New York UN screening for Jon Snow's Sri Lanka film

Tomorrow morning, Jon Snow's film Sri Lanka's Killing Fields will be screened to United Nations diplomats and the US media in New York City. The Sri Lankan ambassador to the UN, Mr Palith T B Kohona, will attend the screening, and will then address those assembled after the film.
The critically-acclaimed investigation into the final weeks of the quarter-century-long civil war between the government and the secessionist rebels, the Tamil Tigers, featuring devastating new video evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity has already provoked comment from Prime Minister David Cameron and Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt.   Full Story>>>
======================

Sri Lanka's Killing Fields:

Video playback not available during search

Watch this episode now on 4oD 

Latest Episode

Sri Lanka's Killing Fields (50 mins) [S]

11.06PM Tuesday 14 Jun 2011 Channel 4

Play Play in Pop-out

With disturbing and distressing descriptions and film of executions, atrocities and the shelling of civilians

To explore the issues further go to the website at channel4.com/srilanka

=================================

The Silence of Sri Lanka

Published: June 20, 2011

By DAVID MILIBAND and BERNARD KOUCHNER
In April 2009, we travelled together as foreign ministers to Sri Lanka, as 25 years of fighting between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers neared its end.
The remaining fighters were trapped in the northern most part of the country — along with large numbers of civilians. U.N. estimates put the numbers of civilians there in the last few months of the war at over 300,000.
Our purpose was simple: to draw attention to the human suffering, to call for humanitarian aid and workers to be allowed in, and to call for the fighting to stop.               Full Story>>>

Sri Lanka's Violence Toward Tamil Minority Continues

Monday June 20, 2011
Tim King Salem-News.com

Sri Lanka regime thumbs its nose at the world after Genocide; allows occupying soldier's physical and sexual abuse of Tamil Hindu and Christian population to continue. When is enough, enough?

topnews.in

(SALEM, Ore.) - Like a terrible scene from a past world war, the problems for the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka; victims of a massive Genocide just over two years ago, are far from over.

Reports dispatched to our news desk inform us that suffering is rampant among refugees who are still experiencing daily physical and sexual abuse from occupying soldiers.

Visit the: Canadian Tamil Youth Alliance

What we know is that The Tamil Alliance's Parliament members were holding a public meeting last Thursday in a place authorized for Tamil people, 16 June 2011, when more than two dozen Sri Lankan Army (SLA) soldiers entered the area and attacked the Tamil people in attendance.

The uniformed government soldiers are said to have entered the hall and attacked the participants with rifle butts and batons. We're told 25 SLA soldiers also "used poles to beat up people" at the meeting.

Other information from various sources filtering through to the west and Salem-News.com specifically, describes the massive human rights violations that the Sri Lankan army is continually perpetrating against the survivors.

It is, from the sounds of it, a real 'free for all' with no no holes barred for Sri Lanka's marauding soldiers, whose acts are being compared to those that took place in Bosnia, where women and girls were savagely attacked, raped and killed, and clearly no recourse for Tamils.

It truly is a wicked game and the world without question, has really neglected its duties again.

Which begs the question; what happened in Sri Lanka to create such inhumane practices? Calls for expedient world attention are circulating.

During the 2009 Genocide, these Sinhalese majority Buddhist military forces under orders of the Sri Lankan president, Majinda Rajapaksa, may have actually murdered more than a hundred thousand civilians and the govt. highhandedly refuse to accept responsibility for the highly documented crimes.

However there is a lot of video that the Tamil people shot as the brutality and killings took place, and the SLA soldier video clips and photos begin immediately after the Tamil cameras end.

Channel 4 releases documentary 'Sri Lanka's Killing Fields'

A girl standing outside the gated UN compound in Kilinochchi, where crowds gathered to ask UN personnel not to leave.

Submitted by Kirti Kamboj on June 20, 2011

A girl standing outside the gated UN compound in Kilinochchi, where crowds gathered to ask UN personnel not to leave.
The film Sri Lanka's Killing Fields premiered at the United Nations Human Rights Council on June 3rd, documenting the end of a quarter century of civil war between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil separatist group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The work of British broadcaster Channel 4, the film is available for a limited time for viewing on the web; though, before you watch, I would warn that it contains some horrific footage.
Full Story>>>
=========================

Military 'apologies' for attack on Tamil MPs 19 June, 2011

19 June, 2011

	MP says it is a group of army that attacked the meeting in Jaffna

Jaffna military commander has apologised for the recent attack on Tamil parliamentarians in Jaffna, says Sri Lanka's major Tamil party.

