Orchestrating disaster

It was a familiar story line last week as Sri Lankan troops moved deeper into LTTE held territory. Diplomats and the foreign media that have so far remained sceptical about the success of the Government’s military operations to fight terrorism of the LTTE, are also now beginning to see for themselves that the LTTE is no more the invincible outfit it was made out to be for so long.

Earlier this week the Mallavi town fell to the advancing troops of the 57 Division. Mallavi was an important LTTE bastion located along the Vellankulama- Mankulama main road. Its fall after a week of heavy resistance from the LTTE, in a desperate attempt to save this strategic hub, to prevent further military setbacks for the LTTE.

The fall of Mallavi, reportedly the birthplace of Velupillai Prabhakaran’s wife, came after troops had earlier taken control of Thunukkai and Uyiliankulama towns in the eastern Mullaitivu battlefront. The operations continue with success for the troops in the face of stiff resistance by the LTTE.

The new focus

With the advance of the Sri Lankan troops being a fact that is unable to be hidden or ignored anymore, some organisations of “civil society” and foreign news agencies have turned their attention to what is claimed to be a humanitarian crisis involving civilians in areas where the fighting is now on.

It was not unexpected that the BBC last Sunday published a story based only on reports from LTTE sources that civilians were being killed by the actions of troops against the LTTE.

The BBC News story headlined “Sri Lanka Army accused of killings” said “Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka have accused the army of killing five civilians, including two children, in the rebel-controlled north.”

It added that the rebels said “artillery shells fired by the military fell inside a camp for internally displaced people near the northern town of Kilinochchi.

“But a Sri Lankan military spokesman later denied the rebels’ accusation.”

This story came the day after the bomb blast in Colombo where more than 40 persons were injured, and what the Police and Defence authorities said was caused by the LTTE.

The BBC story on the alleged killing of civilians in an IDP camp in Kilinochchi also had a picture, supplied by the LTTE, of an injured person being treated for head wounds and cared for by nursing staff at an unidentified but clean hospital.

The story which says the Sri Lankan Air Force has begun dropping leaflets urging civilians to cross into government-controlled areas; report aid agency claims that there are 135,000 people in Kilinochchi district who have been displaced by the fighting.

It adds that “more than half of them have abandoned their homes in the last three months, fleeing further into rebel territory ahead of a military advance to crush the Tigers, and end their fight for a separate state for the Tamil minority.”

This BBC story is quoted at length to show the one-sided nature of the reporting that goes on, with the focus now being directed at what is undoubtedly a very tragic situation of the civilians caught up in the fighting.

However, with foreign correspondents stating that reports about casualties reported from both sides cannot be verified independently, it is strange how they can be certain of such large numbers of people who see danger in the fighting and the retreat of the LTTE, fleeing into Tiger held territory for safety from advancing troops.

One sees the beginning of an orchestrated media build up to report on a vast humanitarian catastrophe involving the Tamil civilians in the North coming up very soon, to dovetail with the INGO laments and allegations to come about it.

The lie to this claim of Tamils fleeing for safety from Government troops into the battle zones of the LTTE is given by what took place in August 1999 with the fall of Elephant Pass and the threat posed to the Jaffna peninsula, when our closest neighbour turned very humanitarian and preferred to offer us transport ships for the 40,000 troops who would be trapped had the LTTE advance to Jaffna succeeded, while Pakistan gave us the weaponry to fight them off.

No “people’s war”

It is interesting to recall that in Prabhakaran’s Martyr’s Day speech in November that year, commenting on the LTTE’s failure to gain Jaffna, the LTTE leader admitted that the campaign of the LTTE had not even by then become a people’s war.

The proof of it, as Prabhakaran said, it was the failure of the people of Jaffna to rise up against the Sri Lankan troops in Jaffna, as expected by the LTTE, which would have made a major difference in the entire separatist strategy of the LTTE.

We are now told to believe that Tamil civilians, who see the LTTE losing one location after another, unlike the situation in August 1999, are rushing in their thousands virtually into the arms of the LTTE as the Sri Lankan troops advance.

Such reports can only come from those who have no understanding of human reaction to fighting, apart from any particular reaction of Tamil civilians in such difficult and tragic circumstances.

