Sri Lanka Brief launches three Human Rights Reports on Sri Lanka

MONDAY, MARCH 4, 2013

Today Sri Lanka Brief launch on line three Human Rights Reports on Sri Lanka in coincidence with the on going 22^nd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council. The reports have been compiled in Sri Lanka. Executive summaries of the  three reports and  PDF links to three reports given below.

Limited number of printed copies will be available at side event on Sri Lanka Human Rights  on 5th March at room No 27, 16 PM to 17.30 PM.

CRTIQUE ON THE  LLRC NATIONAL PLAN OF ACTION AND ITS IMPLEMENTATION

Read the full report here 

The Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) was appointed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa for the pursuit of reconciliation in Sri Lanka, following the conclusion of a 27-year-old war in May 2009. This report looks at specific recommendations made by the LLRC in order to achieve reconciliation in the country by calling for institutional reform, introduction of new institutions for the delivery of expeditious justice and redressal to communities which suffered due to the war and the requirement to strengthen the processes which are currently in place.

Specific recommendations have been made to strengthen the county’s human rights regime and the maintenance of law and order, in a bid to assist Sri Lanka return to normalcy, specially the communities that suffered due to the protected war. In this regard, the LLRC had called for, through specific action, the strengthening of key public institutions and the introduction of new instructions to address the current issued faced by the country.

Specific recommendations have been made to strengthen the county’s human rights regime and the maintenance of law and order, in a bid to assist Sri Lanka return to normalcy, specially the communities that suffered due to the protected war. In this regard, the LLRC had called for, through specific action, the strengthening of key public institutions and the introduction of new instructions to address the current issued faced by the country.

Among the key recoemmdnations for the strengthening of democratic institutions included the call for the establishment of an Independent Permanent Police Commission  Independent Public Service Commission, appointment of a Special Commissioner of Investigation to investigate the alleged disappearances and an Independent Advisory Committee to monitor and examine the detention and arrest of persons, disarmament of armed gangs through specific police action, enhancement of the capacity of the Police Department for improved maintenance of law and order and the establishment of a National Lands Commission, among others.

Sri Lanka’s response to the call by the international community had been less than satisfactory.  The Sri Lankan Government’s onslaught on the Judiciary together with the crushing of political dissent had proved a potent combination that had undermined democracy while accelerating the path towards an authoritarian rule, threatening long-term stability and peace. The most significant blow to the country’s democratic institutions was witnessed with the politically-motivated impeachment of the Chief Justice, reflecting both intolerance of dissent and the weakness of the political opposition, an outrageous act that undermined a vital organ of government.

The Executive and the Legislature have thus, together, incapacitated the last institutional check on the Executive, at a time when the State has made strong commitments to strengthen public institutions in a bid to help the country to return to normalcy.

Given Sri Lanka’s failure to practically implement the recommendations by the LLRC, it is incumbent upon the international community to demand time-bound actions to restore the rule of law, investigate rights abuses and alleged war crimes by government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and to make genuine effort to devolve power to Tamil and Muslim areas of the North and East.

The island’s governance crisis became manifest with the impeaching of an independent Chief Justice whose ouster is traced by independent observers to two judgments delivered by her on crucial bills, one of which presented by the president’s brother, Basil Rajapaksa which was designed to subvert the process of shared power through the provisions of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution by creating a parallel mechanism.

So far, the government has failed to conduct credible and impartial investigations into allegations of war crimes, disappearances or other serious human rights violations or to take genuine corrective measures as recommended by the LLRC. In addition, an Independent Commissioner to investigate rights abuses and to expedite the process has become a matter for examination by the National Plan of Action (NPA) while the government has in effect, removed the last remnants of judicial independence by unceremoniously impeaching the Chief Justice. At present, the military enjoys the same degree of control it enjoyed over terrain and matters during the time of war with many civilian tasks still being carried out or supervised by the military. Over 90,000 people remain displaced in the former war zones due to military occupation with no possibility of land restitution in the near future.

The government’s actions in the past months have only contributed to the consolidation of its own political power, further diminishing the hope of achieving reconciliation and peace in the near future.

THE STATE OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE NORTH OF SRI LANKA 2012

Read the full Report here

Repression and human rights violations in the North remained under-reported throughout 2012. This report attempts to highlight some key incidents and trends facing the Tamils in the North, while recognizing the violations and repression faced by all communities across the country, such as in the East and in the plantation sector.

Forty five months following the end of the war (May 2009 to date), Sri Lanka is still unsafe for the minority Tamil community and dissidents of the State. With abductions arrests and intimidation still continuing, there exists a general sense of lawlessness rampant across the country. This is much worse in the North, with heavy military presence and control. To date, people are asked the question “are you Sinhala or Tamil” at military checkpoints in the North.

Despite of repeated assurances to the International Community that devolution of power  envisaged by the 13^th amendment to the   constitution will be fully implemented and there by a long awaited political solution to the conflict will be materialized, GoSL has not shown any commitment towards this end. 

