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Potential case for global intervention in Sri Lanka: ICG chief

COLOMBO: The prospect of a bloody war in Sri Lanka’s north with devastating consequences for the civilians makes the country a potential case for “right to protection” or right to intervention by the international community, Gareth Evans, President of International Crisis Group (ICG) warned here on Sunday evening.

Delivering the Neelan Tiruchelvam eighth memorial lecture organised by the International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES), Mr. Evans said the situation demanded “preventive action” by the Sri Lanka Government with the help and support of the international community to ensure that further deterioration does not occur.

Making a strong case for protection of the rights of all citizens by the Government, Mr. Evans said that various foreign states bear some of the responsibility for allowing the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to build up their power over the years, in part on the misguided belief that they were a legitimate national liberation movement.

He said since the resumption of hostilities between Government forces and the LTTE a year ago, both sides have been careful to keep their operations within certain limits. However, there are plenty of reasons to fear that things could get worse, especially if the war moves from the east to the north as it appears to be happening.

“Should the war move into the LTTE-controlled areas in the north, it is likely to be much more fierce than the recent fighting in the east, and the impact on civilians is almost certain to be devastating. As the war grows vicious, it could well spill over into areas outside the north — perhaps through deliberate attacks on civilians designed to provoke excessive and politically damaging replies from the other side”, he said.

Mr. Evans lamented that despite documented cases of abductions, disappearances and killings, there has been only a single indictment announced for an identifiable human rights violation committed by Government personnel. He said the need of the hour is effective prosecutions.

He argued that the Government’s sovereign responsibility is not to put its citizens to undue risk and for this reason, it should resist the temptation to take its military campaign to the north. He said the international friends of Sri Lanka have a role to play in achieving this goal. Mr. Evans said it is the Government’s responsibility to seriously seek a political solution. He maintained the strategy of “fight now to negotiate later” would work only if the Government is ready with a package of political and constitutional reforms that appeal to non-separatist Tamils and non-Tamil parties.

Separately, Sri Lanka Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama asked the International Crisis Group which works to prevent conflicts worldwide, to undertake an in-depth study on the reason for the breakdown of a number of previous rounds of peace talks between the Government and the LTTE since 1985.

He said such a study will show that it was not a lack of commitment of successive Sri Lankan Governments, but the lack of interest and incapacity on the part of the LTTE to engage in a political dialogue with sincerity that resulted in the prolongation of the conflict. The Minister made this observation when Mr. Evans called on him Sunday morning,

The Minister, commenting on the contribution made by Tiruchelvam, said the Tamil scholar-parliamentarian was one of those who had worked tirelessly to evolve a negotiated political settlement. His becoming a victim of LTTE terror, belied the LTTE’s peace pretensions.

Discussing the Government’s current thinking in the aftermath of the clearing of the Eastern Province of LTTE presence, the Minister said the successful operation was a result of action taken by the security forces over the past year since the LTTE decided to cause disruption in the Eastern Province with the cutting off of water supply at Mavil Aru and also attacks on the Trincomalee port.

Mr Bogollagama reiterated that the Government was committed to a negotiated political settlement and was working towards it through the All-Party Representatives Committee (APRC) which is expected to announce its conclusions shortly.

He said the Government would rather see the LTTE also become stake holders in this search for peace. However, he noted that so long as the LTTE continued to threaten civil life and attack strategic and economic targets in the South, the Government will not hesitate to seek to destroy its capacity to do so.

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