Sri Lanka: The anniversary of Prageeth's disappearance and the Galle Arts Festival

Photo courtesy: The Psychedelic Illusionist | Flickr

By Basil Fernando | Asian Human Rights Commission
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Prageeth Eknaligoda's wife and a small group of faithful supporters met representatives of the United Nations yesterday on the occasion of the first anniversary of Prageeth's disappearance. That the family had to meet representatives of the United Nations and not representatives of the Sri Lankan state is symbolic. It is after any hope has been lost of a genuine inquiry into Prageeth's disappearance that the family had to resort to the United Nations to seek its help. The nation itself was little concerned about this disappearance. The people of Sri Lanka have become accustomed to such tragedies. Such is the psychological conditioning of the nation. Powerlessness before cruelty is the condition in which the citizen lives his or her life.

Meanwhile an Arts Festival is being celebrated in Galle. Some may say that the two events, the disappearance and the festival have no connection. And many will treat the situation as having no connection. That too reflects the mentalities that have grown in the midst of repression and violence that affects the nation. In such circumstances life and art are disconnected. The so-called arts try to be oblivious to the actual realities of life and try to create a festival even when the people are facing the funeral of the freedoms. Such disconnectedness is again the condition under which the people live in Sri Lanka.

Under such circumstances the controversy that has arisen about some prominent international writers boycotting the festival is quite interesting. What is there to be surprised about in such a boycott? However, some are irritated about the boycott as if people in other lands are under some kind of obligation to come and participate in this so-called festival. Even the freedom of people to chose as to whether they want to attend or not is little understood. The state ideology supported by some appears to be that the festival must go on and that everyone should come and participate. That kind of mentality is also symbolic of the kind of delinkage between the actual realities and the so-called festivities that are created artificially under the conditions of repression.

Hypocrisy and creativity

The eternal theme of creative art is the contradiction between hypocrisy and the genuine capacity to reflect, to speak out and to depict the human condition. The greatest obstacle to Sri Lankan creativity and the creative arts is the deep seated hypocrisies that prevail within the nation, particularly among the more articulate and sophisticated sections of society. The desire to portray a great civilisation deeply contributes to this hypocrisy. To deal with the sheer cruelties that the state perpetrates on the people which in turn create the cruelties among the people themselves are difficult themes for the local mind to deal with. To those who wish to deal with such themes there is no audience. The hue and cry against exaggeration is made against those who try to depict the actual realities of their fellow beings and this of course, includes themselves.

The romanticised concept of nationalism affects even those who are at times, critical of the circumstances under which they live. There is some kind of religious attachment to the idea of the greatness of the nation and the civilisation. In order to preserve this belief it is necessary to deny the actual realities, the actual experiences of people in the real nation as it has been experienced in the lives of the people. This contradiction reflects itself in the various ways by which the creative mind finds various routes of escapism.

It is only the type of creative artists like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn that can really reflect and break the intellectual paralysis that has grown up out of the deep seated hypocrisies of the Sri Lankan nation. Such a person will not be welcome by the sophisticated art elite of Sri Lanka. They all want to say that Sri Lanka is no gulag. By denying the existence of our prisons, our death camps our capacity to cause large scale forced disappearances of our fellow beings; the need to deny the torture that goes on in every police station every day of the year; the cruelties that the teachers perpetrate on young children by way of ill treatment; the hypocrisy that we have in relationship to dealing with the freedoms of women and on matters of sexuality, all these act as barriers to the development of the sensitivity towards the deeper problems that the nation is faced with. In the absence of such sensitivity no worthwhile creative achievements can be made.

So we will worship the Lord of the Flies when the lawless nation is unable to deal with its own problems. We will celebrate the festival of the fools when the nation is in such a deep abyss and wants to keep on believing that there are things to celebrate.

The rest of true development of art will the increase of number of persons to stand in support of the family of Prageeth and the like. When the walls of hypocrisy are broken, the walls of repression will also break. Till then a few will have their fun and festivities, when many weep in silence.

It was these contradictions that I reflected in my poem, written in July 1983, which is reproduced below:

Yet another incident in July 1983

Burying the dead
being an art well developed in our times
(Our psychoanalysts having helped us much
to keep balanced minds whatever
that may mean)
there is no reason really
for this matter to remain so vivid
as if some rare occurrence. I assure you

I am not sentimental, never having
had a break down, as they say.
I am as shy of my emotions
as you are. And I attend to my daily
tasks in a very matter-of-fact way.
Being prudent, too, when a government says:

"Forget!" I act accordingly.
My ability to forget
has never been doubted. I’ve never
had any adverse comments
On that score either. Yet I remember
the way they stopped that car,
the mob. There were four
in that car: a girl, a boy
(between four and five it seemed) and their
parents, I guessed, the man and the woman.
It was in the same way they stopped other cars.
I did not notice any marked
Difference. A few questions
in a gay mood, not to make a mistake
I suppose. Then they proceeded to
action. By then a routine. Pouring
petrol and all that stuff.

