U.S. Rights Report on Sri Lanka doesn’t match its own record

The Global Human Rights Enforcer’s rhetoric does not resonate with its own position on the UN Convention: To date the United States has not ratified the International Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

The U.S. report highlights the ‘deplorable’ living conditions of state prisons. It says “According to the Prison Headquarters Statistics Division, there was a total of 19,067 prisoners, both convicted (10,063) and unconvicted (9,004) as of October.”

This reference is made when the latest Amnesty International (2015/16) Report castigates U.S. authorities saying “Over 80,000 prisoners at any given time were held in conditions of physical and social deprivation in federal and state prisons throughout the country.”

The State Department Human Rights Report underscores arbitrary arrests and detention in Sri Lanka: “Civil society groups and human rights activists reported incidents of persons arrested and detained on unsubstantiated charges.”

The AI 15/16 report discloses “Detainees held at the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay continued to be denied their human rights under the USA’s flawed “global war” framework and its views on the non-applicability of international human rights law to the detentions.”

The AI 15/16 report on political prisoners and detainees in the U.S. states “The government detained and imprisoned a small number of persons on political grounds. The government permitted access to such persons on a regular basis by international humanitarian organizations. Authorities granted only irregular access to those providing local legal counsel, however, and conversations with clients frequently took place in the presence of police or military personnel.”

Under the Role of Police and Security Apparatus the U.S. report (on Sri Lanka) states “According to civil society, military intelligence operatives conducted domestic surveillance operations and harassed or intimidated members of civil society in conjunction with, or independent of, police. The army, navy, and air force report directly to the president, although most of their daily operations are handled by the secretary for defense.”

The Amnesty International 15/16 report discloses (in U.S.) “At least 43 people across 25 states died after police used Tasers on them, bringing the total number of Taser-related deaths since 2001 to at least 670. Most of the victims were not armed and did not appear to pose a threat of death or serious injury when the Taser was deployed.”

The State Department which frequently lectures globally advising other nations to emulate its own achievements on freedom of speech and press notes the following in its report on Sri Lanka’s condition in that area: “A significant level of surveillance continued, particularly in the country’s north and east. Plainclothes personnel belonging to the state’s security apparatus visited civil society individuals and groups from these regions. According to civil society, such personnel, frequently deputed from the police and less frequently military officers, attended civil society organizations’ training sessions or workshops uninvited, particularly when these programs dealt with human rights, transitional justice, and media freedom, among other issues. They openly took photographs and footage of protesters and victims’ families, questioned event organizers, and regularly made follow-up visits directly to their homes.”

The Freedom House 2015 report state of U.S. credibility of freedom of speech and press: “The United States retains a diverse media landscape and strong legal protections for freedom of expression. Nonetheless, a combination of developments has placed journalists under new pressures in recent years, and these persisted during 2014. The most serious problems stem from tensions between press freedom and U.S. national security and counterterrorism efforts. They include government surveillance of journalists, government attempts to compel reporters to reveal the sources of leaked information, and Obama administration policies that severely limit interactions between journalists and officials.”

The Washington report highlights the plight and condition of ethnic minorities in Sri Lanka: “Both local and Indian-origin Tamils maintained they suffered longstanding, systematic discrimination in university education, government employment, and other matters controlled by the government. Tamils claimed the government intentionally supported Sinhalese emigration to the north and east to diminish the Tamil-speaking group’s claim to majority status in any single geographical region of the country. Tamils throughout the country, but especially in the north and east, reported security forces regularly surveilled or harassed members of their community, especially young and middle-aged Tamil men.”

This year, the Asian Tribune takes a progressive step forward, while highlighting the state department annual human rights report on Sri Lanka, referring to current reports of reputed global human rights organizations which present the human rights record of the United States, the global leader who enforces human rights practices, good governance and rule of law in other nations, and professes what measure, those nations, need to adopt to emulate American standards of good governance.

The introductory paragraphs we have carried comparing the U.S. record and credentials in recent times of its human rights practices, and its advise to other nations in what way they need to enhance or restore the high standards to universal humanitarian rights do not seem to resonate.

The Asian Tribune, under this premise, will reason out why the rhetoric and credentials of the United States do not match, scrutinizing the state department human rights report on Sri Lanka for the year 2015 and recently released reports of U.S. credentials by leading global human rights organizations.

