Restrictions placed on NGOs in military controlled areas
The Free Media Movement notes with grave concern the news regarding the restrictions to be placed on NGOs in areas of the Eastern province that have recently come under government control.
The Daily Mirror report of July 26 referred to Eastern Security Forces Commander Parakrama Pannipitiya summoning all local and international NGOs to Vakarai and directing them not to engage in any development activity without permission from the District Secretary. He is also reported to have called on the security forces, Police and civil administrators in the area not to permit NGOs to start projects in these areas according to their wish without proper approval from the relevant government agencies.
It has always been the practice of local and international NGOs engaged in development and humanitarian work to carry out their activities with the cooperation and collaboration of local partners, and of government officials and institutions. Since the resettlement of IDPs began in Vakarai in March 2007, we have observed a slow and gradual process of militarization of the civilian administration in the East.
The Vakarai resettlement was handled entirely by the military; subsequently, the Kokkadichoali/Pporativu resettlement was handled entirely by the Special Task Force. Officers of the civilian administration played a marginal role except to provide dry rations, and that too, intermittently.
Since 2006, humanitarian agencies have faced repeated problems of gaining access to areas where their assistance was most needed. Technical and logistical problems such as visas and work permits, as well as transport passes, took up most of the time of these agencies, while they also had to negotiate each step of the way with the military in order to visit the communities they were supposed to be helping.
As media practitioners we have confronted a range of problems in trying to access the conflict-affected areas in order to provide balanced and unbiased reports of the situation. Journalists have been harassed and intimidated because of the nature of our reports.
We strongly feel that what we see happening in the East today is a fore-runner of even more restrictions and limitations on the people’s right to association, to information and to expression of diverse opinions.
This erosion of our democratic space as members of civil society and as media practitioners carries the seed of authoritarianism within it. We call on the government to take immediate steps to redress this anomaly in democratic practice and to re-establish the dominance of the civil administration in all areas under its control.
We also call on civil society to join us in protesting against these moves in the interests of winning a long-term sustainable peace with justice for all Sri Lankans.
[Free Media Movement Press Release]
