Eezham Tamils demonstrate outside US Embassy in London

 [TamilNet, Friday, 16 March 2012, 23:08 GMT]
Targeting the US draft resolution to be tabled in Geneva later this month, hundreds of Tamils gathered outside the US Embassy in London on Friday demanding that an independent international investigation into the genocide of Eezham Tamils in their homeland be included in the resolution at the 19th session of the UN Human Rights Council. Arranged at short notice by the Tamil Coordinating Committee UK (TCCUK), the demonstration drew a cross section of Eezham Tamils in the UK, including significant number of youth. Demonstrators held placards that identified Eezham Tamils as a nation and asked the international community to initiate a UN-sponsored referendum to resolve their national question. 
This is the first time in recent years that Eezham Tamils have held a demonstration in front of a US diplomatic mission. 

• Resolution by 12 diaspora Organisations

Demonstrators spoke to passersby and took time to explain the protracted nature of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity that had been committed by the Sri Lankan state against Eezham Tamils ever since its so-called independence in 1948. They also asked for justice to be placed above geo-politics in dealing with Eezham Tamils and the Sri Lankan State. 

• Joint statement by the diaspora organisations

Slogans emphasised need for immediate withdrawal of Sinhala armed forces from the Tamil homeland, unconditional release of all Eezham Tamils detained by Sri Lanka and a UN-sponsored referendum with independent and sovereign state of Tamil Eelam as an explicit option. 
Event organisers handed over to the Sri Lanka section of the embassy a copy of the joint statement and resolution released by a coalition of 12 grassroot Tamil organisations from around the world on 13 March 2012.

The attacks on human rights defenders is a rejection of the recommendations of the Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission - FMM

 

The Free Media Movement condemns, without hesitation, the provocative and hate-filled attacks being carried on by the state media, targeting three prominent Sri Lankan human rights defenders.

The reason behind these attacks is that they have participated in the sessions of the UN Human Rights Council  and expressed their opinions with regard to human rights in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan citizens are entitled to the right to hold a dissenting opinion by the Constitution itself, and the right to engage with the human rights mechanisms of the United Nations is internationally recognized.

Over two decades ago, our President and several other political leaders of the government used these rights in order to take a stand on human rights nationally, in collaboration with non-governmental organizations, and internationally, in collaboration including with the United Nations.  The Free Media movement accepts that, then and now, human rights activists are committed to the same objectives.

The recommendations of the Lesson Learned and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), which are the subject of discussion today, affirm that true progress cannot be achieved without first affirming the rights of Sri Lankan citizens to the freedoms of expression, speech and association. The Free Media Movement believes that the frightening and hate-filled propaganda campaign launched by the state media is directly subverting the recommendations of the LLRC, which the government stands committed to implement.

Sunila Abeysekera, Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu and Nimalka Fernando, who are the current targets of the state media, are all three human rights activists who are well recognised in Sri Lanka and abroad as well as within their communities. We can say without reservation that they have played an enormous role, with commitment, in the securing of people’s rights within Sri Lanka. Rupavahini, the state television channel, ITN and the Lake House group of newspapers, all of which are under direct state control, are presently using their photographs and engaging in a violent campaign against them, based on falsehoods.  The Free Media Movement expresses its concern that this contemptible campaign which is portraying these human rights activists as LTTE supporters could result in an actual threat to their lives.

We also want to point out that in the past, members of the Free Media Movement who participated in sessions of the UN Human Rights Council have been subjected to the same kind of violent and false campaign; these threats remain today.

We appeal to the relevant authorities to respect the rights of Sri Lankan human rights activists and to refrain from any actions that could place their lives at risk. We also call on the government to fulfill irs obligations in guaranteeing the safety and security of Sunila Abeysekera, Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu and Nimalka Fernando who are the targets of the hate campaign of the government at this time.

Two ancient statues of Hindu deities to be removed and a Buddha statue to be erected in that place.

