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Editorial16th August 1998 |
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47, W. A. D. Ramanayake Mawatha Colombo 2. P.O. Box: 1136, Colombo 2.
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Knee-jerk not enoughLast week The Sunday Times published the significant comments made by a member of the Geneva-based UN Human Rights sub- Commission on the prevention of discrimination against minorities during a debate on the situation in Sri Lanka. What was most significant was the fact that the comments were made by a Norwegian, a member of the NGO International Alert and a person who was very critical of the Sri Lankan Government since the 1983 riots. We have always felt that most international observers especially those from the West have viewed the Sri Lankan crisis with jaundiced eyes. While noboby can condone the ugly riots of 1983, no credit was given to the Sinhalese who protected thousands of their Tamil friends from the marauding mobs. These civic-minded Sinhalese themselves fell victim to the propaganda that painted the Sinhalese as barbarians. Asbjorn Eide is one such person who took every opportunity to lambast Sri Lanka for the alleged oppression of the minorities in this country. It has taken him 15 long years to see the reality. He told the Geneva Session: "Very much has changed since 1983. Among the Tamils, an extremely militant group emerged calling itself the Tigers, abbreviated LTTE. Its leadership has developed an almost paranoid garrison mentality. That movement or particularly its leadership respects no human rights. It engages in the most heinous crimes, using female, male and possibly even child suicide bombers... What baffles me is that there are still international non-governmental organisations which lend their support to this movement..." What baffles us is the same thing. Asbjorn Eide, the Norwegian Director of the largely Norwegian-funded NGO International Alert remains on its Board. When The Sunday Times published an article regarding LTTE activities in Norway, the IA in whose Colombo office, the writer worked sacked her and said it had apologised to the LTTE. When Sri Lankan Human Right activists protested in front of the IA's Colombo Office and Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar said he was going to launch a probe on IA activities in Sri Lanka, it closed shop and ran away from the country. The Tamil expat community as well as these NGOs, like Eide, are coming to realise the stark reality that this is no ethnic conflict but a war waged by a fascist organisation that had gone after the democratic Tamil politicians and to a large extent the so-called upper classes in Hindu caste hierarchy. Western nations are still very slow to understand the need to identify, isolate and defeat the LTTE. They have been dragging their collective feet — only to get periodic rude awakenings like the bombings last week in Nairobi and Dar-es Salam. And now, suddenly the cry "what about the UN convention on Terrorist Bombings?" - Yes, what about it? Neither has India lent its whole- hearted support in this exercise despite the bloody nose it has received as evident in what happened to the IPKF and Rajiv Gandhi. Terrorism is now global and we require a global effort to combat it. Knee-jerk reactions only when bombs go off are not enough.
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