Widow, 74, labelled a terrorist and ordered out of Canada

• 

Friday, April 15, 2011

Sugunanayake Joseph, who was given asylum by the Canadian government, has been ordered deported on the grounds she's a member of a terrorist organization.

ANDREW WALLACE/TORONTO STAR

Tracey Tyler Legal Affairs Reporter             

After her husband was assassinated during midnight mass at a church in Sri Lanka on Christmas Eve 2005, Canada welcomed Sugunanayake Joseph.
Former foreign affairs minister Bill Graham spoke at a memorial service for her husband, Joseph Pararajasingham, a Sri Lankan MP, calling him a “man of peace.”
Five years later, the Immigration and Refugee Board has ordered the 74-year-old Toronto grandmother deported, concluding her role as a politician’s wife — supporting her late husband’s career and accompanying him to political events — amounted to membership in a designated terrorist organization.
“My husband was not a terrorist,” Joseph told the Star on Thursday. “I am also not a terrorist. He was an innocent man. A man of the people.”
Joseph was also wounded in the shooting. Shortly afterward, the federal government issued a visitor’s visa so she could flee to safety in Canada, where her son and daughter are citizens. she could flee to safety in Canada, where her son and daughter are citizens.               Full Story...
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24.12.05  Joseph Pararajasingham MP shot dead in Batticaloa ..   
                                                 Chronology:

15.04.11  Canada orders deportation of Mrs. Parajasingham

24.01.06  Aussie MPs attend Pararajasingham memorial event

12.01.06  NZ Peace Group condemns Pararajasingham killing

03.01.06  Canadians mourn loss of Pararajasingham

03.01.06  Pararajasingham was at peace with his life's work-..

28.12.05  Mannar observes hartal condemning Pararajasingham ..

28.12.05  Kilinochchi pays tribute to Pararajasingham

28.12.05  Military uniforms discovered in Batticaloa church

27.12.05  Pirapaharan pays tribute to slain TNA MP

26.12.05  Colombo's bona fides for peace, suspect- TNA

26.12.05  "How will International Community respond?"

25.12.05  Rajapakse, SL Military Intelligence responsible fo..

25.12.05  LTTE confers "Maamanithar" title to Pararajasingha..

25.12.05  NESOHR mourns killing of Pararajasingham

25.12.05  Pararajasingham slaying, a barbaric act - fellow B..

24.12.05  Joseph Pararajasingham MP shot dead in Batticaloa .

Marilyn Churley from New Democratic Party

Bill Graham, the Canadian Defence Minister, and Jim Karygiannis, Member of the Canadian Parliament and Secretary of State                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

SRI LANKA: The politics of habeas corpus and the marginal role of the Sri Lankan courts under the 1978 constitution

April 15, 2011
This paper was initially published in the Law and Society Trust Review, Sep. -- Oct. 2010
 
Basil Fernando*
"LIBERTY RIGHTS AT STAKE: THE VIRTUAL ECLIPSE OF THE HABEAS CORPUS REMEDY IN RESPECT OF ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES IN SRI LANKA" is a study of 880 judgments of various courts of Sri Lanka on habeas corpus applications from pre-independence times up to the present period by Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena and Jayantha de Almeida Guneratne. The effort examines an impressive number of judgments on habeas corpus during this period.¹ This preview of this forthcoming publication is based on their findings. Read More... 

SRI LANKA: Beyond the UN drama

Paper no. 4428	15-Apr-2011
SRI LANKA: Beyond the UN drama  Guest Column by Nilantha Ilangamuwa  No matter what the UN report contains, it should be made available to the people of Sri Lanka and the world at large.  The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki - Moon appointed his panel to collect facts and advise him on accountability concerns on war crimes in Sri Lanka during the final weeks of the war between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ( LTTE ) well known as Tamil Tigers and the Government of Sri Lanka which ended May 2009.   According to sources, the Ban’s committee had received thousands of documents from various parts of world, but some of them are said to be distorted facts and also some were absolutely falsehood to confuse and meddle with the UN effort.    SRI LANKA: Beyond the UN drama Full Story>>>

Sri Lanka 'war crimes': UN report due

Friday 15 April 2011

A UN report into the bloody end of Sri Lanka's civil war is due to be published, and could raise the question of an international war crimes inquiry. Channel 4 News submitted evidence to the UN.

The report is expected to consider whether alleged atrocities committed by both sides at the end of Sri Lanka's 26-year civil war in 2009 constitute war crimes and deserve more international scrutiny.
Channel 4 News understands it could be published in the next ten days after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon was presented with the report on Tuesday.
At least 20,000 civilians died in the final few months of the Government-led military campaign to crush the Tamil Tigers. There have been reports of the use of human shields and child soldiers and apparent executions, as well as deliberate shelling and denial of aid to civilians inside a no-fire zone.