(Lanka-e-News-16.March.2012, 11.50PM) Hindu prelates of the area are shocked and grieved over the preparations being made by the Army to remove two ancient statues of Hindu deities which have been there at Kokilai Hospital junction , Mulaitivu , and had been objects of worship of Hindu pilgrims for a very long time , and in that place build a Buddha statue. The two Hindu statues are of their highly respected deities , Pillayar and Vairavar. In addition to the construction of the Buddha statue , seven plots of ancestral lands of seven residents in the vicinity of the Hospital junction have been acquired for the Army. The residents say on those lands so acquired a Buddhist Vihara is to be erected .

In these districts , except the soldiers who have come there from outside , there aren’t any Buddhists. In the circumstances , there is no national religious unity being created by these atrocious and obnoxious actions. All what is being done by these atrocities is planting seeds of another war.

Central Bank Governor converts Bank into a commercial bank

 

Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal has the privilege of being recognized as the head of the Central Bank who has managed to convert the institution that formulates financial policies in the country and monitors banks and financial institutions in the country into a commercial bank.

It has become evident with the Central Bank Governor’s decision to release millions of dollars received by the Norwegian Central Bank (Norway, Sweden and Finland) for poverty alleviation programmes at 0.05% to the financial market at 8-9% interest rates.

The Central Bank Governor has released the monies through Taprobane Investments owned by one of his friends Ajith Devasurendra. The other partner of Taprobane Investments is the Managing Director of LOLC, Ishara Nanayakkara and the former owner of Lanka Bell, Shankar.

Taprobane Investments has lent the monies to LOLC keeping a 2% profit margin and the company has in turn lent the monies at interest rates ranging between 16-36%.

The Norwegian Central Bank has called for a report from the Central Bank of Sri Lanka on how the monies lent by the Bank had been utilized in the poverty alleviation programme.

It is learnt that the Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka is now engaged in various delaying tactics to avoid giving a report.

Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal is now known as the most short sighted head in the Central Bank’s history. The country’s economy has incurred a loss of over Rs. 282 billion due to the Governor’s decision to intervene in maintaining the exchange rate until last month.

The rupee has now fallen to Rs. 124.60 against the dollar and economists warn that it would fall further to around Rs. 130 by the April New Year. They say that it would be difficult to prevent the rupee from falling to a level between Rs. 140 and Rs. 150 by the end of the year.

Why are we not looking at these war crimes?

 

Despite overwhelming evidence of torture, India is shying away from supporting a US-sponsored resolution to take the Mahinda Rajapaksa government to task, saysSai Manish

Collateral damage? Photographs of a tortured LTTE cadre (top) and Prabhakaran’s son Balachandran

Manmohan Singh and Mahinda Rajapaksa Photo: Benjamin Sugathan

THERE IS little doubt that Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s war machinery spared neither a bullet nor a thought for civilians trapped in an ever-shrinking area in the final stages of the offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009. The United Nations has noted that not only did the Sri Lankan forces disobey all rules of war by deliberately forcing fleeing citizens into areas that were being carpet bombed, their blood-thirsty campaign led to crimes that would even put the warring African militias to shame. Full Story

TN will be informed in advance about visits of Lankan VIPS: PM

Published: Saturday, Mar 17, 2012, 

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday assured Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa that the state government would be informed about the visits of Sri Lankan VIPS and other dignitaries in advance.

"I am asking our authorities to bear your views in mind when they handle such visits in future and to share such information as they may have about such visits with the government of Tamil Nadu beforehand," Singh said in a letter to Jayalalithaa.

Singh's response follows Jayalalithaa's letter to him on March 7, where she had asked the Centre to "discourage" frequent visits of Lankan VIPs to the state as the people were "greatly exercised" over the island government's conduct on the Tamils issue. She had also said the Sri Lankan VIPs be allowed to the state only after consulting the state.

Noting that Sri Lankan VIPs and other dignitaries come on private visits without informing the state government, she wanted such trips to be allowed only after consulting the state.

"As you are fully aware, the people of Tamil Nadu are greatly exercised over the conduct of the Sri Lankan government while dealing with Sri Lankan Tamils and their rights," the Chief Minister had said in the letter.

