User:Adamrce/medsandbox1

This is a mediation proposal from this Sri Lanka discussion. Anyone is authorized to edit it. ~ AdvertAdam ^talk

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Civil war

Main article: Sri Lankan Civil War

One of the aspects of the independence movement was that it was very much a Sinhalese movement. As a result, the Sinhalese majority attempted to remodel Sri Lanka as a Sinhalese nation-state. The lion in the national flag is derived from the banner of the last Sinhalese Kingdom, which, to the Sinhalese majority, is a symbol of their fight against British colonialism. One single strip of orange on the left part of the flag represents the Tamil population, and it is seen by many Tamil as a symbol of their marginalisation.

In 1956, the Official Language Act (commonly referred to as The Sinhala Only Act) was enacted. The law mandated Sinhala, the language of Sri Lanka's majority Sinhalese community, which is spoken by over 70% of Sri Lanka's population, as the sole official language of Sri Lanka. Supporters of the law saw it as an attempt by a community that had just gained independence to distance themselves from their colonial masters.

The Sinhala - Only movement and the Sinhala-Only Act were driving forces behind Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict.

The Sinhala Only Act was, curiously enough, not in agreement with the constitution of 1947, which forbade language discrimination.

The designations of Sinhala, the language of the majority community, as the sole official language was the first major step in a process, which eventually destroyed the post-independence "ethnic status-quo".

The Sinhala Only legislation was a severe blow to the national pride of the Sri Lanka Tamil community. For them, it symbolized an explicit rejection of their existence as a distinct nationality in Sri Lanka society, and posed the threat of assimilation by the majority community.

The Sinhala - Only Act blocked the Tamil quest for continued socioeconomic progress and led to Tamil mobilisation against the State. When peaceful protests were suppressed, extremists actions was legitimised.

The Sinhala - Only Act affected state employment and educational policies at a time when the state was the country's largest employer and when University education was viewed as a key to socioeconomic progress.

Equally important the act led to ethnic out bidding, and it legitimated Sinhalese jingoism, which only radicalised an otherwise culturally and politically conservative Tamil Community.

Although other factors - such as the government's internal colonisation policies - played a significant role in Sri Lanka's ethnic relations, the language issue was the most important item on the agenda for both Sinhalese and Tamils.

Indeed the Federal Party's crucial contribution to Tamil politics was its emphasis on the role of language as the determinant of nationhood. This determination to attain Tamil nationhood was exemplified by a Tamil parliamentarian who prophetically claimed that "if the Sinhalese will not agree to federation the Tamils will have a fully autonomous Tamil linguistic state by whatever means they can get it, by all the methods of history - rebellion, guerrilla war fare or anything you please.

When the bill was introduced on June 5, 1956, the Tamil Federal Party organised a Satyagraha(peaceful protest) outside the parliament building, The Tamil protest was met by a counter - protest organised by the (activist Sinhalese group) Eksath Bhikku Peramuna. A mob representing the latter attacked the Tamil protestors and was responsible for unleashing riots that killed nearly 150 Tamils.

While economic rivalry and ethnic jealousies partly lay behind the 1983 riots, the major reasons were the Sinhala - Only language policy and the culture of ethnic outbidding and the institutional decay that the language initiated, enculturated, and legitimated. It was the official Language Act and the blatant discrimination that it imposed on the Tamils over two decades that led to the Tamil quest for eelam.

The immediate (and intended) consequence of this act was to force large numbers of Tamil who worked in the civil service, and who could not meet this language requirement, to resign. Affirmative action in favour of Sinhalese was also instituted, ostensibly to reverse colonial discrimination against Sinhalese in favour of Tamil. On May 14, 1976 at Vaddukoddai, the TULF headed by S.J.V. Chelvanayakam passed the Vaddukkoddai resolution which stated "This convention resolves that restoration and reconstitution of the Free, Sovereign, Secular, Socialist State of TAMIL EELAM, based on the right of self determination inherent to every nation, has become inevitable in order to safeguard the very existence of the Tamil Nation in this Country."citing the deprival of citizenship to one half of the Tamil population,state-sponsored Sinhala colonisation of Tamil provinces,denial of equal educational and job opportunities to Tamils,according foremost position to Buddhism in the constitution

From 1983 to 2009, there was an on-and-off civil war against the government by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a separatist militant organisation who fought to create anindependent state named Tamil Eelam in the North and East of the island. Both the Sri Lankan government and LTTE have been accused of various human rights violations.

On 19 May 2009, the President of Sri Lanka officially claimed an end to the insurgency and the defeat of the LTTE, following the death of Velupillai Prabhakaran and much of the LTTE's other senior leadership.

There were credible allegations and evidence that actions of war crime were committed by the Sri Lanka Armed Forces and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Tamil Tigers) during the Sri Lankan Civil War, particularly during the final months of the conflict in 2009. The war crimes included attacks on civilians and civilian buildings by both sides; executions of combatants and prisoners by both sides; enforced disappearances by the Sri Lankan military and paramilitary groups backed by them; acute shortages of food, medicine, and clean water for civilians trapped in the war zone; and child recruitment by the Tamil Tigers.

