Saturday, November 9, 2013

JPC urges immediate assistance to victims subjected to coercive population control

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 November 2013, 16:56 GMT]
Widespread complaints have been registered from the Tamil women in three villages of Ki'linochchi district that they are suffering from side effects such as blood pressure, weight gain, irregular periods as well as traumatic stress, two months after they have been subjected to coercive population control by the occupying Colombo using Progestogen-only subdermal implants inserted into their body, said the Chairman of Justice and Peace Commission (JPC) of the Catholic Diocese of Jaffna, Fr. S.V.B Mangalarajah in a fresh report issued on Friday. Terming the population control experimented on Tamil women in Vanni as “Mu'l'livaaykkaal-2”, the JPC has urged the provincial health ministry under the newly elected Northern Provincial Council to do the needful to remove the implants and assist the victims to return to normal lives.

Some of the victims have been admitted to hospital, and some have faced disputes within the family as a direct consequence of the birth control carried out on them, Fr Mangalarajh said in his latest report.

The JPC has also included the anonymized witness statements, which were earlier reported through a group known as The Social Architects (TSA).

[Tamil] JPC report on coercive population control in Vanni

On 31st of August, 2013, women in three coastal area villages in the Ki'linochchi district (Valaip-paadu, Vearaavil and Kiraagnchi) were subjected to coercive population control.

More than 20 nurses and midwives came from Ki'linochchi and went from door to door in these three villages and asked all the young mothers to come to the Veravil district hospital with their children under 5 years. They were transported by ambulances and were told by the visiting health workers to come to the local clinic to weigh their children under 5-years.

Upon arrival, the doctor present there and nurses used coercive language and manipulated medical information to convince the women to take Progestogen-only subdermal implants (POSDIs) a long-term hormonal birth control inserted under the skin of the women's upper arm.

When the women expressed their unwillingness to receive it they were told that in that case they will not be given any other treatment in the hospital in future.

They were also threatened that if they refused to comply their husbands would be brought to the hospital so that the procedure could be performed on them. After hearing this, a lot of women were compelled to accept the ‘treatment’.

A substantial number of people in these villages are Catholics.

“We are having serious doubts about the motive behind this kind of state policies and this may be a method of controlling the population this side. Besides as Catholics we are strongly opposed to this kind of methods of birth control,” the JPC report further said.

CHOGM Is Dad’s Army Revisited

by Pearl Thevanayagam

(November 09, 2013 London Sri Lanka Guardian) CHOGM is but a meeting of Commonwealth Heads whose sell-by-date have long expired. But it plods on like Dad’s Army, the British TV sitcom based on WW 11 where war veterans still believe they are fighting for Britain in their colonies.

C’wealth holds no more clout than the British empire whose colonies have moved on and gained autonomy. There are no more bunga boys to keep on pulling the ropes 24/7 to cool their heads from tropical heat; air-conditioning was yet to be discovered. And no more palanquins to chariot them across the arid deserts across India which in their halcyon days constituted much of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

CHOGM Is Dad’s Army Revisited by nelvely

India’s World – PM Manmohan Singh’s Sri Lanka Visit Controversy

November 9, 2013

Bharat Bhushan‘s programme - India’s World – PM Manmohan Singh’s Sri Lanka visit controversy

Guests: Shashank (Former Foreign Secretary) ; D Raja (Leader, CPI) ; Commodore (retd) C Uday Bhaskar (Defence Expert)

PM not to attend CHOGM in Sri Lanka, Khurshid to represent India: sources

Pallavi Ghosh, Suhasini Haidar

New Delhi: Under immense pressure from Tamil parties, the Centre has decided that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh won't go to Colombo to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meet (CHOGM), say government sources. Sources say External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid will represent India at CHOGM.

Sources in the government say that the decision will be formally communicate to Sri Lanka in the next 24 hours through a letter.

ALSO SEE DMK chief Karunanidhi appeals to PM to boycott CHOGM

An announcement of the decision is likely after the Prime Minister calls the CCPA meet on Sunday or Monday. The Tamil Nadu political parties and the Congress leaders from the state have been pressuring the PM not to visit to Colombo. They have been campaigning that the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has violated all human rights during the war with LTTE and the Lankan government should be charged with war crimes.

