Sinking Tigers and the straw of human rights

The Island Editorial

22 May 2009- There was much ado about the UN Human Rights Council election at the time of going to press. Sri Lanka was trying her best to retain her seat. Her desperate struggle to avoid defeat was due to prestige and domestic political compulsions of the ruling party rather than anything else. Her defeat or victory will hardly signify anything, unless it is viewed through political glasses.

Sri Lanka has had negative ratings from the self-appointed UN watchers. But ironically, whether or not Sri Lanka retains her seat, two nations, Gabon and Zambia, which have been given the same bad name as Sri Lanka, will retain their seats in the two-year-old Council, sans much credibility. (The US voted against its formation albeit in vain and has chosen to remain off it.) For, there are no contenders for their seats from Africa.

Those behind the media hype about the election seem to believe if Sri Lanka loses, their human rights campaign to save the Tigers will get a fresh impetus and they will be able to have a UN human rights monitoring mission here. A defeat will also be made out to be the present government’s failure on the international front.

But, will the pro-LTTE lobby succeed in taking the Tigers off the hook even if the government loses its Human Rights Council seat?

It is a supreme irony that Prabhakaran, who practises the very antithesis of human rights by killing opponents, massacring civilians and forcibly conscripting child combatants has finally come to depend on a human rights campaign to save his skin. It is like a homicidal killer taking refuge in a temple to avoid being hunted down! Any port in a storm, they say. But, it is only wishful thinking that he and his cohorts will be able to achieve their objective.

The devil cannot pass for a priest by merely quoting Scripture. The discerning are capable of seeing through the wiles of the LTTE lobby. That’s why India openly backed Sri Lanka at the Human Rights Council election. The fact that India stopped dithering and pledged support openly is a victory for Sri Lanka even if she loses her seat. For at the end of the day what really matters in the on-going war against the LTTE is not that council seat but India’s backing. In 1987, it may be recalled, what stood in the way of the JRJ government’s near successful attempt to account for Prabhakaran was India’s intervention.

Things are moving here in the direction India desires. An alternative Tamil leadership capable of standing up to Prabhakaran has emerged in the form of the TMVP led by Pillaiyan. The Sri Lankan State has proved its readiness to devolve power the way India wants.

Today, India has achieved in Sri Lanka like a friend, what it failed to in the late 1980s through gunboat diplomacy. Its remedy—the 13th Amendment—is being implemented without the presence of a single Jawan on the Sri Lankan soil!

Instead of a weakling like Vardharaja Perumal, who took the next boat to India after the IPKF left, Pillaiyan is a strong leader who means business. He has already joined his counterparts in other Provincial Councils in demanding devolution as envisaged in the Constitution. Thus, India is in a position to support Sri Lanka’s politico-military approach to resolving the conflict much to the disappointment of the Eelam lobby.

At the present rate, nothing is going to help the LTTE, however hard its apologists may try to use the bludgeon of human rights against the State. Prabhakaran’s empire is shrinking and the leaders of his generation are crossing the great divide one by one. Kittu, Shanker, Balasingham, Tamil Chelvam, Mahattaya, Balraj et al are no more. Some of them have perished in battle or fratricidal violence and others have died natural deaths. None of them died happy and content, as, at the time of their demise, their movement was nowhere near achieving its goal in spite of the sacrifices they had made.

Time was when there were long queues of youth to join the LTTE but today it has come to such a pass that it is forcibly conscripting children and ageing people into its fighting units. Balraj, the man behind mammoth military victories of the LTTE such as the capture of Mullativu and Elephant Pass, spent his last few years as a sick man in hiding while his outfit was on the defensive clutching at the straw of human rights for survival after over two decades of fighting.

It is against this backdrop that the rise of an alternative Tamil leadership in the East should be viewed. The gap between Prabhakaran and Pillaiyan is one whole generation and there is a world of difference between their approaches to resolving the conflict. The path that the new generation has chosen seems to have yielded tangible results, if the recently concluded Eastern PC polls results are any indication.

Some members of the international community misled by the Eelam lobby may be looking askance at the TMVP and its way of politicking but if the outfit behaves, those countries are bound to soften their stand. Even if they don’t, they cannot come to the LTTE’s rescue without India’s backing.

Therefore, whether Sri Lanka loses her Human Rights Council seat or not, nobody will be able to help the Tigers wriggle out of the mire of their making in the Wanni.

They are sinking under their own weight!

http://www.island.lk/2008/05/22/editorial.html

A battle of humanity Vs inhumanity

Ranil WIJAYAPALA

28-May-2009-All the tales of misery, agony and horror they experienced are carved in their faces as they were leaving the hell they were living as the LTTE was drawing out their last breath when the valiant troops surrounded them in the last terrain in Karayanmullivaikkal in Mullaitivu.

Not that they were allowed to leave but they were rescued by the valiant troops of the Sri Lanka Army after fighting a battle which dragged on for months due to concerns of the lives of these innocent civilians trapped inside this so-called ‘safe zone’.

Not at all did I feel a need of an interpreter to learn their tales of horror, nor did I need any briefing from the troops operating there or from a Tiger cadre hiding deep inside the safe zone to understand what was going on there.

The atmosphere and the facial expressions of civilians described it all.

Last batch of civilians

But it was with great relief I observed the final hours of this 26 year-long conflict that engulfed the North and East. The banks of the Nanthikadal lagoon facing the Vadduvakkal causeway gave me a good view to observe the last batch of civilians arriving in the military controlled areas across this narrow causeway.

The old, maimed and injured were included in the last lot and were slowly moving through the Vadduvakkal bridge across the Nanthikadal lagoon as the huge influx of civilians thinned out into dozens as if they were stepping into a different country. The elderly without help were crawling whilst maimed and the injured were moving on crutches and wheel chairs.

It was so pathetic to observe the scene but heartening to see soldiers offering their bottled water to this hapless crowd seeking protection at the last leg of the battle and were carrying them on their shoulders for immediate treatment.

That was the paradox in this war. It was a humanity versus inhumanity battle.

At last, these Tamil civilians breathed the air of freedom and the Sri Lankan Nation has got only a few hours left to liberate the last inch of the land under the LTTE control on that eve, on May 17,2009.

