21st day of Walk for Justice campaign

Monday, 27 February 2012 

On the 21st day Walk for Justice enters Switzerland, via Basel at 15.00. Hundreds of supporters were already waiting to welcome them. After a short break all the people moved towards the Parliament in Basel, where they finally stopped the walk for today.

Tomorrow their journey will continue towards Geneva. The three men were so happy seeing the hundreds of people waiting for them. Velupillai Mahendrarjah, one of the three men says, “Our supporters motivated us so much, that we could walk another 1000 km. We thank all the Tamil people living in Switzerland, who came to support us.”

People’s group seeking to rescue MaRa regime dissolves like salt in rain

(Lanka-e-News-27.Feb.2012, 11.45PM) The people’s group , the so called rescuers of the MaRa regime from foreign invaders had got disintegrated in an unexpected manner in Colombo. Those who came to join in the campaign at Fort did not come of their own accord, but rather because they were forced via threats that they will be deprived of their jobs, if they don’t participate. Those who came were temporary and probationary Govt. employees who had been threatened that they will not be made permanent if they don’t take part in the campaign. The crowd gathered by the outstation organizers was a flop going by the paucity of crowds in the buses that brought them to Colombo.

Following the assassination of Bhaaratha Lakshman , an SLFP union leader , a majority of the members of the trade unions are disillusioned and resentful against the regime. Consequently , their response was extremely poor.

The protest campaign to rescue MaRa regime got dissolved like salt literally and metaphorically at the very beginning itself with the onset of rains . Those few who took part also were anxious to get back to their homes fast. It will not be a matter for surprise if cardboard patriot like Weerawansa whose head is full of gel outside and mud inside accuses that the downpour was also a result of the conspiracy of foreign imperialists.

Ven. Elle Gunawansa , the racial Thero and supporters to MaRa regime like him were conspicuously absent for the demonstrations . They stated , they will come to rescue the country,’ but we will not come to rescue this family’.

But , of course , Weerawansa and Jackson Anthony , the ‘actors’ notorious for their play acting and who blow the trumpets of the regime for filthy lucre were present in the midst.

The most ludicrous side of this whole comedy drama enacted today purportedly aimed against the recommendations that are being made to the UNHRC is, these recommendations are really being presented only on or about the 20th of March. In fact , at today’s opening sessions , S.L representative Mahinda Samarasinghe was making his address. It is therefore doubted whether today’s protests and ballyhoo were directed against his address, by these morons and stray mongrels who cannot identify day from night.

No matter what, the ‘people’s group’ campaign conducted today amidst the unbearable hardships faced by the trampled and downtrodden masses was a flop. 

The photograph herein depicts the burning of the effigy of American President Barak Obama.

Cry for war crimes probe picks up

February 27, 2012

The Sri Lankan government plans to mobilise tens of thousands of people ahead of a key human rights meet in Geneva which is expected to discuss alleged abuses in the country during a three-decade ethnic conflict.

The protest called the ‘people’s fortress to protect the nation’ are planned in 150 major towns coinciding with the 19th session of the United Nation Human Rights Council (UNHRC) sessions starting Monday. The government has described the move to discuss human rights abuses in Sri Lanka as an international conspiracy hatched in Geneva against President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

“This is clearly international revenge on the President for his action to end a 30-year curse of terrori
sm,” Dilan Perera, a senior minister told reporters here. “Forgetting all differences, people must rally to protect the President and the nation,” Dallas Alahapperuma, another senior minister said, adding,
“Please do not interfere in our internal affairs, let us solve our own problems, that is our message to international forces”.

The session would review the country’s human rights accountability during the last phase of the war with the LTTE that ended in May 2009.

The US government is the prime mover of a resolution, which calls for the implementation of Sri Lanka’s own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) recommendations, which had recommended local investigations into alleged military excesses and prescribed a negotiated political solution to the political aspirations of Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority community.

The resolution seeks to bind Sri Lanka for action to implement recommendations of LLRC and obtain assistance of the UN Human Rights Commissioner for the purpose. Sri Lanka maintains that such a resolution is unwarranted as Colombo had already implemented some of the recommendations and needs some more time to implement the rest.

