Sri Lanka: How To Prevent Instability

There are indications that there might be more attacks by IS in Sri Lanka

• 2019-05-06

by Col R Hariharan -2019-05-06

Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, the elusive chief of the Islamic State (IS) in a rare released after five years on April 28, has claimed that the IS was responsible for carrying out Easter Sunday serial suicide blasts in Sri Lanka that left253 people dead and over 500 injured. The video said that the attacks was in retaliation for the loss of Baguz, the IS’ last stronghold in Syria. It said it was a “small part of the response prepared by the Islamic State.”

 

Nine members of a small local radical Islamic outfit - National Towheed Jamaath (NTJ) led by Zahran Hashim - carried out the attacks targeted three churches and three luxury hotels frequented by foreign tourists. Later, the IS released a video of seven men including Hashim, thought to be the bombers, pledging allegiance to the IS. Only Hashim showed his face.

 

Sri Lanka government was in total disarray after the Deputy Inspector General(DIG) Priyalal Dassanayaka confirmed that he had sent a letter ten days ago (April 11) information of the NTJ’s planned attacks received from foreign intelligence agency to the Ministry of Defence and the police. The letter based upon information received from a foreign agency warned that Zahran Hashim and a few others were planning suicide attacks or knife attacks targeting churches and the Indian high commission.

 

President Maithripala Sirisena, who was on a private visit to Singapore when the blasts took place, returned on hearing the news. However, he denied knowledge of the intelligence reports. He accused the defence secretary Hemasiri Fernando and IGP Jayasundara of failing to brief him about the threat.

 

But President Sirisena’s credibility has come under a cloud on the issue. Colombo web Daily FT quoted “multiple sources with close knowledge of the inner workings” of the Defence establishment saying that the State Intelligence Service (SIS) Director Senior DIG of Police Nilantha Jayawardana had provided detailed reports on the planned attack to the President on at least three occasions, including one on April 11.

 

The Ministry of Defence had relayed the latest report from India on the evening of April 20 that the attack was imminent. When the last minute reports came the SIS had transmitted the warning to the IGP, who “failed to alert churches about the threats” according to the report.

 

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe tried to evade his responsibility by saying that he was unaware of the warnings as he was out of the loop. He told the BBC “if we had any inkling, and we had not taken action, I would have handed in my resignation.” However, he did not explain what effort he made when the President excluded him from attending the National Security Council (NSC) meetings held to discuss national security.

 

President Sirisena in a damage control mode sacked the defence secretary Fernando and appointed General SHS Kottegoda in his place. The President chaired a meeting of the NSC and declared a state of emergency after two days. The government banned the NTJ and Jamathe-i-Milathu Ibrahim Seilani (JMI) – a little known organization - under the emergency regulations. Many Muslim leaders have said they had earlier warned the government about the NTJ’s nefarious activities many times to the authorities including the police.

 

In the follow up operations security forces were able to round up over 150 suspected NTJ members and sympathisers. In Ampara district, NTJ leader Hashim’s two brothers and their 12 member family had moved in a village near Kalmunai in eastern province. Local Muslim villagers confronted them when they saw a weapon and one of the terrorists exploded a device killing all the family members, barring Hashim’s wife and daughter who were injured. Police have also recovered a cache of weapons and explosives.

 

For better coordination, army, navy, air force and police within the Western province and Puttalam district have been placed under command of the Overall Operational Command, Colombo, for operational purposes.

 

It is a tribute to Sri Lanka people that all religious leaders, particularly Cardinal Malcom Ranjith, have counseled peace and prevented a religious backlash after the attacks. The All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU), the apex religious body of Islamic theologians providing community leadership, has appealed to the members of the community to maintain peace and cooperate with security forces in their work. It also appealed to women members not to cover their face by wearing a niqab to facilitate easy identification. Officially face covering by women has been banned.

 

However, in the coming months former president Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother and presidential aspirant Gotabaya Rajapaksa are likely to take advantage of the serious security failure of President Sirisena and PM Wickremesinghe in handling the IS threat. With the presidential poll scheduled for the year end, political turbulence is likely to increase between the President and the PM.

 

There is a growing demand for taking action against Muslim politicians who had alleged connections with the NTJ. Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian MA Sumanthiran has demanded that Eastern Province Governor MLAM Hizbulla must be investigated for connections with NTJ. Similarly, SLFP General Secretary Dayasiri Jayasekara has alleged that Muslim Religious Affairs Minister M.H.A. Haleem had issued permits to set up 40 National Tawheed Jamaat (NTJ) dens in the Kandy District and 400 others countrywide since 2015. How the government proposes to handle the sensitive issue of minority Muslims in the coming months is the moot point.

 

There are indications that there might be more attacks by IS in Sri Lanka. The State Intelligence Service has received information on an attack targeting the Buddhist temples by the NTJ using female bombers. According to a Reuters report, the US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Alaina Teplitz said the US believed members of the militant group blamed for Easter Sunday attacks may be at large and planning more assaults. “We do believe that the terrorist threat is ongoing and there may be active plotters. Active members of the attack group that carried out the terror attacks on Easter Sunday may still be at large,” Ambassador Teplitz said.“We certainly have reason to believe that the active attack group has not been fully rendered inactive. We do believe that there is active planning underway,” she said.

 

Unless the government cleans up its security coordination preparedness fast, Sri Lanka can be plunged into a period of instability.

