Autonomy For Bougainville – A Parallel For Tamils

By S. Sivathasan -June 12, 2014 

S. Sivathasan

Introduction

Bougainville (B) Region comprises two large Islands of B and Buka, in the Papua New Guinea (PNG) Archipelago. B is rich in copper and a mine was opened in 1969 in Panguna located in the central area. In 1972 a measure of autonomy was given to B. However in 1975 when a Constitution Planning Committee toured the country seeking views, B conveyed its demand for secession.

Copper promised wealth to a resource poor B, but when mining commenced PNG’s relationship was exploitative. On profit sharing, there was violent disagreement between PNG government and B. PNG appropriated virtually all at 20% giving B, 0.5-2.0%. Unfair distribution incensed feelings which were further exacerbated by ethnic and linguistic differences between B and PNG. It sparked a 10 year civil war 1989 – 1998, which claimed 20,000 lives and displaced 70,000. At present the population is 220,000 and it is fairly evenly spread geographically across B.

Consequent to a ceasefire in 1998, the Bougainville Peace Agreement was signed in August 2001 between PNG and Bougainville Revolutionary Army. What followed was a constitution for an Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG). It was approved by the PNG Parliament in December 2004. It specified 3 branches.

•     Legislative – Bougainville House of Representatives of 39 elected members and 2 ex officio.
•     Executive – Bougainville Executive Council
•     Judicial – Bougainville courts including a Supreme Court and 7 High Courts

In principle, the respective powers and functions shall be kept separate. The first election was held in 2005. The President was elected and the Vice-President was selected by the House of Representatives. The second election was in 2010. A referendum regarding Bougainville independence is set to happen in the period 2015 – 2020.

Papua New Guinea (PNG)                                                          Read More

M.I.A calls for justice for Tamils raped by Sri Lankan military Tamil Guardian 12 June 2014 The world renowned songwriter and hip hop artist, M.I.A (Mathangi Arulpragasam) and the human rights advocate, Bianca Jagger, called for justice for Tamils who had been raped by the Sri Lankan military.

M.I.a Calls for Justice for Tamils Raped by Sri Lankan Military by nelvely

War Crimes, War Heroes And Soldiers

| by Tisaranee Gunasekara

“This insane regime, this tangle of cowardice, blindness, craftiness and stupidity…..”

Count Sergius Witte (Memoirs)

( June 12, 2014, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The UNP and the JVP have it right. The government must face the UN war crimes investigation. There is nothing to be achieved – and quite a bit to be lost - through non-participation. 

War Crimes, War Heroes and Soldiers by nelvely

The Ease Of Negotiating With Sympathy

By Rajiva Wijesinha - June 12, 2014

Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha MP

Prof Laksiri Fernando, in responding to my account of discussions about a Senate, has reminded me about publishing the proposals, as I had mentioned, and I will send them in as soon as I am back in Colombo. However, while I do not recall promising to publish my correspondence with Mr Sumanthiran – which is not in fact of any great significance – perhaps it would be useful, given current controversies, to publish the draft he and I prepared about land matters.

What we realized, which is why I proposed that we look at the matter quietly, was that the issue was causing much controversy based on dogma. TheTNA insisted that the 13^th Amendment conferred land powers on the Provincial Councils, the government relied on the Constitutional provision that land grants were in the power of the President. Mr Sambandan, while insisting that he had no objection to any citizen acquiring land anywhere on his own, went into a lengthy account of government colonization schemes which he said had changed the demography of the East.

I did point out that something similar had happened in the Wanni, where after the conflict we had come across large numbers of Tamils of Indian origin who had been settled there because of various colonization schemes funded by international agencies – including for instance the schemes run by Jon Westborg when he headed Redd Barna, if memory serves me correct. But at the same time I could understand Westborg’s motivation, given the appalling attacks on Tamils in the hills orchestrated by members of the Jayewardene government, in both 1977 and 1981 – just as I could understand the need to settle landless peasants in empty areas that had never been occupied by anyone previously.Read More

Navalar documents: Tamils should work for own revival of culture links

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 June 2014, 03:22 GMT]
Tamil Nadu government should come out with an independent cultural initiative in reviving the identity and involvement of Eezham Tamils in their charities at Chithamparam. Eezham Tamils living in the island, in Tamil Nadu and in the diaspora should be able to participate and be benefitted by the cultural initiative in which education, publication, heritage museum and heritage tourism should get priority. While documentation on the Mutts of Eezham Tamils at Chithamparam from the times of the Kings of Jaffna appeared earlier in TamilNet, the documents currently released on Arumuga Navalar charities at Chithamparam speak for themselves on what the Eezham Tamils should do. There is no substitute to self-initiation in the cultural pursuance of a people. 

