Friday, November 2, 2012

Sri Lanka pressed at U.N. to prosecute wartime crimes

By Stephanie Nebehay-GENEVA | Thu Nov 1, 2012

(Reuters) - Western countries kept up pressure on Sri Lanka on Thursday to prosecute killings of civilians and other crimes committed in its 30-year civil war and to investigate continuing grave violations.

Britain and the United States said that accountability must be established for serious breaches in the conflict that ended in 2009 and they voiced concern at the latest attacks on journalists, activists and lawyers.

Sri Lanka was in the dock at the United Nations Human Rights Council, a Geneva-based forum that regularly examines the records of all U.N. member states and issues recommendations.

U.S. ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe said Sri Lanka must "end impunity for human rights violations and fulfill legal obligations regarding accountability by initiating independent and transparent investigations...into alleged violations of international law and hold those found culpable to account".

"Former conflict zones remain militarized and the military continues to encroach upon daily civilian and economic affairs," she said, while torture, extra-judicial killings, disappearances, and threats to freedom of expression persist.

British ambassador Karen Pearce said there should be no impunity for attacks on journalists, rights defenders and lawyers "nor reprisals against any individual including for cooperating with U.N. mechanisms".

International investigators, whose findings have been rejected by the Sri Lankan authorities, have said the army committed large-scale abuses and was responsible for many civilian deaths in the final stages of the war against Tamil Tiger rebels.

Mahinda Samarasinghe, special envoy of President Mahinda Rajapaksa on human rights, defended his government's record and work of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC).

"Protection of civilian life was a key factor in the formulation of government policy for carrying out military operations and the deliberate targeting of civilians formed no part of that strategy," Samarasinghe told the U.N. forum.

"If reliable evidence is available in respect of any contravention of the law, the domestic legal process will be set in motion," he said.

A court of inquiry is investigating more than 50 incidents referred to in the LLRC report issued a year ago, he said. "Investigations cover whether or not any attacks were carried out by the Army on civilians, on hospitals or in the no-fire zones," he said.

The government was probing thousands of cases of missing persons. "Outstanding allegations must and will be thoroughly investigated and any offenders brought to book," he said.

Former combatants, including Tamil child soldiers, have been rehabilitated and reintegrated into society, while demining of farm land continued, Samarasinghe said. "If this is not clear progress, I fail to understand what is," he said.

Referring to attacks on activists, he said: "I must state with the utmost firmness that these alleged attacks are no part of government policy to stifle criticism, activism or dissent".

A Geneva-based body that monitors legal matters, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), said earlier on Thursday that Sri Lanka's government had made it all but impossible for victims of rights abuses to get justice.

President Rajapaksa's ruling party moved a motion in parliament on Thursday to impeach the chief justice for violating the constitution, signaling a deepening rift between the government and the judiciary.

U.S. ambassador Donahoe said that especially in light of the news of the efforts to impeach Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake, Sri Lanka must "strengthen judicial independence by ending government interference with the judicial process".

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Stephen Powell)

Universal Periodic Review – MEDIA BRIEF

Friday, 02 November 2012

(Disclaimer: The following brief is intended for use of the information media and is not an official record. The note provides a brief factual summary of the UPR Working Group meeting with the State under review and does not cover all points addressed. An official summary of the meeting can be found in the Working Group report.)

State under review Sri Lanka

Represented by a 15-member delegation headed by Mr. Mahinda Samarasinghe, Minister of Plantation Industries, and Special envoy of the President on Human Rights

Documents

To access national report, compilation of UN information, and summary of stakeholders’ information, visit the Sri Lanka page of the UPR website

Troika

* Benin, India, Spain

Opening statement by State under review

Few points raised in the opening statement of State under review:(See full statement on the Sri Lanka page of the extranet) Read more..

