Tamil Lawyers’ Forum backs Ban panel report

June 4, 2011, 7:08 pm

The Tamil Lawyers’ Forum alleges indiscriminate military action directed against the Tamil speaking people by successive Sri Lankan governments, particularly the present regime.

The Forum, while welcoming the UNSG Ban Ki-moon’s Panel Report on accountability issues in Sri Lanka, believes the government and the LTTE should be investigated for HR violations.

The following is the full text of a statement by the Forum to The Sunday Island: ``We welcome the Report of the Panel of Experts appointed by the UN Secretary General on alleged war crimes. The Report correctly identifies at least some of the horrendous sufferings to which the Tamil people were subjected during the final phase of the ethnic war in Sri Lanka.
``This indeed is the prime document that is on record of ‘credible allegations’ of the atrocities committed by the Sri Lankan armed forces and the Sri Lankan State on the Tamil people that the international community has at last recognized. Significantly the said Report also refers to human rights violations committed by the non-state parties.
``Tamils in Sri Lanka have been systematically annihilated over the last several decades by state-sponsored pogroms of 1958, 1961, 1977 and 1983, extra-judicial killings, large scale massacres, enforced disappearances and unresolved abductions. The enactment of National Security laws including PTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act) and Emergency Regulations were designed to facilitate unlawful arrests and prolonged detentions without trial and to obtain convictions based on confessions otherwise not admissible in Courts of law.
``Torture and rape of Tamil women were unabashedly used as weapons of war. The country’s weak and corrupt law- enforcing agencies and armed forces acting with the unparalleled facility of impunity ensured that crime detection, investigation and prosecution were at zero level. Tamils living in Sri Lanka never received justice in any form from successive governments. This is the raison d’état that has driven the Tamil community to seek justice through the international community represented by the United Nations.
``Pseudo nationalists and even professional organizations protest that the report tantamount to interference with the sovereignty of the country which argument has no merit in the present context. Sri Lanka is a member of UN that has accepted the Charter and had pledged to promote and protect human rights individually and in collaboration with other nations and the UN.
``In the modern International law, human rights violations are not within the exclusive jurisdiction of the countries but it is a legitimate concern of the international community. The developing concept of R2P has gone beyond and has legitimized intervention in case of grave human rights violations by the states in the event of the states failing to protect their citizens, invoking the concept of universal jurisdiction.
``We urge therefore, that those responsible for the commission of such acts be made accountable and that an independent and impartial investigative mechanism be set in motion in terms of the United Nations procedures to act on the findings and recommendations of the said UN panel report.’’

Roshen’s funeral takes place amidst controversy

04 June, 2011 

Funeral of Roshen Chanaka, an employee of Katunayaka Free Trade Zone (FTZ) took place at Gal-Oluwa in Minuwangoda on Saturday with military protection.Thousands of people including FTZ employees, opposition politicians, trade union members, and NGOs gathered at the funeral ceremony to pay last respects. The 24-year-old was injured during a demonstration on Monday, held to protest against the proposed private pension scheme, and later succumbed to his injuries in hospital. The body of Roshen Chanaka was taken to the Gal-Oluwa Church in Minuwangoda on Saturday morning for religious observances earlier than announced.

The angered parents and relatives said that while the grave was being dug, the body had been taken to the church without advanced notice. Father of Roshan Chanaka, Quintus Ratnaweera said that he was not aware of the background under which the court order had been taken to hold funeral rites at the church. He cast doubts whether his son had been influenced by authorities to give consent to it where as it had to be done by the parents. Roman Catholic priest of the Gal- Oluwa Church, Christopher Madurawela told media that he was acting upon the court order, and it was a special occasion to facilitate the late Roshen Chanaka.

Opposition politician, Dr.Jayalath Jayawardena said that the presence of military in the Catholic Church was immoral and unethical.
Trade Unionists and Activists expressed anger and said that they were unable to hold the funeral with due respects to the late Roshen Chanaka.
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Gotabaya’s ghouls don’t spare even dead body of Roshen: army obstruct funeral proceedings: what a shame! what a sacrilege!!

(Lanka-e-News -04.June.2011 10.00PM) We are compelled to reveal with deep regret that the final funeral proceedings of young Roshen Chanaka who was ruthlessly murdered by the police faced obstruction from Rajapakse regime’s army owing to their forcible disgraceful intrusion into it.

About a group of about a thousand army officers headed by a Brigadier had carried out this operation. In Sri Lanka except Muslims no other religious followers conduct final funeral rites in the morning. Yet , this morning at about 9.30 a m, this army group has forcibly carried the body of Roshan to Galmaluwa Roman catholic church. The residents of the area have objected to this use of force.

A village resident who had made preparations for his burial at the grounds , was chased away by the Army and taken over this task to which the residents of the area have raised fierce protests. Because of these protests the Army’s attempt to conclude the funeral proceedings in the morning was foiled. The residents had succeeded in postponing it to the evening .

About 25000 persons paid their last respects to dead Roshan while ten thousand attended the funeral proceedings . No politico of the Govt. attended the funeral.

In accordance with the order issued by the court , the priest in attendance conducted the ceremonies and delivered the sermon. However , something most curiously omitted by the priest was his failure to mention that Roshen died at the hands of the police due to their shooting despite the fact that this priest was standing on the scared pulpit with the cross which signifies the killing of Jesus Christ and where he is expected to speak the truth . Residents of the area stated that two relatives of Roshan Chanaka were given large sums of money each by the Rajapakse regime to silence them.

