Sri Lanka Army Joins People in Rebuilding Activity

November 21, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IDN

By Kalinga Seneviratne

IDN-InDepth NewsReport

SINGAPORE (IDN) – Amid reports that an internal document, made public on November 14 by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, has triggered soul-searching in the world organisation on its failure to protect non-combatants in Sri Lanka’s civil war, a visit to the country shows that the army and the people in the Northern Province are busy rebuilding the infrastructure destroyed by 30 years of a gruesome conflict.

During a recent visit to Jaffna, this writer noticed a marked improvement in the relationship between the army – which was once seen as the “enemy” by the Tamils – and the local population. Even one Tamil fisherman referred to the Sri Lankan Navy as “our Navy” which is trying to help them to drive away the Tamil Nadu fisherman poaching on Sri Lankan waters.

The desire to reconcile is apparent on both sides. Increasingly finding common ground, the people of the north and the south are now beginning to interact. There is increased tourism from the south of the country to Jaffna, especially Sinhalese Buddhist pilgrims who visit the sacred Nagadvipa shrine in Nainativu Island off Jaffna. This shrine was closed to Buddhist pilgrims for almost 30 years and it has been newly renovated with the help of army personnel.

At the army checkpoint before entering the northern zone at Kilinochchi every Sinhalese traveller is given a one-page sheet of paper in Sinhalese signed by Northern Division Police chief Gamini de Silva. In it he points out that in the Jaffna area there are a number of sacred Hindu temples and asks the people to dress properly in its vicinity, not to be intoxicated, respect their culture and treat all Tamil people during their visit with utmost courtesy and friendship.

Tamils themselves seem to be returning this courtesy as I found out during my 3-day stay in Jaffna. Since I don’t speak Tamil and if they don’t speak English, they tried to communicate with me in Sinhalese, something unimaginable a few years ago.

“Damage done in 30 years can’t be cured in 3 years.” argues Ishwara Sarma, a 82 year old Hindu philosopher and teacher who has lived in Jaffna throughout the conflict. “We need to forget the past and build a future together. This country is too small to be divided.”

Travelling on the road between Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu is reflective of what many people in the Indian Ocean Island hopes is the building of a new Sri Lanka. This is the route where fierce battles took place in the early parts of 2009 between the government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leading to the annihilation of the LTTE on banks of the Mullaitivu lagoon in May 2009.

These are the battles the BBC and some other western news agencies prefer to harp on as “war crimes”. But, the people there seem to want to forget the past and build a new future of peace and co-existence.

On either side of the road you still see the bullet-hole ridden walls of houses without roofs and unoccupied, even burned out mangled wreckages of buses, jeeps, vans and cars belonging to both the LTTE and the army. Yet, the roads are being built at a hectic pace with new asphalt carpeting with the predominantly Sinhalese army personnel mostly in civilian clothes working with the local Tamil people.

Hand in hand with the army

According to the Jaffna District Government Agent’s office, over USD 230 million has been spent up to May 2012 on road construction projects in the north through funds allocated from the Ministry of Economic Development, Governments of China and Sweden, and the Asian Development Bank. The A9 highway which was heavily mined during the war and closed for over two-decades is now open with newly-laid asphalt coating that makes travel to Jaffna as smooth as never before.

Though the highway is dotted with a number of army camps that has raised the ire of some human rights activists overseas, what impresses many visitors is the cordial rapport the army seems to have established with the local people since the hostilities ended. When working on road construction or driving tractor-driven trucks on the road, the soldiers are not even carrying guns. Three years ago they were shooting at each other or the local people were held as human shields against an advancing army firing mortar shells.

“(After the war ended) we understood that we needed to change the soldier from a fighting force to protector of the people,” Maj Gen Mahinda Hathurusinghe, Security Forces Commander in Jaffna said in an interview with this writer at the Palali camp. “We now use our resources to uplift the peoples’ lives and help them to create wealth,” he added.

The government has taken the stance that the priority for the people is to uplift their living standards rather than indulge in divisive debates about political reforms. Thus, the army is utilized to speed up the development activities and rebuild infrastructure destroyed by 30 years of war.

Economic strides

“Those days (during the war) life used to stop at 6 pm because there were curfews, now it’s like in Colombo, but there are now problems like robberies (due to the extra freedoms),” said school teacher Gopalakrishnan Gopikrishna. He also pointed out that with electricity now available the young people are finding life better with television and Internet at their disposal, but, they are using it for entertainment rather than for education, even accessing pornography. “Youngsters were unable to move during war time, now they are flashing out and us teachers are finding it difficult to cope with them.”

According to Government Agent (GA) of Jaffna, S. Arumainayagam, the local economy has made great strides in the past 3 years. He said that the development model for the north based on improving infrastructure and building industries and tourism is based on the Korean and Singapore development models. He said that the government has already invested Rs 200 million (USD 1.6 million) to start an industrial zone in Jaffna.

[Nagadvipa - the restored Buddhist stupa at Nagadvipa | Credit: The writer]

Arumainayagam pointed out that over the past 3 years more than 250 km of roads have been improved; paddy harvest has increased by over 100 percent, red onion (a specialty of the Jaffna region) has seen its harvest increase from 23,000 metric tons in 2008 to more than 63,000 metric tons this year. Production of chilies – another specialty of the region – has increased by 120 percent.

During an interview at his office, the GA claimed that the most remarkable increase has been in the fisheries sector. “In 2008 we only got 2,600 tons a year and in 2011 it has increased to 25,000 tons. This is due to a number of factors. During that time there were restrictions imposed on fishing by the government, but, today the government has distributed boats to fishermen, provided a fuel subsidy and established sales centres (for their catch),” he explained.

During the hostilities because the LTTE used to transport supplies by sea to their bases in the north-east, the Navy restricted fishing in the area.

Fisheries

Sinnaiya Thavaratnam, President of the Northern Provinces Fisheries Alliance does not agree with the GA’s assessment. “Last 25 years Sri Lankan waters have been disturbed by Indian fishermen. They are fishing in trawlers with big nets. So our catch is badly effected,” he complained.

The Jaffna-based fisherman claims that in 1985 nearly 50,000 tons of fish were caught by their fishermen, but now it dwindled to below 20,000 tons. “We need to stop Indian trawlers fishing in our seas – once that happens it will take 3 to 4 years to restore the fish resources for us to catch,” he estimates.

Though the Sri Lanka government has banned them coming in, the Indians still fish in Sri Lankan waters and the Navy has been unable to stop this incursion. “I think the government is not that interested, because of certain pressures. Navy is trying to protect our resources but the Sri Lanka government is not giving them enough support,” he lamented.

Indian trawlers

In September this year, India’s Hindu newspaper said that records obtained from the Indian government indicated that between January and June 2012, Indian trawlers crossing into Sri Lanka numbered 20,662. Fishermen from Jaffna have been urging their Navy to chase the Indians out and in one incident in February 2011, Sri Lankan Tamil fishermen resorted to direct action, rounding up more than 100 Indian fishermen, and handed them over to their Navy.

Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalitha, who has in recent years tried to champion Tamil self-determination in Sri Lanka, claims that the Sri Lankan Navy is harassing Indian fishermen and according to the Hindu has written some 12 letters to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh criticizing him for being soft on Sri Lanka.

