Europol says 10,000 migrant children are missing

Europol sees evidence of a criminal infrastructure established over the last 18 months to exploit the migrant flow

Migrants fleeing warring regions often cross to the Greek islands from Turkey before trying to make their way to Europe

AFP-Sunday 31 January 2016

More than 10,000 unaccompanied migrant children have disappeared in Europe, the EU police agency Europol said on Sunday, fearing many have been whisked into sex trafficking rings or the slave trade. 

Europol's news office confirmed the figures published first in British newspaper the Observer, adding that they covered the last 18-24 months. 

The agency's chief of staff Brian Donald said vulnerable children had disappeared from the system after registering with state authorities following their arrival in Europe.

"It's not unreasonable to say that we're looking at 10,000-plus children," Donald said, adding that 5,000 had disappeared in Italy alone.

"Not all of them will be criminally exploited; some might have been passed on to family members. We just don't know where they are, what they're doing or whom they are with."

Donald said there was evidence of a "criminal infrastructure" established over the last 18 months to exploit the migrant flow.

The Observer reported that Europol found evidence of links between smuggling rings bringing people into the EU and human trafficking gangs exploiting migrants for sex and slavery.

"There are prisons in Germany and Hungary where the vast majority of people arrested and placed there are in relation to criminal activity surrounding the migrant crisis," Donald said.

More than 1 million migrants and refugees, many fleeing the Syria conflict, crossed into Europe last year. 

"Whether they are registered or not, we’re talking about 270,000 children," Donald told the paper.

"Not all of those are unaccompanied, but we also have evidence that a large proportion might be," he said, adding that 10,000 is likely to be a conservative estimate.

He said many of the children are "visible", and not "spirited away and held in the middle of forests".

Raffaela Milano, Save the Children's Italy-Europe programme director, said that "unaccompanied minors who travel without adults are the most vulnerable group of the migratory flow". 

"Many minors, in fact, make themselves 'invisible' to the authorities to enable them to continue their journey in Europe, for fear of being sent back," she said.

The UN children's agency UNICEF also voiced alarm and urged European countries to do more to protect migrant children who are on their own.

"We urgently call for a plan within Europe for unaccompanied and separated children covering family reunification, relocation and other alternatives so that children do not end up being abused and exploited by smugglers and traffickers," it said in a statement.

Many children arrive first on the Greek islands before making the journey to relatives across Europe. 

Laura Pappa, president of the Greek charity Meta-Action, a group accompanying children who travel without relatives, said they "face a destiny that is worse than that of the rest of migrants waiting to be relocated".

She said they often have to wait for about seven months to be reunited with relatives, and that procedures can be slow and complicated.

"There are some people that present themselves as uncles and take the children. It's not easy in this mess to cross check the identity of the 'uncle'."  

Pappa said the group has helped 3,000 children reach family, but that it "is not enough". 

The UK has said it will take in migrant or refugee children who have been separated from their parents.

Despite the constant risk of death and deportation, migrants continue to stream into Europe, risking their lives to escape poverty, repression and conflict.

Guatemalan soldiers face civil war sexual slavery charges in historic trial

For the first time ever, sex slavery will be prosecuted where the war crime took place, 30 years after 11 Mayan women from Sepur Zarco were raped and enslaved

Women hold up signs that read ‘We look to justice, Sepur Zarco case’ in 2012 to commemorate the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women in Guatemala City. Photograph: Jorge López/Reuters

Nina Lakhani in Guatemala City-Friday 29 January 2016

First the army came for the men. Fifteen Mayan peasant leaders in the tiny hamlet of Sepur Zarco in eastern Guatemala were seized and killed or forcibly disappeared.

A few weeks later, they came back for the women. Soldiers raped them in front of their children, burned down their houses and crops, stole their meagre belongings and made them move into shacks outside the nearby military base.

Every two or three days, each woman was made to report for 12-hour “shifts” at the base where they were forced to cook, clean and submit to systematic rape, often by several soldiers.

It was 1982, one of the bloodiest years of the country’s civil war as counter-insurgency operations against ethnic Mayans intensified under the rule of the military dictator and evangelical Christian, Efraín Ríos Montt.

First the army came for the men. Fifteen Mayan peasant leaders in the tiny hamlet of Sepur Zarco in eastern Guatemala were seized and killed or forcibly disappeared.