Historic occasion

The occasion was so historic for me as a person who observed the way the LTTE made its first attempt to defeat Security Forces in Trincomalee South in the wee hours of August 2,2006 and take control of Trincomalee South in their bid to cut off vital links between the South and the Jaffna peninsula, while the Mavil Aru humanitarian operation was in progress.

The two years and 10 months brought disasters to the LTTE while the Security Forces fought this battle explicitly displaying humanity towards the Tamil community even at this very last moment.

It was horrific to learn that the international community, trying to charge Sri Lankan Government and the Security Forces over war crimes even at a time they were risking their lives to liberate the Tamil civilians.

As a journalist who followed the entire humanitarian mission from Mavil Aru to the last battle in Mullaitivu, I am aware that the Security Forces had more than enough opportunities if they wanted to get rid of the Tamil civilians as alleged by the so-called international community.

If they were not concerned about human rights, they could have won this war a long ago, bombing the entire area where LTTE cadres were taking cover of the civilians, without an iota of respect for civilians, like the way the Western nations fight wars ignoring the civilian factor. Even in their wildest dream they never wanted to eliminate the terrorists along with civilians and they trod the most difficult path towards their objective, picking off the target carefully among the civilians.

They never wanted to become nasty towards these people. It was with great respect to our valiant Security Forces I recall the way they assisted Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims displaced from the Trincomalee South areas when the LTTE launched its first offensive against the Security Forces in August 2006.

There was no difference in their treatment to the Tamils who were kept as a human shield by the LTTE in Vakarai in the last few months of 2006, when they were being liberated in December 2006 and the way they treated the Sinhalese from Somapura, Serunuwara, Mahindapura and other Sinhalese settlements.

Humane approach

As a Sri Lankan and a journalist, I was proud to feel the humanity hidden in their uniforms, as I was among the few journalists who could observe how those soldiers treated pregnant women and children arriving in military controlled areas amidst heavy downpour.

Just like I was watching civilians fleeing into Rideetenna, Welikanda, I was observing the last batch of civilians leaving the safe zone.

A fine example of their humane approach towards the Tamil civilians I snatched during my visits to the No Fire Zone soon after 58 Division troops liberated more than 117,000 people from Puthumattalan on April 20 and also my visit to Mullivaikkal Safe Zone on May 16, soon after the troops liberated thousands of trapped civilians.

I can still recall the way the troops were making a last minute attempt to save the lives of the old, maimed and the injured left behind by the fleeing civilians and offering their lunch packets to those starving for days.

It was on May 16 eve, during my visit to the Mullaivaikkal safe zone along with 58 Division GOC Brigadier Shavendra Silva a panic stricken soldier came towards us to inform that a number of injured civilians were still inside the safe zone. “Please, Sir, send a vehicle to transport them towards a medical facility”, that was his plea to Brigadier Silva.

It was amidst the flames of fire caused by the suicide attempts by the LTTE to stop the military from advancing, he had managed to find those injured civilians, among dozens of bodies of Tamil civilians who got caught in those suicide blasts.

His humane feelings emerged above all the horrible scenes that clearly depict the brutality of the LTTE and their disregard for their own community. But he made a lonely attempt to save the lives of those innocent civilians left behind by the fellow Tamils.

At last he saw the result of his humane attempt as those injured civilians were evacuated to a safer place.

And at the same moment an elderly woman with an injury in her hand emerged from the flames murmuring some words might be out of fear that she would get killed at the hands of the Security Forces. But I was highly moved when a soldier took her in his arms and took her out of the rubble towards a safer location.

She was immediately dispatched to a safe place as Brigadier Silva offered his vehicle to transport that elderly woman.

If the Tamil Diaspora and the international community blindly point fingers at them, I must mention here that our soldiers would have become demons and devils if they really reacted emotionally to the brutal acts of horror by the LTTE targeting dozens of civilians into their claymore mines exploded in the South. No need to explain the horror they created in Kebithigollewa, Piliyandala and at Fort railway station.

But even at the last moment of the fighting they did not run after emotions and were not ready to take revenge from the Tamil community though the outsiders tried to add an ethnic flavour to the last battle.

They strictly maintained it as a fight against terrorism but not against the Tamil community.

That was why they were able to take wounded Tiger cadres in stretches on their shoulders and airlift some of them to Colombo to treat them equally with the fellow soldiers while the Tigers were harassing our soldiers captured alive during military operations.

So those who tried to safeguard the LTTE terrorism may have been displeased with the way the Security Forces have acted during the past two years and 10 months in which the Security Forces were able to totally eliminate the LTTE terrorism.

Disappointed parties

If not for such stern action this country would not have reached this historic victory against the most ruthless terror outfit in the world while treating the Tamil community in the most humane manner.

The international media and even the so-called free media was worried as they were not given a free hand to report the battle and unimpeded access to the displaced. They were worried because the Sri Lankan Security Forces did not fight the battle the way they have dictated but continued the battle in the way they thought was right. Finally, the Sri Lankan Security Forces were proved right.

The so-called free media in the country were not aware that they have become puppets of the LTTE proxies who were funding their so-called organizations to scuttle the military efforts in defeating the LTTE . They might have not been aware that they were campaigning against their Motherland to drag it into a disaster.

It could have been a fair attempt if it was done to secure the lives of civilians at the initial stages but it cannot be justified at the last moment after they failed in all their endeavors.

The emerging factor was that the Sri Lankan community who had the tendency to believe in foreign reports were placing their confidence in the State media rather than the highly exaggerated reporting by so-called free media. It was after the Thoppigala operation they started believing in military victories, completely rejecting the utterances of the disgruntled politicians.

What those so-called international organizations could not understand was the Sri Lankan Security Forces’ humanistic approach to the problem. If they had to launch military operations taking any risks, in civilian populated area that was meant for the benefit of the entire Sri Lankan Nation especially, the Tamil community suppressed by the jackboot of Tiger terrorism.

What I was observing on May 17, 2009 on the banks of Nanthikadal lagoon was the final result of that two years and 10 month-long humanitarian operation to fully liberate the Tamil community from the clutches of the LTTE after the Security Forces saw its turning point on April 20, 2009 with the liberation of more than 117,000 population within four days.

