Clive Jachnik

Clive Jachnik, also known as Dr Clive Vincent Jachnik, is a former Royal Navy commander. After leaving the Navy, Jachnik reintegrated rebel fighters into post-conflict societies such as DRC, Liberia, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. Since February 2013, Jachnik was working in Nigeria on anti-piracy for the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office as their Maritime Liaison Officer to ECOWAS (Economic Community Of West African States).

Background

Jachnik says he grew up in a military family and worked in the UK fishing industry. From 1978-1981 he studied Marine Biology at Heriot Watt University, before a masters in Fisheries Development at Humberside University from 1981-1982. He then worked in development in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean prior to his military service.

Royal Navy

Jachnik enlisted with the Royal Navy in 1985 as a Reserve Officer. At some point during his Naval career, Jachnik says he was seconded to NATO for peacekeeping duties in Bosnia and also aided War Crimes investigation.

From 1999-2000, Jachnik says he was a Commander in the Royal Navy and seconded to the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC), which dealt with Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR). He served as Military Advisor to the Force Commander, General Mountaga Diallo of Senegal.

UN

Jachnik then joined the UN as a civilian performing DDR, SSR (Security Sector Reforms), peacekeeping and peacebuilding roles in Africa and Asia.

He spent short periods of time in Burundi and Rwanda. He says he was “twice in Indonesia” with reference to disarming the Free Aceh Movement.

DRC 2000-2004, UN

From 2002-2004, he was based in Goma and set up DDR in North Kivu/Ituri for the MONUC. He disarmed and repatriated over 3,000 ex-combatants to Rwanda under the program.

Liberia 2004-2006, UN 'Disarming' unarmed women and children

From 2004-2006, he was part of the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), where he was Head of UN DDR. Jachnik says he “lobbied very hard... and very pleased it actually happened in the end” that “Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration actually included unarmed women and children for the first time in UN history”, and this was “absolutely fundamental because if you imagine in a combat force where a woman's role or child's role maybe 'various' and indeed at the end of fighting if you only have a certain number of guns, only a third of the people are actually armed and if you only disarm and reintegrate those who present weapons it leaves two thirds disenfranchised, un-demobilised and potentially with mindset that hasn't changed after the conflict” (@15:00)

DRC 2006-2007, UN

From 2006-2007, Jachnik was Head of the Rapid Response Mechanism in DRC, which included implementing some SSR programmes for policing.

Sri Lanka 2010-2013, International Organisation for Migration

From April 2010-February 2013, Jachnik worked for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Sri Lanka. (The IOM is not a UN body.) During this period (2011-2012), he was seconded (or “return”) to Kenya and Somalia to advise their governments on Al-Shabab, because they were interested in the “Sri Lanka model”. He also advised them on de-radicalising potential recruits to Al-Shabab in the UK. (@14:00)

Jachnik was the IOM's DDR Programme Manager dealing with "Reintegration of Ex LTTE" (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) from April 2010 – January 2012 in Sri Lanka. He was IOM Programme Manager for Reintegration and Reconciliation from January 2012 – February 2013 in Sri Lanka.

In September 2013, Jachnik returned to Sri Lanka to participate in the Defence Seminar. In his speech, he gave more details about his previous work in Sri Lanka. He said his first counter-part was Major General Sudantha Ranasinghe, his second counter-part was Major General Rajaguru, and his third counter-part was Brigadier Hettiarachchi. Jachnik described them as “marvellous people”. Sudantha Ranasinghe has been dogged by war crimes allegations.

Jachnik said that at the start of his tenure, there were 11,664 ex-LTTE awaiting reintegration, but he was only able to secure funds to reintegrate 6,500, meaning 45 per cent would not be reintegrated. Jachnik says he had been assured a $10m budget for the programme and unlimited access to the 'Protective Accommodation and Rehabilitation Centers' (PARCs) in which suspected LTTE members were held.

Criticism of the PARCs

Jachnik implies that the Director General of the IOM (William Lacy Swing) had agreed with the Secretary General of the Red Cross (ICRC) prior to his arrival that he could work with the ex-LTTE and it would “not impinge on anyone's human rights”. Jachnik acknowledged that going inside these government controlled facilities was “a hot one”, which surprised UN officials at an initial meeting shortly after his arrival in Sri Lanka.

