WikiLeaks: History Of The Beginning Of UNHRC Resolutions On Sri Lanka

By Colombo Telegraph -March 21, 2013

“According to a source close to President Rajapaksa’s inner circle, the GSL has counted votes within the Human Rights Council and is confident it can defeat any country resolution on Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan media are reporting that Sri Lankan PermRep in Geneva Dayan Jayatilleke, who is known for his hardline Sinhalese views, will be reinforced by Attorney General C.R. De Silva (another hawk) and a three-man team of Deputy Solicitors General. This would indicate that the delegation will treat any debate about Sri Lanka in the HRC as an adversarial proceeding.” the US Embassy Colombo informed Washington.

Robert O. Blake

The Colombo Telegraph found the related leaked cable from the WikiLeaks database. The cable is classified as “Confidential” and written on September 06, 2007 by the US Ambassador to Colombo Robert O. Blake.

The ambassador wrote; “The period April-June 2007 showed a decline relative to the beginning of the year in Colombo and some other parts of Sri Lanka in certain categories of human rights abuses, such as abductions. However, the overall level of human rights violations compared to 2002-2005 remains elevated. Since human rights violations are conflict-driven, the improvement may largely be due to an abatement in fighting after government forces reasserted control over the Eastern Province. The continuing role of paramilitary groups such as the Eelam Peoples’ Democratic Party (EPDP) in Jaffna and the Karuna group (TMVP) in the East raises important questions about the durability of the improvement. There are some indications that the frequency of abuses began to climb again recently, but reliable statistics for August are not yet available. The situation in Jaffna remains grave, with abductions continuing and extrajudicial killings on the rise. There has been negligible progress on punishing those responsible for serious human rights violations. Further developments in a few high-profile cases, including some of those within the mandate of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry, will provide a useful indicator of the government’s commitment to improve on accountability. The overall number of child soldiers serving in the Tamil Tigers and the Karuna group is falling, but child recruitment has not stopped. Pressure on the English-language media in Colombo has eased somewhat, although one prominent defense journalist left the country on September 3 to seek temporary refuge abroad. Attacks on Tamil journalists have continued unabated. Embassy is encouraged by the progress so far, but believes that consistent pressure from the U.S. and other friends of Sri Lanka will be needed to sustain the positive trend. The government’s control of the East carries with it the responsibility to ensure a political, security and human rights environment that will reassure Tamils and other minorities. We must make clear to the government that the situation is Jaffna is unacceptable, and to find ways ease the pressure on Tamil media. Please see Embassy conclusions and recommendation in paragraphs 33 to 34.”

Under the subheading ‘GENEVA HRC SEPTEMBER SESSION’  Blake wrote; “Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe told Ambassador on August 24 that the GSL will take the position that the HRC’s decision to move forward beginning in 2008 with the Universal Periodic Review mechanism, a peer group process with observers, would render any country-specific resolution on Sri Lanka unnecessary.”

“July and August have seen a reduction in the number of abductions reported, particularly in the Colombo area. — It is not true that abductions have “gone to zero,” as some have alleged. — The overall incidence of human rights violations appears to have abated in the second quarter of CY 2007 compared to the first quarter. — The frequency of human rights violations has returned to its approximate level in autumn 2006, and remains far above the levels seen before the election of President Rajapaksa in November 2005. — Disappearances have continued at a high rate in the East. The human rights situation has shown little improvement there, although the potential exists for an improvement if stability returns. — As reported elsewhere, the outcome of the government’s plan for the recovery and development of the East will be crucial. Any future role of the Karuna group as a paramilitary will have serious consequences for human rights abuses. — The GSL will resist any Sri Lanka-specific resolution in Geneva because it believes it has the votes to defeat a resolution. Efforts similar to last year’s to negotiate a more mildly worded resolution will probably be futile.” the ambassador wrote as his conclusions.

Under the subheading “RECOMMENDATIONS” Blake wrote; “Sustained U.S. and international pressure will be needed to keep the GSL on track for improving its human rights record.– The U.S., as an influential non-member of the HRC, may want to consider supporting a reasonably worded EU resolution on Sri Lanka (that acknowledges some progress), even if the votes do not appear to be there to pass it. — If decisions are made not to receive Sri Lanka officials at the highest levels in Washington, we should use available opportunities for less senior Washington-based officials to deliver tough messages on the need for a concerted, genuine effort to improve Sri Lanka’s human rights record and hold those guilty of abuses accountable. — We should link a sustained improvement on human rights to U.S. ability to provide certain types of assistance, including a possible Millennium Challenge Compact and more robust forms of security cooperation. — U.S. assistance to help Sri Lanka improve its forensic capability (ref p) will not only help address the GSL’s poor record of investigation and conviction, it will give the Embassy important access. We should also provide whatever assistance we can to human rights defenders in Sri Lanka, who remain under duress (see September 5 Embassy email to SCA/INS).”