Last battle

The three battle formations, the 58 Division commanded by Brigadier Shavendra Silva, the 53 Division commanded by Major General Kamal Gunaratne and the 59 Division by Brigadier Prasanna Silva had already encircled last terrain of the LTTE which has now been reduced to 300 to 400 square hundred meters.

They were aware that the international community was closely monitoring what they were doing. But they were not hesitating to do what they were doing as they were doing the correct thing at the appropriate time and were aware that the last civilian has been rescued from the clutches of the LTTE.

Dusk fell on that fateful day and we still hear the sounds of small arms fire in Mullaivaikkal area as we visited the defences of the 59 Division along the Mullaitivu coast with Brigadier Prasanna Silva on the sandy beach and we retreated to our resting places hoping we will get a good news at the earliest possible. As we expected, we got the news in the early hours on Monday, May 18.

“The Tiger leaders have been surrounded in Vellamullivaikkal and their bodies were lying all over”, the message came from the 58 Division.

We rushed towards the 53 Division Headquarters in Puthukudiyiruppu and all the journalist reporting the final battle were gathered in groups. We waited until we got clearance from the military to visit the battle scene. But the area was not safe for us to visit but managed to visit the place where Charles Anthony’s body was lying, his face bruised in the gun fire.

Time was around 1 p.m. Firing was still going on and we were asked to take cover. Tractor loads of terrorist bodies collected by the troops were laid in lines and were being identified. Many were disfigured after getting caught in the massive fire.

Soldiers were telling us how they have thwarted the Tiger leaders last attempt to breach the Security Forces’ defences and the way they killed scores of Tiger cadres hiding inside bushes and firing upon them.

Final result

The search operations were going on throughout. They could not find the body of Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran as they were certain that he had been surrounded by them. The 53 Division and the 58 Division continued their search ops along with the Commando and Special Forces troops.

The final result of their two years and 10 months long operation came only around 10 am on Tuesday. The troops of the 4 Vijayaba Infantry Regiment attached to 681 Brigade had recovered the body of Tiger chief Velupillai Prabhakaran. Major General Kamal Gunaratne and Brigadier Shavendra Silva stood like lions keeping the Prabhakaran’s body below their feet. And the troops thronging in thousands paraded the Tiger leaders body along the streets in Vellamullivaikkal.

His decade long terror had come to an end. But the flames of fire still emanated from the Safe Zone as if his soul whisked into the air hours ago as the last batch of civilians left him in isolation in the last terrain as he was well aware that there was no survival for him without that human shield around him.

How the West was sidelined (for the moment)

Prof Rajiva Wijesinha – Secretary General – Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process

18 May 2009-A couple of years back, in Geneva, the British ambassador tried to have a resolution critical of Sri Lanka passed in the United Nations Human Rights Council. The previous year such a resolution had been proposed, and after negotiation, as I understood, it was kept on the table, so that it could be taken up if agreed.

In 2007 Dr Dayan Jayatilleka decided that he would not accept a resolution. He also refused to negotiate on the terms of a Presidential Statement, which was then proposed by the British ambassador. He refused even to accept a draft text, since that would have been tantamount to agreeing that some sort of action was necessary.

Dr Jayatilleka’s view was that there was no need of any action with regard to Sri Lanka, but he also recognised that, with the adverse publicity against the country coming from various quarters, it was necessary to make our position clear. He therefore ensured that a delegation from Colombo briefed regional groupings as well as individual states on the actual situation. The result was that many, who had previously heard only one side of the story, understood the efforts we were making, and agreed that any action against the country would be inappropriate.

The danger passed, though we had to deal with repeated criticism of Sri Lanka, from a few countries and from a plethora of Non-Governmental Organisations. Some of these were international ones, such as Human Rights Watch, which had fired the first salvo in the attack on Sri Lanka when, fraudulently, it accused us of indiscriminate attacks on civilians. There were also some local ones, though we found out soon enough that many of them were funded precisely by those countries that wanted us subject to criticism. The most appalling example of this came to my notice when the head of the Berghof Foundation, Norbert Ropers, informed me that they had funded one such organisation, which they recognised was a surrogate for the LTTE, but this had been done in good faith when they thought that the LTTE could be democratised. My understanding was that they had now ceased to fund this organisation though, when I found out later that this was not the case, Mr Ropers wrote to me from abroad to say that I had misunderstood him.

Those were the days when the anti-Government press in Colombo was claiming that the Government was about to be defeated on the budget, and when it was declared that the whole world was against Sri Lanka. When there was no motion in the Human Rights Council against us, it was claimed that we had been saved by rogue states. Those were days when the opposition claimed that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights was going to insist on a UN Monitoring Mission in Sri Lanka and nothing would stop this, when her sidekick tried to persuade me that the UN would do a better job than the Scandinavians, and when a very sweet Amnesty International worker in fact told us that she had been asked by UNOHCHR in Geneva to pack her bags and prepare to come to Sri Lanka to be part of the UN Mission.

Entertainingly, Amnesty, in asking that a delegation be allowed to come to Sri Lanka now, suggested that that lady be part of it, though unfortunately their London office had meanwhile sought a visa for the much more prejudiced Yolanda Foster.

When it became clear that there would be no resolution against Sri Lanka, and that the attempt to denigrate the Government through this manoeuvre had failed, the British ambassador told me that our ambassador thought he had won, but we should wait and see. He did agree with my suggestion that, since we did want to improve our Human Rights situation, the British should help positively instead of simply pointing fingers, and promised to tell the High Commissioner in Sri Lanka to look into the matter. Those however were the days of Dominic Chilcott, who ignored my requests, and tried to tell me that, while he thought some elements in the Government were sincere, others were dreadful.

But Dominic Chilcott went away, to Washington and the Human Rights paradise of the Bush Presidency, and there was a new British ambassador in Geneva too, and it seemed things were better. 2008 passed without incident, except for a few squawks in the British Parliament, and we thought that in fact the British were now more genuine in their dealings with Sri Lanka.