Citing instances in recent past when Sri Lankan VIPs and other dignitaries came on private visits to the state without informing the state government, Jayalalithaa recalled an attempt to attack Thirukumaran Natesan, brother-in-law of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, in Rameswaram.

Since there was no information from the island government or Indian government, no precautionary measures could be taken, Jayalalithaa had said.

War-torn beauty

Asian & Australian Destinations By Carole Cadwalladr March 17, 2012
After 30 years of violence, northern Sri Lanka is opening up to tourism 

High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/6807c624-6c5b-11e1-b00f-00144feab49a.html#ixzz1pNWs4ywT

©Getty

Reclining Buddha at Isurumuniya Vihara, Anuradhapura

Saying I’m going on holiday to Sri Lanka elicits one of two reactions from my friends. There’s the ooh-elephants-temples-cocktails-at-sunset-lucky-you! brigade. And then there are my friends who read the newspapers. “Which beach did you say you’re staying on?” emails a friend. “The one where Sri Lankan forces massacred civilians? Or the one with the death camps?”

Hmm. It’s a fair point. It’s just two years since government forces finally routed the Tamil Tigers: a brutal end to a brutal war. Anyone who saw War Crimes Unpunished , a shocking documentary shown on Channel 4 last week, will be feeling very uneasy about putting the words “Sri Lanka” anywhere near a sentence which also includes “holiday” and “destination”.

• 
  

©Panos

A farmer harvests rice in Anuradhapura

As the land gets poorer and poorer, the houses little more than mud huts with tin roofs, it’s easy to understand Mohammed’s point. “Look at it! There’s nothing for young men here. They prefer to die.”Full Story>>>

Sri Lanka’s North I: The Denial of Minority Rights

 16 Mar 2012EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Deepening militarisation and the lack of accountable governance in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province are preventing a return to normal life and threaten future violence. Scene of the most bitter fighting in the civil war, the Tamil-majority north remains under de facto military occupation, with all important policies set by Sinhala officials in Colombo. The slow but undeniable movement of Sinhala settlers into the fringes of the north and other forms of government-supported “Sinhalisation” are reigniting a sense of grievance and weakening chances for a real settlement with Tamil and other minority parties to devolve power. The international community, especially those governments and aid agencies supporting the reconstruction of the area, should demand a fundamental change of course and should structure their assistance so as to encourage the demilitarisation and democratisation of the former war zone and full respect for minority rights.

Full Story>>>

Can Sri Lanka achieve reconciliation?

AlJazeeraEnglish

We ask if the government is committed to harmony as alleged evidence of war crimes against Tamils airs on British TV.

It was a civil war that ravaged Sri Lanka for almost 30 years. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed, many of them civilians.

And now damning evidence in a documentary aired in Britain alleges that the Sri Lankan government did, in fact, commit war crimes.

"I think you're talking absolute rubbish. I have to rebut charges that are false. We do have inquiries that are going on internally. I don't know why you think external inquiries are independent." - Rajiva Wijesinha, a Sri Lankan MP

Channel 4 in the UK aired alleged evidence of war crimes in Sri Lanka through a documentary video of five men and a child who had been executed.

The Sri Lankan defence ministry responded angrily, laying the blame squarely on the Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam (LTTE), saying:

"The Ministry of Defence rejects all allegations of human rights violations… that it is able to prove with valid evidence that it was the LTTE that committed gross violations of human rights over the past three decades."

Accusing the Sri Lankan government of human rights abuses, Amnesty International says hundreds are detained without trial and many are tortured.

Next week, the UN Human Rights Council is due to consider a resolution calling for Sri Lanka to investigate the alleged war crimes. The government says it has already taken steps towards reconciliation.

"There has to be an international, independent investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Sri Lanka… There is no point in just denying it." - Kumar Kumarendran, a member of the British Tamils Forum

The war between the Tamil Tigers and government forces lasted for nearly 30 years, ending in 2009 after government troops crushed a Tamil rebellion.

The UN estimates 100,000 people were killed and thousands more displaced.

