Russia says its Syria airstrikes led 600 IS militants to flee to Europe 

Britain's prime minister says Russian airstrikes are aimed at backing 'butcher' Assad instead of targeting IS militants

A video grab made on 30 September 2015, shows an image taken footage made available on the Russian Defence Ministry's official website, purporting to show an airstrike in Syria (AFP) 

Saturday 3 October 2015

Russian airstrikes on Saturday targeting the Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria have sown "panic", forcing some 600 "militants" to abandon their positions and head to Europe, Moscow claimed.

"Our intelligence shows that militants are leaving areas under their control. Panic and desertion have started in their ranks," Colonel General Andrei Kartapolov, a senior official with the Russian General Staff, said in a statement.

"Some 600 mercenaries have abandoned their positions and are trying to find their way into Europe," he added.

Meanwhile in London, Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron accused on Saturday Moscow of backing "butcher" Assad with its airstrikes, which he said were often not aimed at IS.

Cameron said Russian forces were "making the situation worse" as they pressed a bombing campaign in the IS stronghold for a fourth day. 

His comments came as British intelligence forces observed that only one in 20 Russian airstrikes were hitting IS targets, according to Britain's defence minister.

"It's absolutely clear that Russia is not discriminating between ISIL and the legitimate Syrian opposition groups and, as a result, they are actually backing the butcher Assad and helping him and really making the situation worse," said Cameron.

"They have been condemned across the Arab world for what they have done and I think the Arab world is right about that."

The British prime minister added: "We should be using this moment now to try to force forward a comprehensive plan to bring political transition... because that is the answer for bringing peace to the region."

Cameron's comments, delivered ahead of his Conservative Party's annual conference in Manchester, northern England, echo those of his defence minister, Michael Fallon, published Saturday in the Sun newspaper

British intelligence services observed that only five percent of Russian air strikes had attacked the IS group, with most "killing civilians" and Free Syrian forces fighting Assad, Fallon told the tabloid.

He said that Russia's intervention had further "complicated" the crisis, while suggesting that Britain should extend its own bombing campaign -- currently only operational against IS in Iraq -- to Syria.

"We're analysing where the strikes are going every morning," he told the paper. "The vast majority are not against IS at all."

A video grab made on 30 September 2015, shows an image taken footage made available on the Russian Defence Ministry's official website, purporting to show an airstrike in Syria (AFP)

The United States has also accused the Kremlin of trying to buttress Assad, with President Barack Obama describing the airstrikes that began on Wednesday as "a recipe for disaster".

Putin "doesn't distinguish between ISIL and a moderate Sunni opposition that wants to see Mr Assad go," Obama told reporters.

"From their perspective, they're all terrorists. And that's a recipe for disaster."

The American president said he had made it clear to Putin during their meeting in New York earlier this week that it's not possible to "rehabilitate" Assad in the eyes of Syrians.

"This is not a judgment I'm making," he added. "It is a judgment that the overwhelming majority of Syrians make."

Obama also noted that he would not join the Russian military campaign as Moscow acts in a way to support Assad rather than going after IS.

"The Russian policy is driving those folks (rebels) underground, or creating a situation in which they are de-capacitated, and it's only strengthening ISIL." he said.

Obama said the US wanted the trained Syrian fighters to focus on IS, while these forces were also bombed by the Syrian government. 

- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/russia-says-its-syria-airstrikes-led-600-militants-flee-europe-1103266807#sthash.CpwI2xli.dpuf

Russia says to step up air strikes in Syria

Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and French President Francois Hollande sit together at the start of a summit on Ukraine at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, October 2, 2015.

BY ALEXANDER WINNING AND SULEIMAN AL-KHALIDI-Sat Oct 3, 2015

Russia said on Saturday it will step up air strikes in Syria, escalating a military intervention which Moscow says is weakening Islamic State militants but which Western powers say aims to support President Bashar al-Assad.

A senior Russian military officer said Russian jets based in western Syria had carried out more than 60 sorties in 72 hours across Syria. "We will not only continue strikes... We will also increase their intensity," said Andrei Kartapolov from the Russian army General Staff.

