The ‘Boycott Sri Lankan Sports’ campaign has taken a significant turn with the filing of a petition before the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court seeking to restrain the Indian cricket team from taking part in a tri-series involving India, Sri Lanka and New Zealand. In his petition, advocate Joel Poul Antony, stating that he is a great fan of the Indian cricket team, makes a prayer for calling off the Indian team’s tour to Sri Lanka citing the earlier precedent of India snapping sports contacts with the racist South Africa in the 1980s.
The petitioner charges Sri Lanka with committing genocide against the minority Tamils in the country and of violating international human rights laws. Citing the confinement of the Tamil speaking war refugees in military controlled camps, and treating them as slaves, he argues that by these actions Sri Lanka is violating provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 and the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 1948. The petition also notes that the Sri Lankan navy has killed more than 500 Indian fishermen (in the last three decades) and there have been frequent agitations in Tamil Nadu against these killings.
The court has ordered notices to the secretaries of Home, External Affairs and Youth and Sports Welfare ministries of the government of India. Whether the Indian team’s tour is going to be called off or not - the tri-series is scheduled to start next week – this petition by the Madurai advocate could be a forerunner to future campaigns against the Sri Lankan government.
The ‘boycott Sri Lanka’ slogan is a powerful weapon that Colombo will find it difficult to handle with its military power. This campaign has been going on for some time on a low key, with the ‘boycott’ emails doing the rounds. With the petition by the Madurai lawyer, the campaign has been taken to another level.
A sustained campaign by the Tamil diaspora, who are present in large numbers in the cricket playing nations of Australia and England, can turn around public opinion so swiftly that before Colombo realizes it, President Rajapaksa and his aides would be fighting a diplomatic battle with their back to the wall. It will be a difficult battle for them. Surely, it will not be as simple as getting the support of China and Russia in the United Nations security council to block a debate on the human rights situation in Sri Lanka.
The genocide charges against Colombo will be discussed on the streets, play grounds and sports pages of newspapers and magazines around the world. The spokespersons for the Tamil cause may not be a Thirumavalavan, or a Vaiko or a Nedumaran in Tamil Nadu anymore, but possibly a Sachin Tendulkar or a MS Dhoni or a Ricky Ponting.
The cricket boards of the respective countries will have to respect the sentiments of players. They would have no choice except to boycott Sri Lanka if the players feel so. Just last year, Zimbabwe was isolated by the other cricket playing countries of the world because of the racist policies – against the white minorities – and human rights violations of the Robert Mugabe government.
English player Andrew Strauss spoke out against Zimbabwe last summer. A BBC report in June said, “The batsman feels both the England and Wales Cricket Board and the government have missed previous chances to send Mugabe a message by refusing to play. He said: "In the past there've been chances to show the strength of feeling here and the government chose not to. If it comes down to players to do that we'll definitely have to look at it."
A few weeks later, the England and Wales Cricket board announced that it was canceling its 2009 tour of Zimbabwe. “All bilateral arrangements are suspended with Zimbabwe cricket with immediate effect,” the board said. A disgraced Zimbabwe cricket board announced that it was pulling out of the 2009 Twenty20 world cup in England “in the larger interests of the game.”
Zimbabwe cricket chairman Peter Chingoka said, “"We have been informed that the British government may not grant visas to our players and that situation may prevail during the Twenty20 World Cup. We don't want to be gatecrashers."
However, for the ‘boycott Sri Lanka’ campaign to be successful, the Tamils should get the support of top international players. They need to apprise players like Sachin, Dhoni, Ponting, Hayden, and others, on the sufferings of Tamils in Sri Lanka. They need to tell them how Sri Lanka has been indicted by human rights agencies around the world over the rampant “disappearances” of people in the country. They need to tell them about the absence of safety for journalists in Sri Lanka.
A senior journalist Lasantha Wickrematunga was killed by unknown assailants early this year. Last week, the editor of The North Eastern Monthly, J S Tissainayagam, was sentenced to twenty years rigorous imprisonment on charges of receiving funds from the LTTE. Over forty Sri Lankan journalists have fled the country fearing for their lives.
