By Lia Leendertz | Midnight Brambling .............................................................................................................................................................................................
Ihave been invited on a press trip to Sri Lanka. This is by far the most glamorous offer I have had in the course of my career. The closest equivalent would be the all expenses paid week touring Bayer’s German chemical works which I attended when I worked for Horticulture Week, which was every bit as delightful as it sounds (in its favour, the delightful Martyn Cox and Leigh Hunt both trudged around the corridors and experimental greenhouses with me, but then so did Peter Seabrook).
So I’ve had this offer, a week-long ‘small, specialist trip’ paid for by the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, taking in botanic gardens, orchid collections, nurseries, forest reserves and more, following Sri Lanka’s success at the Chelsea Flower Show. Sounds like heaven.
But even while a part of my mind was already preparing for a child-free week of palm-fringes beaches, dense, steamy jungles, and almost unbearable amounts of lush greenery, something in the back of that same mind was nagging at me that I couldn’t go. It isn’t current news, so it’s taken a little delving around, but the picture appears to be this: the civil war that has been raging on the island for 25 years ended last year, but this hasnt ended the civil rights abuses carried out by the majority Sinhalese government against the Tamil minority. Many of the 150,000 civilians held in horrendous conditions in internment camps have recently been released, but the country has a horrendous record of disappearances, abductions and murders of those who speak out against the regime (look at the Boycott Sri Lanka website for more details, and to find out what you can do) with one political journalist going missing as recently as January of this year. It is also, according to media watchdog Reporters Without Borders one of the most dangerous countries in the world in which to be a journalist. Not a Western horticultural journalist, of course, on a lovely jolly around the botanic gardens of the island. It’s your local journalists that are living in fear.
It is obvious that the island wants to rehabilitate itself in the eyes of the world, and to get the tourists back, and it sees the promotion of its undoubtedly fabulous horticulture as a fine way of doing this, via Chelsea, and such ‘small, specialist trips’, which will no doubt result in a flurry of beautifully photographed, luscious pieces appearing in gardening magazines next year. But I massively object to horticulture being used as some sort of a pretty carpet under which to sweep such issues. Stopping the disappearances and murders, and fully investigating and prosecuting the perpetrators of the many human rights violations, as Amnesty International has called upon Sri Lanka to do, seems like – to put it mildly – a more sensible first step. Do that, THEN invite a bunch of horticultural journalists around.
I realise that this isn’t a particularly interesting post if you are here looking for horticultural information, but I reckon that when opportunities come to speak out on behalf of those living less fortunate lives, we should grab them, and this one came my way. I also realise I am not likely to get invited on any more glamorous press trips.
Lia Leendertz writes about gardening for the Guardian's Weekend magazine and its gardening blog, as well as writing a personal blog, Midnight Brambling
Public Statement | Amnesty International .............................................................................................................................................................................................
On World Humanitarian Day (19August) Amnesty International recalls the many humanitarian workers who have fallen victim to human rights violations in Sri Lanka and the families of victims who have been frustrated in their pursuit of justice. Amnesty International calls on the UN to independently investigate violations of human rights and humanitarian law in Sri Lanka as an essential first step to accountability.
In August 2006, 17 Sri Lankan aid workers with the international humanitarian agency Action Contre La Faim (“Action against Hunger”, or ACF) were gunned down execution style in the town of Mutur in Sri Lanka’s Trincomalee district after a period of intense fighting between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan security forces. 15 men and women were discovered lying face-down in the ACF compound with bullet wounds to the head and neck; the victims had been shot at close range. Two more murdered ACF staff members were found in a vehicle nearby; possibly killed trying to escape.
It was the worst single attack on aid workers since the 2003 bombing of a UN headquarters in Iraq. Four years later, victims’ families are still waiting for justice.
No one has been arrested for the ACF murders, let alone convicted. Sri Lankan police bungled the criminal investigation into the murders, failing even to secure the crime scene. Witnesses were threatened and harassed; family members have been forced into hiding or even into exile abroad.