Video:

PM not to attend CHOGM in Sri Lanka, Khurshid to represent India: sources

The Sri Lankan High Commissioner to India Prasad Kariawasam had warned India that the nations which don't attend will be isolated. Some veteran diplomats feel that surrendering before the Tamil parties will actually harm India's standing in the Common Wealth.

But the Congress is scared of losing its alliance partner DMK (currently not a member of the UPA) in an all important election year. The Prime Minister has come under intense pressure over his visit to the island nation.

"The Prime Minister has a conscience, enough if acts according to his conscience. I did not threaten on withdrawing support. It's been long time since we withdrew our support," DMK chief Karunanidhi said.

Political parties and various groups in Tamil Nadu are strongly opposed to India's participation in the summit and the Tamil Nadu Assembly recently adopted a resolution demanding a complete boycott of the event alleging that Sri Lanka has indulged in atrocities against ethnic Tamils.

Denying Visas To International Bar Delegation: Foreign Ministry Acting With Miscomprehension Of Facts – Bar Association

November 9, 2013

It appears that the Ministry of External Affairs is acting with miscomprehension of facts on the grant of visas which is a matter within the Controller of Immigration and not the Ministry of External Affairs, says the Bar Association of Sr Lanka.

BASL President, Upul Jayasuriya

Issuing a statement contradicting the communique issued by the Ministry of External Affairs regarding the cancellation of visas of the International Bar Association’s high-level delegation to Sri Lanka, president of the Bar Association of Sr Lanka Upul Jayasuriya said; “We have not requested for any assistance from the Ministry either in the form of logistics or accommodation. We have made all arrangements to go ahead with the seminar at a time the topic of discussion is most relevant to Sri Lanka.”

We publish below the statement in full;

The Bar Association of Sr Lanka in collaboration with the International Bar Association (IBL), of which the BASL is a member was organizing a seminar on “Commonwealth Values and the Role of the Legal Profession” to be held on the 13th of November 2013 at the “Grand Monarch” at Thalawathugoda.

This seminar was to be addressed by Ms. Gabriela Knaul UN Special Rapporteur for Judges and Lawyers, the first ever UN Special Rapporteur for Judges and Lawyers Dato Param Kumaraswamy, and a senior representative of the IBA, Alex Wilks. Their visa’s were applied for by letter dated 17 August 2013 by the Secretary, Bar Association of Sri Lanka along with a visa for Mr. Sadakat Kadri. The first three visas were issued whereas Mr. Sadakat Kadri was refused his visa. Visa’s that were issued bear the following ETA Nos.

130826PG1218467 – 130826PM1504191- Gabriela Knaul

130826PG1218467 – 130826PM1504192- Paramasothi Cumaraswamy

130826PG1218467 – 130826PM1504189 – Alexander Jeffrey Wilks Read More

Stephen Harper’s decision to boycott Commonwealth summit fuels debate in India

BY LEE BERTHIAUME, POSTMEDIA NEWS NOVEMBER 8, 2013

Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh and PM Stephen Harper are shown at the G20 meeting in September. Harper is the only Commonwealth leader who has said he will skip this month’s Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka

Photograph by: Grigoriy Sisoev/Host Photo Agency via Getty Images , Postmedia News

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s decision to skip this month’s Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka could be contributing to an intense debate raging in India over whether that country’s leader should boycott as well.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is facing intense pressure from a segment of his own coalition government to stay home from the Commonwealth leaders’ meeting in Colombo next weekend.

Those include his powerful ministers of finance and environment, both of whom are from the southern province of Tamil Nadu, which has very strong and historic ties to Sri Lanka’s minority Tamil population.

They and other Tamils in India want Singh to skip the Commonwealth meeting because of ongoing human rights concerns in Sri Lanka, which includes allegations of systemic discrimination and abuse of the country’s Tamils.

This is the same reason Harper gave when he formally announced last month that he would not be attending, but would be sending a lower level parliamentary secretary, Calgary MP Deepak Obhrai, in his place.

Harper is the only Commonwealth leader to have declared his plan to miss the meeting. Other leaders, including British Prime Minister David Cameron and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, have confirmed they will be attending.

Singh faces a difficult decision because of the pivotal role Tamil political groups in India play in his coalition government.

The Indian prime minister bent to pressure from political groups from another part of India last month when he decided at the last-minute not to sign an agreement with Bangladesh on sharing river water.

