Mario Gomez reflects on the work of Sri Lankan human rights activist Sunila Abeysekera. Ms Abeysekera was recently honoured by Human Rights Watch with the Human Rights Defender Award for 2007. He was speaking at a ‘Celebration off Human Rights Defenders’ to honour both Ms Abeysekera and Rajan Hoole and Kopalasingham Sritharan of the University Teachers for Human Rights (UTHR) who were recently awarded the Martin Ennals 2007 Award for Human Rights Defenders. The celebration was organised by Inform, the Law & Society Trust and the Rights Now Collective for Democracy on 6th December 2007.

Photo credit: Tim Hetherington, 2007 from HRW website

This afternoon we are gathered to celebrate and pay tribute to two Sri Lankan human rights defenders: one a fearless group that has exposed human rights violations mainly in relation to the conflict, and secondly, to an equally fearless woman who has played many roles in her campaign of human rights for all.

We are also gathered here at a moment of severe human rights crisis and their struggles reflect the many micro struggles that others undergoing in different parts of the country.

I have been asked to speak a few words on Sunila and have been deeply touched by this request.

Sunila entered my life and I entered hers sometime in the 1990s, I am not so sure exactly when. Since then I have been inspired by her work and the reason, the activism and the maturity she has brought to human rights work. In between then and now we have taught human rights activists in Bangkok, collaborated on IDP projects, been part of team that produced a book on ESC rights and demonstrated at Lipton’s Circus on Wednesday afternoons, among other things.

I thought I would share with you this afternoon, three facets of Sunila’s work, which to me have been the most striking.

Working for Women and Being Woman
The first facet of Sunila’s work relates to her activism and thinking around women and gender. I think the first thing that strikes you when you when you work with Sunila is that she is a woman. I refer here not just to the biological fact but to the power, the frankness, the passion and the astuteness of many women that an encounter with Sunila brings.

I think the fact that Sunila is not just a human rights activist, but a ‘woman’ human rights activist is a dimension of her work that you cannot ignore.

Related to this is her work around gender equality. Her Master’s thesis at the Institute of Social Studies in the Hague on ‘Equality and Difference’ was a pioneering piece of work and was written at a time when many feminists were interrogating the concepts of equality that predominated in some of the early feminist struggles.

However, what I found most striking about Sunila’s work in this area was her ability to translate the everyday struggles of a battered woman, an IDP woman, or a mother of a disappeared, into the language of rights and into a language that was understandable to many. She has the capacity to de-mystify the concepts of feminism, equality and difference, relate these concepts to the day to day struggles, and reach out to students and other people in way that many others could not.

All Rights
The second important facet of her work relates to her struggles around a variety of human rights issues. So while women’s rights and gender equality has been an important part of her work she has also contributed in important ways to the protection and promotion of other human rights.

She has been a tireless advocate against torture, a strong critic of disappearances and abductions, and an ardent campaigner on the right to free expression.

Unlike many other activists she has also been a fighter for economic and social rights. One of the initiatives that Sunila and I worked on was the activists’ manual ‘A Circle of Rights’. The book was designed for activists in the field and for those training in the area of economic and social rights. I was fortunate to be a part of this global team, together with Sunila and we worked on the manual, on a pilot programme to test the manual and then on the video that accompanied the manual.

She has also worked on those rights that have been marginalized within the human rights movement, for example the rights of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender (LGBT rights). Her work in this area has been of a pioneering kind and has contributed to lifting the veil, even if only marginally, for those with a variety of sexual orientations.

Her work illustrates the idea that human rights are interrelated and indivisible. It shows us that any attempt to protect and promote only some rights will be an incomplete endeavour that does not capture the complexity of the lives and the struggles of many people around the world.

Balancing Intellectualism with Activism
The third part of her work relates to the balance she has struck between the theoretical aspects of human rights and the activism of human rights. Few people I have known have been able to reflect and theorize on human rights and combine this with robust and relevant activism with equal aplomb. Sunila has been one of the few people with this capacity, Neelan Tiruchelvam and Richard de Zoysa are two other names that spring to mind, albeit Richard for much shorter period.

