Confronting the Violence Committed by Armed Opposition Groups
Nair: Confronting the Violence Committed by Armed Opposition Groups Confronting the Violence Committed by Armed Opposition Groups by Ravi Nair* 1 Human rights groups have limited their role to monitoring and protesting human rights violations committed by state actors.! With the emergence of armed opposition groups-such as the Sendero Luminoso in Peru2 and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka 3 -that murder, torture, and destroy civil society in their respective regions, human rights entities must question whether they should broaden their mandate to include abuses committed by such groups. Focusing on the context of India, this article: (1) develops arguments encouraging human rights groups to critique abuses perpetrated by armed opposition groups; (2) suggests potential problems that may be encountered in making such criticisms; and (3) raises some reasons for caution by human rights organizations that condemn the actions of armed opposition groups. I. THE TRADITIONAL MANDATE OF HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS 2 The primary, if not the exclusive, mandate of human rights groups around the world has been to monitor, highlight, and struggle against wanton violations of human rights perpetrated by agencies of the State.4 .Ravi Nair is the Executive Director of the South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre ("SAHRDC") based in New Delhi, India <http://www.hri.ca/partners/sahrdc/index.htm>. 1. I use the term "state actor" to refer to states and those acting under the color of state authority. 2. See, e.g., Peru'sShining Path Kill Five in Grisly Attack on Border Town, AGENCE FRANCE- PRESSE, Dec. 8,1992, available in LEXIS, News Library, Arcnews File (describing an example of the terrorist activities of the Sendero Luminoso); Simon Strong, Where the Shining PathLeads, N.Y.
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