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian MA Sumanthiran told BBC Sinhala service that Jaffna military commander Maj Gen Mahinda Hathurusinghe expressed regret over the incident.

"Saying that the incident was not good for the army, he also promised to find the culprits and punish them," he told the BBC.    Full Story>>>

'International Day in Support of Victims of Torture' Remember the Tamil Genocide

Jun-18-2011Tim King Salem-News.com

Just two years ago, even today, the Tamils of Sri Lanka are suffering torture but denied a world stage.

Never forget the Tamils of Sri Lanka

(SALEM / CHENNAI) - As we approach the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, it is paramount that we direct our sharp attention toward the recent Genocide in Sri Lanka.

Occurring just over two years ago, it is so recent that no accurate figures exist regarding the true number of victims.

Today, the Tamil Hindu and Christian survivors live in constant peril; occupied by Sri Lanka's Sinhalese Buddhist army. Those able to get information out say the rapes and the deathly abuse of Tamils is far from over, but continuing today at a slower pace.

This is what the world has turned its back to.

The number of Murdered civilians may actually be over 100,000, few dispute that at least 40,000 died. Sri Lankan President Majinda Rajapaksa's military commanders pressed this gruesome ethnic cleansing after indirectly threatening the safety of the handful of United Nations aid workers on the ground. So, the UN pulled its people out, and the 'games' began. Sadly they were more like a game the Romans would play than any sport in this modern society.

One year ago, one of the most potentially important men alive, the Secretary General of the UN, Ban Ki-moon, held the cards and lost the hand. He even did a repeat of the Red Cross Holocaust tour scenario of the 30's, touring a place of devastation and horrific suffering but only in the places designated by the Sri Lankan government.       Read Full Article

Jayalalithaa’s offensive threatens the Centre’s cosy neighbourliness with Rajapaksa’s Sri Lanka

18 June 2011

BY PC Vinoj Kumar

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa’s tough stand against Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, which large sections of the media have failed to take note of, is likely to have far-reaching political and diplomatic consequences in the Subcontinent. India helped Rajapaksa win his war with the LTTE, which was fighting for a separate Tamil nation, but now Jayalalithaa wants him to be tried for war crimes.
Jayalalithaa, who began her third term as Chief Minister last month, after her party’s landslide victory in the Assembly polls, fired her first salvo against Rajapaksa on 13 May, when the election results were announced. “The President of Sri Lanka must be tried for war crimes and brought before the International Court of Law,” she declared.         more
=======================

Sri Lanka: Prospects of Thirteen Plus and its Forerunner 13th Amendment ( 13A)

19-June-2011

 Guest Column: By Ravi Sundaralingam

 Almost quarter of a century has passed since the infamous 13^th amendments (13A) to the Sri Lankan constitution were made under heavy Indian pressure. It had the Indian sign for failure, some would say, from the beginning following the signing of the Indo-Lanka Accord in July 1987 between President JR Jeyawardene, and Indian Premier Rajiv Gandhi.

 Those believe in superstition are certain that they could have foretold its fate at the instant a Sinhala soldier swung his gun and hit Indra’s son during the guard of honour in his name in Colombo. Soon the LTTE murdered him, in Tamil Nadu of all places, as President Premadasa armed and funded the LTTE to fight his war against India, and the VP Singh government brought home the IPKF at the request of Premadasa.                 Full Story>>>
=============================

India uses UN report on Sri Lanka to assert its interests

By Sarath Kumara
18 June 2011

A visit by a high-level Indian delegation to Sri Lanka last week underscored the tense relations between the two neighbours. New Delhi is particularly concerned about Sri Lanka’s deepening relations with India’s rival, China, and is exploiting a UN report on Sri Lankan war crimes to put pressure on Colombo.

