Handling touchy issues in SL-German ties

by Janaka Perera

The meeting on January 18 between a JHU delegation and the German Ambassador, Jurgen Weerth reportedly ended on a very cordial note and perhaps allayed JHU suspicions over the issue of the German aid in the context of ongoing GOSL military operations in the Eastern Province.

The meeting followed the German Embassy's categorical denial that it is serving LTTE interests or halting development aid to Sri Lanka. According to embassy sources there is absolutely no question of Germany trying to get the European Union to lift the Tiger ban. On the contrary it was Germany that had taken the lead in getting the Tigers proscribed in EU.

The denial of suspending aid to Sri Lanka came in the wake of media reports and a barrage of criticism levelled at the German Government (the second largest donor) on the aid issue. The Embassy press release stated:

"This does not mean, as misinterpreted on various occasions, the German Development Cooperation with Sri Lanka has come to a halt. On the contrary major efforts are being made to assist people in need in Sri Lanka."

The 'misinterpretation,' as the embassy calls it, occurred as a result of German Economic Cooperation and Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul saying that her ministry will freeze aid to this country due to the resumption of fighting and her appeal to other EU countries to make such aid dependent on the reactivation of the so-called peace process.

The aid suspension controversy highlighted one significant fact. It is that donor nations should be more responsive to the feelings of the large majority of Sri Lankans in taking decisions on sensitive issues, especially matters pertaining to national sovereignty and territorial integrity. Both are non-negotiable under any circumstance. Failure to understand this is bound to make people here identify the donors and INGOs linked to them as neo-colonialists in disguise - no matter how sincere their motives may be.

While the German Embassy's clarifications may have helped to remove misunderstandings regarding the German Government's true objectives, they however, cannot lift the cloud of suspicion that hangs over the Berghof Foundation, which is one of the INGOs that are most unpopular among Sri Lanka's majority community and patriotic groups. To them the BF's motives are highly questionable despite the fact that the German Embassy has rushed to its defence.

Any organisation that indirectly stresses the need for `shared sovereignty' to resolve the conflict here is only proposing a way for further conflict, bloodshed and destabilisation that would perhaps lead eventually to a Cyprus-like situation in Sri Lanka. So the question is how can a `peace' organisation which gives equal recognition to the country's legitimate government and a terrorist outfit perform a service that will not be seen as undermining the country's territorial integrity and national goals?

The Berghof Foundation's activities were one of the subjects that came up for discussion during the meeting between the JHU and the German Ambassador.

Among the other topics discussed was the special affinity that Sri Lankans, especially Sinhalese have towards Germany, which has the oldest Theravada Buddhist Temple in Europe. German intellectuals and scholars like Wilhelm Geiger and Paul Dalke had expressed an avid interest in the Sinhala language, culture and Buddhism. It was a German bhikku, the Venerable Gnantiloka who founded the Polgasduwa Buddhist hermitage near Galle. And this year marks the 50th anniversary of the first Sri Lankan Buddhist mission to Germany.

Today over 90 percent of Germans will feel highly offended and rightly so if they are branded Nazis and racists. It is also unthinkable that they welcome the idea of Germany having had to pay for Hitler's sins after the Nazi defeat. Would any of them have wished to see the continued division of their country into two sovereign States (if the Cold War continued) because of what he did?

Likewise the majority of Sinhalas would not want to be called racists because of the actions of some despicable racist elements among them. Yet at the same time no right-thinking citizen here would want to surrender to or appease the LTTE which is trying hard to justify all its brutality and ethnic cleansing under the cover of `liberating' Tamils from the `Sinhala state terrorism.'

After July 1983, anti-Tamil riots the entire Sinhala community faced virtually the same humiliating experience the Germans underwent as a result of Nazi policies. So they should be able to understand better than other Europeans the attempts by the international pro-LTTE lobby to get the world to ostracise Sri Lanka for the so-called genocide of Tamils.

If Germany and other donor countries really expect a lasting peace in Sri Lanka they should strengthen the hands of the democratically elected government, however flawed it may be - instead of indirectly rationalising Tiger terrorism.