The attitude of “Victor” vs. the “Vanquished” is quite evident in every sphere of live. People are not permitted to speak or assemble freely, some have no access to their homes as the military and their families are occupying their lands and they still have no security with the security forces still being able to pick people up from off the street or from their homes on the “suspicion” of being linked to a terror outfit that the President himself has claimed to have annihilated in May 2009.

Militarisation and imposition of the Sinhala Buddhist culture in the north has continued unabated.  In the words of veteran Tamil politician V. Ananada Sangaree ” During the past three years, hundreds of mini .Army camps and many Major camps had been set up in the midst of Tamil people who had suffered in many ways during the past thirty years and lost several lives and valuable properties more particularly during the last lap of the war; I am convinced more than anybody else that the minorities now feel discriminated more than ever before.” (Letters to the President, 24 July & 8 Dec 2012)

Freedom of expression, Right to association and Right to peaceful assembly and protest has been violated all through out the year.  On several occasions burnt oil, which h has become the symbol of state sponsored terror against dissent, was thrown at the peaceful protests in the North.

The recent spate of arrests of Jaffna University students, former LTTE combatants^[1] by the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) and attacks on media workers has heightened tension in the area, and fear amongst locals in the North. Dozens of disappearances has been reported form the North and majority of them remains unresolved.   Two Tamil prisoners have been killed and many others subject to brutal torture whilst in custody, earlier this year.

Ironically it was also the current President, who made the following statement at Sri Lanka’s 59^th Independence Day Celebrations, on 4 February, 2007. He said “it is our duty to protect the lives and property of the Tamil and Muslim people and bring sanctity to the future world of their children.” That being said, the State has not even been able to fulfil the recommendations made by their own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC).

UNMASKING INACTION: SRI LANKA: NATIONAL ACTION PLAN FOR THE PROTECTION AND PROMOTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS 2011-2016

 Read the full Report here

Sri Lanka’s National Action Plan for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights (‘National Action Plan’) appeared at the end of 2011. The drafting process had begun in 2008, consequent to a commitment made by the Government of Sri Lanka in the first cycle of the Universal Periodic Review. The first draft of the National Action Plan was formulated in a process which included the representation of civil society representatives and was completed in 2009. However, the process floundered following the abolition of the Ministry of Human Rights in 2010. The subject of human rights was not formally assigned elsewhere within government. The progress of the National Action Plan was subsequently entrusted to the Attorney-General’s Department that produced the second draft, and organised further civil society consultations in 2010. However, some civil society representatives complained that the second draft was weaker than the first version, and had removed most of their contributions, revealing the cosmetic quality of non-governmental participation in the process. Thereafter, the momentum for the adoption of the National Action Plan slowed; and its fate appeared to be uncertain.

The government was preoccupied with crisis-management abroad, of its human rights record at home, and particularly, demands for international monitoring of human rights and investigation into alleged war crimes in the final phase of the war in 2009. Over the course of 2011, as efforts began to table a country-specific resolution at the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), the National Action Plan was finally presented to the Cabinet of Ministers that further amended the draft, shortly before the 18^th regular session of the HRC in September. The sudden urgency was prompted by diplomatic exigencies to permit publicity of the NAP as evidence of the government’s commitment to the promotion and protection of human rights. However, the final text of the National Action Plan remained inaccessible and unknown within the country, until its release in December 2011, and was only made available more widely one year later.

The National Action Plan comprises two broad sets of issues grouped into Civil and Political Rights, and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights respectively; as well as six specialised areas: Prevention of Torture, Rights of Women, Protection of Labour Rights, Rights of Migrant Workers, Rights of Children, and the Rights of Internally Displaced Persons. Consistent with best practice, the National Action Plan does not stop with the identification of broad goals: there are dozens of individual issues isolated for attention – many reflect longstanding problems in the legal, administrative and criminal justice systems; key performance indicators are enumerated; as are time-frames for implementation; and key responsible agencies are named.

Considering the mounting political authoritarianism of the Mahinda Rajapaksa administration, and combined with the weakness of democratic movements, institutions and values, the adoption of the National Action Plan registers an advance.

Whereas influential discourses within state and society present human rights as alien and imposed from without, the ‘home-grown’ National Action Plan creates opportunities for domestic advocacy on human rights and is potentially a bridge-head for critical civil society engagement with the state.

The National Action Plan should be supported, and be swiftly implemented. In addition, there should be plural civil society representation in its ongoing monitoring and evaluation; complemented by periodic public consultations, and ongoing information-sharing on its progress.

In every other respect, there is limited reason for optimism. More than 12 months since its adoption, it is not possible to identify where progress has been achieved as a result of the National Action Plan. There is nothing to show, beyond coordination meetings of government agencies and internal reports that are not available to the public. None of its proposed activities, of three or six month duration have, to public knowledge, been completed – even after 12 months. In actuality, the NAP has made no appreciable difference to the culture of, and climate for, human rights promotion and protection in Sri Lanka.

