Eliot Engel Calls for an Independent International Investigation into Allegations of War Crimes in Sri Lanka

U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote Secretary Kerry on Tuesday expressing serious concern regarding the deterioration of democracy and the lack of progress on reconciliation and accountability in Sri Lanka. Citing indications that the Government of Sri Lanka appears unwilling to implement the recommendations of Sri Lanka’s own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, Ranking Member Engel writes Kerry that now is the time for the State Department to support calls for an Independent International Investigation into allegations of war crimes in Sri Lanka.

The full letter follows:

Dear Secretary Kerry:

I am writing to express my concern about the continued erosion of democracy in Sri Lanka and to urge you to call for an independent international investigation into allegations of war crimes by both the Government of Sri Lanka and the terrorist group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), during their final battles.

In the spring of 2009, when the Sri Lankan government defeated the LTTE, many believed the victory would pave the way not only for reconciliation between Sri Lanka’s ethnic groups, but also for a strengthened democracy and greater economic development. But the government has not built upon the peace dividend. Instead, it has used the space to consolidate its power, and to remove some of the checks and balances that are the hallmarks of true democracy. Four years later, rule of law is endangered, media freedom and freedom of speech are under attack, and reconciliation seems even more distant than it did during the long years of conflict.

While certainly the government should be applauded for some of its efforts at rehabilitation and reconstruction in the northern parts of the country, it has made little real progress in addressing the conflict’s underlying issues, or in answering questions of accountability that must be addressed in order to achieve lasting reconciliation and peace in the country.

In fact, the Government’s post-war actions in this direction have all been significantly influenced by the international community. One such example: in May 2010, the government established a Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), partly in response to international pressure over the deaths of an estimated 40,000 civilians at the war’s conclusion. The Sri Lankan Government presented the LLRC as evidence of its commitment to accountability, and argued that the LLRC review precluded the need for other processes on an international level. However, the LLRC had a limited mandate: it examined only the period 2002-2009 and had unclear investigative powers. Critics said it was neither transparent nor impartial.

Nonetheless, even the flawed process of the LLRC review acknowledged important
events and grievances that have contributed to decades of political violence and civil war in Sri Lanka. The final LLRC report makes constructive recommendations on a wide range of issues, including the need to credibly investigate widespread allegations of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances; demilitarization of the north and the country as a whole; the importance of a political settlement for minorities, with meaningful devolution of power; the protection of the right to freedom of expression for all, including the enactment of a right to information law; and the enactment of rule of law reforms. The report also acknowledged the disproportionate impact of the conflict and its aftermath on women and children.

I commend the leading role the State Department played last March with the passage of the UN Human Rights Council Resolution calling for the Government of Sri Lanka to implement the LLRC’s recommendations. Unfortunately, almost a year has gone by since that resolution passed and the Government has failed to take it up. Its National Action Plan addresses less than a third of the LLRC recommendations, a fact conveniently left out of government responses to international criticism.

The lack of accountability in this instance sets a dangerous pattern, in fact, for the country as a whole. The deterioration of democracy in Sri Lanka includes a 2010 amendment to Sri Lanka’s constitution, hurriedly passed by its Parliament, that removed the two-term limit for the President, provided him legal immunity, and gave him the final say in appointments to the civil service, the judiciary, and the police. Urban Development now comes under the Defence Ministry. And earlier this year, Parliament impeached Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake, even though the Supreme Court had deemed that move unconstitutional.

As Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert O. Blake has said, “International mechanisms can become appropriate in cases where states are either unable or unwilling to meet their obligations.” The State Department’s April 2012 report to Congress on Sri Lanka acknowledged that no one has been held to account since the publication of the LLRC. In February, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a strong report questioning the government’s commitment to follow through on the recommendations of the LLRC and urged Sri Lankan authorities to permit international experts to probe allegations of serious human rights violations. I agree with the Commissioner. It is time the U.S. join the call for an independent international investigation.

Secretary Kerry, in a report issued by your staff during your tenure as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the authors wrote that the war in Sri Lanka was over, but that the underlying conflict still simmered. Unfortunately, this remains true. I look forward to working with you and the Department to support efforts to address these underlying conflicts.

Sincerely,

Eliot L. Engel 

US Resolution Will Secure About 33 Votes

Kumar David Special to Salem-News.com-Mar-13-2013

The remaining 14 will split between pro-Rajapakse votes and abstentions-UNHRC in Geneva.

Sri Lanka is suspected of very serious war crimes, by the thousand, in their 2009 war against the Tamil people.

(COLOMBO, Sri Lanka) - This is not me, an irate Lankan alone; here are two quotes form an Indian web site: “The most disturbing aspect of the entire development at the UNHRC is India’s continuing dubious role”. “A US-sponsored resolution will come up for voting at the 22nd session of the UN Human Rights Council later this month. And it’s so embarrassing that India, which claims to be the world’s biggest democracy, is still sitting on the fence and doesn’t say a thing on the resolution till the 59-th minute”. Indian oddity is becoming “curioser and curioser” as Alice would have said, and what kind of a mad-hatter’s tea party is going on in Delhi is difficult to decipher; parliament and press are in turmoil, Tamil Nadu on the boil and Delhi dumb! Let me ask, in all sobriety, can anyone suggest a rational explanation for the sloppiness of the Manmohan Singh government; surely it is not reducible to the congenital indecisiveness of an individual, what other miasmic causation may be at work?

