Archive for May, 2009
The Brewing Humanitarian Crisis In Sri Lanka
This is the video shot by Channel Four News from the United Kingdom that apparently warranted their expulsion from Sri Lanka. They talked about children being separated from their families, reported sexual abuse, food and fresh water shortages among other challenges. Watch the interviews they took with individuals within the camp. Listen to their stories. Then watch the government’s response and wonder how dangerous this situation is moving forward.
The Tamil people of Sri Lanka have been undeniably been subjected to a whole host of human rights abuses at the hands of their government. Having innocent civilians imprisoned in camps like these is an extremely dangerous situation and risks the lives of everyone who is imprisoned.
My concern for innocent civilians stuck in the war zone has seen me accused by Sinhalese persons of being a ‘terrorist sympathizer’. What has become clear to me, in reading the responses I’ve received from pro-Sinhalese folks is that there is a huge issue in separating the condition and treatment of the Tamil people, from that of the LTTE. It seems concern about humanitarian disaster, and possible genocide against Tamil civilians, at least to them is the same as supporting or sympathizing with the LTTE. If this is the mind set, and the government supporters are unable to separate the plight of the people from the LTTE and recognize that those are two very different issues as I have, how can any responsible person believe that these civilians are safe under these conditions?
The BBC, New York Times, CNN and other very legitimate media sources are being denied access to the war zone and the vulnerable populations in these camps, and the world is left to rely on the word of the Sri Lankan Government. This is a government that attacks virtually all international media sources, claims that they’re all in bed with the LTTE, refers to Human Rights Watch, a respected Human Rights organization ‘War on Sri Lanka’.
I think all Canadians need to recognize that there is a humanitarian crisis impacting hundreds of thousands of people who have had nothing to do with the conflict and whose lives are now at grave risk. We need to understand you can be sympathetic and concerned about the lives of Tamil people without being supportive of the LTTE or terrorism. We can’t allow internment camps to house an ethnic minority group for a period of up to three years, especially after what has been such a long and divisive civil war. Especially without journalists, and international aid workers and peacekeepers present to ensure their safety.
Sinhalese people in Colombo or anywhere else in the world can continue to call me whatever they’d like, but the fact remains, the situation on the ground in Sri Lanka has all the ingredients for disaster, and it is incumbent on the international community to ensure civilians are protected from violence, mass killings and the other realities that the world has come to know happen when folks are singled out by ethnicity and interned in camps.
We have to recognize internment camps have absolutely nothing to do with the LTTE whatsoever and that this is a decision the Sri Lankan government has made on it’s own. Government’s need to be held to a higher standard. It’s easier for the world to step in right now to address the humanitarian issues, than it will be later on.
Let’s get this right for once as an international community, and step in and solve a problem before it gets anymore out of hand.
4 Comments »The World Needs to Tell Sri Lanka 'No Internment Camps'
I have great difficulty understanding why in 2009 anyone could think this kind of treatment of an ethnic minority is OK? Wasn’t the lesson we were supposed to take from past atrocities of ethnic minorities ‘never again’? Didn’t the world dedicate itself to the protection of civilians in times of war, and from government sanctioned violence and despair? Hasn’t that pledge been made again and again?
How is it we can allow a government that has been accused by Human Rights Watch of ‘disappearing’ (read: carrying out mass murders) of 18 000 Tamil civilians to block UN, Red Cross, NGO and media access to some 300 000 internally displaced people they have decided to intern in concentration camps. There have been numerous reports of parents being separated from children, rapes, and chronic shortages of the most basic necessities to sustain human life. They are refusing aid for those they’ve interned. They are not protecting the lives of their captives.
The 300 000 Tamils the Sri Lankan government has interned in these camps have lost virtually all of their rights and their basic dignity is under constant attack daily. They are not free to leave and return home. Stuck behind barbed wire fences, guarded by machine gun wielding soldiers, they’ve lost any rights one would expect citizens to have in a country with any claim to be free or democratic.
Such treatment makes reconciliation impossible, and is bound to lead to massive loss of human life, through either deliberate genocidal acts or humanitarian crisis brought about through irresponsible government action. That is bound to lead to more violence.
Below is yet another video, from yet another news organization about the plight of Tamils in these government run concentration camps.
It’s 2009. We’ve seen this show before. Never have concentration camps been used for good. Never has an ethnic minority group been well served by being detained without rights, media access or the basic necessities to sustain life. We know the outcome of these situations. We need to stop this one before it gets any worse.
