Now that the President of Sri Lanka has declared victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Canada should demand independent media access to the areas affected by the conflict, especially the displacement camps where thousands of civilians remain trapped and vulnerable. The Sri Lankan government can no longer cite the brutality of the LTTE to justify denying international access to the area. The responsibility to address media freedom and access to humanitarian aid groups now falls exclusively with the Government of Sri Lanka, which continues to publicly deny that there even is a humanitarian crisis, despite the images we all see on our screens.
As a former journalist and war correspondent, Michael Ignatieff is uniquely positioned among Canadian politicians to shine light on a country that the Committee to Protect Journalists ranks as one of the worst offenders of violence against journalists. In his address for World Press Freedom Day on May 1, U.S. President Barack Obama pointed to the seriousness of the situation. Specifically, Obama mentioned the case of J.S. Tissainayagam. Like so many other independent-minded journalists in Sri Lanka, Tissainayagam faces repeated intimidation and death threats. The Financial Times recently reported that Tissainayagam refuses to speak to media and continues to live in fear.
Tissainayagam, however, is one of the lucky ones. Earlier this year, an unidentified motorist gunned down Lasantha Wickramatunga, editor of an English-language weekly newspaper and prominent critic of the Sri Lankan government. Wickramatunga predicted his own death and wrote before he died, “When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me.” In an interview with the BBC, the Sri Lankan Defense Minister called the hit “just another murder,” and deemed all critics such as Wickramatunga traitors. The minister is now suing Wickramatunga’s newspaper for defamation, and even hardliners in the Sinhalese press have discredited police investigations into the killing. Wickramatunga’s family, meanwhile, has fled the country and his wife now works to draw attention to the countless journalists who disappear into white vans never to be heard of again.
The international community has spoken out against Sri Lanka’s pitiful human rights record. On May 17 British Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned the Sri Lankan government there would be “consequences for its actions” if it did not allow humanitarian agencies access to the area. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has indicated the U.S. would block a $1.9 billion USD International Monetary Fund loan to Sri Lanka “until there is a resolution of the conflict.” Canada should acknowledge the tide of international opinion and let the government of Sri Lanka know it does not have a blank check from the international community to commit atrocities in the name of a war it claims is over.
Ignatieff has written and spoken articulately in the past about the importance of the rule of law and media freedom. With Sri Lankan President Rajapakse’s announcement that the country “is now totally freed from the barbaric acts of the LTTE” makes moot the reservations previously expressed in the international community about lending support to one of the world’s most dangerous terrorist outfits. Public statements from Ignatieff and Harper demanding that international media and humanitarian aid groups have access to displacement camps, at the very least, would send a strong message that Canada is serious about upholding democracy and the human rights of people brutalized by a nearly 30-years’ war.
