Wrong again, Miss Hogg
For a
long time, organisations like Human Rights Watch looked no
worse than sadly misguided. Their intellectual capacities
obviously weren’t up to the analysis of basic facts, and
their unshakeable belief in the fundamental goodness of
humankind led them to assume that terrorists couldn’t be as
dangerous as they seemed, but their intentions weren’t
really in doubt. Lately, however, it has become clear that
they must have some other agenda. |
‘The
difference between accidents and deliberate targeting
doesn’t appear to be clear to Hogg either. The LTTE is
engaged in the latter, which is what makes it a terrorist
organisation’ |
The most recent article in a series attacking the Sri Lankan
government, by the Human Rights Watch South Asia Researcher Charu Lata
Hogg, was published in a Japanese newspaper earlier this week. And it
was particularly crude in its methods.
Lying now seems to be perfectly acceptable to these modern day
crusaders. In her opening paragraph, Hogg describes in rather compelling
detail what she calls the scenes of death and destruction in the Vanni.
Dead bodies of civilians lie strewn along dusty roads, she says.
Hospitals, playgrounds and houses stand ravaged by rockets fired from
multi-barrel launchers.
If Hogg has managed to identify the weaponry used and even noted the
dirt underfoot, she must have a very good idea of what is going on,
readers might be forgiven for assuming. Except that she hasn’t been
within fifty kilometres of the conflict zone.
Hogg would probably argue that this is because the Government hasn’t
allowed her to go, peculiarly concerned for her safety as she dashes
across territory the LTTE has scattered with landmines to risk being hit
by bullets Prabhakaran intends for escaping civilians. But this is no
excuse for making things up.
Readers may also like to think that Hogg is just filling the gaps in
her story. They may want to give her the benefit of the doubt, given
that she operates under the rather useful banner of human rights.
Perhaps she got those reports from somebody else and just made a silly
mistake in presenting them as her own experiences.
Hogg might have checked to ensure that she wasn’t just repeating
propaganda from the LTTE, although it isn’t clear how. It is a lot to
swallow. Independent journalists would have explained that the
statements were no more than hearsay because they hadn’t seen for
themselves, but Hogg apparently doesn’t feel the need to meet even the
lowest quality standards when pontificating to the rest of the world.
Cunning Revelations
Hogg then claims that Human Rights Watch research indicates that
there have been up to two thousand civilian deaths since the beginning
of January. This is rather cunning, because it would be true even if
none had occurred. But more disturbing is that the figure coincides with
that being put about by TamilNet.
|
Charu Lata
Hogg |
And Hogg doesn’t indicate how else she came by the information.
Readers may now be somewhat unwilling to just assume that her sources
are not connected to the LTTE. As the Peace Secretariat has pointed out
before, TamilNet started inflating reports of civilian deaths after we
highlighted the very small number of allegations being made, with
considerably less than a hundred in the six months to the end of
December.
This lackadaisical attitude with regard to figures is nothing
compared to the discussion of responsibility. Hogg distributes blame
almost evenly, stating that both the Army and the LTTE committed the
killings.
Then she subtly gives the impression that the majority were the
responsibility of the Army, saying that many of the civilian deaths have
occurred in areas designated by the Government as safe zones.
What she doesn’t admit to is that the United Nations has said that
the LTTE was probably behind at least some of these attacks on safe
zones, while responsibility for others can’t be ascertained. It has also
confirmed that the LTTE has been shooting at civilians trying to escape.
The difference between accidents and deliberate targeting doesn’t
appear to be clear to Hogg either.
The LTTE is engaged in the latter, which is what makes it a terrorist
organisation. She hides this moral issue by pretending that the
Government has sanctioned violations of the rules of war by telling the
Army to treat everybody in the conflict zone as LTTE supporters, which
is just nonsense. The Government and the Army Commander have made
numerous statements on the need for a military strategy without
collateral damage.
Human Shield
Indeed, if not for this determination to avoid civilian deaths, it
would have been possible to finish off the LTTE months ago. The Army
could have reduced such a tiny area to rubble within days, as others
have done in their struggles against terrorism elsewhere, instead of
which it has been losing an increasing number of soldiers and spending
ever more on equipment and weaponry.
While accidents do of course happen, probably more often than they
should because of the LTTE policy of using civilians as a human shield,
Hogg has absolutely no justification for her claims of an all out war.
Hogg doesn’t show any greater concern for the truth when dealing with
places she has actually been able to visit. She claims to have
interviewed dozens of IDPs in Vavuniya, but what she has to say about
their situation has little to do with reality.
The basic premise is that people are as badly off in Government care
as they were in the clutches of the LTTE, which is a very sick joke in
the circumstances.
Hogg claims that while civilians who remain in the conflict zone come
under fire as they run for cover, those who manage to flee lie wounded
and dying without adequate medical care in hospital wards or militarised
welfare centres. She says that there are few hopes for these IDPs
because Government has inflicted its own atrocities on their community.
It would appear that Hogg wants people to head back into the conflict
zone, presumably to stand guard over Prabhakaran and his swimming pools.
Egregious Falsification
Readers will have noted another rather egregious falsification in
these descriptions of life in Vavuniya. Obviously some IDPs have been
injured, and they are now being treated in Government hospitals.
While standards may not be quite up to Harley Street, and Hogg might
do well to remember that at least services are free, they are perfectly
acceptable. In fact, the United Nations has praised our healthcare
facilities on numerous occasions, and outcomes have long been better
than in other countries with our income. More relevantly still, the vast
majority of IDPs are not lying anywhere.
Hogg has not been into the welfare centres, another problem she would
undoubtedly blame on the Government, although her stay in the country
was incognito. But there can be no excuse for her overactive imagination
this time. Independent journalists have been inside, and she could have
even watched their video footage online from the comfort of her office
in London.
This demonstrates that the IDPs are healthy, being fed and clothed
and provided with shelter, that the children are at school, and that
young people and adults are getting training to put them in a better
position to support themselves when they return home.
The Government doesn’t allow all and sundry to run around the welfare
centres, having learnt a good lesson from the jamboree that followed the
tsunami, plus needing to take additional security measures in the face
of serious threats from the LTTE, but they aren’t cut off from scrutiny.
Communications Division Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace
Process (SCOPP) |