IDP camp dismantled, inmates appeal directly to International Community

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 September 2012, 10:33 GMT]
The SL military on Sunday dismantled the Cheddiku’lam IDP camp to forcefully remove the inmates, without making any permanent arrangement for their resettlement or return to their original villages. The seriously affected group is the villagers of Keappaa-pulavu of Mullaiththeevu district, whose village is now grabbed by the occupying military. The Sinhala military is quick to announce on Sunday, “There will be no more IDPs in the country from today.” On Friday, the camp inmates, having lost all confidence in Colombo government, have directly appealed for International intervention to enable them to return to their homes. The IC that abetted the genocide and herded the survivors into barbed-wire camps, now engineering even resettlement in continued complicity with genocidal Colombo, has again gone on record, commented Tamil political activists. 

• Memorandum from Keappaapulavu families in Menik Farm

On Sunday evening, the occupying Sinhala military dismantled the fences and other structures at the Cheddiku’lam IDP camp.

125 families of Keappaa-pulavu village remaining in the camp slept under trees on Sunday night.

The families didn’t want to vacate without an assurance of returning to their own homes and lands. The SL military that now occupies their village wants them to move to a school building now and then accept alternative lands in other places for resettlement.

The SL military on Sunday left the people in the camp exposed to elements, with an unsaid message that ‘if you don’t want to move, stay in this jungle infested with elephants,’ the camp inmates said.

Knowing the ‘techniques of intimidation’ of the Sinhala military and the repeatedly proven complicity of the International Community of Establishments and its institutions like the UN in subjugating them to the genocidal state of Sri Lanka, the hopeless inmates of the camp were watching the heavy vehicles transporting their belongings on Sunday night.

They were told that they would be transported to Vattaappazhai by buses on Monday morning.

They have no idea where they would be eventually dumped for ‘resettlement’.

Last week, the villagers of Chooriyapuram in the IDP camp were taken for ‘resettlement’ and were dumped at a nearby jungle tract without any facilities, including water to drink. 
   
Meanwhile, a commander of the occupying Sri Lanka Army, Maj. Gen. Boniface Perera, who is appointed by colonial Colombo as the ‘competent authority’ for IDPs in the northern region told Colombo-based Daily Mirror on Sunday that there is ‘no more displaced people in Sri Lanka from today’. 
 
“A total of 1,186 people from 361 families --the last of a group of more than 300,000 displaced during the war in the north -- will leave the Vavuniya Manik Farm [Cheddiku’lam camp] to their original places of residence in the Mullaitivu district today,” the SL commander has told.

Eezham Tamils were gagged from exposing the farce of resettlement that was on one hand engineering economic subservience of them for generations to come and was on the other hand facilitating militarisation, Sinhala colonisation, demographic changes and on the whole, a structural genocide.

Salute to the people of Keappaa-pulavu, who amidst all intimidation, braved to expose the farce and put it on record that the ‘resettlement’ is another vicious military operation of Sri Lanka carried out on the subjugated nation of Eezham Tamils, with the abetment of the International Community of Establishments and the UN, commented, alternative political activists in the island. 

SANJEEWA BANDARA RELEASED ON BAIL

VIDEO: POLICE FIRE TEAR GAS AT PROTESTORS NEAR FORT

Convener of the Inter University Students Federation (IUSF) Sanjeewa Bandara released on bail by the Colombo Fort magistrate’s Court today.

Sanjeewa Bandara was arrested by the Colombo Crimes Division last Wednesday (Sep. 19) for allegedly attacking police officers and vandalizing state property during a protest held on August 29.

He was ordered to be remanded till September 25 (today), after being produced before the Fort Magistrate, Kanishka Wijeratne, on Thursday.

Tear gas was fired to disperse crowds after protestors clashed with police personnel during the protest march organized by the IUSF from Fort Railway Station, over issues plaguing the education sector.

Bandara was arrested on Wednesday when he was returning home on a bus after a protest in Fort, reportedly by CCD officers in civilian clothing. 

IUSF CONVENER GETS BAIL...

