‘Strong international support for SL’s sovereignty’

Ravi LADDUWAHETTY

Sri Lankan career diplomat, Nihal Rodrigo, served in diplomatic postings in Germany, India and Australia. He served as Ambassador in Sri Lanka’s Permanent Missions to the United Nations, respectively as in New York as Deputy Permanent Representative (1984-1987 and 1993-1996), and Geneva as Permanent Representative from 1987-1989. He was also appointed to the United Nations Advisory Board on Disarmament.

He also served as Coordinator of the United Nations activities with other political groupings at the time Sri Lanka chaired the Non-Alignment Movement in 1976-1979. He was also Chairman of the Political committee of the 11th Summit and has served in all Sri Lankan delegations to all Non-Alignment Movement Summits from the fifth in Colombo to the thirteenth in Kuala Lumpur.

Rodrigo, also served as the Secretary General of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) from February 2002 to September 2003. As a retired officer of the Sri Lanka’s Foreign Service, he was Advisor on Foreign Affairs to President Mahinda Rajapaksa from June 2007-August 2008. An English Honours graduate of the University of Peradeniya, he is a distinguished alumnus of Trinity College, Kandy.

Nihal Rodrigo

Here, in a frank, forthright and no holds-barred interview with the Daily News, he addresses issues on international relations, regional geo-politics and a host of others.

Q: Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev have assured President Mahinda Rajapaksa on the sidelines of the recently concluded International Economic Forum at St. Petersberg, Russia, that their respective countries will ensure that there will not be any external interference on Sri Lanka. In your opinion, what does that translate into?

A: What that means in real terms is that Sri Lanka has to look after its own affairs and that Sri Lanka’s affairs was not something that the rest of the world should be tampering with. That also means that there is no need for outside intervention. This is because if you look at the Sri Lankan situation vis a vis what has happened in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, Sri Lanka was able to control the totality of the LTTE and its dangers in our own boundaries.

Although, India was also involved in it at one point going even to the extent of training the LTTE, they later understood the gravity and the consequences of that. Of course, there was also the tragic thing that Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in his own country by an LTTEer but that connection is out now. That way, Sri Lanka was able to control the matter within our own bounds. That was what the Russian President meant which is also embodied in the United Nations Charter, and that is the non-interference in the matters of the affairs of state.

Q: Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has said that it will assist in the resettlement of the Internally Displaced Persons. What about that?

A: I do not have any information on that. But going by news reports, there is assistance coming from a number of countries. That is for the people who have been internally displaced. Why Spain is involved in it is as part of a global consensus that there has been death and destruction during the conflict. It has been realized that it is an internal conflict, dealing with a terrorist problem. Now that it has been controlled, there is no need to interfere with it. One of the flaws of the Darusman Report was that they were talking of the final stages of the war. That could be deemed as horrible in that it has ignored the aspects of the LTTE assassinating Buddhist monks, the fact that they destroyed the temples and mosques and all that. Right now, this is all to do with the internal affairs of Sri Lanka with the help of the other countries to rehabilitate what has been affected by LTTE presence, to rebuild the economy and to build what has been destroyed in the North and the East.

Q: What are the conclusions of the recently concluded meetings of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva?

A: There has not been any official intimation but going by news reports, they have said that this is largely a matter for Sri Lanka to act upon. There have been some European states which have made comments on the Sri Lankan situation which have said to act on the United Nations Secretary General’s report. I don’t accept that as the SG also has accepted that the Panel Report was to advise him and that he has no authority to raise this matter at the UN level as he is the Administration Officer of the Assembly, unless some of the members of the General Assembly, the Security Council and the Human Right Council bring up a resolution to bring this entire matter into their agenda. But, that is also going on the basis of what has been going on and said in the Darusman Report, which has been prepared from the evidence that is there and they have not indicated what the evidence is.

That is in sharp contrast to the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission where every bit of evidence that has been presented has been recorded and that goes about the affairs relating to the conduct of the war. We know who has said it and there is a matter of some authenticity about that.

This is in contrast to the Darusman Report and sources which are not identified and not even verified. The French government has said that it wants the government to pursue all the issues of the Darusman Report. That is unnecessary to say as the LLRC is already doing it. There is no requirement for the government to take a report which has no authenticity whereas we have in situ, people in the Jaffna district and others who have come out with the real happenings of the war and that is more authentic. It is on that the government is acting on.

Q: What are the conclusions of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva?

A: These conclusions are over and there will be another session which will take place in October. Between now and then, I do not know what will happen. The LLRC Commission has concluded its actual hearings, and is doing some investigations on the massive amount of evidence that it has got. The LLRC will come up with some of the recommendations somewhere in October on what needs to be done in the areas of accountability and how Sri Lanka should act in the implementation of the recommendations.

