Journalist in two divided demos

02 August, 2011

	Killing Fields

Reflecting the political divide in Sri Lanka, pro- and anti-government demonstrations have been taking place in the capital, Colombo. A pro-government rally was held in protest against the British broadcaster Channel 4 which has recently aired two programmes alleging that Sri Lankan forces committed war crimes. In a smaller demonstration, journalists blamed pro-government elements for severely beating up a Tamil journalist in northern Sri Lanka last week.

Charles Haviland of the BBC reporting from Colombo said that about 500 government supporters chanted slogans against Channel 4 outside the main railway station where they’d put up a giant billboard of President Rajapaksa.They waved national flags and cut-outs of the president, clutching banners urging that “local and foreign conspiracies” be defeated.

As the BBC reporter approached to record them they seemed to mistrust his intentions and surrounded him.

A protester shouted out “This is our country! Nobody has the right to come and tell us to keep our mouths shut! Just because you have a white skin don’t think you can come and shout at us, OK! ”

In its recent broadcasts Channel 4 condemned what it says were possible war crimes by both the government and the Tamil Tigers or LTTE. But the demonstrators described the channel as an LTTE supporter, something it denies being.

A protester said whoever supports LTTE – will be punished – doesn’t matter their skin colour or race – whoever supports, we will punish them, otherwise God will punish them. They will be cursed! They will be cursed!

The protester further said “As a Tamil I am telling you, don’t do these dirty games. If you continue to do these dirty games we will take action and will make sure stopping this Channel 4 for ever and ever!"

Attack on Journolist

	Gnanasundaram Kuganathan

Another demonstration was held elsewhere in Colombo on Tuesday, condemning attacks on a Journalist.

Here about 100 activists denounced the state for what they said was its responsibility for a severe assault on a newspaper journalist based in northern Sri Lanka last Friday. Gnanasundaram Kuganathan was beaten about the head with iron rods by a gang.

N. Vithyatharan, who used to work on a sister paper, blamed government supporters whose party lost to Tamil nationalists in recent local elections.

Vithyatharan, said “I think the people, those who are defeated in the election, are taking revenge on the media who brought the truth to the light.”

Dharmasiri lankapeli of the Media workers trade union federation said that President Rajapaksha should take responsibility for attacks on journalist not been properly investigated.

Mr Kuganathan spent time in intensive care but is slowly recovering. The government says it wants to apprehend his attackers.

Sri Lanka: Official Report Whitewashes Military Abuses

Human Rights Watch    

Admits Civilian Deaths for the First Time, but Puts All Blame on Tamil Tigers

August 1, 2011

The Sri Lankan government is finally admitting that its forces caused civilians losses during the conflict’s final months, but unconvincingly claims no responsibility. This is just the latest and glossiest effort to whitewash mounting evidence of government atrocities during the fighting.

Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch

(New York) – A new Sri Lankan Defense Ministry report concedes for the first time that government forces caused civilian deaths in the final months of the conflict with the Tamil Tigers but takes no responsibility for laws-of-war violations, Human Rights Watch said today. The report, “Humanitarian Operation – Factual Analysis,” issued on August 1, 2011, claims that government forces did not use artillery against populated areas despite considerable evidence to the contrary and ignores compelling evidence of summary executions by its soldiers.    Full Story>>>  
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UN HR Rapporteur denied access to Sri Lanka since June 2009

By Jagdish Hathiramani
The Internet is the "key means by which individuals can exercise their right to freedom of opinion and expression, as guaranteed by article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights," according to a report by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Frank La Rue, which was submitted to the body's Human Rights Council recently.
The report identified Sri Lanka, part of a group comprising Iran, Tunisia and Venezuela, as a country to which the Special Rapporteur had made a visit request which is still pending from June 2009.
Also noted in the report, freedom of opinion and expression was an "'enabler' of other rights, including economic, social and cultural rights, such as the right to education and the right to take part in cultural life and to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications, as well as civil and political rights, such as the rights to freedom of association and assembly. Thus, by acting as a catalyst for individuals to exercise their right to freedom of opinion and expression, the Internet also facilitates the realisation of a range of other human rights."   Read more...  
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India can’t cut off ties with Lanka, PM tells Vaiko

Shekhar Iyer, Hindustan Times
Manmohan Singh on Tuesday told MDMK leader Vaiko that India cannot afford to restrict economic ties with Sri Lanka — as demanded by Tamil Nadu’s political parties — in order to apply pressure to mitigate the sufferings of Sri Lankan Tamils.
That, the Prime Minister said, would onlyencourage China to displace India as a strategic and trading partner of Sri Lanka.

