Helping hand for Tamil refugees Man part of local effort to assist moves to Canada

November 14, 2011
Carol Sanders

In a spartan basement office in East Kildonan, the phone of the minister for internally displaced persons, refugees and prisoners of war rings constantly.

Twice a week, at least, it's the Tamil mom in India calling about her missing son who, out of desperation, got on a boat for Australia months ago and hasn't been heard from since.

For Sam Ratna, a civil engineer elected by Winnipeg's Tamils to serve on the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam, finding a safe home for 200,000 displaced people is a calling.

"Before I die, I want to see my people living happily," said Ratna, a volunteer in the cabinet of Prime Minister Visvanathan Rudrakumaran, a human rights lawyer in New York.

The government was formed at the end of the brutal, 26-year civil war in Sri Lanka. The minority Tamils were victims of systemic discrimination and exclusion by the majority, and fought for independence, said Ratna, who left in 1975. The Tamil government is not formally recognized.

The Sri Lankan government has accused it of trying to perpetuate terrorism. Ratna says it's trying to help uprooted Tamil people who've lost everything get on their feet and, he hopes, go home someday.

"Our people who escaped from the war are suffering and they're all over the place," said Ratna, who came to Winnipeg in 1993 from the United Kingdom with his wife and three kids.

Here, he works with international human rights lawyer David Matas to help Tamil refugees who fled persecution in Sri Lanka settle in nearby countries such as India and Malaysia and new homes in faraway places such as Canada and Ecuador.

In Winnipeg, 13 families are sponsoring Tamil refugees with the help of the Manitoba Interfaith Immigration Council, said Ratna.

One is Jayakaumar, a 33-year-old with a business degree stuck in Kajang, Malaysia.

"He's a very good worker but he can't do anything now," said Joseph, his sponsor and a family friend. Malaysia doesn't allow refugees to work or go to school, said Joseph, a foreign-trained doctor working as a research assistant until he gets his licence to practise in Manitoba.

The Tamil refugee came to Canada in 2001 and doesn't want his last name published. He and others in Winnipeg with relatives living in Sri Lanka are worried that speaking out against the government could hurt loved ones there. Joseph said his brother was killed by the military in Sri Lanka and Jayakaumar was shot in the ankle and had his life threatened. He desperately wants a safe place to live and to not waste his life, said Joseph.

"He is well-educated -- 100 per cent, I know he'll get a job here," said Joseph, who is married with one child. He worked at McDonald's when he first arrived in Canada and is building his own home in Winnipeg.

"I'll take care of him until he gets a job."

There are a dozen other Winnipeg people trying to help Tamil refugees come to Canada one at a time.

Ratna is trying to help thousands of others, burning up phone lines, meeting on Skype and travelling on his own dime, with donations from some of the 150 Tamil families in Winnipeg. In 2010, he went to Malaysia where 3,298 Tamils -- 2,399 men, 520 women and 185 boys and 184 girls -- languished without basic humanitarian assistance, he said.

In January, he and Matas will travel to Malaysia to get information on the Tamil refugees. They can't get medical treatment, live in substandard conditions and have few if any rights, said Ratna. If they get caught trying to work, they end up in detention centres, which are worse than where they are now, he said.

It's unsafe for them to go back to Sri Lanka, he said.

The Tamils have a history of persecution that didn't end with the civil war in 2009, said Matas. Since the Sri Lankan government won, the mistreatment of the Tamil minority that sparked the war has become more cruel, he said.

Canada took in more than 60,000 Vietnamese boat people over two years, said Matas, and the Tamils are the new boat people. Canada should again come up with a plan to work with countries in Asia to respect refugee rights and to share resettlement in countries that traditionally offer refuge, said Matas.