Read the cable below for further details;

22nd Regular Session of the Human Rights Council (25 February - 22 March 2013)

A Tale Of Two Cities: Chennai And Mullivaikal

By Nimalka Fernando -March 20, 2013 

Dr.Nimalka Fernando

Chennai is burning. Tamil Nadu is in uproar. As I sit in my room in Geneva glancing through the resolution on Sri Lanka the papers scream thatKarunanidhi’s DMK has pulled out from the Indian Congress led UPA government. With 18 DMK members including 5 Ministers out of the UPA government this will leave the Congress government in the “conditional” hands of Mayawati’s BSP and the Samajawadi Party. Unlike the DMK, these two parties are not alliance partners with ministerial portfolios and more importantly, they are political opponents in Uttar Pradesh. Without the DMK the Congress government now walks on a political “tight rope”.

For over 6 years human rights organizations and activists with Sri Lankan family members have been working morning and night trying to cope with the  grief of losing our loved one’s let alone seeking justice for them. Looking for justice is not new to some of us. Since 1989 when thousands disappeared from all over the island my country was referred to as the “tear drop” of the Indian Ocean. Thousands of family members came before the Disappearance Commission and testified. They provided evidence which flowed like a river of tears before the commission. Their collective  plea was to  know where their loved one’s were for the sake of closure . They wanted to know whether their family members were alive or whether  something tragic had happened. They wanted proof so that they could either perform religious rituals to celebrate or mourn their family member. They wanted to know the “truth”. As evidence mounted many government officials including armed forces personnel left the country, one by one.. The government also assisted them to flee. Only a few cases were filed against perpetrators. Those who represented the Sri Lankan Attorney General’s department came before international forums and declared pompously that we have successfully prosecuted the perpetrators. How many people did these perpetrators enforcedly disappear? As reported in the Commission headed by Ms Manouri Muttetuwegama and Mr Devanesan Nesiah; two dedicated eminent persons from the professional community in our country over 35,000 confirmed disappearances. From 35,000 only 2 cases have been successfully filed and seen through the administrative  process of  justice in Sri Lanka.It brings me great shame and disappointment that representatives of the Attorney General’s department come and proudly hail the wonders of the AG department. Would you be able to go in front of family members still waiting for justice for their disappeared loved one’s and humanely proclaim your own perceived “success story”.

From time to time the leaders of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party used these family members to garner their votes. They diverted families from seeking justice by giving them superficial solutions.

No political leader now in power in the UPFA led Sri Lankan government using the vote bank of the 1989 carnage ever pledged to revive the old files. Instead they used the “Kappan” or payoff culture. They gave envelopes and certificates to the families for sacrificing their loved ones to them to come to power. This travesty of justice has taken root in Sri Lanka and we are now following the same foot path towards future. You should ask yourself the question, why do the same people who stood with us on disappearances in the 1980’s now stand against us? I will help you answer this question.

It is with a weeping heart I meet Dr Manoharan in Geneva as he visits the HRC from time to time seeking justice. He is a  man who served our society. A father who was educating his  child to become a professional. He was no different from you. Today he come before us with tears and a trembling voice telling us to please give me justice.  How did the human rights envoy of the President respond to him? He told us how the LTTEkilled people brutally. How bombs exploded. What was he implying? That Dr Manoharan is a LTTE supporter? That the 5 boys playing in the beach road were LTTE cadres? Surely Mr Minister you know well that you never answered this father’s question straightforwardly. This so called non – summary proceeding has proceeded for the last two years. It is moves at a snail’s pace. But time is of the essence because as time passes for those with no answer, their grief will grow and their tears will fill the ocean around us and swallow Sri Lanka into its own Ocean of tears. We need to move faster and you need to know that you are only fooling yourself.

This brings me back to Chennai. The DMK has become active. What were they doing when hundreds and thousands of innocent people were locked inside the Mullivaikal? What made Mr Karunanidhi pull out now when he could not come out when thousands of Tamil people were suffering in Sri Lanka? You should have left then Karunanidhi but instead

you chose to speak about the crores of rupees being sent to assist the internally displaced. You own daughter Kanomozi came with a delegation to Sri Lanka and disappeared into Sri Lanka’s “little England” or Nuwara Eliya located in Central Sri Lanka at state expense. You never sighted the Northern or Eastern Provinces.. Why did you not look at the root of the problem that you see in Chennai everyday where the tears of Tamil refugees who fled persecution and violence washed your streets?  India has always sheltered Tamils, when Mullivaikal was happening why did Mr Karunanidhi not send a boat or ship? At least the late Hon Rajiv Gandhi sent Parippu.