In response, Vaiko, who met the PM in Parliament House, said he told Singh that “in any case, China is already aiding the Sri Lanka naval forces to attack Indian fishermen and is more of an ally of Pakistan than India”.
Since the assembly polls, Tamil Nadu politicians have been trying to beat one another in taking up the plight of Lankan Tamils living in camps and Indian fishermen following the May 2009 war, which liquidated Tamil Tigers led by LTTE chief V Prabhakaran.
Vaiko said in a statement that he also took up with PM the case of death row convict Perarivalan in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, saying it could be considered on the lines of another convict, Nalini, whose death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.
Perarivalan has already spent 20 years in prison, Vaiko said.
The PM agreed to ask the home ministry to look into the case. Vaiko also met home minister P Chidambaram.
Vaiko’s meeting with the PM took place a day after Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa announced a monthly dole of R1,000 to 5,544 Lankan Tamils living in refugee camps in the state.
On Monday, ADMK MPs tried to embarrass a visiting Sri Lankan parliamentary delegation by raising slogans.
DMK MP Tiruchi Siva also staged a walkout from a meeting in honour of the visiting team hosted by vice-president Hamid Ansari, in protest against the “violence and human rights violations” by the Lankan government.
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Rights group: Sri Lankan war report is a whitewash

Aug 2, 2011
By BHARATHA MALLAWARACHI
Associated Press COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - An international rights group on Tuesday called Sri Lanka's report on its 26-year civil war an attempt to whitewash growing evidence of alleged government atrocities.
Two years after the conflict ended, Sri Lanka conceded for the first time this week that troops caused civilian deaths in the last months of fighting against Tamil Tiger rebels. But its war report takes no responsibility for those deaths or for any alleged violations of the rules of war, New York-based Human Rights Watch said.
"This is just the latest and glossiest effort to whitewash mounting evidence of government atrocities during the fighting," the group's Asia director, Brad Adams, said in a statement.
Sri Lanka has been under increasing international pressure to allow for an independent investigation into alleged human rights violations by both troops and rebels, which a U.N. experts panel said could amount to war crimes.
The 161-page report released Monday by the Sri Lankan Defense Ministry reverses two years of government insistence that its troops adhered to a "zero civilian casualty policy."
However, it denies allegations that troops committed rights violations and executed prisoners, and says the civilian deaths were unavoidable given the magnitude of the fighting and ruthlessness of the opponent.
It does not say how many civilians may have been killed, though the U.N. panel has said tens of thousand perished in just the last months of the war.
The report says the government was forced to go to war after unsuccessful attempts to broker peace with the independence-seeking rebels, and that its military operation followed international laws while accusing the rebels of abuses including using civilians as human shields and conscripting child soldiers.
Human Rights Watch urged international governments to reject the "factually challenged report" and renew calls for government accountability, saying alleged rebel abuses did not justify violations by government security forces.
The government's report "is yet another feeble attempt to convince the world, despite growing evidence to the contrary, that government forces committed no crimes."
The troops are alleged to have deliberately shelled civilians in a no-fire zone, targeted hospitals and blocked food and medical aid, according to the U.N. panel.
Footage allegedly taken by front-line soldiers and aired on Britain's Channel 4 television appears to show blindfolded prisoners being shot at close range and the naked bodies of women being loaded into a tractor trailer.
Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa on Monday accused Channel 4 of "promoting baseless accusations whose sole purpose is to discredit Sri Lanka."
Hundreds of government supporters, including state-run media journalists, protested Tuesday in Colombo against the UK channel with placards reading "Stop Channel 4 dirty media tricks" and "Channel 4 - Enough is enough."

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Full Story>>>

Channel 4 News - 1st August - Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and Channel 4 news -

 

Warning: You may find parts of this report distressing.

Former Sri Lankan President denounces current government

Sri Lanka 'war crimes' soldiers ordered to 'finish the job'

http://www.channel4.com/news/sri-lanka-war-crimes-soldiers-ordered-to-finish-the-job 

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Gotabhaya denies role in white flag surrender killings

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 August 2011, 12:55 GMT]

Rattled and ravaged by the widespread credible war crime allegations, Sri Lankan Presidential sibling and Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa on Monday denied his role and responsibility over the killing of LTTE’s political wing leaders, Nadesan and Puleedevan while surrendering to the 58 Division troops in the final days of the war in May 2009. In the meantime, a disinformation report released by his ministry has come with a comically low figure of major offences committed by Sri Lanka Army personnel between 2005 and 2010 in the North and East: 8 murders, 4 rapes and 1 sexual abuse. The only year with no major offenses by the SL Army was, according to its own report, none other than the year 2009, the year when SLA ironically adhered to the policy of Gotabhaya's “Zero Civilian Casualty”.

