In the past two weeks there has been a chorus of international protest against some of the Sri Lankan state’s abuses: extra-judicial executions, disappearances, aerial bombing of civilian targets, have all drawn criticism. Understandably, many Tamils have expressed their appreciation for this willingness on the part of some international actors to speak out.
But herein lies the problem. We should not be grateful that they take the trouble. Because these same actors, well meaning or otherwise, that condemn Sri Lanka’s recent atrocities have, over the years, never accorded the same rights to the Tamils that they take for granted for their own national communities, be they American, Canadian, British or European.
Take for example the French Canadians. When the people of Quebec aspired to liberation from a broader Canada, they simply held a referendum. Even though the majority of Quebequois voted ‘No’ in 1980 and 1995, new legislation was introduced to allow future referendums (in case the Quebequois eventually changed their minds).
In the case of the Tamils, the international organisations and the governments of the United States, Japan and the European Union (the ‘Co-chairs’) have set far lower standards. And have consistently failed to meet these.
But even on simple issues – human rights, say – the Tamils are accorded much less.
For example UNESCO condemned the murder last month, in Sri Lankan army controlled Jaffna, of the editor of the Tamil language Namathu Eelanadu (‘Our Eelam Nation’). But the UN agencies have previously consistently ignored the killing of Tamil journalists. BBC correspondent Mylvaganam Nimalrajan was shot dead by pro-government paramilitaries in late 2000. So was popular Virakesari columnist Aiyathurai Nadesan. The most well known Tamil analyst, Dharmeratnam Sivaram (also editor of TamilNet) was abducted from a Colombo street and murdered one night in May 2005. In all these cases, UNESCO said nothing.
In the past year, all the major Tamil newspapers have seen their offices searched and their staff targetted by pro-Colombo forces. If the standard is to prevent the abduction or killing of journalists then the UN agencies have been shockingly silent when it comes to Tamil ones.
Last week the United Nations also condemned the execution, by the Sri Lankan Army, of seventeen staff of French aid agency ‘Action Contre Le Faim.’ All but one (an ethnic Muslim) were Tamils.
But no such international outrage was expressed when seven workers of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO), a Tamil Diaspora funded aid agency were abducted by Army-backed paramilitaries in January 2006.
They are still missing. But there has been no investigation. And unlike the hand wringing that followed the massacre of the ACF staff, the TRO disappearances brought no international demands for an investigation.
The North East Secretariat for Human Rights (NESOHR), headed by Rev. Fr Karunarathnam, has seen two of its founding members murdered in the few years since its inception.
If the international standard is that state-backed forces cannot abduct and murder aid and human rights workers then the international silence over Sri Lanka has consistently been deafening.
Last month 55 Tamil schoolgirls were killed when the Sri Lanka Air Force bombed the Sencholai girls’ home in Mullaitive. UNICEF issued a vague statement criticising the deaths – but avoided even mentioning the words ‘air force.’
And this is not the first time a Tamil school has been targeted by the air force. Nagerkoil school was bombed in September 1995 with scores of kids being killed. There has never been an investigation, and little international pressure for one. Not even from UNICEF.
Tamil students in Jaffna have regularly been arrested by the Sri Lankan armed forces. In one infamous case, 18-year old Krishanti Jumanarswamy was raped and murdered. Jaffna University has been attacked by troops several times last year; its lecturers and students assaulted and injured. Five Advanced-level students were executed by soldiers on a Trincomalee beach in January this year.
UNICEF, UNESCO and the governments that funded them have remained silent on all these. If the international standard is that children should not be at risk from a state’s armed forces, then, as far as Tamil children are concerned, the international community has consistently ignored this standard.
And it is not simply a case of apathy on the part of the international community. Many international actors are also hostile and obstructive towards the Tamils own efforts at self-help.
In a recent discussion with Brad Adams, Director of the New York based Lobbying group, Human Rights Watch I pointed out that his agency was creating a political environment which was inherently hostile to all Tamil Diaspora fund raising, including for tsunami reconstruction and emergency relief for internally displaced through organisations such as the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO).
He blithely responded that the Diaspora Tamils should donate to the ICRC instead. Never mind that many international organisations use up as much as 40% of donations on overheads whereas the TRO, staffed by volunteers, uses less than 5%. Never mind that with international agencies, one’s money goes to a general pool from which it will be allocated around the world as they please. Never mind that the TRO has shown itself, in the Tsunami crisis to be simply the most capable NGO on the ground in the Northeast.
And, above all, never mind that, fundamentally any humanitarian NGO should have the same protection irrespective of the ethnicity of its staff. But clearly this standard does not extend to the TRO.
Whilst lecturing the Tamils on their ‘lack of capacity,’ foreign governments, including the United States, where Human Rights Watch is primarily based, have been fostering a culture of dependency on international agencies. Simultaneously, they have actively campaigned against Tamil Diaspora fund raising - in effect, destroying our own capacity for self-help.
The tragic effects are endured only by the Tamils of the Northeast. And this week those effects are particularly acute.
While trucks loaded with supplies from the ICRC and the UN are blocked at Sri Lanka Army checkpoints, frightened by the violence, both the UN and the ICRC have threatened withdraw staff over safety concerns. Other INGOs have already deserted Army-controlled Jaffna.
The TRO, more than any other NGO, has also lost staff – and that too amid a disgraceful international silence. But the TRO does not threaten to leave. It has, instead, reiterated its commitment to a grateful people.
Meanwhile the international strategy of demonising Diaspora fund raising has come home to roost in the freezing of TRO funds by the Sri Lankan Central Bank last week. Without the climate of hostility towards Tamil fundraising engendered by the United States and its international partners, such a blatant seizure of Tamil money would not be possible.
As such, we don’t need to be grateful for the belated – and occasionally half-hearted – protests that some international actors have been compelled to utter recently.
Instead we should view with contempt how little these international actors have knowingly done for us.
We should instead be grateful for our own: the journalists who fearlessly reported on the Sri Lankan state’s atrocities against our people, the aid workers who, with equal disregard for their own safety, tend to the needs of our people under attack by the state’s armed forces and for the political activists who strive to ensure our ‘legitimate grievances’ –which the international community occasionally mentions in between sermons on terrorism – are pursued against the hostility of the international community.