Sri Lanka demands ‘time and space’ to complete genocide

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 November 2012, 16:53 GMT]
“What we ask our friends in the international community is to acknowledge the progress that has been made and at the same time give us the time and space to work towards further progress,” said Rajapaksa regime’s minister Mahinda Samarasinghe in his concluding remarks at the UPR session in Geneva on Thursday. The progress that has been made by Colombo in militarisation, colonisation, genocide, structural genocide and annihilation of the identity of the nation of Eezham Tamils in the island is explicit in the last few years. The regime’s audacity in asking for more time and space to complete the process stems from the continued failure of the International Community of Establishments (ICE) in addressing the issue as one that of genocide and national question, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo.

Instead of addressing the crux of the matter, the ICE, especially Washington and New Delhi, have provided the LLRC implementation smokescreen for the Sri Lankan state to conveniently camouflage and twist the genocide into a ‘nation building’ process and to constantly ask for ‘time and space’.

“We are working for a new Sri Lanka. We are working for a united Sri Lanka. We, more than anyone else, are concerned about achieving comprehensive reconciliation […] so that Sri Lanka would never ever have to face the 30-years of conflict that we had to face […] Sri Lanka is a multicultural, multilingual and multireligious community. And what we are geared towards doing and what we are positive about doing is to ensure that this diversity is protected and nurtured so that […] we would be able to cultivate a true Sri Lankan identity,” Mahinda Samarasinghe was able to sanctify the genocide in the island in rosy words due to the premises provided by the ICE. Full story >>

Sri Lanka's CPC loses $60 mln hedging case vs Deutsche Bank

Fri Nov 2, 2012

COLOMBO Nov 2 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's state-run oil company has lost a $60 million hedging case against Deutsche Bank after a U.S.-based arbitrator ruled in favour of the bank, officials said on Friday.

A source familiar with the ruling said Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (Ceypetco) would have to pay Deutsche $60.3 million plus interest for non-payment of dues.

"It's against us," Sri Lanka's Attorney General Palitha Fernando told Reuters. "Now we are considering what actions to be taken to annul this."

Oil Minister Sisil Premajayantha told Reuters he was not aware of the ruling but would appeal if the case went against the company.

Three foreign banks, Standard Chartered, Citigroup and Deutsche, took legal action after Ceypetco refused to make hedging payments of more than $460 million, including to two local banks. Deutsche had asked the Washington-based International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes to arbitrate.

Ceypetco, which imported some 26 million barrels at a cost of $2 billion in 2007, needed to hedge its purchases of crude oil and refined products on the international market.

It was exposed to the oil rally of 2008, when oil hit a record high above $147 a barrel in July before crashing to less than $40 a barrel in December.

In July, Ceypetco lost an appeal against a London court ruling which ordered it to pay nearly $162 million plus interest for non-payment of dues to Standard Chartered Bank linked to hedging deals.

Standard Chartered argued that Ceypetco had always been aware that a fall in oil prices would have made it liable to make payments to the UK-based bank.

Lasantha’s Daughter On The Death Of A Newspaper

Lal and Ahimsa

By Ahimsa Wickrematunge -November 2, 2012

Lasantha with Ahimsa as a baby

The recent media and public scrutiny in regards to the controversy surrounding my uncle Lal Wickrematunge and the sale of The Sunday Leader has prompted me to share my thoughts on this subject.

While my uncle’s motives maybe questionable to the public, there is no doubt that he loved my father and mourns his loss with the rest of us today. There is so much going on behind closed doors that people are not aware of. Those who say he should have shut down the Leader don’t understand that since the Leader’s inception, the entire staff supported my father’s and uncle’s cause and all they stood for. Does he just let the staff go unemployed when they have families to support?

And while all the drama and chaos was going on in regards to the sale of the paper, when I was in my darkest hour, my uncle left Colombo on the next flight out to be by my side. I too didn’t take the news of the sale of the paper very well but having my uncle with me I came to understand the rationale behind his decision.

The death of my father has scarred us in so many ways and caused us immense emotional pain and heartache. Those who mourn the loss to the media and the country that his death has caused, people that use his murder in their political circus and those who have made a career out of his name tend to forget he was a father, a son and a brother and that kind of suffering can never be compared in terms of loss.

