Sri Lanka (Continuación)

MundoAsia, , ,

El Buda, Siddhartha Gautama, no compuso ningún sutra para azuzar el odio religioso ni la animadversión racial. Sin embargo, el chovinismo budista amenaza los procesos democráticos de Myanmar (Birmania) y Sri Lanka. Algunos de los mismos monjes budistas que desafiaron a la junta militar birmana en la “Revolución de Azafrán” de 2007 hoy incitan a la violencia contra la minoría musulmana rohinyá. En Sri Lanka, el chovinismo étnico de los budistas cingaleses, avivado por un ex presidente que está resuelto a volver al poder, pone el ridículo la supuesta meta de reconciliación con los derrotados tamiles hinduistas.

En Birmania, el racismo budista es uno de los grandes factores de la virtual guerra civil en el estado de Rajiine y ha generado una crisis humanitaria en que cientos de miles de rohinyá musulmanes han tenido que huir del país por mar y tierra.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia

Six months after his stunning victory in Sri Lanka's presidential election, Maithripala Sirisena faces a renewed challenge from the man he ousted. Sirisena's triumph gave new life to Sri Lanka's battered democracy, which had suffered under Rajapaksa's authoritarian and nepotistic regime. Rajapaksa's likely return to parliament with a significant degree of support will put continued political reforms and chances for ethnic reconciliation under severe pressure.

Risking his career, Sirisena left his position as health minister and general secretary of the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) in November 2014 to head a combined opposition campaign led by the United National Party (UNP) to unseat Rajapaksa.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia

Ganar una guerra o una revolución para luego perder la paz ulterior es una de las desalentadoras verdades políticas de nuestro tiempo. En Irak, una rápida victoria militar sobre el régimen de Saddam Hussein pronto dio paso a la insurgencia, la guerra civil y el ascenso del criminal Estado Islámico. En Libia, Siria, Yemen y otros sitios, las esperanzas desencadenadas por la Primavera Árabe han sufrido un proceso similar para convertirse en una desesperación a menudo violenta.

Hoy día, media década después del final de una guerra civil que duró 36 años, Sri Lanka se encuentra en un momento crucial para sus propios esfuerzos por consolidar la paz y garantizar sus beneficios a largo plazo.…  Seguir leyendo »

Helping Sri Lanka’s New Democracy

MundoAsia,

Sri Lanka’s voters shocked themselves and the world this month by tossing out their president, who crushed the Tamil insurgency in 2009 and then led the country, along with his brother as defense secretary, to the brink of authoritarianism. The new president has promised to restore freedom of the press, independence of judges, and the rights of religious and ethnic minorities.

Democracy advocates, including Secretary of State John Kerry, say this is the country’s most important chance to open a new chapter in more than a decade.

But the country must make sure that members of the ousted regime do not return to power and that the new government can secure its authority.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia,

The stunning ouster of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Jan. 8 was good news for that island nation of 20 million, and further evidence of a universal yearning for good governance.

After a decade in power, Sri Lankans chose to hold Rajapaksa accountable for extensive corruption and nepotism, and for presiding over a climate of intimidation. His relatives and cronies dominated key ministries and institutions, and abused their powers to raid the public purse and silence critics. One-family authoritarian rule under the Sri Lanka Freedom Party did not pass public muster and despite the challenger’s late start and lack of resources, democracy prevailed.…  Seguir leyendo »

Maithripala Sirisena. Credit Ishara S.Kodikara/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

MundoAsia,

The Sri Lanka that Pope Francis is now visiting to canonize an 18th-century missionary is a radically different country than it was just one week ago. The difference: He will be greeted by a new president, Maithripala Sirisena, a onetime ally and cabinet minister of Mahinda Rajapaksa, the former president who failed in his bid to secure a third term.