Q: What is India’s role in the state of play in the context of Premier Dr.Manmohan Singh’s planned visit here?

A: India has indicated that the Premier will be arriving here but India also has understood what is required here at this time. It is the reconstruction and the reconciliation that is required in the war affected areas. It is in that context that India has been of tremendous assistance in terms of housing and communication, health etc and an entire gamut of areas which have been assisted by the Indians. Of course, there are the other affairs that the Prime Minister has to contend with and that is within India itself. That is the resolution of the Tamil Nadu government where they want some action by the international community and the Indian government affecting the Tamil Nadu position. That does not affect the Indian government as a whole.

We also have had a visit of a trio of the policy making body in India. What is also interesting is that two of them have already served in Sri Lanka as High Commissioners of the Indian government to Colombo. To that extent, they have a good understanding of what Sri Lanka’s actual situation is and to that extent, what they will report to Manmohan Singh would be more authentic and I don’t see this as a interference, but this is a case of assisting the reconciliation process which will also reduce some of the pressures in India such as the fishermen moving to Sri Lankan waters etc which are independent bilateral issues.

On the case of the ethnic issue, Indian’s stand, to my mind, will be a balanced one.

We have to look at the process and there is some discussion going on in Sri Lanka. That is on the question on the 13th Amendment and which should be devolved and soon. Sri Lanka has very clearly said that Police and Land and others will not be devolved to the periphery. What has to be decided would be what should go into the Concurrent List and also what responsibilities should be given to the Concurrent List. That has been the long-term aspect but India’s involvement has been to assist in the entire process. Which is rehabilitation, teaching Tamil to the public and all aspects which are helpful in the recovery.

Q: What is the latest status of the Sri Lanka - United Nations relationship in the aftermath of the Darusman Report commissioned by the United Nations Secretary General for his own personal use?

A: The basis difference is that the nature of the evidence that the Darusman Report has had is different to that of the evidence of the LLRC, which has the evidence of the real people who have suffered in the war and that evidence is real and in situ. Another aspect is that the Darusman Report has taken into consideration only the final stages of the humanitarian operation without taking anything of the LTTE’s atrocities of the past. They are trying to hold the government responsible for the final phases of the humanitarian operation during which the LTTE was flushed out. The other matter is that they have got all the evidence even without visiting the country. To that extent, the report is flawed and the Secretary General accepts that it is by no means a case for UN investigation at the multilateral level into Sri Lanka. He has also said that the UN should not get into this at all unless there are pressures of the member states at the level of the General Assembly or at the level of the Security Council level or at the Human Rights Council level.

Q: The Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission which was set up in Sri Lanka was inspired by the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Some apologists for the LTTE, once equated the African National Congress with the LTTE. Was there any link? Your comments?

A: These anecdotes are interesting in the context of the time that Nelson Mandela established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and that was at the United Nations. I also happened to be in New York and it was the time of former President Chandrika Kumaratunga. Nelson Mandela, during that visit had mentioned that there were three liberation struggles and that were still going on. Mandela described this as Palestine, Sri Lanka and Kashmir.

I had some contacts with the ANC and I managed to arrange a meeting with Presidents Kumaratunga and Mandela. We sat down with him and when we raised the matter, President Mandela acknowledged that so many things were put to him and that was the first meeting and therefore, he was not prepared to go deeply into the situation. Then, President Kumaratunga made five points which were the differences between the ANC and the LTTE.

President Mandela was happy about that and he wanted it in writing which we did later. What was most interesting was that President Mandela had admitted that there was a Diaspora in relation to Sri Lanka. But later, what I discovered was that it was not a Sri Lankan Diaspora but a South Indian Diaspora, people who have settled in South Africa. They too have been influenced by pro-LTTE views.

Then, came the case for the establishment of a Sri Lankan mission in South Africa. I explained the real situation on Sri Lanka where some accepted and others did not. The Sri Lankan High Commission has been established in South Africa and that is there even today.

The ANC is a genuine liberation movement while the LTTE is a racist mono-ethnic and terrorist group which had no basis and which did not have the support of their own community. The five points are important and they seem to be lost on the people who are shouting without a tangible reason.

The five points are:

l The ANC united all the diverse communities and races of South Africa to a united national liberation struggle as opposed to the LTTE which could not get the majority of the Tamil community it claimed to represent.

