WAR CRIMES AND ATROCITIES (True Crime) (34 page)

This is by no means a complete list of all the atrocities that have occurred during the war years in Sri Lanka. One of the latest, and possibly the most horrifying, occurred on 14 August, 2006, when four Kfir jet bombers of the Sri Lanka Air Force dropped

16 bombs on the Chencholai children’s home in Vallipunam. More than 400 schoolgirls were staying overnight at the Chencholai home, and 61 were killed in the unprovoked attack on a nonmilitary location. Another 129 severely wounded girls were rushed to nearby hospitals.

MASS GRAVES UNCOVERED

A former soldier by the name of Somaratne Rajapakse, who had been sentenced to death in June 1998 for the rape and murder of a Jaffna teenager, alleged that the army had buried many ‘disappeared’ Tamil civilians in mass graves near Jaffna town. Exhumation began straight away and the first grave uncovered contained the skeletons of two males. The victims, one with his hands tied with rope and the other blindfolded, were identified as two men in their twenties who had simply disappeared in 1996 after the army took Jaffna. An additional 24 grave sites were uncovered around Chemmani village near Jaffna, which contained a total of over 100 bodies. Forensic experts from both Sri Lanka and abroad reported that the remains showed signs of physical assault and murder. This only accounts for a small proportion of the tens of thousands of people who have been reported as missing at the hands of the security forces, but it proves that major acts of inhumane conduct have occurred over the years of the conflict.

ONGOING HORRORS

The cost to human lives continues day by day, not just those killed in battlefield combat as a result of a ‘take-no-prisoners’ tactic, which has been adopted by both sides, but also to civilians and their exodus from the war-torn areas. Despite planned peace talks the clashes continue, and in October 2006 reports came in of one of the deadliest suicide bombings of the war, when nearly 100 people, mostly Sri Lankan sailors, were killed by suspected Tamil Tiger rebels. The sailors died in a suicide blast, when the rebels drove a lorry loaded withe explosives into a convoy of naval buses. The attack happened near the town of Dambulla and a spokesman who described the attack as despicable said, ‘All these people were without weapons and were simply going on leave.’ In 2006 alone, as many as 2,000 people have been killed, and this is since the ceasefire settlement of 2002, which raised hopes of the war coming to an end. In October heavy battles on the Jaffna Peninsula left hundreds dead, despite commitments by both the government and the rebels to return to the negotiating table. The Tamil Tigers, from their secret jungle base in the north-east of Sri Lanka, show no signs of being defeated by the military of the Sri Lankan army, even though they are vastly outnumbered. All the time the military control the peninsula – which the Tamil Tigers claim to be their cultural heartland – it appears the conflicts will never come to an end.

Israel And The Occupied Territories

2000–2006

Under the terms of the Geneva Convention, article number 54:

Starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is prohibited.

As is:

. . . to attack, destroy, remove or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population.

According to the above, the Israeli army’s latest offensive in the Occupied Territories amounts to them having committed serious war crimes. We all have a general idea of what we think a war crime is, but there are many different degrees of heinousness with which they are carried out. War crimes are among the most serious crimes under international law and represent offences against humanity as a whole. Perhaps the prime example of crimes against humanity is what Hitler and the Nazis did to the Jewish people during World War II, and that is what the UN Human Rights Commission have determined the Israelis are currently doing to the Palestinian people.

Since the start of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, which is the wave of violence that began in September 2000 between Palestinian Arabs and Israelis, the world has witnessed almost on a day-to-day basis, the injustices against the Palestinian people living in occupied Palestine. During this period the Israeli army have killed more than 700 Palestinians, including as many as 150 children. Nearly every one of these killings was unlawful – either by shooting, shelling or air raids on civilian residential areas; unauthorized executions; or as a result of the use of excessive force.

