Government failed Sri Lankan Tamils: Opposition

26 AUG, 2011


NEW DELHI: The government came under attack from its ally, the DMK, and the Opposition for not taking steps to ensure the rights of the Tamils in Sri Lanka. They also criticised the government for not demanding an international investigation into the massacre of Tamilis in the island state. 

The government's routine assurance that it would pursue the matter with Sri Lanka failed to satisfy the members and DMK MPs, along with members of the AIADMK and Left parties, walked out of Parliament in protest. 
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US welcomes Sri Lanka's move to scrap emergency law

(AFP) – 13 hours ago  

WASHINGTON — The United States on Thursday hailed as positive the move by Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse to scrap emergency laws imposed 28 years ago to deal with the armed Tamil separatist movement.

"We do welcome the news that ... Rajapakse has proposed to the parliament that the emergency laws be withdrawn, and we do see this as a positive step for the Sri Lankan people," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

Rajapakse's move means the laws which give security forces sweeping powers of arrest and detention will lapse at the end of August, but similarly tough powers remain available to authorities under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.     Full Story>>>

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Fifa 'failed to probe' Sri Lanka football corruption

By Saroj Pathirana BBC Sinhala service

Anti-graft campaigners in Sri Lanka have accused the world football governing body, Fifa, of not carrying out a proper investigation on allegations of serious corruption in Sri Lanka football.

Ravaya journalist Tiran Kumara Bangamaarachchi and sports columnist Vijitha Fernando say the world body has failed to take any action though they have been reporting serious corruption in the game for years.

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US envoy says Tamils divided on war crimes: Wikileaks

Times Online   THURSDAY, 25 AUGUST 2011

n a comment dated 15.01.2010, US ambassador Patricia Butenis noted the Tamils in Sri Lanka and overseas are divided on the issue of accountabiliy and war crimes, according to just leaked Wikileaks cables.
She said while the Tamils in Sri Lanka saw accountability as unrealistic and counterproductive, the Diaspora saw it as a priotity.
Here is the comment by Ambassador Butenis:
Accountability is clearly an issue of importance for the ultimate political and moral health of Sri Lankan society. There is an obvious split, however, between the Tamil diaspora and Tamils in Sri Lanka on how and when to address the issue. While we understand the former would like to see the issue as an immediate top-priority issue, most Tamils in Sri Lanka appear to think it is both unrealistic and counter-productive to push the issue too aggressively now. While Tamil leaders are very vocal and committed to national reconciliation and creating a political system more equitable to all ethnic communities, they believe themselves vulnerable to political or even physical attack if they raise the issue of accountability publicly, and common Tamils appear focused on more immediate economic and social concerns. A few have suggested to us that while they cannot address the issue, they would like to see the international community push it. Such an approach, however, would seem to play into the super-heated campaign rhetoric of Rajapaksa and his allies that there is an international conspiracy against Sri Lanka and its 'war heroes.' BUTENIS
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Blake to travel to Sri Lanka

PTI | 09:08 PM,Aug 25,2011Washington, Aug 25 (PTI) A top Obama administration official will travel to Sri Lanka next week, days after the US warned Colombo that an international inquiry could be launched against it if it did not take adequate steps for a credible probe into charges of humanitarian crimes during the LTTE war.Robert Blake, US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, will visit Sri Lanka from August 29-31, an official announcement said here today.”He will meet with government officials, civil society representatives, university students and political leaders while in Sri Lanka,” the State Department said. The announcement follows State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland’s remarks earlier this month that the US would like the Sri Lankan government “to establish the kind of accountable system that its people can have confidence in.” “If that does not happen and does not happen expeditiously, then we reserve the right to discuss international mechanisms,” Nuland had said.A UN panel had also called for setting up of an “independent international mechanism” into what it called “credible” allegations that Sri Lankan military committed war crimes in its final decisive offensive against LTTE rebels in 2009.Sri Lanka, on the other hand, has dismissed the charges as “unsubstantiated”.

Times Online

Indian parliamentary team may visit SL

THURSDAY, 25 AUGUST 2011
New Delhi : A team of parliament members from India may soon visit Sri Lanka to see the condition of Tamil-speaking people there, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna informed the Rajya Sabha Thursday.

"During a recent meeting with Tamil Nadu chief minister in Chennai, the Sri Lankan high commissioner to New Delhi has conveyed the Sri Lankan president's invitation," Krishna informed the house of elders. "He has also invited a parliamentary team."

The minister was responding to a suggestion by Bharatiya Janata Party leader S.S. Ahluwalia that a parliamentary delegation be sent to Sri Lanka. The three-hour-long discussion on the issue saw members expressing concern over the situation of Tamils in Sri Lanka                      Read more... 
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India to press for probe into human rights violation against Tamils in Sri Lanka

Thursday Aug 25 2011 
 New Delhi | Agency PTI.

India will seek withdrawal of emergency regulations and probe into human rights violations against Tamils in Sri Lanka, External Affairs Minister SM Krishna said on Thursday.

