Solheim’s politics, UN role in SL criticized at Frances Harrison’s book launch event

Stephen Sackur, Alan Keenan, Erik Solheim and Yasmin Sooka

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 October 2012, 07:24 GMT]
Even as Erik Solheim tried to sell stories that the LTTE leadership was responsible for the Mu’l’livaaykkaal massacre at the book launch event of Frances Harrison’s ‘Still Counting the Dead’ at London on Friday, solidarity activists and members from Eezham Tamil diaspora in the audience criticized his role as a failed peace-broker and the unjust role of the UN and the International Community of Establishments in leading to the genocidal massacre of the Eezham Tamils in May 2009. Ms. Harrison’s book, which presents the different types of atrocities that the Eezham Tamils endured at the hands of the Sri Lankan forces through case histories, also had some insights on the silence of world powers as the Sri Lankan government carried its onslaught on the Eezham Tamils.
 
Frances Harrison, former BBC correspondent who reported on the conflict in the island from Colombo during the years 2000 to 2004, based her book on personal testimonies of survivors of Sri Lanka’s war on the Tamil people. 

Frances Harrison

The book release was accompanied by a panel discussion with Norwegian politician Erik Solheim, who acted as mediator of the failed peace process between the LTTE and the GoSL, Alan Keenan, ICG’s Sri Lanka Project Director, and Yasmin Sooka, from the UN panel of experts who had compiled the UN report on war crimes in Sri Lanka, which was moderated by Stephen Sackur, BBC’s Hard Talk presenter. 

Ms. Sooka was of the opinion that the figure of 40000 Tamil civilians dead that the UN panel of reports arrived at was likely to be higher, at around 75000. Sooka further said that the GoSL was yet to provide a list of detainees.

Mr. Keenan, referring to the Mannar Bishop’s figure of more than 146000 disappeared at the end of the war, said that this number might be an ‘exaggeration’, claiming that 50-70000 was the likely number of the disappeared.

When Ms. Sooka said that the panel of experts was not allowed to enter Sri Lanka, a question was posed by the moderator why Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary-General was unable to compel Sri Lanka to allow this. To this, Ms. Sooka’s response was that Sri Lanka was a sovereign country. Mr. Sackur also questioned the relevance of the International Criminal Court, that hauled up those responsible for riots leading to the death of about 1500 people in Kenya, but did nothing in the case of Sri Lanka. 

Erik Solheim put forth the argument that if the LTTE had agreed to an organized surrender the international powers would have prevented the massacre that had followed. 

Throughout the event, Mr. Solheim took care to highlight that a major portion of the blame for Mu’l’livaaykkaal lay on the LTTE leadership. This was sharply contested in the Q and A session by many in the audience.

He further said that the diaspora should be working with the TNA, taking the latter as the leadership, and that Tamil aspirations for ‘self-government’ in Sri Lanka would get support in the IC. Alan Keenan also expressed similar opinions on the diaspora engaging with TNA. 

Sasithar Maheswaran, an Eezham Tamil youth activist in the UK, referring to inconsistencies in Solheim’s arguments, questioned the credibility of the logic behind this so called ‘organized surrender’. He asked the Norwegian politician if this plan was applicable in January 2009, when the latter had claimed that world powers and India would have compelled the GoSL to treat the surrender, why couldn’t the same materialize in May or June 2009. 

Many in the audience alleged that Solheim was evading answers to pertinent questions. 

Mr. Rajamanoharan, an Eezham Tamil activist in UK, questioned whether Solheim was working for India. Tamil Nadu activist Srinivasa Rao accused that what India wanted to do in 1987, Solheim had facilitated in 2009. 

Academics Dr. Amanda Latimer and Dr. Radha D’Souza raised questions on the UK and India providing arms and other help to the genocide-accused Sri Lankan government. 

Callum Macrae from Channel 4, Benjamin Dix, a British aid worker who was working with the UN in the Tamil homeland till the UN agencies pulled out in September 2008, and Christine Bacon, a theatre activist, also spoke at the event.

Action Against Hunger demands justice for Muttur murders

Fri, 5 Oct 2012 10:27 GMT

Source: Member

Action Against Hunger is calling on the United Nations to launch an independent investigation to finally bring those responsible for the murders of 17 aid workers in Sri Lanka in 2006 to justice.

Justice for Muttur - Action Against Hunger by justiceformuttur-ACF

Six years after the humanitarian organisation’s team were executed at their offices in the town of Muttur, investigations in Sri Lanka have been hindered and obstructed, with the perpetrators still not been held to account.