No reading of the National Action Plan indicates that its authors have confronted the scale and severity of Sri Lanka’s human rights crisis. The right to life, the right not to be tortured, and the freedoms of expression, association and assembly, are violated with impunity. The Prevention of Terrorism Act continues to be used to repress non-violent actions. The centralisation of power in the office and the person of the President unveil the worthlessness of the legislature and the judiciary in checking abuse of authority and defending the rights of citizens. The militarisation of state and society has accelerated since the war ended. Post-war reconciliation is platitudinous for the Tamil victims and survivors of the war without truth and justice.

If there is no sober acknowledgement of the human rights crisis in the National Action Plan, there cannot be cause for hope that it will rise to, leave alone meet the challenges of human rights protection in Sri Lanka. If the Government of Sri Lanka cannot be trusted not to back-track on pledges and commitments in international forums, as well as in its own National Action Plan, then what reassurance is there of sufficient political will for the remaining promises to be honoured? If there is no transparency in its implementation, no regular consultation with the plurality of civil society, and no discrete allocation of institutional, human and financial resources for its progress, there cannot be any confidence in the progress or in the meaningful realisation of the goals of the National Action Plan.

Indeed, it is hard not to see the obvious. As of now, the National Action Plan’s importance to the Government of Sri Lanka is for international advocacy on its human rights record and as symbol of its acknowledgement of human rights obligations. There is nothing inherently dishonourable in these ends; provided it is accompanied by sincerity of purpose and substantive improvements in human rights at home. However, where the National Action Plan masks the inaction of the government in confronting abuses and violations by state actors; and is a tool for deflection of its domestic and international obligations, then all who profess concern for human rights should know a fig-leaf when they see it.

Fisherman immolates himself in Tamil Nadu, dies

Written by J Sam Daniel Stalin | Updated: March 04, 2013 

Chennai: A fisherman, who immolated himself in Tamil Nadu raising the cause of Tamils in Sri Lanka, has died. Mani, a native of Cuddalore district attempted to kill himself by pouring petrol outside the District Collector's office. Although he was brought to Chennai for better treatment, he could not be saved. 

This tragedy happened on a day pro-Tamil groups organised protests across Tamil Nadu, led by MDMK Chief Vaiko, demanding an international probe against Sri Lanka on war crime charges, besides a referendum and trade embargo on the country. 

Soon after he was brought to the hospital in Cuddalore, Mani referred to the US motion against Sri Lanka at the United Nations Human Rights Council or UNHRC and told reporters, "In Sri Lanka, President Rajapaksa has killed Tamils. Tamils should win at the United Nations. Eelam should happen. It's martyrdom for me". 

Officials say Mani has been trying to draw the attention of authorities over the last few years on what he called as "huge scam in the Tsunami Housing Project". He says, "The government swindled all the tsunami funds."

"In my hometown Cuddalore too, there is huge corruption in construction. I struggled democratically for five years but could do nothing. I protested in democratic way. I took it to court but there too officials cheated. My wife and children are nice people. It's an honour to be the first person to die fighting corruption," he added.

India is yet to make its stand clear at the UNHRC and pressure is mounting on the Centre from Tamil Nadu to vote against Sri Lanka, particularly after British media Channel 4 released pictures suggesting LTTE Chief late Prabhakaran's son could have been executed in custody. 

Sri Lanka has rejected these allegations saying the pictures are "morphed'. 

On Tuesday, it would be the turn of the DMK to stage protest outside the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commission in Chennai besides hosting a conference in Delhi under the banner of Tamil Eelam Supporters Organisation. 

Geneva: Mahinda skips Navi Pillay’s meeting

March 4, 2013, 10:26 pm 

Presidential Human Rights envoy and Plantations Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe has caused quite a diplomatic stir in Geneva by skipping a meeting called by United Nations Human Rights Commissioner (UNHRC) Navi Pillay, following a swipe he had at her in Geneva last week.

The reason for his decision to keep away was not immediately known. Asked whether he had obtained the government’s nod for skipping Pillay’s meeting, sources answered in the negative.

In his Feb. 27 address to the ongoing 22nd sessions of the UNHRC in Geneva, Minister Samarasinghe lashed out at Pillay. Sri Lanka has been critical of Pillay for what it calls a human rights witch hunt.

Although it was speculated initially that the government would downgrade its delegation to Geneva this year, President Mahinda Rajapaksa intervened at the eleventh hour to have Minister Samarasinghe make a statement on behalf of Sri Lanka, though the country’s Permanent Representative in Geneva Ravinatha Aryasinha was scheduled to do so.

Current sessions which began on Feb 25 will continue till March 22. The Sri Lankan delegation to Geneva sessions comprised 12 persons, including Minister Samarasinghe and his personal secretary.

The delegation included six from the Attorney General’s Department and two officials from the Ministry of External Affairs.

Sources said that Minister Samarasinghe’s statement antagonized some countries, particularly the EU with German Ambassador Hanns H. Schumacher taking on Samarasinghe. The German envoy was quoted as having said that Navy Pillay was increasingly faced with unjust criticism and the statement made my Minister Samarasinghe at the ongoing sessions constitute an illustration.