Winding up a short duration discussion on the problems of Sri Lankan Tamils, Krishna said in the Rajya Sabha, India would pursue with Sri Lanka for a lasting political settlement that provides for harmonious co-existence of all communities.

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Book festival interview: Gordon Weiss on Sri Lanka's civil war

By Margaret Neighbour
Published: 25/8/2011

Gordon Weiss

GORDON Weiss is driving across Sydney when I call. "Don't worry, I've got a hands-free doo-da," he says. "The police here will arrest me and do terrible things to me if they see me driving holding a handset." Of course, the Australian police are unlikely to do terrible things to anyone, even if they catch them breaking the law. In Sri Lanka, however, where Weiss worked as UN spokesman in the capital, Colombo, from 2006-9, the police do terrible things all the time. According to one human rights expert, the law enforcement agencies of President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government "can do whatever they like - arrest people without reason, torture people for as long as they wish, and fabricate charges which can land people in prison without bail".

UN spokesman during the bloody end of Sri Lanka’s civil war, Gordon Weiss says the organisation ‘should have pushed harder’ to save lives, especially those of trapped civilians...

Sri Lanka, says the same expert, is "one of the most violent places on earth". 
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Indian MPs slam Sri Lanka for 'war crimes'

 New Delhi, Aug 25 (IANS) 
The Indian opposition Thursday accused Sri Lanka of ill treating Tamils even after crushing the Tamil Tigers, while a Communist leader also flayed New Delhi for its silence on 'war crimes'.By Indo Asian News Service 

'There are increasing concerns and worries over the ill-treatment of Tamils Sri Lanka,' Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader Sharad Yadav said in the Lok Sabha during a discussion on the situation in Sri Lanka.
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Sri Lanka scraps emergency laws

By Amal Jayasinghe | AFP – 13 hrs ago

 

Sri Lanka's president announced Thursday that he was scrapping draconian emergency laws imposed nearly 30 years ago to deal with the armed Tamil separatist movement.

"I am satisfied that there is no need to have the state of emergency any more," President Mahinda Rajapakse said in a speech to parliament.

The laws, which give security forces sweeping powers of arrest and detention, have been renewed on a monthly basis -- with only brief breaks -- ever since they were first imposed 28 years ago.

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Those who were taken into Army custody from their homes in Navathurai mercilessly assaulted: limbs broken

Wednesday 24 of August 2011      

Those who were taken into Army custody from their homes in Navathurai mercilessly assaulted: limbs broken(Lanka-e-News -24Aug.2011, 10.30PM) The residents of Navathurai district Jaffna who were involved in a conflict with the Army over the grease devil menace , and were later taken into custody by the Army from their homes on the 22nd night had been assaulted and limbs broken while they were held in the Army camps, according to reports. Of the 95 persons who were produced before the court yesterday , 5 of them had suffered this fate. These pictures show the victims of the assault warded in the Hospital after the Court gave the order to Hospitalize them.

This Greece devil incubus is raging in many districts in the country , but it is only in Jaffna , the civilians were arrested in a cluster taken out of their homes , and brutally assaulted. In Puttalam even when a police officer was killed ,no officers forced themselves into homes and took bunch of persons into custody and assaulted them and broke their limbs .

From this brutality perpetrated in Jaffna the cruel nature of the current Army administration is clearly manifested. It is well for the authorities to remember that it is because of such ruthlessness that suicide bombers proliferated earlier. Hence they must take precaution to ensure that innocent people are not pushed to the edge until they are made to react with terror tactics.
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Wednesday, August 24, Wednesday, August 24, 2011

3 Grease devils sighted in Jaffna; They have run into Army camps and hid

 Wednesday 24 of August 2011

People angered – area residents including blind person arrested by Army : 95 civilians remanded

(Lanka-e-News -23.Aug.2011, 11.45P.M.) The sighting of three grease devils in Navathurai and Wadiri districts in Jaffna, sparked a huge commotion and a restless situation yesterday night .Consequent upon this situation two residents had been injured and heavy damage had been caused to an army vehicle, according to our Jaffna correspondent. The army had arrested the males of the area and are being held in custody within the Army camp.

Based on reports reaching us : at about 12.00 midnight three unidentified individuals have intruded into a house in the Navathurai district. The people who are gripped by the grease devil fear psychosis and therefore keeping vigil have surrounded them , when this trio had escaped and fled into the nearby Army camp. Later when inquiries were made from the Army about these suspicious individuals who entered the army camp, the army had denied having seen any such individuals. Following this denial a tense situation has resulted between the Army and the residents , with the Army shooting into the air and attacking the public. The people who had then enraged had attacked the Army with stones resulting in two civilians sustaining injuries and several Army vehicles being damaged.