Here is the palpable and tangible clear evidence of police shooting after storming into the Katunayake zone factories Those who gave illegal orders still at large

Sri Lanka under renewed pressure over violations

By Hui Min Neo (AFP) – 10 hours ago

GENEVA — Sri Lanka came under renewed pressure this week at the UN Human Rights Council over video footages detailing violations allegedly committed by soldiers during the country's civil war.
A UN investigator authenticated some of the footage early this week, while at the end of the week, a documentary by Britain's Channel 4 detailing the serious abuses was screened at the sidelines of the Human Rights Council.  Full Story>>>
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SL Army in Jaffna defies judiciary, restarts photo registration

[Sat, 04 Jun 2011, 08:39 GMT]

Sri Lanka Army occupying Jaffna has restarted its terrorising mission of photo registration of people in Jaffna peninsula. Some times back, when the ‘obligatory’ SL military registration of the people in Jaffna was challenged in the courts by the Tamil National Alliance, the SLA said in the courts that it had stopped the process. But, while the matter is sub-judicial, the registration has restarted and forms to this effect are being distributed by the occupying SL military, accuses TNA parliamentarian Mavai Senathiraja. A few days ago, overlooking the SL Supreme Court's request to postpone the mandatory military training programme to students entering the universities, Colombo went ahead with the programme citing that it had already spent money on the project and students had already started travelling to the military bases. Full story >>
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STF collects details of exiled Tamils from Batticaloa

[Fri, 03 Jun 2011, 08:56 GMT]

The Special Task Force, an elite commando wing of the Sri Lankan Police and a part of the SL armed forces in the war against Tamils, has begun registering the names and other details of Tamils from Batticaloa, who are settled abroad. A group of personnel of Special Task Force dressed in black uniform conducted house to house search operation in Ea'raavoorpattu Chengkaladi division in Batticaloa district Thursday from 4:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
  The STF commandos search every house in the area from Ampalaththadi junction to Vishnu Koayil and collected the names of persons of both sexes who are residing abroad.

The registration also included the large number of Tamils who have recently sought employment abroad as maids and labourers due to acute unemployment in the district.

Meanwhile, house to house search and registration of details of people who have gone abroad were also carried out at 2nd unit of Maavadivempu and 1st unit of Chiththaa'ndi on May 29, civil sources in Batticaloa said.
Full story >>

Sri Lanka Defense Symposium

 Press Statement

Mark C. Toner
Deputy Spokesperson, Office of the Spokesman

Washington, DC

June 3, 2011

Remarks earlier this week by the U.S. Embassy’s Defense Attaché at a conference in Colombo reflected his personal opinions. They do not reflect the policy of the United States Government. The United States declined invitations to participate in this conference, and our Defense Attaché attended to observe the proceedings as part of his normal duties.
The United States remains deeply concerned by the findings of the Secretary-General’s Panel of Experts on Sri Lanka. We are committed to ensuring that there is a credible accounting of, and accountability for, violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law in Sri Lanka. We believe that the Sri Lankan Government must act quickly and credibly to address the violations alleged in the report and to adopt the measures necessary to achieve national reconciliation and build a united, democratic, and peaceful Sri Lanka.

“No clarity on Sri Lankan civilian casualties”

COLOMBO,

June 2, 2011

R. K. Radhakrishnan   

Two years after the defeat of the LTTE, Sri Lanka says it is yet to figure out how many civilians died during the battle.

Addressing members of the defence forces from 41 countries at a seminar, “Defeating terrorism — the Sri Lankan experience”, which concluded here on Thursday, an expert put the number of civilian deaths at 1,400 — a claim which was quickly dismissed by Sri Lankan Army Commander Jagath Jayasuriya as the academic's “personal opinion”.

Lieutenant-General Jayasuriya said it was not possible to fix the exact number of civilian casualties because many had fled the areas where fighting raged. They had been in the camps for internally displaced persons and had just returned to their homes. Only after an extensive enumeration was conducted and each family interviewed, would the Army be in a position to finalise the number of deaths. There was also an Act of Parliament which said only after a person had not been found for more than a year could he or she be declared as missing. After this, the family had to apply to the Government Agent for a death certificate. “Some people are applying. Only once this process is completed we will be able to say for certain,” he said, in response to a question on why there was not even an estimate of the number of civilians killed during the final stages of the war.

Asked why the senior officials did not address the question of how LTTE's artillery units located in civilian areas were neutralised without inflicting civilian casualties, he said the pictures and video footage that had been supplied to the international community holding the Army responsible for shelling civilian areas were fakes. “The dates and time do not match [with the time when action was launched],” said military spokesperson Major-General U.A.B. Medawela.

The United Nations Secretary-General's Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka, which submitted its report in April, had said “tens of thousands” of civilians lost their lives in the final stages of the war, between January and May 2009 because of the Army's indiscriminate shelling.

Lieutenant-General Jayasuriya said the Army was not shying away from accountability. He said specific instances of human rights excesses would be investigated if brought to its notice.

Keywords:

UN screens Channel 4 Sri Lanka war crimes film

Friday 03 June 2011

A special investigation by Channel 4 featuring devastating new evidence of alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka is screened at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, as pressure mounts for action.