A few weeks later, they came back for the women. Soldiers raped them in front of their children, burned down their houses and crops, stole their meagre belongings and made them move into shacks outside the nearby military base.

Every two or three days, each woman was made to report for 12-hour “shifts” at the base where they were forced to cook, clean and submit to systematic rape, often by several soldiers.

It was 1982, one of the bloodiest years of the country’s civil war as counter-insurgency operations against ethnic Mayans intensified under the rule of the military dictator and evangelical Christian, Efraín Ríos Montt.

More than 30 years later, two former military officers will finally face charges of sexual and domestic slavery and forced disappearance in a landmark trial which opens on Monday.

The trial marks the first in the world that sexual slavery perpetrated during an armed conflict has been prosecuted in the country where the crimes took place.

The two defendants, former base commander Esteelmer Reyes Girón and former regional military commissioner Heriberto Valdez Asij, are accused of crimes against humanity, which are exempt from the country’s post-war amnesty law.

Throughout Guatemala’s 36-year conflict, state security forces used rape as a weapon of terror, according to the 1999 report of a UN-backed Truth Commission, but no officers have ever faced charges of sexual violence.

And while the plight of Korean and Filipino “comfort women” forced into sexual slavery by Japanese troops during the second world war remains the subject of high-level diplomatic disputes, victims of similar crimes in Guatemala have had little or no official support.

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'Youngest' conjoined sisters separated at Swiss hospital in Bern

The twins underwent an operation to separate them in December

31 January 2016

Doctors in Switzerland say they have separated eight-day-old conjoined sisters, believed to be the youngest babies to be successfully parted.

The twins, born in December, were fused at the liver and chest.

Swiss media say doctors had originally planned to separate them when they were several months old but brought the operation forward when they each suffered a life-threatening condition.

The operation reportedly carried a 1% chance of success.

The twins, named Lydia and Maya, were born eight weeks premature at the Inselspital hospital in Bern, along with a triplet who was fully separate and healthy.

Doctors were forced to operate after the girls developed life-threatening conditions

The hospital said the twins were "extensively conjoined on the liver, but had all vital organs".

They weighed just 2.2kg (4lb 14oz) together. One of the twins had too much blood, and very high blood pressure, while the other one did not have enough.

A 13-strong medical team took five hours to separate the girls on 10 December.

"Such small conjoined siblings had never been successfully separated before," the hospital said.

The twins, seen here before their operation, only weighed 2.2kg when they were born

The head of paediatric surgery, Steffen Berger, paid tribute to the medical staff, saying: "The perfect teamwork of physicians and nursing personnel from various disciplines were the key to success here. We are very happy that the children and parents are faring so well now."

The girls underwent further surgery to close their abdominal walls and are now recovering in a paediatric intensive care ward.

The hospital says the children are "still very small" but developing well.

Le Matin Dimanche newspaper said they had put on weight and begun breastfeeding.

Not all the operating team could be present for the photo afterwards because some were still caring for the girls

Two TNA stalwarts attend Scottish confab on devolution

The Long Term Solution To Sri Lanka’s Ethnic Problem

by Sujeeva Nivunhella in London-January 30, 2016, 9:21 pm 

Opposition leader, R. Sampanthan and TNA parliamentarian, M. A. Sumanthiran were on a visit to the Scottish capital of Edinburgh to attend a workshop on devolution of power and constitutional reforms in Sri Lanka.

Organized by the Edinburgh Centre for Constitutional Law (ECCL) and Political Settlements Research Program (PSRP) affiliated to Edinburgh University, was held from January 29-31 in collaboration with the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), the International Working Group on Sri Lanka (IWG) of Conciliation Resources and Beyond Borders Scotland.

The key areas targeted at the workshop were power-sharing and devolution which are in line to be included in the proposed new Constitution for Sri Lanka.

Topics under discussion at the confab were devolution of power as a tool of political settlements, national pluralism as normal politics, plurinational constitutionalism and its main principles, the theory of the unitary state and Internal Re-Territorialisation, Asymmetric Arrangements, Inter-Governmental Relations: Indian and South Asian Experiences.