When Mr. Rajapaksa called the early election, in November, few thought the outcome would be anything other than a greater consolidation of his increasingly entrenched position in the country. His nearly 10 years in power undeniably transformed Sri Lanka: Mr. Rajapaksa presided over the end to the island nation’s long-running and brutal civil war in 2009, when government forces conclusively defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a terrorist group that for decades used guerrilla warfare and suicide bombings to fight for a separate homeland for the Tamil-majority areas in the north and east.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia, ,

When I met Watareka Vijitha Thero in early 2014 in a suburb of Colombo, the Sri Lankan capital, he had been in hiding for nearly five months. The gentle-voiced monk had spoken out against anti-Muslim fearmongering by a hard-line group called the Buddhist Power Force, known by its Sinhalese initials B.B.S.

Mr. Vijitha’s car was attacked in retaliation, and he narrowly escaped. “What does it mean for Buddhism if those that speak for communal harmony have to hide in fear?” he asked me. “What does it mean for my country that the government lets these lawless thugs have a free run?”…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia,

In early 2009, as many as 40,000 civilians were killed in the final days of Sri Lanka’s civil war, having been herded into an area about the size of Central Park and subjected to relentless shelling. No one has been held accountable for these crimes, and even now the government in Colombo remains intent on burying the past. Only an international commission of inquiry stands any chance of rectifying this omission. So when the United Nations Human Rights Council meets Monday in Geneva, it should seek an investigation. It would be a decisive step toward justice and reconciliation in Sri Lanka.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsiaInternacional,

As the Commonwealth summit approaches, the shadow foreign secretary, Douglas Alexander, among others, has urged David Cameron to boycott the meeting next week in Colombo, while the Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper, has withdrawn. At issue are the war crimes alleged to have been committed under the host government in Sri Lanka, for which there is mounting evidence. Thousands of Tamil civilians were killed during the bloody civil war. President Mahinda Rajapaksa is also accused of attacks on the press and violence against government critics. With the UN too calling for an independent investigation, refused so far, it is certainly depressing that Commonwealth leaders show so little appetite for challenging his intransigence.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia,

Difficile de se reconstruire quand le gouvernement nie les crimes qu’il a commis contre ses proches. Au Sri Lanka, deux versions de la vérité s’affrontent: celle des Tamouls, parmi lesquels 70 000 civils auraient été tués lors de l’écrasement de la rébellion il y a quatre ans, et celle des autorités sri lankaises, qui refusent toute enquête internationale et tentent d’enfermer ces crimes de guerre sous une chape de plomb.

Pour le gouvernement sri lankais, tous les moyens sont bons pour faire taire les voix discordantes. Y compris à Genève: la mission du Sri Lanka a tenté en février de cette année de faire interdire la diffusion d’un documentaire au Palais des Nations.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia

Four years ago this week, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam announced that their struggle for an independent homeland in northern Sri Lanka had “reached its bitter end.” The group had been fighting on behalf of the Tamil people for more than a quarter-century, and its defeat was absolute.

Today, great sections of Tamil country are still a scene of devastation. The houses are either destroyed or brand-new; the land is uncultivated and overgrown; there are forests of decapitated Palmyra palms, damaged by heavy shelling. And then there are the relics of war — graveyards of L.T.T.E. vehicles rotting in the open air; the remains of a ship, its superstructure blown to pieces and in whose rusting starboard a gaping hole gives on to blue sea.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia,

A year ago, when I was living in Colombo, Sri Lanka, I arranged to meet a friend for lunch, to talk about a Sri Lankan journalist who had gone missing and was presumed dead. By the time we met, my friend had a new mission: to keep another Sri Lankan safe.

The previous day, the United Nations Human Rights Council had passed a resolution “noting with concern” the Sri Lankan government’s refusal to address serious allegations of human rights abuses by the military — carried out during and after its 26-year war with the separatist Tamil Tigers, which ended with a defeat of the rebel group in 2009.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia,

Una de las peores atrocidades en décadas recientes ha recibido muy poca atención mundial. Recordamos y reconocemos que los casos de Camboya, Rwanda, Bosnia y Darfur fueron vergonzosos. Nos torturamos por el fracaso de no poder frenar las atrocidades que se cometen casi diariamente en Siria. Sin embargo, al menos hasta ahora, el mundo ha puesto muy poca atención a los crímenes de guerra y los crímenes de lesa humanidad que son comparables en términos de brutalidad a cualquiera de los anteriores: los campos de exterminio de Sri Lanka en 2009.

