The government is said to have decided to invite an international body to probe killings, abductions and other crimes which have recorded a significant increase during the recent past. The high incidence of violence in the conflict zone, which has spilt over into the city and the allegations of human rights violations levelled against the armed forces and the police, such as the killing of five Tamil youth in Trincomalee and the massacre of 17 aid workers in Muttur seem to have made the government think of such a measure. The government’s decision is salutary but it will have to back its words with deeds.

The inevitable outcome of a protracted conflict is the evolution of a culture of violence and the attendant desensitisation of the public. Unless violence manifests itself at one’s door step, one doesn’t tend to be concerned about its ubiquity or danger. The existing institutions entrusted with the task of safeguarding human rights have failed to live up to the expectations of the public mainly for want of strong teeth and their inability to reach out to all parts of the country. Their failure is evident from the victims’ or their families’ increasing dependence on international human rights groups like the Amnesty International or the Human Rights Watch.

Most local rights groups have chosen to confine their operations to the south to the neglect of the North and the East due to either fear or favour. They make a song and dance only when they get an opportunity to blame the armed forces or the police. Some of them are expending their energies on seemingly frivolous matters such as looking after the interests of petty thieves in police custody while abductions and murders in the North or and the East (or in the South) increase without anyone to take them up. The University Teachers for Human Rights–Jaffna (UTHR-J), known for its independence and factual reporting on the situation behind the Iron Curtain is, in fact, an exception. But it, too, has its limitations such as its inability to function openly in the conflict zone due to LTTE threats.

The probe mechanism that the government is contemplating is likely to face the same difficulties and the problems as regards access to information. It is highly unlikely that the LTTE will allow it to function in the parts of the conflict zone, which are under its control. Not even the UN agencies are in a position to operate freely in those areas, as the LTTE is aware that any improvement in the human rights situation through their intervention will mean a blow to its interests. It cannot afford to have any organisation standing in the way of child abductions, kidnapping, intimidation, murder and extortion, which are the ways and means of perpetuating its reign of terror. So long as those parts of the country are allowed to remain closed, human rights violations and crimes committed therein will be hidden from the rest of the world.

If witnesses are so frightened as to give evidence against members of the armed forces in the probe into the killing of the Trinco youth, despite all the encouragement and assurances by the President himself, how difficult it will be for anyone to obtain information about crimes committed by the LTTE in the areas under its control goes without saying. Never mind the North and the East, look at the way how even some seasoned human rights activists behave here in Colombo: When Sivaram or Taraki was abducted at Colpetty some time ago, those experienced advocates of human rights accompanying him, took to their heels without stopping at any police station on the way to report the incident! Such is the fear that grips society.

While battles are raging with combatants and civilians perishing in large numbers and thousands being displaced, tracks of criminals can easily be covered. The situation that prevailed in the South in the 1987-89 era may also serve as an example. But for the Suriya Kanda massacre of school children, where the perpetrators were brought to book, all other crimes were buried with the chapter being closed on that dark era. A heightened conflict, wherever in the world, is a black hole which sucks in not only human rights but also all evidence of their violations thus paving the way for crimes to flourish.