The Enforced Disappearance, which the state department report is referring to the Sri Lankan scenario, is internationally governed by the UN International Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance to which the United States has not signed, assented or ratified. Sri Lanka signed it on 10 December 2015 short of its assent and ratification. Nevertheless the Washington human rights report has advised the Government of Sri Lanka to ratify the convention when it stated its official position in this manner.

(Quote) Article 5 requiring domestic legislation criminalizing CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY remains insufficiently defined and inappropriate to an operative paragraph in the text. As we have noted, the lack of a DEFENSE OF SUPERIOR ORDERS in Article 6(2) could unfairly subject unwitting military and law enforcement personnel to the possibility of prosecution for actions that they did not and could not know were prohibited. (End Quote)

When Convention took shape and was ready for global ratification, and when the U.S. refuse to sign, assent or ratify, the Human Rights Watch in a July 24, 2009 statement declared:

“Upon signing the Convention against Enforced Disappearance, the US will be in a stronger position to raise concerns about “disappearances” elsewhere and encourage other states to join the convention. For instance, the widespread view that the US facilitated or supported hundreds of enforced disappearances carried out by the Musharraf government, often in cases related to the “war on terror,” has contributed to the growing disillusionment with the US among moderate Pakistanis. Signature of the treaty by both the US and Pakistan would also go a long way toward regaining the trust of moderate Pakistanis and building a positive relationship with the Pakistani people and its government.”

As of December 2015, 95 states have signed the convention and 51 have ratified it.

The state department human right report on Sri Lanka states: “In its August 2014 report to the UN General Assembly, the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) noted the number of outstanding cases of enforced or involuntary disappearances rose from 5,676 at the end of 2012 to 5,731. OnNovember 9-18, the WGEID visited the country at the government’s invitation. In its concluding press statement, the group noted “an almost complete lack of accountability and decisive and sustained efforts to search for the truth–in particular the determination of the fate or whereabouts of those who disappeared–as well as the absence of a comprehensive and effective reparation program and social, psychological, and economic support for the relatives.” It welcomed the Siresena government’s commitment to measures of redress, including establishing a dedicated Office of Missing Persons and a proposed Commission for Truth, Justice, Reconciliation, and Nonrecurrence. It called upon the government to ratify the International Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, introduce an autonomous crime of enforced disappearance in the penal code, repeal the PTA, and conduct a thorough and independent investigation into all allegations of instances of secret detention.”

The report further says: “The September 16 OISL reviewed reliable information on hundreds of cases ofenforced disappearances that occurred during the tenure of the previous government in various parts of the country from 2002 to 2011, with particular prevalence in the Northern and Eastern provinces (see section 1.a.). The report concluded the mass detention regime after the end of hostilities also led to enforced disappearances. It also concluded authorities deprived a considerable number of victims of their liberty systematically and on a widespread scale and then refused to acknowledge this deprivation or concealed the fate and whereabouts of the disappeared person, effectively removing such persons from the protection of the law and placing them at serious risk. Family members of the disappeared persons were also subjected to reprisals and denied the right to an effective remedy, including the right to the truth. Those who disappeared after handing themselves over to the army at the end of the conflict were deliberately targeted because they were, or were perceived to be, affiliated with LTTE forces.”

Even when the U.S. ratifies a human rights treaty, it often adds a reservation, declaration, or understanding that negates protection of certain rights. The U.S. generally makes two kinds of reservations to treaties:

Declares treaty “not self-executing.” This means that the treaty alone is not enforceable in domestic courts unless Congress passes legislation to implement its provisions. If the United States fails to pass the necessary legislation to uphold its international obligations, people whose treaty rights are violated have no recourse in domestic courts.

Limits scope of treaty. The United States frequently makes reservations limiting the scope of the treaty so as not to supersede the rights protected in the U.S. Constitution. For example, if a treaty prohibits cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, the U.S. will interpret this clause to mean the same thing as the Constitutional prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. In some cases, the U.S. says that it will not enact any part of a treaty that conflicts with the U.S. Constitution, as interpreted by the United States.

Such limiting reservations mean that the decisions of international bodies on what constitutes a violation of an international treaty are superseded by domestic courts interpreting domestic laws created by Congress. Thus, rather than accepting the international system of human rights law when it signs international human rights treaties, the U.S. continues to rely on domestic protections alone.

Sri Lanka: Take note of this.

Sri Lanka’s Prison and Detention Center Conditions the report states:

(Quote) Prison conditions were poor due to old infrastructure, overcrowding, and shortage of sanitary and other basic facilities. A few of the larger prisons had their own hospitals, but the majority were staffed only by a medical unit. Authorities transferred prisoners requiring medical care in smaller prisons to the closest local hospital for treatment.