A piece of disinformation in the “Factual Analysis” of the “Humanitarian Operation July 2006 - May 2009” by the Sri Lankan Defence Ministry led by Gotabhaya Rajapaksa [Courtesy: Page 79 of the report]    Full story >>

Sri Lanka admits for 1st time civilian deaths in final phase of war, calls them unavoidable

The Washington Post World

By Associated Press, Updated: Monday, August 1, 10:29 AM

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka acknowledged for the first time Monday that civilian casualties occurred in the final phase of its 26-year civil war against Tamil Tiger rebels, but called the deaths unavoidable.
The government’s statement — issued a few months after a U.N. experts panel cited credible claims of human rights violations by both troops and the rebels — marks a reversal from its insistence that its troops adhered to a “zero civilian casualty policy.”
It also hopes the document will convince the world that it waged a just war.
A Defense Ministry report said “it was impossible” to avoid civilian deaths, despite the military’s best efforts, given the magnitude of the fighting and ruthlessness of the opponent.
The report analyzes the war’s events and denies allegations that troops committed rights violations and executed prisoners before the war ended in May 2009,
Tens of thousands of people were killed in the last months of the war, the United Nations panel said. The Defense Ministry report does not say, however, how many civilians may have been killed.  

Full Story>>>

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Sri Lanka's ethnic polarization persists strongly despite peace

The vancouver sun    July 29, 2011

  Members of the Socialist Youth Union (SYU) shout slogans during a protest against the Sri Lankan government in Colombo July 28, 2011. Demonstrators demanded the release of Tamils who were arrested during the final stage of the 25-year-long war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The group also demanded the government search for the people missing since the war started.

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka - Sri Lanka's old war zone has been at peace for two years but the minority Tamils who populate it say they are hungry for jobs, despite the economic revival the government has offered instead of the political powers for which Tamils first took up arms.

In Sri Lanka's north and east, people last week voted for the first time in at least 12 years and as many as 29 to elect local councils, two years after the military wiped out the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to end a 25-year war.

Read more:

SRI LANKA: Over 600 war children still missing

Photo: Amantha Perera/IRIN

Kulasekran has been looking for her son for three years

VAVUNIYA, 1 August 2011 (IRIN) - More than two years after Sri Lanka's decades-long conflict officially ended, the whereabouts of 630 children are unknown, according to a government database.

Most went missing during the final phase of the war that ended on 18 May 2009, when government forces declared victory over the now defeated Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who had been fighting for an independent Tamil homeland since 1983.

According to reports cited by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), 64 percent of those missing were recruited by the LTTE while 30 percent were last seen behind government lines.

During the last phase of the war, more than 300,000 civilians were displaced from areas once under Tiger control, popularly known as the Vanni.
When they poured into camps set up in Vavuniya, just outside the theatre of fighting, many parents were desperate to find their children.

"There were women crying outside my office, asking me to find their children," Piencia Charles, the most senior government official in the Vavuniya District, told IRIN.

In December 2009, Charles set up the Family Tracing Unit within the Vavuniya Divisional Secretariat.

"It's something I felt I had to do. There was no mechanism in place to search for these kids. The parents were in so much pain," she said.         Full Story>>>
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Is This Ban's 'Never Again' Moment?

Posted: 1/8/11

Edward Mortimer

Chair of the Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice

  We failed to prevent a massacre in Sri Lanka. We must not fail to seek justice for it.

'Never again' is the promise that has followed the Holocaust, Cambodia, Rwanda and Srebrenica; issued each time with outrage and contrition, and, in recent years, a report on the failure of the international community to act. Kofi Annan commissioned one such report in 1999 on the Rwandan genocide, declaring: "Of all my aims as [UN] Secretary-General, there is none to which I feel more deeply committed than that of enabling the UN never again to fail in protecting a civilian population". Less than five years later, the UN was unable to galvanise international action in Darfur. Ten years later it failed to prevent tragedy unfolding in the final stages of Sri Lanka's long-running civil war.      Full Story>>>

An Unhealed Land

Black July was enabled by our collective-denial of the humanity of Tamils. The silent majority regarded Tamils as monsters enabling a violent minority to treat them as such. Our inability to be affected by Tamil suffering during and post-war indicates that that moral failure which enabled the Black July is still with us and within us.

by Tisaranee Gunasekara

“If one harbours anywhere in one’s mind a nationalistic loyalty or hatred, certain facts, though in a sense known to be true, are inadmissible”. Orwell (Notes on Nationalism)

(July 31, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Round II of the local government elections was held, coincidentally, on the 17th anniversary of Black July. Its results embody a stark message: post-war, Sri Lanka remains a politico-psychologically divided land. The Rajapaksas are still popular in the Sinhala-South but utterly unpopular in the Tamil-North.

