Sri Lanka: Brutalisation of Society

By Col. R. Hariharan | South Asian Analysis Group
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Recently there had been a series of seemingly disconnected events in India, UK and the UN that have a common thread: Sri Lanka’s conduct in the post war period. Though these events were not unexpected sequels, surprisingly Sri Lanka’s response had been reactive than proactive. Peevishness, rather than calculated strategy, appears to be dominating its thought process. As a result Sri Lanka’s actions show lack of confidence, rather than determination, in handling the issues.

Sri Lanka appears to be looking for reprieve rather than resolution of three issues bugging it ever since the war ended: allegations of war crimes, inadequate rehabilitation of war affected population, and inadequate efforts to address political grievances of Tamil minority. These issues have gathered strength as the state chose to disregard accountability for its actions under the cloak of its war against terrorism. Sri Lanka’s credibility progressively going down, it has been reduced to finding reprieve than finding solution as each critical issue gathers mass.

In India, the newly elected chief minister of Tamil Nadu, Ms Jayalalithaa pushed through two resolutions in the state assembly relating to Sri Lanka. The first resolution related to three key issues that have continued to haunt Tamils in the aftermath of Sri Lanka war: alleged war crimes Sri Lanka army, rehabilitation of war displaced, and meeting Sri Lanka Tamil aspirations for equitable share of power. The chief minister wanted New Delhi to impose economic sanctions on Sri Lanka for its continued intransigence on these issues.

The second resolution called upon Tamil Nadu government to implead itself in a pending case in Supreme Court on the legitimacy of transfer of Kachchativu to Sri Lanka. Ms Jayalalithaa had filed the case in 2008 and the resolution seeks to show the state’s solidarity on the issue.

There is no doubt that Ms Jayalalithaa had timed the two resolutions to pressurise New Delhi on the eve of departure of a high power Indian delegation to Colombo. The delegation consisting of the National Security Advisor, Secretary to the Ministry of External Affairs and the Defence Secretary met with President Rajapaksa and discussed India’s concerns on some of the longstanding issues relating to Sri Lanka Tamils. Unlike the bonhomie usual at these meetings, this time the atmosphere was a little frosty. Few weeks earlier India had made its concerns public in a joint communiqué issued after the Sri Lankan ministers of external affairs visited New Delhi. Sri Lanka’s pronouncements after the Indian delegation’s visit indicated that Sri Lanka was still using the old templates of its relations with India. Apparently, Sri Lanka is either not sensitive to the changing dynamics of New Delhi’s coalition politics, or it could not care less.

The Congress-DMK coalition’s showing on Sri Lanka during the Eelam War IV has been interpreted by many in Tamil Nadu as insensitive and weak-kneed. The severe drubbing in Tamil Nadu elections it received has unnerved the Congress party (while DMK has tied itself in knots other than political). As an adroit politician Ms Jayalalithaa is exploiting this situation to her advantage. At the same time her strong statements on the Sri Lanka Tamil issue also reflect the prevailing mood in Tamil Nadu on Sri Lanka’s intransigence on war crimes issue.

Many Tamils felt that Rajapaksa’s promises made to India during the war on implementing the 13th amendment (including the so called 13th plus) lacked sincerity. Probably New Delhi also knows that Sri Lanka is not serious about resolving the issue with its laid back approach while President Rajapaksa initiates new slogans that delay concrete action. Whether these summations are correct or not, Sri Lanka Tamils have been stranded in political isolation.

Ms Jayalalithaa’s strident criticism of both Indian and Sri Lankan governments on this issue is a logical sequel to this mess. So India’s recently found public articulation of its stand on Sri Lanka Tamil-related issues is as much to assuage Tamil Nadu as pressurise Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka does not appear to have fully realised the adjustments New Delhi is making in its Sri Lanka policy to smoothen its interface with the new Tamil Nadu chief minister for its own domestic reasons. So we can expect Sri Lanka to continue to face problems in its relations with India unless it changes its act. Will it change?

At the end of last month, Sri Lanka army organised an international seminar on defeating terrorism, expounding on mechanics of its successful war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Though it was scheduled well in advance, its timing on the eve of the convening of the UN Human Rights Commission is not without significance: to direct the attention to present the Sri Lanka side of the conduct of war. However, key presentations by the defence secretary and minister of external affairs were defensive, focusing on the very issue of war crimes the army wanted to avoid.

