International Day of the 'Disappeared': a focus on Sri Lanka
By Rochelle Jones
August 30th was International Day of the 'Disappeared'. Each year,
thousands of individuals around the world are abducted by state agents and
never seen again. According to Amnesty International, the UN Working Group
on Enforced or Involuntary 'Disappearances' (UNWGEID) has over 40,000
outstanding cases of disappearances on file. Iraq accounts for most cases
(16,387) followed by Sri Lanka (5,708) and Argentina (3,375) [1].
The accepted definition of an enforced 'disappearance' under international
law is:
"the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of
liberty committed by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons
acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State,
followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by
concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which
place such a person outside the protection of the law." [2]
Acts committed without the involvement of the state, such as by armed
groups acting alone, are considered abductions.
Disappearances in Sri Lanka...
For decades Sri Lanka has been embroiled in a violent conflict involving
armed representatives of the Tamil minority community - the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelan (LTTE), who want a separate state. Major hostilities,
however, resumed in mid-2006. Since the collapse of the cease-fire agreement
in 2003 and the accompanying split in the LTTE, the people of Sri Lanka have
again been subject to gross human rights abuses from the Government, the
LTTE and other para-military groups.
According to Sunila Abeysekera, the Executive Director of INFORM, a Sri
Lankan Human Rights Documentation Centre, in 2003 when talks between the
government and the LTTE broke down, human rights abuses escalated. These
abuses have included "the use of civilians as human shields by both the
government and the LTTE, attacks on churches and mosques where people were
seeking refuge from the fighting...and large scale cordon and search
operations in which many Tamil civilians in particular are taken into
custody due to 'suspicion' under the emergency Regulations" [3]. Abeysekera
also explained how she has seen a rapid erosion of democratic principles and
freedoms, with particular severe restrictions on the freedom of speech and
_expression_, and on the freedom of association - an ideal climate for
enforced disappearances.
Since its establishment in 1980, the UNWGEID has received over 13,000 cases
of enforced disappearances from Sri Lanka. According to a new report by
Human Rights Watch on the situation, in the past two years, cases of
disappearances have "returned with disturbing regularity" [4]. The majority
of victims are Tamils, although cases of Sinhalese and Muslim victims have
also been reported, particularly businessmen from the Muslim community who
are abducted for ransom.
Government security forces are largely implicated in the disappearances,
and it is unknown whether individuals have been killed or are being held in
detention under the newly imposed Emergency Regulations. Implicated also are
the Karuna group - a Tamil armed group that split from the LTTE and now
cooperates with the Sri Lankan security forces. A recent report issued 23
August 2007 lists 547 persons killed and 396 persons disappeared during the
period from January to June 2007. 98 percent of all missing persons were
men. [5]
How are Sri Lankan women affected?
80 percent of Sri Lankan refugees are women and children, and there are an
estimated 40,000 war widows [6]. When fathers, brothers and husbands are
'disappeared', however, women face enormous challenges and difficulty, both
emotional and physical. Disappearances of loved ones can also have a long
term social impact whereby "conditions and prolonged suffering force women
to take steps and responsibilities that traditionally did not form a part
of her 'role'... such as the public role of women." [7]
Women whose husbands have "disappeared" or are missing experience many of
the same problems as widows, often changing the social and economic roles
of women in the household and community, and the structure of the family.
Widowhood "can affect the physical safety, identity and mobility of women
and can also affect their access to basic goods and services necessary for
survival and their rights to inheritance, land and property, in addition to
the wider impact it has on the community." [8]
A burden that women face when their husbands have been 'disappeared',
however, is that they are not granted any official recognition of their
status, creating specific problems in addition to the issues mentioned
above. "They have to suffer the psychological effects and insecurity that
stem from not knowing their husband's fate and not being able to bury their
loved ones and mourn properly, and the long-term consequences of raising
children without a father and not being able to remarry." [9]
Mobilisation for action...
The government has repeatedly claimed that abuses such as disappearances
will be investigated, but has never had the political will to take concrete
steps to do so. As a result they have been accused of being unwilling or
complicit. A Presidential Commission of Inquiry created in 2006 to deal
with specific cases has proven inadequate and has been criticised as a
government attempt to ward off condemnation. [10].
Speaking in right of reply at a recent Human Rights Council meeting in
March 2007, the Sri Lankan Government stated that it was 'constructively
engaged' with the international community in helping to improve the
situation there, but emphasised that it would not be prodded, pushed or
intimidated in any way into accepting any measures or institutions that it
did not see fit to accept [11]. At the same meeting, the Chairperson of the
UNWGEID said they were in discussions with the Sri Lankan Government to
organise a visit in 2008. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has
endorsed calls for a UN monitoring mission, but the United States, the
United Kingdom and India are hesitant.
The International Crisis Group, Amnesty International and Human Rights
Watch have all released recent reports and recommendations on the worsening
situation in Sri Lanka. At a local level, and typical of conflict situations
around the world, women have "organised themselves into groups and networks
to support each other and to fight for recognition of their loss and
status, as well as to determine the fate of their missing relatives" [12].
Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim women's organisations continue to come together
across the ethnic divides to mobilise against human rights violations.
However, organisations are enduring increasingly difficult circumstances
where any criticism of government policies leaves activists open to arrest
and attack [13]. Human Rights Watch has documented many cases of NGO and
INGO activists who have been attacked and/or intimidated.
There is a need for determined and collaborative action from the
international community and local civil society to halt the Government's
inaction and provoke a response to end the human rights violations and
pursue justice. A new International Convention for the Protection of All
Persons from Enforced Disappearance may provide a window of hope in the
near future if the UN General Assembly adopts it later this year as
recommended by the Human Rights Council.
Notes:
[1] Amnesty International
http://web.amnesty.org/wire/September2006/disappeared
[2] Cited by Human Rights Watch, 2007. 'Return to War: Human Rights Under
Siege' p.46. Available to download from:
http://hrw.org/reports/2007/srilanka0807/
[3] Women's Human Rights Net, October 2006. Impunity for Women's Human
Rights Violations in Sri Lanka: Interview with Sunila Abeysekera, Executive
Director, INFORM, Sri Lanka. By Johanna Howes.
http://www.whrnet.org/docs/interview-abeysekera-0610.html
[4] Human Rights Watch, 2007. 'Return to War: Human Rights Under Siege'.
Available from: http://hrw.org/reports/2007/srilanka0807/
[5] Asian Human Rights Commission, 2007. Sri Lanka: Report reveals high
levels of killing and forced disappearances.
http://www.ahrchk.net/statements/mainfile.php/2007statements/1173
[6] UNIFEM. Gender Profile of the Conflict in Sri Lanka.
[7] South Asia Forum for Human Rights, 2000. War and its Impact on Women in
Sri Lanka. http://www.safhr.org/pdf/srilanka.pdf
[8] Women Facing War. ICRC Study on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Women.
By Charlotte Lindsey.
www.reliefweb.int/library/documents/2001/icrc-women-17oct.pdf
[9] Ibid.
[10] Human Rights Watch, 2007. Sri Lanka: Government Abuses Intensify.
http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2007/08/03/slanka16573_txt.html
[11] Human Rights Council, 21 March 2007. Human Rights Council Discusses
Report Presented by Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary
Disappearances.
http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/view01/89FD00D7156CA0ACC12572A50070FFB3?opendocument
[12] See Note 8.
[13] See Note 4. p.81.
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