(Some have accused Harper of basing his own decision to miss the meeting more on domestic politics and a desire to woo Canada’s large Tamil population than human rights concerns).

Canada’s special envoy to the Commonwealth, Conservative Sen. Hugh Segal, said the government has not been lobbying or campaigning for other leaders to follow Harper’s lead.

“We have not in any way done that,” Segal said.

But Andrew Cooper, a professor at the Balsillie School of International Affairs in Waterloo, Ont., said there’s no doubt Harper’s decision to skip the meeting has put added pressure on Singh to do the same.

“Harper’s opened up that sort of possibility of opting out,” he said. “And I’m sure the communities there are saying ‘If Canada can stay away, what about you?’”

Canadian Tamil Congress spokesman David Poopalapillai believed Indians would have faced a debate over Singh’s participation even without Harper’s planned absence.

“But Canada’s decision has intensified the debate,” he said. “The prime minister’s decision has put others in a corner.”

It’s unclear whether any Indian officials have specifically invoked Harper’s name, but Indian newspapers have repeatedly cited the Canadian prime minister’s decision to skip the meeting in their coverage of the debate.

The head of the World Tamil Foundation has also noted Harper’s planned absence in pushing for India to follow suit.

Harper spokesman Jason MacDonald would not comment on the Indian debate, and instead reiterated the prime minister’s concerns about Sri Lanka’s human rights situation.

“The absence of accountability for the serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian standards during and after the civil war is unacceptable,” he said in an email.

Segal, who previously accused Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma of being a “shill” for the Sri Lankan government, said he didn’t have any advice for India and that it’s up to individual Commonwealth members to decide whether to attend.

“But the Commonwealth is not a trade organization,” he said. “It’s not a military organization. It’s not a treaty organization. It’s an organization clustered around core values: democracy; rule of law; judicial independence; freedom of expression; human rights.”

Latest legal opinion: No Presidential third term without a referendum

(Lanka-e-News-08.Nov.2013, 11.00PM) The Samagi Balavegaya ( United Force) had made all the preparations to stage the satygraha in front of the railway station this evening. The opposition , political parties and over 100 civil organizations represent the Samagi Bakavegaya. This will be the first protest demonstration to be staged by the UNP after the appointment of its leadership council.

Herein is a photograph of a Sathyagraha. There has a handbill to be distributed by one of the civil Organizations. It relates a startling but true story : it says , without the 18th amendment being subject to a people’s referendum , it is null and void.

The content of this handbill displaying the latest view is as follows :

The fraudulent constitutional amendment that was introduced to extend the tenure of office of the President to a third term is void without a people’s referendum being held.

Since the 18th amendment is not valid in law , there is a constitutional issue in regard to the determination of the date of holding a Presidential election after the end of the second Presidential term , and in addition , the amendment to extend the President’s term in office any number of times is having no validity in law.

Under the constitution an immunity attaches to a President in office from legal action being filed against him for his actions and failures thereof officially or privately. By the same token , under the constitution 35 -3 , the people meaning ourselves who are sovereign can file action against the President for the injustices committed by him after the end of his second term. An illustration of this is the Waters edge case filed against ex President Chandrika .

But under the 18th amendment introduced to the constitution , such a case cannot be filed. After the maximum two year Presidential term covering 12 years , the immunity of the President from being legally tried continues to, 18, 24 , 30, 36 , 42 years. By this the right of an individual to file legal action for an injustice committed against him is being subjugated via the election process . This is an absolute violation of the fundamental rights under the constitution 83.

Surely votes cannot be cast in favor of violation of the fundamental rights . In such a situation , a referendum must necessarily be held. Without a referendum , under the constitution 83 , that does not become valid in law.

Under the constitution an individual who is transgressing the laws cannot be allowed to be in power forever. After the President’s 12 year maximum period , the position is he can be brought before the law. But , when the limitation on the number of terms of the President is withdrawn , it can install a President against whom legal action cannot be taken forever . This will be something without a parallel anywhere in this world and absolutely contradictory to the constitution.

The third term of a President mentioned in the constitution is not tenable in law until it is approved by a referendum. The number of terms of a President successively therefore is only two under the constitution.

Can the fundamental rights be subjugated by elections?

Sovereignty of the people shall be supreme.

