Growing Negative Perception Shows Need To Restore CredibilityGrowing Negative Perception Shows Need To Restore Credibility
Jehan Perera
Less than Three Decade Long Internal Five years after the end of the War, the Government has warned that the LTTE is regrouping and plotting to renew Again Its violent campaign for a separate State. This warning has come in the context of a shootout reported in the North that led to the killing of three LTTE members by the military, who according to the government, had shot and injured a policeman in the leg. It is plausible that there are small groups within the local population as well as internationally who may be plotting some violent acts, even if they know that the conditions at the present time do not permit sustained rebellion. Had the slain persons are accused of having connections with the Tamil Diaspora and had prominent Targets in Mind. It will be ironic if Sri Lanka, which achieved what seemed impossible by defeating the LTTE, should lose its prospects for peace so rapidly.
May have been a coincidence that this IT Violence, which is the First LTTE-related Violence since the end of the War, OCCURRED Soon after the Passage of the UNHRC resolution calling for an International Investigation into the Last Phase of Sri Lanka's War. But this coincidence has been helpful to the government in justifying its security-centered approach to governance. The government has refused to cooperate with the UNHRC investigation. It has also banned 16 Tamil Diaspora organizations and 424 individuals whom it has accused of promoting terrorism. It may be noted that prior to the vote at the UNHRC in Geneva, the Northern Provincial Council, the TNA and Tamil civil society groups issued statements in support of an international investigation, which was diametrically in opposition to the government's own position. But now there is fear now amongst these groups, and the mobilization of civil society protests against the government's approach to accountability and human rights issues has virtually collapsed.
Reports from the North indicate that the military role has grown and the space for civil society to function has shrunk due to permission for activities that has to be obtained and is either not forthcoming or is deemed to be impossible to obtain. The security forces conducted extensive cordon and search operations and arrested over 60 persons, including civic activists, prior to the final shootout. It is tragic that after defeating the LTTE so totally on the battlefield, the government is edging towards a situation where the military is being called upon to play a greater role in the lives of the people. The situation is so bad that when I wished to visit the North last week and see for myself what the situation on the ground was, I found it difficult to find a partner organization to take me around. They feared they would be compromising themselves in the eyes of the security forces and also those they took me to meet.
Jehan Perera
