Archive for the ‘Human Rights’

Peace professionals and War professionals

By Rajan Philips There has been a spate of writings on the political economy of war, particularly relating to the war on terror that President Bush has imposed on the world as the primary concern of humankind in our time. Sumanasiri Liyanage, Peradeniya academic and commentator, has recently written about the political economy of peace in the Sri Lankan context. In particular, he has drawn attention to what he calls the emergence of “peace professionals” and their allegedly “rent-seeking operations” in the peace process. Rent-seeking in economic theory simply means making money without producing anything, and is treated as different from the positive economic practices of profit-seeking and wage-earning. There is also another term, called profiteering which is to make unreasonable profits and often in unconscionable situations such as war. Sri Lankans have grown familiar to war-profiteering over the last two decades, and accusations of war-profiteering are among the main criticisms of Bush Administration’s war in Iraq. In my view,…

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Hypocrisy defined: Mahinda Chintanaya and Ranil in the 90’s and today

I am variously labeled in the media and was most recently called a traitor. Not the first time I’ve heard it and won’t be the last, but this time, it was because it was noted by some in the State media that those who made representations at the UN’s Human Rights Council in March were engaged in a vast, NGO driven conspiracy to tarnish the good name of the Government and the Sri Lankan State. I go back to 1990, and an interview with Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was then the Secretary of a Parliamentary Committee on Fundamental and Human Rights, followed by the response of the self-proclaimed doyen of human rights today, Ranil Wickremesinghe. After going back to these statements of the two the highest public officials in the country today, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Mahinda’s pro-NGO stance in the 90′s and Ranil’s negation of human rights are an interesting foil to judge what they say…

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Conspiracy Theories

Regrettably, the continuing tragedy of violent conflict in Sri Lanka is further compounded by the increasing emergence of all manner of conspiracy theories. Because of their risqué sensationalism with scant regard for verifiable facts and a marked disdain for accountability, those who promote such conspiracy theories are out to get media attention and through it, further a parochial agenda that otherwise, in their perception, lacks the gravitas to command public attention and support. The most recent cause célèbre are allegations of a secret deal between the President and the LTTE during the Presidential Elections in 2005 that guaranteed through nefarious means Mahinda Rajapaksa’s ascendancy to power. There have also been conspiracy theories regarding the recent spate of abductions and disappearances of citizens, particular in the East but also in Colombo. Mysterious armed groups equipped with Houdini techniques to escape detection and maligned forces out to tarnish the good name of the government have been blamed. We do not know much…

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Another neglected neighbour

Several stories related to the conflict in Sri Lanka remain untold by the Indian media, including the situation of the embattled media in Sri Lanka. Ammu Joseph The renewed conflict in Sri Lanka has been making some news in India over the past few months – though not quite as much as the continuing violence in Iraq, despite the proximity, as well as the historical and cultural connections, which render the former particularly significant for this country. However, the scanty and sporadic reports on the Sri Lankan conflict in the Indian media remain largely event-based, with little depth and even less analysis, as Sri Lankan journalist Dilrukshi Handunnetti, Editor-Investigations and Political Correspondent of The Sunday Leader, Colombo, pointed out recently. Her brief presentation at the recent 5th Annual Meeting of the Network of Media, India in Bangalore was based on an informal, ad hoc survey by three journalists of Indian print and television media from 2000 to 2006. Their review…

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Falling from grace: On Sripathi’s demise and using terror against terror

Photo credit: Lanka Truth It’s unreasonable to even for a moment believe that the recent arrest of Former Port Development Minister Sripathi Sooriyarachchi was not politically motivated to a large extent. As one blog on anti-corruption in Sri Lanka notes, Sripathi’s arrest raises valid questions as to why arrests have not been made regarding the gross misuse and misappropriation of public money and property by other high ranking officials in power. In my article, I suggest that what is more disturbing and quite frankly frightening, quite aside from the allegations and conspiracy theories parried about by Sripathi and Mangala of late, is the government’s sophisticated media and political machinery that quashes, violently if need be, any dissent to its avowed course of action. We see evidence of this machinery in the public villification of pro-peace and human rights activists, media freedom activists and most recently, in the case of Munusami Parameshwaree, that clearly brought out this Government’s insidious manipulation of…

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Media, Terrorism and Subterfuge: Where is Sri Lanka’s Zola?

