NCCT, 19 Nov 2012 - The world and United Nations failed to respond to the cry of Sri Lankan Tamils subjected to egregious atrocities by the Sri Lankan government in 2009. Canada, since the war ended, has taken a strong stand for Tamil rights. Canadian Prime Minister Harper has pledged to boycott next year’s CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting), set to occur in Sri Lanka, until accountability and justice are achieved. All Commonwealth countries should follow Canada’s principled lead and similarly boycott the next CHOGM until Sri Lanka allows an independent international investigation.

The Economist, 16 Nov 2012 - Frances Harrison, author of a book about the final days of Sri Lanka's civil war, recalls the horrific testimony of some of its survivors.

£40,000 KICK STARTER Project: The Vanni by Benjamin Dix and Lindsay Pollock, 16 Nov 2012 - In every crowded capital of the world, thousands of asylum seekers are totally anonymous. This book will introduce the reader to one such man - Antoni - showing the path which led him to his strange new life, alone on the fringe of an unfamiliar society. A good husband, father and son, who shoulders the guilt of the survivor, and the memories of the lost; a man who misses his family terribly, and waits for the slow cogs of obscure law to turn; a man whose last hope is to be allowed to start a new life, in a strange place, when all he wants is to be home, on his beach, fishing.

By Kenneth Roth, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch, 16 Nov 2012 - After Ban Ki-moon let UN cover up #SriLanka's slaughter of 40,000+, the least he can do is set up a war-crimes probe.

By Frances Harrison, Huffington Post, 16 Nov 2012 - If today the United Nations announced that it had received unconfirmed reports of 50,000 casualties in a war off limits to journalists - wouldn't the world take notice and try and stop the killings? We now know the UN system had this information in 2009 about Sri Lanka and suppressed it. We know this because of an internal review, commissioned by the UN Secretary General, Ban ki Moon. It's a report that concludes that the UN's conduct at the end of the civil war in Sri Lanka marked a "grave failure" that "should not happen again". The document cites the UN's role in Rwanda, saying some lessons there were not learned and proved relevant to Sri Lanka. Let's hope they're learned for Syria, but as the author of a book of survivors' stories from that war in Sri Lanka I am haunted by the thought of what might have been there.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka November 16, 2012 (AP) - M.A. Sumanthiran, a lawmaker for the Tamil National Alliance, said that the U.N. must investigate the civilian deaths as a way to make amends for its failures. "They (U.N) must take steps to put right what went wrong even after three and half years later by the U.N. system itself," Sumanthiran said. "We are renewing our call for an independent investigation. An independent investigation can only be an international inquiry," he said, adding the U.N. despite its failure must ensure justice to the victims.

By Elizabeth Joseph, CNN, November 16, 2012 - The Tamil National Alliance, Sri Lanka's largest Tamil political party, on Thursday called for an international inquiry into a U.N. failure to protect civilians during the final stages of the country's bloody 26-year civil war. The request comes a day after the United Nations admitted that it didn't protect hundreds of thousands of civilians, mostly ethnic Tamils, trapped in areas of heavy shelling in Sri Lanka, a teardrop-shaped island nation off India's southern coast. "The internal inquiry report that has now come to light says the U.N. failed civilians by leaving the area," M.A. Sumanthiran, the Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian, told CNN.

CTC, November 15th, 2012 - Ottawa, ON – The Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC) welcomes this highly critical internal review undertaken by Charles Petrie, stemming from the Secretary General’s Panel of Experts report released on April 12th, 2011. The last phase of the war claimed at least 40,000 lives and resulted in the disappearance of tens of thousands of civilians – one of the worst atrocities the world has seen. “The Report, confirms the systemic, and collective failure of the United Nations and its constituent bodies in preventing the loss of human life”, said Gary Anandsangaree, legal counsel to CTC at a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada. “It poses disturbing questions on the role of the United Nations in aiding the Sri Lankan government’s slaughter of the Tamil population caught in the war zone”, added Anandasangaree.

By TAG Advocacy, Thursday, November 15 2012 - Silence, not ignorance, is the recurring sense of the report. But this is nothing new - TAG News Team writing in Sept 2011 after the publication on wikileaks of a Cable recording the meeting between Ambassador Rice and the Un SAPG, Frances Deng, despaired at the gulf between on the one hand public silence, on the other private concerns.

TAG, 15 Nov 2012 - Tamils Against Genocide (TAG) welcomes the resolute tone of several of the missions who spoke out on 1 November 2012 at the 14th UPR to condemn the Sri Lankan Government’s Human Rights Record. Notably, the US Permanent Mission to Geneva spoke of the need for political devolution, for an end to the militarisation of former conflict zones, and of the requirement for an “Independent Investigation Cell”. Though the US stopped short of calling for an International Investigation, many other missions compensated for this in calling upon Sri Lanka to ratify the Rome Statute. TAG welcomes the Canadian mission’s call for the repeal of the terror act, their mention of the conditions of detainees and the requirement for a mechanism to return IDPs and for de-militarisation. The Indian mission’s stance was also gratifyingly strong, Ms Nabanita Chakrabarti pushed devolution and political settlement, not shying from support of the 13th amendment which the Rajapaksa Regime has begun to make moves to dissolve.