 

 

Col R Hariharan, a retired MI officer, served as the head of Intelligence of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka from 1987 to 90. He is associated with the Chennai Centre for China Studies, South Asia Analysis Group and the International Law and Strategic Analysis Institute, Chennai. E-mail: haridirect@gmail.com Blog: http://col.hariharan.info

Easter Sunday terror attacks state and community to blame

by Rajeewa Jayaweera-May 4, 2019, 6:28 pm 

The bombing spree on Easter Sunday consisted of eight explosions between 8.45 AM and 2.15 PM in three churches, three luxury hotels, a tourist inn, and housing complex. The death toll amounted 253 including 45 children and 44 foreigners. Over 500 were injured. Nine suicide bombers too perished. A further narration of the explosions itself is unnecessary as it has been adequately reported.

At the outset, let it be stated that the government failed in its duty. Ignoring the warning given by the Indians is but the tip of the iceberg. It is not known to what extent the various intelligence agencies of the country had previous knowledge of the terrorist group the carried out the suicide bombings. However, it certainly has much to do with these agencies being constrained by the present government from carrying out its designated functions. The Geneva Resolution and appeasement politics were crucial factors.

Besides the government, the local Muslim community too must carry its fair share of the blame.

The bombings have been attributed to the National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ), a local radical Islamist group. Mohamed Cassim Zahran, a Sri Lankan national of Islamic faith has been identified as its founder leader. He unusually perished in the blast at the Shangri La Hotel. The actual act of suicide bombing is usually reserved for cannon fodder rankers and not leaders of terror groups. Amaq News Agency claimed the attacks to be ISIS-inspired, a terror group calling for a global re-unification of Muslims.

Sri Lanka first became aware of radicalized Muslim youth when former Defense Secretary Karunasena Hettiarachchi warned in early 2016, 36 Muslim men had left the country to fight for ISIS.

Former Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, in November 2016 informed Parliament of 32 Sri Lankan Muslims joining ISIL in Syria. "All these (Muslims) are not from ordinary families. These people are from the families which are considered as well-educated and elite" he said, adding that the government was aware of some foreigners coming to Sri Lanka to spread what he called Islamic extremism.

Rajapakshe was condemned by representatives of the Muslim community who complained of racism and demanded evidence. The National Security Council and Cabinet spokesperson Minister Rajitha Senaratne refuted the former Justice Minister’s claim. So did NM Ameen, President of the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka (MCSL).

Naysayers received the evidence they wanted on Easter Sunday. Regrettably, it was not they who paid the price.

Once the atrocity was committed, the moderate Muslims were quick to claim, it was the work of a small group of radicalized misguided persons. Sheik MIM Rizwi Mufti, President of the All Ceylon Jammiyathul Ulama (ACJU), the apex body of Islamic scholars in Sri Lanka immediately claimed, he had provided Defense Secretary Hemasiri Fernando with all details of chief bomber Zahran and urged the latter to have the NTJ leader arrested.

He further claimed, "I am the first to reveal the presence of IS terrorists in Sri Lanka way back in 2014."

If that be the case, why did he not support Rajapakshe’s claim in 2016? Despite scanning the internet, this writer did not come across a single news item of Rizwi Mufti endorsing the former Minister’s assertion. Did Rizwi Mufti share his invaluable information with the community’s elected representatives? Why did Ministers Kabir Hashim, Rauf Hakeem, Rishad Bathiudeen, MHA Haleem, Faizer Mustapha, and AHM Fowzi not endorse and add legitimacy to Rajapakshe's warning?

Were these Ministers so out of touch with their own community? Or were they fearful of earning the community’s wrath?

Some of the startling revelations in recent news items are summarized below.

MRM Malik, Director of Muslim Religious and Cultural Affairs Department, disclosed there were more than 500 unregistered mosques in the country in addition to the nearly 2,400 registered mosques.

1. MHA Haleem, Muslim Religious Affairs Minister, refuted the allegation made by SLFP General Secretary Dayasiri Jayasekera that 440 permits had been issued to NTJ across the country. Would he tell the nation, what he did to prevent the illegal construction of 500 mosques?

2. According to Minister Patali Ranawaka, 800 foreign Islamic clerics in the country have entered the country on tourist visas. They are teaching in Madrasas

3. A leading local news channel recently aired a news item of an Egyptian cleric being detained and led away by Police. He had been in the country for four years but did not possess a passport.

4. 50 (fifty) Turkish Fethullahist Terror Organization (FETO) members were in Sri Lanka. The Turkish Embassy in Colombo had supposedly handed over a list of their names and passport numbers to the Defence Ministry.

Newspapers are full of reports on weapons, explosives, and detonators found by Police and armed forces raiding parties. The visual of 40 swords in their original packing, Kiris knives and several uniforms similar to those used by the Army found at a mosque at Palliyaweediya in Slave Island is a case in point. Yet Religious Affairs Minister Haleem would have us believe they may have been used to clear shrubs surrounding mosques.

It is an as bad a response as Hemasiri Fernando’s dimwitted statement to BBC.

There are many news items related to those close to senior Muslim politicians such as Rishad Bathiudeen, Azath Sally and MLAM Hizbullah having close links to NTJ. Some such persons have been arrested. A few have been released on bail.

Minister Rauf Hakeem, Faizer Mustapha MP and AHM Fowzi MP have been quiet. Mujibur Rahman MP after an initial outburst has gone silent.

They should all realize, those they employ as coordinating secretaries, secretaries, drivers, cooks or any other positions are invariably privy to a lot of sensitive information of much use to any terrorist movement.

It is no different to the privileged information the Primary Dealer son-in-law would have gathered by living together with his Central Bank Governor father-in-law.

As we now observe, most of the suicide bombers were from middle and upper-middle-class families.