The breaking news in Colombo last week was that Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe  had travelled to Delhi and come back hot with an offer. He was thereafter asked by the President to lead the delegation to Geneva. The deal, it was said, was that given the size of the votes stacked against the Rajapakse Government (please don’t say Sri Lanka), Delhi had connived to make the following offer: “Accept the resolution; then no vote need be taken. Afterwards you can game things as you wish and claim to be implementing its terms”. Smart move eh; if you can’t beat ‘em, then join ‘em! The Indian public, familiar with Colombo’s shenanigans, will recall that such hoaxes lie scattered all along on both sides of Rajapakse Street. This time however the game fell apart for two reasons.

Extremists have rallied all over the island condemning the US resolution, burning effigies and calling upon the government to “defy imperialism”. These demonstrators are from Rajapakse’s core constituency, he dare not “betray” them; if he does his support base will fall apart. Hence accepting the resolution’s conditions, especially the presence of UN rapporteurs in Lanka, has become a no-go nightmare. Secondly, having got wind of the plot, the sponsors upped the ante; they toughened the terms of the draft to make it unacceptable to Rajapakse and also embarrassing to Delhi. So the choice before Delhi is stark; support a tougher resolution and abandon illusions that it can influence the draft or the vote, or fall flat on its face. The resolution will be carried with or without Delhi’s vote and at that point its bluff will be called. I do not know for sure whether Delhi still has space for manoeuvre to pull a rabbit out of its hat; we will have to wait and see.

Why the US decided to short-circuit Delhi’s game plan I do not know; perhaps it is just fed up with hypocrisy and prevarication on the Lankan issue; perhaps the wheeling and dealing along the Colombo-Delhi axis is just too much for anyone to swallow. On February 4 (Independence Day) Rajapakse buried devolution and the Thirteenth Amendment and recanted on eight years of assurances and negotiations with the highest Indian leaders and its most stuffed mandarins. Delhi has remained mute and tongue tied; it has not puked or even mewed.

Speculations galore

Since the Indian Government remains dumb and inscrutable it is open season for speculators. What are its motives? I speculated in my last piece (Paper 5393, 14 Feb 2013: “Colombo spits in Delhi’s face”) that perhaps India had (unrelated) concerns about its new security relationship with the US and was using this issue to get leverage elsewhere. This hypothesis seems invalid since it is India, not the US, that is tying itself in knots and the Geneva Resolution will be carried with or without India’s vote. A second possibility, whose truth will not be known until there is a change of administration in Delhi, is that Colombo has plenty of dirt on Delhi, exposing informed restraint, if not assistance, in Colombo’s human rights violations and war-crimes in the civil-war. If Colombo is going down, it can take the erstwhile Indian Government down with it.

A third line of speculation is wooing Colombo away from a dangerous suitor in the shape of the Chinese bear; the so-called Indian Ocean strategic contest and the String of Pearls theses. I think these threats are much overblown, if not downright miscalculations as I have often written before.

A fourth line of speculation that has been aired more recently relates to the anti-Muslim hate campaign, fanning across the country, with the not all that concealed encouragement of  the UPFA government and the visible participation of certain extremist Cabinet Ministers. Speculators suggest that India, with its own concerns about extremism, would not mind the Muslims of Lanka being taught a small lesson and put in their places before anything smacking of jihadism takes root. Hence Lanka’s political leaders are not to be antagonised too much. Such speculation aside, the instigation of anti-Muslims sentiments has taken serious proportions in Lanka and it merits the attention of readers in its own right. I will close with a few paragraphs on this topic.

The anti-Muslim hate campaign in Sri Lanka

The chauvinist campaign directed at Muslim business establishments and mosques is alarming and though clashes have not erupted, nor lives lost as yet, matters are approaching a flash point. Writing on behalf of the National Peace council Jehan Perera had this to say:

“Over the past several years, the government used the war against the LTTE as its primary mode of unifying the Sinhalese majority behind it and obtained its vote at successive elections. Now with the fourth year of the end of the war approaching there may be a need for new issues to keep Sinhalese solidarity (as) perceived by sections within the government. . . Those who view the government’s actions as being directed towards its political advantage would notice that the Halal issue can be used to unify the Sinhalese majority in a common cause. However, keeping religious sentiments on the boil without creating a conflagration is likely to be impossible”.

A strongly worded statement issued by the Friday Forum, a liberal think tank of several highly connected or respected signatories, can be found here.

I reproduce below the opening paragraph of the statement to give overseas readers a feel for the dangerous situation that is developing.

“The Friday Forum urges you to act immediately and decisively to counter the increasingly venomous and strident anti-Muslim hate campaign launched by a few extremist groups claiming to represent the majority Sinhala community. As you are aware, this campaign has intensified over the past several months. The country has witnessed attacks against mosques, and the circulation, on social media, public posters and web-sites, of obscene and vituperative messages that are offensive to religious beliefs. It has witnessed anti-Muslim public rallies and processions, including a call to boycott Muslim business establishments”.

The Friday Forum finds the governments inaction inexplicable (Jehan Perera does not) and says later in the same statement.