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Sri Lanka: The surreal politics of ‘grease devils’

24-Aug-2011

Guest Column by Dr Kumar David 

A large number of areas outside the big cities of Sri Lanka have been gripped for the last one month by a most extraordinary panic verging on mass hysteria. The localities of Akaraipattu,  Ampara, Puttalam, Kandy, Baticaloa, Kurunegala, Kinya, Trincomalee, Badulla, Nawalapitiya, Muthur and many more have been affected. The police force is on heightened alert, troops have been deployed (though this may be counterproductive as I will explain), accusations and counter accusations are traded and the government is scrambling to salvage what’s left of its reputation. The worst affected are areas of Muslim concentration though there is as yet no explanation, rational or irrational, why this should be so. Police brass dismiss talk of ‘grease devils’ (GD) as pure myth and fantasy, President Rajapakse says there is a plot to destabilise his government and the Defence Secretary has put mosques in affected areas under military protection.  

Proliferation of incidents       Full Story>>>

Mass arrest following attack on military camp

23 August, 2011 
Villagers also complained about military retaliation

One hundred people were arrested on Monday in northern Sri Lanka after clashes with government security forces.

Deputy Inspector General, Gamini Silva confirmed the arrest of one hundred villagers from Navanthurai.

Villagers in Navanthurai in Jaffna pursuing suspected nocturnal prowlers had attacked a local army detachment.

'Grease devil' in army camp

The villagers were taken to custody after they attacked the police who were trying to prevent angry villagers from attacking the military camp.

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Jennifer Campbell: Sri Lanka prefers to look forward 

Everybody lost in civil war, high commissioner says. ‘We want to move on and catch up.’

More Images »

OTTAWA — Not surprisingly, in the face of NDP members urging the United Nations to set up an independent, international and impartial mechanism to ensure “truth, accountability and justice” for Sri Lankans after a long civil war, the Sri Lankan high commissioner prefers to look to the future.
On the 44th anniversary of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a flag-raising ceremony took place Aug. 18 at the Embassy of Indonesia. From left, Greg Giokas, acting director-general for South, Southeast Asia and the Oceania Bureau at Foreign Affairs, Filipino Chargé d’affaires Minerva Jean A. Falcon, Myanmar Ambassador Kyaw Tin, Thai Ambassador Udomphol Ninnad, Brunei Darussalam High Commissioner Rakiah Haji Abdul Lamit and Indonesian Ambassador Dienne H. Moehario.Read more: 

K’naan visits famine-stricken homeland in Somalia

Sun Aug 21 2011Abdi Guled


Canadian rapper K'naan, second from left, visits Mogadishu's Banadir hospital, Somalia on Aug, 21 2011. The singer who was mobbed by famine refugees trying to shake his hand or get a hug, said his mission is fact finding on how to help the people of Somalia and promised to do all that he can to assist them.

MOGADISHU, SOMALIA—Rapper K’naan brought his waving flag back home to Somalia to help people as they struggle with a devastating famine that has killed tens of thousands of children.

The rapper, who left Somalia as a child more than two decades ago to settle in Canada, made a brief visit to Mogadishu. He was mobbed by famine refugees who tried to shake his hand or hug him as he toured Mogadishu’s Banadir Hospital and met with malnourished children.

“I came to Somalia to see the situation here and give any donation I have to the people and anything else available,” he said, speaking in Somali. “I will do all I can to help my people in Somalia.”

He did not perform his hit song “Wavin’ Flag,” which tells of the difficulties he faced growing up in the lawless, impoverished Horn of Africa country. A version of that song was used for a Coca-Cola campaign when South Africa hosted the 2010 World Cup.

The United Nations says more than 3.2 million Somalis need food aid. The United States says 29,000 Somali children under age 5 have died.

The UN says tens of thousands of people already have died in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti and has warned that the famine hasn’t peaked. More than 12 million people in the region need food aid, according to the UN. Somalia has been hit hardest because of a confluence of conflict and climate change.

Olivia Chow kept constant vigil as Layton battled devastating cancer

Layton, 61, the charismatic leader of Canada's official opposition, died on August 22, 2011 just months after guiding his New Democratic Party to its strongest ever performance in the May federal election.

National Affairs WriterBy Linda Diebel

Theirs is a love story for the ages.

Jack Layton and Olivia Chow, who couldn’t stop holding hands over dinner in a Greek restaurant in his Danforth riding or leaning in to share a private joke with blushes and apologies, seemed to complete each other. She sometimes cut his meat, he bundled her in his jacket against the cold. They finished each other’s sentences and shared a passion for politics and Swedish thrillers, dinners with family and canoeing along northern rivers.

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Invisible millions pay price of statelessness

By Emma Batha

Tue Aug 23, 2011 2:00pm BST

LONDON, Aug 23 (AlertNet) - Rejected by the countries they call home and denied the most basic of rights, stateless people live in a shadowy limbo -- in the words of one such person, like being "between the earth and the sky."

Up to 15 million people are stateless, not recognized as nationals by any country. They are some of the most invisible people on the planet -- an anonymity the United Nations hopes to lift when it launches an international campaign on Thursday to highlight their plight.              Full Story>>>