Can we truly redress the tragedy of Mullivaikal with such antics? Just because you pull out of the government of India  justice will not come to thousands who are seeking it. For years the human rights defenders of Sri Lanka worked hard with the international community including INGOs to arrive at this stage. Mr Karunanidhi has forgotten 2009 when he could not get India to vote against Sri Lanka. If that resolution was passed we would have seen different politics in South Asia and in Sri Lanka. Raviraj and Lasantha would not have died. Many more would have been saved.  He is responsible for what happened then and this is my very honest analysis. The tragedy of the No fire zone hangs on his head squarely. His regime in Tamil Nadu let the Tamil people down. The fires that were lit in Mullivaikal cannot dowsed by setting Chennai on fire. This will not be erased from history.

Mullivaikal can only see justice if Delhi rises up and if Colombo complies. The true tale of two cities lies in Colombo and Delhi.

Why Tamil Nadu is right to call Sri Lanka’s ‘war’ a genocide

No consensus in all-party meet   Analysis: UPA’s survival instincts just got better   Opinion: Karuna is wrong to reinvent Eelam war   Photos: BJP joins Chennai student protests    

by G Pramod Kumar Mar 20, 2013

A part of the national debate on the Sri Lankan Tamil issue in the wake of the second US resolution at the UNHRC in another two days is increasingly disturbing because it’s not only dismissive of the tenets of human rights, but is advanced without any cultural and political context.

The most repeated keywords – sovereignty andgeopolitics – summarise the ruthlessness of the argument. Human lives and brutal memories don’t matter in a world of perceived geopolitical gains.

It’s not surprising that the purveyors of this view – which dismisses evidence-based charges of war crimes and human rights violations against the Sri Lankan government as a sovereign nation’s internal issue – comprises former diplomats, civil servants, strategic affairs hawks and some fringe beneficiaries.

They are also unabashed in their utilitarian view that supporting the Sri Lankan government is unavoidable for India’s geopolitical gains, because otherwise you know, China will eat us up.

The most shocking element of the systematic pro-Sri Lanka voice is the rubbishing of the argument that what happened in Sri Lanka in 2009 was a genocide. Tamil parties, including both the ruling AIADMK and the DMK, and rights activists across the world insist that it was a genocide. They want the UNHRC resolution to say that. How can the world have one standard for Sri Lanka and another for Guatemala?

Protests in Chennai on Sri Lankan genocide: Firstpost

By the way what’s a genocide?

According to the UN, “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.” (OHCHR)

Then why, to some, would the Sri Lankan action not be a genocide?

Because, apparently, in a war there will be civilian casualties and military excesses. This is the unavoidable sad truth of wars. The world wars had incidents wherein a large number of innocent civilians lost lives, but in the interest of the majority and the security of the rest of the world, they were justifiable. When people from a particular race die and suffer in a “war” at the hands of its own government, it is not a genocide!

So, The first step towards building this argument is changing the terminology from civil war to mere ‘war’. But a war against one’s own people?

Granted, the separatist movement in the North and the East had become a bloody terrorist group that was killing countless innocents, but that doesn’t mean that the country couldn’t oragnise any other response than going to war against its own civilian citizens. It’s alright if you could surgically hit at terror, but not scorch the land along with its people to clean it up.

And in this case, the government forces killed its citizens of a particular ethnicity, namely Tamils. Remember, that we are living in a world where the independence movements of Kosovo and Timor Leste were backed by the international community, and Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt is on trial for genocide committed during the civil war in his country.

And the estimate of civilian casualties by the UN is about 40,000. This number is proportionately huge compared to the total number of Tamils in the area at the time of the “war” – about 300,000. Roughly one-seventh ‘cleaned up’. Why is this not a genocide or ethnic cleansing?

Of course, Sri Lanka had a bloody problem on its hands- the Tamil Tigers had ravaged their country for a long time and they wanted a solution. But what the government conveniently ignored was that the terror was the result of ignoring a political issue that represented the aspirations of a culturally and politically distinctive majority of Tamils in their homeland. Statistically, Tamils account for 18 per cent of Sri Lanka; but in their homeland of the north and the east they were more than 90 per cent.