Convener of the Inter University Students Federation (IUSF), Sanjeewa Bandara was released on bail by the Colombo Fort magistrate’s Court today (Sep. 25). Bandara was arrested by the Colombo Crimes Division last Wednesday (Sep. 19) for allegedly attacking police officers and vandalizing state property during a protest held on August 29. (Pic by Sanjeewa Lasantha) 

•  IUSF Convener Sanjeewa Bandara arrested
  Sep 19th, 2012


•  VIDEO: Police fire tear gas at protestors near Fort
  Aug 29th, 2012


•  Olcott Mawatha closed due to protest by students
  Aug 29th, 2012

UN complicit in Mu'l'livaaykaal killings, say UN humanitarian workers


[TamilNet, Monday, 24 September 2012, 00:44 GMT]
A report filed by an independent researcher based on eye-witness accounts from twelve United Nations humanitarian workers during the last phases of war ending in May 2009 on the policies implemented by Colombo, leading to starvation, deprivation of medical supplies, indiscriminate bombings of hospitals and schools in violation of UN Security Council resolution 1612 amounting to war-crimes and crimes against humanity, accuses the United Nation's officials' inaction, failure to speak out and willingness to acquiesce with the Rajapakse government's rights violations and state sanctioned killings of tens of thousands of unarmed civilians. Professor Boyle commented that Tamils should push for a UN independent commission similar to that which produced the hardhitting UN Rwanda report, and to avoid Srebrenica type report which was an inside UN job and hence was a coverup. 

• Report on UN complicity in Sri Lanka HR violations

• UN Security Council Resolution 1612

Julian Vigo, a volunteer working in Haiti after the earthquake in January 2010, and who wrote the report says she was chosen as she was "not politically or economically tied to any one organization in Haiti where the report was written. Also Vigo has not worked in Sri Lanka.

Vigo interviewed eleven humanitarian workers who were posted with various agencies within the United Nations and one Internews staff member. Some of the twelve witnesses "resigned their posts, stating they could not ethically continue working in a capacity which was creating civilian deaths," the report adds, identifying some witnesses by names.

Vigo also points out that the UN Panel of Experts report failed to include the written 'exit' reports of staff which contained "crucial ethical violations of its [UN's] own offices." 

While highlighting Colombo's policy that was intended to eliminate the LTTE without regard to the high civilian killings, where the narrative appears to provide incriminating evidence of Colombo perpetrating "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group," the report also points to UN Officials criminal responsibility in breaching their duty to act.

Professor Boyle commenting on Vigo's report said, "we already have several stories on Tamilnet where I condemn UN Complicity with GOSL genocide against the Tamils. This is just further confirmation of it. You [Tamils] could try to pressure the UN Secretary General to appoint an Independent Commission to Investigate the Role of the UN during the Vanni Massacre. That would probably require a member of the US Congress to introduce legislation to that effect and threatening to withhold the US share of UN dues if the SG does not. This is how reports were produced on the UN role in the Srebrenica genocide and the Rwanda Genocide."

Excerpts from the report follows:

Phillipe Duamelle


Neil Buhne


Amin Awad
"Sri Lankan government policy of blocking supplies to the north, under the auspices of stopping all rebel supplies throughout the conflict was utilised as the government’s cover for starving the civilian population."

"While the transport of arms is a valid concern for any government, he maintains that the ongoing attacks on civilians, hospitals, schools and the human rights abuses of children were all acts about which agencies such as UNHCR and UNICEF tacitly remained silent.

"suddenly these reports [1612 reports which detail human rights abuses] stopped being processed and that the necessary reviews of each report by committee were also ceased. In short, the 1612 mechanism failed. The filing of these reports was to ensure that certain abuses were not taking place, abuses such as the recruiting of child soldiers, maiming and murder, and attacks on hospitals and schools. This measure was enacted and carried out in Sri Lanka and the only authority ultimately responsible for safeguarding this measure and its implementation is the UN Security Council."

"...members of the Sri Lankan government partially made up these 1612 committees; hence members of the government would investigate its very own structure. Equally problematic, these committees which examine the 1612 violations were appointed on the basis of dialogue between the United Nations and the local government, a process for which there was absolutely no transparence."

