Tamil Genocide by Sri Lanka: The Global Failure to Protect Tamil Rights Under International Law

by Francis A. Boyle

Sri Lanka's government declared victory in May, 2009, in one of the world's most intractable wars after a series of battles in which it killed the leader of the Tamil Tigers, who had been fighting to create a separate homeland for the country's ethnic Tamil minority. The United Nations said the conflict had killed between 80,000 and 100,000 people in Sri Lanka since full-scale civil war broke out in 1983. A US State Department report offered a grisly catalogue of alleged abuses, including the killing of captives or combatants seeking surrender, the abduction and in some cases murder of Tamil civilians, and dismal humanitarian conditions in camps for displaced persons. Human Rights Watch said the U.S. report should dispel any doubts that serious abuses were committed during the final months of the 26-year civil war. The report gains added significance since, during these five months, the Sri Lankan Government denied independent observers, including the media and human rights organizations, access to the war zone, and conducted a "war without witnesses." This book traces the ongoing engagement of international lawyer Francis A. Boyle during the last years of the conflict. Boyle was among the very few addressing the international legal implications of the Sri Lankan Government's grave and systematic violations of Tamil human rights while the conflict was taking place. This is the first book to develop an authoritative case for genocide against the Government of Sri Lanka under international law.

Genres: History

140 pages, Paperback

First published December 8, 2009

About the author

Francis Anthony Boyle (born 1950) is a professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis...]

Reviews

[Arti Agarwal · Rating 4 out of 5]

The books gives a very detailed explanation and reasoning behind the actions and demands of the LTTE. The author has put everything within the framework of international laws on human rights, and supplemented it with facts and information about the Sri Lankan treatment of the Sri Lankan Tamils for several decades. I see so many reads talking about the acts of LTTE, but very few which give the alternative perspective on the atrocities faced by innocent civilians in Sri Lanka's Tamil quarter, which was already geographically separate from the Sinhalese quarter. It's an important read to understand the nuances of this conflict.

[PeaceAll · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quoting from the Editorial Review:
Human Rights Watch said the U.S. report should dispel any doubts that serious abuses were committed during the final months of the 26-year civil war. The report gains added significance since, during these five months, the Sri Lankan Government denied
- independent observers,
- including the media and human rights organizations,
- access to the war zone,
and conducted a “war without witnesses.”
(which made this appear less significant than events in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria...)

Mr. Francis Boyle is a leading American expert in international law. He was responsible for drafting the Biological
Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, the American implementing legislation for the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention. He served on the Board of Directors of Amnesty International (1988-1992), and represented Bosnia-Herzegovina at the World Court.

A recommended sequence in reading/watching is:
1. Blowback: Linguistic Nationalism, Institutional Decay, and Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka
2. then read this book by Francis Boyle
3. then watch the TWO Award-winning independent British Channel4 documentaries:
http://srilanka.channel4.com/index.shtml
(it holds both parties responsible)

I hope this review helped?

[Mallee Stanley · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was incorrectly titled. It wasn't about Tamil genocide by Sri Lanka. It was about the author, Francis A. Boyle and the speeches he made requesting the UN to take action. I lost count of how many times Boyle told us that he was a professor of international law. In fact, I lost count of how many times I seemed to be reading the same information, worded slightly differently from page to page. I would suggest that Mr Boyle stick to law rather than try to write a book. It was boring from cover to cover because it was completely impersonal and repetitive. No stars from me.