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RIGHTS-SRI LANKA: Arbour’s Visit a Guided Tour – Critics

Amantha Perera

COLOMBO, Oct 10 2007 (IPS) - United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Louise Arbour’s five-day tour of this strife-torn country is already circumscribed by the fact that she will not be allowed to visit areas in the Jaffna peninsula controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Arbour’s visit, starting Tuesday, is being coordinated by the ministry of human rights and disaster management, and the concerned minister, Mahinda Samarasinghe, said that neither she nor Manfred Novak, the U.N. special investigator on torture, may visit LTTE areas because it could result in adverse propaganda and also because of security concerns.

Such restrictions have prompted observers in Colombo to claim that the government was trying to limit Arbour’s access during the visit. “There seems to be a great deal of scrutiny around the visit by the government, the noise has grown belligerent at times,” Dulani Kulasinghe, a researcher with the Colombo-based Law and Society Trust (LST) told IPS.

As Arbour landed, the LTTE’s human rights spokeswoman N. Selvy, said in a statement that Tamils expected her to visit Vanni (LTTE administered areas) to get a true picture of rights violations by the Sri Lankan military and paramilitaries. She expressed disappointment that “the main violator, the Sri Lankan government itself,” had control over Arbour’s itinerary.

Arbour is, nevertheless, scheduled to visit the Jaffna peninsula, the political nerve centre of the minority Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Last week, U.S. undersecretary of state Nicholas Burns told Sri Lankan foreign minister Rohitha Bogollagama that more needs to be done to stem violations in Jaffna. “He noted serious concern over credible reports of continued severe human rights abuses in Jaffna and other parts of the country,” the state department said.

Sri Lanka is at a crucial phase of a two-decade-old strife between ethnic Tamil separatists led by the LTTE and the majority Sinhalese-dominated government that is seeking a military solution to a conflict that has already resulted in the deaths of more than 70,000 people.

But the government, already under flak from the international community for its policies, has made no secret of the fact that it wants the Arbour visit to conclude without any bad press and expects an endorsement of its efforts to curb rights violations.

Visits by high ranking U.N. officials last year resulted in critical overviews of the government. Special advisor to the U.N. special representative on children in armed conflict Allan Rock ended his November 2006 mission by going public with allegations that there was evidence to suggest army collusion in under-age recruitments.

Ten months later U.N. Humanitarian Affairs coordinator John Holmes termed Sri Lanka as one of the worst places in the world for aid workers.

Additionally, international rights watchdogs such as Amnesty International and the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) have joined local bodies to say that the rights situation is at such a low level that only a field office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights with international monitors can stem the tide. HRW said in August that between January 2006 and June this year 1,100 abductions have been reported.

Sri Lanka also figured prominently in the recent sixth session of the Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva, though the government staved off a European Union-led critical resolution that was to have been tabled.

Arbour’s visit is at the invitation of the government but she has supported calls for the setting up of a U.N.-backed field office.

The government has attempted to set the tone for the visit at the HRC sessions in Geneva. “We shall discuss with High Commissioner Arbour when she visits Sri Lanka about how national institutions can be strengthened with the cooperation of the High Commission. Whether or not to establish a field presence is a matter for Sri Lanka (to decide). The office of the High Commissioner cannot be the new equivalent of an East India company. That, Sri Lanka shall not subscribe to,” Dayan Jayatilleka, Sri Lanka’s permanent representative at the U.N. in Geneva said at the sessions.

Arbour is expected to visit hundreds of people who have sought the protection of the police in Jaffna prison.

Additionally, a group of 86 ethnic Tamil detainees lodged in Welikade maximum security prison and 40 others in the Magazine prison have been demanding through the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) political party that Arbour be allowed to meet them.

The detainees said Arbour should be told of the prison conditions, and the extended incarceration without trial, leaders of the TNA which is in the opposition said.

“We will tell Arbour of our grievances and press for international monitors,” opposition MP Mano Ganeshan, who is also the convener of the Civil Monitoring Committee (CMC), told IPS.

Made up of opposition law makers and other civil activists, the CMC monitors abductions and disappearances and has also acted as a gathering point for the victims’ families. Ganeshan said that there was wide support for the setting up of a field office, including from the main opposition parties.

LST’s Kulasinghe said whatever the outcome of the Arbour visit it is likely to have a direct impact on the ground. “Arbour’s findings will be important. Even if her access is limited, she can say that in the report.’’

Ganeshan agreed, arguing that despite the government’s assessment that the international community had eased scrutiny and the situation had improved, Arbour’s conclusions would matter. “The government says that the situation has improved, I think a lot of the delegates are waiting for Arbour to say that, for her to find out for herself that there is improvement or otherwise,’’ he told IPS.