On August 4 2006, armed men stormed Action Against Hunger’s offices in Muttur, forced 17 staff members on to their knees and then executed each of them with a bullet to the back of the head. This is one of the most serious crimes ever committed against humanitarian workers.

Despite three national investigations in Sri Lanka since 2006, none of the perpetrators have been brought to justice. The investigations have been plagued with obstruction, interference of politics in the judiciary and a lack of transparency and independence.

After 26 years of war and 100,000 people dead, on November 1st the Human Rights Council of the United Nations in Geneva is launching a review of the human rights situation in Sri Lanka.

Action Against Hunger believes this might be the last chance to ensure this war crime against the aid workers is not forgotten.  Therefore, Action Against Hunger is calling for an international and independent UN investigation, to force the Sri Lankan authorities to finally account for the massacre.

We urge the public to sign our petition for an independent investigation, so the United Nations can end the impunity in Sri Lanka. Our petition will be handed over to the President of the Human Rights Council of the United Nations on 22nd of October. 

Bus collision in Jaffna: kills 3

[ Friday, 05 October 2012, 12:17.32 PM GMT +05:30 ]

Two drivers and 11 passengers were severely injured from a bus accident occurred at Point Pedro road this afternoon.

Police media spokesman SP Ajith Rohana stated Bus travelling from Point Pedro collided with a private bus transporting passengers towards Tangalle area. More than 10 individuals severely injured from the accident and rushed to the Jaffna Teaching hospital. Private bus driver Annalingam Amitharaj (34) resident of Udupitty area and Vlautham Senthi succumbed to their injuries. K.Thushara Ruwan and two other Sinhala youths were also injured from accident and currently receiving treatment at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital. Several other injured were receiving treatment in the ICU unit. Irupalai police hold further investigations this regard.

Concern over Sri Lanka kidney disease
05 Oct 2012 
Incurable ailment linked to farming chemicals prompts calls for controls on pesticide use.

Thousands of Sri Lankans suffer from an incurable kidney disease that researchers have linked to chemicals used in modern agriculture. Unlike other kidney conditions, Chronic Kidney Disease of unknown etiology or CKDu has baffled the medical community. Now the World Health Organisation is calling for better controls on the use of pesticides and fertilisers in Sri Lanka. Al Jazeera's Minelle Fernandez reports from Anuradhapura. ‘Govt members beholden to multinational firms’– Rathana Thera BUDDHIST MONKS Urge govt. to stop import of harmful pesticides By Sriyani Wijesinghe-Sunday 23 September 2012 led a mass demonstration in Colombo last week urging the government to take action to control the kidney disease prevalent in the North Central Province, and to stop importing pesticides which contain arsenic and mercury. Ruling UPFA MP Athuraliye Rathana Thera charged that some members of the UPFA regime have become beholden to multinational firms that are into importing pesticides brands of inferior quality, due to the large-scale commissions that they would accrue to them, and said that it is time to inform the public of the double standards practiced by this administration. Time for a wake-up call In addition to the kidney disease that is spreading rapidly in the Anuradhapura district, cancer too has started to spread its tentacles in the same region. It is alleged that cancer has started to claim lives of both the young and old, irrespective of their gender, and sources say that the number of cancer patients have increased a hundred fold. The thera said that the time has come to give the government a wake-up call in order to make them realize the gravity of the situation and that a programme in this regard would commence in the near future. Ven. Athuraliye Thera charged that something sinister is going on since the government is not prepared to publicize the WHO report which has detailed the reasons for the kidney disease in the NCP escalating, and charged that even state officials are acting according to the dictates of multinational firms. He added that the conduct of the pesticides registrar too has left much to be desired. The pesticides registrar had initially branded 10 pesticides products as being unhealthy for humans but subsequently this same person had deemed that there is no issue with the pesticides that were initially declared as not suitable for use. Stringent action The thera therefore questioned what type of action should be taken against such officials, and went on to say that the most stringent possible action should be taken against such officials. He added that if the government fails to take action against such individuals, he will personally take the initiative to punish those responsible for such issues. Ven. Rathana Thera averred that around 20,000 farmers have fallen victim to the kidney disease in the NCP and that a further 100,000 are already receiving treatment for the same, countrywide. He said as a result, the lifespan of the people in the country is in threat of being curtailed. ‘There are several theories; I don’t know which one is correct’ - Mahinda Yapa Abeywardene If Ven. Rathana Thera says that the government has been manipulated by companies involved in importing pesticides products and brands, and therefore the masses will be brought to the streets to launch a massive protest against the government in this regard, I think it is a good move. As a responsible Cabinet minister I too will extend my support towards such an endeavour. However, I do not intend to delve at length on pesticides and such products as there are different institutes that have been set up to deal with these issues. Some say that one of the main reasons for the rapid spread of kidney disease is the presence of lethal toxins such as arsenic in pesticides and water being contaminated with these chemicals. We need to go deep into these matters. And there is no problem if experts in the field, the masses, religious leaders and politicians talk about these issues at length. But there are several theories that have been put across and I do not know which is correct at the moment. There are also several bodies that have been set up to look into such matters. I am only the Minister of Agriculture. What I would like to tell the people is if pesticides and other such products are of inferior quality then do abstain from using them. If they do need to use these products then I would advise that they be used moderately.