The objectives outlined at the workshop were: To help inform a common understanding between stakeholders of required reforms, based on a better knowledge of current concepts, institutional options and comparative models applicable to the Sri Lankan context, to help articulate a basic framework with regard to the norms and structures for greater devolution that could inform discussions within parties and negotiations between them once participants have returned to Sri Lanka and to help eventually to arrive at a commonly agreed set of reforms with respect to power-sharing and devolution between all stakeholders to be incorporated into the new Constitution.

The speakers at the workshop were Professor Stephen Tierney, Peter Bowling, Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, Mark Muller, Professor Christine Bell, Professor Michael Keating, Professor Neil Walker, Dr. Wilfred Swenden, Dr. Roshan de Silva Wijeyeratne, Dr. Asanga Welikala and Navaraj Singh Ghaleigh.

Governance On The “Advice Of The Mahasangha”: On President Sirisena’s Pledge

By H.L. Seneviratne –January 30, 2016

Prof. H.L. Seneviratne

We frequently hear politicians declaring that they will follow the steps of the ancient kings who always ruled according to the advice of the Mahasangha. This is a vague generalization that has no historical or scientific validity.

When we look at our history we do not find a continuing centralized system either in the political domain or in the religious. In the political domain what we see is a constant power struggle, as seen in the frequency of violent succession, often by killing family members or close kin.

And, the political system was an oscillating one between a temporary centralization and its inevitable end in the break up of the system into warring groups. The story that we had a unitary (ekeeya) state in ancient times is a myth. We never had a unitary state until British rule unified the country. Indeed there was none anywhere in the world until the rise of the modern nation state starting about two centuries ago.

The religious domain was similar, and if any, even less centralized than the political domain, because, monks had no coercive power, and were totally dependent on the king for any centralization they had. Factions of monks competed to get the favour of the king, and our history is full of stories of kings purging the Sangha (called purification, sasana visodhana), at the instigation of the faction that got the favour of the king.

There was nothing called a unitary and monolithic “Mahasangha”. A non-existent thing cannot give advice. “Mahasangha” here simply means a faction of the monks. And any “advice” they gave was not a one way thing, like from a person who can advice to a person who needs advice. It was no more than participation in intrigue against the enemy factions.

Another meaning of “advising” is, goading the king to do the bidding of the monk faction for their benefit. This is a general feature of the feudal political order of pre-modern times when elites, both lay and monastic, formed factions and operated for their benefit, and supported whoever the king was who was willing to reciprocate.

What this means is that the picture in our “glorious ancient times” is the same as what we see today. There are groups of monks who get round groups of politicians and they try to get politicians to do what they want. These are two fold, (1) to get as much material benefits as they can get from the politicians, especially those in power, and (2) to established the hegemony of the Sinhala Buddhist majority, and discriminate against the minorities, the purpose of which is also gaining more and more wealth and status, and bolstering their egos with long titles.

One other relevant point is that when these people talk about the advice of the Mahasangha, what advice are they talking about? To advice, one must have knowledge in the first place. They must have knowledge, at least basic knowledge, about what a modern democracy is, what a modern economy is, what the modern international system is like, and so forth. In sum, they must have the basic knowledge that can qualify them to be modern cosmopolitan citizens. I do not believe there is one single monk, certainly none among the monks with whom our politicians interact, who would have the basic qualifications to give any meaningful advice.

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No justice for Sri Lanka's missing and killed journalists

A culture of impunity for those who target the media must end, say activists

Journalists commemorate Black January on Jan. 21 in Colombo and call on the government to further investigate past killings and enforced disappearances of media workers. (Photo by Quintus Colombage)

Niranjani Roland, Colombo, Sri Lanka-January 29, 2016

Six year ago, Sri Lankan political cartoonist and columnist Prageeth Ekneligoda left his office and was never seen again. Since then his family have never stopped searching for the truth behind his disappearance.

"I started to demand justice for my father when I was age 14," says Ekneligoda's eldest son Sanjaya. "We will never give up until we find who was behind the disappearance."

Sanjaya's father went missing two days before 2010's presidential elections, a period marred by widespread violence.

Ekneligoda was then working for Lanka eNews, an independent online publication that backed political opposition leader Gen. Sarath Fonseka. As a journalist, Ekneligoda reported on alleged corruption among family members of Mahinda Rajapaksa who was the country's president from November 2005 to January 2015.