 

The documentary is an hour-long investigation into the final weeks of the bloody Sri Lankan civil war and features damning new evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Titled Sri Lanka's Killing Fields, Jon Snow presents the investigation which was shown to the United Nations Human Rights Council on Friday.
Disturbing footage in the film includes the apparent extra-judicial massacre of prisoners by government forces, the aftermath of targeted shelling of civilian hospitals and the bodies of female Tamil fighters who appear to have been sexually assaulted.
Also examined in the film are atrocities carried out by the Tamil Tigers, including the use of human shields, and footage depicting the aftermath of a suicide bombing in a government centre for the displaced.
The UN screening was attended by a number of ambassadors from nations including the US and UK.
A Sri Lankan delegation also attended. It was the first time they had seen the new alleged evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Sri Lanka's Killing Fields will be broadcast on Channel 4 on 14 June.
War crimes claims
In a world exclusive, Channel 4 News first broadcast the footage allegedly showing Sri Lankan government forces shooting dead bound prisoners in August 2009.
Last November, a second video of the same massacre emerged, revealing the naked dead bodies of at least seven women. The faces of some of the government troops could also be seen.
Following an investigation, Channel 4 News identified of one of the female victims in the video as a high profile member of the Tamil Tiger communications team. A potential date and location of the massacre was also determined.

Earlier this week, a UN special envoy said the footage appeared to be evidence of "serious international crimes".
The Sri Lankan government has consistently rejected the footage as falsified.
As the UN says it will continue its investigations, pressure has increased on the Sri Lankan authorities to allow an international inquiry into allegations that thousands of civilians were killed at the end of the 26-year war.
UN report
In April a 200-page report commissioned by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon concluded that up to 40,000 civilians may have died in the final push by the government to defeat the Tamil Tigers.
The UN report found credible evidence that both sides of the conflict committed serious war crimes. The report called for an international inquiry - that call has so far has gone unheard.
The Secretary-General said he lacked the authority to personally order an investigation into the mass killings.
A spokesman for Ban Ki-Moon said that without the consent of Sri Lanka's government ,or a decision by the UN Security Council, General Assembly, Human Rights Council or other international body, Ban will not move to set up a formal investigation of the civilian deaths.
UN officials concede that Colombo would never consent to such an investigation of its conduct in the conflict.
Sri Lanka has acknowledged some non-combatants were killed in the war, but says the numbers have been inflated by LTTE supporters.

The Global Context of Counterterrorism: Strategy, Ethics, and Sustainability in Sri Lanka’s COIN Experience

*groundviews journalism For citizens

[Editors note: We were forwarded Dr. Kilcullen's speech by someone present at the on-going "Defeating Terrorism: The Sri Lankan Experience" seminar in Colombo. The person who sent us the email noted that "Australian counter-terrorism expert David Kilcullen speech today at def seminar. It was the best for the day where he insinuated that by giving strong political leadership to finish the war, the MR is indirectly responsible for war crimes. He got a very good ovation from the audience, which included the army commander and Rajiva Wijesinha. We were laughing, because the "government" folks missed the egg on their face lines." Emphasis ours.]

Defense Secretary Rajapaksa, Professor Peiris, General Jayasuriya, distinguished officials, officers, and delegations: Good morning. Thank you for organizing this important conference, and for your kind invitation to talk frankly with you about Sri Lanka’s experience in Eelam War IV.  As I said when I accepted the invitation to attend, I believe your defeat of LTTE is a remarkable achievement that deserves to be studied. At the same time, the international community has legitimate questions about human rights and about the way operations were conducted, and it is in Sri Lanka’s interest to be as open as possible in answering those questions. I am not known for being diplomatic, so let me say from the outset that I do believe Sri Lanka has achieved a great success, but before you can put forward your approach as a model for others, it’s extremely important to address some important human rights critiques, and consider how to turn a military success into a sustainable peace. I don’t believe we are there yet.           Continue reading »    
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Plan to Host 2018 Commonwealth Games Opposed
By Feizal Samath

COLOMBO, Jun 3, 2011 (IPS) - Sri Lanka plans to host the Commonwealth Games seven years from now and spend two billion dollars, in what politicians and economists slam as another extravagant adventure aimed at boosting President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Sri Lanka is bidding against Australia to stage the 21st edition of the Games in 2018. Both countries presented their bids during the meeting of the Commonwealth Games Federation executive committee in Kuala Lumpur on May 11. The vote by 70 countries on the venue of the Games will take place at the Federation's general assembly in St. Kitts and Nevis on Nov. 11.

"This spending is a total waste of money as this is not a priority," said Kusal Perera, a civil society activist and political columnist for the Colombo-based weekly newspaper, Sunday Leader. "This money could be used for a better planned development of Sri Lanka, especially in rural economic development in the agriculture business, if the planners really have such priorities worked out. But they don't.      "Full Story>>>

European United Left upholds Tamil right to self-determination including secession

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 June 2011, 12:52 GMT]
A conference organised by the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) at the EU Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday, resolved that it supported “the right to self determination of the Tamil-speaking people, up to and including separation, if that is what they wish, while safeguarding the rights of all minorities” and demanded the SL state to shut down the military bases of the “army of occupation” in North and East and sought a political solution addressing the “national and democratic aspirations” of the Tamil people. Heidi Hautala, Green MEP and Chair of EU Parliament's Human Rights Sub Committee, a key speaker at the event, called for a GUE/NGL fact finding mission to the island of Sri Lanka. Vaiko, the leader of the MDMK in Tamil Nadu and Sinhala and Tamil political activists from the island and the diaspora took part in the event.