There is probably a sense of relief in Sri Lanka that UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva would pass off in the next few days without taking any concrete follow up action on the war crimes issue. But the reprieve is likely to be short lived. The war issue has come as a shot in the arm for the LTTE remnants and fellow travellers outside Sri Lanka. They can once again claim legitimacy by joining the protests organised by the mainstream Tamil Diaspora. So before the September session of UNHRC, we can see once again a scaling up of public protests in international capitals demanding concrete UN action against Sri Lanka.

The moral of the story is Sri Lanka has to positively show it is serious about handling the human rights and war crimes baggage that had been accumulating. It is not merely to satisfy the international community but for its own sake.

Even before the foreign delegates for the army seminar moved out of Sri Lanka, the President was grappling with public grievances that have been incubating for some time: strike by university teachers demanding pay rise, strident trade union opposition to the private pension scheme bill, and simmering university students’ discontent. These are legitimate political and trade union activities and it would be short sighted to dub them as “international conspiracy to malign Sri Lanka.”

Even after two years of war, Sri Lanka state continues to wield extra clout under emergency and prevention of terrorism dispensations. As a result those in power find it easier to give accountability a short shrift to produce ‘visible results’. It was probably such an emergency mindset that caused the tragic death of a youth when the police handled a protest by workers at the Katunayake FTZ .

Sri Lanka did creditability in winning the war, but will lose its peace unless it changes its mindset. Otherwise it will be brutalising the society. It has to be accountable for its actions to its own people. Then it can care a fig about international opinion because the people will be supporting it wholeheartedly.

© SAAG

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Sri Lankan universities are no place for the army

By Rohini Hensman | The Guardian
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Students in Britain have protested vociferously against government cuts in education funding, and rightly so. But students in Sri Lanka, where state-funded higher education is also under attack, face an additional ordeal: compulsory "leadership and positive attitude development" of university entrants by the military. The scheme was introduced without warning by the ministry of higher education, and is being carried out by the ministry of defence.

It faced no fewer than five fundamental rights objections in the supreme court; students and teachers pleaded that the rights of students would be infringed if they were forced to undergo a residential training programme in army camps without regard to their beliefs and cultural sensitivities. But the petitions were dismissed, and the programme was initiated in May.

What makes this development especially grotesque is that it occurs at a time when allegations of war crimes have been levelled by the United Nations against the government and armed forces of Sri Lanka. The report of the UN secretary-general's panel of experts on accountability in Sri Lanka, released in April, found credible allegations that both the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had committed serious violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in the final stages of the war that ended in May 2009.

The government shelled no-fire zones, where it had encouraged civilians to congregate, hospitals, food distribution lines, the UN hub, and near Red Cross ships that had come to evacuate the wounded. It also deprived civilians in the conflict zone of food and medical aid. Outside the war zone, it abducted and killed journalists and other critics. The LTTE, for its part, used civilians as hostages and human shields, shooting them if they tried to flee to safety, forcibly recruited adults and children to its armed forces, and used forced labour to build defences. Outside the war zone, it carried out suicide attacks on civilians. As a result of all these violations, tens of thousands of civilians lost their lives from January to May 2009, many of them in the carnage of the last few days.

Responsibility for the government violations goes right to the top: the buck stops with the commander-in-chief, president Mahinda Rajapaksa, and his brother, defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa. But this does not exonerate soldiers who carried out commands to slaughter civilians, nor those who abused and executed prisoners. An appendix to the report by the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions to the human rights council in May documents technical assessments by forensic experts authenticating video footage, obtained by Channel 4, of Sri Lankan soldiers executing prisoners who have been subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, including women. Such behaviour may be atypical; indeed, survivors have testified that some soldiers treated them with compassion and kindness. But there is no guarantee that military personnel who are guilty of appalling crimes are not involved in providing leadership training to young students.

Jayantha Dhanapala and professor Savitri Goonesekere of the Friday Forum, a multi-ethnic group of concerned citizens, point out that military training, with its emphasis on regimentation and unquestioning obedience, is contrary to the core values of freedom of opinion and expression, and discussion with respect for opposing viewpoints, which should be encouraged by a university education.

Most disturbingly, they note that the content of the module on history and "national heritage" focuses exclusively on cultural symbols of the majority Sinhala community with none from other communities. In short, "the curriculum seems to discourage tolerance for viewpoint difference, and sensitivities for the pluralism and diversity of our country. Regimentation, military discipline and taking pride in a majoritarian version of national heritage and history are what seem to be envisaged as the ideal model of leadership".