The delegation, headed by National Defence Advisor Shivashankar Menon, included Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar. During the two-day visit from June 10, they met Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse, Foreign Minister G. L. Peiris, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse and other senior officials.   More » 

Fears Over Jaffna Polls

Sunday, June 19, 2011

By Easwaran Rutnam
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has written to Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya expressing fears over the conduct of a free and fair election in Jaffna next month.
The TNA said it has raised concerns with the elections chief after the first election rally to be staged by the TNA for the upcoming local government polls came under an attack last week.
According to the TNA, a similar letter was also sent to the Parliament Speaker as five TNA MPs were among those attending the rally when the attack took place.
  Read More » 
======================================

Hambantota 2018 – A Multi-Billion Rupees Gamble

By Dinouk Colombage

The master plan for Hambantota’s transformation for the Commonwealth games

Hambantota prepares to rival the cost of Delhi’s hundred billion Indian rupee (INR. 100,000,000,000) Commonwealth Games with its own two hundred and sixty five billion (Rs. 265,000,000,000) rupee games in 2018. The Games will be the catalyst for the development of Hambantota according to Nalin Attygalle.
Read More »

War crimes: The world has seen the evidence. Now we must ac

 Editorial

• The Observer, Sunday 19 June 2011

In Sri Lanka, Libya, Bahrain and elsewhere, human rights abuses are being recorded and the evidence is on the internet

War crimes: The world has seen the evidence. Now we must act

In Sri Lanka, Libya, Bahrain and elsewhere, human rights abuses are being recorded and the evidence is on the internet

The broadcast last week of Channel 4's Sri Lanka's Killing Fields documentary was a defining moment not just for the media, but for those who investigate war crimes. Chronicling the final bloody weeks in 2009 of the country's civil war which claimed the lives of at least 40,000 Tamil civilians, it captured in sometimes grainy, often terrifying footage, the horrors of a nation violently divided.           Full Story>>>
===================

Lanka seeks dialogue with UN rapporteur on Channel 4 allegations

Sri Lanka has accused Britain’s Channel 4 Television of not providing the government with a copy of the video titled ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’ but assured that it is ready “to constructively engage” with the UN Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions.
The offer to engage with Rapporteur Christof Heyns was made when Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, who led Sri Lanka’s delegation to the UN Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva, tabled the Government’s response to the Channel 4 video at the sessions last week. The 17th sessions concluded last Friday and the next is in September this year.          read more..

Rule of Law or Law of the Ruler?: India’s Stand on Sri Lanka

J Jeganaathan
Research Officer, Regional Security Programme, IPCS
email: chamujegan@gmail.com

In a move to sensitize the Indian Government about the Sri Lankan Tamil issue, and to satiate the expectations of an electorate which gave an absolute mandate to her party, AIADMK Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa unanimously adopted a special resolution seeking punitive actions against the Sri Lankan government for its alleged war crimes during its war with the LTTE. The resolution demands economic sanctions against the government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and indicts all those who perpetuated such crimes, including President Mahinda Rajapaksa, as ‘war criminals’, as per the findings of the UN panel report on accountability in Sri Lanka.   more...

'I was shocked by the horrific scenes I saw in the documentary' -British Foreign Office Minister

(Lanka-e-News 15.June.2011,2.00PM) Speaking after the transmission of Channel 4’s documentary ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’, Foreign Office Minister for South Asia Alistair Burt said:

“I was shocked by the horrific scenes I saw in the documentary that was broadcast on 14 June.

The recent UN Panel of Experts’ report, this documentary and previously authenticated Channel 4 footage, constitutes convincing evidence of violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. The whole of the international community will expect the Sri Lankans to give a serious and full response to this evidence.

Since the end of the conflict the UK has called for an independent, thorough and credible investigation of the allegations that war crimes were committed during the hostilities and the UK Government expects to see progress by the end of the year. I reiterated this message to the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister on 14 June.

If the Sri Lankan government does not respond we will support the international community in revisiting all options available to press the Sri Lankan Government to fulfil its obligations.

Unless this is done, Sri Lanka will not be able to move on, and the prospects for reconciliation between Sri Lanka’s communities will be curtailed. It is of the greatest importance that this does not happen.” 

====================================

‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’

Transcript of House of Commons question and answer

(June 16, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Wednesday’s are Prime Ministers question time in the House of Commons. This will be broadcast live and surgically analyzed by the political pundits. Following the exchanges between the Prime Minister David Camaron and the Opposition Leader Ed Millaband, the Member of Parliament for Illford North raised the question on Channel 4 documentary on Sri Lanka on June 14,2011 at 11.00pm.