She is another of those vocal Tamils overseas who want to stand up for Tamil’s political rights in Sri Lanka. She has refused to accept an invitation for the Sri Lankan government to visit Jaffna to find out for herself what the Tamil people on the ground needs at the moment. A number of Tamils in Jaffna told me that Tamil politicians want to create division and not reconcile.

“There is no question about it that the absence of war, absence of destruction, the ability of transact business and the ability to travel freely is being appreciated,” says Jeevan Thiagarajah, Executive Director of the Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies. “Something we need to ask is in the process of rebuilding what is the role of the government and at what point market forces take over. This question is not being asked yet.” [IDN-InDepthNews – November 19, 2012]

2012 IDN-InDepthNews | Analysis That Matters

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Filed Under: Asia, Development, Featured, Peace Tagged With: ,

As Temperatures Rise in Sri Lanka, Drought Wreaks Havoc

August 29, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Amantha Perera

PUTTALAM, Sri Lanka, Aug 29 (IPS) – It is a time of extreme heat and anxiety in Sri Lanka. Even the rains last week felt like a sudden burst of cold water on the smouldering asbestos sheets on most Sri Lankan household roofs, creating a blast of cold air before the heat returns once the rains end.In some regions, like the north-central Pollonaruwa District, temperatures have been hitting highs in the region of 35 Celsius at uncomfortably regular intervals between July and mid-August.

“Temperatures have been rising for some time now, and will continue to do so,” warned Malika Wimalasooriya, the head of the Climate Change Unit at the Meteorological Department. The expert said that the rise is not spectacular or rapid, but that people have been noticing the effect of late because of the lack of rain.

The traditional southwest monsoon has been delayed by at least a month, and the first rains have begun only in the last fortnight. According to the Climate Change Unit at the Ministry of Environment, temperatures have risen by around 0.45 degrees Celsius in the last two decades.

Already this year’s dry spell is creating havoc. Seventy-two areas in the country, including almost all of the capital Colombo, with high levels of electricity usage have been slapped with a daily three-hour power cut. The interruption is due to the breakdown of a coal power plant, but the national grid has been under tremendous stress due to the depletion of hydropower production capacity.

Usually hydropower meets around 40 percent of Sri Lanka’s annual electricity demand. This has gone up to even 55 percent in years with exceptionally high rains, such as 2011. But the drought has left the water reserves in the reservoirs painfully low. Hydropower generation capacity was at 17 percent during the third week of August, according to the Ministry of Power and Energy.

Sri Lanka’s power generation capacity just about meets national demand and does not have any readily available source to supplement it if there are breakdowns or large capacity losses, said Thilak Siyambalapitiya, a former engineer with the Ceylon Electricity Board who now works as an independent energy consultant.

“When there are large losses to the generation capacity, you have to cut down usage somehow, the power cuts are doing that,” Siyambalapitiya said.

The blackouts may be an inconvenience in urban areas, but in the agro-rich dry zone, the fear is that the lack of rain will devastate crops. There are already signs that it has. The United Nations reported that over 150,000 acres of rice paddy and other vegetable land in the country’s north are under threat. Tens of thousands of acres of paddy land are also at risk in the Pollonaruwa and Anuradhapura Districts, two of the main production regions.

Tea, Sri Lanka’s main cash crop, recorded an output loss of four percent in July, attributed to the drought.

The burden on the national economy is also rising. While more and more foreign exchange is spent on oil for thermal power generation, this does not augur well for a currency that has been under pressure. So far this year, the Sri Lankan currency has lost 17 percent against the dollar.

“If hydropower generation was up, then the sums spent on thermal could have been saved, at least partially; now there is no option but to spend,” Siyambalapitiya said. Sri Lanka subsidises thermal power by around 20 percent even though it is at least four times more expensive than hydropower.

The government has also set aside around 27 million dollars to assist affected farmers. The assistance will come in the form of drought relief, cash for work programmes, fertiliser and seeds.

For farmers who are at a quandary as to what to do, the announcement of relief is a godsend. “I really have no idea what to do, whether to plant or not to,” said G Somadasa, a vegetable farmer from Sri Lanka’s southeastern Tanamallvilla region.

He is among the tens of thousands of Sri Lankan farmers who depend on irrigation water, released by government officials for their crops. “We have to wait till the water is released or at least a date is announced for the release, to start the planting,” Somadasa told IPS. One big fear he has is that if he waits too long, he will miss the normal planting dates and crop cycle, and will not have a good harvest.

There are thousands of farmers like Somadasa in Sri Lanka who are critically dependent on water but have virtually no knowledge of weather patterns or water conservation.

The Central Bank’s last annual report warned that the livelihoods of 1.8 million people depend on agriculture, which means that between eight and nine percent of the population of 20 million stand to be affected by extreme weather events.

Experts in weather and water conservation urge authorities and ordinary people to take a much more serious look at water conservation arguing. that changing weather patterns are here to stay.

“This is the reality of climate change: heavy rains followed by drought. We have to plan for such extremes in the future,” said Kusum Athukorala who heads the non-governmental bodies the Network of Women Water Professionals, Sri Lanka (NetWwater) and the Women for Water Partnership that advocate water conservation and efficient use.

Her words were echoed by W L Sumpthipala, the former head of the Environment Ministry’s climate change unit. “Water or lack of it will be the biggest manifestation of changing climate patterns,” he said.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

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Filed Under: Agriculture, Asia, Environment, Report Tagged With: , , ,

Rights Issues Mar Sri Lanka-EU Trade

August 20, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Feizal Samath

COLOMBO, Aug 19 (IPS) – Sri Lanka is in for some hard bargaining when it negotiates a new aid pact in 2013 with the European Union (EU), which withdrew a key trade concession two years ago over this country’s human rights record.Bernard Savage, head of the EU delegation to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, says political differences do not affect trade. “There are no specific irritants (at the moment) and I would like to stress that in the normal run of affairs political differences do not affect trade.”

Savage told IPS in an interview that the issue of withdrawal of EU trade concessions was a specific case. “But, if you look at the broad spectrum of trade relations … that was not affected by short-term considerations.”

However, well-known human rights lawyer J.C. Weliamuna believes that trade and aid are invariably linked to human rights and corruption – two sectors where Sri Lanka has been asked to show tangible progress.

“What is promised on paper (by the government) is exactly the opposite of what is implemented on the ground,” the lawyer, a board member of Transparency International, told IPS.

The EU is among Sri Lanka’s largest providers of development assistance and has allocated an overall sum exceeding Sri Lankan rupees 478 million dollars for the 2007-2013 period for projects dealing with water and sanitation, housing, income generation, infrastructure, schools, health facilities, food security and others.

“The level of assistance for the next programme – 2013 to 2020 – will be more or less the same. It won’t decrease,” Savage said.

Sri Lanka had won generous tax concessions under the Generalised System of Preferences Plus (GSP+) for the July 2005 – August 2010, but this facility was withdrawn over unaddressed human rights concerns.

EU investigations had found ”shortcomings in respect of Sri Lanka’s implementation of three United Nations human rights conventions – the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention against Torture and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.”

However, it was widely understood that the concessions were withdrawn owing to Sri Lanka’s failure to address alleged war crimes during the last stages of the country’s ethnic conflict.

The impact of lost EU concessions is now being felt with garments exports to Europe dropping by 15-20 percent in the five months up to May, said Rohan Abeykoon, chairman of the Sri Lanka Apparel Exporters Association.