ACommission of Inquiry appointed in November 2006 by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to investigate this and other “serious violations of human rights” wound up nearly three years later without completing its mandate; it failed to identify the perpetrators in the ACF killings even when presented with substantial, compelling evidence of their identity. According to its Chair, the Commission “ran out of funds” and was hampered by the lack of witness protection. More than anything, the Sri Lankan government, which actively suppresses criticism and opposition, would not allow the Commission to carry out its mandates independently.
The Commission’s report to President Rajapaksa was never made public, but leaks to the press after its mandate expired in 2009 exonerated state forces and blamed the LTTE.
The killing of the ACF workers – as befits a crime of such magnitude - received substantial public attention, although in the end it was not enough to convince the Sri Lankan authorities to conduct an effective investigation. Other killings and enforced disappearances of humanitarian workers in Sri Lanka have gone virtually unacknowledged.
During an August 2007 visit, UN Under-Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief John Holmes described Sri Lanka as "one of the most dangerous places for aid workers in the world."
A study released by the Sri Lankan Law and SocietyTrust in March 2008 concluded that as many as 67 aid workers, most of the Tamils from the north and east, had been killed or forcibly disappeared between January 2006 and December 2007 alone, which amounted to almost one a month during the period. Victims include program, field and administrative staff of humanitarian organizations engaged in demining, development and relief projects; drivers, construction workers and masons; and Catholic and Buddhist clergy engaged in humanitarian service.1
In June 2007, two volunteers with the Sri Lanka Red Crossattended a workshop in a Colombo suburb were abducted off a crowded railway platform by men claiming to be policemen as they and colleagues awaited a train to take them back to Batticaloa, where they worked. Their bodies, bearing gunshot wounds, were found the next day dumped near Ratnapura, nearly 100 km away. The government arrested a former air force officer, several police and military officers and accused them of political abduction, kidnapping for ransom, and murder.The suspects were released on bail in early 2008; prosecutions did not proceed.
While the government has publicly condemned acts of violence against humanitarianstaff, there has been little action taken to ensure impartial and effective investigations, which would lead to the prosecution of those responsible.
Today there are no credible domestic mechanisms to deal with serious human rights violations. The SriLankan Human Rights Commission lacks independence and has itself acknowledged its lack of capacity to deal with investigations into disappearances.
At the international level, Sri Lanka has 5,749 outstanding cases being reviewed by the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances, several hundred of which have been reported since the beginning of 2006.
Given Sri Lanka’s consistent failure to prosecute perpetrators of human rights violations,Amnesty International believes the chances of justice being served domestically in the ACF and other cases are very slim. That is why we are reiterating our call to the UN to independently investigate human rights violations in Sri Lanka including attacks on humanitarian workers.
AFP | The Straits Times .............................................................................................................................................................................................
Sri Lanka's former army chief Sarath Fonseka said on Thursday he expects the government to put him behind bars to end his political career after a court martial convicted him.
Fonseka, who led troops to victory in the island's 37-year ethnic conflict last year, said the government was seeking revenge for his decision to stand against the president at January polls. He was arrested two weeks after President Mahinda Rajapakse won re-election and he faces a plethora of charges ranging from corruption to treason.
The first court martial, which heard charges that he dabbled in politics while heading the military, found him guilty last Friday and ordered the withdrawal of medals he had earned during his 40-year military career. The former four-star general quit the military in November to become an opposition politician.
'They are going to put me in jail and I am prepared for that,' Fonseka told reporters in parliament after being escorted by the military to attend assembly sessions.
He said he had no faith in the judiciary. However, he would appeal to a civilian court against the ruling of the first court martial, which he said had been illegally constituted. The second military tribunal, which is hearing charges that he engaged in corrupt military deals, is expected to hold its next hearing on Saturday.
'The verdict is already written,' Fonseka said. 'I know the psychology and the thinking of these people (in power). There is no rule of law. If you are not a government supporter, you can't expect justice.'
