Victims of war hit by Sri Lanka tax on aid workers

The Sri Lankan Government is trying to siphon off millions of dollars of humanitarian aid by imposing a 0.9 per cent tax on all funding for aid groups, The Times has learnt.
Aid workers said that Burma was the only other country that they could remember imposing such a tax — one of several new measures hampering their efforts to help victims of Sri Lanka’s recent civil war.
The new tax regime was unveiled in 2006 but not enforced immediately. Most agencies did not comply, as they hoped to persuade the Government to change it, according to aid workers. In the past year, however, the Government has grown increasingly hostile towards foreign aid groups and Western donors, accusing many of sympathising with the Tamil Tiger rebels, who were defeated in May.
It has started to insist that local and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) should pay the 0.9 per cent tax on all their funding — backdated to 2005.
That could amount to several million pounds, as there are at least 89 such international and local organisations in Sri Lanka, mostly helping victims of the 2004 tsunami and the 26-year civil war.
They can apply for remittances if they can prove that funds were spent directly on humanitarian relief, rather than training or staff costs, in areas specifically approved by the Government. However, they are having varying degrees of success, with one international body being forced to pay out $320,000 (£196,000) under the new rules. It is still negotiating its tax bill for 2007-09.
“If it’s non-profit work, it shouldn’t be taxed — there should be incentives to work in particular areas instead,” said Jeevan Thiagarajah, the executive director of the Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies.
The Government says that the tax is designed to crack down on NGOs that abused Sri Lankan law and squandered their funds on their own staff after the tsunami. Aid workers, however, say the new rules do not grant tax exemption for all the work they are doing — and want to do — to help 300,000 Tamil refugees in army-run camps. Some say the tax contravenes the international disaster response guidelines drawn up by the Red Cross in 2007 with the participation of 140 countries, including Sri Lanka.
“This is money on which people have already paid tax in their own countries and which is supposed to be helping people in need,” said one aid worker. “This is a desperate money-making measure by the Government.”
Many aid groups are paying the tax out of central contingency funds because donors did not take it into account and would not allow it to come out of their contributions. Another charity worker said: “This runs contrary to everything that the humanitarian aid community stands for.”
Most aid groups already have to pay tax on imported equipment, such as vehicles, as in many other countries. In 2005, Oxfam was forced to pay more than £600,000 in tax for importing 25 Indian four-wheel-drive vehicles to Sri Lanka for tsunami relief — despite the Government announcing a temporary waiver for aid groups.
This time, Oxfam appears to be less hard hit than other international body, as it complied with the new tax regime from the start.
Its accounts show that its Sri Lanka office received £27.9 million between 2005 and 2009, making it potentially liable for £251,100 in tax, under the new regulations. It has, however, managed to negotiate the bill down to £28,000 for 2005-07 and is still discussing the bill for 2007-09, according to sources.
Save the Children Fund, which has received about £35.6 million in Sri Lanka between 2005 and 2009, was originally asked to pay about £350,000 for 2005-09, according to its accounts. It has negotiated that down to about £20,000 for 2005-07, and is still negotiating the tax bill for 2007-09, sources said.
Others have been less successful in their negotiations, mostly because Sri Lankan authorities said that they did not have the correct paperwork. World Vision, the US-based Christian relief group, has paid $120,000 for 2005-06, and made advance payments of $200,000 for the following three years, according to its accounts.
“There are vast discrepancies between individual agencies,” said Mr Thiagarajah. “There’s quite a few whose tax files are still open.” (The Timesonline)

No welfare for Sri Lanka's Tamils

The latter stages of the war in Sri Lanka have been carefully choreographed and hidden from the outside world, with the voices of victims silenced through fear and insecurity.
There are allegations of war crimes, rape and torture, summary executions and prolonged bombardments by a government which, it is believed by human rights organisations, killed thousands of its own civilian citizens.
Al Jazeera has conducted its own investigation into the conflict and spoken to Tamils who have suffered and aid workers who have remained silent until now, revealing testimonies that call into question the version of events Sri Lanka's government wants the world to believe.
After enduring months of appalling conditions in the final stages of the war between the Sri Lankan military and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the suffering continues for the Tamils displaced by the fighting.
One month after the government declared victory in the war, Tamils continue living in what the government calls "welfare" camps but what critics claim are little short of the world's biggest open air prisons.
It is almost impossible for journalists to get into the camps except for strictly controlled government tours such as the one given to Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, in May.
But these visits do not show the reality of life in the camps.
Crammed into camps
More than 250,000 men, women and children are crammed into conditions human rights groups call a disgrace, with as many as 15 people living in tents designed for five.
Contrary to international law there is no freedom of movement for the displaced, and no transparency in registration and interview processes.
The standards and amounts of water, food and sanitation are well below what they should be and half of the children under age five are suffering from malnutrition.
There have been outbreaks of diseases such as Hepatitis A, chicken pox and skin ailments, and there are fears that cholera may develop.
There have already been protests in some of the camps.
Menik farm, one of the biggest camps, was supposed to cater for 100,000 people but is home to 180,000.
Poor conditions
"We are now in refugee centres and there is no proper water, food or sanitation for us," one Tamil refugee says.