"One UNICEF Protection Officer discusses how UNHCR was aware that the Sri Lankan army engaged in human rights atrocities in violation of the Security Resolution 1612 as villages were destroyed and schools and hospitals attacked. Natalie Grove, a former UNICEF Child Protection Officer who worked in Sri Lanka in the last months of the conflict, documented 11 separate incidents of attacks on or near hospitals and medical facilities in the Vanni between 15 December, 2008 through 15 January, 2009.

"Grove also drafted a briefing note entitled “Humanitarian Situation in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu Districts: Newly Arrived IDPs in Mannar, Vavuniya and Jaffna” (3 April 2009) which documents 1612 Violations. In this briefing, there are 27 incidents reported to UNICEF of these violations which range from illegal shelling most of which point to the Sri Lankan Army as the perpetrator. There were also reports of violations allegedly committed by the LTTE (The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam), but no allegations have been verified.

"The consensus from every single informant with whom I spoke to on this subject is that many of the 20,000 dead in the final months was due to the failure in the system of the Resolution 1612 reports and their followup. There was a moral bankruptcy, according to every informant, of UNICEF’s and UNHCR’s role in keeping information of the atrocities marginalised and silenced while conterminously appeasing the Sri Lankan government."

"One UNICEF officer told me of a study made on malnutrition in Sri Lanka; however this study was stopped midway through, according to this informant, because the study demonstrated that malnutrition increased rather than decreased after the UNHCR presence."

"James Elder told The Australian newspaper, “The nutritional situation of children [in the camps] is a huge concern for UNICEF, and restrictions on access hinder our ability to save lives,” Elder’s comments do match the realities presented by these other UN workers whose experiences narrate how these UN agencies acted in complicity —albeit it a passive complicity—with the abuses of the Sri Lankan government."

The report, in conclusion says, "[a]ccording to all twelve informants here, the key players within UN agencies have not suffered any repercussions for the delinquency of their professional duties towards the mission of their respective agencies. The top senior level players to whom they refer in Sri Lanka are namely Philippe Duamelle, Amin Awad, Neil Buhne and Andy Brooks. Each of these men has either been shifted in duty station or given a significant promotion with absolutely no inquiry into the repeated End of Mission reports which do clearly put these men’s actions and ethics into question."

War displaced urge UN to stop them being removed to transit camps

The United Nations has been called upon to intervene in preventing hundreds of Tamil war displaced families from being removed to transit camps away from their homes in northern Sri Lanka.

In an appeal to the UN human rights chief, former parliamentarian Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam says that those remaining in the Chettikkulam war displaced Camp in Vavuniya Menik Farm, have been threatened to be removed on Monday the 24th of September by the military.

Military threats

The threat by an army officer has been made at a meeting held with the military, government officials and representatives of the war displaced following a demonstration opposing plans to remove the displaced to the Vattrapallai school premises. The demonstration was attended by the war displaced living with host families in Vattrapallai and by representatives of the Tamil National Alliance, Democratic People's Front, Nava Sama Samaja Party and the New Democratic Marxist Leninist Party. Protesters were intimidated by suspected military personnel, and vehicles carrying Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) President and general secretary have been attacked on Friday the 21st of September.

Along with his letter to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navaneethan Pillai, Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) President Ponnambalam has sent a petition signed by those in the Menik farm who call to be resettled in their native village.  The petition ‘would have had more signatories if the Sri Lanka Army had not prevented people from inside the Menik Farm camp, from attending the protest held on Friday' says the TNPF leader in his letter to the UN.

Petition by war displaced

The petitioners from Keppapulavu in the Mullaitheevu district,who have been forced to flee the war, have accused the military of blocking resettlement by grabbing their ancestral land. ‘A huge military base has been built in our village and the Government of Sri Lanka has no intention of resettling us in Keppapulavu,’ their petition says. They have expressed fear that their rations will be discontinued in order to force them to comply with been removed to a transit camp. TNPF leader Ponnambalam has told the UN High Commissioner Pillai that the war displaced ‘are not going to be allowed to return to their original lands in Keappapulavu as the military has begun to build their permanent base in the area that covers the entire village’.