The Rajapaksas wanted a Northern victory as proof of Tamil-contentment with the status quo. A mix-and-match of bribery and brute force was used to achieve this aim. Killing dogs and dumping excreta intermingled with baby-kissing and freebies. The Mahinda-Basil-Namal trio haunted the North. Huge rallies were held at which the President informed the Tamils how happy they are, post-war.  Read More 
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Protest against Lankan delegation

Monday, 01 August 2011
New Delhi:  AIADMK members in the Lok Sabha Monday shouted slogans to protest the presence of Sri Lankan delegates, led by Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa, who were in the house as special foreign guests.

AIADMK members, led by S. Semmalai and Munisamy Thambidurai, shouted “shame, shame” as soon as Speaker Meira Kumar began reading out her welcome message to Rajapaksa and his other colleagues, including Sri Lankan ministers, sitting in the special box to the left of her.

Almost all nine members of Tamil Nadu’s ruling party were heard shouting slogans against the Sri Lankan government as MPs from other parties thumped their desks to welcome the nine-member visiting delegation.

P. Lingam, the Communist Party of India (CPI) MP from Tenkasi in Tamil Nadu, also attempted to join the protests over alleged human rights abuses against Sri Lankan Tamils in the island nation. He was seen walking down the aisle towards the speaker’s podium but was stopped by his party leader Gurudas Dasgupta, who asked him to go back to his seat.

A visibly irate Meira Kumar rebuked the Tamil MPs and asked them to show some courtesy to the honoured guests.

The Sri Lankan delegation is on a five-day official visit to India on an invitation by the speaker. (NDTV)

Colombo unable to bury facts of ACF massacre

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 July 2011, 21:15 GMT]
Fifth anniversary of the massacre of seventeen staffers of the French NGO, Action Contre la Faim (ACF), by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers falls on the 4th of August. Later investigations established that the workers, trapped inside their Moothoor branch office residence of ACF located close to Moothoor Cultural Centre, were shot and killed at point blank range, by SLA soldiers. Colombo has continued to sabotage investigations, failed to provide protection for witnesses, and has failed to make public findings of the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) report on the ACF killings. Meanwhile, a former wife of slain ACF worker, Premas Anandarajah, has filed a civil suit in the District Court of District of Columbia, U.S., against Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse as responsible for the crime, claiming damages of $30m (all three plaintiffs).

• Text of complaint for case 1:11-cv-00235

• UTHR: Special Report 33 on ACF killings

"Four of the victims were 24 years old and the oldest was 54. They were four women and thirteen men, and eleven were under the age of thirty. The killings of the 17 workers are said to be the most serious crime perpetrated against a non-governmental organisation. Four years after the massacre the perpetrators have yet to be brought to justice," Sunday Leader said in its anniversary coverage.

*Funeral of Moothoor ACF workers (Courtesy: Reuters)

*Representatives of international relief agency Action Against Hunger, right, look on as workers exhume the remains of one of 17 aid workers. (Photo:AP)

*Relatives react after identifying the bodies of slain workers from the international aid agency Action Contre La Faim (ACF), at a hospital entrance in Trincomalee, August 8, 2006. (REUTERS)

Mahindana Wasanthan of Muttur lost a sister in the massacre; Kovarthani Kanavaratnam was 28 and single and died of gunshot wounds as the ACF base she was working in was overrun by armed men. Rasaiah Thurairajah lost his only son when 27 year old Pradeepan was shot dead in the attack. 

"K. Ratnavale, the lawyer who represented the families in the Presidential Commission hearing and also represented ACF in the criminal courts told The Sunday Leader that the commission’s proceedings were ‘bungled’ by the ‘meddling’ of the Attorney General’s Department. He alleges that important evidence was disregarded and ignored. ‘There were several key witnesses from the victims’ families who could have given important information about what happened,’ said Ratnavale adding that witness protection programs were disrupted and finances were not provided for video conferencing with those family members who had fled abroad," the paper added.

On the third anniversary of the killings, Human Rights Watch's (HRW) quoted James Ross as saying, "[f]or three years since the ACF massacre, the Rajapaksa government has put on an elaborate song and dance to bedazzle the international community into believing justice is being done," in a press release, adding, "the Sri Lankan government's gross mishandling of the investigation into the execution-style slaying of 17 aid workers in the northeastern town of Mutur three years ago demonstrates the need for an international commission of inquiry."

The International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP), tasked to monitor the progress of Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa's Commission of Inquiry (CoI), set up to investigate and inquire into serious violations of Human Rights, including the ACF killings, charged that there was no substantial progress since the inception of the Commission.

