Sri Lanka: Amid Political Chaos

Sri Lanka is observing sixth presidential election today (Jan 26) and Lankans have to choose their next president among two main candidates (out of as many as 20 contestants): Mahinda Rajapaksa, the incumbent President and former army chief Sarath Fonseka. Both the candidates have successfully led a military campaign against Tamil rebels and brought the decades old ethnic conflict to an end in May 2009. Rajapakse called Tuesday’s vote much ahead of its schedule only to benefit from the recent victory over LTTE rebels. Fonseka too wants to ride on the victory wave.

However, sporadic violence, coup fears and allegations of voting fraud cast a shadow over the much awaited election which will see thousands of Tamil civilians in the Northeast Sri Lanka vote for the first time since early 1980s. The most important aspect of this election is the participation of mainstream Tamil parties (e.g Tamil National Alliance and Eelam People’s Democratic Party) which could pave the way for future reconciliations between dominant Singhalese and Tamil populations. Whoever wins, he must gurantee a much needed political and social space for 18 percent Tamils in the country.

I would like to flag couple of important articles for ASIBlog readers here:
“Sri Lankan Tamils pray for post-election peace”, AFP, Jan 26, 2010.
Asoka Bandarage, “Whither Sri Lanka?” , Asia Times, Jan 26, 2010.
“Out of war’s shadow, Sri Lankans vote for president”, Reuters, Jan 26, 2010.

Posted by Animesh Roul on January 26, 2010. Respond »

SouthAsian of the Year: Meher Mohammed Khalil

Who has done the most this last year to promote peacebuilding and regional integration in South Asia?

“South Asian of the Year” goes easily to Mohammed Khalil, the quick-thinking bus driver in Lahore who managed to save the Sri Lankan cricket team when it was attacked in broad daylight by terrorists.

Security concerns following the 26/11 attack on Mumbai caused the Indian team that was supposed to play this tour, but they pulled out. The Sri Lankans replaced them. Then on March 3, 2009, as the team set out from their hotel towards the stadium, they were ambushed by gunmen. The driver bravely and speedily drove the bus out towards Gaddafi Stadium which was then sealed. The players ducked and lay flat to escape with mostly minor injuries.

(Watch a newsclip here.)

One act of bravery salvaged a situation that could have begun years of acrimonious exchange between governments and cricket boards and snuffed out any hope for goodwill towards Pakistan in cricket(and cricketer)-loving South Asia.

Posted by Swarna Rajagopalan on December 28, 2009. Respond »

In the News: “Dialogue Key to Ending Leftist Violence in Asia”

In the Bangkok Post, Michael Vatikiotis writes that a “new threat is emerging in Asia.”

...[T]he newest non-state armed groups battling governments in the name of justice and freedom draw on what was once thought to be a dead ideology: Marxism.”

Citing examples from India, to Nepal, parts of Burma, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Thailand, Vatikiotis concludes:

... In the experience of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, which has convened dialogue with parties in armed conflict across Asia and Africa for the past decade, resolving any conflict necessitates the initiation of dialogue, almost always in conditions which initially will not be conducive or promising.

More broadly, governments need to recognise that armed violence against the state won’t disappear when Osama bin Laden is one day captured and al-Qaeda defeated.

For millions of disenfranchised people across Asia, whether they are facing ethnic or economic marginalisation, it would appear that Marxist ideas of popular struggle still have enormous appeal.

It would be a shame indeed, if all the effort expended on defeating terrorism this past decade is not related back to the basic root of the problem, which is that when people run out of peaceful ways to see their grievances redressed, they will take up arms.

Rather than becoming obsessed with cultural and religious divides - and in the process reinforcing them - the best way to deal with the problem is to engage in a dialogue to bring about an end to violence, whatever the root cause or driving ideology.”

Read the entire op-ed here.

Posted by Matthew Shannon Stumpf on December 14, 2009. Respond »

The Politics of Making Sexual Violence an Issue

Hillary Clinton’s stewardship of the State Department will likely come to be associated with a vigorous advocacy of a human security agenda in international relations. The elimination of sexual violence is an important part of that agenda.

On September 30th, 2009, the UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution mandating UN peacekeeping missions to protect women and girls from sexual violence which assumes epidemic proportions in conflict zones. Hillary Clinton introduced the resolution saying, “We’ve seen rape used as a tactic of war before in Bosnia, Burma and Sri Lanka and elsewhere.” Predictably, this aroused a great deal of indignation in Sri Lanka: a sampling here in the comments section of a newspaper.

From one of Sri Lanka’s best-known peace activists, Jehan Perera, this measured reading: Openness to engagement as defence to accusation, October 5, 2009.

The US has responded to Sri Lanka’s protests by saying that instances of rape being used during the conflict had been recorded in the past.

Interesting, that accusations about the use of sexual violence are really found offensive, but no one wants to take sexual violence or gender violence, more broadly, seriously as a policy issue. Hillary Clinton has made it a point to talk about this and other human security issues on all her official visits; this could be her unique legacy depending on what form and what tone it takes in months to come.