Sri Lanka 'war crimes': UN report due      Full Story>>>

Sri Lanka: one man's search for justice for his son

Friday 15 April 2011

As the UN prepares to publish a report into atrocities committed in the Sri Lanka civil war, Channel 4 News hears the story of a man who has been fighting for justice since his son was killed in 2006.

Independent groups believe that at least 20,000 civilians may have died in the period of appalling violence which dominated the end of Sri Lanka's 26-year civil war, as the Government's security forces battled with the Tamil Tiger insurgents.
The UN is preparing a report into atrocities committed by both sides during the war in Sri Lanka, particularly in the final few months.
For many Sri Lankans, the wider picture of international law violations represent human tragedies, deaths and disappearances of family members, for which no one has ever been held to account.
Human tragedy
Dr Kasipillai Manoharan is a 70-year old doctor from Sri Lanka. He has been trying to get justice for his son's murder - which he witnessed - for the last five years.
His son Ragihar was killed by security services in Sri Lanka in 2006. After a grenade blast, his son and four other students were shot.

I know I can't get back to my son but I am now fighting for justice for all communities. Dr Manoharan

Dr Manoharan told Channel 4 News: "My son was killed by security forces. I lost my son. It was a really cruel murder. I know I can't get back to my son but I am now fighting for justice for Tamils and for Sinhalese, for all communities."
             

Full Story>>>

A crackdown precedes a new report on the end of the civil war

Sri Lanka and war crimes   -  Keep quiet and carry on

Apr 14th 2011 | COLOMBO | from the print edition

SRI LANKA’S government has got its retaliation On April 12th a panel of experts delivered a report to the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, assessing whether war crimes were committed when the nation’s army bloodily won a long-running civil war against Tamil Tiger rebels early in 2009. The report has not yet been made public, but the government is furious that an independent inquiry took place at all. The report, it says, is “fundamentally flawed” and biased.    Full Story ...

More Than 20 People Last Seen in Army Custody Remain Missing

Wartime Disappearances
Thursday, April 14, 2011

Screengrab of a video obtained by Human Rights Watch shows LTTE leader Colonel Ramesh in Sri Lankan army custody.

The Sri Lankan government needs to respond to all allegations of disappearances with more than a ritual blanket denial. Family members of the disappeared have the right to know if their loved ones are alive or dead.
(New York April 7, 2011) The Sri Lankan government should account for everyone who was taken into custody at the end of Sri Lanka’s 26-year-long armed conflict in May 2009 and are feared to have been “disappeared,” Human Rights Watch said Tuesday, April 12. Despite numerous requests from families for information about their relatives, the authorities do not appear to have conducted any serious investigations, Human Rights Watch said                              .Full Story>>>

Law Student Accuses Sri Lankan Leaders of War Crimes

Laurel Bowman | Washington  April 13, 2011
As wars break out and end, and refugees flee across international borders, victims often find themselves living alongside their alleged tormentors in foreign and frequently Western nations.  Those active and educated in the victim diaspora are looking to legal systems in their new countries to redress alleged war crimes.  In the U.S. state of Maryland, a first-year law student of Tamil heritage accuses the brother of Sri Lanka's president and a former army general of war crimes against minority Tamils in Sri Lanka. 

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It’s an average day in contracts class at the University of Baltimore School of Law in Maryland.

The professor poses hypothetical questions as students check e-mail.  But Rajeev Sreetharan is not distracted.  He’s on a mission to bring what he calls justice to the Tamils of Sri Lanka through the legal systems of the West.

"When you look at the history of transitional justice from Nuremberg to Darfur, it’s only a select number of people who have gotten justice and who have been given the opportunity for their suffering to be written in history," said Rajeev Sreetharan.

;Full Story>>>

Release of UN War Crimes Report Could Pressure Sri Lanka

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A Trusted Source of News & Information since 1942

 

Kurt Achin | New Delhi  April 13, 2011

Sri Lankan ethnic Tamil victims of a shell attack wait outside a makeshift hospital in Tiger controlled No Fire Zone in Mullivaaykaal, May 10, 2009

While the U.N.-commissioned report has not yet been made public, Sri Lanka's External Ministry rejected it Wednesday as "fundamentally flawed." The ministry issued a statement saying the report dealing with possible war crimes is based on "patently biased material which is presented without any verification." The statement says officials will comment in detail on the report "in due course."