The purpose of the programme seems to be to reproduce the authoritarian, militaristic, Sinhala nationalist vision of society that characterises the Rajapaksa regime. Even if this goal is not achieved, the "skills" imparted by an army that has perpetrated horrific war crimes could, in a country awash with weapons, spawn armed robbery and gang warfare as well as state and anti-state terrorism.

Fortunately, there seems to be widespread opposition to the programme from students, parents, teachers and other concerned citizens from all ethnic communities. Among the responses documented by the Young Researchers' Collective was the lament of a student from Jaffna: "Militarism within the student sector will only lead to the destruction of the whole country." A senior lecturer observed: "This programme is to brainwash students to suit the needs of the government." Many respondents protested against the lack of consultation and bizarre setting for the programme. Such opposition should certainly be supported by anyone interested in democracy and peace in Sri Lanka.

© The Guardian

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Sri Lanka: Police 'to release' detainee details

BBC Sinhala
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Sri Lankan Police say they will release the information about those held by the police Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) to relatives. However, concerned organisations will not be given the details.

"On the request of detainees we are not releasing their information to any body other than the close relatives”, police spokesperson SP Prishantha Jayakodi told BBC Sandeshaya.

Police will set up three centres in Colombo, Vavniya and Galle.

“The centres will operate twenty four hours a day but information is available only to close relatives” the spokesperson said.

Any relative who wants to find out the well being of their loved ones detained by the TID can either contact the centres by telephone or visit the centres in person, he added.

According to the police spokesman SP Jayakodi, information about the suspects detained by the Military will not be available unless the detainees were handed over to the TID.

How many in detention?

In his address to the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said that out of the 11,644 ex-combatants who surrendered or were arrested at the end of the conflict, 6,530 have already been rehabilitated and reintegrated into society.

Human rights organisations have been campaigning to reveal details of those held in detention.

SP Jayakodi declined to reveal how many people are detained by the TID.

“There are people arrested under detention orders and some of them are in remand custody after producing before the courts, we will release information of the suspects held under detention orders” SP Jayakodi added.

© BBC Sinhala

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Ban seeks second five-year term, gets Lanka’s support

By Thalif Deen | The Sunday Times
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U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who completes his five- year term by the end of this year, offered himself "for consideration" for a second five-year term as chief administrative officer of the world body.

Hours before he made the announcement on Monday, Ban addressed the 53- member Asian Group, which unanimously gave its endorsement supporting the secretary-general's request. At least 28 Asian countries, including Japan, India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Qatar, openly expressed support for his candidature.

The Asian Group, one of the largest regional groups at the United Nations, represents more than 60 percent of the world's population. Since various regional groups have held the post for two consecutive five-year terms, it was Asia's turn to field a candidate for a second term.

A former foreign minister of South Korea, Ban said he was not taking "anything for granted" until both the 15-member Security Council and the 192-member General Assembly formally elect him to office, possibly by the end of June, while he continues to complete the remaining six months of his first term.
Addressing reporters, he said he has sent letters to both U.N. bodies "offering humbly" his services for another five years beginning January 2012.

According to his critics, including human rights groups, Ban's primary weakness was his refusal to be vociferous in his condemnation of civilian killings and human rights abuses by the five veto- wielding permanent members (P-5) of the Security Council, namely the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia.

But at his press conference on Monday, Ban defended his record, pointing out that he continued to take a tough stand against all repressive regimes and violators of human rights. Asked whether he will be more outspoken against the P-5 once he gets his second term because he does not have to fear their vetoes, Ban said: "First of all, I would like to make it quite clear that, when it comes to universal human rights, there is no distinction or difference. I will make the same priority issue on that."

Ban has consistently maintained he did "discuss" human rights issues in his private talks with world leaders -- "where diplomatic discourse has sometimes to be conducted in confidence". When Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt failed to win a second term in late 1996, he lost the post of secretary-general because he irritated a single member state: the United States.

Despite the fact that the overwhelming majority in the Security Council voted for him (14 out of 15 votes), he was drummed out of office when the United States cast its veto against him. Speaking on condition of anonymity, an Asian diplomat told IPS that Ban most likely has received private assurances from the P-5 that his candidature will not be vetoed by any of them.

In Korean culture, he pointed out, failure is not an option. "Anything short of a second term for Ban Ki-moon," he said, "would be the equivalent of committing political hara-kiri." A downfall will also be construed as a monumental disaster for a country fast emerging as one of Asia's major political and economic powers wielding immense clout in the international arena.