Regional and Global work
A fourth facet of her work is her global human rights work. There are two aspects of this part of her work. First is her strategic use of international procedures and forums to support domestic human rights struggles. And second is her work as a global human rights activist working on many issues of concern to the global North and global South. However, this part of her work I think this has been acknowledged elsewhere and also in the film that was screened earlier and so I will not dwell on this aspect.

Persisting and Being Smart
I would like to note two other qualities of Sunila’s work that I think are of immediate relevance to our work in Sri Lanka today.

One of the challenges of human rights work is to persist. To persist, even if you feel your work is not making a difference, to persist in times of adversity, and to persist when personal security is at stake. Sunila’’s work is an example of persistence and continuing to struggle in good times and bad.

But I think human rights work also needs to be smart and unashamed to make tactical withdrawals when such a withdrawal is called for, without sacrificing any of the principles we all believe in. Human rights work does not mean a blind assertion of rights, but rather a smart reading of political and social context and a nuanced understanding of the moment.

While the rights language may be appropriate at some moments they may not work at other moments and it is important to be able to recognize this. One of the critiques of rights based work is that human rights defenders are too preoccupied with the rights discourse to the exclusion of other discourses and other strategies of change.

Here too I think Sunila has shown remarkable insight and has been able to read situations and contexts with maturity and astuteness. She has shown remarkable political sense to read contexts intelligently looking for the points of greatest vulnerability and the windows of greatest opportunity.

We are gathered here this afternoon at a moment of grave human rights crisis. It is surely the ‘worst of times’. Sometime in the mid 1990s we thought this country had turned a crucial corner and had been able to put behind, the horrendous violations of the past. I think we rested too lightly in thinking that the ‘age of never again’ was already here.

The events of the past two years have shown us that the capacity for oppression and brutality both within the state structures and among non-state actors has not withered. In fact it seems to have ripened with age and acquired a chilling blazé.

The two qualities that Sunila has shown: the capacity to persist and a political sense to read situations smartly are of great relevance today. I think we need to draw inspiration from the many other struggles around rights whether it be in Argentina, in South Africa or in Timor Leste, where people fought for many years in the name of what they believed to be right.

Many of us in the human rights struggle are in it because we believe that it is the right thing to do even if at times like this we often feel powerless.

At dark hours like this the capacity to pick up and go on is an important quality. But equally important is the capacity to be politically smart especially when one is up against actors who manipulate the rights discourse for their own ends.

In the work of Sunila we find these qualities that I think the human rights struggle of Sri Lanka desperately needs at the current moment: the capacity to persist and the ability to be politically smart.

Conclusion
I hope Sunila would pardon me, if I say that over the years she has had a romance with rights that many of us would die for to have with our partners. It has been a relationship of love, a relationship of the mind, a journey of unbelievable ecstasy, a journey of incredible loneliness, and a struggle of unwavering commitment.

Today we applaud an exceptional person. A woman with all the qualities of a real woman; a human rights activist who has balanced mature intellectual work with robust activism; and a human being with some of humankind’s best qualities.

May the fire never die…

Editors note: For an interview with Sunila filmed on this day in Sinhala, where she speaks about the award and the human rights situation in Sri Lanka, please visit the Vikalpa YouTube Channel.

The following article, which is a commentary on HLD Mahindapala’s speech given recently at the BMICH, arrived in my inbox earlier today.

It was sent to be by someone who had received it from someone else. Googling the title suggests the commentary was originally produced by a Janaka Perera  and published at the Lanka Herald.

I normally wouldn’t cut and paste such a text - but I feel the commentary below raises some interesting issues, some of which we may be familiar with, but worth revisiting and reconsidering again.

Western baloney on ‘human rights’
Written by Janaka Perera
Saturday, 01 December 2007

In a scathing attack on Western double standards on human rights, veteran Journalist and Editorial Adviser Asian Tribune, H.L.D. Mahindapala last week accused Western Powers of pulling the wool over the eyes of the world on human rights. He charged them with jettisoning their HR proclamations as an when the necessity arose for them to defend their nations, their interests and their way of life.