History had proved that the most cherished aim and objective of a Dictator has been power perpetuation after coming to power overtly or covertly . No constitution of a democratic and civilized country is designed to permit this perpetuation or centralizing of powers in a single individual (MaRa) or a small group (MaRa and his JaRas ) which are the first and final steps towards the creation of despots and dictators. Sri Lanka being a democratic country, its constitution cannot be interpreted to benefit power crazy corrupt leaders .

Power corrupts , more power corrupts more .

In the case of Rajapakses their corruption has wrought disaster on the people much more than a volcanic eruption.

Committing War Crimes And Hosting CHOGM

By Veluppillai Thangavelu -November 9, 2013

Veluppillai Thangavelu

Hosting of CHOGM by Sri Lanka is an affront to Commonwealth’s commitment to human rights and democratic values

The Commonwealth of Nations is an intergovernmental organisation of 53 member states that were once mostly colonies of the former British Empire. The Commonwealth operates by intergovernmental consensus of the member states, organised through the Commonwealth Secretariat, and non-governmental organisations, organised through the Commonwealth Foundation.

It was formally constituted by the London Declaration in 1949, which established the member states as “free and equal” and Queen Elizabeth II is the symbolic Head of the Commonwealth. The Queen is also the monarch of 16 members of the Commonwealth, 32 members are republics and five members are monarchies.

The Commonwealth covers more than 29,958,050 km2 (11,566,870 sq mi), almost a quarter of the world land area, and spans all the continents. With an estimated population of 2.245 billion, almost a third of the world population, the Commonwealth in 2012 produced a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of $9.767 trillion, representing 15% of the world GDP when measured in purchasing power parity (PPP). This represents the second largest nominal GDP and GDP PPP in the world.

Despite these impressive statistics, CHOGM is a glorified Old Boys Club which meets once in two years. Its meetings go unnoticed and internationally wield very little political and economic influence.

Member states have no legal obligation one to another. Instead, they are united by language, history, culture, and their shared values of democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. These values are enshrined in the Commonwealth Charter and promoted by the quadrennial Commonwealth Games. Gambia became the most recent nation to withdraw from the Commonwealth. Read More

Sri Lanka: Making a mockery of HRs at CHOGM 2013

Sri Lankan Tamil civilians arrive at a government-controlled area after fleeing territory controlled by the LTTE in Puthukkudiyirippu, northeast Sri Lanka. (File photo, 2009)

By Tim King-Fri Nov 8, 2013

The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) is held every two years to enable leaders of Commonwealth countries to come together to discuss global and Commonwealth issues, and to decide on collective policies and initiatives, the CHOGM Website states.

Sri Lanka Making a Mockery of HRs at CHOGM 2013 by nelvely

Why we need to press for a fair trial on Sri Lanka?

BY KANNAN SREEKANTHA-09 NOVEMBER 2013

Along with Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting contemplations, fresh videos of war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed by the Sri Lankan government have emerged renewing the calls for international investigations. The Petrie report, a U.N document released last year, estimated the killings to be more than 70,000. The narrative about these killings goes something like this: “the Sri Lankan army indiscriminately bombed the Tamil civilians who were taken hostage by the Tigers”.

The Tamils on the other hand - the party directly affected by the conflict - allege that the government forces had deliberately trapped them inside the conflict zone with malice aforethought. According to them, the killings were not merely indiscriminate, but one that was cleverly planned and meticulously carried out. The allegation has serious groundings. ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’ a documentary produced by England’s Channel 4 News documented instances of Sri Lankan army asking Tamil civilians to go to specific designations marked as ‘no-fire zone’ and then shelling at them repeatedly and deliberately.

The Sri Lankan war has been described by many international organizations as a ‘war without witness’ owning to Sri Lanka’s imposition of full darkness into the conflict, including a complete media blackout. In September 2008 the Sri Lankan government ordered all foreign aid agencies, including the UN, to vacate the Vanni region. If Sri Lanka had truly wanted the Tamils to vacate the conflict zone, why did they not ask the civilians to leave along with the international aid agencies while the aid agencies were there to oversee the evacuation process? Is this an indication of something deeper?

The answer to these questions can only be meaningfully answered via an international mechanism to investigate what truly happened during the bloody stages of the war. For now, every attempt towards international investigations is being blocked by Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile, the narrative regarding the investigation should start at the right place taking all factors into consideration, including the preparatory work that was put into the commission of this crime. Anything else- in this case the so-called ‘indiscriminate bombing’- is bound to provide only a distorted version.

