Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Commissioner hits back over Tamil war crime claim

Dan Oakes, Ben Doherty October 19, 2011

Urgent ... AFP commissioner Tony Negus is treating the brief "as a matter of urgency". Photo: Jim Rice

SRI LANKA'S high commissioner has accused human rights groups and jurists of being pawns of a well-funded and sophisticated Tamil lobby, but claimed allegations he may have committed war crimes will not damage relations between his country and Australia.

In a lengthy interview, Thisara Samarasinghe also cast himself as a uniter of the Sinhalese and Tamil communities in Australia, claiming he devoted as much time and attention in his role to the two groups.

The Herald revealed this week that the Federal Police are considering a brief which suggests Mr Samarasinghe and other Sri Lankan government figures should be investigated for war crimes allegedly committed in the dying days of Sri Lanka's civil war.

Mr Samarasinghe is explicitly named in the International Commission of Jurists' submission being evaluated by the AFP.

The AFP commissioner, Tony Negus, told a Senate hearing yesterday the AFP were treating the brief ''as a matter of urgency''.

Mr Samarasinghe was commander of the navy's eastern and then northern areas at the time and the brief suggests that naval ships fired on civilians fleeing the conflict, which ended in 2009.

There has been no evidence Mr Samarasinghe was involved in shelling, or gave direct orders to that effect, but the submission before federal police states military superiors hold ''a command responsibility'' for the actions of subordinates.

''There is no command responsibility in the navy in that sense,'' Mr Samarasinghe said yesterday.

''You send a ship out with rules of engagement. At sea [the commanding officer] has to take his own mission to safeguard the men he commands. I was the eastern commander in 2007. When the conflict ended I was northern commander. The final conflict was not in the northern command, it was in the eastern command.''

The ICJ's Australian section is headed by the former NSW Supreme Court justice and attorney-general John Dowd.

Mr Samarasinghe would not comment directly on Mr Dowd's motivations for preparing the brief.

Mr Samarasinghe said human rights groups and other pro-Tamil campaigners were being manipulated by the Tamil diaspora in Australia, which was a major fund-raiser for Tamil separatists in Sri Lanka.

''For whose purpose are they doing this? Are the poor Tamil people in the north [of Sri Lanka] getting any benefit from this?

''I don't know what the agenda of these people is. These types of things give oxygen to people who have a vested interest.

''You have to ask John Dowd why he is doing this.''

Mr Dowd declined to comment when contacted by the Herald.

Rajapakse says will defy Court Order, Shavendra hires NY law firm

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 October 2011, 03:13 GMT]
While Sri Lanka's media spokesperson told a website that Sri Lanka's President, Mahinda Rajapakse "will not answer and is not answerable" to charges in the complaint filed by three Tamil plaintiffs in the District Court of District Columbia, Shavendra Silva, an ex-army commander and currently Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) has hired a New York-based multi-national law firm as his defense counsel for charges of torture and extra-judicial killings filed in the District Court of Southern District of New York (SDNY). Both are civil cases.

While in Rajapakse case, the Court has authorized the Plaintiffs to serve summons by publication in Sri Lanka papers and in TamilNet website, in Vathsala Devi v. Silva there has yet to be evidence of any involvement by the US State Department as claimed by State run media in Sri Lanka.

ABC news on War-crimes

Mr Rajapakse is scheduled to travel to Perth Australia for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in ten days. Australian Prime Minister said Tuesday that the Australian Federal Police are investigating allegations of war crimes against Sri Lanka officials. Mahinda Rajapakse is one of the three officials under investigation, according to ABC television.

Notice of Appearance

The Notice of Appearance filed by Mr Silva's attorney informs the court that his client is not waiving any immunities, and indicating that the defense will be likely based on "Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, the Agreement Between the United Nations and the United States of America Regarding the Headquarters of the United Nations," among others.

The rates for a mid-level partner in the NY firm runs from $700-$1000/hour.

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Oct. 18, 2011

Shuler was in Sri Lanka when

Obama came here

Written by

John Boyle

For the second time in just over two years, U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler, D-Waynesville, is spending a week in Sri Lanka.