My family hasn’t to this day recovered from my father’s assassination. My grandparents lost their will to live in their old age and my grandfather who loved my father so much took his death very badly and eventually deteriorated and passed away last year. No parent should ever have to bury a child and go through that.

I took my father’s death very, very badly being his daughter and having lived with him till his last day. I to this day can’t seem to come to terms with everything and the trauma has taken its toll on my emotional well-being.

Those who criticize my uncle now and attack him for my father’s sake should realize this is Lasantha’s brother they are attacking. Also having him around was the closest thing to having my father back.

And if those who claim to have loved my father are doing and saying all of this for the greater good, maybe it’s time to channel that grief and anger towards bringing the perpetrators of his murder to book

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Bishop of Mannar calls for recognition of Tamil nation

Tamil Guardian 31 October 2012

The Bishop of Mannar has stated that the 13^th Amendment is “fundamentally flawed” and has called for the recognition of the Tamil people as a nation as crucial to bringing about peace on the island.

Speaking via Skype at a side event at the 14^th session of the Universal Periodic Review currently underway in Geneva, Bishop Rayappu Joseph told the audience that,

“Our solution does not lie in the 13^th Amendment but on the Tamil nationhood to be recognised. We are not a minority.

From the beginning of history there have been two nations, that must be recognised.”

The Bishop then went on to state that the 13^th Amendment was “fundamentally flawed”and called for the Tamil people to have the “right to rule”.

Bishop Joseph also commented on many other issues, telling the audience that despite testifying to the Sri Lankan government several times that a recorded 146,679 people were missing from the end of armed hostilities in May 2009, he was yet to receive a response.

He also stated that crimes such as extra-judicial killings had to be investigated, saying,

“We know the people behind these crimes… there must be accountability”.

Commenting on the Sri Lankan government’s prohibition on commemorating those that had died in Tamil areas, the Bishop said,

“There are a lot of people walking like skeletons… They have lost their mind, they need to heal… A lot of money is spent on celebrating the war but where are our people?

We are not allowed in our areas, Mannar for example… to grieve our dead people. The dead must be respected and justice served.”

Responding to a question from Father Emmanuel of the Global Tamil Forum on the militarisation of the North-East, the Bishop also commented,

“The Sri Lankan military are here. We don’t understand why… the war is over.

They run restaurants. People who earn very little are being deprived.

Land is not grabbed all over the country, but in the North-East. They are grabbing land all over the North-East; Trincomallee, Jaffna, Palali and Mullaitivu.

The presence of the military is creating abnormality.”

Also speaking at the event was Gary Anandasangaree from Lawyers Rights Watch Canada, who spoke out against colonization of Tamil areas, saying

“Increased colonisation in Tamil areas is reducing any type of democratic exercise by Tamils and it needs to be stopped”"Colonisation effectively renders the Tamil majority into a minority…"

He also noted that the 13^th Amendment was “flawed”, stating that even though it was part of the Sri Lankan constitution, it is yet to be implemented. Anandasangaree went on to say that it was “ridiculous” for institutions such as the UN to call for its implementation.

The event, entitled “Sri Lanka UPR 2012: Rhetoric and Reality” was organised by the International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism, and was co-sponsored by Amnesty International, Asian Legal Resource Centre, Franciscans International, Human Rights Watch and Lawyers Rights Watch Canada.

Other speakers included Sinhalese journalist Sunanda Deshapriya, who noted “impunity has not stopped (in Sri Lanka), after the war has come to an end”.

Brito Fernando from Right to Life Sri Lanka also called for the Sri Lankan government to publish a list of all detainees being held, noting that even a prisoner who was killed in the recent attack by security forces on prisoners in Vavuniya was thought to be have been missing by his family for over 3 years.

The event was chaired by Nimalka Fernando from Lawyers for Democracy (Sri Lanka), who told the audience,

“You have heard from Gary Anandasangaree and the Bishop (of Mannar), what we have read in Sri Lanka’s report is contrary to the situation on the ground”.