Mr Lee Scott (Ilford North) (Con): Last night on Channel 4 there was a documentary called “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields”, showing the atrocities committed by the Sri Lankan Government against the Tamil people, which resulted in about 40,000 people being killed. Will the Prime Minister join me in calling for justice for the Tamil people, and for the people who lost their lives?


The Prime Minister: I did not see the documentary, but I understand it was an extremely powerful programme. It refers to some very worrying events that are alleged to have taken place towards the end of that campaign. The Government, along with other Governments, have said that the Sri Lankan Government needs that to be investigated, and the UN needs it to be investigated. We need to make sure that we get to the bottom of what happened, and that lessons are learned.

(Source: Parliament UK)

‘What we did to Kuttimani will be done to you too’: Jailors viciously and brutally attack Bogambara Tamil political prisoners with impunity

anka-e-news -18.June.2011, 11.45PM) Batticaloa Parliamentary member P . Ariyanenthran has by fax informed the President that a group of Tamil political prisoners serving sentences at the Bogambara prison have been ruthlessly and brutally assaulted by some Prison officers.

These officers who had launched this merciless assault on the 14th night have openly said , ‘ be watchful what was done to Kuttimani will be done to you too’. Kuttimani was a leader among the prisoners who were murdered en masse during the 1983 ‘black July’.
The Tamil prisoners who sustained injuries consequent upon this brutal assault are now taking treatment at the prison Hospital. Ramaiah Rupachandran (38), Weerasamai Sivasubramaniam (35) , Ganeshan Pushparaj (20), Ramaiah Devarasa ( 34) , R Shanmugaraj, Visvanathan Rameshkumar , Velu Yogaraja and Fernando are the political prisoners who have been admitted to the Hospital.

Ariyanenthran M P had demanded from the President an immediate inquiry into this brutality of the prison officers.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pumpkin thief pops out from inside Gota's gaping mouth: Who launched attacks on the Tamil MPs when President is out of the country ?

[Image](lanka-e-News -17.June.2011, 11.45PM) Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse bemoaned , it is very unfortunate that it is to the US Embassy that the first complaint was made in regard to the attacks launched on the Tamil MPs. He played down this attack belittling its importance while making this comment.

The Army in uniform stormed into the meeting yesterday where 6 Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MPs participated and when they tried to attack the MPs , the security detail of the MPs had tried to avert the attack . The assailants had then begun assaulting the security personnel and others who were present mercilessly with iron rods and clubs deliberately creating panic and pandemonium at the venue. Gotabaya Rajapakse speaking on this attack when attending a pinkama ceremony today (17) for soldiers at Nugegoda , made the comments noted in the above paragraph.

He went on to say , “some individuals in this country first rush to the American Embassy when anything happens in this country. There was a ‘trifling incident’ at Jaffna yesterday night . These individuals instead of going to the police have gone to the American Embassy. Those who question us first is the US Embassy. Some time ago when there was an incident at Katunayake , it was the German Embassy which sent me a letter on that episode”, Gotabaya added.

The TNA MPs however completely repudiated Gotabaya’s allegations as false. They said, they first made the complaint to the Telipallai police, Jaffna.; and not a single MP of theirs complained to the US Embassy.
Political analysts are of the view that these utterances of the defense Secretary are most obnoxious and deserving of absolute condemnation specially at a time when SL is in the deepest depths of despair in the backdrop of the advisory panel report of the UN on SL; the channel 4 documentary exposing the atrocities committed by the Army on the Tamil people thereby tarnishing the image of SL; the Tamil nadu chief Minister agitating for proposals to combat the injustice perpetrated on the Tamils in SL ; before the heat of Indian Tamil delegation which came to SL had settled ; and while the President Rajapakse is out of the country .

They compared the most responsible defense Secretary Gota who is exposing himself via his irresponsible utterances to the pumpkin thief in the children’s story books who got caught from the tell tale marks on his shoulder.

We must not turn away from graphic documentary

OTTAWA CITIZEN

Graphic footage of the murder of Tamil civilians in a powerful documentary should move the world to seek justice

By Chris Cobb, The Ottawa Citizen June 17, 2011 8:03 PM



  A scene from Britain’s Channel 4 production of Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields.