If the Rajapaksa government has initiated its ‘people’s fortress’, several Tamil people and organizations across the world have also launched a full-scale ‘offensive’ through statements, rallies and of course the new media, which includes the Twitter and Facebook, to press for international investigation of excesses in the Eelam war, particularly the final phase that is believed to have consumed about 40,000 lives.

Sri Lanka’s dead and missing: the need for an accounting

27 February 2012 by Crisis Group

A demonstrator cries while holding a picture of her relative who went missing during Sri Lanka's war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as she takes part in a protest in Colombo September 9, 2009. Photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Reuters

Nearly three years since the end of the war, there’s a growing need for an accounting of – and for – those killed and missing in the final months of fighting in northern Sri Lanka in 2009. Members of the UN Human Rights Council, opening its 19^th session in Geneva today, should be ready to press the Sri Lankan government for real answers.

Instead of grappling with the many credible sources of information suggesting tens of thousands of civilians were killed between January and May 2009 – including the UN’s real-time data collection, international satellite imagery, and the government’s own population figures – the government is rewriting history on its own terms. In the lead up to the Human Rights Council session, the government released an “Enumeration of Vital Events” for the Northern Province. It finds the total death toll during the five bloody months of fighting in 2009 to be under 7,000 with another 2,500 missing, but it doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants or assign responsibility for any death to either the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) or to government forces. Full Story>>>

Do we want Britain to be symbolised by Adam Werrity or by Channel 4 News?

FEBRUARY 27, 2012

Author:

Siobhain McDonagh

Last month I was proud to nominate Channel 4 News for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Their astonishing documentary, ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’, dramatically revealed war crimes at the end of Sri Lanka’s armed conflict in 2009, and has alerted Governments across the world of the need to respect human rights.

The images broadcast by Channel 4 were among the most harrowing ever to appear on TV. They depicted what the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings described as evidence of “definitive war crimes”.

40,000 civilians, mostly from the Tamil community, were killed in the last few months of Sri Lanka’s armed conflict alone.

The UN Secretary General’s Panel of Experts has stated there was a “grave assault on the entire regime of international law”. Since the war’s end, the UN Committee Against Torture has raised serious concerns about allegations of widespread on-going “torture and ill-treatment perpetrated by state actors, both the military and the police”.

Justice must prevail and that is why, in a Parliamentary debate last week, I and fellow Labour MPs called on Britain to support an independent, international commission of inquiry to investigate these crimes.

The previous Labour Government is widely acknowledged for taking a lead against abuses in Sri Lanka. In 2009, Gordon Brown was the first international statesman to call for a ceasefire, while David Miliband, then Foreign Secretary, was widely praised for visiting the island, as the fighting continued, to implore the Sri Lankan government to protect civilians.

Thanks to Gordon’s and David’s influence, as serious allegations of Sri Lankan Government complicity in human rights abuses emerged, Labour helped bring an end to preferential trading status for Sri Lanka in the EU, prevented the country hosting a Commonwealth summit, and voted against an IMF deal worth $2.5 billion.

The principled stand Labour took has been reaffirmed since by Shadow Foreign Secretary, Douglas Alexander, who has given the Party’s full support for an independent, international commission to investigate what he calls “acts of unconscionable violence”.

The UN Panel of Experts agrees. They recommend an international investigation, and indeed it is a duty under international law to provide accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Such an investigation is vital, especially as Sri Lanka’s own domestic investigation, the ‘Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission’ (LLRC), has been roundly criticised. For instance, the Panel of Experts called it “fundamentally flawed”.

But although our Coalition Government have admitted the LLRC findings “leave many gaps and unanswered questions”, how have they chosen to respond?

Britain has embarked on a policy of sending planeloads of Tamils back to Sri Lanka, even though there is a genuine and understandable fear of how they might be treated on their return.

This looks like an endorsement by Britain of the appalling behaviour of the Sri Lankan Government, and a snub to Tamils whose families and friends may have been killed or subjected to other abuses.

And even worse, not once have we heard from the mouth of a British Minister these words: “We support an independent international investigation into violations that took place in Sri Lanka.”

The US is bringing a resolution on this matter at the forthcoming UN Human Rights Council Session in Geneva, while the European Parliament has called for “a UN commission of inquiry into all crimes committed”.

