28 October 2023 04:54 am Views - 721
The Washington Post reported the Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam (LTTE), held more than 300,000 civilians ‘hostage’ to enforce a ‘strategic human buffer between themselves and the advancing Sri Lankan Army.’ The report added around 40,000 civilian deaths may have resulted during those days.
The resolution was brought by the UK on behalf of a core group of countries -comprising Canada, Malawi, Montenegro, North Macedonia, the UK and the United States- who expressed concern that the island’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic had ‘exacerbated the prevailing marginalisation of and discrimination against the Muslim community.’
Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that 12 years after the end of armed conflict in the South Asian island, domestic efforts to ensure justice for victims had failed.
The decades-long civil war between the Sri Lankan security forces and the LTTE -commonly referred to as Tamil Tigers -allegedly killed around 100,000 persons, including up to around 40,000 Tamil civilians who died as a result of fighting between the Sri Lankan forces and the LTTE during the final phases of the war.
United Nations reports accused Sri Lankan troops of shelling hospitals and carrying out indiscriminate aerial bombardments, executing surrendering rebels and causing the disappearance of thousands of minority Tamils.
The main charges against Sri Lanka stem from the ethnic conflict which ended in 2009 when the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were finally defeated by the Sri Lankan forces on the banks of the Nanthikadal, where the LTTE was holding over three hundred thousand Tamil civilians as human shields as the Lankan forces cornered them on that narrow sliver of land approximately 13 km by 5km in area.
A panel established by former UN Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon -who never stepped into the country- accused the Sri Lankan forces of killing up to 40,000 civilians during the final days of the war through indiscriminate shelling and aerial bombardment.
Even as this piece is being written, the government of Israel is carpet bombing and shelling the Gaza Strip in Palestine. A strip of land approximately 141 sq miles with a population of over 2.2 million people. Gaza, though part of the State of Palestine, has been illegally occupied by Israel since 1967. For the past seven days, Israel has cut off all water, food, electricity and medical supplies to the people of Gaza.
The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza documented the deaths of more than 7,000. Palestinians, including nearly 3,000 children, since the war began on October 7. US President Biden denied the number of Palestinian deaths but was contradicted by the Palestine Director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), who said the Palestinian death toll provided by the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip is reliable.
On 18 October, Israel bombed the al-Ahli Arab Hospital. Gaza officials said at least 471 people were killed in the explosion, with more than 300 wounded. Israeli forces have also destroyed about 200,000 housing units since October 7, accounting for more than 25 per cent of populated areas in Gaza, according to the Minister of Public Works and Housing Mohammad Ziyara.
Yet, in the face of all the murder and mayhem that Israel is unleashing in Gaza, the US and the West have lost focus on human rights, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
While countries like Canada, the UK and the US are accusing the Sri Lankan army of committing Human Rights violations during Sri Lanka’s ethnic war, these countries have vetoed a resolution demanding a ceasefire in Gaza.
In the eyes of the US and the West, the application of standards for Human Rights violations and crimes against humanity apparently differ from nation to nation.
Alleged crimes committed in Sri Lanka, are not crimes if committed by Israel in full world view-different standards for different nations.