Police kindness, militarism and war-propaganda

•  February 14, 2015 
•  “All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting” – George Orwell

Overnight, the forces, particularly the Police, seem to have become more tolerant and helpful

A friend recounted an unexpectedly pleasant experience she had with the Police on Independence Day.
Unknowingly, she had driven into a road in the Kotte area, closed for usual traffic that Wednesday on account of the Independence Day celebrations. It was only after driving quite a distance that my friend realised that she was in the middle of the area where the celebratory procession was forming. She could neither move forward nor reverse. Observing her difficulties, Police officers who were on duty there assisted most obligingly by removing some barriers blocking her way and making a path through the crowd.

Police Kindness, Militarism and War-propaganda by Thavam Ratna

Full List: Over 50 ‘Rajapaksa Diplomats’ Recalled So Far

February 16, 2015 

Presently, over 50 non-career diplomats appointed during the Rajapaksa regime have been recalled to which includes military officials, Rajapaksa henchmen, relatives of former Ministers as well as Rajapaksa ‘prince’ Yoshitha’s ex-girlfriend Yasara Abeynayake, Colombo Telegraph learns.

Mangala Samaraweera – External Affairs Minister

Among those who have been recalled are some 27 Heads of Missions to which includes Dr. Palitha Kohona who was appointed as the Permanent Representative to the UN in New York and Rear Admiral (Rtd) Wasantha Karannagoda who was serving as the Ambassador to Tokyo.

Meanwhile a total of 23 non-career, non-heads of Mission level officials have also been recalled to which includes former Media Center for National Security Director, Lakshman Hulugalla who was serving as the Deputy High Commisisoner in Canberra, CJ Rambukwella – daughter of former Minister Keheliya who was serving as the New York Second Secretary and Yasara who was serving as the Sydney Consul.

Following are the full lists of the diplomats who have been recalled:

Click here Recalled Heads of Mission and here Recalled Non-Heads of Mission Political Appoitnments

Cricket champions bat for HIV prevention at ICC Cricket World Cup 2015

 

Monday, 16 February 2015 

ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 Ambassador Kumar Sangakkara asks fans to support #THINK WISE campaign

The International Cricket Council (ICC) today launched a new edition of its HIV awareness campaign, THINK WISE in partnership with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). During the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 in Australia and New Zealand, cricket stars will unite to support the  initiative which has been active since 2003.

The campaign’s focus is preventing stigma and discrimination towards people living with HIV, as well as encouraging greater awareness about HIV prevention.

ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 Ambassador and Sri Lanka’s batting legend, Kumar Sangakkara is a part of the campaign, and has expressed his support via a public service announcement.

“In cricket and in life I believe in zero discrimination,” said Sangakkara. “Discriminating against anybody, including people living with HIV is always out of bounds. Let’s change the score and bat for respect and dignity.”

During the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, 13 matches will be dedicated to the THINK WISE campaign, including the final which will be played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 29 March 2015.  Umpires will be seen supporting THINK WISE on their sleeve throughout the event and Mr Sangakkara’s message will play on the giant stadium screens in all 13 matches dedicated to THINK WISE. Players and officials in the final match will wear red ribbon stickers showing solidarity with people living with HIV and AIDS.

On 5 March, the South African cricket team will be coaching and mentoring young people in Auckland, New Zealand. Cricket fans are encouraged to participate and show their support by taking photographs at the event and sharing them on social media using the hashtag #THINKWISE.
“Cricket is a passion which unites countries and continents, people and players. The THINK WISE campaign is powerful. Cricket can mobilize millions of people to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030. By supporting young people as leaders, promoting HIV prevention and zero discrimination the campaign saves lives and gives dignity to all,” said Steve Kraus, Director, Regional Support Team for Asia and the Pacific, UNAIDS.

Young people are particularly vulnerable to HIV. AIDS is the second leading cause of adolescent deaths worldwide. The Asia and Pacific region is home to over a billion young people, and in 2013, an estimated 610,000 young people, aged 15-24 were living with HIV, accounting for 13% of all people living with HIV in the region. Discrimination threatens the health, dignity and security of people living with and vulnerable to HIV. In Asia and the Pacific, 10 countries, territories and areas criminalize transmission of HIV and 10 countries, territories and areas have HIV-related travel restrictions.

