INGO, NGO what are you?

HARD TIME: International Non-Government Organizations (INGOs) must be having a hard time in Sri Lanka. It was not long ago that there was a mighty howl from them and their many supporters that the Government was launching a witch hunt against them, in a bid to restrict their work.

The Government protested its innocence of any such action or intent, and the protest quietly died down, but not before some big names abroad began issuing warnings to the Government about the need to use kid gloves in handling INGOs, and NGOs too.

But now the INGOs are in the unenviable situation of having to account for every piece of equipment with their logos and other identifying marks that have been found in the camps abandoned by the LTTE in the East.

One INGO whose fishing boats donated for tsunami relief in the East were found in an LTTE camp, had said they were lost and the loss had been reported to the police.

The Ministry of Defence has given it a clean bill of health. But it won't be so easy for all the others whose tell-tale donations to civilians or stealthy gifts of equipment to the Tigers keep surfacing in the many camps in the East, now being abandoned by the LTTE.

No doubt the INGOs would, like us, believe they are caught in a crunch. On the one-hand the Government is charging them of being the unofficial suppliers of auxiliary material to the LTTE's fighting cadres; on the other, is the story that the LTTE is engaged in a special operation to steal all the good and useful equipment that these organizations donate to civilians or civilian organizations for humanitarian purposes.

If it's just one or two incidents or organizations it won't be hard to believe the INGO explanation of LTTE thieving. But with the quantity of INGO inscribed equipment and material now being discovered in the LTTE camps, it takes more than a bushel of salt to swallow that story.

Credibility gap

Dutch Protestant INGO, had a credible story about the fishing craft it donated to civilians, found in an LTTE camp. They had reported the loss to the Police at the time of the loss. Such prompt action established its credibility and took it off the hook.

However, one will have to do a lot of combing of police records, and most probably still draw a blank, with regard to all the equipment and support material with all those tell-tale marking of INGOs that are now being found in the various hastily abandoned LTTE camps.

With the recovery of all these power generators, water pumps, tents, water bowsers and such stuff inside the LTTE camps, the INGOs that have their names stamped on them will have to think of many stories to establish their credibility or avoid the image of being the willing suppliers and supporters of the LTTE's campaign of terror.

The dislike shown by so-called organizations of civil society, particularly foreign funded NGOs and the INGOs that engage in political work here, under the guise of promoting democracy while aiding and abetting in social conspiracy, is not new.

They have always raised a howl whenever there was talk of the Government even suggesting the need for some kind of control over their activities, with emphasis on transparency about their funding and accounting.

The result has been that many Sri Lankans who have held key office in these organizations suddenly display an abundance of wealth, with no known source of income to justify it.

This wealth can be seen in house building, the acquisition of luxury vehicles or the frequent trips abroad, always for conferences on how to help poor, suffering Sri Lanka.

Time to act

The INGOs that have demonstrated their obvious love for the LTTE, and their readiness to help it prosecute its campaign of separatist terror have now brought matters to a crunch.

With the evidence that is now being laid before the public, the INGOs and their cheer leaders in local civil society or among politicians will have a hard time in persuading the public that their hands don't hide the claws of the Tiger, and therefore their work should not be under careful scrutiny.

It is unfortunate that the activities of these INGOs that appear to have acted in such a cavalier fashion with regard to matters of national security by helping and providing the LTTE with the material sustenance it needs for its campaign of terror, will make it hard for some of the genuine INGOs and NGOs, that have no interest in promoting separatism or ethnic cleansing in Sri Lanka, and whose policies are genuinely humanitarian, to carry on their regular work.

In taking the necessary steps to keep the crooked agenda-led INGOs and their local counterparts in check, it will be necessary for the authorities to separate the sheep from the goats.

The problem is the abundance of goats that are grazing in the inviting fields of Sri Lanka, with the manifest intent of supporting all the violence and terror of the Sun God ensconced in the Vanni.

It will be interesting to see the various explanations being trotted out by the INGOs concerned for their branded items being found in military camps abandoned by the LTTE. No doubt like the man in Sinhala folklore who climbed the palmyrah tree to cut grass, they will have some story to tell. But having a story at the ready does not mean we must fall for it.

The INGOs that enjoy hunting with the tiger and fooling with the Government must now be told that all those good days will have to come to an end.

No doubt there will be threats of international pressure to prevent any firm action against these suspect organizations, purely because their NGO tag is preceded by the "International" prefix.

It will be necessary to tell foreign countries that fund these organizations, and the larger world institutions of which some of them are part of, that the type of mischievous and meddlesome behaviour that these INGOs have been engaged in goes far beyond what can be necessary in a democratic society.

It's time to act soon before the INGOs get on the rebound with their fellow conspirators in funding. Let's ask these INGOs to reveal who they really are.