Full story >>

Sri Lanka's army- In bigger barracks -A victorious army keeps busy despite the lack of an enemy

Jun 2nd 2011 | COLOMBO

Let the army make it next time

IN THE run-up to Vesak, the holiest day in the Buddhist calendar, which this year coincided with the second anniversary of its victory against the Tamil Tiger rebels, Sri Lanka’s armed forces had plenty to do. The throngs who clogged Colombo’s streets on May 18th for the festival of light marking the Buddha’s birthday were treated to an array of glimmering, white paper lanterns, each meticulously assembled by a soldier, sailor or airman.
The army’s non-martial tasks do not stop at lamp-making. Between 2006 and 2009 Sri Lanka inducted thousands into its army, navy and air force to fight against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. With the war won, servicemen are being deployed in everything from market gardening to tourism.
The bloody end of the war is still being refought diplomatically. On May 27th Sri Lanka celebrated it with a military parade in Colombo featuring mostly Chinese, Ukrainian and Russian hardware. And on May 31st a three-day seminar opened in Colombo, with the aim of teaching the world how to defeat terrorism the Sri Lankan way. Meanwhile, in Geneva, at the United Nations Human Rights Council, a UN special investigator was showing video of Sri Lankan soldiers in the war’s final days, apparently executing civilians. He called it “trophy footage” and evidence of serious human-rights abuses. However, despite calls for a boycott of the Sri Lankan seminar, 42 countries attended.

Related topics

A notable omission from the agenda was any initiative to pare back Sri Lanka’s now bloated armed forces. Instead, the government is finding new things for them to do. Soldiers are taking on the civilian middlemen who control the vegetable trade by selling cheap produce, some of it from military farms. The navy has even opened a vegetable shop near one of its biggest camps in Colombo. The army has an air-ticketing agency. It is building roads and bridges, and houses for the internally displaced. Soldiers built one cricket stadium and renovated another for the World Cup earlier this year. Restaurants along the highway to Jaffna in the north are mostly army-owned or -run. The army will even supervise the private companies that collect the rubbish in Colombo.
On the Jaffna Peninsula the army converted a former officers’ mess into a 22-room luxury resort. It runs two hotels elsewhere. The navy has a canal-boat service in Colombo; it also offers whale-watching tours. In parts of the country the army in effect runs local government. In the Vanni district, for example, an area populated mainly by the Tamil minority, where hundreds remain displaced or resettled in shoddy shelters, many administrative measures need a military stamp of approval. The governors of the Northern and Eastern provinces are both retired military commanders. Other retired officers are now posted overseas as ambassadors.
A controversial post-war task for the army is to conduct “leadership training” for university students. Despite protests by student unions, and advice to the government from the Supreme Court to consider a postponement, a first batch of 10,000 students has started the compulsory course, conducted in army camps.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the defence minister, says the armed forces have tripled in number under his brother, Mahinda, the president. He sees nothing amiss with their deployment in “development work”. The government has a duty, he says, to care for its soldiers, many of whom were recruited in poor, rural areas. Nor is there much public protest against this creeping militarisation.
But NGOs caution against such extensive military involvement in civilian life and question the use of soldiers to fix public-sector failures. Indeed, says the National Peace Council, an NGO, failure to separate military and civilian roles could ultimately lead to “unwanted military rule nursed by a democratically elected government”. When armies get above themselves, nasty things happen.          More »      

UN Experts: Sri Lanka Tamil Genocide Video is Real-UN says Sri Lanka Army (SLA) committed war crimes against the Tamil minority.

Thursday June 2, 2011

UN Experts: Sri Lanka Tamil Genocide Video is Real

Tim King Salem-News.com

UN says Sri Lanka Army (SLA) committed war crimes against the Tamil minority.

There are simply no words to fully or adequately describe the horror the Tamil people have experienced at the hands of the Rajapaksa regime that took control of Sri Lanka in 2005.

(SALEM) - A UN Special Rapporteur confirmed Tuesday that a video allegedly depicting Sri Lanka Army (SLA) forces executing Tamil Tigers was authentic, and that the video was “prima facie evidence of international crimes.”

Christof Heyns, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, described the killings shown on the video – whose authenticity has been contested by the Sri Lankan government – as “textbook examples of extrajudicial executions.”

The independent United Nations human rights expert has called on Sri Lankan authorities to thoroughly investigate the apparent execution of several men by Government soldiers, saying a disputed video of the incident seems to be authentic.

The video provided by Britain's Channel 4 News shows naked people with their hands tied behind their backs being executed against a backdrop of corpses of other men and women. Heyns said the new evidence should be investigated in both the domestic and international arena.

At a press conference in Geneva, the UN Rapporteur said the new evidence should be investigated in both the domestic and international arena.

“What Philip Alston did initially, and this is what we did as well is then to get a video and audio specialist, forensic specialist to look at the possibility of any special effects also to get a forensic pathologist, a medical doctor to look at the evidence concerning blood body movements and to comment on that whether these are actually consistent with the profile of people actually dying and then also ballistics experts to look at, amongst other things, at the recoil and the emissions to see whether that is consistent with live ammo being fired.”

“This will be taken further on the domestic level itself because of the governments access to the evidence as well as on the international level and our point is that we think there’s enough evidence to say that it should go to the second level.”

“I do think a broader process is necessary to establish whether these are crimes against humanity [or] possibly war crimes that took place,” he said, adding it was important to determine if the killings were part of wider pattern of systematic attacks against civilians or prisoners of war.