Britain should be at the front of those supporting action, instead of letting war criminals off the hook.

Britain is respected around the world for taking brave and principled leads, just as we did in supporting military action in Kosovo, Sierra Leone and Libya, and just as Channel 4 did with “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields”.

Perhaps the Government’s reticence owes more to the visits of free trade campaigner Adam Werrity and his friend Liam Fox to meet members of the Sri Lankan Government. But do we want Britain’s approach to international relations to be symbolised by Adam Werrity or by Channel 4 News?

In my letter nominating Channel 4 News to the Nobel committee, I said “By bringing to light the breaches of international conventions by the Government of Sri Lanka in a bold manner and by piecing together numerous forms of evidence in a coherent way, the value of independent journalism to the building of a peaceful global order in the century ahead has been amply demonstrated.”

Crimes such as those revealed in Channel 4’s documentary deserve to be investigated. Justice must be served.

To support an e-petition calling for the British Government to support an independent, international war crimes inquiry in Sri Lanka click here

Siobhain McDonagh is Member of Parliament for Mitcham and Morden, and Vice-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils

Fishermen leader in hiding after threats

26 February, 2012

'If I have done anything wrong, they could have arrested me at the airport'

A Sri Lankan leader of World Forum of Fisher People (WFFP) has urged authorities to guarantee his safety following death threats after fishermen's protest against recent fuel price increase.

Herman Kumara, the Secretary General of the WFFP told BBC Sandeshaya that he noticed a group following him in a van on his arrival after attending an international conference in Rome.

"I noticed a group following me in a van with registration no 301-2865 and their attempt was to abduct me," he said from an undisclosed location where he is currently hiding.

While he managed to hide, said Mr Kumara, the group has come to his home and travelled around his hometown asking his whereabouts from his family and other people.

Fuel price increase

"If I have done anything wrong, there are legal ways of dealing with it. They could have arrested me at the airport," he said adding that he is willing to face any legal action if he has committed any office.

I noticed a group following me in a van with registration no 301-2865 and their attempt was to abduct me   Herman Kumara

Herman Kumara's office has lodged a complaint about the threats at the police station in Pannala.

The fishermen leader stressed that he will continue representing the fisher community in protests against the fuel price increase as well as other related issues.

There have been violent protests in Sri Lanka a few days after the government raised the price of key household fuels by up to 50 percent.

A fisherman was killed as police confronted crowds on the west coast while teargas is being deployed at a big rally in the capital, Colombo.

Four days after sudden steep increases in the price of fuel, there is unrest and anger in much of Sri Lanka.

There have been days of protests and road blockades in the western fishing town of Chilaw, where larger boats depend on diesel whose price has jumped by 36% and smaller ones on kerosene which is now 49% more expensive.

Support for an initiative to bring Sri Lanka on to the formal agenda of the UN Human Rights Council at its 19th session, commencing on February 27, 2012

The final report of the Sri Lankan government’s Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), which was made public in November 2011, contains some positive recommendations. This has already been pointed out by civil society organization, political parties and human rights defenders in Sri Lanka , who have called for effective and immediate implementation of these recommendations. The government of Sri Lanka has also declared its intention of implementing the recommendations of the LLRC.

However, the LLRC mandate, and therefore its Report, falls short of responding in any way to the issues of accountability and justice, relating to the allegations of violations of human rights and humanitarian law by the LTTE and by the Government of Sri Lanka in the last months of the war in 2009, set out, for example, in the Report of the Panel of Experts created by the UN Secretary General.

Among the recommendations of the LLRC are some that could challenge the record of impunity in the country and address the issues of accountability and justice that remain in the post-conflict era; there are others that could pave the way for a constructive discussion on power-sharing in the country, in which the minority communities, in particular the Tamil community, could feel an affirmation of their status as full and equal citizens of Sri Lanka.

In this context, the Network for Rights (NfR) welcomes the current initiative at the UN Human Rights Council’s 19^th session to bring the LLRC report on to the formal agenda of the Council, through a Resolution that will reflect cross-regional concern regarding the situation in Sri Lanka .

