| NWMI
Bangalore meeting, February 9 to 11, 2007
Paper presented
by Dilrukshi Handunnetti, Editor-Investigations
and Political Correspondent, The Sunday Leader,
Sri Lanka
Overview
Is there any reasons for the Indian media to show
collective interest in covering Sri Lanka’s
raging conflict? If yes, what are they?
It is now an established fact
that several Tamil militant groups including the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) received
military training in different parts in India
since the early 1970’s. This fact was never
reported in the Indian media at that time. The
state did not recognise this fact either. Politically,
this extension of support was interpreted to be
an indication of India’s unofficial assistance
to a northern Tamil movement to carve out a separate
homeland/state. Official war broke out in 1983
with the killing of 13 government troops and the
Sinhelese responded with a terrible ethnic backlash.
When violence escalated in the north and there
was significant delay in sending essential supplies
to the north, the Rajiv Gandhi administration
air dropped dhal and rice to “feed the starving
Tamil population”. This diplomatic faux
pas soured Indo-Lanka relations drastically. Then
came the political phase. In 1987, the Indo-Lanka
Peace Accord was signed between Indian Premier
Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lankan President J R Jayawardene
to move towards a political settlement.
As a consequence, power was devolved in Sri Lanka
through the setting up of provincial councils.
Indian troops, known as the Indian Peace Keeping
Forces (IPKF) arrived in Sri Lanka to assist government
forces to militarily crush the LTTE and other
militant organizations operating in the north.
The IPKF was soon in open conflict with the LTTE.
Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on May 21, 1991
in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu by a LTTE woman suicide
bomber named Thenmuli Rajaratnam. He was on a
political campaign.
How does the Indian
media cover the Sri Lankan conflict?
For this exercise, three journalists
were tasked to survey the Indian print and television
media. The ad hoc survey covered the period of
2000-2006 December. The survey led us to reach
the following conclusions.
The Sri Lankan conflict was one
of the most reported and less analyzed stories
in India. The spill over effect has not caused
Indian media to report the many angles to the
conflict from the Indian perspective. Any kind
on reporting on Sri Lanka could be largely classified
into two categories-the promotion of the country’s
image as an exotic and historical land or as the
war torn neighbour.Regular reporting of incidents
such as casualties, bombings, capture of land
and increasing refugees to some extent gets recorded
in the Tamil Nadu media.The Hindu has a Colombo
correspondent and Narayan Swamy reports from New
Delhi. It is obvious that one of the biggest stories
as well as a human tragedy is of no significance.
The general Indian reporting on the Sri Lankan
conflict, despite the serious political and security
implications to India appeared event- based. Different
regions/states covered the conflict differently.
| North — Largely
event-based. More political angles covered
such as pace talks, Norwegian facilitation
and Premier Manmohan Singh’s regular
appeals to the Colombo administration to resume
talks. The stories dealt with statistics than
issues. There were few reports on the humanitarian
crisis. More knee jerk stories. |
South
— There was consistent coverage.
The South also had a lot of local stories.
The coverage was broad. The stories/clippings
urging support for the Northern Tamil populations.
Some were full of advocacy- ie; the need for
a separate Tamil homeland in northern Sri
Lanka. A few stories traced the historical
relations between South Indian and Sri Lanka.
With the outbreak of war in 2006, wave of
fresh reporting ensued on the question of
Sri Lankan refugees. Following the 2002 truce
between the government of Sri Lanka and the
LTTE, some 70,000 Sri Lankan refugees returned
to Sri Lanka. At that time, a little over
200,000-made South Indian camps their home.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Karunandhi and
General Secretary, MDMK, V Gopalaswamy alias
Vaiko dominated the stories.
A positive phase in reporting was experienced
during the same period. There was a fair balance
of reports based on statistics as well as
issues. More opinion pieces published. Humanitarian
crisis significantly covered. |
| Assam — Was
more radical in reporting. There was a certain
level of advocacy. Largely sympathetic to
the Tamil cause.The overall reporting showed
lacked in depth coverage and a serious lack
vibrant discussion. Event based reporting.
The above despite serious political and security
implications for India. |
SRI LANKA — Politics
of presence and the invisibility of women
Women representation at the dialogue
level. No women have been included in the island’s
peace process in a real way. Cosmetic representation
was given to women when Housing and Public Amenities
Minister and a Muslim political party leader,
Ferial Ashraff was included in the government
delegation during the only round of peace talks
held since the ascendancy of President Mahinda
Rajapaksa. The LTTE also included a woman during
the same round of talks.
| Women as experts
— There are no women experts generally
commenting on the peace process, conflict
or the political aspects of the same. There
isn’t a strong enough voice raised by
the elected women legislators as well. Some
women activists focus on human rights, the
humanitarian crisis and psychological needs
of victims of war. Few women have done academic
work — Dr. Rajini Thiranagama who was
critical both of the government and the LTTE
and wrote a book titled the “Broken
Palmyra” was killed in Jaffna by the
LTTE |
| Government forces
— Employs women but none of them have
ended as the commander in chief or as chief
of staff, the two top ranks Only two years
ago, SLAF began recruiting women as cadet
pilots Women perform non-combatant duties
in all three forces. No woman has reached
beyond a certain rank in all three armed forces.
The only woman who reached a rank of recognition
was Premila Diwakara, a Superintendent of
Police (SP) |
LTTE cadres
— LTTE has a separate women’s
brigade named “Malathi”. The
Liberation Tigers recruit child soldiers,
both male and female children. Women were
originally used for LTTE propaganda work.
Later women began performing a special duty
within the LTTE frame work — as human
bombs
The pictures below show LTTE with child
recruits: |
 |
 |
Women journalists less
visible in conflict coverage
Just a handful have entered this beat when they
do, they cover the conflict from Colombo by analyzing
reports or dealing with the political aspects.
There is still competition from male colleagues
to secure this beat women reporters are less likely
to be given a beat that is considered “extremely
male”
Women perceived by most editors to be lacking
in depth knowledge about conflict, war strategy
and peace initiatives. Considered physically less
capable of working in the conflict ridden zones
The visits to conflict areas are either military
sponsored or sometimes, LTTE assisted. Either
way, neither party allows easy access to all areas
or to information. Both sides offer a distorted
and biased picture. However, the coverage of the
conflict by women demonstrated diversity with
more angles being covered. Women reporters emphasized
on the humanitarian crisis, about health, hygiene,
child recruitment, soil and water contamination,
psychological needs, environmental degradation
and women as victims male reporters in contrast
confined themselves to confine reporting to events,
military strategy and statistics.
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