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by Malinda Seneviratne
(April 20, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Are states under threat supposed to show the white flag and surrender? Are governments facing insurrection and terrorist attacks by parties that are a) not able to cite any grievance fortified with substance warranting insurrection, b) not able to present aspirations that make any sense in terms of geography, demography and history, c) not willing to discuss the above in a meaningful and sincere manner, and d) repeatedly engage in the most horrendous crimes against humanity, supposed to hold their fire and put the population under threat? As for the people who know that external involvement can come in the form of ‘neutrals’ and chest-beating humanitarians and who know that history is replete with such interventions actually exacerbating problems (Norwegian ‘facilitation’ and its consequences are all too recent for anyone to forget) are they supposed to run naked en masse into the streets screaming ‘Eureka!’?
Perspective. Proportion. These constitute the bedrock of politics and policy-making. They can be footnoted or brushed away from the relevant prerogative-calculus by a) idiots, b) mercenaries, c) agents of the enemy and d) wooly-headed do-gooders, none of who are answerable to anyone else but themselves. Much of our self-styled ‘civil society’ falls into one or more of these categories, sadly.
Some people live in a fool’s paradise. I am persuaded to believe that our ‘civil society’ friend fry themselves alive in the antithesis, the proverbial fool’s hell. Like those morons who equated Batticaloa to ‘hell’ during the run up to the local government elections, only to whimper ‘there’s a climate of fear’ and to find all the fear-mongers falling over themselves to contest the PC election just a few weeks later.
Human rights
There is, similarly, a general lie regarding the status of human rights in Sri Lanka, the capacities of institutions and legislation to uphold the same and the now boring call for international monitoring of human rights, which of course references the same prerogatives, the same ‘facts’, same processes outlined above, which, on the ground, amounts to little more than some subjective assessment of environment as in ‘climate of fear’.
Let’s get specific here. ‘Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict’, recently presented its latest report ‘No Safety No Escape: Children and the Escalating Armed Conflict in Sri Lanka’ at the UN headquarters in New York.
Litany of woes
Bhavani Fonseka, a senior researcher at the Center for Policy Alternatives, an organization that has been heavily referenced in the document, speaking at the launch, has done her duty by CPA, the NGO do-gooders and the general mafia that seeks to undermine the integrity of the Sri Lankan state, bawling out the usual litany of woes. To paraphrase, ‘there are horrific human rights violations, human rights workers are threatened, abducted and killed, denied work permits and not given access to certain areas, total collapse in investigation and reporting, relevant national bodies are not independent and are not credible.’
ACF, right? IIGEP, right? I don’t know who killed the 17 aid workers, but the investigations and commission proceedings have revealed some interesting facts. First, ACF sent those workers to their death! Second, the IIGEP was obviously corralled by the CPA and other ‘civil society’ gurus and led astray. Third, the Devanesan Nesiah, for all his experience and learning, was found to be utterly ignorant of the notion of ‘conflict of interest’. Fourthly, Desmond De Silva put his foot in his mouth. Talk about the ‘credibility’ of ‘civil society’!
The LTTE, TMVP and the Government are lumped together. Bhavani like Watchlist clearly lives on another planet. They clearly have not heard of the phrase ‘sense of proportion’! ‘The Government has been complicity in the large-scale recruitment and abduction of children by the TMVP,’ she says. How large, the scale? How about comparing some numbers, TMVP vs. LTTE? Yes, children are always victims in any conflict and not only in conflict-areas. Children lose their parents; children die in bomb attacks, are deprived of education, access to basic health facilities; and in the case of child soldiers, denied their childhood.
How can any independent, international monitoring mechanism, as called for by Bhavani, CPA and other fraternal and incestuous NGO outfits prevent all this? Nothing short of the elimination of threat can stop it. Until such time, children and adults will continue to suffer. Any move to stop what is clearly a decisive battle to corner and destroy the LTTE will only prolong their suffering.
As for ‘access’ to certain areas, let’s just say that the CPA and Bhavani and, ok, some na‹ve member of an ‘international mechanism’ goes to the conflict zone. What happens if the LTTE shoots them? Who is blamed? The LTTE and/or the Government. The LTTE does not care, for it doesn’t suffer any consequences more serious than it already does.
It is a huge price for a government to pay. Look what happened with the ACF killings. And we note, with more than a little suspicion, the fact that Bhavani has not breathed a word about specific instances where NGOs and other ‘humanitarian’ activists (including employees of UN agencies and INGOs) have been caught helping out the LTTE by providing material and other support.
While the Watchlist advocates the setting up of an international monitoring mission, which is a targeted measure if there ever was one, the Jo Becker of Human Rights Watch and Watchlist becomes suddenly very ‘understanding’ and ‘sensitive’ when it comes to taking action against the LTTE: ‘with respect to punitive action against the LTTE, the issue of targeted measures was very political and sensitive’. Where does the crap end, I wonder.
Am I saying that all is fine, that there is no chance of anyone’s human rights being violated in Sri Lanka, that people do not live in fear? No. As someone who has been illegally detained, beaten up and harassed in other ways in Sri Lankan police stations, as someone who has seen violence, has known friends who were drawn and quartered after abduction and torture, has, like all citizens in this country, known of bombs and assassinations, I know that this is not the proverbial Garden of Eden.
Holes in the law
There are certainly holes in the law, there are times when the law is made to be silent, and of course not all acts that provoke outrage, despair, bewilderment and horror are not attributable to the state. By and large however, given that we are a people living under the real threat of attack by the world’s most ruthless terrorist and given the track record of other ‘respectable’ nations with respect to countering terrorism, I would say we are doing ok.
I say ‘enough’. If the CPA and Bhavani are all about good governance, accountability and transparency, let them come clean now. We want to know who funds them, for what, and how the money is spent.
Put all your audited accounts on your website.
We want the details. We want every cent spent from day one to now accounted for. We want the project proposals, the mid-project reviews and final monitoring and evaluation reports.
The ICES was found to be a veritable den of thieves. Going through the CPA website I find there are individuals who are associated with the ICES and/or supportive of people who are currently in the dock for mismanagement of funds, ethical impropriety, machinations that compromise the organization’s integrity and independence and other malpractices, not to mention of course a long history of white-washing the LTTE.
The people at CPA I have no doubt are familiar with the Holy Bible. There is something written in that interesting book about casting stones. Let the holier-than-thou start proving purity. Or shut up.
- Sri Lanka Guardian.
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