Human rights organizations, for their part, have reacted very favorably to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's promise to release the full report to the public, once Sri Lanka's leaders have had a chance to digest it. The report could be made public in a matter of days. Full Story>>>

• Release of UN War Crimes Report Could Pressure Sri Lanka

UN: Release Sri Lanka Panel Report

Asia, International Justice, United Nations | Posted by: Jim McDonald, April 13, 2011 at

Yesterday, the United Nations advisory panel on accountability in Sri Lanka turned over its report to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.  The panel had been established by Ban last June to advise him on how to pursue accountability for reported war crimes and other human rights abuses committed by both the government forces and the opposition Tamil Tigers during Sri Lanka’s brutal civil war (which ended with a government victory in May 2009).
While the Secretary-General’s spokesperson said yesterday that the U.N. intends to make the report public, he didn’t give a timeframe for doing so.  It’s critical that the report be made public as a first step towards achieving accountability.
Amnesty International has been asking the U.N. to establish an international war crimes investigation in Sri Lanka.  This past February, I accompanied Yolanda Foster, the Amnesty researcher on Sri Lanka, and Dr. Kasipillai Manoharan, the father of one of the “Trinco 5” students killed by the security forces in 2006, as we delivered to the U.N. offices in New York over 52,000 signatures on a petition to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calling for such an international investigation.  Above is the trailer of a short film of our trip, which Amnesty has just released.
Please write to Ban Ki-moon and ask him to make the U.N. advisory panel’s report public.  It’s important that the U.N. hears from everyone concerned about truth and justice for the victims and their families in Sri Lanka.

United Nations Report on Sri Lanka Conflict Must be Made Public, Says Amnesty International

 

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Amnesty International Media Release
For Immediate Release
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Contact: AIUSA media relations office, 202-509-8194
(Washington, D.C.) -- A United Nations (U.N.) report on accountability for war crimes committed in the Sri Lankan armed conflict must be made public, Amnesty International said today as a panel of experts submits their findings to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
"Sri Lankans must be allowed to see the panel’s findings. The report concerns a critical period in their recent history and they deserve to read it in full," said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific director. "Ban Ki-moon said that 'accountability is an essential foundation for durable peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka.' He must stick to his word - accounting for violations committed in the recent conflict is the first step to future reconciliation."
The U.N. Panel of Experts was appointed in June 2010 to advise the Secretary General on accountability issues relating to violations of international human rights and humanitarian law alleged in the final stages of the armed conflict in Sri Lanka, which ended in May 2009.
The panel was also asked to recommend a course of action that would ensure accountability, in line with a joint commitment made by President Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka and Ban Ki-moon on his visit to Sri Lanka in May 2009.
Amnesty International has called on the United Nations to launch an independent international investigation into alleged crimes, which include the killing of more than 10,000 civilians; the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam’s use of civilians as human shields and conscription of child soldiers; Sri Lankan army shelling of areas densely populated by civilians; and severe deprivation of food, water and medical care for people trapped by fighting.
The Sri Lankan government protested appointment of the U.N. panel as "uncalled for and unwarranted" and refused to fully cooperate.
"The panel’s work on accountability issues in Sri Lanka should mark the beginning, not the end, of a process of accounting for violations," said Zarifi.
For decades, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE or Tamil Tigers) systematically targeted civilians, launched suicide attacks at buses and railway stations, assassinated politicians and critics and recruited child soldiers.
Sri Lankan government forces and their armed affiliates also acted with impunity, engaging in extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and torturing those suspected of links to the LTTE.
"Impunity for violations has been the rule throughout Sri Lanka’s long civil war. The way to turn a new page in the country’s history and restore public confidence is to deliver truth and justice," said Zarifi. "By publicizing the panel of expert’s report, and moving toward an independent, international accountability mechanism, the UN would send a strong message that international law is relevant, and would reinforce trends of accountability for human rights violations globally."
Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 3 million supporters, activists and volunteers in more than 150 countries campaigning for human rights worldwide. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied.

# # #

For more information, please visit: www.amnestyusa.org.

SRI LANKA: Kevin Rudd silent on the plight of the Tamils - 16 April 2011

SRI LANKA: Kevin Rudd silent on the plight of the Tamils - 16 April 2011
It is two years since the civil war ended in Sri Lanka between the majority Sinhalese government in Colombo and the Tamil minority struggling for autonomy in their north-east homeland.

Dead Tamil girl, killed in an air strike.

The Tamils were crushed by overwhelming, undiscriminating firepower that rained down on them from the Sinhalese air force and ranks of artillery.

