{"id":128931,"date":"2014-08-11T11:50:52","date_gmt":"2014-08-11T06:20:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=128931"},"modified":"2014-08-19T13:15:27","modified_gmt":"2014-08-19T07:45:27","slug":"government-actions-need-to-be-consistent-locally-and-internationally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/government-actions-need-to-be-consistent-locally-and-internationally\/","title":{"rendered":"Government Actions Need To Be Consistent Locally And Internationally"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jehan Perera<\/span><\/a> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Jehan<\/a>

Jehan Perera<\/p><\/div>\n

The government has criticised sections of the diplomatic community for getting involved in events targeting a particular region and community which lead to volatile situations and urged the diplomatic community to be more conscious of local sensitivities when attending events of an emotive nature.\u00a0 This has followed the growing interest that some embassies have been demonstrating in ensuring that civil society space for dissent is not restricted by the government.\u00a0 When an event organized by a civil society group to give voice to the grievances of family members of those who had gone missing in the war was held in Colombo last week, it was broken up by outsiders.\u00a0\u00a0 This led to several embassies issuing an unprecedented joint statement.<\/p>\n

The embassies of France, Germany, Great Britain and Switzerland condemned the disruption of the meeting in which families of disappeared Tamils were briefing Colombo-based diplomats and civil society activists.\u00a0 Issuing a joint statement, the embassies stated that \u201can organized group including monks\u201d had disrupted the civil society meeting, on the theme \u201cSharing and listening session with families of the disappeared\u201d organized by Families of the Disappeared in the Centre for Society and Religion. The statement said that the organized group made forced entry into the room where the discussions were taking place, shouting violently and \u201cAll those present felt that their security was under threat.\u201d<\/p>\n

The joint statement urged the Sri Lankan government to ensure and respect freedom of assembly and expression in Sri Lanka and to ensure the safety of those who participated in the meeting.\u00a0 In addition, the US Embassy in Colombo also expressed concern over the incident while claiming that the initial reaction of the local police to this disruption appeared to be in \u201csupport of the mob\u2019s efforts to shut down the meeting.\u201d\u00a0 In the case of forcible disruption of events, especially by extremist Buddhist groups that are seen to be linked to the government, it has become the unfortunate practice of the Police to ensure that the event is abandoned and the parties dispersed, with both sides being summoned to the Police Station to lodge their respective complaints.<\/p>\n

\"Monks\"<\/a>In fact the government took the statement by the foreign embassies so seriously that the External Affairs Minister Prof G L Peiris summoned all diplomatic missions to inform them about the limits of their mandate.\u00a0 The Ministry also issued a strong statement that \u201ca certain section of the diplomatic corps appears to be involved in a manner lacking in objectivity, in events organized for a particular region and community.\u201d\u00a0 It is clear that what was being referred to was the North of the country and the Tamil community who were the main victims of the last phase of the war.\u00a0 The singling out of the Tamil minority and the North of the country would be in conformity with the government\u2019s domestic priority of affirming national pride and continuing to receive the political support of the ethnic majority in a time of elections.<\/p>\n

International Role<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>The meeting that was broken up was convened by the Right to Life Human Rights Center and sought to give voice to the sentiments of t hose who had lost their loved ones over five years ago.\u00a0 While the larger Sri Lankan society may be willing to forget what happened during the war time and enjoy the fruits of peace, those who lost their loved ones cannot so easily forget, especially when they are unsure as to the fate of their missing ones.\u00a0 The timing of the meeting was appropriate, as it coincides with the government\u2019s surprise appointment of three international advisors to guide the proceeding of the presidentially appointed commission on missing persons, which has recently also had its mandate expanded.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately the meeting, which was attended by civil society activists, media and foreign diplomats could not proceed for long as it was disrupted by a group led by Buddhist monks.\u00a0 The intervening group from outside claimed that the meeting was to provide secret information to the international community and also that it was not providing information on those who went missing due to the activities of the LTTE.\u00a0 In their statements the embassies made the point that action of the Police in preventing the break-up of the meeting of the Families of the Disappeared was inadequate.\u00a0 They noted that all those present felt that their security was under threat.<\/p>\n

