The Human Rights Record
of the Government
Dilrook Kannangara
This is another canard used by parties with vested interests to halt
the anti-terror onslaught. It is important to analyse the alleged
grave human rights situation purportedly caused by the government.
1. There are no politically motivated human rights violations concerted
by the government. Compared to the happenings during the time we didn’t
have media freedom, there are no such acts today. Then it was planned,
concerted and colluded acts by the then governments to kill, injure,
seriously intimidate, burn or otherwise destroy political opponents
and their property. In wide contrast political opponents have complete
freedom, even to violate the law and the Constitution or to support
terrorism without any punishments!! No where else they get so much
freedom. Even in the UK, average Tamils are fearful to talk for the
LTTE fearing they be branded as terrorist supporters.
2. Abductions for ransom are done by organised criminals and the government
is even more burdened to bring those criminals to justice. It is a
complete felony to charge the government for abductions when it tries
wilfully to stop such crimes. It should also be noted that abductions
and hijackings were the first moves of terrorism.
3. Air strikes were well planned, targeted and carried out with much
higher success rates than those by any world superpower in contemporary
times. There was no incident of deliberate targeting of civilians
or accidental mass deaths due to air strikes.
4. Army and navy operations were carried out with extreme care in
avoiding civilian settlements and civilians. Restraint of our gallant
forces is unseen in contemporary warfare anywhere in the world. This
is even more magnified when considering the fact that we are faced
with a barbarian terrorist group that has no regard for children (child
brigades), women (virgin killers) and pregnant mothers.
5. Civilians cross over to the government controlled areas in hundreds
of thousands. If there is any serous human rights threat in our camp
they would simply not come enduring so much hardships and even risking
their lives. Of course there is a humanitarian crises of refugees
and timely resettlement effort by the government should be supported
and admired by all those who are genuinely concerned about the rights
of the refugees.
6. Food and medicine to the people under terrorist controlled areas
are sent by the government. There is no country in the world with
such great generosity than Sri Lanka. Knowing too well that these
end up in the big bellies of terrorist leaders, hasn’t deterred
the government humanitarian effort.
7. Schools, hospitals and other administrative functions in terrorist
controlled areas are funded, maintained and sustained by the government.
There is no parallel anywhere to this massive mahatma effort of the
government.
8. The government strives to maintain a very high level of discipline
among the armed forces with remarkable success. Contrast with some
of the crimes committed by forces of other countries for instance,
Iraqis in Kuwait, US troops in Vietnam/Afghanistan/Iraq/Cuba, Russians
in Chechnya/Afghanistan/Eastern Europe, British in so many parts of
the world, Japanese in Korea/China/Indochina, Pakistanis in Bangladesh,
Indians in conflicts with Pakistan and in many regional states, etc.
The effort is harder than in other battlefields as we are faced with
complete barbarians who manipulate humans in the meanest undignified
manner.
9. Extraordinarily low number of sexual offences committed by our
forces no doubt rank among the best in the world. Given the fact that
most terrorist cadres and suicide attackers are women and girls, it
is superhuman restraint that has kept the good name of the forces
intact. Needless to cite examples of the extent to which these offences
were used to intimidate the enemy, commit genocide (erosion of a gene
pool) of races and to command authority over prisoners/suspects/minorities
and dissidents. Sheer numbers have proved sufficient for such inhuman
attacks elsewhere and the government stands to get a lot of credit
for continued restraint among the forces and the society. This is
a conveniently forgotten fact about the 24 year old war.
10. Civil order has been maintained at the highest practical order.
A large number of people belonging to all ethnicities have suffered
due to the war. Peace humbugs, politicians and NGOs only care about
the sufferings of the Tamils. There are a large number of orphans,
disabled persons and other casualties of war among the other races.
The government maintains considerable pressure to avoid the emergence
of any counter LTTE terror movement. This fact should be recognised.
Ireland, Iraq, Lebanon, Bosnia, Rwanda, Thailand and the Philippines
have failed miserably in this regard.
11. A resourceful and powerful Human Rights Commission is maintained
by the government. We would not hear about David Hicks for five years
had a similar authority was present to look after his interests.
12. We are left to our own devices to handle a global menace. Progress
so far achieved by the forces is remarkable whilst maintaining a higher
level of regard for human aspiration. Contrast this with countries
that have compulsory military service, advanced weapons and nuclear
arsenals.
This is a short list of the good of the government that has gone the
extra mile to protect human rights. All these measures require finance,
commitment, disadvantages at the battlefield and in elections. Additionally,
the enemy makes these even harder. If anyone is genuinely interested
in human rights or humanitarian missions in Sri Lanka they should
essentially factor in these before forming an opinion.
Performance measures of a law abiding society cannot be applied lock
stock and barrel to a nation facing barbaric terrorists. Measures
should be appropriately adjusted to take into account the ground situation
and the trade-off of public security verses anarchy.
We urge the government to crackdown on disappearances and abductions
and to educate the IC on the ground situation including child soldiers.
Human rights of the 20 million, their right to life, right to live
with dignity and without fear should be upheld. It is absurd to be
concerned with human rights violations of a few thousands while forgetting
the right to life of the whole population. Few arrests, detentions
and lock-ups can make all the difference between life and death for
the 20 million. Resisting these measures only endangers everyone’s
security and life.
More than anything human rights busybodies should listen to the masses,
if they are to serve the people. We value human rights on a practical
scale appropriate for a country faced with war. Our security problems
weigh much heavier on our scales than human rights violations affecting
some of us. And don’t be the laughing stock of the world by trying
to teach us that suicide bombers and tigers have “human”
rights. They have already unhumanised themselves attracting the benefits
of ruthlessness in doing so, and in turn have sacrificed all humaneness.
Instead, allow us to complete the extermination of terrorists; human
rights will have a real meaning then.