Following the harsh restrictions imposed by the Israelis on the movement of Palestinians within the Occupied Territories, the Palestinians have suffered widespread poverty and unemployment, and access to health and educational facilities has been hampered. On top of this, the Israelis have destroyed hundreds, if not thousands, of Palestinian homes, a large majority of their agricultural land and much of the basic foundations of their society.

LIVING IN THE SHADOW OF A WALL

The Israelis have continued to expand their territory and illegal settlements, and they restricted the Palestinians’ movement even further by the erection of the Israeli West Bank barrier in June 2002. The majority of the barrier was constructed of a network of fences with vehicle/barrier trenches and up to 8-m (26-ft) high concrete walls. In addition to the concrete wall and fencing materials used in the construction of the structure, sections of the barrier included electrified fencing, 2-m (6H-ft) deep trenches, roads for patrol vehicles, electronic ground/fence sensors, thermal imaging and video cameras, unmanned aerial vehicles, sniper towers and razor wire. It is located partly within the West Bank and partly along the border between the West Bank and Israel proper.

The barrier is a controversial project, with supporters claiming on the one hand that it is a necessary tool for protecting Israeli citizens from Palestian terrorism. On the other hand, opponents claim that it is an illegal attempt to expropriate Palestian land under the guise of security.

In 2006, the building of the wall in the Occupied Territories reached a critical stage. The completed sections of the wall have already caused considerable suffering to the Palestinian population. Homes have been demolished, thousands of olive trees uprooted, acres upon acres of land have been expropriated and roads have been destroyed to make may for the construction. If the Israelis are permitted to continue building the wall, much greater hardships and undue suffering lie ahead for the Palestinian population.

ATTACK ON THE GAZA STRIP

Following the abduction of Israel Defence Forces (IDF) soldier, Galid Shalit, by the Palestinians, the Israelis once again violated humanitarian law and attacked the Gaza Strip on 28 June, 2006. They fired six missiles at the only electrical power plant operating in the Gaza Strip, aiming at the plant’s six transformers. Two of the missiles missed their target on the first attempt, but a few minutes later two more missiles completed the mission.

This attack has had major and long-term humanitarian consequences for the 1.5 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip. The majority of the inhabitants have been forced to live without electricity in the fierce summer heat, and the harsh effects of the attack continue to be felt in all areas of their life. As a result of the lack of electricity, medical services provided by clinics and hospitals have declined drastically. Most of the people only have access to water for two to three hours a day and the sewage system is on the verge of collapse. Those residents with limited mobility have struggled due to the fact that the majority of the lifts in the buildings do not function and the lack of refrigeration has exposed many people to the risk of food poisoning. Small businesses, who rely on a steady supply of electricity, have been hit hard and the economy is now in a poor state.

The Israelis launched ‘Operation Summer Rain’ overnight in the southern sector of the Gaza Strip, with the primary mission of finding the captured soldier, Shalit. They began house-to-house searches in the area, and bulldozers moved in to clear the way of mines and bombs. The IDF moved into the area, taking up strategic positions at the now nonfunctional Gaza International Aiport in the south-eastern corner of Gaza. The Israelis scoured the Gaza–Israeli border for more tunnel entrances like the ones used to adjuct Shalit, and an IDF spokesman said, ‘We will stay here as long as necessary until we return with the kidnapped IDF soldier’.

In an effort to have some bargaining power, the Israeli military detained more than 64 Hamas officials and parliamentary officials in overnight raids across the West Bank. The detained ministers included Finance Minister Omar Abdel Razeq, Social Affairs Minister Fakhri Torokma, Prisoners’ Affairs Minister, Wasfi Kabha and Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Nasser Shair.

The Israeli airforce staged mock air raids over Gaza, causing sonic booms that caused mass panic among the civilians. They also dropped leaflets urging the residents to avoid moving around in the area because of impending military activity. Nervous civilians stockpiled batteries and candles, as well as food and water, expecting the worst. In southern Gaza, at the Rafah crossing with Egypt, which had been closed since the capture of Shalit, militants blew a large hole in the border wall. Palestinian security forces immediately formed a human cordon to stop people from pushing their way through the gap, and a curfew was imposed to further restrict the movements of the inhabitants.