Investigations into Ekneligoda's disappearance were reopened by Sri Lanka's current president, Maithripala Sirisena, in March last year. By August, several military intelligence officers were charged with Ekneligoda's disappearance.

Sanjaya is pleased progress has been made into the investigations but he fears people of influence are interfering with the case behind the scenes.

Sri Lanka has the unenviable reputation of being described by the Committee to Protect Journalists as a country where "journalists are murdered and their killers go free."

Despite this, Sanjaya said his mother has never given up hope in finding justice for her husband.

"My mother is a courageous woman," said Sanjaya. "She went everywhere to make her voice heard, even to the United Nations to get support for the investigations but not only for my father but also for all the disappearances of other media workers over the years," he said.

The family of missing Sri Lankan journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda attended an exhibition at the Goethe Institute in Colombo that marked his sixth year of disappearance. Sanjaya Ekneligoda, right, his mother Sandya and younger brother Dhananja are still seeking answers to Prageeth's fate. (Photo by Niranjani Roland)

 

Black January

Since 2011, January has been used as a month to draw attention to the killing and forced disappearance of journalists in Sri Lanka.

Seetha Ranjani, convener of the Free Media Movement, Sri Lanka, told ucanews.com that during former President Rajapaksa's rule the media was suppressed.

"After Sri Lanka's civil war ended in 2009, the media and journalists faced many difficulties in the country," said Ranjani.

"There were many awful incidents that took place during the month of January," she said.

Among those incidents was the case of Lasantha Wickrematunge who was killed in January, 2009. The veteran journalist was shot dead in a broad daylight on a public highway, a few hundred meters from a security checkpoint.

Another journalist, Subramaniyam Sugitharajah, was killed on Jan. 24, 2006. It was the same day the photos he took of dead Tamil students murdered by the Sri Lankan army were published.

Through initiatives such as Black January, Sri Lankan journalists are pressing the government to fully address the country's history of media suppression.

Since the election of President Maithripala Sirisena in January 2015, the new government has showed a willingness to acknowledge past abuses and commit to reforms.

As part of that they have promised to combat a culture of impunity that emboldens assailants.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told parliament last December that the government would pay compensation to the families of 44 journalists who have been killed.

 

Tamil journalists

However there has been little government support forthcoming to investigate the deaths of Tamil journalists.

Thev Athiran, president of Federation of Eastern Journalists, told ucanews.com that he hasn't seen any progress in the investigations into Tamil journalists who have been murdered.

"Most of the families of killed Tamil journalists have left the country due to fear," said Athiran. 

"Sugirtharajan's wife was frustrated that none of the investigations was carried out," he said Athiran.

"Several times she has gone to the police regarding the investigations and in 10 years there has been no headway in solving his murder," he said.

Father Terrance Fernando, who also is an activist for Sri Lankan media freedom, said that perpetrators have not been punished.

"It is a pathetic situation that none of the investigations have started for the killings of Tamil journalists," said the priest who work's in the country's north.

"The local church does not play a prominent role in putting pressure on the government in this regards," the priest worried.

Time for Justice in Sri Lanka, Editorial, NYT

30/01/2016

Just a little over a year ago, voters in Sri Lanka rallied to elect a new president, with high hopes that he would usher in a new era of government accountability and bring healing to a country fractured by the brutal civil war that ended in 2009. President Maithripala Sirisena has taken bold steps to fulfill those hopes since his election last January.

But the wounds of war cannot be healed until a transitional justice process demanded by the United Nations in a resolution last October moves forward. On that score, Mr. Sirisena says his government will not act “in haste.” This is unacceptable. Atrocities were committed by both Tamil rebel troops and the Sri Lankan Army during the civil war. The perpetrators must be brought to trial.

Mr. Sirisena has amply demonstrated a capacity to lead during the year he has held office. He has presided over promised parliamentary elections, and has moved to dismantle the cronyism and the repressive regime of his predecessor, Mahinda Rajapaksa. He has also moved to include Sri Lanka’s minority Tamils and Muslims in the country’s governance, to release political prisoners and to allow more freedom of expression. And he has righted the Rajapaksa government’s tilt toward China, taking a balanced approach to Sri Lanka’s foreign relations that includes warmer relations with India and the United States. This month, Mr. Sirisena announced the beginning of a process to draft a new constitution.