“Yet, the government headed by you has not up to now taken decisive and concrete measures to stem the current hate campaign or to reassure the Muslim community of its rightful place in our society. This is difficult to understand in light of your own assurances and that of the government on the urgent need to forge a lasting peace after ending the destruction and suffering of thirty years of fratricidal war. The silence of the government and a mute response in the face of the hate campaign against the Muslim community, particularly though the misuse of media is a violation of both national and international law.”

I am taking web extracts for this piece from www.colombotelegraph.com, which is the best Sri Lanka focused website at the present time, and a far more alarming piece is by Lathif Farouk here.

More things than just the Sinhala-Tamil ethnic imbroglio, pervasive corruption and rising authoritarianism are rotten in the state of Sri Lanka.

*This article is first published in southasiaanalysis.org

http://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/unhrc-in-geneva-and-after/

Special thanks to the Tamil Elders

Midweek Politics: Losing The Ideas Battle

By Dharisha Bastians -March 13, 2013

Dharisha Bastians

“Monks, even if bandits were to savagely sever you, limb by limb, with a double-handled saw, even then, whoever of you harbours ill will at heart would not be upholding my Teaching.” Kakacupama Sutta: The Parable of the Saw

The heavy Police guard at the Cinnamon Grand Colombo early Monday morning created the impression that there would be VIP movement at the hotel premises that day.

But instead of politicians, it was a large contingent of senior Buddhist monks that alighted at the entrance and made their way towards the hotel’s Ivy Room. There, the monks took their seats alongside Ceylon Chamber of Commerce Chief Susantha Ratnayake and senior Muslim clerics to address a massive joint media conference, where they proudly announced a win-win compromise on the Halal controversy that has been sweeping across the country.

The All Ceylon Jamaiythul Ulama announced that the Halal logo – deemed abhorrent to the Buddhist community by hard-line groups like the Bodu Bala Sena – would no longer need to be compulsorily displayed on the packaging of consumer products. The Ceylon Chamber Chairman announced that the Chambers had advised its membership to get products without the offending logo to retail shelves as soon as possible, so that the matter could finally be put to rest and the tensions created by the Halal issue effectively defused.

Senior monks, like Prof. Bellanwila Wimalaratana Thero, hailed the consensus as proof that problems between religious communities could be resolved through discussion instead of fisticuffs. “The ACJU is our friend,” he told journalists that morning. The monks and Muslim clerics displayed much bonhomie and goodwill during the trilingual media briefing.

Defusing tension

It was transparent attempt to spread the message that there was no need to fear the ACJU or sections of the Muslim community, following an onslaught of hard-line Sinhalese propaganda against Islamic custom and rituals. One of the major demands of the hardliners had been for Sinhala Buddhists and Sri Lankans from non-Muslim communities to be able to purchase food items that did not bear the Halal logo.

The strange rationale notwithstanding, it was a call many Sinhalese echoed, with grocery stores being forced to stock non-Halal items and some people choosing to boycott Muslim enterprises altogether. The anti-Halal,anti-Muslim enterprise campaign carried out by Sinhala hard-line groups like the Bodu Bala Sena, have struck at the very heart of a community that has traditionally engaged in trade.
As reports grew more widespread about intolerance and attacks against Muslims, their businesses and their way of life, the ACJU appeared to become more convinced that it would have to capitulate on the Halal issue in order to prevent an outbreak of more serious anti-Muslim sentiment. The Muslim clerics owned that the decision had been a hard one, but that they would seek other ways to educate Muslims about which brands of food were permissible for Muslim people to consume.

One system the ACJU is mulling is putting up notices in mosques around the country, listing products that were adhering to the Halal tradition. With immediate effect, the Halal logo was no longer mandatory, and the clerics went one step further offering the certification free of charge to any companies that sought it voluntarily. For a little over 24 hours therefore, it appeared as if with the ACJU’s major compromise on the Halal logo would see an end to the hate and demonisation campaigns.

But the next afternoon, at their multi-storeyed building at the Thummulla junction, the Bodu Bala Sena condemned the ‘compromise’ saying it was an evil plot hatched by foreign conspirators and unreservedly attacked all those they perceived as being architects of the resolution, including some members of the Sangha that were present at the joint press briefing the previous day. The group has flatly refused to accept the withdrawal of the logo as an end to the issue and pledged to continue to have the Halal certification completely banned in Sri Lanka by the April New Year.

Assuming credit for what they said was a 50% drop in sales at Muslim owned businesses, the hard-line group said the Halal debate must continue relentlessly until the certification was no longer available in the country, and even called for the dissolution of the ACJU that was set up by an act of Parliament in the year 2000. To this end, a series of massive rallies have been organised in different parts of the island, and the monks claim they are unable to cope with invitations from their task forces throughout the country to hold public meetings in their towns.