The refugees, who are guarded by armed security services, are scared to speak out for fear of reprisals.
Even international aid workers are scared.
"The conditions are very poor, shelters are inadequate, the water and sanitation is extremely inadequate, they are extremely overcrowded," one aid worker says.
"And what they all share in common are the IDPs [internally displaced persons] are detained within the camps, they are surrounded by razor wire and no one's allowed out so, yes, I think I would call them prison camps."
Abuse allegations
There are also increasing allegations of sexual and physical abuse, impossible to prove conclusively without independent investigation which the government refuses.
"There are cases of abuse by the army, some of the cases include girls and women who have become pregnant," the aid worker says.
"I couldn't say who the perpetrators were … there's also harassment and inappropriate behaviour among the IDPs, and because of the frustration those incidents are growing, but I think the more serious incidents have tended to be from the army."
The government rejects all allegations, maintaining that it has liberated the Tamil civilians from the tyranny of the LTTE and saying the accusations are part of a propaganda campaign.
"At one time it was murder. Other times it was killings. And now it has come to the extent of rape and other sexual abuses," says Rohita Bogollagama, Sri Lanka's foreign minister.
"These are all made up. And in the event any such abuses is there, we have had the most disciplined administration in taking care of the IDPs all this time. Why is it surfacing now? And why is it being planted like this? Because they want to discredit every effort of the government of Sri Lanka."
Those who are criticising the government have little power or influence.
The UN voted against pushing for a war crimes investigation, mainly because countries such as China and Russia, which supported Sri Lanka in the war, were against the move.
But the strenuous denials that the Sri Lankan military continually shelled and bombed the so-called safe zones during the war do not convince everyone, especially those who say they endured it.
Surviving witness
One man who was in the conflict area until May 16 - just days before the war ended - says he knows the Sri Lankan military was shelling them during the final assault despite government claims all civilians were out of the zone.
Independently verifying government views of the conflict has been impossible [AFP] "The rounds of gunfire were by the Sri Lankan army [SLA]. We know for sure it is the SLA because of the sound. We had difficulty in moving and running as there were people falling dead and lying all over the place and we tripping on dead bodies as we ran for our lives.
"The people died in buses, bunkers and open spaces as they were hit by bombs landing in areas wherever they were. We also saw people being shot at close range by the Sri Lankan army."
The Sri Lankan government is refusing to allow neutral observers to examine the combat zone which gives ammunition to those who claim a clean-up operation is being carried out to hide evidence.
John Holmes, the UN's humanitarian chief, says it is "the primary responsibility of any government to establish accountability".
"If you look at the record of the Sri Lankan government … if you look at its records on impunity … records as one of the top countries in the world with the highest number of disappearance, you may appreciate that we would like this to be an international, as opposed to a national, investigation."
World silent
The UN is co-operating with the Sri Lankan government in developing zone five at Menik farm even though its own guidelines state displaced people should not be put in camps with more than 20,000 people.
Assurances have been given by the government that 80 per cent of the civilians will be able to return to their homes within 180 days but critics feel this is an unrealistic pledge.
The building of banks, a post office and stores lead some to believe that this is the start of a semi permanent settlement.
The government also promises peace and reconciliation, a fair political process and a life for the Tamils free from tyranny.
But there questions about who will keep the government accountable since international criticism and action have so far been insignificant at best.
Governments and aid organisations have remained silent for a variety of reasons and the people living in the squalid camps of Sri Lanka have paid the price for that silence. (By Tony Birtley, Asia correspondent, Al Jazeera)

