We reproduce below a letter faxed on August 18th by Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha, Secretary, Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights, to Ms. Irene Khan, Director General, Amnesty International. In his letter, Prof. Wijesinha responds to Amnesty International’s first release on the current situation in the north of Sri Lanka. However, without acknowledging the receipt of this response, Amnesty International has sent out another release, repeating some of the misleading statements in its earlier release. Therefore, Prof. Wijesinha wishes to reproduce his letter while looking forward to receiving an official response from Ms Khan.
Irene Khan
Director General
Amnesty International
Dear Ms. Khan,
I write with reference to a recent release of Amnesty International concerning the current situation in the north of Sri Lanka. Sadly, some phrases in your release convey the wrong impression, and have been used by forces opposed to the elected government of Sri Lanka to suggest that they are as much at fault as the Tigers for the plight of civilians. The BBC, for instance, claims that ‘Amnesty had accused both sides in Sri Lanka’s long running conflict of deliberately putting civilians at risk’.
I am not sure that that allegation of the BBC is accurate, but I would be grateful if you could please issue a rejoinder to them if you agree that that misrepresents your position. After all, it has been amply proved over the last year that Sri Lankan forces in operation, even in the most difficult terrain, are scrupulous about maintaining civilian safety. It is noticeable, though typically some who purportedly call themselves the international community have not given sufficient credit to this, that there have been hardly any allegations even of civilian deaths in the course of military operations on the ground.
Our record speaks volumes, when compared with the record of other military forces engaged in conflicts against terrorism, for the concern and care for their own citizens displayed during operations by Sri Lankan military forces.
Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha
Secretary
Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights
I believe, from my interactions with your representatives in Geneva, that Amnesty is usually more careful about its critiques than many agencies with political agendas that have sprung up recently to take advantage of the new concern the West displays for Human Rights. While we welcome this concern, we wonder about the motives of some of these organizations, and appreciate the fact that Amnesty was one of the few agencies to concern itself about the plight of Sri Lankans a couple of decades back, when authoritarianism was condoned by the assumption that Cold War concerns overrode all else.
Now however it seems that, at least in London, your pronouncements have fallen over the edge in the balance that those who live by advocacy claim to pursue. This has sadly led to equation, as in the BBC claim, of a ruthless terrorist movement with a democratically elected government. Thus, you put your finger on the real cause of the problem when you write of the Tigers ‘keeping them in harm’s way…. imposing a pass system….measures …designed in part to use civilians as a buffer against government forces’ but sadly you then seem determined to critique the government by claiming that it ‘is not doing enough to ensure they receive essential assistance’, a phrase leapt upon by Tiger supporters and other enemies of the people.
The government is doing its best under difficult circumstances, using the assistance of the United Nations as best possible, as is clear from the pronouncements of responsible UN spokesmen. As you may be aware, even these have been twisted, leading to a forceful rebuttal from the UN in Colombo when a local newspaper headlined a report of a UN statement to suggest that there were death camps in the north. Indeed, the UN made it clear that this seemed designed to destroy good relations between the UN and the Sri Lankan government, which led to a tame response that this had not been the intention.
Let me assure you that the government monitors the situation carefully, and addresses all problems promptly. At yesterday’s meeting of the Consultative Committee on Humanitarian Assistance, chaired over the last couple of years by the Minister for Disaster Management and Human Rights, Mahinda Samarasinghe, the position in the affected districts was put clearly by the Government Agents, who continue to do an admirable job there for the government, despite the rigours of LTTE control of the territory. They reported that food was available, that refugees were all now housed – though they had been in the open for a day or two sometimes when on the move – that the hospitals were still functioning effectively. Unless you can cite a single instance anywhere else in the world where such concern is shown by any government battling a terrorist insurgency, I would suggest that you withdraw you claim that the government is not doing enough, and instead concentrate on the task of pressurizing the LTTE to let our people go.
Such pressure will assist them to return to the cleared areas where we will deal as expeditiously with the problem of internally displaced persons as we did in the East, a process that again provides a model for the world. And when we have succeeded in those endeavours, we will also give justice to the Muslim population of the North, chased out by the Tigers 18 years ago in a process of ethnic cleansing unknown in Sri Lanka previously. No previous government thought of a durable solution for that problem, but in the midst of its other difficulties, this government has begun to work on that as well.
Please therefore remember to give credit where credit is due, and bear in mind that part of our joint struggle to promote human rights should – as any decent manager knows – involve appreciation of whatever is positive and should be replicated.
Yours sincerely,
Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha
Secretary
Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights
(Courtesy : SCOPP )