[sacw] sacw dispatch #3 (19 May 00)

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web - Dispatch #3
19 May 2000
________________________________
#1. Sri Lanka: Donors Should Demand Protection for Civilians
#2. Sri Lanka: Gulf jobs have steep social price
#3. BBC News | ASIA-PACIFIC | Ethnic split haunts Fijian politics
#4. Upcoming Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival
________________________________

#1.

Human Rights Watch

Sri Lanka: Donors Should Demand Protection for Civilians

(May 19, 2000, New York) --As the Sri Lankan army and the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) continue to battle on the outskirts of
Jaffna town, Human Rights Watch today expressed grave concern about the
safety of some five hundred thousand civilians on the Jaffna peninsula,
and their urgent need for humanitarian assistance.

While both parties have issued appeals for civilians to move out of
possible target areas, Human Rights Watch urged all parties to ensure
the free movement of civilians away from combat areas, and stressed the
urgent need to be prepared with emergency relief for those newly
displaced by the fighting, including ready access to food, shelter, and
medical assistance.

"This growing crisis demands immediate action, by both the Sri Lankan
government and the LTTE," said Mike Jendrzejczyk, Washington Director of
Human Right Watch's Asia Division. "The human rights of civilians
caught in this conflict must be protected."

Human Rights Watch urged Sri Lanka's chief aid donors -- including
Japan, the European Union, Canada, and the U.S. -- to call on the
Ministry of Defense and other relevant government agencies to redouble
efforts to ensure that humanitarian organizations are allowed to deliver
essential food and medical relief to rebel-controlled areas.

UNHCR has received reports that the government of India might not allow
refugees fleeing the conflict to enter the country. Human Rights Watch
urged the Indian government to honor the international legal obligation
not to return refugees to a country where their life or freedom would be
threatened.

Previous bouts of heavy fighting in Sri Lanka's seventeen-year conflict
have led to increased violence against civilians, particularly when
significant territory has changed hands. This includes especially the
hundreds of "disappearances" that took place after the army wrested
control of Jaffna from the LTTE in late 1995.

In the northern and eastern parts of the country, the LTTE has tortured,
killed, and "disappeared" people it accused of being informers, and has
imposed severe restrictions on freedom of movement by attempting to
prevent internally displaced persons from relocating out of LTTE-held
territory. The LTTE's use of child soldiers has caused many displaced
persons to flee from LTTE territory. LTTE forces are also believed to
be responsible for the bombing of civilians in Colombo and elsewhere.

In areas controlled by the Sri Lankan security forces, meanwhile, Tamil
civilians are the frequent targets of arbitrary arrests and lengthy
detentions without trial, custodial abuse that includes torture, and
extrajudicial killings.

On May 3, the government introduced new Emergency Regulations granting
the police and armed forces sweeping powers of arrest and detention,
restricting freedom of association, and censoring local and
international media. After major gains by LTTE forces in the north, the
government also banned all live television and radio programs and
required government approval prior to transmission of all
conflict-related news outside the country.

"The restrictions on journalists and on the activities and movement of
humanitarian organizations have produced a virtual blackout of
independent reporting on the situation and the lives that hang in the
balance." said Jendrzejczyk.

The government should ensure that humanitarian agencies and NGOs are
able to carry out independent assessments of ongoing humanitarian needs
and monitor population displacement.

Human Rights Watch also urged the LTTE to allow relief agencies to
function and impress on its forces the critically important and
nonpartisan role played by these agencies.

Sri Lanka's displaced population, already estimated at 800,000
island-wide, has born the brunt of this lengthy conflict. Many are
living in extreme poverty and have not led a settled existence more than
a decade.
_______

#2.

Asia Times
May 20, 2000

Gulf jobs have steep social price

By Feizal Samath

AMUNICHCHIYA, Sri Lanka - The dirt road leading to this hamlet in
north-central Sri Lanka winds past lush green paddy farms. Brightly
coloured lilies sprout along a big water tank by the roadside. Children
prance in the water while a group of happily chatting, elderly women wash
clothes beside the tank. Men pedal their way home on rickety bicycles on
the road where a motor vehicle is a rare sight. But look closer and there
is something missing from this idyllic rural setting.

Amunichchiya, some 200 kilometers from the Sri Lankan capital, is a village
with very few young or middle-aged women. Most of them are in a faraway
land, working as domestic workers or in other unskilled, low-paid jobs. In
recent years, most of Amunichchiya's young women have gone to Gulf nations
with almost all the about 135 families having a female member abroad.

The migration began after a crash in the price of chillies that once grew
in abundance on the typical half-hectare farm owned by the average family.
The cash crop was the main source of income. Luckily for the villagers,
recruitment agents on the lookout for domestic workers for affluent Gulf
households, trooped into the village offering loans to families to help pay
agent fees and buy air tickets. ''Most of our young women are abroad
toiling for the family,'' says 26-year-old Sriya Kanthi, who herself went
to the Gulf in 1997 and left her two small children behind with her mother.
She returned last year, but all the money she sent back every month was
used up in rebuilding the family house and bringing up her children. ''I
just have a few thousands left,'' she says.