Sri Lanka: Presidential Secretary calls for spy units throughout public sector

By Wije Dias 6 July 2009
President Mahinda Rajapakse’s secretary, Lalith Weeratunga, who heads Sri Lanka’s civil service, has called for undercover intelligence units to be installed in every public sector workplace to spy on workers under the pretext of curbing corruption and inefficiency.
Officers of the police criminal investigation department would be deployed incognito, giving the government a “mole in every state department,” the Presidential Secretary proposed on June 27 in a speech delivered to the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute. Weeratunga expressed confidence that “the intelligence services could play a pivotal role in combating waste, corruption and irregularities in the government sector”.
Recalling the use of the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) by President J.R. Jayewardene’s 1978-88 administration to monitor state institutions, Weeratunga said he had recommended a similar set-up to Rajapakse “as part of the government’s strategy to tackle corruption”. The NIB combined the intelligence units from the army, navy, air force, and police under the control of the military, with its chief reporting directly to the Ministry of Defence.
Combatting corruption is a thin veil for the real aim of the spying project, which is to discipline and intimidate public sector workers while the Rajapakse regime demands deep spending cuts, job losses and speedup. That was spelled out in the June 30 editorial of the government-owned Daily News.
The editorial praised Rajapakse for declaring an “all-out war” on waste and irregularities in the public service “now that the main war is over,” referring to the military victory over the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). While endorsing Weeratunga’s call as a “timely move” against corruption and bribery, which had become “virtually institutionalised in the State sector,” the editorial declared:
“Such an arrangement could also oversee the performance aspect of government departments to ensure optimum worker output. In fact such an intelligence body could go into the whole gamut of ills affecting the public sector inefficiency. Today state departments and corporations have become synonymous with idleness, lethargy and inefficiency.”
The editorial concluded that “raising discipline in the work place is one of the main pluses that could be achieved through such a project ... not to mention the massive slice of funds that will be saved by the State”.
This makes clear that the proposal marks a new offensive against the working conditions and basic democratic rights of workers, on top of a wage freeze that has already been imposed. The undercover agents would be tasked with supplying the regime with the names of any workers who oppose the government politically or plan to resist its austerity demands.
The announcement further underscores the meaning of Rajapakse’s declaration of an “economic war for nation building” in the wake of the LTTE’s defeat. The anti-Tamil war was continued for 26 years as a means of dividing the working people along communal lines. Having militarily crushed the LTTE, the politico-military cabal that surrounds Rajapakse is intensifying the attack on the working class as a whole.
The regime is trying to use the intimidatory political atmosphere of its victory parades organised in partnership with the Buddhist hierarchy, and the cowardly connivance of the opposition parties, to stifle any resistance to the rule of the Sinhala elite. Behind the official celebrations, the government is stepping up its efforts to pay for the financial crisis created by the war, exacerbated by the global economic slump.
A June 30 editorial in the right-wing Island newspaper expressed the concerns of sections of the elite itself about the Rajapakse cabal’s increasingly arbitrary methods and fears that they could spark unrest after “having won a bloody war at a tremendous cost”.
“State intelligence services, no doubt, are to be commended for their outstanding contribution to the country’s victory over terrorism. But, using them to cleanse State institutions may be likened to training multi-barrel rocket launchers on an illicit brewery! The forces that are unleashed in response to a threat must be proportionate to it. Else, the ‘solution’ ends up being part of the problem.”
The editorial voiced apprehension about “the emergence of an outfit like the much dreaded Gestapo” and a “totalitarian state” as in George Orwell’s dystopian novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four. “This country, we believe, can do without a Big Brother. (We have enough and more Rajapakse Brothers-- Rajapakses to right of us, Rajapakses to left of us, Rajapakses in front of us, Rajapakses behind us and Rajapakses above us!).
The Island has been in the forefront of whipping up Sinhala chauvinism and backing Rajapakse’s war. Now, with Rajapakse and his cronies rapidly moving to concentrate power in their hands, this section of the elite has become nervous about the prospect of political unrest as well as the loss of their own privileges within the Colombo establishment.
Another Island commentary on July 4, written by Tisaranee Gunasekara, pointed out that the government’s claim to be fighting corruption lacked credibility following the lack of any legal action against the ministers and senior officials that the Supreme Court had faulted over the sales of the Insurance Corporation and Lanka Marine Services Ltd. Gunasekara said the real aim of the proposed “spy service” was to “keep tabs on less than loyal public servants and to further tighten the control of the First Family [the Rajapakses] over the state”.
The spy unit proposal is part of the government’s far-reaching assault on basic legal and democratic rights, which has escalated, not abated, since the end of the war. The Rajapakse administration has incarcerated nearly 300,000 Tamil civilians without trial in violation of the constitution, extended its media censorship by reactivating the Press Council and retained extraordinary emergency powers and the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act.
None of the “left” parties or the trade union bureaucracies, not to speak of the parties of the “old left” that are entrenched in the government, have said a word about this latest repressive move. Having all adapted to the anti-Tamil war, in one way or the other, they now are bent on working out their own deals with the post-war government as it seeks to impose the financial burden of the war and the world recession on workers.
The Socialist Equality Party is the only political organisation that consistently opposed the war against the Tamil minority and demanded the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the military from the north and east, while not giving any political concession to the national separatist blind-ally perspective of the LTTE. As the SEP insisted all along, the racist war was aimed against the working people of all communities, Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim.
The Rajapakse regime’s latest police-state proposal confirms this analysis and demonstrates how quickly the military victory over the LTTE in the north and east has intensified the offensive against living standards and basic rights. Only the working class, guided by a socialist and internationalist program, independent of all factions of the ruling elite, can confront and defeat these growing threats with the support of the oppressed masses.