A dedication From A Daughter To Her Missing Parents

October 5, 2012 

My name is Abisha and I’m eleven years old. I am an only child. My father’s name is Chandrasekaram. He would be 48 years old today if he is alive. But in 2003, when I was less than two years old, he went missing. I still look for him amongst strangers, in the hope he is still alive. But so far, I have heard nothing about him.

Abisha

My mother is the fortunate one to no longer suffer on this earth; she died due to an artillery shell on the 17^th of March 2009. Since then, all I have are my maternal grandparents, who mean the world to me. My grandfather is 72 years old and my grandmother is 65. Despite being elderly and frail, they do their very best to take care of me. I work hard to prove I’m worthy of their support.

This year in grade 5 scholarship exam, I was awarded 148 points, placing me 89th in the district. It was made possible by the encouragement from my grandparents and the help I received from the SJC87 initiative’s Year 5 intensive program and model paper discussions.

I dedicate all the accolades I receive for this achievement, to my father and mother. My parents had wanted me to become a doctor. My ambition is to fulfil this dream of theirs. I believe my success will make my mother’s soul rest in peace.

Abisha, 11 years old, Konavil, Sri Lanka

There are many children like Abisha who are survivors in every sense of the word. Despite the challenges they face, they succeed beyond expectations, proving their resilience. But they can’t do it alone. They need the support of their community locally and internationally, to overcome the obstacles they now face and become a significant part of Sri Lanka’s bright future.

The article is sent by the sjc87initiative.org , which is a non political humanitarian initiative and is a registered charity in Australia and Sri Lanka. It is voluntarily run by a team of professionals and local representatives including the Principals of the nominated schools in order to ensure greater accountability and transparency. The initiative is committed to make a positive difference in the lives of the war affected children in the nominated schools and reaching out the community through the schools.

Visit us at www.sjc87initiative.org The SJC 87 Initiative is designed to assist war affected children in in the North and East of Sri Lanka. The program aids them to gain a solid education in the fourteen nominated schools in Sri Lanka. The SJC87 Initiative promotes holistic educational development for children and youth affected by the 30 year old civil war in Sri Lanka. SJC87 Initiative is registered as a charity in NSW, Australia (registration number INC9892583, Charity fund raising number CFN/21586). We also registered as a Trust in Sri Lanka.

Woman faces seven charges in fraud investigation,
Shanmugarajani Thangarajah, 46, of Markham,
Photograph of accused release

Broadcast time: 14:05
Thursday, October 4, 2012
41 Division
416−808−4100
The Toronto Police Service has been conducting an ongoing mortgage fraud investigation.
See previous release.
While conducting that fraud investigation, multiple other alleged financial crimes came to light.
It is alleged that:
− the accused used the victim’s identification to create and register a fraudulent shell
company to mislead a financial institution to approve a fraudulent mortgage application
− the accused used various aliases: Rajani Thangarajah, Meenu Gobinath and Meenu Gobi
− victims were vulnerable women of the East Indian community
− a portion of the funds that were approved through the fraudulent credit application were
taken by the accused
− the accused would further instruct the victims to redirect funds to various bank accounts
On Thursday, October 4, 2012, at 9:45 a.m., Shanmugarajani Thangarajah, 46, of Markham,
was arrested and charged with:
1. Conspiracy to Commit Indictable Offence
2. Possession Property Obtained by Crime
3. Uttering Forged Document
4. Attempt Fraud Over
5. Fraud Over
6. Personation with Intent
7. Laundering Proceeds of Crime
She was scheduled to appear in court at College Park Court on Thursday, October 4, 2012, 2
p.m., room 501

Police believe there may be more victims. A photograph of the accused has been released.
The initial fraud investigation is ongoing and additional suspects remain outstanding.
Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416−808−4107, Crime Stoppers
anonymously at 416−222−TIPS (8477), online at www.222tips.com, text TOR and your
message to CRIMES (274637), or Leave A Tip on Facebook. Download the free Crime
Stoppers Mobile App on iTunes, Google Play or Blackberry App World.