Then someone, noticing something odd
as it were, opened the two left side
doors; took away the two children,
crying and resisting as they were moved
away from their parents.
Children’s emotions have sometimes
to be ignored for their own good, he must have
thought. Someone practical
was quick, lighting a match
efficiently. An instant
fire followed, adding one more
to many around. Around
the fire they chattered
of some new adventure. A few
Scattered. What the two inside
felt or thought was no matter.
Peace-loving people were hurrying
towards homes as in a procession

Then, suddenly, the man inside,
breaking open the door, was
out, his shirt already on
fire and hair, too. Then, bending,
Took his two children. Not even
looking around, as if executing a calculated
decision, he resolutely
re-entered the car.
Once inside, he closed the door
Himself I heard the noise

distinctly. Still the ruined car
is there, by the roadside
with other such things. Maybe
the Municipality will remove it
One of these days
to the capital’s
garbage pit. The cleanliness of the capital
receives Authority’s top priority.

Basil Fernando is executive director of the Asian Legal Resource Centre, based in Hong Kong. Born in Sri Lanka, he graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Ceylon, Colombo, in 1972. His early career included teaching and practicing law at the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka. He has held several United Nations-related posts, including appeals counsel under the UNHCR for Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong, officer-in-charge of the Investigation Unit under the U.N. Transitional Authority in Cambodia and chief of legal assistance at the Cambodia Office of the U.N. Center for Human Rights. He is the author of several books on human rights and legal reform issues. He was awarded the Kwangju Human Rights Prize in 2001 in South Korea.

© AHRC

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Sleepless in Sri Lanka

Photo courtesy: Galle Literary Festival 2010 | Flickr

Sutirtho Patranobis | Hindustan Times
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If governments have the power to ban, the rest of us have the inalienable right to boycott. So, Reporters Sans Frontier (RSF) was well within its right to call for the boycott of the upcoming Galle Literary Festival (GLF) as taking part in it could mean endorsing a government with a dubious human rights record and more than contempt for journalists.

But journalists and rights activists here thought that RSF was wrong in making that call. Because, they said, boycotting the event, where local and international authors read out their books and chat-up on issues ranging from war to peace, could mean shriveling the limited liberal space available here.

It’s an interesting debate, one which has divided the same people who have together fought for free speech in a country too casual – and often too cold-blooded – in treating the moderate and liberal.

The RSF statement called the GLF a ``conference that does not in any way push for greater freedom of expression inside that country.’’ But assuming that not a single author turns up for the event – and even if the government’s tourism board and the national carrier suffer some financial loss – how much will that help the cause? Will that humiliate the government? Unlikely. In fact, the government might even have a quiet chuckle at the bickering among its critics; it has already wriggled into the crack created between the two sides by issuing a statement dismissing the ban.

The RSF was supported in its call by Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS). It’s a group of Lankan journalists working in exile and they are genuinely worried about the situation here. But as noted human rights activist, Sunila Abeysekera, wrote to a signatory to the boycott appeal: `` ``I wish that colleagues of the JDS and RSF … had spoken to me, and others involved with the GLF 2011, before making their statement. It would have given us all an opportunity to be more strategic about how we could use the opportunities afforded by the GLF to draw attention to our common concerns regarding human rights and media freedom.’’

But one thing’s for sure, it’s only among the liberal that such a debate can take place; among the rest, disagreement only means dissent.

© Hindustan Times

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Sri Lanka army's ex-chief loses appeal

AFP | Google News
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Sri Lanka's jailed former army chief Sarath Fonseka, who tried to unseat the president in elections, on Tuesday lost an appeal to retain his parliamentary seat.

The Supreme Court ruled that a court martial verdict in September finding him guilty of arms procurement offences meant that he was no longer qualified to be a member of parliament.

Fonseka led the army to victory over the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in May 2009, ending decades of bloody ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.

But he then fell out with the government and unsuccessfully tried to oust Mahinda Rajapakse in January 2010 presidential election.

After being jailed, he won a seat in the following parliamentary elections which were won by Rajapakse's party.

