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The issues of protecting human rights and ensuring practices of good governance take on heightened importance in the context of the likely prolongation of the war.
The events of past weeks have given a foretaste of what the country can expect in the months that stretch ahead. There has been a spate of brutal attacks against civilians, most of them traveling in buses. One of the by-products has been anger and irritation against those who continue to advocate a negotiated political settlement between the protagonists to the conflict and who lobby and act on behalf of human rights.
In the recent past, particularly in the last year, the main thrust of human rights campaigners has been the impunity with which agents of the government violate human rights. There have been mass arrests, kidnappings for ransom, abductions and disappearances, and extrajudicial executions in which government culpability has been alleged. However, the killings of innocents by the LTTE have exposed these campaigns as being limited.
The problem for human rights campaigners is that little they say or can do has an impact on the LTTE, which is a banned organization in many countries. In addition the government's military campaign has left the LTTE-controlled areas cut off from the rest of the country, providing the outside community no access to what goes on within. It is evident that the LTTE has made a decision to supplement its conventional and guerilla military capacities with terror strikes.
In a situation of violence where there is fear, such as presently prevails in the country, the growth of mistrust and suspicion is to be expected. This unhealthy environment has played into the hands of the nationalist section of the government and its allies. A common term being used on the political platform today is that of traitor. The utilization of the state machinery, including its media, to hound human rights, humanitarian and peace organizations, particularly those with an international affiliation, is a manifestation of the dominance of these nationalist forces at the present time.
The government's deportation of the executive director of the International Center for Ethnic Studies is the most recent action taken against an international organization. ICES is only one of several organizations that have been targeted for punitive government action in recent months. Another is the Berghof Foundation for Conflict Studies, which was established about five years ago with a mandate to support the peace process. Recently its executive director too had his visa rescinded.
Apart from ICES and the Berghof Foundation, which have been the two most seriously affected, even U.N. agencies such as UNICEF have not been spared distorted criticisms and threat from the same nationalist sources. There are now indications that the targets of nationalist attack will soon be widened. There have been media reports that 25 organizations have been identified to be placed on a government blacklist. The current climate of violence, fear and mistrust lend themselves to witch hunts. There is a need for more responsible and moderate sections within the government to oppose these dangerous trends.
Organizations that seek to foster ideals of human rights, minority rights, humanitarian law and reconciliation are a necessary part of any democratic society in which there is war, displacement, ethnic conflict, human rights violations and intolerance. At the present time the government is devoting itself single-mindedly to the defeat of the LTTE. But in seeking to defeat the LTTE, which is an undemocratic, violent and intolerant organization, the government appears to be losing sight of its own commitment to democratic values and to good governance.
The government's determination to control all the levers of power in society and to achieve its objectives has other manifestations that are detrimental to good governance. The president has shown he is reluctant to constitute the Constitutional Council that was established under the 17th Amendment to the Constitution to de-politicize the process of appointments to key public offices. This is yet another manifestation of the desire to concentrate power even at the cost of disregarding a constitutional provision that was approved unanimously by Parliament in 2001.
In the prevailing situation, internal processes within the country appear unable to restore the balance and wisdom required for good governance. Even the opposition parties appear to be silenced by the juggernaut of war and ethnic nationalism. Therefore it is necessary that the international community, of which Sri Lanka is a longstanding and active member stemming from the days of the non-aligned movement, should apply pressure on the government to observe the basic principles of good governance.
A particularly important role falls upon those countries that are greatly assisting Sri Lanka at the present time. Chief among them would be the United States and India, which are contributing to the Sri Lankan government's success in the war against the LTTE, and Japan, which has for long years been Sri Lanka's most generous donor of development assistance. They need to use their good offices to ensure that there is, at least, incremental progress in protecting and restoring the institutions of good governance in the country.
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(Dr. Jehan Perera is executive director of the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka, an independent advocacy organization. He studied economics at Harvard College and holds a doctorate in law from Harvard Law School. ©Copyright Jehan Perera.)
