“Only a fool thinks that sport and politics do not mix. But I can understand the desire to try and keep the two things separate, to stick your fingers in your ears and insist that the worries of the real world should not intrude of the field of play.

“[But] this Saturday England’s cricketers will be expected to play against a man who is a direct representative of a government accused of war crimes on a horrific scale by the United Nations. The politics of the matter is not outside the ground or behind a metal fence any more. It is right there in the middle of the pitch and it cannot be ignored.”

- Andy Bull, sports writer with The Guardian. See his comment here.

See also our recent posts:

The link between Sport and Politics

Ruling party MP rejoins Sri Lanka cricket team

'Tamils’ plight must prick English consciences'

The argument that cricket and politics are separate was always dubious – not least given what a ‘national’ team represents. (See this, and also this and this).

It is exemplified by the return of Sanath Jayasuriya to the Sri Lanka’s cricket team.

Jayasuriya, a star Sri Lankan cricketer, is also a member of parliament representing the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

He was elected in Jan 2010 to represent his hometown, Matara. Until then, he’d been in the national team for eleven years, captain for four.

Jayasuriya returns to the Sri Lankan team this month, in time to play against England in a T20 match and five one day internationals, and two ODIs against Ireland and Scotland respectively. (see schedule here)

“I’m excited and very much looking forward to serve my country again,” Jayasuriya said on local radio earlier this month (see report here).

President Mahinda Rajapaksa welcoming Sri Lanka's cricketers back from the World Cup in India (April 2011).

This is the abstract of a forthcoming book on the close relationship between sport and politics by Alan Bairner, Professor of Sport and Social Theory at Loughborough University, UK (see a list of his other publications here):

“Sport and politics have become inseparably entwined. From the volatile nationalism of international soccer to human rights controversies surrounding the Beijing Olympics, sport is both an important factor in political discourse and shaped by the wider political environment.

“In this ground-breaking and thought provoking book, Alan Bairner offers a comprehensive and critical survey of the relationship between sport and politics and argues that by understanding this relationship we can develop a much more nuanced understanding of both sport and politics as aspects of culture.

“The book begins with three main propositions – that politicians use sport, that sport reflects political conditions, and that sport itself contributes to political culture for good or for ill.

“Against this background the book explores the key points of interaction between the two, including national and international sport policy, the political economy of sport, nationalism in sport, sport in political thought, globalisation, the politics of sporting celebrity, and the neighbouring academic communities of sport and political science.

“With fascinating case studies woven throughout, this book is the perfect introduction to an important contemporary topic for all students of sport, politics and society.”

In April, Sri Lanka’s cash-strapped government suddenly raised taxes on imported cars – from 95% to 120%.

The overnight raise drew this comment from ‘fp’, a reader of Lanka Business Online:

“No warning will be given. An arbitrary state essentially operates by making the lives of citizens uncertain and making it difficult to plan long term.

“No public consultation, no warning nothing. Midnight gazette. You wake up find find out that the state has pulled the rug out from under you.

“Remember you are viewed as an object for taxation by the state. The ruling classes themselves get tax free cars. You are there to pay taxes so that the state can be expanded and you are available to be oppressed.

“In an orderly state taxes are raised in budgets because that give a one year planning horizon for citizens. You can plan import stuff and refrain from importing near the budget in case you do not want to take a risk. That is how free countries operate.

“But Sri Lanka is an arbitrary state where nothing is certain and you are a second class citizen. We have lost these essential freedoms.

“But do not take up arms against the state. The state will kill you with arms bought from the taxes charged from you.”

"The video showing summary executions during the final days of Sri Lanka's war in May 2009 provides clear-cut evidence of war crimes.

"Beyond what is evident in the video, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has gathered information on the likely time and place of the executions, the identity of one of the victims, and the specific army unit likely to have been involved.

“The need for a criminal investigation is obvious, yet the Sri Lankan government has refused to conduct one, even when confronted by such disturbing footage.

"In fact, the Sri Lankan government has increasingly made it clear that it does not intend to investigate this or any other allegations of wrongdoing by its forces during the decades-long conflict with the Tamil Tigers."

- Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia Director of Human Rights Watch, on footage included in Channel 4's documentary on Sri Lanka's war crimes. See her full comment here.

See also by HRW:

UNHRC should ensure accountability (June 2011)

Sri Lanka's deliberate targeting of civilians (April 2011)

India should back UN panel on Sri Lanka war crimes (March 2011)

Sri Lanka will not return to a rights-respecting government soon (Jan 2011)

Evidence of war crimes in Sri Lanka (June 2010)
 

President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s militarized rule of Sri Lanka’s Tamil areas is so severe, even Sinhala nationalist parties opposed to the government are finding it difficult.

The JVP (Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna) said Friday that what the military’s photographing and registering of the residents was similar to what Israel was doing to the Palestinian residents of Gaza and West Bank.