Only when the guns fell silent were civilians separated from soldiers. The former were herded into largely known concentration camps while the fate of the latter is still unknown.

The entire Tamil population of the north-east was caught up in the conflict. According to the Catholic bishop of Mannar, the Rt Revd Rayappu Joseph, almost 150,000 Tamil men, women and children remain unaccounted for - still missing after two years and feared dead - and almost all of them civilians.

This humanitarian disaster happened under the presidency and family rule of Mahinda Rajapakse in Colombo, while Kevin Rudd was Prime Minister of Australia.

Mr Rudd was, and remains, silent about these well-attested civilian atrocities in Sri Lanka, even though our two countries are fellow members of the Commonwealth and play cricket together. In the meantime, Rudd has developed a passion for civilians in Libya, to the extent of vociferously calling on the West to engage in military action to protect them from the brutalities of their dictator, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
However, when Rajapakse was dropping cluster-bombs on Tamil civilians in 2008-09, Mr Rudd said nothing about Sri Lanka's flouting of United Nations rules of war.Full Story>>>

Sri Lanka: Crisis Of Credibility – Analysis

Written by: SATP April 11, 2011

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By Srideep Biswas
On the model of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, at the end of three decades of civil war, appointed a Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) on May 15, 2010, to examine the events covering the period between February 21, 2002, and May 19, 2009, and their attendant concerns and issues, and to recommend measures to ensure that there would be no recurrence of such strife.
The mandate of the eight member Commission, headed by former Attorney General C. R. De Silva as Chairman, was to inquire and report on the following matters over the period defined:

• The facts and circumstances which led to the failure of the cease-fire agreement operationalized on February 21, 2002, and the sequence of events that followed thereafter, up May 19, 2009;

• Whether any person, group or institution directly or indirectly bore responsibility in this regard;

• The lessons that could be learnt from those events and their attendant concerns, in order to ensure that there would be no recurrence.

• The methodology whereby restitution to any person affected by those events or their dependants or their heirs, can be affected;

• The institutional administrative and legislative measured which was needed in order to prevent any recurrence of such concerns in the future, and to promote further national unity and reconciliation among all communities, and to make any such other recommendations with reference to any of the matters that have been inquired into under the terms of the Warrant.

                Read More>>>

   Sri Lanka  

News Sri Lankan journalist speaks of attacks on media

Posted: Monday, April 11, 2011 5:21 pm | Updated: 10:51 pm, Mon Apr 11, 2011.

Sri Lankan journalist speaks of attacks on media By Kaleb Warnock, kaleb.warnock@iowastatedaily.com TownNews.com

"They threw my unconscious body in a ditch and left me to die."
Poddala Jayantha is a Sri Lankan journalist who was nearly killed because of his investigative reporting with regard to alleged human rights violations executed by the Sri Lankan government. He spoke of his experience last Thursday as part of the First Amendment Day celebration in the Cardinal Room of the Memorial Union.

"I stand here today as a political asylum as a Sri Lankan journalist," said Jayantha through a translator. "I was forced to leave Sri Lanka to save my life. There are so many other journalists who live there in fear. Most of them are living in exile."                                         Full Srory>>>

UK 'linked' Fonseka to Lasantha killing

10 April, 2011

UK 'linked' Fonseka to Lasantha killing

	'When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me'

The Sri Lanka government says it was told by British officials that they had evidence to suggest former military chief Sarath Fonseka was involved in the assassination of the editor of Sunday Leader.

Lasantha Wickrametunga was shot dead in Colombo on 08 January, 2009. The attackers were never caught.

In a posthumously published editorial attributed to Lasantha he said, "When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me."

Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha, a ruling party MP, told BBC Sinhala service that the defence attaché of the British High Commission (BHC) in Colombo "gave a note" that accused then Gen Fonseka of being responsible for the assassination.

But the British authorities have neither denied nor confirmed Prof Wijesinha’s statement.

UK 'favoured' Fonseka

A spokesperson at the BHC in Colombo told BBC Sinhala service: "The British High Commission in Colombo would willingly share with the Sri Lankan authorities any evidence it obtained that shed any light on the assassination of the Sunday Leader Editor.”

The UK Government remains impartial during elections in other countries. We did not favour any candidate in the Presidential Elections in Sri Lanka in 2009 British High Commission in Colombo

Gen Fonseka, commander of the Sri Lanka army under President Mahinda Rajapaksa, during the was later selected as the common presidential candidate by the major opposition parties against Mr Rajapaksa.

"When the election came they (the British HC) took his side and did not provide us with the information," Prof Wijesinha told BBC Sandeshaya.

