tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21482994933880942322024-03-14T10:37:59.992+01:00JDSJDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06662962269623164331noreply@blogger.comBlogger2759125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2148299493388094232.post-36086363100295432942013-09-26T12:34:00.001+02:002013-09-26T12:41:36.323+02:00A dimly lit Sri Lankan affair, in a side street beneath the UN<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0UIgfWV5fBo/UkQNjGhZU3I/AAAAAAAAHu4/BSLZl1HspTQ/s1600/dimly_lit_party_uk_srilanka.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0UIgfWV5fBo/UkQNjGhZU3I/AAAAAAAAHu4/BSLZl1HspTQ/s1600/dimly_lit_party_uk_srilanka.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">By Jon Snow | Channel 4</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #999999;"><bt>L</bt></span><b>ast night (24), in a dimly lit side street a stone’s throw from the towering UN headquarters here in New York, Britain co-hosted a drinks party with Sri Lanka - a country led by regime accused of the worst war crimes committed this century. Australia joined the fray to render it a tripartite affair.</b><br />Large black shiny cars ferried Sri Lanka’s large UN delegation to the door of an un-extraordinary town house. The hosting of the party was personified by British Foreign Secretary, William Hague; Sri Lanka’s External Affairs Minister GL Peris and – six days into her job – Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.</span></span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The event was ‘off camera’. We found ourselves the only team attempting to record what went on. Our presence outside in the street attracted the joint concern of both British and American security – both of whom made plain their discomfort with our presence.<br /><br />This was a celebration by three members of the British Commonwealth of this year’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) to be staged in Sri Lanka in November.<br />War crimes<br /><br />The antecedents of the meeting have not been happy. A number of countries have tried to have the meeting moved to Mauritius. The Queen, as head of the Commonwealth, has uncharacteristically excused her own attendance.<br /><br />It is just four years since the ending of Sri Lanka’s bloody civil war. A war that ended, as Channel 4's ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields‘ has described in eye witness detail, with 120,000 Tamils being herded into an ever shrinking ‘no-fire zone’, in which the UN itself believes at least 40,000 – possibly more than double that – were slaughtered in the final three weeks.<br /><br />Our film showed men, women and children shelled by Sri Lankan artillery, and field hospitals deliberately bombarded soon after their locations had been passed to government forces by the International Red Cross (a provision of the Geneva Convention requires that both sides in conflict should inform each other through the International Red Cross the whereabouts of their field hospitals to spare them bombardment).<br /><br />The World Bank has estimated that perhaps as many as 100,000 Tamils are still unaccounted for after the war.<br /><br />A new, feature length film, No Fire Zone, narrates this criminal enterprise and humanitarian catastrophe in graphic detail – and updates our original reportage.<br /><br />The UN secretary general himself, Human Rights Watch, and many others have charged that war crimes, and crimes against humanity were committed by the government in the closing stages of the war. The president, Mahinda Rajapaska, and his brother, the Secretary of Defence Gotobaya Rajapaska have both been identified as suspects.<br /><br />Indeed, Mr Ban used his platform on the opening day of this UN general assembly to hold up the Sri Lankan civil war as an example of the “systemic failure” by the UN system and member states to prevent the “disastrous consequences” of human rights violations.<br /><br />He called for the UN to renew our commitment to the “United Nations’ founding principles.”<br />‘Tinkling glasses’<br /><br />But all this was a far cry from the tinkling glasses and warm ministerial speeches that graced the townhouse in this New York side street last night. Ms Bishop talked warmly of her visit to Sri Lanka.<br /><br />Sri Lanka’s Professor Peris talked of Sri Lanka’s economy having “turned a corner”. Mr Hague was both humorous and expansive in his praise for the Commonwealth, but managed diplomatically to say all but nothing of Sri Lanka.<br /><br />No one mentioned the estimated 40,000 dead Tamils, or the World Bank figure of 100,000 missing. No one mentioned the military’s artillery and aerial bombardment of the ‘no fire zone’.<br /><br />I and a tiny handful of New York based journalists were put on the guest list, but we were told we could not bring our cameraman in. The atmosphere was strangely awkward. Those that knew each other, spoke to each other, those who did not know each other avoided doing so.<br /><br />Britain’s Development Secretary, Justine Greening, looked in. So did the UN’s Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Co-ordinator Valerie Amos.<br /><br />The deputy head of the Sri Lankan mission to the UN is a former General, Shavendra Silva, who commanded the military’s infamous 58 Division during the final assault. He is accused of war crimes but was given this prominent diplomatic posting as a reward by the regime.<br /><br />Not once during the evening did I hear talk of war crimes, or crimes against humanity – beyond my own attempts to alert my seemingly relatively unknowing New York based journalist colleagues.<br /><br />My shouted question to the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister from across the street “when are you going to address the killing of the thousands of Tamil civilians in the closing moments of the war?” went unanswered.<br />Unanswered questions<br /><br />This was an early taster of what is to come. An institution – the British Commonwealth – is to play a macabre role in securing the re-entry into the family of nations of a country which has unaddressed blood on its hands on an horrific scale.<br /><br />Commonwealth countries will be greeted and facilitated by a president, and a government, against whom evidence exists of war crimes and crimes against humanity, which we have screened and which the UN itself has substantiated.<br /><br />The reform programme underway inside the Commonwealth is centred on human rights. On the basis of the prickly charm offensive conducted last night, a terrible pact has perhaps been entered into not to mention Sri Lanka’s war crimes.<br /><br />Last night in New York, a dimly lit side street witnessed an event which did not feel compatible with the high ideals that are etched within the UN headquarters which towered above it in the night sky.<br /><br />Last night left many questions unanswered.<br /><br />Why is Britain prepared to co-host even a drinks party with Sri Lanka’s government so long as those horrifying closing weeks of Sri Lanka’s civil war, and the war crimes that flowed from them, remain unaddressed?<br /><br />Why was the UN’s own point person on these matters prepared to grace the event?<br /><br />Why is the British Commonwealth prepared to blind ahead with this vast meeting of heads of government in Sri Lanka so long as the continuing human rights crisis there remains unaddressed?<br /><br />Why is President Mahinder Rajapaska to be allowed to remain, for the next two years, the chairman of a movement that claims human rights at the very core of its being?<br /><br />And why is British tax payers money being used even to fund either a drinks party, or any of this?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #bf9000;"><a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jRfw0c8zWfEYt5fa4j8kaPwTGKxw?docId=66462f63-773a-4e8f-8d4c-fd37cd569501&hl=en" target="_blank">© Channel 4</a></span></span></span><br />
<br />JDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06662962269623164331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2148299493388094232.post-44900662166977864682013-09-26T12:17:00.001+02:002013-09-26T12:18:39.776+02:00UN rights chief gives Sri Lanka March ultimatum<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Agence France Presse</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #999999;"><bt>U</bt></span><b>nited Nations rights chief Navi Pillay on Wednesday warned Sri Lanka to show clear progress towards reining in rights abuses and investigating suspected war crimes by next March, or face an international probe.</b><br /><br />Pillay called on Colombo to use the time left before she delivers a widely-anticipated report on the country to the UN Human Rights Council next March "to engage in a credible national process with tangible results, including the successful prosecution of individual perpetrators."</span></span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Were that not to happen, she warned in an interim report presented to diplomats in Geneva by her deputy Flavia Pansieri, "the international community will have a duty to establish its own inquiry mechanisms."<br /><br />In March 2012 and March 2013, the UN's highest human rights body adopted resolutions calling on Sri Lanka to investigate allegations of widespread violations committed during the final months of a 37-year Tamil separatist war that ended in 2009, but has so far stopped short of calling for an international investigation.<br /><br />Sri Lanka, which maintains it is making great strides in its national reconciliation process, flatly rejected the suggestion an international probe might be needed.<br /><br />Pillay has "no mandate to make such a claim," Sri Lankan ambassador to the UN, Ravinatha Aryasinha, told the assembly of diplomats, insisting his government had put in place "multiple mechanisms to address accountability."<br /><br />The UN estimates that up to 100,000 people died during the conflict between 1972 and 2009, and rights campaigners claim 40,000 civilians were killed in the final military offensive in 2009 that crushed Tamil Tiger rebels.<br /><br />Sri Lanka has rejected the charges and maintains that its troops did not kill a single civilian.<br /><br />Pillay, who conducted a fact-finding trip to Sri Lanka last month, said she had received "little new information about the courts of inquiry appointed by the army and navy to further investigate the allegations of civilian casualties and summary executions" towards the end of the civil war.<br /><br />Washington agrees that Sri Lanka has so far shown little progress "with respect to what is relevant to accountability for the past," US ambassador to the Human Rights Council, Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, told AFP on the sidelines of the assembly.<br /><br />"We agree with the High Commissioner that if there is no domestic progress on accountability, the call for an international investigation is warranted," she said.<br /><br />Pillay also lamented the erosion of rule of law in Sri Lanka, and said the controversial impeachment of the country's chief justice earlier this year had "shaken confidence in the independence of the judiciary and separation of powers in general."<br /><br />This was especially worrying in light of a "recent surge in incitement of hatred and violence against religious minorities, including attacks on churches and mosques," she said.<br /><br />Pillay knew of 229 such incidents between January and July this year alone.<br /><br />"Regrettably, government interlocutors (seem) to downplay this issue or even put the blame on minority communities themselves," she said.<br /><br />She also described high levels of harassment and intimidation of human rights advocates, lawyers and journalists, pointing out that a number of the people she met in Sri Lanka had been interrogated by the military or police before and after her visit.<br /><br />Aryasinha harshly criticised Pillay's report, rejecting her "unsubstantiated claims" that the rule of law and democratic institutions were being undermined, and insisting other charges "lack credibility" or were "baseless and disingenuous."<br /><br />"Sri Lanka needs to be encouraged, not impeded," he said.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">©<span style="color: #bf9000;"> <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jRfw0c8zWfEYt5fa4j8kaPwTGKxw?docId=66462f63-773a-4e8f-8d4c-fd37cd569501&hl=en" target="_blank">AFP</a></span><br /> </span></span>JDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06662962269623164331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2148299493388094232.post-84957275360966668992013-09-26T12:11:00.001+02:002013-09-26T12:11:39.341+02:00Vote reveals Sri Lanka’s unavoidable truth: Other voices must be heard <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">By Bob Rae | The Globe & Mail</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #999999;"><bt>T</bt></span><b>he results are in for the provincial election in Sri Lanka’s northern most province, the area around Jaffna, and they are clear as a bell: nearly 80 per cent of voters, despite much evidence of harassment, cast their ballots for the Tamil National Alliance.</b><br /><br />The TNA has long been a parliamentary voice for Tamil nationalism, with a close, but complex, relationship to the LTTE and the military struggle. When the fighting was on, it was often hard to see much light between the Tigers and the parliamentarians. With the crushing defeat of the LTTE in May of 2009, more Tamil leaders inside Sri Lanka talked publicly of the need to “move on” and “deal with the realities on the ground.”</span></span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">With this decisive vote, choices will have to be made on all sides, recognizing that the current Sri Lankan constitution grants few powers to provincial councils, and that the leaders and organization that really run the country at the moment, the Rajapaksa family and the army, have never really embraced the plural and diverse nature of the country. The powers that are supposed to exist outside the reach of central control are there on paper, and not in reality. An election does not make a democracy on its own, and an election in the northern region hardly means that Sri Lanka has turned a corner.<br /><br />After May, 2009, President Mahinda Rajapaksa, his brothers and the army have not exactly chosen the path of truth and reconciliation. Triumphalism would be more like it, and it is both the denial of the brutality of the end of the war and a complete failure to embrace diversity and a respect for human rights that has made the current government so controversial.