EU parliamentarians request GoSL to ensure accountability

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 July 2013, 15:16 GMT]
A delegation of European Union parliamentarians visiting Sri Lanka requested Colombo to “ensure accountability in the face of what the UN calls "credible allegations" of up to 40,000 civilians killed in the final battles in 2009” the AFP reported on Friday. "On the physical side in terms of roads and reconstruction, the progress is very, very visible, but a lot more needs to be done on political issues," the AFQ quoted the delegation head, UK’s Jean Lambert. Ms Lambert had also said that the EU wanted Sri Lanka “to implement recommendations of its own domestic war probe which called for independent investigations into alleged rights abuses.” The “domestic war probe” by the genocide-accused Sri Lankan government has been condemned as a farce by many Tamil political activists.

Extracts from the AFP report follows:

"On issues around accountability, we need to see more progress," the delegation head, Britain's Jean Lambert, told reporters in Colombo.

She said they wanted Sri Lanka to implement recommendations of its own domestic war probe which called for independent investigations into alleged rights abuses.

On the physical side in terms of roads and reconstruction, the progress is very, very visible, but a lot more needs to be done on political issues," she said.

She added however that the six-member team noticed that Sri Lankan security forces had been deployed for road construction and other work that would normally be carried out by civilians.

"We have raised concerns that the military is becoming a part of everyday life of society," Lambert said, adding that they believed troops were having an unfair advantage over civilian small businesses.

Lambert said they also raised concerns about "disappearances" and the fate of thousands of people missing following the end of the conflict.

“No matter how long after the conflict, people still want to know what happened to their loved ones,” she said.

American feminist writer contrasts gender politics of LTTE and GoSL

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 July 2013, 23:51 GMT]

“The Sri Lankan government has used rape against Tamil men and women suspected of being members of the LTTE [...] but the Tamil Tigers have seemingly not used it in retaliation,” writes American feminist writer Michele Lent Hirsch. In an article that is general commentary on the use of rape by both state and non-state actors in war published on Women Under Siege on Tuesday, the author compares and contrasts the gender politics of the LTTE with other actors in conflicts, and concludes that “if rape is not inevitable in war, it follows that we have all the more reason to hold the perpetrating groups responsible.” Commenting on this, a Tamil feminist activist from Vanni remarked that it is not only important to condemn rape in war in general, it is also important to recognize the nature of the sexual violence used in specific cases and to deal justice to survivors accordingly.

Further observations from the Tamil activist follow:

While the Sri Lankan government calling itself a ‘democracy’ had used rape against the Tamils in the island before, during and after the armed struggle for Tamil Eelam, the de-facto state led by Pirapaharan’s LTTE, condemned by international powers as a ‘dictatorship’, had made exemplary efforts to create a gender-just society.

The vision of the leadership was to forge an egalitarian society where discrimination and oppression based on one’s gender, caste or religion would not be tolerated. This was an intrinsic aspect of the ideology of Pirapaharan’s LTTE.

Dr. N. Malathy in her book ‘A Fleeting Moment in my Country’ gives testimony to the nature of governance in the de-facto state and the progressive ideals that they tried to infuse into society.

Feminists with a Liberal-Western orientation commenting on Pirapaharan’s LTTE without fail failed to take into account the nature of emancipatory Tamil nationalism that the movement espoused.

Likewise, international organizations and media in the West and India were more content obsessing with the issue of child soldiers, and tried to vilify the de facto state through all means possible.

In her article, Ms. Hirsch, while making some conceptually erroneous statements about the LTTE led armed struggle, has taken an effort to understand the gender politics of the LTTE, referring largely to Western sources.

The other limitation of the article is that it only focuses on the why rape was not used by the insurgents and on gender-inclusiveness only as a question of instrumentality rather than on the agency and ideology of the leadership in creating an active participation of women in the struggle.

Her conclusion, however, is worthy in that she appeals to not treat war as an essential component of war but that to consider it as a question of choice by the actors involved, calling for a corresponding punishment of perpetrators.