The pro-Sri Lanka commentators argue without a context – which is that the North and east had a past of cultural and political autonomy which couldn’t have been dominated by a Sinhala government. The Tamil and Sinhala regions had been distinctively separate and autonomous and it’s only because of the colonial rule that they came together as a single nation state.

How can anybody forcefully take away the centuries old cultural and political autonomy of a population and apply instruments of Sinhala homogenisation? Even a cursory reading of Sri Lanka’s political history is good enough to get a sense of the systematic efforts at Sinhala nationalisation – and the resultant marginalisation- of its Tamils, who are the majority in their homeland, by the successive governments in Colombo.

The only way that the Tamil region could have been part of the country was through sheer cultural and political autonomy as we have in India. That is what India also had pushed for in its 1987 accord and the 13th amendment. However successive Buddhist nationalist governments never wanted to acknowledge that. You shudder watching videos of Sinhalese army men questioning Tamils (before perhaps executing them) in Sinhala or Sinhala tinged pidgin. The same thing also happened (and still happens) in the Tamil dominated Wellawatta in Colombo.

Now, the argument over numbers of Tamils during the final push and the number of civilian deaths.

The question is if that many people really died. And the instrument of obfuscation here is the methodology of size estimation. Pro-Sri Lanka advocates say the UN or the others didn’t use a reliable methodology. Without a census, how do you do a headcount?

We are talking about a population that has been untouched by any other government than the parallel establishment of the LTTE for more than two decades. This is the same situation that social scientists come across in terms of estimating numbers of a hidden populations (say sex workers or gay men in a society where their activity is either illegal or stigmatised). Methods of size estimation that might not be completely scientific, but practical (for e.g. snowballing) is perfectly fine in such situations. You find them even in peer reviewed journals. And it is not a new practice.

The issue here is not about a few hundred or thousand people more or less, or not even about numbers, but the sheer callous act of willfully killing people, including women and children, of a particular ethnicity. While trying to disprove the gravity by questioning the numbers, what they also do is conveniently ignore the qualitative accounts of witnesses and survivors and other forms of evidence which established that the army targeted its own people.

In fact, there is a huge mountain of such evidence. These accounts are ratified by the UN and others as well. Using cold numbers to cover up State-sponsored excesses is an old trick.

The Cage by UN spokesman in Colombo during the “war”, Gordon Weiss, has extensive accounts by UN officials trapped inside the war zone that exposes the culpability of the government. It clearly says how the military targeted civilian areas when the UN aid workers sent the government their GPS coordinates, and finally how they stopped this standard operating procedure.

At the height of the war, the proxies of the nationalists and the government targeted the UN and even charged that they were harbouring Tamil terrorists. It’s in this context of racial hatred and paranoia that killing of Tamils becomes a real genocide!

This is where stories – and not statistics – as Shiv Vishwanathan said on Firstpost, are important. This is where memories are important in standing up to ruthlessness as Salman Rushdie said. I have attended several “courts of women” (public hearing of women who suffered atrocities from racism to trafficking) in different countries and have personally experienced that up close, the trauma of even a single instance of rights violation passes through generations until there is an emotional closure.

I guess that is why oral testimonies, Gordon Weiss, the UN, Human Rights Watch and Channel 4 documentaries make more sense than the numbers of casualties, injuries and rehabilitation.

A recent mainstream Brazilian film – Elite Squad 2 -, by a scholarly Jose Padilha (who made the sensational documentary Bus 174) shows how the political-police mafia guns down inconvenient criminals in certain pockets of Rio favelas so that the slum-dwellers become useful as consumers in the market. In official accounts, we would have seen only some numbers and cleansing of a slum.

Lastly, the point of keeping away from countries in the name of sovereignty is a flawed argument because in that case, people should be left to suffer famines and genocides for Kosovos, Guatemalas, Sudans and Rwandas to happen again and again!

(The Buddhist right wing in Sri Lanka is now targeting Muslims. The Bodu Bala Sena (Literally the army of Budhist power) group have recently forced the abolishment of Halal certification and now they want to change how Muslim women dress. Rajapaksa probably now knows that the Tamils will not vote for him and hence doesn’t want the Sinhala vote to split between him and the UNP. So he is targeting the Muslims as well so that there is a majority consolidation as we saw elsewhere.)