Garments, Sri Lanka’s biggest export item, account for more than 50 percent of exports to Europe.

“It’s not the job losses that we are worried about because there is demand for labour, but lost contracts are affecting small and medium businesses,” Abeykoon said. “Local companies are losing out while those with multinational connections will shift production elsewhere.”

Abeykoom told IPS that he has urged the government to reapply for the facility, though there is no sign of that happening yet. “With regard to GSP + we have had no request from the government for a new facility,” Savage confirmed.

Trade unions are also backing the call for a revival of the concessions. Palitha Athukorala, president of the Progress Union of Sri Lankan Apparel Workers, said the government seems unconcerned and has made no attempt to apply for GSP +.

“They (government) should ask for it. We are badly affected as small factories are closing and workers are losing jobs,” Athukorala told IPS.

Padmini Weerasuriya, coordinator of the Women’s Centre, a non-government organisation active in the country’s free trade zones, says there are no job losses owing to the loss of GSP + concessions, though this may change.

“Our members (workers) have reported a drop in orders which then affects other incentives outside the monthly wage,” she said. Unions have already been campaigning for decent living wages.

On the political front, Sri Lanka this month did a major about-turn to invite the U.N. Human Rights Council to visit the country to review the human rights situation.

Earlier, Sri Lanka had even refused entry to a EU team examining Sri Lanka’s application for a renewal of GSP+ benefits.

The government has prepared an action plan on human rights and sent it to Geneva, five months after the U.N. passed a United States-backed resolution urging Sri Lanka to address alleged human rights abuses.

The March U.N. motion had called on Colombo to address violations of international humanitarian law; implement the recommendations of a local commission that probed the conflict; and encourage the U.N. Human Rights office to offer Sri Lanka advice and assistance and the government to accept such advice.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has repeatedly denied claims of large-scale civilian casualties during the last stages of the battle against Tamil separatist rebels that ended in May 2009.

Strained relations with the West have forced the government to rely on allies in the neighbourhood like China, Iran, Libya and India for war-related and development aid.

Constant international pressure and the March U.N. resolution – which was backed by India, a long-time Sri Lanka supporter – has forced Sri Lanka to make conciliatory gestures to the West.

The respected Sunday Times newspaper said on Aug. 5 that the government’s decision to implement the full U.N. resolution and allow a U.N. team to visit the country would pave the way for a long-standing visit by U.N. Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, considered a vocal critic.

Weliamuna said issues in which the international community is concerned – human rights, declining rule of law, growing impunity and corruption – are relevant. “The government knows it cannot continue in this manner and is trying to convince the world that it has changed,” he said.

Abeykoon says the devaluation of the US dollar in May, which pushed the rupee up to 130 per dollar, against 110 in February, has helped the garment industry. “If not, our exports (to the EU) would have worsened.”

For Savage, the GSP + is a "closed chapter", using a phrase borrowed from Sri Lanka’s external affairs minister Gamini Lakshman Peiris. “The fact is GSP+ was withdrawn and Sri Lanka has not reapplied. We need to move on,” Savage said.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

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Filed Under: Asia, Human Rights, Trade Tagged With: ,

Refugees Dream of Return, Come Home to Nightmare

May 3, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

By Amantha Perera

COLOMBO, May 3, 2012 (IPS) – Krishnaveni Nakkeeran has fled the country of her birth twice and returned twice in the last two decades. The 36-year-old mother of four from the northern Jaffna peninsula in Sri Lanka first fled the bloody civil war to India when she was just 16 years old in 1990.

Her family mistakenly believed it was safe to return five years later and was forced to flee yet again in 1998. She returned again in 2010, barely a year after government forces had defeated the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009, accompanied by her family. The war may have ended, but a harsh reality awaits those like Nakkeeran, returning after years spent in India. "Life has been hard, very hard, we probably work double (here) what we did in India," she told IPS.

Tens of thousands of Sri Lankans, almost all of them from the minority Tamil community, fled to neighbouring India during the island’s three decades of civil conflict. According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), there are over 100,000 Sri Lankan refugees in India, out of which roughly 68,000 live in 112 camps in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

Since the war’s end in May 2009, some of these have begun to return. Last year UNHCR facilitated the return of over 1,700 refugees to the island.

This year has seen a drop of around 30 percent in the number of returning citizens; the latest figures released by the U.N. refugee agency said that 408 persons returned during the first quarter of 2012, compared to 597 during the corresponding period in 2011.

The UNHCR office in Sri Lanka has attributed the drop to the suspension of a ferry service between South India and Sri Lanka, which had allowed for cheaper passage and the chance to bring back more household material.

However, rights groups working with returnees and those still remaining in India speculate that the hard grind awaiting exiles in their old homeland might explain the reduced rate of return.

This is especially true of those returning to the Vanni, a vast swath of land in Sri Lanka’s northern province that weathered the worst excesses of the war.

"They have to start life all over again. During the years of absence, so much has changed in Sri Lanka that it is a new life in a new country that they come back to," Sinnathambi Suriyakumari, Sri Lanka’s head of the Organisation for Eelam Refugee Rehabilitation (OfERR), that has worked in India and Sri Lanka since 1983, told IPS.

She added that the biggest problem for the returnees is starting from scratch. While there are programmes aimed at assisting internally displaced persons (IDPs) returning to their homes in the former war zone, there is no special programme for those returning from India.

"This is where the problem starts, these people feel as if they are returning to an alien land, especially those without extended family here," Suriyakumari said.

UNHCR’s representative in Sri Lanka, Michael Zwack, told IPS that returning refugees lacked proper documentation like identity cards, land deeds and birth certificates that they lost during their flight from the country decades ago. The lack of such documentation is a serious bureaucratic hassle.

The returnees, who are given a standard reintegration grant, are faced with multiple other problems that need special attention.

"Shelter is another key challenge facing refugees returning to former conflict areas, as they need assistance with carrying out repairs or rebuilding homes that were damaged," Zwack said.

Of the roughly 100,000 houses that were destroyed during the final phase of the war, only 16,000 had been built as of February 2012 according to the latest U.N. figures, which also revealed that reconstruction commitments only extend to the building or repair of 35,000 homes.

Meanwhile, the Indian government is expected to commence building 40,000 houses in the region by mid-2012.

The displacement of thousands of families, be they IDPs or exiles in India, has created a serious land issue in the Vanni. "Many land owners in the Vanni still find it difficult to claim ownership over their property, and land issues have become a serious problem," Saroja Sivachandran, head of the Jaffna- based Centre for Women and Development, told IPS.

The problem of land and housing is worse for those returning from India, since people who fled as individuals tend to return with families in tow, according to Suriyakumari.

She said one returnee from the Jaffna district who left in the mid 1980s with five children has now returned with five full families. "All the children have their own families, and now all of them live on this tiny plot of land."

Returnees like Nakkeeran are also forced to confront the phenomenon of squatters, people who have lived on others’ land for decades.

"We don’t have our land now, we (are forced) to live with someone else on our own land," she said.

Jobs, scarce even among the 434,559 IDPs who are slowly trickling back into the Northern province, is even more pronounced among those who return from overseas.