To narrate the story on behalf of the Tamils without taking the victims’ statement into consideration is to take them hostage for the second time, this time, by highjacking the story of their plight. From the victims’ perspective, the revelation of the truth is more important to them than the punishment of their culprits.

“We want international inquiry, not to put the Sri Lankan government in jail, but more importantly, because that’s the only way the truth of what really happened to us can be realized. In the absence of justice, truth is the least we are asking for” said Raveedran a recent Tamil immigrant.

Kannan Sreekantha walked 1000 miles from Chicago to Washington in 2009 with two Tamil Canadian students to raise awareness about the plight of the Tamil people. He is currently studying law at City University of London.

SRI LANKA TO SET UP NATIONAL INQUIRY ON TORTURE - SHARMA

November 9, 2013

Sri Lanka to set up National Inquiry on Torture - Sharma

The Commonwealth Secretariat will assist Sri Lanka in setting up a National Inquiry on Torture, its Secretary-General Mr. Kamalesh Sharma said in an interview to The Hindu at the Secretariat headquarters at Marlborough House on the eve of his departure to Colombo to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

To be set up under the aegis of the Sri Lanka National Human Rights Commission and to be assisted and monitored by the Commonwealth Secretariat, the inquiry will investigate all allegations of torture committed by government agencies or arms of the state from 2009 (the final stages of the civil war) to the present, he said.

The Secretariat has come under harsh criticism from international human rights groups, the media, and some member-countries who accuse it of sweeping human rights concerns under the carpet in respect of Sri Lanka, which is to become chair of the Commonwealth for the next two years.

Mr. Sharma said the Commonwealth Secretariat had in fact initiated the process that would bring the issue of torture and national reconciliation under Commonwealth scrutiny and compliance. “We are also putting in place a scheme… that will assist Sri Lanka progress towards national reconciliation,” Mr. Sharma said.

The inquiry would take 18 months to complete its work, Mr. Sharma said.

Asked why it would take so long, he said complex processes took time. “Progress does not happen in a vacuum; it can only be secured if national institutions such as the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission (SLHRC) are strengthened and given muscle and spine to do their work, with an advisory group from the Commonwealth.”

Advocate Karen McKenzie, Acting Head, Human Rights in the Commonwealth Secretariat, told The Hindu: “The SLHRC must be part of the national protection system for human rights in Sri Lanka if this is not to be window-dressing but sustainable institutional reform.”

The Commonwealth Secretariat’s role in the torture inquiry, Ms. McKenzie said, would be to build institutional capacity through its own set of best practices on the conduct of national inquiries in compliance with international human rights standards, drawing from the experiences of South Africa, Namibia and Northern Ireland. “We will support Sri Lanka every step of the way to ensure that best practices are complied with, and will be on the ground during critical phases of the inquiry — the information gathering phase, for example. Finally, we will have a Commonwealth Advisory Group to ensure compliance.” – The Hindu

Rajapakse phobia against educated class : a minion of US printing Co. appointed Mattala airport CEO

(Lanka-e-News-08.Nov.2013, 11.00PM) The present generation of Medamulana Rajapakses who are a byword for treacheries committed against their own country , cannot be expected to conduct themselves any better because they are the great grand children of Chinthamani Mohotti Don Hendrick Rajapakse who betrayed the nation during the Weera Keppetipola Nilame’s riots in 1818. To these traitorous foes of this country who know no educated friends or value of education are unable to appreciate educational attainments , for their educational attainments do not reach beyond minimum levels of education – GCE ord. level. Consequently they are having a huge anathema to education and bitter antagonism against educated persons.

The latest case in point testifying to this truth came to light when the background of the newly appointed chief executive officer (CEO) of the much hyped recently inaugurated Mattala Airport which is starving because no planes are landing there . This CEO Derrick Karunaratne had just been able to scrape through the GCE O/L examination. He had returned to Sri Lanka from America. He is therefore another yankee doodle do like Gota who are finding difficult even to crow ‘there is nothing that we can do.’ Though this yankee diddle do Derrick is parading before his subordinates that he was in charge of an airport in the US, in truth he had been only a low rung employee in a printing establishment ‘Ford Graphics’. Only because he had been working for ten long years in that establishment he was promoted as a supervisor .