” Their double standards not only give human rights a bad name but also placed the future of human rights in jeopardy.  Their arrogant actions, riding rough shod over the human rights of others whom they seek to subdue from time to time, give credence to the claim that the place for human rights in contemporary human affairs has been exaggerated and the abuses of institutions set up to safeguard human rights – including the UN – have devalued the promise held out to guide and serve the larger interests of humanity”

Mahindapala was delivering the D.A. Rajapaksa Commemorative Oration titled, ‘Man does not live by rights alone’ at the BMICH, Colombo on November 29.

He further said, “”The sophisticated theories they tout to push their agendas have come under fire from countries selectively targeted by their think tanks, academia, NGOs and above all, Western media who have a tendency to demonize nations ear-marked for condemnation by the foreign offices in Western capitals,”

Mahindapala attributed the crisis facing human rights to Western leaders debasing the credibility and the viability of human rights by using these selectively to serve their interest.

“Whatever their high-sounding theories and principles may be, in practice, the universality and indivisibility of human rights tend to disappear when the Big Brothers use it as a stick to bring the little ones to heel.”

He noted that the United States with its commitment to “life, liberty and happiness” had not hesitated to destroy the life, liberty and happiness of selected segments of American society (Afro-Americans and Native Americans) as well as other nations when it suited their interests.   He recalled the murder of Salvador Allende -the first democratically elected socialist leader of Chile (1970-73) and the destruction of Chilean democracy - did not confirm to any known principles of “life, liberty and happiness” let alone basic human rights.   The U.S. while creating an image of itself as the most powerful and voice defender of human rights, argued vehemently to exclude its citizens from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.   Washington had feared that it generals and its commander-in-chief, the President, could be tried like Slobodan Milosevic for violations of human rights.

Referring to the deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children as a result of a Western naval cordon around Iraq with United Nations approval, Mahindapala said:

“What the 500,000 Iraqi children would never know is that the very institution set up to protect their rights turned against them, under cover of multilateral consensus, and starved them to death. Mercifully, they would never know that the rich and the mighty used the citadel of human rights to violate their right to live. If the UN lends its seal of approval to kill children in their cots why should Kofi Annan, Bush, Blair and their allies be left off the hook of committing this crime against the innocent children of Iraq?   When you consider the scale of crime committed in Iraq under UN approval, Idi Amin looks more respectable than Kofi Annan.”

Asked Mahindapala “who is there to take these culprits to the International Criminal Court or cut off aid? Certainly, not the Office of the Human Rights Commissioner, which is exceedingly busy looking for small fry!”

He recalled that the overall trend points to the dismal fact that the dispossessed and the powerless have not been the primary beneficiaries of any set of rights throughout history. Whatever the benefits they had received came to them like the crumbs that fell off the tables of those who had the power to draft, interpret and dictate either the extent or the limits of rights.

Mahindapala observed: “The history of Western ideologies is studded with the artificial glitter of manufactured theories – from Nazism, Communism, and Apartheid to exploitative liberalism – to justify and/or to cover-up the crimes committed against humanity. Mankind has paid dearly not only to give birth and sustain these theories but also to bring down the institutions built on those theories each time they fail to live up to their promises.”

Recalling the past roles of today’s human rights champions in the West he said that during World War II when British and American interest were threatened Britain had fire-bombed Dresden to rubble and the U.S. reduced Hiroshima and Nagasaki to cinders. In Hiroshima , 140,000 died instantly and 80,000 died later. The worst of was it was that the perpetrators of these horrendous crimes knew that these were no military targets and the people were non-combatant civilians.

And these were the very people, he said derisively, who had the gall to condemn the Sri Lankan state for the violent deaths of some 60,000 persons in an internal conflict that has continued for the past 25 years.

“The West seems to claim and act as if they are the sole guardians of human rights. This also implies that they own the monopoly to interpret and dictate terms to the rest primarily with the aim of pushing their political and economic agendas. Of course, they have the resources and the power to dominate and dictate which country should have their blessings to get away with violations of human rights and which should be pressured to obey their diktats.   They even hire a global army of NGO policemen to monitor the conduct of others who do not confirm to the political standards stipulated by them. Some of the reports are cooked up to suit the agendas of the funding masters abroad as seen in the case of Iraq.”

He charged professional rights activists in NGOs with pocketing heaps of money by living off the plight of the poor, women, and even victims of war.