TamilNet Editorial Board

• Arumuga Navalar writing on the educational institution at Chithamparam, 1860 - 1870

“It is desirable that the residents of Jaffna should be given an opportunity to interest themselves in the Trust particularly as it owes its inception to a Tamil scholar of Jaffna descent,” says a 1951 Madras High Court judgement on the administration of the charities of Arumuga Navalar at Chithamparam. 

• Arumuga Navalar Trust, Will of Sathasivapillai, 1910

Earlier, a 1937 Madras High Court judgement of the British times, appointed the trustee of the Arumuga Navalar School in Jaffna, to look after the school and charities in Chithamparam too. The School in Jaffna deteriorated under Colombo government take-over. The Madras High Court in 1951 identified Jaffna Saiva Paripaalana Sabha and Hindu Board of Education to represent the people of Jaffna in running the Chithamparam charities.

• Arumuga Navalar Trust, Will of Ponnampalapillai, 1918

Navalar had declared that the education and other cultural charities established by him at Jaffna and Chithamparam in Tamil Nadu should continue through the academic lineage of his students.

• Arumuga Navalar Trust, Madras High Court Judgement, 1937

After the demise of Navalar in 1879, the lineage of his students, K. Sathasivappillai, S. Ponnampalapillai and S. Visvanathapillai continued the management. Later, as there was a succession issue, The Madras High Court in 1937, appointed the trustee of Navalar School in Jaffna (T. Kailasapillai) to look after the Chithamparam charities too, according to a clause in the will of Sathasivappillai. 

What the Colombo government did with the Navalar School in Jaffna, handed over to it, is well known. The pioneer native educational institution started in the 1840s to challenge colonial education, became a middle school, while Buddhist institutions started after it became universities in the south.

• Arumuga Navalar Trust, Madras High Court Judgement, 1951

One of the Jaffna organisations, The Hindu Board of Education, identified by the Madras High Court in 1951 to represent the people of Jaffna for the Chithamparam charity, has also become almost defunct, when the organisation handed over more than 250 schools to the Colombo government in 1960.
* * *
The will documents from the time of Arumuga Navalar to Visvanathapillai and the Madras High Court judgements of 1937 and 1951 appear in this column.

Those who could read Tamil should carefully go through the Will Documents to get the feeling and the spirit with which the charities were made and administered. 

The court judgements understood the spirit and that’s why they were insisting on the participation of the people of Jaffna.

The feeling and the spirit are what that needed today among the Tamils in Eezham, Tamil Nadu and in the diaspora.

[Maravan Pulavu K. Sachithananthan, who was earlier a member of the Trust Board, representing Jaffna Saiva Paripalana Sabha, kindly provided the copies of the documents in the 1980s. Some information was obtained in 1973, from the late Advocate T. Somasundaram, who was then president of Jaffna Saiva Paripalana Sabha.]

CAN THE ANTI-MAHINDA CAMP THINK STRAIGHT?

by Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka 

- on 06/12/2014 

“Finally Gramsci…. If we say – as Gramsci did—that the task of the Italian working class is to fulfil the tasks of national unification that the Italian people had posed themselves since the time of Machiavelli, and in some way, to complete the historical project of the Risorgimento, we have a double order of reference.”- Ernesto Laclau, Emancipation(s)

Can the Anti-mahinda Camp Think Straight by nelvely

Call to begin healing process in Sri Lanka

MEERA SRINIVASAN- June 11, 2014

The scars created by terrorism and conflict are yet to heal in Sri Lanka, outgoing U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Tuesday.