How Moron (Mohan) Peiris exposed his chameleon colors before the UN torture and cruelty Committee

(Lanka-e-News -13.Nov.2011,4.00PM) Mohan Peiris , ex Attorney general (AG) and present legal advisor to the Cabinet, recently , showed his true chameleon colors when he stripped himself nude (metaphorically) before the UN torture and cruelty Commission. By this shameless exposure he demonstrated to the Committee that Sri Lanka is a lawless country. We append herein two of the many reasons whereby Mohan Peiris in the answers he filed before the Commission made it known to the whole wide world that in Sri Lanka laws are not being upheld. Regarding the disappearance of Lanka e news journalist Prageeth Ekneliyagoda , Mohan Peiris better known as Moron Peiris said , according to reliable information he has received , Ekneliyagoda is in a foreign country and has taken political asylum there…However Moron Peiris could not furnish the ‘reliable information’ on which he depended upon. If an individual has obtained political asylum , then that individual has no reason to remain in hiding. This so called erudite Ex AG clearly betrayed his deplorable ignorance of this fact despite having been an AG of the country . Political asylum is a lawful status and if an individual has acquired that status , he need not hide. Hence , the Chiefs of the Committee for torture and cruelty must have had a hearty laugh at this Moron Peiris’ stupid explanation. zThis Ex AG ‘s moronic traits and mongolism were most manifest when he descended to such a level as to go before the UN Committee of torture and cruelty and reiterate without any sense of shame the `reproaches of Thadi Priyantha a leader of a murderous organization and a hired Divaina newspaper columnist of the Rajapakse regime . What is the impression created before the world when an ex AG who is expected to know the laws best conducts himself this foolishly ? Is this AG , supposedly a legal luminary of Sri Lanka and the illegal murder gang leaders on par ? Is there no difference between them.? This same Moron Peiris related another stupid tale before the UN Committee , he said , an investigation could not be conducted into the Bomb attack launched on the house of senior human rights Lawyer Weliamuna because the latter did not furnish information on the suspect. What an answer is this , specially to escape from the mouth of an ex AG ? A student of criminal law or even an ordinary man in the street will understand the folly and idiocy in ex AG’s answer. This ex AG though he is abysmally ignorant of the simplest of legal procedures and laws however succeeded in teaching the UN Committee how ‘well’ the laws in the country are being upheld. None in SL has a better experience at cleansing dirt and dross for the most disgraceful reasons than this ex AG . His sordid experience at washing the dirty clothes and soiled reputation of the regime is standing him in good stead in his new job with the cleaners.

LLRC witness rattled by CID summon

 12 November, 2011

LLRC session at Batticaloa A widow who gave evidence to the Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) is now rattled by the summon given by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). CID has asked Ratnam Poongothai, a forty five year old widow of four children from Kalmunai to give detailed explanation on what she said to the government appointed war panel, LLRC. Initially Poongothai was asked to attend the Fourth Floor of the CID head quarters but later rearranged the interview to take place in Kalmunei police station. The message was conveyed by Kalmunai police and LLRC has informed the Divisional Secretariat about the investigation. “LLRC told me to attend the interview. I am afraid to attend it alone as I am fear of my security, people who gave me a hard time after testifying in front of LLRC are there” She said. Poongodathi prefers to have human rights activists or lawyer present when she attends the interview. In 2007, Ratnam Poongothai was unlawfully arrested by police. Same year Iniabarathi, a leader of breakaway group of LTTE, abducted and tortured her for two weeks. Unlawful detention Again in 2009 Police arrested Poongothai when she was at the Batticaloa Hospital and handed over to the CID after two months. In April same year Poongothai’s sister, a widow and a mother of three, was arrested by police and disappeared. “My husband was killed, two brothers disappeared, a sister gang raped but these things happened before 1990’s. I only seek justice for the events that took place after 2007, my abduction and disappearance of my sister” Poongothai added. According to Poongothai her family was not involved with Tamil Tigers or politics. “People who had personal grudges against us destroy my family for personal gains” she said.

The Commonwealth's missed opportunity

 Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2011

By MALCOLM FRASER

MELBOURNE — On Oct. 28-30, representatives of 54 countries, mostly heads of government, attended the bi-annual Commonwealth Meeting. High on the agenda was a report by the Eminent Persons Group (EPG), established to reinvigorate the Commonwealth, strengthen its Secretariat, and transform its approach to human rights.