Most of the returning refugees use a 200-dollar UNHCR resettlement grant to make ends meet. "They are free to use the money according to their own priorities to help them restart their lives, for example by purchasing household goods, a bicycle, seeds, or repairing damaged housing," Zwack said.

Despite all the obstacles, many of those who have returned and others planning to make the journey feel they have made the right choice.

"It is a land of opportunity and hope for them, that is why they come back," Suriyakumari said.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Asia, Human Rights, Peace, Report Tagged With: ,

SRI LANKAN TAMILS: A DISCONCERTING SITUATION FOR INDIA

June 19, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy

B.RAMAN

My attention has been drawn to a disturbing documentary titled “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields” produced by Mr.Jon Snow of the Channel4 TV channel of the UK.

2.The documentary highlights the results of a forensic investigation into the bloody culmination phase of the counter-insurgency operations of the Sri Lankan Security Forces against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in April-May,2009. It alleges that the culmination phase, which physically wiped out the leadership of the LTTE for which no right-thinking person opposed to terrorism need  shed tears, was also marked by executions, shelling of civilians and other atrocities carried out by the Security Forces. The documentary is available at http://bit.ly/mDpkez .

3. In the culmination phase, the Sri Lankan Security Forces did face a cruel dilemma because  the ruthless leadership of the LTTE headed by Prabakaran was making a last-ditch effort to save itself from capture or killing by taking shelter in the midst of civilian refugees. It was not an opportunistic tactic in the face of the mounting pressure from the Security Forces. It was a consciously-planned tactic of Prabakaran to force the international community to intervene by creating a situation in which hundreds of civilians were used as  cannon fodder in a futile attempt to save the LTTE leadership from extinction.

4.After the operation ended with the elimination of the LTTE leadership and the collapse of the LTTE as a terrorist organisation, there was a spate of allegations from well-reputed international human rights organisations, humanitarian workers, representatives of Western Governments and UN officials —many of whom often levelled the allegations independently of each other and not in a concerted campaign— that the Sri Lankan Security Forces could not escape their share of the blame for the large-scale violations of the human rights of the Sri Lankan  Tamil civilians living in the operational area under the control of the LTTE.

5.Two kinds of violations were alleged. Firstly, that the leaders of the LTTE, including Prabakaran, wanted to surrender but were not given an opportunity to do so, but instead were physically eliminated. Secondly, that the Security Forces consciously used disproportionate force with light, medium and heavy weapons knowing fully well that such use could kill many civilians. Protecting the civilians caught  was not on the agenda of either the LTTE or the Security Forces.

6. These allegations have been accompanied by demands for an independent international enquiry under the auspices of the UN to determine the truth and for action against the officers of the Security Forces and others found responsible for the violations — in a manner satisfactory to the international community. It has been alleged that some of the atrocities amounted to crimes against humanity and war crimes.

7. The Sri Lankan Government headed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa has strongly and consistently denied these allegations. While it admits the possibility that there might have been some violations to determine which it has been holding its own enquiry, it has indignantly refuted the allegations that the violations were of such a serious nature as to call for international intervention and action.

8. Unfortunately, human rights violations are rarely avoided in counter-insurgency situations however much the Security Forces try to do so. Terrorist and insurgent organisations train themselves well in creating situations where human rights violations do occur in order to seek the intervention of the international community.

9. What distinguishes a civilised and responsible Government sensitive to the rights of its civilians from a Government which is totally insensitive to the human rights dimensions of counter-insurgency operations is that the former takes cognisance of the allegations instead of summarily rejecting them, enquires into them and takes the follow-up action warranted by the results of the enquiry.

10. That is what the Sri Lankan Government has promised to do. Should it be trusted to do justice to the Sri Lankan Tamils or should it be distrusted and pressured to let the enquiry and follow-up action be handled by an international mechanism set up under the auspices of the UN?

11. While there were obviously serious violations, evidence available till now do not bear out the stand of those who accuse the Rajapaksa Government of violations amounting to crimes against humanity or war crimes.

12. In our anxiety and sympathy for the legitimate rights of the Sri Lankan Tamils, we should not exaggerate or over-state our arguments in support of or against an international enquiry. The Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora which has been active in demanding an international enquiry has stepped up its pressure on Governments and non-Governmental personalities, including reputed journalists of India and other countries, to take cognisance of the forensic evidence collected by the documentary and  support the demand for an international enquiry.

13. The Government of India should pay serious attention to the alleged evidence produced by the documentary and have it examined by our legal and humanitarian experts in order to see whether the documentary needs to be taken up officially and at the bilateral level with the Government of Sri Lanka and, if so, in what manner and for what objective.

14. The objective should be to ensure that justice is done to the relatives of the victims and that the honour of the victims is respected even if it be posthumously. It should not be to use the documentary as a stick to beat the SL Government with.

15. The Rajapaksa Government will facilitate a more meaningful Indian role in calming the feelings of indignation and concern of the Sri Lankan Tamils if it handles the documentary with the seriousness it deserves. Inaction is not an option for the Government of India. But action should be within acceptable limits of our bilateral relations with Sri Lanka and should not be overdone.(20-6-11)

( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate of the Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com )

Copyright © 2011 B. Raman – South Asia Analysis Group (SAAG).

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Filed Under: Asia, Commentary, Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Media, Politics, Terrorism Tagged With: , ,

SRI LANKA: Peace Dividend Skips Remote Villages

May 29, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

By Amantha Perera

UNNICHCHAI, Sri Lanka, May 28, 2011 (IPS) – The road to Unnichchai in eastern Sri Lanka makes for a nerve-wracking journey trying to avoid large crater-like potholes, squeezing across narrow bridges, and passing by a patchwork landscape of paddy fields – both abandoned and cultivated – with not a building in sight.

The road looks like a remnant from the time when getting here involved a bit more than a rough ride. This remote village in Batticaloa District was once a hive of activity for the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who fought a bloody war for two and half decades, demanding a separate state for Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority.

At the height of the war, development projects stayed away due to security fears. There was some effort to get a few projects going between 2002 and 2004, when the Sri Lankan government was negotiating with the Tamil Tigers, but nothing much came out of that.

The Tigers lost the war in May 2009, but lost their hold on eastern villages like Unnichchai two years before that, in mid-2007. Since then, development in general has been fast-tracked on the island, though it seems to have bypassed Unnichchai.

The road that connects Batticaloa, the main town in the district, with central Sri Lanka is newly paved; there are new water projects, power projects and employment opportunities as the country breaks out of the shackles of war.

"We expect that the range of investments made in these provinces (the former war zone in the north and east) will result in a growth rate of around 13 percent per annum in these provinces, from 2011 onwards for the next five years," Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal said during a recent lecture promoting fiscal inclusiveness of the region.

On paper, Unnichchai’s dark days should be long over. But in reality, the shackles of war are still very much here, rusted into the skin of the village, making it hard for it to break out.

Kajayanthi Nishanthi, a 23-year-old mother of one, calls Unnichchai her home. She says she could do very well if growth rates reach half the level projected by government officials. "Life is hard, life is still very hard," she told IPS.

Her family survives on whatever her husband makes by fishing in the Unnichchai tank, an artificial lake.

She fled the fighting in March 2007 and returned later that same year. Her house was in terrible need of repair and has remained in that state for almost four years now. "Where is the money? The fish can only be sold in the village, there are no new jobs, no transport to take the fish to town," she laments, "so how can we think of improvement?"

