HRW: False Alarm!

by V Gunaratnam

A response to Jo Becker’s HRW report on Tamil fundraising in Canada

1. The timing of Jo Becker's report is odd, coming as it does just when Sri Lanka’s peace process is getting off the ground again, after being in limbo for years. But because it has gained some international notoriety, Sri Lanka could use it to upset the delicate balance between the parties in its favour, even as the US, India, the EU, Japan and others are trying to bring about a political settlement.

2. In the context of the conflict in Sri Lanka,  Ms Becker misses the wood for the trees. Instead of helping the international community refocus on the serious human rights violations Tamils have suffered in Sri Lanka for decades, a whole lot of ink has been wasted on spotlighting how fundraising problems are violating the ‘human rights’ of a handful of dissident Tamils in Canada.

A mass of old material has been dredged up about the conflict in Sri Lanka from the HRW archives to give the report some ‘body,’ but it does not help. Instead of focusing on why funds are needed, a lot of hot air has been generated about the fundraising method being used, the threats and coercion to get people to contribute, notwithstanding that not a single complaint has so far been registered with the police.

3. While the conflict in Sri Lanka might be hidden from a world preoccupied with the Iraq war, Israel, Iran, and other grave geopolitical events, the Tamils cannot forget that there are over 600,000 Tamil war and tsunami victims - internally displaced persons - crying out to be fed, clothed, sheltered, and medically tended to, people virtually abandoned by the government, and left to fend for themselves.

4. This is the cause the Tamils worldwide have taken upon themselves to support. War and tsunami victims depend for their survival on the support received from the diaspora and NGOs. This is a daunting fundraising and logistic task. They are doing what Sri Lanka has neglected to do. Cruelly, even tsunami donations from abroad were not distributed to the Tamil victims.

Amidst caring for the victims, the Tamils fear that, despite the best efforts of the international powers, it could mean war again and the government would shut off the flow of essential goods to the people, as a tactic to win the war. The word is that the people are putting away something for the hard times.

5. Without public donations from abroad, the support for victims would grind to a halt. The government is not helping, and without a permanent political solution it is never going to assume responsibility for the welfare of 'its' Tamil citizens. Everything has, therefore, devolved on the Tamil community abroad, to find the huge resources needed to support their humanitarian work in the NorthEast.

Fundraising is a lot of hard work. It imposes a strain on the giver and the collector. In a way, it is western style aggressive fundraising. The following story, which got media exposure in 2004, gives some insight into how the government has been hiding the plight of the Tamils from the world.

6. When the Prime Minister of Canada, the UN Secretary General, and other leaders wanted to visit the tsunami disaster areas in the Tamil homeland, they were refused permission, because they didn’t want them to see the massive scale of war destruction, and the terrible plight of the Tamils.

7. It’s amazing how Ms Becker worries so much about the ‘human rights’ of Tamil Canadians when there is a sea of human rights problems facing the Tamils in Sri Lanka: More than 600,000 war and tsunami victims; families forcibly evicted from over 32,000 homes with nowhere to go; 188 army camps in the north alone where civilian life has become a nightmare. It’s an aberration – her report.

8. The thrust of her report is that the human rights of Canadian Tamils are being violated by Tamil fundraising gangs, terrorizing and demanding huge donations for supporting a cause in the Tamil homeland, and exhorting the Canadian government to “take stronger steps to protect members of the Tamil diaspora from violence, intimidation and extortion.” Yet, if it’s all happening, the police don’t seem to be doing anything about it.

i) The fly-by-night visit and interviews with a handful of subjects carries no statistical significance for her to be offering prescriptions for action to the government of Canada. We can accept that these people had their own reasons for complaining about fundraising or the methods used, but to class these as human rights violations is beyond comprehension in a world where people are being imprisoned, tortured or killed every day for standing up for their beliefs and rights.

That it is all happening in an advanced western democracy like Canada, in a post 9/11 regime, under the watchful eye of the world renowned RCMP, Provincial Police, Metro Police, and 9/11 security laws, is hard to digest. Is she trying to make out that Canada is a banana republic? It’s laughable in many ways.

ii) Her appeal for action loses its force when we note that in the UK, where they have more stringent laws banning terrorism,  Tamil fundraising there goes on regardless, not because Scotland Yard has gone to sleep, but because fundraising, aggressive or not, for a recognized purpose is not cause for concern.

iii) Urging the Canadian government to protect the Tamils from themselves seems not only an intrusion into (both!) their affairs and absurd, but it also fails to take into account Canada’s international position vis-a-vis the conflict in Sri Lanka.

Recent Canadian governments have taken the position that has given them the freedom to be engaged with developments in Sri Lanka’s peace process, without losing contact with either party. Seeing how a contrary policy has made it difficult for the US to talk to Iran about Iraq, and India to be limited in the role it can play in Sri Lanka’s peace process, emphasizes Canada’s pragmatic approach to international affairs that has given them a special place in the world.

iv) Using hackneyed phrases like “culture of fear” and “exporting terror” to try and elevate her thesis to some KGB-type of operation being conducted by the Tamils in Canada and elsewhere, is a blatant attempt to mischaracterize the intentions of the Tamils, and give credence to the activities of organized trouble makers and mercenaries whose only contribution to the humanitarian work or peace in Sri Lanka is to try and destroy both.

9. Ms Becker is no doubt a conscientious human rights investigator, but the nature of the study and the results do not justify the conclusions she has drawn from it, or to make the recommendations she has for action by the Canadian government. But she would do well to spend time in Sri Lanka without her usual handlers and see for herself about the plight of Tamils, the human rights violations they are subjected to daily, and why Tamils abroad have to work so hard to raise the massive amounts of funding needed.

The report trivializes the Tamils’ struggle for self-determination. By ignoring the wider issues surrounding the Tamils in Canada and Sri Lanka, and their fight for equality against great odds, for fifty years and more, the investigation has condemned itself to be nothing but a superficial exercise in futility.

Giving, if it means to suffer, when it is meant to help change lives for the better, give life to victims of war and the tsunami, so be it, because Tamils cannot pause for anything or anyone to ensure funds are collected and dispatched without delay to alleviate the suffering of people back home.

• View a printer-friendly version of this article