PPT finds Sri Lanka guilty
The Permanent People’s Tribunal (PPT)in Bremen, Germany reached unanimous consensus that the Sri Lankan state was guilty of crimes of genocide against the Tamils and that the genocide is continuing even after the end of the military operations against the LTTE.
These tribunals held investigations last week.
In the final judgment People’s Tribunal noted that Lankan government responsible for human rights violations.
Highlighting that the Tamils in North-East Sri Lanka are Eelam Tamils, the tribunal ruled that Sri Lanka had sought the destruction of their identity, noting that this process had started before the armed conflict and that it is still continuing to this day.
The panel also ruled that both the United States of America and the United Kingdom were complicit in the genocide, whilst the involvement of India warranted further investigation.
The tribunal, headed by Secretary General Gianni Tognoni, included members such as the former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations Dr Denis Haliday, as well as genocide scholars, international legal experts and activists. Haliday had also told Tamil Net that the United Nations had failed the Tamils and noted the failure of the international community to act to prevent the genocide.
The final report and ruling, due to be released in the coming days, is to be sent to international bodies, including possibly the UN Human Rights Council.
International Human Rights Association and the Irish Forum for Peace in SriLanka jointly filed this petition at the international court.
The Panel urges to the above that they:
• Appoint a UN special rapporteur for Sri Lanka to investigate and identify responsibilities for human rights violations, violations of humanitarian law and war crimes committed by all parties in conflict;
• Support the establishment of an independent group of eminent persons to investigate the responsibilities of the international community in the disruption of the ceasefire agreement and subsequent war crimes and crimes against humanity and provision of the Sri Lankan Government with weapons during the ceasefire;
• Establish a field office of the UNHRC to allow for independent monitoring of the human rights situation of the Tamil people, and the implementation of Tamil rehabilitation and resettlement programmes, as well as measures aimed at reinstating fundamental rights, freedoms and the rule of law;
• Create an inter-governmental and inter-agency task force to coordinate donor agencies’ activities to support peace and reconciliation processes, landmine clearance, rehabilitation Permanent People’s Tribunal Tribunal on Sri Lanka and post-war reconstruction, subject to the rights and wishes of the Tamils;
• Provide the Tamil people with means to ensure their sustainable livelihoods and meet basic human needs, and support confidence-building programs to enable inter-cultural and inter-ethnic dialogue between the Sinhala and Tamil peoples;
• Investigate the final use and proper redistribution of international emergency and development aid to Sri Lanka for tsunami relief and post-disaster reconstruction;
• Appoint a special international electoral monitoring mission for the upcoming parliamentary elections, scheduled for 2010; and
• Demand that the right to a fair and transparent trial be recognized for the 12,000 plus political prisoners currently detained in Sri Lankan prisons.