Sri Lanka's escalating war of words over aid security
Blogged by: Peter Apps
A Sri Lankan policeman stands guard in front of a vehicle used by aid agency Action Contre Le Faim during a funeral procession for 17 murdered staff, Trincomalee, Sri Lanka, August 2006.
REUTERS/Buddhika Weerasinghe
REUTERS/Buddhika Weerasinghe
There's been some unusually strong rhetoric out of Sri Lanka, even by the standards of the conflict there, with aid agencies attracting heavy government criticism.
On Wednesday, a senior government official described United Nations humanitarian chief John Holmes as a "terrorist who supported terrorism" and accused him of being bribed by Tamil Tiger rebels after he told Reuters the island was one of the most dangerous places in the world for aid workers.
That came only a couple of days after another government official said negligence by international aid group Action Contre la Faim (ACF) was to blame for the massacre of 17 of their local staff a year ago.
Nordic ceasefire monitors blamed security forces for the killings in August last year in the northeastern town of Muttur, and independent observers say the official investigation has effectively stalled and risks looking like a cover-up.
The figures for aid worker deaths in Sri Lanka are certainly high enough to discomfort aid-agency security experts, who almost without exception name the country as among those that give them greatest concern.
Holmes said almost 30 humanitarian workers had been killed in Sri Lanka over the past 18 months. A consortium of aid agencies operating in the island puts the number at 34, although the government questions that figure.
It seems to come down to who you class as an aid worker, with some of the dead effectively contractors. The government also says that last year's two mass disappearances of staff from the Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation - which aid workers say is effectively the aid arm of the Tamil Tigers, despite claims to the contrary - might be fakes carried out by the rebels. Given what's happened since, most aid workers now suspect they were genuine.
By any measure, the numbers are high - and the ACF massacre was one of the worst killings of aid staff in recent history.
Describing the U.N. Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs as a terrorist and accusing him of bribery isn't something I've heard before. But the angry allegations aimed at ACF do echo some of those I heard from the families of the victims outside the morgue in Trincomalee a year ago.
The 17 workers had been dead for days by the time their bodies were loaded onto tractors and taken from the blood-spattered compound in Muttur to the hospital. The stench could be smelled streets away, the autopsies had to be conducted almost in the open, and the wailing of the families was heart-rending.
Some were already accusing security forces of carrying out the killings. But they were also angry at ACF for sending their loved ones into the town in the first place.
The 17 staff had been sent across by ferry from Trincomalee to Muttur only to be trapped there when a naval battle erupted in the harbour. They stayed in their compound for days as the government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) both fought through and shelled the town. When the civilian population fled south on foot and by vehicle through the battle, they stayed put. Then they were killed.
Most relief agencies had cut back or stopped sending staff into the front-line town after a couple of grenade attacks weeks earlier. There were soon mutterings among aid workers in Trincomalee that the ACF team had been left dangerously exposed.
Almost all of the dead were ethnic Tamils, stranded in a predominantly Muslim town between the rebels - also Tamils - and security forces mainly from the majority Sinhalese population. There had long been accusations in the local area that aid groups were favouring Tamils and that their operations in rebel-held areas were effectively helping the LTTE.
ACF says their internal investigation after the massacre suggested no one could have known that going to Muttur that day would be so dangerous. They say other aid groups would have made the same decision to order their staff to stay in the compound after fighting began.
"We couldn't know that it was a mistake," ACF spokeswoman Lucille Grosjean told AlertNet from Colombo.
After the incident, ACF cut back and has now ceased its humanitarian operations in Sri Lanka, although it remains on the island to monitor the progress of the investigation. It has also imposed much more rigorous security procedures, limiting the movement of local staff without an expatriate to escort them.
"We consider the risk to our national employees is very high," Grosjean said.
The head of the Sri Lankan government peace secretariat says ACF has only paid the families paltry compensation and that they would almost certainly win more if they took action against the agency in a European court.
ACF says it paid roughly two years salary to the families of each of the dead - a figure agreed after consulting with other aid and U.N. agencies. It says all the families have signed documents saying they were fully compensated.
ACF argues that it has nothing to hide and is happy to co-operate with any investigation - indeed, it says the only reason it remains in Sri Lanka is to try and ensure that a proper investigation does go ahead to bring to justice whoever shot their staff.
"If they want to do an inquiry about ACF and killing, then no problem," Grosjean said. "We have nothing to hide."
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11 responses to “Sri Lanka's escalating war of words over aid security”
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Peter Apps covered business, politics, disaster, disease, agriculture and occasional crime stories for Reuters in southern Africa before being reposted to Sri Lanka just in time for a new outbreak of civil war. A minibus crash on assignment in September 2006 broke his neck and left him quadriplegic. Nine months to the day after the crash, he was released from hospital in a wheelchair and returned to work for AlertNet in London, scheming his return to field reporting.
16 Aug 2007 13:08:20 GMT
The Government of Sri Lanka rarely compensated for any 'state sponsored' and/or violence against Tamils where their security forces just stood and watch. This is from 1958, 1977 and 1983 pograms where it is now well documented that the Government forces or sections of the government of Sri Lanka participated, and they never compensated anything to any Tamil or minority. But they want to find fault with ACF?