Russia's air campaign in Syria, where a U.S.-led air coalition and fighters on the ground from regional states are already entangled in a four-year-old civil war, has drawn strong criticism from the United States and its allies.

President Barack Obama, wary of military commitments in the Middle East after America's costly war in Iraq, warned President Vladimir Putin he was defending a crumbling authoritarian ally and could be sucked into a "quagmire".

Britain's defence minister said that only one in 20 Russian air strikes in Syria were aimed at the hardline Islamic State forces, which control large parts of eastern Syria and western Iraq.

Michael Fallon accused Russia of dropping unguided munitions on civilian areas, and against Assad's Western and Gulf-backed enemies. Russia says that it is targeting Islamic State with precision bombs, and that the raids are having an impact.

"The strikes were carried out around the clock from the Hmeymim air base along the whole depth of the territory of Syria," Kartapolov said, referring to an airport near Syria's Mediterranean coast where Russian jets are based. "Over three days we were able to undermine the terrorists' infrastructure and significantly reduce their military potential."

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 39 civilians had been killed since the start of the Russian air strikes on Wednesday. It said 14 fighters, mostly Islamic State militants, had also been killed.

Russia said in the last 24 hours it had targeted a command post and underground weapons bunker near Raqqa, the eastern Syrian stronghold of the Islamic State militants, as well as a weapons store in Maarat al-Numaan.

Maarat al-Numaan, in Syria's northern province of Idlib, is not known as an Islamic State base. Most fighters in the area are from the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, the Islamist Ahrar al-Sham and other insurgent groups, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.

A Syrian military source, quoted by state media, said Russian and Syrian planes destroyed a command centre in Latamneh, in Hama province, where Western-backed rebels operate. They also hit a training camp and weapons depot in Maarat al-Numaan, and weapons and ammunitions stores in Jisr al-Shughour.

WESTERN-BACKED REBELS HIT

The Russian air strikes have hit at least four rebel factions operating under the umbrella of the Free Syrian Army which had received significant military support from states that oppose Assad, rebel fighters said this week.

Some have been trained in the use of guided anti-tank missiles as part of an assistance programme that has in some cases included training overseen by the Central Intelligence Agency in countries including Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

This programme is separate to the U.S. Defense Department’s train and equip programme aimed at fighting Islamic State.

The anti-tank weapons, supplied by states opposed to Assad, were an important factor in insurgent advances this year.

In Maarat al-Numaan, a guided KAB-500 bomb destroyed seven vehicles as well as other facilities and weapons stores, the statement said, adding that the type of bomb was accurate to within 5 metres of its assigned target.

Rescue workers in opposition-held areas in western Syria say the strikes have killed at least several dozen civilians, including children.

In the town of Ihsim, northwest of Maarat al-Numaan, 11 people were killed in two raids, the rescue workers said. Nine of the dead were from one family. The Observatory put the casualties at 12 people killed or wounded.

A fighter operating in the Al-Ghab region in north-west Syria reported several air strikes there. "Russian warplanes hit a number of areas in the Ghab plain. They are hitting all the factions fighting Assad. The only casualties are civilians," said Abu el Baraa al Hamawi, from Ajnaad al-Sham rebel group.

He said there were "Russian experts" at a Syrian army base in the area, as well as increasing numbers of personnel from Iran and the Lebanese group Hezbollah.

Residents in the northwestern countryside of Homs province said leaflets were dropped calling on fighters to give themselves up and promising them they would be well treated.

A Syrian military source said an Islamic State attack on the airport in the eastern city of Deir al Zor had failed, and the army had killed a large number of "terrorists".

(Additional reporting by Kate Holton in; London, Tom Perry in Beirut; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

The Revolutionary Act of Telling the Truth

By John Pilger-30 September 2015

George Orwell said, “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

These are dark times, in which the propaganda of deceit touches all our lives. It is as if political reality has been privatised and illusion legitimised. The information age is a media age. We have politics by media; censorship by media; war by media; retribution by media; diversion by media – a surreal assembly line of clichés and false assumptions.