This incident is a great example of what feminists mean when they say the personal is political and when they talk about the politics of identity and nationalism being played out on women’s bodies.

Posted by Swarna Rajagopalan on October 5, 2009. Respond »

Eventful fortnight in South Asia: Catching up

This has been such an eventful couple of weeks in South Asian international relations that it’s useful to just step away and list what’s been going on.

1. India-Pakistan Joint Communique at Sharm El Shaikh, Egypt, July 16, 2009.

The Indian and Pakistani Prime Ministers met on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Egypt. There was some speculation that the meeting would be inconclusive (read, pointless) but the ensuing joint communique has had Indian commentators and opposition leaders completely baffled. The communique delinks the 26/11 investigation in Pakistan from continuing India-Pakistan talks. This is a departure from India’s post-26/11 stand and would elicit commentary and criticism on its own. What has really riled Indian opinion-makers is the inclusion of Balochistan in the communique, hinting at Indian acknowledgment of a role in the Baloch crisis.

The text of the communique is online. 

See:

Shekhar Gupta, The Big Rewrite, Indian Express, July 25, 2009.

2. Hillary Clinton visited India last week.

The US Secretary of State spent five days in India, in Mumbai and New Delhi. What was really striking about the visit was the amount of time she devoted to ‘non-traditional’ security issues. Her most widely reported events included a breakfast with industry leaders; a television interview in the company of a leading actor discussing the important of civil society and citizen initiatives on education; a meeting with the Self-Employed Women’s Association, a pioneering Indian trade union of women in the informal sector; and a visit to a ‘green’ campus outside Delhi where the focus was on climate change issues. The traditional foreign policy segment of her visit seemed almost like an afterthought.

Moreover, Clinton stayed at the Taj hotel which was last seen under attack in November 2008. That has been widely read as an expression of solidarity with not just the victims of the terror attack but also India’s own war against terror. (See this for instance.) It is also a departure from the way US missions fortify themselves against the very communities they are meant to cultivate. (In all fairness, this is probably now true of most diplomatic missions.)

See:

C. Raja Mohan, Before the chance fades, Indian Express, July 20, 2009.

3. 26/11 accused Kasab confessed in court

The whole world watched Kasab and his associates cause murder and mayhem in Mumbai last year. Only Kasab was captured alive, and although everyone had watched him in action, and he had spoken at length during the police interrogation, he was still taken to court. A special court facility was created in the interests of his security. Legal counsel was sought for him, and in spite of those in Mumbai who sought to deprive him of a defence lawyer, three people agreed to take on his case. The last lawyer made a valiant effort to get Kasab pronounced under-age; to improve the conditions of his prison tenure; to get him off the hook.

On Monday, July 20, Kasab decided to confess. With no word to his own defence lawyer.

Rahi Gaikwad, Ajmal admits to crime, The Hindu, July 21, 2009.
We were ordered to throw grenades first: Ajmal, The Hindu, July 21, 2009.
Rahi Gaikwad, From petty job to dacoity to terror camps, The Hindu, July 21, 2009.

And then, all injured innocence, two days later, Kasab asked to be hung if his intentions were suspect.
Hang me if my guilty plea is suspect: Ajmal, The Hindu, July 23, 2009.

The trial continues. The Indian establishment says his confession covers only part of the charge-sheet he faces.

4. Sri Lanka’s IDP camps: What is the P.O.A.?

As the clock ticks on the government’s 180-day rehabilitation promise, the questioning has begun. What does the government actually plan to do? Will they meet their deadline? And, most important, why is no one demanding answers?

5. Kalam and Continental Airlines

In order to understand why this is a diplomatic issue, it is important to know that in India several categories of VIPs are exempt from bodily searches conducted as part of routine security procedures. Former Heads of State certainly are. Moreover, beloved former Heads of State certainly are.

In April 2009, traveling out of Delhi by Continental, former President Kalam had stood in the queue like other passengers and been subjected to frisking, just as they were. He did not fuss.

In the last week, this has become a huge issue in India. A First Information Report (police complaint) has been filed against the airline, which claims it was following rules. The US Transportation Security Administration says Indian rules do not apply to its aircraft. In the meanwhile, every leading Indian politician has spoken out against the frisking and it has been taken up officially.

What Indian commentators are focusing on is Kalam’s own unpretentiousness. He stood in a queue, allowed the frisking without a fuss and did not lodge a complaint himself thereafter.

Kalam’s own personality invites outrage on his behalf, but can we truly say that every VIP—in an age of celebrity culture—is safe to allow without all the standard security checks? Can any state take that chance in a climate where young men get off a boat and shoot people at random in coffee shops and marketplaces?

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A last note, befitting a fortnight like this: Vinod Mehta, Delhi Diary, Outlookindia.com, August 3, 2009.

Posted by Swarna Rajagopalan on July 25, 2009. Respond »