The world’s attention is on some 192,000 internally displaced persons and another 50,000 to 100,000 civilians trapped in a five-square-kilometer area in northern Sri Lanka that used to be called a no-fire zone. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, in a press release issued after a telephone conversation with the Sri Lankan president on Tuesday, stated that this issue is among the highest of priorities internationally.
The civilians are trapped in an internal conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. They are ordinary folk who have lived in the north and the east from time immemorial. They were able to sustain themselves and help others in the past. They naturally deserve the full attention of the government and the international community to escape the conflict and integrate back into their natural habitat as soon as possible.
Obviously, the LTTE will not cooperate toward releasing those trapped in this small area or toward their welfare. However, this cannot be used as an excuse by the government, which has the obligation to protect its citizens.
The fact that limited resources are available to ensure the welfare of these persons is no excuse as the international community, through the highest officer of the United Nations, has assured the government of assistance in dealing with the issue. The richer countries of the world have also assured the government and the United Nations of their support.
The problem faced by the government is that it will not get the assured cooperation unless it grants the international community access to the people in the war zone. Such access naturally cannot be subjected to censorship. All forms of cooperation generate information and revelations about the actual situation. The government cannot keep the situation a secret and have international cooperation at the same time. The two are simply incompatible.
Practically, the attempts to obstruct exposure of the actual situation will prevent the flow of necessary assistance. If the government really wants to save the lives of these people – and it is natural to presume that it does – there is no option but to agree to internationally acceptable standards of cooperation.
Pictures in the local and international press and on television reveal that the president is perpetually busy accepting gifts from the local population to deal with the situation. This is laudable, if it is not a pure media ploy.
However, given the extremely hard conditions faced by the Sri Lankan people themselves with ever-increasing prices, job losses, severe problems in big businesses and even worse consequences to come due to the global economic crisis, the government is in no position to extract enough “gifts” to ensure the well-being of all the persons trapped in this crisis. The ever-devaluing Sri Lankan rupee is the mirror that demonstrates the nation’s economic problems.
There is also the burden of dealing with the problems of the “liberated zones” in the country’s North and East, where decades of civil war have destroyed the regions’ infrastructure. The development of civil administration, including the reconstruction of basic institutions of the rule of law, would demand huge allocations from the country’s budget.
If these problems are not addressed these zones could start coming under the control of “warlord-like people.” Soon ordinary people could revolt purely due to security issues. For example, two young girls between the ages of six and eight were kidnapped and killed in the East, within a month, when ransom demands failed to secure their release. Their parents and neighbors declared a boycott of schools for a week as a mark of protest. Even shops and businesses remained closed for a full day.
There is no reason to believe that things will get better as there is no authority capable of ensuring security in the area. With such problems at hand, the government is in no position to be fussy about accepting the assistance offered by the United Nations’ secretary general.
In the past, there was a nationalist fear that giving access to the United Nations might lead to the strengthening of the LTTE. Today, the government and the military claim that such a situation is no longer possible. The commander-in-chief of the army has made that very clear in several statements.
Therefore, the fear that accepting assistance to deal with the present situation may lead to a rekindling of terrorism has no basis. The U.N. secretary general and others who have expressed willingness to help have also unequivocally rejected and unreservedly condemned the LTTE as a terrorist organization.
This is a moment of political choice. It is a time for the government’s extravagant claims, made purely for political propaganda, to be sacrificed in order to come to terms with the real political and economic situation.
As the aim is to save lives, the government must bow before reality and accept the assistance offered by the U.N. secretary general in the same fashion in which Sri Lanka accepted assistance in the past, for example, during the tsunami of 2004.
It is an established principle of international law and practice that in times of disaster, nations have a right to seek help and it is the duty of the international community to provide such assistance.
Source: Sri Lanka should accept U.N. assistance
Filed under: child rights, civil society, civil war, health, human rights, IDPs, justice, politics, rule of law, Sri Lanka
