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24 Mar 2009 : Column 25WH—continued
Siobhain McDonagh: I agree with the hon. Gentleman. The work of the Tamil community in highlighting a cause to which people tend to close their eyes has been admirable. The Tamil community in my constituency works hard. People send their kids to university in overwhelming numbers. At this time of year, they come to my surgery desperate for places in grammar schools in the London borough of Sutton—as a secondary modern girl, I often find that challenge difficult. One constituent came to me to say how outraged he was that the Government were discriminating against pupils from public schools getting places at Oxford and Cambridge. That was a Tamil sub-postmaster in my constituency who had managed to afford to send his daughter to Wimbledon High school. How many people of our community in similar circumstances would be in a position to do that? That shows the emphasis placed on education within the Tamil community.
Andrew George (St. Ives) (LD): Not all of us have joined the debate because we have a large Tamil community within our constituency—I do not. I am here because I am a friend of Sri Lanka and I think that what is unfolding in that country, and has been doing so for years, is a situation of deep injustice. We need to recognise that although the country’s Government may have a military victory, that is different to there being a military solution to the problem. We need to get back to a peace process.
Siobhain McDonagh: I commend the hon. Gentleman for his contribution to the debate and this cause. I am not as worthy as him. I became involved in this matter because my constituents came to see me in large numbers. I became even more concerned about Tamil young people—UK citizens who are often well-educated and in good jobs—who were frustrated by the feeling that nobody said anything about the plight of their friends and relatives. What are we saying to those young people if the British political system cannot take their concerns on board and democracy cannot work for them, as it does for other groups in our society?
Simon Hughes (North Southwark and Bermondsey) (LD): I thank the hon. Lady for initiating the debate. She will know that some of us have been arguing this case for years. That is not because we have many Tamil constituents, but because we have seen the danger for the Tamil people in Sri Lanka coming down the tracks. This is not a new issue for the international community, our Government, the EU or the Commonwealth. It has been obvious for many years that the Sri Lankan Government have not been willing to look after the Tamil people, and the treatment of those people has got worse and worse.
Siobhain McDonagh: The hon. Gentleman is correct. As we know, the situation is escalating, and every day more people are dying, or are injured and displaced. Individually and together, we have needed to exert huge pressure to get the profile for the issue that we have today.
The purpose of the debate is to call on our Government to exert all diplomatic efforts into ending the conflict. As the Sri Lankan Government have not been willing to end the conflict, I would like my Government to call for their suspension from the Commonwealth. The history
of the conflict is long and bloody. There have been atrocities from both sides, but in recent months there have been consistent reports of what begins to look like genocide. The Sri Lankan Government have dropped cluster bombs on their own people. According to aid agencies, 1,000 amputees are desperate to be evacuated, but the Red Cross cannot get to them.
Meanwhile, civilians are being pummelled by artillery fire. The Government have been accused of using banned phosphorous weapons. They have attacked areas that have been designated as safe zones. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has complained that its staff are not able to secure unhindered access to civilians coming out of the conflict zone. It said that it was
“deeply concerned about the plight of tens of thousands of innocent civilians trapped inside the shrinking conflict zone, where ongoing shelling and aerial bombardments are taking place.”
Mr. Andrew Pelling (Croydon, Central) (Ind): I congratulate the hon. Lady on securing the debate. She is far too self-deprecating about the work that she has done to raise the profile of this issue. Does she agree that one of the reasons why so many hon. Members are asking the Government to look at sanctions is because of people such as Ann Veneman, the executive director of UNICEF, who says that there is an urgent need for access to provide humanitarian relief? There is a feeling that, unfortunately, the Sri Lankan Government are determined to act in such a way that we can only believe that genocide is occurring when, for example, there is bombing of so-called safe areas and havens.
Siobhain McDonagh: I agree with the hon. Gentleman, who has worked hard on this issue.
“dire humanitarian conditions inside the area due to lack of essential goods and services like food and shelter, while medical care is said to be virtually non-existent.”
“The situation has worsened due to the ongoing heavy rains and winds, with most families living in flooded areas under damaged tarpaulin tents and under trees.”
Of course, it has also complained about the actions of the Tamil Tigers or the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam—LTTE. It describes
“harrowing tales of recruitment by the LTTE”
“both parties to the conflict to adhere to International Humanitarian Laws and...to stop the bloodshed and facilitate the safe passage of those trapped inside the conflict zone.”
Mr. Edward Davey (Kingston and Surbiton) (LD): The hon. Lady makes a powerful comment on how the Tamil people in the so-called safe zones are having to live. Is she aware that under some of the tarpaulin tents that people need to survive, there is extreme heat in the day and extreme cold at night? They have to build bunkers to escape the bombs of the Sri Lankan army. I have never heard of an intended encampment that has had to have bunkers.
Siobhain McDonagh: I agree with the hon. Gentleman, and I am sure that he has seen many videos and DVDs of people in those bunkers, which have been taken by very brave people in the area.
