The Rajpal Abeynayake Column: Aid scares are really about getting ducks on their backs

Sometimes, we wonder what romanticism it is that drives foreign journalists or moony-eyed alien paternalistic types to don their khaki jackets and arrive in this backwater called Sri Lanka for their adventures?

No, we are not being facetious about it, but last week's incident in which Peter Aps the Reuter correspondent was critically injured in an accident in Weli Oya prompts these few lines. There was the memorable earlier incident of the lady who went off with an eye patch after playing hidden dragon and crouching Tiger in the battle zone.

Again, we are not being facetious but merely recording recent events. At the current moment, there are journalists, aid workers and other foreign non governmental workers who are here making despatches about the crisis that's evolving due to the creation of refugee camps as a result of the recent eruption of renewed conflict.

One despatch read that there is an eruption of skin diseases in some camps, which are also being threatened by potential outbreaks of other diseases such as dysentery and malaria.

Foreign aid workers are being killed in the process, but the despatches are also of a very detached variety, which make us think of that excellent book by John Le Carre that went by the name of 'The Constant Gardner.'

The undernourished are nothing much more than a test case for the rich and confused aid workers of the West, that book indicates. Reminds me also the great deluge of television journalists that decanted itself to this country when the Asian tsunami struck.

I had a lady friend who travelled with a French broadcast crew as a local contact person. She regaled me with tales of how the Frenchmen filmed the most tear-jerking reports in front of scenes of utter devastation, and would, as soon as the camera was turned off, guffaw and deadpan "now wasn't that piece of acting brilliant?" "There is an admirable streak of anxiety among these international adventurers about the plight of people in this country.

These days it's easy to read a tone of consternation about matters regarding aid, and the brewing humanitarian crisis, in the despatches that are sent home by the international players....(I almost said voyeurs)....involved in this conflict.

Motivation for these angst ridden messages aside, we have to say, it's excellent that there is concern for people in this country. Very often, this concern seems to be tinged with a sense of frustration with the government. Increasingly, the message that the foreign expats cocktail seems to decant to the international media is "why is the Sri Lankan government doing this to these people?"

Is this also part of that brilliant act that the French TV crew exulted over, after the cameo in front of the tsunami wreckage? Let's consider. How melodramatic would it be if somebody blamed the Liberation Tigers over the brewing humanitarian crisis in the country, buttressed with horror tales about how aid workers are being killed and Christian priests are abducted?

It won't do. No self-respecting international camera wielder would want to despatch a news item that doesn't do justice to his of her adventurism by blaming a rebel group. That's not dramatic, and its certainly not media sexy.

But, there are more internally displaced people as a result of LTTE attacks than there are as a result of Sri Lankan government attacks. People were streaming into Mutur last week, after Sampur had been liberated by the Sri Lankan government forces. (See front page photograph) These IDPS were created as a result of LTTE attacks on Mutur, and that's a fact that not even a LTTE spokesman would contradict.

The whole war is a result of LTTE adventurism - - Mavil Aru, Mutur and the rest. This adventurism necessitated a defensive sate response, which of course added to the number of refugees (...internally displaced people or IDPS.)

But the romanticism of international news reporting or international aid-giving does not allow for the Tigers to take the blame squarely for this humanitarian crisis. Tigers are for bleeping headlines - - such as 'crouching Tiger, hidden dragon.' But when it comes to the issue of bashing heads for war-damage, media romanticism and aid industry romanticism demands a government be hanged.

For all those who have been sexed up to the skin about this romanticised reporting, there has been another tack.

They read this news, and call upon the Sri Lankan government to stop attacking. There was no record of any civil society organisation or NGO, which blamed the Tigers for attacking Mutur resulting in the creation of a large number of IDPs.

To this day, there is no record of any NGO condemning any LTTE provocation in the recent past! But, the Romantic Foreign Observers Ensemble has asked the government many times to stop this war which has given rise to a humanitarian crisis.

I wouldn't want to say much more. Just consider this linear analysis.

a) The Tiger attacks

b) Many refuges are created

c) Nobody says anything

d) Government attacks to regain lost territory

e) Many refugees are created

f) Government is asked to stop the war.

g) INGOs, NGOs, international adventurers, want the government to immediately halt the humanitarian crisis.

Contrast B and C with E, F and G. E, F and G is the response to government's defence of its territory. B and C are responses to Tiger provocations.

What does it say? It says one thing to me. The romantics want the Tigers to attack, and the government to do nothing about it. That is what this whole lamentable humanitarian crisis boils down to. It's in aid of making a government transform itself into one gigantic sitting duck.