Aiming attacks at civilian objects is forbidden under International Humanitarian law and is considered to be a war crime. The bombing of the Gaza Strip power plant was purely a civilian structure, and it did nothing whatsoever to hamper Palestinian attacks on the Israeli territory. Under international law the Israelis are responsible for the lives and welfare for those people who live on the Gaza Strip, and it is now up to the government of Israel to put things right.

OTHER UNLAWFUL ATTACKS

Over 120 Palestinians have been killed in extrajudicial executions, including more than 30 innocent bystanders, four of whom were children. In September and October 2005, four Palestinian schoolchildren were shot dead by the Israeli army either in their classrooms or walking to school in the Gaza Strip. Raghda Adnan al-Assar and Ghadeer Jaber Mukhaymar, aged ten and nine, were shot dead while they were sitting at their desks in the UN Khan Yunis refugee camp. On 5 October, Israeli soldiers killed 13-year-old Iman al-Hams near her school in Rafab. Witnesses reported that a commander repeatedly shot at the schoolgirl from close range, even though it was obvious she was a child who was obviously scared to death. Although the commander was charge with illegal use of his weapon, he was not charged with either murder or manslaughter.

On 22 March, Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a 68-year-old paraplegic who was bound to a wheelchair, was assassinated by an Israeli airstrike as he left a mosque in Gaza City. Seven other Palestinians were killed in the attack and at least 17 more were injured. His successor, Abd al-Aziz al-Rantisi, was also assassinated on 17 April.

When Israelis opened fire on a nonviolent demonstration on 19 May, eight people were killed, including three schoolchildren, 10-year-old Walid Naji Abu Qamar, 11-year-old Mubarak Salim al-Hashash and 13-year-old Mahmoud Tariq Mansour. Many other unarmed demonstrators were wounded in the attack.

Palestinians have constantly been used as human shields during Israeli military operations, compelling them to risk their lives, despite the fact that this practice was banned by the Israeli High Court. In April 2005, Israeli soldiers forced 13-year-old Muhammed Badwan onto the bonnet of their jeep, tying him to the front windshield. They used him as a human shield to discourage Palestinian demonstrators from throwing stones at them during a demonstration in the West Bank village of Biddu.

In May 2005, the Israeli army destroyed approximately 300 homes and severely damged 270 other buildings in the Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. This left about 4,000 people without homes. When the IDF arrived with their bulldozers, many people were trapped inside their homes and they had to drill holes in the back walls in order to escape. Thousands of residents fled in fear, and UN schools were used as temporarily shelters to house the refugees. Israeli officials claimed the mass destruction was intended to further widen the ‘no-go’ area along the Egyptian border and to uncover illegal tunnels used to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip.

Following the death of two Israeli children in October 2005, the IDF launched a major attack on the Jabalya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip. This attack destroyed over 200 homes and buildings, and it also resulted in severely damaged roads and other vital infrastructures.

VIOLATIONS
 
BY
 
PALESTINIANS

Of course human rights violations are not just restricted to the Israeli army, Palestian armed groups have also killed 67 Israeli citizens, eight of which were children. The majority of these attacks were claimed by the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which is an offshoot of Fatah, and by the the armed wing of Hamas.

RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

Until the Israelis and the Palestinians respect the law of human rights, there will be no peace or settlement in the area of the Occupied Territories. Even in the overwhelming majority of the thousands of cases of unlawful killings and other grave human rights violations, no thorough investigations have been carried out. As the growing tension between Israel and Palestine continues to mount, there is an ever-growing concern for the safety of the civilian population. Instead of improving, the situation looks as if it will deteriorate further in the light of the end of the fragile ceasefire, adding to the already deteriorating health and humanitarian conditions in Gaza and the West Bank.