Addressing the 26th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, her last as High Commissioner, Ms. Pillay said her office has put in place a staff team that would be supported by several experts and special procedures mandate holders, to conduct the comprehensive investigation — mandated by the Council — to advance accountability, and thus reconciliation. “I encourage the [Sri Lankan] Government to take this opportunity to cooperate with a credible truth-seeking process,” she said.

Sri Lanka, however, has rejected the resolution accusing the outgoing High Commissioner of being biased against the country. On Tuesday too, Sri Lanka has reiterated its categorical rejection of the Human Right Council Resolution, saying it would not cooperate with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)-driven comprehensive investigation.” Following Ms. Pillay’s remarks, Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the U.N. in Geneva Ravinatha Aryasinha said the March 2014 resolution was based on “profoundly flawed premises.”

Many saw a strong resolution coming after Ms. Pillay’s visit and the Sri Lankan government’s response to it in August 2013. At the end of her week-long fact-finding visit to Sri Lanka, she said had observed that the island nation was showing signs of heading in an increasingly authoritarian direction, despite the opportunity that the end of the war presented.

Soon after, making her oral submission at the 24th session of the Council in September, she set a March 2014 deadline for the Sri Lankan government to engage in a credible national inquiry.

However, citing the lack of progress, she called for an international probe before the Council met in March 2014, where a U.S.-sponsored resolution calling for an international inquiry was adopted, with 23 countries backing it.

Wrapping up her speech — in which Ms. Pillay touched upon issues in countries such as Iran, Egypt, Sudan and Nigeria — told representatives of different countries the OHCHR “stands at your side, not in your way. It is a friend that is unafraid to speak the truth.”

UNHRC 26 Opening Statement Human Rights Council by nelvely

Government Must Extend ‘Critical’ 

Cooperation To UN Investigation

| by Laksiri Fernando

( June 12, 2014, Sydney, Sri Lanka Guardian) Long awaited or speculated UNHRC investigation on war crimes and human rights violations is now on. It may be too early, or too late. It may be too sensitive or even counterproductive in a sense to the cause of reconciliation in the immediate future. But it is something that the government cannot simply reject or ignore. It’s a UN investigation.

Government Must Extend ‘Critical’ Cooperation to UN Investigation by nelvely

Conclusions and recommendations of the Sri Lanka report by Chaloka Beyani, the UN SP on the human rights of IDPs

Conclusions and recommendations of the Sri Lanka report by Chaloka Beyani, the UN SP on the human rights of IDPs

IDPs in Sri Lanka ( file photo/UN)

Summary -Wednesday, June 11, 2014 
The Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, Chaloka Beyani, conducted an official mission to the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (hereafter Sri Lanka) from 2 to 6 December 2013, at the invitation of the Government and pursuant to his mandate contained in resolution 23/8 of the Human Rights Council. The objective of the mission was to engage in a dialogue with the Government with a view to promoting durable solutions for the significant number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) who have been in need of such solutions since the end of the conflict in Sri Lanka in 2009.

Conclusions and Recommendations of the Sri Lanka Report by Chaloka Beyani, The UN SP on the Human Rights of... by nelvely

Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights Of by nelvely

What Should Parliament Do About The UNHCR Inquiry

By R.M.B Senanayake -June 12, 2014 

R.M.B. Senanayake

The Government has taken up the position that the UN has no mandate to inquire into the alleged violations of human rights during the war and that it is an encroachment  on our national sovereignty.

At the UN’s founding Conference in San Francisco in 1945 this is what President Truman said  “ We all have to recognize, no matter how  great is our strength that we must deny ourselves the license to do always as we please.” Of course the USA has not always followed Truman’s suggestion. The Five Members of the Security Council agreed to be members of the UN only if they were given the right of veto and they have continued to exercise it depending on whether the UN intervention is against one of their allies or not. But they have not rigidly followed the principle of debarring  UN intervention on the ground of national sovereignty.