The UNHRC comprised 47 countries divided into five sectors. Three of Sri Lanka’s major supporters namely Russia, China and Cuba are no longer members of the UNHRC, though they represented the global body last year. (SF)

People are taxed Rs.62 from every Rs.100 earned

The government collects Rs.62 as taxes from every Rs.100 earned by the people say Mr. Sajith Premadasa. He said rulers who grab the little the people earn by way of various taxes, plunder the resources of the country for their luxurious lives he said. Mr. Premadasa said this while on a tour in Hambantota District.

Geneva And The Implementation Of The LLRC

By Harim Peiris -March 5, 2013

Harim Peiris

CR (Bulla) De Silva, former Royal rugby captain, attorney general and loyal friend of President Rajapakse, must indeed be a puzzled man, even as a whole host of senior officials from the Attorney General’s department, which he headed in the not too distant past, take wing to Geneva, to play defense, where the US is sponsoring a resolution in the UNHRC, regarding Sri Lanka and its post war reconciliation track record.

CR De Silva, chaired and together mostly with other distinguished former Sri Lankan State officials, were commissioned by President Mahinda Rajapakse to report on lessons learnt from and reconciliation (LLRC) after the end of Sri Lanka’s bitterly polarizing and devastating three decades long ethnic conflict. This appointment came after the UN Secretary General appointed his own panel of experts to advise him on similar matters on Sri Lanka. After over a year of country wide public hearings, written representation and field visits to the former conflict areas, the LLRC issued its final report and recommendations.

Last year in 2012, at the UNHRC, the United States sponsored a resolution that basically called on Sri Lanka to implement its own LLRC recommendations. The UPFA regime, reacted by sending a delegation of over one hundred persons to Geneva on a jaunt to help stave off the resolution. It passed with a comfortable majority, with the significant addition of India in support of the resolution. This year the follow up procedural resolution is more than guaranteed to pass and the government has more or less decided against a high profile fight, in the face of an inevitable defeat and more or less decided to try and duck underneath the bouncer rather than hit it out of the grounds.

But what the 2012 and indeed the impending current UNHRC resolution requires of Sri Lanka is that it implements our very own LLRC proposals and recommendations. That the Rajapakse regime is fighting tooth and nail against implementing the LLRC report must be the cause of consternation to its former members and indeed inexplicable for most right thinking Sri Lankans.

Now implementing the LLRC report was handed over to a Committee headed by the President’s Secretary and head of the home civil service Mr.Lalith Weeratunga, who labored long and created an LLRC implementation action plan. Together with Mr. Mohan Peiris, our current de facto Chief Justice (his appointment being the subject of legal challenge in the Supreme Court and rejected publicly by Chief Justice Dr.Bandaranaike) claims that Sri Lanka has made great progress in implementing the LLRC proposals. The world begs to disagree with Mr.Weeratunga, his committee and their action plan and self evaluated progress. Indeed excellent work, research and publications have been done, by various local and international entities, which demonstrate that the LLRC action plan, ignores the key recommendations, has a mismatch between recommendations and proposed actions and indeed has not resulted in any remedies or reforms and merely maintains the status quo, which the LLRC recommended should be changed. So basically the UNHRC resolution faults Mr.Lalith Weeratunga and / or his Committee which included Mohan Peiris and is indeed a position in which people not inclined to be ardent believers of the State media and propaganda machine might well be inclined to agree.

However, the political debate on the UNHRC resolution on Sri Lanka clouds the two important and substantive issues raised at Geneva, which are relevant to Sri Lanka and her people. They are namely (i) what is the state of basic human rights in Sri Lanka? And (ii) what is the progress on post war reconciliation that has been achieved?

(i)                 What is the state of human rights in Sri Lanka?

The latest text of the UNHRC resolution makes mention of the unconstitutional (as determined by the Supreme Court) removal of Chief Justice Bandaranaike from office with the aid of the country’s security forces. An independent judiciary is often the last line of defense in the rights of a citizen against unlawful state power and fundamental rights applications have been an important constitutional and legal safeguard to citizens, whether to FUTA, GMOA, free trade zone workers, torture victims, PTA detainees, private land victims of high security zone among many others. Now the Attorney General’s department, now directly under the President’s office would have us believe that Sri Lanka is a land with no human rights abuses by the State. However the presence of survivors overseas, who are slowly coming out with their stories, in graphic details that are admissible as evidence in a court of law, would mean that the period of blanket denials by the AG’s office on behalf of the Sri Lankan government, will not be viable as a long term solution.

(ii)               LLRC implementation and progress on reconciliation

The LLRC itself laments the non implementation of its “interim recommendations” and should it be able to, would no doubt lament the non implementation of its final recommendations. Three years after the war ended, the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) election has not been held, merely because it is an election that government is destined to lose. There has been almost no victim centered reconciliation on crucial issues such as missing persons and also almost no assistance except by INGO’s for livelihoods and assistance to war widows, war orphans, women headed households and the war disabled. While the government touts it much vaunted rehabilitation for former LTTE cadres, over five hundred long term (over 10 years) detainees, neither tried nor convicted of crimes continue to be held under the PTA often for such offences as not reporting a family member connected to the LTTE or providing them with food or shelter. The magnanimity the State shows former senior LTTEers such as Karuna and KP, seem to be missing for the LTTE sympathizer, the poor Tamil villager who was the cannon fodder in the LTTE’s misguided terroristic venture.