Sunil Abeysekera from Sri Lanka Human Rights Defenders Network also noted that the Sri Lankan government portrayed those who work for human rights as “LTTE agents, CIA agents and Western Imperialists”.

The floor was then opened up, with Father Emmanuel telling members of the audience,

“Sri Lanka is a failed state and is hurrying down the slope to disorder.

The panelists are mainly from the South and they haven’t suffered the persecution for 60 years like the Tamils.

Tomorrow Sri Lanka will paint a rosy picture. How long can Sri Lanka go on in the international community telling lies after lies?”

Also present in the audience was GK Mani from Tamil Nadu, president of the PMK party. He told the audience that Tamil Nadu stood in solidarity with Tamils on the island and stated that what was happening in Sri Lanka was an “international problem”.

See our live tweets from the event on our Twitter account here.

Impeachment of CJ: An Effort To Preserve Arbitrary Rule

By Laksiri Fernando -November 1, 2012

Dr Laksiri Fernando

It may appear that the Rajapaksa regime is so powerful that even for the initial impeachment motion against the Chief Justice, Dr Shirani Bandaranayake, it has gathered 117 signatures of parliamentarians. What it actually required was 75 or one third of the 225 member Parliament. But what appears on the surface is not actually the case. It is so powerful; but it is so weak. It is powerful in numbers within and outside Parliament, at present, but weak in moral legitimacy and justice both from a national and an international perspective.

Motives Behind

The reason behind the impeachment is so obvious. It is to retaliate and circumvent the constitutional and legal objections coming from the Supreme Court and the judiciary at large for its arbitrary rule. It is not yet revealed what the full content of the impeachment motion is. But the appointment of the Secretary to the Judicial Services Commission (JSC), Manjula Tilakaratne, and even the ‘refusal’ to meet the President on 18 September, highlighting the interference with the judiciary, must have been included in the impeachment petition. While the appointment of the JSC Secretary was made a long time back, there is no rule to say that the senior most judge should be necessarily appointed to the Secretary position. What the JSC required was a competent and an efficient person. This is nothing against the others who are perhaps equally qualified.

The government spokesman, Keheliya Rambukwella, has used the terms ‘overstepping’ its role and ‘improper conduct’ in justifying the impeachment motion against the Chief Justice. It is quite possible that the determination on the Divineguma Bill, both the initial one, determining to direct the bill to all provincial councils, and yesterday’s one, determining whether the endorsement of the Governor of the Northern Province is sufficient on behalf of the Provincial Council, must have angered the government.

It is extraordinary, however, to impeach a Chief Justice, in the midst of a Supreme Court determination, on the constitutionality of a bill and its procedure, that apparently disfavours a government action, whatever the importance or the merits of such a bill. This is particularly so, as the decision is a unanimous one, of a three member bench of the Supreme Court. This is in itself exposes the ulterior motive behind the impeachment motion. No other argument is necessary.

Implications Read More

Pour diffusion immédiate
Le 1 novembre 2012
Sri Lanka Doit Se Conformer aux Normes Internationales des Droits de
l'Homme: Les Violations Flagrantes des Droits de l’Hommes Seront
Examinées par les Pairs
Genève, la Suisse - Le 1er novembre 2012, le Conseil des droits de l’homme (CDH) de
l'Organisation des Nations Unies examinera la réputation de Sri Lanka sur les droits de l'homme
dans le cadre de l'Examen Périodique Universel (EPU). Cela sera le deuxième cycle d'un
processus d’évaluation par des pairs du CDH, qui a été institué en 2008. Pour cette session, 46
organisations non gouvernementales ont présenté des rapports sur quelques violations différentes
des droits de l'homme dans le pays.
La réponse du Sri Lanka, contenue dans son Rapport National publié le 10 Août 2012, illustre son
manque de progrès épouvantable vers la mise en œuvre des recommandations faites par les autres
états en 2008. La réalité sur le terrain au Sri Lanka est une des disparitions forcées, de la
militarisation continuelle, de la torture, de la violence contre les femmes et du manque
d'indépendance des médias et des institutions des droits de l’homme, en particulier dans les
régions du nord et de l'est.
«Le Sri Lanka a complétement échoué à protéger les droits de l’homme de ses citoyens, malgré
ses affirmations de progrès», a expliqué le Dr Yaso Natkunam, représentant le Conseil d’Action
Politique des Tamouls des États-Unis (United States Tamil Political Action Council), le Forum
des Tamouls Britannique (British Tamils Forum) et le Congrès Tamoul Canadien.