His wife Sarah had been selling ice cream at an ice cream parlor. She too had not secured any education while being there. Surprisingly , it is her husband a quarter baked yankee diddle do who has been appointed as CEO to the equally unsuccessful Mattala international airport where no planes arrive . However he has a supreme (dis)qualification to suit the outrageous obnoxious nepotism policies of Rajapakses : he is the cousin brother of Shiranthi Rajapakse. Latter’s mother and Derrick ‘s mother are sisters.

Similarly , the chairman of Sri Lankan Airlines which is incurring losses in billions is also a brother of Shranthi who could not pass the GCE ord. level exam. What is more ? Even the pompous economic development Minister Basil Rajapakse who is in charge of economic development of the whole country is only a G C E ord. level qualified moron who knows next to nothing on economics. Naturally he is surviving not on economics but on ‘con and tricks’.

These Rajapakses notorious for mixing con and tricks well and thoroughly in their sport of cheating the people to the detriment of the country, and who have a pet aversion towards education and the educated class , recently tabled a resolution in the Western provincial council (WPC ) urgently to withdraw the basic qualification of 6 GCE O/L passes (2/6) a mandatory requirement to join the western province government service. Though this deplorable resolution was tabled , it could not be adopted.

We give hereunder give some of the many names of henchmen holding high positions and Ministers of our Rajapakse regime who are not even GCE ord. level qualified…..

The Sri Lankan Airline chairman , the Minister of trade and the Minister of housing among the many in the regime without GCE ord. level qualification. The unsuccessful resolution that was tabled recently in the WPC was a maneuver of the government to appoint a chief minister to the WPC who is also sans GCE O/L qualification . The resolution was defeated with JVP member WPC Nalinda Jayatissa opposing it in the council.

Sudharman yet to be arrested

Saturday, 09 November 2013

The police have taken measures to arrest 230 persons who have been accused of committing various frauds. These persons have had 549 complaints of fraud against them and the arrests have been made after lengthy investigations and warrants have been issued against nine of the arrested persons.

Interestingly, the police are yet to arrest Deputy General Manager of ITN, Sudharman Radaliyagoda who has two arrest warrants issued by court against him.

Radaliyagoda has been charged of committing a fraud of forging documents and collecting Rs. 1.5 million from two businessmen promising to get them scrap iron.

He was issued the first warrant on June 19, 2011. When the police failed to arrest him after six months, Kaduwela magistrate Lanka Jayaratne had issued another warrant on February 9, 2012 for his arrest.

However, there had been many instances where Radaliyagoda had been seen with police officers and Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa despite having an open warrant for his arrest.

It is evident that Radaliyagoda is not arrested due to his political connections.

WikiLeaks: US Had Limited Access To War Zone, Preparing War Crimes Report Is Extremely Difficult – US Ambassador

November 9, 2013

“(SBU) S/WCI Amb. Clint Williamson met July 9 in separate meetings with Jacque de Maio, ICRC Head of Operations for South Asia, Kwang-wha Kang, UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights and Pascale Moreau, UNHCR Acting Director for Asia. He was accompanied by S/WCI Shaun Coughlin, RMA Counselor and PSA Counselor. In all the meetings, Amb. Williamson outlined the Congressional language attached to the recent supplemental funding legislation requiring the Secretary to report back within 45 days on reports of war crimes during the recent fighting in Sri Lanka, including to the extent possible, identification of perpetrators of such crimes. Williamson noted that the USG had limited access to the conflict zone and therefore it will be extremely difficult to present conclusive evidence about exactly what happened during the conflict, let alone who was responsible.” the US Mission to UN informed Washington.

Clint Williamson

The Colombo Telegraph found the related leaked cable from the WikiLeaks database. The “Confidential” cable discuses what had happened on the ground during and since the conflict. The cable was signed by the US Ambassador to Geneva Clint Williamson on July 15, 2009.

The ambassador wrote; “Therefore, the Department would have to rely in large part on reports from open sources, NGOs, and International Organizations that were on the ground or otherwise active on Sri Lanka during the fighting. Looking at the two sides in the conflict (Sri Lankan military and the LTTE), Williamson said that the most obvious areas of focus would be the LTTE,s reported use of human shields and child labor, as well as alleged executions of civilians attempting to flee the conflict zone. For the GSL, the focus would be on the potential disproportionate use of force and reports of disappearances of individuals during the screening of the population in the north.”