Writing in the Dawn newspaper, former BBC foreign correspondent based in Sri Lanka and Iran, Frances Harrison, highlighting the "living hell" experienced by Tamils during the finally stages of the armed conflict in 2009, argues that "without the truth, reconciliation and forgiveness are simply not possible and the grievances that led to conflict in the first place remain dangerously unresolved".
See here for original article.
Extracts reproduced below:
"A preliminary investigation by the United Nations said Sri Lanka’s “conduct of the war represented a grave assault on the entire regime of international law” concluding that up to 40,000 Tamil civilians may have been killed in just five months."
"There are indications that the death toll could be even higher."
"Colombo has promoted its victory over the Tigers as a new way to defeat terrorism, dubbed “the Sri Lankan option”.
"This is in fact a terrible euphemism for a scorched-earth policy, failure to distinguish between combatants and civilians and removing independent witnesses."
"The traumatised survivors describe a living hell."
"Desperate parents contemplated running into the sea with their children to commit suicide because they couldn’t bear the idea of dying one by one."
"When the Tigers were finally obliterated on May 18, 2009, the killing didn’t stop. In the final hours eyewitness saw the mopping-up operation as soldiers threw grenades in bunkers where injured rebels lay, unable to flee."
"Some of the last civilians who walked out say thousands of dead bodies lay sprawled on the ground, rotting in the tropical heat."