Both sides, however, have been accused of committing war crimes.

So, will the Sri Lankan government admit these alleged war crimes? How would it refute the accusations? And, with neither side being held accountable are hopes for reconciliation fading?

Joining Inside Story with presenter Adrian Finighan to discuss this are guests: Rajiva Wijesinha, a Sri Lankan MP and advisor to the Sri Lankan president on reconciliation, and the former head of the country's peace secretariat and human rights ministry secretariat; Phil Rees, the author of Dining with Terrorists: Meeting with the world's most-wanted militants, in which he was embedded with the Tamil Tigers; and Kumar Kumarendran, a member of the British Tamils Forum and part of the Tamil diaspora now residing in the UK.

The Rajapaksa government felt they could eliminate the Tamil Tigers. They had a policy not of reconciling the Tamil population there but of gaining political success by developing a kind of populist Sinhala view… which has also driven their military policies in this war. Phil Rees, an author with 25 years experience of covering Sri Lanka

Tom Gross: The true face of ‘human rights’ at the UN

National Post.  Tom Gross  Mar 16, 2012

GOH Chai Hin/AFP Photo

Veteran dissident Ren Wanding addresses activists in Beijing in 1998. Wanding spoke at UN Watch’s alternative human rights summit this month.

Veteran dissident Ren Wanding addresses activists in Beijing in 1998. Wandinspoke at UN Watch’s alternative human rights summit this month.

GENEVA — I have spent the past few days in Geneva with some of the most remarkably brave people one is ever likely to meet. All have suffered horrendously for calling for freedoms in their countries — the kind of freedoms that people elsewhere take for granted.

But none of them were invited to Geneva by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), the UN’s most prominent body that is supposed to deal with human rights, which is meeting here in annual session.

This is the organization behind the infamous and now discredited “Goldstone report” on Gaza. This is the organization that in 2009 praised Sri Lanka’s human rights record shortly after that country’s military had killed 40,000 Tamil civilians.   Full Story>>>

Lanka envoy’s double-speak: Are all Tamils LTTE cadres?

FirstpostFirstpostby G Pramod Kumar Mar 16, 2012 Firstpost

by G Pramod Kumar Mar 16, 2012 
Chennai: The shocking damning of Tami Nadu MPs by the Sri Lankan high commissioner to India, Prasad Kariawasam, and his subsequent apology is symptomatic of the hardline Bush doctrine that the ruling establishment of the island nation has adopted to smother dissent.

Whether it is about allegations of killing innocent civilian Tamils, executions of opponents and large-scale disappearances, the government has maintained the stand that “if you are not with us, you are against us.”

Perhaps Kariawasam was also emboldened by India’s ambivalent stand on the UNHRC resolution against his country when he said that Tamil MPs were sympathetic to LTTE. According to the The Indian Express, the high commissioner said that the “friendship” of some of the DMK, AIADMK MPs and MDMK’s Vaiko with the LTTE may have led them to carry on a campaign against Sri Lanka. “If they are sympathetic to those unrealistic ideas of separatism, then they might have been (part of the campaign).Full Story>>>

Sri Lankan high commissioner to India Prasad Kariawasam. AFP

Dealing with Sri Lanka

 March 16, 2012

India faces a crucial decision-making moment at the United Nations Human Rights Council on the U.S.-sponsored resolution that urges Sri Lanka to address rights violations alleged against its army in the final phase of the war against the LTTE in 2009. At one level, this decision should be easy to make — New Delhi does not support country-specific resolutions at the HRC in Geneva. Sri Lanka, however, poses a special challenge. All this time, quiet diplomacy rather than grandstanding has been New Delhi's preferred path in prodding Sri Lanka towards reconciliation with the island's Tamil minority. That this has not produced the desired outcome, especially in the matter of a forward-looking political solution to the Tamil question, is evident. Three years after winning the war against the LTTE, Sri Lanka is yet to cement a peace with the Tamils. Instead, the triumphalism about the military victory, unaddressed human rights violations and the overwhelming presence of the Army in northern Sri Lanka, have deepened the political alienation of the Tamils. But if quiet diplomacy hasn't worked, India must carefully assess whether the HRC resolution will get the Sri Lankan government to move in the right direction. Western powers seem to believe it can shame Sri Lanka into doing this. In fact, the proposed censure might work in exactly the opposite way, by further fuelling Sinhala nationalism and rendering the possibility of political reconciliation even more distant.