“Theirs is a money-making business. Rival NGOs compete with each others to grab the dollars pouring out of the Western cornucopia.   These NGO activists are mercenaries posing as rights activists to make themselves a name and win some awards while making pots of money on the side.”
Mahindapala stressed the need for reviewing the reporting mechanism comprehensively to prevent the abuse of human rights in the hands of these questionable political activists.

“Reporting human rights violations should not be left in the hands of those handpicked from Western nations with a biased agenda or the local NGOs funded by these nations.   Some of the UN rapporteurs fly in and out of war-torn countries picking up only the bits and pieces that are useful to their prejudices or their agendas.”

On the issue of genuine human rights and duties he drew attention to Mahatma Gandhi’s illiterate mother as a universal figure who made history, anonymously and unobtrusively, and remarked:

“She did not write applications in triplicate to funding agencies pushing her claim for funding, most of which goes in this age of rights to maintain the luxury life-style of NGO bosses. Without romanticizing the humble but noble services of Gandhi’ smother, it can be averred that in the age of duties the moral sense reigned supreme.”

Mahindapala emphasized:

“No one has a monopoly on human rights. It is part of the human heritage which must be shared in common by all. Maximizing the universality and the indivisibility of human rights is the primary task of those who champion human rights. And this can be achieved only by balancing human rights with traditional duties”

Few weeks before I went to Jaffna, Jehan Perera of the National Peace Council had visited Jaffna and captured the powerful testimony of one airline passenger saying “the only thing we can do is cry”.

After my own visit to Jaffna, I wonder whether all I, other people in the rest of the country and the world can do is cry with people of Jaffna. Or whether some even care to cry.

I remember that Jehan finished his article saying that people in Jaffna don’t want to be shut off or be forgotten. But my impression was that the government seemed to be intent on just that – shutting off people in Jaffna from rest of Sri Lanka and the world.

I had spent fair amount of my youth traveling to various countries, including “hot spots”, taking hundreds of flights – and been through some arduous visa and immigration procedures. But no procedure was as frustrating as this. I spent 8 hours to reach Jaffna – from the time I reported to the airline office and the time I was finally allowed to be free in Jaffna – the flight was actually 70 minutes. My phone and camera was confiscated in the earliest part of the journey. In what was similar to a “visa on arrival” procedure, I was photographed, and given a special pass to keep with me while I was in Jaffna. Unlike in other countries, I didn’t have to fill a form, but security forces wrote up the information I gave at the several interviews. Coming back, we had 4 bus rides, the last two of which had curtains drawn so that we can’t see the outside, pass through 5 counters in the check in area (the old Railway station) and our bags were checked several times.

The next visible sign of shutting off Jaffna is the restrictions imposed on foreign passport holders from going to Jaffna, to provide essential humanitarian assistance and protection to civilians the government is obliged to provide, but is not providing. I was expecting a good friend to join me in Jaffna the day after I went. She was born in Jaffna, speaks Tamil, but had fled Jaffna with her family due to the war and holds a US passport now. She had subsequently returned with high hopes of working for peace and reconciliation in what she considered as her country – but she couldn’t come – instead, I got a text saying she can’t come due the newly introduced long procedure to get permits to visit Jaffna. As I languished for hours at the first checkpoint approaching the Ratmalana Airport, I met a humanitarian worker who has been working in Jaffna – she had a document from the Ministry of Defense (MOD) specifying she could work in Jaffna, but military personnel were telling her she needed another permit from the MOD! She was not allowed to board the flight. While in Jaffna, I heard that this was the latest of yet another changing procedures to enter / leave Jaffna – and for now, all foreign nationals doing humanitarian and peace work in Jaffna will need to get a permit from the MOD everytime they go to Jaffna – in addition to the work permits allowing them to work in Jaffna issued by the very same MOD. In the present environment of fear that grips Jaffna, it was clear to me that foreign nationals’ presence meant a lot to civilians, and even aid workers in Jaffna. “I’m not sure whether I could go back. I worry for my staff, I had already had staff killed” said one head of an agency who was on the flight back to Colombo with me and worrying whether she would be able to go back.