The IIGEP expressed concern in September 2007 that the Commission had not fulfilled its obligation of full disclosure and concluded that the investigation and inquiry process failed to comply effectively with international norms and standards.

The IIGEP later March 2008 unilaterally terminated its observation role.

Sealed coffin of a ACF worker killed in Muthur being kept in his residence in Trincomalee for few minutes before taken to cemetery.

Body of Aid worker taken to cemetery by relatives and friends

TNA Slams Champika On Anti-Tamil Comment

Sunday, July 31, 2011By Easwaran Rutnam
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has demanded equal rights for Tamils and slammed a comment by a government minister who they say made derogatory comments against the Tamil population.
“We will not allow the government or anyone else to treat the Tamils as a minority anymore. If the Sri Lankan government thinks the Sinhalese are the majority and the Tamils are the minority, then they are mistaken,” TNA MP Suresh Premachandran told The Sunday Leader.
Government Minister Champika Ranawaka had on Tuesday July 26, said, “Just because they won a few councils they must not demand police and land powers. They need to take note of the fact that 56 per cent of the voters had voted to retain the unitary character of the country,” he said.
He accused the TNA of trying to use the USA to try and intervene in order to win Tamil demands. “We the Sinhalese will not kneel down before the US or any other power. As long as the power of the saffron robe of the Buddhist monks remained they will not be able to achieve what they aim for,” Ranawaka added.
Premachandran said that by making controversial remarks against the Tamil population in Sri Lanka, the government was only creating another rift between the two communities in the country. “Government ministers should be mindful of the remarks they make against the Tamil community. The Tamils will not allow or accept any foolish remarks made by certain Sinhalese government ministers,” Premachandran said.
Sri Lanka is only just recovering from a brutal war which lasted nearly three decades in which the LTTE was demanding a separate state for the minority Tamil community. Following the defeat of the LTTE in 2009 the Tamil National Alliance, which had once accepted the policies of the rebels, began talks with the Sri Lankan government to find a solution to Tamil concerns. During recent local council elections the Tamil National Alliance won majority support in the Tamil dominated north of the country while the government won the polls in the Sinhalese dominated south.
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Stop treating Tamils as minority: Premachandran MP

Suresh Premachandran MP, Tamil National Alliance
[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 July 2011, 20:37 GMT] 

Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran on Sunday touched on an important conceptual issue related to the national question in the island that affects equality between Tamils and Sinhalese, when he criticized those who treat Tamils as a ‘minority’. “We will not allow the government or anyone else to treat the Tamils as a minority anymore. If the Sri Lankan government thinks the Sinhalese are the majority and the Tamils are the minority, then they are mistaken,” Mr. Premachandran told The Sunday Leader.

Premachandran had said this answering the SL minister Champika Ranawaka, reported The Sunday Leader feature by Easwaran Rutnam.
But political analysts in the island observed that the conceptual connotations of Premachandran’s statement are far-reaching and are addressed to a wide-range of players harping on solutions within a ‘united Sri Lanka’: ranging from those who are within the TNA seeking terms acceptable to the Sinhalese in finding models of solutions to those who are in the international arena seeking ‘innovative and creative ways’ of solutions.                            Full story >>   

Gota’s escape route -when hearing channel four ‘nonsense’ it should have been dismissed saying ‘no comments’

By your facial expression you had betrayed everything to the whole world
(Lanka-e-News -31.July.2011, 4.00A.M.)When a most powerful world media - channel 4 confirmed with two living witnesses on 28th morning that Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse is a war crime perpetrator, the Rajapakse regime which drove itself mad when hearing this however decided not to make its madness public. According to internal sources within the defense Ministry , though this was what was decided and expected , Gotabaya however flew into a demonic rage.

The military attache Major Gen. Prasanna Silva of the SL High commission in Britain was among the first to come within the firing line of furious Defense Secretary who ran wild like a serpent on which kerosene oil is poured , after his listening to the channel 4 latest video telecast report . The military attaché in his report to the Defense Secretary earlier, regarding channel 4 had not mentioned anything about the latest video footage . Besides , he had told Gotabaya everything is happening in a manner which can be controlled by him. The defense Secretary who was obviously outraged had after questioning Prasanna Silva’s incapability roundly slated him for not performing the tasks entrusted to him.

Next , he had taken to task the UN permanent representative in America , Major Gen. Shavendra Silva, who he had woken up from his sleep , and berated him over the answer filed by him against the channel 4 . “Why the devil did you speak to them . What you ought to have done was to say ‘ no comments’ and gone away when you heard the channel 4 nonsense . By your facial expression you had betrayed everything to the whole world ,” Gota had vented his thundering fury on Shavendra.