Most local Muslims are moderate in their views. Nevertheless, they are a relatively closed community, and many will refrain from reporting details of extremists in their midst to the authorities for fear of being ostracized from the community.

The Imam of Kattankudi mosque has refused to bury the terrorist bodies in the mosque compound. Yet he and community elders remained silent while many moderates were chased away a few years ago by the likes of Zaharan. They also did nothing to prevent the town’s Arabization with date palm trees, road name boards in Arabic, a total ban on outlets selling alcohol and club, etc.

The bombings may have been planned and executed by a small group. However, by no stretch of the imagination can it be accepted, the appeasement rather than confrontation policy within the community at large worked directly or indirectly in favor of the planners and executors of the campaign.

About 500 illegal mosques could not have been constructed and hundreds of foreign Islamic clerics brought into the country without the knowledge of the community including moderates. Is it conceivable that mosques, illegal or otherwise can be constructed without contributions from the community (besides foreign funding)? Is it also conceivable that a devotee could visit a mosque every day for prayers, meet up with foreign clerics for extended periods without wondering how they had arrived and remained in the country indefinitely?

Neither the ACJU nor any other moderates’ organization is on record complaining to Hemasiri Fernando or any other of illegal mosques and foreign preachers.

Muslim politicians promise Muslim votes and obtain ministerial positions based on their need to look after the interests of their community. Such ministers should have raised the information related to ISIS fighters and NTJ in Parliament thus compelling a myopic and inept government into action. They must stop appeasing extremists by remaining silent.

Nevertheless, they would be the first to complain of racism in case of state intervention.

Only by joining the government and openly supporting its efforts in stamping out terrorism can they be of real service to both their country and community.

The Sri Lankan government for its part must at least now demonstrate its impartiality by concluding legal proceedings against the 2018 Teldeniya/Digana/Kandy rioters.

Refugee crisis in Sri Lanka after the Easter Sunday bombings

Photo courtesy Gemunu Amarasinghe/Associated Press via The Washington Post

RUKI FERNANDO- 05/04/2019

“Pakistanis a country where suicide bombings happen on a regular basis, mobs gather and kill minorities and people who think differently, houses and settlements are attacked, people are forced to leave their houses. I left my house once before in the state of fear that I could be killed or imprisoned because an allegation of blasphemy was brought against me. I was scared, sleepless, hungry and unable to go back to my home, all was lost in just matter of a few hours. In fear and extreme shock my wife and I left Pakistan, came to Sri Lanka. We left friends family and relatives, jobs and house behind. But now Sri Lanka has become the same, we have been forced out of the house that we lived in, today at noon a mob gathered outside our house and few people were violently kicking at the door. A person pushed me, slapped me and grabbed me by the collar.  There were two policemen behind him, they said ‘you have to go to the police station” Pakistani Refugee, standing outside the Negombo Police Station on 27 April 2019.

A Pakistani man who had been living in a rented house on Sea street in Negombo, told me how a mob had come to the house where he lived with his wife and 2 young children aged 4 and 2 and half years, kicked him and threatened to kill him, following which his house owner had forced him to leave with his family. A Pakistani woman narrated how a mob came to her house on Lewis Place in Negombo and threatened to attack her family unless they left the house immediately. Many left with only the clothes they were wearing, or with meager belongings, leaving behind vital document and basic essentials including clothes, medicine and children’s supplies.

Refugees to Sri Lanka become refugees within Sri Lanka

In the last two weeks, after the Easter Sunday bombings, I have heard many such stories from refugees around Negombo. House owners also told me mobs had threatened to destroy their houses if they hosted refugee families. This led to about 1200 refugees and asylum seekers (asylum seekers are those whose refugee applications are pending) being compelled to live in three make-shift refugee camps (two Ahmadi mosques and the Negombo Police station) in absolutely horrible conditions, with minimum toilet facilities and lack of water. Many are compelled to sleep in sitting positions due to lack of space.

The situation at the two mosques, both of which are not equipped to accommodate overnight stays, are terrible, with rain in the last few days making the situation worse. Both mosques are guarded by the police and army, with some locals, including Buddhist Monks, demanding them to be evicted from the largest refugee camp hosting about 700.

At the Negombo police station, about 175 including about 40 children live in a garage with no walls, on rough floor, sharing a couple of toilets that resident policemen had been using. The police had been helpful, kind and generous to share their meagre facilities, but the situation has become unbearable to the refugees and even the police.

Desperate appeals were made to organizations and churches to accommodate the refugees living at the Negombo police station in a more suitable place with better facilities. Many were scared to open their doors, but a few dared. However successive attempts to relocate them from the police station have failed due to mob violence and threats. When a group was taken to a church centre, local groups led by Buddhist Monks protested, police couldn’t assure security and they were brought back to the Negombo police. When a group of women and children were being taken to another institution, news was received of protests led by a local politician and the bus turned back, bringing them back to Negombo police. On two other occasions, they were loaded into buses to be taken to a pre-booked hostel in Colombo and a school in Negombo, but these two also failed due to lack of security assurances from police.

Re-displacement around Colombo

Negombo is not the only area refugees face hostilities and evictions since the Easter bombings. Four Afghan refugees living in a house near Kandy were evicted by the owner last week, after inquiries by a local gang followed by police raids, despite the raids not finding anything incriminating. Even the guest house they moved to is trying to evict them. An Afghan refugee was evicted from the house he was staying this week in Dehiwela. Another Afghan refugee living in Ratmalana, was called “enemy” by a neighbour, who had threatened to beat him. He and his family lives in fear, mostly holed up inside the house they rent. In Moratuwa, the house owner had asked an Afghan refugee family with children to leave after the police expressed doubts about their refugee documents.

