Engineering ethics, Sampoor power and civilian trauma
by Rajan Hoole
When we passed out as engineers in the early 1970s, it had been impressed upon us that an engineer was not only a decision maker, but also fully responsible to the community at large for his actions. Those of us at Peradeniya were confident that our faculty gave us the best possible training in the world and we would do her proud in anywhere we served. At the Engineering Students’ Union we were able to discuss communally divisive issues, like language-wise standardisation, amicably. I remember many of my Sinhalese colleagues while agreeing that this was wrong, held that genuine social handicaps should be redressed. We had good reason to be proud as a group.
Bombed and shelled out
On installing a coal power plant on land from which the people of Sampoor were bombed and shelled out in August 2006, your journal quotes a CEB official evading the humanitarian issue by treating it a fait accompli - the Government declaring it a High Security Zone with the people’s access barred. This is a shoddy means of exonerating CEB engineers from complicity in a crime against humanity. A range of international covenants, statutes and advisories make this clear. Article 4 of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights says ‘deportation or forcible transfer of population without grounds permitted under international law, in the form of forced displacement by expulsion or other coercive means from the area in which the persons concerned are lawfully present, constitutes a crime against humanity’.
Codes of ethics for engineers make their duty clear. The code of L’Ordre des ing‚nieurs du Qu‚bec (OIQ) puts it succinctly: “In all aspects of his work, the engineer must respect his obligations towards man and take into account the consequences of the performance of his work on the environment and on the life, health and property of every person.” The CEB’s discovery that that Sampoor is the most feasible spot for coal power was not based on any objective evaluation. Less than a month after capturing Sampoor, the Power and Energy Ministry simply announced that at the request of the Army and Navy commanders, the location of the power plant has been switched from China Bay, a predominantly Sinhalese area, to Sampoor (Daily Mirror 3 Oct.2006).
Illegal pretext
Under the cover of war, the HSZ is being used as an illegal pretext to tamper with the area flouting accepted procedures that include parliamentary approval, environmental impact assessment, proper alienation of land and compensation. The Defence Ministry is far exceeding its authority and competence in shoving people around and making permanent changes to their lives and environment. A plan drawn up in 2004 designated the area for eco tourism, now arbitrarily thrown out by military fiat.
In the case of the Norochcholai coal power plant, after the first feasibility study in 1997, the CEB had to go through a long phase of negotiation with the people concerned. In letters to the two presidential candidates on the eve of the 2005 presidential election, the CEB Engineers Union argued that the land had low fertility, only 73 families would be displaced and no more than 258 acres are required.
A compensation package was also discussed. Had instead the Government declared an HSZ in Norochcholai, would the CEB have regarded its obligation to the people and environment annulled?
In Sampoor 16 000 people were shelled out from a very fertile area, killing 350 persons, to grab 700 acres for a power plant. It was so simple. They were Tamils!
The authorities kept changing their story even as the people were chased by shelling. Soon after the capture of Sampoor in early September 2006, military spokesman Brigadier Samarasinghe indicating the people could return, said: ‘the threat posed by the LTTE to the Trincomalee harbour and the adjoining naval base was no more following the successful operation involving the three forces.’ The President affirmed that the Government took Sampoor ‘purely for the benefit of the people’. The present military spokesman Brigadier Nanayakkara now ascertains the civilians cannot be allowed back because the LTTE would infiltrate and threaten high security installations like Trincomalee Harbour and Prima Flour Mills!
Here we have in a nutshell the cyclic rationale for the development of Trincomalee: Plant some installation, push the Tamils out for security reasons, use the space for more installations, push remaining Tamils further for the same reason and so on. There are really no plans to defeat the LTTE, when it is so handy a pretext for decimating the Tamils and pushing them around for bogus security reasons. Bogus, because until 1996 the Army was in Sampoor and under Colonel Udayakumara, relations with civilians were good and the Army helped them to farm. The place was considered so unimportant that the Army vacated it.
Such were ‘development’ plans from the early 1980s, to implement which hundreds of Tamils were killed by the Army and scores of Tamil villages in Trincomalee laid waste. Engineers in the Mahaveli Authority became part of the scheme. Mahaveli System L was planted in ‘Weli Oya’ on murder and expulsion. This was also the time the LTTE began massacring Sinhalese civilians. Far from development, what resulted was a war that has lasted a generation and this Government cannot survive without it.
Human and engineering disaster
The Accelerated Mahaveli Project was a human and engineering disaster. The project billed for rupees 55 billion in the early 1980s, enflamed a war costing annually rupees 200 billion. Development of Trincomalee is a must, but not under the bloody legacy of today’s Unitary Sinhalese State. It should be done after a federal political settlement where the people affected are adequately consulted.
Engineers have a irrevocable obligation to the ‘public good’, which the Institution of Civil Engineers UK stipulates “encompasses care and respect for the environment, and for humanity’s cultural, historical and archaeological heritage, as well as the primary responsibility members have to protect the health and well being of present and future generations.” What is going on is a plan to obliterate the heritage of Tamils in and around Trincomalee. Engineers should not bring their profession into disrepute through complicity with, what at the core, amounts to creeping genocide.