Wondrous technology has become both our friend and our enemy. Every time we turn on a computer or pick up a digital device – our secular rosary beads — we are subjected to control: to surveillance of our habits and routines, and to lies and manipulation.

Edward Bernays, who invented the term, “public relations” as a euphemism for “propaganda”, predicted this more than 80 years ago. He called it, “the invisible government”.

He wrote,

“Those who manipulate this unseen element of [modern democracy] constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country …We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of …”

The aim of this invisible government is the conquest of us: of our political consciousness, our sense of the world, our ability to think independently, to separate truth from lies.

This is a form of fascism, a word we are rightly cautious about using, preferring to leave it in the flickering past.  But an insidious modern fascism is now an accelerating danger. As in the 1930s, big lies are delivered with the regularity of a metronome. Muslims are bad. Saudi bigots are good. ISIS bigots are bad. Russia is always bad. China is getting bad. Bombing Syria is good. Corrupt banks are good. Corrupt debt is good. Poverty is good. War is normal.

Those who question these official truths, this extremism, are deemed in need of a lobotomy – until they are diagnosed on-message.  The BBC provides this service free of charge. Failure to submit is to be tagged a “radical” – whatever that means.

Real dissent has become exotic; yet those who dissent have never

been more important. The book I am launching tonight, The WikiLeaks Files, is an antidote to a fascism that never speaks its name.

It’s a revolutionary book, just as WikiLeaks itself is revolutionary – exactly as Orwell meant in the quote I used at the beginning.  For it says that we need not accept these the daily lies. We need not remain silent. Or as Bob Marley once sang: “Emancipate yourself from mental slavery.”

In the introduction, Julian Assange explains that it is never enough to publish the secret messages of great power: that making sense of them is crucial, as well as placing them in the context of today and historical memory.

That is the remarkable achievement of this anthology, which reclaims our memory. It connects the reasons and the crimes that have caused so much human turmoil, from Vietnam and Central America, to the Middle East and Eastern Europe, with the matrix of rapacious power, the United States.

There is currently an American and European attempt to destroy the government of Syria. Prime Minister David Cameron is especially keen. This is the same David Cameron I remember as an unctuous PR man employed by an asset stripper of Britain’s independent commercial television.

Cameron, Obama and the ever obsequious Francois Hollande want to destroy the last remaining multi-cultural authority in Syria, an action that will surely make way for the fanatics of ISIS.

This is insane, of course, and the big lie justifying this insanity is that it is in support of Syrians who rose against Bashar al-Assad in the Arab Spring. As The WikiLeaks Files reveals, the destruction of Syria has long been a cynical imperial project that pre-dates the Arab Spring uprising against Assad.

To the rulers of the world in Washington and Europe, Syria’s true crime is not the oppressive nature of its government but its independence from American and Israeli power – just as Iran’s true crime is its independence, and Russia’s true crime is its independence, and China’s true crime is its independence.  In an American-owned world, independence is intolerable.

This book reveals these truths, one after the other.  The truth about a war on terror that was always a war of terror; the truth about Guantanamo, the truth about Iraq, Afghanistan, Latin America.

Never has such truth-telling been so urgently needed. With honourable exceptions, those in the media paid ostensibly to keep the record straight are now absorbed into a system of propaganda that is no longer journalism, but anti-journalism. This is true of the liberal and respectable as it is of Murdoch. Unless you are prepared to monitor and deconstruct every specious assertion, so-called news has become unwatchable and unreadable.

Reading The WikiLeaks Files, I remembered the words of the late Howard Zinn, who often referred to “a power that governments can’t suppress”.  That describes WikiLeaks, and it describes true whistleblowers who share their courage.

On a personal note, I have known the people of WikiLeaks for some time now. That they have achieved what they have in circumstances not of their choosing is a source of constant admiration. Their rescue of Edward Snowden comes to mind. Like him, they are heroic: nothing less.