‘Short term diplomatic goals’

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has highlighted the plight of hundreds of thousands of war displaced yet to be resettled in their original homelands. Tamil parliamentarian M Sumanthiran informed Sri Lanka’s Parliament in October last year that over 2,00,000 war displaced removed from the Menik Farm have been forced to live in transit camps or with host families. His findings have not been challenged by authorities.

TNPF leader Ponnambalam says that the Sri Lankan government wants to publicly display that it has closed down the Chettikulam camp before the UNHRC sessions in Geneva in November. The UNHRC is expected to review Sri Lanka’s human rights in its November session.

“I am sure you would agree with me that the people can't be used as pawns by the Government to attain its short term diplomatic goals,” the TNPF leader has told the UN human rights chief Navi Pillai.

I Dream Of A Country…
[Inspired by Meena Kandasamy’s ;  “I Dream Of An English”]

 

by Sunalie Ratnayake

( September 25, 2012, Los Angeles, Sri Lanka Guardian)

I dream of a country;

where the soothing breeze may kiss my face with all its true candor,

a breeze that shall pacify the frames of a thousand shattered lives,

perhaps even more - tens of thousands so dear,

lives crushed by myriad jingoists of the hour,

and that breeze, I dream to have never seen,

the two-faced, unmindful culprits insincere,

the ones who have wounded every notion of humanity, through the façade of command,

seeming to continue their filthy drive, till they suck every bit of gore,

leaving the everyday-citizen, in the dark, as a sheer skeleton bone,

I dream such dominants to vanish, into mere thin overhead air,

but also worry, their malice may loam, once a clean and comforting midair.

I dream of a country;

where the trees of coconut, booming bunches of yield,

forming arcs that aim the briny blue sea,

such contours and dimensions of nature’s flair,

as they swing to and fro, swiping the water’s rim,

to croon the melodies of ten-thousands of tales,

indescribable, concealed, conveniently wrapped-up in an era bygone,

in the least, I dream for the saplings to remain,

holding witness to unsettled spiteful mortal pain.

I dream of a country;

where the golden fields of paddy shall behold - with its cumbersome grains impregnated and bold,

the tales of gloom, of thy farmers jinxed and sore - with no names, no titles, no revenue, no homes,

their spouses and daughters, sons, kith and kin - the inheritors of this curse, a livelihood deficient in gains,

with no retort for them to even dimly sustain,

yes, in a country as such, I dream and I dream,

for the fields to chant loud, let thy voices echo,

to the bearers of office, till their lobes would explode – till their guilt may galore,

the tales of those who gave life,

to the field’s grandeur,

now, the same fields of paddy, that saw sunshine in their grower’s hands,

brazenly confined to a pictorial backdrop,

of a movie, a visual in goggle-box - God only knows,

while the farmer’s retort remain suicidal thoughts,

as the grains go rotten inside dripping carryalls,

I dream for this shocking plight of the provider of our diet - to be swiftly reformed,

before more suicides are caught,

the sharecropper who should otherwise be festooned by us all..

[Inspired by Meena Kandasamy’s ;  “I Dream Of An English”]

Sunalie Ratnayake is a Sri Lankan Jour

Read more »

Tamil Canadian Walk-O-Thon Raises $45,000 For Charity

News East-West Web Desk


TORONTO: Many MPs joined Tamil Canadians in raising over $45,000 in support of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) at their 4th Annual Tamil Canadian Walk at the Thomson Memorial Park on Sunday.
The event featured a five-kilometer walk, speeches, free BBQ, games and fun activities.
Apart from hundreds of supporters from the community, more than 25 partnering organizations from Tamil Canadians walked with banners in hand. “With the generous support of hundreds of community members, sponsors, partners, media outlets, and businesses, the campaign has reached an impressive $45,000 up to now,’’ the organizers – the Canadian Tamil Congress – said in a press release.
Among those who addressed the gathering were Roxanne James, MP for Scarborough-Centre, Rathika Sitsabaiesan, MP for Scarborough-Rouge River, Dr. Kirsty Duncan, MP for Etobicoke North, Soo Wong, MPP for Scarborough-Agincourt, Logan Kanapathy, Councillor for the City of Markham, Neethan Shan, President of NDP Ontario, Dr. Rajes Logan, Chair of CMDDA and Dr. Priya Jeganathan, co-chair for the walk-a-thon.