The UN Charter was drafted in consultation with experts from all the main religions. U Thant represented the world’s Buddhist opinion. The core principles of holding government authority to account and placing the wishes of the people before the rulers is found in the philosophical traditions across the Asian continent, including in Confucianism. So the Charter has been accepted universally by States who are the Members of the UN.                                                                                    Read More

Snap road blocks set up in the North

Thursday, 12 June 2014 

The Special Task Force (STF) has set up snap road blocks in the Northern Province.

Reports from Jaffna say that around 200 STF personnel were deployed to conduct the special operation in Jaffna and Vavuniya.

Police Spokesperson SSP Ajith Rohana has told the media that the road blocks were set up due to the increase in criminal activities in the North.

“We also launched this operation to check on drunken drivers in the city areas,” he has said.

SSP Rohana said it was easy to nab criminals by putting in place snap road blocks.

Govt to seek parliamentary approval on 

cooperating with UNHRC probe 

Thursday, 12 June 2014 

The government has decided to hold a debate in parliament on the international investigation initiated by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to probe alleged human rights violations during the last seven years of the war between the security forces and the LTTE

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) central committee has decided at a meeting held yesterday evening at Temple Trees under the patronage of the President to hold a parliamentary debate.

The ruling party has also decided not to respond to the request of the UNHRC to send delegates to Sri Lanka to conduct the probe until the parliamentary debate.

MPs throw down gauntlet against UNHRC probe

By Dharisha Bastians-Thursday 12th June 2014

• 09 UPFA MPs submit motion to Parliament Secretary General
• Party leaders to convene on Friday to decide on date for debate
• Motion states UN investigation violates Lanka’s sovereignty

The international investigation launched by the staff of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay’s office would violate the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka, a group of ruling party MPs said in a motion handed over to Parliament yesterday.
Nine UPFA MPs delivered the motion to Parliament Secretary General Dhammika Dassanayake yesterday, citing reasons for not granting access to Sri Lanka for Pillay’s team of investigators.
Dassanayake told Daily FT the motion had been received and had been included in to the order book.
The motion stipulates that the investigation against Sri Lanka by the United Nations’ Human Rights Commission should not be held. “This Parliament resolves that the investigation to be conducted against Sri Lanka by the United Nations’ Human Rights Commissioner’s Office should not be carried out on the ground that such a course of action is detrimental to the process of reconciliation and peace and that it erodes the sovereignty, dignity and stature of Sri Lanka,” the motion states as included in the order book of Parliament.
“Party Leaders will convene at 11:30 a.m. on Friday to decide when the debate on the motion will take place,” the Secretary General said.

UPFA Parliamentarians Achala Jagoda, Malini Fonseka, Uditha Lokubandara, A.H.M. Azwer, Janaka Priyantha Bandara, J.R.P. Sooriyaperuma, Shantha Bandara, Duminda Silva and Nimal Wijesinghe are signatories to the motion.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday said the final decision on whether to allow UN investigators into the country would be made by Parliament, “where the peoples’ will resides”.
In a letter to the Sri Lankan Government dated 5 June, the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights requested access for the UN investigators who will be conducting the probe into alleged war crimes and major human rights violations in the last seven years of the war.
Access has been requested for the probe team between July-November 2014.
The investigation is due to kick off in July, after the OHCHR finalised its staff team for the Sri Lanka probe last week, headed by Senior Coordinator Sandra Beidas. Two independent senior experts will supervise the investigation on a pro bono basis. International Judge in the Khmer Rouge War Crimes tribunal and former New Zealand Governor General Dame Silvia Cartwright has already been picked for one of those two experts while the other is to be decided in due course.

Govt. has no option but to face UN probe – UNP 

By Shamindra Ferdinando-June 11, 2014

Wijeyadasa
President’s Counsel and UNP MP Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe yesterday said that the government had no option but to face the proposed UN investigation conducted in terms of the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council resolution 25/1.

The former President of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) Rajapakshe was responding on behalf of the UNP to the SLFP’s decision that Sri Lanka’s participation in the investigative process would be decided by parliament.

The government had absolutely no discretion in this matter, MP Rajapakshe said, urging the government to successfully counter serious accusations or face the consequences.

