India wants Sri Lanka to probe rights abuse charges

December 27, 2011 
R. K. RADHAKRISHNAN 

Colombo asked to go beyond 13th Amendment for“meaningful devolution of powers and national reconciliation”

India wants an “independent and credible mechanism…to investigate allegations of human rights violations” during the end stages of Eelam War IV. This needs to be done in a “time-bound manner,” India has told Sri Lanka.

Belatedly commenting on the Sri Lankan Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Committee report, tabled in Parliament on December 16, the Indian External Affairs spokesperson said: “The present situation provides a great window of opportunity to forge a consensual way forward towards reconciliation through a political settlement based on devolution of power.

“It recognises that a political solution is imperative to addressing the root cause of the conflict and notes that the government should provide leadership to a political process, which must be pursued for the purpose of establishing a framework for ensuring sustainable peace and security in the post-conflict environment.”

The Indian statement, released here on Monday, comes a few days after President Mahinda Rajapaksa ruled out land and police powers for the northern province.

Supporting a broader dialogue, India said a full implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution was needed. There was also a need to “go beyond” the 13th Amendment, “so as to achieve meaningful devolution of powers and genuine national reconciliation.”

“We hope that the Government of Sri Lanka, recognising the critical importance of this issue, acts decisively and with vision in this regard. We will remain engaged with them through this process and offer our support in the spirit of partnership.”

The Presidential office felt it was for the External Affairs Ministry to react to the comments.

However, a senior government official said there were many welcome features in the Indian stand, such as remaining engaged with Sri Lanka through the process and the fact that it welcomed the public release of the document.

The Tamil United Liberation Front, a part of the Tamil National Alliance in the recent local body elections, said it welcomed the Indian stand in full, including the comments on devolution of powers and the need for a credible investigation. The Eelam People’s Democratic Party was of the view that a political solution must begin with the implementation of the 13th Amendment in full.

The implementation of the police powers, as provided for in the amendment, could be suspended for a limited period till conditions were conducive for handing over duties to the provinces, the party said.

Tragedy of US policy on Sri Lanka's war crimes

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 December 2011, 00:02 GMT]

The Obama Administration has repeatedly affirmed its commitment to human rights and dignity and rule of law and has largely delivered on its promise -- most notably in the context of the Arab Spring. Tragically, it has failed dismally in the case of Sri Lanka, with catastrophic consequences (a) to the many tens of thousands of Tamil civilians killed whom the US knowingly failed to protect, under Blake architected policy on Sri Lanka, during and after the war; (b) to the credibility of US commitment to universal human rights, democracy and rule of law, and to justice and national reconciliation in Sri Lanka; and (c) to the integrity of international human rights and humanitarian law. 

Hillary Rodham Clinton, U.S. Secretary of State

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice

Robert O'Blake, Former Ambassador to Sri Lanka

Samantha Power, author of "A Problem from Hell"

Ambassador Butenis

Harold Koh, Legal Advisor, Department of State

Stephen Rapp, US ambassador-at-large for war-crimes issues

Maria Otero, Under Secretary Democracy and Global Affairs

The UN Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka ( April 2011) found credible allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity by both sides, in the final six months of the war, in which up to 40,000 Tamil civilians had been killed, mostly by indiscriminate shelling of civilians, including hospitals, in Government declared "safe zones."

A British TV documentary produced by Channel Four called “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields” contains horrific evidence in support of the UN Panel’s allegations, and widespread use of sexual abuse and rape by soldiers. The State Department has remained silent, even on the executions frames, which have been determined to be authentic by two UN Rapporteurs of extra judicial killings Failed US Policy on Sri Lanka.

The failure of US policy on Sri Lanka was largely due to a succession of unprecedented actions, centering largely in the State Department, first, the US policy of silence about ongoing mass atrocities and the complicity of topmost Sri Lankan leadership (some of whom are US citizens/ permanent residents), and, second, the subsequent failure of US policy on accountability and the continuation of serious violations in the nearly three years since the end of the war. 

The US has repeatedly affirmed its position that “accountability and reconciliation are irretrievably linked." However, accountability was severely constrained by a series of actions by the US. These included the rejection of the UN Panel’s recommendation for the immediate establishment of an international mechanism to investigate the alleged crimes during the war and to monitor the government’s post war policies, and US insistence that Sri Lanka should have primary responsibility to investigate its own alleged crimes, according to international standards, but with no time limit.