The images are truly shocking.
Summary executions of bound and gagged young men, the aftermath of rape and murder of young women, and the bloodied corpses of children.
They are civilians, and among the 40,000 victims killed in Sri Lanka two years ago shortly after the government locked its doors to the outside world and set about dealing with its Tamil problem.
There is none of the familiar TV editing when the image stops a split second before the final act. What viewers see during the 60-minute Channel 4 documentary Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields are likely the most horrific scenes ever shown on a mainstream television documentary.    Read more

US Federal Court summons SL leader

Saturday, 18 June 2011 01:04 

Govt. says not ruffled by decision
By Susitha R. Fernando 

A United States Federal Court has issued summons on President Mahinda Rajapaksa in connection with three civil cases filed under the Hague Convention claiming monetary damages under US Torture Victims Protection Act (TVPA) over alleged extra-judicial killings, the Justice Ministry sources said.
Sources said the government was not overly ruffled by this decision, and would not respond to it. 
The civil cases against the Sri Lankan President were filed in Washington DC and the petitioners were seeking US$30 million as damages on six counts of violating the TVPA.
The summons on the President have been served on the Justice Ministry Secretary who is the Sri Lankan Central Authority in accordance with the provisions of The Hague Convention, to which the US and Sri Lanka are signatories.
The three cases were filed by the relatives of students Ragihar Manoharan, Premas Anandarajah, a humanitarian aid worker for Action against Hunger and T. Thavaraja. The petitioners claimed the students were victims of the extra judicial killings in Sri Lanka. They have cited President Mahinda Rajapaksa who is the Commander–in-Chief of Sri Lankan armed forces as the respondent.
The petitioners have alleged multiple violations of the TVPA under Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa’s command responsibility for the extrajudicial killing of plaintiff Dr. Kasippillai Manoharan’s son Ragihar, plaintiff Kalaiselvi Lavan’s husband Premas Anandarajah, and four members of the Thevarajah family, who were relatives of plaintiff Jeyakumar Aiyathurai.Ragihar was one of the five students allegedly killed in January 2006 while Anandarajah was one of the 17 Action Against Hunger (ACF) staff members who were killed during the war in the East in June 2006. Jeyakumar's relatives were allegedly killed by an exploding shell that landed inside the safety bunker -- situated around the No Fire Zone demarcated by the government during the last phases of the war -- where the family was hiding from the artillery attacks by the Sri Lankan Army.
Under International Law, cases can be filed on the offences under war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity and waging war against countries without reasonable cause.
The petitioners will argue the cases on the basis that universal jurisdiction under international law should also be recognized in civil suits founded on the Torture Victims Protection Act outlining torture or extrajudicial killings.

Deafening Indian silence on war crimes docu

 

  The New Indian Express
Posted on Jun 17, 2011 at 12:22pm IST

CHENNAI: Two days after a British TV channel telecast its documentary “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields” which had shocking visuals of the final days of Eelam war IV, India’s political class is yet to offer any soundbytes.� In contrast, the British government has given Sri Lanka till the end of the year to launch a “credible investigation” into the allegations of war crimes. �

From September 2008 when the last UN workers left Kilinochchi, the Channel 4 documentary pieces together a damning narrative based on videos shot on mobile phone cameras and eyewitness accounts, that shows the Lankan army systematically shelled Tamil civilians, especially medical points within the No Fire Zone (NFZ). It includes an eyewitness account of gangrape by soldiers. While pointing out LTTE atrocities, the film takes the stance that the Tigers’ acts did not justify the government’s actions.   Full Story>>>
-----------------------------------------------------

Sri Lankan Tamils: A Disconcerting Situation for India

17-June-2011

By B. Raman

My attention has been drawn to a disturbing documentary titled “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields” produced by Mr. Jon Snow of the Channel4 TV channel of the UK.

2. The documentary highlights the results of a forensic investigation into the bloody culmination phase of the counter-insurgency operations of the Sri Lankan Security Forces against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in April-May, 2009. It alleges that the culmination phase, which physically wiped out the leadership of the LTTE for which no right-thinking person opposed to terrorism need shed tears, was also marked by executions, shelling of civilians and other atrocities carried out by the Security Forces. The documentary is available at http://bit.ly/mDpkez .   FullStory>>>

Sri Lanka must not torture rejected asylum seekers

Hundreds of thousands of civilians were displaced during Sri Lanka's civil war

© APGraphics

17 June 2011

The Sri Lankan authorities must refrain from any ill-treatment of a group of rejected asylum seekers who arrived in Colombo on Friday after being forcibly returned from the UK, Amnesty International said.