BBS, the Torah and the Quran

At the media briefing, Bodu Bala Sena front-liners spread open translations of the Torah and the Quran and explained why Halal food is food that is dedicated to Allah and is therefore unfit to be offered to the Lord Buddha in pooja. Ironically, the Bodu Bala Sena monks, who often quote Quranic suras, are yet to read from the Tripitaka or quote a sutta as preached by Lord Buddha at their media briefings and public rallies, even if the group’s media briefings and public rallies often begin by reciting pan-sil. They revere and uphold the teachings of Soma Thero, cite quotations from Anagarika Dharmapala and other Sinhala Buddhist renaissance figures, the monks are yet to provide a rationale for their movement that is drawn directly from the teachings or words of the Gautama Buddha.
The enmity and social segregation propagated by Bodu Bala Sena monks find no resonance or comparison in the teachings of the Buddha, whose most fundamental legacies were tolerance and the rejection of birth as marker of superiority. At Tuesday’s briefing the group’s ire was directed largely at ex-Justice Minister Milinda Moragoda, for his role in brokering the Halal compromise.

Moragoda, who now functions as a Presidential Advisor has been significantly involved in attempting to defuse simmering tension between the Bodu Bala Sena and the organisation of Muslim clerics that the hard-line Sinhala group has made its arch enemy. The former Minister has been instrumental in arranging discussions between the ACJU and high offices of the Government, including Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and even the Bodu Bala Sena and senior Defence officials, including the Defence Secretary and officers from law enforcement, intelligence and even the military.
The former UPFA Colombo Mayoral candidate has consistently lobbied senior Muslim clerics, higher echelons of the Rajapaksa administration and members of the Maha Sangha to arrive at a peaceful, consensual resolution to the Halal crisis and the anti-Muslim sentiment it was creating in the country. Moragoda’s ultimate plan was to bring discussions on the issue to a point at which the ACJU and the Bodu Bala Sena could sit together with senior Government officials at one meeting to iron out their issues. But with the crisis building and the Bodu Bala Sena rhetoric getting more divisive, the need to resolve the issue superseded the desire for gestures of goodwill.

Making enemies of moderates

As the days wear on, it will become clearer that the Bodu Bala Sena does not want the issues to simply go away. To continue to provide fodder for the anti-Muslim movement that is taking shape in certain urban areas and virulently so on social networking sites, the group has to keep creating monsters that feed the frenzied mob. For this reason, moderates like Moragoda and even Government officials and members of the business community that seek to defuse rather than build tensions, will continue to earn the Bodu Bala Sena’s ire.

Like any fascist group, the Bodu Bala Sena will recognise Sinhala Buddhist moderates as being their greatest enemy, whether they are politicians, laymen or monks. And if the Halal controversy looks like it cannot be sustained, the group has other tricks up its sleeve – the most recent of these being the Abaya or full body garment worn by some Muslim women.

Columnist D.B.S. Jeyaraj writes of disturbing incidents that show a growing intolerance to this garment worn by Muslim women in certain parts of the country already. Jeyaraj reports that women attired in these conservative outfits are becoming targets of derisive remarks and even attempts to yank the garments off. One such target was the grand niece of a veteran Muslim political leader, who was spat upon, while three schoolgirls in Abaya were attacked in Dickwella. The Bodu Bala Sena has been waging war against these outfits for some weeks now, referring to women who wear them as Goni-Billas and making derogatory and blatantly sexist remarks about the clothing at their rallies.
At their Tuesday briefing, the monk-led group affirmed that they were against the Abaya and the Burqa, because it was firstly, a security threat and a problem for law enforcement whose job depended on being able to identify persons, and secondly an indication that Sharia Law was in force in the island. Attempting to create fear and suspicion about the garment will form an integral part of the Bodu Bala Sena’s post-Halal campaign.

When it came to the Halal issue, it has long been the realisation that as with all consumer products, the market finally decides the outcome of such debates. If the removal of the Halal logo results in a drastic drop in sales, companies will opt for the logo, despite the political ripples it may create. Ultimately, purchasing power will provide the final resolution to the Halal crisis.

But the Bodu Bala Sena’s blatantly patriarchal encroachment into women’s clothing choices marks a dangerous trend that could culminate the creation of a cultural police that determines the length of women’s skirts and what constitutes indecent exposure. While the monk-led group is incongruously offended by the most conservative female garment worn in Sri Lanka today, and that is essentially driven by its anti-Muslim ideology, the question is who their next target will be after the Muslim community is effectively subjugated.

India’s problem?

Interestingly, the Halal saga and the Bodu Bala Sena antics are playing out alongside largely non-descript UN Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva. In a strangely unanticipated twist, Geneva 2013, as it relates to Sri Lanka has become much more New Delhi’s problem than it is Colombo’s. For several days now, the Indian Parliament has been rocked by protests by Tamil Nadu politicians demanding that the Centre take a tougher stance on Colombo. In fact, last Thursday (7), BJP strongman and former Indian External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha told the Indian Parliament that voting in support of the US resolution in Geneva was not sufficient, India should in fact submit a resolution against Sri Lanka itself.

The Rajapaksa administration is deliberately shifting attention away from the UNHRC’s 22nd Session, where a second US led resolution against Sri Lanka was tabled last Friday (8), with at least one change that should cause some disturbance for the Rajapaksa regime in Colombo. The inclusion in the second leaked draft of the resolution that ultimately became the version tabled by the US, “noted” UN High Commissioner Navi Pillay’s call for an independent war crimes inquiry. Perhaps even more interestingly, during an Indian parliamentary debate on 7 March, the day before the US resolution was tabled in Geneva, Indian Minister of External Affairs, Salman Khursheed was to tell the House that an external international inquiry into what has happened in Sri Lanka was “inevitable”.
“Similarly, the LLRC in toto must be implemented and then we can think at something beyond and something ahead. I only say this I know that many honourable Members feel that there should be an external international inquiry into what has happened in Sri Lanka. I know that the adjudication is necessary. It is inevitable,” the Indian Minister said.

