Tamil Insight

HRW, January 23, 2012 - (New York) – The Sri Lankan government in the past year failed to advance justice and accountability for the victims of the country’s 26-year-long civil conflict, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2012. While Sri Lanka’s war-ravaged north and east became more open, the government deepened repression of basic freedoms throughout the country. The government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa continued to stall on accountability for abuses by the security forces, threatened media and civil society groups, and largely ignored complaints of insecurity and land grabbing in the north and east, Human Rights Watch said. The long-awaited report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), published in December, largely absolved the military for its conduct in the bloody final months of the war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which ended in May 2009. “In 2011, accountability remained a dead issue, the media faced increasing censorship, and the long-standing grievances which led to the conflict were not seriously addressed,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Sri Lankans face a lack of justice, weak rule of law, land grabbing, and a censored media from a government that is increasingly authoritarian.”

UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 16 January 2012 - The 2010-2011 Human Rights and Democracy Report is more comprehensive than previous years' and is being hosted online to make it as accessible to the public as possible. It highlights the UK’s human rights policies and concerns on key issues, and features 26 countries of concern where the FCO has the most serious wide-ranging human rights concerns.

Washington, 06 January 2012 - "International accountability mechanisms can become appropriate in circumstances in which a government is unable or unwilling to meet its obligations", Michael H. Posner (Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor at the Department of State) said today in his official response to the petition to the Obama Administration to support an international investigation into war crimes and other human rights abuses committed in Sri Lanka. The Petition at President Obama's White House website was created on Sep 29, 2011 by Jim McDonald, the Sri Lanka country specialist for Amnesty International USA. It received 5,938 signatures. "White House issues disappointing response to our petition" Jim McDonald commented in his Twitter post, immediately after the response.

AHRC, January 3, 2012 - SRI LANKA: The murder of the British national and the rape of the Russian lady at Tangalla allegedly by a local politician close to the government - The murder of Kuram Shaikah Zaman (32), a prosthetic expert who was working in the Gaza Strip for the International Committee of the Red Cross allegedly by a local politician, accompanied by a gang has led to a sharp criticism against the failure of the Sri Lankan government to maintain law and order and encouraging lawlessness and criminal behaviour.

By V.Rudrakumaran, TGTE Prime Minister, 01 01 2012 - Fellow Citizens of Tamil Eelam, our brethren from Tamil Nadu and of Diaspora, and our well-wishers - As the entire world is welcoming the dawn of year 2012 with much fanfare and celebration, it is with pride and pleasure that I take this joyous moment to send you the warmest greetings on behalf of TGTE, and on my behalf. As far as the Nation of Tamil Eelam is concerned, the year 2012 will remain an important year for all our activities. Let there be no doubt in our minds about it. This is the year that we, the people of Tamil Eelam, will have to take concerted and meaningful steps in our struggle forward to extricate ourselves from the tentacles of Sinhala Buddhist racism. In this context, I consider it appropriate to share with you, some of my thoughts regarding these steps to be taken and about the action plan that TGTE proposes. As you may already be aware of, TGTE has already declared Year 2012 as the Year of the International Crimes Investigation.

Washington, DC (PRWEB) January 01, 2012 - Tamils for Obama sent the president a letter wishing him a happy and successful 2012, and urging him to take measures to save the Tamils in Sri Lanka in 2012. “We hope you will have the time and disposition to help the oppressed Tamils in Sri Lanka” during 2012, Tamils for Obama wrote to the president in a letter wishing the chief executive a happy and successful new year. “It is that time of year,” said a spokesman for the Tamil organization. “This man has the most stressful and important job in the world. We certainly want to show him that he has friends who admire and support him. We also hope that he succeeds at his vital job.”

Amnesty International, 17 December 2011 - The final report of Sri Lanka’s Lesson Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), released publicly yesterday, acknowledges serious human rights problems in Sri Lanka but falls short of fully addressing the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the final phases of the conflict between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Amnesty International has said. “The LLRC has admitted its own inability to establish the facts about the conduct of the fighting, and points out legal complexities beyond its abilities. This is why the international community must now follow up with an investigation, bringing to bear the full resources and assistance of the UN and the international community,” Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific director Sam Zarifi said.