Many guesthouse owners had refused to accept Afghan and Pakistani refugees, despite them having legal documents to reside in Sri Lanka. Muslim house owners are been particularly afraid, especially of inciting further hostilities from local people.

According to an Afghan refugee in Panadura, “previously people used to smile, now they view us with suspicion and hostility. This makes us fearful of travel. When I was looking to rent a room, the guest house owner shouted that ‘all Muslims are terrorists’. I tried to find other guest houses, but no one is willing to accommodate.’

Who are these refugees?

These refugees and asylum seekers have come to Sri Lanka seeking protection due to persecution they faced in their own countries. Some are Ahmadiya and Shia Muslims from the Hazara ethnic community, while others are Christians, all persecuted by Muslim groups. They belong to religious minorities who have suffered threats, attacks and killings by extremist groups, with little or no protection from the State against these attacks. Many refugees here are those persecuted under Pakistani law for blasphemy which is an offence punishable with death. A few persecuted human rights activists, journalists, bloggers, atheists and gay persons have also sought refuge in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention and there are no national procedures for the granting of refugee status. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), based on a 2005 agreement with the Government of Sri Lanka, registers asylum seekers and carries out refugee status determination. Successive Sri Lankan governments have welcomed them to stay in the country temporarily, till they find permanent resettlement in other countries. As of 31st March 2019, there were 851 persons who have been accepted as refugees awaiting resettlement in other countries and another 819 whose refugee applications are pending (asylum seekers)[1]. They come from about 15 countries, with majority of 1341 being are from Pakistan and 201 from Afghanistan[2]. There are also several whose applications for permanent resettlement in Canada is being processed. In the first three months of 2019, 20 refugees had departed for permanent resettlement[3]. The long application and review process, with several years intervening between application, interview and decision on refugee status being communicated, results in increasing uncertainty and fear for those seeking asylum. While the current crisis was unforeseen, systemic deficiencies have and continue to heighten vulnerabilities for refugees.

Refugee life in Sri Lanka before the Easter attacks

UNHCR provides those recognized as refugees with an allowance of about Rs. 10,000 per person or Rs. 22,000 for family with two or more children, which is not enough to cover even accommodation and food and live in dignity in Sri Lanka. Asylum seekers don’t get any allowance and are left to fend for themselves. Few Muslim and Church groups and NGOs have been supporting them with education, accommodation, food, healthcare etc. But these have been very minimal and only few have benefited.

The Sri Lankan government doesn’t ensure the right to housing, food, education, healthcare or legal employment for asylum seekers and refugees. No permanent or even transitional shelter is provided by the government. They are not included in government programs for food and nutrition security or social security programs such as Samurdhi, even though this could be done fairly easily and at little extra cost. The treatment and services available to asylum seekers and refugees at public hospitals and clinics is often lacking in terms of care and compassion. In some cases, the provision of treatment is at the discretion of authorities and asylum seekers and refugees who seek medical care are made to feel like they are seeking a privilege, rather than exercising a basic right. Despite being forced to flee having experienced and witnessing atrocities, violence and discrimination, anxieties about family and friends they left behind and finding themselves in an unfamiliar and unwelcoming environment, there is no psychiatric and psychosocial care made available to asylum seekers and refugees.

Although the Sri Lankan Constitution guarantees “assurance to all persons of the right to universal and equal access to education at all levels”, this is not extended to refugee and asylum children. The refugee children between 6 – 10 years have access to schooling through UNHCR’s support, but children of secondary school age, do not have any access to formal schooling. Asylum seekers and refugees are also not absorbed into the many government technical education and vocational training systems, which has the potential to help them to learn and develop vocational skills that they could utilize in seeking employment and living independently in Sri Lanka and their countries of permanent resettlement.

Why fear refugees?

Hopes of temporary respite for the crisis arose when the Governors of the Northern and Southern provinces came forward to host refugees. This has been communicated to the President, UN and other officials and many discussions have been held. But the around 1200 refugees still remain in the three camps, despite the worsening situation. A few Northern Tamil politicians are reported to have opposed hosting refugees in the North, but refreshingly, other Tamil politicians, civil society activists and clergy in North have welcomed refugees. It is now up to the central government to consider these generous offers and finalize interim arrangements to resolve this crisis, respecting rights and dignity, including freedom of movement. It is essential that UNHCR presence is strengthened and the UN takes a proactive role, with space for civil society and religious leaders. In view of new threats to refugees, foreign governments must also come forward to expedite offering permanent resettlement to those who have been granted refugee status by UNHCR.

As stated earlier, much of the fear and anger towards refugees stems from a lack of awareness and understanding. Like all Sri Lankans, tourists and other foreign nationals, refugees are bound by the laws of the land. I’ve heard of foreign tourists being arrested on suspicion of being involved in serious crimes such as drug peddling, but I have not heard such reports about refugees.

Few in Sri Lanka seem aware of religious or ethnic minorities living in countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan and the crimes committed against them, including by Muslims. This ignorance, coupled with hostility and suspicions towards Muslims following the Easter attacks has led to wave of reprisals against refugees in Sri Lanka.

Caring for people terrorized in their own countries fleeing to other countries is a global challenge. Hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankans have sought and received international protection and support in numerous countries. Compared to about 28.5 million refugees worldwide, out of which Pakistan is hosting about 1.4 million and Bangladesh is hosting about 900,000, we have very tiny refugee population of less than 1700 to care for.[4]

We as Sri Lankans should feel proud that refugees terrorized in their own countries, have trusted us and come to us, hoping that we would welcome them, care for them, support them and protect them, during a temporary stay of few years. We must not fail them, we must open our hearts and doors to them.