The group included former Australian High Court Justice Michael Kirby, former British Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind, former Malay Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, and Mozamibique's former first lady (and wife of Nelson Mandela) Graça Machel, among others. The group's recommendations were unanimous.

But the Commonwealth's assembled leaders ignored the report's key recommendation, which concerned the establishment of a Human Rights Commissioner to oversee and report on the actions of member governments. The human-rights performance of Commonwealth countries, both developed and developing, needs improvement in many areas.

Unfortunately, some African governments regarded the report as targeting developing countries, though the recommendations would have been just as relevant to certain developed countries that, especially since the terrorist attacks of 2001, have violated basic human-rights protections.

The record of the Commonwealth countries in regard to ethnic minorities can also be substantially improved. In too many countries, minorities, especially indigenous groups, are treated heavy-handedly. Similarly, as refugee flows have altered direction over the last 15 or 20 years, treatment of refugees — enshrined since 1951 in the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees — needs to be re-examined.

Many Commonwealth countries live on the edge of these particular problems. Some have large refugee camps within their borders. Others receive entire families fleeing persecution and terror in their own countries. More light needs to be shed on this problem.

The standards enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights need reinvigorating. Openness, transparency, and better knowledge of conditions in particular countries would do much to raise the level of debate — and thus to ensure greater progress. In too many countries, there is an incipient reversion to racism.

The second major issue for the meeting concerned the civil war in Sri Lanka and whether both the government and the Tamils had committed war crimes in the conflict's final years. The question, however, was virtually ignored.

A U.N. Human Rights Commission report suggests that there is substantial evidence of major war crimes by both the government and the Tamil Tigers, especially in the last 2-3 years of the conflict. A separate and entirely independent report by the International Crisis Group came to much the same conclusion.

Indeed, there is now sufficient evidence to justify a full international inquiry into the actions of both sides, potentially leading to indictments before the International Criminal Court. But the Commonwealth leaders suggested that the matter should be managed bilaterally, rather than by the organization as a whole.

This failure to debate what happened in Sri Lanka may have consequences for the Commonwealth down the line. Indeed, several weeks ago, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper spoke strongly against the lack of action in Sri Lanka, and indicated that if the next Commonwealth meeting is held there, as currently planned, he will not attend. He may not be the only leader to take such a stand when the time comes.

Human rights should be a matter on which the Commonwealth stands united, with firmness, resolution, and determination. The Commonwealth should be at the forefront of the continuing struggle to promote accountability for violations whenever and wherever they occur. That opportunity has been lost.

The advancement of human rights has taken many different forms. For example, Admiral Lord Michael Boyce, chief of the Defense Staff of the British Armed Services at the start of the Iraq war, told Prime Minister Tony Blair that he would not order troops to invade unless he was assured unequivocally that the war was legal under British and international law. Unfortunately, the British government's response was extraordinarily deficient, and did not in any sense constitute a valid legal opinion.

The Commonwealth has taken substantive action in the past, especially in relation to Apartheid-era South Africa. Most members of the Commonwealth have signed on to the International Criminal Court, perhaps the most important institutional change in the international legal architecture since the establishment of the U.N. itself.

The Commonwealth's people deserve much better than what their leaders delivered at the Australia summit. If the Commonwealth is to become the vital international body that its national leaders wish it to be, it needs a different temper and more coherent and effective leadership, as envisaged by the Eminent Persons Group's report. It needs the human rights commissioner. Most of all, it needs national leaders who are prepared to act on conviction and steadfastness of purpose, rather than evading and shirking their responsibilities when divisive issues arise.