 “Stigma and discrimination isolate too many young people affected by HIV from the prevention and treatment services that could save their lives. The THINK WISE campaign aims to tear down these barriers,” said UNICEF South Asia Regional Director Karin Hulshof. “When every cricket fan in this region speaks out about HIV, there will be more than one billion voices silencing stigma and discrimination, propelling us toward achieving an AIDS-free generation.”

Egypt bombs Islamic State targets in Libya after beheading video

This image made from a video released Feb. 15 by militants in Libya purportedly shows Egyptian Coptic Christians in orange jumpsuits being led by masked militants. The video later appears to show the militants killing the Egyptians. (AP)

By Erin Cunningham, Heba Habib and Daniela Deane February 16 at 10:10 AMCAIRO —Egypt said it bombed Islamic State targets in Libya on Monday in retaliation for the extremist group’s mass beheading of Egyptian Christians on a Libyan beach, gruesome killings that threatened to ensnare Egypt into a regional conflict with the jihadists.

Egypt Bombs Islamic State Targets in Libya After Beheading Video by Thavam Ratna

Senior rebel leader, 4 others slain in Philippines military raid

File photo of NPA guerrillas taken in December last year. Pic: Edwin Espejo.

By Edwin Espejo Feb 16, 2015 5:40PM UTC

GENERAL SANTOS CITY – A high ranking leader of the New People’s Army (NPA) was killed along with four others in a fierce encounter in Alabel, Sarangani Monday morning according to the military here.

Slain was one alias Ka Lucas, said to be the secretary of Front 75 of the Far South Mindanao Regional command of the NPA.

“We have recovered five bodies including that of Ka Lucas,” said Col. Ronald Villanueva, commanding officer of the Army’s 1002nd Brigade.

“We have been tracking them for the last few days,” he added.

He said his troops finally caught up with the rebels in Datal Angas triggering a running gunbattle.

Datal Angas is 1,000 kilometers south of Manila.

Col. Villanueva said follow up operations are still ongoing even added that the military recovered at least six high-powered firearms from the rebels.

“Nakakuha kami ng 2 AK-27, tatlong M16 at isang M-203,” the Army official said. (We recovered 2 AK-47s, 3 M-16s and one M-203)

There was no immediate statement from the NPA rebels who usually admit their casualties, although often belatedly.

The Far South Mindanao Command of the NPA is among the more active units of the communist-led rebel forces in Mindanao.

It has however suffered successive setbacks last year, including the death of a former president of the UP Mindanao Student Council who was slain along with three others in an encounter in Maasim also in Sarangani in November.

The latest encounter in Datal Angas came barely 24 hours after another group of NPAs tried to overrun the police station in Mati City in Davao Oriental.

An NPA rebel was slain in the foiled attack at the police station while a policeman was wounded.

Three soldiers were however killed when reinforcements from the military were met with landmines exploded by rebel blocking forces.

Another soldier was also slain when he tried to escape from a rebel checkpoint.

A report said that the the regional director of Police Regional Office 11 barely escaped from harm in another land mine explosion at around 1.30am while on his way to check the police station in Mati.

France hints euro zone should ease stance for Greek deal

A carnival-goer dressed as a banker with a Euro sign on his hat takes part in an anti-austerity pro-government demonstration in front of the parliament in Athens February 15, 2015.

BY YANN LE GUERNIGOU AND RENEE MALTEZOU-Mon Feb 16, 2015

(Reuters) - Debt-laden Greece and EU paymaster Germany struck hardline postures ahead of a crucial meeting of euro zone finance ministers on Monday on the future of an unpopular international bailout for Athens, but France called for a compromise.

France Hints Euro Zone Should Ease Stance for Greek Deal by Thavam Ratna

HSBC publishes apology over tax evasion claims

( February 15, 2015, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) HSBC published a full-page letter in British newspapers on Sunday to offer its “sincerest apologies” for past practices at its Swiss private bank, which has been accused of helping clients to evade tax.

Europe’s biggest bank admitted failings in compliance and controls in its Swiss operation after media reports that said it had helped wealthy customers to conceal millions of dollars of assets up to 2007.

Britain’s Treasury Committee has called the bank’s chairman and chief executive to give evidence on the matter on February 25, according to a memo seen by Reuters on Friday.

The bank’s letter published in a number of newspapers on Sunday was signed by Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver and said that the reports had been a “painful experience” for its customers, shareholders and employees.

“We must show we understand that the societies we serve expect more from us,” Gulliver wrote. “We therefore offer our sincerest apologies.”