Other junior IOM staff have criticised the camps where suspected LTTE were held. Dr Julian Vigo interviewed 'Susan', an IOM programme manager involved in the PARCs prior to Jachnik's arrival. Susan explained how “The government put civilians in IDP camps and suspected Tigers in separate camps, men of all ages and some women. Eleven thousand people were put in these camps called Surrendee Camps as the government wanted these possible Tigers to renounce their allegiances. The government then set up programs to brainwash them and the camps were closed, completely militarised… Their proposal was to keep these people in the camps for an indefinite period of time. When I was there the debate was under what conditions are you keeping these people detained.” “There was a big schism between the UN agencies and IOM. IOM was working with the government to construct rehabilitation camps, to put programs in these camps. The donors were worried because the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) didn’t have access to these camps. So funding wasn’t forthcoming and IOM had broken from the position of the UN as it was more supportive of the government’s position and of the integration of IDPs. While there I was trying to get IOM to tow [sic] the line and to be part of the UN system — that as long as the legal status of these people inside these Surrendee Camps was not conclusive, that the UN was not going to get involved”.

Jachnik says he worked closely with the Sri Lankan government's Commissioner General of Rehabilitation. The Bureau of the Commissioner General of Rehabilitation (BCGR) conducted an awareness raising programme concerning rehabilitation and reintegration of ex-combatants into the community in Jaffna, their second session, at the Jaffna District secretariat auditorium on 10th November 2010. At this event, "Mr. Clive Jachnik the DDR program manager from IOM discussed the importance of ICRS (Information, Counselling and Referral Services) which will assist and facilitate the livelihood development of the beneficiaries." Jachnik attended a similar event in Batticaloa on 13th December 2010.

Funding for Jachnik

The figure of $10m matches with a US embassy cable from 24 September 2009 which discussed funding for rehabilitation of suspected LTTE.

“The GSL has provided staff and developed with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) a strategy for rehabilitation that emphasizes livelihood training, but still lacks the resources to build the centers and the housing required. (NOTE: State/USAID has proposed to DOD using a significant portion of the approximately $10 million in DOD-provided 1207 funding for post-conflict stabilization in northern Sri Lanka (about $10 million) on IOM-implemented projects that support the rehabilitation of former LTTE and pro-government paramilitary combatants and former child soldiers, building on similar work in the East. END NOTE.)

A breakdown of Department of Defence “Section 1207” expenditure for Sri Lanka notes that “with FY09 funds,support the return and reintegration of ex-combatants and displaced persons in the north of the country ($10.28 million).”

Criticism of the I.D. cards

Jachnik also says he was involved with issuing Sri Lankan national I.D. cards to ex-LTTE as part of the reintegration programme.(@37.40mins)

This identification scheme has attracted controversy. On 12th September 2012, TamilNet.com alleged that “a section of the officials of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), working with the Sri Lankan State, have been harassing former LTTE members to return the identity cards the organisation had earlier provided to them certifying their release. The IOM, which undertook ‘pre-release profiling’ of more than 10,000 ex-Tiger members, had received foreign aid from Japan, Norway, USA, The Netherlands and the UK for the programme named ‘Information, Counselling, and Referral Services’ (ICRS). After completing the project, the inter-governmental organisation, with its global agenda of restricting ‘illegal immigration’, has now sought to prevent the possibility of ex-Tiger members using the identity card to document their background when they seek political asylum outside the island”.

The timing of this development coincided with a new ruling made by a British Court that Tamils in the UK will now only be granted asylum if they can prove a “real or perceived association with the LTTE”. The UK Department for International Development (DFID) donated £2.16 million to the IOM between September 2008 and May 2010, amounting to 17% of their total “humanitarian assistance” to Sri Lanka, a proportion of this went to “provision of ID cards”.

Support and advice for Sri Lankan Government

At the start of his 2013 Defence Seminar speech in Sri Lanka, Jachnik said "I love this country, I think it's a country of great talent and great potential and as I mentioned to the Honourable Secretary of Defence and Urban Development [Gotabhaya Rajapaksa] the other day if there's some way on the short term that I can support this country in its reconciliation efforts as an independent consultant I will do it pro-bono, without cost".

He also gave advice on government-media relations in a post-conflict scenario: “Support from the government to media to make sure it's engaged positively with the media, will make sure that there is responsible reporting and that there is partnership and people are not going off on the wrong message.” @45.45mins

Jachnik said that in his experience, de-radicalisation always has a “Diaspora element”, and that this is very much the case with Sri Lanka. He was anxious to know whether the diaspora youth in particular were being engaged.@14:30