In his report to the UN Human Rights Council he said that “what is reflected in the extended video are crimes of the highest order – definitive war crimes,” although he stressed that further investigations need to be carried out.

Mr. Heyns said experts in forensics, medicine, ballistics and video and audio concluded that the executions depicted in the video did take place, reflecting the findings last year of his predecessor, Philip Alston.

Speaking to the Council today, Sri Lanka’s representative Mohan Pieris said the Government had been precluded from making a full assessment of the video because of the blurred quality of the images.

Steady Progress in UN

Officials with the United Nations have been studying the video of suspect war crimes carried out in 2009, since late last year.

There really is no limit to the amount of shocking video that exists. Much of it was shot by civilians with cell phone cameras. The Sri Lankan government went to a great amount of effort to kidnap and kill journalists who were friendly to the Tamil cause, or simply the cause of humanity, as all of the journalists murdered in recent years were not Tamil, some were Sinhalese.

Review of a history of oppression: The Tamils of Sri Lanka

Danielle Sabaï

In February 2011, the President of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa, celebrated the 63rd anniversary of the island’s independence. In his speech, he stressed the necessity of “protecting the reconstructed nation”, as well as protecting “one of the oldest democracies in Asia”, its unity and its unitary character.

This speech came nearly two years after the end of the war on 19 May 2009, between the Sri Lankan state and the "Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam” (LTTE). The military command of the LTTE was decimated in the last two months of a merciless war which had led to tens of thousands of deaths since the early 1980s.

Some thirty years of civil war have transformed the Sri Lankan political landscape. Once an island characterised by a developed social policy and high development indicators, Sri Lanka is today ravaged by state violence, the militarisation of society and an authoritarian state.    read article...    

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Silence on Sri Lanka screams of duplicity

smh.com.au   June 3, 2011
This week Sri Lanka celebrated the second anniversary of the end of its 26-year civil war by holding an international ''defeating terrorism'' conference. It is a kind of brag-fest, to talk about the lessons learnt in its brutal victory over the insurgent group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.                  
There's one aspect, however, of the protracted battle that the Sri Lankan government does not like to talk about, how in the final stages - a United Nations ''panel of experts'' says - up to 40,000 civilians may have been massacred.
And the international community is not terribly interested in such a discussion either. But, for the record, here are some of the horrific findings contained in the UN panel's nearly 200-page report, published in April.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/silence-on-sri-lanka-screams-of-duplicity-20110602-1fiqr.html#ixzz1O9Zu7TZK

Sri Lankans protest over killing of co-worker

South Asia  2 June 2011 

By Charles Haviland BBC News, Colombo 

The trouble stems from an unpopular pension scheme

Thousands of Sri Lankan factory workers have demonstrated against the killing of a co-worker during violent clashes with police earlier this week.

The workers, mostly women, chanted slogans against the police and President Rajapaksa opposite the entrance to the international airport.
They waved a large white cloth flag to symbolise the death of Roshen Chanaka.
Eyewitnesses say that the 22-year old man was shot dead in clashes between demonstrators and police on Monday.
The government has apologised, and two ministers have condemned the police tactics.
On Wednesday, in a move very rare in Sri Lankan political life, the police chief resigned as a result of the incident.
Protesters say that while the president had declared that the military were aware of the need to protect human rights, the same could not be said of the police.
Demonstrators on Thursday were hemmed in by soldiers, with the unpopular police nowhere to be seen.
The government is still popular following its victory against the Tamil Tigers two years ago. But economic hardships are growing in Sri Lanka.
The current dispute stems from an unpopular pension scheme, which would have docked an extra 2% from private sector workers' salaries, yet benefited only some of them.
The government has suspended the scheme but says it may yet bring it in again.

Govt's first successful ruthless sacrifice of a young life at the altar of its despotic ambitions: worker at free trade zone murdered !

(Lanka-e-News -01.June.2011, 11.00PM) The Govt. made an official announcement a little while ago that 21 year old youth Roshana Chanaka had died . He was a victim of the shooting by the police at Katunayake on the direct orders issued by defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse, it is learnt.

Might we recall that we published a news item in our website yesterday that a youth had died , and the Govt. is suppressing this by barring the public from seeing him and forcing the Hospital authorities not to reveal it while fixing machines and equipments to the body to make it look that the victim of the Katunayake police shooting has not died . This youth who sustained injuries following the shooting by the police on the 30th was receiving treatment at the Ragama Hospital.

Vasantha Samarasinghe , the secretary of the inter Company workers union speaking to Lanka e news said , the police firing had injured a testicle of this lad ; as a result , one of his legs had to be amputated. Following the surgery , Chanaka died . This Govt. which killed him in cold blood most cruelly took revenge on his relatives by not informing them of his death.
Those behind this wicked murder should be revealed, and the person who gave orders for the shooting shall be exposed, Samarasinghe asserted.

The murdered Roshan Chanaka is from Galoluwa, Minuwangoda and a worker in the S. S. Steel enterprise in the free trade zone. He had started work at this Institution 4 months ago.

Meanwhile the Opposition had stated that the President has appointed a retired judge as a one man commission to inquire into the Katunayake shooting which will serve no purpose to anyone , and therefore a request is to be made to the Speaker to appoint a Parliamentary select Committee to inquire into the true facts regarding this killing , the opposition pointed out , and that they are getting ready to make this request. They also added that this heinous crime committed has been by the defense Secretary and the police , and therefore enlisting the police to inquire into this is ridiculous and meaningless.
According to the police Commands Act, the maximum power the police has is to hit an individual below his knee with a baton , or shoot below the knee. That action can only be resorted to by the police in self defense and only in retaliation to an initial attack by the wrongdoer . In the circumstances , a human rights legal expert speaking to Lanka e news said , this action of the police clearly constitutes a diabolic murder . Hence deterrent and stern action should be taken against those behind this and the person who gave orders to kill human life should be arrested and the laws implemented duly.