The bank said that the vast majority of the 140 people named in reports as customers of its Swiss bank had left and that it has since established much tighter controls on who it accepts as customers.

“We have absolutely no appetite to do business with clients who are evading their taxes or who fail to meet our financial crime compliance standards,” he said.

The fallout from the claims caused the bank’s former boss Stephen Green to step down at financial services lobby group TheCityUK on Saturday. 

HSBC Group Chief Executive’s open letter to customers, shareholders and colleagues. 

Can world powers really control the weather?

A leading climate scientist says the CIA approached him to ask for information on how to disrupt the weather.

MONDAY 16 FEBRUARY 2015

Professor Alan Robock said he received a call three years ago from two men wanting to know if experts would be able to spot a hostile force's attempts to upset the US climate. However, he claimed the real intention was to find out how feasible it might be to secretly interfere with the climate of another country.

The professor, from Rutgers University, New Jersey, has investigated the potential risks and benefits of using stratospheric particles to simulate the climate-changing effects of volcanic eruptions.

He said: "I told them, after thinking a little bit, that we probably would because if you put enough material in the atmosphere to reflect sunlight we would be able to detect it and see the equipment that was putting it up there."

So how feasible is it to control the weather?

Beijing Weather Modification Office

Chinese research into weather control is said to date back to 1958. In 2008, the government-run weather modification programme hit the headlines when it was said to have controlled the climate ahead of the summer Olympic Games.

The Chinese government reportedly launched thousands of specially designed rockets into the sky in Beijing to stop it raining during the opening ceremony.

The programme is said to employ up to 35,000 people across China, who are paid to handle anti-aircraft guns and rocket launchers.

These weapons are said to fire pellets containing silver iodide into clouds. Silver iodide is thought to concentrate moisture and cause rain, a process known as cloud seeding.

HAARP

The High Frequency Active Auroral Research (HAARP) was a little-known US military defence programme in Alaska.

Designed by BAE Advanced Technologies, its purpose was to analyse the ionosphere, a region of the upper atmosphere, with the aim of developing better radio communications technology.

HAARP was a target of conspiracy theorists, who said it was used for weather modification, to cause earthquakes, tsunamis and the disappearance of Flight MH370. In May 2014, the US Air Force notified congress that it would be closing down the programme.

Russian cloud seeding

The Russian government is said to have used rain prevention methods since Soviet times, seeding clouds three times a year during Victory Day, City Day and Russia Day.

Ahead of each public holiday, the Russian Air Force often dispatches up to 12 cargo planes carrying loads of silver iodide, liquid nitrogen and cement powder to seed clouds above Moscow and empty the skies of moisture.

However, in 2008, planes are said to have dropped a 55lb sack of cement on a suburban Moscow home by accident. Weather specialists said the cement's failure to turn to powder was the first hiccup in 20 years.

Five ways to improve your brainpower

 Learning a musical instrument helps to maintain an ageing brain. Photograph: 553322/Getty Images

Norman Doidge-Sunday 15 February 2015

It’s possible to radically improve mental agility. Norman Doige, psychiatrist and author of The Brain’s Way of Healing, suggests strategies to sharpen your mind

It used to be thought that the brain was hardwired and that, unlike other organs, it could not repair itself or restore lost functions once damaged or diseased. Now we know that, in fact, the brain is neuroplastic – that activity and mental experience can be used to change the structure of the connections within it. These new principles are being used to radically improve, and even sometimes cure, some brain problems that were previously seen as irreversible – and some of them can also be used in everyday life to improve our brain’s health and performance. Here are five things to try.

Walk two miles a day

Regular exercise, such as walking, has been shown to be a key factor in reducing the risk of dementia by 60%. One reason may be that when animals go on very long walks it is usually to seek out a new, unexplored territory in which to live – because they are fleeing a predator, or because food has run out where they live. The brain, in anticipation of the fact that the animal is going to have to learn a lot about this new territory, releases growth factors, which act like growth-promoting fertiliser in the brain, allowing it to build connections between cells more easily as it learns.

Steady walking has the same effect on us, putting our brains in a more neuroplastic state. Brutal exercise is not needed: the amount required to contribute to a lower risk of dementia is walking two miles, or cycling 10 miles, five days a week.

Learn a new dance (or language or musical instrument)

As we get older, and particularly as we enter middle age, we are no longer taxing our brains as much as we did when we were at school. Most of middle age is the replaying of already-mastered skills, such as reading the paper and repeating familiar tasks at work.