The Sri Lankan government has launched a big campaign to resist this process, attacking political parties and civil society groups and human rights groups in Sri Lanka , accusing them of collaborating with the LTTE and bringing the country to disrepute. The attacks have in particular been focused on their participation in the 19^th session of the Human Rights Council. This has led to major concern regarding the safety and security of the few human rights defenders who will engage in advocacy around accountability for human rights violations in Sri Lanka at the Council in spite of these threats. It is very important to keep in mind that these attacks take place in an environment in which the number of abductions and disappearances has risen; there have been 4 abductions, one death of a protester killed by police shooting and two dead bodies found on the roadside just in the 7 days between February10 and 16. 

In Sri Lanka , our past experience of Presidential Commissions of Inquiry is negative. They have often been used as a way for successive governments to avoid issues of justice, reparation and reconciliation, and have ignored the voices of the victims and survivors of egregious violations.

We appeal to the members of the Human Rights Council to honour their commitment to the promotion and protection of all human rights for all by ensuring that the government of Sri Lanka is called on to implement the recommendations of the LLRC and other human rights obligations within a specified time period. For this, it is imperative that the outcomes of any Resolution on this matter will be time-bound and subject to monitoring by an inde pen dent and credible body established according to international human rights norms and standards.

We also call on the Human Rights Council to impress upon the government of Sri Lanka that all and any reprisals against human rights defenders in Sri Lanka that arises out of their cooperation with UN human rights mechanisms and procedures would be considered a serious breach of obligations.

Written by editor

Tea Industry In Crisis After Sanctions On Iran

Monday, February 27, 2012

Thousands of jobs at risk

By Indika Sri Aravinda

The  tea industry, the country’s second largest net foreign exchange earner is facing a potential crisis as a result of the economic sanctions imposed on Iran by the US government, the Sri Lanka Tea Board said.
Tea Board Chairperson Janaki Kuruppu told The Sunday Leader that Sri Lanka exports 25 million kilos of tea to Iran annually.
She said that the sanctions could affect the payments being made to Sri Lanka by Iran for the tea and this could have a spiraling effect on the tea industry as a whole.
Kuruppu said that over 20 tea exporters in Sri Lanka are involved in exporting tea to Iran and over 2 million people are employed in the Sri Lankan tea industry.
If Iran is unable to pay Sri Lanka in US Dollars for the tea it purchases from Sri Lanka then thousands of people employed in the local industry could also be affected.
Kuruppu said that urgent talks are now being held between Iran, Sri Lanka and the US regarding the sanctions and its possible impact on the tea industry.
Meanwhile Tea Commissioner General T. Hemaratna said that the Central Bank was also monitoring the issue.
Hemaratne said that Sri Lanka exports tea to about 145 countries with the main importers being Russia, Iran and Dubai.
The United States and the European Union announced plans earlier this year to impose punitive sanctions on Iran in an effort to force the Iranian government to cease the development of its nuclear program – which they say is aimed at producing a nuclear weapon despite Tehran’s claims that its nuclear program is purely for civilian purposes.
Meanwhile China, India and Japan – three of Asia’s largest oil consuming nations – are planning to reduce imports of crude oil from Iran by at least 10 percent in response to mounting pressure from the United States and its Western allies to impose sanctions on the Middle Eastern state. The three countries together purchase nearly half of Iran’s crude oil exports.

Act now UK tells Lanka

Monday, February 27, 2012

The British Government called on Sri Lanka to implement the recommendations of the Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC).

British Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Jeremy Browne expressed these views at the UN Human Rights Council today (Monday), the opening day of the 19^th session.

He said in his speech that where states fail, the human rights institutions of the UN should act and support change and that such actions are what the makes the council an affective human rights body able to scrutinize states’ compliance with their obligations and offer technical assistance.

“I hope the Sri Lankan government will see that it is in this spirit of support and corporation that countries call on them to implement the recommendation made by their Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission,” he said.