(Rajan Hoole is a Martin Ennals award winning rights activist)
12 Comments
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Development of Trincomalee is a must, but not under the bloody legacy of today’s Unitary Sinhalese State.
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Trinco will be developed by the Eastern Tamils.
We Tamils knew about the secret agenda of the Sinhalese for the last 50 years, not only they want to become the majority in the Tamil dominant Northeast by colonization, also they want to enjoy the best part of it. What to do we are helpless, because of LTTE the war also spoiled and the Ltte made the Indians also enemy to Tamils.
Very Good Article. Thank You
I agree with well learned professor that the accelarated mahaveli is a total faliure but the fact that why the Undp approved this project and finnaced it,knowingly as it is not feascible. There are many ways of colonising countries, this is known as ecnomic colonisation for their advantage, solving unemplyment of their own in the devolping countries burden them financially for the rest of our lives. All who came to these projects came with their own experties and took the money back to their own countries leaving the machinery with a huge bill to the government for maintenance repairs with all links attached to be paid with interest for the next generation.
The sinhala people who lost lands have to be evacuated to places as they did not get lands in hill country as late Mr. Thondaman did not want any sinhala settlements bordering tamil estates.Tamils must learen to share with others this land belongs to everyone sinhala tamils and muslims none can claim as traditional homelands.I have worked with Mahaveli project and also surveyed the entire eastern province the remnenents of Buddhist civilisation is seen in every square mile surveyed with tamils try to distort with their false properganda.
I am surprised Rajan Hoole has not mentioned anything India's position in the above exercise of ethnic cleansing.
Rajan Hoole is the most qualified and suitable person to approach India with facts and figures and explain them the above exercise is completely unacceptable.
Would RH suggest an alternative site?
Excellent article by Rajan Hoole.
Rajan Hoole: "Here we have in a nutshell the cyclic rationale for the development of Trincomalee: Plant some installation, push the Tamils out for security reasons, use the space for more installations, push remaining Tamils further for the same reason and so on. There are really no plans to defeat the LTTE, when it is so handy a pretext for decimating the Tamils and pushing them around for bogus security reasons."
That is, LTTE or no LTTE the plan of the Sinhala Buddhist hegemonic agenda is to ultimately eliminate the Tamils. At this time supposedly defeating the LTTE is only a pretext for implementing this agenda. If the LTTE did not exist then another pretext would be manufactured.
This Sinhala Buddhist hegemonic agenda is what more people should wake up to.
Dr KC says "That is, LTTE or no LTTE the plan of the Sinhala Buddhist hegemonic agenda is to ultimately eliminate the Tamils"
What about the Tamil Hindu hegemonic agenda to create a Tamil-only separate state covering 30% of the land area and 60% of the coastline? Already all the Sinhalese and Muslims have been ethnically cleansed from the North. It goes both ways doesn't it?
Sam is worried about a possible Tamil Hindu hegemony - well it hasn't happened yet and if and when the area does become separate we will have to see what happens; whether it will be a Tamil Hindu hegemony along the lines of a Sinhala Buddhist hegemonic agenda or not. Time will tell.
30% of the land and 60% of the coastline of the island of Lanka! So what?
There are some countries that have no coastline at all and some countries are more densely populated than others - how is that to be "equalised"?
The point is that that land/coast area is the traditional area inhabited by the Tamils (the %s land and coastline are a matter of fact).
The argument that Sam is trying to put up stems from the FALSE idea that ALL of the island of Lanka is Sinhala Buddhist and that the Tamils are not only trying to take a piece out of it, but also an unfair piece.
My dear learned Professor,
I would have to remind you,you have convinently avoided from blaming the action of the L.T.T.E.I think Sampoor which received less prominence until the L.T.T.E. attacked the NavyBase using long range Artilary from positions inside Sampoor.
The Security Authorities became suddenly alived to this fact,and decided to secure Sampoor at any cost.Thus the Coal power project came handy to them.
I am a thamil of Indian origin and a virulent critic of the Jaffna Thamils and their admirer as well.I work for a utility organisation and have served in Trincomalee in the ninetees.
I came across a file regarding the proposed Coal Power Plant,which was originally to be based in Chinabay.I think this propoposal was terminated due to prevailling security situation at that time.
unlike the original proposal this proposal is the "Brainchild" of India.
Yes,India wants a foothold (rather strongly) in Srilanka and Trincomalee is the best location!The Sinhalese do not want to give away Trincomalee to the Thamils at any cost.
Though I am not a professional Engineer,my bosses are all professionaly qualifies Engineers.The Engineering Ethics your goodself mentioned is a thing of the past in Srilanka.
In my School days I have heard my Teachers mentioning that the Indian degress were so low in Standards.Many Thamil Engineers including the recently passed out,mention that the Peradeniya Engineering degree is one of the best and of high acadamic standards in the world.
