Asia Society – Panel Discussion on “Sri Lanka’s Civil War” : Seeking the truth or hampering reconciliation?

The Asia Society is considered a forum where current issues are debated against a background of impartiality and honesty. This of course was not the case when the Asia Society organized a discussion last week, about Sri Lanka’s conflict and the international community’s perspective.

A panel that “Prabhakaran” himself couldn’t have hoped for was assembled, including an overzealous moderator, who continued to make subjective remarks such as, “the Killing Fields contained credible allegations of war crimes” while simply dismissing the government’s response as being “propagandistic”.

As to whether the Channel4 video was propagandistic remained unaddressed. The only voice of moderation seemed to emerge from a TV with a satellite feed from 14,000 miles away.

It is bizarre that Channel 4 (and the Asia Society) would arrange this screening now, almost two and a half years after the end of the conflict and, without a single reference to the peace and calm that prevails in the country now. What were they hoping to accomplish? Was it to keep the dream of Ealam alive? Was it to keep the fires of separation burning? Or, perhaps was it intended “to put in its proper place” a small island nation of brown people who had the audacity to defy the west’s prescriptions by ending a reign of terror.

Soon after the screening of “the killing fields”, Callum Mcrae, the producer, along with Bob Templer of the International Crisis Group took turns in condemning the Government of Sri Lanka and undermining its reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts. Essentially, both Mcrae’s and Templer’s objective seemed to be to encourage the prejudices and biases of the (vastly Tamil) audience.
With his usual yarn about the “conduct of the armed forces” during the final stages of the conflict, Mr. Mcrae failed to bring anything new to the table. Restating claims such as, “supplies were deliberately restricted to hospitals by the GOSL” he simply did not acknowledge the magnitude of the atrocities carried out by the LTTE. He seemed to believe that by making a one line criticism of the LTTE, he had provided balance but, completely missed the point that balance is achieved by conveying different points of view, “Evenly”.

Malinda Seneviratne highlighted this quite eloquently by stating that the producer selectively and intentionally suppressed the truth.

For instance, it is documented that the Government did its utmost to ensure that the people held hostage by the LTTE in the North and the East received the supplies they needed throughout the entire conflict. International agencies such as ICRC and the World Food Programme have attested to this. Even during the final stages of the Humanitarian Operation, when the trapped civilians could not be reached by road, supplies were sent in through ICRC ships (which also came under attack by the LTTE) and were escorted by the Sri Lanka Navy.

The World Food Programme continued to send food to the civilians till almost the very end of the conflict.

Moreover, The Committee for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance, consisting of the main Ministries and the Ambassadors of Japan, the EU, the USA and Norway, and the ICRC monitored the provision of relief supplies to the conflict zones. At no stage did this committee complain about restrictions on supplies. Needless to point out that Mr.Mcrae merely attempts to hand out “village gossip” with a sensationalist twist without double checking the evidence and the facts.

As Mr. Malinda Seneviratne candidly pointed out, it has been only two years since the bloody conflict ended. To expect an overnight miracle in addressing all the relevant issues ranging from accountability for the alleged crimes to the “root causes of the conflict” is to simply ignore the ground reality.

Nowhere else in the world has such a miracle been achieved after a 27 year conflict. Furthermore, the country had other priorities to deal with immediately and many challenges to overcome, including combating the rump LTTE overseas and in Colombo (not to mention their emphatic supporters such as Channel 4 and the ICG) who were conducting a formidable disinformation campaign, including through their access to Western Missions in Colombo.

Within two years after the guns fell silent, Rehabilitation and reconstruction was given priority and it was astoundingly quick despite Sri Lanka’s paucity of resources. 300,000 IDP’s who were housed in transit camps (where over 70 International and domestic NGOs operated freely) have been successfully sent back to their villages and given the means of livelihood. Over 11,200 former LTTE combatants have been rehabilitated and released and more than 595 child soldiers who were forcibly recruited by the LTTE have been reunited with their families. This is despite the continuing recovery of buried caches of weapons. Nowhere else in the world has such a large number of IDP’s been “repatriated” nor, former combatants rehabilitated at such a remarkable pace.

While claiming on several occasions that they (Channel 4 and the ICG) simply seek the truth by asking for an international investigation, it’s evident that there is a hidden agenda. Seeking the truth? Or laying the ground (on behalf of the greater Tamil diaspora) for a game which is broader and possibly involves an attempt to neutralize parties which could pose a significant challenge to achieving a more covert objective? (Several remarks were made to “India’s silence and limited pressure on Sri Lanka” and China’s continued support towards the government) Such as regime change? Or perhaps, reviving the dream that was shattered by the demise of the LTTE, Tamil Ealam.

True, there may have been instances where individuals could have acted without orders and committed ill-advised acts. But Under international law and practice, it is the responsibility of the sovereign state to deal with any infractions of international standards on its own in the first instance. The LLRC was established because Sri Lanka wished to address the relevant issues on its own, consistent with its obligations. The report of the LLRC, (which will be made public in the near future) will advise the president on any violations of the “rules of war” and in addressing the root causes of the conflict.

What the Tamil diaspora and the NGO’s fail to comprehend is that by spreading malicious falsehoods through the promotion of these “mocumentaries” and reigniting racial tensions, they destroy hope for reconciliation among the people of a bruised and battered nation which finally saw an end to 27 years of bloody mayhem.

- Asian Tribune -