We were wrong. Perhaps because of the determination of David Miliband to stamp his mark upon British Foreign Policy, we had a flurry of adverse commentary, with what seemed avuncular encouragement of Tiger demonstrators in London. And the determination to break loose from the international consensus that the Tigers surrender, exemplified in the Miliband refusal to answer the question put to him twice by the BBC, was accompanied by more plotting in Geneva.

Dr Jayatilleka discovered early in May that the British, together with some other Western nations, were trying to invoke a special session of the Council on May 14th, to discuss the Sri Lankan situation. Whether they were genuinely concerned was a matter for doubt, since the Western Europeans alone of the regional groupings had refused to meet with the Sri Lankan delegation in March, when we offered briefings on the current situation and the opportunity to ask questions. It should be noted though that some European countries did give us the opportunity to discuss matters with them, and we were able to disabuse them of some of the more extreme examples of Tiger propaganda.

The European masterminds behind the move were very secretive, and went ahead without initially consulting the other regional groupings. They must have assumed they would have no difficulty in getting the 16 signatures required, since they had about a dozen themselves, and had managed to persuade one Asian country to commit itself.

But Dr Jayatilleka then went into action, and convinced all the other groupings that the Western European move was manifestly unfair. As happened in Sri Lanka, where briefings were held with relevant diplomats, one obvious question was the timing of the move, which seemed obviously designed to assure the Tigers, fighting what should have been their last battle, that they had world sympathy. Mr Miliband’s failure to insist on a Tiger surrender, which had been remarked upon also by others, gave credence to the view that the whole move was disingenuous, nothing to do with humanitarian concerns but rather an obvious political ploy.

How intense the effort was became clear when hosts of NGOs, many of them funded by the countries most keen on the move, weighed in with their requests, and when Special Rapporteurs who had not been especially interested in Sri Lanka previously, issued a press release calling for an independent inquiry into the situation in Sri Lanka. One of them claimed this had been done because they had not had a response to their letters, but since the letters had been sent in the last few days in May, and the reply went ten days later, their haste in issuing a damning release on May 8th seemed positively indecent – recalling a similar release by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, sent out when some Western Europeans were canvassing for a Presidential Statement on Sri Lanka at the ordinary session of the Council in March.

Meanwhile the campaign of the Tigers was reaching fever pitch all over Europe and in America. Following the successful escape of nearly a thousand civilians on the 9th of May, the Tigers shot at those trying to follow on the next day, but the deaths were then used for intense propaganda that attributed responsibility to the Sri Lankan forces. Simple induction was beyond all those implacably opposed to the Sri Lankan state, the fact that we had got out over 100,000 with minimum civilian casualties in April, that the flood had been dammed until we succeeded again on May 9th in getting people out without civilian casualties, and it was precisely to claim a catastrophe that the Tigers had kept these civilians for so long.

The self-righteous Europeans must have thought then that their campaign could not fail. They could not believe that the efforts of Dr Jayatilleka and his dedicated team at the Mission in Geneva would turn back the combined efforts of so many wealthy and determined countries. Knowing the trust his colleagues in Geneva had in him, they raised the matter in capitals all over the world, only to find that the ambassadors in Geneva had very different advice to offer.

Dr Jayatilleka was helped in this by the work he had done with the other regional groupings over the last couple of years. In particular the Non-Aligned Movement proved a rock of strength, with both its current Chairman Cuba, and the next Chairman Egypt, being categorical in their view that this singling out of what seemed vulnerable individuals was contrary to the spirit in which the Human Rights Council had been established. But the support of our immediate neighbours, Indian and Pakistan, and also Bangladesh, all of them respected members of the Council, also proved invaluable, along with the positive input of Russia and China, with their added prestige as permanent members of the Security Council.

There was a briefing on the 12th on the humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka, arranged without reference to Sri Lanka, though fortunately Dr Jayatilleka had been working late in his office on May 8th, and had received the notice before he went home, so that he was able to ensure input from Sri Lanka. Otherwise it is possible that the session would have been used for critical comments, as were made by the British, based on the visit of their beloved Miliband, but apart from that we had only very generous inputs from the Japanese and others.

At a dinner that evening, even though there was still a danger that the Western Europeans would continue with their hunt for signatures, a number of ambassadors made it clear that they would not stand for this type of selective criticism. It was also understood that, even though the Europeans would not get the sort of resolution they craved, it would not do to be passive, because then the media would present a Western viewpoint, to the effect that Sri Lanka had been saved from condemnation by just a few countries who could conveniently be demonised. Any session for which signatures were obtained would then have to lead to a resolution, which would make clear the determination of the world at large to deal firmly with terrorism.

On the 14th a number of what seemed LTTE surrogates were seen coming into Geneva, perhaps having relied on assurances that they would get their lifeline that day, with a jamboree which would have been widely reported as proving how inhuman the Sri Lankan government and forces had been. But, though the quest for signatures continued, with more statements piling in, the week ended with the real international community resoundingly rejecting those who had tried to dragoon it into selective criticism.

A number of lessons should be learned from the whole episode. Firstly, making the West the cornerstone of our foreign policy is clearly a mistake – or at any rate the old West about which we still continue sentimental. If for instance we had voted not for Britain (which we did unconditionally last year) but for Spain, the latter would have been elected to the Council instead of Britain and we would not have had so many headaches. Secondly, whilst of course we must still continue good relations with the West (for they too have decent politicians, who will not all promote terrorism for political considerations), we must work more concertedly with our neighbours and also the regional groupings which share our interests.

Thirdly, we must also endeavour to satisfy the idealistic expectations of these our friends. All of them asked about the intended political solution to the political problem and, while they were steadfast in accepting that terror had to be dealt with militarily, and dealt with conclusively, they will also all expect a decent package that exemplifies the pluralistic nature of Sri Lankan society. They could understand delays while the terrorist sword hung over us but, now that is no longer a major threat, we must fulfil their expectations about the essentially democratic dispensation our government has defended so ably.

But at the same time there are also lessons the West should learn. The anger at obvious double standards was palpable amongst all our friends. Obviously we do not expect even the most idealistic country to abandon its own interests. But in sticking to them ruthlessly, the use of sanctimonious pronouncements to reach other ends is abhorrent. It is especially important that the Obama administration, which came in with such high hopes, should not be seen as just another cynical mixture as before.

