Amnesty Amnesia and Crocodile
Tears over the CFA
Secretary General
Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process
17th January 2008
The Peace Secretariat is sorry that the latest venture of Amnesty International
into international politics should have coincided with a terrorist attack
which left 26 people dead and more dying. Amnesty will doubtless claim
justification, in that it proclaimed that 'The end to the ceasefire
could unleash fresh violence' but it seems that its main worry is that
this fresh violence 'will lead to serious human rights violations, including
arbitrary detentions and mass displacement of civilians'. Violation
of the right to life does not find mention here.
Terrorism, as Amnesty should know, is ruthless in its use of violence
to take life, as was seen in the bomb attack on Buttala. Amnesty
may claim that this was the result of the abrogation of the Ceasefire,
forgetting the bomb attack on a bus in Colombo on January 2nd before
the Ceasefire was abrogated, forgetting the bombs in Colombo and Kebetigollawa
towards the end of last year, forgetting the thousands of violations
against the Ceasefire which the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission found the
LTTE guilty of.
In essence, the civilian population has been at risk throughout the
period of the Ceasefire, with 587 adults ruled by the SLMM as abducted
by the LTTE even in the period before this government, which agencies
like Amnesty now seem to want to blame for everything, came into office.
This was of 1206 allegations made in the almost four years that ended
in 2005, whereas there were 36 allegations against the government of
which 3 were ruled as established.
In the next 16 months there were 258 more allegations against the government
of which only 19 were ruled violations. During the whole period (the
SLMM stopped delivering rulings in April 2007), the LTTE was ruled to
have abducted 253 children and to have recruited 1743, whereas the government
was ruled to have abducted 3 and recruited none. In the final rulings
delivered by the SLMM, in April 2007, they confirmed 160 violations
by the LTTE through sniping and claymores, killing nearly 100 soldiers
and civilians, over a 6 month period, while over 3 months within this
period corresponding violations of the CFA by the government were ruled
as seven, with four deaths.
Amnesty seems also to be ignorant that the SLMM stopped making rulings
about a year ago, in part because the number of violations was increasing,
but also because the number of its monitors had been cut drastically,
following the refusal of the LTTE to permit Monitors from Nordic countries
that belonged to the European Union. None of those who now shed crocodile
tears over the plight of Sri Lankans following the departure of the
SLMM stood up firmly against this most egregious violation of the provisions
of the Ceasefire on the part of the LTTE. When the Sri Lankan government
wanted those monitors to stay, none of this collection of hypocrites
pointed out how much the people would suffer with the vehemence they
are now using. At that stage it would seem they found the record maintained
by the SLMM of confirmed violations by the LTTE embarrassing.
Ignorance and forgetfulness seem now to be the hallmark of Amnesty,
which in the old days, before Human Rights activity became an industry,
was a lone beacon of hope to the oppressed in many countries. Only an
institution out of touch with reality could 'call on the Sri Lanka government
to ….. enter into immediate talks with the LTTE'. This is what
the Sri Lanka government has striven to do for nearly five years, succeeding
for a few days on two occasions in 2006, after three years of steadfast
refusal from the LTTE. In 2006 just one set of talks was concluded,
then the LTTE came to Europe as though to negotiate, and told the Norwegian
facilitator early morning that they would not attend the talks scheduled
for that day. Finally, in October, they talked on one day and then withdrew
on the second. All efforts to persuade them back to talks, official
or unofficial, met with condign refusal since.
Perhaps what Amnesty meant to say, assuming it is not as ignorant as
it pretends to be, was that it wanted the Sri Lanka government to give
in to LTTE conditions for talks. If so, it should say so direct. But
it should also remember that the LTTE withdrew from talks with a government
that, in 2003, bent over backwards to please it.
In short, whilst the Government would welcome positive assistance to
strengthen its own national institutions, its primary duty is to the
citizens of this country who have suffered from terrorism. It does not
need sanctimonious reminders that a political solution is essential
for political problems, and it will pursue such a solution to the best
of its ability, regretting the failure of the sanctimonious to persuade
those who refuse to talk to return to negotiations. But it cannot allow
cold-blooded murder such as happened in Buttala yesterday to recur,
nor can it allow the threat of this to continue to hang over this country.
Amnesties are applicable only when criminality has been stopped, and
amnesia will certainly not help in stopping criminality, as defined
by national and international law.
Prof Rajiva Wijesinha
Secretary General
Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process
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