US focus on accountability only on alleged crimes during the war, also enabled Sri Lanka to engage in a wide range of serious post war violations in the former conflict areas in the North East, virtually without being called to account. 

The post war violations have been reported by many credible sources.—including the State Department Human Rights bureau, the UN Expert Panel, the International Crisis Group, UN Rapporeurs on Torture and Extrajudicial Killings, and in November by the UN Committee. The State Department has remained largely silent on these reports. 

LLRC Report and the collapse of accountability

The almost universally foreseen failure of US policy on accountability is now complete ---with the failure of the recently published report of Sri Lanka’s own inquiry – the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission to meet criteria for LLRC agreed by Ambassador Susan Rice in March 2010---especially that LLRC “would fully investigate serious allegations of violations” and "identify those responsible and make appropriate recommendations based on its findings.” 

The comment by the International Crisis Group is typical—“The LLRC fails in a crucial task – providing the thorough and independent investigation of alleged violations of international humanitarian and human rights law that the UN and other partners of Sri Lanka have been asking for. It is now incumbent on the international community, through the UN Human Rights Council, to establish an independent international investigation in 2012.”

Full story >>

Country's laws gone to the dogs under the brutal regime: uses every trick in the book to save criminal -Namal's sidekick murders British Citizen

 
(Lanka-e-News-26.Dec.2011, 11.55PM) The police investigation that is being conducted into the murder of British tourist and the serious injuries sustained by his wife at Tangalla is based on the same lines as that of the Bhaaratha Lakshman murder since the impartiality of it has been completely contorted and distorted to suit the culprits, according to reports reaching Lanka e news. The regime is gearing to suppress the truth and carry out a totally spurious inquiry.

By now , the Russian wife , Decca Hewa Victoria Ellen Domeena of the deceased , who was critically injured had been transferred from the Matara Hospital to Karapitiya Hospital.

The regime chief ‘s son Namal Rajapakse has initially given three calls to the SI Jayasinghe of Tangalle who is conducting the inquiries and has compelled him to investigate the crime to conform to Namal’s needs.. Consequently , this SI is under grave threat to his life. 

The deceased , tourist Kurami Shaik , the British citizen had been assassinated when he was at the tourist Hotel , ‘Nature Reef’ , Marakuliya , Tangalla. According to police records, the Tangalla local body Chairman Vidanapathirane along with his security contingent had visited the Hospital in connection with a musical party at the Hotel on the 24th night. Vidyanapathirane had got involved in a quarrel with another Hotel Manager who had come there. .When the British tourist and his wife had tried to mediate , Vidapathirane had entered into a scuffle with the couple. This is how the police had recorded the incident. But , according to eye witnesses, since the wife of the deceased was subjected to vulgar jokes and immoral advances , the victim had intervened. 

A police officer himself revealed to us that the statement of a Hotel staff to the police that the tourist was shot at with a T56 weapon and killed by local body chairman Sampath Chandrapushpa Vidapathirane , had not been recorded by the police .The evidence of the Nature reef Hotel Manager and two others had been recorded. Based on these , an 18year old security officer , Kelum Vigrandeniya pahala Archchige and 27 year old security officer , Uduwarage Saman Deshapriya residing at Pannipitiya of Vidyapathirane had been arrested. The vehicle – Van No. 58 – 4413 in which the Chairman and his murder group arrived was taken into custody only about 24 hours later , yesterday evening.

The police had not recorded that the murder was committed by the Chairman of the local body with the weapon T 56 taken by him from the hands of his security personnel . Moreover , since the media had splashed the news highlighting the Chairman’s name and details , the police having no choice had entered his name in the record books. In the special heinous crime book of the Tangalla police , the first entry typed in it did not mention the name of the Chairman. But later after the media reported the news, ( it was Lanka e news which first revealed the name and photo of the Chairman , the assassin.) , with a pen in blue ink below the typed ‘F ‘ entry , it had been additionally recorded subsequently ,‘the murder committed by the local body chairman and his group using a T 56 weapon’

Since the assassin , the Chairman is a sidekick and henchman of Namal Rajapakse , he has still not been arrested. The wounds on the body of the tourist who was the victim of the cold blooded murder are as follows : a gunshot wound on the forehead, a gunshot wound and a cut wound on the neck, a cut wound 4 inches 3 cms. long on the upper part of the right cheek ,and another cut wound one inch 2 cms. long on the lower part of the same cheek.

