Sri Lanka: "Stuck in the Middle," to a Horrifying Extreme

The civil war between the government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE, or Tamil Tigers) is a virtual checklist of war crimes and crimes against humanity --- a veritable game of What-Atrocity-Can-We-Commit-Next?, with civilians suffering heavily throughout the 26 year conflict.

Both parties of the conflict have jumped on the mass atrocity bandwagon: Tamil civilians are intentionally targeted as part of the government's counterinsurgency strategy, and are frequently subjected to indiscriminate bombing, mass waves of disappearances, torture, and extrajudicial killings. The LTTE, for its part, not only targets civilians for suicide bombings, but also silences dissent among its own Tamil population, uses them as human shields against government attacks, and forcibly recruits child soldiers.

Tamil civilians are used as collateral by both the government and the LTTE in their war against one another. And in what must be the most horrifying manifestation of "stuck in the middle with you" imaginable, more than 300,000 civilians are currently caught in the squeeze of the government's latest campaign to quell the Tigers' rebellion once and for all.

Super Brief Background

I encourage you to check out the Genocide Intervention Network's Sri Lanka page for a deeper look at the background of the conflict, as well as a helpful breakdown of major players and a list of resources for additional information. For our purposes here, it's most important to note that ethnic division and discrimination are at the root of the crisis --- that is, the on-going civil war and endemic atrocities against civilians are fundamentally identity-based.

The Sinhalese majority has dominated Sri Lankan politics since independence in 1948 (and surely before, as well), and nationalists secured the passage of a litany of discriminatory laws --- including disenfranchisement --- against the Tamil minority. As a result, the militant Tamil Tiger rebel movement began fighting for independence, and the country erupted into civil war in 1983.

The Sri Lankan government abandoned a 2002 cease fire in January 2008 and began a renewed counterinsurgency campaign. In a particularly vigorous push over the past month, the government has uprooted the LTTE from of its former urban strongholds and cornered the rebels on a small pocket of land on the northeast of the island. From the AP:

"A string of government victories in recent weeks has opened up the possibility of a clear military solution to the 25-year-old civil war that has claimed more than 70,000 lives in the Indian Ocean island famed for its beaches and tea plantations.

The Tigers, who have been fighting for a separate homeland in northern Sri Lanka since 1983, have been routed from all major towns after heavy battles in recent months and are now cornered into a 115-square mile (300-square kilometer) area of jungle and villages in the northeast."

"Stuck in the middle with you"

Unfortunately ---  and, unfortunately characteristic of this brutal conflict --- the LTTE is not alone in its retreat, as more than 300,000 civilians have found themselves caught in the crossfire, forced to retreat from the government bombardment along with the Tigers. (The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre puts total displacement at near 500,000 --- the 300,000 figure appears to be the civilians trapped with the LTTE in the current government onslaught.) The forced retreat is not a one-sided ordeal: Amnesty International accuses both the government and Tamils of "violating the laws of war by targeting civilians and preventing them from escaping to safety":

"Amnesty International has received information that the LTTE has, in at least one instance, prevented injured civilians from moving to safer areas or accessing medical care--an act that could constitute a war crime.

The Sri Lankan government is carrying out military operations in areas with a civilian population. The aerial and artillery bombardment has reportedly led to civilian deaths, injuries, the destruction of property and mass displacement."

In an appeal for civilian safety issued last week, Human Rights Watch :

"The LTTE has long prevented civilians under its control from fleeing to government-held areas. As the LTTE has retreated into its stronghold in the northern Vanni area since the start of a Sri Lankan army offensive in October 2008, the rebel group has forced civilians deeper into territory they control. An estimated 300 local staff members of the United Nations and international humanitarian organizations are trapped in the Vanni because the LTTE refuses to allow them to leave for safe areas. Altogether, an estimated 250,000 civilians are now trapped in the small part of Mullaittivu district that remains under LTTE control.

The Sri Lankan government has contributed to the risk to civilians by detaining those who have managed to flee LTTE areas, including whole families, in militarized detention camps, denying them freedom of movement."

The government continues to deny numerous reports of numerous civilian deaths:

"Military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara told the media that ‘There were no civilians killed,' and added: ‘We are targeting the LTTE. We are not targeting any civilians, so there can't be any civilians killed.' Human Rights Watch said that the Sri Lankan military's blanket rejection of any civilian deaths in the latest fighting raised serious concerns about its genuine willingness to minimize future civilian casualties."

Just yesterday, for example, at least six civilians died after the army shelled on of the last hospitals still in operation in rebel-held territory.

The UN made repeated attempted to evacuate civilians over the last week, and finally managed to escape the battle zone with several hundred injured civilians. But the fates of hundreds of thousands more rest in the hands of the government and the LTTE, neither of which show any sign of granting a reprieve.

Is it genocide? Does it matter?

Though I know this is an unpopular view, from my knowledge of the situation, the Sri Lankan onslaught against the Tamils, as well as many of the actions of the LTTE, amounts to crimes against humanity and war crimes, but not genocide. The Genocide Intervention Network added Sri Lanka to its "Areas of Concern" map on account of the "magnitude of violence against civilians," and the Genocide Prevention Project lists Sri Lanka in Tier 1 of its Mass Atrocities Watch List. As far as I can tell, none of my typical go-to human rights groups have explicitly labeled the conflict a "genocide."

Change.org readers have sent me numerous articles on the matter, including an article in the Cambridge Review of International Affairs that argues, in very legalistic terms, that a genocide is, in fact, being committed against Tamil civilians. The authors arguments, however, focus on atrocities committed against civilians in the course of ethnic war without getting into the intent of the organizers and the perpetrators.

I've written in the past on the importance of intent in the commission of genocide, and on the importance of distinguishing cases of genocide, not --- and I stress again, not --- for purposes of moral relativism, but to serve to need to understand a conflict's dynamics in order to pursue conflict resolution. It's not a moral judgment on suffering.

But frankly, for the Tamil civilians caught in this mess, such a designation might be mere semantics. Whether or not the government has the explicit intent to annihilate every Tamil in Sri Lanka, it is certainly, and with the help of the Tigers, bringing about the conditions of life that might do so. And if Sri Lanka is a case of genocide, it may well be the first case of a two-sided genocide, where both parties in a conflict are responsible (though not equally) for genocidal acts against one group of people.

I'm particularly interested to get feedback from my Sri Lankan friends on this point --- I recognize that what I'm saying might frustrate you, but I hope that we can engage in a polite/constructive debate/examination.

(I would also like to thank everyone who contacted me about this issue --- I appreciate your patience, while I put this post together.)

[Photos from AP: Sri Lankan police officers are seen as a health worker unloads the bodies of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels on Tuesday, January 29, 2009 (top); Sri Lankan Army soldiers are seen outside a damaged church in the newly recaptured Tamil rebel held town of Mullaittivu, about 230 kilometers (143 miles) northeast of Colombo, Sri Lanka, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2009 (bottom).]