Hace tres años durante el final sangriento de la guerra del gobierno de Sri Lanka contra el movimiento separatista de los Tigres de Liberación del Ealam Tamil (LTTE), aproximadamente alrededor de 300,000 civiles quedaron atrapados entre el avance del ejército y los últimos combatientes del LTTE en lo que se ha llamado “la jaula” –una pequeña franja de tierra, no mucho más grande que el parque central de Nueva York, entre el mar y la laguna al noreste del país.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia,

Even as attention is riveted on the bloodshed in Syria, another conflict, far more deadly, is belatedly attracting the notice it deserves.

Beginning this week, the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva has returned to an issue that has haunted it since 2009 — the bloody finish to Sri Lanka’s civil war. That conflict ended on a stretch of beach in the country’s northeast, as the remaining fighters of the Tamil Tigers and tens of thousands of traumatized civilians were surrounded by and surrendered to the Sri Lankan Army.

Sri Lankans and many abroad rejoiced at the defeat of a force that had routinely deployed terrorist tactics.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia, ,

This week the UN Human Rights Council has an opportunity and a duty to help Sri Lanka advance its own efforts on accountability and reconciliation. Both are essential if a lasting peace is to be achieved. In doing so, the council will not only be serving Sri Lanka, but those worldwide who believe there are universal rights and international legal obligations we all share.

Nearly three years since the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) by the Sri Lankan government there has still been no serious domestic investigation of the many allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by both sides during the civil war's final stages.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia,

The Sri Lankan government’s defeat of the separatist Tamil Tigers in 2009 ended a three-decade war that took tens of thousands of lives. But only now is the government beginning to acknowledge its huge human cost. Two weeks ago, a government-appointed reconciliation commission released a long-awaited report, giving voice to the war’s civilian victims for the first time.

From August 2010 to January 2011, hundreds of people appeared before the commission in tears, begging for news of their loved ones, many of whom had last been seen in the custody of security forces. A doctor spoke of how they managed to survive under deplorable conditions in places “littered with dead bodies and carcasses of dying animals.”…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia

In April 2009, we travelled together as foreign ministers to Sri Lanka, as 25 years of fighting between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers neared its end.

The remaining fighters were trapped in the northern most part of the country — along with large numbers of civilians. U.N. estimates put the numbers of civilians there in the last few months of the war at over 300,000.

Our purpose was simple: to draw attention to the human suffering, to call for humanitarian aid and workers to be allowed in, and to call for the fighting to stop.

We visited refugee camps that had been created to house Tamil refugees from Jaffna.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia,

The Sri Lankan military is getting a makeover. Now that the war with the Tamil Tigers is over it is time to wash off the stains and spruce up. Military personnel may be spotted painting public buildings or engaged in projects to beautify Colombo, with defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa personally overseeing the transformation and development of the city.

The military playing a role in postwar reconstruction is not altogether misplaced but there is more to it than meets the eye. The Sri Lankan military, accused of grave human rights violations especially during the final stages of the war, is transforming itself by taking over many aspects of civil administration and governance.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia,

Since the decisive end of the decades-long conflict with the Tamil Tigers in May 2009, the Sri Lankan government has expended a great deal of energy and expense to prevent an international war crimes inquiry. Now the news has emerged that as part of this campaign, the government has hired the UK's premier public relations firm, Bell Pottinger, to spin its story and salvage its reputation, said to be for almost £3m a year.

An independent inquiry is anathema to the Sri Lankan government. In spite of President Mahinda Rajapaksa's promise to UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon 18 months ago to examine wartime atrocities, the government has done nothing serious in that regard.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia,

During the Vietnam conflict, the US military developed some creative ways to increase the numbers of Viet Cong insurgents it claimed to have killed. "If they're dead, they're Viet Cong," meant that any Vietnamese killed by American soldiers would automatically count as enemy fighters.

Sri Lanka's defence secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, has taken such creative accounting to new heights. The United Nations reported that at least 7,000 civilians were killed and tens of thousands wounded during the final months of the brutal conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which ended in May 2009. But Gotabhaya has repeatedly cast aspersions on the idea that there were any civilian casualties.…  Seguir leyendo »