Physical Conditions: In many prisons inmates reportedly slept on concrete floors and often lacked natural light or sufficient ventilation. According to the Prison Headquarters Statistics Division, there was a total of 19,067 prisoners, both convicted (10,063) and unconvicted (9,004) as of October. (Unconvicted prisoners refer to those held on “remand” while awaiting trial.) The commissioner of prisons estimated that on average the prison population exceeded the system’s capacity by 60 percent.

Administration: There were no ombudsmen to handle prisoner complaints. The law mandates that magistrates visit prisons once a month to monitor conditions and hold private interviews with prisoners, but this rarely occurred because the backlog of cases in courts made it difficult for magistrates to schedule such visits. Authorities allowed prisoners and detainees, except those held in informal detention facilities, access to family members and religious observance.

Independent Monitoring: The Prison Welfare Society was the primary domestic organization conducting visits to prisoners and was supposed to visit each prison once per month. It was charged with examining the conditions of detention for prisoners and conveying their complaints to the individual prison superintendent and commissioner of prisons. (End Quote)

The Amnesty International 2015/2016 report declares the following details of Prison Condition in the U.S.

(Quote) Over 80,000 prisoners at any given time were held in conditions of physical and social deprivation in federal and state prisons throughout the country.

In September, a landmark settlement to a class action lawsuit, Ashker v. Brown, virtually eliminated prolonged and indefinite isolation in California’s Security Housing Units (SHUs). Under the terms of the settlement, the overwhelming majority of prisoners held in SHUs were due to be released to general prison population units. In recognition of the harmful effects of long-term solitary confinement, prisoners who have been held for over 10 years in SHUs will be immediately transferred to a Restricted Custody General Population Unit, to begin a two-year programme to reintegrate them into the general prison population.

The release in March of an “independent” audit into the use of solitary confinement in Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) facilities reported a number of inadequacies in the system, including in mental health provision and re-entry programmes for those held for long periods in isolation. Its recommendations did not go far enough to improve the harmful effects the isolation regime exerts on prisoners’ physical and mental health, or to bring the BOP in line with its international obligations.(End Quote)

On Arbitrary Arrest and Detention, Washington makes this determination of the Sri Lankan scene:

“The PTA does not clearly define what constitutes an arbitrary arrest. Under the PTA, security forces have sweeping powers to search, arrest, and detain. Detainees may be held for up to 18 months without charge. Many detainees were held arbitrarily for substantially longer periods than this without charge, including in irregular places of detention. The government reported it was holding 162 “unconvicted” prisoners under the PTA (160 men and two women) as of October and that all such prisoners had access to family member visits, attorneys, magistrates, medical officers, members of the clergy, and representatives of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL).

“On October 12, 217 Tamil prisoners, including former LTTE cadres detained in 14 prisons, commenced a hunger strike demanding immediate release. They accused the Siresena government of not fulfilling its promises regarding political prisoners and called on the president, the prime minister, and the leader of the opposition to resolve their cases. OnOctober 12, the commissioner of prisons reported that, of 201 political prisoners, 40 were issued court orders citing punitive measures, and indictments were yet to be filed against the remaining 161 suspects.

“According to human rights groups, police stations held an unknown number of irregular detainees, as did the CID, the Terrorist Investigation Division, army camps, and other informal detention facilities without charge or trial on allegations of involvement in terrorism-related activities.”

The Asian Tribune now turns to the Amnesty International 15/16 report which gives significant information about the U.S. credential of ‘Counter-Terror-Detention’.

(Quote) Detainees held at the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay continued to be denied their human rights under the USA’s flawed “global war” framework and its views on the non-applicability of international human rights law to the detentions. In its one-year follow-up response to the HRC’s call for administrative detention and military commissions against Guantánamo detainees to be ended, the USA reiterated its erroneous position on extraterritoriality that “obligations under the Covenant apply only with respect to individuals who are both within the territory of a State Party and within its jurisdiction”. To the CERD call to end Guantánamo detentions “without further delay”, the USA responded that it did not agree that the “request bears directly on obligations under the Convention”.

At the end of the year, 107 men were held at Guantánamo. The majority were held without charge or trial. About half had been approved for transfer for at least five years. Twenty-one detainees were transferred out of the base during the year to Estonia, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Mauritania, Oman, the United Arab Emirates and the UK. (End Quote)

Role of the Police and Security Apparatus the State Department Human Rights report gives this description.