Rape against the Tamils in the island was not an ‘excess of war’. It was and is a planned strategy to break the social fabric of the Tamil nation.

The New Delhi gang-rape case which happened some months back provoked sharp condemnations and reactions from the Left, Right and Centre in the Indian mainstream politics. But these political actors not only wilfully ignored rape used a genocidal weapon by the Sri Lankan state against the Eezham Tamils, they also continue to endorse the legitimacy of the Sri Lankan. There is no concrete difference between the politics of the BJP, Congress and CPM as far as the interests of our genocide-affected people are concerned.

How would have the Indian activists protesting against the Delhi gang-rape case reacted had someone suggested that the family of the rape victim should pursue reconciliation with the rapists? But they have no qualms in denying retributive justice a la Nuremberg Trials to the Eezham Tamils and a political solution that would protect the Tamil nation from the essentially predatory Sinhala nationalism, suggesting instead that the Tamils should reconcile with their oppressors.

It is this sense of international apathy towards the Tamils that allows the Sri Lankan state to commit its crimes with impunity.

The physical trauma endured by Tamil women owing to abuse at the hands of perpetrators of sexual violence is one aspect. That the dimensions of the other aspect of cultural and psychological trauma that Tamil women in their homeland undergo everyday owing to the omnipresence of the Sinhala military have not been taken into critical consideration is a matter of lamentation.

While every soldier occupying the Tamils’ homeland is complicit in the systematic crimes committed by the institution he serves, punishment of individual soldiers for crimes is irrelevant when the system is essentially genocidal.

This is the reason that many Tamil feminist activists grounded in struggle conclude that it is impossible to talk about gender issues alone without addressing the chronic national question of the Eezham Tamils.

Chronology:

03.07.13  American feminist writer contrasts gender politics..

18.03.13  Rape and murder of Tamil women by Sri Lankan force..

10.03.13  Tamil women in UK begin campaign to highlight geno..

27.02.13  ‘Sexual violence against Tamils is premeditated, d..

27.02.13  Systematic rape of Tamils violates Genocide conven..

28.09.12  ‘Systemic rape of Tamil women is genocidal attack ..

30.08.12  Genocidal sex abuse of ex-LTTE female cadres becom..

External Links:

womenundersiegeproject.org:

No, war doesn’t have to mean rape

GoSL’s new media code to further curtail free speech: HRW

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 June 2013, 20:26 GMT]

Referring to the ‘Code of Media Ethics’ official proposed by Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Mass Media and Information two days back, Human Rights Watch in a release on Wednesday criticised the proposal for its “overbroad and vague language that could have a severe and chilling effect on free speech”. Noting how the proposed code could be used to curtail any dissent to the government and referring to the already existing repression of journalists, HRW reported that “Violence remains a real fear for journalists, which is only heightened by impunity for perpetrators.” Arguing that the vagueness of this code would lead to self-censorship by many journalists, Brad Adams, Asia Director of HRW, also commented that “The code would hand the Sri Lankan authorities a new tool to harass and threaten journalists who are already working in a very difficult environment.”

“The government’s proposed media code is part of a sustained campaign to control the media and curtail dissent,” Mr. Adams said, adding that “Sri Lankan journalists are already under enormous pressure not to be critical of the government, and the vagueness of this code will likely lead to greater self-censorship to avoid government retaliation.”

The HRW release was also apprehensive of the possible misuse of this code by the Sri Lankan state, in that “The code contains 13 types of substantive speech that would be prohibited from publication, including content that vaguely ‘offends against expectations of the public, morality of the country, or tend to lower the standards of public taste and morality.’

“Also prohibited would be any content that ‘contains material against the integrity of the Executive, Judiciary, and Legislative’ – which could be interpreted as barring criticism of the government. The code also restricts content that ‘contains criticism affecting foreign relations,” which could lead to sanctions for reporting on international criticism of Sri Lankan government actions.’”

External Links:

HRW:

Sri Lanka: Proposed Media Code Threatens Free Speech