Full Story>>>

Current affairs shows face PR attacks, says Channel 4 news boss

Investigations by the likes of Panorama and Dispatches are targeted by spin campaigns
John Plunkett guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 19 October 2011

Channel 4 film Sri Lanka's Killing Fields

Sri Lanka's Killing Fields prompted a demonstration outside Channel 4's headquarters when it was broadcast in June

Current affairs programmes such as the BBC's Panorama and Channel 4's Dispatches face increasingly sophisticated and orchestrated campaigns against their investigations by PR companies and lobbying groups, a Lords committee has been warned. Full Story
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No judgment on LLRC report before release – U

TIMES online WEDNESDAY, 19 OCTOBER 201
The United States will not have any kind of judgment on the report ofSri Lanka’s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) until its release a spokesman for the US State Depatment said.
Responding to a query at a recent briefing on the U.S. State Department’s opinion of the LLRC report, the State Department Spokesperson Mark Toner said the U.S. would wait until the report is released to view whether it as sufficient.
“We likely wouldn’t have any kind of judgment until it’s released,” the Spokesman said.
The mandate of the LLRC was to expire on November 15, 2010. In November 2010, President Rajapaksa extended the mandate of the Commission by a period of six months in view of the large number of persons that were required to give evidence before it.

Call for Sri Lankan war atrocities investigation

Published: 23 October 2011
By: Paul Dobbyn

RECONCILIATION in post-civil war Sri Lanka is impossible if the country's Government fails to adequately investigate allegations of war crimes committed by its army (SLA) in 2009.

Brisbane archdiocese's Catholic Social Justice and Peace Commission (CJPC) executive officer Peter Arndt made the claim in a talk, A Call for Justice in Sri Lanka, presented in Sydney last week.

Mr Arndt raised this and other issues at an international human rights conference held by the Australian Tamil Congress and the Global Tamil Forum on Thursday (October 20).

Full Story>>>
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Though a Bihari, Ram Vilas Paswan feels for Tamils in Sri Lanka

19 Oct 2011

New Spokesperson: Paswan says he will raise Sri Lankan Tamils issue in Parliament and demand the Indian government to spell out its stand on the ethnic issue

The Sri Lankan Tamils have found a new hope in a rustic north Indian voice in their fight for justice against the Sri Lankan government that recently waged a war killing thousands of Tamilians in the garb of ‘war against terror’. This new found support came from Bihar’s veteran socialist leader Ram Vilas Paswan who severely criticised the Mahinda Rajapakse led Sri Lanka government for unleashing violence on the Tamils in the island nation.
Speaking in New Delhi at ‘Convention on war crimes in Sri Lanka’, the veteran politician said that his party, Lok Janshakti Party, would raise the issue of Sri Lankan Tamils in the Indian Parliament and would seek concrete answers.
Full Story>>>

Greens want Sri Lankan envoy recalled

Wed Oct 19 2011

The Australian Greens want the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Australia recalled as the federal police consider a dossier on alleged war crimes.

Fairfax reports the brief of evidence from the Australian arm of the International Commission of Jurists links the high commissioner and former navy Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe to the shelling of unarmed civilians at the end of Sri Lanka's bloody civil war in 2009.

Mr Samarasinghe has told Fairfax that human rights groups and other pro-Tamil campaigners are being manipulated by the Tamil diaspora in Australia.

Greens leader Bob Brown says the government can reject diplomatic nominations on the basis of war crimes.

He wants Prime Minister Julia Gillard to ask the Sri Lankan government to recall Mr Samarasinghe and if they don't, to expel him.

Greens senator Lee Rhiannon says Australia needs to show it won't turn a blind eye to allegations of war crimes.

"There is mounting evidence the High Commissioner was implicated in war crimes when he was naval chief of staff and commander of the Navy's eastern and northern areas in the final stages of the Sri Lankan civil war," she said.

"My office is in direct contact with two Australian Tamils who witnessed artillery fire from the sea where the Sri Lankan Navy were patrolling into densely populated civilian areas."

The Greens think there should be an independent investigation into the allegations.
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Secrecy and denial are also war crimes

The Australian

From:The Australian

October 19, 2011

Gordon Weiss

MORE than two years since the end of Sri Lanka's civil war, new evidence alleges that both sides of this brutal conflict committed serious crimes against civilians.

There are implications for Australia's rule of law, and three possible perpetrators with an immediate connection to our shores.

Sri Lanka's 25-year war culminated in 2009. Hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians were swept up in a final siege as Sri Lankan troops closed in on the Tamil Tigers. The guerillas held women, children and elderly people as human shields. Government assaults killed many thousands.

A brief of evidence handed last week to Australian authorities by the International Commission of Jurists (Australia) reportedly includes eyewitness testimony from those who lost family and friends in those months. A number of witnesses are Australians, or Australian residents.

Full Story>>>

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

What Has Happened To Sri Lanka’s Beggars?

Most of the detainees at Ridiyagama were arrested for
loitering without valid identification documents

By Nirmala Kannangara in Ambalantota – Pictures by Asoka Fernando

House of detention at Ridiyagama, The structure of the water tank is indicative of the age of the buildings on the premises , Vegetable garden maintained by the residents, A dilapidated building that houses the residents and Mahinda Wijesinghe

The House of Detention at Ridiyagama in Ambalantota is where the street vagrants are sent for rehabilitation.

