NCE refutes aspersions cast on GOSL

The NCE which is the only private sector chamber which exclusively serves Sri Lankan exporters vehemently refutes the aspersions cast on the Sri Lankan government in the controversial Darusman Report.

The Chamber is strongly of the view that the report falls far short of a professional and fair analysis of the events related to the final stages of the war with the terrorists. It is to the eternal credit of the Sri Lankan government that it was able to wipe-out one of the most ruthless organizations that the world has seen, which destroyed the lives of thousands of innocent civilians leaving along members of the security forces, and bled the Sri Lankan economy for over 30 years, without any humanitarian considerations.

It is clear that groups with vested interest who cannot accept the defeat of this terrorist organization, to achieve their original objectives through other means continues to lobby international organizations to undermine reconciliation between the major ethnic communities of a peace loving country as well as the massive rehabilitation and reconstruction programme the government is implementing.

In this background, it is most regrettable that a ‘Panel of Experts’ (POE) appointed by the Secretary General of the UN had on the one hand exceeded its mandate, and on the other hand had drawn conclusions, which are detrimental to the government of Sri Lanka, based on inconclusive, and obviously biased evidence.

The POE in its report amongst others states that the LTTE refused civilians to leave using them as hostages, as a strategic buffer between themselves and the advancing Sri Lankan Army. It implemented a policy of forced recruitment through the war, but in the final stages greatly intensified its recruitment of people of all ages including children as young as 14.

The LTTE forced civilians to dig trenches and other emplacements for its own defence thereby contributing to a blurring of the distinction between combatants and civilians and exposing civilians to additional harm. It also fired artillery in proximity to ‘large groups of IDPs and civilian installations’.

Having made this indictment against the LTTE, the report goes on to state that there seems a strong possibility that this causality of LTTE terror tactics could have contributed rightly or wrongly on the stage actors’ conviction that the greater safety and good of the majority of civilians would be met by a quick resolution of the conflict. It further states that it is undeniable that the LTTE tactics would have greatly increased the number of civilian casualties.

In view of the above, the utterly biased conclusions of the report becomes obvious in its use of terms thereafter such as ‘persecution’, ‘systematic’, ‘purposefully’, ‘state or organizational policy’ which attributes sinister ‘strategies’ to the government of Sri Lanka.

The lack of fairness and professionalism in the report is further reflected by the fact that it refers to the Channel 4 footage as ‘authenticated footage’ when the very source it cites in support of authenticity namely, the UN Special Rapporteur on extra judicial executions had stated that there are some unexplained elements in the video, which itself is an admission of doubts regarding the authenticity of the footage.

Sarath de Silva, President, National Chamber of Exporters of Sri Lanka.