Secondly, the West should not take the rest of the world for granted. Its failure to consult at all was surprising, its failure to consult neighbours who obviously have a stake in a stable neighbourhood was astonishing. The impression could have arisen that stability in our areas is not to the interest of the West, which would prefer a plethora of weak states, to allow it to maintain more easily its current hegemony, political as well as economic.

And thirdly, the West should think about the message it is sending, in seeming to want the Tigers to survive in some form or another, particularly in the light of its past blunders. After all the horrors we are witnessing now, which are attributed largely to the West, spring from its own encouragement of Taliban terrorism during the Cold War. Whatever its purposes then, there is no doubt they could have been achieved without worrying consequences had there been at least a modicum of adherence to basic principles.

Sri Lanka may for the moment have escaped the worst the West could do to it. But we need to be constantly vigilant for the future. We should do this with greater dialogue and discussion with our friends, and more forthright discussion with the West to enable them to achieve their own goals without irritating so much of the rest of the world. And we should use the intellectual and social capital of Dr Jayatilleka and his staff in Geneva to develop solid guiding principles for international relations in the current world context.

Prof Rajiva Wijesinha
Secretary General
Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process

HRC session on Sri Lanka ill-timed and unwarranted – Human Rights Minister

Courtesy : PRIU

21 May 2009 -The convening of a special session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) to discuss ‘The human rights situation in Sri Lanka” is ill-timed and unwarranted is the view of the Sri Lanka Government.

The Minister for Disaster Management and Human Rights Mahinda Samarasinghe said the realities in Sri Lanka., where more than 250,000 civilians had been liberated from the clutches of the most ruthless terrorist organization in the world, and the aftermath of the largest known hostage rescue operation in the world, gave no cause for any special discussion of the human rights situation in the country.

“We feel this is a waste of time, energy and resources that could be used more purposefully to assist in relief measures for the IDPs in the country, by those who have genuine interest in their conditions, and the situation regarding human rights in Sri Lanka,” he added.

He was referring to the special session of the HRC sought by 17 of its 48 members, which is currently scheduled to be held on May 25 in Geneva. The special session is to be held under the rules of the HRC that requires such a session to be held if one-third or 16 members of the body call for such a session.

Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe will lead the Sri Lanka delegation at this special session. The other members of the delegation will be the Attorney General Mohan Peiris, Secretary to the Ministry of DM & HR Dr. Rajiva Wijesinghe and Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to then UN in Geneva Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka.

The countries that called for the special session are Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Uruguay, Republic of Korea, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Mauritius.

The position of Sri Lanka is very clear that it does not believe in the need for such a session of the HRC, which would seek to divert attention from the more pressing need to provide relief to the large number of Tamil citizens who have been liberated from the hold of the LTTE, which the US State Department identified in 2008 as the most ruthless terrorist organization in the world.

Sri Lanka expects the larger number of members of the HRC that did not sign the call for this special session, as well as policy and opinion in most other countries that do not have membership in the HRC, would be supportive of Sri Lanka’s right as a sovereign country to eliminate terrorism from its soil, and would also show appreciation of the success that Sri Lanka has made in the larger global fight against terrorism, and through this the safeguarding of human rights.

The members of the HRC that did not sign the call for the special session are: Angola, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Bolivia, Cuba, Cameroon, Djibouti, Egypt, Gabon, Ghana, Madagascar, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Zambia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Qatar, Nicaragua, Saudi Arabia, Philippines and the Russian Federation.

Political analysts said the signatories to the call for this special session had a clear Euro-centric political alignment, which showed the electoral pressures of the pro-LTTE Tamil populations in those countries, and the pressures that such countries can bring on their neighbours and on countries coming under the direct political and economic influence.

They were of the view that this line up of countries, showed a clear division of the Afro-Asian and Non-Aligned nations against the western powers and countries under their influence, as well as the different position taken by the new emerging economies of Asia and Latin America against the traditional, and former colonial centres of power of the West.

Wonder boy of Channel 4 -NEWS SOURCE FOR HRW

By: Rosie Stembo

The near 4 minute newscast on Channel 4 is a hostile staccato style outburst against the Sri Lanka military and is undistinguishable from the rhetoric originating from LTTE media sources. Even a semblance of a balancing act is absent to give even an iota of respectability; obvious intention is to discredit the Security Forces and prevent its onward march by hook or by crook. It is part of an act by the biased media to save Prabhakaran, the child snatcher.

Wonder boy of channel 4 – Nick Paton Walsh  

It cites nameless faceless unknown aid workers or unknown elderly mothers as sources. The words they utter on the footage are not meaningful until presenter decides to carry the narration according to his fancy. The “shots” of the sources on the newscast look patently juxtaposed to the rest of the footage.

The pictures clearly reveal they were not taken in a camp for refugees; the so call aid workers are filmed in a closed location elsewhere. In the absence of any identification, doctoring it with quotes can be comfortably fabricated. Such sources can be easily made to appear and disappear with words put to mouth. Unidentifiably silhouetted in a dark hazy background their identities will forever be unknown. Therefore putting words into their mouth to disgrace Sri Lanka is easy and can never be checkmated.

Incredible statements are made of dead bodies remaining unattended for days…… Girls being removed from the camps……children trampled while waiting in queues…… lack of food and water…..sexual abuse. No complaint of such nature has been made by any person to anybody until the arrival of the foreign journalist from Channel 4.There are 125000 people in these camps but not a single such complaint until the arrival of channel 4 All this makes the story bizarre. It is still not too late to disclose information with specifics in possession of Channel 4 without vague words accompanied by blurred vision.

Even for an inquiry a complaint with specific are a pre requisite in any country with due process of law. Sri Lanka has Commission sitting inquiring into Human rights violations. Why did those “aid sources” wait remaining mum till Channel 4 arrived especially since they are supposed to be aid workers with easy access to foreign sources. They can even now conjure aid workers so that the hazy information can be tested. Strange, they have not even reported these matters to their own aid agency? Surely they would not have been silent for so long?