He said that for a durable and sustainable political solution in Sri Lanka, “the facts will have to be established, they will have to be accepted and the consequences that come from acceptance of those facts and establishment of those facts, must also follow.”

Language trouble

India is inclined to vote in support of the resolution in Geneva, but remains gravely concerned about what it has termed the ‘intrusive’ language of the draft resolution. As such, the dilution or negotiation on the language has become, largely, New Delhi’s problem. Colombo has maintained stoically that it categorically rejects the US resolution and will not negotiate on its language. However, authoritative diplomatic sources have confirmed that the Sri Lankan delegation is not only in discussion with the US Delegation in Geneva about the language of the resolution, but is also hoping to move amendments to the draft.

Four years after the conclusion of the war – the war that New Delhi led by the Congress Government backed to the hilt in its final stages – Sri Lanka’s giant neighbour has received less and less to work with from the Rajapaksa administration. The continued suppression and denial of political rights to the Tamils fuels ferocious fires in India’s South, and the incumbent Sri Lankan regime’s anti-democratic tendencies in the recent past, continue to worry New Delhi, which as the major power in South Asia, seeks to create a common democratic standard in the region.

As India grows in power and influence in the region and around the world, it seeks more than mere economic prowess and its foreign policy decisions cease to be based solely on its own national interest. US PresidentBarack Obama in his speech to the Indian Parliament in 2010, highlighted this notion, when he said that as the world’s two largest democracies, India and the US must never forget that the price of their own freedom was standing up for the freedom of others. “Along with the United States, you’ve been a leader in supporting democratic development and civil society groups around the world. This, too, is part of India’s greatness,” the US President said, during his visit to New Delhi in his first term.

Minister Khursheed echoed these lofty sentiments in Parliament last Thursday when he said that it was not easy to support a resolution against Sri Lanka. “If you support a resolution against any country, do you think that it is easy? But if you vote with a principled position and the confidence that what you are doing is not something that you are doing for your own advantage but you are doing it for their benefit, you are doing it for the benefit of all humanity, then you have the confidence to look them in the eyes and say that it was important that we voted against you because this will help you resolve your problem.”
Ethno-religious fascism

Under its grander worldview then, India’s reaction to the events unfolding in Sri Lanka, with regard to the attempted suppression of a different minority in the island, while the Tamils continue to struggle for their basic political rights would be interesting. As recently as 11 years ago, India had its tryst with ethno-religious fascism, when the Babri Masjid mosque in Ayodhya was demolished in a communal riot that followed a major rally by the extremist Hindu Shiv Sena group. Radical forces espousing the cause of Hindutva or political Hinduism appeared to be taking root and threatening the fabric of India’s democracy. India stared that monster squarely in its face and secularism and commonality eventually triumphed. Yet the ignominy of such atrocities and the threats they pose to a country’s future security, remain for all time.

The Government of Sri Lanka consistently argues against international interference in its domestic affairs. It cries foul and stands upon sovereignty claims, as the call rings from East and West for reconciliation between communities of people and accountability and repentance for crimes of the past. For a world that has lived through Srebrenica, Rwanda and Darfur, it is tantamount to a crime for the international community to look the other way when states act against their citizens. Deriving its sole legitimacy from the defeat of terrorism, theRajapaksa regime flouts democratic values, the rule of law and looks the other way when ethno-religious plurality is threatened in the country, and still expects to retain its standing as a member of the international community.

Yet as long as the regime fails to devolve power to the North and East, erodes democratic values and affords State patronage and security to hard-line groups like the Bodu Bala Sena that openly propose minority suppression, it is losing the battle for ideas internationally.

Last weekend, the Defence Secretary inaugurated a Bodu Bala Sena run Buddhist Leadership Academy in Galle, rubber stamping the group’s vicious rhetoric and divisive campaigns against the Muslim community. In fact, it is learnt that the Defence Secretary was repeatedly advised to refrain from attending the event, from no less than his own intelligence services. Even if it was intended to be perceived as an innocuous attendance, it was a poor signal from the Government at a time when it is facing such serious international scrutiny about its commitment to minority rights.

The refusal to grant minority rights is resulting in serious traction for powerful, pro-separatist lobbies like theGlobal Tamil Forum whose agendas are inimical to the Sri Lankan State and whose cause is being legitimised by senior UK politicians, former UN officials and internationally renowned rights activists and civil society leaders who see the Sri Lankan Government’s actions as proof that it is not interested in winning the peace and ensuring and protecting minority rights.

Given the openly racist positions taken by the Bodu Bala Sena and the deep divisions their propaganda is creating in Sri Lankan society, a debate also ensues as to whether their rhetoric should be subjected to a media blackout. If Bodu Bala Sena is a distraction tactic, from Geneva, from the spiralling cost of living and from the Government’s own increasingly autocratic tendencies, affording them publicity could be a way of playing into their hands. But to keep public attention focused on the group’s activities and rhetoric also keeps moderates seeking to prevent the outbreak of ethno-religious violence wide awake and alert to the dangers such groups pose. To ignore them in the hope they will simply fade into obscurity is too great a risk given what the Bodu Bala Sena has already achieved in terms of spreading fear and suspicion. They must be consciously, deliberately made obscure, not through suppression or arrest, but by defeating them, with the numbers and with the truth, in the only fight that truly matters – the ideas battle.