[1]UNHCR monthly update of 31stMarch 2019

[2]Ibid

[3]Ibid

[4]https://www.unhcr.org/en-lk/figures-at-a-glance.html,https://data2.unhcr.org/en/country/pakand http://reporting.unhcr.org/sites/default/files/UNHCR%20Bangladesh%20Operational%20Update%20-%20March%202019.pdf

SRI LANKA: THE CHALLENGE IS TO TURN NATIONAL MOURNING INTO A CALL FOR COEXISTENCE AND DEMOCRACY

Image Courtesy of Aithiya.lk.

Ahilan Kadirgamar.-05/05/2019

As reports about those behind the Easter Sunday attacks emerge, many questions remain about the motives of the extremists. The full picture of the formation of this extremist force and the objectives behind their heinous crimes may take time. However, they have succeeded in creating a spectacle of death, mayhem and fear.

I focus here on the historical backdrop and the broader consequences of these attacks. In the months ahead, the climate of fear will drastically shape the workings of the State, the political character of future regimes and relations between communities.

The political leadership in the country has descended into a blame game with this being an election year. The progressive forces committed to a plural and democratic society have a historical challenge before them, as Sri Lanka is on the verge of falling into the abyss of polarisation.

Historical turn

The Easter attacks have implanted horrendous images in the minds of Sri Lankans. The fallout can tear apart the body politic of Sri Lanka with political shifts similar to the US after September 11, 2001 and the July 1983 pogrom in Sri Lanka. The ‘war on terror’ in the US after 2001 led to the draconian USA Patriot Act, the detention and surveillance of Muslims and the institution of Homeland Security, undermining the democratic and liberal structures within the US. With many other countries sucked into the ‘war on terror’ coupled with the Bush regime’s military adventures in Afghanistan and Iraq, great social and political turmoil was created in West and South Asia, and fuelled extremist Islamist forces.

In Sri Lanka, the ‘war on terror’ manoeuvred an internationalised peace process between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), by pushing for a deal between a so-called ‘failed state’ and a ‘terrorist organisation’. Eventually, as the peace process failed with heightened international engagement, Sri Lanka’s version of a brutal ‘war on terror’ cataclysmically ended the civil war with tens of thousands of lives lost in May 2009.

On the other hand, the armed conflict itself escalated following the government-orchestrated July 1983 pogroms where over 2,000 Tamil civilians were massacred. That pogrom over-determined the political economy of the country with an ethnic conflict over the next two and a half decades. Indeed, the Easter massacre leading to hundreds of casualties is loaded with dangers of religious forces entering the mix of a country historically fraught with ethno-nationalist tensions and conflicts. Polarised politics

Some actors are drawing parallels between the perpetrators of the Easter attacks and the LTTE. However, the similarities are limited to the LTTE’s use of suicide bombings and targeting of civilians.

The LTTE had a clear agenda of creating a separate state and worked to build a base within the Tamil community through a combination of separatist nationalist mobilisations, totalitarian control and ruthless elimination of dissent. The extremist Muslim youth behind the Easter attacks are a fringe group and their nihilist politics without a social base is one of divisiveness and isolation.

They have drawn as much on globally circulating contemporary technologies of terror as on the alienation of Muslim youth with rising global Islamophobia, but their politics are eschewed by the Muslim communities in Sri Lanka.

In this context, even though the attacks were mainly against Christian churches, the fallout may take unpredictable forms. Thus far, the Christian communities’ response has been restrained. However, chauvinist Sinhala Buddhist forces see these attacks as targeting state sovereignty and feel vindicated in their distrust of Muslims.

Their anti-Muslim campaigns have greatly influenced the Sinhala population’s prejudices against Muslims over the last decade; the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime stoked anti-Muslim violence and the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government hardly addressed its continuation.

Even as reports of the perpetrators behind these harrowing attacks unfold, many international and national actors are projecting narratives to suit their geopolitical and power seeking agendas.
The number of international actors now providing assistance to confront ‘terrorism’ does not bode well given the disastrous history of internationalised engagement in Sri Lanka.

There are social and political dangers in projecting hasty solutions either removed from or with limited understanding of problems. While security in the aftermath of the attacks is a real concern, a solution solely focussed on militarised policing and surveillance is worrying.

For close to a decade, progressives have called for demilitarisation. However, the current state of Emergency with militarised check points and surveillance are further militarising the country.

In the weeks before the Easter attacks there was much discussion of repealing the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act enacted in 1979, which in no small measure was linked to torturing and alienating Tamil youth during the war and Sinhala youth during the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna insurrection. We are now looking into the black hole of a far severe legal and surveillance regime, with little discussion of its long-term impact on democratic freedoms.

Political ramifications

In the panic and clamour for a security response, the ideological, economic and political ramifications of the current crisis are missed. Drawing on Islamophobic discourse, Muslims characterised as the ‘other’ are called to explain and take responsibility for the Easter attacks. There are escalating demands to ban madrasas and Muslim women’s attire without extensively consulting the Muslim community. As with the previous riots that targeted Muslim businesses, scapegoating Muslims for future economic problems is a real fear.

The fragile national economy is bound to decline with a major hit on the significant tourist industry. The July 1983 pogrom and the armed conflict brought tremendous disorder and isolated Sri Lanka at a time when its peers such as Malaysia and Thailand gained economically from major foreign investments. In these times of protectionism, an economic shock affecting international investment, capital flows and trade with Sri Lanka can lead to a national economic crisis.