Sam Koo, a former Korean ambassador for cultural cooperation and an ex-senior U.N. official, told IPS that Ban was a role model for young Koreans. He has inspired an entire generation of young Koreans to think and act globally, he said.

The result? "We now have tens of thousands of young volunteers seeking overseas service (the Korean overseas volunteers are number two in size only after the U.S. Peace Corps)," said Koo, a former journalist who worked for the Associated Press (AP) in Rome.

"Ban has carved out his unique efficient style of diplomacy combining (Dag) Hammarskjold's energy and quiet passion and (U) Thant's consensus-building skills in just over four years of service," he said.
"We all have great expectations for his second term," said Koo, who was also the representative of the U.N. children's agency UNICEF in Tokyo.

Both Hammarskjold (of Sweden) and U Thant (of Myanmar) held the post of secretary-general during 1953-1961 and 1961-1971, respectively. Surprisingly, Ban also had strong support from Sri Lanka, a country which has been critical of the secretary-general for establishing a U.N. panel of inquiry to probe war crimes charges.

Asked about the overwhelming Asian support for Ban, Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative Dr. Palitha Kohona told IPS the unanimous endorsement "strongly reflects Asia's recognition of and confidence in Ban Ki-moon's unobtrusive style of leadership, his distinctly Asian approach to problem-solving, his quiet diplomacy, his dedicated search for solutions to problems affecting humanity, in particular developing countries, and his hard work."

At a time when Asia is reasserting its leadership role in the global arena, said Kohona, "Ban Ki-moon would be the ideal Asian to continue to lead the United Nations." At his news conference on Monday, Ban was challenged on his double standards in judging the mass demonstrations sweeping across the Arab world where thousands of civilians have been killed.

Asked why he was not firm in his condemnation of Yemen and Syria, Ban said: "With my due respect to you, I don't agree that I was not firm enough as I've been to other situations. "I have been speaking quite firmly with President (Ali Abdullah) Saleh of Yemen and also President (Bashir al) Assad of Syria. In fact, you name any country, I have been speaking with almost all the leaders in the region, whether there were demonstrations or not.

"Because, wherever I saw some potentiality of such aspirations moving out, then I have discussed this matter, so that they would take necessary measures, and listening more attentively to the aspirations of their people. That is why you have seen in some areas still they have been trying to manage the situation."

Asked whether he would be willing to ask President Saleh and President Assad to leave their respective countries, he deftly sidestepped the question: "That will have to be determined by the people of both Yemen and Syria."

"My message to the leaders in the region has been consistent: that the leaders have a very important responsibility to reflect the will of their own people and listen carefully, more attentively to their will and aspirations," he declared.

© The Sunday Times

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Why do governments kill journalists?

Photo courtesy: vikalpa.org

Dr.Kumar David | Lakbima News
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There are journalists I like and some I dislike; there are those I agree with and many I profoundly disagree with. In recent years, across the globe, the more courageous ones have become an endangered species while sycophants have prospered.

When governments change the sycophants of one emperor are tarred and feathered to accommodate their replacements; that’s the future beckoning the current set of toadies too. My interest today however is in those members of the fourth estate who are a threatened species. I could not have imagined a decade ago that I would speak up on behalf of journalists because my recollection is of seedy types creeping in and out of hole-in-the wall watering joints and digging dirt on quite ordinary peccadilloes like fornication or pissing on lampposts late at night. But things have changed in this country and elsewhere. Why? I think there are two reasons.

The ubiquitous spread, imagery and influence of modern communication has made the fourth estate prominent and the tribe is in no way inclined to surrender this influence on opinion making. Secondly, authoritarian regimes have become belligerent violators of human rights, or violations are more publicized than previously, or ethnic conflicts and uprisings a la the Arab Spring have become widespread. All this has made journalists who think long term, and those who have quit prostituting their pens to the state, a troublesome lot. To repeat my two reasons; there is a technical one that new gadgets have made journalists a danger to killer states, and secondly, the political dynamics that, for a variety of reasons, killer states have hyper activated in recent decades.

