( December 13, 2012, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Asian Human Rights
Commission expressed grave concern over the present
situation in the University of Jaffna. Most students are
unable to attend lectures as the whole university is in a
state of stalemate. The government has added a
“national security” mood to the crisis, rather
than taking it as a part of the problem in higher education
in Sri Lanka. Therefore, the AHRC has identified the present
crisis in the University of Jaffna as a part of the larger
issue of higher education in Sri Lanka, as well as the
reflection of socio-political trend in the Jaffna
Peninsula.
Military deployed together with the police
at Kaladdi junction, close to the University of
Jaffna.
According to reliable AHRC
sources there is not a single free entry point to the
University without passing at least five police and army
posts. Every student, academic and non-academic staff as
well as visitors are highly monitored by the security forces
deployed in the area. Not only are they observed from the
outside, but the security forces can also enter the
university premises any time, without prior notice. It was
reported in the last week of November that the security
forces in civilian clothing entered the student hostels
without any prior notice and many students were questioned
by those security forces.
In these circumstances, the
situation in the University of Jaffna has become a nightmare
and it highlights the real pain of militarization within the
Peninsula - more than three years after the elimination of
the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
Who is in control of Jaffna?
What is happening in the area? Under what authority could
the security forces, without any warrant, drag students or
any other suspect and put them in cages without allowing
anyone to visit them? At the beginning of this week seven of
eleven students who were arrested by the police a week ago
were released after interrogations. Some of them are still
under detention. The situation in the university is the
same, though normal routine in the university is yet to be
re-started. It is reported that illegal detention, torture,
and other human rights violations are frequently being
committed against these students.
The Jaffna Campus of the
University of Ceylon was established as the sixth campus of
the University of Sri Lanka on 01 August 1974 at the
Parameswara College premises at Thirunelvely, about four
kilometers from Jaffna Town. The campus became an
independent and autonomous university, bearing the name
University of Jaffna, on January 01, 1979.1
Since that time the university has become remarkably
influential in the socio-political arena, not only locally,
but countrywide, as well as internationally. In its short
history, the University has groomed many intellectuals to
take up their well-earned positions as independent thinkers
in society. At the same time the University has faced
tremendous difficulties from the various parties over its
independence in administration. Despite this, the University
has continued to be functional and presently the University
of Jaffna has more than 2000 students and over 200 academic
and non-academic staff members.
“University of Jaffna
has been functioning in the midst of different problems to
sustain its academic activities. The University has faced
several ups and downs and remained to fulfill the
expectations of the society,” 2 noted the
newly appointed Vice Chancellor of the University, Snr.
Prof. (Ms) Vasanthy Arasaratnam. However, many parties
within the University who had communications with the AHRC
claimed that she is just another political appointee
influenced by one of the Armed-Tamil Political Parties who
instill social and political fear in the area. They point to
a paper at the American Society of Engineering Education
which has a document from the Auditor General’s
raising questions of fraud by her in purchasing. With the
war and political considerations by the President in the
appointment of Vice Chancellors rather than merit, the
university even has suffered the indignity of a previous
Vice Chancellor being seen naked with a student.
Meanwhile, leaked
information from the University highlights heavy corruption
during recent years. Reports confirm that many of academics
had to leave the university as part of political, military
and militant interference. During the conflict time there
were many scholars who were directly or indirectly
victimized, while some senior lecturers including Dr. Rajini
Tiranagama sacrificed their lives. Rajini was a remarkable
person who fought to remove blindness in the social system
and perhaps she helped to open a new door to change the way
of thinking among the people. “A life is a life.
Whoever takes a life must be exposed independent of party
feeling. We wanted to show, that in the first place, we
valued life”,3 Rajini was quoted by the
University Teachers for Human Rights ( J) of which Rajini
also was once part and founding member.
The socio- political climate
in the peninsula changed continually after the ethnic riots
in 1983, though revolutionary ideas were seeded long before
then. This social change was monitored by the UTHR (J) in
their report issued in 1989.