Even more dangerously, an authoritarian anti-terrorist leadership is now the knee jerk call for the upcoming presidential elections. Predictably, the Rajapaksa camp gaining ground over the past year capitalising on mounting economic problems, is seeking further political gain out of this disaster. They claim only a strongman leader can redeem the country. They are projecting their role in decimating the LTTE as the solution for the current crisis. However, the defeat of the LTTE was about taking on a totalitarian organisation with a pyramidal military structure, where the decapitation of the leadership led to its end.

The challenge now beyond the immediate security concerns is mainly of social and political proportions. The attacks by extremist Islamist forces on the Christian churches can shift into conflicts that involve chauvinist Buddhist and for that matter Hindu reactionary forces. Hindutva in India, Buddhist extremism in Myanmar and the circulation of their ideologies and practices are imminent dangers for an already fraught Sri Lankan polity.

The liberal and left forces in the country, and the Sinhala intelligentsia in particular, have to find the courage and discourse to take on the chauvinist anti-Muslim rhetorical barrage. A likely casualty of the Easter attacks is going to be the rights of Muslim youth and the broader freedoms of the citizenry. The challenge before the country is to turn national mourning and grief into a call for co-existence and democracy.

– Courtesy: The Hindu
The writer is a senior lecturer, University of Jaffna

Easter Sunday carnage The big picture of Intelligence failure and how to fix it Only the tip of the iceberg of a wider intelligence failure

Sri Lanka’s battle against Islamic extremism would involve two integral parts: (a) an intelligence driven kinetic approach to flush out, arrest or neutralize violent extremists; and (b) a State facilitated and community- led approach to combat non-violent extremism, reverse the spread of Wahhabism and Arabization of local Muslims and restore the primacy of moderate Sufi Islam among Sri Lankan Muslim community.

7 May 2019 

For each task at hand, the Government, security apparatus, community leaders and other stakeholders should understand and identify the gravity of the problem, before they proceed to address them. 

In this first article of a two part series, I analyze the overall intelligence failure that led to the disaster and core areas that need fixing in order to achieve a degree of coherence and certainty in intelligence operations against homegrown Islamic terrorism.

The bickering of the President and Prime Minister in Sri Lanka’s uneasy political cohabitation is blamed on for letting the Easter Sunday tragedy to happen. They, in turn, have claimed that they were not privy to crucial prior intelligence provided by a ‘friendly nation’ ( aka India), and blamed the higher- ups of the security and Police establishments for not passing information right up the chain of command and across the assorted security agencies and tri-forces. Defence Secretary and IGP have taken the flak, one resigned, the other was sent on compulsory leave.   

Repeated intelligence failure- from April 5th when the Indians first alerted their Sri Lankan counterparts, to the hours before the attack when the final alert was received- is a criminal negligence of unprecedented scale. With right security measures, the monstrosity on Easter Sunday could probably have averted.   

Security forces had not performed any better for the most part of the three-decade of war against the LTTE

However, this is only the tip of the iceberg of a wider intelligence failure, which kept the entire security establishment in dark over the scale, capability and intent of creeping violent Islamic extremism in the country. That this happened right under the nose of security apparatus that had a proven track record in counter terrorism is a further shock.   

On November 30, last year, two Policemen, PC Walpita Gamage Niroshan Indika Prasanna and PC Ganesh Dinesh, who were on duty at the Vavunathivu Police were hacked to death by unknown assailants, who got away with the service revolvers of their victims.   

The Police arrested an ex -LTTE cadre, who still languishes in remand custody, charged under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).   

However, military and Police raids after the Easter Sunday attack uncovered the disturbing details that the attack was a work of Islamic terrorists. The driver of terrorist ring leader Zahran Hashim, Mohommed Shareef Adam Lebbe (53) alias Ghaffor Mama revealed the group’s involvement and led the Police to a safe house, where one of the service revolvers was found along with a cache of other weapons.   The other was found buried in the terrorist hideout in Vanathavilluwa. Two suspects have since been arrested.   

Also in December, intelligence agencies failed to follow up with the disturbing evidence uncovered in the Vanathavilluwa hideout. Again, it was a politically sensational investigation into the vandalism of Buddha statues that led to the Vanathavilluwa site, and not some proactive intelligence operation.   

Now, there are scandalous details of a discovery of a sprawling terrorist training centre with a visible watch tower in the heart of Kattankudy, a crowded city of 60,000 people. 
There were also early warnings by local Muslims of Zahran’s preaching of hate. Protests were held in the town since 2014, and a final dozier on Zahran’s preaching was handed over to the Defence Secretary in January this year.   

The sectarian strife in the town culminated into a clash in March last year between the local Sufis and Zahran’s followers. Intelligence agencies did not follow up on any of those leads. 
One should ask how did that happen – and why did that happen?   

This brings us to a snippet of overall conditions of Sri Lankan politics, its institutions and its stakeholders.   

Pro-activeness is never a Sri Lankan trait. Our Public Service, the Ministries and Departments are an epitome of inefficiency and red tape. 

Meritocracy hardly counts in the election of political leaders, and when in power, their political calculations have overwhelmed the national interest.   

Security forces had not performed any better for the most part of the three-decade of war against the LTTE. One security top brass went to the Rupavahini to plead the case of his daughter’s Olympic participation, while the battered Army was making a hasty withdrawal from the Elephant Pass military garrison.   

Another former Commander of Army had the reputation of dancing only with underwear atop tables of Officers mess. APCs (Armored Personnel Carrier) brought for military operations in the Vanni stuck in the sand. Body armours malfunctioned. Missile frigates were bought at millions of dollars and then docked at the harbor for most part due to an engine failure. Some people became instant millionaires through shady procurement rackets.   