International killings

What prompted this piece is the murder of Pakistani journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad and dumping his body 250km away. Shahzad has often exposed that the ISI and the Pakistan Army are in cahoots with jihadists, which exposé‚ in the aftermath of the revelation that bin Laden lived under the nose and shielded by these agencies, and then a fortnight ago, the daring Pakistani Taliban penetration of the Mehran military facility, sealed his death warrant. The case nicely corroborates the two reasons I adverted to, and it is but the tip of an iceberg of what Pakistani journalists know about dirty tricks and two-timing by the nation’s military and intelligence agencies. Such boldness had to be squashed because the establishment is reeling; the Lasantha effect you might say. Then there is the larger fact that Pakistan is breaking apart and recent events have heightened and sharpened old sores that have festered and turned prurient over time; this is the Darusman-Jayalalitha effect, in that sudden happenstance brings a whole shoddy contraption to light. The AAA-tripod (Allah-America-Army) is on the boil and scorching Pakistan’s very survival - I give it five years more. Phew! Sri Lanka’s illness is not terminal; a strong electoral laxative and purge is all we need to turn the corner.

The government of Pakistan is about as potent as a eunuch; president, prime minister, cabinet, ruling party and opposition are castrated catamites of the military. President Zardari was dispatched to Russia and Prime Minister Gilani to China by the military brass to weep on shoulders and proffer posteriors so far reserved exclusively for American use. The offers were declined and the said gentlemen sent back home and told to wash off the ISI and army’s jihadist slime. GoP is a nobody and in this it is different from the Sri Lankan case. GoP, very likely, is uninvolved in abduction and assassination of journalists; over here we have a more hands-on scenario. The Prageeth syndrome, where revealing the sexual misconduct of power brokers provokes a mafia style response, is also I believe a Sri Lankan special.

International practice in dealing with truculent journalists in authoritarian states varies considerably. In China they are pretty decent sorts; they just throw you in prison without trial and beat you up a bit. But Russia, Pakistan, Iran, Sri Lanka and many Arab and African countries are dangerous places for journalists, unless regime-sycophants; a breed not uncommon among our journalists. I accept and recognize other’s right to bum the regime if they so wish; my complaint is that those who report abuses of state power or expose kleptocrats are likely to have their life spans abridged. Good examples are Lanka’s Lasantha and Prageeth, irrespective of whether you dislike their politics, and Anna Politkovskaya in Russia (one of over 200 killed since 1993 in Russia). Anna was more than a newspaper person and doubly vulnerable as a courageous and forthright human rights campaigner. Her exposé‚ of what Putin’s satraps and armies were doing in Chechnya spelt her death, probably sanctioned at the highest levels of the Russian state. Lakbima News readers are an intelligent lot; I don’t need to draw explicit parallels.

The tide is changing

Thankfully however, I see the beginnings of a change in the tide in this country. No, my crystal ball can’t actually promise you anything yet, but if you have your ears close to the ground the drumbeat seems to be altering. A sixth sense tells me that the government is with its back to the wall and its tail between its hind legs, meaning, it can’t afford new clashes for which reason journalists may now be less in danger of white vans assassins’ implements than before. We have to thank external and internal developments for this. First, Darusman-Jayalalitha have got Colombo into a funk. Nearly the whole international community, and probably more than half the people at home, in their heart-of-hearts, know that Darusman is factually correct. Delhi is wary of a showdown with Jayalalitha; so Colombo has also lost its greatest defender and guardian abroad. You may yet say “a wounded wild beast is more dangerous,” true, but a frightened feral creature may avoid picking more fights unless it is quite rabid. GoSL is showing all the signs of being in retreat on the international stage.

Internal trends are no less significant. The Tamils were always hostile and after losing the war they turned against Rajapaksa even more, but the regime had enough mass backing to deal with this lot. Next it was the university population (first students, now teaching staff); then the capitalist class grouching about bad governance and ubiquitous graft and nepotism; and now the anti-government mood has spread to the working class. The government still retains its base in the Sinhala petty-bourgeois which makes up well over half the population. I have in mind not only its rural Sinhala base and the deep-south but also the Dharmapala Belt of Sinhala-Buddhist consciousness surrounding the metropolis (Maharagama, Dehiwala, Kotte, Gampaha and somewhat beyond, except the Catholics north of Colombo). Where my crystal ball remains murky is that it cannot say if this base is also eroding, at least in part, from its rapturous state of post-war adulation of the Rajapaksa brothers. Things have a way of impacting on each other, so a shift is likely, but we have to watch for some months more for definitive signs.

