{"id":90029,"date":"2019-06-07T16:18:40","date_gmt":"2019-06-07T23:18:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=90029"},"modified":"2019-06-07T16:18:40","modified_gmt":"2019-06-07T23:18:40","slug":"non-governmental-organisations-and-sri-lanka-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/06\/07\/non-governmental-organisations-and-sri-lanka-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"NON GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS AND SRI LANKA Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>In Sri Lanka too,\nthe GONGOs, QUANGOs and INGOs are engaged in meddling with political matters. This\nessay looks briefly at some of these NGOs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;The <strong>National Endowment for Democracy<\/strong> (NED) is a U.S. non-profit organization\nfor <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Democracy_promotion\">promoting democracy<\/a> abroad. It is\nfunded by the US Congress. It is supposed to be a tool of the CIA as well. The \u2018umbrella\nprotests\u2019 in Hong Kong were funded by the NED.\nIn Sri Lanka Bar Association of Sri Lanka was accused of being funded by\nthe NED which was a CIA arm\u201d. The National Peace Council, Centre for Policy Alternatives, Centre for\nMonitoring election violence, Campaign for free and fair elections (Caffe), and\nPeople action for Free and fair Elections (PAFFREL) were also&nbsp; said to have received funds from NED.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>NED is today\nfunding several projects\nin Sri Lanka. They are listed in the NED website. The focus of\nthese projects is very clear.\nLocal NGOs are paid to indoctrinate the public about \u2018democracy\u2019, \u2018human\nrights,\u2019 \u2018good governance\u2019. They are also paid to encourage citizen participation\nin politics, and train youth \u2018to assume leadership roles in their communities.\u2019\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here is one example. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Viluthu, Ltd was given $70,000 for &nbsp;Strengthening Civil Society Networks for\nActive Political Participation\u201dorganize a series of community\ndiscussions and learning workshops aimed at engaging youth, including\nuniversity students, and women\u2019s network leaders on democracy, good governance,\nand transitional justice. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\nare two other grants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Law and Society Trust was given&nbsp; $50,000T&nbsp;\nfor Improving Legal Literacy on\nLand Rights\u201dThe organization will manage a nationwide network of\norganizations focused on land rights, convene government officials and citizens\non land laws and policies, document land disputes, and advocate for new,\nequitable laws. <\/li><li>Verite Research was given $65,000 for Parliamentary Tracking Tool for\nAccountability and Good Governance\u201d. The organization will, inter alia,\nmaintain and refine an online platform that documents the biographical\ninformation and political activities of Members of Parliament and conduct\noutreach to promote its usage by the media and civil society. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Amnesty International<\/strong> (est. 1961) is a London-based <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Non-governmental_organization\">non-governmental\norganization<\/a>\nfocusing on <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Human_rights\">human rights<\/a>. It has branches in dozens of countries\nincluding India, but not in Sri Lanka. . It has a high profile and is well known,\nbut it is no longer highly regarded. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Amnesty International has been described by\none of its former officials as \u2018highly political, highly coercive. If you get out of line, they get rid\nof you. You can&#8217;t trust\nthem\u201d. &nbsp;Amnesty International\u2019s founder resigned in\n1967, saying Amnesty International&nbsp;&nbsp; had been infiltrated by British intelligence\nagents. Others said the Central Intelligence Agency was also inside it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Amnesty International&#8217;s agenda fits nicely\nwith the political needs of the United States and Great Britain, said critics,\ncontemptuously. AI draws attention to Human rights violations in countries that\nare not allied to USA or UK. But it is extremely reluctant to draw attention to\nHuman rights violations by USA or UK. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Amnesty International is the only human rights\norganization in the entire world to have refused to condemn apartheid in South\nAfrica, said critics. Amnesty\nInternational has not supported Palestine and has not charged Israel\nwith war crimes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Amnesty International regularly issued adverse\nstatements on Sri Lanka. The most serious critique of Sri Lanka at the 6<sup>th<\/sup>\nsession of UN HR Council session at Geneva in 2007 was by Amnesty\nInternational. Amnesty launched its\n&#8220;Sri Lanka, Play by the Rules&#8221; campaign, timed to coincide with the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cricket_World_Cup_2007\">2007 cricket\nWorld Cup<\/a> held in the\n<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Caribbean\">Caribbean<\/a> islands, to focus on Sri Lanka&#8217;s alleged\nhuman rights violations. &nbsp;In 2006 and\n2007 it said that human rights were affected, the government was attacking civilians,\nthere was no mention of LTTE. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;Amnesty\nInternational has openly supported the LTTE. &nbsp;A delegation of Amnesty\nInternational&nbsp;&nbsp; came to Sri Lanka on\ninvitation from LTTE for a two week visit in 2002 government of Sri Lanka facilitated\nthe meeting. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;They met in the Vanni.LTTE\nand Amnesty International&nbsp;&nbsp; had discussed\ntraining for \u2018Thamil Eelam police\u2019, and \u2018Thamil Eelam judiciary\u2019. Amnesty International\nsaid that LTTE must be ready to take over law and order operation as soon as\nthe ISGA came in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Transparency International<\/strong> is an <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/International_non-governmental_organization\">international\nnon-governmental organization<\/a> &nbsp;focusing on corruption. It has local chapters\nto carry out this work. In\nUSA, Transparency International\nfunded by multinational corporations, such as Citigroup, ExxonMobil, General\nElectric, Lockheed Martin. Transparency\nInternational gave its Integrity Award to Hillary Clinton in 2012. Transparency\nInternational has its own transparency issues with respect to donor funds. It accepted\nmoney from Siemens, while Siemens was under investigation for corruption. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Transparency International, Sri Lanka, &nbsp;&nbsp;received\nUSD 79,000 from NORAD to look into the work of the Sri Lanka Police. It\nthereafter issued a report titled \u2018The Police of Sri Lanka, which critics\ncharged, affected national security. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Human Rights\nWatch<\/strong> (HRW) is an international <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Non-governmental_organization\">non-governmental organization<\/a>, headquartered in <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/New_York_City\">New York City<\/a>, dealing with Human rights around the world.\nHRW was formed from the earlier America\nWatch, Asia Watch, Africa Watch and Middle East Watch. HRW is seen and heard ever\nwhere, but it is not highly regarded.&nbsp;&nbsp; HRW has carried out information and propaganda\nwork for USA and NATO, charged critics. &nbsp;It helped to break up Yugoslavia.&nbsp; Milosevic was brought before Hague on the uncorroborated\nevidence of HRW. HRW has sanitized Israel war crimes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>HRW has loudly supported Eelam in Sri Lanka. HRW supported the UNHRC resolution on Sri Lanka and in March 2019 wanted a time-bound plan for\nimplementing it. HRW Annual Report\nof 2008 was critical of Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;Government\nof Sri Lanka responding observed that the HRW had failed to distinguish between\na democratically elected government and the LTTE. Further that it is the government\nthat is running the schools in north and east, paying salaries of teachers,\nthere are no private schools in the area. State hospitals are run by the state that\nfunds them.&nbsp; Sri Lanka armed forces are\nfully trained to take every precaution against harming civilians. The government\nis actively delivering all essential services in the LTTE controlled areas even\ntoday the GA of Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu are actively deliver in all\nessential services. The salaries and pensions are fully met with by government .\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>International Crisis Group<\/strong> is a\ntransnational <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Non-profit\">non-profit<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Non-governmental_organization\">non-governmental\norganization<\/a>\nfounded in 1995 by George Soros. It is supported by the governments of UK,\nNorway, Sweden, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany and Australia as well as Ford and\nCarnegie. 23% of the ICG&#8217;s budget comes from the government of Qatar in 2019. <strong><em>&nbsp;<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>International\nCrisis Group&nbsp; &nbsp;sent a petition to\nthe UN Secretary General in September 2008 that was deeply critical of the Sri\nLanka government.&nbsp; In May 17 2010,\nit published a monograph on \u2018war crimes in Sri Lanka.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Solidar<\/strong> is a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Europe\">European<\/a> network of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/NGO\">NGOs<\/a> working to advance <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Social_justice\">social justice<\/a> in the&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;\nworld.&nbsp; The three SOLIDAR NGOs in\nSri Lanka were the German organization known as ASB, a Swiss one called SAH and\nNorwegian People\u2019s Aid. Norwegian Peoples\nAid had allowed the LTTE to use 38 of their vehicles including heavy earth\nmoving machines that were used to build up the wall that cost so many lives in\nthe final assault. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Solidar\u2019s Country Representative for Sri Lanka,\nGuy Rhodes &nbsp;had compiled reports from various&nbsp; NGOs which had maintain a presence on\nthe&nbsp; ground in the conflict zone, such as\nOxfam, care, Danish refugee Council, Forut, ZOA refugee care, World University Service\nof Canada and Save the children Fund. &nbsp;Rhodes had challenged the government order to\nleave the Wanni at the start of the final offensive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rajiva Wijesinha has spoken of a Coffee club\nof international NGO personnel\u201d who attended gatherings designed to subvert\ngovernment policy. In August 2008 they were busy drafting allegations to be\nsent to the UN by local NGOs, said Rajiva. The Head of Solidar had taken a lead\nrole in this activity.