Sarah Harrison’s chapter, ‘Indexing the Empire’, describes how she and her comrades set up an entire Public Library of US Diplomacy. There are more than two million documents, now available to all.  “Our work,” she writes, “is dedicated to making sure history belongs to everyone.”  How thrilling it is to read those words, which also stand as a tribute to her own courage.

From the confinement of a room in the Ecuadorean embassy in London, the courage of Julian Assange is an eloquent response to the cowards who have smeared him and the rogue power seeking revenge on him and waging a war on democracy.

None of this has deterred Julian and his comrades at WikiLeaks: not one bit. Isn’t that something?

The WikiLeaks Files: the World According to the US Empire is published by Verso

www.johnpilger.com

Copyright © John Pilger, johnpilger.com, 2015

Israeli exports hit hard by Palestinian boycott, World Bank says

Palestinians call for boycott of Israeli goods in the West Bank city of Nablus in June 2012.

Nedal ShtiehAPA images

Maureen Clare Murphy Activism and BDS Beat 2 October 2015

The Palestinian campaign to boycott Israeli goods has exacted a major cost on Israel’s exports to the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israeli Exports Hit Hard by Palestinian Boycott, World Bank Says by Thavam Ratna

Kyrgyzstan's elections: what you need to know

The economy, living conditions and the threat from Islamist militants are high on the agenda as the country prepares to go the polls on Sunday. RFE/RL reports
man reads information about the candidates for parliament at a polling station in Belovodsk town. Photograph: Igor Kovalenko/EPA

 A Kyrgyz boy holds a political party flag during an election campaign event at the stadium in Belovodsk. The country goes to the polls on Sunday. Photograph: Igor Kovalenko/EPA

Bruce Pannier in Bishkek for RFE/RL, part of the New East network-

Saturday 3 October 2015

It’s been a decade since the tulip revolution that ousted Kyrgyzstan’s authoritarian president Askar Akayev from power. Since then the country has endured further political upheaval, but has clung to a semblance of democracy in a region otherwise populated by autocratic governments.

Kyrgyzstan's Elections What You Need to Know by Thavam Ratna

On Hungarian frontier, support for prime minister’s tough refugee stance

Hungarian riot police roughly handle migrants at the border crossing with Serbia in Roszke, Hungary, on Sept. 16. (Marko Djurica/Reuters)

By Anna Fifield October 2

BEREMEND, Hungary – At the beginning of this year, Viktor Orban was adrift. His ruling Fidesz party had won three sets of elections in 2014 but had been badly hurt by political infighting, a scandal in financial brokerages and a controversial plan to tax Internet usage.

Hungary’s conservative prime minister needed an issue to galvanize support.

On Hungarian Frontier, Support for Prime Minister’s Tough Refugee Stance by Thavam Ratna

Learning to Live With Sickle Cell Disease

 Justin Flowers -09/29/2015

Medicine schedules, doctor appointments and overnight hospital stays have been a routine part of my life for as long as I can remember -- and they always will be.

I was born with sickle cell disease. This genetic blood disorder is caused by a change in the gene that carries instructions for assembling hemoglobin, the protein red blood cells use to ferry oxygen throughout the body. Sickle cell disease causes round, flexible red blood cells to become stiff and take on a sickle (or crescent) shape.

The sickled cells block small blood vessels, causing extreme pain, organ damage, stroke and other problems. During most of my childhood and in my teens, I was treated at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

The only cure for sickle cell disease is bone marrow transplantation. In 1983, St. Jude doctors were the first to make that discovery. But, bone marrow transplantation is not a universal remedy. It can be difficult to find a matched donor. There are complications associated with transplantation. At St. Jude, scientists are working to develop alternate approaches. Many strides have been made for managing the disease. In fact, more than 95 percent of kids with sickle cell disease in the U.S. will survive.

Despite this progress, the move from pediatric to adult treatment is not always smooth. On their own, teens and young adults often have difficulty arranging for continuing care. Many hop from emergency department to emergency department to treat problems as they arise. That comes with a significant social and economic cost for patients. It can also cut years off their lives.