It was not only the foreign embassies that registered their protest.\u00a0 The head of the Centre for Society and Religion Fr Rohan Silva also issued a statement.\u00a0 He said\u00a0 \u201cThe CSR, founded by the late Fr. Tissa Balasuriya, OMI, has earned the respect and recognition of all political parties and all religious denominations as an institution that promoted the values of democracy and for years had stood for the defence of social justice, peace, equality for all citizens in every sphere of life. Even during some of the darkest moments of the Nation\u2019s history, the CSR remained an oasis where a modicum of sanity prevailed.\u00a0 It is indeed most unfortunate that these time tested values of the CSR were transgressed and its hallowed precincts violated by a group that forced itself into the premises uninvited and instilling fear and intimidation among those participating in a meeting on purely humanitarian grounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CSR statement also made the relevant point that \u201cWe live in a world where humanitarian concerns transcend national boundaries, hence the presence of non-Sri Lankans should not be construed as external interference. \u201c\u00a0\u00a0 The government\u2019s domestic imperative of showing a strong hand to the ethnic majority population and obtaining their backing goes counter to another important government priority.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The government\u2019s main foreign policy concern is accountability in regard to what happened during the war.\u00a0 The issue of war crimes is particularly serious because it gives the international community the power to punish according to international law.\u00a0 Unlike other issues of abuse of power, for which there are no international laws, where war crimes are concerned there are international laws.\u00a0 This explains why the government is investing heavily in opposing the ongoing UN investigation into the last phase of the war.<\/p>\n

The media has reported that the government has recently been hiring lobbying agencies in Western countries.\u00a0 It has also employed the services of international experts to advise the Commission of Inquiry into missing persons.\u00a0 However, it is important to note that the international community is not only present in the capitals of countries.\u00a0 It is also present in Sri Lanka in the form of embassies and high commissions.\u00a0 The diplomats attached to them also represent their countries.\u00a0 In fact, as they are on the ground in the countries to which they have been sent, the government in the home country may take the views of their own diplomats more seriously than those of lobbyists and other international experts.\u00a0 It is therefore as necessary to win the support of the diplomats of foreign missions based in Colombo, as it is to woo foreign government officials in their capital cities.<\/p>\n

It is possible that the initiatives that the Sri Lankan government is taking to gain international goodwill and support abroad is being severely undermined by what is happening within Sri Lanka itself.\u00a0 It would be a miscalculation to believe that it is possible to separate what is happening locally with the lobbying that is done internationally.\u00a0 There needs to be a consistency between the government\u2019s conduct of its affairs locally and what it says through its lobbyists internationally.\u00a0 Any sharp contradiction between the two would not be helpful to the government.<\/p>\n

In this context it is to be welcomed that a second meeting by the same organization, the Right to Life Human Rights Centre at the same venue of the Centre for Society and Religion on the issue of torture by the Police took place without disruption, although the organizers received threats not to go ahead with the meeting.\u00a0 The foreign diplomats were there once again.\u00a0 It appears that the government did not wish to be at the receiving end of more such strictures, especially when there is an ongoing UN investigation into human rights failures during the war.\u00a0\u00a0 On this occasion the Police were present and the mischief makers had been warned off.\u00a0\u00a0 The role of the international community, it appears, has become more important.\u00a0 The international community, of which Sri Lanka is a member, has come to play at least a limited role in being a check and balance in favour of protecting democratic rights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":42344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nGovernment Actions Need To Be Consistent Locally And Internationally - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/government-actions-need-to-be-consistent-locally-and-internationally\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Government Actions Need To Be Consistent Locally And Internationally - 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