An owner of a private channel who is extremely close to Gota during this period had taken a call to the latter . Gota who has had a discussion with this private channel owner had asked , what do you think should be done? He had advised him to just reject it and ignore the whole matter. Gota had told him with anxiety and apprehension , there are chances of he being taking into custody. Following the website reporting a news item on Gotabaya’s answer . the President had telephoned his brother Gotabaya and severely warned him not to open his mouth on this subject , and pointed out that he is still burdened with answering to issues resulting from Gotabaya’s past glib and unbridled utterances .’Please do not open the mouth about channel 4’ the President had warned him sternly. In consequence of this, the members of the Rajapakse regime have to make a pretense of sanity and conceal insanity even if their madness has hit lunatic asylum pitch.
e that as it may , the whole of the defense Ministry these days is putting its heart and soul and all its effort more than it did in the search for Prabhakaran, collecting data and information about the two witnesses in the video footage who are supposed to have served in the SL Army. The Army intelligence division is searching for information from the soldiers who were in the 58 th regiment under the command of Shavendra De Silva. Currently a search is being conducted for the four soldiers who disappeared . The Rajapakses suspect that the two witnesses who gave evidence to the Video four are among them.

Shavendra Silva says life in danger due to Channel 4

Sunday 31 July 2011

By Ramesh Warallegama

Sri Lanka’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, Maj. Gen. Shavendra Silva said that the Channel 4 broadcaster in London has been gathering information on him, which can endanger his life. He added that the LTTE’s international leader, Visvanathan Rudrakumar lives less than a kilometre away from his office.
“The Channel 4 team has been gathering information about my daily routine in the recent past, and if something happens to my life, Channel 4 should be held responsible,” Silva told LAKBIMAnEWS. Silva claimed that the latest Channel 4 video was created to slander him because of his exposure of the first video. The latest video quotes an alleged officer of Silva’s 58th Division stating Shavendra Silva gathered his troops in the last days of the battle, claming that the Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa had ordered him to ‘kill selected  LTTE leaders.’ Another alleged Sri Lankan soldier in the same division alleges that mass decapitation, rape, torture and mutilation took place in the final days of the war.
“The latest video mainly targets me and I believe that this is due to the fact that I took on the director of ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields,’ Callum Macrae, and the team of the first video and exposed their fabrications, inconsistencies and bias in the video. Despite my open challenge for a debate, Macrae has avoided me since. Instead of facing me and proving  me wrong he has stooped  to creating another biased, haphazardly created video,” Silva said, speaking to LAKBIMAnEWS.
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A hiss and not a kiss as answer to Gota from British High Comm. Offic

Sunday 31 of July 2011(Lanka-e-News -31.July.2011, 4.00A.M.) Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse had made a request to the British High Commission in Colombo to take action against channel 4 on the ground that the video report is detrimental to Sri Lanka and himself .The request made by Gotabaya on the belief that like in SL ,the media there is under the control of the Govt. was met by an answer which carried with it a hiss and not a kiss for Gota.

Dominic Williams had this to say in answer for Gota :
“ Channel 4 is an independent free media channel. The Commonwealth believes that a free independent media is an essential ingredient of a viable and vibrant Democracy. Besides there is a clear mechanism established by the Commonwealth to probe the ethical and legal conduct of the media . Hence , the British Govt. has no way to interfere with the media programs and exposures.. In the existing mechanism there is a free independent representative Board and an independent Board for Press complaints. Hence , complaints against the media have to be channeled through them.”

Autonomy pitch for Lankan Tamils

Express News Service

Last Updated : 31 Jul 2011 10:28:22 AM IST

CHENNAI: Showing the CPM’s strongest ever support for the Lankan Tamils, the party’s general secretary Prakash Karat on Saturday said that adequate autonomy to the northern and eastern regions of Lanka would only give a long lasting peace in the war-torn Island nation.Addressing a special conference on ‘Equal rights for Sri Lankan Tamils in their country,’ Karat said, “The most urgent priority is that in Sri Lanka, there has to be a political solution to the Tamil question. For that, there has to be adequate autonomy given to the northern and eastern regions.”
“There has to be devolution of powers that are meaningful, which can enable the Tamil people to manage their affairs in these areas,” Karat said about SL Tamils who were denied equal rights in their country for the past 60 years. Coming down heavily on the Lankan government for using delaying tactics, Karat said, “We (CPM) would like to tell the SL government not to continue to adopt tactics to delay and think that by avoiding these issues, you will solve the problems.”
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Jayalalithaa reiterates demand for Lanka economic embargo

