Counting the dead belatedly
April 5, 2013, 8:10 pmSri Lankans are very liberal with numbers. In a country which is home to about twenty million humans, they claim, there are three hundred and thirty three million deities—this thun kotiyak devivaru. Hyperbole seems to be a genetic factor in them and hence their adeptness at plucking figures out of the air, especially in the aftermath of disasters, natural or man-made. In none is this trait more manifest than in politicians whose forte is to blow things out of proportion to suit their agendas. Both the UNP and the SLFP claim they have recruited millions of new members during the past two weeks! Cynics say if their membership drives had lasted for a few more weeks at that rate, they would have recruited half of Asia’s population!
When a pugnacious parliamentarian by the name of Mahinda Rajapaksa, during his human rights days in the late 1980s, was asked by a foreign broadcaster how many people, he thought, had perished during the JVP’s second uprising, his pat response was ‘fifty thousand’. The bigger, the better, he apparently thought. It became an instant hit. The figure was huge enough to be impressive and round enough to be convenient! So, naturally, it caught on with the media. Nobody has cared to check it independently. Worse, no one has disputed it and it has gone by default. The UNP has recently said that the JVP killed 6,000 of its members and it is being claimed in some quarters that over 100,000 civilians died in the Vanni war. Even the UN has gone by these figures.
It is heartening that the Department of Census and Statistics has decided to conduct a census to find out how many have actually died due to northern and southern conflicts, as we reported yesterday. This is a step in the right direction. The number of citizens killed due to violent uprisings and counter terror operations must be ascertained scientifically. Now that all parts of the country are easily accessible, taking a comprehensive census will not be an uphill task.
The blame for civilian deaths during the past armed conflicts has been conveniently apportioned to the military, the police, the LTTE and the JVP. True, they have been the main culprits. But, there are others who have a lot to answer for where extrajudicial killings are concerned. They are the vigilantes who went on a killing spree in the South and the pro-government militia that operated in the northern and eastern parts of the country. They committed crimes against civilians on the pretext of hunting down terrorists and bringing order out of chaos. Besides, many civilians died at the hands of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF), which was also blamed for sexual violence against women in the North and the East.
Ideally, old graves are best left undisturbed. But, since international pressure is mounting on Sri Lanka over alleged accountability issues and various figures are being bandied about as regards the war dead, it has become imperative that a census be taken to get at the truth. That is the only way some credible information about the victims of terrorism and counter terrorism could be ascertained.
It is hoped that the proposed census will be extended to cover war widows, orphans, the maimed and the missing as well so that a clear picture would emerge of the war and the delivery of relief could be better targeted.
After the census is completed and its findings are made public, we will be in a position to assess the human cost of the war. That will be the most important lesson to be learnt, we reckon.