HRW, 16 December 2011 - (New York) – The report of the Sri Lankan government’s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) disregards the worst abuses by government forces, rehashes longstanding recommendations, and fails to advance accountability for victims of Sri Lanka’s civil armed conflict, Human Rights Watch said today. The serious shortcomings of the 388-page report, which was posted on a government website on December 16, 2011, highlight the need for an international investigative mechanism into the conflict as recommended by the United Nations Secretary-General’s Panel of Experts in April.

TamilNet, Sunday, 27 November 2011 - Leading Tamil activists of the younger generation in Tamil Nadu, Canada, USA and Switzerland, came out with a declaration on Sunday for an international decision to conduct and monitor a plebiscite among the people of North and East descent in the island, in the diaspora and among the refugees in India and elsewhere, in order to decide on the creation of an independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam. The activists asserted sovereignty of Eezham Tamils on three counts: historical, earned and remedial. They also declared that international players should stop insisting on united Sri Lanka and drop pretensions of ‘domestic solutions’. Further declarations upheld symbols and expressions of the struggle, urged recognition of all those who laid down their lives for the liberation cause and called upon coordinated global action by democratic forces.

The International, 30 November, 2011 - The Sri Lankan army ordered extra-judicial killings and assassinations during the final days of the country’s civil war, according to allegations made by a former member of the army. The source made the statements in an affidavit, obtained by The International as a part of an investigative report on the civil war, published today. The allegations were also accompanied by statements made by a witness who claims that he saw a number of serious war crimes being committed against civilians.

by Jyoti Thottam, Time's Blog Global Spin, 21 November 2011 - The grandly named “Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission” submitted its final report to Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday. The document is meant to account for the failure of a 2002 ceasefire and the events leading up to the end of the country's 26-year-long war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who were defeated in May 2009. On paper, the LLRC looks something like the Truth and Reconciliation Commission convened after the end of apartheid rule in South Africa — more than 1,000 witnesses testified before the LLRC, and the Sri Lankan government has trumpeted the LLRC as an effort to help the country move on after a generation of ethnic conflict. In fact, the real "lessons learnt" are much different.

Lanka News Web, 15 November 2011 - Underworld leader Dematagoda Chaminda has told the CID recently that a group of persons led by him had dumped the body of journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda in the sea off the Negombo lagoon. Demtagoda Chaminda was arrested on suspicion over the murder of Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra and four others and is currently in the custody of the CID. He is a trusted lackey of parliamentarian Kudu Duminda. Chaminda had said that he was not aware of whose body he had dumped in the sea until that evening when the boss (Duminda) had said it was a web journalist during a party at Jaic Hilton and that he had later found out that the dead person was Prageeth Eknaligoda. He had added that on every occasion when the bodies were dumped, the boss had told him that they were orders by the big boss (Defence Secretary). “Sir, these people are going to kill me anyway. It is true that we have killed and transported drugs, but none of these were done for personal reasons. They were done because boss asked us to do so. Please sir, go out and reveal these details. These details will be buried forever if they kill me in a few days,” Dematagoda Chaminda has told the police officers.

NORAD, 11 November 2011 - There was little Norway could do to influence the forces that put an end to the peace process and led to the start of a new war, says Gunnar Sørbø from the Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI). Sørbø has led the work on the first report to evaluate the Norwegian peace effort in Sri Lanka. The evaluation has been performed by CMI in Bergen and the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, and deals with the Norwegian peace effort in Sri Lanka between 1997 and 2009. The assignment – commissioned by the Evaluation Department in Norad – has been to interpret and discuss the choices made by Norway as facilitator in the peace process, based on available information and knowledge. According to the evaluation, many factors worked against a peaceful solution to the conflicts in Sri Lanka, and Norway alone cannot be held responsible for the failure of the peace negotiations.