Constable Wendy Drummond, Corporate Communications, for Detective Constable Robert
Brown, 41 Division

Woman Faces Seven Charges In Fraud Investigation, Shanmugarajani Thangarajah, 46, Of Markham, Photograph Of Accused Released

Biafran parallels to Tamil Eelam

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 October 2012, 15:56 GMT]
In an article published in The Guardian on Tuesday, famed novelist Chinua Achebe, who hails from the Igbo community in Nigeria, opines that decades after Nigeria’s genocidal war on the short-lived state of Biafra, the Igbo people still face monumental problems under Nigerian rule. The Nigerian-Biafran war ended after the internationally aided Nigerian offensives on the Igbo people, which resulted in the death of around 2 million, compelled the leaders of the armed resistance for Biafra to capitulate. Whether the Solheim clique in the Western establishments who now claim that they could have saved civilian lives by facilitating the ‘surrender’ of the LTTE leadership in 2009 had the same intentions for the Eezham Tamil nation, ask Tamil political analysts. 

After the internationally forced capitulation, the political and economic situation of the Igbo worsened, while Nigeria paraded superficial improvements to the world.

Prof. Achebe, who is most known for his novel ‘Things Fall Apart’, is also poet, academic and postcolonial literary critic. Prof. Achebe had been a strong advocate for Biafran sovereignty when the region of Biafra broke away from Nigeria to form a de facto state in 1967.

After a brutal civil war, which saw the deliberate targeting of civilians by the Nigerian forces, imposed starvation, and cutting off medical supplies to the Biafran territory, the Nigerian government retook the region after the surrender of the leadership of the Biafran resistance in 1970. The death toll among the Igbo during this period is said to range anywhere between two to three million.

In its war on the Igbo, Nigeria was assisted by a confluence of world powers, most notably the UK, which had strong economic relationships with the Nigerian regime. On the other hand, the political demands of the struggle for Biafra were not recognized by any major power in the world, though issues of their human rights violations touched Western media. 

The parallels with Tamil Eelam are obvious, but for the fact that the LTTE leadership did not surrender the cause despite the compulsions by the International Community of Establishment (ICE) that in practice abetted the genocidal war against the Eezham Tamils. 

Tamil political analysts say ‘surrender’, as envisaged by some journalists, intellectuals and those in Western establishments, cannot just be taken as a humanitarian action that may have saved thousands of lives. They argue that it would have severe moral and political consequences that would affect the life, politics, and culture of the resisting people for generations to follow as a mortal blow to the idea of resistance and justice.

The current ramifications of the ‘surrender’ of the Biafran armed movement more than four decades ago have been elucidated by Prof. Achebe’s article in The Guardian through the questions he raises. 

“Did the federal government of Nigeria engage in the genocide of its Igbo citizens – who set up the republic of Biafra in 1967 – through punitive policies, the most notorious being “starvation as a legitimate weapon of war”? Is the information blockade around the war a case of calculated historical suppression? Why has the war not been discussed, or taught to the young, more than 40 years after its end? Are we perpetually doomed to repeat the errors of the past because we are too stubborn to learn from them?”

“Supporters of the federal government position maintain that a war was being waged and the premise of all wars is for one side to emerge as the victor. Overly ambitious actors may have “taken actions unbecoming of international conventions of human rights, but these things happen everywhere”. This same group often cites findings, from organisations (sanctioned by the federal government) that sent observers during the crisis, that there “was no clear intent on behalf of the Nigerian troops to wipe out the Igbo people … pointing out that over 30,000 Igbos still lived in Lagos, and half a million in the mid-west”.”

“But if the diabolical disregard for human life seen during the war was not due to the northern military elite’s jihadist or genocidal obsession, then why were there more small arms used on Biafran soil than during the entire second world war? Why were there 100,000 casualties on the much larger Nigerian side compared with more than 2 million – mainly children – Biafrans killed?” Despite world establishments lauding Nigeria for reintegration and rehabilitation of the Igbo, Prof. Achebe notes that these have been but superficial cases that the Nigerian regime parades to the world to rehabilitate its own image. 

“There are many international observers who believe that Gowon’s actions after the war were magnanimous and laudable. There are tons of treatises that talk about how the Igbo were wonderfully integrated into Nigeria. Well, I have news for them: The Igbos were not and continue not to be reintegrated into Nigeria, one of the main reasons for the country’s continued backwardness.”

“Borrowing from the Marshall plan for Europe after the second world war, the federal government launched an elaborate scheme highlighted by three Rs – for reconstruction, rehabilitation, and reconciliation. The only difference is that, while the Americans actually carried out all three prongs of the strategy, Nigeria’s federal government did not.”

