UN backs calls for Sri Lanka war crimes probe
Updated
International calls for a full investigation into allegations of war crimes in Sri Lanka have been backed up by the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon.
Large numbers of civilians are thought to have been killed during the final months of the military offensive against the Tamil Tigers. Hundreds of thousands more are being held in high security camps with insufficient food, water and medical facilities.
All but a few local humanitarian agencies are being denied access to the camps.
Presenter: Karon Snowdon
Speakers: Douglas Devananda, Sri Lanka Minister for Social Welfare; Dr Kumar Rupesinghe, the President of the Foundation for Coexistence
- Listen:
- Windows Media
SNOWDON: Douglas Devananda is the Minister for Social Welfare. He's also a Tamil and the Secretary-General of the Elaam People's Democratic Party, plus its only member of parliament. As such he was regarded as an enemy by the Tamil Tigers.
In turn he saw Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran as the main obstacle to achieving peace in Sri Lanka.
He says now the Government must deliver on promises to hold free elections in the north and provide a degree of provincial autonomy for Tamils.
Mr Devananda has been appointed by the Government to head a taskforce to oversee rehabilitation and resettlement of displaced people
DEVANANDA: The Prabhakaran era is over because through his terrorist activity he spoiled everything and he put the people in trouble. So now that obstacle is not there I think the Government has a clear path to go forward and fulfill the Tamil people's political aspirations. Until the elections take place ...I think we have a process. We have to start resettlement as soon as possible. The government is also of the same view.
SNOWDON: In the violent world of Sri Lanka the Elaam People's Party was the target of violence by the Tigers and was accused in turn of running a para military operation in support of the military.
For 300-thousand Tamils now crowded into poorly resourced refugee camps such revelries have probably faded against the need to get food, water and medical treatment.
The Government says aid agencies can't help until security checks are done in the camps.
That's not good enough for Dr Kumar Rupesinghe, a Singhalese.
He's worked for many years in conflict resolution in Sri Lanka and internationally including in Chechna and is the head of the Foundation for Coexistence.
His workers are stopped at the gates of the camps.
RUPESINGHE: We deliver the food to the government agents at Mana and in Vavuniya.
SNOWDON: Are you confident the supplies you're delivering to the camps are being distributed?
RUPESINGHE: Yes, yes
SNOWDON: With 300-thousand internally displaced people or refugees that's an enormous task. You're accepting donations, how are those donations going how are the Sri lankan people responding to that terrible need?
RUPESINGHE: I think its only now that the Sri Lankan peolpe have actually got to know about what is happening . There has been a kind of censorship of news coming from the north to the south. But the people will respond because during the tsunami period people responded magnificently. You know people went from village to village, collected stuff.
SNOWDON: Among the Foundation's demands is a call for reading materials in the Tamil language to help people wait for days on end in the refugee camps.
Plus it plans to provide vocational training for ten thousand young people.
RUPESINGHE: And also the ex-combatants..there are thousands and thousands of ex-combatants. They have to be rehabilitated, they have to have hope for the future. So there's a lot of work you know.
SNOWDON: Looking further ahead reconciliation has to be driven by political will - plus a willingness to engage with renegade Tamil groups.
RUPESINGHE: There's a lot of bitterness particularly in the disapora. A lot of people who's families are either missing or killed . Its going to take some time for people to accept the fact that the war is actually over, the territorial war is over. And the first thing to do is have a discussion with the Tamil National Alliance that has been working closely with the LTTE to enter the democratic mainframe and put their input into a political solution. Currently there is a recommendation in front of the government to fully implement the 13th Amendment and the President has indicated his willingness to do so.