Amnesty International also criticises both sides. It has called for a truce and for humanitarian corridors to evacuate hundreds of thousands of trapped civilians, but it believes that the Sri Lankan Government need to answer accusations of war crimes and other breaches of international law. Amnesty says that that Government will allow displaced people to leave Government camps, even for emergency health care, only if they leave a family member in the camp as a safeguard against their escape, and that that policy violates the international legal prohibition against hostage taking. More significantly, Amnesty says that repeated shelling of the last working hospital in the town of Puthukkudiyiruppu—I apologise for my pronunciation—might constitute a war crime. It said:
“If the hospital was deliberately targeted...it would constitute a war crime. If the hospital was struck in the course of a disproportionate or an indiscriminate attack...this would also constitute a war crime”.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay, has also said that the Government’s actions may
“constitute violations of international human rights and humanitarian law.”
Amnesty has made other serious accusations against the Sri Lankan Government, saying that they have
“directly and indirectly been involved in disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and explicit intimidation of critics. They have also silenced dissent in the south of the country to crush critical voices.”
“It’s clear from the way in which the government has intimidated editors, like requesting that newspapers don’t cover particular stories such as the humanitarian crisis, that there has been a concerted campaign to silence the media.”
Tom Brake: The hon. Lady is being very generous in giving way. I hope that when the Sri Lankan high commission in this country reads this debate, it will not seek to misinterpret what Members are saying. Does she agree that we are pressing for a ceasefire, for humanitarian aid to go in, and for the perpetrators of atrocities on whichever side, if necessary, to be brought before a war crimes tribunal?
Siobhain McDonagh: I absolutely agree, but many Members, perhaps including the hon. Gentleman, have been abused and insulted by the Sri Lankan high commission in the UK. Indeed, it recently suggested that my hon. Friend the Member for Hendon (Mr. Dismore) has a drug problem.
Mr. Andrew Dismore (Hendon) (Lab):
I assure my hon. Friend that I do not have a drug problem, despite what the Sri Lankan Government say on their website. They have also suggested that I am embracing a terrorist regime, but I have been one of the main critics of the LTTE when I have stood up for Tamil people in the House. I have investigated whether it would be possible to sue the Sri Lankan Government for libel but, apparently, sovereign immunity means that I cannot. Bearing it in mind that the law does not allow us to hold that Government to account in the courts, I urge my hon.
Friend the Minister to bring pressure to bear on the Sri Lankan high commission to make sure that it stops these attacks on Members when we are simply doing our job.
Siobhain McDonagh: Amnesty also says:
“There has been no proper accountability for the killings that have happened in the last two years, so there is impunity for the perpetrators.”
Such breaches of human rights are not acceptable. Governments must live up to the very highest codes of behaviour, but the Government of Sri Lanka are not doing so. Earlier this month, I joined protesters and other MPs, many of whom are in the Chamber, at a meeting of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group, at which we called for Commonwealth Ministers to suspend Sri Lanka for its human rights abuses against the Tamil community. The group was established in 1995 to deal with serious or persistent violations of the Harare declaration. It is clear to me that Sri Lanka has violated the terms of the declaration, and it must be clear to everyone that it has violated the spirit of the declaration.
There is now an opening for a truce. At the weekend, in an interview with Marie Colvin of The Sunday Times, Balasingham Nadesan, the political leader of the Tamil Tigers, called for an urgent ceasefire. He said that the Tigers would enter negotiations with the Sri Lankan Government “without pre-conditions” and:
“We call for a ceasefire, loudly and clearly”.
The Sri Lankan Government could grasp this opportunity of a ceasefire, or else face international opprobrium. If Sri Lanka does not take this opportunity, it will need to be forced to the negotiating table through diplomatic means. The British Government should simply state that Sri Lanka should be suspended from the Commonwealth, and the process of suspension should commence. That is the purpose of this debate—I hope that the Government will listen to the concerns of my constituents.
I hope also that the debate will offer an opportunity to highlight on the world stage the truly appalling state of affairs there. Sadly, the media have not taken much interest in the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka, so it falls to us to draw attention to it. As Amnesty has said:
“One of the real concerns is that this is a war without witnesses...We just don’t know what’s been happening”.
That is why Sri Lanka is, in many ways, a forgotten crisis. As I have said, 60 people a day are dying due to army bombardment in Tamil areas, and more people have been killed in the past five weeks than died in Gaza last autumn. I do not wish to diminish the importance and horror of what has happened in Gaza, and it is quite right that the conflict was front-page news and the first item on TV and radio bulletins for weeks on end, but there has been no such coverage of Sri Lanka. That is appalling, because astonishingly cruel things have been happening there and, as the Red Cross has said, things are getting worse.
The Sri Lankan Government do not allow independent monitors or members of the press into the affected areas, and journalists have been threatened or even murdered. Surely that is even more reason for the international media to report on this conflict. The
media also have a hard time reporting in Zimbabwe and Gaza, but that usually hardens their resolve. When it comes to Sri Lanka, only a few notable exceptions print anything other than public relations material for the Government there. Award-winning war correspondent Marie Colvin is one such exception. She was attacked by Government forces when reporting in Sri Lanka and, as a result, suffered head and chest wounds and lost an eye. She spoke at a meeting of the all-party group on Tamils last week, and explained the dreadful conditions on the ground and the lengths to which the Government would go to wipe out their opponents.