The police did everything possible to suppress the information until the following day evening about the incident in which the victim died immediately after he was shot at. While there are T 56 gunshot injuries on the deceased’s head and neck , the police state now , he died due to cut wounds. The medical reports also now make misleading statements that those bullets are not those of T56 weapon although T 56 bullets were found. All these fabrications and fake distortions are to safeguard and save the assassin , because he is a henchman of Namal .

This investigation is also being transformed into another ‘culprit’s mother investigating the crime’ manipulation based on evidence in the possession of Lanka e news. May we expose one such distortion : though a Magisterial inquiry was conducted , there is no number of the B report that was produced to court. There is no GHT number. These are reports which ought to have been made before the court inquiry. These omissions and commissions have been deliberately made in order to interpolate and make distortions at will like in the Bharatha Lakshman murder. If the Magistrate is having a spine and not a stooge of the MaRa regime, he should point out these dastardly purposeful preliminary investigation lapses in the performance of his duties duly and rightly, without waiting until the media exposes them.

Whenever the despotic MaRa regime has reason to distort an investigation and manipulate it to suit its shameless sordid aims , it hands over the investigation to a CID that is as bad or worse than the regime in unscrupulous activities.

Please wait until we bring to you more exposures on this subject.

Tangalle main suspect arrested

26 December, 2011

Hoteliers express concern over the incident at a time the tourism industry is re-emerging

The chairman of the Tangalle local government body has been arrested in suspicion for the murder of a British tourist in Sri Lanka.

Police spokesman SP Ajith Rohana told BBC Sandeshaya that Tangalle Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman Sampath Chandrapushpa, 24, the main suspect of the attack in Tangalle in which a British tourist was killed has been arrested, police said.

The suspect was arrested after he surrendered to Tangalle police station, said the police spokesman.

Three Sri Lankan men have earlier been arrested on suspicion of killing, Kuram Shaikah Zaman, a British national of Israeli origin, an ICRC volunteer working in the Gaza strip.

'Afraid of safety'

Victoria Alexandrovna, 23, is being treated in Karapitiya hospital, Galle at the intensive care unit.

I came to know that the next morning that it was a group that included the chairman of Tangalle Pradeshaaya Sabha that assaulted me   Eyewitness Rayan Akalanka

Hoteliers in Tangalle, meanwhile, say foreign tourists have been leaving the resorts after an assault on tourists that killed a British national and injured a Russian female.

They have expressed concern over the incident at a time the tourism industry is re-emerging after decades of armed conflict.

A partner of Nature Secret restaurant in Tangalle, Rayan Akalanka, who was also assaulted in the attack, told the BBC that the attackers focused on Mr Zaman as the latter tried to intervene.

"I am provided with three policemen for security at the hospital but I feel afraid of doing business in the area any longer after this attack," he told BBC sandeshaya from his hospital bed.

 

Iran invites Lankan banks to open branches in Tehran

TehranTimes  Iran's Leading International Newspaper      26 December 2011

Iran has urged Sri Lankan banks to expand to Tehran and expressed interest in joint ventures in Sri Lanka’s infrastructure, pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors. The offer was made by new Iranian ambassador Mohammad Nabi Hassanipour, during a recent meeting in Colombo with Industry and Commerce Minister Rishad Bathiudeen.

“I see that there is a need to increase the capacity of Sri Lanka’s oil refining and I believe the Sri Lankan refinery needs an extension. Iran is also looking at conducting single country format ‘Iranian Trade Fairs’ in Colombo,” he said, in details of the meeting released by the Ministry through a press release.

Minister Bathiudeen said Iran and Sri Lanka should enhance Business to Business (B2B) level cooperation further. Linkages between business chambers in both countries are the key to achieve this, he said.

Both the ambassador and the Minister also explored preliminary groundwork towards the next session of the bilateral Joint Economic Commission meeting to be held in Tehran in 2012. Both countries have already expressed their interest to this end especially when the Iranian Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Seyyed Amir Mansour Borghai took part in a special dinner meeting hosted by Minister Bathiudeen in July in Colombo.