Growing up, I understood that I had sickle cell disease, but it was not until my first bout with a severe pain crisis around age 12 that the impact of my diagnosis hit me. A pain crisis is hard to put into words. Every person with sickle cell disease describes it differently. For me, it is a sharp, excruciating pain that runs throughout my entire body. The crisis can last for hours or even days. After that first episode, having sickle cell disease went from meaning regular checkups at the doctor to an alarming new definition.

Shortly after that crisis, I enrolled in a then-relatively new transition program at St. Jude. Designed for patients between 12 and 18 years old, the program uses education, mentoring and interventions to groom young patients to be well-prepared, more conscientious and ready to make responsible health decisions.

This program is the first step to address problems with lack of follow-up care as adults, medical insurance issues or lack of family support. Those issues can cause patients to abandon treatment.

The transition program was developed by St. Jude hematologists, social workers, physician assistants, academic coordinators, psychologists and nurses. These specialists unite to help teens with sickle cell disease make a gradual shift in medical responsibility from the parents to the patient.

In the program, we learned by doing. I checked myself in, completed my personal health record and answered questions about my blood type, the kind of sickle cell disease I have and what precautions I should take if I go into a crisis when I'm alone.

As soon as I had a driver's license, my St. Jude transition team asked that I start attending appointments by myself so that I could better communicate with adult care providers about medical complications, immunization records and lab reports. I also took tours of local adult sickle cell care providers to see what services were available and hear testimonials from adults with the disease. Through this program, I learned to be my own health advocate.

When the day finally came for my last clinic appointment at St. Jude, it was a bittersweet experience. I had been there for so long, and the staff was like my extended family. But, I was ready because St. Jude and my family had prepared me for the rest of my life.

I have started college, but I have stayed connected to the sickle cell disease community. I work as a patient coordinator at a local sickle cell foundation and return to St. Jude to talk with patients in the transition program.

St. Jude taught me acceptance of my situation. They gave me a roadmap to help navigate my future. I try to impart that same philosophy when talking with teens and young adults. Sickle cell disease affects every aspect of your life and can fill the path ahead with unexpected turns, but it is up to you to make that journey the best it can be.

While HRC 30 Debating Sexual Harassment by SL Military, SL Police Were Torturing & Sexually Abusing a School Boy

( File photo: Sri Lanka police known for its inhumane practices)

02/10/2015

While United Nations Human Rights Council was listening to allegations of sexual harassment of Tamil detainees  by  Sri Lanka military, Sri Lanka police was torturing a 17 year school boy arrested in suspicion  of the rape and killing of 5 year old girl child in Kotadeniyawa, Gampaha district. The school boy was arrested on the 18th September, same day the human rights high commissioner held the press conference unveil the Sri Lanka war crimes report prepared by his office.  He was tortured and made naked by the police and Assistant Superintendent of the Police had taken his nude photos.

The Daily Mirror report on the incident fellows:

Police beat me; took nude photos of me-School boy

“After being held at the Kotadeniyawa police station for three days, I was beaten and accused of committing this crime. They later took photos of me in the nude,” said the schoolboy who was discharged after being on remand for 12 days on suspicion of having killed Seya Sadevmi.

After he was disharged by Court he made this revelation. He also said, “On Wednesday the 16th four policemen came to my home. They were not in uniform. There was a friend of mine with me at that time. They took me and my friend with the laptop in a three wheeler saying they were taking us to record a statement. At the police station I was separated from my friend and taken to the back of the police station and forced to kneel. Then they beat me saying aren’t you the ones who committed this crime? My mother was not allowed to see me and I was not given any dinner. They continued to beat me. Then they removed my clothes and began to examine me, an ASP also joined in and took photos of me in the nude”

He said that he continued to deny the charge and say they were innocent of the crime. “They threatened to kill me, Later they took us to court and we were remanded in the Negombo Prison,” he said. He said he was not involved in the crime and there were no photos of Seya on his laptop.