The fact is that the Tamils are trapped in areas still held by the LTTE, which is a sad enough situation, far from the reports of their moving in thousands into Tiger held areas, unless they are being forced to do so, in the LTTE’s strategy of the human shield, as some have indeed reported.

Doubtful “capture”

Two days later, On Tuesday September 2, the BBC had another story on the fighting in Sri Lanka. Interestingly this was headlined “Sri Lanka Army ‘captures’ key town” and the report was that “The Sri Lankan military says that it has advanced deeper into territory held by Tamil Tiger rebels in the North of the country and captured a key town.

“The Defence Ministry produced photographs showing soldiers in control of the Mallavi town centre and what was described as a rebel command post.

“An army spokesman said troops were still searching for rebels in the area.” It added that “The Tamil Tigers have not commented on the military’s claims and with journalists barred from the conflict zone, they cannot be independently verified.”

These two stories have been juxtaposed to show the distortion through doubt that is created by the BBC in its reporting on the fighting in Sri Lanka. The use of captures in parenthesis, in the headline of the second story, is a clear indication that there are doubts about the veracity of the military’s claim.

The earlier story that came from the LTTE only said “Sri Lanka Army accused of killings” - there was no specific doubt created in the mind of the reader or viewer, only the statement of a claim.

This story that came from LTTE sources did not mention that journalists are barred from the conflict zone, so that information provided cannot be independently verified. Apparently this is only important to be said when it is a story that has come from official defence sources.

It is also worth noting that the BBC story of the alleged killing of civilians due to troop action showed a picture of an injured person, admittedly given by the LTTE. But the latter story of the “capture” of Mallavi only mentions that “The Defence Ministry produced photographs showing soldiers in control of the Mallavi town centre and what was described as a rebel command post.”

So the pictures were available to the BBC, it was on defence.lk for two days, but the BBC did not think it important to use them. Possibly it was not “humanitarian” enough to help the LTTE angle, and also in case it leads to more belief than doubt about the military’s claim. Far better, it seems, for the BBC to create a doubt in the minds of the public about the capture of Mallavi.

As for the picture of the wounded person being treated in a hospital in the first news item, I have no independent verification, but it must be a hospital in the LTTE held area that is funded, equipped, medical supplies provided and staffed by the Government.

This too is not of much interest for news services such as BBC (like some other foreign channels, too) that often takes delight in taking of a “de facto” state of the Tamil Tigers in the North, where all but the arms and uniforms of the Tiger fighting cadres are provided by the Government in Colombo. So much for facts being sacred in news!

Relief at hand

While sections of the international media and INGOs, with their local lackeys in tow, keep their focus on the possibilities of denouncing Colombo for a humanitarian catastrophe caused by the military operations in the North to defeat terrorism, as they see the LTTE weaken despite its strong resistance; there are signs that other international organizations, that are not directly involved with the LTTE’s aims and strategy, or party to its propaganda machine, are taking a different view of the situation regarding civilians caught in the midst of battle in the North.

The United Nation’s Resident representative in Sri Lanka has requested that all civilians who want to move out of the non-liberated areas in the North should be allowed to move out without any hindrance.

Earlier there had been allegations by Amnesty International as well as Tamil leaders that the LTTE had driven civilians to the war prone areas in the North so that they could be used as a human shield.

The United Nations office has said the UN has been providing supplies to the displaced in the Wanni, accessible only through the Omanthai Entry/Exit point, 50km south of Kilinochchi. The UN Rep said supplies were reaching the displaced despite the access difficulties, but he warned that the situation was very precarious.”

We continue to have access to the bulk of the IDPs, but the situation is very fluid,” he said. “It is difficult for us to supply them when they are on the move.”

There is no doubt that a serious situation is looming, which will be added to and manipulated by the LTTE to gain the propaganda mileage it so urgently needs in the crisis it is facing militarily today. It is with knowledge of this that the government last week appealed to civilians and IDPs remaining in the Wanni to move south and reach government-controlled areas through the Omanthai gate.