Viewpoint: Hague tribunal justice 'works'

Europe   1 June 2011

 

Former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic is now in The Hague, where he will go on trial at the international war crimes tribunal. Will justice be delivered?

Judge Richard Goldstone, former chief prosecutor for the Yugoslavia and Rwanda tribunals, believes the court has set important benchmarks. He held the posts from 1994-96, when indictments were drawn up against Gen Mladic and his political boss, Radovan Karadzic.

When in 1994 I started investigating war crimes in the former Yugoslavia I could not have imagined that the process would be so complex, slow and yet so successful.
 

The court decided to go after 'those most responsible' - the leaders

Mr Karadzic and Gen Mladic had already been indicted when the Srebrenica massacre occurred

Full Story>>>

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War Crimes in Sri Lanka

*War Without Witness in Sri Lanka

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U.S. case: Rajapakse ducks service, Court order sought for alternate service

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 June 2011, 00:04 GMT]

Attorney for the three Tamil plaintiffs who filed civil action against Sri Lanka's President Mahinda

Rajapakse for monetary damages under US's Torture Victims Protection Act (TVPA) in the District Court of District of Columbia, informed the Court Tuesday that defendant, Mahinda Rajapakse, has avoided service of process by not accepting mail sent by recorded delivery to the Sri Lanka embassy and "Temple Trees," and that Plaintiffs are in the process of attempting to serve via Sri Lankan central authority in accordance with the provisions of "The Hague Convention," to which the U.S. and Sri Lanka are signatories. Plaintiffs will seek authorization from the court for alternate means of service, such as notification via a legal publication.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse

Plaintiffs' attorney, Bruce Fein, told TamilNet that the Sri Lanka embassy in the U.S. and the mail handlers at the Temple Trees, the official residence of Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse, have refused to accept summons and the complaint sent to the two addresses by recorded delivery.

Mr Fein added that if the defendant fails to accept service through the Hague Convention service of process, then the plaintiffs will file a motion with the Court seeking authority to effectuate service by publication. For this exercise, Fein said that the regulations require that summons and the complaint be translated into the native language of the defendant, Sinhala. The Sinhala translation of the complaint is now available for the benefit of the Sinhala public, Fein said.

• Report to Court on Efforts to effectuate service

Once the Court agrees to service by publication, failure to answer by the defendant will result in a default judgment and a court order for the defendant to pay the plaintiffs the damages. This is a critical step, Fein cautioned, as the Court need to be convinced that it has personal jurisdiction over the defendant before agreeing to a default judgment.     Full Story...

Sri Lankan police chief Mahinda Balasuriya resigns

South Asia  1 June 2011 

By Charles Haviland BBC News, Colombo

The police action provoked angry demonstrations

In an extremely rare move, the chief of police in Sri Lanka has opted for early retirement.

It comes two days after 250 people were injured in clashes between police and factory workers. One man died later.
The police have been widely criticised for opening fire with live bullets and an opposition MP says one injured person is fighting for his life.
The violence happened as workers demonstrated against a new pension scheme, which has now been suspended.
Police Inspector-General Mahinda Balasuriya said that he was resigning from his post because of what happened on Monday at a free trade zone north of the capital.
Factory employees, mainly garment workers, protested angrily about a new pension scheme which they say will hit the poorest people hardest.
They threw stones and the police fired live rounds and teargas.
The government says hundreds were injured including 15 police officers.
An opposition parliamentarian, Ranjan Ramanayake, told the BBC he had visited hospitals and met at least eight people who had been shot.
He said one young man who was on a life-support machine after a bullet went right through his body had died.
Television footage from Monday appeared to show the police storming a factory compound after workers retreated from the teargas, knocking men to the ground and beating them up.
Live bullets The police gave a different account, saying the protesters attacked police stations and tried to steal weapons inside.
In a rare display of public anger, big cardboard cutouts of President Mahinda Rajapaksa were torn down.
The free trade zone has been closed down for the moment and many parents have come to pick up their daughters and sons who work there, fearing for their immediate safety.
Two senior police officers have been arrested in connection with the violence and a retired judge is investigating it.
With concern over the health of the most badly injured people, a private news website says the government has ordered the director of the biggest hospital not to release casualty figures.
A Hong Kong-based campaign group, the Asian Human Rights Commission, says it needs to be established who ordered live bullets to be fired.
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   June 1, 2011 
 SRI LANKA: Who gave the orders to use live bullets on protesters at Katunayake? 