Malcolm Fraser was three times prime minister of Australia. © 2011 Project Syndicate

Bharatha’s Family Approaches Harper

By Indika Sri Aravinda   Sunday, November 13, 2011

Swarna Premachandra

The family of slain politician Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra says they have approached Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, seeking support to ensure that justice is done with regard to Premachandra’s murder.
Swarna Premachandra, Bharatha Lakshman’s sister, told The Sunday Leader from Canada yesterday, that  the Canadian Prime Minister’s office has  responded positively to a request from the family members for a meeting with the Premier. She said that there were clear indications of the involvement of the underworld in the assassination of Premachandra.

Government MP Duminda Silva is believed to have ordered the shooting but has not yet been named a suspect.
Swarna Premachandra said that her family will also contact the Commonwealth Secretariat and other countries to raise their concerns over the Sri Lankan government’s failure to bring the perpetrators to book. She also said that a group of lawyers will address the media on Tuesday regarding the course of action her family intends on taking over Bharatha’s killing.
Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra was shot dead by security officers attached to MP Duminda Silva following an argument between the two last month.

Sri Lankan nationalisation law criticised

Yahoo! News

 COLOMBO — Sri Lanka's new law to nationalise "under utilised" private firms could shatter investor confidence and push the country into authoritarian rule, according to the opposition and press.

The main opposition United National Party (UNP) said the controversial law that came into effect from Friday would discourage investors in a country that is recovering from decades of ethnic war.

"Any foreign investor with a modicum of intelligence will re-think of investing in Sri Lanka for fear of their ventures being arbitrarily appropriated," UNP deputy leader Karu Jayasuriya said in a statement.

Under the new law, the government earmarked 37 companies for takeover, including several owned by businessmen supporting the opposition.

Japanese, Singaporean and United States investments are at stake, but the government is yet to spell out how they would be compensated.

Lawmakers voted 122 to 46 in favour of the "Revival of Under-performing Enterprises and Under-utilised Assets Act" on Wednesday.

The bill was signed into law on Friday by parliamentary Speaker Chamal Rajapakse, the eldest brother of President Mahinda Rajapakse.

The president, who is also the minister of finance, has defended the act saying it targeted companies which had received state land or tax breaks but which had failed to live up to expectations.

The local Sunday Times warned that businesses supporting the opposition was in danger of being taken over by the government.

"This Act, we believe, smacks of a heavy dose of political vindictiveness and carries the venom to weaken opposition parties and may drag the country to a virtual one-party state," the Sunday Times said.

Sri Lanka's decades-long civil war between government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels ended in 2009 with a military offensive that wiped out the guerrillas.                                                                                                                                   

MaRa regime’s ‘castle in the air’ collapses : Hambantota ‘gold coast’ begins and ends as an empty boast

(Lanka-e-News -12.Nov.2011, 3.30PM) The MaRa regime’s vainglorious foolish attempt after wasting about a one billion rupees of people’s funds to hold the Commonwealth games festival 2018 at Hambantota Town went up in smoke, according to reports received from St. Kitts. 

At the ‘bidding’ event for deciding on the venue for holding the Commonwealth games 2018 , Sri Lanka could poll only 27 votes whereas the competing country Australia polled 43 votes. Accordingly , it has been decided that the Commonwealth games shall be held in Australia’s ‘Gold coast’ Town.