(Source: sundaytimes)

Defence Ministry takes over Palali Teaching School land

Monday, 26 December 2011 

Ceylon Teachers’ Union (CTU) Secretary Joseph Stalin says that the Education Ministry had agreed to hand over a 54 acre land belonging to the Palali Teacher Training School to the Defence Secretary.

Instead of the two teaching schools in the Jaffna peninsula – Palali Teacher Training School and Kopay Teacher Training School – there is now one combined teaching school.

The school had been taken to the Sinnaveli Muththuthambi College in 1990 and it currently teaches Roman Catholicism.

Stalin says that the Tamil teaching students are being treated unfairly by putting in place one teaching school that teaches only Roman Catholicism instead of teaching Math, Science, English Commerce, Agriculture, Dancing and Singing like it did at the Palali Teacher Training School when the high security zone (HSZ) is being cleared.

He noted that it was unfortunate that the Tamil speaking teachers were losing one of their training institutes after it is allocated to the Defence Ministry and the Tamil students were losing their chance to a proper education even after the end of the war.

Science Faculty Commissioner of the Education Ministry Prof. TIssa Hewavitharana said the Palali Teacher Training School has been combnied with the Kopay Teacher Training School to prevent the wastage of resources.

However, he denied any knowledge of the land being allocated to the Defence Ministry.

Military Spokesperson Brigadier Nihal Hapuarachchi said that he was not aware of the matter, but there was a military camp close by. Therefore he said the decision would have been made by the Defence Ministry.

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“If you want positions help me instead of the farmers” – President tells Janaka Bandara

It was previously reported by us that Cooperatives and Internal Trade Minister Johnston Fernando had informed the President that Lands Minister Janaka Bandara Tennakoon was responsible for the massive protest campaign launched by the farmers and traders in Dambulla over the law on packing fruits and vegetables in plastic crates.

Angered by Johnston’s explanation, the President had recently telephoned Janaka Bandara and had severely reprimanded him, sources from Temple Trees said.

“You buggers are trying to stab me in the back. You have a responsibility to act against people when they are rallying against the government and not to join them, instigate them and conspire against the government,” the President has said.

The Minister has responded saying, “Please don’t get angry Sir, but I’m with the framer sin this issue. I cannot take Johnny’s side. I need to continue to do politics in Dambulla. This is an unfair law. It is these innocent farmers who vote for me and not the people at the Internal Trade Ministry.”

The Minister’s words had angered the President and he had said, “I hear that you are trying to become the National Organizer. If you want such positions you need to support me instead of the farmers. You cannot act against the collective responsibility of the Cabinet. You need to stand by it regardless of whether it is right or wrong. You need to represent it. Otherwise I would have to make a decision about you in the next cabinet reshuffle.”

“It’s ok Sir, you may take any decision you please, but I will stand by the farmers. You can suspend my party membership, but I would still not change my stance,” Janaka Bandara has said firmly. The President had responded by shouting at the Minister in filth before slamming telephone receiver

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Amal Rodrigo who was missing sent overseas

One of Minister Mervyn Silva’s Coordinating Secretaries, Amal Rodrigo was sent overseas with his family with the President’s intervention after the Defence Secretary’s “Disappearance Unit” abducted him.

He had been released in Negombo on the 24th and Western Province Minister Nimal Lansa had immediately met him and taken him to a secret location. Amal Rodrigo’s family members were immediately sent to Singapore that day.

He was abducted by the Defence Secretary after the Iranian President had informed the Sri Lankan President that Rodrigo had extorted monies amounting to Rs. 50 million from one of the main tea exporting companies in the country, Akbar Brothers.

However, his life was speared by the President following Minister Mervyn Silva’s intervention and has ordered that Rodrigo be sent out of the country.

The Minister had advised that Rodrigo be held for a few days since the government could be blamed for the abduction. Nevertheless, Rodrigo’s wife had been given the chance of speaking to her husband over the telephone.

Before Amal Rodrigo started to work under Silva and extorted monies from businessmen, he worked at the K.S. Car Sale in Kelaniya.

He then started an affair with the car sale owner, Kamal Siriwardena’s wife and later married her. He is married to the sister of famous announcers, Irosha and Nirsoha.

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Basil and Namal clash over death of British tourist

Parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa has turned down the request made by Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa to hand over the Tangalle Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman Sampath Chandrapushpa Vidanapathirana to courts.