"The supreme court ruled that the court martial is recognised by the constitution," a court official said.

Fonseka was arrested two weeks after his defeat in the presidential elections and is serving a 30-month jail term.

He has said the government is seeking revenge for his decision to stand against the president.

Fonseka has also angered the government by saying he would testify before any international war crimes tribunal into Sri Lanka's separatist war.

© AFP

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Sri Lankan army accused of making parts for landmines

By Andrew Buncombe | The Independent
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Activists have accused the Sri Lankan military of manufacturing components for landmines while the government was involved in an internationally-sponsored ceasefire with Tamil rebels and receiving millions of pounds in aid for de-mining projects.

The Tamil activists claim to have obtained classified documents they say show the Sri Lankan military sought tenders from several suppliers in Colombo and bought parts to produce remote-control detonators for Claymore anti-personnel mines. The documents, which have been seen by The Independent but which cannot be independently verified, have been dismissed by the military as fake. According to experts, the use of Claymore mines detonated by remote control would not be in breach of the comprehensive Ottawa Treaty of 1997. However, the activists claim that given Sri Lanka has always denied it manufactured parts for anti-personnel mines, the purported revelations about the detonators demand investigation.

The Reverend SJ Emmanuel, president of the Global Tamil Forum (GTF), which said it obtained the documents from a senior Sri Lankan military source, asked that a panel established by the UN examines whether both the army and Tamil rebels manufactured mines. "How much more evidence do we have to produce for the international community to act upon?" he asked.

The documents date from summer 2006, when the Sri Lankan authorities were involved in a Norwegian-brokered ceasefire with the Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). One of them says: "Project D2 is a remote control device which is designed to detonate Clamor [sic] mine using a T7G and R7G transmitter receiver modules." Others detail a list of 42 items required to manufacture the devices. Another document appears to be an invoice from a supplier in Colombo for a series of items, many matching those on the previous Project D2 list. The invoice, made out to the Sri Lanka Signal Corp and dated August 8, 2006, was for a total of 398,393 Sri Lankan rupees (around £2,200).

At the time, Sri Lanka was receiving considerable sums to fund projects for clearing hundreds of thousands of mines, the legacy of a decades-long conflict with the LTTE, which had launched a brutal war to secure a separate Tamil homeland. In 2004, Sri Lanka received around £15m for de-mining projects. Even now, more than 18 months after the Sri Lankan army defeated the remnants of the LTTE, many Tamils are still unable to return to their villages as they wait for them to be de-mined.

While Sri Lanka is not a party to the Ottawa Treaty, the authorities have publicly supported its humanitarian aims and since 1996 voted in favour of all resolutions at the UN General Assembly that call for a ban on the use, stockpiling or production of anti-personnel mines. The army claimed to have stopped using such weapons in 2001. Despite this, there have been repeated allegations that covert units within the Sri Lankan army continued to use them. In March 2008, K Sivanesan, a Tamil MP was killed by a Claymore – an attack his party blamed on the army, though this was denied.

Last night, a spokesman for the army, General Udaya Madawala, dismissed the GTF's allegation. He said Sri Lanka had not manufactured any such devices and that between 2002 and 2008 the authorities were focused on de-mining. Asked whether the documents might be fake, he said: "Absolutely. They've done this sort of stuff before."

© The Independent

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USA opens American Corner in Jaffna, welcomes writers festival in Galle

Tamil Net
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The US ambassador in Colombo Patricia A Butenis on Monday opened American Corner, a US outfit in Jaffna city, to function at the premises of a local NGO, Jaffna Social Action Centre. The Deputy High Commissioner of the Indian High Commission in Jaffna, SL colonial commander in Jaffna, Maj. Gen. Hathurusinghe, the Sri Lanka Government Agent in Jaffna and the mayor participated the diplomatic event that follows the opening of the Deputy High Commission of India in last November. Meanwhile, on the same day the US embassy in Colombo has also welcomed the controversial ‘Literary Festival’ in Galle and has donated money to bring students and teachers to the meet.

Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka mooted by progressive Sinhalese, the Reporters without Borders (RSF) and Leading global intellectuals like Noam Chomsky, Arundhati Roy and many others have condemned the context of the Galle Literary Festival.

“This is not the right time for prominent international writers like you to give legitimacy to the Sri Lankan government’s suppression of free speech by attending a conference that does not in any way push for greater freedom of expression inside that country,” they said in an appeal.

Heeding to the appeal, some star participants including a Nobel laureate withdrew from the festival.