Sur les 26 engagements pris volontairement en 2008, le Sri Lanka a réalisé seulement deux. De
plus, sur les 45 recommandations acceptées, seulement 5 ont été mises en œuvre. Poursuivant
son histoire effroyable par rapport aux droits de l’homme, depuis mai 2009 Sri Lanka est accusé
de crimes de guerre, de crimes contre l'humanité et de violations flagrantes des droits de l'homme.
Malgré cette réputation, le gouvernement sri lankais est en train de monter une campagne
vigoureuse cherchent à circonvenir ses obligations internationales envers la protection des droits
de l'homme.
«L'universalité des droits de l'homme est menacée quand un pays comme le Sri Lanka piétine sur
les droits de ses citoyens, se dégage de la responsabilité, puis trompe délibérément la
communauté internationale sur ces questions,» a conclu Dr Natkunam. Les Conseil des Droits de
l'Homme doit agir résolument à s’assurer que les États membres suivent ses obligations en
matière de droits de l’homme.
Pour les demandes d’information des médias, veuillez contacter :
Genève - 41 (0) 76 627 82 38
BTF, Royaume-Uni - 44 79 27 02 3912
CTC, Canada - 905 791 7034
USTPAC, Etats-Unis - 202 595 3123

Sri Lanka Must Abide By International Human Rights Standards:
Gross Human Rights Violations to be Scrutinized by Peers

For Immediate Release
November 1, 2012

Sri Lanka Must Abide By International Human Rights Standards:
Gross Human Rights Violations to be Scrutinized by Peers

Geneva, SWITZERLAND – The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is set
to review Sri Lanka’s Human Rights record today as part of its Universal Periodic
Review. This will be the second cycle of a peer review process of the UNHRC, which
was instituted in 2008. A total of 46 Non-Governmental Organizations have submitted
reports on all aspects of human rights violations in the country.
Sri Lanka’s response, contained in its National Report released on August 10
th
, 2012,
illustrates its abysmal lack of progress towards implementing recommendations made by
its peer states in 2008. The ground reality in Sri Lanka is one of ongoing militarization,
enforced disappearances, torture, violence against women and a lack of independence of
media and human rights institutions, particularly in the Northern and Eastern regions.
“Sri Lanka has failed miserably in protecting the human rights of its citizens, despite its
claims of moving forward,” stated Dr. Yaso Natkunam speaking for the United States
Tamil Political Action Council (USTPAC), British Tamils Forum (BTF), and the
Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC).
Of 26 voluntary commitments made in 2008, Sri Lanka has fulfilled just two. Similarly,
out of 45 accepted recommendations, only 5 have been implemented. Continuing its
deteriorating human rights record, as of May 2009 Sri Lanka stands accused of war
crimes, crimes against humanity, and gross violations of human rights. Despite this
record, the Sri Lankan government is mounting a vigorous campaign to circumvent its
international obligations towards protecting human rights.
“The universality of human rights is undermined when a country like Sri Lanka tramples
on the rights of its citizens, absolves itself of its responsibilities, and then deliberately
misleads the international community on its offences,” concluded Dr. Natkunam. The
Human Rights Council must act decisively to ensure that member states adhere to their
human rights obligations.
For Media Inquiries, please contact:

Geneva - 41 (0) 76 627 82 38
BTF, United Kingdom - 44 79 27 02 3912
CTC, Canada - 905 791 7034
USTPAC, United States - 202 595 3123

SRI LANKA: The impeachment of the Chief Justice is a prelude to greater militarisation

November 1, 2012

After a series of attacks on the judiciary the Mahinda Rajapaksa government is now reported to be engaged in preparing papers for the impeachment of the Chief Justice (CJ). While the accusation against the CJ is not known the determination of the government to impeach her has been highly publicised. The state media have been mobilised to make a concerted attack on the judiciary.