Sriya's story, like that of Amunichchiya, is repeated in thousands of Sri
Lankan villages which have lost a large bulk of their womenfolk to jobs in
the Gulf. But it is not all bad. The money sent home by these women is a
big help to their families and has swelled the nation's foreign exchange
reserves. The migrants earn typically between 6,000 to 9,000 rupees ($125)
per month. According to estimates by the state-run Sri Lanka Bureau of
=46oreign Employment (SLBFE), Sri Lankans living abroad sent home more than
$1 billion last year. Most of this came from the Gulf nations, where six
out of 10 Sri Lankan workers are women from the countryside.

More than 1 million Sri Lankans work abroad in the Gulf and Asian nations.
In fact, farming is no longer the main source of income for the Sri Lankan
countryside, because a large part of this now comes from remittances from
the Gulf. But not all this money is wisely spent as Sriya's story shows.
Like many Sri Lankan villages where the young women have gone abroad to
earn a living, Amunichchiya still has dirt tracks for roads. The only
school in the village is an old building, badly in need of repair. Uchitha
Jayampathy of Amunichchiya says the women return home laden with fancy
household goods, expensive clothes and jewellery, but no savings. ''After
some time, the money runs out and the goods are sold,'' says the
30-year-old woman who chose not to travel abroad. The easy flow of money
from abroad has also made the menfolk lazy, she says.

The farmer-husbands of the Amunichchiya women abroad now spend their time
sleeping and drinking, while the rice fields lie unattended. Colombo-based
officials in Sri Lanka's foreign migration regulation authority agree.
According to L K Ruhunugge, deputy general manager of the SLBFE, unlike Sri
Lankan men abroad, the women in the Gulf send the bulk of their earnings
back home. But the husbands generally blow their wives' money on liquor and
other non-essential things. ''As a result, when the woman returns, there
are no savings to fall back on,'' he points out, adding that it is
necessary to educate husbands in the savings habit.

The migration of the women has also left behind social problems - children
without mothers and in some cases even broken up families. The fact that
many young men in the village are in the army means that the children are
brought up by grandparents. Infants left behind by the women fail to
recognize their mothers when they return. ''My elder son still calls me
'aunty' and prefers to be with the grandparents,'' says Sriya, whose
husband is a soldier. At least 30 men of Amunichchiya are in the army or
the navy. So far, four families have broken up with the man or the woman
leaving their homes to move in with new partners. ''There are quite a few
(women abroad) who have not returned even for the marriage of a son or
daughter,'' says Sriya. Even the government is worried. ''The money earned
by mothers working in foreign countries will in no way compensate for the
calamities that follow due to their long term separation from their
homes,'' Sri Lanka's Minister of Women's Affairs Hema Ratnayake was quoted
as saying in published reports. Warning of ''irreparable'' psychological
damage to the children, the minister advised women seeking foreign jobs to
''think not twice, but thrice before leaving their young ones''.

Some are listening. Jayampathy, whose husband works in a ceramics factory,
does not want to go abroad. ''I will somehow manage here,'' she says,
adding that most village women working abroad are careless with their
earnings. ''They rarely deposit money in a bank and earn a monthly
income,'' she explains. S Karunawathi, an unmarried 27-year-old woman,
says her parents will not send her abroad because of the stories they hear.
''It's better to eat salt and rice, rather than leave the village,'' she
asserts. Village women have heard of Sri Lankan women being beaten or
sexually abused by their overseas employers and not being paid wages.
However, Malsiri Dias at the Colombo-based Center for Women's Research says
that less than a tenth of Sri Lankan women working abroad face such
problems which ''tend to get highlighted in the press''. But David Soysa,
of the Migrant Services Center run by a trade union, says his agency
discourages women seeking domestic overseas jobs as there are no safeguards
against harassment and non-payment of salaries.

Unlike the Philippines, Sri Lanka does not have bilateral agreements with
Gulf nations to protect its workers, he points out. ''We have contractual
obligations between the Sri Lankan government and employers in 10
labor-intensive countries, but these contracts are worthless as employers
cannot be prosecuted there for any violation of the contracts,'' he
explains. The SLBFE is the main regulator of overseas migration and
supervizes all private agencies hiring for foreign employers. Under
compulsory job contracts between the bureau of foreign employment, the
local recruiting agency and the employer, all Sri Lankans hired overseas
are entitled to a minimum monthly wage of $130. The workers also get a free
insurance scheme, free air tickets in case they have lost all money and
need to be repatriated.

