The last time the Sri Lankan government conducted a witch-hunt against non-governmental organization (NGOs) was in 1990 when then president Ranasinghe Premadasa appointed a Special Presidential Commission to probe NGOs and their work. It was however abundantly clear at the time that the probe was essentially focusing on one organization – Sarvodaya, a giant grassroots group spread across Sri Lanka and working on humanitarian and infrastructure issues – whose powerful founder, the well-liked Dr A.T. Ariyaratne was seen as a political contender to Premadasa, who had a paranoia about any potential challenger. In many ways the present crisis facing Grameen Bank founder Prof. Muhammad Yunus from Bangladesh is similar to the then Sri Lankan probe against NGOs in 1990 — all due to a personal vendetta. Yunus was sacked as managing director of the trend-setter microfinance organization earlier this month and has gone to court challenging the decision. Supporters of the beleaguered founder say he is being victimized for expressing an interest in going into politics some years, which was however not pursued with, and that the government fears that the popular Yunus could upstage any political opponent including Bangladeshi President Hasina Wajed However, today's purpose of discussing these issues is the current ‘focus' by the Sri Lankan government on three NGOs working on peace, conflict-resolution and human rights issues. Two weeks ago, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) launched a probe against National Peace Council (NPC), one of the three NGOs, and summoned its director Dr Jehan Perera to make a statement on the funds received by the organization and its activities. The CID is the Sri Lanka police's premier investigation unit and the move sent shockwaves in civil society and across the NGO community in the country particularly because the government has shown its dissatisfaction of local and foreign NGOs after some foreign groups and local parties accused the government of human rights violations during the last stages of the ethnic conflict in May 2009. During the heavy fighting in the North and the East, journalists were barred from the frontline unless escorted by government forces which rarely happened. As a result the media was forced to depend on press releases and information dished out by government and military spokesman. In this scenario, journalists grabbed at any other independent information that came from the frontline and invariably relied on a few residents in the war-torn areas which could lay their hands on a phone or a number of NGOs operating there. The government, suspicious about the information flow, then limited the access to NGOs in these areas. Thus NGOs working on humanitarian and peace issues have been perceived as ‘bad news' to the authorities. The latest probe was triggered by a flurry of articles in local newspapers saying that the government was perturbed that the NPC and the other two ‘suspect' NGOs – the Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA) and Transparency International – have together spent more Rs 600 million after the end of the war when there little peace work to be done now that the conflict has ended. “The authorities believe organizations like ours are involved with the (pro-nationalist Tamil) diaspora and supporting the opposition and thus look at us with suspicion. That is far from the truth, because all our work is in relation promoting peace and working with local organizations and communities. There is absolutely no politics involved,” NPC Director Dr Perera told this columnist. The CID and police detectives are yet to probe the CPA and Transparency International but have told the NPC that they plan to verify the latter's activities on the field to ascertain whether the money was used for what the NPC says and not ‘other' activities. Since the West began criticizing government troops for harming civilians during the bitter fighting, the government sees an ‘enemy' hiding in the bush at all times and is suspicious of most NGOs involved in humanitarian and conflict-related work. Meanwhile the crisis facing NGOs has worsened due to the growing contraction of donor funds, that's hurting the operations of many groups. Restrictive work permits for foreign staff — one of the ways the government is controlling the flow of foreign NGO workers — is also affecting the running of many organizations. In some cases there is a lot of downsizing of staff while any NGO involved in governance, post-conflict peace or post-war trauma related work will face problems with the authorities, aid workers said. Most NGO workers are also afraid to speak or be quoted in the media for fear of offending the government and triggering an inquiry or a visit to the local police station. Clearly the government is still cagey about NGOs, particularly those connected to the international community. One of the reasons Dr Perera believes his organization is being probed is fears by the government that a recent event where CPA Director Dr Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu was awarded the inaugural peace prize by the NPC for his devotion to human rights, would revive the human rights movement in Sri Lanka. “There may have been concern that the rights groups may use this event to motivate themselves and get mobilized again,” he said. The second reason is that the government is worried about a forthcoming report by a UN Panel advising Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon on the Sri Lanka human rights situation. The international community has been vociferously critical of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his administration over alleged violation of human rights, a claim that is repeatedly and often angrily denied by the president. J. Weliamuna, a well-known human rights lawyer and former director of Transparency International's Colombo office, said the situation concerning NGOs is getting worse by the day. “The government sees everybody as a challenge and has a problem with NGOs,” he said. “More and more space is limited for civil society. People are dead scared of challenging the government and the war-time fear psychosis still prevails,” he noted. Clearly the government brooks no nonsense from any group, organization or individual that challenges its human rights records. Organizations like the NPC, CPA and Transparency International are learning it the hard way. The author is a senior political anaylist based in Colombo. __