<br /><br />One suspects that neither the government nor the Tamil National Alliance expected such a clear result. But whether it changes anything remains to be seen. Jaffna and the regions around it remain under military occupation. The central government is reported to be offering land to Sinhalese soldiers in the north, which will only exacerbate the sense that ethnic cleansing is only a matter of time.<br /><br />For many in the majority, it will seem the ultimate insult that their military victory has not brought worldwide approval and humble acceptance from the Tamil community that the path to self-determination was some kind of terrible mistake.<br /><br />But life’s not like that. The aspiration among Tamils for recognition and respect began decades ago, and did not die on the beach where Velupillai Prebhakaran and his supporters were killed. This election result confirms it, and means that thinking about devolution and power sharing has to start again. It is the unavoidable question at the heart of Sri Lankan politics, and the military detour after the collapse of the cease-fire in 2006 did nothing to resolve it. There are no doubt many in Sri Lanka – and other parts of the world – who find the return of pluralism and alternative voices a threat to the simplicity of majority rule. But simple answers are never good ones when it comes to governing complex societies.<br /><br />Sri Lanka has a Buddhist, Sinhala speaking majority. But it also has significant Hindu, Christian, and Muslim minorities, most of who speak Tamil as their first language. And the political solidarity shown in the heartland of this complex community, even so much destruction and defeat, is a clear message to the Sri Lankan government and the world.<br /><br />Bob Rae is a former member of Parliament and former premier of Ontario. From 1999 to 2006, he served as chairman of the Forum of Federations and was an adviser to the Sri Lankan peace process.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">© <span style="color: #bf9000;"><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/vote-reveals-sri-lanks-unvoidable-truth-other-voices-must-be-heard/article14513764/" target="_blank">The Globe & Mail</a></span></span></span><br />
<br />JDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06662962269623164331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2148299493388094232.post-18001005377135478042013-09-26T12:05:00.000+02:002013-09-26T12:06:17.247+02:00Sri Lanka: UN human rights attack raises stakes before summit<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">By Jason Burke | The Guardian</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #999999;"><bt>T</bt></span><b>he United Nations' most senior human rights official has strongly criticised the Sri Lankan government just months before a controversial Commonwealth summit in the south Asian island nation.</b><br /><br />In an oral “update” to the UN human rights council in Geneva, Navi Pillay, the organisation's high commissioner on human rights, criticised the Sri Lankan government's failure to investigate allegations of war crimes against military officers and government officials. She said if significant steps were not taken before her full report was submitted in March, the international community would be forced to launch its own inquiry.</span></span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">“Regrettably, the High Commissioner detected no new or comprehensive effort to independently or credibly investigate the allegations which have been of concern to the Human Rights Council,” her statement said.<br /><br />The 47-nation council has repeatedly demanded a full, transparent investigation of the claims of war crimes.<br /><br />Pillay also said she was worried by reports of intimidation of journalists, activists and opposition politicians, pressure on the judiciary and sectarian violence in Sri Lanka.<br /><br />Campaigners say tens of thousands of civilians were killed in the bloody last days of the military campaign against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as soldiers closed in on the movement's leaders in May 2009.<br /><br />Witnesses to the final battles told the Guardian last week they had seen civilians come under concentrated artillery fire from the Sri Lankan military. They also described seeing LTTE fighters, some armed, among the unarmed refugees. The LTTE has also been accused of human rights abuses.<br /><br />The Sri Lankan government has repeatedly denied the allegations and has made little secret of its anger at what it sees as meddling by the UN and the west.<br /><br />Ravinatha Aryasinha, Sri Lanka’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, said Pillay had no mandate to issue an ultimatum to Sri Lanka, a country which “needed to be encouraged and not impeded”.<br /><br />Earlier this week the president of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa, told the United Nations general assembly that “the growing trend in the international arena of interference ... in the internal matters of developing countries in the guise of ... guardians of human rights” was “disturbing”.<br /><br />“Interested parties” were manipulating the United Nations against his country, he claimed.<br /><br />The criticism of Sri Lanka from the United Nations will add to pressure on David Cameron and other leaders to boycott the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (CHOGM) in November. Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper has said he will not travel to Sri Lanka. British officials have said “tough messages” are best delivered personally.<br /><br />Sri lanka will assume the leadership of the Commonwealth for two years following the summit, raising the prospect of further deep splits and controversy surrounding the organisation.<br /><br />“Cameron is saying he will come and tell it like it is, but when and where?" said Paikiasothy Savaranamuttu, a respected analyst and activist in Colombo. "Even if he does, none of it will ever be made public.”<br /><br />Pillay, who visited Sri Lanka last month on a fact-finding mission, also expressed concern at reports of abductions widely blamed on the authorities or local security agencies. She spoke of “disquiet ... as the rule of law and democratic institutions in Sri Lanka are being undermined and eroded” and referred to “continuing high levels of harassment and intimidation meted out to human rights defenders, lawyers and journalists”.<br /><br />The 71-year-old South African-born former judge said she had been “particularly alarmed at the recent surge in incitement of hatred and violence against religious minorities, including attacks on churches and mosques, and the lack of swift action against the perpetrators”.<br /><br />Commonwealth governments may be encouraged by the elections last weekend for a provincial council in the war-torn northern province, which is dominated by the Tamil minority. The first for 25 years, the polls have been seen as a key step towards reconciliation between Sri Lanka's Tamils, who make up 12-15% of the population of 21 million, and majority Sinhalese. An alliance of Tamil parties opposed to the government won a landslide victory in the poll.<br /><br />Pillay welcomed the elections, which she said she hoped would “usher in an important new stage in the devolution of power” and praised what she called “the impressive achievements made by the government, with the help of the international community, in resettlement, reconstruction and rehabilitation in the [north of Sri Lanka] in the relatively short period since the armed conflict with the LTTE ended”.<br /><br />These included the construction of new roads, bridges, train connections, medical facilities, schools and housing, as well as connecting electricity and water supplies.<br /><br />Rajapaksa, who is in his eighth year in power, is banking on economic growth and development to quell separatist sentiments in the north.<br /><br />A recent survey estimated that the Sri Lankan economy grew nearly 7% in the last quarter and tourist arrivals were up more than 14% on last year.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">© <span style="color: #bf9000;"><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/26/sri-lanka-un-human-rights-commonwealth" target="_blank">The Guardian </a></span></span></span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/26/sri-lanka-un-human-rights-commonwealth" target="_blank"><br /></a>JDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06662962269623164331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2148299493388094232.post-76288654107892844532013-09-26T11:58:00.002+02:002013-09-26T12:00:15.532+02:00Sri Lanka army 'harassed Tamil voters', observers say<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">BBC Asia</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #999999;"><bt>S</bt></span><span style="font-size: small;"><b>ri Lanka's military intimidated and harassed voters and opposition candidates during northern regional elections, foreign observers say.</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The government and military compromised the environment in which the vote was held, Commonwealth observers said.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">But they praised organisers for the conduct of polling, which the Tamil opposition won by a landslide. The military has rejected the allegations.</span></span><br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Polling for the north's semi-autonomous council came after years of ethnic war.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The opposition Tamil National Alliance (TNA) won 30 seats in the 38-member Northern Provincial Council, which took place four years after the army defeated Tamil Tiger rebels.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">However, the run-up to the election was marred by allegations of army intimidation that were firmly denied by the authorities.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"We learned that opposition candidates and their supporters, as well as voters at large, faced instances of intimidation and harassment," the Commonwealth Observer Mission to the elections wrote in its preliminary findings on Tuesday.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"The freedom to hold campaign meetings and openly interact with the electorate was restricted," the report said, adding that the "heavy presence and influence of the military" also compromised the electoral environment.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">However, it applauded the "determination and resilience of voters" who nonetheless turned out to vote, and praised the electoral commission's organisation of the poll as "impressive".</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Meanwhile, the head of a team of South Asian poll monitors, N Gopalaswami, told the BBC that he was "101% sure that military personnel were involved" in an attack on the house of a female Tamil opposition candidate a day before the polls.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In an email to the BBC, military spokesman Brig Ruwan Wanigasooriya rejected the claims.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">He said the allegation of military involvement in the attack was made "by politically inclined people".</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"The military was not involved in any of the electoral processes," he said. "The allegation that the military was a 'significant obstacle to a credible electoral process' is baseless."</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">He added that the 68% voter turnout in the elections showed that the military had not acted as an obstacle to voters.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">© <span style="color: #bf9000;"><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24216995" target="_blank">BBC Asia</a></span></span></span><br />
<br />JDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06662962269623164331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2148299493388094232.post-24622693333506095112013-02-18T11:38:00.002+01:002013-02-18T11:40:39.126+01:00Sri Lanka Buddhist monks demand halal boycott<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FChgyHN_cEM/USIET6Fa_yI/AAAAAAAAHqA/gAb16ozQKrE/s1600/bodu_bala_sena_maharagama2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.ggpht.com/-FChgyHN_cEM/USIET6Fa_yI/AAAAAAAAHqA/gAb16ozQKrE/s1600/bodu_bala_sena_maharagama2.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">AFP</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">.............................................................................................................................................................................................</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #999999;"><bt>S</bt></span><b>ri Lanka's nationalist Buddhist monks and their supporters launched a campaign Sunday to boycott Muslim halal-slaughtered meat amid mounting religious tensions in the ethnically divided nation.</b><br /><br />Thousands of men and women led by hundreds of monks of the Bodu Bala Sena, or Buddhist Force, staged a rally outside Colombo to announce the boycott, demanding that shops clear their stocks of halal food by April.</span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"More than 90 percent of the population are Buddhists, Hindus and Christian and therefore there is no justification to force them to eat halal products," Buddhist monk Kirama Wimala Jothi said in a statement.</span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /><br />He urged Sri Lanka's non-Muslim majority to boycott any product with the halal label and asked the government to outlaw Islamic clerics issuing such certification.<br /><br />The halal method of killing an animal requires it to have its throat slit.<br /><br />The issue has raised new tensions in a country emerging from nearly four decades of ethnic strife which has claimed at least 100,000 lives, according to UN estimates.<br /><br />The rally came less than three weeks after President Mahinda Rajapakse urged monks not to incite religious hatred and violence amid reports of a wave of attacks targeting Muslims.<br /><br />The Buddhist Force has disassociated itself with violence saying that there were "duplicate groups" pretending to be them and stirring up trouble.<br /><br />Less than 10 percent of Sri Lanka's population of 20 million are Muslims.<br /><br />Sri Lanka ended its 37-year Tamil separatist war in May 2009 with the crushing of Tamil rebels, who were mainly Hindus.<br /><br />Hindus constitute about 12 percent of the population.<br /><br />© <span style="color: #666666;"><a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iCXPCJuo_AxFcPFwtNNMKtSYJqUg?docId=CNG.5b8e3cb9f6ce7fe4c9debbff110eca6a.5e1" target="_blank">AFP</a></span> </span></span></span></span><br />