Kelum Aththanayake, the other suspect, said that he was taken into custody at about 2.30 am on the 16th. He said they covered his face and took him in a van to some place, but they did not remove his blindfold. They had later uncovered his face on the orders of the OIC. He was not kept at the police station but somewhere else. “The police questioned me about my relationship with Seya’s family and I replied to their questions. Later they took me to the police station but did not give me a proper meal. They hung me by a rope and severely beat me saying that we were responsible for the killing. They kept me for three days, and I continued to deny their accusations. They also beat me with a plastic pole. Later, after producing me in court and getting me remanded they continued to assault me.”

The mother of the schoolboy said she was happy that her son had finally been released and lamented that he had been falsely accused. She said she was grateful to the attorneys, the class teacher, other teachers at the school and the media for helping to get her son released. “After my son was taken into custody by the police most people looked at us differently, and some looked at my son as though he were a beast. When my son was on remand our relatives helped me a lot. They shared my grief on hearing about the assault by the police, it is my firm wish to educate my son, therefore I appeal to everyone not to treat my son like a criminal,” she said.(Tharindu Jayawardene and Tony Karunanayake)

DM

Seyas Case Is Perfect Example Against Death Penalty

By Vimukthi Caldera –October 2, 2015

Vimukthi Caldera

As the government takes attempts to redress the claims of the previous regime in terms of Human Rights concerns at the international Council, our general public have been wreaking havoc trying to bring “justice” to Seya by re-introducing the death penalty. Even more interesting is that the strongest advocates for it are the very religious groups of Buddhists. I wonder if anyone saw the irony in seeing the girls in lama saree at the petitions. On the one hand the nation gives the outlook of being the “Great Buddhist Nation” or the “Dharma Rajya” while on the other hand, the general public demands the death of criminals. Those protesting for the punishment can hopefully take this time to actually go through criminal record statistics of the last few years across the country. Seya’s case is not new – we have just been ignorant as a whole. Within the week of Seya’s case alone, there were 6 other cases reported within the news media. And those were incidents that were actually reported.

The biggest argument for the death penalty considers how “research” has proven that it acts as a deterrent on criminal minded personnel. To be honest, depending on how one looks at it, there are statistics to both prove and disprove this statement. The first question we should ask then is whether a rapist while kidnapping an individual will actually stop to think “Oh my gosh now if I get caught I will surely face the death penalty”. It does not work that way. Deterrence does not come easy.

However, since the general public is bent on using Seya’s case to argue for it, let me elaborate why it provides the perfect justification not to. There are several problems associated with her case. As much as the situation is tragic and heartbreaking to hear or even think about, the first problem in the whole scenario lies with the fact that her parents had space for neglect. The “kondaya’s” (criminal’s) confession stated that he simply walked through an unlocked door, despite having seen that the open window (which did not have reinforcing metal bars) provided easy access to the house. While we sit around blaming the criminal, we did not think about the fault of the parents. You would assume that in today’s world, parents would take extra measures to take care of their children. Yet, not over a week after Seya’s death, I came across a child with a group of Policemen trying to locate the mother, at the Colombo Book Fair. I could not guess the age of the kid but I guess he was not much older than Seya herself because the mother was breastfeeding her son as soon as she collected him from the Police.

Read More

For New Constitution

Oct 01, 2015

A country’s Constitution is the key legal document of the country, and should be sensitive towards and represent the various needs and ambitions of all the citizens of that nation.

"The current constitution of Sri Lanka does not need to be changed any more. For Sri Lanka to progress, it needs a brand new constitution."

You may agree with the above statement and may have seen and understood the basic issues with Constitution of Sri Lanka. The 1978 Constitution was created mainly by legal experts and politicians without involvement of the public, which it was meant to serve in the first place.

