By Charles.S.Perera

Human Rights Watch is Active Again. This is the vacation period and no wonder the Human Rights Globe trotters are looking out for vacations abroad. Human rights is their ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-gain painƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” their job. If there is no ethnic problem some where in the world specially in a place like Sri Lanka a coveted spot for vacation, they invent one. The monsoon rain that poured on to the IDP camps was the occasion for them to make a hue and cry.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Undoubtedly they are missing Sri Lanka, where else could they jump in to provide aid to the natives who would treat them like ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-white angels ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…- and allow them a stress free holiday. They shun Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Chad , because the beauty of the places and the climatic conditions are not ideal for a vacations. Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine are too dangerous, Burma, China will not receive them. Therefore , they dream of an escalation of Sri LankaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s ethnic problems to move in.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Given below is just a paragraph from an article by an Australian, about Sri Lanka. She is not a Human Rights activists. You will know it immediately because the Human Rights activists will never write of Sri Lanka in this manner. This Australian- a journalist says of Sri Lanka,

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚¦Sri Lankans are wonderful people, genuinely interested and happy to help out. Unlike other Asian countries, where asking for directions, or getting someone to take a photo of you will result in you being fleeced out of cash, Sri Lankans will go out of their way to ensure you enjoy their beautiful country. I’ve had a gentleman lead me across several pulsing roadways in order to ensure that I get settled onto the right bus, conversing with the conductor in Sinhalese on my behalf to ensure that I arrived at the right destination.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ So what better place is their for a holiday even if it were to look after the Tamil IDP in camps which are much cleaner and orderly than those in Darfur, Somalia, or Chad (http://pereracharles.blogspot.com/2009_07_01_archive.html – for the images of the refugee Camps in Chad compared to ours in Vavuniya).

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The Human Rights Watch based in America is a business run by a few white Americans. If they want to they can be more patriotically occupied looking after poor Americans whose human rights are also constantly violated. There was a young man in America who knew of the serious problem of the poor suffering Americans belonging to another ethnic community. He was a young Financial Writer to a Multi National Enterprise with a promising future.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ He gave it up to mobilise the poor in places like Altgeld in Chicago. He Organised poor and working class people to fight for their rights to improve their living conditions. He worked with Community Churches to facilitate the task of getting people together. When there was no place to meet, he held meetings in street corners. He is Barack Obama-to-day the President of USA .

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ He writes of the condition of the people in Altgeld Gardens Public Housing Project, in his book ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Dreams from My Father- A Story of Race and InheritanceƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚. It is about a residential area called the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-GardensƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚, abandoned due to stench emanating from a Sewage Treatment Plant and the closing down of factories, land used as a dump where the poor people had been housed .

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The Author Obama the Social Worker describes the area as follows: ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚¦ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚¦The stench, the toxins, the empty, uninhabited landscapeƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚¦ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚¦A dump-and a place to house poor blacks.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚¦ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚¦Altgeld may have been unique in its physical isolation, but it shared with the cityƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s other projects a common history: the dream of reformers to build decent housing for the poor; the politics that had concentrated such housing away from white neighbourhoods, and prevented working families from living thereƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚¦.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚¦ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚¦Every thing about the Gardens seemed in a perpetual state of disrepair. The ceilings crumbled. Pipes burst. Toilets backed up. Muddy tire tracks branded the small, brown lawns strewn with empty flower planters-broken, tilted, half buried. The CHA maintenance crews had stopped even pretending that repairs would happen any time soon. So that most children in Altgeld grew up without ever having seen a garden. Children who could see only that things were used up, and that there was a certain pleasure in speeding up the decay.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ And despites these conditions of pathos in which some of the poor American Blacks are made to live in America-the home of Democracy, the Human Rights Watch talks about Sri LankaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s ethnic problem. Altgeld housing project seems many times worse than the IDP Camps in Manik Farm.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The President Obama is a man who worked with the poor people of Chicago. He knows the suffering of the American poor. There are more poor people in America than the rich. That is why the President Obama is so keen on the Health Care Reform Bill.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The Republicans, have no reason to oppose the Health Care Reforms Bill, other than to stop the President becoming more popular so that the Republicans may have to remain long in the political cold storage. The Health Care Reforms would greatly easy the anxiety of the less fortunate Americans who are burdened with heavy medical bills which keep increasing more than their incomes. Republicans who oppose the proposed Health Care Reforms have not given a single valid reason as to why they oppose it.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Human Rights Watch if they have any self respect should be helping the cause of the President of USA and work to collect support for the Health Care Reform Bill. Instead of attending to more important humanitarian work at home, Human Rights Watch is looking outwards lashing out at the government of Sri Lanka which has done so much for the poor people of the North, East and the South of Sri Lanka.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Neither the Human Rights Watch nor their wage payers the expatriate Tamils of the LTTE terrorist front Groups in America, will ever understand the colossal work that had been accomplished by the Government Armed Forces and the Government of Sri Lanka to save and protect, provide shelter, food, cloth, medical facilities, and security to nearly 200,000 IDPs.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ It is easy to say release the IDPs from the camps. But to where could these IDPs be released . Their houses have to be built, water and lights have to be provided, danger to life from buried mines and bombs have to be avoided, before they are rehabilitated. If they have no homes they cannot be left under trees. The relatives of these IDP are also not rich and their homes are not large enough to accommodate more persons in them. Getting the IDPs to stay with families will be creating more suffering not only to the IDPs but also to those families who would accommodate them.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ These holiday conscious American Whites of the Human Rights Watch, do not know the customs, habits, and way of living of the people of other cultures. Even in the West it is rarely if at all family members will accommodate a destitute family. In France, during heavy rain storms when houses are flooded, the homeless families are accommodated in Schools, Gymnasiums and such buildings, never with their family members, friends or host families. The Human Rights pandits are quite aware of this. They are merely trying to point out inhuman situations, where none exists

