Daya Gamage – US Bureau Asian Tribune Review
Washington, D.C. 06 April (Asiantribune.com): The designation of Sri Lanka’s separatist Tamil Tiger movement (LTTE) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) in 1997 the United States government and its agencies, by federal law, are prohibited from maintaining any contact whatsoever with it while enjoying diplomatic relations with the legitimate government of Sri Lanka making the U.S. to use its diplomatic and economic tools at its disposal to exert pressure on Sri Lanka to fall in line with US’ accepted norms of good governance and rule of law.
Since the United States has no available tools to contain or censor the Liberation Tigers, as it is a ‘non-state player’, it uses public statements to condemn its actions with absolutely no results, and the LTTE taking absolutely no notice of such pronouncements.
Despite the US’ prohibited contact with the LTTE and its existing relations with the Government of Sri Lanka, some of the pronouncements by senior officials of the United States government has, in fact, given fillip to the Tamil Tiger ‘cause’ and brought difficulties for Sri Lanka to handle its grave internal security situation and its desire to move toward a political solution to the National Question to redress the grievances of all disadvantageous populous which belong to all ethnic groups in the country.
Since the U.S. is unable to reprimand or censor the Liberation Tigers as it is a non-state player with no recognition or legitimacy to be subject to diplomatic and/or economic pressure, the United States’ officials are at liberty to make pronouncements that it presume will help both the Tamil Tigers and the legitimate government of Sri Lanka to move forward toward a compromise of a political solution.
One such pronouncement was by assistant secretary of State Richard Boucher that a ‘Tamil Homeland’ was a possible solution to this South Asian nation’s National Question. This Boucher pronouncement was intended to bring more pressure on Sri Lanka to move in a faster pace to meet the grievances of the minority Tamil (12%) population. And, the United States revealed its ‘mindset’ that, in fact, the Tamil Tigers represents the legitimate grievances of the Tamil minority indirectly recognizing the LTTE as the ‘sole representative of the Tamil people.’
The State Department released April 05 report Supporting Human Rights and Democracy: The U.S. Record 2006 in its Sri Lanka section makes several editorial comments to exert much pressure on the Sri Lanka government to take a different course to meet the aspirations of the Tamil people through a path envisaged by the Tamil Tigers.
“There were numerous, credible reports that armed paramilitary groups, suspected of being linked to the government and security forces, participated in armed attacks during the year. Human rights monitors also reported arbitrary arrests and detention by security forces, poor prison conditions, denial of fair and public trials, corruption and lack of transparency, infringement of religious freedom and freedom of movement, and discrimination against minorities,” the State Department report notes.
In another place the report states: “U.S. efforts to promote human rights and democracy focused on working with allies to broker a lasting peace agreement between the government and the LTTE, urging both sides to uphold the cease-fire; pressing the government to curb and render justice for human rights abuses, and promoting freedoms of the press and religion, fair labor practices, and the rights of women and children.”
In another remark it says: “The United States continued to press the government and LTTE to resume negotiations, uphold the cease-fire and find a political solution to the conflict. U.S. officials consistently urged the government to halt all human rights abuses and hold perpetrators accountable;”
The State Department each year submits the Supporting Human Rights and Democracy report to Congress, as called for by the Foreign Relations Authorization Act of 2003. Its release, by law, follows that of the annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, which, for the year 2006, assessed the human rights practices of 196 countries released in early March this year.
The report released on April 05 documents the various tools applied by the United States to support indigenous democratic reform efforts across the globe. U.S. support is focused on the “core components” of a working democracy and the ability of human rights to be protected. These core components are free and fair elections, transparent and accountable institutions operating under the rule of law, and a robust civil society and independent media.
Nevertheless, in Sri Lanka’s case, this report does not identify the obstacles and impediments the legitimate government of Sri Lanka faces in combating Tamil Tiger terrorism and its efforts to maintain rule of law while endeavoring, under trying conditions not forgetting undue pressure by the International Community, to reach for a political solution to the National Question that not only involves the minority northern and eastern Tamils (12%) but also the minority plantation Tamils (5.5%) who have not subscribed to the military/political agenda of the LTTE, minority Muslims (7%) and the overwhelming Sinhalese rural population who had been, along with other disadvantageous population of the minorities, totally neglected for decades by successive governments.
“Asian Tribune” carries the full text of the April 05 released State Department report for the benefit of both the readers and political analysts both in Sri Lanka and abroad. This report is totally prepared by the United States Embassy in Colombo, Sri Lanka on the guidelines provided by Washington.
Here is the full text of the report:
“Sri Lanka is a constitutional, multiparty republic that continues to be fractured by the ethnic conflict between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), an organization advocating a separate ethnic Tamil state. President Mahinda Rajapaksa, elected in November 2005, and the parliament share constitutional power. The election was generally considered technically sound; however, in both government and LTTE-controlled predominantly Tamil areas, the LTTE enforced an electoral boycott. During the year violations of the cease-fire accord, signed by both the government and the LTTE in 2002, increased in frequency and seriousness. This led to a de facto breakdown of the agreement.
“As a result of the escalating hostilities between the government and LTTE and numerous violations of the cease-fire agreement by both sides, overall respect for human rights declined in the affected areas. There were numerous, credible reports that armed paramilitary groups, suspected of being linked to the government and security forces, participated in armed attacks during the year. Human rights monitors also reported arbitrary arrests and detention by security forces, poor prison conditions, denial of fair and public trials, corruption and lack of transparency, infringement of religious freedom and freedom of movement, and discrimination against minorities. Trafficking in persons also remained a serious issue affecting women, children and men for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor.
