Professor Boyle: India is Guilty of "Complicity" in Sri Lankan Tamil Genocide
Thanjai Nalankilli
[First Published: August 2009]
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Abbreviations
1. Professor Boyle's Statement on Sri Lanka
2. Tamil Civilian Sufferings During and After the War
3. Is India an Evil Stepmother to Sri Lankan Tamils?
Abbreviations
GOSL - Government of Sri Lanka
IDP - Internally Displaced People
IMF - International Monetary Fund
LTTE - Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
UK - United Kingdom
UN - United Nations
UNHRC - UN Human Rights Council
UNSC - UN Security Council
USA - United States of America
1. Professor Boyle's Statement on Sri Lanka
Dr. Francis A. Boyle is Professor of International Law at the Illinois University College of Law in United States of America (USA). Professor Boyle is an expert on international law and in 1993 he was responsible for winning two World Court orders against Yugoslavia on the basis of the 1948 Genocide Convention; these orders relate to Yugoslavian actions during Bosnian war.
Professor Boyle issued a statement on May 12, 2009 outlining the legal framework for a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting to end the war in Sri Lanka between the army and minority Tamil fighters (LTTE). He was highly critical of the governments India, USA, United Kingdom (UK) and France, for their inaction to call for an emergency UN Security Council meeting. Here are excerpts pertaining to India:
"India has an obligation to bring this matter to the attention of the Security Council under U.N. Charter Article 35 and to demand an immediate, emergency meeting of the Security Council under its Rule of Procedure No. 3 in order to terminate the GOSL's genocide against the Tamils in Vanni. Failure by the Government of India to do so would only render India guilty of "complicity" in the GOSL's genocide against the Tamils under Article III(e) of the 1948 Genocide Convention.
"Shall India--the Home of Gandhi--turn and look away from the Tamils in Sri Lanka as they are being exterminated by the GOSL without doing all in its power at both the Security Council and the International Court of Justice (as previously explained by this author) to save these Tamils for whom it serves as parens patriae under international law? Today the Tamils in Sri Lanka have now become Gandhi's Harijans. Yet so far the Government of India has treated the Tamils of Sri Lanka as if they were "untouchables." [Harijan - someone belonging to India's, so called, "lowest caste", also called untouchables; they were treated badly in India for a long time until very recently. Parens patriae is Latin for "parent of the nation".]
2. Tamil Civilian Sufferings During and After the War
India did not ask for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council as Professor Boyle suggested, and the war ended on May 17, 2009. Taking stock of the final phase of the war, UN concluded that 7,000 civilians were killed and 16,700 wounded between January 20 and May 7, 2009. More died between May 7 and May 17. The British newspaper Times said that one thousand civilians were killed each day during the final phase of the war. It based this conclusion on aerial photographs, official documents, witness accounts and expert testimony.
After the war ended, some 300,000 Tamils from the war zone were put against their wish in barbed wire relief camps (internally displaced people's camps (IDP camps)). Some western reporters compared them to Nazi concentration camps. Journalists and international observers were barred from the camps, except during a few government-organized tours. Very limited access was given to relief agencies, although appalling sanitary conditions and shortage of food and medical help were reported. The Times (UK) reported 1400 deaths a week in these camps.
3. Is India an Evil Stepmother to Sri Lankan Tamils?
Professor Boyle called India the "parens patriae". Does India consider itself the parent of Sri Lankan Tamils because of the 60 million Tamil population in its southern most state of Tamil Nadu?
Not only did India not ask for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council to end the war and and thus save Tamil civilian lives, it led an effort in late May (May 26 and 27, 2009) to block a resolution in the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). The resolution asked the Sri Lankan Government to give unfettered access to humanitarian agencies to IDP camps in which some 300,000 Tamil civilians were kept involuntarily after the war. Not only did India vote against the resolution but lead the effort, along with Brazil, Cuba and Pakistan to defeat the resolution. Thus Tamil civilians were denied relief from international agencies willing and able to help them. As we mentioned in the previous section, The Times newspaper (UK) reported 1400 deaths a week in these camps. Many lives could have been saved if relief agencies were given unfettered access. Is this the action of a parent?
India again came to help Sri Lanka in July 2009. America and Britain opposed International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan to Sri Lanka in order to pressure Sri Lanka to allow more access to international humanitarian agencies to IDP camps. According to news reports, India supported Sri Lanka strongly and America withdrew its objection to the loan in view of India's position. The Sri Lankan newspaper Daily Mirror reported that India asked the visiting American Secretary of State Ms. Hillary Rodham Clinton to support the IMF loan to Sri Lanka. Again India had come up against Tamil civilians getting adequate relief in IDP camps. Is this the action of a parent?
In spite of the sixty million Tamil population in India's southernmost state of Tamil Nadu, India is neither a father nor a mother to Sri Lankan Tamils. It is not even a good stepmother. It is an evil stepmother helping the majority Sinhalese oppress and suppress the minority Tamils. God help the Tamils of Sri Lanka.
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