Chennai, July 31 (ANI): Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa has urged the Central Government to impose an economic embargo on Sri Lanka for alleged ''war crimes'' and atrocities committed on the ethnic Tamil community by the Mahinda Rajapakse-led Government.
A recent UN report accused Colombo of targeting Tamil civilians during the army onslaught on the militant outfit, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), in 2008-2009.
The report specifically accused the Rajapaksa Government of widespread shelling, including targeting field hospitals, denial of humanitarian aid, and rights violations against people inside and outside the conflict zone on the northeastern coast of the island nation.
Demanding justice for the Sri Lankan Tamils in a resolution passed by the Tamil Nadu assembly, Jayalalithaa had called for an economic blockade against neighbouring Sri Lanka in June.
Addressing a news conference in Chennai, she asserted that AIADMK lawmakers would be raising the issue before other parties during the Parliament''s Monsoon Session beginning on August 1.
"Yes, our Members of Parliament will definitely be raising the issue on the floors of both houses of Parliament, with regard to the atrocities committed against Sri Lankan Tamils and the resolutions passed in the Tamil Nadu assembly to declare those guilty of war crimes as war criminals and to see that they are made to appear before the International Criminal Court for inquiry," said Jayalalithaa.
"We have also been insisting that an economic embargo should be imposed against Sri Lanka. Our Members of Parliament will raise these issues in both the houses," she added. (ANI)

ACF Massacres: Justice in Limbo

Sunday, July 31, 2011 By Abdul H. Azeez
On August 4, 2006 17 members of Action Contre La Faim (ACF or Action Against Hunger) were brutally shot and killed in Muttur in the midst of the war between the Sri Lankan Army and the LTTE.
Their young, promising lives were lost in an instant as each of them were executed at point blank range with their faces turned to the ground.
Four of the victims were 24 years old and the oldest was 54. They were four women and thirteen men, and eleven were under the age of thirty. The killings of the 17 workers are said to be the most serious crime perpetrated against a non-governmental organisation. Four years after the massacre the perpetrators have yet to be brought to justice.                            Read More »    
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Army thwarts Pillayan’s bid to free bank robbery suspect

SA senior army officer yesterday accused Eastern Province Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan of trying to secure the release of one of the main suspects in the Puttur bank robbery.
Security Forces Eastern Commander Boniface Perera told the Sunday Times, “On hearing of what was taking place, I rushed a special motorcycle squad to the area and detained the suspect who was later taken to the police under heavy armed guard.”
The suspect along with four others had allegedly robbed some Rs. 3.5 million in cash and 27 kilos of gold with an estimated value of Rs. 150 million from the People’s Bank in Puttur in Batticaloa town.Police say the suspect identified as Pradeepan was a former frontline LTTE activist who later joined the ranks of the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) led by Mr. Chandrakanthan who is better known as Pillayan.
The other four suspects involved in the robbery are also supporters of the TMVP and they were rounded up on the instructions of Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksha, Maj: General Perera said.
Investigators are now trying to ascertain whether the same gang was responsible for similar crimes committed in the east and elsewhere. (See related story on Page 12)

And now a Road Through the Sinharaja Forest

By Mandana Ismail Abeywickrema

The

latest illegal construction to take place in the Sinharaja Forest Reserve has been initiated by UPFA parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa, according to propaganda posters put up in the Ratnapura District on a road construction project.
AbeywickremaThe poster displayed in many parts of Ratnapura states that a 5 km road from Imbulkanda to Sooriyakanda on the border of the Sinharaja forest in the Ratnapura District would commence construction from July 27th on a directive issued by the young Rajapaksa.
The road is estimated to cost Rs. 6.5 million and the Highways Ministry has passed the finances.
The Highways Ministry is interestingly under the purview of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
A picture of the propaganda poster put up in Ratnapura on the road project is shown in the newspaper.
Read More »
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US delivers demarche: Refer LLRC report to UNHRC

By Our Diplomatic Correspondent
The United States has delivered a demarche to Sri Lanka that it wants the final report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) discussed at the 19th sessions of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in March next year.
A demarche is a formal diplomatic stand of one government's official position, views and wishes on a particular subject. It was delivered by the US Embassy in Colombo to the External Affairs Ministry last month, but, Sri Lanka has not yet responded officially to the request.
An External Affairs Ministry source who spoke on grounds of anonymity said the government was most likely to reject the US request. “This is because we will be under the constant watch of the HRC if we agree to this move,” the source said, sounding a warning that a rejection may also force US to resort to other “measures against Sri Lanka”.
A resolution to cut aid to Sri Lanka, moved by members of the House Foreign Relations Committee, now awaits further discussion before becoming law. The final report of the LLRC is expected to be released in November this year.
After the Sri Lanka issue arising out of the UN Advisory Panel’s report on alleged war crimes was not raised at the 17th sessions of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in June, there was speculation that it would be taken up in September this year.
Although it is not altogether ruled out, both Britain and the United States have said that they would give time for Sri Lanka till the end of this year to respond. In a similar move, the US is learnt to have succeeded in getting Yemen to discuss the recent violent incidents in that country leading to human rights abuses before the UNHRC sessions in September. This came after the government in Sanaa had agreed to the US request.