Friday's ruling carried no prison term, but Fonseka remains in custody. He also faces civilian charges of employing army deserters, as well as revealing state secrets - offences that carry a 20-year jail term.
By Olindhi Jayasundere | Daily Mirror .............................................................................................................................................................................................
The Inter University Students Federation (IUSF) yesterday charged that the Governments decision to privatize universities was one that could have dire effects on the country.
This view was expressed at a rally held in Colombo yesterday, which was attended by university students from all around the country. “Our country is suffering due to an inefficient education system. There are serious discrepancies seen in grade one admissions, errors appearing on exam papers and even textbooks, while the number of students failing the O/L exam too has increased appreciably. Instead of improving the services that we already have, the Government wants to introduce a new system which will bring dire consequences to the country,” IUSF Convener, Udul Premaratne warned.
He said that with the rise in the cost of living, parents often do not have the funds to educate their children in private universities, which charge millions as tuition fees. “If the Government chooses to go ahead with the privatization of universities we would be forced to take further measures against it,” he said.
The Economist .............................................................................................................................................................................................
Wearing a crisp blue shirt, Kumaraswamy Nageswaran gestures dejectedly to a towering fence that keeps him from his village and his three acres of farmland on the Trincomalee coast. Five years ago, as Tamil Tiger rebels fought desperately with the Sri Lankan army, thousands of families fled Sampur and adjoining villages. They returned in the six months to January this year, only to find themselves victims of post-war development plans.
Sampur fell within an area demarcated during the war as a “high-security zone”, in an effort to keep fighters from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam at bay. The rebels were defeated in May 2009, but nearly 6,000 people still cannot get to their homes and lands, as the security zone remains in place.
Today, inside the fence, Sampur is being cleared for a 500MW coal-powered plant in a joint venture between India and Sri Lanka. Also planned are a jetty and a special economic zone. The government has started a construction spree. The short journey from Kinniya to Mutur still requires arduous travel over potholed tracks and three short trips by rudimentary ferries with spluttering outboard motors. But roads are being tarred and bridges will soon replace the tedious boat rides.
Along the way, towns and villages are limping back to life. Mutur, a predominantly Muslim township near to Sampur, was the site of a particularly bloody battle in 2006. Gradually it is lifting its head: new buildings, including a school, are rising; paint has been daubed on walls. With a bit more aid money, the recovery would move faster yet. Elsewhere in the district, officials have marked out vast stretches of pristine beach-front for tourist development and plush hotels.
The authorities say that land will be dished out through open tenders. But local leaders fear plots will instead be handed to henchmen of the president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, most of whom come from the Sinhala-dominated south. Demands for preferential treatment for the inhabitants of Trincomalee, whether Tamil, Sinhala or Muslim, may fall on deaf ears.
Mr Nageswaran tries to organise locals, as the president of a welfare group for displaced people. The government has allocated them alternative land, he says, but it is poor, lacking decent soil or water for cultivation, and without the sea to fish in. Nobody asked them before making plans and they have no access to the “family that governs Sri Lanka” to explain their plight.
Ministers know what is happening. A soldier on the road to Mutur says government officials visit regularly, adding disgustedly that he is forced to salute the likes of Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, a former LTTE leader who is now deputy minister of resettlement, whereas “war heroes” like the former army commander, Sarath Fonseka, languish in jail.
Mr Fonseka, the country’s only four-star general, led the war against the rebels. He was cashiered on August 13th after a court-martial convicted him on three counts of using “traitorous” words and of a failure “to obey garrison or other orders”. The stripping of his rank, medals and decorations was endorsed by the president, whom he had dared to challenge at an election in January.
A wider crackdown against the opposition seems to be under way. Also on August 13th two MPs from Mr Fonseka’s Democratic National Alliance were arrested during what they called a “pro-democracy” protest. Police wielding batons and firing tear gas charged the demonstrators. The country may be developing after the war, but democracy still looks frail.
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