by Col R Hariharan
External developments
Even as Sri Lanka celebrated Victory Day for the second year on May 27, allegations of war crimes and human rights violations in the last stages of its ‘final’ war the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) continued to haunt it. Sri Lanka’s damage control actions so far do not appear to have yielded much dividend. The latest in these efforts was a 3-day international seminar “Defeating Terrorism – the Sri Lankan Experience” organised by the Sri Lanka Army at Colombo from May 31. Sri Lanka expected participation from 45 countries. This is probably an exercise to vindicate the approach it adopted to defeat terrorism to deflect the increasing international flak over war crimes allegations.
India, the most trusted ally of President Mahinda Rajapaksa during the Eelam War IV, for the first time spelled out its mind on the war crimes allegations in a joint communiqué issued after the visit of the Sri Lanka Minister for External Affairs Prof GL Peiris to New Delhi in mid May. In a major departure from its past policy of silence, the joint communiqué said the Indian External Affairs Minister urged the Government of Sri Lanka, to ensure resettlement and genuine reconciliation, “early withdrawal of emergency regulations, investigations into allegations of human rights violations, restoration of normalcy in affected areas and redress of humanitarian concerns of affected families.” Although India had made no reference to the UN advisory panel report the implications were clear. Evidently, if Prof Peiris’s mission was to convince the Indians of Sri Lankan stand on the issue, it failed. The Indian stand was probably conditioned by the severe drubbing New Delhi’s ruling coalition had suffered in the recent Tamil Nadu assembly elections.
India’s vocalisation of its stand appears to have caused concern in Colombo. This was evident when Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, addressing the Sri Lanka army seminar (referred earlier), made a pointed reference to President Rajapaksa’s “vision in establishing a top level interaction between the two nations [Sri Lanka and India] based on trust.” He said the President had briefed India on all developments in the war “to avoid confusion and misrepresentation of facts.”
India’s concerns also appear to have had some salutary effect on Sri Lanka's stand. In the first ever trial of a surrendered LTTE leader, LTTE’s Trincomalee District commander Sivasubramaniam Varathanathan alias “Col”Paduman who surrendered to the security forces was put on trial on charges under the Prevention of Terrorism Act after two years in custody. The wife and children of Tamilselvan, (the political head of the LTTE who was killed in an airstrike) apprehended in the last stages of war have been set free under a restricted release order to enable them to live in Panagoda and the children to attend school.
These are probably small indications that Colombo is acting some seriousness on human rights concerns, despite all the bravado and public posturing by ministers and politicians. According to the Attorney General the government was also considering the possibility of reviewing the PTA along with all other emergency regulations.
In this context Sri Lankan Minister of External Affairs visit to Beijing, after his visit to New Delhi, yielded a little more favourable reaction. The Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi assured Prof. Peiris that China had “total confidence in the capability of the government and people of Sri Lanka to resolve their own issues.” He said that China would stand by Sri Lanka in achieving the tasks of reconciliation and reconstruction. However, there was nothing new in the Chinese stand.
Indian support in international forums become important as more international pressure builds up against Sri Lanka. India has recently been elected to the 15-member UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva and this increases its value as a Sri Lanka ally.
The UN Commissioner for Human Rights Ms Navi Pillay inaugural speech at the 17th session of the UN HRC on May 30 extended full support to the recommendations of the UN Panel report. Sections of Tamil Diaspora in various European capitals held demonstrations on May 19 that marks the day of defeat of the LTTE. They called for international action against President Rajapaksa for alleged war crimes. The British TV Channel 4 screened another set of videos showing summary killing of naked LTTE cadres by alleged Sri Lanka soldiers. Commenting on the videos, Christof Heyns, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, told the Human Rights Council that he believed a prima facie case of serious international crimes has been made.” He recommended the investigation of the evidence by an international panel.
India’s reference to the devolution package under the 13th Amendment of the Constitution to empower provincial councils created in Sri Lanka after the India-Sri Lanka Agreement 1987 also appear to have nudged Sri Lanka into action. The President is said to have discussed the issue of implementation of the 13th Amendment recently at a meeting with the chief ministers and governors of eight provinces. (Northern Province was not represented as chief minister has not yet been elected.) However, the vexing issue of devolution of land and police powers to the provincial councils was not discussed.
Internal developments
The President had been facing rising internal problems also on three fronts: a pension bill for private sector employees, introduction of compulsory ‘leadership training’ under the army for new entrants to the university, and the university teachers’ increasingly confrontational agitation for higher wages. The government probably did not expect the widespread controversy generated in the wake of introduction of the Private Sector Pension Bill and the ‘Leadership Training” programme for entrants to the university.
Trade unions have come out loudly against the proposed Pension Scheme, claimng it adversely affected workers’ interests. The new pension bill proposes to convert part of the provident fund into a pension fund. The protests took a violent turn when police was unleashed on large number of garment workers at the Katunayake Free Trade Zones (FTZ) who came out against the scheme on May 30. The President has ordered a judicial enquiry into the incident in which 250 persons including 15 policemen were injured. In view of the public outcry against the bill, the government is likely to shelve the proposal.
The ruling coalition had been facing violent student protests in many universities for quite some time. With a view to discipline their behaviour, the Higher Education Minister probably hit upon the idea of compulsory ‘Leadership Training” for new entrants to the university. The student community has resented the move as they were not aware of this requirement at the time of writing the entrance examinations. The opposition Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) which has sizeable following among university students probably feels this move as an indirect means of curbing its activity. Opposition parties have expressed their strong opposition to both the proposals and this has struck a jarring note when the nation is celebrating second victory day.
The university teachers have been demanding d higher wages since 2008. The government has been repeatedly rejecting their demand under some pretext or other. The university teachers have struck work and the agitation has now gathered momentum. In bid to resolve the issue the President met a delegation of striking teachers and requested them to give up the agitational approach in view of ‘international crisis’ faced by the country. However, the teachers have not relented and the stalemate continues. In the coming weeks this confrontational campaign is likely to gather more momentum.
Miscellaneous
Sri Lanka has withdrawn the system of visa on arrival for foreign visitors including Indians that had been in force so far. Now all foreign visitors arriving in Sri Lanka from August 1 onwards will be required to obtain visa prior to their arrival. To facilitate this Sri Lanka has introduced online visa application facility. However, citizens of Singapore and Maldives will enjoy the visa on arrival facility on a reciprocal basis as extended to Sri Lankan citizens visiting these countries. If the system for issue of visa is not streamlined, the new measure could affect tourist arrivals.
India and Sri Lanka have signed a new Memorandum of Understanding to improve bilateral air services. It revises the original Bilateral Air Services Agreement signed between the two countries on December 21, 1948 keeping in line with the developments in aviation industry and rapid increase in air travel.
At the behest of Dutch investigative officials pursuing the LTTE’s illegal extortion money trail to Norway, Norwegian police arrested Oslo-based LTTE leader Perinpanayagam Sivaparan also known as Nediyawan. Nediyawan now playing a key role in trying to revive the organisation was produced in an Oslo court and released on conditional bail after two days of extortion. This would show, that regardless of Sri Lanka stand on human rights issues, EU countries are not in a mood to condone activities any illegal activities of LTTE elements on their soil.
Written on May 31, 2011
Courtesy: South Asia Security Trends Vol 5, No 5 June 2011
URL: www.security-risks.com
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