Congratulatory messages from Ontario Premier Hon. Dalton McGuinty, Federal NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair and Federal Liberal Party Leader Bob Rae were also read at the event.
Roxanne James also brought greetings from the Prime Minister and the government of Canada. Sarah Downey, Executive Vice President, spoke on behalf of CAMH and expressed her sincere gratitude for the Canadian Tamil Congress’s support this year.
Over the years, the CTC has coordinated fundraising efforts for many great organizations such as Sick Kids Foundation ($42,000) in 2009, the Canadian Cancer Society ($36,000) in 2010 and Amnesty International ($50,000) in 2011.
The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) is Canada’s largest mental health and addiction teaching hospital. It is affiliated with the University of Toronto, and is a Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization Collaborating Centre.

Major assaulted by Malaka to be removed

Tuesday, 25 September 2012

The President has decided to remove Major Chandana Pradeep Soorasena from the Army Intelligence Unit, who was assaulted by Minister Mervyn Silva’s son, Malaka and later came forward to save the ministerial son. The decision to remove has been made in order to cover the negative impact the incident has had on the government and the military.

Presidential advisors have noted that some action had to be taken against the people’s rising objections against the fact that the Major had betrayed the Army. The Army Commander has appointed a three member committee to inquire into the incident and recommend the future course of action.

It is learnt that these actions are aimed at misleading the public as usual. The Army Commander has taken this step on a Presidential directive following the public sentiment against the entire court drama between Malaka and the Major.

Intelligence head of the Defence Ministry retired Major General Hendevitharana has assured the Major on a Presidential directive that he would be offered an overseas job after his removal from the force and that the future prospects of his family would be taken care of.

One of Mervyn Silva’ sponsors have already come forward to make an immediate payment of a sum of Rs. 1 million to the Major.

Fort Magistrate Kanishka Wijeratane had also got involved in the court drama following and order from the Presidential Secretariat. He had continuously questioned the Major on the incident at the last court hearing according to the script of this political drama.

However, a dinner was held to celebrate Malaka’s release through state patronage. Malaka’s lawyers as well as those of the aggrieved party, in this instance the Major, have also attended the dinner. After the dinner, Malaka together with his friends and Iranian girl friend have gone to night clubs to continue the party.

19th Amendment: Impunity For VIP Brats?

By Malinda Seneviratne -September 25, 2012

Malinda Seneviratne

Someone who was at the wrong place at the wrong time was assaulted.  Now let’s assume, as has been alleged, that Major Chandana Pradeep was not on duty at that moment.  Let’s assume that he was engaged in some illegal activity.  Let us assume that even though he was an Army Intelligence Officer who could have been carrying out duty-work in off-duty time due to an important development related to the particular brief, he was not doing anything of the sort.

If all of this or even some of it is true then Major Chandana Pradeep, regardless of his invaluable contribution to the cause of wiping out terrorism, should be charged on account of his transgressions.  Nothing wrong with that.  Discipline in discipline.  Exceptional performance is not akin to a credit balance that allows one to use a debit card for transgression.

All this is fine. Above board.  Punishable crimes invite inquiry and punishment.  You cross the line and you are stopped.  That’s how it goes in the Army.

Punishment of transgression, however, is not the preserve of the Army.  It is not only the security forces that have rules and regulations. Every institution has them.  And above all of it is the general law of the country.

The injured Major Chandana Pradeep

The said Army Major was assaulted. That was news.  He said he can’t identify some of his assailants. That too was news and news that invited a lot of commentary. Why did he change his story and who or what was behind the change of position?  Indeed even the Magistrate hearing the case asked this question.  The Magistrate wanted the footage from CCTV cameras to be examined by the Police.  He even instructed the Police to determine whether a charge will be filed against the Major for having lied.  That too was news.

The main two suspects, Malaka Silva and Rehan Wijeratne, were enlarged on bail.  News.  They’re not talked about now.  They’ve gone off the news radar apparently.  That’s ‘news’, i.e. not the fact that they are out of jail but the fact that they’ve gone off the radar.

