As Tamils across gathered across the world last week to remember and mourn the Vanni slaughter of May 2009, the growing movement for an internationally mandated mechanism to account for the war crimes and crimes against humanity that took place during Sri Lanka's military onslaught against the LTTE also arrived at an important landmark.
On the 17th of May the International Crisis Group published a report detailing allegations of war crimes committed during the final months of the war and made a compelling case for an international mechanism as the only viable means of realizing accountability and justice.
The report captures important changes in the international politics of
Specifically the ICG establishes that in the final months of the war the Sri Lankan military herded civilians into free fire zones and then wantonly shelled and bombed them with the explicit purpose of destroying Tamil civilian life.
In demanding an international rather than Sri Lankan mechanism of justice, the ICG has joined the growing chorus of Tamil and international voices insisting that the Sri Lankan legal system is institutionally incapable of establishing accountability and the rule of law, essential to securing political stability on the island.
It is now clear that the time for 'quite diplomacy' in dealing with
The report adds momentum to British Tamils' calls for a new departure in
While it is now undeniable that
At a minimum level British policy should now be re-orientated to include explicit and practical support for international initiatives on the war crimes issue. There is already an infrastructure in place for this. The Home Office has an established War Crimes Unit. Until now the unit has focussed its attention on the LTTE. It has spent its time and resources in marshalling unreliable evidence from partisan Sri Lankan sources such as the
Tamil activists can now make a credible case to politicians and policy makers demanding that the unit focuses its attention on the more pressing issue of the war crimes committed during the final months of the war. The Unit must support efforts to collect evidence from sources within
There are a wealth of sources within the British Tamil community who can give reliable and detailed evidence of the events that took place in the final months of the war. The War Crimes Unit can also easily marshal evidence on the abuses that occurred, and continue to occur, in
After the shelling finally stopped, many British Tamils made frantic efforts to contact their friends and relatives who had been in the Vanni. There are innumerable stories of extortion, rape and physical abuse. The Home Office Unit has an international and domestic responsibility to collect and document this evidence.
At a broader level
Just as
A year after the end of
British Tamils must work to ensure that British policy is re-orientated to be in line with the shifting international climate. There are immediate practical steps that can be taken on the collection and documentation of war crimes evidence. At a deeper level