As for the “feelings” of the political parties in Tamil Nadu, it should be clear by now that for them, the Sri Lankan Tamil issue is an opportunity for cynical one-upmanship, and nothing more. There was no clearer evidence of this than at the time of the UPA victory in 2009, which coincided with the last stand of the LTTE. After creating a furore over the war in Sri Lanka during the elections, the DMK's only concern after the results was how many and which cabinet positions the party would get in the new government. The Sri Lankan High Commissioner's suggestion that the members of parliament from Tamil Nadu are unwitting propagandists of the LTTE shows poor understanding of the dynamics at play in the State; his comment can only worsen the din. However, it should be clear to all concerned that a decision by India not to support the resolution cannot be seen as backing for Sri Lanka's record on human rights; Colombo would be mistaken if it interprets it thus. Indeed, an Indian decision to abstain or vote against the resolution would place an even bigger responsibility on New Delhi to ensure — through more effective and even hard-edged diplomacy — that the Rajapaksa government delivers on the commitments it has made on the political and human rights front.

Keywords: United Nations Human Rights Council, Sri Lanka war crimes, human rights violation, civilian killiing, UNHRC report, Eelam War, LTTE, Prabakaran killing, ethnic conflict, Sri Lankan Tamils, 

ICG Calls For Accountability

 March 4, 2012 | 12:30 am | by sanjeewa -
By Raisa Wickrematunge Belgium based International Crisis Group (ICG) has called upon Sri Lanka to implement an accountability process, as well as carry out the recommendations outlined in the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission’s (LLRC) report. One of the main stated goals of the Crisis Group is to resolve deadly conflicts.

In a release published on Thursday, the ICG claims that ‘the Government has weakened democratic institutions, deepened ethnic polarisation and aggravated the country’s long-standing impunity for human rights violations.’ As evidence of this, the Group points to militarisation in the North and East, while claiming that abductions, killings, torture and gender-based violence continues, even post-war. Recent media reports noted that there had been at at least 10 bodies found and seven people had been abducted in February alone. A recent Freedom From Torture report found that there were still incidents of torture used even in 2011.

At the same time the ICG commended the ‘forthright criticism’ that was contained in the LLRC report, particularly regarding media freedom, militarisation of the North and ignoring recommendations made by domestic commissions into certain killings and disappearances. Yet the ICG still maintained that there was a lack of thorough investigation into the alleged human rights violations at the end of the war, which it said was needed to establish reconciliation.
In its report, the ICG called on the Human Rights Council to implement the LLRC report recommendations and even suggested that Sri Lanka report to them with progress. If found lacking, they argued, an international independent investigation should be launched, and those found responsible of war crimes should be prosecuted on both sides.
The Government had pledged to release numbers of civilians killed in the final stages of war, and had also said they are conducting military courts of inquiry with regard to several incidents mentioned in the LLRC report. Yet the ICG maintains that these measures only serve as a ‘thin veil’ obscuring unwillingness to ‘conduct genuine investigations’ into the offences committed by both the military and the LTTE in the final stages of the war. It also charged that the investigating bodies were not independent and that a non political body needed to be set up to look into the allegations, particularly with regard to hospital shelling, which the Channel 4 documentary charged was done deliberately.
In addition, the report claimed that militarisation continued even after the Emergency Regulations were lifted, with the President using the Public Security Ordinance to continue giving the military police powers. The decision to bring the police force under the Ministry of Defence was also questioned, with the LLRC report noting, “it is desirable  that the Police Department be de-linked from the institutions dealing with the armed forces which are responsible for the security of the State”.
The ICG referred to the 18th Amendment and the Prevention of Terrorism Act as draconian pieces of legislation, and noted that abductions and killings had surged again in recent months. It also noted that women in the North and East face financial insecurity and are sometimes sexually assaulted.
In terms of steps towards reconciliation, the ICG painted a dark picture, citing the Government suspending talks with the TNA to set up a Parliamentary Select Committee, the continued delays in Northern Provincial Council elections and the President retracting a statement to the Indian Foreign Minister where he had allegedly promised to implement the 13th Amendment.
‘Sri Lanka’s post-war course is threatening future violence,’ the release says from the outset, and adds somewhat ominously that the UN Human Rights Council has a chance to do something about it in its 19th Session. The idea of foreign intervention in reconciliation has been vehemently objected to by many. At the Thummula junction, a board set up reads, “[US] You have Abraham Lincoln. We have Mahinda.” Death fasts have been launched and protests organised against the UN. With this level of rhetoric, it remains to be seen whether the UN will in fact decide to intervene. Yet this does not serve to erase or explain the incidents pointed out in the report, and in the many others that have been published on post-war Sri Lanka. Despite, this, it would seem that the US remains wary to intervene. On Friday (1) a US District Court reportedly dismissed a lawsuit against the President, noting that he had diplomatic immunity as a foreign head of state. In this backdrop, the plans optimistically highlighted by the ICG look unlikely to be implemented. 

