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A Sad Statement from the UN Secretary General
Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process
(SCOPP) - Sri Lanka
10th September 2008
The Sri Lankan Peace Secretariat views with some astonishment what
purport to be highlights of a press briefing by the Secretary General
of the United Nations in which he seems to be expressing concerns about
recent military activities in Sri Lanka. Though ostensibly his worries
are for civilians, the exhortations about 'the principal of proportionality
and the selection of targets' seem intended to send a message.
Since there have been hardly any civilian casualties during the recent
offensives in Sri Lanka, it is possible that the Secretary General was
prompted by reports of large numbers of civilian casualties in other
theatres of war, which misled him into believing that all forces fighting
terrorism are alike. It is to be hoped however that, even while he might
want to send a message to other countries, he will study the Sri Lankan
situation carefully in the future. Perhaps, with knowledge there will
come wisdom, and he will publicly acknowledge the extraordinarily good
record of the Sri Lankan forces in this regard, their careful selection
of military targets, the paucity of even collateral damage.
Unfortunately, the Secretary General may not have realized that his
remarks could be used to advantage by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam who will use any weapon to hand, including an innocent Secretary
General, to halt the advance of Sri Lankan forces. They will relish
that he made these remarks during a briefing on 'the victims of terrorism'.
The impression created is that terrorism comes in different grades,
and that some terrorists are not as heinous as those who struggle against
them.
It is obviously not a coincidence that the victims of Tiger terrorism,
in India or Sri Lanka, or even in Britain, were not amongst the four
individuals chosen to speak. The terrorism highlighted at the event
was of a sort that a particular world view finds abhorrent, not understanding
or not choosing to understand the interconnected nature of terrorism.
It is unfortunate that the United Nations should lend itself to such
selectivity, and that the advisers of the Secretary General did not
ensure that people in the rest of the world who suffer from terrorism
also need a voice.
Recently SAARC, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation,
made clear the need for solidarity in dealing with terrorism. It would
be immensely sad if, in this age of globalization, the Secretary General
ignored the need for consensus based on principles, and instead allowed
himself to pursue selective agendas. Sadly, by gratuitously introducing
'the importance of a negotiated settlement to the political problems
facing Sri Lanka', he betrays the rationale of the statement, which
was pressed for by the 'Interagency Group' in Colombo, an amorphous
group of NGOs, some of whom succeeded last month in allowing 38 vehicles
to be taken over by Tiger terrorists.
Sri Lanka knows very well that a negotiated settlement is needed for
our political problems, and that is why we are negotiating with democratic
Tamil forces which have come into the political process. Twenty years
ago, the Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi negotiated a settlement,
only to find the Tigers renege on it, and kill him some years later.
Successive Sri Lankan governments have tried to negotiate with the Tigers,
only to have them strengthen their military forces during ceasefires
and then attack with a vengeance when they thought governments were
weak. This time round, having violated the Ceasefire nearly 4000 times,
according to the Scandinavian monitors (as opposed to less than a tenth
of that figure for the Sri Lankan government), they refused repeated
invitations to return to talks.
Now that the Sri Lankan government is pursuing a political solution
with pluralistic democratic Tamil forces, while striving to eliminate
terrorism, the Tigers have to clutch at straws. There is no doubt that
the Secretary General's doubtless well meant advice will soon reverberate
in terrorist websites. We can only hope that others who have suffered
from terrorism will make it clear that, if this happens, some clarification
is necessary for the sake of the principles on which the United Nations
was founded.
Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha
Secretary General
Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP) - Sri Lanka
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