“Up to the early 80’s, there was
amongst a sizeable section of Tamil youth, a healthy
interest in political issues accompanied by idealism. The
issues were often those of social injustice, their national
and international dimensions. And quite surprisingly
there was a remarkable absence of communalism which was
poisoning the air in the country. But the 1983 riots and the
involvement of foreign resources in the militarisation of
our youth ensured that the tendency which gained ground was
that of extreme nationalism that worshipped military
success, and by its nature became intolerant. Every other
political tendency felt impelled to imitate this, even at
the cost of coming out second or third best. Politics died
as homicidal divisions increased. We know well our
recent history which led to a remarkable indifference to any
kind of social or political effort on the part of
today’s university students. Guns seemed to determine
everything. In this atmosphere of disillusionment, militant
groups were finding themselves obliged to strengthen
themselves against each other by taking in very young
persons through a variety of questionable
methods.”4
The AHRC observed the
situation in the area become more unsafe for social justice
and freedom of ordinary citizens as the area became the main
target of militarization. It has created tremendous stress
among the people, and social fear is a part of daily
life.
In the last three years
there have been reports of a number of human rights
violations including torture, arbitrary arrests on
fabricated charges, illegal detentions, disappearances,
extrajudicial killings and sexual abuses. Not only had
human rights defenders, journalists and other social
activists been victimized but a number of ordinary people
also. Reliable sources who communicated with the AHRC
claimed that the State Security Forces as well as the
Government sponsored armed militant groups engaged in series
of violent acts while the Government swept the complaints
under the carpet without taking them seriously. The
cumulative result of all this has now manifested itself to
project an image of tension similar to the one during
conflict time.
The government is justifying
these acts with claims that those victims had maintained
links with the LTTE and their proxy organizations. This
argument was brought in to justify all actions taken by the
state forces against the people in the area during post-War
era. However it does not address the real problems in the
area and leaves the door open wide for the entry of social
disorder.
The
days of the LTTE as a real terrorist threat in the country
are over, and the authorities should stop interfering with
the liberty of civilians on the pretext of fighting
terrorism. Arresting someone simply because he or she held
an office in the Vanni in a civilian capacity and had to
meet persons in the LTTE in relation to his work is
counterproductive and only undermines the community’s
ability to rebuild by stripping it of its more accomplished
and capable members. In any case, whatever information such
a person could give under torture is likely to be useless
gossip rather than having any relation to
terrorism.5
It was observed that in last
few elections held by the Government using their cynical
manipulations the outcomes were not in favour of the
Government. The majority of the area reject Government
policy. The crisis of the University of Jaffna is a
manifestation of all this.
The local media reported
that dozens of students were arrested under the Prevention
of Terrorism Act (PTA) after being attacked for their
peaceful protest against militarization and its
manifestations on November 27. The arrested students were
first taken to Colombo and then to Vavuniya where the TID
(Terrorism Investigation Division) has a special office,
more than 140 Kms away from the University. There those
students were “interrogated.”
Meanwhile, the President of
the Teachers’ Association of the University of Jaffna,
Mr. Parameswaran Thamodaran, has told the Media that many
students have abandoned their studies and some had even left
the country in fear.6 Adding further, he said
that during a protest against a military raid on the Jaffna
University, 10 students were arrested, and six of them were
released, while parents have been told that the remaining
four others are being detained at the Welikanda Army
camp.
The AHRC, supports and
endorses the well thought out petition sent by the Members
of the University Community, Jaffna to President Mahinda
Rajapaksa expressing their concerns regarding the situation
in the University. The petition has explained the situation
in detail, including how the state forces interfered with
students’ life.
Here is an excerpt from the
said letter:
It
began with the Army entering the students’ hostels on
27th November, ostensibly to prevent the lighting of flames.
The occasion had a political association that has polarized
society and the community needs space to discuss its
significance and to sort out its own differences. Default on
the part of the Government through continued presence of the
military without tangible moves towards a political
settlement, has helped the mobilisation of youthful feelings
to turn it into a day of defiance, where its original
association becomes less important.
Your
Excellency well knows, having been in politics for several
decades and in the centre of two Southern insurgencies, that
the defeat of an insurgent force does not extinguish the
feelings or causes that gave rise to it. Such feelings are
not a police matter, but are rather to be handled as part
of the political task of reconciliation and
rebuilding.
We
have all tried hard to make our university one that respects
differences and advocates pluralism. The Army entering the
halls, separating the Sinhalese from the Tamil students and
showing hostility to and even threatening the latter not
only undermines our efforts but has serious implications
for the future.
The
demonstration on the following day, 28th, was a protest
against the previous day’s incident, carrying slogans
that were well within the norms of democratic protest. If
the students had been allowed to walk the short distance
from the main entrance on Parameswara Road and reenter by
the Science Faculty entrance nothing untoward would have
happened. Rather than calm the situation matters were made
worse by the Police physically attacking the
students.