<br />JDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06662962269623164331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2148299493388094232.post-79802900538910865802013-02-18T11:33:00.000+01:002013-02-18T11:33:02.800+01:00Britain's arms deals with Sri Lanka revealed<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BFhJu9vx9Ys/USIDUHygo3I/AAAAAAAAHp0/r1AowCtnX80/s1600/airforce_soldier_srilanka.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.ggpht.com/-BFhJu9vx9Ys/USIDUHygo3I/AAAAAAAAHp0/r1AowCtnX80/s1600/airforce_soldier_srilanka.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">By Ben Quinn | The Guardian</span></span><br />
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<![endif]--><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">.............................................................................................................................................................................................</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #999999;"><bt>S</bt></span><b>mall arms weaponry, ammunition and various other military equipment were among millions of pounds' worth of goods exported last year from Britain to Sri Lanka under licences for arms and other closely regulated exports.</b><br />Statistics taken from the British government's own database for strategic export controls show items ranging from assault rifles and shotguns through to weapons sights, pistols and ammunition were sold last year to the South Asian nation's government, which has been accused of extensive human rights violations in relation to its treatment of its Tamil minority and the suppression of armed separatists, who have also been acused of abuses.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">More than £2m worth of sales last year fell into the "ML1" category – which is used by the government to denote small arms and weapons – according to figures scraped from the government's database for strategic export controls by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT).</span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /><br />Sri Lanka is listed by the Foreign Office as a "country of concern" because of its human rights record.<br /><br />In a December update, the Foreign Office also said the human rights situation there had been marked by negative developments over the last three months.<br /><br />A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) said it does not comment on individual licence requests, the application or the end user, but added: "The UK government takes its export licensing responsibilities seriously and operates one of the most rigorous arms export control regimes in the world.<br /><br />"Any application to export a product covered by an export control is assessed against internationally recognised criteria on a case-by-case basis.<br /><br />"Each assessment we make takes into account the intended end use of the equipment, the behaviour of the end user, the risk of diversion and the prevailing circumstances in the country concerned. We pay particular attention to allegations of human rights abuses."<br /><br />More than 30,000 civilians died during fighting between militant Tamil separatists from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri lanka's armed forces in battles that culminated in the total defeat of the LTTE in May 2009.<br /><br />The Sri Lankan military has been held responsible for most of those deaths by many observers and is accused of indiscriminately shelling areas where a small number of fighters were mixed with huge crowds of refugees. Authorities have denied the charge.</span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">© </span><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/18/britain-sri-lanka-arms-trade" target="_blank">The Guardian</a></span></span></span>JDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06662962269623164331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2148299493388094232.post-11937778145081413312013-02-18T11:24:00.001+01:002013-02-18T11:24:33.347+01:00Sri Lanka hardline group calls for halal boycott<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1F849jQJyUw/USIBQQmSYKI/AAAAAAAAHpU/Bx8ORz_5FkY/s1600/bodu_bala_sena_maharagama.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.ggpht.com/-1F849jQJyUw/USIBQQmSYKI/AAAAAAAAHpU/Bx8ORz_5FkY/s1600/bodu_bala_sena_maharagama.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">By Charles Haviland | BBC News</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #999999;"><bt>A</bt></span> <b>new hardline Sinhalese Buddhist group in Sri Lanka has called for the abolition of the Muslim halal system of certifying foods and other goods.</b><br />The Bodu Bala Sena, or Buddhist Strength Force, also said foreign propagators of religions should leave the country within a month.<br /><br />Thousands of supporters of the group attended a rally in a suburb of the capital, Colombo.</span></span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The calls come at a time of mounting religious tension in the country.<br /><br />There have been several attacks on both mosques and Muslim-owned businesses as well as on Christian churches and the clergy, the BBC's Charles Haviland reports from Colombo.<br /><br /><b>'Unofficial police'</b><br /><br />Thousands of men and women filled the grounds of the rally and the surrounding streets at Maharagama in Colombo's outer suburbs to hear nationalist speeches by the group's monks.<br /><br />The leaders called for a boycott of halal meat and demanded shops clear their stocks by April, the AFP news agency reports.<br /><br />Youth activists at the rally wore T-shirts denouncing the Muslim halal method of slaughtering animals to eat.<br /><br />The group's secretary-general, Venerable Galaboda Aththe Gnanasara, told the crowds that "only monks can save this race", referring to Sinhalese.<br /><br />He claimed that Christian and Muslim extremists were threatening Buddhists, and said hundreds of monks were ready to fight. "Our country is a Sinhalese one and we are its unofficial police," he said.<br /><br />The group has denied being anti-minority, and has dissociated itself from the recent attacks on Muslim and Christian targets.<br /><br />But one member of the group, Dilanthe Withanage, accused "some" unnamed countries of "funding Christian fundamentalists as well as Muslim fundamentalists" in Sri Lanka.<br /><br />Both Muslims and Christians deny promoting extremism in Sri Lanka, our correspondent reports.<br /><br />President Mahinda Rajapakse has called on monks not to incite religious hatred and violence, but one opposition politician told the BBC that "the situation is very bad".<br /><br />"Any moment, the ethnic riot will start between Sinhalese and Muslims," said Mujeebur Rahuman of the opposition United National Party.<br /><br />"They are now working freely. Nobody is talking about this organisation and the government is not trying to stop their activities."<br /><br />The Buddhist Sinhalese make up three-quarters of Sri Lanka's 20 million population.<br /><br />Muslims constitute about 10% and have generally had good relations with the Sinhalese majority.<br /><br />© <span style="color: #666666;"><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21494959" target="_blank">BBC </a></span></span></span><br />
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<br />JDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06662962269623164331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2148299493388094232.post-78156118337578986402013-02-18T11:14:00.003+01:002013-02-18T11:15:23.641+01:00UK still arming the Sri Lankan regime <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ISotLOPBKVM/USH_CMiuzoI/AAAAAAAAHo0/olTCG1QadaQ/s1600/sl_army_alampil.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.ggpht.com/-ISotLOPBKVM/USH_CMiuzoI/AAAAAAAAHo0/olTCG1QadaQ/s1600/sl_army_alampil.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">By Jerome Taylor | The Independent</span></span><br />
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<![endif]--><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">.............................................................................................................................................................................................</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #999999;"><bt>B</bt></span><b>ritain claims to have some of the world's most stringent controls when it comes to exporting arms around the world. In many respects, the checks and balances we place on UK-made weaponry are significantly more onerous than those provided by our global competitors. But it doesn't stop British hardware ending up in the hands of some pretty odious regimes. After all, Saudi Arabia remains Britain's most loyal and extravagant arms purchaser to the tune of more than £4billion over the past five years.</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b> </b><br />But no matter how much red tape we put in place to limit who we sell arms to, the simple fact remains that we have no control over how such weaponry will be used once it leaves our hands.</span></span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Nothing proves this better than the Arab Spring. Arms campaigners had warned for years that Western weaponry sold to nepotistic, cash rich, paranoid and weapon-hungry regimes in the Middle East and North Africa would one day be used on their own people. Sure enough, when genuine calls for freedom were made on the streets of Benghazi, Cairo, Sana'a, Manama and Damascus, they were met with bullets – many were made abroad.<br /><br />The British Government's repeated claims that no export licences would be issued to countries where there is "a clear risk that the proposed export might provoke or prolong regional or internal conflicts" looked entirely hollow when – as the Arab Spring raged – one only had to glance at our export lists to see countries such as Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen snapping up British arms in the preceding years.<br /><br />This is why it is not surprising to see that we have granted licences to export weapons – including small arms and ammunition – to Sri Lanka. But it is depressing. After all, the Sri Lankan army and the Rajapaksa government stand accused of overseeing some of the most horrific war crimes of the 21st century and have repeatedly resisted pressure to allow access to investigators.<br /><br />Tens of thousands of civilians died in the closing stages of the Sri Lankan civil war, with widespread reports of rape, extrajudicial killing and deliberate targeting of civilians. At the time, Britain was one of those shouting loudest. Three years on we are selling weaponry to the same regime.<br /><br />A similar rehabilitation occurred with Bahrain. When scores of protesters in Manama were receiving nightly doses of bird-shot and tear gas – most of which came from European arms manufactures – Britain briefly suspended its export licences, acutely aware of the huge embarrassment such deals now caused.<br /><br />The abuses continue to this day against Bahraini opposition protesters – yet the export restrictions have been quietly lifted and last summer Bahrain's King Hamed al-Khalifa was welcomed into Downing Street.<br /><br />The message Britain sends out is clear: while you are actively turning weaponry on your own people, we won't sell arms to you. But give it some time, take your finger of the trigger for a while, and we'll start resuming exports again.<br /><br />© <span style="color: #666666;"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/we-shouted-loudest-over-sri-lankas-abuses-three-years-on-and-were-arming-the-regime-8498771.html" target="_blank">The Independent</a></span></span></span><br />
<br />JDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06662962269623164331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2148299493388094232.post-33348689760813769902013-02-18T11:04:00.002+01:002013-02-18T11:04:29.342+01:00Anti-Muslim bigotry on the island<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6MxL2rVRuvk/USH8nQM6QQI/AAAAAAAAHoU/ZrhWr-_a5w4/s1600/galagodaaththe_gnanasara.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.ggpht.com/-6MxL2rVRuvk/USH8nQM6QQI/AAAAAAAAHoU/ZrhWr-_a5w4/s1600/galagodaaththe_gnanasara.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">By Shaamima | Loonwatch</span></span><br />