See the Daily Mirror’s report here.

The government, JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva told a news conference, was creating a fear psychosis. 

This is what the island’s main Tamil party, the TNA (Tamil Nationalist Alliance), has long been protesting.

See our earlier articles: Terror in Jaffna (Jan 2011).

Meanwhile, last week Sri Lankan troops stormed an election campaign meeting by the TNA leadership, injuring several people (See details in reports by TamilNet, Reuters and AFP).

In the past decade, it’s worth recalling, Army-backed paramilitaries have murdered several TNA parliamentarians, as well as scores of party officials and campaigners, and hundreds of supporters.

See also our editorial (March 2010) on Tamil parliamentary politics in Sri Lanka.

Other comments Friday by JVP General Secretary Silva:

“Today the government is not allowing political parties to do politics in their areas. The JVP candidate for the Walikamam East in the Jaffna district has been threatened. We all know how a political meeting of the TNA attended by its MPs was attacked by a group on Thursday. Even parliamentarians are unable to do anything.

“There is a census planned to cover the whole of Sri Lanka. This is a civil activity. But, what is happening forcibly in the North does not appear to be a part of this census. It is an attempt by the military to impose its hegemony over the people. It is unacceptable."
 

"I tried to die. That was better for me. But then I found that I was being revived so that I can be killed by torture in Sri Lanka. I don't feel any animosity towards anyone but I cannot understand why the British authorities saved my life only to send me back to where I would be killed."

- Nagendrarajah Suthakaran, an asylum seeker who attempted suicide to avoid being deported to Sri Lanka by Britain.

His temporary reprieve came literally at the very last minute – he was taken off the flight for Colombo before it left. See his interview with Channel 4 here.

Another 42, however, were not given reprieves, despite calls by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and British MPs.

One of them has scars from torture in Sri Lankan custody – where he was visited three times by the ICRC.

See Channel 4’s report here.

During 2009, even as 40,000 Tamil civilians were being systematically killed by the Sri Lankan military, the UK government approved arms sales worth £700,000 to Sri Lanka. Even after Sri Lanka declared victory, and the war over, the UK government approved sales of arms to £1,000,000

The UK based, Campaign Against Arms Trade group, drawing attention to the UK's direct role in providing alleged war criminals with the equipment needed to bomb homes, hospitals and schools, reiterated that the UK's approval of these arms exports took place despite the UK government's knowledge of the situation on the ground.  

Kaye Stearman for Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) said:

"[Channel 4's] Sri Lanka's Killing Fields has cast a spotlight on the slaughter of 2009. David Cameron and the UK government are calling on the Sri Lankan government to investigate the atrocities but we also need a proper investigation of the UK government's own complicity in selling arms to Sri Lanka, despite knowing how they were likely to be used.

"UK arms sales confer support and legitimacy on the Sri Lankan government, just as they do on Middle East governments who use UK arms against their own people."

See full statement by CAAT here

Britain’s involvement in Sri Lanka's war was first exposed in June 2009. It was revealed that the UK had sold Sri Lanka arms even during the 2002 ceasefire and continued to do so, even though the United States’ had suspended all arms sales in early 2008 because of the escalating human rights abuses.

Although several MPs at the time, including Malcolm Bruce (Liberal Democrats), John Battle (Labour) and Mike Gaps (Labour) condemning such sales to Sri Lanka and demanded why Britain continued to supply weapons despite being in breach of the 1998 EU’s code of conduct on Arms Exports, there was no meaningful response.

See The Times' article dated 02/06/09 here

See also 'UK arms sales to Sri Lanka match Tsunami aid' (May 2007) 

The emergence of new evidence of war crimes against Tamil civilians has led to questions on Britain's tacit backing of the Sri Lankan government.

Speaking in the House of Commons against the deportation of Tamil refugees to Sri Lanka, opposition (Labour) MP Siobhain McDonagh said the UK government had Tamil blood on its hands.

McDonagh condemned the continuing deportations of Tamil refugees to Sri Lanka, referring to the persistent reports torture and extra-judicial killings there.

"There is evidence of continuing abuse against Tamils, including torture and extra-judicial killings. The president of Sri Lanka, a probable war crimes suspect, has taken over enormous powers over the judiciary and policing.

"The British government is supposed to be one of the leading forces in the Commonwealth, yet it is not only turning a blind eye it is sending plane load after plane load of Tamils back. It takes no measure to monitor them and Sri Lanka does not allow any journalists or independent observers.

"The people on these planes ... have identified themselves as Tamils and against the Sri Lankan government. Britain is flying them on specially chartered flights. It is not like they are arriving in cognito. Even worse the UK BA (Border Agency) has actually shared documents with the Sri Lankan authorities. We might as well paint targets on their back.

"To me it's obvious that Tamils have a reason to fear for their safety in Sri Lanka. Given the emergence of yet more evidence of atrocities, how could they be safe? I think the British parliament needs to say whether we want our country to continue with these deportations and to continue to have Tamil blood on our hands.”