However, for every Marie Colvin, there are dozens of papers with no coverage at all. As a daily reader of The Times, I was disgusted by its article last Friday complaining about demonstrations in which people waved Tamil flags. The article said that the Sri Lankan Government were unhappy about the flags being waved at demonstrations in countries such as Britain and that the people doing so represented terrorists from the Tamil Tigers. In fact, they did not, but that is beside the point. What is going on with a paper’s sense of proportion when it prints stories about flags, but not about thousands of people being killed or displaced every month? Amnesty is right to say that this is a conflict without witnesses, and it is our role, as Members of Parliament, to provide a testimony. The Sri Lankan Government have done an amazing job of repressing dissent internally, and have done a brilliant PR job around the world. They are wiping out an ethnic minority and saying that the Tamils want a bloodbath so that there will be international intervention. They have also cowed the UN, which is now apparently afraid to speak out in case it is expelled from the conflict zone.
Andrew George: The hon. Lady is making a strong case. Throughout the conflict, but especially at this stage, independent human rights monitors should be in the north and east of the country. Indeed, they should have been there for a long time. Does she agree that if the Tamil Tigers are prepared to enter negotiations, there should be no pre-conditions, as they have discussed? That is the only way in which any kind of progress will be made. Does she agree that negotiations should engage the whole Tamil community in the north and east of the country, not just the Tamil Tigers?
Siobhain McDonagh: Yes, I agree that all sides should be included in any negotiations. As The Sunday Times reported this week, the deputy leader of the Tigers has said there are no pre-conditions to their call for a ceasefire. What was not printed in the paper, but was certainly said to Marie Colvin, is that they would abide by and accept the outcome of a referendum of the people of Sri Lanka. That goes further than anyone could previously have anticipated.
Stephen Pound (Ealing, North) (Lab): I am sorry to interrupt my hon. Friend’s flow. She mentioned that the Government of Sri Lanka have run a successful PR campaign, but does she agree that if Members of Parliament receive one more photograph—we seem to be receiving such photographs hourly—of a Government of Sri Lankan soldier cradling a Tamil child, it will have completely the opposite effect of that intended? I am starting to doubt seriously the veracity of that propaganda—not that I had an enormous amount of belief in it in the first place—because it there is simply too much and it is too indiscriminate.
Siobhain McDonagh: I agree with my hon. Friend, but the unfortunate thing is that the Sri Lankan Government are tremendously successful at propaganda. I have gone around the House to ask Members from all parties to sign early-day motions asking for the suspension of Sri Lanka from the Commonwealth, but hon. Members in the Chamber would be amazed by the number of people who want nothing to do with the matter and do not want to talk about it. They believe that the Tigers are terrorists and therefore they are not willing to engage on the issue. The Sri Lankan Government have been incredibly successful at propaganda and that is why we have to be witnesses to what is going on and we have to say what is happening.
Joan Ryan (Enfield, North) (Lab): On the Commonwealth issue, does my hon. Friend think that it is appropriate—I am sure that she does not, but I ask her so that she can comment on the matter—that Sri Lanka itself sits on the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group? That is the very body that has to test whether a country is meeting the Harare principles and that could therefore opine on whether there should be a suspension of Sri Lanka from the Commonwealth.
Siobhain McDonagh: My right hon. Friend is right. She has worked as hard as anybody on the issue—in fact, we worked together on the whole matter. It is so frustrating that this is happening—it is almost beyond words. People are not listening, and those speaking out almost feel as if they are in a dream, and like they are shouting and no voice is coming out. As I said, that is why we have to be witnesses.
During the 11 years I have been in the House, I have never spoken in a debate on an international issue. I am not somebody who would ever regard themselves as a House of Commons person. I find the environment quite pompous and I think that people speak for too long—just as I am currently doing. However, today I fully understand the importance of people speaking out and saying something here independently. If we do not do so, who will? We must put every pressure that we can on the Government, who have acted swiftly over the past few weeks and months, to do more. If we do not ask them to do more, who will? This Parliament has to say that the conflict needs a truce.
I am pleased to have had the opportunity to raise an issue that affects many of my constituents. I hope that the Government will do their best to shame the Sri Lankan Government into a ceasefire, and if they do not stop fighting, our Government should begin the process of expelling Sri Lanka from the Commonwealth. I hope that the media will pay attention to this forgotten conflict and that my constituents will hear that their families are once again safe and sound.
Mr. Peter Atkinson (in the Chair): Order. I inform hon. Members that we normally start the wind-ups about midday. I see that about six Members wish to speak, so perhaps they could bear in mind the advice of the hon. Member for Mitcham and Morden (Siobhain McDonagh) and keep their speeches short.
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