“In 2013 the government created the Ministry of Law and Order with the aim of delinking police from the armed services. Under the Ministry of Law and Order, the Sri Lankan Police Service is responsible for maintaining internal security. The army is responsible for external security but may be called upon to handle specific domestic security responsibilities. According to civil society, military intelligence operatives conducted domestic surveillance operations and harassed or intimidated members of civil society in conjunction with, or independent of, police. The army, navy, and air force report directly to the president, although most of their daily operations are handled by the secretary for defense.

“The nearly 6,000-member paramilitary Special Task Force falls under the Sri Lankan Police Service, although joint operations with military units in the past led to questions about the task force’s chain of command.

“In early October 650 Tamil youth from Jaffna and Kilinochchi districts and 424 youth from Vavuniya District were interviewed for some 687 police vacancies. Observers noted the recruitment drive was designed to address the severe shortage of Tamil-speaking officers in the police service, which contributed to distrust of this community by the Sinhala speaking majority. The armed services actively recruited Tamil persons to its ranks in a similar effort.”

The AI 15/16 report is revealing one about excessive force used in the United States.

(Quote) At least 43 people across 25 states died after police used Tasers on them, bringing the total number of Taser-related deaths since 2001 to at least 670. Most of the victims were not armed and did not appear to pose a threat of death or serious injury when the Taser was deployed.

The death of Freddie Gray in April and the one-year anniversary of Michael Brown’s death sparked protests in Baltimore, Maryland and Ferguson, Missouri respectively. Similar protests against police use of force occurred in cities including Cleveland, Ohio and St. Louis, Missouri, among others. The use of heavy-duty riot gear and military-grade weapons and equipment to police the demonstrations served to intimidate protesters who were exercising their right to peaceful assembly.

Authorities failed to track the exact number of people killed by law enforcement officials each year – estimates range from 458 to over 1,000 individuals. According to the limited data available, black men are disproportionately victims of police killings. State statutes on the use of lethal force are far too permissive; none limit the use of firearms to a last resort only after non-violent and less harmful means are exhausted, and where the officer or others are faced with an imminent threat of death or serious injury. (End Quote)

The United States, on all available occasions, gives advice to other nations about its long cherished freedom of speech and media freedom. The Freedom House 2015 report gives a contrasting scenario.

(Quote) The United States retains a diverse media landscape and strong legal protections for freedom of expression. Nonetheless, a combination of developments has placed journalists under new pressures in recent years, and these persisted during 2014. The most serious problems stem from tensions between press freedom and U.S. national security and counterterrorism efforts. They include government surveillance of journalists, government attempts to compel reporters to reveal the sources of leaked information, and Obama administration policies that severely limit interactions between journalists and officials.

In 2013, the Justice Department revealed that it had secretly subpoenaed and seized records for more than 20 telephone lines used by reporters at the Associated Press (AP). The Justice Department also acknowledged that it had secretly subpoenaed and seized the e-mail and telephone records of James Rosen, a Fox News correspondent. Both actions were taken as part of national security leak investigations. After a firestorm of criticism, the department issued new guidelines that significantly narrowed conditions under which the government could gain access to records of journalists’ communications with sources.

While foreign journalists are generally able to physically cover news stories with few impediments, from time to time there are cases of foreign journalists being denied entry to the United States, usually on the basis of vague national security rationales. In September 2014, Jordanian-born poet Amjad Nasser, who is also an editor at the London-based newspaper Al-Quds al-Arabi, was barred from a flight to New York, where he was to speak at a literary event. Separately, the authorities in some jurisdictions have denied press credentials to those representing nontraditional media. (End Quote)

On July 8, 2014, leaders of virtually every major journalist group in the United States signed a letter to President Obama about the stifling free expression, suppressing news and imposing censorship on the press. The letter from 38 prominent organizations of journalists alleged:

• “Journalists are reporting that most federal agencies prohibit their employees from communicating with the press unless the bosses have public relations staffers sitting in on the conversations. Contact is often blocked completely.”

• Federal agencies “hold on-background press conferences with unnamed officials, on a not-for-attribution basis.”

• Reporters often are asked to provide “questions in advance” – a practice traditionally seen as taboo among journalists.

• Public affairs or public information officers are increasingly speaking anonymously to the press and being cited as anonymous sources in stories – even through their title is “spokesperson.”