The international community needs to give Sri Lanka a final warning. Tell the Sri Lankan government to open up, let the UN in, allow the Red Cross and NGOs to save lives, and the media to tell the story and be there to witness the treatment of these civilians. Should they choose not to once again, then it is incumbent on the United Nations to invoke ‘right to protect’ and step in – against the government’s will and protect the lives of these 300 000 civilians.
1 Comment »Update on the Green Energy Act and Toronto Hydro's Illegal Application
The Green Energy Act passed. I don’t think anyone was surprised by that part. It passed with some amendments however. The most laughable was the inclusion of a weak clause about ‘community involvement’ being one of the lenses this bill is seen through. If we cut through the Orwellian doublespeak we’ll see that this bill still lives up to Dalton McGuinty’s promise to strip environmental protections and the democratic rights of citizens away from the planning process. He proved with the passage of this legislation that he is not a true democrat in his views on governance. His ‘father knows best’ approach will be punished at the polls, that I am certain of.
What was interesting to see however was who didn’t vote for this odious piece of legislation. Premier McGuinty wasn’t present to vote for his anti democratic, anti environment bill. MPPs Best (Scarborough Guildwood), Berardinetti (Scarborough Southwest), or Arthurs (Pickering Scarborough East) all had a case of the ‘legislative flu’ that saw them unable to attend. I have said very clearly before that the passage of this bill would almost certainly cost Margarett Best her seat in Scarborough Guildwood and could well cost Berardinetti and Athurs their Scarborough waterfront seats as well. If they think ducking is the same as standing up for their communities, they are sadly mistaken and I’m sure the opposition parties and voters will not let them off that easy for siding with their Party Leader and Deputy Leader’s attacks on our community.
I left the Ontario Liberal Party over the Premier and Deputy Premier’s name calling, you figure they could have at least come out publicly to correct the distorted view of Scarborough residents.
On the topic of distortion – Joyce McLean and Jack Simpson got a bit of a surprise last week as did Mark Patterson of the Ministry of Natural Resources who happens to be the bureaucrat who in his professional opinion found nothing wrong with a Project Evaluation Report that contained well over three hundred violations of law. He still approved it. You see Patterson and his friends at the Ministry of Natural Resources lost their ‘no’ stamps after getting so used to approving whatever industry sent their way.
Approving this illegal application that contained more than three hundred violations of law was a mistake (To Toronto Hydro Energy Services – if this claim is untrue, please have someone in your legal department email me immediately and I will correct this. Naturally we both know it is a provable fact your Project Evaluation Report did in fact contain well over three hundred violations of law, so I don’t expect to hear from you on this.)
As could be expected Scarborough Bluffs residents pushed back and schooled Joyce McLean and Jack Simpson on their complete and utter ignorance of the environment and the legitimate risks they are blindly proposing for the platform they had hoped to construct. Their lack of knowledge or use of science is astounding. They think having a diver go into the water on a single day for a few minutes and look for fish is scientifically rigorous. That is the extent of their evaluation of habitat issues. No samples taken, no consideration for the proximately to wetlands or the impact of their artificial structure to form a reef for invasive species that are known to destroy habitat. No studies of the sediment they intend to stir up. No attempt to understand anything.
Joyce McLean and Jack Simpson both lied repeatedly to members of the community about a number of the aspects of the project. Their report misleads the Province into believing they did things we can and will prove they did not, and frankly if they don’t walk away from this project, I would be surprised if either of them is able to stay employed with Toronto Hydro Energy Services. (Guys, same thing goes, if untrue, will gladly correct on advice of your legal department)
We’ve asked the Ministry of Environment to allow for a real environmental review, one that actually looks at impacts on the environment and not a report was based on one person’s morning ’snorkel’.
Normally the Ministry of Environment ignores those requests. But normally Project developers have IQ’s higher than Lake Ontario’s water temperature (Lake is approximately 42 F today). Normally project developers have experience developing projects like this. Neither can be said for Toronto Hydro Energy Services. We will take this fight as far as we can, we will stop at nothing that is within our legal rights to halt this process.
Joyce Mclean and Jack Simpson – you’re on notice from Scarborough Residents that we will fight you to the end and not let you get away with your illegal application, your lies, phony science, twisted facts and abuse of the good people of Scarborough.
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