It is well to recall how the regime chief after saying ‘ aney hamaduruwane , I am not used to lying’ , shamelessly acted in breach of his solemn promise to give a Rs. 2500/ - rupee salary increase to the workers. This same regime chief had no qualms about getting ready to spend or rather waste a colossal sum of Rs. 8 billlion rupees to hold the commonwealth games 2018 , which attempt fortunately for the people did not materialize. But for this event flop , Rs. 8 billion of people’s money would have been wasted just for obscene ostentation of the ruthlessly profligate regime . The regime’s monumental profligacy and fiscal blundering is all the more unpardonable , because the regime is fully aware that its people are hard put even to have one square meal a day. This attempt therefore only betrays the hypocritical love this regime professes for the people. 
Even this dastardly wasteful attempt was characterized by regime’s characteristic corruption and malpractices from the beginning . How this sum of Rs. 8 billion is going to be raised is not mentioned in the expenditure estimate. Just to prepare the document putting down details of the project, a sum of Rs. 400 million had been wasted. The cost of chartering a plane to go to St. Keet to organize the biding which was an eventual failure was Rs. one billion ! Mind you , 165 members went on this tour to influence the commonwealth countries to vote for SL as the venue . All to no avail . These are not monies belonging to the private dowry coffers of the Rajapakse medamulana , these are people’s funds , medamulana Rajapakses are playing ducks and drakes with.
They did not care two hoots for the common man or their acute sufferings. What concerns them is frivolous ‘sport and play’ at people’s expense with the sole objective of projecting to the world vainly that they are unparalleled . Truly speaking , towards this event , if it were to take place , at least 12000 officials and delegates have to be provided with comfortable abodes with all facilities . If they were constructed , to whom can they be given after the event ? Are they to be given on rent to tourists ? In other countries , after such an event , those units are sold. But in poverty stricken Hambantota , to whom can these 12000 single dwelling abodes be sold? Unfortunately for the Rajapakses this attempt imbued with the worst stupid and economically bungling features failed , but the people must thank theirs stars that the moronic and despotic regime’s utterly meaningless venture flopped despite its diligence shown towards achieving it without caring for the people , country or country’s present economic meltdown.
Sri Lanka’s Jane nona in Hambantota today has to spend the same amount of money to eat an egg as a ‘Suddha’ (white man) has to in London . But Jane nona ‘s monthly income is only Rs. 10000/- but a Suddha ‘s monthly income even if he washes cars in London is Rs. 200,000/- minimum. One can therefore imagine to what desperate level Jane nona’s livelihood has been driven into today ,by Hambantota medamulana moron Rajapakse’s moribund regime.

It is therefore for the people in Hambantota to decide whether what is most necessary for them is commonwealth games in their midst wasting billions of rupees of the people by a regime which shows no concern for their untold woes and takes decisions unilaterally heeding nobody’s advice , or the bare essentials for their living including at least one simple meal a day , clothing and shelter.

Of course there is nothing that can be done to those Hambantota ‘umbewansalas’ who prefer the commonwealth games because they imagine they can tie themselves to the bullock carts with the maroon shawls and compete with the other local bullocks.

Where is Lanka heading after takeover law?

Controversial bill causes cracks in UPFA, only two ministers spoke at Ranil asserts his authority in UNP as JVP factions battle for support of members

By Our Political Editor

A controversial law entered the country's statute book on Friday but some of the scars it left behind are certain to linger for months if not years. Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa gave his assent to the Revival of Underperforming Enterprises or Underutilized Assets Bill on Friday night. Since Parliament passed it as an urgent piece of legislation "in the national interest" on Wednesday, the Ministry of Finance has been in touch with the Speaker's office to obtain the assent early. This was to ensure that follow up action was taken without loss of much time. No sooner had the House approved it on Wednesday night, Police armed squads moved in to secure some of the 37 ventures that the government wanted to takeover. They included both the Sevanagala Sugar Industries Limited and the Pelwatte Sugar Industries Limited. The physical takeover of these ventures is expected to take place in the coming week. For the private sector, whose case against the law was made by six different trade chambers and organisations before President Mahinda Rajapaksa just days earlier, concerns remained high. They were assured that the legislation would be "one off" and no other ventures taken over. However, this assurance was not among the amendments moved when the Bill was at the Committee Stage on Wednesday. In fact the government has armed itself with a provision to take over any venture on the grounds that it is either "underperforming" or "underutilized." For whom the bell tolled - Posters announcing the commemoration of the death anniversary of Rohana Wijeyaweera by the JVP. Pic by Nilan Maligaspe READ MORE...

LTTE leaders tried to surrender through Basil, says Norway

An evaluation report by Norway of its peace efforts in Sri Lanka between 1997 and 2009 has named presidential advisor and Minister Basil Rajapaksa as the person through whom the LTTE leadership tried to negotiate a last-minute surrender deal before the entire hierarchy of the group was killed in May, 2009.