These are welcome steps. But they are no substitute for justice. Troubling allegations of torture under Mr. Sirisena’s watch — which his government denies — must be addressed. Military leaders who oversaw the bloody operations that killed as many as 40,000 Tamil civilians in the final months of the war remain in command, and have even been promoted. A dangerous anti-Muslim campaign by Singhalese nationalists is threatening to further fray Sri Lanka’s ethnic fabric.

Last fall, the United Nations agreed to allow Sri Lanka to set up its own special court on war crimes. Mr. Sirisena needs to move quickly to fulfill his government’s obligation to the United Nations and its moral duty to Sri Lankans.

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD

JAN. 28, 2016

NYT

Vetting our way to trust

AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena, via Al Jazeera

• by Esther Hoole 
• - on 01/27/2016 

The conversation on Transitional Justice in Sri Lanka has hitherto focused almost exclusively on the government’s stated commitments to establish an Office of Missing Persons, a judicial mechanism with a special prosecutor, a Truth Commission and a Office for Reparations. Unfortunately, this conversation does not address the question of security sector reform, which is a central component of Transitional Justice. The OISL Report’s list of recommendations included security sector reform and in particular highlighted the importance of vetting security forces personnel to remove those in respect of whom there are reasonable grounds to believe they were involved in human rights violations. The Resolution co-sponsored by the Sri Lankan government echoed this recommendation, and in particular, Foreign Minister Samaraweera’s commitment to ensure that no scope exists for the retention in or recruitment into the security forces of anyone credibly implicated through a fair administrative process in serious crimes. Despite these commitments on security sector reform, it is troubling that this central component of Transitional Justice should be so casually forgotten, particularly when one bears in mind its importance to the smooth and effective functioning of the other mechanisms.

Security sector reform is conducted to ensure non recurrence of human rights abuses and international crimes. It also helps in holding perpetrators of human rights abuses accountable. Further, prosecutions often focus on a very small number of perpetrators, creating an ‘impunity gap’ where the vast majority of perpetrators are never brought to criminal justice. The Sri Lankan security sector has faced a long list of allegations concerning violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. If Transitional Justice is to be effectively carried out in Sri Lanka, institutions that were responsible for violations need to be transformed into ones that support the transition to peace and reconciliation. Abusive institutions must become ones that protect the people, working efficiently and fairly to dispel the memory of dysfunctional and inequitable institutions and to regain civic trust.

A crucial part of reforming the security sector is the vetting of security personnel. While other areas of the reform process deal with more structural issues, vetting deals with individuals within the sector. It has been described as a process to determine each person’s suitability for public employment with the intention of removing individuals personally responsible for human rights abuses. The advent of TJ mechanisms in Sri Lanka to deal with the past necessitates the presence of security personnel who can be trusted. Victims of human rights abuses will be needed to testify before criminal proceedings, a truth commission and an Office of Missing Persons. Without trust in security personnel, any truth or justice proceedings will be overshadowed by fear, and the past will not be put to rest. With the non-existence of such trust and assurance at present, Sri Lanka needs a vetting process.

The process of vetting, unlike the wholesale purges undertaken by some countries, entails a formal, structured process for the identification and the removal of individuals within the security sector found to be responsible for human rights violations. The operational guidelines given by the OHCHR lays out a structured process for vetting.  First, the institution and its personnel need to be assessed along with the social context to identify the areas needing reform. Following this, organizational parameters and standards for such reform should be set, based on the prior assessment. This would cover areas such as number of staff, composition of personnel, job requirements and individual standards based on capacity and integrity. Integrity is objectively judged by the individual’s adherence to international human rights standards and professional conduct. Once these standards are defined, a reform process needs to be designed. In order to ensure the independence and legitimacy of such a process, it should be conducted by a separate commission independent of security institutions. A typical process involves registering employees, screening them, assessing their competence and investigating their background. The UN Secretary General’s Report on transitional justice in post conflict countries points out how parties under investigation are notified of allegations against them and are given an opportunity to respond to these allegations before the administrative body. They have the right to reasonable notice of the case, the right to contest the case and the right to appeal an adverse decision to the court or another independent body.