The moment international cricketers become aware of the situation, they themselves would lead the campaign for an international sports boycott against Sri Lanka.
The writer PC Vinoj Kumar is a Special Correspondent for the Indian weekly magazine - Tehelka. The views expressed are his own.
Showing posts with label Sri Lanka. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sri Lanka. Show all posts
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Sri Lanka: India’s latest security nightmare
Sri Lanka is fast emerging as a security nightmare for India. Basking in its military success against the separatist Tamil Tigers, Sri Lanka is cementing its ties with China and Pakistan, ignoring Indian security interests. By embracing India’s enemies and inviting them home, treating them as guests, and doing business with them, Sri Lanka is embarking on a dangerous foreign policy that has the potential to undermine India’s national security.
The Chinese are developing a port in Hambantota in Southern Sri Lanka, which experts feel could be converted into a Chinese naval base at short notice. In a recent interview to Tehelka, Colonel (retired) R Hariharan, a Sri Lanka expert, had stated: “Though Hambantota is being developed as a merchant shipping port, it can be converted into a naval base by adding a few facilities.”
The Chinese are building an expressway in Colombo and are also involved in an important power project in North Sri Lanka. As the two countries keep signing more collaborative projects, and the Chinese presence increases in Sri Lanka, it would bring the Chinese within breathing (or striking) distance of India’s southern coast, where several sensitive installations including atomic power plants are located. Chinese personnel will be all over Sri Lanka.
In a recent article titled, ‘Growing Chinese influence in Sri Lanka’, Gunjan Singh at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi, writes: “This increasing closeness between Colombo and Beijing is a reason for concern for New Delhi. During the construction of the (Hambantota) port a large number of Chinese experts are to be expected to be present in the region and this is proving to be a security concern for the Indian side.”
Sri Lanka doesn’t lose an opportunity to reaffirm its commitment to one-China policy. By doing that Sri Lanka accepts Chinese claims over Taiwan. But Sri Lanka maintains a stoic silence on Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh. It doesn’t want to spoil its relations with Pakistan or China by coming out with a pro-India stand on Kashmir or Arunachal Pradesh. For all the military and financial assistance it has got from India, Colombo has done few favours in return.
Despite bending backwards to woo Sri Lanka, by providing it with arms and training its personnel, India has failed to win over Colombo to its side. Journalist Nitin Gokhale has revealed in his recent book, ‘Sri Lanka: From War to Peace’: “Publicly India maintains that it would not give Sri Lanka any offensive weapons. Yet, in early 2006, India quietly gifted five Mi -17 helicopters to the Sri Lankan Air Force…The only Indian condition was these helicopters would fly under Sri Lankan Air Force colours. New Delhi clearly did not want to annoy UPA’s Tamil Nadu allies like the DMK unnecessarily.”
Who are these Chinese whom the Sri Lankans are cozying up to? What intentions do they have about India? D S Rajan of the Chennai Centre for China Studies recently shook the Indian security establishment with his article titled, “China should break up the Indian Union, suggests a Chinese strategist.” A China expert, with the added advantage of knowledge of the Chinese language, Rajan translated the contents of a Chinese article that advocated breaking up of India.
Rajan states in the article: “The writer (of the Chinese article) has argued… (that) China in its own interest and the progress of whole Asia, should join forces with different nationalities like Assamese, Tamils, and Kashmiris and support the latter in establishing independent nation-states of their own, out of India. In particular, the ULFA in Assam, a territory neighboring China, can be helped by China so that Assam realizes its national independence.”
Strategic expert B Raman commends Rajan’s analysis. Rajan concludes his article stating: “In any case, an approach of panic towards such outbursts will be a mistake, but also ignoring them will prove to be costly for India.”