To make matters worse, assistance provided to the East by international humanitarian agencies has dropped in the last two years. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the World Food Programme (WFP) are among the large agencies that have pulled out of the East since 2009.

Nishanthi, who left school before sitting for her grade 10 exam, says that if permanent jobs or assistance for self-employment were available, the pull-out of humanitarian groups would not have been felt so hard. "At least when they were here, we got some assistance; now we have nothing."

She told IPS that villages like hers that bore a terrible cost during the war need special attention. "Over 20 years of development was held back, we cannot catch up without help."

There is help. The government is spending millions in the former conflict zone to pull it out of the two and half decade old rut, as are donors. Central Bank Governor Cabraal said that in the last two years, over 2.1 billion rupees (about 19 million dollars) had been disbursed as loans in the eastern province alone. The province recorded an impressive growth rate of above 14 percent last year.

But such development still seems to be stuck in the main towns like Batticaloa that straddle the busy highways or is directed at important economic hubs like fishing harbours. Interior villages like Unnichchai are being left out.

In Unnichchai, there is none of the nervous anticipation for the fruits of peace, felt for two years now in places like the capital Colombo, 330 km away. This remote village is still praying for simple facilities, like a bus that arrives on a regular schedule and does not break down halfway through a 27-km journey in the middle of an abandoned paddy field.

Even when development does arrive, most of the villagers are too poor to benefit. A new water pumping station at the tank brought electricity to the doorstep of the village. But only a few can afford it.

Sinnathambi Mailvanagam, a 61-year-old grandfather who lives in the nearby village of Mullamallai, feels that their villages are left behind in the rapid development drive because there is hardly any industry or economic activity here. "There is some farmland, but what else?" says Mailvanagam, who lives in a small compound with 12 other members of his extended family.

"The best resource we have is the water (from the tank), but that too is now pumped out (to supply Batticaloa)," Mailvanagam told IPS.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2011.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


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SRI LANKA: War Long Over, Media Still Muzzled

May 2, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

By Amantha Perera

COLOMBO, May 2, 2011 (IPS) – It has been two years since the end of Sri Lanka’s decades long war, and life in general has begun to slowly edge back towards normalcy here. Not so for the country’s besieged media community, according to observers and journalists alike – reporting still feels hemmed in and muzzled, they say.

"Don’t forget that this is a nation that is wounded at its heart, the media reflects that psyche. The healing has not even begun," Sunil Jayasekara, the convenor of the Free Media Movement (FMM), the country’s foremost media rights group told IPS.

Jayasekara observed that as the war reached its climax in late 2008, journalists found it hard to report objectively.

"The media became a part of the military operation," Jayasekara said. "No one was able to report objectively, there was pressure on them from all parties." That pressure, Jayasekara says, has not eased.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) lists 24 Sri Lankan journalists killed since 2006.

One of the most frightening examples of intimidation – the January 2009 murder of prominent opposition editor Lasantha Wickrematunge still remains a mystery.

Last week, the pro-opposition website lankaenews.com was temporarily banned while a case against it for contempt was tried.

"All these things together have made the media community fearful and doubting every move they make," Jayasekara said, stressing that the climate of fear has prevented journalists from carrying out their work independently.

Coercion also comes in the form of government issued licences, especially for electronic media and by way of advertising revenue, Jayasekara said. Officials at very high levels and media owners have also been co-opted by political parties – diluting independence even further, he added.

"What you get is an industry that is deeply scarred," Jayasekara said.

Other media observers feel that the situation has been aggravated by talented and experienced journalists leaving the country.

Namini Wijedasa, who was feted by peers as the ‘Best Journalist of the Year’ at the 2010 Journalism Awards organised by industry bodies including the Editors’ Guild of Sri Lanka, told IPS that she is simply stunned by the steep drop in standards.

"I feel that the dedication to journalism as a craft is waning," she said. "It is being replaced by a job ethic to produce as much copy as you can."

Wijedasa told IPS that the media has been fighting too many battles on too many fronts, that it simply does not have the stamina to make sure professional standards are met. Today’s media here does not have the resources and will to chase after important stories on issues like poverty, gender, governance and corruption, she said.

"You have to get out of that mentality of just churning out copy. You have to feel that what you do impacts the society you live in," Wijedasa said.

Sanjay Senanayake, a media educator here, has tried to raise these issues with publishing houses on several occasions. Senanayake told IPS that editorial boards and management did not show any interest in improving standards.

"I don’t know where the real problem lies, but there is very big lack of willingness to make sure what we do, we do it right, despite the tiring conditions," Senanayake said.

Jayasekara, Wijedasa and Senanayake all agree that the combination of fear and slacking professional standards have created a vicious cycle eroding public trust in the media.

"How on earth can you question accountability in government when you yourself are not accountable," Senanayake laments.

Jayasekara feels the problem goes deeper than slacking copy. He told IPS that the media has to somehow begin to raise its voice as an independent force. A similar scenario arose in the late 1980s – when government pressure on the media was overbearing – leading to the formation of organisations like the FMM. "So far we have not seen those types of movements, that is why we feel the pressure so much," he told IPS.

For Senanayake the little bit of hope there is, lies in media not concentrated in the capital Colombo. He points to two regional radio stations Uva and Kotamale, where journalists have been building community trust by working on stories that matter locally. "When people realise that these stories can make a change, they look at media differently," he told IPS.

"When people trust the media more, it is difficult to muzzle it," Jayasekara said.

But he feels that breaking political and other systemic pressures is vital for this. " We have to get out of this cycle, they only way to do that is for the media to keep resisting the pressure."

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2011.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


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Facing Human Rights Challenge in Post-Conflict Sri Lanka

April 1, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IDN

By H. M. G. S. Palihakkara*

IDN-InDepth NewsSpecial    
   
COLOMBO (IDN) – A challenge that preoccupies local and foreign opinion is the Challenge of Human Rights: Some countries focus their bilateral dialogue with Sri Lanka only on human rights. Our interlocutors invariably refer to human rights concerns in the country and even suggest progress on human rights as a condition for dialogue and business in other areas e.g. commerce, security and even people to people contact.

The fact is: Sri Lanka need not be defensive on human rights. There is no basis to consider human rights as a Western concept. Many of the core values embedded in the sutras preached by the Lord Buddha if put together, will constitute a great Bill of Rights predating and perhaps even surpassing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

But human rights problems exist in all countries. Addressing human rights concerns is good in itself. They are very much a part of our constitutional obligations. We have voluntarily subscribed to about two dozen international human rights covenants. These accessions represent the exercise of our sovereignty. Therefore, the best way to reverse an adversarial relationship on human rights is to remove human rights concerns from bilateral agendas.

We can do this by, first, empowering our domestic mechanisms to promote and facilitate the full and effective implementation of our constitutional obligations on human rights and ensuring that our system of administration of justice is independent and robust. Second, we can broaden our bilateral diplomatic discussions beyond a single issue (human rights) into other areas of common interest e.g. regional cooperation, environment, terrorism, human and arms trafficking, non-proliferation, economic cooperation etc.

Continuing to argue that human rights problems should not be talked about because they are not unique to us might make for good domestic politics but is imprudent diplomacy.

Challenge of ‘Diaspora’: The phenomenon called the Diaspora has thrown up a number of issues including terminological accuracy. The dictionary meaning of the word Diaspora is that it represents a people denied of a homeland, legitimate or otherwise. The highly diverse Sri Lankan expatriate community may not fit that description.

