The power of overwhelming strength

Attempting to quell violence without an overwhelming strength would expose both sides to high casualty figures. 

By "overwhelming strength" I mean the personnel, the equipment required to withstand such violence, the training in the use of such equipment, and a broader training not only in the use of force to counter the violence, but also to endure hardships with patience and to curtail one's own excesses. This is because the law does not permit the use of more force than is necessary.

Remember, the employer is answerable for his employees who may be maimed or killed in the process, and also for excesses committed by his employees against the opponents. The aim of any responsible employer should be to minimize casualties on both sides whilst bringing the aggressor under control. The training therefore has to be physical as well as mental.

I have had occasion to press the concept of an overwhelming force when I was heading a unit which had to do with such advice, but due to hasty objectives of the employer, the unit was closed down, and the results of such hasty action were disastrous.

A good example, though in a much larger context, can be taken from the Gulf War when Saddam Hussain's forces invaded Kuwait boasting that he had the deadliest of weapons and threatening to use them against any country that would act against him. Virtually all the world powers pooled their resources together to make up an overwhelming force that took part in "Operation Desert Storm' to successfully thwart the aggressor. I say "successfully" not so much because Saddam Hussain's forces were defeated, but more because the casualty rate was minimal in comparison to the enormous troop involvement and the weapons that were at the disposal of both sides. 

The Sri Lanka Police force is vested with the task of maintaining law and order in the country. In a state of emergency the military is called in to assist the police. It is essential to train and equip the forces with such overwhelming power as is required, to endure hardships with patience, to curtail excesses and to overpower the aggressors with the minimum loss of life on both sides, and thereby also enable the rehabilitation of the "misguided" youth.

Unfortunately, since about the late eighties, achievements of the government's forces against the LTTE have been assessed in the media from the number of deaths inflicted on the "enemy". There is a major contradiction here – whilst identifying them as "misguided youth" we also name them as the "enemy". Let us be straight. Are we seriously interested in rehabilitating the misguided youth having rescued them, or are we hell-bent on exterminating them? Lives of the youth on either side are far too precious to trifle with.

Focus on Rights

A piquant electoral realpolitik 

By: Kishali Pinto Jayawardene.

In August last year, a dubious postponement of provincial council elections took place following a state of emergency being proclaimed throughout Sri Lanka. National security was cited as the reason though there was no apparent change in the security situation in those provinces and a SAARC Summit with the participation of the heads of State in the region had been held in Colombo only a scarce one week before the postponement. Upon the postponement being challenged in court, the Supreme Court directed that the elections be held as promptly as possible, in the course of its judgment, pointing out that no material had been produced by the Commissioner of Elections to show that there was a known threat to national security and public order that warranted the postponement. The Commissioner was further reprimanded for agreeing tamely to bide by the emergency proclamation instead of challenging its authenticity and its obvious political overtones and for failing to fix a new date of poll despite the lack of any information suggesting an adverse security situation.

In contrast, the December 1999 Presidential elections sees the wheel turning full circle. The announcing of islandwide Presidential Elections in the country was followed by a largescale military offensive by the LTTE in the Wanni resulting in the area being overrun by the LTTE and by recapturing the Madhu Church and surrounding areas late this month leading to the number of refugees increasing steadily and at an alarming pace. Again, as reported in the "Lankadeepa" of late October, the LTTE leader in the East, Karuna has threatened death to all the participants in the coming elections.

The whole has rendered the mere idea of holding elections in such areas of intense conflict laughable. As of now, it would not require much effort to count how many of the 750,000 registered voters of the North and East provinces would be able to cast their vote by free, equal and secret ballot as specified in the Constitution. 

Reportedly no concrete decision has yet been taken regarding the logistics of the polling of these displaced voters. Apart from spewing out stories in the most enjoyable of spy story traditions linking up the opposition with the LTTE in efforts to sabotage the forthcoming elections, the Government itself has not done anything much by way of practical measures to address a very real problem that these displaced voters face.

Meanwhile, the Presidential Elections Act provides, by an amendment in 1988, that where the polls in any electoral district cannot be taken on the date specified due to any emergency or unforseen circumstances, the Commissioner of Elections may appoint another date for the taking of the polls in those affected areas. However, the odds are against election officials resorting to any such postponement in the instant case. It would, in effect, require a very brave Elections Commissioner to insist on a postponement of the poll in areas affected by the ongoing conflict. The reason is very clear. The section further provides that if such a postponement occurs, it would delay the tabulation of the vote counts in the other districts as well until the conclusion of the polls in the affected areas. Which, of course, the prevailing dispensation would be chary of doing, given their loudly professed and assuredly indecent enthusiasm for holding the polls, come what may, tearing up the "kasikabal" constitution and entering into a new contract with the people. Thus it is that elections are postponed when they should be held on the one hand and held when, on the other hand, in all fairness, they should be postponed. What, if not piquant, is this electoral realpolitik that Sri Lankan voters continue to be subject to?