Amnesty International blames India for weakening UNHRC resolution on Sri Lanka war crimes Tamil Guardian 19 March 2013 Amnesty International on Tuesday blamed India for weakening the US-backed draft resolution at the UN Human Rights Council seeking accountability for mass killings of Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka in 2009. The Deccan Herald and Washington Post both reported that India has been in touch with Washington to soften criticism of Sri Lanka. G Ananthapadmanabhan, head of Amnesty International India said in a statement: “The revised US draft resolution is much softer in the context of the overwhelming volume of new evidence [of mass atrocities] that has been unearthed since the 21st session of UNHRC last [March]. “There is a lot of evidence in this draft resolution to clearly show the imprint of Indian influence. There is a significant downgrading of the international community’s concerns regarding rights violations in Sri Lanka.” “It is disappointing that the [diluted] resolution does not call for an international investigation,” Ananthapadmanabhan said. On Friday Amnesty International gave a petition to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signed by 1.4 million Indians seeking an independent international probe into allegations of war crimes in Sri Lanka. "This petition represents the voices of 14 lakh ordinary Indian citizens asking India to play a stronger role in seeking justice in Sri Lanka," Ananthapadmanabhan said. "This is a demand for an end to the impunity for past and present human rights violations in Sri Lanka." UN Sri Lanka vote threatens India's government MUNEEZA NAQVI | March 19, 2013  NEW DELHI — A dispute over a United Nations resolution on the bloody end to Sri Lanka's civil war with ethnic Tamil rebels is threatening the stability of India's already shaky coalition government. A key ethnic Tamil party withdrew from the coalition Tuesday, accusing the government of watering down a U.N. resolution criticizing Sri Lanka's war-time conduct against its minority Tamil population. The party, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, has demanded the U.N. Human Rights Council resolution accuse Sri Lanka of genocide and that it lead to the formation of an international inquiry into possible war crimes. The party also demanded a similar resolution be passed by India's Parliament. The DMK party, from the southern state of Tamil Nadu, has 18 members in Parliament, five of them government ministers. The issue of Sri Lanka's actions in the final five months of its quarter-century civil war in 2009 poses a conundrum for the Indian government. It is concerned that too strong a resolution will anger its Indian Ocean island neighbor and push it deeper into China's sphere of influence. However, the anger of ethnic Tamil parties in India – and the precarious nature of the coalition – puts it under pressure to take a hard line toward Sri Lanka. A U.N. investigation into the final months of the war indicated the ethnic Sinhalese-dominated government might have killed as many as 40,000 minority Tamil civilians. The Tamil Tigers had been fighting for a breakaway Tamil state in northern Sri Lanka. Indian Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said the government was still considering its position on the U.N. vote, adding that any resolution by Parliament would require a consultation with its other government allies, a process the Congress party had already begun. He insisted the DMK's withdrawal would not topple the government, even though the coalition is already a minority government that leans heavily on small regional parties and is routinely held hostage to their pet interests. National elections are not expected until next year. The DMK accused the government of diluting a draft Sri Lanka resolution sponsored by the United States and ignoring the Tamil party's concerns. "It will be a big harm to the Tamil race for the DMK to continue in government," said the party's leader, M. Karunanidhi. Several Tamil legislators, from the DMK and an opposition party, disrupted Parliament, storming the well and chanting, "We want justice." However, Karunanidhi left open the possibility of rejoining the government, saying, `'We are ready to change our opinion" if the demands are met. The U.N. draft resolution, posted on a U.N. website late Monday, calls on Sri Lanka to implement the recommendations of its own war commission and take action to ensure justice and reconciliation in the country. It also calls for the implementation of recommendations issued last month by the U.N.'s top human rights official, Navi Pillay, who accused the government of failing to investigate reports of widespread killings and other war-time atrocities. Pillay's report said opposition leaders were being killed or abducted in Sri Lanka. It also questioned the government's commitment to postwar justice and urged Sri Lankan authorities to allow international experts to investigate allegations of human rights violations. Rights group Amnesty International also blamed India for pushing for a weak U.N. resolution. "There is a lot of evidence in this draft resolution to clearly show the imprint of Indian influence. There is a significant downgrading of the international community's concerns regarding human rights violations in Sri Lanka," G. Ananthapadmanabhan, the head of Amnesty International in India, said in a statement. The rights council passed a similar resolution last year that human rights campaigners accuse Sri Lanka of largely ignoring. Ananthapadmanabhan said the new resolution is especially weak given new information about possible war crimes that has come to light since last year. Congress President Sonia Gandhi declined to comment on the DMK's withdrawal, but earlier Tuesday called for an "independent and credible" inquiry. "We are anguished by reports of unspeakable atrocities on innocent civilians and children, especially during the last days of the conflict in 2009," she said, according to the Press Trust of India news agency. A Sri Lanka spokesman denied that his government was involved in genocide. "This is far from the truth," Keheliya Rambukwella said. He also dismissed the events in neighboring India. "We don't get involved in provincial politics of another country," he said. ___ Associated Press writer Krishan Francis in Colombo, Sri Lanka, contributed to this report.