However, the word Diaspora has become virtually synonymous with a vast array of external lobby groups (pro-LTTE and anti-LTTE, as well as pro-Government and anti-Government) focusing on Sri Lanka. Despite the ambiguity, therefore, we may continue to use the word for the limited purpose of discussion.

We know little about how the Diaspora works. We know even less as to how to deal with it. This was clearly demonstrated by fairly recent events where certain Diaspora groups were able to embarrass Sri Lanka and her President when he was abroad. Equally important is the effort by sections of the Diaspora to influence the UN Security Council as mentioned earlier. They have resumed their campaign to put Sri Lanka in the dock, as it were, in the post-conflict period.

If campaigns against Sri Lanka, by certain Diaspora groups succeed, the country could lose vital economic and political support by way of official development assistance, foreign direct investment and other business opportunities that will be needed to transform the decisive military success into a programme of sustainable prosperity for all Sri Lankans.

It will therefore be in Sri Lanka’s interest to engage the Diaspora in two ways:

- By engaging those elements in the Diaspora who do not want to see the re-emergence of the abhorrent ideology and the institutional framework of the LTTE, and

- By launching clearly visible and humanely responsive policies, programmes and projects to address the real concerns of the conflict victim’s communities, especially the minorities.

If these actions are taken in response to internal realities and not external pressure, and if they succeed, the hostile Diaspora will become gradually irrelevant, the constructive Diaspora will become progressively assertive, and the domestic reconciliation process will advance. The Diaspora’s potentially adverse impact on Sri Lanka’s foreign policy interests will correspondingly diminish. The contrary seems to be happening now.

Institutional Challenges: The Flagship institution of any Nation’s foreign policy structure is its Foreign Ministry. The career Foreign Service constitutes its crew. Our Foreign Office, now with its significantly improved title of Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), is endowed with a good crew. Weather being so unpredictable these days, I do not want to call it an all-weather crew but having worked with them for some decades I do know that many of them are thorough professionals who can handle pretty rough weather.

They did so, for example, in the massive post Tsunami coordinating effort, the unprecedented airlift of our nationals from the war zone in Lebanon in 2006, almost 6,000 of them at virtually no cost to the government; annual diplomatic efforts at the UN and European multilateral venues since the late 1980s to deter intrusive Resolutions on Sri Lanka; successful preventive diplomacy effort at the UN Security Council; a sustained and painstaking diplomatic effort to get a European consensus to list LTTE as a terror outfit despite counter lobbying by a powerful group of countries and a multi-million dollar Diaspora. This action was successfully repeated in Canada.

NO CROWING

The significance about the effort of the professional diplomats involved was that they did not put up bill boards on the road sides announcing victory and claiming credit. Having got the LTTE ban quietly then they would go to work on the next objective quietly. They do so because diplomatic effort by definition is discreet business, one cannot have a high decibel strategy and one cannot crow about victory.

Crowing has two problems. You make your diplomatic counterpart on the losing side an enemy. You would also embarrass your diplomatic friend who supported you by clustering him into your camp as it were. So these professionals as far as I know do not crow. But the Government must give them projects, give them inspiration, and give them incentives. The Government must recognize them and not downsize their dignity.

Professionals cannot and will not publicise their success. Government must do it. Sometimes there is nothing to publish because in certain instances in diplomacy the greatest success is the absence of something, e.g. an adverse Resolution on Sri Lanka. You cannot advertise that as if it is a bridge or a road. It is also not a bright idea to advertise that absence or crow about it as you signal your adversaries to work harder next time.

Granted, like in all services all may not be well with Sri Lanka Foreign Service. As in any group of humans, the statistical law of the normal curve would apply here as well. There may be the fringe of the normal curve — the miscreants in the woodwork. That is the irrelevant minority against whom disciplinary procedures must apply.

Like in the normal curve there is the significant majority who are hard-nosed professionals who have our national interest at heart. Like me, many of them have become public servants from the rural heartland of our country. I know that personally, having served with them during some critical periods in our national affairs. The Government will be well advised to use this knowledge and experience judiciously and not lose it unwisely. Such a policy will stand in good stead in meeting the challenges ahead.

ALL ADULTS

Challenge of Consensus: A new challenge in the foreign policy area is the task of domestic consensus building. Following independence, Sri Lanka initially had a good tradition of a broad based bipartisan approach to foreign relations. During the last 20 years or so however, especially since the 1983 communal violence, a pattern was emerging slowly but surely where foreign policy issues were being dragged into the parochial political discourse at home.

The massive outflow of people from Sri Lanka following the July ’83 events, the progressive externalization of the conflict and the Sri Lanka political parties tragically exploiting these national issues for short term electoral advantage have all contributed to the unravelling of this consensual approach to foreign policy issues. It was no longer possible, therefore to decouple a highly externalized ethnic issue from an electorally politicized ethnic issue at home.

As a result, we have seen the rather disturbing and I would even say a shameful practice of domestic politicians taking up a range of governance issues with foreign countries and foreign organizations as they were either unable or unwilling to agree, or agree to disagree, on those very same issues locally.

The regrettable outcome of this practice is that successive Governments are obliged to deal with a host of domestic governance issues with bilateral and multilateral interlocutors as these very same issues are injected into such discussions by different local political parties. All political parties and all successive governments have contributed to this unfortunate situation.

It is so unfortunate that at one point, when the security forces were able to entrap the LTTE leadership into a small area of the No Fire Zone on the Mathalan coast and when the LTTE held 300,000 people as a human shield, a query arose as to why all democratic political parties in Sri Lanka did not see it fit to issue a unanimous joint call through the Parliament or through some other political forum calling on the LTTE to free these people and lay down arms.

Sadly even at that critical hour, once again our politicians failed abysmally to summon the necessary political will to reach such a consensus. As usual perhaps some did not want to give credit while others did not want to share credit.

It was said that had there been such a unanimous call from the democratic establishment of Sri Lanka against what is perceived to be one of the most ruthless terror outfits in the world, the UN Security Council was ready to reiterate that unanimous call. Once again, as events unfolded this was not to be. It is therefore important that Sri Lanka’s political establishment gets back to the path of bipartisan foreign policy making of the past rather than allow vital foreign policy interests to be dissipated in parochial electoral politics.

Governance and foreign policy are functionally linked. So are the attendant challenges. When governance is in deficit, diplomacy cannot acquire merit all by itself. The converse is also true. Image building abroad cannot be significantly different from the Rule of Law reality we create for ourselves at home.

Challenges for All: ‘Introspection’ by all of us at three levels will help move the reconciliation process forward.

At the apex level, the top leadership of all sides on the political and ethnic divide must reflect on why successive leaderships failed to build a culture of consensus on critical national issues. They must also assess how they can bring about consensual democracy as against the currently prevalent adversarial culture.

At the community level, the civil society and its ‘organisations’ must reflect carefully on how to build bridges between national interests and their institutional interests without compromising their advocacy principles.

Thirdly at the level of the individual, citizens can and must find ways to use their franchise to educate their political leaders on the need to make course corrections towards consensus building on national issues.