According to latest figures, the government - through the SLBFE - had paid
about $150 million in compensation to nearly 70,000 Sri Lankans who lost
their jobs abroad. A large number of these were displaced by Iraq's 1990
invasion of Kuwait and the subsequent Gulf War. Ruhunugge of the bureau of
foreign employment says there have been cases of middlemen duping women
seeking overseas work. Although registered employment agencies charge the
prescribed amount of 5,200 rupees (about $72) per person, middlemen are
known to ask for several times this amount, he says. (Inter Press Service)

_______

#3.

BBC News | ASIA-PACIFIC |
=46riday, 19 May, 2000, 10:07 GMT 11:07 UK

Ethnic split haunts Fijian politics

Ethnic divisions between indigenous Fijians
and Indians have dominated the country's politics.
In 1987, Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka led a coup d'etat saying Indians were
taking over.
Three years later, a new constitution guaranteed indigenous Fijians more
than half of all seats in parliament and banned Indians from the post of
prime minister.
Colonel Rabuka was named prime minister after the first elections under the
new constitution in 1992.
In 1997, a commission established by Mr Rabuka reviewed the law banning
Indians from taking high office.
It recommended the abolition of the constitution's racially-biased
provisions.
There are still seats reserved for indigenous and ethnic Indian candidates,
but 25 of the 71 deputies are elected from so-called open-race seats.
=46ollowing elections in March 1999, Mahendra Chaudry became the first India=
n
prime minister.
His Fijian Labour Party won 70% of the seats, in coalition with two smaller
parties.
Immigration
Indians started coming to Fiji as labourers on sugar plantations at the
end of the 19th century, when Fiji was a British colony.
In 1970, when Fiji became independent, ethnic Indians were in a majority.
But after the 1987 coup, many Indians - especially professionals - left
the country, and now 51% of the 800,000 population are indigenous Fijians.
Echoes of 1987
The latest coup attempt has come on the first anniversary of Mr Chaudry's
taking power.
The coup leader, George Speight, says he wants to give indigenous Fijians
control of their own destiny once and for all.
Many ethnic Fijians believe they have been put at a disadvantage.
There are disturbing similarities here to what happened in Fiji 13 years
ago, when Colonel Rabuka led armed soldiers into parliament and arrested
the prime minister.
Mr Speight's father, Sam Speight, is a member of parliament with close
links to Colonel Rabuka.
Multi-racial coalition
Fijian politics had been controlled since independence by the
=46ijian-dominated Alliance Party of the man who is currently president, Rat=
u
Sir Kamisese Mara.
But elections in April 1987 saw the Alliance Party supplanted by a
multi-racial coalition which divided ministerial jobs evenly between
=46ijians and Indians, to the horror of hard-line indigenous nationalists.
After Colonel Rabuka took power, he declared Fiji a republic and the
country was expelled from the Commonwealth.
It rejoined the Commonwealth in 1997, but if the coup succeeds it would be
certain to put Fiji's membership in serious doubt.
Pakistan had its Commonwealth membership suspended after last October's
coup there.
________

#5.

Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival
December 1-4, 2000, Russian Cultural Centre, Kathmandu, Nepal.

Himal Association, in collaboration with Eco Himal, proudly announces
Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival December 1-4, 2000. The
=46estival will be the first of its kind in the Himalyan region, home to
the greatest mountains in the world. The event, a unique platform for
filmmakers from around the globe, will feature new and exciting works on
mountains, mountain people, and mountain sports.

It will bring together in a non-competitive venue, films and filmmakers
from all over in an enjoyable gatheirng to appreciate each other's works
and discuss ideas and issues related to highland dwellers, cultures and
environment.

Criteria for Entries
* Films made after 1 January 1997 are eligible for entry. * * The
entries can be documentaries, full-length features, shorts, animation or
experimental art forms. * * The entry is open to all countries, and
can be from professionals and amateurs. * * There is no bar in terms
of discipline, genre, length, and format. The organisers expect the
entries to cover the entire gamut from ethnography to mountaineering,
investigative to abstracts, reportial to introspective. * * If
the film is not in English then it should be subtitled or dubbed in
English. *

Terms and Conditions for Submitting Entries
* Entry is free of cost.* * Entries without the duly filled-in
entry form will not be considered.* * The initial entry will be
accepted only in VHS video format (PAL/SECAM/NTSC) and should be sent
by Courier or Speedpost to the Festival Secretariat in Kathmandu. * *
The entry package should be labeled "Only for cultural purpose, no
commercial value". * * All cost associated with sending and
returning the films shall be borne by the entrant.* * The Festival
Secretariat will not be repsonsible for any loss, damage, and/or delay of
films in transit.
The entry form is available online at www.himalmag.com/kimff

Deadline for submitting entries: 15 August, 2000.

=46or further details, contact

Ramyata Limbu Festival Director Kathmandu International Film Festival
P.O. Box 166, Lalitpur, Nepal Tel.: 977-1-542544 Fax: 977-1541196
E-mail: kimff@m...
Website: http://www.himalmag.com/kimff

=20
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