“We want the civilians to come to Vavuniya [south of Vanni]; we have established all facilities in Vavuniya,” Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa told reporters at the Foreign Ministry in Colombo. The Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights said the government was increasing facilities available in Vavuniya to assist the IDPs.

“The Government of Sri Lanka has decided to further develop Vavuniya as a storage and logistics hub for humanitarian assistance including food and non-food items,” the Ministry said in a statement on September 1. “The ongoing efforts of the Government in this connection are complemented by international partners who have also commenced stockpiling food and humanitarian supplies” it added.

Freedom for civilians

The UN Country Team has stressed it is still committed to helping the Government provide humanitarian assistance to civilians whether they remain in the Vanni or decide to leave, said a statement issued Wednesday (3) by the UN Country Team in Sri Lanka.

It acknowledged the Government’s announcement that it will take extra steps to improve the freedom of movement of thousands of civilians affected by recent fierce fighting in the north of the country.

“Measures must be taken to prevent displacing people from their homes and livelihoods. The UN has also raised with the LTTE its urgent concern that civilians be allowed maximum freedom of movement of all times,” the statement added.

It is now seen that there are international organisations who are realising the possibilities of the crisis that the LTTE must be planning to create, and readying to come to the assistance of the Sri Lankan authorities in providing assistance to the IDPs driven out of their homes by the military operations against terror.

This is amidst reliable reports of the LTTE seeking to hold them ransom with the threat of human shields (shades of Vakarai), and the international “exposure” of the crisis through its friendly media organisations, and some diplomatic sources who are still repeating the mantra of asking both sides to observe peace, while ignoring the world, and the UN particularly, consider terrorism as something that needs rooting out and not just talking to.

BBC again

The efforts of the foreign media to create the impression of a humanitarian crisis in the north is buttressed by another BBC story that appeared on its web site BBCSinhala.com on August 28, which quoted a purported communication from the “Catholic Church” in Sri Lanka addressed to UN Secretary-General relating to Internally Displaced Persons in the Wanni, which gave a totally wrong position on the situation prevailing in the Vanni.

The report was a communication to UNSG Ban Ki-Moon relating to IDPs in the Wanni and the “human tragedy” supposedly unfolding in that part of Sri Lanka. The letter had allegedly been sent by one Father James Pathinathan, who is said to be President of the Peace and Justice Commission in the Wanni.

The BBC knows well enough of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka, and elsewhere too, as not to mistake a letter from one priest to that of a communication from the Catholic Church. Yet the BBC did not want to bother with such realities in its rush to join in the beginning of orchestrating the planned grand performance about a humanitarian catastrophe in Sri Lanka on the international stage.

Minister of Human Rights and Disaster Management Mahinda Samarasinghe soon got in touch with them embers of the Roman Catholic hierarchy who are most knowledgeable of the situation in the Wanni and adjacent areas of military operations, the Bishops of Manner and Jaffna, who disclaimed the communication to the UNSG, emphasising that it was made without their sanction and appears to be the writer’s personal perspective.

The statement from the Ministry of Human Rights said “The two Bishops have also acknowledged the excellent cooperation extended to them by the Sri Lankan Security Forces and, in particular, the Security Force Commanders serving in the Wanni, who are in regular contact with them and have often facilitated delivery of humanitarian assistance when requested by the Bishops.”

The Ministry statement concluded that the story on BBCSinhala.com does not present an accurate picture of the reality on the ground in the Wanni, and that “The Government will continue, through modalities such as the Consultative Committee on Humanitarian Assistance (CCHA) ... to monitor and coordinate the provision of enhanced relief to any and all Sri Lankan civilians affected by the conflict, should the evolving situation require it.”

These comments on three BBC items on recent developments in Sri Lanka do not indicate it is the only news organisation responsible for deliberately misleading the world on the situation in Sri Lanka. It is not through an obsession of being assailed by the foreign media that this column will expose such distortion by other agencies and journalists, too.

As the LTTE faces growing threats to its hold over the people in the North, there is bound to be more of this stuff that panders to its needs, more than that of the people of the north, that it will need to be exposed for purposes of fair play, as well as, look at media freedom and reporting of the war on the ethnic crisis in Sri Lanka from a different dimension.