Raman writes in his blog: “What is wrong in this analysis? In the 1950s, a number of maps of the Indo-Chinese border started circulating in China and appearing in sections of the Chinese media. The Indian intelligence rightly brought these to the notice of Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Prime Minister, who took up the matter with Chou En-lai, his Chinese counterpart. He assured Nehru that these maps were circulated by private individuals and had been prepared by the Taiwanese before 1949. He told Nehru that India should not worry about them. Nehru was shocked before the 1962 war when the Chinese used the very same maps, which Chou had described as not official, for claiming large parts of Indian territory and occupying much of it. Today, it is on the basis of the very same maps which the Chinese portrayed as not official that they are claiming Arunachal Pradesh as Chinese territory.”
Discussing the combined threat posed by China and Sri Lanka, M G Devasahayam, a retired bureaucrat, writes in The Statesman dated 22 August 2009, “The premonition of Bharat Verma, editor of the Indian Defence Review, that ‘China will launch an attack on India before 2012 and there are multiple reasons for a desperate Beijing to teach India the final lesson, thereby ensuring Chinese supremacy in Asia in this century’ has been in the making for the last few years. By that time Sri Lanka would be fully prepared with an Armed Force of 300,000 (the 8th largest in the world), near-fully trained and equipped by China and Pakistan, forcing India to open a massive land-sea front in the south, which till now has been peaceful. It is thus evident that India’s ‘foreign policy’ on Sri Lanka has been palpably against national interest and security.”
As if Chinese presence in Sri Lanka was not enough, Colombo is now all set to train Pakistani army personnel in anti-guerilla warfare in soon-to-be established training schools in the Tamil dominated North Sri Lanka. Lankan army chief Lt General Jagath Jayasuriya has said that these schools would be established in Mullaitivu, Killinochchi and Vavuniya. The proposed training to the Pakistani personnel is to be provided based on a request from Islamabad to train their officers in ‘small team operations.’ What the Pakistanis are capable of doing to weaken India is known to everyone. Their presence near India’s southern borders should ring the alarm bells in the Indian security establishment.
The writer PC Vinoj Kumar is a Special Correspondent for the Indian weekly magazine - Tehelka. The views expressed are his own.
The Chinese are developing a port in Hambantota in Southern Sri Lanka, which experts feel could be converted into a Chinese naval base at short notice. In a recent interview to Tehelka, Colonel (retired) R Hariharan, a Sri Lanka expert, had stated: “Though Hambantota is being developed as a merchant shipping port, it can be converted into a naval base by adding a few facilities.”
The Chinese are building an expressway in Colombo and are also involved in an important power project in North Sri Lanka. As the two countries keep signing more collaborative projects, and the Chinese presence increases in Sri Lanka, it would bring the Chinese within breathing (or striking) distance of India’s southern coast, where several sensitive installations including atomic power plants are located. Chinese personnel will be all over Sri Lanka.
In a recent article titled, ‘Growing Chinese influence in Sri Lanka’, Gunjan Singh at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi, writes: “This increasing closeness between Colombo and Beijing is a reason for concern for New Delhi. During the construction of the (Hambantota) port a large number of Chinese experts are to be expected to be present in the region and this is proving to be a security concern for the Indian side.”
Sri Lanka doesn’t lose an opportunity to reaffirm its commitment to one-China policy. By doing that Sri Lanka accepts Chinese claims over Taiwan. But Sri Lanka maintains a stoic silence on Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh. It doesn’t want to spoil its relations with Pakistan or China by coming out with a pro-India stand on Kashmir or Arunachal Pradesh. For all the military and financial assistance it has got from India, Colombo has done few favours in return.
Despite bending backwards to woo Sri Lanka, by providing it with arms and training its personnel, India has failed to win over Colombo to its side. Journalist Nitin Gokhale has revealed in his recent book, ‘Sri Lanka: From War to Peace’: “Publicly India maintains that it would not give Sri Lanka any offensive weapons. Yet, in early 2006, India quietly gifted five Mi -17 helicopters to the Sri Lankan Air Force…The only Indian condition was these helicopters would fly under Sri Lankan Air Force colours. New Delhi clearly did not want to annoy UPA’s Tamil Nadu allies like the DMK unnecessarily.”