To maintain an ageing brain requires novelty and taxing exercise: doing something as difficult as learning a new language or a new dance, or how to play a new musical instrument. These activities engage a part of the brain called the nucleus basalis, which is responsible for helping us to pay attention and to consolidate new connections in the brain when we learn. Ideally, practise daily for an hour or so, with high-quality, focused concentration throughout.

Do serious brain exercises

As we get older, our brains become more “noisy”. They are not as good at registering new information with clear, strong signals, and it becomes harder to retain information that was registered in a “muddy” way.

Serious brain exercises, such as those that grew out of the work of neuroplasticity pioneer Michael Merzenich, are designed to train specific brain areas for processing sounds and images. A National Institutes of Health study showed that their effects lasted 10 years, and that participants got better not just at the exercises, but at using their brains in life, too.

These exercises are very different from most computer brain games or those in newspapers; they are very challenging and require intense concentration. One example involves listening to consonant-vowel combinations that are easily confused, played at an increasingly rapid speed. It helps to sharpen the brain’s auditory processors, to record sharper, clearer signals of those sounds – so when you hear a name at a party it is recorded crisply, and is easy to retrieve from memory. The brain exercises used in the NIH study are now called “Brain HQ”.

Pay close to attention to your voice

You may have noticed that sometimes you can get charged up just listening to the sound of someone delivering a lecture, whereas someone else might be a very thoughtful teacher but have a voice that drones on and drains your energy and puts you to sleep.

What differentiates voices that charge us up from those that “discharge” us is the vocal frequencies, and the ability of the person speaking to hear the subtle differences in their own voice. The person who has the rich voice has it because their ability to listen is superior, not because of their vocal chords.

If you listen very carefully to what you are saying as you speak – to the sound of it, not just the content – you will refine it, and energise it, into a voice that charges, as opposed to one that drains yourself and others.

Get the rest your body requests

A recent study at the US University of Rochester showed that, during sleep, brain cells called glia open up special channels that allow waste products and toxic buildup in the brain – including the same proteins that build up in dementia – to be eliminated. On top of this, while we sleep, newly formed connections — between neurons that are created by the learning that we did the day before — become consolidated and made more durable.

Modern westerners have been progressively losing sleep because of inventions that estrange us from our true natures. The electric lightbulb and, of course, 24/7 internet, mean we are often so alert that we are not listening to our body’s signals when it is time for sleep. In the 19th century, the average western adult thought it was normal to get about nine hours of sleep. In North America, it is now closer to seven hours – and dropping.Recommendations vary, but some researchers say 8.5 hours is a better average to aim for.

• The Brain’s Way of Healing: Stories of Remarkable Recoveries and Discoveries by Norman Doidge is published by Allen Lane, price £20. To order a copy for £16 with free UK p&p, call 0330 333 6846, or visit theguardian.com/bookshop

Blood transfusions show early promise as possible Ebola cure

A blood transfusion from an Ebola survivor may have helped Kadiatu Fofanah fight off the disease. 

Amy Maxmen

As trials on blood and plasma progress, researchers ask if they might have happened sooner

by Amy Maxmen-February 16, 2015 

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — “Have courage to buckle up,” said the doctor, before he injected blood into the veins of Kadiatu Fofanah, a young woman in the throes of Ebola. It had been a week since Fofanah had doubled over, feverish and vomiting. “I was fading. I was so pale, I thought I would die,” Fofanah recalls.
Blood Transfusions Show Early Promise as Possible Ebola Cure by Thavam Ratna

Jaffna Uni lecturers call for UN inquiry on Sri Lanka to release report without delay
14 February 2015

Photograph: U Shalin

Lecturers at the University of Jaffna called for the UN report into mass atrocities against the Tamil people in Sri Lanka to be released next month without any delay, stating that "justice delayed is justice denied".

Announcing a demonstration on February 24 at 11am local time in front of the university to call for the release of the report, the Jaffna University Teachers Association (JUTA) called on all organisations in the North-East to demonstrate their wish to see the report released and justice for the Tamil people. 

"It is as the voice of a destroyed community that requests an international investigation. The international community should consider this as the plaintive cry of a community that has been destroyed and not just a normal investigation," R Rasakumaran of the JUTA told a press conference on Saturday, adding that Tamils hoped the investigation would "prove that what occurred in the final years [of the armed conflict] was a genocide."