Sri Lanka and the shared future of all her peoples would be much better off, if the Lalith Weeratunga and Mohan Peiris Committee on implementing the LLRC recommendations was to actually ensure that the letter and spirit of the LLRC recommendations be implemented, speedily, fully and completely, which is exactly what the world seems to be telling Sri Lanka in Geneva.

Lawyers Rights Watch Canada's address to UNHRC

Tamil Guardian 05 March 2013

Statement made by Ms. Vani Selvarajah at the UN Human Rights Council on Monday on behalf of Lawyers Rights Watch Canada, during Item 2 - Interactive Dialogue with High Commissioner:

(See here for UNHRC webcast at 00:59:50)

"Thank you Mr. President,
Madam High Commissioner, on behalf of Lawyers' Rights Watch Canada and the International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR), we welcome your annual report, and thank you for your continued resolve to protect human rights around the world.
The situation in Sri Lanka is deteriorating, with an increased level of militarization, suppression of free speech, the breakdown of the rule of law and the loss of any democratic space. The Tamil people are living under army occupation. Students from the University of Jaffna were illegally arrested and detained for peacefully protesting. Journalists continue to live and work in fear of reprisals. The Chief Justice, Shirane Bandaranayake, was illegally impeached this January. We are encouraged by your optimism that findings of the Secretary General's landmark internal review undertaken by Charles Petrie, would allow for increased responsibility, transparency and accountability within the UN system. To effectively promote accountability in Sri Lanka, Council itself must act to ensure acceptance of the UN Panel of Experts Report as an official document. The Panel of Experts concluded that there were credible allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by both sides of the conflict in Sri Lanka.

We are deeply concerned by the continued attacks on your credibility, impartiality and neutrality. Human Rights defenders in Sri Lanka, and elsewhere continue to be the subject of attacks meant to silence calls for adherence to international human rights norms. We encourage you to continue to advocate for the cessation of systemic human rights abuses in Sri Lanka and to call for remediation of past violations.
Just last week, new evidence has surfaced where a 12 year old boy, Balachandran Prabaharan, was summarily executed while in Sri Lankan army custody on the last days of the war in 2009. These and other violations of international law, including war crimes and crimes against humanity, must be investigated by a neutral party.
Madam High Commissioner, we look forward to your report to Council wherein you reiterate your call for a Commission of Inquiry in Sri Lanka, in order that the senseless slaughter of a child and other crimes are addressed."

Govt. selective about implementing LLRC report: Pillay

By Dharisha Bastians- March 5, 2013 
Sri Lanka continued to stay high on the agenda at the 22nd Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva when the meetings reopened following a weekend break yesterday, with Human Rights Chief Navi Pillay firing fresh salvos on the Government’s “selective implementation” of recommendations made by its own Lessons Learnt Commission.

Replying to a question posed by the Ambassador of Montenegro to the United Nations in Geneva, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Pillay commended physical reconstruction and resettlement efforts in the north but said concerns remained about the lack of progress on accountability and reconciliation.
“Although I support the National Plan of Action for the implementation of the LLRC recommendations, I do think that this is being done selectively,” Pillay told the Council during an interactive session in Geneva yesterday morning.

The UN High Commissioner said that she welcomed moves by the Council to monitor Sri Lankan domestic processes on accountability and reconciliation.
“While clearly the Sri Lankan Government has invested in the physical aspects of reconciliation and development in the north of the island, including the resettlement of IDPs, all of which I welcome, I remain concerned about the lack of meaningful progress on accountability and reconciliation,” she said.
Pillay also admitted that an invitation for her to visit Sri Lanka had been extended by the Government in Colombo two years ago.
“By mutual agreement we stayed the visit pending the release of the LLRC report and pending the report from my technical mission and I look forward to discussions with the Sri Lankan Mission here for my further visit,” she said.
The High Commissioner said she hoped the visits of the eight UN special rapporteurs who have requested visits would also take place.
Special Representative Ambassador of Montenegro to the UNHRC Zorica Maric Djordjevic queried the High Commissioner about what steps were being taken in light of her report on Sri Lanka and the concerns raised.
The Montenegro Ambassador highlighted the section of the report that specified that “steps taken by the Government to investigate allegations of serious violation of human rights further have been inconclusive and lack the independence required to inspire confidence”.

Heading For A Diplomatic Elephant Pass Or Nandikadal

By Dayan Jayatilleka - March 5, 2013 

Dr Dayan Jayatilleka

The major challenges Sri Lanka faces in Geneva this month are threefold: the possibility of a vote and losing that vote; the possibility of getting fewer votes or losing that vote by a larger margin than a year ago in March 2012; the possibility of an unfair or imbalanced compromise which is actually a capitulation, which affects our vital interests such as national sovereignty.

I hope that it is possible for Sri Lanka to ward off these dangers, but I confess I am rather pessimistic, just as I was in the run-up to the vote in March 2012. I hope that we do not get fewer votes than last year, where in March 2012 we saw a reversal of the dramatic diplomatic victory we had obtained in the same diplomatic arena, the UNHRC, in late May 2009. I hope that the vote does not give our enemies—the Tamil Eelam separatist networks in the Diaspora and Tamil Nadu—evidence that our international standing is growing weaker by the year.

