Return of Gareth Evans resurrection of terror
Prof. Rajiva WIJESINHA
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Gareth
Evans |
Once again the International Crisis Group has pronounced on Sri
Lanka, bang on cue after the other usual suspects. Most negative of
these was Human Rights Watch which is a specialist, along with ICG, in
purporting to be balanced. In fact they both persist in treating an
elected government on a par with the terrorists they thus privilege.
Both of them specialize in being economical with the truth, most
notably by being extravagant about numbers. They also seem unduly wary
of anyone who can correct their mistakes. Human Rights Watch has failed
to respond to my rebuttals of their claims and most recently, despite
what seemed initial enthusiasm on the part of their Director, refused to
meet me in Geneva.
Doctrine
International Crisis Group, in the form of its presiding genius
Gareth Evans, failed to answer in 2007 to my detailed refutation of his
suggestion that Sri Lanka was ripe for his own version of the doctrine
of the Responsibility to Protect.
When I met him late last year in Geneva, he affected surprise when I
told him he had not responded. Neither he nor his sidekick in Colombo,
Alan Keenan, has since responded to my reminders. This is perhaps
understandable since Gareth actually said that he realized I was a
difficult person to engage with. In short, when they come across someone
who knows more about a situation than they do, they run away - though I
hope that that is not the reason for Gareth finally deciding to call it
a day and leave ICG and his perverse patronizing version of the doctrine
he was instrumental in developing.
Unfortunately his organization has returned to the charge, with the
usual farrago of inaccuracies. It begins by claiming that ‘An estimated
150,000 civilians are trapped in an ever shrinking space, forcibly held
back by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and exposed to
indiscriminate attacks by the Sri Lankan military.’
Satellite imagery
That figure as Gareth and his crew know is contested, so to shore it
up they add later ‘Independent estimates from sources on the ground and
satellite imagery suggest at least 150,000 people are trapped by the
LTTE and the Sri Lankan military, more than the level claimed by the Sri
Lankan Government.’ Who are these independent observers? Are they
similar to the poor government official who claims today that the figure
is 330,000? Is it the UN which has in fact gradually been reducing its
estimates, along with even the most hysterical media outlets which at
one stage were claiming 400,000?
And where does ICG get its accounts of satellite imagery? Surely with
his excellent sources Gareth must be aware that at the last meeting of
the UN group which saw itself as engaged in protection the report from
satellite imagery was between 70,000 (which is the GOSL figure) and
100,000. Why then do Gareth and his ilk simply pronounce, without even
the most rudimentary attempt to check their sources?
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IDP figures: Gareth and his ilk simply
pronounce without even the most rudimentary attempt to check
their sources |
Then, along with his friends in HRW, he talks about ‘indiscriminate
attacks’ by the Sri Lankan Forces. Surely he must know that
indiscriminate attacks would have brought total victory long ago to the
Forces. It is precisely because the Army is holding back on use of heavy
weapons, in deference to the human shields the LTTE is using, that the
LTTE is continuing to resist, that the number of civilian casualties is
far fewer than when the LTTE used their heavy weaponry from amidst
civilians, and that in fact the Sri Lankan Forces are suffering heavier
casualties than previously.
Scenario
The ICG claims that ‘Thousands have already been killed and many more
wounded’, which is correct in terms of the worst case scenario, that on
Tamilnet, which has about 2500 killed from June last year to now, and
about 3000 injured. The number went up dramatically in January (there
were fewer than 100 allegations of civilian deaths previously), in part
because the LTTE started firing indiscriminately (as UNDP has recorded)
and in part because the LTTE started forcibly conscripting even more
civilians, including children (as UNICEF has testified).
But ICG makes clear its main aim early on when it demands pressure to
stop what it terms the Sri Lankan Government’s ‘policy of annihilation’.
It wants the government to ‘hold off on the final assault to allow
relief to reach the civilian populations and to make it possible for
those civilians who wish to leave to do so’. We have been here before,
with HRW also wanting somehow to let the LTTE off the hook. Though they
clothe it in the guise of concern for civilians, it is crystal clear to
everyone that it is the LTTE that is holding onto these civilians, as it
did for nine long months when the international community stood back and
allowed them to be tormented.