Vidanapathirana has been accused of abusing a British lady at the Nature Reef Hotel in Medilla, Tangalle after killing her husband.

Minister Rajapaksa has said there was mounting international pressure over the incident and the hiding of the person responsible for it and it was a black mark on the country’s tourism industry.

MP Namal Rajapaksa has said that the Tangalle Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman was a trusted friend of the President and himself and has worked immensely to safeguard the government’s interests. He has explained to Uncle Basil that handing him over would have an adverse impact in future.

Therefore, the Chairman would be kept under his supervision until the issue is resolved, Namal has said.

Whitewash, or not as bad as expected?--LLRC versus LTTE!

Sunday 25 December 2011

The LLRC Report does make the point that the government must attend to Tamil grievances but did we need a seven-man presidential Commission costing millions of rupees for platitudinous recommendations that the government will ignore? The real substance that locals and the international community were waiting for was whether war crimes were committed and human rights trampled in the closing stages of the war. In Chapter 4 on Humanitarian Law Issues (the term war crimes is taboo as per the Terms of Reference) the learned commissioners have most firmly and unambiguously confirmed that such was indeed the case. Of course you guessed it, by the LTTE and only the LTTE!
I have insisted for two and a half years that a thorough investigation of war crimes and human rights violations by the armed forces and the LTTE, and the accountability of the country’s political leaders, must be undertaken. One major thrust of Chapters 3 to 5 is denunciation of the LTTE; so this one-sided Commission has served one-half of my pleas. Bravo! We are making progress, are we not? Seriously, I am not playing cynic; I agree with half of the Commission’s findings.
What about the other half? The rest of Chapter 4 reads like plain vanilla whitewash, naivety and acquiescence in swallowing the military’s version. Some passages are incredible; the learned commissioners are puzzled who was shelling makeshift hospitals and the now internationally notorious Pudukudiriuppu (PKT) hospital. Was it the military? Perhaps it was LTTE cadres themselves; no, maybe it was little green men from Mars! The Commission has handled the military and the regime with kid gloves. What independent forensic evidence did it collect from the ‘crime scene’ to confront the military? If it did not confront field commanders with the massive deaths, what then is the value of the Report?
The Commission’s findings pertaining to LTTE atrocities are credible and known; conscription of child soldiers, cowardly use of civilians as human shields and shooting their Tamil brothers like dogs when they attempted to flee, placement of artillery pieces in the thick of civilians, and such other monstrosities of psychopaths like Prabhakaran and his commanders. But for the LLRC to follow this with a whitewash of the symmetric crimes, equally well known, of the regime and the military, is what fatally deprives the report of respectability and credibility.

The way out – clever

To be fair however, the report does contain statements made by a large number of witnesses who condemned the conduct of the military. I suspect there may be a reason why the commissioners included this evidence but refused to draw conclusions obvious there from. In circumstances of gross repression as in Sri Lanka it is a brave man who will draw self-evident inferences from evidence that incriminates the armed forces or the political leadership.
The way out the Commission has chosen is a clever one; record and reproduce the evidence, say you don’t think the charges of human rights violation have been proved, and then leave it to the public and the international community to draw obvious inferences. Intelligent people at home and abroad may get the hint; read the contents, ponder the discourse, but ignore the conclusions that the learned commissioners have felt constrained to draw. Admittedly, this thesis is speculative.
Similar remarks can be made in respect of casualties (dead and injured) where the evidence of several parties is recorded but the Commission ducks conclusions other intelligent humans would draw. Another example is that scores of abductions, formal arrests and white-van encounters of persons who thereafter disappeared into a hellhole. Copiously documented, yes, but the findings are lukewarm.
No statement of condemnation of the state’s repressive forces (no such reticence when it comes to LTTE atrocities), no assignment of accountability, and the usual platitudes about the authorities needing to attend to these matters; of course the same authorities who were the culprits in the first place.