“In the night between May 17 and 18, Nadesan (head of the LTTE Political Wing) and Pulidevan (head of the LTTE Peace Secretariat) contacted the Norwegians as well as the UK and US embassies, the ICRC, and Chandra Nehru (a Tamil politician in Colombo) indicating their last-minute willingness to surrender. Following hasty negotiations with presidential advisor and Minister Basil Rajapaksa, they were told to walk across the frontline with a white flag. The last phone conversation was held shortly before their departure. Hours later they were reported shot. Government troops moved into the last LTTE stronghold and killed LTTE chief Prabhakaran and the remaining LTTE leaders including Soosai (Sea Tigers) and Pottu Amman (intelligence),” the report says.read more..

PM to Sri Lanka: Use of force on fishermen not acceptable

 By Manish Chand

On Board Air India One, Nov 12 (IANS) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Saturday said he had conveyed to Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa that the use of force in dealing with fishermen is unacceptable and pushed for a joint working group to resolve the issue.

'We explained this to President Rajapaksa and he agreed that the use of force to deal with Indian fishermen is totally unacceptable, that it is a human problem and it must be dealt in a humane manner,'Manmohan Singh said while referring to bilateral talks he had with Rajapaksa in the Maldives on the sidelines of the SAARC summit Thursday.

The prime minister said he also discussed various options like growing involvement of fishermen of two countries in discussing their mutual problems. 'We agreed that the working group should accelerate its work.'

The two leaders also discussed the speedy resettlement of Tamils displaced by armed conflict with the LTTE.

'Principally, my concern was with regard to resettlement of internally displaced Tamil refugees, and the treatment of fishermen. President Rajapaksa gave me assurances that Sri Lanka will and has been moving forward,' he said.

'How far that satisfies the common public opinion, there is now a structured dialogue between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil National Alliance and also there is a Parliamentary Select Committee which has been appointed to go into this question of what can be done to find a permanent political and acceptable solution to the Tamil problem.'

Rajapaksa conveyed to Manmohan Singh that there are still about 7,000 IDPs awaiting resettlement and steps would be taken to ensure their rehabilitation.

Manmohan Singh also took note of steps by Sri Lanka to find a political solution to the Tamil issue like a structured dialogue between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil National Alliance.

Manmohan Singh also mentioned a Parliamentary Select Committee which has been appointed to go into the question of what can be done to find a permanent political and acceptable solution to the Tamil problem.

Sri Lanka’s Fear Psychosis

Sunday, November 13, 2011

• Sri Lankans across the board, renowned for their friendly smiles and easy ways are too afraid to speak

A Norwegian journalist Correspondent for Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation sat across from me in my office last Tuesday. Norwegian Broadcasting is state owned and the largest media organization in Norway, BUT with absolutely no interference in editorial content.
For a population of 5 million people the network which includes radio and television has an audience of one million.
He was in Sri Lanka to cover issues, on the country post war, which included media freedom.  He too, like all of us in the media, came up against a blank wall when attempting to speak with “people on the street”. Nobody would talk. “I was quite surprised,” he recounted.  A journalist himself, he thought it rare that the public would not talk to journalists.  He was puzzled.Read More »

Caught In A Web Of Lies, Intrigue And Political Witch-Hunting

Sunday, November 13, 2011

By Imaad Majeed

The government has taken extra measures to impose restrictions on the local media by blocking news websites alleged to have engaged in “character assassination” and “invasion of privacy”.
Secretary for Ministry of Media and Information, W. B. Ganegala said, “the ministry will introduce a code of ethics and media guidelines.”
Mudslinging and biased reporting are not new phenomena in the scope of Sri Lankan media, with newspapers and television channels taking sides and sometimes even defaming public figures. In the recent past, media outlets have been attacked, stoned, burnt, their editors arrested and in the worst instances killed in the interest of protecting influential parties. Of late, focus has turned from print to web media, where anyone can run a news website taking whatever bias suits them, attacking who ever they hold a grudge against.Read More »