The government of Sri Lanka has announced the appointment of a one-man commission to inquire into the shooting at Katunayake on May 30, where, according to reports over 200 persons were injured when police opened fire against demonstrators using live ammunition. About 20 workers are reported to have been critically wounded and are being treated at hospitals. The protests were part of an Island-wide campaign against a proposed law endangering the provident fund of the workers of the private sector. In the aftermath of the shooting the government announced that the bill will not be presented to the parliament.
The use of live ammunition has come under public condemnation, even from some of the government ministers. The one-man commission of inquiry was appointed in answer to such criticism.
However, the mandate of the one-man commission is not clear. The basic questions that any public inquiry must resolve are:

• Who gave the orders to use live ammunition against the protestors? 
• What is the top most authority that authorized such use? 
• Who was the highest ranking officer on the ground who gave the orders to use live ammunition?
• Were the protestors warned prior to the police opening fire and were warning shots fired before deadly force was used.
• How many rounds of ammunition were expended and by whom?
• Was it the intention of the authorities to use of such deadly force in order to bring the protest to an end and was it pre-planned?As for the top most authority that authorized the use of live ammunition it is most likely that the orders came from the Secretary of the Ministry of Defense or someone working under him. Further, it is also unlikely that such a shooting would take place without the knowledge, if not the tacit consent of the Inspector General of police.

Will the one man commission have the power and the will to investigate this matter in order to meet the requirements of the rule law?
Will there be a forensic inquiry into all aspects of the shooting, for example an examination of all the weapons used during the incident? What are the means available for the one-man commissioner to conduct such an inquiry in terms of the requirements of criminal law?
These are just a few of the questions that need to be answered if the inquiry is to be credible and genuine and not just another white wash.

War-crimes film, Heyns report, drown Colombo theatrics on terror

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 June 2011, 00:22 GMT]
Channel-4's announcement of screening of an hour-long film on Sri Lanka's killing fields at UN on 3rd June, and the presentation of video footage to the UN Human Rights Council by the UN special investigator into extrajudicial killings, Christof Heyns, spread a gloomy war-crimes cloud over Sri Lanka making the terror-summit in Colombo, a holiday-extravaganza for the military brass of several rogue nations. The terror-summit is widely perceived as an ill-conceived attempt to whitewash the criminal enterprise the Rajapakse brothers took in slaughtering more than 40,000 civilians and incarcerating more than 300,000 Tamils in internment camps in the war to defeat the Tigers.

• Heyns report confirming video authenticity

"It's very rare that you have actual footage of people being killed," Mr Heyns, a lawyer by training, told The Associated Press. "This is different from CCTV. This is trophy footage," said Heyns, adding, the video showed "definitive war crimes", believed to have taken place in May 2009 - that require both domestic and international proceedings to be launched.

Special Investigator on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions Christof Heyns

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay

Ms. Yasmin Sooka

"There is a prima facie case and it should now go to the next level," Heynes said, referring to the need for an independent international investigations.

Spokesperson for Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), a US-based activist organization, said, "its a strange quirk of destiny that three South Africans, concurrently holding key human rights positions, are dragging Sri Lanka's war-crimes to world's center stage. One can surmise that the chequered history of apartheid and the moral authority arising from the witnessed inhumanity to a people by another people are driving Navi Pillay, Christof Heyns, and Yasmin Sooka to stand up for justice. Tamil people are eternally grateful to these South Africans for taking the moral highground."

While UN sessions are taking place in Geneva, many rogue nations and alleged abettor nations of the war-crimes, Pakistan, India, Russia and China are attending the terror-summit being held in Colombo.

U.S., Britain, Japan, Australia and France declined invitation to attend the summit.

Meanwhile, , the announced film scheduled to be screened in Geneva and to air in Channel-4 on June 14th, presented by Channel 4 News journalist Jon Snow, features footage captured on mobile phones, both by Tamil civilians under attack and government soldiers as war trophies. It shows: the extra-judicial executions of prisoners; the aftermath of targeted shelling of civilian camps and dead female Tamil Tiger fighters who appear to have been raped or sexually assaulted, abused and murdered. Also examined in the film are some of the terrible crimes carried out by the Tamil Tigers, including the cynical use of Tamil civilians as human shields, Channel-4 said.

"The film, directed by Callum Macrae, provides powerful evidence - including photographic stills, official Sri Lankan army video footage and satellite imagery - which contradicts the Sri Lankan government's claims of a policy of ‘Zero Civilian Casualties'. The film raises serious questions about the failures of the international community to intervene and prevent the deaths of up to forty thousand people and lends new urgency to the UN-appointed panel of expert's call for an international inquiry to be mounted," Channel-4 said in its news report.

Callum Macrae, Director of Sri Lanka's Killing fields

Macrae said: "The Sri Lankan government wanted a war without witness - deporting journalists and pressurising UN representatives to leave - but it didn't allow for the extraordinary power of mobile phone and satellite technology. We have trawled through hours of painfully raw recordings of the some of the most awful events I have ever seen in many years of war reporting. Sri Lanka's Killing Fields raises serious questions about the consequences if the UN fails to act - not only for Sri Lanka but for future violations of international law," according to Channel-4.

The BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva says that with more evidence of alleged atrocities due to be shown in the city later this week, the pressure is growing on the UN Human Rights Council to debate the role of the army in the closing months of the Sri Lankan civil war, BBC reported.
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Spain exercises universal jurisdiction in El Salvador killings
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 June 2011, 03:13 GMT]
Judge, Eloy Velasco Nuñez of Spain’s National Court, used the doctrine of universal jurisdiction to prosecute crimes committed outside of the country, to issue arrest warrants on Monday for some of the top military leaders of El Salvador’s civil war, accusing them of meticulously planning and carrying out the killings of six Jesuit priests in 1989, New York Times said in its Tuesday edition. The 77-page charging document said that the 20 men named in the warrants never had doubts about “carrying out the most execrable crimes against people merely to impose their strategies and ideas.”
“We wanted to walk the judge every step of the way,” said Almudena Bernabeu, a lawyer with the Center for Justice and Accountability in San Francisco, which brought the case to Spain’s National Court with the support of the victims’ families. “The defense has always argued that it all happened in the chaos of war. But there is no doubt that this was a very carefully planned military operation.”
Among the men named in the indictment: Rafael Humberto Larios, who was the Salvadoran defense minister at the time; Juan Orlando Zepeda, the vice defense minister; René Emilio Ponce, leader of the Army’s Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Inocente Orlando Montano, the vice minister of public safety. Mr. Ponce, who is believed to have given the order for the killings, died this month in El Salvador. Mr. Montano is in custody, New York Times said in its report.
Under international pressure, a Salvadoran court tried nine men for the killings and convicted two officers, including Col. Guillermo Benavides Moreno, who witnesses said gave direct orders to the commando who carried out the killings. Both Colonel Moreno and the other officer were freed after serving 15 months under an amnesty declared in 1993. They are both named in the new indictment. Judge Velasco argued that the earlier trial was a sham, the paper said.
In the U.K., British citizens can apply for an arrest warrant under the Magistrates Court Act 1980. Suspect Sri Lankan war criminal, Major General Chagi Gallage, a member of Sri Lanka's President, Mahinda Rajapaksa's, entourage to London, escaped arrest in December 2010 by his premature departure from Britain.
Tamil activists in Norway, has similary filed Genocide charges against Sri Lanka's Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse and others in the Norwegian courts. If the Prosecutor determines there is reason to believe war-crimes were committed in Sri Lanka, the defendants will face the danger of being arrested if they happen to travel through Norway.

Channel 4 footage heads to the UN

Posted by Monkey Wednesday 1 June 2011 13.20 BST guardian.co.uk

A refugee camp in Cheddikulam in Sri Lanka. Photograph: Joe Klamar/AFP/Getty Images

A bunch of bananas to Channel 4 for its tireless investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Sri Lanka. Its contribution was recognised on Tuesday by the UN's independent investigator on extrajudicial killing, Christof Heyns, who said previous Channel 4 coverage had exposed "definitive war crimes". As a result, on Friday Channel 4's latest investigation, Sri Lanka's Killing Fields, will be exclusively premiered at the UN. It will be screened at an Amnesty International event at the UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva. The footage is described by Channel 4's news and current affairs boss, Dorothy Byrne, as "probably the most horrific the channel has ever shown" and will be aired on 14 June. It surely fits in with Channel 4 chief executive David Abraham's ambition for the broadcaster to "stimulate debate, take risks and be brave".
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UN declares Sri Lanka video showing executions authentic

Published On Tue May 31 2011

Frank Jordans Associated Press

GENEVA — A UN investigator called Tuesday for Sri Lanka to investigate and file charges against soldiers shown in a graphic video shooting bound, blindfolded prisoners and abusing corpses in the final days of the 1983-2009 civil war.
The investigator, Christof Heyns, reviewed the 5-minute, 25-second video with a team of technical and forensics experts frame by frame to determine its authenticity, and told the Associated Press that the video suggests there is enough evidence to open a war-crimes case. Sri Lanka has claimed the video is fake.
In the video, several men lie on a muddy track, bound and motionless. The camera cuts and another man is shown being forced to sit upright by a soldier in camouflage carrying a rifle. Another soldier steps up behind the seated prisoner and shoots him in the back of the head, point blank. The prisoner slumps sideways as the camera pans across the road revealing nine bodies, most of them naked, with gunshot wounds clearly visible despite the grainy quality of the footage.
The uniformed men then force another blindfolded prisoner down into the dirt. A gunshot rings out and he, too, jerks and collapses. Later, the camera focuses on a young man, his skull blown open. Soldiers stand over the half-dressed corpse of a woman, gloating.
The Sri Lankan government says the video is staged, an attempt by pro-Tamil Tiger groups to undermine its hard-won victory in the country’s decades-old civil war.
“We have proven beyond any doubt that this is not authentic,” said Lakshman Hulugalla, director general of the government’s Media Center for National Security.
It has categorically rejected calls for an independent international probe into allegations of abuse carried out by Sri Lankan government forces in the north of the country in May 2009. Instead, the government says it has established a national panel to investigate. Human rights groups including Amnesty International say that isn’t enough.
Heyns, a South African law professor who is also the UN’s independent investigator on extrajudicial killings, told the AP the video shows “definitive war crimes.”
“There is a prima facie case and it should now go to the next level,” he said before screening the video for the first time to reporters in Geneva.
The United Nations estimates that between 80,000 and 100,000 people were killed in the 26-year war. This includes at least 7,000 ethnic Tamil civilians killed in the last five months of the conflict. Numerous UN-appointed officials have concluded that both sides committed atrocities.
A recent UN report said Sri Lankan government forces deliberately targeted civilians and hospitals, and blocked food and medicine for hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in the war zone. It also accused the Tamil Tigers of recruiting child soldiers and using civilians as human shields.
The latest footage was obtained by Britain’s Channel 4, which has so far shown only brief excerpts and an earlier, shorter video of the same events. The station plans to screen the new video in its entirety next month. Human rights groups say it adds to existing evidence that crimes were committed that merit an independent international investigation and possible war-crimes prosecutions.
“It’s horrific, hellish scenes of what must surely be murder,” said Ben De Pear, head of foreign affairs for Channel 4 News. He said the station chose to broadcast the footage after the UN experts helped it conclude that it is genuine.