FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AHRC-STM-107-2009
May 14, 2009
A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission
SRI LANKA: The banality of evil and the Security Council intervention
This week’s criticism against the Sri Lankan government’s actions relating to the less than five square kilometer territory formerly referred to as the no-fire zone intensified. UN agencies, foreign governments such as Britain, France and Austria and several media channels accused the government of going back on its promise not to use heavy weapons such as artillery and aerial bombardments within this territory as it endangers the lives of civilians. The fact is that there is clear evidence of the use of such heavy weapons and they have caused many deaths. On some days there have been reports of the deaths of hundreds due to shelling while on Tuesday, 12th May alone 49 such deaths were reported.
Government sources deny such deaths stating that the government forces do not use artillery and shelling and have even tried to attribute the killings to the LTTE itself. The government’s responses lack seriousness. Government spokesmen have even tried to claim that some of the doctors, who had spoken to media channels giving details of the deaths they had witnessed, were imposters. However, there was clear confirmation that these doctors are, in fact, genuine medical officers on the pay role of the government itself. One minister, when asked about the actual numbers of people trapped within this five square kilometer territory stated that, according to the navy commander the number is 5,000 while according to the army commander the figure is between 10,000 to 15,000. However, the minister said that according to Mr. David Miliband MP, who is the current Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs the figure is as high as 40,000. In fact, the figures given by all independent sources are between 50,000 to 100,000. While the government denied heavy fighting a ship carrying food stuffs and medicines to this small area under the supervision of the ICRC returned on Tuesday and Wednesday claiming that due to heavy fighting it was not possible to proceed in their humanitarian mission. On Wednesday among those who were killed was an ICRC employee. When questioned by the BBC people outside the area stated that they heard sounds of artillery fire. The government spokesman replied that they must have imagined this.
Vani Kumar, 25 working at a temporary medical facility in the area in talking to the Guardian in the United Kingdom described the situation saying, “It is like hell.”
Kumar went on to say:
Most of the time we live in the shelter. There is not enough medical equipment, so it is really difficult to treat people. Food is a problem as well. There is no food at all here, there are no vegetables and no rice, they just eat whatever they can find, that’s all. The hospital is located in a primary school so there is only one room. We just try our best to achieve what we can.
I was in the office working [when the shell hit]. It was definitely a shell, there is no doubt about that. I was about 20 metres away, and I was sure that it landed inside the hospital, so I went to the shelter. I got the news from the doctors that there were people injured and dead. There was constant shelling so I couldn’t leave the shelter.
The government’s argument about such criticism is that there is no independent proof of the facts claimed. However, the government will not allow any independent media, local or international or any independent inquiry teams from the United Nations or elsewhere to enter the area for fact finding. The government has also failed to appoint a credible government commission of inquiry for independent inquiries into the situation. The facts given by the government are those of its propaganda spokesmen, who would naturally be doubted under such circumstances anywhere in the world.
The primary responsibility of providing proper information to its own people, as well as the international community, lies with the government and the government needs to discharge that obligation through credible authorities. While minor discrepancies can always happen under such circumstances, blatant denials only indicate that they government does not consider that it is the state’s responsibility to provide credible information about the situation. The government follows a catch me if you can approach.
Hannah Arendt coined the term banality of evil’ when writing about the trial of Adolf Eichmann the chief coordinator of the transportation of Jews to death camps. Arendt reflected for many decades on what made it possible for rational people to construct concentration camps, each person doing various minute functions for the purpose of exterminating the Jews. The unthinking following of routine as people caught up in the cog, functionaries who carried out their jobs without thinking and exercising judgement was the cause she found which made possible such horrendous acts both in Germany as well as in Stalin’s Russia more or less within the same time frame. It is this same banality of evil that is seen also in many other places these days including Sri Lanka. For the LTTE the use of terror in order to force these few hundred thousand to follow them when they retreated when attacked by the Sri Lankan army was just routine. These people were never considered as human beings with families, feelings, attachments and all things human but were merely reduced to a mass which was compelled to follow the orders of the LTTE. On the other hand the Sri Lankan government and the military also did not see, in these people, human beings. They also used terror in order to compel the people to leave the LTTE strangle hold. The discourse of the LTTE and that of the government regarding these people was done through terror. Even the actual figure of how many people are in the territory at different times was not established by anyone. When people were killed either by the LTTE or government forces even their names were not revealed. The relatives and the friends of these people do not know whether they are alive or dead. A parent of a dead child may not even have the chance to ensure a decent burial. As Arendt mentioned about people in concentration camps their deaths did not matter as also their lives did not matter.
Thus, in Sri Lanka today the same banality of evil as described by Hannah Arendt is experienced. Under those circumstances the UN Security Council’s official call on May 13th for both parties to respect humanitarian law and to save the lives of all the people caught up in this either as captives in the so-called no fire zone or the IDP camps is a ray of hope within a context of terror. Responsible thinking and the exercise of judgement on the part of all Sri Lankans and the international community is needed to get out of the entrapment within the mentality of the banality of evil.
