[lg policy] EU human rights report could cost Sri Lanka $100 million

[Harold Schiffman]

EU human rights report could cost Sri Lanka $100 million

Sri Lanka could lose valuable EU trade concessions after an inquiry
found severe human rights abuses against Tamils. The US released its
own report of allegations of war crimes Thursday.

By Mian Ridge | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

New Delhi

Sri Lanka came under fresh pressure to address the plight of its Tamil
minority this week after a report from the European Union slammed the
island for its recent human rights record. The report lodges some of
the strongest international criticisms since Sri Lanka ended its war
against Tamil rebels in May, and could prompt the EU to remove more
than $100 million in trade concessions.  Previous criticism from
abroad has had little impact on the Sri Lankan government, which
remains more popular at home than ever. It said Thursday it would
study the EU's report and respond by a Nov. 6 deadline.  The inquiry,
conducted over the past year to determine whether the country should
continue receiving trade concessions, found that Sri Lanka was in
severe breach of human rights law in its final bloody push against the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). It should lose the
concessions, the report stated.

The details of the report coincide with the discovery of hundreds of
Tamil asylum seekers who had fled the island, on boats bound for
Canada and Australia – a reminder of the suffering faced by many of
Sri Lanka's Tamils nearly half a year after the government declared
the 25-year war against the LTTE, or Tamil Tigers, over.  Since the
war's end in May, Western countries and the world's sizeable Tamil
diaspora have pressed for some kind of accountability for thousands of
Tamil deaths and human rights violations during the last phase of
fighting. The US State Department released Thursday a report on
allegations of war crimes in Sri Lanka during the last months of its
civil war. The US emphasized that the report had not reached legal
conclusions and recommends that Sri Lanka investigates the
allegations. There have also been repeated calls for the immediate
release of more than 200,000 Tamils who remain in camps in the
island's north.

But at home, plaudits

Despite castigations from abroad, Sri Lanka's government is more
popular at home than ever, after winning what many had viewed as an
unwinnable war. Sinhalese constitute around 74 percent of Sri Lanka's
population and Tamils around 18 percent. Their discrimination as the
minority helped fuel the Tamil Tigers' long war.  Last week, Sri Lanka
announced it would hold both presidential and parliamentary elections
before next April – two years ahead of schedule. The announcement
followed President Mahinda Rajapaksa's eighth decisive victory in
provincial elections. Victory in general polls seems almost certain
for the ardent Sinhalese nationalist.  Mr. Rajapaksa has said he will
wait until after the vote to introduce political reforms aimed at
addressing Tamil grievances. He speaks often of the need for
reconciliation, but critics are growing more skeptical about what this
might mean in practice.

On Monday, the New York-based Human Rights Watch said a new commitment
from the government to return 100,000 of the original 273,000
displaced people stuck in camps "breaks a promise to camp residents
and the international community."  In May, the government had said 80
percent of the displaced people would be able to return home by the
end of the year. "Enough is enough," said Brad Adams, Asia director at
Human Rights Watch, in a statement. "It is well past time to release
civilians detained in the camps. Sri Lanka's international friends
should tell the government that they will not accept any more broken
promises."  The EU's report provides evidence of police violence,
torture, and breaches of employment laws, notably the use of underage
children.

EU: Sri Lanka's biggest export market

The concessions at stake made the EU Sri Lanka's largest export market
in 2008, accounting for 36 percent of all exports. Garments earned the
country a record $3.47 billion from EU markets and were its biggest
source of foreign exchange, followed by remittances and tea. Over the
weekend, 76 migrants believed to be Tamils fleeing the island were
arrested on a ship off Canada's coast. There are reports that a
further 255 Tamil migrants, who couldn't afford to board that vessel,
paid instead for a passage to Australia. They were intercepted in
Indonesia and given temporary asylum.  [Editor’s note: This story was
updated to reflect the release of the US report today.]


from the October 22, 2009 edition -
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1022/p06s07-wosc.html

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