Archive for the ‘Human Security’

Chellaney on Indo-Sri Lanka relations: How not to win friends and influence your neighbours

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Intellectuals in India have unfortunately not played positive roles in building good relations with its small neighbors.  For the most part they ignore all neighbors other than Pakistan.  In the few cases they do not, they tend to do active harm.  The recent article in Forbes.com on 9 October 2009 (http://www.forbes.com/2009/10/08/tamil-tigers-rajiv-gandhi-opinions-contributors-sri-lanka.html) by Professor Brahma Chellaney exemplifies the latter. Justifying cross-border terrorism India is a country with many minorities.  Would it like an external power describing one of its minorities as its “natural constituency” as Professor Chellaney does?  I do not know quite what to make of this excerpt from his article:  “India already had alienated the Sinhalese majority in the 1980s, when it first armed the Tamil Tigers and then sought to disarm them through an ill-starred peacekeeping foray that left almost three times as many Indian troops dead as the 1999 Kargil War with Pakistan.” Was the alienation of the Sinhala majority a good thing?  Was the alienation caused…

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GSP+, SOVEREIGNTY, DOUBLE STANDARDS AND TERRORIST TRAITORS

It is worth clarifying here the situation regarding the EU GSP+ facility, given the confusion prevailing in the mainstream media. The EU has NOT threatened trade sanctions against Sri Lanka. The GSP+ facility is an extra privilege granted to developing countries which abide by certain human rights norms. If it is withdrawn, the EU will continue to trade with Sri Lanka, but its imports from Sri Lanka will have to compete with imports from other countries likeIndia and China which do not enjoy the GSP+ facility. This means their quantity will decline, and there would be job losses for workers and revenue losses for the government. Is this fair? The lengthy EU report on Sri Lanka produces mounds of evidence that Sri Lanka is not complying with the human rights norms which are compulsory for receiving GSP+ privileges. Take just three out of the many more instances cited there. One is the detention of around 280,000 displaced civilians in IDP camps for months on end. The government claimed it was housing…

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Lazy Academics and a Diaspora Without Direction

The recent Amnesty International sponsored forum “Sri Lanka: Human Rights Issues and Media Representation” held last week in Melbourne was a missed opportunity. The forum could have signposted the strategies needed to pressure the Australian Government to do more to improve human rights and freedom of expression issues, and to bring the Sri Lankan Government to account on its horrific human rights record. Instead, the forum ended up painting an ‘us versus them’ picture and pitting the Tamil diaspora against its Sinhala counterpart.  This could have been avoided if the presenters were more mature and more informed about the situation in Sri Lanka. The majority of the people in the room were from the Tamil diaspora, who along with others concerned about human rights and equality, were probably expecting some guidance from ‘expert’ presenters on how to respond not only to what was happening in Sri Lanka, but also the meanness of the Australian Government. Damien Kingsbury focused his talk…

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Adjutant Australia: Controlling Boat People

The ongoing brouhaha around the boat people ‘storming’ Australian maritime waters displays two tendencies in Australian politics and its cultural underpinnings. The first tendency, A, is the insidious influence of a long-standing hostility to potentially subversive foreign elements. The second dimension, B, is a more recent phenomenon that I shall label “bureaucratititis”. The force of factor A is of lesser import than factor B in raising the present storm. It is also not easy to demonstrate. So, I merely suggest. I mark the concerns about the “Yellow Peril” of Chinese migrants that prevailed in Australia from the late 19th century and the manner in which it contributed to a White Australia policy. That programme is no more. But one ‘relative’ remains embedded within government policy. Customs officials rigorously police all persons and cargo to make sure that dangerous plants, vermin and viruses do not contaminate healthy Australian soil and air. Even home-cooked milk toffee is confiscated. This is a form…

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1,000 posts on Groundviews: Bearing witness, shaping peace