Infographics: Rajapaksa Family And Nepotism

The Rajapaksas: keeping it in the family-March 20, 2013 

“The government of Sri Lanka is dominated by the family of the president, Mahinda Rajapaska. One of his brothers, Gotabaya Rajapaska has developed a reputation as the second most powerful – some would say the most powerful – man in Sri Lanka by abusing his position as Secretary to the Ministry of Defence and Urban Development. Their other brother Basil is both the Minister for Economic Development and the head of the ‘President’s Task Force’ – an organisation that holds enormous power in the war-ravaged north of the country. Together these three brothers control somewhere between 45% and 70% of Sri Lanka’s budget and manage five of the largest government ministries. A fourth brother is Speaker of the Sri Lankan parliament. In total 29 members of Mahinda
Rajapaska’s extended family hold senior positions within the government, civil service, media, or industry” says the Sri Lanka Campaign. Sri Lanka Campaign‘s  infographic, nepotism in Sri Lanka. 

Will The IC Respond To The Just Voice Of The Tamil Students?

By Pon. Chandran - March 20, 2013

Pon. Chandran

It is interesting to note that the recent sporadic students’ struggle all over Tamil Nadu has caught the attention of the media and the people at large, sans the Governments and the leaders that matters! Whereas, the struggle has  intensified the debate on the Tamil Eelam question, a fresh, from the point of its resolution, with the mediation of the International Community.   The debate is particularly focused in the wake of the on-going 22nd Session of  United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva from the second week of Feb 2013.

The  point of contention in the debate raised by the students centers around the Draft Resolution, rather known as ‘Procedural Resolution’ mooted by USA, titled “Promoting Reconciliation and Accountability in Sri Lanka“. (Incidentally the title is the same as the one in the last session). The Draft Resolution is under  circulation and  debate.  While majority of the students urge, all concerned, to reject the Resolution in toto, there are a few who wants the Indian Government to support the US sponsored resolution and others who demand the draft resolution to be passed with necessary corrections.

The call for rejection emanates from the section who perceive the resolution as a garb by the US to protect theSinhala Chauvinist GoSL, who perpetrated a Genocidal war against Eelam Tamils.  This section also vehemently oppose any attempt to appreciate  the socalled reconstruction and rehabilitation claimed to have been done by GoSL, which has indeed only paved the way for obnoxious Structural Genocide.  This they believe is a post war cleansing structured to wipe off the Tamil ethnicity and the existence of Tamil Homeland, by means of structured sinhalisation, militarisation, decimation of cultural symbols and thus impacting the socio-economic well being of the Eelam Tamils.  Hence they demand the unfettered International Investigation into the Crime of Genocide and to facilitate a Referendum among the Eelam Tamils for initiating a political transition towards an independent homeland, eventually.

Those who support  the resolution with or without corrections hope that the resolution will pave the way for an “Independent International Inquiry of Commission into the Crime of Genocide, War Crimes and the Crimes against Humanity”.  Whereas, the draft resolution WELCOMES  the OHCHR’s Report on Srilanka (Ms.Navineetham Pillay’s report of Feb 2013) and  its recommendations with regard to “truth seeking mechanism”, it only NOTES the

“High Commissioner’s call for an independent and credible international investigation into the alleged violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law” .

Further in the fourth draft, which is reported to be the final one, instead of urging the GoSL to implement the recommendations of OHCHR, it only ENCOURAGES the

“GOSL to implement the recommendations.  Further it calls upon the GOSL to conduct an independent and credible investigation into allegations of violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, as applicable”. 

This is being ridiculed and opposed as it only facilitates the trial of the gruesome murder committed by the very jury! 

The draft resolution is in essence reiterating the GOSL to implement the “constructive recommendations| ofLLRC and thus exonerate them and their accomplices from their Crimes of Genocide. This tacitly justifies the post war  structural genocide. This also grants  GOSL the much required “veto” to entertain the international intervention only with their “consultation and concurrence”!  It further offers time for the GOSL to erase the remaining vestiges of Genocidal war.

It is obvious that the draft resolution is not categorical about the launching of an International Investigation invoking either the Article 99 of the UN Charter or invoking the principle of R2P – the Responsibility To Protect.