“What has consistently escaped most Nigerians in this entire travesty is the fact that mediocrity destroys the very fabric of a country as surely as a war – ushering in all sorts of banality, ineptitude, corruption and debauchery. Nations enshrine mediocrity as their modus operandi, and create the fertile ground for the rise of tyrants and other base elements of the society, by silently assenting to the dismantling of systems of excellence because they do not immediately benefit one specific ethnic, racial, political, or special-interest group. That, in my humble opinion, is precisely where Nigeria finds itself today.”

Colombo’s Defence Seminar of 2012, that also saw the participation of military personnel from countries that abetted the genocidal war on the Eezham Tamils, harped on five Rs – rehabilitation, reconstruction, reintegration, resettlement and reconciliation. With the aid of powers that that have vested interests in the island, such grand terms are used to only to reconcile unitary Sri Lanka with the world community. 

It can be deciphered through Prof. Achebe’s poignant article that the forced surrender of a struggle fighting for a just cause might appear as saving a few thousand lives at that particular moment, but in the long run, it only causes a systematic depredation of the resisting people at the hands of the oppressive system, the latter having gained more legitimacy owing to the surrender. 

Tamil analysts wonder whether this was the solution that those like Solheim had in mind when they claim now that they could have arranged a ‘negotiated surrender’ of the LTTE leadership to the Sri Lankan government. 

At the height of the Vanni war, a representative of the Biafra struggle sent a message to TamilNet. He wanted the Eezham Tamils to remember that in his view they were fighting not merely for them, but for the cause of an array of nations and peoples like them all over the world. If the Eezham Tamils fail they fail the world of liberation he had said. 

In The Guardian article, Prof. Achebe writes “As a writer I believe that it is fundamentally important, indeed essential to our humanity, to ask the hard questions, in order to better understand ourselves and our neighbours. Where there is justification for further investigation, justice should be served.”

It is high time Eezham Tamils and their supporters pose hard questions to the world establishments and international bodies like the UN, demanding justice for the internationally-abetted genocide through a restoration of their lost sovereignty in the clearest of terms.

The genocidal Biafran war still haunts Nigeria

Tuesday 2 October 2012

The persecution of the Igbos didn't end with the Biafran conflict. Until the nation faces up to this, its mediocrity will continue

A starving Biafran child, pictured in 1968. Photograph: Partington/Getty Images

Chinua Achebe

Almost 30 years before Rwanda, before Darfur, more than 2 million people – mothers, children, babies, civilians – lost their lives as a result of the blatantly callous and unnecessary policies enacted by the leaders of the federal government of Nigeria.

As a writer I believe that it is fundamentally important, indeed essential to our humanity, to ask the hard questions, in order to better understand ourselves and our neighbours. Where there is justification for further investigation, justice should be served.

In the case of the Nigeria-Biafra war there is precious little relevant literature that helps answer these questions. Did the federal government of Nigeria engage in the genocide of its Igbo citizens – who set up the republic of Biafra in 1967 – through punitive policies, the most notorious being "starvation as a legitimate weapon of war"? Is the information blockade around the war a case of calculated historical suppression? Why has the war not been discussed, or taught to the young, more than 40 years after its end? Are we perpetually doomed to repeat the errors of the past because we are too stubborn to learn from them?

The Oxford English Dictionary defines genocide as "the deliberate and systematic extermination of an ethnic or national group ...". The UN general assembly defined it in 1946 as "... a denial of the right of existence of entire human groups". Throughout the conflict the Biafrans consistently charged that the Nigerians had a design to exterminate the Igbo people from the face of the earth. This calculation, the Biafrans insisted, was predicated on a holy jihad proclaimed by mainly Islamic extremists in the Nigerian army and supported by the policies of economic blockade that prevented shipments of humanitarian aid, food and supplies to the needy in Biafra.

Supporters of the federal government position maintain that a war was being waged and the premise of all wars is for one side to emerge as the victor. Overly ambitious actors may have "taken actions unbecoming of international conventions of human rights, but these things happen everywhere". This same group often cites findings, from organisations (sanctioned by the federal government) that sent observers during the crisis, that there "was no clear intent on behalf of the Nigerian troops to wipe out the Igbo people ... pointing out that over 30,000 Igbos still lived in Lagos, and half a million in the mid-west".

But if the diabolical disregard for human life seen during the war was not due to the northern military elite's jihadist or genocidal obsession, then why were there more small arms used on Biafran soil than during the entire second world war? Why were there 100,000 casualties on the much larger Nigerian side compared with more than 2 million – mainly children – Biafrans killed?

