Article 6: Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.
Click here to watchvideo on Article 6: You Have Rights No Matter Where You Go
Wherever you go, you carry this with you, the right to recognition as a person. It doesn’t matter wherever you, but you have a right to be recognized as a person; and this means beings treated as such also. However, during the genocidal onslaught last year in Sri-Lanka, the Tamils that were forcibility displaced to camps all over Sri-Lanka were not given their basic rights no matter which camp they were sent to. Also, while it was the Tamils living in Vanni who were victims of the massacres, Tamil living all around Sri-Lanka were subjected to discrimination, and had many of their freedoms and rights compromised.
For example, many students in Batticaloa were targeted by police, and were victims of searches, and kidnaps despite not being in Vanni, where the massacres were unfolding. This quote from Tamilnet says “The parents do not send their children to schools [in Batticaloa] for fear of abduction and the education of the students has been very much affected, principals of the schools said.”
Those Tamils who were forcibly displaced to Manik Farm, an internment camp setup in Sri-Lanka in Northern Vavuniya, were not recognized as beings requiring basic human necessities. Requests from visiting relatives are often denied, freedom to move is confined within the camps, food is scarce, water services are inadequate, even toilets are regularly checked. In environments like these, water-borne diseases become rampant, killing many victims who have already suffered physical and emotional trauma. 1400 people are dying a week in Manik Farm alone, and many of it is due to water-borne diseases that could be prevented with clean facilities, according to senior international aid workers [who have been in contact with The Times].
Tamils in Colombo also have been subjected to discrimination: “The Tamil pedestrians are humiliated and ridiculed by this gang [of Sinhala mobs] and by the armed personnel at security points. (Tamilnet)”
Despite having a right to be recognized and treated as persons, the basic necessities, rights and freedoms of Tamil living outside of the conflict zone are also jeopardized. Those Tamils who fled the conflict zone, or were forcibility displaced to other regions of Sri-Lanka have also had their rights stripped away and unrecognized. [See links below for more information]
It must be noted that this degradation through not providing adequate basic necessities in a part of the genocidal program; only when you undermine the dignity of a group, can you violate their rights. When you place inhumane conditions upon people, or even place them in a position where they are humiliated, then it becomes easier to undermine them. If even going to the bathroom is watched, people become humiliated. Scholar Jacques Semelin argues that to render victims “worthy” of genocide, you need to reduce them to the dirty, cowering and impotent status that the genocidal perpetrators sees as their natural state. By denying basic necessities, you are able to further create an ideology that those who you are degrading are subhuman and savages. In Rwanda for example, the ideology that Tutsi people were cockroaches was passed around heavily for that simple reason: if they are believed to be cockroaches or vermin, then killing them and denying their rights is easier to justify. The Sri-Lankan Government has constructed Tamils to be viewed as ‘terrorists,’ by doing this, then Tamils rights are always seconded (because they are being viewed as ‘others’ not deserving of rights). Even when Tamils sought refuge elsewhere, they were automatically labeled as being ‘terrorists,’ (even little children!) this was done so that you could undermine their rights on the basis that they are not worthy of rights and freedoms.
No matter where in Sri-Lanka Tamils go, their rights are trampled upon.
Many of us were taught, treat others in a way you would want to be treated yourself. To the perpetrators of this violence, if you could not survive in the conditions you force upon others, if your dignity, freedom and equality would be stripped in these conditions, what makes it okay to force conditions that undermine the rights and freedoms of individuals to the Tamils living in Sri-Lanka?
Credits:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jun2009/slcm-j08.shtml
http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=29757
Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction, Adam Jones [2006]
Extraordinary Evil, Barbara Colorosso [2007]
Tags: Speak Out