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<![endif]--><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">.............................................................................................................................................................................................</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #999999;"><bt>T</bt></span><b>he island nation of Sri Lanka celebrated its 65th Independence Day on the 4th of February amidst conflicting emotions. Although no stranger to tourism brochures as the idyllic holiday getaway, this teardrop isle has also had its fair share of the spotlight in making international headlines – there was the incapacitating tsunami of 2004, the 3-decade-long civil war and the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-13158916" target="_blank">war-crime allegations</a> that followed, and more recently the very public (and dubious) <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20164304" target="_blank">impeachment</a> of the country’s chief justice.</b><br /><br />There is however, another internal conflict that is yet to reach international waters.<br /><br />Still reeling from the after effects of a long-standing civil war Sri Lanka seems poised for yet another, this time with another face attributed to the enemy – the minority (9%) Muslim population of the island.</span></span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">For rising tensions, the result of a freshly administered hate campaign against the Muslims minority by fringe groups of the extremist Buddhist variety, have challenged cosy notions of post-conflict harmony finally taking root.<br /><br />At a rate that is worryingly escalating, said fanatical nationalist groups have <a href="http://www.loonwatch.com/2013/01/sri-lanka-we-are-sinhalese-group-protests-muslims-and-halal-meat-burn-effigy-of-allah/" target="_blank">taken to the streets</a> as well as <a href="https://www.facebook.com/protectbuddhismlk" target="_blank">social media forums</a> to denigrate Islam by picketing scaremongering slogans, all claiming ludicrously that the Muslim population is plotting to unseat Buddhism as the official state religion of Sri Lanka.<br /><br />In true doomsayer-esque fervour, these supremacists warn of the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=333680946742449&set=a.298030160307528.70932.298024446974766&type=1&theater" target="_blank">infiltration of Halaal certified food</a> into mainstream eating outlets as a threat to a pure <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152516487280640&set=a.262431750639.314318.15965710639&type=1" target="_blank">Buddhist state</a>, and in keeping with the times have even taken to posting <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=332656280178249&set=a.298030160307528.70932.298024446974766&type=1&theater" target="_blank">inflammatory material </a>on the internet mobilising the online community for a nation-wide boycott of all <a href="http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2012/12/10/halal-certification-why-should-non-muslims-have-to-accept-and-pay-for-it/" target="_blank">Muslim-owned businesses</a>. More ambitious allegations include claims that madrasas are serving as <a href="https://twitpic.com/b0l2jt" target="_blank">breeding ground for terrorists</a>, and that Sharia’a law is out to take over the island with its ‘draconian’ implementation of law and order.<br /><br />It has to be stressed that this vehement sentiment is not representative of the opinion of the vast majority of the Sri Lankan non-Muslim population, nor is this hate reciprocated by the moderate Muslim community. And while Sri Lankan Muslims can take comfort in this, what is undeniably cause for concern, is:<br /><br />The deafening silence from the government to these obvious instigations, and the impunity with which said groups are allowed to operate – leaving room for many to harbour suspicions that this hysteria is in fact a well-financed operation not just by the higher-ups, but even possibly an external lobby.<br /><br />The disconcertingly growing audience paying heed to the hate being spewed – some Facebook groups have garnered up to 15,000 ‘likes’ and Twitter followings of similar proportions.<br /><br />The increasing presence of <a href="http://www.dailynews.lk/2013/01/12/fea03.asp" target="_blank">anti-Muslim hate-speech</a> (however absurd) making its way into local, mainstream media<br /><br />The detrimental long-term effects in the psyche of non-Muslim Sri Lankans in this misleading generalisation of all Muslims.<br /><br />Muslim-Sinhala relations have never been cause for concern until <a href="http://muslimmatters.org/2012/04/25/the-dambulla-mosque-debacle-and-the-rise-of-the-minority-extremist/" target="_blank">very recently</a> – the symbiosis with which they existed could in fact have served as a model example of ethnic harmony in a pluralistic, society dating back hundreds of years. However, what with the LTTE forces having served their 26-year term, Muslims have now seemingly replaced the ex-adversaries as the <a href="http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/15429" target="_blank">new enemy target</a>.<br /><br />Not much has been done as of yet to quash these attacks, except for the occasional online campaign calling for religious harmony and the one-off retaliatory article from Muslim mediators refuting absurd claims.<br /><br />All eyes are now on the current regime, seeking out truth in their claims that the inculcation of religious tolerance (by taking urgent measures to quell these instigators of hate) is truly top priority on the political agenda.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">© <span style="color: #666666;"><a href="http://www.loonwatch.com/2013/02/anti-muslim-bigotry-on-the-island-sri-lankan-muslims-in-the-face-of-a-new-civil-war/" target="_blank">Loonwatch</a></span></span></span>JDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06662962269623164331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2148299493388094232.post-66332929738194005272013-02-17T00:07:00.001+01:002013-02-20T17:34:44.188+01:00Navi Pillay warns Sri Lanka against harassing activists<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">By Frances Harrison | Still Counting the Dead</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #999999;"><bt>T</bt></span><b>he UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, says her office is on the look out for further reprisals by the Sri Lankan government against human rights activists and journalists who attend next month’s human rights council meeting in Geneva. This follows intimidation and death threats against Sri Lankan human rights defenders who travelled to Geneva last year. One government minister even <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17491832" target="_blank">threatened</a> to break the legs of any journalist or activist who went to the Human Rights Council. </b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ms Pillay was responding to questions after giving a lecture entitled, “Freedom of Expression and Hate Speech: What International Human Rights Law Says”, at the <a href="http://www2.lse.ac.uk/humanRights/events/2013/Pillay.aspx" target="_blank">London School of Economics.</a></span></span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The UN Commissioner for Human Rights said Sri Lanka had been reprimanded by the President of the Council last year for its behavior and added that she’d even written to the country’s Foreign Minister at the time to protest that some of the threats against civil society groups were carried on his own website. She said she hoped the reprisals that took place last March would not happen again, but added “we are on the watch out for this”.<br /><br />Ms Pillay also said in response to a question that she welcomed the internal inquiry (known as the <a href="http://www.jdslanka.org/images/documents/un_internal_review_panel_report_on_sri_lanka.pdf" target="_blank">Petrie report</a>) into the UN’s failures in protecting human rights in Sri Lanka at the climax of the civil war in 2009. She compared the Petrie report to that on Rwanda but added, “Rwanda’s lessons were not implemented in Sri Lanka by the UN”. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ms. Pillay pointed out that she’d referred to the Petrie report <a href="http://www.jdslanka.org/images/documents/ohchr_report_sri_lanka_february_2013.pdf" target="_blank">in her own report</a> on Sri Lanka this week which examined at post-war accountability measures. She added that she was very pleased that the deputy Secretary General of the UN has set up a task force to look at policy and actions that could address the situation described by the Petrie report.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">© <span style="color: #666666;"><a href="http://www.stillcountingthedead.com/wp/?p=7377" target="_blank">SCTD </a></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #666666;"> <a href="http://www.stillcountingthedead.com/wp/?p=7377" target="_blank"><br /></a></span></span></span>JDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06662962269623164331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2148299493388094232.post-27576688145751413032013-02-16T23:59:00.001+01:002013-02-16T23:59:54.115+01:00Broken Dreams: The Truth about Sri Lanka<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">By The Social Architects | International Policy Digest</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #999999;"><bt>T</bt></span><b>he brutal civil war in Sri Lanka ended nearly four years ago, but people are still hurting. The country’s North and East are plagued by a host of problems that are unlikely to be resolved soon. Misguided policies emanating from the central government in Colombo have directly contributed to these negative trends. Lofty talk about “the defeat of terrorism” and majoritarian triumphalism have further antagonized people.</b></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Resettlement and Land Issues</b><br /><br />The politics of land remains controversial. Even though Menik Farm has closed, tens of thousands of IDPs have not been properly resettled. Since the military still occupies large swathes of land, many IDPs have been forced to move in with friends or relatives. In other instances, families that have been “resettled” lack adequate housing, including locks for doors and windows or suitable sanitation facilities.</span></span> <br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">People who were recently resettled in Mullivaikkal have returned to transit camps due to appalling living conditions “at home” and the dismal security situation there.<br /><br />Furthermore, many community members do not have the proper identity documents required to regain their land. And there are consistent reports of land infringement and the expropriation of civilians’ private lands by either “outsiders” coming from other parts of the country or military personnel. To be clear, there is still plenty of land that could be distributed, but – due to the government’s withdrawal of a controversial land circular – the government claims that it is unable to provide community members with land at this time, asserting that the state must issue a new land circular before doing so. This is, at best, a dubious argument.<br /><br /><b>Militarization and the Rule of Law</b><br /><br />The government’s talk about a military drawdown lacks merit, especially in the Northern Province. “We are living under military occupation,” notes one community member living near Jaffna. Even though several checkpoints have been removed, a large number of them have been converted into shops – such as grocery stores and cafés – that are run by the military. The ubiquity of military personnel does not leave people feeling safer; ordinary citizens feel more vulnerable and the country’s continued militarization has contributed to a host of widespread social problems including alcohol abuse, sexual violence and rape.<br /><br />Moreover, the military’s foray into virtually all aspects of civilian life has had an overwhelmingly negative effect on the civilian population. In Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts, military personnel even demand that they be invited to all social functions, including private events like weddings. Militarization has also resulted in the harsh repression of dissent. People are simply reluctant to speak out or to talk about political issues. According to one community member in the North, “People are afraid to have political ideas.”<br /><br />Recently, the government’s unwarranted arrest of dozens of University of Jaffna students has revealed that state security personnel still will allow no more than a semblance of freedom of expression or assembly anywhere in the North. What’s more, the heavy monitoring of ex-combatants has continued unabated. Ex-LTTE cadres are consistently harassed by state security personnel. Security forces also monitor and harass people who had only tangential connections to the LTTE. Employers of ex-LTTE cadres are being questioned too, so people are now reluctant to hire other ex-LTTE cadres.<br /><br />Regarding development projects, the military has its hands in everything. In places like Vavuniya North, the military drafts its own beneficiary lists for housing projects.<br /><br />And the military consistently uses NGOs to obtain personal information about community members. Further, development projects are being given to families and communities that overtly support the government. The politicization of aid permeates all levels of development work in the North and East.<br /><br />In Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu, the Civil Defence Department – a part of the Ministry of Defence – has begun a large recruitment process in the Northern Province. This includes the military’s recruitment of 400 preschool teachers. From urban development and aspects of tourism to the NGO Secretariat, it appears that even preschool education will now fall under the purview of the Ministry of Defence.<br /><br />The rule of law in the North and East is virtually non-existent. Disappearances and extrajudicial killings have continued, but assailants are rarely held accountable. Like elsewhere in Sri Lanka, impunity has become institutionalized. Besides, there are few Tamil-speaking police officers in these areas, meaning that most community members would be unable to file a complaint since they are not conversant in Sinhala. Understandably, people are especially reluctant to go to the police when military personnel are the alleged offenders.<br /><br /><b>Sinhalization and the Denigration of Tamil Culture</b><br /><br />The people of Sri Lanka should be free to settle in any area, but the central government should stop encouraging Sinhalese people to settle in historically Tamil areas. In addition, dozens of towns and numerous streets that originally had Tamil names have been given Sinhalese ones. And, with government money, Buddhist temples and war memorials (venerating the military) continue to be built in the North and East. Yet, scores of Hindu temples in need of renovation have been left neglected.<br /><b><br />Economic Troubles</b><br /><br />Believed to exceed 20 percent, unemployment for civilians in the Northern Province remains stubbornly high. As a corollary, military intrusion into civilian commercial activity is profound. In other cases, big business contracts have been awarded to former military personnel or those with strong ties to the armed forces. As noted, it is particularly difficult for ex-combatants to find work.<br /><br /><b>Women’s Rights</b><br /><br />Women and children have undoubtedly suffered disproportionately as a result of the war. Distressingly high levels of militarization and the proliferation of Female-Headed Households have left women in an even more precarious position. Now, many women have been compelled to become breadwinners while also taking care of their children, placing great strains on these war-torn communities. Also, reports of sexual violence and intimidation are commonplace. In other instances, women engage in sexual relationships with soldiers with the hope that they will be protected from other abuses. Failing to succumb to a military man’s request for sexual favors could result in continued visits and harassment.<br /><b><br />Conclusion</b><br /><br />The end of war has not augured a return to normalcy in Sri Lanka’s North and East. Rather, there are clear, indisputable indications that conditions are getting worse. Consequently, international condemnation of the country’s human rights record is not only justified; it is essential. Giving Sri Lanka a free pass on human rights and reconciliation would set a damaging precedent that could take decades to overcome. If the time for more resolute action has not yet arrived, will it ever?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">© <a href="http://www.internationalpolicydigest.org/2013/02/16/broken-dreams-the-truth-about-sri-lanka/" target="_blank"> <span style="color: #666666;">International Policy Digest</span></a></span></span><br />