The camps have been visited by ICRC, UN envoys and officials and several foreign NGOs and dignitaries, including John Holmes. No such complaints have been made to them. The police are ever present and frequent visitors are the GA and other public officer. Most of these officers and NGO officers are of Tamil origin fluent in the Tamil language. Many complaints have been received by them and attended to by them previously; but never anything in the nature of the complaints on Channel 4.

Channel 4 has a history of discrediting Sri Lanka in previous appearance here. Ironically channel 4 is deaf and dumb on the LTTE. Are they patron saints of the LTTE! Did they ask the civilians in the camps of the life they led under terrorist rule. Probably that is a story they desire not to narrate however news worthy.

Does Channel 4 maintain a code of ethics in journalism by admitting they did an act stealthily? If so they could do many more! We can now gauge their authenticity when they report on human rights.

The suffering of civilians cornered by Human Rights Watch

By: Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha

19 May 2009-The Anglo American Corporation Human Rights Watch is now engaged in a campaign, along with its patrons, to denigrate Sri Lanka in the eyes of the Human Rights Council in Geneva. This follows its campaign throughout 2009 to dissuade civilians from leaving LTTE controlled territory to refuge with the Sri Lankan government.

In both cases, the HRW agenda fits in with that of the LTTE. This may not be deliberate, but it is certainly convenient for the LTTE. Now that the LTTE is reduced to using the civilians it has entrapped, not just as a shield, but as a weapon of mass destruction, HRW has begun to issue lengthy descriptions of their suffering. It ignores completely its own contribution to this suffering, through its protracted campaign to suggest throughout 2008 that the civilians were as well off with the LTTE as they would be with Government.

In July last year, when it became clear that the Tigers were forcing civilians to accompany them as they retreated into smaller and smaller areas, HRW began the game of claiming that the facilities the Sri Lankan government provided for refugees were internment camps. Rousing emotions associated with what the British did to the Boers and the Nazis to the Jews, forcibly taking people from their homes, HRW thus sought to persuade the world that the civilians the LTTE were forcing to go along with them would suffer just as much if they succeeded in escaping.

This year the campaign continued, with vicious falsehoods about conditions in the welfare centres, and claims of shortages of food and medicine in February, when we were looking after fewer than 40,000. No one else made such claims, so HRW obviously had an ulterior motive in continuing to insinuate that people would suffer if they succeeded in getting away from the LTTE.

Despite this dissuasion, nearly 30,000 more fled to us in March, and over a 100,000 in April. Finally now the penny seems to have dropped, that conditions of life with the LTTE are much worse than those in Government welfare centres. But even so, HRW manages to write a whole article on the horrors of the No-Fire Zone without a single mention of the fact that the LTTE will not let people leave.

This is evil evasion. HRW provides a description of refugees who left the No-Fire Zone on the 20th of April, and spent nine days at sea, but omits to mention that that was the day on which the Sri Lankan forces managed to breach one of the walls the LTTE had built, enabling 40,000 people to flee to safety with the Government, followed by another 70,000 on the next two days.

There is no mention of this rescue operation in the article, no demand that the LTTE set free the hostages it has taken. Instead HRW’s senior Asia researcher, yet another in the band of mercenaries paid to denigrate Sri Lanka, claims that ‘The Sri Lankan government is doing everything it can to keep these stories of suffering from reaching the world.’

Nonsense. The Sri Lankan government knows there is suffering, suffering because the Tigers ration the food we are sending in as those who have fled to us make clear (but HRW will doubtless claim that we are starving them in internment camps); suffering because the Tigers have piled up heavy weaponry in the zone and are using it in particular against civilians trying to get away (but why should anyone want to get away, according to HRW, since conditions are equally bad everywhere); suffering because of the landmines the Tigers have strewn in profusion, and which caused the bulk of the injuries of those who succeeded in fleeing to us (and also a number of the deaths TamilNet declared occurred on that day).

According to Human Rights Watch, in its latest bombshell, timed to explode as its mentors strive to rouse feeling against Sri Lanka at the Human Rights Council, just as the LTTE flag waving demonstrators are doing in Western capitals, all this is the fault of the Sri Lankan government. Even the one mention of LTTE firing is accompanied by the assertion that this puts civilians at risk from retaliatory fire.

The story of the boat people is truly horrifying. The owner of the boat lost six members of his family, a mason lost five, and seems to be left with just his 8 month old son. But it never occurs to Human Rights Watch that the root cause of this suffering is the wickedness of the LTTE, in holding these people for so long, in firing at those who tried to flee by land, in building walls and laying mines to stop them getting away.

But there is more to it than this. There is also the contribution of Human Rights Watch, which strove so hard for so long, in its bitterness against Sri Lanka, to deny the magnitude of the LTTE horrors. They may find it easier to continue to blame Sri Lanka. But if they are at all bothered about their immortal souls, they should stop to consider how their connivance with an LTTE agenda has helped that terrorist organisation. Human Rights Watch has thus contributed to the immeasurable suffering of the Tamil people trapped by the LTTE, seeking to escape, dying so tragically even when in sight of freedom. The LTTE may be appallingly evil. Human Rights Watch exemplifies the banality of evil, as Hannah Arendt described it, the triviality and self-centredness that has contributed to so much destruction in this world.

Human Rights Watch hell-bent on attacking Sri Lankan government

By Chandrani Gunaratna

19 May 2009-New York-based right organization Human Rights Watch yesterday (19) released yet another report on demanding to stop the “war” on civilians in Sri Lanka. The report quotes James Ross, legal and policy director at HRW as saying “This ‘war’ against civilians must stop. Sri Lankan forces are shelling hospitals and so-called safe zones and slaughtering the civilians there.”

In a way it is comical how Human Rights Watch (HRW) beats the same drum over and over again when clearly there is evidence to show otherwise.

Within the last few days the ICRC and the UN openly accused the LTTE Terrorists shooting and killing the civilians who are trying to flee the murderous grip of LTTE. The UN and ICRC both said shells fell on the Puthukkudiyiruppu hospital but they were not certain who fired them. In one report the UN said shells killed 56 civilians but quietly retracted the report later.

Little by little the aid agencies are beginning to realize who is killing who especially after a suicide bomber blew herself at the IDP registration center in Dharmapuram killing 10 civilians and 19 army personnel who were treating the civilians and after LTTE Terrorists fired at a bus carrying the refugees.