Meanwhile there is also a bill being discussed which attempts to introduce several provisions which will limit the powers of the magistrates relating to arrest and detention and will increase the powers of the police.

The reasons for the hurried attempts to suppress the judiciary are not accidental. The project for the replacement of the democratic form of governance with a national security state where the military and the intelligence services will have enormous powers has been going on for some time. Impunity for almost all actions by the executive and the security forces against the freedoms of the individual has been assured now for many years. The allegations of serious abuses of human rights by way of enforced disappearances, other forms of extrajudicial killings, torture and kidnappings are never credibly investigated.

Now, according to reports there are moves to bring the military more directly into the policing system. It was reported that even the IGP may be replaced by a military officer as a police commissioner. Also the OICs and Divisional Police Chiefs will be replaced by Special Task Force officers. This will amount to a complete shift from the civilian policing which is an essential component of a democracy to military policing.

Such radical changes would naturally be resisted by an independent judiciary. Therefore there is an urgent need to put in place judges who will be willing to carry out whatever projects the government may propose. The impeachment of the CJ has therefore several purposes. One is to remove the present CJ and replace her with a friend of the executive and the second is to have a chilling effect on all other judges of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal. The message is simple: anyone who will abide by the mandate to protect the dignity and the freedom of the individual as against the dictates of the executive is clearly not wanted among the highest judiciary.

The government, beset with serious economic problems will continue to impose harsher conditions on the population. The government knows that such measures will necessarily bring about retaliation from the trade unions and other organisations representing the ordinary folk. Such protests on the part of the people will be ruthlessly crushed and recourse to justice will be denied.

The government wants to pass a strong message to the effect that justice is no longer welcome. The courts will be required to approve whatever the government wants and the protection of the individual freedoms will be regarded as a hostile action towards the government.

Disappearances of persons and the disappearance of the system of justice

Over a long period Sri Lanka has been engaged in the large scale practice of enforced disappearances of persons. In the process justice has always been denied to the victims and their families. The practice of enforced disappearances amounts to the denial of all rights. This practice which has gone on for several decades has had a seriously paralysing influence on the entire system of justice.

Now the stage has been set for the destruction of the independence of judicial institutions altogether. These institutions have a history going back to 1802 when the Sri Lanka's first Supreme Court was instituted. It is this legacy that is now being seriously challenged.

In a recent published book by a senior lawyer, S.L. Gunasekara entitled Lore of the Law and other Memories, the author quotes a prediction by another well known lawyer, D.S. Wijesinghe, President's Council, "We now have a new Parliament and with it democracy vanished. We are now about to get a new Superior Courts Complex and with that justice will vanish". With this attempt to file an impeachment on the incumbent Chief Justice this prophecy may come to a complete realisation.

While there are usual noises from some quarters protesting the impeachment move, there still does not seem to be a full grasp of the threat that the independence of the judiciary in Sri Lanka is faced with by the Bar Association of Sri Lanka or the legal profession. The end of the independence of the judiciary also means the end of the legal profession as an independent profession. The lawyers lose significant when the possibility of the protection of the dignity and the freedom of the individual is no longer possible.

It is perhaps the last chance available for everyone including the judiciary itself and the legal profession to fight back from the ultimate threat to the independence of the judiciary and the possibility of the protection of the dignity and the freedom of the individual in Sri Lanka. Many years of cumulative neglect has led to the possibility of the executive being able to come to a position to make a final assault against any challenge by way of demand for justice. Unless the gravity of this threat is fully grasped Sri Lanka will soon become like some countries which no longer have independent institutions to protect individual liberties.