Sri Lanka’s Multi-Million Rupee Bid Fails

Saturday, November 12, 2011

• Australia’s Gold Coast wins vote to host 2018 Commonwealth Games

By Dinouk Colombage

Australians celebrating Gold Coast victory

Sri Lanka’s multi-million rupee bid to secure the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Hambantotoa ended in failure early last morning. The vote in St. Kitts and Nevis to select the host city saw Sri Lanka wanting as they managed to gain only 27 votes from a total of 71 Commonwealth members. Gold Coast in Australia secured 43 votes and will now have the task of hosting the games in seven years time.
Sri Lanka’s failure to secure the games comes despite the government and the organising committee pouring in millions of rupees in the lead up to the vote. It has been estimated that between Rs. 300 million and Rs. 400 million was invested in Sri Lanka’s bid process.
A delegation numbering nearly a hundred was dispatched to St. Kitts earlier this week to make the final push in the bid for the Games. The delegation included a variety of public figures including legendary spin bowler Muttiah Muralitharan and former beauty queen Anarkali Akarsha.
Despite the loss Central Bank governor, Ajith Nivard Cabraal, has pledged to continue the development of the southern town of Hambantota. “We will make good our promise to rejuvenate the region regardless of this outcome,” he told media in Australia.
Sri Lanka’s bid to secure the rights to host the Games was jolted early on when they failed to show up in New Delhi last year for a meeting with the Games’ governing body. With three months to go before they were to hand over the final bid to the Commonwealth Games Federation, the Sports Ministry frantically employed the services of British Public Relations firm ‘Pmp Legacy’. They were tasked with the duty of creating and promoting the bid for Hambantota 2018.
Support for the games was however lacking locally with many people fearing that awarding such an event to the island would leave the country in financial strife. Furthermore, despite the large amount of money sunk into the bid process no event was prepared for the announcement of the results of the final vote. In contrast the Gold Coast had an entire morning prepared, including a concert, to welcome the announcement.

WikiLeaks: ‘I Am Not Saying We Are Clean’ – Basil To US Senate Foreign Relations Staff

 Saturday, November 12, 2011

Basil Rajapaksa

The Rajapaksa brothers, Basil and Gotabhaya, have both shown a keen sense of likened thinking with regard to the conduct of the war in Sri Lanka. In a leaked US embassy cable Basil Rajapaksa is quoted as having told members of the US Senate Foreign Relations that, ‘I’m not saying we’re clean; we could not abide by international law’. This comment came in relation to the conduct of military forces during the war. In a surprisingly similar statement Gotabhaya Rajapaksa is also quoted as having told the same group a month later that the “war had ‘not been clean,’ but was still a success”.

Gotabhaya Rajapaksa

A leaked US diplomatic cable the President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s brother and his advisor Basil Rajapaksa has been described by the US Ambassador, as a de-facto czar of the IDP and demining issues.

“The president’s brother, MP, and de-facto czar of the IDP and demining issues Basil Rajapaksa hoped to improve the bilateral relationship and build trust with the U.S.” the US Embassy wrote to Washington.Read More »

Sri Lanka massacre, 5 times Srebrenica, 80 times My Lai, says German paper

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 November 2011, 11:55 GMT]
Referring to the Channel-4 documentary Sri Lanka's Killing Fields, journalists, Dirk Maxeiner and Michael Miersch, in an opinion column that appeared in German newspaper Die Welt said that the massacre of Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka by the State military is five times the killings from Srebrenica genocide, and 80 times the numbers killed in the Mai Lai massacre. "Colombo successfully covered up the killings by sending away the UN observers on the grounds that the State will not be able to ensure their safety, and then began the mass murder," Die Welt said on 03 November. 