All this is a far cry from wide scale dismissal or disqualification meted out on the basis of party affiliation, political opinion or association with another state institution. On the contrary, vetting aims to remove only those individuals who have committed grave violations of human rights, leaving  the security sector with individuals who have the capacity to do their duty well in protecting the rights of all citizens and who have the integrity to uphold the honour of the relevant forces by acting in accordance with the expectations of the law.

Vetting processes around the world have been faced with varied challenges. In Kosovo, vetting was handled by the Department for Security Clearance under the Kosovo Intelligence Agency (KIA). This was done to ensure independence. It became contentious however, when among other things, Members of Parliament exercising oversight over the process were forced to obtain security clearance to access classified information in the possession of KIA. Thus civil and democratic oversight of the KIA were compromised. The Appeals process in Kosovo also presented a challenge. Appeals needed to be presented to another body within the KIA which was supposed to be independent or, as a last resort, to the judiciary. Appeals were not made to the KIA, and since the judiciary lacked the expertise to deal with these cases, eventually a parliamentary committee decided to deal with them despite not being legally permitted to deal with such appeals. The process in Egypt struggled to find a balance in setting standards. They drew overbroad strokes and considered banning participation in the former President’s political life. From there, they grew more draconian, imposing sanctions without evidence of wrongdoing and ignoring criminality and abuse carried out outside the ruling party elite. Kenya’s on-going vetting programme has been very slow due to lack of political will and has raised anxiety within the security sector. It also lacks transparency and independence from political interference. While the vetting is supposed to be undertaken on the grounds of competence and suitability, focussing on professionalism, performance, discipline, human rights record and qualifications; the focus has instead shifted to issues of wealth and finances of the personnel with little attention given to actual service records.  There have also been allegations of corruption against those in Authority. Sri Lanka is not immune to any of these challenges. In addition to these, the public’s sensitivity to the notion of security sector reform is very limited.

That vetting is a necessary part of security sector reform in ensuring non recurrence cannot be disputed. That the Sri Lankan government has pledged itself to undertake and ensure such reform is a fact. Sans effective vetting processes, victims will remain in fear of those who abused them and violated their rights. If left unaddressed, this fear could derail any truth or justice process.

Progress on Sri Lanka's UN commitments essential for GSP+ says EU

30 January 2016
Sri Lanka has “an awful lot to do” in terms of transforming the commitments it has made said the Ambassador and head of the European Union Delegation.

Highlighting serious allegations of war crimes at the end of Sri Lanka’s war against the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Mr Daly said, 

“Accountability is essential and mechanisms to ensure that are needed, and those mechanisms themselves should be credible.”

When asked about the reinstatement of the GSP+ trade benefit last week, he added, 

“It is not possible to say at this stage, or exactly, at this moment it will happen. We must do a very serious and very objective assessment of the situation in any country that is applying for GSP plus.  The UN system plays a very important role.”

Commenting on how to measure progress in Sri Lanka, he said, 

“If you look at significant things like the commitments made in Geneva, the commitments made in the joint resolution co-sponsored by Sri Lanka, which is a major step forward, there you see the sort of things we mean.”

Ranil confident about lifting of GSP+ sanctions (01 Oct 2015)

Rights issues crucial to granting GSP+ in Sri Lanka, says EU Ambassador (31 Mar 2015)

Ban Wants International Participation in Judicial Mechanism

30/01/2016

UN Secretary General Ban ki-moon wants international participation in the judicial mechanism when investigating the war in Sri Lanka.

Ban ki-moon’s spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said that the Secretary‑General understands that the discussions in Sri Lanka on the transitional justice mechanism, including the judicial component, are ongoing.

“Broad‑based national consultations are about to kick off, and they will help inform the modalities of the mechanisms.  The Secretary‑General also recalls that the Human Rights Council resolution on Sri Lanka, cosponsored by the current Government, affirms the importance of a credible justice process and international participation in the judicial mechanism,” Stéphane Dujarric said.

