Delivering a powerful address to the United Nations Security Council on 13 May, Tom Fletcher, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, issued a stark warning about the scale of destruction in Gaza - drawing direct comparisons to previous global failures to prevent mass atrocities, including in Sri Lanka.
Citing past reviews of the UN’s conduct in crisis situations, Fletcher referenced the UN’s 2012 report on Sri Lanka, which acknowledged the international body’s “systemic failure” to act during the 2009 Mullivaikkal massacre of Tamils. Those atrocities, which are now increasingly being recognised as genocide, was committed during the final stages of the armed conflict between the Sri Lankan state and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
“Previous reviews of the UN’s conduct in cases of large-scale violations of international human rights and humanitarian law – reports on Myanmar, 2019; Sri Lanka, 2012; Srebrenica and Rwanda, both in 1999 – pointed to our collective failure to speak to the scale of violations while they were committed,” Fletcher told the Council. “So, for those killed and those whose voices are silenced: what more evidence do you need now?”
The reference to Sri Lanka was a sobering reminder of how inaction in the face of documented violations has enabled impunity, not just in Sri Lanka, but around the world too. The 2009 genocide at Mullivaikkal resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Tamil civilians, primarily due to indiscriminate shelling, targeting of hospitals, denial of humanitarian aid, and the extrajudicial killing of surrendering combatants and civilians.
“Israel is deliberately and unashamedly imposing inhumane conditions on civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” Fletcher said. “For more than 10 weeks, nothing has entered Gaza – no food, medicine, water or tents.”
He further condemned Israel’s refusal to allow humanitarian access, noting that despite clear legal obligations under international humanitarian law, the Israeli government continues to deny aid agencies access to Gaza, and has openly obstructed humanitarian operations.
Fletcher warned that the humanitarian situation is deteriorating rapidly, with “every single one of the 2.1 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip” now facing the risk of famine, and “one in five facing starvation.” Hospitals, he said, were overwhelmed and bombed, with medical workers operating under direct threat of sniper and drone fire.
He reminded Council members that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is currently considering whether genocide is taking place in Gaza and has already issued provisional measures that Israel has yet to implement.
“Will you act – decisively – to prevent genocide and to ensure respect for international humanitarian law? Or will you say instead that ‘we did all we could’?”
His invocation of Sri Lanka served as both a warning and a call to accountability, as well as a recognition that the international community’s failure to intervene in 2009 continues to reverberate.
Fletcher’s remarks came just days before the Tamil people across the North-East and in the diaspora marked the 16th anniversary of the Mullivaikkal genocide.