I do not think it fair to place the blame on our permanent representation or the SL delegation in Geneva, because how they perform depends to a large measure upon the options they have been provided by Colombo. Be it politicians or officials, what is crucial is that they speak with credibility so as to convince the members of the Council. However the wicket they have to bat on is not a good one, due to the fundamental miscalculations of our policymakers.

As I advocated on the public record last April, the government should learn from how Myanmar slipped out of a far worse situation by liberalising, by opening up and democratising more. Instead, with the impeachment the Sri Lankan government went in the opposite direction.

The government must not assume that world public opinion is gullible or that every administration in the world community is like them and responds to the same material incentives and disincentives.

The government must learn to communicate successfully outside their cultural comfort zone, because the international system is based, by definition, on universal global norms and values, and this is even more so in United Nations bodies such as the Human Rights Council.

The government must know that its crude propaganda and denials have no currency outside their borders and probably outside their vote base. A lie or denial however loudly repeated has no credibility and the government must know that credibility is vital in winning over the international community.

The government must know to listen to early warning signals and not shoot the messenger. The government must ask itself why those who voted for us in 2009 are either voting against us or abstaining. If those who voted against us in 2009 or 2012 abstain, then that is a moral victory for us, but when those who voted for us in 2009 abstain in 2012 or 2013, it is a shift away from us and cannot be understood as a moral victory in any sense.

The government must know to seek the opinion and advice of its friends and patiently construct or reconstruct our international support. The government must understand that its aggressively unilateral domestic actions have external ramifications.

The government must realise that we cannot even get the support of Asia, the Non-Aligned Movement and the larger Third world, if we do not have the support of India, and that with an actively hostile Tamil Nadu in play, the only way we can win back India’s support is by strengthening Delhi’s hand so it can balance off Tamil Nadu. This can only be done by fast-tracking a political solution to the Tamil issue through a successful negotiation with the elected representatives of the Tamil people, mainly the TNA, on the basis of implementing the arrangements for devolution already embedded in our Constitution. There is no Non-Aligned option for Sri Lanka without India; no Indian option without settling with the Tamils; no settlement with the Tamils without devolution and the TNA.

If we lose a vote by a larger margin this March than we did the last time in 2012, it will show our growing weakness and isolation. If on the other hand, while there is nothing wrong with a balanced compromise, if instead we capitulate and surrender a portion of our national sovereignty, then we are in a different kind of danger.

The worst thing that could happen is the setting up of an international inquiry, but even the appointment of a UN Special Rapporteur on Sri Lanka would mean a whole new ball game. In any case these repeated resolutions and defeats suffered by Sri Lanka at voting time, constitute a gradual encirclement and choking of the State. It is not yet the end-game but these are all steps that will lead to such an endgame. There are moves against Sri Lanka on several routes: the UN S-G’s PoE (Darusman) and Charles Petrie reports in New York and their follow-ups, the several votes in Geneva, the campaign over the Commonwealth summit, and the most serious of all, the build-up in Tamil Nadu and across the Indian political spectrum about Sri Lanka which will see a new ball game during and after India’s general election of 2014.

When all these tracks of the multi-track strategy converge, someday, perhaps sooner rather than later, we will find ourselves in a diplomatic Elephant Pass or worse, a diplomatic Nandikadal. When they forced us out of Elephant Pass in 2000, did Prabhakaran and the LTTE think that they would be encircled in Nandikadal before the passage of a decade?

India likely to vote against Sri Lanka at UN Human Rights Council: Sources 

Paarull, CNN-IBN-Mar 05, 2013 

CNN-IBN

New Delhi: India is likely to vote against Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council later in March, sources said on Tuesday. The US-sponsored resolution is like to be "procedural" and will not be "intrusive remedy", the sources added.

Experts say that the reason why India may vote against its neighbouring country is because it feels Sri Lanka has not adequately met its own assurances made to the international community.

Secondly, India will not accept an "intrusive" resolution and this resolution is not expected to seek international monitoring of Sri Lanka's efforts.

Thirdly, India is mindful of political sentiment in Tamil Nadu.

Time to suspend Sri Lanka from CHOGM

March 5, 2013

FMT LETTER: From Alagaratnam Jeya Balan, via e-mail

Sri Lanka has undermined the rule of law, violated human rights, democracy, freedom of speech and expression resulting in disastrous consequences to the country. A panel of experts appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to advise him on the issue of accountability with regard to any alleged violations of international human rights and humanitarian law during the final stages of the civil war found “credible allegations” which, if proven, indicated that war crimes and crimes against humanity were committed by the Sri Lankan military.

Sri Lanka is not committed and doesn’t follow the rules and protocols of the Commonwealth of Nations. Last week the Sri Lankan government booted out Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayke on politically motivated charges by the Parliament. The Parliamentary Select Committee which probed her and found her guilty of three charges out of 14 heaped abuses and subjected her to humiliation dubbing her a “Mad woman”.