&nbsp; &nbsp;Benjamin Dix who was working for\nSolidar was featured in the Channel 4 film on the Eelam war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>FORUT<\/strong>\nis a&nbsp;&nbsp; Norwegian aid organization&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; for social work. FORUT has project activities in Sri Lanka,\nNepal, India, Sierra Leone, Malawi and Zambia. FORUT has a\nframework agreement with NORAD, The Norwegian Agency for Development\nCooperation, which ensures long-term financing of the programmes and projects\nin each country. The work and commitment to Sri Lanka\u2019s development has always\nbeen the largest part of FORUT\u2019s portfolio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Until 2012, FORUT\nhad its own organization called FORUT-Sri Lanka. &nbsp;FORUT Sri Lanka has &nbsp;&nbsp;helped create several smaller local organizations\nin all parts of the country. These organizations have since become independent \u2018and\nfully dedicated to the development of Sri Lanka\u2019. Some of these organizations\nhave signed partnership agreements with FORUT-Norway. Wikileaks has established the link between\nthe FORUT and Solidar. These two\norganizations seem to have been engaged in plotting against the Sri Lanka government,\nsaid critics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rajiva Wijesinha reported that R.Tveitnes,\nformer country director for FORUT had told the American ambassador that FORUT\nand a number of other INGOs had local staff on the ground [in the war&nbsp;&nbsp; zone], with satellite telephones, providing\nbrief but consistent situation reports. Tveitnes\nalso would text specific questions to the contact and receive response. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In August 2008, three\n&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;FORUT vehicles &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;were detained&nbsp;&nbsp; in Omanthai checkpoint by the LTTE till it\nwas dark. Then they left, proceeding at high speed to Kilinochchi. &nbsp;Soon after they left the checkpoint, the middle\ncar was caught up in a claymore blast. Wijesinha thought that this was a trick\nto launch a massive attack on the military, using harm to NGOs as the cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The INGO officers were a sort of cabal, drifting\nbetween the US bureaucracy, UN agencies and the INGO circuit, observed\nanalysts. Almost without exception INGOs recruits were &nbsp;&nbsp;trained operatives who had earlier lived in a\ndeveloping country under NGO, UN or journalist cover. Human Rights Watch\nofficers often had a previous UN involvement, usually in Cambodia and\nIndonesia. Charulata Hogg was a former HRW staffer. She had worked in Sri Lanka\nas a foreign reporter for media organizations like BBC. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;Gareth Evans, &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;and\nCharulata Hogg, knew each other. Louise Arbour has taken over from Evans at ICG.\nSuzanne Nossel was Deputy assistant Secretary for international organization s\nat the US Department of State before she became Executive Director of Amnesty\nInternational. Attitudes and values are also relevant. Gareth Evans, CEO <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/International_Crisis_Group\">International Crisis Group<\/a> had earlier supported Suharto,&nbsp;&nbsp; downplayed Jemmah Isalamiyah&nbsp; &nbsp;and backed\nimmunity for Khmer Rouge. He signed the Timor Gap Treaty which allowed\ninternational oil companies to exploit the seabed off East Timor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>INGOs and NGOs clearly supported the Eelam\nWar. That is why they were there in Sri Lanka in the first place. NGOs were\nfunctioning in the Wanni along with UN agencies during the Eelam war. &nbsp;Most of them worked primarily through local\nstaff, reported the media. INGOs &nbsp;&nbsp;played\na role&nbsp;&nbsp; during the Vanni offensives in\n2009. &nbsp;INGOs thought that the government\nshould not and could not interfere with its operations, said Shamindra\nFerdinando.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2008 a Select committee of Parliament for\ninvestigation of the operations of NGOs and their impact was&nbsp;&nbsp; set up. This committee said in its interim\nreport that many NGO were working for Tamil Separatism and the LTTE. They said\nthat International Alert had published a map which shows half the country as\nbelong to Tamils. In this map they have marked a large are of land in the\ncentral hills and in the south as Tamil areas. This extent is even larger than\nin the map prepare by the LTTE. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ZOA and World Vision<\/strong> had in 2005 built400 houses and these had\nbeen distributed to the elite cadres of the LTTE. &nbsp;Ministry of Defence had received credible\nintelligence reports that<strong> Medicine Sans Frontiers, Medicine du Monde, and\nDoctors of the world (U.S.A.)<\/strong>\ncarried out acts which have threatened National Security and state\npolicies.A certificate issued by MDM at a health education project, had\nthe emblem of the government as well as LTTE. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The \u2018<strong>UK\nPeace Building strategy\u2019<\/strong> operated , without consent of the GOSL,&nbsp; a \u2018monitoring centre\u2019 in eastern province for\nintelligence gathering on a daily basis and a network of support to local level\nNGOs known to be infiltrated by the LTTE . UK based\nNGO \u2018<strong>Act Now\u2019<\/strong> , working in the north\nand east during the Eelam wars, wanted the UN to push for a Sudan type\nreferendum in Sri Lanka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2018Sri Lanka Kolping Society\u2019 ,<\/strong> A Catholic society with&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; a parent&nbsp;\norganization in Germany, a social commitment, had provided the LTTE with\nfunds during 1996-1999. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>The\n<strong>Berghof Foundation<\/strong> for conflict\nstudies was invited into the country by the government of Sri Lanka on a Memorandum\nof understanding between the governments of Sri Lanka, Germany and Switzerland.\n&nbsp;It was signed by Ministry of Constitutional\naffairs and national integration, Sri Lanka . Swiss Federal department &nbsp;of Foreign affairs and German Federal Ministry\nof Economic cooperation and development. Berghof Foundation had entered into\nMOUs with government in 2001 and 2006. <strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>Berghof Foundation worked in Sri Lanka\nfrom 2001-2008. Berghof\u2018s work in\nsecurity reform&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;was carried out from 2002-2004 with the knowledge\nof the Ministry of Defence. Berghof also wanted to assess\nthe High Security Zones.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Berghof was also expected to facilitate\nworkshops between the military and civil society \u2018to help them understand each\nother\u2019. &nbsp;Former chief of Defense, Dennis\nPerera and the Defense secretary had invited BF to initiate a dialogue between\nsecurity forces and civil society. This project met with hostile criticism. There was &nbsp;a\nproposal for a workshop of air force personnel. This was shot down after the Defense\nauthorities heard of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Concerned observers shouted that Berghof was\nengaged in \u2018security reform\u2019 of\nmilitary, paramilitary and police forces. Berghof &nbsp;&nbsp;wanted to \u2018right size\u2019 the armed forces,\nand bring it under foreign control. Berghof\nFoundation vehemently denied this charge. However, &nbsp;SPUR\n(Society for Peace, Unity and Human Rights for Sri Lanka) said that&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Berghof Foundation had consistently\ninterfered in the island\u2019s national security affairs. It had promoted the\nunconditional dismantling or resizing of High Security Zones, and had also\nwanted the Sri Lanka Armed Forces to change its thinking. SPUR asked the\ngovernment to send Berghof away. Berghof &nbsp;terminated its work on security related issues\nin 2004 due to hostile criticism. In\n2008 Berghof Foundation was asked to leave Sri Lanka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Select Committee of Parliament\ninvestigating into the operation of&nbsp; NGOs\nset up in 2008,&nbsp; (PSC) had made a deep,\npenetrating study into the work of the Berghof Foundation and found&nbsp; that Berghof had links with the LTTE and the\narmed forces. This had serious implications for national security.&nbsp; This well researched document has not\nreceived the public acclaim it deserves, said Chandraprema. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Berghof &nbsp;had &nbsp;resisted appearing before\nthis Committee and &nbsp;&nbsp;instead had attempted to exert international pressure &nbsp;&nbsp;to &nbsp;&nbsp;squash the Committee. This is a grave intervention,\nsaid the Committee. PSC noted that former Chief of staff Denis\nPerera had invited Dr Rophers to build bonds with the security officers in\norder to initiate a dialogue. PSC observed that this&nbsp; enabled access to sensitive military matters.\nThis was detrimental to national security. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Berghof had contact with both LTTE and army.\nDirector &nbsp;of Berghof, Norbert Rophers\nhad&nbsp; direct links with Balasingham in\nLondon and with Pulidevan in Kilinochchi. Berghof sent a delegation of&nbsp; LTTEers to Europe on a study tour of\nfederalism, &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;on the instruction of Eric Solheim. &nbsp;&nbsp;Critics wanted to know whether Solheim had\nthe authority to do this and whether Berghof had the authority to implement\nthis.&nbsp; This is outside the Memorandum of\nUnderstating that Berghof had signed with the government . LTTE is a designated\nterrorist outfit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Berghof &nbsp;had also &nbsp;told PSC that Berghof &nbsp;was there to introduce power sharing through\nvarious means. Berghof supported self determination &nbsp;and has\naccepted the notion of Tamil homelands. The\nPSC objected to the fact that Berghof promoted only federalism. Also that\nBerghof had its own agenda. ( Continued) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KAMALIKA PIERIS In Sri Lanka too, the GONGOs, QUANGOs and INGOs are engaged in meddling with political matters. This essay looks briefly at some of these NGOs. &nbsp;The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a U.S. non-profit organization for promoting democracy abroad. It is funded by the US Congress. It is supposed to be a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90029\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}