It was not only Balachandran! – New evidence unearthed by the GTF

Thursday, 14 March 2013 

New photo and video evidence has emerged today of war crimes committed by the Sri Lankan forces during the final stages of the war. Global Tamil Forum has released video footage further corroborating the summary executions depicted in the ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’ documentary.

This new evidence clearly identifies the victims in the photo squatting with hands tied their backs, including a young boy possibly aged between 10 to 13 years old, before they are shot dead.

The new video footage, which will be aired in Tamil Nadu on Puthiya Thalaimurai (PT) TV at 6pm Indian time, shows some of these men/boys being shot at close range. You can see amongst the dead bodies, this young boy with a distinct bandage on his left arm being shot dead, bleeding from his head. You can also identify at least another two from the photo (when they were alive) and then in the video being shot or already shot dead.

Although some parts of this extended video were in the Channel 4 documentary, even that didn't show people who can be identified clearly alive, like the way we can in this photo, and then their dead bodies lying in a 'killing field'.

This new evidence raises further concern that not only men and women, but even young children were not spared, in spite of surrendering or being captured. As reported last month, the evidence of Balachandran (LTTE Leader’s 12-year old son), who was in Sri Lankan Army custody and then summarily executed, was brought to light in the latest ‘Killing Fields’ documentary “No Fire Zone”. This new evidence indicates that this was not an isolated incident of child fatality. It highlights the severe breaches of international laws and conventions during the war and will re-open questions regarding who was in-charge and gave these orders.

Lee Scott MP, Chairman of the UK Parliament’s All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils (APPG-T) and Siobhain McDonagh MP, Vice Chair of the APPG-T, as well as Suren Surendiran, GTF Spokesperson, have given extensive interviews to Puthiya Thalaimurai (PT) TV, which will also be broadcast along with the video.

With the 22nd Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in progress and a spotlight on Sri Lanka with another resolution from the United States, this evidence will add to pressure for Sri Lanka to address accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity during the final stages of the war in 2009 and will intensify the calls for an international, independent investigation.

Details regarding the attachments:

Photo - A group of men and boys squatting with no shirt and hands tied behind their back. The boy at the back row at the right extreme with a blue band tied on his left arm.

Now please watch the attached video, particularly between 2.26 mins to 2.28 and 3.00 mins to 3.02. At these particular points of the video you will see the dead body of the same boy, it seems. If you also pause at 3.01 minute of the video, you will see the boy's left arm where the blue band being still there.

In the same photo, notice at the back row the man at the left extreme with a band on his head, wearing a banyan. now watch the video between 4.49 mins to 4.51. The dead body with a similar banyan with stripes appears to be the same man on the photo.

The same goes to the chap in the front row left extreme with a beard and slightly baled. it appears in the video the last person who is being shot at looks like him.

Although some parts of this extended video was in the Channel 4 documentary, even that didn't show clearly people who can be identified being alive as the way we can through this photo and then their dead bodies in a 'killing field'.

On all counts this incident needs to be independently investigated for

(1) - Why these men and boys were killed after capture or after surrender?
(2) - Who gave the orders?
(3) - Why is government of Sri Lanka refusing to let an independent investigation?
(4) - Which international laws and conventions were breached?
(5) - If we don't serve justice to these victims and their living loved ones, what makes us believe the same will not be repeated in Sri Lanka and/or the in any other country?

These killings go to show it was not just Balachandran who was just shot but even other children and young men were not spared, whether they surrendered or captured.

Please acknowledge in your report that these evidence were sourced from the Global Tamil Forum (GTF).

Is 12 year old Balachndran Prabhakaran a terrorist?

This graphic was on display on the official web site of  the Defense Ministry, Government of Sri Lanka. It had included 12 year old son of the LTTE leader as a terrorist killed.  Now the graphic has been removed.
- SLB

[EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW] NO FIRE ZONE - THE DOCUMENTARY

Activist Intimidation: Surveillance and Intimidation of Tamil Diaspora Activists and their Supporters
By TAG RESEARCH TEAM, Wednesday, March 13 2013

13 March 2013

The report in full is available upon request. Please email info@tamilsagainstgenocide.org or contact us via twitter @tagadvocacy.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

This report is in part an update to the TAG report “Returnees at Risk: Detention and Torture in Sri Lanka” (hereafter ‘Returnees at Risk’) published 16 September 2012.^[1] The focus of this report is the Government of Sri Lanka (hereafter GoSL) surveillance and intimidation of Tamil diaspora activists. We include in this broad category of ‘activists’ protesters who campaign for political objectives, such as devolution of the North and East of Sri Lanka, but also those who campaign for accountability for violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) including war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

The report analyses afresh the data sets from the ‘Returnees at Risk’ report but  also presents and analyses material that has been collected by TAG since that report, namely, five interviews with activists conducted in January 2013, and a further eight successful asylum appeal determinations. The backdrop to analysis of these data sets is the changing context since September 2012, since events prior to that date are covered by the ‘Returnees at Risk’ report. Briefly listed, primarily for reference purposes, are particularly significant protests and activist events, predominantly in the UK.