It is important to point out that most Nigerians were against the war and abhorred the senseless violence that ensued. The wartime cabinet ofGeneral Gowon, the military ruler, it should also be remembered, was full of intellectuals like Chief Obafemi Awolowo among others who came up with a boatload of infamous and regrettable policies. A statement credited to Awolowo and echoed by his cohorts is the most callous and unfortunate: all is fair in war, and starvation is one of the weapons of war.I don't see why we should feed our enemies fat in order for them to fight harder.

It is my impression that Awolowo was driven by an overriding ambition for power, for himself and for his Yoruba people. There is, on the surface at least, nothing wrong with those aspirations. However, Awolowo saw the dominant Igbos at the time as the obstacles to that goal, and when the opportunity arose – the Nigeria-Biafra war – his ambition drove him into a frenzy to go to every length to achieve his dreams. In the Biafran case it meant hatching up a diabolical policy to reduce the numbers of his enemies significantly through starvation — eliminating over two million people, mainly members of future generations.

The federal government's actions soon after the war could be seen not as conciliatory but as outright hostile. After the conflict ended, the same hardliners in the Nigerian government cast Igbos in the role of treasonable felons and wreckers of the nation – and got the regime to adopt a banking policy that nullified any bank account operated during the war by the Biafrans. A flat sum of 20 Nigerian pounds was approved for each Igbo depositor, regardless of the amount of deposit. If there was ever a measure put in place to stunt, or even obliterate, the economy of a people, this was it.

After that outrageous charade, Nigeria's leaders sought to devastate the resilient and emerging eastern commercial sector even further by banning the import of secondhand clothing and stockfish – two trade items that they knew the burgeoning market towns of Onitsha, Aba and Nnewi needed to re-emerge. Their fear was that these communities, fully reconstituted, would then serve as the economic engines for the reconstruction of the entire Eastern Region.

There are many international observers who believe that Gowon's actions after the war were magnanimous and laudable. There are tons of treatises that talk about how the Igbo were wonderfully integrated into Nigeria. Well, I have news for them: The Igbos were not and continue not to be reintegrated into Nigeria, one of the main reasons for the country's continued backwardness.

Borrowing from the Marshall plan for Europe after the second world war, the federal government launched an elaborate scheme highlighted by three Rs – for reconstruction, rehabilitation, and reconciliation. The only difference is that, while the Americans actually carried out all three prongs of the strategy, Nigeria's federal government did not.

What has consistently escaped most Nigerians in this entire travesty is the fact that mediocrity destroys the very fabric of a country as surely as a war – ushering in all sorts of banality, ineptitude, corruption and debauchery. Nations enshrine mediocrity as their modus operandi, and create the fertile ground for the rise of tyrants and other base elements of the society, by silently assenting to the dismantling of systems of excellence because they do not immediately benefit one specific ethnic, racial, political, or special-interest group. That, in my humble opinion, is precisely where Nigeria finds itself today.

ISI center in Jaffna - India sends officials to Lanka [ Friday, 05 October 2012, 04:27.45 PM GMT +05:30 ] Sri Lanka’s endeavours to strengthen diplomatic ties in the region hit a snag, with the country becoming entangled in what is being viewed as the latest spy scandal to rock the South Asian diplomatic arena.  The scandal comes in the wake of Indian intelligence reports implicating Pakistan of recruiting Sri Lankan nationals to conduct covert espionage operations in the Southern Indian State of Tamil Nadu. The disclosures have dragged Sri Lanka into the periphery of yet another diplomatic controversy with India. The spy scandal hit the headline in the backdrop of the recent arrest of an Indian national in Tamil Nadu, accused of spying for Pakistan’s premiere espionage body – Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Following reports of more ISI operatives being placed in strategic locations in South India and Sri Lankan refugees in India being recruited by the Pakistani intelligence arm, India’s external intelligence agency – Research and Analysis Wing had, in an intelligence report, urged that it was in India’s national interest to place Tamil Nadu on a state of high alert. The report had also recommended that h intelligence operations in the Sri Lankan refugee camps be intensified.

Burma Task Force Protests Suu Kyi Visit

NEW AMERICA MEDIA, NEWS REPORT, SHWANIKA NARAYAN, POSTED: OCT 04, 2012

SAN FRANCISCO – Among the crowds gathered at the University of San Francisco to greet Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi last week was a small coterie of Muslim and Burmese activists. They were there not to celebrate the visit by the veteran human rights campaigner but to press her on one burning question.

“So far, no one is speaking up for the Rohingyas, not even Aung San Suu Kyi,” said Shaik Ubaid, co-founder of the Burma Task Force. “Our goal is to increase awareness about this issue, to highlight the human rights abuses in Burma and to pressure the US and Burma government into action.”