With such a record, the State Department in its annual Reports of Human Rights Practices had this to say about the Sri Lanka record:

(Quote)A significant level of surveillance continued, particularly in the country’s north and east. Plainclothes personnel belonging to the state’s security apparatus visited civil society individuals and groups from these regions. According to civil society, such personnel, frequently deputed from the police and less frequently military officers, attended civil society organizations’ training sessions or workshops uninvited, particularly when these programs dealt with human rights, transitional justice, and media freedom, among other issues. They openly took photographs and footage of protesters and victims’ families, questioned event organizers, and regularly made follow-up visits directly to their homes.

In January British Foreign and Commonwealth Office Minister Hugo Swire visited the Northern Province. According to NGO reports, military personnel dressed in civilian clothing warned IDPs living within the confines of a military-run HSZ against discussing their living conditions with the minister.

Violence and Harassment:There were some incidents of journalists subjected to harassment. In April police arrested a television journalist affiliated with Hiru TV, a leading Sinhala private national television station. Uniformed and plainclothes police reportedly stormed the hostel in which the journalist lived and forcibly removed him, claiming he was being held on suspicion of snatching a woman’s gold chain the previous night. Two weeks earlier the abducted journalist and two of his colleagues had filed a complaint at a local police station of intimidation by two men whom they suspected of being plainclothes police officers. (End Quote)

Two other areas the human rights report touched were on ethnic minorities and accusations against the military.

On National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Both local and Indian-origin Tamils maintained they suffered longstanding, systematic discrimination in university education, government employment, and other matters controlled by the government. Tamils claimed the government intentionally supported Sinhalese emigration to the north and east to diminish the Tamil-speaking group’s claim to majority status in any single geographical region of the country. Tamils throughout the country, but especially in the north and east, reported security forces regularly surveilled or harassed members of their community, especially young and middle-aged Tamil men.

On US Highlights Accusations Against The Military

On September 16, the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) submitted A/HRC/30/CRP.2, also known as theReport of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) (Section 5). In the report, the OISL found there were reasonable grounds to believe the security forces and paramilitary groups associated with them were implicated in unlawful killings carried out in a widespread manner against civilians and other protected persons. Tamil politicians, humanitarian workers, and journalists were particularly targeted during certain periods, but ordinary civilians were also among the victims. Discernible patterns of killings were evident in the vicinity of security force checkpoints and military bases, and also of individuals while in custody of the security forces. The typical modus operandi involved the arbitrary arrest or abductions of individuals by security force personnel, sometimes with the assistance of paramilitary group members operating in unmarked “white vans” that were reportedly able to pass security checkpoints or enter security force bases. These violations were and still are facilitated by the extensive powers of arrest and detention provided in the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), as well as Emergency Regulations in force until 2011.

Concluding Comments

While presenting the Washington report on human rights which is compiled and drafted at the American diplomatic mission in Colombo, Sri Lanka using State Department guidelines, the Asian Tribune took a progressive step forward to display the diplomatic nakedness and double standard of Washington. This is currently well displayed in other activities, toward Sri Lanka, since the demise of the Rajapaksa administration in January 2015. We have endeavored to give some justice to ‘reasonable and fair’ approach to diplomacy and strategic communication in presenting this account.

Asian Tribune, at all times, promoted and valued equal and truthful dealings between Sri Lanka and the United States. Sri Lanka, undoubtedly, values close friendly relations with the U.S. It has to be of mutual benefit. The relations between the two nations have to be of equal footing with openness. Sri Lanka has a lot to learn from the United States. So is the United States need to understand the historical background to national issues confronted by this South Asian nation, its culture, and that outside imposition of rules never work. It never worked in Iraq and Afghanistan when Washington endeavored to impose its democratic norms in those societies. It never worked in Libya when it toppled Qadhafi and handed over the nation to extreme Islamic ISIS.

Sri Lanka should be left to come up with its own solutions to its domestic issues. America’s geo-political designs – Pivot To Asia – will never work using domestic issues as fodder. Washington needs to stop using the UN Office of Under-Secretary General (Political Affairs) which is perennially under strict control of former state department officials to influence the UNHRC in Geneva to harass Sri Lanka. And Washington needs to understand the pride Sri Lanka too has as much as Washington underscores it ‘American Exceptionalism’.

We have frequently said in these columns that the ‘demise of the LTTE is greatly exaggerated’. Washington created a conducive global atmosphere to lift the operatives/professionals who were once acolytes of the LTTE to the level of global diplomatic movement to travel on the path the LTTE went: an effective UN intervention and bifurcation of this South Asian nation.

(Courtesy of Asian Tribune) 

By Daya Gamage 

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