Who are these Chinese whom the Sri Lankans are cozying up to? What intentions do they have about India? D S Rajan of the Chennai Centre for China Studies recently shook the Indian security establishment with his article titled, “China should break up the Indian Union, suggests a Chinese strategist.” A China expert, with the added advantage of knowledge of the Chinese language, Rajan translated the contents of a Chinese article that advocated breaking up of India.
Rajan states in the article: “The writer (of the Chinese article) has argued… (that) China in its own interest and the progress of whole Asia, should join forces with different nationalities like Assamese, Tamils, and Kashmiris and support the latter in establishing independent nation-states of their own, out of India. In particular, the ULFA in Assam, a territory neighboring China, can be helped by China so that Assam realizes its national independence.”
Strategic expert B Raman commends Rajan’s analysis. Rajan concludes his article stating: “In any case, an approach of panic towards such outbursts will be a mistake, but also ignoring them will prove to be costly for India.”
Raman writes in his blog: “What is wrong in this analysis? In the 1950s, a number of maps of the Indo-Chinese border started circulating in China and appearing in sections of the Chinese media. The Indian intelligence rightly brought these to the notice of Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Prime Minister, who took up the matter with Chou En-lai, his Chinese counterpart. He assured Nehru that these maps were circulated by private individuals and had been prepared by the Taiwanese before 1949. He told Nehru that India should not worry about them. Nehru was shocked before the 1962 war when the Chinese used the very same maps, which Chou had described as not official, for claiming large parts of Indian territory and occupying much of it. Today, it is on the basis of the very same maps which the Chinese portrayed as not official that they are claiming Arunachal Pradesh as Chinese territory.”
Discussing the combined threat posed by China and Sri Lanka, M G Devasahayam, a retired bureaucrat, writes in The Statesman dated 22 August 2009, “The premonition of Bharat Verma, editor of the Indian Defence Review, that ‘China will launch an attack on India before 2012 and there are multiple reasons for a desperate Beijing to teach India the final lesson, thereby ensuring Chinese supremacy in Asia in this century’ has been in the making for the last few years. By that time Sri Lanka would be fully prepared with an Armed Force of 300,000 (the 8th largest in the world), near-fully trained and equipped by China and Pakistan, forcing India to open a massive land-sea front in the south, which till now has been peaceful. It is thus evident that India’s ‘foreign policy’ on Sri Lanka has been palpably against national interest and security.”
As if Chinese presence in Sri Lanka was not enough, Colombo is now all set to train Pakistani army personnel in anti-guerilla warfare in soon-to-be established training schools in the Tamil dominated North Sri Lanka. Lankan army chief Lt General Jagath Jayasuriya has said that these schools would be established in Mullaitivu, Killinochchi and Vavuniya. The proposed training to the Pakistani personnel is to be provided based on a request from Islamabad to train their officers in ‘small team operations.’ What the Pakistanis are capable of doing to weaken India is known to everyone. Their presence near India’s southern borders should ring the alarm bells in the Indian security establishment.
The writer PC Vinoj Kumar is a Special Correspondent for the Indian weekly magazine - Tehelka. The views expressed are his own.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Tamil refugee camps of Sri Lanka
Much has been written about the abysmal conditions of the Tamil refugee camps in Sri Lanka. Reports say people there are suffering due to shortage of water, and lack of proper sanitary facilities. Media has also reported outbreak of chickenpox and hepatitis in the military run camps, where an estimated 3 lakh Tamils are housed in overcrowded tents. Several international agencies have voiced their concern for the suffering masses, but no relief appears to be in sight.
Their appalling condition moved even Sri Lanka’s Chief Justice Sarath N Silva, who made the following comments after visiting one of the camps. (That the honourable judge is a Sinhalese adds more credibility to his remarks.) Here goes his assessment of the camps:
“I visited 'relief villages' where Vanni IDP families are sheltered. I cannot explain their suffering and grief in words. It is an utter lie if we continue to say that there is only one race and no majority or minority in the country. I visited Cheddiku'lam camps where IDP families live. I cannot explain the pathetic situation they undergo. I was unable to console them. They survive amid immense suffering and distress.