Photograph: U Shalin

His comments, which were made in Tamil, are translated and transcribed below:

"The Tamil community is now seeking justice for the atrocities committed against them throughout decades in Eelam. Many thousands of lives have been cruelly destroyed and buried in the soil."

"Without age difference, there were instances in the last phase of the armed conflict when even children were given food in their hands and then murdered. Like this, there has been many incidents of oppression, cruelty, and threats against the Tamil community."

"Such violent incidents by the majoritarian chauvinists have been taking place for a long time in order to destroy the Tamil community. That this is a genocide is a transparent and visible fact."

"It is as the voice of a destroyed community that requests an international investigation. The international community should consider this as the plaintive cry of a community that has been destroyed and not just a normal investigation."

"In this backdrop, last year with the assistance of the international community we brought about an international inquiry at the Human Rights Council in Geneva, to prove that what occurred in the final years [of the armed conflict] was a genocide."

"Currently, while the report from the inquiry is due in March, many states responding to a request by the new government in Sri Lanka are attempting to postpone the inquiry report."

"In this situation, we have decided to hold a massive protest requesting the inquiry report to be released in March. We request North–East based organisations and others to join us in this protest."

He requests all to join in this rally and march strongly requesting justice for atrocities committed against the Eelam Tamil community and seeking freedom for the Eelam Tamils.

UN HRC Follow Sri Lankan Style of Not Publishing Report

by S. V. Kirubaharan

( February 15, 2015, Paris, Sri Lanka Guardian) Sri Lanka is neither a rich country nor an arms-producing country. Most of the arms used to kill over 200,000 Tamils were provided by certain deals with countries known as champions of human rights.

Mahatma Gandhi of India, the father of non-violent struggle has still not been given a Nobel Peace prize. Then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Winston Churchill made some humiliating remarks about Mahatma Gandhi, saying he may have practiced non-violence but the out-comes of his actions were violent.

Knowing such a reaction to non-violent struggle of Gandhi, Tamils in the Island of Sri Lanka courageously exercised their legitimate rights through non-violent struggle for three decades after independence in 1948. They never got a positive response from any Sri Lankan government. Then in 1983 the armed struggle started. This, in fact, allowed Tamils to live with pride and dignity. But some mistakes were made and the armed struggle was labelled as ‘terrorism’. Eventually the international community suppressed it.

From these two periods, it became obvious that no Sri Lankan government will ever find a solution for the Tamils long-standing grievances. So people like me believe that the United Nations is a place where we can find justice. In 1983 a few Tamils started participating in UN Human Rights Forums. I also worked since August 1990, believing that the diplomatic approach is the only way forward.

As the war intensified in Sri Lanka in 2008, a few Tamils started to come from various other parts of the world to Geneva. Soon after May 2009, a huge crowd of Tamil diaspora, whether they believed in the UN or not, started to participate in the UN Forums. Even though not many knew the proceedings of UN Forums, they lobbied with their feelings as victims.

With the help of International NGOs, Human Rights Defenders and certain UN member countries, three consecutive resolutions on Sri Lanka were passed. The last one, passed in March 2014, paved the way for an investigation by the UN Office of the High Commission for Human Rights – OHCHR.

Many victims, despite numerous difficulties, risking their family members’ lives at the hands of tyrant security forces in Sri Lanka and military personnel in the Sri Lankan embassies abroad, managed to give evidence. They thought perpetrators will be brought to justice, for what happened to them, their family members, neighbours, friends and others.

Betrayal of victims

Now, to everyone’s surprise, after spending so much time, money and resources – with the investigation report scheduled to be published on March 25th – the High Commissioner for Human Rights HCHR and UN Human Rights Council HRC want to delay the report, in just the same way as the Sri Lanka government habitually does.

It is confusing! We, as victims, understand the position of neither the HCHR nor the HRC. The pretext given and widely known does not follow any logic.

In Sri Lanka, the new interim government consists of the old crowd. This is “old wine in a new bottle”. They categorically reject the UN investigation and say that they will do a domestic investigation. Since 1956, we as victims have had numerous experiences of reports and investigations by successive governments remaining unpublished or never released. So is the UN now following the same style as Sri Lanka?

Those who understand the proceedings of the UN HRC never expected a resolution in the forthcoming 28th session. There may be one in the future. What they expect in March this year, is a fair report on the investigation, as a result of last year’s resolution.

