SRI LANKA: Human rights and double standards for nytas@ursula; Sat, 12 Feb 2000 02:38:16 -0500 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit feb 9 2000 from cjepsa@aol.com (Media Liaison) Human rights and double standards By J.S. Tissainayagam A furore ensued when the Sri Lankan security forces took two Jaffna school children, Sriskandarajah Priya (16) and her brother Sriskandarajah Vinodh (12), while they were at school on January 25 this year. The newspapers are on record that the children and their mother, who was also taken in, were released on Wednesday. The mother stated after she was released that she was not subject to duress and that she herself had asked that her children escort her to Colombo where she had been taken to identify a body. Even if we accept that her statement was voluntary and not the outcome of any compulsion, the incident set in motion certain events that culminated in exerting pressure on the authorities to release the mother and two children. Act of solidarity As the story of the children's detention spread, it awoke the sleeping leviathan - public opinion. The first expression of protest at the action of the authorities came from Priya and Vinodh Sriskandarajah's colleagues in school. They began boycotting classes demanding that the two be released. This was followed by the northern province school principals expressing their outrage and on its heels came the protest of the Jaffna University Students' Association, which said it would also join boycotting high school students in an act of solidarity. When this too proved ineffective, the high school students of Jaffna formed themselves into a front and called for a boycott of classes in all schools in Jaffna. The call proved successful with classes not being conducted for two days. On Tuesday, the Ceylon Tamil Teachers' Association also threatened to boycott classes in support of the students, when the government, knuckling under pressure, released the two children and their mother. The government's action which was seen as patently outrageous, brought together various institutions functioning in Jaffna's civil society in a show of unity against what they perceived as a common enemy. They did not only condemn what had occurred as a public outrage, but were willing to express their remonstrance in peaceful but vigorous terms. Political scientists try to portray western democratic systems as being somehow superior to those in the third world. The reason for this is not only because the exercise of the franchise in many third world nations is not free nor fair, but also because in western societies, citizen participation in governance is not confined to the exercise of franchise, but includes involvement in decision-making in other areas of the political process through civic organisations. But here in Sri Lanka - especially in the north and east - it is otherwise. We are not in a position to crow from the rooftops about democracy seeping down to the grassroots in our society, or that institutions in civil society are championing people's rights to afford them a more complete form of democracy. The people of the north-east have had to rely on trade unions like the Ceylon Tamil Teachers' Association (CTTA) or interest groups such as the Missing Persons' Guardian Association (MPGA), or even loose and ad hoc formations of the public such as refugees, because the channels through which justice is usually dispensed are absent, prejudiced or compromised. Intermittent functions Take for instance the police. There are numerous instances where they have refused to record complaints from the public, especially if they are aware that the complaint implicates a member of the law enforcement or defence authorities. Repeated censure by courts and international human rights organisations about this has had little impact. Then there is the Human Rights Commission (HRC). Its branches in the north and east are seen as sympathetic but largely ineffective. And the process whereby action is initiated is so cumbersome that it does not fulfill the requirements of a public living in the midst of human rights violations. As such, it is not seen as an efficacious way to redress human rights abuse. The courts of law function, but only intermittently. The moment the LTTE feels that they should not and have its demands conveyed, the Jaffna courts close, or function discreetly. The public seeking relief have recourse to only one channel - appealing to the politician. And experience has taught the people that the Tamil politician - especially from the ex-militant groups - is not the most reliable soul to take up these issues, because he himself has blood on his hands. It is ironic that he should intervene in the cause of justice. It is this that has compelled citizens to ask for justice, either through bodies such as the MPGA and CTTA, or ad hoc organisations which are formed to articulate interests depending on the exigencies situation and the demands of the aggrieved citizen. While we saw this grave situation flourish unchecked in the north and east in the past, this disturbing trend has begun to raise its ugly head in the south too. The unbridled violence that accompanies elections is bad enough, but the Rukantha Gunathilleke incident brings a different dimension into the whole business of violence in the south. Though the police seems to be taking an interest in the Rukantha case, if the perpetrators are PA supporters, there will be only lethargy and indifference attending the investigations. The whole thing will be swept under the carpet. Response muted It is when the state becomes indifferent to the welfare of its citizens that institutions in civil society have to come to their rescue. In the time of the Premadasa government, southern-based civic organisations, though under threat, came together to resist the assault against democracy. But today, their response is muted, or at best half-hearted. There has hardly been more than token resistance by most southern NGOs and other civic organisations about what has been taking place in the north since 1994. For years now, there have been disappearances in Jaffna, starvation in the Wanni, shelling and aerial bombardment in nearly all parts of the north-east, as well as harassment of Tamils elsewhere. The protests of south-based civic organisations, compared to what they undertook against state terror in JVP times, was a pathetic whimper. If human rights are universal, they have to be respected as such. To ignore human rights violations in the north but take it up in the south, smacks of double standards. What is more, turning a Nelsonian eye to the violations of human rights from 1994, has now caught these organisations flatfooted as the state trains its guns at the south. Sunday Leader Center for Justice and Peace in South Asia - An advocacy group for Indigenous and Minority Rights. To subscribe, send a message to cjesa-subscribe@egroups.com Go to the e-group's home page at http://www.egroups.com/list/cjesa ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytas-02.12.00-02:38:17-24853