We construct massive building on our side. But these IDPs live in tent-shelters. Ten IDPs live in one tent-shelter. They could stand straight only in the centre of the tent shelter. Their neck will break down if they move to aside of the tent-shelter.
IDPs are seen waiting in queues, extending from 50 to 100 yards to take their turn to answer a call of nature. This is the life of Vanni IDPs in Cheddiku'lam camp.
I attempted to smile at these IDPs. But it was without success. I failed to express my feeling towards them. I was unable to tell them that we also were crying with them for their suffering. I was unable to tell them that I would supply new clothes to them.
They should be provided with enough relief. We would be blamed if we fail to supply them with enough relief.They cannot expect justice from the law of the country. Their plight and suffering are not brought to the court of law in our country. I openly say this. I will be penalized for telling this.”
Now, contrast these remarks with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s rating of his army run camps in an interview with senior Indian journalist and the Editor of leading Indian English daily, The Hindu. To a question from Ram on whether he was satisfied with conditions in the Vavuniya IDP camps, Rajapaksa said (I am quoting in part)…
“I would say the condition in our camps is the best any country has. We supply water. There is a problem with lavatories. That is not because of our fault. The money that comes from the EU and others, it goes to the NGOs and the U.N. They are very slow; disbursing money is very slow. We supply the water tanks; we have spent over [Sri Lankan] Rs. 2 billion. Giving electricity, giving water, now we are giving televisions to them. They have telephone facilities. Schools have been established. Some of the leaders are using mobile phones.
I had a special meeting on the disposal of waste. I sent a special team of specialists to see how mosquitoes can be eradicated.
We know there are shortcomings. Slowly, we have to overcome them. In some camps there are no problems. What these people I sent told me: they are satisfied with the housing, the shelter. They have undergone much worse conditions earlier [when they were under the LTTE’s control].”
Rajapaksa also revealed during the course of the interview a very powerful theory that he has formulated and which he is propagating among his countrymen.
He said answering a question:
“I have warned my party people, all party people, whether Sinhala, Tamil or Muslim, that “I don’t want any statement, anything that creates a disturbance among our three communities.” Now my theory is: there are no minorities in Sri Lanka, there are only those who love the country and those who don’t. They tried to twist that but I still maintain that position.”
Now you go paraphrase what the President means when he says there are no minorities in Sri Lanka. Good luck to the Tamils!
Their appalling condition moved even Sri Lanka’s Chief Justice Sarath N Silva, who made the following comments after visiting one of the camps. (That the honourable judge is a Sinhalese adds more credibility to his remarks.) Here goes his assessment of the camps:
“I visited 'relief villages' where Vanni IDP families are sheltered. I cannot explain their suffering and grief in words. It is an utter lie if we continue to say that there is only one race and no majority or minority in the country. I visited Cheddiku'lam camps where IDP families live. I cannot explain the pathetic situation they undergo. I was unable to console them. They survive amid immense suffering and distress.
We construct massive building on our side. But these IDPs live in tent-shelters. Ten IDPs live in one tent-shelter. They could stand straight only in the centre of the tent shelter. Their neck will break down if they move to aside of the tent-shelter.
IDPs are seen waiting in queues, extending from 50 to 100 yards to take their turn to answer a call of nature. This is the life of Vanni IDPs in Cheddiku'lam camp.
I attempted to smile at these IDPs. But it was without success. I failed to express my feeling towards them. I was unable to tell them that we also were crying with them for their suffering. I was unable to tell them that I would supply new clothes to them.
They should be provided with enough relief. We would be blamed if we fail to supply them with enough relief.They cannot expect justice from the law of the country. Their plight and suffering are not brought to the court of law in our country. I openly say this. I will be penalized for telling this.”