Some who do not know the limits of the HRC, speak about sending the Rajapaksas to the Hague. Those who look for pretexts, have also added this, as one of the excuses for delaying the report. All these are ridiculous pretexts.

Who will speak up for victims?

The smartest thing, is that the new interim government of Sri Lanka meets with the HCHR, the UN Secretary General, the US Secretary of State and others and briefs them on their position.

Are these VVIPS giving any chance for the victims to meet and brief them? Who is voicing for the victims? When will these victims ever get justice?

We learnt from the media that Sri Lankan presidential advisor Jayantha Dhanapala was in Geneva recently. Was he there to give a crash course on “How to delay or not publish an investigation report – as done in Sri Lanka?”

If the report is not published as scheduled on March 25th, the august inter-governmental body – the United Nations – will be seen as a copy of Sri Lanka. Victims from everywhere will lose faith in the HCHR and the HRC.

In conclusion, the victims in Sri Lanka have not only been cheated by various Sri Lankan governments but also by the UN and others who play behind the scene.

Have Tamil victims been used as pawns for international horse deals?

Can the victims from Sri Lanka still have hope in the international community and the United Nations? It is well known that, “Power is might and right!”

What is the message these forces are giving to the next generation of Tamils?

Truth and reconciliation process calls for amnesty - NPC

 Sunday, 15 February 2015

The issue of what happened in the last phase of the war, and accountability for human rights violations and war crimes that are alleged to have been committed, has dogged Sri Lanka’s internal and external reconciliation process.  The National Peace Council welcomes the new government’s readiness to tackle these problems.  

The government is proposing a two-pronged approach to dealing with the issue of war crimes and the ongoing UN inquiry into it. First, it is considering a domestic criminal trial process with the objective of prosecuting those who were allegedly involved in human rights violations, in the Sri Lankan courts, if there is evidence.  Second, it is considering a reconciliation process similar to the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).  But unlike the South African version, the government has stated that its variant will not be for the purpose of amnesty but rather to facilitate the healing and reconciliation process of the victims.

The National Peace Council is of the view that if the TRC has no provision in it for amnesty, the perpetrator is unlikely to confess to the truth.  This will reduce the prospect for healing.  Therefore, we propose that the TRC should be given the power to grant amnesty where the accused accepts his guilt and agrees to make amends.    The underlying rationale of a TRC is that knowledge of the truth of what happened will enable society to reconcile and move forward. In a time of war it is very difficult to find the truth of what happened.  Due to the difficulty of obtaining evidence that meets the standard of criminal law, it is only if those who have knowledge of the wrong, or who were the perpetrators, confess that the truth will emerge.  It is the prospect of receiving amnesty that will give any wrongdoer or perpetrator the incentive to confess to the truth.  In South Africa those who confessed to the truth were given amnesty by the TRC.  But not all who came before the TRC received amnesty.   Out of over 7000 persons who applied for amnesty little over 1000 were granted amnesty.

It is now relatively common to see amnesties linked in some fashion to accountability processes designed to encourage former combatants to offer truth in return for non-prosecution or to participate in restorative or informal justice mechanisms. Conditional amnesties may also be used to prevent further violations by requiring beneficiaries to surrender, disarm and reintegrate, and to refrain from further violence. Such amnesties may retain the possibility of prosecution for those who fail to adhere to the conditions. In such contexts, amnesty is not offered to grant impunity to perpetrators, rather it is used strategically to achieve other objectives, such as truth, reconciliation and peace. The intentions and genuine efforts of those involved are also an important factor in assessing the legitimacy of various forms of amnesty.   So too is evidence of more general national and international support for whatever truth and reconciliation process is embarked on.

Any investigation of the past, either in the form of an international inquiry or a national Truth and Reconciliation Commission would need to win the acceptance of the different ethnic communities who constitute the Sri Lankan people. The Northern Provincial Council has urged the team appointed by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to investigate the war in Sri Lanka, to comprehensively investigate and report on the charge of genocide in its submission to the UN Human Rights Council in March 2015.  Whatever model Sri Lanka chooses, the National Peace Council believes that looking at what happened over the longer period than the last phase of the war would be necessary. The South African Commission had a mandate that extended back from 1960 to the mid 1990s and not just any one phase.  We note that a delegation from South Africa will be visiting Sri Lanka to assist in the process of national reconciliation.  We believe that this effort to pursue the path of truth and reconciliation can go a considerable part of the way to heal the wounds of the past and open the door to a shared future that is in the best interests of all Sri Lankans.