ICG pretend that they want the LTTE to release the civilians, but
twin it with a surrender that involves the ‘personal security of LTTE
leaders and fighters guaranteed by the international community’. Why
such kindness now? Why does ICG, which for years did not think of
unequivocally asking terrorists to surrender, or even to return to
negotiations, suddenly want the international community to guarantee the
personal security of this unsavoury crew? The Sri Lankan Government is
pledged to give the LTTE leadership a fair trial, and has indicated that
an amnesty will be available for those dragooned into fighting. Why does
ICG think the Tigers deserve greater privileges?
ICG claims that its ‘150,000 people.....have little access to fresh
water, food, or medicine’, and suggest that little was provided between
January and March. This is nonsense, given the food that has been taken
in regularly right through February, a fact ICG gets over by talking
about the latest delivery being the first ‘major’ aid. With regard to
the hysteria about illness, again we have been here before, with the
prophets of doom predicting epidemics every month for the latter part of
last year, not bothering to explain why they were wrong when, month
after month, they had to report that the health situation was under
control. The explanation lies in the tremendous efforts of our national
Health Ministry which has accordingly been nominated for the Felix
Houphouet-Boigny Peace Prize, with support from the UN.
Injuries
ICG claims that ‘UN agencies have documented more than 2300 civilian
deaths and at least 6500 injuries since late January’ which again is
tosh. The UN made an estimate, which was then withdrawn (although it
turned out to have been leaked, obviously to ICG too), and in any case
granted that in the only cases where there was certainty about the
source of firing, it was the LTTE. Then there is the sweeping statement
that ‘More than 100 victims are arriving each day in the make-shift
medical centres still functioning in Wanni, many of whom die before
evacuation’ which is again nonsense, belied by the next sentence ‘The
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been able to
evacuate some 2,000 injured and sick persons over the past few weeks’.
Since the evacuation process began just about four weeks back, and since
the ICRC also began to bring out the sick, i.e., when they had brought
out all the war wounded, ICG really needs to study its multiplication
tables.
Any death should however be regretted, as should any injury, but this
should be accompanied by clear condemnation of those responsible. ICG
said nothing when the civilians were driven from pillar to post over the
last nine months. It has ignored the clear evidence of the Tamil Bishop
of Jaffna and the UN that the LTTE has been firing into the safe zone,
and instead it repeats the LTTE canard that ‘the Government has
continued shelling of civilian areas - including its own unilaterally
declared “no fire zone” — without any significant pause over the past
two months’ which is another bit of bombast since it is less than two
months since the Government declared a safe zone.
It is in fact outrageous that ICG should claim that Government acts
‘regardless of the cost to civilians’. More officers and men have died
in the last couple of weeks precisely because the forces are not using
heavy weapons.
Sacrifices
It seems that Gareth Evans and his heartless crew not only want to
see more sacrifices on the part of the Sri Lankan Army, but insist on
lying about it.
Contrariwise Sir John Holmes had the decency, when told about the
tactics now being employed, to remark that this meant more casualties
for the Forces. Instead of even noting this possibility, the ICG
declares that ‘Unable to fire their weapons in a manner that respects
the distinction between combatant and non-combatant, most Government
attacks at this point are by their very nature indiscriminate.’ This is
simply rank ignorance masquerading as sanctimoniousness.
Scrupulously
And then ICG pronounces. With no idea of the reach of terrorism it
declares, ‘The Sri Lankan military has already achieved its military
objectives and essentially won the war.’
It then comes out with suggestions that would have made sense some
months ago, but which it scrupulously avoided, perhaps because it was
then engaged in plotting with individuals with sympathies for the LTTE.
Gareth’s sidekick Alan Keenan was one of the key players in the
preparation of a petition to the UN Secretary General which these
secretive international NGOs then got Sri Lankan NGOs to present.
Now, again, the performance of ICG seems much of a muchness with that
of those anxious that the Tigers should get away to fight another day.
For the sake of humanity, of the children forced into Tiger ranks, of
the poor Tamils driven to suicide for what ICG with superb
understatement claims is a ‘Tiger leadership, which has become as much a
cult as a rational guerrilla force’ it is time to put a stop to such
ultimately destructive self-righteousness.
(The writer is Secretary General, Secretariat for Coordinating the
Peace Process) |