However, somewhere down the line things changed. The catalyst, to give the devil his due, is ex-president Mahinda Rajapaksa and the manifest conviction to finish the war for once and for all.   

The subsequent success was, as widely identified, down to the combination of three individuals, Mr Rajapaksa as the President and the Commander-in-Chief, the then Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Commander of Army Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka.   

Each of them faced tough challenges, which any faint hearted (Which the majority of Sri Lankan politicos and bureaucracy are) would have shied away.   

Their personal attributes, and a combined conviction (Rather than an institutional arrangement) was the primary driver of the military success. However, the same combination of personalities later saw the deterioration of the security apparatus and their politicization.   After Sarath Fonseka’s Presidential bid, Mr Rajapaksa’s unleashed full blown vengeance at former Army Chief and his perceived supporters, many including the current Army Commander, were sent on compulsory retirement.   

Field Marshal Fonseka was jailed. Military was politicized. Many top officers who were instrumental in winning the war then sang paeans, expecting promotions and diplomatic postings.   
This did not necessarily erode the intelligence operations. But, it politicized it. That was again due to personal calculations of Mr Rajapaksa, who saw a perceived security threat/international conspiracy as a driver for internal mobilization of masses to a personality cult.   

This phase ended with Mr Rajapaksa’s defeat at the Presidential Election on January 8, 2015.

However, new era of politically motivated indifference to national security began. Just like his predecessor sought to use a possibility of the revival of the LTTE and an international conspiracy as means of political legitimization, their successors used reconciliation and international endorsement for the same purpose.   

Their political considerations and scaled down threat perceptions resulted in the Government’s indifference towards national security.   

Though affected, security forces could still function organically for existing institutional structures, laws, regulations and budgetary allocations.   

However, intelligence agencies were the worst affected. The reason: There is no legal framework governing intelligence activities in Sri Lanka. 

During the war against the LTTE, intelligence agencies-defence intelligence agencies in particular- operated under the limited powers vested under the Emergency Regulations. 

In addition, there was understanding of an unofficial immunity and political cover for the intelligence activities undertaken in the interest of nation security.   

Defence Secretary and IGP have taken the flak, one resigned, the other was sent on compulsory leave

The State of Emergency lapsed on 30 August 2011, and since then the Rajapaksa regime relied on calling of the Armed Forces by the President in terms of Section 12 of the Public Security Ordinance (Chapter 40).   

In February 2015, after the election of President Maithripala Sirisena, calling of the security forces under the Public Security Ordinance (Chapter 40) was revoked. 
  This effectively reduced the space and mandate for the Defence Intelligence services to engage in effective intelligence operations.   

At present there are a number of intelligence agencies in Sri Lanka. They include Defence Intelligence Services such as Dte of MI, Directorate of Naval Intelligence (Dte of NI), Office of Air Intelligence (CIO) and State Intelligence Agencies; the SIS, Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Terrorist Investigation Division (TID), Police Special Branch (SB), and the Special Task Force (STF) Intelligence Branch. The operational capabilities of defence intelligence services were seriously constrained by this legal lacuna. 

It is politically convenient to blame the arrests and legal action taken against several military officials for crippling the intelligence service. That is far from the truth, though the absence of legal guarantees of immunity for intelligence work definitely demoralized intelligence officials. However, the lack of operational mandate due to the absence of a legal framework had a far more destructive blow on effective intelligence work.   

Sri Lanka needs an Intelligence Service Act.   

In order to effectively deploy its multiple intelligence agencies, Sri Lanka needs to provide a unified legal framework through a Parliamentary Act. And Sri Lanka does not need to reinvent the wheel. Many countries that encountered the same problem have adopted their own legal provisions. USA Patriot ACT of 2001, Intelligence Services Act of 1994 of the United Kingdom and the Intelligence Services (Powers and Regulations) Act of 2011 of India are some examples.   

A Sri Lankan Intelligence Services Act should review the current security situation, conceptualize an institutional structure that brings together multiple intelligence services to an unified umbrella, clarify the mandate of each of these agencies to engage particular domestic and international arenas and provide a legal framework for organization and coordination for intelligence activities and immunity from persecution for intelligence operatives for undertaking mandated intelligence work.   

Also important in the Sri Lankan context is such a legal framework would serve as a bulwark against the politicization of intelligence services as has been the case in the past.   
An earlier proposal for an Intelligence Service Act was presented to the Cabinet, but did not proceed further.   

The government now confronted with a monstrous internal security threat would suddenly find that effective intelligence services are sine qua non for national survival. However, in the absence of a unified institutional framework, ad-hoc agencies investigating overlapping tasks and then not sharing information would continue. Also, irrespective of the immediate sense of urgency, certainty and long term operational mandate of intelligence agencies are still subject to political whims. When the threat level recedes with the arrests of core members of Islamic terrorist, some fool would suggest the return to the old sense of complacency. Then the next bomb will go off. An Intelligence Service Act would also be a deterrent against such petty-minded political opportunism.

Follow @Rangajayasuriya on Twitter   

Deciphering a carnage and a crisis

Tuesday, 7 May 2019

A comparatively small, disproportionately dynamic, unbelievably influential group calling itself ISIS is seeking to impose a totalitarian version of Islam on the world.

To fight an idea, we must understand the idea. The common-sense approach demands that we define who we are and accurately ascertain who they are.

Terror takes tolerance hostage. We define ourselves by not abandoning tolerance.

First things first. Fighting ‘Velupillai Prabhakaran’ and fighting ‘Abubaker al Baghdadi’ are two different ballgames.

