Only upheaval can stem flow from Sri Lanka
Gordon Weiss
The original article
referred to by Jayasekera that appeared in The Australian:
The federal Coalition's account of its recent mission to Sri Lanka is
jarring when contrasted with a new report from the International Crisis
Group, and with recent UN reports. With the boat people bogeyman running
amok over Australia's electoral landscape, and Australia due to
scrutinise Sri Lanka's record on postwar reconciliation and allegations
of war crimes next month at the UN Human Rights Council, a fuller
account is necessary.
Where the Coalition saw orderly transition from war, yesterday's ICG
report, Sri Lanka's Authoritarian Turn: The Need for International
Action, describes a country where the dismantling of the rule of law
threatens peace. While the Coalition thought a boat voyage a greater
danger to life than any factor in Sri Lanka, the ICG confirms a steady
drumbeat of extrajudicial killings, abductions and enforced
disappearances.
The Coalition group concluded that Sri Lankan refugees were
overwhelmingly economic migrants. Yet just two months ago the UN Refugee
Agency, which sets the bar for refugee status, listed those who might
qualify. These include those connected with former Tamil Tiger fighters,
opposition politicians and supporters, journalists, human rights
activists, witnesses to crimes, those seeking legal redress or,
possibly, women, children and gays.
So what is going on in Sri Lanka?
Most observers thought the Tamil Tigers, an ultra-violent guerilla
organisation, were indestructible. When crushed in May 2009 after almost
three decades of fighting, the world applauded. The popularly-elected
President Mahinda Rajapaksa promised reconciliation between the majority
Sinhalese and minority Tamils.
After all, according to the UN, perhaps 40,000 Tamil civilians had
been killed in the final few months, mostly by government forces, and
overwhelming evidence of war crimes has since emerged. Reconciliation in
the form of a political settlement was urgent to cement a lasting peace.
But the contrary has happened. ICG says that the concentration of
power in the hands of the President's family and the military, and the
obstruction of a political deal for minorities, could destabilise Sri
Lanka again. So were opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop
and immigration spokesman Scott Morrison prudently pursuing Australia's
core interests when they reported being heartened by what they saw?
The detailed picture painted by the ICG and reflected in a report two
weeks ago from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights is relentlessly
grim. Sri Lanka is gripped by creeping despotism. The ruling family
franchises out economic spoils. The island is imbued with an
ethno-nationalist ideology that repudiates the place of Tamils and
Muslims, who comprise a quarter of all Sri Lankans, and intimidates the
many Sinhalese who oppose an authoritarian security state.
Police and proxy thugs bust up and fire on student and citizen
demonstrations, and ransack opposition offices. Rajapaksa's brother
Gotabhaya controls the army and police (and analysts contend he controls
the flow of refugee boats too). Anti-government websites are blocked,
China-style. The targeting of journalists has cowed the press into
submission. According to former regime stalwart and now dissenter, the
diplomat Dayan Jayatilleka, the army is effectively an occupation force.
Equipped with police powers, the huge Sri Lankan military has despoiled
its legitimate security role. It squats on Tamil land, stifles their
participation in their local economy, and menaces the population.
Meanwhile, according to the ICG, the Rajapaksa government is
systematically dismantling Sri Lanka's democratic institutions. A 2010
constitutional amendment, ushered through a supine parliament presided
over by another Rajapaksa brother, neutered independent oversight
bodies. The President now manages the checks and balances himself.
Last month, in a ploy he characterised as "devolutionary", the
President signalled his intention to weaken local government, the one
forum where minorities have a measure of say over daily regional life.
When Sri Lanka's Chief Justice brought down a ruling this year that
impeded headlong regime efforts to centralise control the President
replaced her. Empowered by the overt ethno-nationalism of the Rajapaksa
clan, attacks on churches, mosques and minority businesses have spiked.
Last month a group called the Buddhist Power Force burned effigies of
Allah.
Sri Lanka's treatment of minorities enrages India's 60 million
Tamils. Exasperated by the Rajapaksa government, India will almost
certainly vote against Sri Lanka in the UN Human Rights Council this
March.
Boat people flee from adversity. Sri Lanka has endured three deadly
20th-century revolts - two of them undertaken by Sinhalese, one by the
Tamils - that probably killed well over 200,000 citizens since 1971.
These revolts arose from precisely the same anti-democratic, bloody and
unjust policies now being rolled out in Sri Lanka. On this Morrison was
right: Only a change of government will stop Sri Lankan boat arrivals.
To protect our long-term interests, as well as stability, Australia
should support a Sri Lankan government intent on restoring Sri Lanka's
democratic traditions. For if another bloody civil conflict erupts - the
fourth in 40 years -- how will Australians handle the boat people who
will surely follow?
Gordon Weiss is the author of The Cage: The Fight for Sri Lanka and
the Last Days of the Tamil Tigers
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