United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG), 9 November 2011 - COMMITTEE AGAINST TORTURE HEARS RESPONSE OF SRI LANKA - The Committee against Torture this afternoon heard the response of Sri Lanka to questions raised by Committee Experts on the combined third and fourth periodic reports of that country on how it is implementing the provisions of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG), 8 November 2011 - COMMITTEE AGAINST TORTURE BEGINS EXAMINATION OF REPORT OF SRI LANKA - The Committee against Torture this morning began its consideration of the combined third and fourth periodic reports submitted by Sri Lanka on how it implements the provisions of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

11 November 2011 - Jeyashanker Murugiah (TGTE Parliament Member) with five others walked from Manchester to London demanding Justice and Peace for Tamils in Sri Lanka. After ten days of walk, on the 07th Nov. 2011 they arrived in London and participated in a welcome rally held near the British Prime Minister's office.

Channel 4 News, 08/11/2011 - Channel 4's Head of News & Current Affairs Dorothy Byrne has commissioned ITN Productions to make a follow-up film to Sri Lanka's Killing Fields, Jon Snow's critically-acclaimed investigation into the final weeks of the war between the government and Tamil Tigers. For this new film, Sri Lanka's Killing Fields : War Crimes Unpunished (w/t), also presented by Jon Snow, director Callum Macrae has accumulated powerful new evidence including contemporaneous documents, eye-witness accounts, photographic stills and videos relating to how exactly events unfolded during the final days of the civil war. Jon Snow says: 'I'm very proud that the new year will see a follow up to our widely-acclaimed documentary Sri Lanka's Killing Fields. We believe it shows more evidence of official complicity in war crimes and we will continue to show what we find to the world. I hope this film captures, shocks and educates in the same way as the first did."

By Jonathan Kay, National Post, 08 November 2011 - This isn't a column about the Middle East. But to make my point, I'm going to start by asking readers to imagine a scenario from that part of the world. Imagine that, sometime in the next few months, Hamas attacks against Israel escalate to the point of all-out war. Hundreds of Israeli tanks roll into Hamas-controlled territory, supported by artillery barrages and round-theclock bombing runs. Position after position is overrun, until the retreating Arabs - Hamas fighters alongside innocent civilians - are packed into a tiny coastal sliver of beach. Fathers dig makeshift foxholes to protect their wives and children from Israeli bombs. Finally, Israeli forces penetrate the last defensive barrier, and kill Hamas' leaders. Amid the battlefield carnage, tens of thousands of innocent civilians lie dead. Imagine, for a moment, the international outcry that would accompany this bloodshed. It would be the Goldstone Report times a hundred. The daily massacres would be frontpage news all over the world, every day. One can even imagine Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Syria and Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon joining the war and invading Israel. Yet if you re-read the second paragraph of this column, and replace just three words - "Arab" with "Tamil," "Hamas" with "Tiger," and "Israel" with "Sri Lanka" - everything I described actually did happen in 2009, when Sri Lanka's military overran Tamil Tiger forces in the northern part of that island nation. Yet, around the world, few paid these events any attention.

By Jonathan Miller, Channel 4 News, 07 November 2011 - Sri Lanka's civil war ended with "credible" evidence that war crimes were committed. Now Channel 4 News can reveal mounting evidence that the government is still torturing Tamil prisoners.The UN has already found that evidence of the killing of up to 40,000 civilians amid allegations of serious human rights abuses amounted to "credible allegations" that war crimes had been committed during the last days of the civil war in 2009. Now ahead of a United Nations meeting tomorrow, human rights groups are calling for an urgent investigation into the allegations that human rights abuses are still rife in Sri Lanka. President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government dismisses all that as "preposterous". He has embarked on a charm offensive to help repair his island nation's tarnished reputation. But Channel 4 News has spoken to two men who say that behind the smiles, there still lies a vengeful, sadistic regime.

Amnesty International, 30 October 2011 - Amnesty International is outraged that the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth has utterly failed to hold Sri Lanka to account over allegations of war crimes and other grave human rights abuses arising from the 2009 conflict. “It is an absolute disgrace that Commonwealth leaders have agreed to hold their next meeting in Sri Lanka in spite of its appalling human rights record,” said Amnesty International's National Director Claire Mallinson.