A barrage of vituperative attack was peddled by government propagandists at the Chief Justice, before, during and after the impeachment motion. A statement issued by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay says the UNHRC  is deeply concerned that the impeachment and removal of Sri Lanka’s Chief Justice has further eroded the rule of law in the country and could also set back efforts for accountability and reconciliation.

The removal of the Chief Justice through a flawed process, which has been deemed unconstitutional by the highest courts of the land is, in the High Commissioner’s view, gross interference in the independence of the judiciary and a calamitous setback for the rule of law in Sri Lanka.

Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayke was served notice of her dismissal and removed from her chambers and official residence on Jan 15, in spite of a Supreme Court ruling that the parliamentary procedure to remove her violated the Constitution.

The removal of a serving Chief Justice, and the appointment of a new Chief Justice, marks the end of constitutional governance in Sri Lanka. These were the final acts in a series of bizarre events orchestrated by the government in the past six weeks.

The government also ignored warnings from the Commonwealth Secretary-General, Human Rights  Organisations, Lawyers Association in Sri Lanka, International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) not to go ahead with the flawed impeachment process against Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayke.

The Sri Lankan government should be suspended before the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM,) meeting for throwing overboard   the rule of law and principles of good governance.

Countries like Canada, USA, EU and UK have tried hard for years to hold the Sri Lankan government accountable for human rights violations and war crimes committed during the war without success.

Sri Lanka has miserably failed in terms of healing the war-traumatised Tamil people, forging ethnic reconciliation and meaningful steps to implement the LLRC recommendations and guaranteeing human and democratic rights and the dignity of human life.

Instead of reconciliation the divide between the Sinhalese and the Tamils increases as days passes into weeks, months and years. CHOGM should press the Sri Lankan government to allow independent investigation into the thousands of disappeared and thousands of brutally tortured and killed during and after the civil war.

I personally salute Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper for castigating Sri Lanka for failure to promote human rights and rule of law. I further welcome Prime Minister’s pronouncement that he will boycott the CHOGM if the Sri Lankan government fails to show progress on improving human rights and bringing about genuine reconciliation between different ethnic groups.

I am appealing to the CHOGM to take decisive action against Sri Lanka which is behaving like a rogue state in the interest of upholding the rule of law, democracy, freedom of speech, human rights and time honoured democratic principles. CHOGM has a historical duty to deal with human rights violators and autocratic rulers to make the world a better place to live.

Accountability critically important says UN Chief

 March 5, 2013 

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon flagged persisting accountability concerns about the final phase of Sri Lanka’s war with the LTTE in 2009 as “critically important” and urged the country to work constructively with the international community to address those challenges.

Responding to a question posed by a Mexican journalist following the screening of the controversial Channel 4 film entitled ‘No Fire Zone’ in the UN premises in Geneva last Friday, the UN Chief acknowledged the steps taken by the Sri Lankan Government since the end of the conflict, but said reconciliation and accountability challenges remained.

Asked if he would support calls for an independent probe of alleged excesses during the final phase of the conflict in Sri Lanka, the Secretary General said: “I have consistently underlined the critical importance of addressing accountability in Sri Lanka through a genuine and comprehensive national process achieving national reconciliation.”
He said that he had received the report of an accountability assessment mission to Sri Lanka in New York the previous week.
“Representatives of Bangladesh, Nigeria, Rumania, Sri Lanka and a Colombia University professor participated in an observation project to Sri Lanka last December. I recognised through our meeting with them the important steps taken by the Government of Sri Lanka since the end of the conflict and strongly underlined the need to address the remaining challenges particularly on issues relating to reconciliation and accountability,” the UN Chief said.
The Secretary General was addressing a press briefing following his remarks to the UNHRC High Level Panel on Human Rights last Friday.

'No place in Human Rights Council' for SL attack on High Commissione


Tamil Guardian 05 March 2013
A senior official from the British Mission in Geneva at the United Nations Human Rights Council has denounced Sri Lanka's speech which sought to attack UN High Commissioenr for Human Rights Navi Pillay.

In his address to the council, Minister of Plantation Industries, Mahinda Samarasinghe said "the bona fides of the High Commissioner's objectives may be called into question" and accused her of a "lack of objectivity". Previously the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence alsopublished articles attacking the High Commissioner's credibility.
In a blog post, Senior Human Rights Advisor for the UK Mission human rights team Bob Last stated that,

"The Sri Lankan delegation seems to be going to great lengths to keep itself at the front of people’s minds. The unpleasant verbal attack on the High Commissioner by the Sri Lankan Minister was ill-judged and had no place in the Human Rights Council.
The attempt to block the premiere of ‘No Fire Zone’ , the latest film on the final stages of the 2009 war, got short shrift from the Council President and only served to ensure a full house for the film."
It was grim viewing but important for council delegates to see as the further in time we move from the conflict, the harder it will be for Sri Lankans to achieve justice for the violations which occurred.
After the film a Sri Lankan Member of Parliament from the Tamil National Alliance made a poignant statement quoting Arthhur Schopenhauer:every truth passes through three stages before it is recognised. In the first it is ridiculed; in the second it is opposed and in the third it is regarded as self-evident. Let’s hope that the Council ‘s attention can help the process of truth telling about the conflict in Sri Lanka as a much needed first step towards reconciliation."