On 25 August 2009 Britain's Channel 4 News broadcasted a mobile phone video of gunmen alleged to be Sri Lankan soldiers apparently summarily executing eight bound and blindfolded Tamil men at point-blank range in January 2009. The video was alleged to have been taken by a Sri Lankan government soldier and to have been circulating amongst soldiers before Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka, a group of exiled Sri Lankan journalists, obtained it.

An investigation by a UN commissioned panel of independent experts (Peter Diaczuk, Daniel Spitz and Jeff Spivack) found that the video was authentic. In a point-by-point repudiation of the Sri Lankan government's assessment, the experts concluded that the reaction and movement of the victims' bodies and blood evidence were consistent with being shot; the movement of the weapon and the shooter and the gases expelled from the muzzle were consistent with live ammunition firing, not blank cartridges; there was no evidence of breaks in continuity in the video, no additional video layers; and no evidence of image manipulation; and that video had been filmed on a mobile phone, not a camcorder, as the Sri Lankan government's analysis had maintained. The experts were unable to explain 17 frames at the end of the video but this did not invalidate its authenticity.

The independent experts' findings led Philip Alston, UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, to call for "an independent inquiry to carry out an impartial investigation into war crimes and other grave violations of international humanitarian and human rights law allegedly committed in Sri Lanka."

Documentary -- Sri Lanka's Killing Fields

A compilation of amateur videos from the civil war was presented by Jon Snow as a 50-minute special titled Sri Lanka's Killing Fields on Channel 4 News in early June. The special features films shot during the last stages of the war that appear to show the shelling of areas in the no-fire zone and the aftermath, executions of captured LTTE combatants and dead female Tamil fighters being loaded on to a truck. Videos used in the first half were shot by individuals in the no-fire zone while the latter half seemingly shows mobile phone footage shot by the Sri Lankan soldiers. The same program was broadcast in Australia on ABC TV 4 Corners program on 4 July 2011 presenting allegations that up to 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed by shelling or executions after surrender in many cases after being sexually abused.

The Sri Lankan government has responded in multiple ways including questioning Channel 4's "standards and fairness". The video was to be shown to British MPs and parliamentary officials at a special showing in the House of Commons. Following the documentary on the Sri Lankan civil war, the UK called for the Sri Lankan government to launch an investigation following allegations of war crimes, as many times earlier as well. A British national was detained in Sri Lanka for providing footage for the video.

Criticism has been leveled at the program from many parties. According to the SL Government website, AA Gill of UK Sunday Times wrote "Not a second of this has been shot by Channel 4; none of the eyewitness accounts comes from journalists" and said "Jon Snow's commentary was intemperate and partisan, and it was all held together by assumptions". It went on to state what its general claimed were inconsistencies in the report . Ofcom is now investigating Channel 4's documentary after more than 100 complaints were received saying that it was misleading and misrepresentative.

In July 2011, Channel 4 exclusively revealed two individuals who witnessed the final violent stage on May 2009 who claimed that Brigadier Shavendra Silva ,the then commander of 58th Division of Sri Lankan army & currently Sri Lanka’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Sri Lanka's defense secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa ordered war crimes. One stated "They shot people at random. Stabbed people. Raped them. Cut out their tongues, cut women's breasts off. I saw people soaked in blood."

Post War

With the end of the war, the government of Sri Lanka called for redevelopment of the nation. The final stages of the war left some 300,000 people displaced. The Government of Sri Lanka claimed that by 2 May 2010, 214,227 IDPs (74%) had been released or returned to their places of origin.

On May 24, 2009,the UN Secretary General Ban ki Moon visited the Menik farm camp which was one of the IDP camps for Tamil civilians.He said "I have traveled around the world and visited similar places, but this is by far the most appalling scenes I have seen".Regarding the access to that camps that was denied to the NGOS and International aid agencies Ban Said "They should be given unimpeded access and freedom of movement within the camp. That is what I have asked the foreign minister and the president (for), and I was assured that the leaders of the Sri Lankan government will make sure (of this)"

On Jul 10 2009,The Times ,published a news that "About 1,400 people are dying every week at the giant Manik Farm internment camp set up in Sri Lanka to detain Tamil refugees from the nation’s bloody civil war, senior international aid sources have told The Times. "

Amnesty International demanded the unlocking of the IDP cams in Sri Lanka stating Displaced people have even been prevented from talking to aid workers. With no independent monitors able to freely visit the camps, many people are unprotected and at risk from enforced disappearances, abductions, arbitrary arrest and sexual violence.While some progress had been made on providing basic needs, much still needs to be done on the right to health, food, water, family reunion and access to relatives.

On August 9, 2011 Headlines Today ,a Indian news channel telecasted a documentary called I witnessed Genocide: Inside Lanka`s Killing Fields t in which ,the Tamil survivors who were released from the IDP camps accused the Sri Lankan state of using Chemical weapons during the war.They also accused the Sri Lankan army of torturing Tamils and raping Tamil girls and women in the IDP camps

In an interview to Headlines Today,television channel from India Gotabaya Rajapaksa,Defense Secretary of Sri Lanka & brother of President Mahinda Rajapaksa trashed “the political solution talk,” asserting, among other things, that it was “simply irrelevant” because “we have ended this terrorism in Sri Lanka.