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Rights Issue Needs Higher Place in Talks - Analysts
IPS,
February 3.
COLOMBO, Feb 3 (IPS) - Sri Lanka's peace talks, now entering its sixth
month, could lose credibility unless human rights issues are pushed even
higher up at the top of the agenda, rights activists here warn
''Unless human rights issues are discussed the credibility of peace
talks would be at stake,'' says Dr Rohan Edirisinha, director of the Centre
for Policy Alternatives, a private think tank.
As the fifth round of talks are held this week in Berlin, rights groups
are pushing for a separate memorandum of understanding on human rights
between the government and Tamil rebels, to be monitored by a committee of
foreign and local experts.
The current memorandum between the two sides, in force since early last
year, covers the ceasefire and is monitored by a Norway-led committee.
The Feb.7-8 talks will take up the issue of human rights and allegations
of large-scale conscription of children by the Tigers - who at the last
round of talks said they were ''not recruiting'' youngsters and would not
do so in the future.
This week's talks will have Martin, a former secretary general of
Amnesty International, in attendance to provide advice on the human rights
perspective and help shape a human rights agenda as part of the peace process.
His role was agreed upon by the government and rebel sides at the
January talks in Thailand, and came after pressure to address the issue of
rights in the nearly two-decade conflict, under which the Liberation Tigers
of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has been fighting for a homeland for minority Tamils.
During a three-day visit to Sri Lanka last week, U.N. Children's Fund
(UNICEF) executive director Carol Bellamy won the latest assurances from
the rebels that they would not recruit children to their ranks.
But she conceded that similar assurances have been given in the past --
and that the Tigers have not always followed up their words with deeds.
”I have been involved in these things long enough not to be naive about
assurances, whether from the government or from non-state parties,” she
said. She said the LTTE could prove it is serious about stopping
recruitment -- and about returning child combatants to their families -- by
developing a concrete action plan.
''We are however hopeful the LTTE will keep to its word,'' she added.
Some 350 children have been returned by the rebels to their families
since November 2001, while 730 reported cases of child recruitment yet to
be resolved, says UNICEF.
Human rights groups claim that hundreds have been recruited by the
rebels during the ceasefire.
The University Teachers for Human Rights, a Colombo-based group
comprising Tamil academics opposed to the LTTE, says the rebels have been
demanding one child per family in the eastern town of Batticaloa. ''The
demand of one child per family was aired openly at a public meeting on
Human Rights Day (Dec. 10, 2002) by top LTTE leaders,'' it said in a
statement.
Analysts say the LTTE's change into a non-militant force - which it
committed in earlier peace talks -- will not happen overnight. In this
context, they said, civil society and other groups must put the pressure on
the rebels on human rights issues.
The 'Island' newspaper, in a Feb. 1 editorial, accused peace groups of
neglecting children's issues in order to be able to keep claiming success
for the peace talks.
''The UNICEF director cannot take the easy path of some of the
peace-seeking ambassadors in Colombo have done; Save the Peace and Damn the
Children. That is exactly what has been happening for the past year,'' said
the paper, which has been critical of Colombo's handling of the peace process.
The Ceasefire Monitoring Mission has said there is evidence of the
Tigers conscripting more than 300 children up to November. Save the
Children Norway, a child rights group, estimates that the LTTE could have
anywhere between 2,000 to 4,000 child combatants.
Jehan Perera, director at the National Peace Council, believes the
answer to the human rights issue lies in civil society pressure building up
in the north itself - the area most affected by the conflict -- against
rights violations.
''There is no other way. Can the local or international community punish
the Tigers? What sanctions can they impose?'' he asked.
The Non Violent Peace Force, a Canadian-based NGO working on the lines
of the Peace Brigade, is sending three volunteers in the next few months to
work on building civil society structures in the rebel-dominated north.
''Whether the LTTE will allow them to work there, remains to be seen.
But the group wants to help set up peace-building structures in the
north,'' Perera said. The group has worked before in Israel, Palestine and
South America.
CPA's Edrisinha, who will be in Berlin as a resource person in a
government-rebel subcommittee on political structures, said the proposed
human rights agreement would be a kind of charter covering issues like
freedom of speech, expression, women and children's rights, and right to
dissent.
He said similar agreements have been implemented in other war-torn
countries like Guatemala and El Salvador.
Meantime, many are also are watching the health of Tiger chief
negotiator Anton Balasingham, who is suffering from a kidney ailment that
makes traveling long distances difficult. The venue for this week's talks
was shifted by Norwegian mediators from Thailand to Berlin, much closer for
the London-based Balasingham to travel to. (END/IPS/AP/IP/HD/FS/JS/03)
Published: Mon Feb 3 11:02:44 EST 2003
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