It suits the political purpose of those who claim a proprietary patent on the military defeat of the LTTE that the ‘Tigers’ were the most vicious, savage and atrocious known to the world. Call him what you may, Prabhakaran subscribed to the notion of the ‘modern nation state’. He wanted and fought for a piece of the post-colonial nation state.

This new guy Abubakar al Baghdadi and his kind are different and drastically so. They reject the notion of the modern state, the role of citizen in the polity and individual human rights. ISIS or whatever they call themselves have found fertile soil to sow the seeds of mindless butchery in the Arabised towns and villages of our Eastern province. How did that happen?

The well-known history scholar of Sri Lanka, Lona Dewaraja in her 1994 book ‘The Muslims of Sri Lanka – One Thousand Years of Ethnic Harmony,’ narrates the trajectory of the relationship between the Sinhalese-majority community and the Muslim minority over a period of thousand years. That is, from the time of Sri Lanka’s first known contacts with Islamic world in the eighth and ninth centuries till the beginnings of the British rule.

She examines the relationship between the migrant Muslim traders and the agricultural Sinhalese culminating in the structural assimilation of Muslims into the Kandyan body politic.

The Muslim community of Sri Lanka integrated while avoiding the natural process of cultural assimilation where the migrant culture is totally submerged in the host culture.

The Muslims were loyal subjects of Sinhala kings. They remained a distinct and cohesive group in the Kandyan Kingdom. They devoutly adhered to Islam and preserved their cultural attributes.

The Eastern Province was an intrinsic part of the Kandyan kingdom. The Eastern Province had the largest concentration of Muslims in the country. The community was frozen in time and happily comfortable in antiquity until M.H.M. Ashraff discovered the value and the promise of the ethno-religious identity of Eastern Province Muslims under proportional representation and in the context of the 13th Amendment. How it happened and how it evolved is another story for another day.

But we must unravel the mystery of how the Eastern Province became an assembly line production plant of Salafist Jihadists.

In his ‘History of Sri Lanka’ (1981), Professor K.M. De Silva narrates how the Muslims of Sri Lanka were insulated from Western colonial cultural influence.

“The Muslims of Sri Lanka had been notable for their refusal to succumb to the blandishments of Christianity. The resistance to conversion had persisted throughout the nineteenth century, but the survival of Islam in Sri Lanka had, in a sense, been secured at the expense of the social and economic advancement of the Muslims. Since the education provided in the schools was primarily English, there was among Muslims, an attitude (natural to a conservative and cohesive community) tending to reject it because of the impact on Islam of a foreign culture… This manifestation of zeal for their ancestral faith had some regrettable consequences and by the third quarter of the 19th century, the more enlightened Muslim leaders were profoundly disturbed to find their community sunk in ignorance and apathy, parochial in outlook and grossly materialistic.”

This isolation was harshly so in the case of the Eastern Province Muslim community. Eastern Province Muslims were primitively pastoral and were trapped in oppressively feudal hegemony of the west coast Muslim elite whose entrepreneurial talents were appreciated first by the British raj and later more avidly by their successors – the native comprador class.

The Eastern Province Muslims were our equivalent of the Russian peasantry who did not know of an electric bulb before the revolution. The 19th Century and the first two decades of the 20th Century skipped past them. They represented the classic post-colonial marginalised under the hegemony of an elite leadership based in Colombo negotiating first with the colonial rule and later their native successors.

The Muslims of the Eastern Province were literally dumb. For centuries they had no voice. They were so dumb, that they rejected Badi ud din Mahmud, one of the pioneering Muslim educationist and socialist politicians who as Minister of Education made trained teachers out of Muslim girls who had hardly reached the eighth grade in secondary school.

The 13th Amendment and the idea of an Eastern Provincial Council made the hitherto forgotten Eastern Province Muslims a pivotal factor in the politics of the centre where competitive politics became something of a game of Russian roulette under proportional representation.

M.H.M. Ashraff and the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress made their Eastern Province bailiwick in to a springboard to reach the portals of power at the centre. The centre of gravity of Muslim politics moved from the plush salons of Colombo, Beruwala and Galle to Kattankudy, Nintavur and Eravur.

In the 10th Parliament, the Leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress got up to congratulate the Speaker on his election. The Deputy Speaker Anil Moonasinghe, Trotskyite, grandnephew of Anagarika Dharmapala, was presiding. The man who gave voice to the voiceless Muslims of the Eastern Province commenced his peroration recorded in the Hansard.

“Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, La-ilaha Illallahu Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar Walillahil Hamdu... Hon. Speaker, I have great pleasure in conveying our congratulations and felicitations on behalf of the Sri Lankan Muslim Congress.”

Some members interrupted. The Deputy Speaker called for order and let the SLMC Leader proceed with his speech.

“Sir, this is the first time in the history of Parliament that a Muslim member in his capacity as leader of the political party has been given the opportunity of felicitating the Speaker. I am proud and thankful to Allahu Th’ala’ that I have been given this opportunity.”

With Buddhism accorded the foremost place, ours is a quasi-theocratic ethnocracy. Had our Constitution been a strictly secular constitution, the SLMC’s Founder Leader would not have been permitted to turn his perch in Parliament into a pulpit. What goes around comes around.

The identity politics of the SLMC served the narrow purpose of serving the short-term objectives of competitive electoral politics. I am not suggesting that the SLMC knowingly encouraged extremist jihadists.

M.H.M. Ashraf and the SLMC opened Pandora’s Box. The Jihadists found its contents wrapped in smartphone modernity, but in essence encased in medieval antiquity. How convenient?