It is in this backdrop, the students’ uprising becomes significant. Although it is spontaneous, it is getting organically groomed from within.  It is an uprising which is endeavoring to assimilate the politics of  international law and human rights, with a concern for humanity and justice.  This, we believe, is bound to reverberate in the minds of the International Community and hopefully result in a Resolution in the UNHRC for the freedom of Tamil Eelam. As nothing tangible has emerged either from the Government of India or from USA, who were the key accomplices in the Genocidal war, there are indications that the students may plunge in to action calling for public boycott of American Goods in Tamil Nadu, which roughly aggregates to Rs.200 crores a day. Further there seem to be moves to launch a non-violent non-cooperation campaign by the Tamil software engineers and other professionals who have been catering to the profits of American Corporates, if the Unites States does not mend their ways of protecting the Genocidal Sri Lanka and comes out categorically with a resolution which will protect the cause of the Eelam Tamils and usher in the much required Independent International Investigation. If there is no positive response for the above, this will certainly usher in a  new kind of politics in Tamil Nadu, spear headed by the students, who constitute a big chunk of the existing and future voters. The present movement will be an harbinger of  yet another great political upheaval of the 60s in Tamil  Nadu, which will as well, certainly change the political scenario of the sub-continent, which has been serving the interests of the Corporates.

*Ponniah Chandran is a Human Rights activist from Coimbatore, he runs his own film club and screens socio-political-economic movies. He is film critic. After seeking retirement from the banking sector, he is a full time human rights activist along with his wife. He along with his wife were imprisoned on charges of stoning Indian Military trucks carrying arms to Sri Lanka. He is an anti-war activist. He is a very active member of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties. He has extensively visited the post war zones of Sri Lanka and has organised several intellectual debates,conferences and seminars on the future of Tamils in Sri Lanka. He has actively taken part in the Koodankulam nuclear issue, the Mullai periyar issue, fishermens’ struggle, anti-nuclear struggle in India apart from environmental issues like anti-mining in Orissa and Chattisgarh. He is presently taking part in the student’s movement in TN addressing them and guiding them.

As DMK Fumes, Tamil Nadu Boils

Arun Sankar K/Associated Press

Tamil activists and supporters of the DMK at a protest against Sri Lanka’s alleged wartime abuses in Chennai, March 5.

By Vibhuti Agarwal-March 19, 2013,

Thousands of students across the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu have launched protests, including hunger strikes, to press India on Sri Lanka.

Specifically, they want India to move a resolution in a United Nation’s human rights forum later this month against its southern island neighbor for Sri Lanka’s alleged war crimes against Tamils.

More than 500 students have been arrested across the state in the last three days “for fasting, picketing and boycotting classes,” the state’s police commissioner, S. George, told India Real Time Tuesday.

On Tuesday, protests in most parts of the state capital, Chennai, remained “peaceful,” Mr. George said. Still, state authorities have asked colleges to remain closed “till further order,” he said.

On Tuesday, at least 100 students from the state’s premier Indian Institute of Technology-Madras went on a day-long hunger strike, said L. S. Ganesh, dean of students at the university.

“The students have expressed their way of protest. They will continue to do so in a peaceful way,” Mr. Ganesh said.

The interest of Tamils in Sri Lanka is a sensitive issue in India as the country’s nearly 60 million Tamil population, mostly based in Tamil Nadu, share close cultural ties with those in Sri Lanka, where Tamils represent nearly 12% of the island’s population.

Over the past week, students across the state have been pressing for an independent international probe against the Sri Lankan government for alleged human rights violations in the aftermath of the 2009 civil war that led to the killing by the army of rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and many of his followers in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

The protests come as the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, a key ally of the ruling Congress-led United Progressive Alliance that rules in New Delhi, withdrew supportTuesday to the federal government over differences on how to address atrocities reportedly committed in Sri Lanka.

Both the DMK and its political rival, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, which is currently in power in Tamil Nadu, have raised the issue of the treatment of Tamils in Sri Lanka in the current budget session of Parliament.

Sri Lanka has denied allegations of human rights violations and said it will oppose any resolution against its army.

A “resolution on Sri Lanka in UN is uncalled for. We don’t think there is a need for international community to get involved in Sri Lanka at this point,” Sri Lankan High Commissioner Prasada Kariyawasam said in an interview to CNN-IBN television news channel Monday.

On the ongoing protests in Tamil Nadu, Mr. Kariyawasam said “this is again the kind of violent method practiced by LTTE in the past in Sri Lanka.”