<br />JDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06662962269623164331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2148299493388094232.post-2161633957235284382013-02-16T23:49:00.000+01:002013-02-16T23:50:50.343+01:00UN 'deeply disturbed' by Sri Lankan shooting<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,47,0" height="468" id="flashObj" width="564"><param name="movie" value="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="flashVars" value="videoId=2168923095001&playerID=69900095001&playerKey=AQ~~,AAAAAEabvr4~,Wtd2HT-p_VhJQ6tgdykx3j23oh1YN-2U&domain=embed&dynamicStreaming=true" /><param name="base" value="http://admin.brightcove.com" /><param name="seamlesstabbing" value="false" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="swLiveConnect" value="true" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><embed src="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashVars="videoId=2168923095001&playerID=69900095001&playerKey=AQ~~,AAAAAEabvr4~,Wtd2HT-p_VhJQ6tgdykx3j23oh1YN-2U&domain=embed&dynamicStreaming=true" base="http://admin.brightcove.com" name="flashObj" width="564" height="468" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true" swLiveConnect="true" allowScriptAccess="always" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed></object>
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<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #999999;"><bt>I</bt></span><b>n an exclusive interview with Channel 4 News, Navi Pillay urged the Sri Lankan government to "provide immediate protection" for Faraz Shaukatally, who is currently in intensive care after being shot by three unidentified gunmen on Friday night.</b><br /><br />Ms Pillay said: "It's an act of attempted assassination so he needs to be protected immediately."<br /><br />Mr Shauketaly, 52, who holds joint British and Sri Lankan citizenship, is a reporter for the Sri Lankan newspaper The Sunday Leader.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Ms Pillay said "I'm deeply disturbed by this particular shooting because it's a journalist and he's attached to a newspaper that's known to be critical of the government - particularly on accountability and in justice issues - which are issues that I cover. And I will be reporting to the Human Rights Council my concern over extra judicial killings, abductions and this kind of treatment and suppression of freedom of expression."<br /><br />The newspaper's editor Sakunthala Perera said the journalist was shot while he was on the telephone discussing a story due to appear in this week's edition.<br /><br />Police said three men broke into his house and opened fire on him while he was in his bedroom. The journalist, whose family live in Colywn Bay in Wales, was rushed to hospital with bullet wounds in his neck.<br /><br />Time to 'demonstrate' integrity<br /><br />Though he has miraculously survived, Mr Shaukatally is undergoing further tests in intensive care ahead of surgery. In 2009 an editor from the same newspaper was killed and other members of staff have also been attcked. No arrests have been made to date.<br /><br />Today the Sunday Leader's website reported that Sri Lanka's Presdient Mahinda Rajapaksa has ordered a special investigation into the shooting incident.<br /><br />However, when asked about suggestions that the government could have been involved in the shooting, Ms Pillay told Channel 4 News: "That's why there has to be a proper investigation before we can conclude that. In the meantime it's law enforcement that has to provide him protection. And it would demonstrate on the part of the government that they care if one of their citizens is fired upon. Everybody should care (about) who are the people who are going around shooting other people. This is what law enforcement is about.<br /><br />"The Sri Lankan government swears by the integrity of their army and their police, well it's time they demonstrated that. These institutions built into the democracy must now begin to work properly and this is an immediate instance where they can demonstrate that. "<br /><br />She said Sri Lanka must provide a credible investigation involving the civil society, because "if it is done by the government or the police themselves they do not enjoy the confidence of the people at this stage."<br />Human rights record<br /><br />Sri Lanka's rights record has been subject to criticsim over alleged excesses during the military's final phase in defeating Tamil Tiger seperatists. Rights groups say the military killed thousands of minority ethnic Tamil civilians in the final weeks of the conflict.<br /><br />Ms Pillay praised Channel 4's investigative report, Sri Lanka's Killing Fields, on the last few weeks of the Sri Lankan civil war, broadcast in 2011.<br /><br />She said: "Let me say how much Channel 4's information is appreciated because you have brought this to the fore. I myself mandated by the Human Rights Council have been filing reports on the human rights situation in Sri Lanka - we will be reviewing that again in March, but I have consistently called for a credible international investigation particularly of the occurrences in the last few days of the conflict."<br /><br />She added that she was frustrated by the Sri Lankan government's lack of investigation, with offers of UN help, to establish what happened at the end of the country's civil conflict.<br /><br />The Sri Lankan government has rejected allegations of mass killings and has been dismissive of Ms Pillay's calls for investigation, alongside her calls for the demilitarisation of the Vanni region.<br /><br />But Ms Pillay insists: "We want to provide them with expert investigative assistance, we are ready to provide this kind of assistance and I'm really disappointed it has not been taken up."<br /><br />She added: "It's particularly bad because this was government forces firing on civilians indiscriminately - they were shelled and the normal responsibility of governments is to protect people - not to kill them."<br /><br />Criticism was also levelled at the UN which was in Sri Lanka at the time of the alleged atrocities and whose people were withdrawn.<br /><br />She said: "I think that is deeply disturbing because it's a repetition of the criticism that was levelled against the United Nations during the Rwandan genocide and there was a report done after that with recommendations.<br /><br />"Now, to the credit of the secretary general he set up the Petrie Commission to look at the UN's failures in handling the Sri Lankan conflict and I very much encouraged that, I've read the report and I'm urging now the United Nations to take steps to come up with action plans to implement those recommendations so that the United Nations doesn't repeat these kind of failures."</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">© <span style="color: #666666;"><a href="http://www.channel4.com/news/un-deeply-disturbed-by-sri-lankan-shooting" target="_blank">Reuters </a></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
JDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06662962269623164331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2148299493388094232.post-24483063494414626312013-02-16T23:38:00.002+01:002013-02-16T23:40:41.909+01:00Sri Lankan military inquiry says army did not shell civilians<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MN2a5R8KtiE/USAKTJOczNI/AAAAAAAAHnk/5LQyyVsWXm0/s1600/multi_barrel_rocket_launcher_sri_lanka.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.ggpht.com/-MN2a5R8KtiE/USAKTJOczNI/AAAAAAAAHnk/5LQyyVsWXm0/s1600/multi_barrel_rocket_launcher_sri_lanka.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">By Ranga Sirilal and Shihar Aneez | Reuters</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #999999;"><bt>S</bt></span><b>ri Lankan military investigators said on Friday that the army did not shell civilians as it crushed a Tamil rebellion, refuting international allegations of human rights atrocities.</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b> </b><br />Rights groups say the Sri Lankan military killed thousands of ethnic minority Tamil civilians in the shrinking territory held by rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) just before their defeat in May 2009.</span></span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">An expert panel set up by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said the army committed large-scale abuses and as many as 40,000 civilians were killed in the last months of the conflict.<br /><br />Sr Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government has rejected the allegations and says its forces never targeted civilians.<br /><br />It nevertheless last year ordered a military court of inquiry to investigate allegations made in a documentary on British television that the army targeted civilians with shelling, causing heavy casualties.<br /><br />The court of inquiry on Friday refuted the accusations, instead blaming the Tamil Tiger rebels for the atrocities.<br /><br />"From the testimony presented, the court of inquiry concluded that the instances of shelling ... were not caused by the Sri Lankan army and civilian casualties might have occurred due to unlawful acts by the LTTE," military spokesman Ruwan Wanigasooriya said in a statement.<br /><br />"These acts include targeting civilians fleeing to the safety of army-held areas and their likely routes of escape and the dropping of artillery rounds, fired by ill-trained LTTE gunners, on civilian areas."<br /><br />The military campaign was conducted "strictly in accordance with the 'zero civilian casualty' directive", the statement said<br /><br />The investigators also said the rebels forced children and elderly people to fight in their ranks.<br /><br />U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, called on Wednesday for Sri Lankan authorities to allow international experts in criminal and forensic investigations to help resolve outstanding wartime crimes and end impunity.<br /><br />Sri Lanka has only committed to implement some of the recommendations of its own official investigation into the three-decade civil war, known as the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, issued in late 2011, her report said.<br /><br />The United States is expected to sponsor a resolution at the U.N. Human Rights Council next month urging Sri Lanka to implement the commission's recommendations, which called for the prosecution of soldiers suspected of killing civilians.<br /><br />© <span style="color: #666666;"><a href="http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/02/15/srilanka-warcrime-idINDEE91E0F020130215?feedType=RSS&feedName=southAsiaNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FINsouthAsiaNews+%28News+%2F+IN+%2F+South+Asia+News%29" target="_blank">Reuters</a></span></span></span><br />
<br />JDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06662962269623164331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2148299493388094232.post-2853081664973642922013-02-16T20:04:00.003+01:002013-02-16T20:06:16.909+01:00Female journalists walk on eggshells in Sri Lanka<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">By Amantha Perera | Inter Press Service </span></span><br />
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mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}</style><![endif]--><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">.............................................................................................................................................................................................</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #999999;"><bt>T</bt></span><b>he year was 1998 and porters at the wholesale vegetable market in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo had gone on strike, virtually suspending vegetable distribution in the city and its suburbs.</b><br /><br />A national news channel, Sri Lanka Maharaja Television, had dispatched a crew of reporters to cover the porters’ union general meeting; the atmosphere was charged and tension was palpable.</span></span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">“Suddenly,” recalled a female journalist who was just a young cub reporter at the time, “I was surrounded by hundreds of bare bodied men, some holding metal hooks and sweating profusely, all wondering what the hell this young woman was doing there”.<br /><br />She told IPS that she soon realised the throng of men “wanted only one thing: they wanted the attention of my team, all of them wanted to tell the story.”<br /><br />The incident, memories of which have stayed with her throughout her entire career, is just one example of how even a relatively mundane assignment can turn out to be a dangerous encounter for a female journalist, she said.<br /><br />A decade and a half later, women continue to tread on eggshells as they navigate an incendiary media landscape in this South Asian country of 20 million people.<br /><br />The island’s overall press freedom indicators are not glowing. A recent compilation of global statistics by the Paris-based media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders (which goes by its French acronym RSF) ranked Sri Lanka 162nd out of 179 countries on its press freedom index, sandwiched between Rwanda and Saudi Arabia.<br /><br />According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 19 journalists have been killed in the past two decades, nine of them in the last eight years. To date no one has been convicted for the crimes.