Video decoded: Chilling evidence of Sri Lanka war crimes

FirstposFirstpost

by G Pramod Kby G Pramod Kumar
 Mar 15, 2012
Editor’s note: The video at the end of this story contains graphic images;  viewer’s discretion is advised.

Chennai: The latest Channel 4 documentary on alleged war crimes by the Sri Lankan army in the last phase of its war against LTTE, Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields: War Crimes Unpunished has visuals and evidence that names and shames President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his defence secretary brother.

The heart-rending cries ofra children, men and women; brutalised and maimed in the war; and cold executions of naked and bound men and women that we saw in the first edition of the film, broadcast a year ago, continues in this film.

Full Story>>>

Time for tough love

 March 15, 2012
Sreeram Chaulia, Hindustan Times
The dog-eat-dog world rarely offers convergence between opposing goals of promoting human values and national interests. Usually, democratic States adopt illiberal policies that go against their own core beliefs, but which serve economic or strategic ends. However, the ruckus over the upcoming vote in the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on a US-sponsored resolution seeking investigation of crimes committed in the final phases of Sri Lanka’s war presents a chance for India to mix morals with statecraft.

That the Lankan armed forces indulged in extreme violations of international laws in prosecuting the war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is a fact. Media revelations of brutal conduct by the Sri Lankan military are only the tip of the iceberg. I have witnessed the iron fist of Sinhalese chauvinism first-hand during my years as a civilian peacekeeper in eastern Sri Lanka. It has far too many unaccounted graves and disappearances.more »

Why Sri Lanka Remains Defiant Against New Allegations of War Crimes

ISHARA S.KODIKARA / AFP / GETTY IMAGES

Sri Lankan Muslim children attend a protest against the U.N. on March 2, 2012, in Colombo

“They didn’t believe that anyone in the international community was willing to stop them, and they were right.” That is the lucid explanation offered by John Holmes, the British diplomat and former chief of the U.N.’s humanitarian operations, as to why, in 2009, the Sri Lankan government was willing to risk international condemnation and accusations of war crimes in its all-out final push to end its 26-year-long war against the Tamil Tigers. Holmes was interviewed by Britain’s Channel 4 for a documentary that aired yesterday called Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields: War Crimes Unpunished. It is a follow-up to a film aired last June by Channel 4, and this one, too, is full of images of graphic violence and suffering, including what appears to be the body of a 12-year-old boy, the son of former Tamil Tiger leader Prabhakaran, shot five times in the chest at close range. International-law experts interviewed in the documentary called it “a crime and a war crime.”

Read more: http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2012/03/16/why-sri-lanka-remains-defiant-against-new-allegations-of-war-crimes/?iid=ec-main-mostpop2#ixzz1pI2F4jmr