The investigation is expected to focus on allegations pertaining to the massacre of 40,000 civilians during the final phase, coordinated artillery fire on civilians, purposely depriving civilians of food and medicine, targeting medical facilities, systematic rape of both LTTE combatants and civilians and conducting a war without international witnesses.

The UNPer said that parliament’s opinion on this particular issue was irrelevant; therefore the government couldn’t be guided by a decision taken by the House. Asked whether he believed the government should cooperate with the UN, the Colombo District MP said that it should realise that it couldn’t overcome the problem by engaging in propaganda exercises.

Welcoming the decision to brief the House as regards the proposed UN action, Rajapakshe said that delaying tactics would be counter productive.

 Referring to a letter received by External Affairs Minister Prof. G. L. Peiris recently from High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay informing the government of the proposed probe, Rajapakshe said that parliament’s position would depend primarily on the SLFP.

 The SLFP with 117 members, excluding Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa is the largest single group in parliament. The UNP group comprises 42 members with the five-party Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in the third position with 13 members.

 The UNP MP said that whatever the position taken up by UPFA constituents, the SLFP alone could provide the required approval.

A Presidency Under Threat – The Whims Of Wimal Weerawansa

| by Rajiva Wijesinha

For each man kills the thing he loves

By each let this be heard

The coward does it with a kiss

The brave man with a sword

( June 12, 2014, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The last few weeks have seen an appalling erosion in the image of the government. In a piece that traced our unfortunate decline from the great military and diplomatic successes of 2009, I had written of cracks within the government, but after that we had two Cabinet Ministers refusing to support the Government in a Vote of Confidence. This is unprecedented, and I believe has never happened in this country before. But there has been total silence from senior members of the government, and I suspect I am the only person who has written to the President pointing out the gross breaches of etiquette that have taken place.

A Presidency Under Threat – the Whims of Wimal Weerawansa by nelvely

Partnership to protect free expression online: Project Galileo

I 

by Sanjana Hattotuwa 

- on 06/12/2014

I am both  proud and pleased to welcome the launch of Project Galileo by CloudFlare, for which the Centre for Policy Alternatives – the institutional anchor of this site – is a global launch partner. As noted in CloudFlare’s blog post announcing the launch of the new initiative,

Project Galileo’s goal is to protect free expression online. Sites can participate in Project Galileo if they meet the following criteria:

• They are engaged in news gathering, civil society, or political/artistic speech;
• They are subject to online attacks related to their news gathering, civil society, or political/artistic speech;
• They are not-for-profit organizations or small commercial entities; and
• They act in the public interest, broadly defined.

For sites that meet these criteria, CloudFlare will extend its full, enterprise-class DDoS attack protection at no cost.

This is big news for critical sites from civil society, NGOs, civic media and citizen journalism initiatives, whistleblowers and others who courageously publish information that risk pushback in the form of virulent DDoS attacks to censor and contain the spread of this content. If they fit with Project Galileo’s criteria, institutions and individuals with something important to say, or with information that they feel should be published and disseminated for public scrutiny can now avail themselves of the DDoS protection CloudFlare’s enterprise-class services offer.

Note that to get CloudFlare’s protection, an individual or institution has to sign up at least to CloudFlare’s free service, which requires technical know-how. CloudFlare notes that examples of Project Galileo participants include minority rights organizations, LGBT rights organizations in Africa and the Middle East, global citizen journalist sites, and independent media outlets in the developing world. Some other examples of website Project Galileo can help secure are,

• An individual or institution with a registered domain that publishes, or seeks to publish controversial information on high-level corruption.
• An institution that on its own website, seeks to publish information sourced from whistleblowers.
• A whistleblower herself/himself who seeks to register a domain and setup a website to publish content in the public domain.
• A non-profit, civic media or citizen journalism website, like Groundviews, Maatram, Vikalpa or The Republic Square.

Examples where Project Galileo cannot help are,

• Any blog hosted on blogger.com, wordpress.com, Tumblr or similar platform
• Any website belonging to an individual or institution without the know-how to create a free CloudFlare account and do the necessary technical configuration to site hosting
• Any big commercial or mainstream media site

For more info and to apply for Project Galileo, please click here.