<br /><br />On Jan. 28 over 100 journalists gathered in Colombo to protest against assaults on the media. The ‘Black January’ commemorations have become an annual event to remember assassinations, attacks and intimidations of colleagues.<br /><br />Though attacks against the press have been on the decline, the bleak forecast for the future is that those responsible for violence, disappearances and even murder will continue to roam free.<br /><br />“A Black January 2014 seems almost inevitable,” according to a blog post by CPJ’s Asia Coordinator, Bob Dietz.<br /><br />Within the general climate of fear and repression of the media, women face a unique set of challenges. The latest protests were a grim reminder to female reporters that they are walking on thin ice.<br /><br />“Sometimes the threat levels become more severe because you are a woman,” a female foreign correspondent with over two decades of working experience in Sri Lanka told IPS.<br /><br />Mandana Ismail Abeywickrema, associate editor of the weekend newspaper ‘The Sunday Leader’ shares this view.<br /><br />The mother of a young daughter, Abeywickrema feels that female journalists face even more pressure when they have families to consider.<br /><br />“I am a mother and a wife — what will happen to my family if something happens to me?” she asked.<br /><br />“Many female journalists walk down the safe path, and may not touch sensitive stories that they would have done in the past,” she said, because of concerns for their families’ safety.<br /><br />Dilrukshi Handunnetti, senior deputy editor at the daily ‘Ceylon Today’ believes the intimidating environment has led to “a change in our newsrooms over the past few years, a collective (decision) to practice self-censorship”.<br /><br />Abeywickrema and Handunnetti are intimately familiar with the fatal consequences of disregarding personal safety. Both were senior journalists at ‘The Sunday Leader’ when its founding editor, Lasantha Wickrematunge, was killed in broad daylight, just five minutes from their office, on Jan. 8, 2009.<br /><br />Abeywickrema drove past the site of the attack – which involved four armed men on motorcycles – minutes after it had taken place.<br /><br />No one has been charged so far for the gruesome murder. Wickrematunge’s widow, journalist Sonali Samarasinghe, and his successor at the newspaper, Frederica Jansz, both now live in exile due to threats on their lives.<br /><br />Jansz in particular received several death threats after she took over the paper in mid-2009.<br /><br />She complained that unidentified motorcyclists followed her home just a few days before her flight out of the country. In exile, she told media that she valued her role as a mother to her two sons more than that of a “hero journalist”, which prompted her decision to leave.<br /><br />The current editor of the newspaper, Sakunthala Perera, is also a woman.<br /><br />It is not uncommon for women to hold senior positions in newsrooms. Many female journalists agree that women have gained ground in the Sri Lankan media scene, especially in English-language and electronic formats.<br /><br />“One positive indication that women are breaking ground in Sri Lanka is the (presence) of female sports reporters in our news team,” Ceylon Today’s Handunnetti told IPS. “That is something that was unheard of when we joined newspapers.”<br /><br />But she sounded a cautionary tone about gender equality in the field, explaining that while women have made huge advances as professional news-gatherers, they continue to be largely excluded from some niche areas.<br /><br />She stressed that women rarely receive training on reporting from hazardous areas such as post-disaster sites or conflict zones, adding that few newsrooms take precautions against the specific dangers women face in the field.<br /><br />Abeyawickrema recalled that when she covered the aftermath of the 2004 Asian tsunami in Sri Lanka, she did so without any formal training, entering potential high-risk zones without any knowledge on how to ensure her personal security.<br /><br />Another female reporter who worked at ‘The Sunday Leader’ in 2004, but has since left, told IPS that she once spent the night in a camp set up for tsunami victims where she could “feel men moving near my tent all through the night”.<br /><br />“I was completely vulnerable,” she said, adding that neither her colleagues nor her editors at the time understood the trauma of that experience.<br /><br />According to Abeyawickrema, female journalists are constantly reminded of their vulnerability to attacks, especially of a sexual nature, during field assignments.<br /><br />“I am experienced enough to know when to stop pushing the envelope,” she said. “But I don’t think many juniors are aware of the risk.”<br /><br />A female journalist working in the eastern city of Batticaloa told IPS that she has now limited her work to stories involving women and development, because she felt unsafe reporting on incidents of a more political nature.<br /><br />“Once (in 2011) members of an armed political group crowded around me when I went to report on an incident involving one of their members and a village woman who rejected his advances. Some of them were so close that I could feel their breath — the silent message was: ‘You know what could happen, right?’”<br /><br />One positive development, Abeywickrema said, has been an outburst of peer support in response to the murky media environment for women.<br /><br />She said female journalists are diligent about looking out for each other and offering advice to juniors. “I think we are a lot more conscious about the environment we operate in than we were in the past,” Handunnetti concluded.<br /><br />© <span style="color: #666666;"><a href="http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/02/female-journalists-walk-on-eggshells-in-sri-lanka/" target="_blank">IPS</a></span></span></span><br />
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<br />JDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06662962269623164331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2148299493388094232.post-65159246080289429472013-02-16T19:51:00.000+01:002013-02-16T19:56:08.551+01:00SL military operatives attack peaceful protest against Jaffna SMZ<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6jNSR0JiNk4/UR_U98nGRxI/AAAAAAAAHm8/XtrZW79xg_Q/s1600/jaffna_hsz_protest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.ggpht.com/-6jNSR0JiNk4/UR_U98nGRxI/AAAAAAAAHm8/XtrZW79xg_Q/s1600/jaffna_hsz_protest.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Tamilnet</span></span><br />
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</xml><![endif]--></span></span><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 7.5pt; line-height: 115%;">.............................................................................................................................................................................................</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #999999;"><bt>M</bt></span><b>ore than ten Sri Lankan military operatives, co-mingling with and camouflaging as protestors in front of Thurkkai Amman temple in Thellippazhai, where a token fast against Colombo converting the former SL Miltiary High Security Zone (HSZ) into Sinhala Military Zone (SMZ) in Jaffna, attacked the peaceful protestors on Friday.</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The attack came after the SL Opposition Leader Ranil Wickramasinghe had left the site taking part and addressing the protestors. The SL military men went amok on Tamil parliamentarians and journalists at the site of the protest. However, the attackers who were causing panic among the participants were confronted by the protestors. More than one hundred SL policemen silently watched the unfolding episode without restraining or arresting the civil clad military operatives.</span></span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Confronted by 700 people at the site, the 10 attackers escaped through KKS Road while some of them, nabbed and handed over to the SL police by the protesters, were released to the SL military in front of the public.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">A journalist of Uthayan Daily was attacked by the SL military when he approached the SL military vehicles giving protection to the attackers.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The token fast, organised by groups representing the uprooted Tamils from Valikaamam North, began at 8:30 a.m. and saw the participation of Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF), Democratic Peoples Front (DPF), United National Party (UNP) and representatives of leftist parties now collaborating with UNP against the Rajapaksa regime in Colombo.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Despite the attempt by ‘regime change’ forces to hijack the struggle of the Eezham Tamils and project it as a struggle against ‘Mahinda Brigade’ diverting the crux of the SL military driven corporatism creating Sinhala colonies in the country of Eezham Tamils and the structural genocide being committed on the nation Eezham Tamils, the representatives of the uprooted people from the former SL military High Security Zone (HSZ), now being converted into Sinhala Military Zone (SMZ), projected the peaceful token fast to highlight the plight of the uprooted people who now fear that their lands are lost forever to Sinhala colonisation.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The elected representatives of the civic bodies in the district also took part in the fast, which saw participation of a large number of people who braved the harrasments by the occupying SL military.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Not all the Tamil politicians were seen with Ranil Wickramasinghe at the site of the token protest as Mr Wickramasinghe projected the Sinhala militarisation as different and distinct from the land grab taking place in many parts of the island. Wickramasinghe, who said he was opposed to High Security Zone, however, defended the presence of SL military garrison. He said the SL military base could be strengthened without the High Security Zone.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The people in North and South should join together to send ‘Mahinda Brigade’ home, he told the participants of the protest.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Tension prevailed in Thellippazhai throughout the day.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">© <span style="color: #666666;"><a href="http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=36052" target="_blank">Tamilnet</a></span></span></span><br />
<br />JDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06662962269623164331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2148299493388094232.post-13213653005084528622012-12-07T11:50:00.001+01:002012-12-07T11:51:21.544+01:00Sri Lanka: Chief Justice’s impeachment hearing violates due process - ICJ<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a bp.blogspot.com="bp.blogspot.com" hi="hi" href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2148299493388094232" http:="http:" kf3wzok1ddq="kf3wzok1ddq" nufnnjlm="nufnnjlm" pro_judiciary_protest.jpg="pro_judiciary_protest.jpg" s1600="s1600" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" yaasiyi="yaasiyi"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.ggpht.com/-kf3wzOK1dDQ/UMHJyAAsIyI/AAAAAAAAHhI/HHAnUfnNJLM/s1600/pro_judiciary_protest.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">International Commission of Jurists </span></span><br />
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<![endif]--><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">.............................................................................................................................................................................................</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #999999;"><bt>T</bt></span><b>he impeachment process against Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake ignores international standards and practice, says the ICJ. </b></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The ICJ urges the government of Sri Lanka to take immediate steps to uphold the independence of the judiciary and adhere to international standards and practice on the removal of judges.</span></span><br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Today, the Chief Justice and her team of lawyers walked out of the impeachment hearing in protest over the denial of a fair hearing.<br /><br />Protests supporting and opposing the impeachment process erupted on Tuesday 4 December 2012 as the Chief Justice appeared before the Parliamentary Select Committee for the second time.<br /><br />Over two hundred judges, several hundred lawyers, trade union leaders and a large number of religious dignitaries assembled to show their support for the Chief Justice.<br /><br />Opposition members of parliament publicaly called on the Government to adhere to principles of fair trial and due process in the impeachment process.<br /><br />Reportedly the Chief Justice has been denied the right to cross-examine potential witnesses and has not been provided full disclosure of the allegations against her.<br /><br />The Parliamentary Select Committee has also denied the request for a public hearing and prohibited observers from attending.<br /><br />“Parliament is pushing ahead with an impeachment process that fails to adhere to fundamental principles of due process and fair trial,” said Sam Zarifi, ICJ Asia Pacific Director. “The Chief Justice’s impeachment is part of a relentless campaign waged by the Rajapaksa Government to weaken the judiciary. An independent judiciary is the principle check on the exercise of executive and legislative powers – vital to the functioning of a healthy democracy.”<br /><br />As recalled by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers in a statement last month, international standards require that judges be removed only in exceptional circumstances involving incapacity or gross misconduct.<br /><br />A cornerstone of judicial independence is that tenure of judges be secure.<br /><br />“Any process for removal must comply with all of the guarantees of due process and fair trial afforded under international law, notably the right to an independent and impartial hearing,” Zarifi added.