The Burma Task Force is a collaboration of about 25 organizations – including Burmese activists, civil rights and Islamic groups – based in the United States. It was formed shortly after reports emerged of atrocities committed against the minority Rohingya by ethnic Burmese in Myanmar’s (Burma’s official name) northwestern Rakine State this past June. 

Ubaid’s group organized a 100 city rally coinciding with Suu Kyi’s 17-day tour of the United States. During her visit to the Bay Area, the University of San Francisco awarded her an honorary doctorate, one of many overdue accolades she received while on tour. 

Suu Kyi, chairperson for Myanmar’s opposition National League for Democracy, spent more than 15 years under house arrest for her promotion of human rights and democracy under the country’s ruling military junta. She was released in 2010 and elected to Myanmar’s lower house in April of 2012.

Her landmark U.S. visit had been highly anticipated and was deemed unlikely just a few years ago, and while she received a mostly warm welcome here, activists like Ubaid are frustrated by her silence on this one issue. 

“The Rohingyas are called the most persecuted people in the world,” Ubaid explained, “and yet there’s no sense of urgency to make things right for them … most surprising was Suu Kyis timid and vague response 2 months after the riots calling for ethnic equality.”

Tensions between Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims have left scores dead, with tens of thousands of Rohingya left homeless and displaced. Myanmar refuses to recognize its estimated 800,000 Rohingya Muslims as an ethnic group and denies them citizenship. Many Burmese consider the Rohingya to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

“They are marked, they were rendered ‘outsiders’ even before the 1982 law that took away their citizenship,” said Raafay Mohammed, West Coast organizer for the Burma Task Force. According to the law, citizens must prove their ancestry in the country dating back to 1823, something most Rohingya are unable to do given long-standing discriminatory practices denying them valid identification.

Ubaid echoed speculation that Suu Kyi’s unwillingness to take a stand on the Rohingya is tied to upcoming elections in Myanmar in 2015. “She does not want to lose the majority Buddhist vote,” he said, “a population currently at odds with the Rohingyas.”

Mohammed warned that inaction now could lead to more violence. He pointed to recent rioting involving Bangladeshi Muslims in Myanmar, who burned down several Buddhist temples and homes in retaliation for the posting of a Facebook image depicting a burned Koran. 

“So far we have held rallies in 46 cities in the United States. We need to do more otherwise this can worsen,” he said. “All we want is for the abuse, the displacement to stop.”

Tamils in Sri Lanka to elect first ever Provincial Council next year

PTI-October 5, 2012

The war-affected ethnic Tamils would be able to elect their first Provincial Council of the northern region by September next year when the Sri Lankan government holds the first ever local polls.

The government’s plan to hold the first elections at the provincial level post-war is seen as a first step towards achieving a political solution to the ethnic Tamil question.

Though people in the northern province voted both in 2009 Presidential and the general elections next year, the Northern Provincial Council has not yet been constituted even three years after the end of the decades-old war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Sri Lanka’s powerful Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa, who is also the brother of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, attributed the delay in holding elections to the continuing process of resettlement of displaced people in the northern region, the worst—affected in the war.

“We are in the process of preparing the electoral rolls of people in the northern region. The process is expected to be completed by June, 2013. After that we plan to hold elections by September next year,” he told visiting Indian journalists here. People in the northern region have been looking forward to the elections to the Northern Provincial Council and even India has been pushing Sri Lanka to conduct elections.PTI

Creating historical fiction on Mu’l’livaaykkal massacre

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 October 2012, 02:32 GMT]
Julian Vigo, a Britain-based academic, who authored a report based on eye-witness accounts from twelve United Nations humanitarian workers who were working on the ground during the last phases of war in Sri Lanka that ended in May 2009, in an interview to TamilNet, apportions blame to the United Nations organs operating in Sri Lanka at the time of the massacre at the killing fields of Mu’l’livaaykkal, and says, “I am interested in how historical fictions (if we are to take the media as the recorder of history) are created around the issue of Sri Lanka’s dead and the way that international organizations eschew responsibility for their role in the 40,000 dead while finger pointing to Colombo.” 

Julian Vigo, author of UN complicity in Sri Lanka killings

Vigo recently filed statements from UN workers 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. Vigo also was exposed United Nation’s officials’ inaction, failure to speak out and the UN’s willingness to acquiesce with the Rajapakse government’s rights violations and state sanctioned killings of tens of thousands of unarmed civilians. 

Vigo’s interview with TamilNet follows:

TamilNet: You list anthropology and human rights as special expertise among other skills. Are you an academic by heart?, and why did you get involved in this project? 