Whatever the Major was doing or not doing at the JAIC Hilton that night, he was assaulted.  This was not some kind of attempt to execute a ‘citizens’ arrest’ or a Good Samaritan act to stop some heinous crime being committed.  The assailants had no business to throw their weight around in the way they did.  Even if Malaka and Rehan did not throw punches (and they haven’t been cleared of that; the CCTV footage will establish guilt or innocence), they were present and if they didn’t do it, then it was their friends, bodyguards or goons who assaulted the Major.  It is hard to imagine such minions operating on their own initiative.  They can be charged, therefore, at best, on grounds of being accessories after the fact of felony.

The Major is in the news.  That’s deflection.  That’s sweeping issue under the carpet.  That is wrong.  If it is not, then the constitution must be amended.  We can have a 19^th Amendment to the effect that Ministerial Brats (or ‘Privileged Brats’) have the license to do as they please, including indulge in any act of thuggery.  Something like vehicle permits for MPs.  The Legal Draftsman can put it down in appropriate language, but we can call it the Double-O Amendment or the Tiger Amendment, because just like James Bond, 007, had the license to kill, so did the LTTE.  Neither was constitutional, but it is best to do things ‘within the law’.  Then it can be monitored and/or regulated.  Like alcohol and tobacco.  Like certain drugs such as cannabis in the Netherlands.

For now, though, the news is that Malaka and Rehan are not newsworthy.  That says a lot about the media.

Daily Editorial’ of www.nation.lk

Sri Lanka closes huge Menik Farm displacement camp

The camp once housed more than a quarter of a million people

A Sri Lankan camp for displaced people - once one of the largest in the world - has closed, officials have said.

The final 1,160 residents of the Menik Farm camp, in the country's north, left on Monday.

The jungle camp sprang up to accommodate Tamil civilians caught up in the violence of the final months of Sri Lanka's war in 2009.

At one point, the camp housed 300,000 people, displaced as the army pursued and annihilated the Tamil Tigers.

Civil society activists estimate that about 26,000 people remain displaced by military occupation of their land in Sri Lanka.

But the UN has praised the government's resettlement programme, with one official describing it as "remarkable".

The BBC's Charles Haviland, in Colombo, says that there is, however, some unhappiness that a sizeable number of the families cannot return to their homes and villages.

Some 70% of those rehoused from the Menik camp have returned to their home area of Manthuvil, near the scene of the last fighting.

Others, however, have returned to a new site as the military has taken over their home village of Keppapilavu.

Landmines

Foreign donors have helped with the return of villagers to their homes but not with relocation to new sites, which they say contravenes UN guidelines on resettlement.

Residents said they were both excited and worried by the prospect of finally returning home.

"I know there is nothing to return to," Ilangithirayan Saumyamurthy, from Jaffna district, told news agency Irin.

"Starting all over again - even with assistance - won't be easy."

Sri Lankan Resettlement Minister Gunaratne Weerakoon told Irin that there were several reasons why closing the camp had taken three years.

"Demining is still in progress in Mullaitivu district and some areas are not declared safe yet. Besides, material for home reconstruction has to be provided as many homes are nothing more than rubble and are not habitable."

According to the UN Development Programme, some 43 sq miles (112 sq km) of land remains contaminated with landmines, across 10 districts.

The Menik Farm camp was notorious because for several months its inhabitants were locked inside, not allowed to leave while the government screened them for possible links to the Tigers and tried to assess how sympathetic they were to the rebels.

When the BBC visited the camp in 2009, people complained of a lack of water and said that the poor sanitation was making them ill.

It is not immediately clear what the Sri Lankan authorities plan to do with the site, which includes several schools and hospitals. The government has said it will be made available for public purposes.

WikiLeaks:Basil Discloses Plan To Decongest Manik Farm

By Colombo Telegraph –September 24, 2012

Basil Rajapaksa

“Senior Advisor to the President Basil Rajapaksa told Charge and A/DCM that the GSL planned to move forward with significant IDP resettlement before the monsoon season begins in October. When pressed, Rajapaksa said as many as 100,000 would be released, including students, religious leaders, the elderly, and others. It remained unclear, however, how the GSL would deal with the looming catastrophe of the those remaining in the camps. In response to Charge’s recent letter to the GSL noting that four de-mining partners receiving U.S. funding were not working to capacity, Rajapaksa claimed they had not finished the tasks assigned.” the US Embassy Colombo informed Washington.

