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Sri Lankan government needs British cover to continue its brutal rule

Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama sent to London

Open Letter to Margaret Becket & Hilary Benn

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The human cost of the war prosecuted by the Sri Lankan government to ‘militarily destroy the Tamil Tigers’ is not only increasing in the Tamil majority north-east but it is also spreading rapidly to the south of the island.

Such is the intensity of the attacks on the population, 2,000 aid workers have fled the area, describing the ground situation as ‘an evolving nightmare’. According the UN, 4,000 people (mainly Tamil) have been killed during the last 14 months with 670 civilians killed between December and February. With even the aid workers fleeing the area, the hundreds of thousand of internally displaced refugees face unbearable conditions – fleeing from one place to another in a desperate bid to survive.

To keep hold of power and maintain and intensify the military offensive, President Rajapakse is concentrating power on a handful of people – mainly his brothers and the openly Sinhala supremacist JHU (‘National Heritage’ - formerly ‘Sinhala Heritage’). The President and his allies rejects any of the notions that were discussed during the Norwegian facilitated peace process like devolution of power to the Tamils or federalism and instead insists on a ‘unitary state’ solution.

The idea that peace can be arrived through political discourse and the argument that the deep-seated conflict in the island cannot be solved through the military attacks on the Tamils gained some resonance within the majority Sinhala community during the several years of the peace process. But, during the past few months, Mahinda Rajapakse’s coterie is on its way to completely remove these ideas from the view of the population with unprecedented attacks on the media and oppositional politicians. A clear example of this is the attack on the ‘Mawbima’ newspaper.

The escalating attack on the Sinhala newspaper ‘Mawbima’

On the 26th February, at 10pm Sri Lankan time, officers from the ‘Terrorist Investigation Division’ (TID) arrested Dushantha Basnayake a director of ‘Standard Newspapers Private Limited’ (SNPL) in Colombo. Standard Newspapers’ print the popular Sinhala weekly ‘Mawbima’(motherland), a newspaper that has been under severe attack from the President Mahinda Rajapakse.

The TID officers arrived at around 6pm (Sri Lanka time) at the office of Mr. Dushantha Basnayake. After nearly four hours with Mr. Basnayake the TID seemed to have completed their questioning when a phone call from a top Defence Ministry official precipitated his arrest. Mr. Basnayake, (40) a Sinhalese family man with two children, is well known within the business circles in Sri Lanka. On the 24th Feb. President Rajapakse and his brother Gotabaya Rajapakse (Defence Secretary) along with other government politicians in a live TV broadcast made an attack of unprecedented intensity on the Mawbima Newspaper and its owner Tiran Alles for criticising the government policies. Under government instructions all state and private TV channels were compelled to broadcast this attack on the ‘Mawbima’. This is the second time that this newspaper had been publicly attacked by the president.

The mass circulation Sinhala language Mawbima newspaper had from its inception included critical material - which questioned the government policy with regard to human rights, corruption and the consequences arising from the government’s prosecution of the war in the north and east. The first action against the Mawbima was the arrest of a female Tamil journalist Paremeswari Munusamy, who worked as a translator for the newspaper. The same TID is holding Paremeswari Munusamy in detention for the last three months despite the fact that there have been no charges brought against her. This and further actions, like spurious raids by tax inspectors on the paper did not change its open editorial policy - which provided a wide range of political opinions ranging from hard line pro-government articles from the JHU, through articles by supporters of the JVP to ones that opposed the governments policy in a fundamental way.

On 2nd March, the Government’s own ‘National Human Rights Commission’ was obliged to respond positively to a petition on behalf of Tamil journalist Paremeswari Munusamy - that was held without any justification. It ruled that evidence should be produced before the 20th March.

The government tried to portray the Mawbima newspaper as ‘pro-Tamil Tiger’ – an accusation that is used by President Rajapakse against all of his political opponents – including his own Foreign Minister for daring to speaking out against human rights violations and the suppression of media.

