Sunday

IMF: Funding and defending genocide in Sri Lanka?

The Government of Sri Lanka is attempting to get a loan package of Rs.1.9 billion dollars from the International Monetary Fund ( IMF) under the pretext of Reconstruction and Rehabilitation. The application of the loan is now being considered by IMF amidst international concerns of Human Rights violations by Sri Lanka. The loan is considered to be granted for the so called post conflict reconstruction or to help Sri Lanka to weather the impact of the global financial crisis or for both purpose.

In the North and East of the Country, the Sinhala Government has been waging a war on section of its own citizens which has caused extremely high civilian casualties along with destruction and uprooting of a millions of Tamil community from their homeland. It is evident that any financial assistance to Sri Lanka by any country or organization shall only encourage the policy goals of the Government of Sri Lanka to continue the Genocide of Tamils, thereby implying that those who assist GOSL shall become a part of such heinous crime.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a private international organization that oversees the global financial system. It is an organization formed to stabilize international exchange rates and facilitate development. Its headquarters are located in Washington, D.C., USA.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) declares itself as an organization of 185 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world. It offers financial and technical assistance to its members, making it an international lender of last resort. 

This declaration is under the assumption that each member country should treat its citizens equally. The main objectives of IMF can be considered as related to helping member countries in distress caused due to financial crisis purely out of fiscal conditions of economic activities. It is not meant for an attitude of Destroy & Reconstruct.

The Sri Lankan Central Bank’s statement reiterated that the aim of the IMF loan now applied for is to “continue with the resettlement, rehabilitation and reconstruction work in the Northern Province, and the continued rapid development of the Eastern Province, which it deems key not only to uplift the living standards of the people in the areas affected by the decades long conflict, but also to successfully implement the government’s efforts to bring a sustainable solution to the conflict.”

In fact Sri Lanka is asking for this loan for a reason untold. The real situation is that the loan is required very urgently for the near bankrupt country. Sri Lanka desperately needs the money to make payments for imports and loans.

The central bank of Sri Lanka has said that in 2009 around 900 million dollars is required to repay the loans alone . Sri Lanka is in a debt trap and needs borrowing to repay the loans raised already. The country has lost its foreign exchange reserves in defending its currency paying for import and service loans as observed by Sri Lankan economists.

Such downward trend of Sri Lankan economy is due to heavy military expenditure and lavish spending of Government for its own establishment of a mega size ministry. Therefore the loan now requested by Sri Lanka must be considered as payment for the expenditure already incurred for the cause of genocide since such a necessity could not have risen if there had been no war.

Some countries like India and China are involved in competitive helping attitude to grant financial and military assistance to Sri Lanka without considering the humanitarian tragedy in the past few months. If IMF loan is granted the western powers shall enter Sri Lanka through their companies by getting contract for Reconstruction and the Ealem shall become a playground of USA, UK, China and India. It will be leading to a free for all situation.The total idea of India not to internationalise Ealem issue and acting as a big brother in this region shall fail ultimately. The Geo political hegemony and the economic interests shall compel all of them to turn a blind eye to the atrocities of the Government towards Tamil community which is almost orphaned.

Tamils are stateless and therefore Tamil Diaspora is left to fight its legal battles against the IMF Loan only in the western countries which are considered more responsive to the struggle of Tamils.

Earlier, Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), a US-based activist group, filed a complaint against Secretary of the US Treasury, and the US Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in the United States Columbia District Court to obtain a declaratory judgment that a failure of the United States to oppose Sri Lanka’s pending $1.9 billion IMF loan application would constitute a violation of law.

Confidential UN satellite images leaked last week prove that the Sri Lankan Air Force bombed the No fire Zone while 150,000 civilians were sheltered there. The images exposed earlier lies of the Sri Lankan government officials that the No Fire Zone was never shelled.

The Complaint detailed the Sri Lanka’s pattern of gross violation of internationally recognized human rights under the categories of 1.Extra-judicial killings and disappearances, 2.War Crimes in Violation of the Hague and Geneva Conventions: Shelling and Bombarding Civilians, 3.Rape, 4.Cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment, 5.Prolonged detention without charges, 6.Arbitrary arrests and national identity cards and limits of freedom of movement, 7. Starvation and denial of medical care, 8.Denial of free speech and press, 9.Denial of Investigations by International Organizations: Media Blackout, 10.Political Repression and 11.Torture.

Separately in another development on 28.4.2009, Public Interest Lawyers, a group of attorneys representing a Tamil activist group in UK, charged that in light of the Sri Lankan Government’s systematic and gross violations of international humanitarian and human rights law ,the UK under international law has various obligations, namely, to denounce and not recognize the situation in Sri Lanka as lawful and not to render aid and assistance to Sri Lanka .The group will file legal action in the British High Court if the UK Government fails to respond satisfactorily to the charges.

It is to be seen whether such legal battles can be quickly settled and due Justice is shown to the Tamil community which is fighting for its survival.

Sri Lanka is attempting to get this assistance from IMF with no conditions or safeguards, specifically with regard to the military action in Northern Sri Lanka.

There is also a speculation that the IMF asked to privatise some state entities as a condition for its loan to be granted as revealed by Danushka Samarasinghe, head of research at Asia Securities.

It is learnt that Sri Lanka’s IMF loan request is rapidly moving towards agreement and that the loan would be available for Sri Lanka between the first and second weeks of May 2009. While the Colombo-IMF talks are in a second tier process, the final stage of loan approval depends on the “votes” of IMF Executive Directors.

The votes of Executive Directors are governed by the local laws of respective countries they are representing, and at present both Executive Director for the United States, Meg Lundsager, and Executive Director for the United Kingdom, Alex Gibbs, are facing legal action blocking their votes to the loan (to Sri Lanka). Therefore it is a test of concern on genocide for both USA and UK.

If such assistance is granted by IMF with implicit conditions on Capitalist Economy, without any safeguards on humanitarian aspects and without any monitoring mechanism on the flow of funds for the purpose specified, it will only strengthen the hands of Sri Lankan Government in finding military solution to the ethnic problem under the name of Reconstruction and Rehabilitation. Sri Lanka shall again utilize the money for retaining its establishment of tyranny after making some symbolic throw of funds to Tamil population to hoodwink the world just as in the case of Tsunami Reconstruction.

Tamils against Genocide is a US based organization that campaigns against the killing of civilians in Sri Lanka and highlights the human rights violations by Gothabaya Rajapakse and Sarath Fonseka - senior members of the Sri Lankan government and Army who are filed with genocide charges in an US court.

Several Western nations that are witnessing the unrelenting resolve of the Tamil diaspora are surprised at their unity, perseverance and persistence against all odds. Some Tamil leaders have emphasised the importance of devising intelligent ways to stop the Sri Lankan regime from pursuing the genocidal tactics. When a community displays such an acumen, wisdom and strength to win their land, they will be victorious. With that, the present phase of Ealem struggle is just one phase of their journey and defenitely not the end of their world.

Twofold is the way of the world -
Wealth is one Wisdom is another.

( Thiru Valluvar 374)

Written by Malarthamil

Malarthamil is a civil engineer and writer-poet inspired by Thirukkural – a classical Tamil poetry that expounds various aspects of life.