• Report on UN complicity in Sri Lanka HR violations

Julian Vigo: I got involved because I was working on child trafficking projects in Haiti and was approached by two different members of the UN who asked me to make a report about what they witnessed in Sri Lanka that resembled much of what they were seeing in Haiti.

TamilNet: How long did the interviews last? and how long did it take you to prepare the report? Were the staffers satisfied with the product? 
Julian Vigo: This is a report, not a team survey so the report was published and did not get ‘approval’ by anyone. I do not think that having the subjects approve of the report would have been ethical to be honest. This report is virtually verbatim hence it was really a matter of checking out some facts and putting together the report through their testimony. Interviews varied in time from each person—some had more to share than others.

TamilNet: How did you conduct the interviews? Did you record the interviews, audio or video? 
Julian Vigo:I [audio] recorded the interviews.

TamilNet:Why did you choose to expose the UN’s role in Sri Lanka’s war, when many others with knowledge have stayed quiet? 
Julian Vigo: This question rather answers itself. The fact that people were silent and others spoke out necessitated an analysis of the spoken testimony.

TamilNet: Did all witnesses have a serious issue with the way the UN officials were prepared to remain silent? 
Julian Vigo: They had issues with what they saw and by the policy of the UN to remain silent and force them to be silence.

TamilNet: Why do you think the UN officials acted the way they did? Was there directives from the NY office, or if the Colombo-based staff acted locally not to jeopardize their careers or both? 
Julian Vigo: I dislike speculating on this subject as I can only state what those UN staff members stated which is all in the report. The consensus is that the UN remains silent in countries such as Sri Lanka for fear of getting kicked out. As for directives from NY, I cannot guess as to what NY was doing or saying. I have attempted to interview the NY UN office and they have refused to be interviewed.

TamilNet:Sri Lanka and UN will be furious for this exposure. Are you or others whose names have been exposed not worried of the repercussions? Will you and others be prepared speak out on these issues again? 
Julian Vigo:Anyone with a modicum of ethics should not be furious about this report or any other but rather these individuals should be concerned about the serious actions that led to the death of 40,000 humans. Obfuscating nutrition reports, allowing certain UN agencies to send chalkboards to a starving population, the creation of a concentration camp to house people, to remain silent about the illegal actions of the Sri Lanka government. These are all reasons to be furious.

TamilNet: Do you think some of the witnesses will be willing to take this matter further, like appearing as witnesses in any future legal actions? 
Julian Vigo:Two yes. Many others are terrified of losing their careers and hence jobs in an economic climate which is unkind to even the most competent.

TamilNet: In what way has the Haiti and Sri Lanka exposure affect you in the way you view the way the international NGOs deal with humanitarian matters? 
Julian Vigo: I have written much about the devastating effects of “humanitarian aid” and the concept of “development” in the West and within the larger UN structure. Having studied the insertion of NGO’s at approximately the same time of the decolonization processes of many nations in the 1950s and 1960s, it is not surprising that NGOs and the UN have merely acted as surrogates to one upon a time colonial powers. The downside to this is, of course, that there is not mandate to ‘get out’ as if a temporary military invasion and countries across Africa and Asia and the Americas have had their economies devastated and their infrastructures modeled after a dependency structure. Haiti, for instance, once exported most of its produce for profit and in the 1950s was a wealthy country. It is one of the most economically devastated in the world today with US rice costing less than locally grown rice, with the presence of 10,000 NGOs in such a small nation. Clearly development is a failure in Haiti as it is in in every African nation. Economist Dambisa Moyo in her book Dead Aid gives an economic analysis regarding why aid is simply not working. Yet these structures perpetuate to give jobs to the well-educated and often well-off members of societies. So while there were Haitian doctors and lawyers in need of work after the earthquake, the UN’s response is to pay specialists in the areas of $20,000-$30,000 per month (tax free) to do what Haitians are completely capable of doing for themselves. In brief, “aid” and “development” schemes are aiding Western industries and work forces while impoverishing further the local sectors of professional formation and labor.

TamilNet: In what way does Sri lanka’s war and the tamil killing field fit into your broader research interests? 
Julian Vigo: I have been working on issues of violence from the suicide bombers in the West Bank during the Second Intifada to the disappearing of Muslim men post 9/11 in the USA where 14,000 men have gone reported missing. I am interested in how historical fictions (if we are to take the media as the recorder of history) are created around the issue of Sri Lanka’s dead and the way that international organizations eschew responsibility for their role in the 40,000 dead while finger pointing to Colombo. Certainly there is blame to go around but without any sliver of honesty from the UN, I fear that this will simply result in a UN that is resilient to questioning and arrogant to respond to questions. The first step is to begin to ask the questions and to demand an external investigation of these incidents by professionals from outside the UN body.