberty and absence of freedom of movement of the civilians there;
- Draw attention to the fact that poor camp conditions are in part a result of the government’s policy to detain the displaced rather than allow them freedom of movement;
- Insist that the Sri Lankan government facilitate safe, unimpeded and timely access to humanitarian agencies and human rights organizations to camp residents and undertake protection and monitoring activities; and,
- Call upon the Sri Lankan government to implement a system for tracing missing relatives or allow an international humanitarian organization to undertake such work.
Concerning return and resettlement, urge the Sri Lankan government to:
- Respect and follow the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement and abide by these principles in the return and resettlement process, including by ensuring the full inclusion and input of displaced persons in the planning and management of their return, resettlement and reintegration;
- Properly inform displaced persons of their right to voluntarily return to their homes, places of origin, or to relocate to another area of the country if they so choose, in safety and with dignity; and,
- Guarantee the right of displaced persons to make informed and voluntary decisions regarding their return home or resettlement.
Justice and Accountability
The armed conflict in Sri Lanka that ended with the defeat of the LTTE in May 2009 was characterized by serious violations of international humanitarian law by both sides. Despite repeated denials, government forces frequently shelled densely populated areas, including at least 30 attacks on or near hospitals in the government-declared "no-fire zone" – an area where it had urged civilians to take shelter. The LTTE violated the laws of war by using civilians as human shields, using lethal force to prevent their fleeing from the combat zone, and deploying their forces in and near densely populated areas, exposing civilians to unnecessary risk. However, because independent observers, including the media and human rights organizations, were prevented from operating near the war zone, the information available on the fighting, and possible laws of war violations by both sides, is limited.
A joint statement by Secretary-General Ban and President Rajapaksa on May 23, 2009, underlined the importance of an accountability process for addressing violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. The statement said that “[t]he Government will take measures to address those grievances.”
This has not happened. Five months after the end of the war, the government has made no attempts to investigate violations of international law. On the contrary, in several statements, the Sri Lankan government has dismissed the need for such an investigation, contradicting the promises it made in its joint statement.
In a July 14 interview with Time magazine, President Rajapakse, speaking about the war, said that “There was no violation of human rights. There were no civilian casualties.” Even with respect to a truth and reconciliation commission, Rajapaksa said that he did not want to “dig into the past and open up this wound.”
The attitude of the Sri Lankan government towards accountability is also evident in its official reaction to a recently broadcast video that shows what appears to be Sri Lankan army soldiers summarily executing prisoners. The Sri Lankan government, however, dismissed the video out of hand, labeling it a fabrication and a “concocted story.” In September, the government told the Human Rights Council that four hand-picked local investigators, two of whom were government officials, had concluded the video was “fake,” but failed to provide detailed investigation reports to support such a finding. Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on extra-judicial, summary or arbitrary executions, has called for an investigation of this video.
The Sri Lankan government has a poor record of investigating serious human rights abuses and impunity has been a persistent problem. Despite a backlog of cases of enforced disappearance and unlawful killings going back two decades that run to the tens of thousands, there have been only a small number of prosecutions. Past efforts to address violations through the establishment of ad hoc mechanisms in Sri Lanka, such as presidential commissions of inquiry, have produced few results, either in providing information or leading to prosecutions.
The most recent commission, investigating 16 major human rights cases including the August 2006 killing of 17 Sri Lankan aid workers with the Paris-based humanitarian agency Action Contre La Faim (ACF), highlights this failure. After having investigated just a few of their mandated cases, the commission concluded this year, finding no evidence of government wrongdoing, including in the ACF case. A group of respected international experts tasked with monitoring the commission withdrew from its role because it had "not been able to conclude ... that the proceedings of the Commission have been transparent or have satisfied basic international norms and standards." The commission’s full report to President Rajapaksa remains unpublished.
Sri Lanka’s past record, recent statements, and the government’s lack of action since the end of the conflict make it clear that the government has no intention of impartially investigating violations committed during the war.
We urge the new Japanese administration to:
- Publicly denounce the clear unwillingness of the Sri Lankan government to impartially investigate credible allegations of serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law and bring to justice those responsible;
- Support the call of the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights for an independent investigation into alleged abuses;
- Unequivocally press for the establishment of an independent international investigation into abuses committed by both government forces and the LTTE in the final months of fighting; and,
- Call on the UN secretary-general, who had joined with President Rajapaksa in promising an inquiry into abuses, to promptly establish such a UN-sanctioned investigation, and to take all necessary steps to facilitate its creation and execute its mandate.
The fighting in Sri Lanka may be over, but for approximately a quarter of a million people, the suffering continues. There will be no reprieve and there will be no accountability unless Japan and others within the international community persistently demand it.
We thank you for your attention to these urgent matters and would welcome the opportunity to meet with you for further discussion.
Sincerely yours,
Mina Watanabe
Secretary General, Women's Active Museum on War and Peace (wam)
Makoto Teranaka
Secretary General, Amnesty International Japan
Kinhide Mushakoji
President, IMADR-JC
Yuriko Hara
Secretary-General, IMADR
Brad Adams
Asia Director, Human Rights Watch
Kanae Doi
Tokyo Director, Human Rights Watch
Kazuko Ito
Secretary General, Human Rights Now