Lankan Tamil issue can't be held hostage to just one assassination: Rudrakumar Viswanathan, Prime Minister, TGTE

Rudrakumar Viswanathan, Prime Minister, TGTE

The voices of the Sri Lankan Tamils, demoralised by a brutal military crackdown following LTTE’s defeat, still remain unheard, especially in Sinhalese-majority Sri Lanka. But away from home, they are making efforts to regroup. Elections were held among Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora in 12 countries in 2010 to create theTransnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE)and elect Rudrakumaran Viswanathan its prime minister. So far, TGTE hasn’t got any official recognition from any country. But Viswanathan, who lives in New York, says it enjoys overt support from various groups across the world, including in India. The Lankan government calls the TGTE a terrorist outfit, but Viswanathan says his organisation wants to fight for the Sri Lankan Tamil cause through peaceful, democratic means. The 54-year-old spoke to Ullekh NP on a range of issues. Excerpts:What are your plans of action?At present, the Tamil people of Sri Lanka have absolutely no prospect of articulating their political aspirations or of exercising their fundamental rights in their homeland. The Sri Lankan government, through legal impediments, military occupation and murder, is strangling the Tamil people’s aspirations and their rights. The Tamil diaspora have formed the TGTE in order to pursue this political struggle through democratic means.

Do you have a unit in India?

In India, a TGTE solidarity centre and the Tamil Youth and Student Centre have been formed by Tamil activists in support of the TGTE. We have filled the position of nominated MPs with some representatives from India, too … we enjoy overt support from Indian activists, academics, civil society and many local politicians.

How hopeful are you of winning international community’s support for your cause?

When the truth emerges about what really happened in the final days of the war (in Sri Lanka), when the international community becomes aware that what happened in Mullivaikal (located in Northern Lanka where a hospital in the “safe zone” was allegedly bombed by the Lankan army) was genocide, when it becomes aware of how the state machinery is structurally adapted for systematic genocidal activities, when it is sensitised to the fact that the overriding concern of the Lankan government is the total obliteration of the Tamil identity, we are confident that the international community will support us … The UNSG Expert Panel Report and the Channel 4 documentary have already shocked the conscience of the international community. In the coming days, there will be many more revelations that will come from within the ranks of the army itself.

What are your goals and what are the means you plan to use to arrive at those goals?

The TGTE is a political entity formed to set up a sovereign state of Tamil Eelam (within Sri Lanka) through peaceful, democratic means…As far as the TGTE is concerned, armed struggle is not an option. However, were the TGTE to fail in its mandate, I cannot predict what would succeed us.

How are countries like India and the US responding?

We are not expecting explicit recognition from these countries. Explicit recognition of the TGTE, which openly challenges the sovereignty of the Sri Lankan government over the Tamil area, would require a radical change in the diplomatic relations of these governments with the government of Sri Lanka. However, we are confident, given the changes in the geopolitical dynamics in South Asia, the interests of India and the US and the Tamil interest will converge at one point.
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Sri Lankan Gandhis call to leaders

Feb 27, 2012 

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: "A time has come for the governments and political leaders to think of moving about without the security of armed personnel,’’ said A T Ariyaratne, founder-president of the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement in Sri Lanka.

Fondly referred to as Sri Lankan Gandhi, Ariyaratne said that a true leader should be devoid of fear like Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Speaking after releasing ‘Towards a non-killing world: Festschrift in honour of Prof Glend Paige’ here on Sunday, the veteran Gandhian said nobody likes to kill another one, including those in the armed forces.

"While visiting a military school, I asked the inmates there to raise their hands if they supported killings and nobody did. When I asked whether how many supported non-killing, all of them raised their hands,’’ he added.

Gandhi’s Sarvodaya Movement was introduced in Sri Lanka as an awakening in the first phase. "Later, we introduced family and village awakening programmes which were successful,’’ he added. The world should resort to peace and non-violence for sustenance.

Prof Ramdas, who introduced the book, said it was a great thesis on survival of humanity. "The book propagates the message of love humanity and brotherhood,’’ he said.

Guest of honour on the occasion and CGM of NABARD K Shasidhar said that the message of non-violence had great relevance in the world of conflicts. "India alone spends USD 36.036 billion a year for defence, which is 1.83 per cent of the GDP of the country,’’ he said. "This money could be channelised for development activities if the message of peace and love succeeds,’’ he said.

