Daunting challenges of rebuilding:

Countering anti-propaganda

Address by Disaster Management and Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe at the 22nd Annual Sessions of the Organization of Professional Associations in Colombo. The first part appeared yesterday.

Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe

Good governance and human rights are perhaps the most important and crucial cross-cutting issues that we have to focus serious and sustained attention on. The adverse impact of an internal conflict on institutions and structures of good governance is well documented the world over. Sri Lanka nearly three decades-old conflict has had an inevitable impact but we are fortunate that our institutional foundations are preserved intact. We have successfully come out of a conflict situation but that does not mean that the threat of terrorism is completely eradicated with the degrading of the LTTE military capability.

Restoration of normality

The main challenge, to my mind, is to continue to keep our guard up to forestall acts of terrorism and destabilization while at the same time upholding our institutional structures and strengthening them to support the overall recovery process with the restoration of normality as our ultimate aim.

Finally is the challenge of dealing with the expatriate Sri Lankans some of whom have acquired citizenship in other countries who continue, although in a more subdued fashion of late, to generate adverse publicity and attempt to bring international pressure to bear on Sri Lanka. It is unfortunate that these persons have established and misuse widespread international links to generate and propagate anti-Sri Lanka propaganda, raise funds and support the terrorists cause.

These persons have also managed to foster links with and continue to influence politicians, media personnel and other opinion-makers in their host countries. We still continue to see the results of their efforts which emanate from time to time in the international media and at international fora.

The Channel 4 canard was one and the US Secretary of State misstatement was another. We have effectively countered the first and are taking effective measures to seek redress in the United Kingdom in respect of that fabricated footage. Due to our timely action, the United States’ Department of State has acknowledged on record that Clinton statement on the use of rape as a weapon of war did not refer to the Sri Lankan conflict in the 2006 to 2009 period.

While we have been able to effectively respond and counter many of these blatantly false stories and manipulations of fact, we need to engage with these groups and convince them that in the aftermath of the defeat of terrorism, they may be able to devote their misspent energies more productively and contribute to the development of conflict affected areas and ensure a better future for the people in those areas. To do this we need to effectively demonstrate the sincerity of the President’s sentiments when he called on all expatriate Sri Lankans to join us in the process of national reconciliation, development and renewal.

These people represent a vast pool of resources-human and financial who must be co-opted into the national initiatives for reconstruction and development, launched by the Government, for the betterment of those areas which witnessed precious little development for decades due to the unlawful presence of the LTTE.

Foreign policy

While some efforts have been made in this direction, more has to be done.

Our foreign policy must be targeted towards principled interaction and constructive engagement with these groups, other national Governments and international organizations in a manner that serves Sri Lanka interests and, at the same time, preserves and protects national sovereignty. As the Disaster Management Minister, I view the conflict and its aftermath from the point of view of managing the fallout of a human-made disaster. Human-made disasters are broadly categorized as being sociological or technological.

The prime example of the former is terrorism and conflict. The latter includes a society inability to manage risks associated with the technologies that we apply to resolve humankind illimitable demands.

The scientific approach to dealing with disasters however does not distinguish between the strategic approaches to managing sub-categories of human-made disasters on the one hand and natural disasters on the other.

Education and well-being of children are top priorities. File photo

The principles of disaster risk reduction, prevention, preparedness including early warning, mitigation, response and recovery can be applied with necessary refinements to either category. In dealing with the outcomes of the conflict, we are at present primarily concerned with areas of mitigation, response and recovery.

At the same time, we also must be mindful of the need for measures to ensure prevention and risk reduction if we are to forestall future conflict and civil strife.

I will now outline the Government strategy to deal with these multifarious challenges. At the national level they are five-fold:

Relief care and maintenance of nearly 250,000 persons primarily in Menik Farm in Cheddikulam, Vavuniya including short-term humanitarian assistance which encompasses provision of shelter, water and sanitation, drainage, food and nutrition, educational and medical services and protection including physical safety and security.

Risk of flooding

At present this is being provided by numerous Government agencies, supported and complemented by United Nations and non-governmental agencies, both national and international. For instance in response to the risk of flooding which has been highlighted due to the oncoming monsoon, the Disaster Management Centre is coordinating the construction of adequate drainage to deal with the risk of inundation.

The Centre is working in close cooperation with UN agencies and other agencies in this connection.

We have sought to incrementally enable the freedom of movement of IDPs though an increasing number of releases and the initial phases of the resettlement program.

To be continued