UN on Monday (16) blowing the genocide charges against the government accused the LTTE Terrorists of trying to prevent civilians leaving. UN said the Tigers have shot and sometimes killed a growing number of people trying to leave the war zone. Not only that, the UN charged the Tigers of forcibly recruiting children as young as 14.

Trying to show that the report is unbiased Ross says “With each battlefield defeat, the Tamil Tigers appear to be treating Tamil civilians with increased brutality. They’ve shot at those trying to flee and stepped up forced recruitment and forced labor.”

But then the accusations fly right back at the government attempting to justify the “war” on civilians charge. The report says “The Sri Lankan government has indicated that the ethnic Tamil population trapped in the war zone can be presumed to be siding with the LTTE and treated as combatants, effectively sanctioning unlawful attacks.”

The Sri Lankan government repeatedly has said the civilians are of utmost concern and the soldiers are specifically instructed not to fire into the safe zones and also not to fire heavy artillery or mortar into the battle fronts. The soldiers are paying the maximum price with their lives to rescue the civilians trapped in the LTTE controlled area.

In any conflict there are civilians who get hit by the crossfire and the Sri Lankan soldiers are trying their best to handle the Terrorists on one hand and rescue the civilians who are being held as human shields by the Terrorist on the other hand. British medical journal, The Lancet puts the civilian casualties in the US invasion of Iraq at a whopping 655,000 and some accounts cite the figure as high as 1.3 million.

Throwing another fire ball at the government HRW says that “the plight of the civilians has been made worse by the government’s decision in September 2008 to order most humanitarian agencies out of the Wanni. Government efforts to bring in food, medical supplies, and other relief – with a minimal role for the United Nations – have been insufficient. Continued fighting, lack of oversight, and the manipulation of the delivery of aid by government forces and the LTTE have all contributed to the continuing humanitarian crisis.”

It is very transparent that either HRW is hell bent on attacking the Sri Lankan government or totally ignorant of the current developments in the embattled land.

Last year Sri Lanka government has dispatched nearly 8000 metric tons of essential food items to the displaced civilians in Wanni region. In December of 2008 World Food Program sent 4,120 tons emergency food supplies to an estimated 200,000 IDPs trapped in the region. Just this week the government dispatched two shipments of 40 metric tons of food by the sea route as the roads are heavily mined in the area.

The barrage from HRW doesn’t stop yet. It adds another charge.

“Displaced persons in the Wanni who escape to what they hope is safety within government-controlled areas are instead put in internment centers masquerading as “welfare villages” in Vavuniya and nearby locations. The displaced persons, including entire families, detained in these military-controlled, barbed-wire camps are denied their liberty and freedom of movement,” Human Rights Watch says.

The legal and policy director continuing the attack says “All civilians who manage to escape the Tamil Tigers are held by the government in squalid military-controlled camps and hospitals with little access to the outside world,” said Ross. “The government seems to be trying its best to keep its role in their ordeal away from public scrutiny.”

The director seems to be unable to hold LTTE accountable for the plight of the civilians without attacking the government first. He seems to be trying his best to satisfy his organization’s paymasters.

Two leading Tamil rights activists, Rajan Hoole and K. Sritharan of the University Teachers for Human Rights (UTHR-Jaffna) in an interview to Indian media said that “Many have had the experience of being shot at by the LTTE as they escaped or (by) the army personnel at the entry points, deliberately provoked by LTTE fire.”

In contrast, “generally the behaviour of soldiers at entry points has, in the cases known to us, been exceptionally good,” they said.

HRW should get its facts right. Sri Lankan government doesn’t wage a war against civilians; it wages a war against a ruthless terrorist organization that killed thousands and thousands of people not just Sinhalese, Muslims, Buddhist monks, world leaders, political leaders but also their own people whom they claim to be representing, their own young children and continue to kill the their kith and kin who wants to find a better life on the other side of the battle lines.

The biased attitude of HRW is certainly not helping to alleviate the suffering of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka. It is even hindering the progress of the resettlement and rehabilitation of the IDPs as foreign governments rely on these lopsided reports to decide on the aids to Sri Lanka. Why HRW is distorting the truth is a question right-minded international community should ask.

Sri Lanka & IMF Loan

Asoka Weerasinghe Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario . K1J 6G. Canada

14th May 2009

Brad Adams
Executive Director
Human Rights Watch 350 Fifth Avenue, 34th Floor New York, NY 101118-3299

Dear Brad:
Two days ago, around 10nish in the morning there was a knock on my front door. I opened the door and found two smartly dressed ladies hugging several slim publications, with two folio cases slung over their shoulders. They smiled and I greeted them with a smile.

The older one pushed a small brochure at me and said, “We just want to tell you that there is so much suffering in the world, and there is one person who could help all of us”. “Who is it?” I asked!
Pointing to the sky, she said, “its God”.

“Really”…I responded turning my face towards the sky to spot this person. “I never met this person. May be because I am a Buddhist”, I continued.

After exchanging a few God-thoughts, and I holding back my comments with disbelief, she got out the May 2009 publication of AWAKE, opened to page 15 which had a photograph of a Mammoth skeleton with the article ‘When Giants Roamed Europe”, she asked, “Do you know about Dinosaurs. Do you know who created these monsters, because they just did not happen?” I was amused.

“Have you been to the Museum of Nature, down town?” I asked. “Yes”, the older one said.
“Have you been to the Dinosaur Hall”, I asked. “Yes”, the older one said again.
“I created that Dinosaur Hall, with two other scientists and a designer. I know dinosaurs fairly well, and I believe in evolution,” I said.
The four eyes popped out in disbelief. “You must be having a lot of credentials?” the older lady said in jest.
“I am not sure of that”, I said. “But one thing that I do know for sure is that I do organize Buddhist breathing meditation sessions at the Buddhist Temple on Heron Road. You should join me for one of those sessions. It will do you a lot of good”, I said.
The ladies did not accept my invitation and they thanked me for listening to them and they turned around and went on their way to knock at another door. They were Jehovah Witnesses.
Brad, then I happened to read your letter to the Executive Directors of the IMF of May 13, telling them, “We urge you and other IMF members to delay approval of the standby arrangement (of the loan of US$1.9 billion emergency support) until the government of Sri Lanka takes the following steps to ease the humanitarian crisis…”

“Oh Man, Oh Man! This man is God”, I thought, who believes he has the power to play Russian roulette with the lives of 200,000 displaced Tamil civilians, who the Sri Lankan government is trying to do its best to normalize their lives by feeding them, taking care of their health, build shelters to house them, de-mine the surrounding terrain for their safety, build temporary schools for the children, et cetera, and that need funds. And along comes God Adam, who thinks that he has the power to hold back the normalizing of these 200,000 suffering civilian lives, who fled the clutches of the Tamil Tigers dodging bullets fired at them for abandoning the human shield. Some were not lucky and they caught the bullets and dropped dead.