A Leaked “CONFIDENTIAL” US diplomatic cable, dated August 24, 20o9, recounts the details of a meeting the US officials in Colombo has had with Senior Advisor to the President Basil Rajapaksa. The Colombo Telegraph found the related leaked cable from the WikiLeaks database which is written by Charge D’Affaires James R. Moore.

Under the subheading “The Blame Game” Moore wrote “On August 21, Charge and A/DCM met with Senior Presidential Advisor, Member of Parliament, and President’s brother Basil Rajapaksa to discuss Government of Sri Lanka (GSL) plans to deal with the potentially disastrous situation in the IDP camps at Manik Farm when monsoon rains arrive in early October. His initial response was to blame the UN for not installing the proper tents or toilets and claimed the UN had not reimbursed the GSL for its work in land clearing and road construction in Manik Farm. Mentioning A/S Blake’s interview that same day with CNN, he stated that the GSL had not received one cent from the international community for IDPs, only in-kind materials and it was not fair to blame the GSL for the situation in the camps.”

Placing a comment he wrote “Once again Rajapaksa seemed eager to convey the impression that the GSL was on top of the situation and now had in its hands the registration and other data needed for a resettlement plan. It remains clear, however, that the GSL is holding its plans very close to its chest and is not engaging the UN or international donors in its plans. In addition, by tightly controlling the tasks released to the demining organizations while continuing to state that demining is key, brings into question what the GSL’s real plans are and what the true rationale is for not releasing the IDPs. Post’s assessment is that it is possible up to 100,000 IDPs will be released before the end of September but highly unlikely that the GSL will allow freedom of movement for those remaining. While the GSL and the UN will strive to improve the conditions for those remaining in Manik Farm, it is not clear that a humanitarian catastrophe will be averted by those actions”.

Read the cable below for further details;

Protect TN Fishermen From Attacks: HC to Coast Guard

SEP 24, 2012
Madras High Court bench here today directed Indian Coast Guard to file an affidavit on future steps and those already taken to protect Indian fishermen from attacks allegedly by Sri Lankan Naval personnel in the Palk Strait.

Hearing a batch of petitions seeking protection to the fishermen, Justice Vinod K Sharma and Justice A Selvam also asked the central and state governments to furnish in detail steps taken by them to prevent the fishermen from crossing over into Sri Lankan waters and getting attacked.

The Coast Guard should specify steps taken to protect Indian fishermen when they fish in Indian territorial waters; to prevent them from crossing into Sri Lankan waters and getting killed, the court stated.

"You should ensure that they do not cross the International Maritime Boundary Line. Tell us the steps taken to protect them," the Judges said.

When the Judges asked the Additional Solicitor General why fishermen were getting killed if they were being given protection, the ASG said Sri Lankan Navy was denying having killed Indian fishermen.

They, however, made it clear that it was not possible for the court to give any direction to the government to give protection to the Indian fishermen in Sri Lankan waters.

Tamil Nadu Government Pleader Pugazhendi said 150 FIRs had

been registered regarding attacks on the fishermen, though some cases had been dropped.

He said the cases had been registered based on complaint forwarded by the fisheries department on the recommendation of the Coast Guard and it was not possible for the state police to protect the fishermen in the sea.

The Judges rejected a plea by the petitioners, including city based advocate Stalin, for providing guns to fishermen. "This court cannot give such directions. That will amount to court asking to wage a war."

Petitioner's advocate Peter Ramesh Kumar said incidents of attacks had taken place in Indian waters even after court directions to give protection to fishermen.

The judges also asked details of cases filed against those who crossed the IMBL and adjourned the hearing to September 28.

Open Letter to the Commonwealth Secretary-General?

https://civicus.org/images/Open_Letter_to_the_Commonwealth_Secretary_General__21_09_2012

Sunday, 23 September 2012, 5:36Please print it and send it to your parliamentarian:

21 September 2012

Open Letter to the Commonwealth Secretary-General

Dear Secretary-General,

When Commonwealth countries announced at the 2011 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Australia that Sri Lanka could host CHOGM 2013, they agreed to actively promote and uphold the fundamental values and principles of the Commonwealth, including human rights and the rule of law.