Then I had been and is being even now wondering,If Indian Engineering degrees are of very low standards then how were they able to achieve so much in Engineering?
Finaly I would like to remind you sir,the government Machinary in Trincomalee has been replaced to a great extent by the Muslim graduates and to a lesser amount by the Sinhalese.The Thamils are becoming a minority.
Whether L.T.T.E can fully wrest control of Trincomalee I cannot say.
Afterall this is absolutely no concern for the Thamil diaspora,since their are firmly established in the Europe,and their second generation have no Idea of returning to their parential motherland.
Dear professor,
According to "UN OCHA Situation Report:: North and East
Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Mannar, Vavuniya, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampara districts Situation Report # 129", the no. of people displaced in Trincomalee district are 5,971. But you mention,"In Sampoor 16 000 people were shelled out from a very fertile area",which imply to the ordinary reader that the land of 16000 people are forcibly taken to build a power plant. Obviously most of the initially displaced people must have returned by now.
This has been what the Tamil intellectuals has always been doing with much higher intensity than you (I know you are a moderate Sir).They always exaggerated things and analysed every action by the central government as racist driven and aimed at harming Tamils. So we should not be surprised that Tamil youth are so racist, since their educated elders are not less racist and they are not taught to look at the broader picture.
This by no means justify the 'the unlawful grabbing' of land if there any. The people who are going to be displaced must be given adequate compensation to start a better life. It's true that the emotional attachments to their villages cannot be compensated. But every citizen will have to make few sacrifices for the betterment of the country and their future generations.
It is natural that some untoward elements/groups try to take the advantage of the people who are displaced. This happened in Norochcholai & will happen in Sampoor.
Another ironic thing is that the socalled 'racist' JVP has gone to court against 'giving Sampoor land to India by ignoring the patriotic people of Sampoor who denied the LTTE's call to stay back and left the area when the Army marched in'. So there's a case in the court. But Tamil media has ignored this sinceit does not fit in to their master's agenda.
Onthe other hand there's a Tamil chief minister in the East who has the power to intervene/pressurize to obtain a win win solution for the IDPs & the CEB, keeping LTTE and it's servants away.
My dear learned Prefessor,
Men of your cabibre are born ,created by god.But unfortunately the L.T.T.E. objected to your appointment to the chair of Vice Chancellor University of Jaffna.I think they considered you as an "Ettappan".
Like the saying goes "A Prophet is not honoured by his own people".
Say by chance you are offered the post of Deen, faculity of Engineering,University of Ruhuna...and you accept.Intially there will be some rumbling saying that you belong to the "Two legged striped kind"
but once you get on you will be a sort after person within the University of Ruhuna and outside.Believe me...this is no fiction.
This is one side of the Sinhala Buddhists! They are not going to "dissect" you like we Thamils do that so and so belongs to which caste,his baground etc.
Coming to Engineering Ethics in Srilanka, simply forget it.
In Srilankan state organisations Engineers carryout what the politicians dictate!
The government is hell bent on building the Sampoor Coal Power Plant,unless the L.T.T.E. is successfull in driving away the Forces from Sampoor.
The Project is carried out as per the Indian Agenda.While the I.P.K.F. got an hammering during their stay here and did an unceromonial exit.But the I.P.K.F. left Srilanka only Physically.India has come to stay here permenantly.
Like the Cheap Indian degrees as often mentioned by Jaffna Thamil public, teachers, and accadamics,India remained relatively underdeveloped,unsophisticated when the I.P.K.F. arrived here.But today India is considered an advanced state.And you are very well aware of it more than us.
India has mastered the art of how to tackle Srilanka,through "remote control"Further India is ruled by North Indians.The South block beauracrazy is full of NorthIndians and Keralites the arch rivals of the Thamils.
Sir,can you tell us whether there is one "Marath Thamilan"holding a higher position in the Southblock?
Thamils play only second fiddle as usual.
You mentioned about the Mahaveli project.I do not fully accept your views that it was a total failure. Whan I was a student at Mahajana College Tellippalai,which is now "Imprsoned" whithin the high security zone...
We were told I think in 1981,that during the final stage of the Mahaweli development programme Mahaveli water will flow into Killinochi!
Finally my request Yourself a recognised person ,please use your influence to bring pressure to the Srilankan government...that those evacuated from Sampoor,to be compensated reasonabley before the commencement of the Project.You should meet if possible the Indian Ambassador to the United states.
I am sure your voice will be heard.
Please provide your knowledge and skill to uplift the Engineering education to the lesser fortunate humans like the Plantation Thamils,the Eastern Thamils in Srilanka and in the impoverished African states.
You will be remembered as a Messiah as an Anjel.
"Engineers should not bring their profession into disrepute through complicity with, what at the core, amounts to creeping genocide." Well said indeed!
But, surely it is now time to work for the division of the island without further ado, in a strongly united manner as possible. It would be enormously prudent for all of us to work under a stronger national objective and with a stronger force that would make Sinhala Political Establishment, that hasn't yet worked out as to why the country is burning, sit up and listen!!!