The international community Must Speak Up On Human Rights Situation in Sri Lanka
by Charulata Hogg
In the week of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, three media workers – a journalist, a publisher and his wife – will complete nine months in prison in Sri Lanka. The three are being held under the country's sweeping anti-terror laws, aimed at the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which has been fighting for an independent Tamil state for nearly three decades. They are the latest victims of the increasingly authoritarian government of President Mahinda Rajapakse.
A columnist for the island's Sunday Times, JS Tissainayagam is the first journalist to be charged under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) in its almost 30 years on the statute books. His crime? The government cites two articles in a July 2006 editorial in the North Eastern Monthly. One, under the headline, "Providing security to Tamils now will define northeastern politics of the future," says, "It is fairly obvious that the government is not going to offer them any protection. In fact it is the state security forces that are the main perpetrator of the killings."
[Journalist J.S. Tissainayagam (C) is escorted to High Court by prison officers in Colombo November 5, 2008, pic: Buddhika Weerasinghe, via Yahoo! News]
Passages such as this are classic free speech, yet Tissainayagam is currently on trial at the high court in Colombo. There have been many irregularities in the case, such as the refusal of the government to allow private consultations with his lawyer, which is the basic right of any detainee.
Tissainayagam is not the only critic of the government's military campaign, which started afresh in early 2006. Human Rights Watch and others have reported on the government's responsibility for enforced disappearances, targeted killings, detention of displaced persons, and unnecessary restrictions on humanitarian aid. The LTTE – progenitor of suicide bombings – has continued to target civilians, particularly moderate Tamils, place strict limits on basic freedoms in areas under its control, prevent civilians from fleeing combat areas, and forcibly recruit adults and children as soldiers.
In echoes of the discredited rhetoric of President Bush, in December 2006 President Rajapakse asked Sri Lankans to make a choice – either to be for the "war on terror" or against it. Since then, critics of the government have been threatened, attacked, disappeared, killed or jailed. The attacks have spread to foreign governments and international organisations who raise human rights concerns with Sri Lanka. The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, Sir John Holmes, UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the International Crisis Group, and the International Commission of Jurists have all been accused of essentially being in league with or dupes of the LTTE after criticising the government on rights.
These attacks are taking place in a country where a potent cocktail of ethnicity, language and, to a certain degree, religion have long polarised the majority Sihalese and minority Tamil populations. And while the Sri Lankan government certainly has a responsibility to fight terrorism and criminality, it must do so consistent with international human rights law.
Those in the LTTE responsible for horrific attacks like the 1996 bombing of the Central Bank building in Colombo and numerous other attacks targeting civilians before and after must be punished. But arbitrarily arresting and detaining journalists and others will not root out terrorism. On the contrary, acts like these will only succeed in alienating those who also oppose the LTTE's tactics.
Ironically, President Rajapakse was himself once a human rights activist. In the aftermath of a leftwing Sinhalese insurgency in the late-1980s he worked closely with an organisation to collect information for family members of the "disappeared." Tissainayagam worked on the report which Rajapakse took to the UN in Geneva, demanding action against those responsible. Today Rajapakse's government angrily denounces the UN and its mechanisms when they take the government to task.
Rajapakse makes two arguments to defend himself against critics: first, that the government is fighting terrorism, so critics must not be genuinely committed to fighting terror. Second, since he and his government were elected they have the legitimacy and right to pursue their policies. Neither of these points, of course, provides any excuse for jailing peaceful critics, engaging in forced disappearances, or denying access to the UN to provide humanitarian aid to hungry Tamils trapped in the fighting in the north. And if press freedom is a fundamental part of a functioning democracy, then the vibrancy of Sri Lanka's democracy must be questioned.
According to Reporters sans Frontieres, the media watchdog, Sri Lanka has slipped to 165 of 173 countries in its global ranking of press freedom for 2008 – below Zimbabwe and Sudan.
The Sri Lankan should simply release Tissainayagam, the publisher and his wife. It would be a fitting way to show that it remains a vibrant democracy. But this won't happen without sufficient pressure from Sri Lanka's friends in the UK, EU, US, Canada, Japan and India. They need to let President Rajapakse know – loud and clear – that they will not stand idly by while Sri Lanka's human rights record continues to deteriorate.
(This op - ed piece by Charulata Hogg of Human Rights Watch appeared in Guardian newspaper)
7 Comments
Why?
This Human Rights Label is just a political football by richer nations to meddle in the affairs of others. These so-called Human Rights Crusaders are just a bunch of Bleeding Heart Nobodies with nothing better to do with their times... If these Westerners care about Human Rights they should look at their own countries and lobby to level the playing field of the Finances and wealth they pillaged from us and then see who has the Human rights issues.
Mr. Fernando,
Do you have anything substantive to say about the facts laid out by Ms. Hogg ? When you abduct innocent people and make them disappear, when you jail journalists for nothing other than your own racism, the international community has an obligation to intervene.
Words like democracy and sovereignty are meaningless when a majority of the people of a country are either ignorant or racist, so much so that they continue to elect racists and murderers as presidents and prime ministers.
I look forward to the day the Rajapakses and their enablers in this murderous regime are indicted in international courts. I am glad to see that some efforts are being made by Bruce Fein, but you can bet that even when the war is over, all war criminals in the current government will be pursued, no matter where they hide.