But in a press release Monday, the US embassy in Colombo said that it supports the Galle Literary Festival and "events like this one can help bring about fuller freedom of expression in Sri Lanka."

The US embassy donated money to bring students and teachers from the University of Ruhuna, Southeastern University, Sabaragamuwa University, and the University of Jaffna to the festival at Galle.

“They will attend a full schedule of events at the festival, meet both national and international writers, and participate in special team-building sessions while in Galle,” the US embassy press release said.

Speaking in Jaffna, the US ambassador recollected the 200 years old relations between the US and Jaffna through the American missionaries. The first printing press, the first Tamil language newspaper anywhere and the first medical school of the island were the contributions of the Americans in Jaffna, she pointed out.

She said that during her previous visit in June she had visited the cemetery of the founder of the Uduvil Girls College, the first girls’ boarding school in all of Asia. This lady, Ms. Harriet Winslow, is the great grand mother of one of the renowned diplomats of the US and its former Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, who too had visited the cemetery at Uduvil, the ambassador said.

“The opening of the American Corner today is a symbol of our sustained commitment to the people of Jaffna. And, with its opening, we add another American "first" to the list – the American Corner is the first facility in Jaffna to have an operating ADSL internet connection,” Ms. Butenis said.

According to the ambassador, the Corner is a small library similar to the ones the US is having at Colombo, Kandy and at Oluvil, to connect Jaffna with the rest of the island and with the outside.

“The American Corner is only one of the ways we are engaging with the people of Jaffna. The U.S. Agency for International Development created 20,000 full-time jobs in the North and East through an innovative series of partnerships with private companies.”

"The centre is part of the close relationship of the US with the people of Jaffna. The management services of the US have hitherto arranged 20,000 job opportunities in the North and East," the ambassador said.

The Jaffna Social Action Centre is an ideal partner organization, with a deep commitment to community-level support and youth-based initiatives, she further said.

Both the USA and India are keen in laundering the agenda of the genocidal state of Sri Lanka and defuse the national aspirations of the Eezham Tamils. By their actions, both the powers seem to be confirming the colonial subjugation of Eezham Tamils under Sri Lanka. But, whatever that comes in the name of development without freedom of the concerned people cannot be their development, commented an academic of the University of Jaffna.

Ms. Butenis should also look at the other side of the native responses of the people of Jaffna to American missionaries even when their mission was non-colonial, but operating under the colonial administration of the British, the academic further said.

© Tamil Net

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Many deaths reported in Sri Lanka Prison protest

Colombo Page
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A protest by a group of prisoners staged on the roof top of the Anuradhapura Prison has ended today in a shoot out that resulted in at least one death and injuries to more than 20 prisoners and prison officials.

The Anuradhapura police said one person has died and 21 others were injured when a clash broke out between protesting prisoners and prison officials at the Anuradhapura prison this evening. The injured have been rushed to the local hospital.

The State-run radio SLBC said 8 of the injured are prison officials.

However, a BBC report citing an inmate who wished to be anonymous said at least four people were killed.

"Four people were shot dead in front of me. Many others are injured in the shooting," BBC quoted the inmate.

The prisoners have also set fire to several prison cells during the incident, SLBC reported.

However, the fire and ambulance unit of Anuradhapura has been able to completely control the fire.

Local media citing the Anuradhapura Hospital Director said that some of the injured have been assaulted.

Earlier today a group of about 20 prisoners have commenced a protest fast on the roof of the Anuradhapura prison against several court decisions that have been issued with regard to their bail applications.

© Colombo Page

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• Prison officers shoot agitators – 6 killed
  (Lanka Truth)
• Riot in Anuradhapura jail, several prisoners feared killed (Tamil Net)
• 'Inmates killed' in Sri Lanka prison shooting (BBC South Asia)

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Sri Lanka second hotel eyed by Shangri-La: report

Lanka Business Online
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Hong Kong based Shangri-La hotels is looking for a coastal property to build a resort hotel, after buying state land in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo for a hotel, shopping and apartment complex, a media report said.

Bloomberg, a newswire quoting Treasury secretary P B Jayasundera said Shangri La was looking for 100 acres of land in Sri Lanka's southern coast to build a 150-room hotel.

It has already acquired state land by the capital's 'Galle Face' beachfront to build a 500 million dollar hotel and property project paying 125 US dollars for a 99-year lease.

A second block of land has been given to China National Aero- Technology Import and Export Corporation which is also planning a 500 million dollar development.

Economic minister Basil Rajapaksa had said that about 1.5 billion US dollars of projects are expected to start this year.

© LBO

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