We have to assume that all politicians are adults. We must therefore educate those adults in order to save our children from another round of bloodletting. When you get your governance act together, getting your foreign policy act together will be less of a problem. It is the job of the foreign policy maker to sensitize those who govern, to this stark reality. This may be quite a challenge but one that must be taken up.

*The writer, a retired foreign service officer, was formerly Sri Lanka’s Foreign Secretary, and has held several posts of ambassador. He is a member of the Sri Lanka’s Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission. (IDN-InDepthNews/26.03.2011)

Copyright © 2011 IDN-InDepthNews | Analysis That Matters

This article should not be republished or redistributed without the permission of the original author or copyright holder.


Filed Under: Asia, Featured, Human Rights, Politics Tagged With:

Post-Conflict Sri Lanka Confronts Challenge of Peace Building

April 1, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IDN

By H. M. G. S. Palihakkara*

IDN-InDepth NewsSpecial    
   
COLOMBO (IDN) – When domestic processes fail to find solutions to internal problems, external forces find space to advocate or even impose solutions for their own political or strategic convenience. Sri Lanka is no exception. Leadership failures since independence by all governments and mainstream political parties contributed to externalizing the conflict from which Sri Lanka emerged in May 2009.

The instruments of externalization included a large and vocal expatriate community (or Diaspora as it calls itself) in a number of Western countries, as well as principals in the so-called "peace process" whose collapse eventually led to the military activity that eliminated the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, also known as "the Tigers"). Norway was the facilitator of the peace process, with a group of Western donor countries serving as "co-chairs" in an oversight role.

Closer to home, India was a major contributor to internationalizing the Sri Lanka situation and providing intrusive military inputs in the periods before and after the ethnic violence of 1983.

External visibility to the conflict was increased, too, by an emerging trend among local political parties to canvass domestic governance issues abroad, to influence electoral strategy at home.

Last but not least, in a shrinking world where the forces of globalization and the power of information technology (IT) are both at play, no country remains isolated. Real time television, internet, remote sensing technologies, and armies of investigative journalists bring conflicts and humanitarian emergencies instantly to the drawing rooms of millions of homes all over the world.

SECURITY COUNCIL

It was in such an evolving international backdrop that Sri Lanka’s security forces approached the final phase of its military operation. The LTTE had taken over 300,000 Tamil civilians as virtual hostages, and exploited these innocent victims as human shields, exposing them to the LTTE’s own fire and to the crossfire between the two sides.

They also threw untrained and underage cadres to the battle, employed suicide bombers mostly among the unsuspecting civilians who were crossing over to government lines and, in fact, fired at civilians who were trying to leave.

In this scenario of imminent and massive blood-letting, the LTTE remained intransigent in its refusal to let the people go, despite calls by national and international leaders and bodies. Many international figures cautioned against an imminent "blood bath" on the beaches of Puthumathalan on the country’s Eastern sea board. The LTTE and its Diaspora lobby dramatized this to good effect by threatening "collective suicide" at Puthumathalan.

The crisis created an unprecedented foreign policy challenge for Sri Lanka — the most formidable, since independence — when it received the attention of the UN Security Council. This was the first time that any issue concerning Sri Lanka’s internal affairs, especially its security and integrity, went to the council.

The Security Council is the only organ of the UN which can issue a legally binding directive to halt a military operation in its tracks. A Security Council decree is qualitatively different from other similar calls, including a resolution in the Human Rights Council in Geneva which could only make a non-binding recommendation. Therefore, Sri Lanka was challenged to prevent the UN Security Council from issuing such a decree, because that would have given the LTTE leadership time to re-group, re-arm and resume their terrorist campaigns.

Any mandatory external intervention under the fiat of the Security Council could potentially have resulted in adverse far reaching implications on the fundamentals of the Sri Lankan nation state, i.e. its territorial integrity and sovereignty of its people.

Sri Lanka was able to meet the challenge by employing a multi-pronged strategy that harmonized military, humanitarian and diplomatic action. No resolution or any other decree was adopted by the Security Council directing the Government to end its action that was directed at bringing the conflict to an end.

Having successfully achieved the complicated diplomatic task of preventing intervention during the conflict, Sri Lanka is confronted with more challenges in handling the less complex diplomatic dimension of the post-conflict peace building task. Some of the post-conflict challenges are examined below.

DOMESTIC EFFORT

Challenge of reconciliation and accountability: One of the key post-conflict issues projected at home and abroad is accountability or the question of compliance with International Humanitarian Law (IHL) during the final phase of the military operation. The journalistic short-hand usually poses this complex question as the "war crimes" issue.

The Government has established a Commission on Reconciliation to address a broad range of issues that straddle the conflict and post-conflict period, including the humanitarian issues relevant to the conduct of the war.

However, certain pro-LTTE lobby groups abroad, and their clientele, have sought to side-step or even undermine this larger domestic reconciliation effort which encompasses both reconciliation and IHL. They have called for international scrutiny on the magnitude of the humanitarian and human rights issues that were manifest in the last stages of the conflict, and connected aspects of "accountability".

The pressure for such an inquiry has become greater, precisely because Sri Lanka was able to prevent action by the Security Council to halt the military operation which would have enabled the LTTE to remain a key player.

This is a challenge that needs to be handled in a careful and calibrated manner in which policies and institutions relevant to governance, the rule of law and diplomacy must work with each other rather than work at the expense of each other.

Sri Lanka needs to safeguard its national interests, the aspirations of its people of all communities, and the country’s reputation as a long standing democracy. Towards this end, Sri Lanka needs to work with all countries, especially with those who may disagree with us on some issues, in order to project ourselves as a nation at peace and a venue for secure investment and good business during this post-conflict period.

We need therefore to preserve the independence of the local mechanisms created and to show those who voice their concern on accountability issues, that the Government is serious about addressing them. Most importantly, the Government needs to show the victims of the conflict, be they victims of LTTE terrorism or of military operations, that the Government is responsive to conflict related grievances as well as their root causes.

Diplomacy is crucially important in these efforts, because diplomacy is all about dealing with people with whom you disagree or agree to disagree, and about seeking common ground where none seems to exist.

This is especially so when such common ground may eventually bring benefits to the nation not only in terms of investment and economic activity, but also in the form of its image and reputation as a civilised society where peaceful dissent is seen as an enriching experience and an exciting democratic challenge — not an act of treachery or treason.

The message to be emphasized is that the nation after emerging from an injurious and costly conflict still retains the strength of character and the political will to undertake remedial measures and course correction. We should not, instead, seek to market a message of infallibility.

WORLD ORDER

Challenge of Sovereignty: Defending the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the nation is fundamental to the foreign policy of any independent nation. It is the bounden duty of any diplomat to do so. This is because the notion of sovereignty is the bedrock on which the nation state system of the current world order lies.

Recently, there has been a resurgence of the sentiment of asserting the Sri Lankan sovereignty. This is justifiably so, considering the nearly three decades of terrorism inflicted by the LTTE upon the sovereignty and integrity of the nation in both diplomatic and territorial terms.

Our soldiers and the political leadership provided by our President enabled the country to free itself from this manifest threat to its sovereignty and integrity. The nation reasserted the jurisdiction of the elected Government throughout the island, thereby exercising the sovereignty vested in the people as per our constitution. However, can we safeguard our sovereignty so valiantly reestablished by our soldiers, simply by sloganeering it?

