Reflections

I had originally sat down to write this blog to complement my fellow blogger, Glenda Cooper, who had submitted her piece on Alertnet last month on the perceptions of NGOs in Sri Lanka as fat cats. 

Whilst largely agreeing with that particular blog, I felt that I had to also contribute some of the positives of the NGO work whilst highlighting something of the challenges faced in an attempt to give the ‘other side’ of the picture.

The incidents of this week highlight in no uncertain terms the challenges that are faced by NGO workers in Sri Lanka, particularly national staff.  As I write this, I have mixed feelings. 

I feel a sense of disbelief at the mere fact that such an incident happened not on the ‘field’ so to speak but in Colombo, the capital and possibly by supposed policemen.  Whether or not this turns out to be true is another case, but what this reinforces is the sense of dread that set into the NGO community last August when 17 of our colleagues were murdered in Mutur. 

Have we become the next targets?

Has our sense of ‘neutrality’ now been compromised? 

These are questions that will undoubtedly haunt our work and may even affect our response.

I am angry because these incidents serve to illustrate the dangers that people in our line of work face, yet all people can do is criticise us for wasteful spending (which I agree does exist like in any other industry) without taking heed of the challenges and pitfalls of development and humanitarian work. 

The lay man does not realise the amount of challenges facing aid workers and at the top of the list is looking after their families.  Most people are in this ignorant bliss that aid workers or NGO workers are charity workers, who must by default work for free and not charge anything and so by default are ‘fat cats’ when they do.   

These observers who are comfortable in their cushy jobs can not even fathom an iota of what it means to be working out on the field, often in very unbearable circumstances (ask those who work in Darfur).  For these apathetic armchair ‘development experts’,  their compassion and commitment stretches as far as their air conditioned cars will take them on the smooth roads of Sri Lanka. Doing ‘their bit’ for charity is to give out a sewing machine or the most laying a foundation stone for some building.  Ask them to do anything else and the usual response is ‘Batticaloa?  Isn’t that dangerous?  Isn’t there a war there?’  or my personal favourite ‘do they have electricity there?’.

I am disgusted because there is possibly an element of truth that is in some of the rumours doing the rounds in Colombo.  These victims were not targeted because they were Red Cross volunteers but that they were targeted because they were Tamil.  If this is the case, then there are some serious issues arising out of such a scenario.

The abductions of civilians in Colombo from mainly the Muslim and Tamil (but also Sinhalese) community have intensified over the last couple of months with many being held for large amounts of ransom or being killed.

I feel sad because the abduction and death of these two volunteers is another tragic chapter to a sad story of abductions in Sri Lanka as security and human rights conditions deteriorate.  Had it not been for the fact that these two also worked for the Red Cross, their fate would have been confined to the middle pages of the newspapers and an item in the news headlines. However, as is usual in these instances, their fate has allowed the international community to understand what hundreds of nameless civilians are facing on a daily basis in Sri Lanka.  With this tragedy comes opportunity.

I grieve because I know that this is another nail in the coffin of peace in Sri Lanka and those that will suffer are the innocent civilians.  From the perspective of the humanitarian agencies, the reaction I know will be to rethink security procedures and programs to ensure safety of workers.  An unfortunate but necessary response perhaps in the light of the last 10 months where we as well have also been at the receiving end.

One can remain positive and live in the hope that this does not happen as the suffering civilians will be the ultimate losers.  From my perspective, such tragic incidents have only reinforced ones commitment to meet all the challenges that we will face and to redouble one efforts for those in need.

Dedicated to the  memory of our colleagues  from ACF and Red Cross who died in the line of fire.  May we all work to ensure that your sacrifice to serve the needy was not in vain.