<br /><br />The United Nations Human Rights Committee, in its 2003 concluding observations on Sri Lanka, expressed concern that the procedure for removing judges under Article 107 and the complementary Standing Orders of Parliament was not compatible with Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.<br /><br />The Parliamentary Select Committee, presiding over the impeachment hearings is composed exclusively of members of parliament, the majority of which are drawn from the Government coalition. No members of the judiciary are permitted to sit on the Select Committee.<br /><br />Comparatively in India, an impeachment hearing is presided over by a three-member committee comprised of a Supreme Court justice, a Chief Justice of any High Court and an eminent jurist.<br /><br />In South Africa, a judge may only be removed after a hearing by the Judicial Service Commission, a body composed of members of the judiciary.<br /><br />In Canada, all removal proceedings are conducted by the Judicial Council, a body composed of 38 chief and associate chief justices of the superior courts and chaired by the Chief Justice of Canada.<br /><br />The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers warned against the misuse of disciplinary proceedings as a reprisals mechanism against independent judges.<br /><br />The timing of the impeachment motion raises questions. The impeachment motion was initiated just days after the Chief Justice ruled against the Government on a controversial bill – the Divi Neguma Bill – before Parliament.<br /><br />If the bill passed, the Minister of Economic Development (who is also the President’s brother Basil Rajapakse) would have had control over a fund of 80 billion Sri Lankan rupees (611 million USD).<br /><br />Attacks on the judiciary have been escalating in recent months. In July 2012, Government Minister Rishad Bathiudeen threatened a Magistrate in Mannar and then allegedly orchestrated a mob to pelt stones at the Mannar courthouse.<br /><br />In early October, the ICJ condemned the physical assault on the secretary of the Judicial Service Commission, Manjula Tillekaratne.<br /><br />In early November, the ICJ issued a report, Sri Lanka’s Crisis of Impunity, documenting how the erosion of state accountability and judicial independence, has led to a crisis of impunity in Sri Lanka.<br /><br />The ICJ calls on the Government of Sri Lanka to take active measures to promote the independence of the judiciary and rule of law by adhering to international standards and practice in impeachment hearings. </span></span><br />
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<br />JDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06662962269623164331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2148299493388094232.post-63118775541278884682012-12-07T11:42:00.003+01:002012-12-07T11:43:12.086+01:00Anger over Sri Lankans' deportation<br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #999999;"><bt>T</bt></span><b>he Refugee Council of Australia's chief executive has called on the government to urgently halt the forced deportation of Sri Lankan asylum seekers.</b><br /><br />Paul Power said there was compelling new evidence that members of the group were forcibly returned and denied the opportunity to have their claims for protection assessed. On Thursday, Fairfax Media revealed that members of the group sent back to Colombo and jailed had said the Australian government had not properly investigated their claims for protection.</span></span><u><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span></u><br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Mr Power, who on Thursday released a letter he had written to Immigration Minister Chris Bowen backing the reports, said he was disturbed by the claims, which if accurate would constitute a serious breach of Australia's international obligations.<br /><br />He wrote that the men were woken at 4am last Friday and told they would be returned.<br /><br />He said they did not have the opportunity to discuss the matter properly with case managers beyond a first interview in which, they believed, their fear of return was ignored.<br /><br />''Some of the men began to cry, others were begging the Serco staff to act and an older man began vomiting,'' Mr Power wrote.<br /><br />''The information given to me suggests that the people involved did raise fears which warranted further investigation. I and many others are concerned about what the consequences will be for the people returned.''<br /><br />Mr Bowen said: ''We had people who had very clearly come to Australia for economic purposes.<br /><br />''It is completely appropriate that swift action is taken to return them to Sri Lanka.''<br /><br />Also on Thursday, about 400 asylum seekers were released from detention in Darwin after being granted bridging visas. They were flown to Sydney on Thursday and will be settled in all the states and territories, with most going to Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.<br /><br />An Immigration Department spokesman said the group included people who had been in detention for months, as well as more recent arrivals.<br /><br />But those who arrived after the government's tough no-advantage policy for boat arrivals took effect on August 13 would not be allowed to work, the spokesman said. The department warned that people released on bridging visas could still face transfer to Nauru or Manus Island at any time.<br /><br />Meanwhile, the government expelled another 46 asylum seekers from Sri Lanka, all recent arrivals on several boats.<br /><br />On Nauru, an asylum seeker slashed his arm and was sent to a clinic for treatment.<br /><br />Reports from the island claimed 13 people collapsed from the effects of heat and a hunger strike.</span></span><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">© <span style="color: #666666;"><a href="http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/anger-over-sri-lankans-deportation-20121206-2ayd0.html" target="_blank">The Age</a></span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><br />
<br />JDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06662962269623164331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2148299493388094232.post-43659574459036023942012-12-07T11:19:00.001+01:002012-12-07T11:26:25.677+01:00Sri Lanka arrests: Jaffna police detain 'terror' suspects<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a "http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JgEr9k33o8Y/UMHCE9rINFI/AAAAAAAAHgA/N6zUhk5Fnic/s1600/student_arrest.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.ggpht.com/-JgEr9k33o8Y/UMHCE9rINFI/AAAAAAAAHgA/N6zUhk5Fnic/s1600/student_arrest.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">BBC Asia<span style="color: blue;"><u><span style="font-size: small;"> [Photo courtesy: <a href="http://tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=35798" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;">T</span>amil Net</a>]</span></u></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">.............................................................................................................................................................................................</span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #999999;"><bt>P</bt></span><b>olice in northern Sri Lanka have made a series of arrests which they say are linked to combating terrorism, three years after the separatist Tamil Tigers were defeated.</b><br />Up to 25 people are being held, a top official told the BBC. Police are also reportedly hunting several students.<br /><br />Espousing separatism is illegal in Sri Lanka. Suspects can be held without charge for 18 months.</span></span><br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The detentions come at a time of rising political tensions in the north.<br /><br />Last week security forces and students clashed at Jaffna University in the worst political disturbances since the civil war ended in 2009. Students had tried to mark "Martyrs' Day", which commemorates dead Tamil Tiger fighters.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>'Kept in the dark'</b><br /><br />Officials gave differing accounts of the number of arrests made by anti-terrorist police in the latest raids.<br /><br />Police spokesman Prishantha Jayakody said that 10 men had been detained on Wednesday in the Jaffna area, all of them accused of "terrorist activities" with the Tamil Tigers or LTTE before 2009.<br /><br />Mr Jayakody said that none those being held had completed a government rehabilitation course for LTTE suspects and none had surrendered to the police or army at the end of the war.<br /><br />"They were arrested at different places on the Jaffna peninsula and are now in Vavuniya," he said. "All the families have been informed."<br /><br />He said that police were guided to the suspects by intelligence reports.<br /><br />But the head of the police's Terrorist Investigation Division, Chandra Wakista, told the BBC that as many as 20 to 25 had been detained.<br /><br />"No arrests have been made without procedure, all of them were made officially," he said.<br /><br />The police say families have been given official documents relating to the arrests.<br /><br />But the BBC's Charles Haviland in Colombo says that some relatives have apparently been kept in the dark - one family told a newspaper they only got official information on their son's arrest a long time after he disappeared, and only after they informed the official human rights body.<br /><br />Rights workers are also mindful of the fact that a year ago two young campaigners disappeared in Jaffna, where tensions have continued since the end of the war in May 2009.<br /><br />Separately, sources in Jaffna University say the police have given them a list of 10 students they want to arrest.<br /><br />Three students already being held are said to be suspects in a petrol-bombing and in putting up pro-LTTE posters. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">©</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> <span style="color: #666666;"><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20624125" target="_blank">BBC</a></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span></div>
<br />JDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06662962269623164331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2148299493388094232.post-24178337804529459792012-12-07T11:07:00.002+01:002012-12-07T11:19:30.203+01:00Sri Lanka chief justice walks out of hearing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a "http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-E4jTpNffHGQ/UMG_ywJCYnI/AAAAAAAAHf4/vXK1wj_S0Lg/s1600/shirani_bandaranayake.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.ggpht.com/-E4jTpNffHGQ/UMG_ywJCYnI/AAAAAAAAHf4/vXK1wj_S0Lg/s1600/shirani_bandaranayake.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">By Amal Jayasinghe | AFP News</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">.............................................................................................................................................................................................</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #999999;"><bt>S</bt></span><b>ri Lanka's Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake walked out of her impeachment hearing before lawmakers Thursday after complaining she was not being given a fair trial, legal and parliamentary sources said.</b><br /><br />The move to impeach Bandaranayake, the country's first female chief justice, came after she scuppered a bill that would have given more powers to President Mahinda Rajapakse's younger brother Basil, who is economic development minister.</span></span><br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"The chief justice and her team of lawyers walked out of the parliamentary select committee after making a statement that she is not being given a fair hearing," a lawyer close to the process told AFP.<br /><br />"She will not attend future hearings."<br /><br />A parliamentary official said Thursday's hearing, the third since it began on November 23, ended abruptly as Bandaranayake staged her dramatic walkout and vowed not to attend any more hearings of a panel dominated by ruling party MPs.<br /><br />"She was denied details of the allegations and the right to cross-examine potential witnesses," the lawyer said. "The government also tried to introduce new allegations and that was the last straw."<br /><br />There was no formal reaction from the government, but a ruling party law maker who declined to be named said they will proceed with the inquiry with or without the 54-year-old chief justice attending the hearing.<br /><br />"The select committee will go ahead with the hearing tomorrow (Friday)," the legislator from the governing United People's Freedom Alliance said.<br /><br />The impeachment bid has led to a head-on collision between the judiciary and the legislature controlled by President Rajapakse who has consolidated his power after crushing Tamil Tiger rebels in a military offensive in May 2009.<br /><br />Bandaranayake infuriated the government last month when she said it was illegal for lawmakers to investigate her, but vowed she would defend herself against impeachment charges of professional and financial misconduct.<br /><br />Her case has raised fears that the government is trying to control the courts. She told the parliamentary select committee at its outset that there was not an "iota" of truth in the allegations against her.<br /><br />Bandaranayake has been accused of failing to declare around $250,000 in foreign currency, among other alleged misdemeanours.<br /><br />She said the money belonged to her sister, an engineer working in Australia who was buying an apartment in Colombo, and she also dismissed allegations that she had hidden wealth in undisclosed bank accounts.<br /><br />The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges, Gabriela Knaul, has urged Colombo to reconsider the impeachment, a request made by Bandaranayake's lawyers too.<br /><br />Sri Lanka's opposition said it was convinced she would not get a fair trial.<br /><br />"The opposition members in the select committee have been contemplating a boycott because of the very unfair nature of the proceedings," an opposition MP said, asking not to be named.<br /><br />"We also want to walk out of the next hearing (on Friday) because this is a farce and we know what the outcome is going to be."<br /><br />The ruling party has more than the required simple majority in the 225-member assembly to impeach Bandaranayake, who would otherwise have another 11 years as chief justice.<br /><br />Bandaranayake's husband was also charged recently with corruption while holding a political appointment as the head of a state-owned bank. He too has denied the allegations.<br /><br />The chief justice has consistently refused to talk to the media, but met with lawyers and judges this week to explain her stand behind closed doors.</span></span><br />