Peace academic denounces US-LLRC formula, urges alternative mechanism for justice

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 February 2012, 10:53 GMT]
“The US support given to UNHRC’s proposal for an accountability mechanism for Sri Lanka would not go beyond requesting GoSL to implement LLRC recommendation which legitimised war to protect the state and reduced human rights violations to the ‘misbehaviour ‘of individual soldiers,” writes Jude Lal Fernando, academic of the Trinity College, Dublin. Establishing what took place was not mere war crimes or crimes against humanity but was intended genocide by Sri Lankan state, and arguing why justice will not come from the powers that conceal the truth and stifle justice and recovery, the academic who was earlier involved in the Dublin Tribunal urges alternative international community to pursue an international independent accountability mechanism. 

In a paper sent to TamilNet this week, which is a modified version of his presentation at the 9th Biennial Conference of International Network of Genocide Scholars (INGS) in Argentina last July, Dr. Jude Lal Fernando theoretically and historically establishes why the discourse on Sri Lanka should be orientated on a genocide paradigm and not be confined to mere war crimes or crimes against humanity.

Jude Fernando is a lecturer and a post-doctoral researcher in peace studies at Trinity College, Dublin. 

• The Politics of Representations of Mass Atrocity in Sri Lanka: Challenges to Justice and Recovery

In his paper, he identifies the ideological markers of the UN panel report, thinking in the US/UK/EU and the orientation of the international human rights organisations such as the Human Rights Watch and International Crisis Group as limited, and observes that the scope for justice coming from them would also be limited.

Pointing out that there is not much difference between the rationale behind the findings and recommendations of the LLRC and the ideological markers of the forces mentioned above, Dr Fernando observes that war crime paradigm lacking historical perspective would only lead to not addressing the root cause of the conflict, to reduce the truth about mass atrocity into a mere breakdown of law and order, and to confine recovery of the victims to undefined political solution under the existing unitary state structure.

In recovering truth about mass atrocity in Sri Lanka it is of paramount importance to go beyond a single state-lens, he observes.

Asking a question, whether it is the specific intent of the GoSL or the strategic interests of global powers that dismantled the parity of esteem between the parties, and indicting SL government for the Tamil genocide and the IC for the complicity, Jude Fernando says that there is a deliberate attempt by the powers who are culpable for crimes against peace to conceal the truth and stifle justice and recovery.

He cited the recent statement of visiting US official Otero in Colombo that had softened and twisted even the phrase war crimes into ‘wartime abuses’.

Commenting on Jude Fernando’s paper, a new generation Eezham Tamil politician said: “In war and postwar the partners have the same aim. Only the tactics of deception differs. But the irony is that when a Sinhala academic like Jude Fernando, seeing the deception in the so-called international community, calls for alternative action to get justice, the Tamil National Alliance wants the Eezham Tamils not to do anything, but to remain calm.”

“Jude Fernando’s detailed discussions establishing theoretical and historical perspectives of genocide in the island are a must to be read by everyone involved in the discourse on the conflict in the island. The paper especially enlightens Tamil polity of the demands it should make, directions it should take and against which forces its struggle should be waged, the new generation Tamil politician further said.

• The Politics of Representations of Mass Atrocity in Sri Lanka: Challenges to Justice and Recovery

Tamil people in New York engage in protest in front of US Secretary of State’s

 Lankasrinews.com

[ Sunday, 26 February 2012, 03:03.59 PM GMT +05:30 ]

Tamil people in New York City of United States stage protest on 24th of Friday stressing international independent investigations against SriLanka at the UNHRC in Geneva.

People gathered in front of the office of US Secretary of State’s raise their voice on urging justice for Tamil people and also stage protest by holding various slogans on urging justice for Tamil people in SriLanka. People urge the American government to step forward on submitting resolution against Lankan government at the UNHRC session. Where the Lankan government carried out genocide attack against Tamil people in this century and also they engage in various human rights allegations in the country. ------------------------------------------------ Sri Lanka protest over UN war abuses resolution The government has said it is outraged by support for the UN move in Geneva Protests are being held across Sri Lanka against plans by Western nations to sponsor a UN motion calling for a probe into abuses during the civil war. Sri Lanka's army defeated separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in May 2009 - both sides have been accused of abuses. The UN Human Rights Council is meeting to consider a resolution into events during the closing phase of that war.  Full Story>>>