RIGHTS-SRI LANKA: NGOs Up Against Government, Tamil Rebels

By Feizal Samath Reprint | | Print |

Feizal Samath

COLOMBO, Jul 29 1998 (IPS) - Non-governmental organisations (NGOs), both local and international groups that work in the war zone in Sri Lanka, are at constant risk of being accused of siding either with Tamil rebels or the government.

Recently the British charity, International Alert (IA) was told to pack up and leave after its dismissal of a local employee created a stir in the local media and in the foreign office in Colombo.

IA took action against its programme manager, Fredrika Jansz, for writing an article in the ‘Sunday Times’ about the activities of Sri Lankan rebels and how they raised funds in Norway. Jansz is also a free-lance journalist for the newspaper and has written on political and security-related affairs in the past.

IA is actively involved in working towards peace in war-torn countries and has close relations with both the Sri Lankan government and Tamil rebels, who were offended by the article and thought it reflected the views of IA.

The British charity took the unusual step of apologising to authorities in Norway, which provides some financial support to IA, and the rebels, and sacked Jansz as a punishment.

The ‘Sunday Times’, backing its journalist, attacked IA saying Jansz had written an unbiased, accurate account of rebel activities in Norway and that IA had the temerity to sack her for telling the truth.

Accusing IA of being a rebel front organisation, the newspaper said that IA and like-minded NGOs were not welcome to do as they pleased with “either your kroners or your cronies in Sri Lanka.”

The resultant glare of publicity, which included stinging criticism of IA by the Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, forced the agency to shut down the Colombo office last month. Ironically, Kumar Rupasinghe, secretary-general of IA is a Sri Lankan and former husband of the elder sister of Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga. Rupasinghe quits office next month after serving two terms with IA.

Local human rights groups say the government is also sensitive about the activities of private peace builders or rights organisations, fearing they report only the negative aspects of the Sri Lankan situation. Most Colombo-based newspapers also accuse the human rights lobby of similar biased reporting.

“Chandrika realises that she rode to power on the strength of the human rights lobby … She now fears that the rights issue can ease her out of office as well,” one rights activist said.

Kumaratunga’s ‘People’s Alliance’ coalition won parliamentary and presidential polls in 1994 defeating the United National Party which during its 17-year rule was accused of countless human rights violations including murders. The majority of rights’ groups backed Kumaratunga at the poll, but are embarrassingly silent about continued violations now.

Earlier this year, the government brought in a controversial law that allows it to investigate allegations of fraud or misappropriation against an NGO, and sack its board of directors until the inquiry is over.

Neither has it repealed the Voluntary Social Services Act of 1980, promulgated to register and supervise private volunteer groups despite protests from NGOs and human rights groups.

Two years ago, the Kumaratunga government clashed very openly with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Geneva-based humanitarian agency, working in the war zone to protect civilians and wounded combatants who have been taken prisoner of war.

The ICRC complained that several civilians were killed in a Roman Catholic Church in the north that was bombed by government planes hunting Tamil rebels.

The government said that those killed were rebels, insinuating that the ICRC was protecting rebels, which the ICRC promptly denied in a statement. The ICRC has often been attacked in the media and by other groups because it helps wounded rebels in addition to wounded government soldiers.

The ICRC statement angered the Foreign Ministry and official sources said that only tactful diplomacy by some ICRC officials helped to resolve the dispute and prevent the agency from being given marching orders.

But not everyone is that lucky. The Peace Brigade, a U.S-based group working in conflict resolution, was told that the visas of its Colombo-based officials had expired and since no extension

was given, they were asked to leave earlier this year.

Peace activists said that the government was unhappy at some reports by the group on the situation in the island’s east where security forces are battling Tamil rebels. The rebels want to create a separate homeland for the island’s minority Tamils in the north and east which they dominate.

The government says its troops are very much in control in the east but rights groups and political analysts argue that this is far from the truth and that the Sri Lankan army controls the roads by day while the rebels, rule at night. The war that has dragged on for 15 years, has killed more than 50,000 people.