Government overreaction harms national interest

By Jehan Perera

(September 08, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The arrival section of the international airport in one’s home country is not the place that the regular traveler expects to be confronted with the power of the state to detain people without a valid reason being given. I had just landed at the International Airport at Katunayake after five days in the United States along with the head of the Centre for Policy Alternatives, Dr Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu. The two of us had participated in a seminar on peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka organized by the US Institute for Peace that sought to address the underlying factors that led to the outbreak of war and address post-war reconstruction, relief, and security needs. Several officials representing different US government agencies, aid workers and members of the Sri Lankan Diaspora attended the seminar.

At the seminar I found the participants supportive of Sri Lanka, and understanding of the context of war and the problems that had arisen, which could be put behind if handled properly. In this context it came as quite as shock when Dr Saravanamuttu was stopped at the Immigration counter for a while and then led away to a room. Standing next to me in the line was Jim Moore, the acting head of the US embassy in Sri Lanka, who had assisted us with the logistics of our visit and returned with us on the same flight. As we were further back in the line, we continued to stand in the line hoping it was a minor problem and that our traveling companion and colleague would soon be back and pass through the Immigration point. But as I neared the top of the line and there was no sign of him returning, I left the line and went to where my colleague was being detained to find out what was going on.

The Immigration officers were apologetic, but they had a job to do. They said that there was a request from the intelligence arm of the Police, the CID (Criminal Investigation Department) which was in their computer system. This had given them the instruction that they should detain Dr Saravanamuttu for questioning by the CID, but they did not know for what reason. They said that the CID had a special office in the airport, and would come soon. When over half an hour had passed with us waiting there, we asked if they could call the CID again and remind them that we were waiting and wanted to go home, having traveled over 24 hours non-stop from Washington DC to Colombo. It took three more telephone calls for the police officers to come.

People’s Plight

During that time the Immigration officers explained the plight of the people who were being detained by the Police at the airport. They said that for the past three months the Police and intelligence personnel had been roaming around the airport and questioning and detaining people, even those who had been checked and passed by the Immigration officials. The revelations by the Sunday Times newspaper about a human smuggling racket involving the displaced persons detained in the welfare camps at Vavuniya being sent out through the international airport may justify this Police presence. But it does call into question the government’s rationale for continuing to hold more than a quarter of a million of its citizens in detention in order to keep possible terrorists away from the rest of the population.

When the CID officers finally arrived and took Dr Saravanamuttu away, I continued my discussion with the Immigration officials. They told me about the plight of Sri Lankan citizens who were sometimes deported from the foreign countries they had sought to enter. Most often it was for no fault of their own, as they had proper travel documents. They may be deported because their host does not come to pick them up at the airport, or because they are deemed to have insufficient money, or sheer cussedness. I know of one instance where a young man who had in his possession a magazine on Islamic Fundamentalism was denied entry at a foreign airport. When these unfortunate people return with their hopes of a new future blighted they are subjected to callous treatment in their home country. They are detained and questioned for hours instead of being helped in their misery.

During the two hours I spent in the airport I saw several broken down looking people being taken away for questioning by the Police. When Dr Saravanamuttu finally returned after sorting out his problem, we said goodbye to the Immigration officers who had been kind to us. We return to Sri Lanka from abroad, to our own country and our own people. The government must be concerned about the welfare of all its citizens, including those who have been deported or have fallen into trouble when abroad. The Immigration officers said that they hoped that people of the caliber of Dr Saravanamuttu, who had seen the negative side of the airport and experienced in some little way the sufferings of people detained there, would be able to report their experiences to the highest in the land so that the system could be improved.

From Dr Saravanamuttu I learned that the CID officers had failed to explain to him why there was a detention request against his name. All they could say was that the TID (Terrorism Investigation Department) had made such a request in February and they had shown him the outside of a file to that effect. It is entirely bizarre that this request became activated only in September when he returned from the seminar at the US Institute for Peace. According to Dr Saravanamuttu he had traveled several times out of the country between February and September and was permitted free exit and entry. As he lives in Sri Lanka, there was absolutely no need to catch him at the airport, as a phone call to his mobile telephone or to his home or office would have sufficed to get him to come to wherever the Police wanted to question him.

Unanswered question

The question arises whether there was a connection between Dr Saravanamuttu’s airport detention and his organization’s position on the granting of the European Union’s GSP Plus tariff concession to Sri Lankan exports. After winning the war famously, the government risks losing the international support it needs to reconstruct the country after war. This seems to be largely due to the misapplication of its successful war strategy to peace time governance. It is reported that the European Union has finalized a preliminary report on Sri Lanka’s adherence to 27 international human rights treaties and other instruments, with the government failing the test.

During the war, the government was able to defy international opinion and prosecute the war to the maximum, with no-holds barred in what it did, and was able to get away with it. There was a tacit acceptance that war is an ugly business and the Sri Lankan government ought to be supported to defeat the LTTE which had become an international menace. There were many powerful countries, including the United States and India, that urged the government to minimize human rights violations and to come up with a political solution to the ethnic conflict, but at the same time they tangibly strengthened the government’s hand to wage war.

But now the war has ended more than three months. People in Sri Lanka and in the international community expect the government to modify its behaviour to suit the new conditions. But the change is slow in coming despite government protestations that it is acting in a problem solving manner. The situation of people in the welfare camps in Vavuniya remains pathetic as a newspaper investigation recently revealed. The Sunday Times reported that "Hygienic conditions are poor and children often fall ill. On August 27 three children died. The cause, we learnt from the Judicial Medical Officer’s office in Vavuniya was septicaemia."

Unfortunately, it appears that the government has got so carried away by its sovereign power that it continues to act as it did during the time of war. The expulsion of a senior UN official with diplomatic status on the grounds that he has been upset and critical about the situation of children in the welfare camps for the displaced is one example of its overreaction. The detention and questioning of Dr Saravanamuttu is another. This is not a tenable situation. A country that seeks respect and support as a democracy needs to conduct its affairs differently.

-Sri Lanka Guardian