Exactly three years after its launch, Groundviews published its 1000th post today. In it Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu identifies the site with quality debate and asks citizens to use it to canvass their ideas for constitutional reform, governance, human rights and the economy and whatever else they see as constituting essential elements of an agenda for change and reform. Over three years, Groundviews has borne witness to that which traditional print and electronic media did not, and for well-known reasons, could not. Post-war for example, our path-breaking coverage of the situation facing IDPs in Menik Farm was picked up and featured on leading domestic and international media, including the New York Times, Al Jazeera and the BBC. The wealth of debate and submissions online already makes Groundviews unique as an online resource and platform for engaging discussion in Sri Lanka. We are globally recognised as an authoritative voice on Sri Lanka and were the first to feature a mobile version, and…

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Needed: An Agenda for Reform on Groundviews

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Whilst it is not clear as to whether we would be voting in both the presidential and general elections on the same day, it is clear that we will be voting in at least one of them in the next three months, followed soon thereafter by the other.  Most likely it will be the presidential elections since it is the president who has to decide and since he is much more popular than his party. Moreover, we have been told that he is willing to sacrifice, if necessary, two years of his first term in order to secure a second and a parliamentary majority nearest to the heart’s desire. All elections are important and these will be no exception. It is worth reminding that we are still in a post-war situation and far from the post-conflict one we ought to be in. What this requires is the prioritization of peace, reconciliation and unity and the firm commitment to ensure that the…

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The duty to talk loudly about Police Reforms

Police Reform was the theme of a discussion organised by the Commonwealth Initiative in Delhi last week. Among the participants were senior police officers from South Asian countries including a few who are retired. Also present were many other persons interested in the issue. Throughout the discussion there was consensus that something has gone terribly wrong with the policing systems in South Asian countries and that the absence of radical reforms of the police threaten the very stability of the nations concerned. While everyone agreed that the problems are related to the colonial origins of the institutions, everyone also agreed that the failure to take the necessary action for reform lies with the states, as well as the failures of political and civil society movements in these countries. As this meeting was taking place, the incident that happened at the Bambilipitiya sea in Sri Lanka relating to the killing of Balavarnam Sivakumara was becoming news both in the country as…

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Dayan Jayatilleka on post-war politics and enduring obstacles to peace in Sri Lanka

I spoke with Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka recently on his take on post-war politics, his interpretation of the Southern Provincial Council elections, the issue of war crimes and the extension of GSP+, the challenges of peacebuilding (with peace seen as more than the absence of war) and the purported entry of the former Army Commander Gen. Sarath Fonseka to mainstream party politics.

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Breaking news: Flooding and unrest again at Menik Farm?

Updates received by Groundviews in the evening today from the field suggest that heavy rain, as it did in August, is again causing havoc in Menik Farm. We were able to confirm heavy precipitation in Vavuniya, but other points noted in these updates are unverified and published here for others in the area, or in the know, to confirm or counter. All times are +5.30GMT. 9.38pm A reported 1,500 IDPs in Zone 6 are giving the Zone Commander a hard time over leaking shelters. 9.41pm There was heavy rain at Menik Farm and expect that continuing. Most shelters already damaged and due to this rain cannot stay anymore. I think people try to go out of the camps. Tomorrow only can get more details. 10.01pm People agitated at Zonal Commander in Zone 6b because shelters are damaged for 1,500 people. World Vision is sending 500 tarpaulins down and 3 busses are ready for evacuation of extremely vulnerable individuals if required….

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Sri Lanka is in fact a Gulag Island: A response to Dayan Jayatilaka and the mentality of the phantom limb

Dayan Jayatilaka begins his article with the words, “I am proud of my country, Sri Lanka.” To demonstrate the differences in our points of view I would like to begin by stating that, while I am proud of some aspects of Sri Lanka I am also very ashamed of many other aspects of my country, Sri Lanka. I have publically stated that many times, over many years, beginning particularly from the cruel repression of the innocent in 1971 under the pretext of dealing with the JVP insurgency. In my book of poems, The sea is calm behind your house, I have expressed many times that when a motherland turns into a ‘murder land’ it is a matter that the citizens should begin to recognize. This theme of the motherland turning into a cruel land towards its own children is also one of the themes in the Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenisyn (my book of poems is available at: www.basilfernando.net, kindly…

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The Internment – A Collective Punishment?