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Brad Adams is a stupid man to say that keeping the IDPs in Camps is illegal, dangerous, and inhuman. He is not fit to call himself a humanitarian, as what he is seeking in blaming the Government of Sri Lanka is his own benefits. He or his companions have no love or affection for our people.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ It is time Brad Adams and the America Based Human Rights Watch learn to love their own black compatriots and help improve their living conditions, before attempting to teach people of other countries how to look after their people.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Some of the people affected by the hurricane Caterina had been paid compensation by insurance companies, but they are still to be settled in homes, and their living conditions improved. Why is the Human Rights Watch silent with regard to them ? If you visit New York, you are warned not to go to slum areas behind the Central Park. Why donƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t the Human Rights Watch work in these areas and improve the condition of the people there ?

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Brad Adams and his companions of the Human Rights Watch should give up their political differences, if they have any and help the President of USA Mr.Barack Obama, as he is trying to activate much neglected social reforms in USA.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The Republicans are all out to make President Obama unpopular and put barriers against his progressive proposals because he happens to be a Black American. It is time that the Brad Adam and his Companions of the Human Rights Watch turn to their own people to bring unity between the black ethnic Community and the White Community, leaving us in Sri Lanka to solve our own problem.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Our problem is not their problem. Our Government saved our people from a ruthless group of terrorist who rampaged our country sowing terror for thirty years. Therefore, this government is also capable of solving other problems of its own people.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Rains and problems people in Sri Lanka have to face during rainy seasons is nothing new. It does not happen only in the North East but also in the South. It could be worse in the South when there are land slides due to heavy rains.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ It is of course very frustrating that the IDPs have to face innumerable problems. Having suffered under terrorism, they continue to suffer in various other ways. But unfortunately they have to go through their suffering a little more until things are made supportable by the government. For the moment they are at least stationed in one place, without being herded from one place to another, as it was the case when they were under the terrorist.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The IDPs had to be accommodated in Camps as there was no other place to send them.

Their houses have been destroyed or mined. It was an enormous task for the government to find shelter for the peoples who came in their thousands running away from the terrorists. Not only had they to be provided with shelter, they also had to be provided with three meals a day, clothing and medical facilities.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Added to all that is the presence of former terrorists dissimulated among the refugees. They can begin to brain wash the Tamil refugees in the camps, speaking to them of the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-meritsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ of terrorism and develop hatred towards the other communities so that once back in their homes they can recruit some of them to go back to terrorism.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The government would not like to allow that to happen and therefore the screening of suspected terrorists, which had to be done with prudence. It cannot be done in a hurry and haphazardly These important matters cannot be neglected to please nondescript Human Rights Watch or the Amnesty International or even the unconcerned International Community.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ What Sri Lanka wants to ameliorate the conditions of the IDPs is material assistance by way of providing Funds and consumable , and non-consumable articles, not criticism of the government, and calling for immediate solutions to problems.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ But we certainly do not want either the Human Rights Watch or the Amnesty International interfering into our affairs. It is best that they keep away from Sri Lanka, as Sri Lanka is quite capable of looking after its own people whether they are in the South , the North or the East.