© Lakbima News

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UN urged to protect Lanka right to strike

Photo courtesy: vikalpa.org

BBC Sinhala
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A group of powerful trade union federations representing workers in the apparel industry and the health sector have complained to the United Nations seeking an intervention against the restrictions imposed by the government on trade union activity.

In a complaint to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the unions allege that the fundamental right of the workers to strike has been curtailed and activists are regularly intimidated.

These actions violate the principals of the ILO conventions, they say.

"These violations deal with restricting the right to engage in legitimate trade union action, intimidation of trade union activists and acts of anti-union discriminations in the public health sector," the letter to the ILO director general said.

Health authorities

Thushara Ilangakoon of Health Services Trade Union Alliance (HSTUA), Anotn Marcus of Trade Union Confederation (TUC) and Saman Ratnapriya of Government Nursing Officers Association in their complain urge the ILO to direct the Sri Lanka government to "stop all acts of anti-union discriminations".

The trade unions complain that health authorities are victimising activists engaged in trade union actions.

Instead of bargaining in good faith and responding to the issues raised the trade unions say 'the government choose to intimidate and threaten'.

They urge the ILO to direct Sri Lanka government not to selectively deprive the release from service, and not to engage in determining, influencing and/or exerting pressure on the HSTUA in its decision, who should be its nominee to be released from service for fulltime union work, among other concerns.

In 1951 the ILO set up the Committee on Freedom of Association (CFA) for the purpose of examining complaints about violations of freedom of association, whether or not the country concerned had ratified the relevant conventions.

If the CFA decides to receive the case, it establishes the facts in dialogue with the government concerned.

If it finds that there has been a violation of freedom of association standards or principles, it issues a report through the governing body and makes recommendations on how the situation could be remedied.

Governments are subsequently requested to report on the implementation of its recommendations.

© BBC Sinhala

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Sri Lanka: A life lost in protest against Pension Bill

By Amantha Perera | Inter Press Service
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Even before 22-year-old Sri Lankan worker Roshen Chanaka was pronounced dead at the Colombo North Hospital on Jun. 1, a large contingent of military personnel had moved in to secure the building. And to the small undertaker’s premises to which his body was later brought, the soldiers followed.

And it continued till Chanaka, a worker from an industrial park, was laid to rest three days later, giving the funeral the appearance of a military drill. The heavy military presence was a message the government was not going to let the funeral become a vehicle for further demonstrations.

On May 30, Chanaka had joined a protest against a proposed private sector pension scheme at the Katunayake Free Trade Zone (FTZ), about 30 km north of the capital Colombo, where he worked. But then police used excessive force and live bullets to quell the protest, fatally wounding Chanaka. More than 250 others, including over a dozen police officers, were injured.

On the day of his funeral, hours before the planned procession in the afternoon, the military removed Chanaka’s body from his father’s house and brought it to a small church nearby. The villagers protested, but the body was kept at the church for over five hours.

As the military laid out a heavy dragnet, armed soldiers stood beside the entrance and lined the short path the funeral procession took. Only relatives were allowed to remain inside the church. Everyone else, thousands of them, had to walk single file, pay their respects and move out.

"It was as if the government wanted to make sure it had control of the entire funeral," said one mourner who did not wish to be identified.

With such diligent attention to the security detail, the government made sure that the funeral did not get out of hand, and the workers’ anger was not further inflamed.

The protests that Chanaka had joined were the first such public venting of displeasure under the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who has ridden on a wave of popularity after ending a two-and-a-half-decade-old war in May 2009.

Rajapaksa moved quickly to withdraw the proposed bill, as the workers’ protests grew. The government also removed the police from the FTZ and handed over security to the military, which also withdrew from the zone ten days later.

For the protestors and union leaders, it was a bitter victory. "The workers know that they are safe for the time being," Anton Marcus, who heads the Free Trade Zone Workers’ Union (FTZWU), told IPS. "Their main fear was that with this proposed scheme, the gratuity and trust fund payments they get on retirement or on leaving a job would be lost," he said. The FTZWU has over 16,000 members from within and outside the trade zones.

The union leader, however, admitted that workers were still nervous about what to expect next, given the high-handed police action that cost a life, and the foreboding military presence right through the funeral.

The government has also not totally withdrawn the proposed bill, but merely suspended it, and not at the cabinet level but at a meeting of the central committee of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, the largest partner in the ruling People’s Alliance Government.

The suspension of the bill was announced the same day as the violent protests in the FTZ. The government stated: "The proposed private pension scheme will be discussed with the trade unions, political parties and at the government's parliamentary group meeting."