At the opening of the Council Session, Last also blogged,

"Sri Lanka will come up for another resolution this March aimed at promoting reconciliation and accountability in the country. The charged atmospherics around the resolution last year felt like the diplomatic equivalent of Lord of the Flies with a massive Sri Lankan government presence sparing no efforts to persuade countries not to vote in favour of the US resolution."
"Sri Lanka failed last year and won no friends through its heavy handed approach. Many diplomats were genuinely appalled by the threats made to those Sri Lankan human rights defenders brave enough to travel to Geneva to describe the situation back home."
"Let’s hope we can avoid a repeat performance this year."

The Tamils in Sri Lanka: From Tigers Into Lambs

Jack Healey

Founder, Human Rights Action Center

Imagine a global nation of people stretched into a diaspora that numbers perhaps 80 million people, more than five times the global Jewish population. Have you heard of the Tamils? They are in South India, Malaysia, Canada, Sri Lanka and around the world. Mostly Hindu, there is a substantial Christian and Muslim population. You're probably familiar with the work of A.R. Rahman from Slumdog Millionaire and M.I.A. from "Paper Planes." You've likely been entranced by the work of film director M. Night Shyamalan and have laughed at the comic timing of Aziz Ansari on Parks and Recreation. You may not be aware of the groundbreaking work of Navi Pillay, as United Nations officials hardly get name-checked in pop culture, but she has expanded the recognition of human rights into long-overdue areas. In short, you may never have heard of the Tamils, but you have certainly come into contact with their work in arts, politics, and sciences. But this article is not about Tamil culture.

After decades of being systematically marginalized in Sri Lanka since independence from the British, Black July in 1983 saw the slaughter of an unknown number of Tamils. Estimates range between 400 and 3000 Tamils killed and perhaps 25,000 injured. This was the onset of large-scale civil war. Continuing for decades in fits and starts, the armed conflict ended with a massive military operation by the Sri Lankan government forces against Tamils struggling for an independent state. In an unfortunate chapter of the war's closing days, in May of 2009, the White Flag Incident saw the killing of Tamils who thought they'd arranged for a surrender. The "resolution" of the conflict has left a diaspora increased by refugees, perhaps 90,000 Tamil war widows, and has attracted the attention of international officials concerned about the ongoing strife faced by Tamils in Sri Lanka. But this article is not about civilian strife or poor conduct in a rather "uncivil" war.

Tamils have continued to suffer with the systematic rape of women, men, and children. A report issued by Human Rights Watch this past week documents rape and sexual violence committed against Tamils in custody and is a deeply disturbing read. An earlier piece discussed the "capture" of a 12-year-old Tamil boy who was given a snack and began to relax before he was shot and executed at point blank range for the crime of being a family member of a Tamil soldier. There are reams of documentation of this violence, committed by a government that has been bending its peculiar Buddhist mythology to serve its rather un-Buddhist pogrom against those deemed ethnically different. But this article is not about the violence inflicted on children or the use of sexual violence by the state.

The government of Sri Lanka has been an item of concern to the international community and that concern grows. In the past month, they have refused human rights monitors from the United Nations and the UK has determined that the threat of torture faced by returning Tamils is enough to preclude their deportation back to the island nation. It is vital that international teams are given access to the Tamil areas in both the east and the north to assess the extent of the suffering and to try to alleviate the gap in basic human needs there. The Sri Lankan government must act in accordance with human rights standards and the principles of common civility. But this article is not about the failure of the government in Colombo to live up to international standards in human rights.

What it is about is the transformation of the "Tigers" into Lambs. In 2009, the LTTE suffered military defeat at the hands of the government. The wide expectation was that what was to come was perhaps decades of lower intensity conflict as arms caches might be rebuilt and an organization recovered. What happened instead was that the Tamil struggle reoriented as a nonviolent campaign, one that has been inclusive and international for elements of the community from around the world. The Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam had an inaugural meeting in Philadelphia in 2009 after preparing with the assistance of a diverse advisory committee. They have taken referendums of their community sentiment, have held elections about priorities and principles, and are continuing to strive for their right to basic human rights and basic political rights in accordance with the wishes of their community. This is revolutionary, and not in the old-school militancy that makes for soundbites and copy. This is a revolution of spirit for basic rights that has transformed an armed group into an exemplar of civil society participation and with a commitment to nonviolence. If only the Sri Lankan government would rise to meet this challenge and opportunity. This article is a call to recognize and appreciate and acknowledge that the Tigers have become Lambs and that the commitment to the principles enshrined in common decency and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is worth working for in the Tamil community and for all peoples. This article is about the Tigers that have become Lambs and who deserve the world's attention and work so that their commitment to nonviolence matches the world's commitment to their human and political rights. Wake up, world. A diaspora of 80 million is waiting for your attention. This article is about the yearning of a people for basic human and political rights from an armed struggled to a nonviolent and democratic one. The world awaits your response.