SCOPP SG writes to Foreign
Secretary clarifying statements about Save the Children
The Permanent Mission of
Sri Lanka to the United Nations Office at Geneva
07th November 2007
Following the republication of the press release from of the Secretariat
for Coordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP), titled, The Social and Economic
Cost of an Abortive Peace, on the Mission's website on 31st October
2007, the Secretary General of SCOPP Professor Rajiva Wijesinha has
written to the Foreign Secretary Dr. Palitha Kohana clarifying some
issues contained in the SCOPP press release. The full text of his letter
is attached below.
Secretary General
The Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP)
SCOPP SG writes to Foreign Secretary clarifying
statements about Save the Children
Dear Dr. Kohona,
I write with reference to the letter from Save the Children, sent to
you on November 1st, regarding 'a communiqué from the Permanent
Mission of Sri Lanka to the United Nations Office in Geneva published
on 31st October 2007 which implies that Save the Children has provided
over a million dollars to the LTTE'. I believe the reference is to a
press release issued from this Secretariat on 'The Social and Economic
Cost of an abortive peace', a copy of which has been sent to you.
That release makes it clear that no criticism was intended on moral
grounds of parties that had in effect provided assistance to the LTTE.
To quote the relevant lines, 'Then there was all the assistance permitted,
nay encouraged, by the government to be supplied direct to the LTTE.
There was for instance the $1 million dollars given by UNICEF for rehabilitation,
money which has not led to any tangible results or been properly accounted
for. More recently attention has been drawn to an even greater amount
that came through Save the Children, supposedly to be used for rehabilitation
work. In many such instances there is a lack of clarity about what was
given and whether anything was achieved.'
The release indeed even mentions assistance provided by this Secretariat
too. Whilst acknowledging that such actions were in accordance with
the policy of the government that initiated the peace process, the main
point of the release, in respect to such assistance, was that though
presented to other organizations for rehabilitation or the peace process
it ended up being used as the LTTE wished.
This has been amply proved by the recent action of the LTTE Peace
Secretariat in glorifying the suicide cadres who attacked the Anuradhapura
Air Base. The general position was in any case clear enough from the
legal action taken against the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization in
several countries which had previously allowed it to collect funds.
In such a context I believe that organizations that contributed to
such fronts ensure scrutiny of accounts with an objective assessment
of the outputs for the funds they handed over.
I also believe, as was written in the release, that 'there has been
no attempt to collate information about all such donations thus far,
but this should be done as a matter of urgency, given how these funds
too have contributed to the war efforts of the LTTE, and hence to our
rising defence costs.'
I also believe that such organizations need to be clear in their condemnation
of the use that might be made of their assistance by the LTTE itself.
For instance, when I met the head of Save the Children some months back,
he was upset about a newspaper report tying the organization to the
LTTE because life jackets donated by SCF had been found with LTTE fighters,
I pointed out that, unfortunate though such unqualified criticism might
be, he could have avoided it by straightforward condemnation of the
LTTE for in effect stealing for military purposes life jackets intended
for humanitarian use. His response struck me as inadequate in a context
in which suspicions of NGOs have proliferated precisely because of such
indulgence.
This approach makes it the more difficult, for those of us who believe
that most NGOs do a very good job in the interests of the nation, to
defend them from allegations of partisanship for the insupportable.
I would again urge therefore that some concerted accounting is necessary,
to find out sums expended on various programmes and the actual outcomes.
When the SCF Country Director talks about libraries and toys for instance,
does he - as for instance the World Bank does with educational assistance
- have schedules of items ordered and their current provenance?
I should add that I felt the responses we received from UNICEF in this
regard were quite inadequate, and I have written to the new representative
asking that he find out with details and accounts what use exactly was
made of the massive funding given to the LTTE or its agents for rehabilitation
of child soldiers. I say this in a context in which, as you are aware,
while the Action Plan UNICEF talks about in this regard was supposedly
being implemented, the SLMM made it clear that the LTTE was continuing
with recruitment of child soldiers.
I believe the Foreign Ministry and or the Treasury should request detailed
information about all this, given that the LTTE has now made it crystal
clear that there is no distinction in its conceptual approach between
military action and personnel and institutions and those it had previously
presented as concerned with peace and rehabilitation.
Yours sincerely
Rajiva Wijesinha
Secretary-General
SCOPP
c. Secretary to the President
Secretary, MOD
Country Director, Save the Children
PRUN (Geneva)
The Social and Economic Cost of an Abortive Peace
Lanka Mission Web Link: http://www.lankamission.org/other%20pages/News/2007/October/2007-10-31scopp.htm
SCOPP Web Link: http://www.peaceinsrilanka.org/peace2005/Insidepage/SCOPPDaily_Report/SCOPP_report311007.asp
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