I’ve been reading the heated debeat with much interest and much emotion, as others have been. I’ve learned a lot from hearing the different (often highly polarised opinions). The problem is when we cannot appreciate the shades of grey.

Yes, Sri Lanka has human rights issues and this should not go unchecked.

Sri Lanka here means the Government and the LTTE – I agree with comments that the government should have more responsibity to uphold these rights, being democratically elected. In the same vain, the AI campaign will have an effect on the government and sucess of the country as unified nation, rather than have an effect on the the LTTE and it’s clearly stated aim of a seperate nation – after all the LTTE doesn’t seem to have had a history of responding to any public condmenation whether it be from AI or otherwise.

(a link to a very recent and enlightening documentatry by Al Jazeera about the LTTE’s operations in the UK and the plight of their supporters http://www.tamilaffairs.com/node/57
http://www.tamilaffairs.com/node/57 )

AI has a role to try and protect the human rights of all citizens of the world – i don’t have issue with this.

Protests agains poor human rights records may be one facet of this role.

However their method of this education can have a huge impact on the people involved, the countries involved and the world at large. They have have great potential of being positive and promoting peace and harmony, in the process of illustrating issues that need to be addressed by all parties. Alternatively they can blame and great a feeling of animosity amongst people who have a lot of goodwill.

I think the recent AI campaign has chosen the latter option.

In answer to Sam’s good question …

Sam said “Out of curiosity, are there any suggestions on what Amnesty should have done? ie. suggestions of a campaign that Amnesty could have implemented to raise the profile of the SL situation? ”

Amnesty could have had a more articulated campaign which highlighted how that within Sri Lanka’s international cricket team there is at least one Sinhala Buddhist, Sinhala Catholic, Catholic Tamil, Hindu Tamil and a Muslim – these talented Sri Lanka men are working together as a Team. Let this represent the posibilities for Sri Lanka as a nation – the violence in Sri Lanka should stop so all can live peacefully.

Any thoughts

Bishan

Whats worse than a poor human rights record is the impression that the government doesn’t even acknowledge it, when it is so obvious.

Are we to expect aparthied type embargoes and restrictions soon?

I recall, once in Australia, the newly appointed foreign minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar got stuck into Shane Warne for expressing apprehension about going on tour to Sri Lanka just after a bomb had exploded in Colombo. Kadirgamar appeared desperate to prove to the austrlian public/or cricketers that it was safe, by offering to stay with them in the hotel.

I recall thinking at that time, the crudeness, immaturity and lack of diplomacy in the foreign minister’s comments. I remember hearing Kadirgamar’s voice over the radio telling a bemused reporter that Shane Warne was a “Sissy”. Probably thought he was at a Royal-Thomian match

Maybe if Sri Lanka wins the cup, we will be able to find out what they think, once the dust settles down.

Would that not affect Aiyo’s cause? You would desperately want the government be forced to stop the war (that they are so obviously winning) and you need help from these NGOs and civil society activists for that.

Maybe if Aiyo stopped hanging around Batticaloa bars he/she might meet the real cricket fans, who are at home with their families listening on the radio, not hanging out in bars. The WC matches are on after dark, and it’s unlikely the ordinary Batticaloa citizen is out drinking at night, unlike the staffers from the NGOs.

Take it that he / she hasn’t heard of Zimbabwe.

Before commenting on the campaign, it might have been helpful if your commentators had piled into a van and wandered across to the East to see what people here think of the campaign. I would guess from my informal and unscientific poll here in Batticaloa, our visiting commentators would discover a pretty heavy majority here in favour of the campaign. Amnesty are aware of that too, but let’s look at some of the arguments so far.

Argument 1 : Why choose us, when there are so many other rights abusers who could have been targeted as well/instead?

Come on. Amnesty have a strong record of taking on human rights abusers wherever they are. Just have a look at their website. At the moment Sri Lanka just happens to be about top of the grim charts at the moment for extra-judicial killings, abductions and general roughing up of ordinary decent folk. At least a thousand in the last year, we’re told, out of a population of 20 million. I don’t think any of the other cricketing nations can compete with those bloody statistics

Argument 2 – Cricket is a game that unites the country, so the campaign undermines a positive force.

Hogwash. Anyone who’s knocked around Muslim and Tamil ares of the North and east knows local support lies elsewhere. The few public TV sets in Batticaloa, mainly in bars, seldom attract more than a handful of watchers. Other films and teledramas have a higher audience. The only people I’ve heard discuss the topic after a Sri Lanka match in Batticaloa are the security forces. It’s just not an issue here, otherwise. However the World Cup does have one benefit: there is a marked drop in the Government abuse of civilians through their artillery barrages from positions within residential communities during Sri Lanka matches. So it’s not ‘our cricket,’ Sajana; it’s yours.

Argument 3: The campaign detracts from the work of Sri lankan human rights activits.

I’m not sure what to answer here since we don’t see any such cricket activists in Batticaloa and we’re not really sure what you’re up to elsewhere. The activists who work on such issues in Batticaloa do not appear in electronic print media and have a scant regard for cricket, in my experience. I can’t think of many who even own a TV set.

Argument 4: Don’t compare Sri Lanka with South Africa. The team is not a product of the system here, whereas it was in South Africa.

Oh this one must please the Government, whose Sports Minister has to approve the composition of teams. On top of that the ruling dons of Sri Lankan cricket for the last several years have very often had political connections. And that political control of the sport filters down to the ground reality where Tamils, and often Muslims, in the North and East have sporting facilities and opportunities little different from those on offer to black and coloureds in South Africa during the apartheid era. Oh do please come out here and see for yourself.

So, all in all, Amnesty is doing a pretty good job. They have stirred up a froth amongst a wide spectrum of people in Sri Lanka who could do well to examine their positions. The only people who aren’t frothing over the issue are the very people whose plight Amnesty seeks to alleviate. Now isn’t that strange?

Well said. What was AI thinking? Or not.

Why don’t you answer your own question? You said “but I am not convinced that the World Cup isn’t a useful platform for outing a country’s human rights record.”

In my attempt to make sense of all this, with my limited knowledge and experience, I am beginning to form this view: despite Amnesty’s campaign, if Sri lanka wins the cup….the cricketers would be winners, the fans will be elated, but the politicians will not be able to bask in the reflected glory of this win as freely as they would have liked. But we know that this outcome cannot be guaranteed, and it appears that Amnesty is willing to pay the price of the backlash and scapgoating that will result from the loss in the world cup by Sri Lanka.

I am also inclined to think in all this… the only credible analyses of the successes or failures of this campaign would be those made with the wisdom of hindsight in a less charged atmosphere where cricket is considered to be an entertaining sport, not the opium of the masses.

Lets all hope that Sri Lanka wins the world cup. There appears to be more than a game that is at stake here.

What is hard to understand is AI’s focus on SL, and not on Zimbabwe, which is at least equal to SL in its HR record.. Is it because the latter is already out of the tournament? If so, then AI is, in fact, targetinng SL’s cricket.