This time, you the citizen can contribute to the shaping of Sri Lanka’s Constitution

With this in mind, it is most heartening to know that the current government is considering creating a new constitution for this country: this time we, the public, must make an effort to join this important and historic discussion. Towards this end, the CPA has organized a campaign to gather the ideas and recommendations of the public towards the new constitution and is also in the process of gathering volunteers to take part in this campaign. Your valuable suggestions will help in creating a new constitution that will truly represent the people of Sri Lanka.

If you would like to join this important process, please read through the official invitation, and fill in the form attached with it.

We welcome your feedback and information in any of the three languages.

To fill the feedback forms please click here for English and here for SInhala and Tamil respectively. 
For more information please email: lionel@cpalanka.org or lguruge8@gmail.com or contact us at:

Outreach Unit,CPA 
105, 5th lane 
Colombo 3 
Tel 112370801-4

Please respond in the next seven days

The UNHRC adopts consensus resolution on Sri Lanka

The United Nations Human Rights Council passed a historic resolution over allegations of ongoing human rights abuses in Sri Lanka. But as Callum Macrae reports, it has received mixed reactions.

How the Rajapaksa Regime Gets Away with Murder

Callum Macrae is the director of No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka 

FRIDAY 02 OCTOBER 2015

Six and a half years ago the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) voted to congratulate the government of Sri Lanka for its commitment to human rights.

The UNHRC Adopts Consensus Resolution on Sri Lanka by Thavam Ratna

Sri Lanka says to cooperate with U.N. on war crimes inquiry

A Tamil demonstrator holds up a hand as they wear a glove covered with fake blood during a protest near the Commonwealth Secretariat in London November 15, 2013.

BY STEPHANIE NEBEHAY-FRIDAY 02 OCTOBER 2015

Sri Lanka signalled on Thursday it aims to establish a credible judicial process involving foreign judges and prosecutors to investigate alleged war crimes during its long conflict with Tamil rebels, in line with U.N. recommendations.

Activists and international experts said that the domestic mechanism must win the trust of victims and survivors and provide robust witness protection for those who testify, especially against the Sri Lankan military.

The United Nations Human Rights Council, composed of 47 member states, adopted by consensus a resolution led by the United States and Britain. Sri Lanka co-sponsored the text.

"This resolution seeks to support Sri Lanka's path to a lasting peace built on a foundation of justice and accountability," U.S. Ambassador Keith Harper told the forum.

The U.N. human rights office said it was an "historic opportunity for Sri Lanka to address the grave human rights violations and abuses that its people suffered, at the hands of both the LTTE (Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam) and the government, during the conflict and in its immediate aftermath.

"It is now time for action."

Both sides "most likely" committed war crimes including mass killings of civilians during a 26-year war that ended in 2009, and these should be prosecuted by a special court with international judges, the United Nations said in a landmark report last month.

The report said that despite pledges by the new government of President Maithripala Sirisena to pursue perpetrators, the South Asian state's criminal justice system was not up to the formidable task alone.

SRI LANKA TO COOPERATE

Sri Lankan Ambassador Ravinatha Aryasinha said that his government would cooperate in implementing the resolution.

"Sri Lanka is pleased to join as a co-sponsor of this resolution as a further manifestation of (our) commitment to implement the provisions ... in a manner that our objectives are shared by the people and all stakeholders in the country," he said.

The text also calls for reforming Sri Lankan security organs and vetting the military to ensure that no personnel linked to serious crimes are retained or recruited into its ranks.

"This resolution could lead to a very strong process or a very, very weak process. It will all depend on how it is implemented," said Fred Carver, head of the Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice lobby group.

International involvement must be "sufficiently independent to win over the trust of survivors - many of whom wanted an international mechanism", he said.

The U.N. report cited a pattern of atrocities against civilians in the war, with years of denials and cover-ups, and said that tens of thousands may have been killed in the war's final stages.

Sri Lanka's Office for National Unity and Reconciliation, set up after Sirisena took office, said on Thursday it would issue "certificates of absence" to families who have reported relatives missing in the conflict to help them access entitlements granted by the state.

(Additional reporting by Shihar Aneez in Colombo; Editing by Mark Heinrich)