“The LTTE engaged in politically motivated killings, suicide attacks, disappearances, torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, interference with privacy, denial of freedoms of speech, press, assembly, and association, and recruitment of child soldiers. Since the August 2005 killing of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, the government has regularly renewed emergency regulations that permitted arrests without warrants and unaccountable detentions. In December parliament toughened these regulations to give security forces even broader arrest and detention powers. These regulations restrict the media's ability to report on the conflict.
“The new rule also establishes an appeals process for detainees, but gives civil servants, rather than judges, the right to adjudicate the cases.
“U.S. efforts to promote human rights and democracy focused on working with allies to broker a lasting peace agreement between the government and the LTTE, urging both sides to uphold the cease-fire; pressing the government to curb and render justice for human rights abuses, and promoting freedoms of the press and religion, fair labor practices, and the rights of women and children.
“The United States promoted a democratic political process and good governance. A U.S.-funded transparent and accountable local governance project aimed to strengthen local government's management capacity, service delivery, and increase citizen participation in decision making. During the year the program supported 35 local government partners in six provinces. Following local government elections during the year, the project supported a national conference on local government and the training of newly-elected mayors and local officials. The United States continued to engage participants in the youth parliament project through a series of regional discussions and skill development programs, which helped the students to develop and implement action plans addressing community needs. One major democracy initiative during the year included technical assistance and material support provided to the Elections Commission to computerize the National Voter Registry.
“U.S. efforts to promote freedom of speech and the media included diplomacy and technical assistance programs. Given the country's highly-centralized media environment, the United States initiated a regional media program that gave citizens and local government authorities a voice on local issues of national concern, including internal displacement, devolution of power, and human rights. Media houses in both the south and east provided training and production support to district-based journalists and staff of community-based organizations. Real Voices Radio current affairs programs in both vernacular languages were broadcast weekly on three regional radio stations in the south, east, and central hill country.
“The United States supported rule of law, judicial reform, and anticorruption efforts. A U.S.-funded anticorruption program continued to provide training and technical assistance to staff from the commission to investigate allegations of bribery or corruption in the auditor general's department. Training programs targeted mid-level managers from the auditor general's department. The program supported a series of regional workshops for civil society organizations to raise awareness about corruption in tsunami-affected districts; a series of public service announcements on national television on corruption; and, in collaboration with other donors, several awareness-raising events on International Anticorruption Day. Another U.S.-supported project continued to train mediators from the Ministry of Justice's Community Mediation Board's Program and support NGOs working with marginalized communities to train informal paralegals to represent the interests of their communities.
“The United States continued to press the government and LTTE to resume negotiations, uphold the cease-fire and find a political solution to the conflict. U.S. officials consistently urged the government to halt all human rights abuses and hold perpetrators accountable; the United States hosted a meeting of the co-chairs of the Tokyo Donors Conference late in the year to that end. The United States also provided technical assistance and training to the Ministry of Constitutional Affairs and the Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process on conflict resolution and analysis. The United States funded meetings, workshops and publications that discussed human rights and peaceful coexistence. In the conflict- and tsunami-affected east, for example, community leaders from local government and civil society underwent training in nonviolent communication skills. The United States hosted a series of debates through the traditional form of sung limericks, which offered a viable means to address sensitive issues such as interethnic relations and the cost of war.
“The United States assisted in retraining the police to focus on community-oriented policing. U.S. law enforcement professionals led courses on basic investigation and interrogation techniques aimed at reducing the use of torture. U.S. officers led a course entitled "Human Dignity and Ethics" and worked with their domestic counterparts to integrate these skills and techniques into the local law enforcement curriculum. A U.S. grant supported the Sri Lankan Human Rights Commission's efforts to process more than 16,000 complaints of disappearances and to establish a national database on disappearance cases. Human rights training was a key component of all joint military programs.
“In the eastern province, incidents of violence and general strikes were common, and there was mutual suspicion between communities. In speeches, media roundtables, and opinion pieces, the ambassador, the under secretary of state for political affairs, the assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs, and other senior officials condemned human rights abuses committed by the LTTE and pressed the government to investigate allegations of human rights abuses by authorities. To address a core issue of the conflict, the United States supported local efforts to promote language rights and pluralism through implementation of the 1987 Official Language Policy. Based on an audit of local practices, the United States supported advocacy and awareness through a concerned citizens group comprised of 18 eminent personalities, provided trilingual notice boards and documents for seven government institutions, and commissioned a study to identify more effective ways to implement the language policy.
“The country is predominantly Buddhist but also has sizeable Christian, Hindu, and Muslim populations. U.S. officials regularly met with representatives of all religious groups to review a wide range of human rights, ethnic, and religious freedom issues. The United States discussed religious freedom issues with the government in the context of its overall dialogue and policy of promoting human rights. During the year the ambassador held high-level meetings with the current and former presidents of the country to express concern about the negative impact that anticonversion laws could have on religious freedom. The assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs and the ambassador discussed the anticonversion issue with Sri Lanka’s ambassador to the United States. The United States continued to encourage government and religious leaders to find nonlegislative means to address religious issues.
“The United States provided assistance to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to support refugee protection and assistance in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka and support to the Tibet Fund to provide reception, health, and education services to Tibetans in India and Nepal.
“The United States has funded a four-year program in the country to help create a National Plan of Action for Decent Work designed to promote good governance of labor standards and protection of labor. The United States also funded the Factory Improvement Program, a multi-supplier training program to develop local factories' capacity to improve industrial relations; health, safety, and working conditions; and productivity and quality, which ended during the year. The United States began a program to promote the rights of the country's workers in the Persian Gulf and a program to enforce codes of conduct and promote workers rights in the country as well.”
- Asian Tribune -
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