The Sri Lankan government came under severe criticism for human rights and humanitarian abuses at a public hearing in Brussels of the European Parliamentary Development Committee Wednesday. The Tamil Tigers were also criticized. Whilst representatives of the European Commission and Council of External Affairs slammed the lack of respect for international humanitarian laws in Sri Lanka, NGOs, including Human Rights Watch (HRW) and aid agency Action Contre la Faim (ACF) decried the continuing abuses of human rights.
The Development Committee’s two-part hearing looked at the impact of the post tsunami reconstruction in Sri Lanka and Indonesia and the human rights and humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka.
External speakers to the hearing on the rights situation in Sri Lanka included representatives of Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Action Contre la Faim (ACF). They issued highly charged accusations against the Sri Lanka state.
issued highly charged accusations on Sri Lanka. The HRW researcher Ms.Charu Lata HOGG particularly express concern that
"As the conflict intensifies and government forces are implicated in a longer list of abuses, from arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances to the war crimes, the government has displayed a clear unwillingness to hold accountable those responsible for serious crimes under sri Lankan and international law,” said Ms. Charu Hogg, the HRW representative.
“Government institutions have proven inadequate to deal with the scale and intensity of abuse.”
Outlining the human rights, media freedom and humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka, Ms. Hogg said: “the Sri Lankan government's human rights track record over the past year … has taken a decisive turn for the worse.”
The state was accused of participation or complicity in large numbers of ‘ disappearances.’
HRW warned that new anti-terrorism laws issued in December 2006 was framed too broadly and had led to the criminalization of a range of peaceful activities.
"The government's respect for Sri Lankan and international law has sharply declined," she further said.
HRW said the international community should work with the government and the LTTE to establish a United Nations human rights monitoring mission.
The director of the ACF, Mr. Francois Danel, made an emotionally charged presentation which was acknowledge by the chair of the meeting, Mr. Josep Borrell Fontelles, former head of the committee.
Last August seventeen ACF aid workers were massacred in the eastern town of Muttur. International ceasefire monitors blamed Sri Lankan government forces for the execution style killings. One victim was Muslim, the others were all Tamils.
Mr. Danel accused the Sri Lankan state of restricting humanitarian access to the island’s northeast of the island and of serious breaches of international humanitarian laws.
He pointed out that three different investigations had been launched into the Muttur massacre of ACF workers but none had made any progress. He urged the EU to take note of the Sri Lankan authorities’ refusal to allow the Australian ballistics experts report.
He was deeply pessimistic about Sri Lanka’s investigations and urged the EU to take up the issue and ensure the perpetrators of the crime were punished.
However the Sri Lankan representative to the session, Ambassador Aruni Wijewardane, refused to acknowledge the hearing on human rights and human rights issues by the Development Committee.
She also blamed LTTE for all happenings in Sri Lanka and asked EU member states to implement the ban on the group by closing down all propaganda and branch offices of the LTTE.
British MEP Nirj Deva, a long-standing and vocal supporter of successive Sri Lankan governments supported Ambassador Wijewardane. Mr. Deva was supported by his Conservative Party colleague, Mr. Geoffrey Van Orden.
They blamed terrorism for Sri Lanka’s problems and argued there ‘are no human rights in Vanni’ – the LTTE’s northern stronghold.
Their interventions were challenged by another British MEP, Robert Evans who pointed out that he had been to the Vanni and had observed the administration there.
He also reminded participants of the long list of assassinations of prominent critics of the Sri Lanka state, including the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) party leader Kumar Ponnambalam, senior Tamil parliamentarian Joseph Pararajasingham and others.
He slammed Sri Lankan propaganda institutions for attacking him whenever he raised issues of concern to the Tamil people.
Mr. Evans called participants attention to the Montenegro type of solution and suggested Sri Lanka also needed a political solution.
Meanwhile European Commission and External Affairs Council officials expressed concerns about the worsening human rights and humanitarian law situation in the island and urged both the Sri Lanka government and the LTTE to respect the international humanitarian laws.
The officials also express their reservation on the progress of the Commission of Inquiries (CoI) appointed by President Rajapakse and the work of the Eminent Persons’ Group (IIGEP).
Contrary to reports that Sri Lankan ministers would be stating their case at the Brussels forum, Colombo’s delegation was led by Ambassador Aruni Wijewardane, Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Austria. Mr. Shavindra Fernando, Deputy Solicitor General, Dr. Jayantha Samarasinghe of Reconstruction and Development Agency (RADA) and Mr. Gamini Hettiarachchi were amongst others in the delegation.
In Sri Lanka, the government suppressed reports of criticism in its media outlets and claimed a thumping endorsement from the EU.
“The meeting brought a great victory to the country despite all the allegations made by some political parties and organisations that tsunami funds should be stopped and that the Government is misusing the tsunami funds and human rights violations have increased,” Defence Spokesman Minister Keheliya Rambukwella told reporters.
However, he protested, “no one spoke a word about the LTTE and their terrorist activities. Instead they sanitised the LTTE and suppressed talk about terrorism. But their attempt failed and the Government achieved a huge victory.”
Given the interventions of Mr. Deva and Mr. Van Orden, Mr. Rambukwella told reporters: “Several members of the European Parliament condemned terrorism by the LTTE treating it as a cause of concern.”