 He said the UN Secretary General remains hopeful that the Sri Lankan Government stands by its commitments and fully implements the resolution. (Colombo Gazette)

The Leader and the Led: Politics of Ignorance and Ignorance of Politics

Featured image courtesy Senaka Senanayake via patrimoniogallery

• by FarweezImamudeen 
• - on 01/30/2016 

Racial, ethnic and religious disharmony is as inevitable as death in a pluralist state where more than one race, ethnicity or religion shares the same geographical boundaries and its resources among themselves. It is inevitable not because of the rich diversity that is natural in societies but because of blatant ignorance that is present collectively; The lack of knowledge and empathy to see the other as a fellow human being, made of the same flesh, blood, emotions and needs, differing naturally as human beings do due to a rather mysterious mind that naturally causes differences of ideas and opinions among different individuals and sometimes within the same individual himself; a reason why we differ from lesser animals whose behavior can be predicted and thus controlled.  Srilanka too, despite its rich diversity of cultures, customs, languages and religions is a battered victim of social unrest that was caused by inadequate problem solving skills. We continue to be a divided nation. Despite our many futile attempts to find a political solution to the ethnic, racial and religious conflicts we continue to be deceived to believe that we can solve the dilemma while the people are still deeply steeped in ignorance.

We were granted independence by the British in 1948, without a fight, gift wrapped on a silver platter. The British equipped us with everything they knew were not, and we assumed were sufficient for a just governance – democracy, parliament, elections, constitutions – only to learn bitterly after living it – as we always do – that we were wrong. During the last 68 years since independence we have spent nearly 46 years of it grappling with two bloody conflicts that sprouted from within, due to biased political decisions which were driven by selfish motives, and the ignorance of the masses. Our self serving leaders lacked wisdom to understand what power and authority was for, and the people lacked wisdom to understand who a real leader was.

The case of Professor Colvin R.De Silva is a classic example of a nude display of ignorance by a political genius and its unequivocal acceptance by a people who lacked foresight. His lack of wisdom and an egocentric political agenda were to compound the fear, anxiety and suspicion of the Tamil minority, and set the ball rolling for the deadliest civil war in the history of Srilanka.

In 1956 when S.W.R.D.Bandaranaike proposed the Sinhala only act, Professor Colvin R.De Silva vehemently opposed it. “Do you want two languages and one nation or one language and two nations? Parity Mr. Speaker,” He argued “we believe is the road to freedom of our nation and the unity of its components. Otherwise two torn little bleeding states may arise from one little state.”(1) Prophetic indeed.

16 years later, in 1972 while serving as a Cabinet Minister in Mrs.Bandaranaike’s government he was appointed to draft the new constitution. He was no more in the opposition, the political climate had changed. It was a new stage, a new scene, and he had to assume a suitable role. So he ripped off his ‘former champion of equality’ mask, and put on the new one to suit the occasion- ‘Stalwart of Sinhala Buddhist extremism’. It was his proposals which were later constituted and became the legal prototype for Sinhala Buddhist Nationalism. Buddhism was enthroned and Sinhalese was made the official language. Racism was officially endorsed in our national constitution. The ignorance of the shepherd and the ignorance of the sheep led the entire nation through bright daylight to a devastating catastrophe that could have been avoided had we gambled with wisdom instead of ignorance.

To our politicians the racial, ethnic and religious divide is the goose that lays the golden eggs. They cannot afford to slaughter it. The process of conflict is an absolute necessity for their political survival for it is not only the stallion that would ride them into power but also their leash that would give them unrestricted command over the ignorant masses.

Bodu Bala Sena, Ravana Balaya and Sinha-le are not the beginning nor will they be the end. Racism will only grow by degrees, getting stronger, better organized and better prepared to counter its adversaries with every blow that slows it down for it feeds on collective ignorance to stay alive. Thus in as much as there is mass ignorance nothing will curtail its progress. Nor are groups like BBS and Sinha-le isolated, sprouting from no particular systematic agenda. In fact these have a clear political agenda. That is to distract the public from real concerns like unemployment, poverty and health issues, with superficial ones, like a fictional cultural invader, by manipulating their ignorance and fomenting fear and suspicion of the other.

Collective ignorance remains at the root of the crisis. We cannot prosper while the primary agent is still active and breeding. Any attempt to solve the racial, ethnic or religious problem without attempting to eliminate ignorance is counterproductive for we would be futilely trying to wipe out the effects while feeding the cause ad infinitum.

