CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

Taking on Capitol Hill's human-rights lobby

Courtesy The Manila Times

WITH human rights now the fashionable hot button issue in the United States-much like AIDS and Hunger in Africa were in previous political seasons-the congressional bleeding hearts up on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., appear to be panting to scramble on board the HR bandwagon.

And, as always is the case with similar bouts of congressional zeal that invariably come attached with a limited time span, the US lawmakers go for soft targets-as in the recent case of Sri Lanka. And therein lies a cautionary tale for other US partners in the war against terrorism, like the Philippines, which is also grappling with allegations of human-rights violations.

Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama was in understandable belligerent mood when we talked to him in his office in the country's picturesquely set parliament complex-The Manila Times being one of the select global newspapers invited to cover the International Antiterrorism Conference in Colombo later this week.

The serious concerns raised by the lawyer turned politician bear relation to the amendment proposed by ranking Democrat Sen. Patrick Leahy to the Department of State appropriation bill for 2008 that introduces restrictions on defense cooperation with Sri Lanka on account of alleged human-rights violations.

"It is both unreasonable and unjustified since the action was taken on the basis of disinformation and misinformation," emphasizes Minister Bogollagama. "Some of it is completely wrong, while much of it is based on dated information."

He believes that by taking such unilateral action, the US is in effect "providing a lifeline" to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who are the main perpetrators of this vile propaganda, and thereby its principal beneficiaries.

Ironically, this comes at a time when the well-marshaled and well-disciplined Sri Lankan security forces have inflicted humiliating defeats on the LTTE's military cadres (many of whom are believed be unwitting young innocents who have been press-ganged into service through intimidation) and reduced them in some parts of the North-East to nothing more than a rag-tag bunch of mercenaries.

Earlier this month Minister Bogollagama took his message to the heart of America, making his government's sentiments clear in a keynote address entitled, "Sri Lanka Looking Beyond Terrorism: A Road Map to Peace" delivered to a receptive audience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, and also at meetings with US congressmen and ranking officials of the Bush administration.

He was also able to positively air Sri Lanka's side on the burning issue during discussions with Washington, D.C., based representatives of various human-rights organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the International Crisis Group.

Explains Minister Bogollagama: "To avail of US funding and military cooperation, Senator Leahy wants the Sri Lankan government to adhere to three points, namely bring to justice members of the military alleged to have committed gross violations of human rights including extrajudicial executions; provide unimpeded access to humanitarian organizations and journalists to the Tamil areas of the country and, thirdly, agree to the establishment of a field presence in Sri Lanka of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

"Unfortunately the amendment in its totality seems to ignore the context in which successive governments in Sri Lanka have faced, as do all democracies in a similar plight, the scourge of terrorism. It ignores the fact that if Sri Lanka is to fail in containing and finally defeating the terrorism of the LTTE, then the repercussions would be felt far beyond its own borders, given the LTTE's well known links to other terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda, Afghan mujahideen, PKK and Abu Sayyaf.

"It should also not be discounted that the LTTE's suicide bombing technology [that it pioneered and was copied by other terrorist outfits] maritime capability and nascent air-strike capability are destructive services that it could barter to its fellow merchants of death."

The minister notes that Sri Lanka is one of the few countries in the world that has a Ministry of Human Rights. He says: "It is an acknowledgement of the significance we associate with promoting and protecting human rights. As noted by President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the United Nations General Assembly, Sri Lanka-as one of the founder members of the Human Rights Council-believes that the issue of human rights is too important to be used as a tool to victimize States for political advantage.

"It is essential that international action to facilitate compliance with human-rights standards is fair and even handed. Human rights have to be protected and advanced for their own sake, not for political gain."

A detached observer of the geopolitical scene might be given to believe that Senator Leahy would be better off exerting his impressive energies on seriously troubling human-rights issues squarely on his own doorstep (Guantánamo Bay detention center in the south-east corner of Cuba and war-torn Iraq to name but two) and conclude that people barricaded in glasshouses should be wary of throwing stones.

Being the consummate diplomat that he is, Minister Bogollagama refrained from saying any such thing. But we could hardly miss the underlying tone of his message!

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