news:www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jul2009/sris-j06.shtml

War crime suspects may see UK immunity loophole closed

Afua Hirsch, legal affairs correspondent
The Guardian, Monday 6 July 2009
Article history

There has been a huge increase in action against suspected war criminals by the UK authorities, the Guardian has learned, as anti-genocide campaigners await an announcement on Tuesday on whether the government will act to end immunity for genocide suspects.
In the last six months, there has been a five-fold increase in cases screened for possible war crimes by the Border and Immigration Agency. Of the 1,006 cases, immigration action was recommended in 121 cases, with a further eight suspects referred to the police.
The news comes days after a report by the Aegis Trust anti-genocide group revealed that 18 suspected war criminals from countries including Sri Lanka, Iraq and Sierra Leone were living with impunity in the UK.
The individuals, most of whom have not been subject to any legal proceedings, include a Janjaweed militia member, accused of involvement in civilian attacks in the Darfur region of Sudan, and Chucky Taylor, son of the former Liberian president Charles Taylor, who is on trial for war crimes at a UN tribunal in The Hague.
"This jump in activity by the war crimes team is to be welcomed," said Nick Donovan, head of campaigns at the Aegis Trust. "But these figures also highlight the need to close legal loopholes which prevent the prosecution of war criminals here."
Campaigners argue that gaps in the law mean people suspected of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes cannot be prosecuted in the UK for acts which took place before 2001.
In addition, the requirement of "residence" for war crimes means that asylum seekers and other suspects who do not meet the legal definition of residence cannot be prosecuted.
Sally Ireland, of human rights group Justice, said: "People suspected of some of the worst crimes in history – including mass murder – are able to visit the UK and even live freely in our communities."
"The suspects are in limbo," said David Brown of the Aegis Trust. "The government has refused them asylum because they are suspected of war crimes or crimes against humanity and they don't qualify for refugee status as a result. But they also can't be removed because of the risk of torture or that they won't get a fair trial."
The House of Lords has proposed amendments to the coroners and justice bill to close the loopholes. The government's response is expected tomorrow.
"There is a real desire to deal with these genocide suspects," Brown said. "They are a headache for the government."

news:www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/06/war-crime-suspects-uk-law

Mullaiththeevu town declared HSZ: GA

The Government Agent of Mullaiththeevu, Imelda Sukumar, on Sunday reportedly told a section of the uprooted Tamils of Vanni sheltered at the internment camp situated at "Sahanagama" in Pulmoaddai that the town of Mullaiththeevu has been declared High Security Zone by the Sri Lankan military, dashing any hope of resettlement in the coastal township of Vanni. Hundreds of Tamils captured by the Sri Lankan military are kept in the centre. Ms. Imelda Sukumar spoke to the IDPs and recorded their grievances and urgent needs. She further told Vanni IDPS now sheltered in Pulmoaddai: "Under the present circumstances you have to stay in Pulmoaddai camps for another three months. Thereafter all families displaced from Mullaiththeeivu would be shifted to Maangku'lam as the Mullaiththeevu town has been declared as High Security Zone." "We cannot resettle IDPs of Mullaiththeevu in their original places. The District Secretariat office is also to be relocated in Maangku'lam," media reports quoted the GA as saying. Later she handed over salaries to the employees of the Mullai District Secretariat and Divisional Office who are sheltered in Pulmoaddai camp.
http://tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=29728