Marcus told IPS that unions agreed in principle on a pension scheme for private sector employees. What they protested was the government’s failure to include in the proposed bill any input from unions or workers’ representatives.

"This was a rush job, the bill was just pushed through, there was no dialogue at all," the union leader said. He told IPS that any new proposal should be finalised after consultations with representatives of employees. A major grouse the employees have with the suspended bill was that there was no government contribution, a unanimous demand of the workers.

Political parties supporting the workers have also expressed the same sentiments: any new bill should be a consultative process. Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremasinghe observed that the government had erred by not taking on his recommendation for a consultative process for the suspended bill.

Tilvin Silva, general secretary of the People’s Liberation Front that has a large trade union base, said the party would support any proposed bill as long as workers’ rights were guaranteed.

Economists feel that if the government adopts high-handed tactics to dampen workers’ protests, it could lead to greater chaos. "This government cannot bulldoze the workers," Muttukrishna Sarvananthan, the head of the Point Pedro Development Institute, told IPS.

Any assault on FTZ workers also risks international fallout. "The violent crackdown on FTZ workers would negatively impact on the ongoing review of the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) tariff concession given by the United States," Sarvananthan said.

Last year, Sri Lanka lost GSP facilities worth 100 million dollars a year to the European Union over what the Union said was the country’s failure to adhere to human rights standards. Though garment exports have rebounded from the EU action, Sarvananthan warned that similar action by the U.S. could be difficult to absorb.

While the Katunayake FTZ is the largest, Sri Lanka has 12 such zones where 265 companies are based and employ well above 100,000 workers, the bulk of them women. FTZ-based companies that enjoy tax holidays and other incentives accounted for eight percent of the country’s eight-billion-dollar exports in 2010.

© IPS

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Channel 4 tests boundaries of broadcasting with Sri Lanka exposé

By Ian Burrell - Media Editor | The Independent
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Channel 4 has sanctioned the broadcast of the most graphic and disturbing images that the network has ever screened, showing summary executions and the corpses of women who appear to have been sexually abused, to highlight evidence of alleged war crimes by Sri Lankan soldiers.

The footage, much of it taken by the troops themselves on their mobile phones as war trophies at the end of the 2009 conflict with Tamil rebels, has been identified by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, Christof Heyns, as evidence of "definitive war crimes".

That will put pressure on the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, to order an investigation into war crimes by Sri Lankan armed forces and Tamil Tiger fighters, which he has so far resisted.

The documentary, Sri Lanka's Killing Fields, shows the undressed bodies of bound Tamil women who appear to have been sexually abused being thrown on to trucks by laughing Sri Lankan soldiers. At one point in the film, one soldier tells his comrade: "Pose with the bodies!" The programme also contains footage shot by Tamil civilians on personal cameras and mobile phones showing systematic shelling of hospitals.

It contains testimony from UN officials, including Gordon Weiss, the UN spokesman on Sri Lanka, who alleges that there had been "roughly 65 attacks on medical points that were treating civilians". He says: "It probably constitutes a war crime." Vany Kumar, a British biomedical technician who was caught up in the fighting when visiting Tamil relatives and was under fire in the hospitals, gives witness evidence of the attacks.

In The Independent today, C4's most senior news executive defends the decision to broadcast the images but actually warns viewers against tuning in. Dorothy Byrne, head of news and current affairs, said: "I don't urge you to watch this programme. It's horrific. The images will remain in your mind, maybe for years."

Last week, the film was shown at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva and watched by an audience that included the United States, the United Kingdom and Indian ambassadors to the UN. An early day motion has been tabled in Parliament by the Conservative MP Lee Scott, calling "on the UN to establish an independent, international mechanism to ensure truth, accountability and justice in Sri Lanka". It advises all MPs to watch the documentary, scheduled to be shown on Tuesday evening.

Ms Byrne says that the programme has been made so that the most harrowing imagery is shown well after the watershed to protect children. "But there are probably many adults who shouldn't watch; people who can't watch horrible stuff on the news," she said. "I would definitely say pregnant women shouldn't look at it. I would rather I had never seen it."

At the start of the programme, C4 presenter Jon Snow issues a warning to the audience: "This film contains very disturbing images depicting death, injury, execution and evidence of sexual abuse and murder, much of it filmed on mobile phones or small cameras." Last night he told The Independent that the film was "the most important I have ever reported". He said: "I have reported civil wars before, not least in Central America in the 1980s but I have never seen such graphic evidence, often at the hands of government soldiers themselves, of what have all the hallmarks of war crimes."

