HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Human Rights Watch (HRW) was founded in 1988 but its origins
date to a seminal event in Cold War history, the Conference on
Security and Cooperation in Europe which was held in 'neutral'
Helsinki, Finland in July/August 1975. The Soviets went along
with it because the Helsinki Accords, as the final agreement of
this star-studded conference was popularly known, recognized contemporary
national borders as being set and inviolable, thereby confirming
Soviet suzerainty in Eastern Europe. The Americans and their European
allies, for their part, pressed by a nervous West Germany, were
happy to see a ratcheting down of tensions in Europe.
No sooner had the ink dried, the CIA, the KGB, and allied masters
of the dark arts started undermining the pact. The 'civil rights'
portion of the agreement, which the Soviets had agreed to with
great reluctance, was soon being used by the West as a cat's paw
to undermine Soviet power, especially in Eastern Europe. The Moscow
Helsinki Watch Group spawned 'human rights' groups in Eastern
European capitals. Typically, Western countries pronounced themselves
quite beyond the need of such patronizing supervision.
Human Rights Watch descended directly from these NGOs that poked
about in the Soviet Union's nether regions. Its New York base
probably reflects its old CIA affiliations. Be that as it may,
HRW has done stellar work around the world during the last 20
years in calling out when groups violate 'human rights' (as it
defines them). And there's the rub; human rights for people with
Judaeo-Christian sensibilities are not necessarily the same as
those of people with other backgrounds. The right to life itself
surely overrides more pedestrian rights like the right to free
expression, for free movement, etc. but HRW often forgets that.
And 'Western' causes get a relatively free ride; the weak protests
of HRW during Israeli outrages against the Palestinian people
contrast starkly with its vehemence against Sri Lanka.
Moreover, an overly dogmatic approach based on Western realities
and concerns distorts the focus of the organization and hinders
its understanding of local conflicts. HRW often makes the mistake
of simplistically equating the aggressor and the victim. Both
are put on the dock and condemned with equal vehemence. For example,
Sri Lanka's democratically elected government is fighting a vicious
terrorist movement that has killed thousands and employs suicide
bombers and child soldiers but HRW confers a moral equivalency
to the two.
The record of HRW in the Sri Lanka war against terror is mixed.
Sri Lanka appreciated the expose on Tamil Tiger thuggery against
Sri Lankan Tamils in Toronto ('Funding the Final War: LTTE Intimidation
and Extortion in the Tamil Diaspora', the so-called Jo Becker
Report); this gave the necessary political cover to the Stephen
Harper government in Canada to ban the Tamil Tigers' fundraising
--- a body blow directed at international criminality and possibly
a key event in turning the tide against the Tigers.
And it has justifiably pointed out the small number of violations
of the law in Sri Lanka perpetrated by Sri Lankan security forces.
However, its recent participation in a concerted campaign charging
Sri Lanka with 'genocide', clearly inspired by last-ditch Tiger
attempts to save its leadership from annihilation and therefore
clearly bogus, raised many eyebrows. One wonders whether it was
a miscalculation, in an attempt to raise funds on the back of
the Sri Lanka's war on terror, or just plain naivety. Further,
HRW seems very reluctant to point out LTTE perpetration of atrocities
but will pounce on Sri Lanka on trivial grounds. This website
chronicles the track record of HRW in the Sri Lankan context.
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