Now, contrast these remarks with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s rating of his army run camps in an interview with senior Indian journalist and the Editor of leading Indian English daily, The Hindu. To a question from Ram on whether he was satisfied with conditions in the Vavuniya IDP camps, Rajapaksa said (I am quoting in part)…
“I would say the condition in our camps is the best any country has. We supply water. There is a problem with lavatories. That is not because of our fault. The money that comes from the EU and others, it goes to the NGOs and the U.N. They are very slow; disbursing money is very slow. We supply the water tanks; we have spent over [Sri Lankan] Rs. 2 billion. Giving electricity, giving water, now we are giving televisions to them. They have telephone facilities. Schools have been established. Some of the leaders are using mobile phones.
I had a special meeting on the disposal of waste. I sent a special team of specialists to see how mosquitoes can be eradicated.
We know there are shortcomings. Slowly, we have to overcome them. In some camps there are no problems. What these people I sent told me: they are satisfied with the housing, the shelter. They have undergone much worse conditions earlier [when they were under the LTTE’s control].”
Rajapaksa also revealed during the course of the interview a very powerful theory that he has formulated and which he is propagating among his countrymen.
He said answering a question:
“I have warned my party people, all party people, whether Sinhala, Tamil or Muslim, that “I don’t want any statement, anything that creates a disturbance among our three communities.” Now my theory is: there are no minorities in Sri Lanka, there are only those who love the country and those who don’t. They tried to twist that but I still maintain that position.”
Now you go paraphrase what the President means when he says there are no minorities in Sri Lanka. Good luck to the Tamils!
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Post War Quest For Justice In Sri Lanka
For those following the ‘post-war quest for justice’ in Sri Lanka, The Times editorial, ‘Time for Witness,’ is a must read.
The Editorial States: “The Sri Lankan Government has much to account for. Yet it has responded with disingenuity and fantasy. It first denied the deaths of civilians and then claimed that the photographic evidence, repeated by independent witnesses, had been forged. In doing so, it is perpetrating sins of omission in order to obscure those of commission. Mr Ban must speak; the UN must investigate. Nothing else will demonstrate a decent respect for the opinions of mankind.”
Some recent articles in The Times, New York Times and Washington Post, on the dark happenings in Sri Lanka have created the impression that the western media appears to be determined to get an investigation into the war crimes of the Sri Lankan government. Their resolve has not diminished even after what happened at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) last week. Sri Lanka managed to get the majority support in the 47-member UNHRC and successfully thwarted a probe into allegations of massacre of an estimated 20000 Tamils in the final phase of its battle-to-the-finish with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
But true journalism is all about the determined pursuit of truth, and the unrelenting quest for justice, even against seemingly heavy odds. Those who doggedly fight injustice are bound to win. Villains of humanity cannot always prevail. Their downfall is just a question of time. History has demonstrated this time and again. Sri Lanka cannot be an exception.
The Editorial States: “The Sri Lankan Government has much to account for. Yet it has responded with disingenuity and fantasy. It first denied the deaths of civilians and then claimed that the photographic evidence, repeated by independent witnesses, had been forged. In doing so, it is perpetrating sins of omission in order to obscure those of commission. Mr Ban must speak; the UN must investigate. Nothing else will demonstrate a decent respect for the opinions of mankind.”
Some recent articles in The Times, New York Times and Washington Post, on the dark happenings in Sri Lanka have created the impression that the western media appears to be determined to get an investigation into the war crimes of the Sri Lankan government. Their resolve has not diminished even after what happened at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) last week. Sri Lanka managed to get the majority support in the 47-member UNHRC and successfully thwarted a probe into allegations of massacre of an estimated 20000 Tamils in the final phase of its battle-to-the-finish with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
But true journalism is all about the determined pursuit of truth, and the unrelenting quest for justice, even against seemingly heavy odds. Those who doggedly fight injustice are bound to win. Villains of humanity cannot always prevail. Their downfall is just a question of time. History has demonstrated this time and again. Sri Lanka cannot be an exception.
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