You know Brad, I wish those two ladies will turn up at my door again, so that I could reveal to them what I had discovered.
I would tell them, “Do you know what? You were right. There is a God, or a pretend God, who wants to manipulate the lives of 200,000 Tamil civilians who are “suffering” in Sri Lanka. His name is God Adam. His office is closer to heaven on the 34th floor of a building, about 550 feet above ground, and it is in New York. You ought to try and find this God. He thinks he has the power to screw the lives of innocent people who had suffered enough for 25 years under the jackboots of Tamil Tiger terrorists. And he wants to prolong this suffering, and there is a motive for all this which I will reveal to you later.”
God Adam, you are obviously concerned about the 20,000 civilians still held hostage by the Tamil Tigers and caught between the cross fire of the Government Forces and the Tamil Tigers. You know what God Adam, if you have a Manual How to Make War for Dummies instructing how one could fight a war without shooting a bullet or throwing a bomb and without having collateral deaths, then you should throw that Manual at Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa as well as President Barak Obama whose forces are killing thousands of innocent Afghanis, specially children for the want to get rid of the Taliban terrorists.
Just do that, God Adam. Teach these world leaders how to fight a war without killing people other than their enemies, and I promise you that I will certainly come over and spit and polish your halo.
By the way, today’s The Ottawa Citizen reported, “Pakistan: 170,000 flee as jets attack Taliban. About 170,000 more civilians registered as refugees with the UN after fleeing the offensive in the northwest where Taliban fighters have terrorized the population. Residents trapped in Mingora, the district’s main town, said militants had planted mines and were digging trenches.” God Brad, sounds familiar isn’t it with the Tamil Tiger terrorists at play with their war games.
I am just hoping that the perverse, pretend God Adam of Human Rights Watch will not misuse his powers to try and screw the lives of these 170,000 Afghani civilians the way he is trying to screw the 200,000 displaced Tamil civilians in the North east of Sri Lanka by wanting to delay the IMF loan for Sri Lanka. Brad, I suppose pretend God’s don’t realize how cruel it is to misuse their powers.
Do I suspect that all this huffing and puffing and exaggerating by God Adam, and threatening to blow Mahinda Rajapaksa’s house down, is to seek more international funding to pay his staff and continue running his questionable humanitarian business? Do you know what God Adam, I smell a rat here!
Sincerely Asoka Weerasinghe

Stop the bloodbath

G. de Silva

14 May 2009
Come off it Luis, when the US killed 100s of innocent Afghani civilians a week or so ago none of you guys had the guts to say even ‘boo’ and life went on as if nothing unusual had happened. When the Tamil Tigers are cornered you have suddenly found your voice to protest against ‘a modern day bloodbath’. Do you guys have any sense of integrity? I guess it matters little to AVAAZ and others like HRW and AI because you are being paid and well looked after by the CIA and MI5.

It is high time that you reveal the true objectives of your so-called humanitarian concerns!

Guess what…thanks to the Internet, half the world now knows the true agendas of organizations such as HRW, AI and AVAAZ and they know that these are front line organizations set up to protect the capitalist neo-colonial economies and that you don’t give a damn about protecting democracies struggling under terrorism or human suffering caused by terror activities. You want the terror activities to continue so that your masters can sell more arms and make sure the economies of your pay masters’ countries are humming along – especially when economic recession is almost here.

Just give up your game guys! It may be better if you spent your time helping the poor and destitute in your own countries.

G. de Silva

PS -  just wait till the Tamil Tigers are brought to justice and when the Sri Lanka Govt. publishes its findings about covert work undertaken by NGOs, INGOs and all the other ‘humanitarians’ in the war torn parts of the country. We already know about how Anna Neistat (a self appointed guardian of the ‘TRUTH’) of HRW travelled to Sri Lanka on forged travel documents.

UN Security Council refuses to swallow LTTE propaganda pills

Sri Lanka News

12 May 2009
Top diplomats from Britain and France were rebuffed Monday (May 11), when UN Security Council members refused their request to discuss on the on-going hostage rescue operations in Sri Lanka, despite extensive and relentless LTTE propaganda efforts to spin tables in favour, expecting a breather for the internationally proscribed terrorist outfit now facing total defeat.

The council members that opposed taking up the issue were not named publicly.

Foreign Ministers David Miliband of Britain and Bernard Kouchner of France were also joined by Austria’s Michael Spindelegger, the Federal Minister for European and International Affairs, to protest inaction by the 15-nation council at UN headquarters in New York.

When asked which council members opposed their request, Miliband said, ‘We can only speak for ourselves. Others can speak for themselves.’

‘We are clear, this is an issue that the UN Security Council should address, it involves major civilian loss of lives and distress,’ Miliband said. ‘It does have ramifications for the region. We as European members of the UN Security Council, we believe that the issues belong here.’

As a rule and unless a crisis is already on the council’s agenda, a majority of nine council members have to approve a new issue be put on the agenda of discussion. Some council members have opposed discussion over matters they consider domestic matters.

China in the past opposed discussion of Myanmar’s political crisis and Russia opposed discussion of Chechnya, where armed opposition was fighting Russian troops for independence.

‘Thousands of Sri Lankans have already died in the past several months due to the conflict, and more still remain in grave danger,’ Ban said, adding that he was appalled at the killing.

‘The reckless disrespect shown by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for the safety of civilians has led to thousands of people remaining trapped in the area,’ Secretary General Ban said.