16 Aug 2007 16:58:45 GMT
There are some NGO's and UN supported agencies who have become the mouth piece of the Tamil Tiger terrorists. TRO is one, and we all know they tamil tiger terrorists in sheeps clothing. Lets take the Norwagiens who have openly supported the tiger terrorists and on the other hand, give away noble prizes. The so-called UN agencies or NGO should limit their work to humanitarien work and not to involve in the internal politics of an independant country.
16 Aug 2007 17:25:57 GMT
All aid, tourism and support for Sri Lanka should be stopped right now.
UNO, HR Watch, Amnesty, the EC etc.. are considered as enemies right now and the great Sinhala race wants to be on it's own. And it is certainly much more up to the Indian Tamils in Tamilnadu to look after their brothers rather than Norwegians messin' around with Sri Lankan gangsters.17 Aug 2007 07:32:26 GMT
The international rights watch groups, aid organizations, relief organizations, UN World Food Programme, the Torture monitor, The Centre for Policy Alternatives, Free Media Movement, INFORM, International Movement Against All Forms of Racial Discrimination, Law & Society Trust, The International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) ââ¬" all have pointed their fingers at the government forces for the devastations, mass killings, rape, abductions, human rights violations, you name the crimes all are being committed mainly by the SLA together with armed groups supported by the government.
The Asian Human Rights commission recently severely condemned the Srilankan governmentââ¬â¢s broken down rule of law and a system for failing to address the abductions, killings and robbery. The report has said that a policing system that is corrupt to the core and a judiciary which has made a mockery of justice alienated the people from their administrators. How will the people place any trust on such a government to give come up with a just solution to their woes and aspirations. From all these what more is there to say. All that can be said is the government has brought the country into a Terrorist state. All the government is interested from foreign countries is aid and military hardware and anyone comments on its abuses, violations of human rights or the atrocities committed by its armed forces he will be labeled as a terrorist.17 Aug 2007 07:32:48 GMT
Sir Holmes has clearly overstepped his mandate. This is another exmaple of the UN taking partisan political positions to the detriment of the people on the ground who deserve better.
17 Aug 2007 07:33:09 GMT
The hon ministers reaction was emotional and overblown. However he clearly feels very strongly about improving the situation in Sri Lanka and feels that Sir Holmes has let the people of Sri Lanka down, by effectively discouraging aid workers.
17 Aug 2007 07:34:08 GMT
When the America listing Iran guards in the terrorist list for their terror supporting. Why canât Sri Lankan army called Sinhala terrorist. There is no different between a terror group and Sri Lankan army. They have been clearly targeting civilian. Look at the Sinhala terroristâs mass murder on aid worker.
17 Aug 2007 07:34:10 GMT
LTTE money is capable of buying any NGO, including ACF, UNO, HR Watch and Amnesty International. Tamil Terrorists make USD 300 million illegally. Why not buy some false propaganda? Either way, ACF will never accept responsibility for their aid workers. They will do whatever to blame the government of Sri Lanka, and the Tamil Terrorists will help them and even fund them. What a shame.
FACT: Tamils live and work in peace in ALL parts of Sri Lanka. They own over half of the businesses, run political parties and publish newspapers in Sri Lanka. On the other hand, only a Tamil can live in the North or North-East of the island. All other ethnic groups live in fear of death or were eliminated by Tamil Terrorists. This is a classic example of ethnic cleansing combined with genocide driven by racism which is a core element of Tamil Terrorist ideology. This is what the Tamil Terrorists are buying with money and false propaganda.17 Aug 2007 07:36:01 GMT
This is what a Sinhalese wrote in to the same news in LBO: " Ya Holmes is a terrorist. And Allan Rock is LTTE supporter. HRW is liar. Gareth Evans is neo-colonialist. Erik Solheim is white tiger. ICRC are liars. Amnesty International are rumour mongers. UN is staffed by LTTE. ICJ is misleading the IC. INGOs are ltte agents in disguise. UNP is ltte party. SLMM take orders from prabhakaran ACF is responsible for deaths of its workers. Karuna is a reformed saint. ..wheres the problem?"
He is just rphrasing what this govt has been saying all along. Also BBC, Reuters and other independent reporters are LTTE mouthpieces accord to GOSL. I hope you take not that the GOSL has committed atrocities waaay beyond what the LTTE has been accused and punished for(with exception of child recruits maybe)that any other country, esp a non-western ally would have been by now sanctioned and possibly its leaders put on trial. This regime makes Charles Taylor look like Dalai Lama in comparison but unfortunately happen to be friends with powers-be.23 Aug 2007 08:50:29 GMT
The question is: can aid workers be killed if compromised or not. To my opininion: no. The humanitarian community should aim to have a diplomatic status for all staff overseas, either national either international. Statistics proove we are at risk, to the detriment of achieving our justified goals and objectives...
05 Sep 2007 09:00:26 GMT
The accusation levelled at ACF for wilfully endangering their staff members is merely a kneejerk reaction on the part of a regime that is increasingly under scrutiny for their conduct of military operations within an extant ceasefire and for accompanying issues of forced displacement and return as well as the well documented human rights abuses. It is as meaningless as the investigation to find the killers. There is some nervousness here too, with the continual accusation of bias on the part of aid agencies, Norwegian mediators, the SLMM etc., and the bottom line is a deflection of blame and responsibility as part of a flawed and rapidly failing campaign to restore credibility to a regime manipulated, willingly or otherwise, by destructive forces of nationalism.