There are several aspects to ponder. Firstly, sovereignty is something that cannot merely be preached but must be exercised. Sovereignty carries with it duties towards a country’s own citizens. Where there is failure to discharge such duties, fertile ground is created for unwelcome intervention.

It is a fundamental tenet of sovereignty that the Government and its security agencies must have the monopoly of the use of force within its jurisdiction and no other entity within or outside the country can be allowed to impair that authority thereby undermining the rule of law. When a Government is unable to or unwilling to exercise that authority for whatever reason, certain crimes go unpunished; certain offenders enjoy impunity; and certain investigations waver.

When that happens, the principle of asserting the monopoly of the use of force and upholding the rule of law will be undermined and correspondingly, the exercise of sovereignty will be impaired.

It is therefore imperative that illegal carriers of arms and irregular groups who undermine the rule of law and tarnish the good name of the legitimate security forces be brought to book, thereby consolidating the sovereignty rescued by the soldiers. A vigorous program of punishing offenders and upholding the rule of law is required for meeting this challenge.

POROUS CONCEPT

Another consideration that needs to be borne in mind is, like everything else in the world of Einstein’s physics, sovereignty too is not absolute. Although in the post civil war era of Europe, the popular belief was that sovereignty was almost absolute and enshrined so in the Peace of Westphalia treaty that has not been matched in practice. Moreover, the forces of globalization and wonders of technology, especially IT and connectivity explosion throughout the world, have rendered sovereignty a porous concept.

We therefore have to understand that in the modern world our sovereignty can be safeguarded only to the extent that we learn to live with other nations in an inter-dependent way, not in an adversarial way. Sovereignty has thus become a truly relative notion.

Sri Lanka has signed international treaties and other agreements, each of which require us to share with other countries and multilateral institutions reports and rationale for some of our sovereign decisions. This certainly is not a subjugation of our sovereignty to anyone else. This is an act of exercising our sovereignty, and expressing the strength of our system to be transparent, accountable and reasonable, first to ourselves and then to others.

Similarly, we as members of the same multilateral bodies, which look into the reports of other member states, have equal rights to observe and comment on others’ reports, which are also expressions of the sovereign rights of those countries. In the modern world therefore we have to use the notion of sovereignty as a tool for dignified engagement and not as a cover for unilateral isolation.

Sri Lanka has always been up front in presenting itself to the outside world and has had a diplomatic profile quite disproportionate to its geographic or demographic attributes and military or economic clout. As a resurgent nation brimming with hope following the elimination of a terrorist menace, we should therefore look forward to asserting our sovereignty amongst ourselves and exercise it with other nations.

We can do so most effectively when we are at peace with ourselves and when we invest our military gains in sustainable political and socio-economic processes. Harmonizing our multi-ethnic and multi-religious society without pandering to elements of polarization is the way forward. Projection of this wholesome approach as the articulation of our sovereignty is indeed a priority task for our foreign policy establishment. (To be concluded.)

*The writer, a retired foreign service officer, was formerly Sri Lanka’s Foreign Secretary, and has held several posts of ambassador. He is a member of the Sri Lanka’s Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission. (IDN-InDepthNews/26.03.2011)

Copyright © 2011 IDN-InDepthNews | Analysis That Matters

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SRI LANKA: Latest Elections Reinforce Status Quo

March 31, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

By Amantha Perera

COLOMBO, Mar 30, 2011 (IPS) – The latest elections in Sri Lanka serve as yet another reminder that despite all its follies, President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government is unshakable.

In the Mar. 17 elections for 234 local government bodies, the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) led by Rajapaksa secured control of 205 bodies outright and seven more through allies and coalition partners. The opposition United National Party (UNP) won nine while the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) won 12 councils, all of them from the north of the country.

National newspapers called it a hat trick of victories for Rajapaksa, counting his resounding wins at last year’s presidential and general elections.

Election monitors complained of violence and subtle manipulations of the state machinery to suit the government. But they admitted that evidence of vote rigging and levels of intimidation showed that their absence would not have changed the outcome of the election.

"The trend that favours the government is still there," said Keerthi Thennakoon, the executive director of the election monitoring body Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CAFFE). "It is still a very popular government."

The government has been riding on a crest of popularity, especially in areas dominated by the majority Sinhala community. The popularity is primarily based on the government successfully bringing a two and half decade old bloody ethnic war to an end in May 2009.

Opposition parties had wagered that popularity was eroding in the face of rising prices and accusations of nepotism within the government. It was a bet that they lost badly in most parts of the country, except for a few areas in the north and east.

The main opposition party, the UNP, has also been hobbling in the last year, wrecked by defections into government ranks and a long running leadership tussle. Ranil Wickremasinghe, the UNP leader for almost 17 years, recently faced off a stiff challenge from Sajith Premadasa, the son of the party’s last elected president, Ranasinghe Premadasa.

"It is a very feeble opposition we have right now," Thennakoon said.

Government ministers have been much more gung-ho in their observations. "I don’t think there has ever been a government that is this popular, five years after it was first elected," Minister Dullas Allahaperuma told national television soon after results were announced.

Monitors like Thennakoon however are wary that notwithstanding its immense popularity, the government and its allies were still indulging in efforts to rig the vote.

Thennakoon’s prime contention is that elections for 23 local government bodies were postponed – citing the holding of the on-going cricket world cup, which Sri Lanka is co-hosting with neighbours India and Bangladesh. The monitors say that in some areas where there have been postponements there are no matches played or any sight of international cricket. Elections in 65 other councils have been postponed due to court cases.

"Staggered elections, we have seen in the past, are a recipe for violence and intimidation," Thennakoon said.

The People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL), another national polls monitoring body wrote to the government soon after the election, requesting it to hold polls for the remaining bodies on just one day. "Our experience has shown that if elections are held on a staggered basis, there is bound to be wastage of resources and external influence on the elections," said Rohana Hettiarachchi, PAFFREL executive director.

Thennakoon told IPS that there were indications that subtle manipulations had taken place. He gave the example of Kathankuddi, a Muslim dominated constituency in the eastern Batticaloa District. The monitor said that voting was relatively low till around noon there. "After 2.30 pm, less than 90 minutes before polls closed, there was an unbelievable increase in voting," he said. By the time polls closed, over 75 percent of the registered voters had voted in Kathankuddi – which the UPFA won.

In the Verugal electorate – in the eastern Trincomalee District – Thennakoon said similar patterns were observed, but this one was won by the TNA.

The TNA victories in the 12 local elections in the north and east were the only instances where the ruling UPFA’s otherwise unassailable supremacy was shattered. The victories came in the Northern and Eastern Provinces, home to much of the country’s 18 percent Tamil minority.

A TNA representative told IPS that the overwhelming vote was a stamp of acceptance by the population of TNA’s policies. The TNA has, however, long been considered a proxy of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who were defeated by government forces in 2009. Since the war’s end it has been trying shed its links with the Tigers and assert it’s independence.

"The Tamil people have given us a mandate, they have shown that they back our policies," said Appathurai Vinayagamurthi a TNA parliamentarian.

The TNA has been involved in discussions with the government while calling for greater political autonomy in the northern areas. It has also called for speedy rehabilitation of the war devastated region and for the government to release a full list of all those detained since the end of the war.

"We will continue the dialogue [with the government]. Now that the people have given their choice, we can’t let them down," Vinayagamurthi said.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2011.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


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