By Terry Milewski, CBC News, Oct 29, 2011 - The whole point of the Commonwealth, since its founding in 1949, was to promote good old British values of fair play. Its best defenders say that if the Commonwealth isn't about democracy, human rights and the rule of law, it's about nothing. ... The Commonwealth seems to be . . . grounded.

ABC News, October 26, 2011 - The Australian Tamil community says it feels betrayed by the Federal Government's decision to stop a war crimes case against the Sri Lankan president proceeding in Australia. Tamil man Jegan Waran, 63, has filed charges in the Melbourne Magistrates Court against Mahinda Rajapakse, who is in Perth for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). Attorney-General Robert McClelland's permission is required for the proceedings to go ahead, but he has ruled it out. Mr McClelland says the president is legally entitled to diplomatic immunity. Australian Tamil Congress national spokeswoman Sam Pari says the decision is disappointing. "We actually have a magistrate who has set a date for the hearing and to think that the Australian legal system will allow this to take place but for a politician to then say that these proceedings can't go forward is very, very disappointing," she said. "We also feel quite betrayed as well. We have an eyewitness who has found the courage to step forward."

Video: Attorney-General kills war crimes charges (Lateline)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-25/attorney-general-kills-war-crimes-...

Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 24 October 2011 - An Australian citizen who says he saw hospitals deliberated attacked by Sri Lankan forces has filed war crimes charges against president Mohindra Rajapaksa in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court.

TamilNet, Sunday, 23 October 2011 - As per order issued on the 13th day of October 2011, by the United States District Judge, Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the District Court of District of Columbia, with respect to Civil Action No. 11-00235 (CKK) Dr. Kasippillai Manoharan, et al. v. Percy Mahendra Rajapakse, the Court Summons and the Complaint are published here in full. The 29-page complaint is published as a single PDF document, and as 29 separate jpg images, one for each page.

Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, 22 October 2011 - Dear Commonwealth Heads of Governments, This letter follows an earlier letter on this subject that many of us jointly wrote to Commonwealth Foreign Ministers, prior to their meeting in New York on 22 September 2011. In the absence of any public pronouncement by Foreign Ministers on this issue we have to assume that no decision has yet been taken to put in place a process for assessing the suitability of Sri Lanka’s candidature for hosting the 2013 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). In this context, we recall your 2009 decision to defer Sri Lanka’s candidature as host and seriously urge you to consider a similar postponement at CHOGM 2011.

We reiterate that Sri Lanka continues to face allegations of human rights violations that are of an extremely serious nature. These allegations have been found credible by none less than a Panel of Experts appointed by the UN Secretary General. In addition to this, several other well grounded allegations exist about the lack of fundamental freedoms within Sri Lanka, which it is charged, has resulted in serious violations of freedom of expression, association and movement as well as entrenched impunity for past human rights violations. Together these make Sri Lanka one of the most acute human rights situations in the Commonwealth.

Providing space for Sri Lanka to be the host of CHOGM 2013 will only serve as a declaration of the Commonwealth’s indifference to human rights concerns. It will also allow a government in serious controversy over its role in egregious human rights violations to preside over the organisation from 2013 to 2015 without the necessity of having to conduct any serious or credible investigations into the allegations it faces.

By Ben Doherty, Sydney Morning Herald, October 17, 2011 - SRI LANKA'S high commissioner to Australia, former admiral Thisara Samarasinghe, should be investigated for war crimes, a brief before the Australian Federal Police says. The submission, from the International Commission of Jurists' Australian section, has compiled what a source has told the Herald is direct and credible evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the Sri Lanka Navy. There are witnesses - Sri Lankans now living in Australia - who can attest to the alleged crimes, the source said.

By Jonathan Miller, Channel 4 News, 14 October 2011 - In the wake of Dr Fox's resignation, foreign affairs correspondent Jonathan Miller reveals the links with private interests that allowed Dr Fox to run what some called 'a shadow foreign policy'. So why did Liam Fox jump now, having toughed it out for days? Was it the growing revelations about how his friend Adam Werritty was funded? Or was it the threat of even more damaging revelations concerning the Defence Secretary himself? Channel 4 News has found evidence suggesting that a trust fund which Dr Fox claimed this week to have ‘created’ was actually set up and funded by a London-based corporate intelligence company. The firm, G3, counts major defence contractors – including British Aerospace – among its stellar client list.