We therefore urge you to press for adequate and satisfactory human rights progress in Sri Lanka by CHOGM 2013. We believe that the failure of the Commonwealth and its members to do so would be contrary to the Commonwealth’s values and principles, and undermine its credibility.

It has come to our attention through the media that you have called for Canada to forego its human rights related objections and fully participate in the CHOGM 2013 in Sri Lanka – where you reportedly saw no deficit in the spirit of democracy. If true, such a call to drop human rights concerns is unprecedented in Commonwealth history.

We draw your attention to grave human rights violations in Sri Lanka that have been internationally recognised and reports of ongoing human rights violations that are regularly highlighted. Despite Sri Lanka’s repeated denial, these serious and persistent violations have been widely documented by the UN Secretary- General’s Panel of Experts on Sri Lanka in 2011. They also led to a UN Human Rights Council resolution on the country earlier this year.

In fact on the same day your statement was reported, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights named Sri Lanka as one of 16 countries in the world that have gone unpunished for intimidation and reprisals against critics.

Even by the relatively lower standards of recommendations made by Sri Lanka’s own Commission of Inquiry on Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation (LLRC), little or no progress has been made. Within the country, most mechanisms set up to comply with international and domestic standards are more cosmetic than real.

In the light of serious international criticism of Sri Lanka over its human rights record, the absence of convincing evidence on Sri Lanka’s willingness to work with international human rights concerns and the absence of any publicly known Commonwealth benchmarks for progress in Sri Lanka ahead of CHOGM, we are surprised at the Commonwealth Secretariat’s willingness to canvass Heads of Governments to participate in CHOGM 2013.

We urge the Commonwealth Secretariat to require that Sri Lanka must demonstrate the ‘spirit of democracy’ with practical steps to tackle patent gaps in human rights, democracy and governance which have repeatedly attracted international concern.

The Commonwealth Secretariat must lay down benchmarks of discernable, quantifiable and measurable steps that the government of Sri Lanka must take before it can hope to host a CHOGM that has the wholehearted participation of both Heads of Governments and civil society.

We believe such benchmarks must at a minimum lead the government of Sri Lanka to:

1. Fully restore the rule of law;

2. Lift restrictions on the enjoyment of all fundamental freedoms for all people within its borders ;

3. Restore Constitutional provisions that guarantee separation of powers and re-instate the independence of the three branches of government;

4. Restore the independence of government institutions such as the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission and ensure meaningful domestic implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;

5. Repeal or amend laws, including the Prevention of Terrorism Act, that do not conform to international human rights standards,

6. Institute effective mechanisms to protect journalists, civil society groups and human rights defenders who work for the promotion and protection of human rights;

7. Allow full and credible international investigations into all allegations concerning violations of international humanitarian law in the country; and

8. Fulfil all recommendations directed to it by the UN Secretary General’s Panel of Experts and those recommendations of its own LLRC that are consistent with the recommendations of the UN Panel.

In the context of the ongoing Commonwealth reform process, only such principled action by the Commonwealth Secretariat will be indicative of the official Commonwealth’s willingness to truly reform itself and to apply values of human rights, good governance and democracy.

As a part of this reform process, at the 2011 CHOGM it was agreed that your office would work with the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) to address all serious or persistent violations of Commonwealth values. This was to be an important step in strengthening the CMAG. In pursuing this commitment it is imperative that your office and CMAG do not leave grave international concern over human rights violations in Sri Lanka unaddressed.

We understand that as the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth your duties include implementing political decisions taken by Commonwealth Heads of Governments, including the 2009 decision to let Sri Lanka host the 2013 CHOGM. At the same time, your position as the highest official of the Commonwealth comes with an obligation to strongly uphold, at all times, all the fundamental values of the Commonwealth.

At this time of Commonwealth renewal, we believe that upholding the core values of the Commonwealth naturally has precedence over other concerns.

Sincerely,

CIVICUS World Alliance for Citizens Participation
Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative
Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)
Human Rights Law Centre (Australia)
Human Rights Watch
Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace & Justice
United Nations Association of the UK