For example, a Trade Union calling for strike action by the workers about wages will immediately portrayed as effective support for the Tamil Tigers. With a leading JHU member Champika Ranawaka appointed to the cabinet by the president, the JHU led NMAT (National Movement Against Terrorism) has become far more legitimised and therefore far more powerful. Its recent propaganda posters state ‘Peace Tigers’, Media Tigers, Left Tigers, recognise them, Destroy them, Save our motherland!

International influence

Like the trip to Germany at the beginning of February this year the Foreign Minister Bogollagama’s visit to Britain is designed mostly to demonstrate to the people of Sri Lanka that it has big power support for its policies. Regarding the German visit, Sri Lankan government’s newspaper ‘Daily News’ of Feb 6th stated that Germany will firmly support Sri Lankan policy and quotes Minister Bogollagama saying that ‘his German counterpart assured that there won’t be any breakdown in bilateral relations or development aid to Sri Lanka’ and goes on to say that he was able ‘to convey a clear picture as to what was going on in the peace front without leaving room for distortion of facts by interested parties.’ This apparent legitimisation given by the Germany – the current holder of the EU presidency – was seen as providing confidence for the Sri Lankan government to move ahead its repression of voices of dissent also in the Sinhala media field - eliminating the space ‘for distortion of facts by interested parties’. The German foreign minister, Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier was portrayed in Sri Lanka as a hard line politician willing to stand firmly with the Sri Lankan government’s policy in conducting the war, putting aside concerns of human rights and democratic freedoms - which had been raised earlier by Germany’s Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul in relation to the Sri Lankan government.

Now, a month after the German visit, the situation has greatly degenerated. Just yesterday (3rd March) two more blindfolded bodies were found in Marshy land in Kandana near to Colombo – bringing to five to total number. As a response to severe criticism in Sri Lanka that the PTA is used to repress political dissent, the Sri Lankan government’s ‘Media Centre for National Security’ on the 1st March, made a statement that the security forces ‘will continue to take into custody anyone, without regard to their profession or status and without regard to whether they are Sinhala, Tamil or Moslem, if it is deemed that they are a threat to the state. It added that those who protest against these arrests would be seen as obstacle to maintenance of security! It is like saying if you call me a killer I will shoot you dead!

But, as the democratic space for opposition to the government in Sri Lanka is squeezed through the terror propagated by the government there has been growing voices internationally speaking out against it. ‘Amnesty International’, ‘International Commission of Jurists’ and many other organisations have, for example, raised the attacks on the ‘Mawbima’ newspaper giving hope to the democratic voices in Sri Lanka. But, with the visit to Britain tomorrow, the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister will be able to turn the tide and proclaim in the Sri Lankan press, just as he did after the German trip, that the British government will firmly support the Sri Lanka state in its ‘war against terrorism’ and that the power of the British state is on its side.

It is because of this we urge you all to immediately fax the British Foreign Minister Margaret Becket, and development Minister Hilary Benn and demand that when they meet the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister they get a commitment from him to immediately release Mr. Dushantha Basnayake and Ms. Paremeswari Munusamy of the Mawbima newspaper as a concrete step towards stopping all human rights violations against Sinhala and Tamil people.

Please write immediately to: (better to fax)

Rt Hon Margaret Becket: Fax: 0044 20 7008 2144 or inside Britain 020 7008 2144
email: private.office@fco.gov.uk

Rt Hon Hilary Benn: Fax: 0044 20 7023 0634 or inside Britain 020 7023 0634
email : privatesecretary@dfid.gov.uk

Please email a copy of your letter to imrv@humanrights.de

4th March 2007
International Human Rights Association - Bremen

Internationaler Menschenrechtsverein Bremen e.V.
Bürgermeister-Deichmann-Str. 26
28217 Bremen, Germany
imrv@humanrights.de
www.humanrights.de