The widespread indifference to the continuing misery of 280,000 interned IDPs, most of them already unlawfully detained for about four months without any charges, is a sad reflection on the moral values of our society. The reported release of a few thousand is most welcome, but what of the remaining 270,000? Attempts made to justify the internment on the grounds that some of the areas from which they were displaced may yet be land-mined is patently false, in that these internees could then be permitted to move temporarily to other areas to live with relatives or friends, or in accommodation provided by organisations that have already indicated a willingness to help. As in the case of other IDPs, the state could establish a few welfare (not detention) camps to accommodate the few who cannot find accommodation on their own. Any decision to move out should be taken by the IDPs solely on their own responsibility. Concern for the welfare of…

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Bearing Witness: Submit content on IDPs and Police brutality to win a Flip Ultra video camera

Through Bearing Witness, Groundviews seeks to engender critical citizen journalism on two vital issues confronting polity and society in post-war Sri Lanka. The ground conditions in Menik Farm, worsened by recent flooding, are a non-issue for most mainstream print and broadcast media in Sri Lanka. Yet, as this recent report from the UN’s IRIN news service notes, Close to 300,000 people now languish in 30 government camps in Vavuniya, Mannar, Jaffna and Trincomalee districts. Many of the camps – which were hastily erected in the final days of the war after thousands fled south from former LTTE-controlled areas – suffer from severe overcrowding. More than three months since the conflict ended, Zone two of Menik Farm continues to hold close to 55,000 – almost double its planned capacity. In fact, in some parts of Menik Farm, a single latrine caters to up to 80 people [Sphere standards call for 20], while some tents designed for five were accommodating up to 14. There are…

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Status of IDP’s and the ‘Right to Protect’

“Man generally resorts to dialogue, compromise and consensus in resolving human conflicts due to his superior intellect. However, it is not uncommon for man, when under pressure, to submit to his baser instincts of survival by resorting to physical confrontation and warfare despite the attainment of a high level of civilization.” The ‘divide and rule policy’ of the British colonial administration in Sri Lanka covertly took advantage of the country’s ethnic profile to appoint better educated Tamils in key government positions  to act as a buffer against possible sedition by the Sinhalese majority. With the declaration of independence emerged extremist Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism as a response to such discriminatory policy which served as an effective political platform for power hungry Sinhalese politicians. Ever since, the Tamil community has been gradually victimized, marginalized, repressed and regularly subjected to extreme violence by sinhala extremists through pogroms, sometimes state sanctioned, which conveniently served to divert attention from economic mismanagement. Tamil youth who were…

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Sri Lanka: Vanquished Tiger, Roaring Lion

The stakes of life and death, hope and despair, peace and conflict are now higher than they were when the war was declared “over”. The Tiger was declared dead, and the Lion roars. We watched this nation dance to the drum beat of the victor, sing triumphant songs, parade the glory of the forces, rejoice at the restoration of the nation while it ignored the lament of the victim, forgot the dead, and disregarded suffering. While a significant portion of its citizenry grieved, the nation celebrated. We, therefore, expressed but a part of our humanity, and a part of the heart of this Nation. If the nation wishes to forget its festering wounds and ignore a suffering part of its nation – 300000 civilians, men, women and children, the elderly, infirm and dying – languishing in the refugee camps, it probably can. After all, life continues as normal for most of us. It is easy to forget, easy to shut…

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A first hand perspective of Sri Lanka’s largest IDP camp: Are they really ‘our people’?

This is an interview in English secured by Vikalpa with a Sri Lankan Tamil who had visited his family at the “Ramanathan Transitional Relief Village” in May. His family is amongst 260,000+ other IDPs interned in Menik Camp. In an interview conducted before the recent flooding, the speaker records the inhuman conditions and indignity IDPs have to face in these camps. Pointing to the irony of calling them ‘relief centres’, the speaker notes that with upto 19 persons having to share a single tent, hours of queing for drinking water and to use toilets, what they are in fact are detention centres. “The President of Sri Lanka, Hon. Mahinda Rajapakse says these people are his own citizens, but how they treat these people you can’t believe” the speaker notes at the end.

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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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