* The ANC never sought to establish a mono-ethnic, racist all black state in contrast to the LTTE which was attempting to get an ethnically cleansed Eelam

* While the ANC did not target any innocent civilians, the vast majority of the LTTE victims were unarmed innocent civilians

* The ANC was fighting a white racist apartheid regime vis a vis the LTTE which was fighting a legitimate, all elected democratic and sovereign government, which was multi-ethnic

* The ANC was recognised by a number of states and the NAM recognised it as a genuine liberation movement. They were even observers of the NAM vis a vis the LTTE which was not recognized by any government.

Q: How does the United States look upon Sri Lanka following the Darusman Report?

A: One cannot bring the West as a group as such. Some countries have raised the matter at the Geneva parley. Some have not. The ones which have raised the issue have attempted to make out that it is the only authentic record that is available and that is the only one that could be used! Therefore, I cannot say that it is the Western approach! Even in terms of the numbers, that does not call for the real investigations in terms of the terms based on the Report.

The government does not have a problem in the manner in which it was conducted. There has been conflicts and arms, but in real terms where the other conflicts are concerned, drones have been used. In countries such as Afghanistan, there are instances were civilians are slaughtered by computer based devices. One must not forget that the fundamental violence that was started was by the LTTE which forced people out of their own homes into that area as human shields and that is enough to prove everything. They were not there all the time and they were being used as human shields all the time.

Q: How is the post-conflict situation developing on the ground? What are the pressing priorities?

A: I also made my findings known at the LLRC. One aspect is the economic front. India and the United Nations are helping a lot in terms of housing and the medical supplies. But the most important thing is the human element and one of the main elements in my presentation at the LLRC was that the priority should be to take into account of the people who are missing, dead and the ones who are in custody. That is a huge problem. Mothers are coming with photographs of their sons and asking whether they are alive or dead.

Let us know so that we could complete the rituals if they are dead. That is the process that has to be done. Secondly, the priority is the rehabilitation of the LTTE cadres who are in custody. On the other side, there are the LTTE cadres at Ambepussa where they understand what freedom is all about. I was told that one of the cadres was brought into a children’s camp at the age of eight, but he is experiencing real freedom, seeing television and getting up at the time that he wants. Some of them have applied even for university admissions. They are also being admitted to the Medical Colleges. There are the economic aspects as well. There are also the people who have to be rehabilitated but arrangements have to be made that there is development in the areas for those people in situ. They should not be settled as colonists but their lifestyles have to be rearranged.

Q: Are residential groups/ supporters of the rebranded LTTE, a serious threat?

A: Yes, this is a serious thing. But I am not sure whether they want to have a separate state, like the provisional transitional governments like the way that they are operating in the other countries. But the whole question is as to whether the Diaspora is also there. I am not saying that the Diaspora should be tarred with the same brush. There are the large number of people who have gone overseas due to economic reasons. But the others are the remnants of the LTTE who have rebranded and are operating in the corporate groups as criminal elements, such as, credit card frauds, human smuggling, et al and what we need to take into consideration is the activities of those people who are affecting the entire Sri Lankan situation.

Q: Are the international underworld criminal cartels involved in people smuggling, gun running, credit cards and financial scams working with the LTTE elements? Was there a link between them and Somali pirates?

A: The linkages were there and there is no doubt about that. Even now, there are the cases which have been discovered by the Australians and the Canadians. Some of those who have been caught by the British authorities have confessed that they have been a part of these gangs. They (the British authorities) have wanted to repatriate them to Sri Lanka and that has been a big issue. Some of them have been working with the international groups and that has no measure. These are large groups and international. In that respect, I can remember at one of the think tank groups, there was one of the western scholars who raised the issue. I asked him as to how these Somali pirates in a small dhow carrying Bhazukas stop these huge merchant vessels and get in mid sea? Then the westerner laughed it off and said that they were your guys (Sri Lankans) He also said that the LTTE had sufficient information through insurance agencies to be aware of what the cargo that the ships were carrying!!

The next question was whether the ships were insured or not and if it was not insured, the Somali pirates did not attack them. Had they known that the ships were insured, then they attacked it as that would have been sources of revenue for them through the insurance. Then the captain would not have minded parting with the entire crew in lieu of the insurance proceeds! Now, we have a huge problem with Somali pirates in relation to the LTTE because there is surveillance going on in the eastern coast of Africa and some of the people who are getting caught are the fishermen from Sri Lanka, India and the Maldives! Some of them have been arrested and as they are not well to do, the question of ransom does not come in! They are susceptible to attack.

There is another aspect to this. The Somalis are not in isolation. They are with other groups in combination with the huge ransom that they collect. They are able to say whether millionaires are going on a ship and whether they could collect ransoms.