BBC iPlayer - From Our Own Correspondent: Sri Lanka and Greece

BBC iPlayer - From Our Own Correspondent: Sri Lanka and Greece

www.bbc.co.uk

Alan Johnston with insight and wit from BBC correspondents Charles Haviland and Mark Lowen
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Colombo targeting Tamil civil service is more than revenge

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 July 2011, 18:02 GMT]
Orders have been issued by Sri Lanka president Mahinda Rajapaksa and by his sibling Basil Rajapaksa to colonial governor Maj. Gen. Chandrasri for immediate and full-swing replacement of Tamil civil service in the north. The act may superficially look as a revenge for the defeat in the civic elections, but it is actually aimed to make any political solution that will be ‘accounted’ to the outside world completely meaningless to Eezham Tamils, and is a part of a long-contemplated agenda of structural genocide, political observers said. Meanwhile, knowing what is happening and what will happen in demography, political representation, civil administration, militarisation and in all other respects, why should the TNA commit to seek solutions under a ‘united Sri Lanka’ just because the powers that abetted the genocide want it, ask non TNA Tamil nationalists.
                                                                                                   Full story >>

‘Udayan’ editor attack:

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‘Udayan’ editor attack: Rise up forthwith on behalf of media freedom & democracy! -JVP

  Saturday 30 of July 2011

(Lanka-e-News -30.July.2011, 3.30P.M.)The Editor of ‘Udayan’ newspaper Mr. Gnalingam Kuganathan was attacked by thugs yesterday (29th) evening. The attack has been carried out near the newspaper office. Mr. Kuganathan, seriously injured in the attack carried out by two masked persons in a motorbike, has been admitted to intensive care unit of the Jaffna Hospital.

While resolutely condemning the savage attack we demand the government to bring those responsible for the grave crime before the law immediately.                
The government has not been able to arrest anyone responsible for the incident yet. Being able to flee after attacking a journalist in Jaffna where security is at a maximum level does mean the invisible hand of the government has been active. Hence, the government will not be able to evade allegations aimed at it for the attack. The people in the country as well as masses in the world would have their eyes open to see whether the government would be silent as in other instances when journalists were targeted for attacks or whether legal action would be taken against the wrongdoers of this attack.        Full story >>
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Police protection for area surrounding 'Uthayan'

Saturday, 30 July 2011 14:13

Police protection has been provided to the area surrounding the office of Jaffna-based Uthayan news paper who’s Chief news editor was brutally attacked by an unidentified gang yesterday evening 

News Editor, Gnanasundaram Kuganathan was attacked while he was traveling along the Navalar Road in Jaffna, after which he was admitted to the Jaffna Hospital in critical condition.

The police and army are also carrying out frequent security patrols in the area. (Kavisuki)

 Read more... 

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BHC Says Britain Believes In Free Media

Saturday, July 30, 2011  

The British High Commission inColombohas said the British government did not exercise control over media contents.
A spokesperson for the High Commission has told the media that Channel 4 is an independent television broadcaster and thatBritainbelieved a free media is a vital part in every democratic country.
The statement was made in response to a comment made by a senior official in the country’s defence establishment that the British Government should take action against Channel 4 for airing what he describes as “an irresponsible video.”
“Britainhas a robust mechanism for ensuring that media organizations, maintain appropriate ethical and legal standards, but the government doesn’t exercise control over media contents,” British High Commission spokesperson has said.

UN calls for speedy probe on Razeek

29 July, 2011
UN calls for speedy probe on Razeek

 

	Mr Razeek was detained by the Defence Secretary, AI said quoting a government official

The United Nations has called for speedy investigation over the mysterious death of a prominent human rights activist in Sri Lanka.

A spokesperson for UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has called on Sri Lanka to prosecute all those involved in the murder of Pattani Rafeek, managing trustee of Community Trust Fund (CTF).

His body was exhumed by police on Thursday after a tip off from suspects arrested in connection with his disappearance in February, last year.

Rights watchdog Amnesty International (AI) earlier said although the police have identified the man they consider the prime suspect in the disappearance, failed to question him.

The suspect is a close associate of Sri Lanka’s former Minister for Industry and Commerce, according to the the London based rights watchdog.                              Full Stort>>>