The 26 Sri Lankans, most of them Tamil, were reportedly taken for questioning on their arrival in the capital. Amnesty International believes that some of the returnees are at risk of torture.

The deportations come after a UK documentary, ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’, exposed shocking new evidence of war crimes committed during the closing days of Sri Lanka’s civil war in 2009.    Full Story>>>

Channel 4 "Sri Lanka Killing Fields": Is the US war on terror responsible?

 By Anissa Haddadi | June 17, 2011 11:57 AM GMT

"We strongly condemn terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, committed by whomever, wherever and for whatever purposes, as it constitutes one of one of the most serious threat to international peace and security", this UN resolution was adopted in 2005 and set international background in which the Sri Lankan civil war was fought

Following the diffusion of the Channel 4 documentary on the Sri Lankan civil war, the UK called for the Sri Lankan government to launch an investigation following allegations of war crimes. However, looking back on the conflict, it becomes clear that the horror that slowly unfolded in Sri Lanka only became possible because of the silence that surrounded it. In the last phase of the civil war, which was the most violent and brutal, there was almost no reporting in the mainstream international press of what was really taking place there.
Looking at the different statement made by the former Foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar it looks as though the Sri Lankan government extensively used the propaganda of "the war on terror" as a cover up, by insisting on the need to defend democracy while civilians were getting caught up in the war and killed on a daily basis.

.

View Full Image

Reuters
Tamils ethnic civilians wait to go to a
camp for internally displaced people
Read more 

Sri Lanka Tamil party says military attacked its poll campaign

Jaffna, Sri Lanka | Fri Jun 17, 2011 2:34am IST
 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's main ethnic minority Tamil party on Thursday said the military had attacked its campaign events in the former war zone in the north to create a climate of fear ahead of the first local government polls in 26 years.
Legislators of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which backed the now defeated Tamil Tiger rebels, said supporters were chased away at a meeting in the main town of Jaffna by the military at the start of the first election campaign for 52 local bodies in northern district.
The July 23 polls are the first local government elections in the former war zone in 26 years due to a three-decade war.
"Despite our security guards telling them that we are members of parliament, around 30 military personnel in their uniforms attacked with batons," E. Saravanabawan, a Jaffna district Tamil legislator told Reuters.
"This is designed to create a fear psychosis among the Tamils to prevent them from attending our election campaigns."
Saravanabawan said the TNA had lodged a complaint with police at Thellipalai. A police officer confirmed to Reuters that there had been an incident and they had received a complaint.
Two other TNA legislators and three people who were at the meeting confirmed the incident. But Military spokesman Ubhaya Madawela said he was not aware of such an incident.
"There is no point in holding elections if there is not a level playing field," said Keerthi Tennakoon, spokesman for Campaign for Free and Fair Election, a non-government organist ion which monitors polls in the island nation.
"This proves that there is no environment for people in the north to exercise their political rights freely. There is a semi-military administration in north. The government has a responsibility to allow to have a free and fair election with equal playing field."
Since the end of the war in May 2009, Sri Lankan government has said it has been doing its maximum to restore normalcy and the current military ruling will be replaced by civil administration in a gradual manner.
However, Northern TNA parliamentarians have complained of violence against minority Tamils, which along with mistreatment by successive ethnic majority Sinhalese governments since 1948 independence from the British colony led to a 25-year civil war.
The conflict that ended with the total defeat of the rebels, who fought for a separate state in the country's north and east, killed more than 100,000 people and Sri Lanka government is now under heavy pressure by the United Nations and Western nations to set up an independent probe into war crimes committed during the conflict.
(Reporting by N. Parameswaran in Jaffna and Ranga Sirilal in Colombo; Writing by Shihar Aneez; Editing by Jon Boyle)

Sri Lanka deportations: 'UK has Tamil blood on its hands'

 Thursday 16 June 2011

An MP accuses the Government of "painting targets on the backs" of Sri Lankan civilians being deported from the UK as Jonathan Miller tracks the fate of the failed asylum seekers.
 

• Following the broadcast of the Channel 4 documentary Sri Lanka's Killing Fields, MP Siobhain McDonagh has told the Commons the British Government is complicit in the torture of Tamil civilians as it continues to deport many people seeking asylum in the UK.