The Channel-4 video

One of the weaker sections of the report deals with the horrendous Channel-4 videos, on whose authenticity the commissioners heap suspicion. Nevertheless, they refrain from calling it a fake and opt to recommend “further investigation.”
They rely on the evidence of Chauthara de Silva, a Singapore PhD and Senior Lecturer at Moratuwa, and Professor Yfantis of the University of Nevada, an expert in Computer Science, but to the best of my knowledge not in digital image processing. (I may be wrong). My PDF copy of the LLRC Report does not include their reports but the main text contains extracts from Yfantis. Some footnotes taken from de Silva’s report are naive and express opinions on scenery, background and appearance of stains; matters that have little to do with video technology and tampering. 
Laboratories in US and studies commissioned by a UN Special Rapporteur have certified the video as authentic. The response of Channel-4 to the de Silva and Yfantis reports will be interesting, but the matter will be settled conclusively only when Chnnel-4 reveals how the videos came into its possession.
For now my comment is that an investigation commissioned by the Government of Sri Lanka will carry little credibility – GoSL has no one but itself to blame – and underlines the importance of an independent international probe of not just the videos but also the whole war crimes issue.

How will the IC respond?

The LLRC match is being played out for the sake of international actors. If GoSL wants to settle the national question it knows what it needs to do and could have done so a long time ago; no need for commissions. End the military occupation of Tamil areas and close down the High Security Zones, implement full devolution of power, and release Tamil youth held in illegal detention for years. For starters, these few steps will do more than a hundred commissions of inquiry. This game is not being played for reconciliation with the Tamils; it is being played to get the human rights and international agencies baying for blood off the government’s back.
Will the human rights lobbies and Western governments take the bait and concur with the LLRC that the regime and its armed forces stand acquitted of war crimes and human rights violations? My guess is as follows; non-governmental and human rights lobbies will not take the bait, New Delhi will be delighted to go along with the report; as for Western governments, let’s watch for a bit.

TNA for positive conclusion to talks with SL govt

Monday, December 26, 2011 
Colombo: Sri Lanka's main Tamil party TNA has said it wants to see a "positive conclusion" to the current dialogue with the government to address grievances of the minority ethnic community. 

Amid criticism that the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) had been going slow in addressing the issues of Tamil minority, party leader Rajavayothi Sampanthan said it was not possible for the TNA to come out with all details on the ongoing talks with the government. 

But, he said his party was "keen to move ahead with the talks to see a positive conclusion". 
The Bishop of northeastern Mannar, Rayappu Joseph in a letter to the TNA had found fault with the TNA for its seeming lack of interest to press ahead with the government on various contentious issues like. 

Sampanthan said that he had replied to the Bishop that all issues important to the Tamils would be taken up at the future rounds of talks. 

The TNA and the government have held 18 rounds of talks so far. 

At the last round their demands for police and land powers to provincial councils were rejected by the government. The government has at all times maintained that police powers cannot be granted.

The demands have queered the pitch for talks. 

President Mahinda Rajapaksa had asked the TNA should drop its LTTE mentality and refrain from making rigid demands. 

The government is averse to conferring the police and land powers to the provincial councils even though the subjects have been listed as provincial council subjects in the devolution of powers outlined in the thirteenth amendment of 1987. 
PTI 

Disappointed And Unhappy: The TNA On The LLRC Report

Monday, December 26, 2011

Rajavarothiam ampanthan

By Maryam Azwer

Following the release of the much-awaited final report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) issued a statement claiming that issues of accountability were not adequately dealt with in this report.

The TNA, who had displayed a certain degree of apprehension towards the report even long before its release, has now also stated that the report is “a serious assault on the dignity of the victims of the war in Sri Lanka.”
In an interview with The Sunday Leader last week, TNA leader Rajavarothiam Sampanthan expressed a lack of faith in the effectiveness of LLRC’s report, in not only addressing the matter of accountability, but also in contributing to the much discussed reconciliation process. Read More » 

SRI LANKA: Tsunami anniversary highlights early warning gaps

Photo: Amantha Perera/IRIN

More than 30,000 Sri Lankans lost their lives on 26 December 2004

COLOMBO, 26 December 2011 (IRIN) - Seven years after a devastating tsunami struck Sri Lanka, more work still needs to be done to secure an effective early-warning system, officials say. 

More than 30,000 Sri Lankans lost their lives in the Indian Ocean tsunami of 26 December 2004 that struck 13 countries and left more than 200,000 dead across the region. 

"We need to improve communication between the agencies," Pradeep Kodippili, assistant director, early warning, at the government'sDisaster Management Centre (DMC) told IRIN in Colombo, the capital.

After the 2004 tsunami, Sri Lanka enacted the 2005 Disaster Management Act, which established the DMC and provided mandates for monitoring and early warning systems. 
full report