Sri Lanka Killing fields (Courtesy: Die Zeit)

Noting that Internet technology has given the world audience unprecedented access to information occurring anywhere in the world, the article said, "this week our daily mood was affected as we watched in horror the British documentary uncovering the brutal mass murder in Sri Lanka where 40,000 civilians died in 2009, 80 times more than those killed in Vietnam's My Lai."

Information reaching us in the early months of 2009, said thousands of civilians were fleeing from the combat zone between the army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), but "now it has been established that 40,000 of them fell victim to a massacre."

The "Sri Lanka's Killing Fields" documented by a British Television crew has created a storm of indignation on the massacre, the paper said. "The documentary shows how the Sri Lanka Army in the final battle against the "terrorist" organization Tamil Tigers in the north of the island, lured hundreds of thousands of people using the insidious strategy of leadership to safe protection zones, and relentlessly shelled the area. This was deliberately planned, and about 40,000 civilians lost their lives by the shelling," the paper said.

For two years, covering up the war crimes

The mass murder in My Lai Vietnam where American soldiers killed 503 villagers, women, children, and old people, created a storm of protest in Germany. The announcement of the crime led to a turnaround in public opinion for war. After all, the officer in charge was later tried and punished, the article said. 

"In Sri Lanka, 40 000 unarmed civilians were killed, which is 80 times My Lai, and five times Srebrenica. We read in 2009 that there was a terrible final battle against the "terrorists" and talk of civilian casualties from cross-fire. Only now the real truth is being revealed by the documentary by Channel-4. The documentary shows mainly mobile phone recordings of eye witnesses, combined with so-called trophy pictures that were taken from offenders. The Government of Sri Lanka was able, for two years to hide their war crimes before the world.

Thousands of German have made the palm-fringed beaches to the south of the island as their holiday destinations since 2009. .The successful cover-up was possible because the military sent away the last UN observers, on the grounds that they could no longer guarantee their safety. As they left, there were no more foreign witnesses and the mass murder began, the paper said.
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Sri Lanka's Killing Fields

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Ein Gemetzel, so groß wie 80 My-Lai-Massaker

Eine britische Reportage deckt brutalen Massenmord in Sri Lanka auf: 40.000 Zivilisten starben 2009, 80 Mal soviel wie im vietnamesischen My Lai.

Ausländische Fernsehsendungen gab es früher nur im Ausland. Wir freuen uns immer wieder, dass wir Dank Internet heute ganz bequem über den deutschen Tellerrand blicken können. Diese Woche hat uns der internationale Informationszugang allerdings nachhaltig die Laune verdorben. Denn wir stießen auf einen Beitrag des britischen Senders „Channel 4“ und schauten ihn mit wachsendem Entsetzen bis zu Ende an.

FOTO: PICTURE-ALLIANCE/ DPA/EPAIm Jahre 2009 flohen Tausende von Zivilisten aus der Kampfzone zwischen der Armee und den terroristischen Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Nun kam raus, dass 40.000 von ihnen einem Massaker zum Opfer fielen

Die Dokumentation trägt den Titel „Sri Lanka's Killing Fields“ und hat in Großbritannien zu einem Sturm der Entrüstung geführt. Sie zeigt, mit welchen Mitteln die Armee im Jahr 2009 den Endkampf gegen die Terrororganisation „Tamil Tigers“ im Norden der Insel führte. Hunderttausende Menschen wurden durch die heimtückische Strategie der Führung in vermeintlich sichere Schutzzonen gelockt. Offenbar war von vornherein geplant, diese Sammelstellen unter Feuer zu nehmen. Etwa 40.000 Zivilisten verloren durch den Artilleriebeschuss ihr Leben.

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Bilder des Vietnam-Kriegs

FOTO: AP

Vietnam, 1. Februar 1968. Ein Kopfschuss auf offener Straße: Saigons Polizeichef Nguyen Ngoc Loan erschießt den gefangenen Vietcong Nguyen Van Lem. Es ist nur eines von zahlreichen grausamen Bildern, die den Vietnamkrieg widerspiegeln.      Full Story>>>