Mr. President, this is a blot against your name! It’s not Mahinda Rajapaksa I refer to when I begin my article with these words, but Félix Faure, the President of France at the time of the infamous Dreyfus Affair, involving the wrongful conviction for treason of a young French artillery officer, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, and the political and judicial scandal that followed until his full rehabilitation. I begin my article with a lone voice of reason and truth, Émile Zola, who stood up in support of Alfred Dreyfuss. In an open letter to President Faure, Zola said that the haunted vision of a man wrongfully accused troubled him at night and compelled him to stand up for truth and justice. In doing so, Zola inspired writers and thinkers ever since to stand up for what is right. For the truth. And for justice. My article goes on to explore the recent events in Sri Lanka in which media personnel were…

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Asylum Seeking Downunder…

The 82 Sri Lankan asylum seekers are making news in Australia. They haven’t been sent to Indonesia to be ‘processed’ and it’s unlikely they’ll be handed back to the Sri Lankan Government. But they have been moved to Nauru for processing. In the past, Nauru has been used to process other asylum seekers who have attempted to arrive in Australia through unofficial channels. The tactic, known as the Pacific Solution, aims at keeping asylum seekers to Australia offshore, in a isolated island that’s difficult for refugee advocates to access, and out of sight from the media spotlight. The detention centre in Nauru is funded by Australia, costing taxpayers millions of dollars per year. BUT that’s a whole other issue. Though one may be able to argue whether they left Sri Lanka because their lives were in danger – I think there’s little doubt that if you are young, and of Tamil origin, and living in the North or East, then…

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Theeban’s murder: An epitaph in Sinhala

In my recent contribution in Sinhala to Mawbima, I explore the murder of Thillainayagam Theeban as first reported by Nalaka Gunawardene in this forum. An interesting footnote is that not a single one of the 3 Police Stations or 7 Policemen I spoke to in order to find out more information about Theeban was aware of any developments in the hunt for his killers. Sadly, he is just another number for them – and the numbers just keep piling up in Sri Lanka. I also translate into Sinhala a particularly important excerpt from the recent UTHR(J) Information Bulletin No. 44, “The Race for Infamy in Sri Lanka’s North-East“. Read the full article here. Repost This Article

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Significant Other

I read the Daily News cause it’s in the office in the morning. The headline is generally ‘EVERYTHING IS FINE’, but there are some new additions. Lately the paper and Mahinda have been going on and on about a ‘plot to discredit the government’ and a media ‘conspiracy’ to demoralize the armed forces. On the front page of yesterdays paper there’s a hysterical Bandula Jayasekera piece called ‘Go tell it to the LTTE’ accusing everyone who speaks up about human rights and disappearances of supporting the LTTE for money. How one gets paid for this I don’t know, but war hysteria is leading to a short-sighted ‘with us or against us’ mentality that slanders many moderate citizens and the stated positions of GoSL to boot. It is actually possible to report and speak out about disappearances, abductions and human rights abuses without supporting the LTTE. Crazy, I know. It’s what Mahinda did during the Premadasa years, to similar abuse. When…

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Security Forces North & East Operations

Civilians are returning to government-controlled areas on a mass scale and are fleeing LTTE territory, while the main goal of the government is to wipe out LTTE from the eastern area. This is because the east was a stronghold of the LTTE and V. Prabhakaran’s dream was to make Trincomalee the capital of Eelam. Artillery fire power has now been divided into three sectors to target the LTTE in Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampara. Artillery fire is being accurately positioned using mathematical systems to target LTTE camps. This is being done by commandoes and special forces who have infiltrated LTTE areas and are communicating with gunnery points to give accurate targets of LTTE camp locations. Despite LTTE artillery retaliation, LTTE cadres are fleeing camps and going further interior into the jungle. Specialized jungle warfare special commandoes and infantry troops are hunting them down one by one. Tigers fled the Trinco Peraru Camps and LTTE cadres are fleeing to the Welioya region….