In light of analysis of the above-mentioned data sets, and within the context elaborated upon in the ‘Returnees at Risk’ report and briefly updated here, we find as follows:

• The GoSL defines ‘traitor’ and ‘terrorist’ broadly to include both those who call for an independent international process of accountability for the crimes committed during the Sri Lankan conflict and human rights abuses since the end of the conflict[2], and those who are considered to bring Sri Lanka into international disrepute, such as asylum seekers and protesters. Commensurate with its assessment of the threat, the GoSL allocates resources to collecting (both through surveillance and interrogations) and then acting upon that threat. Those accounts of interrogations under torture that are detailed in our data sets reveal the information requirements of GoSL officials.

• The findings from the data sets confirm that the diaspora is considered the locus of the ‘LTTE’ threat.  Members of the diaspora are treated as suspicious, by virtue of the fact that they are in the diaspora.^[3] The risk to returning members of the Tamil Diaspora is further heightened when that member:
  • Is an actual or perceived member of an organisation that is (actual or perceived) to be critical of the GoSL
  • Has been (or is perceived to have been) involved in protests and/or activist events against the GoSL
  • Is believed to have brought the Rajapaksa Administration into disrepute in any way - this includes asylum seekers and witnesses of war crimes or human right’s abuses who dare to speak out.

As diaspora groups have become increasingly better organised and more active, largely in response to the crimes committed in the final months of the conflict in 2009, the GoSL has responded by increasing its surveillance and intimidation of those groups and individuals. In the wake of the Petrie report^[4], and the international condemnation of the impeachment of the Chief Justice^[5], with the mounting international attention and pressure in the build up to Sri Lanka’s review at the Human Right’s Council this March 2013, the growing campaigns against the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM)^[6] being held in Colombo, and the growing media storm generated by the release of another Channel 4 documentary^[7], it is assessed that the collection and intimidation tactics of the GoSL are likely to increase.

---

^[1] http://www.tamilsagainstgenocide.org/Data/Docs/TAG-Report-16-Sep-2012-Returnees-at-Risk.pdf

[2] These calls have been largely for an international process for accountability for allegations of war crimes in the final phase of the war, but in some instances they also include calls for accountability for IHL violations during the 60 years post independence. GOSL sees these calls as threatening its “sovereignty” and objects to any “international interference”

^[3] Indeed, where threat = capability + intent, Tamil diaspora have both the capability (since they are not in Sri Lanka) and the motivation (the crimes amply committed by successive Sri Lankan Governments.)

^[4] The Internal Review Panel Report on Sri Lanka (The Petrie Report), November 2012

^[5] International Crisis Group Blog, 17 January 2013,”Impeachment of the Sri Lankan Chief Justice”, accessible at http://www.crisisgroupblogs.org/srilanka-lastingpeace/2013/01/17/the-impeachment-of-sri-lankan-chief-justice/.

^[6] “Call for Cameron to boycott Sri Lanka summit over human rights” BBC News, 15 November 2012, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20323364,

^[7] “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields” First Broadcast Tuesday 14 Jun 2011, and “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields: War Crimes Unpunished” First Broadcast Wednesday 14 Mar 2012. Accessible at http://srilanka.channel4.com/.

Travails of the Women in the Vanni

Travails of the Women in the Vanni

15 Mar, 2013 Rajani Iqbal 

(Following is a copy of  a presentation made by the author at a side event at the UNHRC in Geneva on 11^th March, 2013 organised by the Co-operative Society of Netherlands in collaboration with the International Movement Against Discrimination and Racism)    

Facing life after the War from Young Asia Television on Vimeo.

All of us remember the day the war ended in Sri Lanka. While those in the rest of the country rejoiced, to  the Tamils, many of whom had friends and relations living in the war zones, it was a very sad day.    Thousands of persons had been killed in the final days of the war.  Thousands of others  walked  into the hands of the army waiting  to receive them and send them to the hurriedly established camps which they called welfare centres. The  292,000 odd persons who escaped death during  the war,  had to spend  nearly three years  in  refugee camps in which they were imprisoned till they were re-settled or re-located in various parts of the Northern Districts of Sri Lanka.   The video you just saw is about the first attempt to capture on a film of the kind of life the women in the resettled  areas to be shown to an international audience.  That’s why it is in English.

According to Governments statistics   there are  86,000  war widows in these Provinces.   The actual  number  is   much more.  Among them are young widows and women who have young children  to feed, protect and educate. Some have elder parents to care for.   Several of them  are maimed.

The end of the war saw many National Plans by the  government to develop the war affected areas.   But none for the women affected by the war.  An estimate shows that  90% of the households in the Wanni District are women-headed households.  To them the  plight of these women and children are less important than  developing the roads,  buildings and the military camps.  The roads  are  to  facilitate the movement of military traffic to the innumerable  camps that have been established in the North.   And the buildings are to house the  many hotels and shops that have sprung up to cater to the thousands of visitors from abroad and from the South.  Hardly any  men or women of these areas are employed in these construction works or in the operation of these ventures.  While this so-called development work is going on, rural roads continue to be in a state of neglect.  Irrigation canals are in a state of dis-repair.  Access to the principal towns such as Vavuniya, Kilinochchi, Mannar  or Mullaitivu from the re-settled villages in the interior are still primitive.  Inter-village transport  is  no better.   Yet, visitors to the North are impressed by  these newly constructed  roads and buildings. These are not indicators of development. They hardly  realize  that a majority of those re-settled  live in the interior on either side of these highways. They are still without livelihood opportunities and basic health care.  The highways and  buildings  hardly  benefit any of the those re-settled. What they need is the reconstruction of the infrastructure in their villages which are still in ruins.