But the UK authorities have denied having favoured Gen Fonseka at January 2010 presidential elections.

“The UK Government remains impartial during elections in other countries. We did not favour any candidate in the Presidential Elections in Sri Lanka in 2009,” the BHC spokesperson said.

The US State Department report says that there has been no progress in investigations into the killing of Sunday Leader editor, Lasantha Wickrematunga and the disappearance of LankaeNews journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda.

	Govt admits lack of progress in Lasantha and Prageeth investigations

In response Prof. Wijesinghe admitted that "it is necessary" to properly investigate the assassination but there was what he called a danger of government being accused of "political victimisation" if they pursue the case against Mr Fonseka.Following a controversial military trial the former military chief is currently serving a jail term for irregularities in military procurements. 

"But of course we shouldn't stop investigations just because we will be accused of political victimisations," said Prof. Wijesinghe.

The opposition has described the imprisonment of Gen Fonseka, who challenged President Mahinda Rajapaksa in the April 2010 presidential elections, as a political move.

Prof Wijesinha was the former secretary to the ministry of human rights before being appointed as a national list MP, after April 2010 elections, by the president.

He also admitted that there has been no progress in investigations over the disappearance of LankaeNews journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda.

"I think it is mistake from our part that there has been no investigation, of course we must investigate these incidents."

2010 Human Rights Report: Sri Lanka

The government is dominated by the president's family;
3.Speaker of parliament..
    1.Defense secretary
2.Minister of economic development

Sri Lankan Ambassador to the U.N. will speak at the Maxwell School
http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/live. 

 

  

Robert Blake’s ‘reconciliation’ is farming in Tamil land for SL military

          [TamilNet, Sunday, 10 April 2011, 12:02 GMT] 

While the US Asst Secretary of State Robert O Blake testified before the US Foreign Affairs Committee on the “reduction of the reach of High Security Zones” (HSZ) in the island to support his vision of progress that is taking place towards the US State Department-conceived paradigm of ‘reconciliation,’ evidences that come from Jaffna show that the occupying genocidal SL military is engaged in full-fledged farming and horticulture in the largest HSZ in Jaffna Peninsula, reportedly by using slave labour of the captured LTTE cadres. The Valikaamam HSZ, created after uprooting villages, is in the best of the fertile lands and the occupying military has already leased out large tracts of them to Sinhala businessmen. If farming could take place why mines are an excuse to hand over the lands to the owners, ask Tamils.

The two Generals, Hathurusinghe [in uniform] and Chandrasri of the occupying SL Military and colonial regime of Colombo, appreciate Snake Gourds in a SL military farm in the High Security Zone in Jaffna

Full story >>

Politicians Keep Mum On UN War Crime Report

By Janith Aranze

Sri Lankan politicians are tight-lipped over the pending UN Panel’s report on accountability issues related to alleged violations of human rights and humanitarian law during the civil war.
With the Panel expected to release its findings within the next few days, both government and the opposition are holding their breath to see what the outcome will be. When The Sunday Leader spoke to Defence Spokesperson, Keheliya Rambukwella, he revealed that the government was not prepared to comment on anything to do with the Panel until after they have filed their report.

Read More>>>
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What Is The Difference Between Libyan Civilians And Tamil Civilians?

By S. V. Kirubaharan in France

Muammar Gaddafi and Mahinda Rajapaksa

Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of American President Franklin Roosevelt once said, “Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both.” The majority of today’s international media speaks about Libya – some talk about coalition air raids and civilian casualities; some talk about rebels recapturing cities and the subsequent celebrations; others say NATO forces in Libya intend to enforce a UN resolution to protect civilians.
The Sri Lankan President and his ministers say that “Protection of the civilian population in Libya remains a concern for Sri Lanka” and government media say that “Air strikes on Libya unacceptable,” well and good — fair point.

Read More>>>>
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Alleged war crimes: D-day for SL next week



Robert O. Blake 

UN panel to release report within next few days; Ban to decide how to proceed from there Govt. blocks Blake visit after his strong warning to Lanka Peiris in London admits to secret meeting between Lankan delegation and UNSG's panel                                                     Ban Ki-moon

By Our Political Editor

The mission shifted hurriedly from purported investment promotion to tourism last Monday for External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris, who is in Britain. Bell Pottinger, the British-based public relations firm which receives millions of sterling pounds from Sri Lanka for promotion work and even conduct of diplomacy parallel to the High Commission in London, hurriedly summoned a news conference. It hand picked those to be invited. They were all travel writers in the British media.                                                                                            .More>>