Sri Lanka in tiff with EU over LTTE

Colombo (IDN): An “influential section” of the European Parliament has been accused of collaborating with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rump as well as its overseas supporters, and providing them a platform to spread “false propaganda” against the Sri Lankan Government.

By Kalinga Seneviratne

Sri Lanka’s Ambassador Ravinath Ariyasinghe told a national newspaper on 19 December that he had strongly protested in writing against the denial of his Government’s ‘right of reply’ at an “exchange of views on the post-conflict period in Sri Lanka” at the European Parliament on 6 December.

He pointed out that in the over one hour long discussion, of the 32 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) in the Human Rights Sub-Committee only one had chosen to speak, and other than for a few comments by the European Commission, most of the time was given to a number of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs).

In a letter to the chair of the sub-committee, Heidi Hautala, who was not present at the discussion, Ambassador Ariyasinghe noted that despite his being present and demanding Sri Lanka’s ‘right of reply’, he had been denied that right by the presiding officer at the time.

The denial, he added, “leaves the unmistakable impression that the Human Rights Sub-Committee is not interested in having a reasoned and balanced discussion on Sri Lanka, but is merely content to allow itself (the European Parliament) to be used as a platform for LTTE apologists to discredit the Government of Sri Lanka.”

The EU mission in Sri Lanka did not respond to a request by IDN (InDepthNews) for a comment on the Sri Lankan Ambassador’s remarks. However, a 27 December press release by the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Brussels said that EU had agreed to grant Sri Lanka the right of reply.

It said that in a letter to Ambassador Ariyasinghe, EU’s Hautala had requested him to send her “your views in writing, expressing your Government’s response to our grave concerns. I assure you it will be distributed to my colleagues of the sub-committee.”

Sri Lanka has been peeved in recent weeks by the glaring double standards practiced by the Europeans in their battle against terror. Ever since Sri Lanka militarily defeated the LTTE – one of the most ruthless terror outfits in the world – in May 2009, there has been a witch hunt by the West, particularly the Europeans, against Sri Lanka on alleged war crimes, while covering up their own in places like Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

This witch hunt has been gathering momentum, with the bastion of free speech, the Oxford Union, giving in to pressure from LTTE supporters in the UK, and cancelling a scheduled address by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, after he had arrived in the UK to deliver it.

The LTTE is banned as a terrorist group in the UK, but its supporters there were allowed to display photos of their dead leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and wave LTTE flags in public demonstrations against President Rajapaksa in London. All these acts violate British anti-terror laws.

In a recent interview with the Sri Lankan news portal Nation’s Tharindu Prematileka, Singapore based terrorism expert Dr. Rohan Gunarathna observed that only very few proscribed organisations have not been allowed to express themselves in Europe, most notable are Al Qaeda and the Muslim organisations.

“(Thus) in many ways, Britain has demonstrated double standards when it comes to fighting terrorism, and what happened when the President (Rajapaksa) visited Britain is just one example of it.”

Dr. Gunarathna argues that the Sri Lankan government needs to develop a well thought-out strategy to engage Western NGOs (who have been brainwashed by the LTTE propaganda machine) and politicians to give the real ground reality in Sri Lanka.

“Without just complaining that the media is not listening to us or giving publicity to us, what the Foreign Ministry and the Lankan diplomatic staff in other countries must do is to proactively educate leading media personnel about what happened in Sri Lanka, and explain what the ground reality in Sri Lanka was and is,” he argues.

“Because the Tamil Tigers had a very strong propaganda system, they were able to in many ways convince some Western politicians and Western NGOs including organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch that there were significant human rights violations in Sri Lanka. So, unless Sri Lanka gets its act together the kind of events that took place in Britain (recently) will continue to happen.”

Thus, some of the rather positive developments in the country have gone unnoticed in Europe. One such example is the peace award given to the commander of the Army in the northern Tamil stronghold of Jaffna by the Gusi Foundation of the Philippines in November 2009.

While the Tamil Diaspora groups, aligned with the vanquished LTTE, carry on with their witch hunt against the Sri Lankan Army about alleged war crimes, Major General Mahinda Hathurusinghe, who took command of the armed forces in Jaffna in January 2010, has been quietly transforming his Army into a community building unit gaining the trust and the support of the local Tamil community.

For his efforts Hathurusinghe received the prestigious Gusi Peace Prize for 2010 from the Philippines in November 2010. The annual Gusi Peace Prize Awards, given to several individuals each year by the Manila-based Gusi Peace Prize Foundation, recognise their exemplary contributions to peace and human rights, science, politics, arts and literature, medicine and variety of other fields.

“Although the Army was there since 1995, there has been some distrust because they (people of Jaffna) thought army was there to fight the war,” explained Hathurusinghe in a telephone interview with me from his command headquarters in Jaffna.

“(Since the end of the war in May 2009) among the various commanders at different levels we have worked out a committee system where every place they are deployed we have created a development committee,” he added.

To gain the trust and the support of the people, the Army has set up development committees that consist of village representatives, the village headman, secretaries of Government institutions working in the area, Hindu temple heads and marriage priests, and other people’s representatives. On the request of youth groups they have also recently co-opted students into these committees.

“We reach out to the people through these committees,” Hathurusinghe said. “We meet every fortnight to discuss development needs where everyone communicates. A major problem was communication. Now they are starting to understand us and we trust them.”

Hathurusinghe, who joined the Sri Lankan Army 30 years ago, has been trained in India and he has also completed a MBA in Sri Lanka and a Master’s degree in National Security Administration from the National Defence College of the Philippines.

Writing in the Daily News, Dr. Rajiva Wijesingha, the former Secretary of the Disaster Management and Human Rights Ministry and currently a government MP (Member of Parliament), observed that “the manner in which the Army transformed itself from a fighting force to a force for reconciliation was remarkable.”

Hathurusinghe is bitterly disappointed that the pro-LTTE Tamil Diaspora is spreading false propaganda against the army, without visiting the area. “During the war the Diaspora complained about people dying, we were shooting them, etc., and when the war was over they were shouting about violation of human rights,” complains Hathurusinghe.

“Yes we fought a war but after that we are with the people,” the Army Commander says firmly, “they are part of our society, they have human rights, they want to be free and enjoy what people enjoy in Colombo”.

In a veiled reference to those in the West who have nothing good to say about the efforts of the Sri Lankan Government to build trust between the Tamil and Sinhalese communities, and help rebuild war damaged communities, Wijesingha argues that the peace prize Hathurusinghe received from the Philippines “is evidence that the international community – particularly countries in Asia that matter most to us and face problems similar to our own – value what we did, both our success in quelling terrorism, (and) our commitment to the ordinary citizens who are victims of terror in several respects.”