The women in these districts know the value of education and  are keen to educate their children.  But most of the schools are not functioning.  The few schools that are functioning are either under the shades of trees or are in huts and dilapidated buildings.   Many  students  have to trek several miles to get to the nearest school, often without any footwear.   Fortunately,  some of the non-government organisations  are helping  a small percentage of these  schools to meet their basic needs.

Those re-settled  people  have  no option but  to  start life afresh in  amidst the ruined  infrastructure in these villages.   They  hardly  have  any resources to make a start.   Nor do they have  the  skills their husbands used to have.  Their  houses are  insecure improvised dwellings.  The young women in  them  are at  risk of becoming victims of  unscrupulous men, often from the military camps and check points which exist  in almost every village. Statistics show that there is a soldier for every five persons in the North.   They pry on the lives of these women who live in constant fear of being harassed.  Victims have no one to complain to. Most  productive parts of these villages are reserved for the army.     Many such  pieces of lands  around  military camps are being cultivated by the military themselves.  Some  plots of land  have  been ear-marked for commercial ventures.

The village of Keppapulavu is one such village.  Most of the settlers here have been traditional fishermen.  They had been hurriedly  dumped  in a jungle  far away from the sea and asked to  do cultivation.  But their own fishing village is now with the military.

Some women found employment in mine clearing operations of foreign organisations. That is a dangerous vocation which many  men  may dare not to venture into.  But these women have boldly accepted such jobs.    That proves how desperate they are for a means of living. Unemployment is so acute among these women that any job is good enough.  Some have even become three wheel drivers plying for hire.

State sponsored settlers brought from the South to the  North,  get all the assistance they need to subsist in the occupied traditional lands of the Tamils.  Some of them do cultivation while others fish  along the coasts in the Wanni Districts. However the sea is out of bounds to fishermen among those re-settled.

In the midst of this,   women  have to subsist in one way or the other.  Poverty has driven some  of them  to make a living  by  to  letting  their bodies to be used by the workers from the South and those in the camps nearby.  Such a vocation exposes them to the risk of unwanted pregnancies, disease and  frustration.  Some other women have been enticed with promises of work in the factories in the South and taken away by human traffickers  never to be heard of thereafter.   In their desperate search for employment, a few hundreds have answered a call by the military to be enlisted into their ranks.  Many of them had soon become disillusioned.   Some had run away while others had to be taken to  hospital  with  hysteria.  Many  attempted to commit suicide unable to bear what   happened to them  after  they were recruited by the military.

Not all the women had been so unlucky.  Many others took courage and wanted to face life despite the odds.  They are determined to venture into  income generation activities.  Cash for the inputs  is the biggest problem they have.  Those who wished to do cultivation need cash to buy seeds and  the basic  agricultural tools.  Most of the families had received a  re-settlement allowance of Rs.25,000 from the State.  That  was like giving a sip of water to a thirsty person.  Many had used that cash to  purchase  their  basic requirements  they urgently needed.    A few non-government organisations had moved in to help them with grants. Even  these organisations have had  to get permission from the Presidential Task Force to do so. The procedures are cumbersome and sometimes frustrating.

The grants of these  NGOs could reach only a fraction of the needy.  Without any experience in self-employment activities the beneficiaries  could not make optimum use of such grants. Income generation through poultry farming, dairy farming, livestock breeding,  cultivation  and even home gardening,  need skills and knowledge that is lacking among them.  Irrigation facilities are minimal.    Serious steps should be taken to provide these women with skills they need to benefit from their ventures.   Their needs are  many  but  the resources to help them are scarce.

State agencies stepped in  and  started  organising these women into groups.  They were encouraged to form rural development societies. The Department of Co-operative Development began to re-activate the co-operative societies that  had  existed in their midst before they were displaced.  Let us hope that these grass root level institutions which are referred to as Community Based Organisations (CBOs) will prove to be effective institutions to uplift the war affected women.

The Government of Sri Lanka is expected to spell out an action plan for the implementation of the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission  at the  UNHRC Sessions in Geneva in March, 2013.  Among the recommendations of this  Commission are the steps that need to be taken to improve the condition of the women affected by the war. That includes, their right to know the whereabouts of their loved ones who  disappeared during and after the war; their right to land with a title; their right to  freedom of expression and protection;  facilitation of livelihood activities and vocational training of  the affected women, and so on. In 2009 the  Committee of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)  too has urged the governmentto provide houses, pay compensation to these women and to involve them too in the decision making process in formulating livelihood projects for  the affected women.  Demilitarization is  key to the process of reconciliation,  peace building and the uplift of these women. Whether the Government would consider these recommendations of the LLRC and the CEDAW Committee  in all earnest, is yet to be seen.