See video of McDonagh's remarks in the House of Commons on June 16 in Channel 4's report:

“Though Sri Lanka became independent, the Tamils living in that country were struggling for many years against the injustice of being treated as second class citizens.

“Instead of appreciating the justness of their demand and ensuring that Tamils in Sri Lanka lead a life of dignity, with equal rights and self-respect through necessary Constitutional Amendments, the Sri Lankan Government was taking all possible action to exterminate them.”

See here the full text of the Memorandum submitted by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Selvi J. Jayalalithaa to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on June 15, 2001.

See also

Cricket commentator and former England captain Mike Atherton wrote in The Times Thursday:

“Throughout Sri Lanka’s tour to England, a small and dedicated band of Tamil protesters have done their best to raise awareness of the persecution that members of this minority have suffered and continue to suffer in their homeland.

“They were at the Sri Lankans’ opening match, at Uxbridge, and at the Test matches at Cardiff and Lord’s. By and large, it is a voice that has been ignored.

“Channel 4’s distressing documentary on Tuesday evening that highlighted the systematic killing, torture and sexual abuse of Tamil prisoners of war and civilians during the past couple of years of the civil war, and that showed images that were more shocking than anything seen on television since the Ethiopian food shortages, should change all that.

“Increasingly, the United Nations’ inaction on the evidence of war crimes looks inexcusable. If that continues, it is likely that questions will be asked about the suitability of England’s tour to Sri Lanka, scheduled for this winter.

“After all, there seems little to differentiate President Rajapaksa’s brutal regime from that of Robert Mugabe’s in Zimbabwe, about whom English consciences were severely pricked.”

See also:

Criticism of Formula One on aborted Bahrain race

Desmond Tutu: Sports boycott crucial to ending apartheid

TYO extends 'Boycott Sri Lanka' to cricket

“The government and its agents continued to be responsible for serious human rights problems.

“Security forces committed arbitrary and unlawful killings ... Disappearances continued to be a problem ... Many independent observers cited a continued climate of fear among minority populations... Security forces tortured and abused detainees; poor prison conditions remained a problem; and authorities arbitrarily arrested and detained citizens.

“Discrimination against … the ethnic Tamil minority continued, and a disproportionate number of victims of human rights violations were Tamils.

“Tamils throughout the country, but especially in the conflict-affected north and east, reported frequent harassment of young and middle-age Tamil men by security forces and paramilitary groups.

“Official impunity was a problem; there were no public indications or reports that civilian or military courts convicted any military or police members for human rights abuses.

“Denial of fair public trial remained a problem; the judiciary was subject to executive influence; and the government infringed on citizens' privacy rights, particularly when conducting cordon and search operations in Tamil neighborhoods.

On internally displaced people (IDPs)

“Almost all IDPs were ethnically Tamil. … The government did not permit some … IDPs, primarily Tamils, to return home because their places of origin remained inside [High Security Zones] HSZs, despite announcements during the year that these HSZs would soon be reduced or eliminated.

“Some observers claimed that the HSZs were excessive and unfairly affected Tamil agricultural lands, particularly in Jaffna. There were allegations after the war ended that the government was allowing non-Tamil businesses to locate inside HSZs, taking over valuable land before local citizens were allowed to return."

See the full text of the Sri Lanka section of the State Department’s 2010 Human Rights Report here

“The targeting of civilians is a war crime. If proved, these charges go right up the chain of command of Sri Lanka’s military and government. If Iran stands condemned for killing hundreds in the wake of the June 2009 election, if Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic now face justice in The Hague, if Bashar al-Assad faces UN sanctions for an assault that has killed 1,300 Syrians, how it is that President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother, the defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, escape all censure, after over 40,000 civilians were killed?”

- The Guardian newspaper’s editorial on June 15. See the full text here

Speaking after Tuesday’s transmission of Channel 4’s documentary ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’, Britain's Foreign Office Minister for South Asia, Alistair Burt, said in a statement:

“I was shocked by the horrific scenes I saw in the documentary that was broadcast on 14 June.

“The recent UN Panel of Experts’ report, this documentary and previously authenticated Channel 4 footage, constitutes convincing evidence of violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.

“The whole of the international community will expect the Sri Lankans to give a serious and full response to this evidence.

“Since the end of the conflict the UK has called for an independent, thorough and credible investigation of the allegations that war crimes were committed during the hostilities and the UK Government expects to see progress by the end of the year. I reiterated this message to the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister on 14 June.

“If the Sri Lankan government does not respond we will support the international community in revisiting all options available to press the Sri Lankan Government to fulfil its obligations.

“Unless this is done, Sri Lanka will not be able to move on, and the prospects for reconciliation between Sri Lanka’s communities will be curtailed.  It is of the greatest importance that this does not happen.”