The
same night a petrol bomb exploded at the Sri-TELO camp
behind the University causing no physical harm to anyone.
Security around the university, including by several agents
in mufti, had been very tight and we find it puzzling that
the perpetrators got away scot-free. Even more remarkable is
that the Kopay Police were able to come up with names of
four persons to arrest over the incident, which evidently no
one had given them. We are confident that these students had
nothing to do with bomb throwing. Two were arrested at their
homes before the night was out and two were handed over by
the University authorities the following day. They were all
detained under the PTA and taken to Vavuniya.
There
were several acts of harassment in the University by persons
in mufti and the interrogation of an assistant lecturer over
the phone over his casual reference to heroes’ day in
response to a text query by a Sinhalese student. These
reveal an attempt to tackle a political question through
heavy handed intimidation. Instead of putting an end to the
insanity, more followed.
On
the morning of 6th December, the university administration
was given, by a man who claimed to be from the TID, a list
containing names of ten persons (see annexe) to be produced
at the Jaffna Police Station, without any intimation of the
reasons or the charges against them. The news shocked the
university community and parents were distraught. One sickly
mother of a student handed over the Police by the University
was so upset with the University’s helplessness that
she threatened to take poison.
A
study of the list convinced us that all these students were
wanted only because they were well known as prominent in
student activities or were victims of police assault on 28th
November, whose pictures featured in news reports on the
internet.
The
practice of the University authorities ‘handing
over’ students gives rise to some questions and we are
not sure of the legal situation. At the same time we realise
that parents sometimes wish for the university to be
involved out of fear that otherwise something dire might
happen. What does concern us however is that, while
complying with police requests to hand over students the
University authorities fail to question the police as to the
reasons and to seek speedy resolution? The situation is so
bad that even lawyers are mostly afraid to represent
students and ask them to seek help from the
University.7
However, the government was
engaged in a different political battle in the South while
ignoring the cause of the problem at the University in
Jaffna. It seems as if the University Grants Commission also
has been turning a blind eye to all this without
contributing to a solution.
The AHRC agrees with the
conclusion made in the petition to the President by the
Jaffna University Community.
The
result is to cause considerable fear, anxiety and trauma
among the students that is detrimental to the academic
character of the University. More importantly dragging
innocent students through police stations and police cells,
as happened in the 1970s and 1980s, is frightening at the
start and then hardens them and breeds contempt for the law
and for the officers entrusted to uphold it. Where there
should be trust and co-operation there is fear, resentment,
and then defiance. Surely, we do not want the consequences
of that again.8
It is a day dream if the
Government think that they can win the mind of the people by
spreading fear among them. Government must allow the
enjoyment of the basic norms of the freedoms of ordinary
life and stable peace.
As per the observations of
the AHRC, terror and violence have become the foundation
of social control by the Government. It has assumed
arbitrary and ruthless authority to be effective. This is
widespread and is reaching everyone even though it has not
claimed as many lives like it did during conflict time.
"Kill a chicken to scare the monkey" is a
traditional saying which is being demonstrated continually
by the government and its allies. In other words punish one
to deter a hundred. This is the actual path that the
government is walking through today in this Country.
The AHRC urges the
government to facilitate harmony so students could live as
students and get fulfilled intellectually and as persons
– instead of restricting their freedom and damaging
their future. The Government must seriously take this
opportunity to heal the wounds without spreading their
racial nihilistic sickness to undermine the ordinary way of
life.
---------
1.University of Jaffna, General Information:-
http://www.jfn.ac.lk/aboutus.
2.From the VC's Desk...... http://www.jfn.ac.lk/
3.University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) - Report No 3 - Janauary/August 1989 - Released in November 1989
4.University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) - Report No 3 - Janauary/August 1989 - Released in November 1989
5.UTHR(J), Special Report No: 34 , Date of release: 13th December 2009
6.BBC- Sinhala service - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/
7.Letter to the President by the Jaffna University Science Teachers’ Association, University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka
8.Ibid.
2.From the VC's Desk...... http://www.jfn.ac.lk/
3.University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) - Report No 3 - Janauary/August 1989 - Released in November 1989
4.University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) - Report No 3 - Janauary/August 1989 - Released in November 1989
5.UTHR(J), Special Report No: 34 , Date of release: 13th December 2009
6.BBC- Sinhala service - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/
7.Letter to the President by the Jaffna University Science Teachers’ Association, University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka
8.Ibid.