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Like Slaves In Jaffna

I feel like security forces treat us like slaves, one Jaffna journalist said. Some roads are banned in Jaffna for public transport, only people living in that area can use that road. Last week a journalist went through one of the roads which is banned for public usage. The troops said you can’t go this way. The journalist replied that he wanted to go to that garage and pointed to a garage 50 meters away from the junction. “Mr, who are the rulers are we or you,” the soldiers replied angrily. The Journalist went back home. Next day the same journalist was on temple road and met his friend who is attached to the UN. The friend stopped his vehicle, while the journalist also parked his bike and started chatting with his friend. An Army man came and asked who’s bike is this. The journalist replied that it was his. The soldier told the journalist to take the bike. The…

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Ravaya, the LTTE and the Keheliya Chintanaya

Amidst shackles – Notes of a citizen journalist My article, in Sinhala, explores the allegations made against Ravaya, The Nation and the Mawbima newspapers recently that they were supporting the LTTE. I consider this a serious and dangerous allegation, and my article explores the fallout for journalists as a result. I go on to explore the new Rambukwella Chintanaya. As noted in a recent Free Media Movement Press Release (The Freedom of the Wild Ass vs. Media Freedom in Sri Lanka) Keheliya Rambukwella in a recent television interview brought up the example of Israel as a paragon of media freedom and a state in which the media was fully supportive of all its military offensives. I explore this dramatic new chintanaya in a critical light. The full article available here. Repost This Article

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TOLERATING THE INTOLERABLE: AN EPILOGUE TO UVINDU

Uvindu Kurukulasuriya’s inaugural piece in Groundviews is an aptly Niemölleresque exhortation to greater civic responsibility in the defence of political freedom, civil liberties and the Rule of Law. It comes at a time when Sri Lanka is once again returning to a ‘Bheeshana Yugaya’, the previous experiences of which should have toughened the resolve of Sri Lankans to never allow a repeat. It appears, however, that rather than resistance, that experience has inured Sri Lankans to serial abuse much like a tragic case of battered wife syndrome. I would like to offer some further parallels in addition to the historical ones that Uvindu mentions in his article. In September 1930, Hitler was called to testify at a trial of three army officers accused of high treason for infiltrating the army with Nazi propaganda. He stated: “The national-socialist movement will try to attain its aims in this State by constitutional means. The constitution only prescribes the methods but not the goal….

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White Vans, Disappearances And Abductions

Lets talk about white vans, disappearances and abductions. How much do people who don’t speak in Tamil know about these subjects, and conversely how much do people who speak in Tamil know about these things? I will get to these odd questions in a bit. Being a Colombo-based Sinhalese person, I found the occasional reference to white vans, in the last year or so, curious but I didn’t come across a clear description of what it was in the media. The media and people I talk to are my only sources of news about the world. My best guess and reaction was “ah, the van was used in an abduction! I wonder why the vehicle was a white van. Don’t people get abducted in blue vans?” Why am I describing my naivety in detail? It is to convey a sense of the information barriers and the separate information zones that we live in. Some people know all about white vans,…

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“We need a revolution in Sri Lanka!” – A brief chat with Sam de Silva

Photo credit: Nazreen Sansoni “on one level, Sri Lanka needs a revolution to really change what’s going on here. There is such a domination by the powers that be… there needs to be a real uprising. How to actually get an “enlightened uprising”, to use a term from the film, is the tricky part.” I caught up with Sam de Silva of Circles of Violence fame, before he headed back to Australia tonight. Sam’s film, shown to a few of us in Colombo last week, has already generated some interesting responses and is the most recent attempt to explore through film Sri Lanka’s tryst with peace in the midst of rising violence. Sam began by stating that for him what was most interesting about the premiere of the film a week ago at Barefoot was the discussion on what it is to be a Sri Lankan and what (and how) we define a Sri Lankan identity. Comfortable with his Australian…

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About Groundviews

Located at the Centre for Policy Alternatives in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Groundviews is a citizen journalism website that uses a range of genres and media to highlight critical perspectives on governance, reconciliation, human rights, the arts and literature, democracy and other issues. The site has won two international awards, including the prestigious Manthan Award South Asia in 2009. The grand jury's evaluation of the site noted, "What no media dares to report, Groundviews publicly exposes. It's a new age media for a new Sri Lanka... Free media at it's very best!"

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