Select a rating 1 2 3 4 5

Speaking in the Commons, the Labour MP accused the Government of "painting targets on the backs" of those they were deporting while the UK Border Agency (UKBA) had shared files on Tamil deportees with the Sri Lankan government.
Almost 40 failed asylum seekers are set to be deported back to Sri Lanka on Thursday evening, despite facing arrest and potential torture on their return, the Commons were told.
The MP for Mitcham and Morden said one of her constituents was among those due to leave the UK. Jenach Gopinath, a former Tamil politician, has previously been arrested by the Sri Lankan authorities.
Another asylum seeker facing deportation on Thursday attempted suicide by hanging himself with his duvet in an airport detention facility on Wednesday night, while a passenger on an earlier flight did take his own life.
Amnesty International warned against the deportation of civilians to Sri Lanka, and recognised "cases of returned asylum seekers being tortured".
'Blood on our hands'
Ms McDonagh told MPs there is "evidence of continuing abuses against Tamils, including torture and extra-judicial killings."
"The President of Sri Lanka (Mahinda Rajapaksa), a probable war crimes suspect, has taken on enormous powers over the judiciary and policing," she said.
"The British Government is supposed to be one of the leading forces in the Commonwealth. Yet it is not only turning a blind eye, it is sending planeload after planeload of Tamils back."    Full Story>>>

 

Thursday 16 June 2011

by Paddy McGuffin

Britain

Alleged Sri Lanka war crimes committed with British guns

Thursday 16 June 2011

by Paddy McGuffin

The British government continues to license millions of pounds in arms to the Sri Lankan regime despite suggestions that they may have been used in war crimes, campaigners claimed yesterday.

New evidence of alleged atrocities committed by the Sri Lankan state in its purge of a Tamil Tiger stronghold in 2009 emerged this week in a Channel 4 documentary.
Both the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan government have been accused of committing atrocities during the conflict which is estimated to have killed up to 40,000 civilians.   Full Story>>>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Sri Lanka, Ban Hasn't Seen Killing Fields Film Nor Reviewed UN Actions

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 15 -- The day after the one hour documentary “Sri Lanka Killing Fields” was shown on Britain's Channel 4 and the Internet, Inner City Press asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky a series of questions about the extrajudicial killings, rapes and UN misdeeds portrayed in the film.

  Nesirky said that Ban “has not actually seen the documentary” but is “aware of its themes.”     Full Story>>>

Tamil Genocide Explored in Sri Lanka's Killing Fields- Jon Snow and the Channel 4 team in London are carrying the role of all world journalists; exposing the Genocide of Tamils in Sr Lanka.

Wednesday June 15, 2011
 Tim King Salem-News.com

Channel 4's documentary may change things

(SALEM, Ore.) - Increasing numbers of people are aware of the terrible Genocide in Sri Lanka that culminated two years ago in the deaths of as many as 40,000 or more Tamil Hindu and Christians at the hands of government forces.

Tamil supporters and humanitarian activists all over the UK were lined up last night for the highly anticipated documentary 'Sri Lanka's Killing Fields' that tells the story of ethnic cleansing and systematic human Genocide through first-hand accounts and video clips that have been verified by the United Nations as authentic.

The clips show in startling detail how Sri Lankan soldiers Murdered and executed people, leaving along the side a tangled mass of victims of sexual abuse and utter degradation. Dead bodies were everywhere.

I appreciate so many great people writing to be sure we were aware of this tragic period. As difficult as the images may be, we are happy to bring this program to you and it is downloaded and numerous parties are re-uploading it on their own YouTube sites, so if these clips disappear as Genocide-related items seem to do on YouTube, they will quickly be replaced. Just like in Palestine, in person or electronically, you Channel 4's Jon Snow- one of the few journalists who has
remembered the Tamils; the world needs more like him.can kill forever and never run out of resistance.        Read Full Article  

Sri Lanka's Killing Fields: UK urges war crimes probe

Channel 4 News  Wednesday 15 June 2011

David Cameron calls for an investigation into Sri Lanka allegations as the FCO says "convincing evidence of violations of human rights" were aired in the Channel 4 documentary Killing Fields.