But these procedures seem to pale when compared to the “Colombo visa process”, that Jaffna residents have to go through. “It took me few days to get a visa to Italy – but it took me almost a month to get a “visa to” Colombo” a passenger in the flight to Jaffna told me. He also told me he spent much more for photocopies for the “visa” or permit to come to Colombo, than for the documents for the Italian visa. I met one person who had not got his Colombo visa after 3 months and had lost hope of ever getting it!

Several friends in media also told me its difficult to go to Jaffna – at the Ratmalana airport entry point, I met a group of journalists waiting for their permit – when I left them, they were not sure whether they would get their “clearance” – even though they would be “embedded” journalists, who would travel in an air force plane.

Life in Jaffna
All around the town, I saw bombed out buildings, barbed wire and what once would have been residential houses now occupied by the military. One man I met in the plane told me his land and house had been taken over by the military in 1990, and no compensation or alternative land or housing had been provided. He has given up hoop of ever getting it back.

In terms of hearing, nothing can beat the shelling. Whether it was while I was trying to sleep, or while doing the training that took me to Jaffna, or even while playing a friendly cricket match, shelling continued.

Daily, there is a powercut at a specified time. But I also experienced unannounced powercuts, in the night as well as day time. There are mobile phone signals, but the signals are cut off regularly without advance notice – mostly, it was for around an hour or less, but on one day, there was no signal from about 9am to 4pm.

People are being reduced to starvation due huge prices and forcible restrictions on livelihoods. Eggs were being sold at Rs. 24, Rice around Rs. 200, fish around Rs. 700 and potatoes around Rs. 180 per kilo. My pen torch batteries were confiscated and not returned at the security checkpoint in Ratmalana, but pen torch batteries in the peninsular are rare and costs around Rs. 200 in Jaffna. All these, in a context where many fishermen can’t fish due to fishing restrictions of the military, many farmers land has been occupied by the military and shops close down before sunset as the town and streets gets deserted as darkness descends and curfew starts.

Insecurity of civilians
The curfew is now at 9pm (untill early November it had been 7pm) and on two days, as I went around at about 7pm, I didn’t see a single vehicle or cycle on the streets. Several friends told me that they “regretted” they can’t invite me for dinner as curfew starts at 9pm, and in any case, it would not be safe for me to visit them or vice versa after dark. The training was I was doing had to be concluded by 2.30pm, to enable participants to reach home before dark, leaving space for “convoys” that block roads for hours.

But everyone I spoke to said curfew is not for protection of civilians – but for protection of “unidentified groups” that roam the streets of Jaffna abducting and killing people. I got names of seven people who had been killed in the week I was in Jaffna. I remembered a recent report that showed that showed that almost 2 person per day disappeared or was killed in Jaffna in the first 8 months of 2007.

All this is despite the curfew, large number of armed military personnel at every few meters and severe restrictions on freedom of movement of civilians. Part of man roads, including main roads are made off limits to civilians. I saw for myself how a 12 kilometer stretch on the A18 highway between Jaffna and Palali was sealed off and civilians were left stranded for hours – to ensure security for the military convoys. I heard that this was a daily occurrence on the roads around Jaffna.

Fear was evident in all the people I spoke to. Men were scared of “unidentified” groups, including those in motor bikes without number plates, engaged in killings and abductions. They also feared harassment and torture at the hands of the security forces, who demand civilians to provide them with names of LTTE cadres. Mothers, wives and sisters fear for their men. I also heard of girls who had been raped and sexual harassment of young girls at checkpoints, including during the checking that occurs in taking a flight out of Jaffna. Everyday, people surrender themselves to the Human Rights Commission seeking security.

People I spoke to vehemently said they don’t agree with bombs such as the one in Nugegoda that targets civilians. Several told me the government is free to take on the LTTE militarily if they wanted to – but that the Colombo government and military personnel should stop this type of discrimination, harassment and attacks on civilians. I did hear from some people about abuses by the LTTE, but certainly, it was not something many spoke to me about.

Aid workers face numerous problems. At least 16 have been killed and abducted since 2006. In some cases, its clear its due to their work, but in others, it is not clear whether this was due to their their work or organizational affiliation. Even within the peninsular, aid workers need to get permits, often 48 hours in advance, to reach their project sites. On several occasions, the permission had not been forthcoming and they had been turned back. Priests face similar difficulties in reaching their flock to perform religious ceremonies.

