Columns - FOCUS On Rights

Admirable rhetoric vis a vis actual policies

By Kishali Pinto Jayawardene

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa's pious exhortations this week that we must all first think as Sri Lankans and later as Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim or Burgher rings seductively easy on the ear. Equally so is his reminder that "if Tamils are not with us, then that is our weakness."

Adroit sidestepping and problematic questions

The Defence Secretary's comments may amount to adroit sidestepping of Indian National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan`s observations that, regardless of how the battle is fought and won, the war will be lost because the government has not been able to get the Tamil population onto their side. However, taken on their merits, these sentiments by the Defence Secretary are undoubtedly admirable. It only remains to be wished that his Ministry would, in fact, adhere to these most admirable sentiments in regard to the policies that it pursues against Tamil civilians in the name of national security instead of conforming to what, often seems, the very repressive opposite.

In the alternative, we are confronted with some problematic questions. Are we to assume quite astoundingly, that Ministry policies are formulated and implemented contrary to what its all-powerful Secretary determines? Or, on the other hand, are we to assume that these sentiments are nothing more than empty rhetoric, good enough only for the political necessities of the moment?

While it is true that maintaining such a balance is easier said than done when prosecuting a war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam who have no compunction in using human beings either as human shields or as human bombs, the question is pertinent as to whether the government is doing all that it should in order to ensure that innocent civilians are not persecuted in the South of the country purely because they are Tamil?

Maheswari's case

Take the pathetic fate that befell Maheswari which was reported by a conscience stricken Sinhalese in Sri Lanka's daily newspapers during the week. A conscientious and hard working garment worker, she was detained at the Kesbewa check point while on her way by bus to her home in Badulla from her hostel in Bandaragama. Even though Maheswari possessed her identification and the policeman who was checking had approved same, she was detained following the insistence by members of the 'Civil Defence Force' (assisting the police/military), that she be investigated further as 'she was a Tamil.' Along with some others who were all Tamils, she was sent to the Piliyandala police station through a passing three wheeler, reportedly without police or military escort. There, more and more men and women were brought to the police station, arrested for the sole reason that they were Tamils. After having spent more than twenty four hours in detention for no particular reason and with all the attendant travails and tribulations that come with such a situation, she was released only after repeated and persistent efforts of her company representatives who unhesitatingly vouched for her credibility and produced documentation in that regard.

Not unique stories

These are not unique stories in any way whatsoever. On the contrary, such stories have now become the norm rather than the exception. This is however, not to say that all military officers or all police officers behave in a discriminatory manner. Indeed, in Maheswari's case itself, as has been noted in the story, the policeman who had actually questioned her, had been kind and in fact, inclined to let her go since there was nothing suspicious about her. In this instance, it was the contrary intervention of members of the Civil Defense Force which had led to her being taken off to the Piliyandala police station. Again, at the police station, a woman police constable had been kind to her during her stay. In this context, I also recall the relatively recent arrest and detention of a young journalist, Arthur Wanaman, when the only reason that was reportedly given by the arresting officers to court was that he was 'Tamil.'

Arbitrariness of policies

The problem is therefore, not the police or the military by itself. Rather, it is the fundamental arbitrariness of the policies imposed upon them with the additional complication of these entities known as 'Civil Defence Forces' in today's context. Let me also very clear on this point. Such policies are not limited to the current government. Neither, for that matter, is the rhetoric. Years back, in Gnanamuttu vs Military Officer, Ananda and Others, (1999(2) SLR, 213), the Supreme Court considered the case of a Tamil engineer who was detained purely for the reason that he 'stuttered' when questioned by the army personnel at the Stanley Wijesundera checkpoint which was thought of as being suspicious. He was then formally arrested ostensibly on the basis that he did not have a 'police registration form' on his person even though there was no such legal requirement at that time to carry such a form for persons who reside in Colombo.

There again, as in Maheswari's case, the nature of the arrest and the casual manner in which he was treated, as a 'terrorist suspect' , was marked. In Gnamauttu's case in fact, while proceeding from one point to another, the single police officer escorting the party had 'lost' him midway when, while waiting for the police escort vehicle to arrive, he had turned to make a phone call to apprise his office workers of what had befallen him. As a result, he had to walk all by himself to the Cinnamon Gardens police station as his identification was at that police station. After arriving there to the consternation of the police officers, he was detained and produced in court. In this case, the judges, in ruling that his rights were violated, expressed their extreme dissatisfaction regarding such arbitrary policies of arrest and detention.

Converting rhetoric to reality

So, the need to convert rhetoric to reality is manifest. Indeed, it is not, for example, that citizens of Tamil ethnicity do not think of themselves as Sri Lankans. It is simply that they are not being allowed to think as Sri Lankans. Clearly it is this mindset that should change, along with consequential policies on arrest and detention, for the war, (as opposed to the battles), to be actually won in this country.

 
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