• The film Sri Lanka's Killing Fields documents the final bloody weeks of the Sri Lankan civil war, in which at least 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed. One hour long, it features new evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Select a rating 1 2 3 4 5

The footage shows apparent extra-judicial massacres of prisoners by Sri Lankan government forces, the aftermath of the shelling of civilian hospitals, and the bodies of female Tamil fighters who appear to have been sexually assaulted.
New footage broadcast in the documentary, allegedly captured on a mobile phone by a soldier as a trophy video, shows three people, including one woman, being executed. A man tied to a coconut tree is also killed.
The documentary examines the atrocities carried out by the Tamil Tigers, including the use of human shields. It contains footage depicting the aftermath of a suicide bombing in a government centre for the displaced.
  Full Story>>>

Tamil MP wants probe into alleged Sri Lankan war crimes

Toronto Sun

By Kristy Kirkup ,Parliamentary Bureau

First posted: Tuesday, June 14, 2011 6:37:47 EDT PM

 

NDP MP Rathika Sitsabaiesan spoke to members of the media today on Parliament Hill about the need to build peace in Sri Lanka. (Chris Roussakis/QMI Agency)

OTTAWA, ON - Canada's first elected Tamil MP wants an to see an independent inquiry into war crimes allegedly committed in her home country.
Rathika Sitsabaiesan - the newly elected NDP MP for the riding of Scarborough Rouge River - says the international community needs to support an investigation into claims of human rights violations during the final weeks of Sri Lanka's civil war.
Conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the militant Tamil Tiger organization lasted 25 years in the island nation. Clashes stopped in May 2009, when Tamil leadership was squashed by government forces.
"Sustainable peace can only be achieved if these allegations are investigated and perpetrators are brought to justice," she said. "It's time to end the culture of impunity ... Canada has always been a champion of human rights and justice. We should speak up."
Sitsabaiesan's plea for action comes as a documentary put together by Britain's Channel 4 television, called Sri Lanka's Killing Fields, hits the air for the first time.
The footage, which was screened at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in May, documents gruesome violence and abuse and made its debut on U.K. television Tuesday.
The UN Special Rapporteur on extra-judicial killings has said the documentary shows "evidence of definitive war crimes."
Sri Lankan authorities reject the authenticity of the video and say it is an attempt to discredit the government.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Channel 4 Sri Lanka Killing Fields: Where was the International community ?

By Anissa Haddadi | June 15, 2011

Britain has renewed calls for Sri Lanka to investigate allegations of war crimes after video footage apparently showing the summary execution of naked and bound prisoners was broadcast on UK television, in the documentary Sri Lanka's Killing Field.

The film, shown on Channel 4, reportedly shows "trophy videos" taken on mobile phones by Sri Lankan soldiers taking part in the military operation in 2009 to crush the Tamil Tiger insurgency and end a 25-year civil war.
The documentary contained extremely violent scenes and included footage of apparent extrajudicial killing of prisoners by government forces, the aftermath of targeted shelling of civilian hospitals and the bodies of female Tamil fighters who appear to have been sexually assaulted.
 As the team behind the film refused for the film to be one sided, they also reviewed atrocities carried out by the Tamil Tigers including the use of human shields and a suicide bombing in a government centre for the displaced.     Full Story>>>

View Full Image

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LONDON, June 15, 2011Hasan Suroor

Calls for probe after Channel 4 film on Sri Lanka

A Channel 4 documentary on Sri Lanka's 2009 military operation against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has prompted renewed calls for an independent investigation into allegations of violations of international law by both sides.

The 60-minute documentary, “Sri Lanka's Killing Fields,” screened on Tuesday showed what the channel claimed was previously unseen footage of alleged atrocities against civilians in the final weeks of the operation which ended in the defeat of the LTTE.

It depicted scenes of what purported to be extrajudicial killings. Men in military uniform were shown executing persons described as captured LTTE militants. It also showed alleged abuses carried out by the LTTE.

Sri Lanka's Defence Ministry described the footage as fabricated and said the film was intended to discredit the army.

British Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt said he was “shocked by the horrific scenes.”

“The recent U.N. Panel of Experts' report, this documentary and previously authenticated Channel 4 footage, constitute convincing evidence of violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. The whole of the international community will expect the Sri Lankans to give a serious and full response to this evidence,” he said.

Father S.J. Emmanuel, President of the Global Tamil Forum (GTF), said it had “awakened the international community to the truths of how brutal this particular armed conflict had been.” The Forum's official spokesman Suren Surendiran called for “an international independent investigation into allegations of breaches of international law by both sides.”