Hoping against hope….
Given the suspicion the government, military and even the some members of the public and religious leaders treat Tamil people, particularly those coming from the North and East, as well as the discriminations, harassments and indignities forced upon them in Colombo and rest of the South, I was surprised at the warmth extended to me, a Sinhalese from the South, by Tamil people in Jaffna. I was an invitee, a guest, but even ordinary people who I never met before displayed a warmth and kindness I would not expect from a people under such stress. In the University, a group of students invited me to join them in a friendly cricket match. Unfortunately, before I could bat, the match was abandoned – not due to bad light or rain, but due to intensification of shelling and fear of terrors Jaffna nights bring to young men in particular. As in my visits before, I came away with several gifts – amongst the ones I valued most was a plaque with a peace dove breaking free from a chained cage, with a map of Sri Lanka forming the backdrop.

But the last sense of hope was given by a young soldier who saw this plaque during the course of rigorous checking at the Palaly airport “we hope peace can come and we can go back and stay in our own lands without occupying other peoples lands” was what he told me.

(Apologies for no photos – in the first place, batteries in my camera and flashlight were confiscated and never returned, and the prices of batteries are so high in Jafna, and anyways, I was told taking photos in the streets and markets in Jaffna could prove a risky business)

The Sunday Times (Wijeya Newspapers) has a children’s section titled FUNDAY. The December 9th FUNDAY carried a continuing series from the Mahavamsa titled The Defeat of the Cholas.

The article has some choice bits of FUN storytelling such as: “the Sinhala soldiers fought bravely. Most of the Chola soldiers died in the fighting and the rest fled.” No children’s story is complete without lots of FUN images and this story doesn’t disappoint: three beautiful illustrations of soldiers killing each other. The soldiers in red sarongs seem to be getting the upper hand on the soldiers in blue sarongs (who seem to have duskier complexions)—one guy is even getting speared in the back (a Chola getting what he deserves?).

For those of you who may not know, the Cholas were a Tamil Dynasty that ruled Southern India and also annexed parts of Sri Lanka (I’m not going to say which parts—take a wild guess). One other point, the Mahavamsa has been a bit of a thorny issue: something about it being used to justify Sinhala-Buddhist chauvinism.

But who cares? Let’s just teach our children the FUN in communal hagiography that erases Sri Lanka’s ethnic diversity.

Read The Defeat of the Cholas here.

The TMVP is organizing a big protest at the Weber stadium in Batticaloa today. According to the Pillayan-led TMVP, it is against LTTE atrocities in the East and the TNA.

The TMVP also wants solutions to problems faced by people being resettled in the East, for example in terms of lack of jobs, all of which will go into a signed letter to be delivered to the President.

TMVP Spokesman Azad Moulana says they expect 25,000 people from three regions of the east to voice their protest and gather at the stadium, which is scheduled to start at 9.30am.

They may also try to bring together Karuna supporters to show their support for the above cause whether voluntarily or by some degree of force.

The Karuna-Pillayan struggle is unfolding quite rapidly, as readers are no doubt aware, and the latest I have gathered, which I thought I would put down here, is that Karuna cadres are restricted to Ampara, while Pillayan seems to have control of Trincomalee and Batticaloa areas and of the TMVP.

A few Karuna cadres are also in the Kiran areas, which is the hometown of Karuna. (TMVP has a council which Pillayan now apparently has control of).
A reporter friend from the East estimates there to be about a couple of hundred Karuna cadres and a couple of thousand Pillayan cadres, but that info is sketchy.
Given that elections are in the offing early next year, there is a complex power struggle going on ahead of the polls. The military and government in the East will likely support the above protest which shows opposition to the LTTE.

On the day of the budget vote, after the second reading, last month, the TMVP (Pillaiyan) said they were in discussions with the TNA to work for the public good in the east. They said they would make an announcement depending on the way the TNA voted on the budget.

TNA MPs denied they held such talks and voted against the budget, very likely going counter to the wishes of the TMVP.

Today’s protest could reveal more of what is going on. It will be good if readers with more information can post their material here.