By Ron Ridenour, 04 October 2011 - “We Tamils, inside and outside the island of Sri Lanka, still want an independent state. And because the war crimes and severe brutality of the Mahinda Rajapaksa government against our people has become well known, our cause is being spoken about all over the world,” Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran told me recently in Manhattan, New York.

“Tamils always looked upon Fidel and Che as heroes,” the PM said. “Our people are shocked by Cuba’s position since May 2009. Perhaps it is due to poor communication. We want to send a delegation to Cuba, to Venezuela and other ALBA [Bolivarian Alliance of the Peoples of Latin America] governments to explain our position and to engage in dialogue.” PM Rudrakumaran maintains that his Transnational Government is not tied to any government or international power. “We are not at the mercy of any power, but will accept support for our cause from whoever cooperates with us.”

Freedom from Torture, 03 October 2011 - Following a packed room of party members keen to hear what Freedom from Torture and Human Rights Watch had to say about Sri Lanka, Camilla Jelbart-Mosse reports back on our fringe event at the Conservative Party Conference. 

We all know a week is a long time in politics. It proved to be a long week between the Labour and Conservative Party Conferences where Freedom from Torture has been making a lot of noise about ongoing torture in Sri Lanka. In between our two events with Channel 4 and Human Rights Watch, 50 Sri Lankans – largely refused asylum seekers – were returned on a charter flight from the UK amid serious concerns for their safety: a development which was unsurprisingly central to this debate on the opening day of Conference.

Freedom from Torture’s Keith Best and Human Rights Watch’s David Mepham were this time joined on the panel by Callum Macrae, director of Channel 4’s acclaimed documentary Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields – a man who, in the course of making the programme, has watched hour after hour after hour of mobile phone footage documenting torture and executions in Sri Lanka – and Conservative MP for Gloucester, Richard Graham. Graham is one of the 2010 parliamentary intake but enjoyed a long diplomatic career before he ventured into parliamentary politics, giving him a valuable perspective on UK foreign policy.

Freedom from Torture, 26 september 2011 - Campaigns and Communications Manager Camilla Jelbart-Mosse is blogging from the Labour Party Conference about working with Human Rights Watch and Channel 4 to demand justice for Sri Lankans caught in the 'killing fields'. Fresh from the frontline in Libya, Channel 4’s Jonathan Miller dropped into the Labour Party conference on Sunday night to chair Freedom from Torture and Human Rights Watch’s timely fringe event on the desperate need for justice and accountability in Sri Lanka – and to cover lessons that can be drawn from the Sri Lanka “case” for the protection of human rights within UK foreign policy. With another charter flight scheduled to leave London on Wednesday to forcibly remove a group of refused Sri Lankan asylum seekers (including Tamils) Freedom from Torture presented fresh evidence that torture continues long after the cessation of hostilities in the country. Emma Reynolds MP, Shadow Minister for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) spoke very powerfully about her involvement in a parliamentary delegation to Sri Lanka last year, including a visit to a “rehabilitation camp” where detainees have been held now for over two years with no legal recourse to challenge their detention. She was pressed by members of the audience, including Labour councillors, to ensure that Labour did everything it could to spur the UK government into action and throw its weight behind a thorough, international investigation into the serious violations that have been committed.

UN News, 24 September 2011 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today stressed the need for a “credible national accountability process” over actions in the final stages of the civil war in Sri Lanka during a meeting with Mahinda Rajapaksa, the country’s President. Mr. Ban reiterated the need for such a process as envisaged in the joint statement he signed with Mr. Rajapaksa in May 2009, when the long-running conflict between Government forces and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) ended. “He also underlined the need to find a political solution to the underlying factors of the past conflict,” according to information provided by a spokesperson for Mr. Ban after the meeting between the two officials.

• At UN, Kohona Tells Rajapaksa Ban "Has Seen Video We Sent Him" - Inner City Press
• As Sri Lankans Meets Ban, Sexual Violence & Rights Officials Present - Inner City Press