Govt promises 'strong' Sri Lanka resolution, rejects Karunanidhi's betrayal claim

March 20, 2013

The government Wednesday denied that it had diluted the US-sponsored resolution denouncing Sri Lanka over rights abuses at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva and promised to push for a "strong" resolution.

"India's position has always been and remains that the UNHRC should adopt a strong resolution that would send a resolute message to Sri Lanka and goad Sri Lanka to accept an independent and credible investigation," finance minister P Chidambaram.

"This is a canard. The (media) story is stoutly denied," said Chidambaram.

DMK president M Karunanidhi said Wednesday that his party quit the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and the government after realizing that India helped to dilute the US resolution.

Karunanidhi said chief minister J Jayalalithaa and reports in a section of media had implied he had confined his demand to just passing a resolution in Parliament incorporating amendments suggested to the US-backed resolution, which he said was "condemnable."

He recalled his party had demanded that an amendment be made to declare that genocide and war crimes had been committed and inflicted on Eelam Tamils by the Sri Lankan Army and administrators and an independent international commission of investigation be established in a time bound manner, which should be adopted as a resolution in Parliament.

"Our request and desire is that this should also be moved in the UNHRC as part of the US resolution. But the demand for international investigation into war crimes is not mentioned in the resolution and instead it has been said that the Sri Lankan government should lead a probe.

"In this way, the US resolution has been diluted to a large extent. The watering down has been done on the basis of India whole-heartedly accepting and appreciating a report tabled by the Lankan government at UNHRC," he said, adding rights body Amnesty International had also accused India of diluting the resolution.

Further, DMK's suggested amendments were not considered fully and therefore at this juncture, the party had announced its stand of pulling out of UPA, he said.

A vote is coming up at the 47-member UNHRC pulling up Sri Lanka for military excesses during the final stages of the war that vanquished the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Last year, India had played a similar role even as it voted against Sri Lanka at the UNHRC.

Chidambaram said India intends to move amendments to the US resolution at the UNHRC and that the government was also talking to political parties over a resolution on Sri Lanka to be moved in Parliament.

Colombo has repeatedly denied killing Tamil civilians.

Chidambaram said the government had Tuesday finalised amendments to the draft resolution at Geneva.

"We will also continue to consult political parties on bringing a resolution to be adopted by Parliament," he said.

The statement said India's permanent representative to the UNHRC was in New Delhi for consultations.

It denied media reports that India had worked with the US to dilute the text of the draft UNHRC resolution.

Chidambaram, however, said the proposed resolution in Parliament was not linked to the withdrawal of support by the DMK.

He reiterated that the government was stable -- despite the withdrawal of support by the DMK that has 18 members in the Lok Sabha.

Information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari said the government had to be sensitive to the feelings of the people of a state.

The reference was to the unending street protests in Tamil Nadu demanding that India should take a hard line vis-a-vis Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka has denied that its forces committed war crimes during the decades-long conflict with Tamil separatists in the north and east of the island, which ended with an military onslaught in early 2009.

International rights groups estimate that 40,000 civilians died in the final months of fighting.

India, home to millions of Tamils who share links with their counterparts in Sri Lanka, risks a further worsening in relations with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse who has resisted any foreign interference.

Sri Lanka on Wednesday warned pilgrims against travelling to Tamil Nadu, a day after lodging a formal protest with New Delhi over repeated physical attacks against visiting Sri Lankans.

Dozens of Buddhists monks demonstrated outside the Indian embassy in Colombo for a second straight day on Wednesday. India has postponed scheduled defence cooperation talks this month, officials said.

In another move likely to deepen the discord, Chidambaram said the government was consulting other parties about a Parliamentary resolution which would also call on Sri Lanka to investigate the alleged war crimes.

Leader of the ruling Congress party, Sonia Gandhi, said Tuesday that India was "most pained" that Tamils in Sri Lanka were being denied their rights and  New Delhi was "anguished by reports of unspeakable atrocities".

Sri Lanka's top general, who led the campaign against the Tamil Tiger rebels, said Tuesday the government should accept an investigation but he rejected any suggestion of genocide.

"Some people have questions. Some people have doubts. Some people want to know what happened," Sarath Fonseka, who is now a top opposition figure, told the Foreign Correspondents' Association.

"We will have to justify the actions taken by us. I am ready to answer anyone. I am ready to clarify any doubts."

Raising its pitch on the Lankan Tamils issue, DMK on Wednesday charged that the US-sponsored resolution against Sri Lanka at UNHRC was diluted on the basis of India's "wholehearted acceptance and appreciation" of a report tabled by Colombo at the UN body.

(With IANS, AFP and PTI inputs)