Sam Zafiri, Amnesty International's director for Asia Pacific, said he hoped that the broadcasting of the new evidence would ensure that there was no cover-up of the atrocities. "The Sri Lanka government really tried very hard to make sure this was a war without any independent witnesses," he said. The programme also contains footage of atrocities committed by Tamil Tiger rebels against civilians.

Channel 4 first showed images of Sri Lankan troops committing alleged summary executions in 2009, soon after the end of the war. The Sri Lanka government accused the broadcaster of fabricating that footage.

In a statement issued to Channel 4, it also rejected the new evidence of atrocities and claimed that the broadcaster failed to meet "the 'standards and fairness' expected of a responsible TV channel".

The 26-year struggle

After 26 years of fighting for an independent homeland, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were crushed in a government offensive that ended in May 2009. A UN report found that tens of thousands of people died during the final months of ferocious fighting. The UN panel in April found that government troops repeatedly shelled so-called "no-fire zones" where they had encouraged civilians to gather. Some hospitals in the zones were repeatedly hit. The LTTE also committed atrocities. The government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa dismissed the panel's findings. Mr Rajapaksa was swept back to power at elections in 2010.

© The Independent

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Garments are major Sri Lankan exports to UK

Fibre2fashion
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H. E. John Rankin, British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, visited the operations of two UK-based garment companies in Sri Lanka – Coats Thread and Quantum Clothing. The High Commissioner visited the factories of the two companies in Horana town, in order to get an insight into customer-supplier cooperation between the two companies.

In 2009, garment sector accounted for a larger part of the over US$ 1 billion Sri Lankan exports to the UK. In 2010, the UK was the second largest FDI investor in Sri Lanka.

Coats is the biggest manufacturer of thread in the world. The company has a long presence on the island, following best practices and even driving innovations within its operations. The company has recently signed a deal to work with the Sri Lanka Design Festival, as a part of its support to the fashion and craft industry in Sri Lanka.

Quantum Clothing, on the other hand, is a company that exclusively exports its products to Marks and Spencer. Initially, the company commenced its operations in Sri Lanka as a part of Coats Lanka. Producing an output of approximately 300,000 items per week, the company currently provides job to 1,800 people.

Coats Lanka supplies Quantum Clothing with some of its requirements for clothing, which is, in turn, directly exported to the UK.

The High Commissioner said that his visit would help in understanding the Sri Lankan garment sector’s exports to the UK. It would help increase the foreign direct investment (FDI) from the UK to Sri Lanka.

Giles Watkins, Managing Director of Coats Thread Exports, said that a few of the company’s latest innovations in thread have been invented in Sri Lanka. He lauded Sri Lanka as a good hiring market due to its highly skilled workforce.

Yohan Lawrence, Country Manager of Quantum Clothing Lanka, echoed similar views. He explained that his company also has production units in Cambodia and India, where production costs are lower than Sri Lanka, however, due to its better skilled force, Sri Lanka is a priority for the company, especially when supplying to popular apparel brands.

© Fiber2Fashion

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Tamil Nadu Assembly seeks economic sanctions against Lanka

By Express News Service | Indian Express
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Urging the Centre to approach the United Nations to declare as war criminals those who are responsible for killing thousands of Tamils in Sri Lanka in the last phase of the civil conflict two years ago, the Tamil Nadu Assembly on Wednesday adopted a resolution unanimously. It also demanded that India should join hands with the international community to impose economic sanctions on the island nation to ensure that the remaining Tamils, lodged behind barbed wires since then, return to a life with basic rights and dignity.

Speaking on the resolution that she moved, the Chief Minister also used the opportunity to unleash an attack on the previous DMK regime headed by M Karunanidhi, criticising it for staging “dramas” instead of taking efforts to actually working to save the lives of the Lankan Tamils who eventually succumbed to the shells and bullets of the army there.

The resolution charged the Sri Lankan government with indiscriminate shelling even on hospitals and habitations. “The Sri Lankan government neither heeds to India or anyone else when it comes to the basic rights of Tamils. Economic sanction is the only way we can force the government there to ensure that the Tamils, who are now locked inside the government-run refugee camps, will have a life of pride, dignity and equality,” said Jaya during the discussion on the resolution.

© Indian Express

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