The people of the north and east are already under military grip. It may not take a long time before the people of the south are also brought under the same grip.

Motion To Impeach Chief Justice Handed Over To Speaker A Short While Ago

By Colombo Telegraph -November 1, 2012

The Sri Lankan Government set the procedure in motion to impeach its Chief Justice today, when three UPFA MPs led by Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi handed a motion of impeachment over to Speaker of Parliament, Chamal Rajapaksa a short while ago.

Chief Justice Bandaranayake

The motion was handed over at the auspicious time of 10.12 a.m. by Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi, Deputy Minister Lasantha Alagiyawanna and MP Arundika Fernando.

The motion has been signed by 117 Members of Parliament. The constitutional requirement for the Speaker of Parliament to entertain a motion of impeachment against a sitting Chief Justice is 75 signatures or one third of the 225-member legislature. To be carried, the motion requires a simple majority of the total seats in the house or 113.

According to Government sources, the motion has been filed under Article 107 of the constitution pertaining to the appointment and removal of judges, on charges of ‘improper conduct’.

The move to impeach the head of the Sri Lankan judiciary follows weeks of growing tensions between the executive and judicial officers, compounded by the Supreme Court’s blockade on the controversial Divi Neguma legislation that seeks to accrue powers devolved to the provinces and massive funds to a department functioning under powerful Government Minister Basil Rajapaksa. As recently as three weeks ago however, Leader of the House Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva rubbished claims of an impending impeachment attempt against Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake and said the ruling coalition was committed to ensuring the independence of the judiciary.

It is the first time in Sri Lanka’s judicial history that a motion of impeachment has been filed against a Chief Justice by the same Government that made the appointment. Attempts to impeach a chief justice last occurred in November 2003 when the then United National Front Government headed by Ranil Wickremesinghe tried to impeach former Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva. However the Government was dissolved by President Chandrika Kumaratunga shortly afterwards, scuttling the move.

Sri Lanka hampers legal redress for rights abuses -ICJ

Wed Oct 31, 2012 8:01pm EDT

* Report says judiciary in Sri Lanka under attack

* "Absence of justice" permits further abuses

Nov 1 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's government has made it all but impossible for victims of human rights abuses to get justice, a Geneva-based human rights body that monitors legal matters said on Thursday.

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), grouping 60 prominent judges and lawyers from around the world, said the judiciary in Sri Lanka was under increasing attack and its independence was threatened.

"Victims and survivors of major human rights violations do not receive redress, and perpetrators are not brought to justice," the ICJ declared in a 150-page report, "Authority without Accountability: The Crisis of Impunity in Sri Lanka."

"The absence of justice removes an important deterrent to future perpetrators," said the report, compiled by the body's Asia Director Sam Zarifi.

The administration of President Mahinda Rajapaksa had sought to evade demands at home and abroad for justice for victims of "serious violations of international law" by both sides in the long civil war that ended in 2009, the report added.

With recent physical attacks on judges and judicial officials in the country adding to the problem, the ICJ said Sri Lanka was in "serious breach of (its) international obligation to protect and promote human rights".

Earlier this month a senior High Court judge who heads a key commission that appoints and transfers judges and magistrates was pistol-whipped by gunmen after complaining of official pressure on the body.

International human rights groups assert that such attacks and death threats against even mild critics of the Rajapaksa administration are carried out by government supporters or specially-trained hit squads.

After the latest incident, Rajapaksa condemned the attack and ordered the police to bring its perpetrators to justice, an official statement said. Police said they had launched a special operation to arrest the culprits.

The 30-year-long civil war between the government and the Tamil Tiger rebels who at one time controlled large swathes of the north of the island state is estimated to have left tens of thousands of people dead or injured.

The ICJ said that the failure to submit those abuses and others committed by the Tigers to a court was a symptom of the overall lack of accountability in the country, where rights groups say abductions and attacks on media are also common.

(Reporting by Robert Evans; Editing by Michael Roddy)