There are 526 inmates – 223 women, 292 men, four boys and one girl (six of the residents are mentally challenged) housed at this detention center which comes under the Southern Provincial Social Service Ministry.
It is worthwhile to find out how safe their lives are in these old buildings. Out of the 45 buildings most are extremely old with cracked walls. Although no one knows how old these buildings are it is easy to estimate the period in which they were built by looking at the two huge water tanks on the premises. It is similar to the architecture of the Cargills and Millers buildings in Fort and the Maradana Railway Station that was built by the British more than a century ago

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

What Has Happened To Sri Lanka’s Beggars? »

Most of the detainees at Ridiyagama were arrested for loitering…

‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’ ( Sri Lanka Guardian )

“You can bend it and twist it... You can misuse and abuse it... But even God cannot change the Truth.”

by Gareth Thomas

( July 02, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) I rise to raise two issues.

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Bharatha’s family gunning for Duminda

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

The family of slain former parliamentarian Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra today called for the arrest of MP Duminda Silva.

Addressing a special press briefing this morning the family members said that they have no faith in the investigations into Premachandra’s killing.

They also commended an article appearing last Sunday in The Sunday Leader regarding Silva and called on the government to arrest Silva over Premachandra’s death.

Premachandra was killed during a shootout on election day in Mulleriyawa also involving Duminda Silva

Fox/Werritty Sri Lankan jollies come under fresh scrutiny

Left Foot Forward

Disgraced former defence secretary Liam Fox and his sidekick Adam Werritty’s gallivanting round Sri Lanka came under fresh scrutiny last night.
Yesterday’s Newsnight investigated Fox’s Sri Lankan trips and links to the SL leadership, talking to Sri Lankan exiles about Fox’s closeness to President Rajapaksa, who has many human rights questions hanging over his head, relating to the civil war in the island nation.
Reporter Richard Watson revealed:

“I’ve found there’s been a lot of fear, even in London, about speaking openly about this story, such is the power of the President of Sri Lanka, who many say has a poor record in human rights and freedom of speech.”

Posing the question:

“Given that record, what was Dr Fox and Adam Werritty doing developing a relationship with that man?”

Here’s what he found out:
Last February on Left Foot Forward, long before the present furore, we posed key questions for Fox over his closeness to the Colombo regime; here they are again:

• Why did Liam Fox go to Sri Lanka three times to meet its president last year, while William Hague did not go once? In what official capacity did he make his August and November visits?
• Why did he attend Rajapaksa’s national party convention? Can he ensure this did not undermine ongoing multilateral efforts at defending human rights, at a critical time for Sri Lanka?
• Why has he been pointedly discreet about these visits - putting out a press release for his visit to Afghanistan last year, but not one in three trips to Sri Lanka?
• It emerged last week that Liam Fox has been accepting large donationsfrom defence firms; can he ensure that this does not interfere with his official responsibilities as shadow secretary of state for defence, and as a representative of the UK government, when he makes repeated visits to government officials in war-torn countries?

We further reported, in March last year:

Liam Fox’s paid-for trips to Sri Lanka, which were revealed by Left Foot Forward last month, are mentioned today in a BBC investigation into MPs’ overseas trips paid for by foreign governments.
The BBC, however, has overlooked an incident raised on our original story. In November 2009, Liam Fox spoke in favour of the Sri Lankan government in a Commons debatewithout mentioning he was in Sri Lanka the week before to attend the president’s party convention.
As Left Foot Forward said at the time, the incident occured amid rising allegations of war crimes perpetrated by the Sri Lankan army, and talks in Brussels of suspending a privileged trade agreement between Sri Lanka and the EU over human rights issues – which was indeed suspended last month.

All the focus today is on Sir Gus O’Donnell’s report into Fox’s conduct, which is expected to conclude he broke the Ministerial Code – yet this is far from the end of the scandal.
Key questions remain, about Fox’s overseas visits – to Sri Lanka, as posed above, and elsewhere; the funding of Werritty; the funding of Fox’s office; the exact role of Werritty; what David Cameron knew (indeed, what he did or didn’t want to know, failing as he did to ask the right questions and grasp the seriousness of the affair); what Chris Grayling, George Osborne, William Hague and Michael Gove knew of Werritty’s Atlantic Bridge-linked activities…
For one thing, however, we can thank Mr Werritty – the opaqueness of Big Lobbying has been blown wide open, and looks finally like being regulated, dragged screaming into the sunlight.
See also:

Sri Lankan president under investigation

NewsOnABC

The Australian Federal Police force has opened an investigation into war crime claims leveled against three prominent Sri Lankans including the country's president.
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