As widespread human rights abuses by the Sri Lankan security forces continue, even staunch supporters of the state are unable to disguise their disquiet with many governments now echoing recent protests by international human right groups against the relentless killings and abductions.
However the brazen abuses and ensuing protests right groups have so far not resulted in any significant action against Sri Lanka by the United States or other leading states.
And rather than be deterred, the Sri Lankan government has reacted angrily to protests about its human rights record, refusing permission for international rights groups and threatening to expel foreign organization and diplomats who criticize it.
The international concerns were raised most prominently last week by Pope Benedict XVI when President Mahinda Rajapakse visited him in the Vatican.
They were repeated by the Vatican Cardinal Secretary of State, Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone, who met with President Rajapaksa afterwards.
“In the course of the talks - and in the light of the current situation in Sri Lanka - the need was reiterated to respect human rights and resume the path of dialogue and negotiation as the only way to put an end to the violence that is bloodying the island,” a statement issued by the Vatican afterwards said.
Even the United States, a strong ally of Sri Lanka in the war against the Tamil Tigers is also openly expressing its concerns at the daily atrocities in government controlled areas.
Last week US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, whilst backing Sri Lanka’s ongoing military campaign, raised his concerns publicly.
“We are very much aware of the fact that this is a democratically elected government that is trying to fight a terrorist organisation,” he told journalists.
“At the same time, we of course continue to be concerned about the killings in government areas and urge the law enforcement authorities to adhere to codes of conduct in carrying out their duties,” he said.
“We are equally concerned about violations occurring in areas under LTTE control,” Boucher, who heads the Bureau for South and Central Asian Affairs at US Department of State, said.
He said that US would continue to assist the Sri Lankan state and push for independent inquiries to be held into human rights violations.
International human rights groups, which were largely silent as the Sri Lankan security forces stepped up a terror campaign amongst Tamil civilians a year ago have become increasingly critical.
International organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch and Western governments are frustrated by the Colombo government’s refusal to allow independent human rights monitoring in Sri Lanka.
And recently, Freedom House, an influential US-based organization that advocates democracy and freedom around the world, citing Sri Lanka’s human rights abuses, urged the US government to withhold US$590 million assistance through the Millennium Challenge Account.
“The serious human rights abuses and excessive restrictions on freedom of speech and association by the government of Sri Lanka merit the country’s removal from a list of eligible recipients for Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) assistance,” Freedom House said in a statement.
“These abuses by the Sri Lankan government merit a suspension of MCA eligibility status,” Freedom House’s Executive Director, Jennifer Windsor said.
“The government’s involvement in extrajudicial killings and disappearances, as well as the crackdown on speech and association, are simply not compatible with the MCA’s underlying criteria of ‘ruling justly,’ and until these deficiencies are repaired, the country should not be considered,” she said.
“Democratic governments have a responsibility - even in the midst of conflict - to respect and protect fundamental individual freedoms.”
Members of US senate and congress have also taken up the human rights abuses by Sri Lanka’s security forces, press reports say.
On March 30, Senator Richard G. Lugar, who sits in Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, conveyed to President Rajapakse in writing that many in the Senate were troubled by reports of a deteriorating human rights situation in Sri Lanka.
The senator had urged President Rajapakse to take “appropriate action to ensure that neither the government of Sri Lanka, nor any group allied to it, is a perpetrator of human rights abuses.”
Last month Democratic Congressman Tom Lantos from California, who is the co-chair of the human rights caucus and chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, criticised the growing number of disappearances in Sri Lanka.
In the strongly worded statement Lantos called for the resumption of talks under the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement (CFA).
“Further escalation will only worsen the already gross human rights abuses. I call upon the international community, including Diaspora groups, to push all parties towards dialogue rather than destruction,” Lantos wrote.
Earlier this year, a group 38 US lawmakers led by New Jersey Democratic Representative Rush Holt requested President George W. Bush to appoint a special envoy to help bring about peace in conflict-ridden Sri Lanka.
“We are writing to urge you to appoint a special envoy for Sri Lanka because we are deeply troubled by the ever-worsening situation on the ground there,” they said.
“The renewed violence and rising death toll in Sri Lanka have overtaken the fragile peace process and threaten a return to open civil war,” they said. “Further, we are troubled by the large increase in kidnappings across Sri Lanka, most of which remain unsolved.”
However calls by the Senate and Congress members and international human right organizations have so far not resulted in any significant action against Sri Lanka by the United States or other leading states.
The Sri Lankan government has reacted angrily to criticism of its human rights record.
Colombo was infuriated by Amnesty International’s campaign, using the theme of cricket and the World Cup, to promote independent human rights monitoring mission.
Amnesty international has been refused permission to send a delegation to investigate rights abuses.
In addition according to Sri Lankan press reports the government is planning to throw the German Ambassador for overstepping his mandate.
According to local media the envoy had been a key in garnering international support to target Sri Lanka’s human rights record and pushing for an EU resolution against the country.
Sri Lanka’s Defence Spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella warned envoys against interfering in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs, saying: “We don’t want to be pushed around.”
Also according to local reports UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) may also be asked to leave Sri Lanka supposedly for “overstaying its mandate.”
According to the Sunday Times the government was angered as OCHA reportedly wanted to play the role of a human rights monitor.
However Stephanie Bunker, a spokeswoman in New York, said OCHA originally went to deal with coordinating the response to the tsunami and is now involved in helping coordinate humanitarian assistance to people in need as a result of the internal conflict.
In addition to human rights abuses, harassment of the media has become another source of international disquiet.
Last week Sri Lanka’s Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapakse reportedly threatened the editor of Daily Mirror news paper over an article alleging government collusion with paramilitaries terrorizing Muslims in military-controlled parts of the east.
The British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Dominic Chilcott became the target of Gothabaya’s ire when he visited the threatened editor Champika Liyanararchi to express his solidarity.
The British envoy was immediately summoned by the Defence Secretary.
“They talked about the role of the media,” a High Commission spokesman told AFP.
“The high commissioner and the defence secretary agreed to preserve the confidentiality of the meeting.”