*** Words like democracy and sovereignty are meaningless when a majority of the people of a country are either ignorant or racist, so much so that they continue to elect racists and murderers as presidents and prime ministers. ***
The TRUE IGNORANT RACISTS are the Tamil Diaspora who have been Force Fed Propaganda for decades. You people who rally round the LTTE cause while simultaneously looking the other way every time they have committed atrocities, especially towards Tamils themselves are what's wrong with Sri Lanka today. The overwhelming Support for our Government to Rid us of this Tamil Curse we call the LTTE is the Direct Backlash of 25 years of trying to reason and Negotiate with a unwavering Single Minded Murderous Terrorist. The only way to deal with Prabhakaran is in the Language he understands... War. He cannot be bartered with, nor reasoned with, nor compromised with,.... those who fail to see this Obvious Fact are the Truly Ignorant Fools. Namely you people!
Don't expect any sympathy from me or the overwhelming Majority of Sinhalese towards some Stupid Terrorist Support Tamils that disappear in the Night... when the LTTE was doing this to their own kind in Jaffna around 1985-87 none of you said or did anything. You all Shut up like cowards. Now once we step in to fix this problem you cry: "HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS" You make a mockery of yourself and your Ethnicity and then you sit around dumbfounded, scratching your skulls and wonder why no one has any sympathy for your grievances of yester-year?
*** Do you have anything substantive to say about the facts laid out by Ms. Hogg ? When you abduct innocent people and make them disappear, when you jail journalists for nothing other than your own racism, the international community has an obligation to intervene. ***
NO, THEY DON’T... The international Community has no right to intervene. Sri Lanka will deal with her internal problems by herself. These worthless International Busy-Bodies like Ms. Hogg is only reacting to a scratch on the surface of a much bigger issue. After the deaths of 70,000 or more people in this conflict of over 30 years a few LTTE Supporters and Financiers and Fiction Writing “Journalists” that get a little ‘Street Justice’ is a Non-Issue. Have you read any of Tissainayagam so-called Journalism? These so-called journalists MOCK decent society, they MOCK our laws and they exploit loopholes and they DESECRATE the very decorum and fabric of the country to further their political agenda. Human Rights? Don’t make me vomit. What about the Human Rights that are violated en-mass by his Treason and division? What about the Human Rights of the Men and women who have to Die to protect Sri Lanka from the backlash of his vilification of the government and the Sinhalese?
His Pen does far more damage to our country than an LTTE cadre who carries a gun.
Mr. Fernando,
Your deeply ingrained racism comes out clearly when you presume all people disappeared by your military forces have something to do with the LTTE. It begins with your presumption that some how you own Sri lanka and you can do anything, that people as individuals have no rights to live their lives free of abuse by racists like you.
How can anyone, not just Tamils, live in a society governed by leaders who are elected by people like you? People like you are now laying the groundwork for destroying your society in the name of fighting the LTTE.
There are plenty of us who are critics of the LTTE. The HRW itself has been a harsh critic of the LTTE. When it suits you, you have no hesitation in using their reports to vilify the LTTE and Tamils in general. But the fact that you are incapable of making a distinction between the LTTE, a non-state actor, and the GoSL, a government that seeks its place in the comity of nations, only proves what I said in my first post.
*** How can anyone, not just Tamils, live in a society governed by leaders who are elected by people like you? People like you are now laying the groundwork for destroying your society in the name of fighting the LTTE. ***
Yes, I will be the first to agree that it is a dangerous slope we are heading on, but we have tried the other method of negotiating with RUTHLESS TERORRISTS that have absolutely no level of civility or humanity.
For 25 years we have tried to make peace with the LTTE, but they are a WIN AT ANY COST force, they will Not Stop, they will not hesitate and there is nothing they will NOT do to obtain their goals... They are using our very own Society’s rules and freedoms to undermine and destroy us. These Terrorists are Mocking our Society, they have no intention of making peace, they have Openly Said that there is No Co-existence with the Sinhalese. Tamil Eelam is the ONLY goal, so what is it exactly you Sympathizers want the rest of us to do???
After 25 years of being played the Fool by these TERRORISTS the Sri Lankan (especially the Sinhalese) population has had enough. We are willing to Tolerate our Government using the SAME TACTICS as the LTTE to rid us of this Vile Cancer. This is a Fight to the Death. We are in this for the survival of a Country and more of our citizens are WAKING UP to realize this. Our Country is Undergoing a Purging. We are cleansing our Ranks of those who seek to do our country harm. Good Riddance to all those who have contempt for our country.
Tamils especially better embrace a National identity just like the Sinhalese and Muslims and other Ethnic groups of Sri Lanka do… If you don't like it, Leave... That is all I can say.
Devinda, Stop claiming to act/talk on behalf of the Sinhalease.
When thr LTTE terrorists bombed and killed civilians in the South, no one made us starve here and/or for that matter Sinhalease and/or Sri lankans in the South weren't forced into an economic blockade; the South suffers only due to the 'patriotically' corrupt Sinhala politicians - not due to the innocent Tamils in in the North or who live here.
We didnt do this when we were fighting the JVP, but why do it to Tamils this way? Is it only because they are Tamils?