Eradicating ignorance and cultivating knowledge is an absolute necessity, and it is the ultimate goal of education. A real education should create independent, creative, challenging, curious, loving, compassionate, patient, empathetic, resilient, courageous and sincere citizens who are worthy of the name ‘good’. Instead our process of education prepares obedient, diligent and skilled workers who will accept hierarchy and authority, turn up on time, work hard, do what they are told, consume, and not expect to have control over their situation. Our education system provides the kind of minds that are necessary for exploitation. Our schools produce minds that function one dimensional. An education that is exam centered and economy oriented lies at the pinnacle of the crisis; an education that defines itself as a tool to attain a better and comfortable life.

We cannot begin to change the system while fueling the cause that breeds the crisis. As long as we keep funding and nurturing schools that compete with each other, vying endlessly to produce quality skilled labor that is required to serve the corporations and industries, the kind of change we may achieve will only be momentary and superficial. It will soon revert to its original crisis situation. The fact that our education is primarily economy oriented – personally and nationally – is the mother of all evils.

We tied the cart before the horse and still don’t seem to be able to figure out why the cart is not moving. First we need to realize that the problem is genuine. The horse needs to be retied in its rightful place to make any progress at all. We need to redefine education and transform it outside of the existing twisted system that is exam centered and economy oriented. We don’t need a foreign army to invade us and run riot in the country. We will do it ourselves; extremist factions that cash in on mass ignorance and the weak will do it, unless we create a new generation of truly good leaders. Our children deserve an education that would liberate their minds, purify their souls and nourish their health. They need real, liberal education, not school factories that produce mechanical and dysfunctional minds.

References

1. Dr Colvin R de Silva, Opposition Member of Parliament, Hansard, June 1956.

Cry, “Chaos!”

By Charles Sarvan –January 30, 2016 

Prof. Charles Sarvan

I read in Colombo Telegraph the claim by the Prime Minister, Mr Ranil Wickremasinghe, that the previous President and his supporters are forming, fomenting and are about to unleash a “new fascist Buddhist movement”. It reminded me of Shakespeare’s history play, Julius Caesar (Act 3, Scene 1) from which I adapt and quote a few lines: Shout “Chaos!”, and then let loose the dogs of violence and destruction. Blood and destruction shall become normal, and all pity will be choked by evil deeds.

It is not easy to think of a greater contrast than that between violence and Buddhism. Violence in the name of the Buddha, the Soul of Great Compassion, is an ironic and tragic contradiction. I have suggested elsewhere the following proposition for consideration: Religious doctrine is divine, religion is human. What I mean is that while the original doctrine is claimed to have a divine or near-divine origin (be it from the teaching of the Buddha, of Christ or the Prophet Mohammed), religion with all its paraphernalia, myths and rituals included, is what humanity makes of this doctrine. Perhaps this goes towards explaining how the same religious doctrine can be expressed in very different forms at different times and in different places? Rather than pristine religious doctrine influencing (if not determining) politics, man-made religion becomes an instrument of politics, justifying, even sanctifying, violence and cruelty on the lines of: “I do it not for me but for our religion. God and religion are far more important than mere non-believing human beings”. The willingness to be violent and cruel is made the mark of religiosity: the greater the hate, cruelty and injustice, the greater the piety. For example, one thinks at random of the Spanish Conquistadors virtuously recording that they saved the souls of Native-American babies by baptising them before dashing their brains out.

As for violence and Buddhism, I quote from the Buddhist folk-tale Monkey, by Wu Ch’eng-en, 1500 – 1580, translated into English by Arthur Walley. Page reference is to the Grove Press edition, New York, 1970. “A priest, said Tripitaka, should be ready to die rather than commit acts of violence” (pages 132-133). “To save one life is better than to build a seven-storeyed” place of worship (pages 194 & 256) “Hereupon the Tathagata opened the mouth of compassion and gave vent to the mercy of his heart”: In the bounds of your land “greed, slaughter, lust and lying have long prevailed. There is no respect for Buddha’s teaching, no striving towards good works” (page 283).

Facing the threat of a political and civic tsunami, we have the statement of the Friday Forum (Colombo Telegraph, 27 January 2016) and articles by concerned and caring citizens such as, among others, Sharmini Serasinghe. While I admire and applaud, I confess I also have some doubts. For a start (and as I have written elsewhere), rather than speak about the people or for the people, one must speak with the people. And to speak with the folk, one must speak not only in their language (in this case, Sinhala) but in terms understood by them; in their idiom.                                                   Read More