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<![endif]--><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">© <span style="color: #666666;"><a href="http://ph.news.yahoo.com/sri-lanka-chief-justice-walks-hearing-161757232.html" target="_blank">AFP</a></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<br />JDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06662962269623164331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2148299493388094232.post-64652915688472611192012-12-07T10:57:00.002+01:002012-12-07T11:26:33.476+01:00Anti-Muslim monks: Sri Lanka redux? <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a "http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9tll-o0WyVY/UMG9Y16aFyI/AAAAAAAAHfY/-w7iOJsfLQY/s1600/protesting_monks_colombo.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.ggpht.com/-9tll-o0WyVY/UMG9Y16aFyI/AAAAAAAAHfY/-w7iOJsfLQY/s1600/protesting_monks_colombo.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">By Alex Bookbinder | The Myanmar Times <i>[Photo courtesy: <a href="http://vikalpa.org/" target="_blank">vikalpa.or</a><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://vikalpa.org/" target="_blank">g</a>] </span></i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">.............................................................................................................................................................................................</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #999999;"><bt>A</bt></span> <b>number of years ago, I had an interesting conversation with a Myanmar monk who serves as a good example of the young and savvy face of Buddhism in the country today. As zealous about politics and technology as he is the tenets of his religion, he is a prolific blogger on political, religious and social issues.</b><br /><br />Having corresponded with him for many months, I finally had a chance to meet with him at his monastery, and we discussed Myanmar’s ethnic politics during a tea-fuelled session lasting the better part of a day.</span></span><br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The conversation was going well until I made the mistake of mentioning the word “Rohingya” in the context of giving all of Myanmar’s ethnic and religious minorities a stake in building the country’s future.<br /><br />Attempting to correct me, the monk insisted that Islam was a cancer eating away at the fabric of Myanmar’s Buddhist society, as he characterised it, and claimed that the Rohingya were outsiders bent on conquering Myanmar for themselves. As he seemed otherwise rational and knowledgeable, I found his remarks a sad reflection on the state of ethnic relations in Myanmar and how acceptable outright hatred of Muslims had become.<br /><br />What might be most surprising about this exchange was that it did not occur in Myanmar, but in Sri Lanka in early 2009 at the time of the Sri Lankan government’s vicious final assault on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). While the political and demographic realities of Myanmar and Sri Lanka are very different, there are striking similarities between the ultra-nationalist political culture fostered under Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government in Sri Lanka and the xenophobia of virulently anti-Muslim monks in Myanmar.<br /><br />Cultural diffusion between Sri Lanka and Myanmar has taken place for centuries. At least in part, the recent emergence of ultra-nationalist, anti-Muslim monks on the political scene in Myanmar is the result of this exchange of ideas.<br /><br />Roughly 300 monks from Myanmar reside in Sri Lanka, the largest such population outside of Myanmar itself, and their presence on the island is far from new. Buddhist practice in Sri Lanka has carried on uninterrupted for longer than anywhere else in the world, but periods of Mahayana influence and repression during the colonial period led to Buddhism’s gradual decline by the early 1800s. In the 19th century, Sri Lankan abbots sought to revive the “pure” Theravada schools of the past, and called on Buddhist schools in Myanmar to provide the requisite ordination.<br /><br />As in Myanmar, Buddhism in Sri Lanka took on a special significance in the struggle against colonial rule. Institutions such as the Young Men’s Buddhist Association (YMBA), founded in 1898, were established to counteract the dominance of Christian and colonial power structures, and Buddhists in Myanmar emulated their Sri Lankan counterparts by establishing a branch of the YMBA in Yangon in 1906.<br /><br />Radical Sri Lankan monks with close ties to the state have been extremely vocal in recent years. Their calls for ethnic and religious purity in Sri Lanka bolster the government’s militaristic national-security agenda, and divert attention away from Rajapaksa’s systematic dismantling of Sri Lanka’s democratic institutions andconstriction of civil liberties since the end of the civil war in 2009.<br /><br />While the Sangha in Myanmar have always played a role in politics as antagonists or advisors, its activities have always occurred outside of formal political structures. In Sri Lanka, however, members of the clergy formed the National Heritage Party, or JHU, in 2004; its representatives in Parliament – all monks themselves – became part of the ruling coalition in 2007.<br /><br />Employing rhetoric that should be familiar to anyone paying attention to Rakhine State nowadays, the monks of the JHU were extremely supportive of Rajapaksa’s efforts to eradicate the LTTE militarily, and have scuttled propositions for limited autonomy in the predominantly Tamil North and East of the country.<br /><br />While most Myanmar monks would probably vehemently oppose the notion of forming a political party like the JHU to contest elections, a number of blogger monks influenced by their Sri Lankan counterparts have suggested doing precisely that in recent months.<br /><br />Sri Lanka’s relatively small Muslim population, comprising roughly 10 percent of the population and often caught between both sides during the 25-year-long civil war, has also been singled out for ostracization by nationalist monks and their supporters. Last September, monks and their supporters destroyed a Muslim shrine in the ancient royal capital of Anuradhapura; in April of this year, monks led a 2000-strong mob to chase away worshippers partaking in Friday prayers at a mosque in the central city of Dambulla.<br /><br />The mainstream media in Sri Lanka routinely repeats the myth that Sri Lanka is a “Buddhist Nation” under threat of Islamisation, and, as the tragedy in Rakhine has unfolded, has come out with pieces expressing solidary with anti-Muslim elements in Myanmar while characterising Myanmar in the same questionable terms.<br /><br />Sri Lanka’s political culture was changed profoundly by the civil war, and notions of religious and ethnic identity – highly politicised and polarised even before the war – took on a distinctly militant character as the war progressed. It is unfortunate that this vitriol has migrated to Myanmar at such a fragile juncture in history.<br /><br />President U Thein Sein is walking on a tightrope when it comes to the Rohingya issue. While his most recent statement just before Obama’s visit on November 19th suggested that the government would be willing to properly address the problem of Rohingya statelessness, it was only four short months ago that he suggested the Rohingya be deported en masse as a viable solution to ethnic strife in Rakhine. The Rohingya might be thankful, then, that President U Thein Sein is keen to maintain good relations with the West, whereas Rajapaksa was all too happy to cosy up to China and burn diplomatic bridges as the offensive against the LTTE got underway.<br /><br />As cultural interaction between Sri Lanka and Myanmarhas long been a two-way street, President U Thein Sein has, perhaps, been presented with a historic opportunity to influence the state of ethnic relations in both countries. As Obama noted in his address in Yangon, diversity has only served to strengthen American society; if Myanmar’s government is serious about political stability, the bête noire of successive military governments, it too must adopt this ethos as its own.<br /><br />Yet both President U Thein Sein and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi are all too aware that adopting a publically conciliatory tone towards the Rohingya – and Myanmar’s Muslim population in general – would not play well at the monastery or in the court of public opinion.<br /><br />While it may not be politically expedient in the short term, Myanmar’s leaders need to take decisive action on the Rohingya issue now in order to ensure long term stability, prosperity, and peace – a lesson that their Sri Lankan counterparts would also be wise to learn.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><b>Alex Bookbinder</b> is a researcher and political analyst based in Southeast Asia. </i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">© <span style="color: #666666;"><a href="http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/opinion/3489-anti-muslim-monks-sri-lanka-redux.html" target="_blank">The Myanmar Times</a></span></span></span></span></div>
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<br />JDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06662962269623164331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2148299493388094232.post-85639413494087623952012-11-30T10:11:00.004+01:002012-12-07T11:27:06.399+01:00Sri Lanka parliament speaker rebuffs Supreme Court summons<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">By Shihar Aneez and Ranga Sirilal | Reuters</span></span><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">.............................................................................................................................................................................................</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #999999;"><bt>S</bt></span><b>ri Lanka's parliament speaker on Thursday rejected a supreme court summons to a parliamentary panel looking into a move to impeach the chief justice, deepening a crisis that has raised concern about the independence of the country's judiciary.</b><br />The stand-off in the south Asian state has raised the risk of a destabilising clash between the judiciary and President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government.</span></span></div>
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The two have been on a collision course since Rajapaksa's party filed an impeachment motion against Shirani Bandaranayake, Sri Lanka's first female head of the Supreme Court, on November 6.<br /><br />Relations between the chief justice and Rajapaksa have been deteriorating for months, with the government complaining that she has been overstepping her authority and Bandaranayake's supporters complaining of political interference.<br /><br />The Supreme Court summoned the speaker and the 11-member parliamentary committee to hear cases filed by lawyers and civil society advocates challenging the legality of the impeachment and the composition of the panel.<br /><br />In response, parliament speaker Chamal Rajapaksa, who is the president's elder brother, told parliament: "I declare that the purported notices, issued to me and to the members of the select committee, are a nullity and entail no legal consequences.<br /><br />"I wish to make it clear that this ruling of mine as the speaker of parliament will apply to any similar purported notice, order or determination in respect of the proceedings of the committee, which will continue solely and exclusively under the authority of parliament."<br /><br />The committee, which includes seven ruling party legislators, is looking into charges ranging from undeclared assets to violating constitutional provisions.<br /><br />Chrishmal Warnasuriya, one of the lawyers appearing for the chief justice, said neither parliament nor the Supreme Court was superior to the other.<br /><br />"Similar to the parliament saying the Supreme Court can't give directives to parliament, the parliament must also realise that the Supreme Court also can't take directives from them. These are two similar organs of the government," he said, adding that a constitutional crisis could be brewing.<br /><br />The United States, United Nations and the Commonwealth have raised concern over the impeachment move and have called on the government to ensure the independence of the judiciary.<br /><br />Bandaranayake recently came under criticism from government supporters for ruling against a bid by the central government to take control of an 80 billion rupees (383 million pounds) development budget, saying it had to be approved by the country's nine provincial councils.<br /><br />The block on the bill irked the government and its backers, some of whom accused the judiciary of exceeding its writ.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">© <span style="color: #666666;"><a href="http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/11/30/worldupdates/2012-11-29T182535Z_1_BRE8AS130_RTROPTT_0_UK-SRILANKA-IMPEACHMENT&sec=Worldupdates" target="_blank">The Star Online</a></span></span></span></span></div>
<br />
<br />JDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06662962269623164331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2148299493388094232.post-25892940764241726492012-11-30T10:02:00.002+01:002012-11-30T10:02:38.943+01:00Sri Lankan Army deserter gives insider account of torturing civilians<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">By Stewart Bell | National Post</span></span><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><u> </u></span></span>.............................................................................................................................................................................................</span></span></span></div>
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<![endif]--><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #999999;"><bt>A</bt></span><b>n officer in the Sri Lanka Army, who fled to Canada and claimed he was ordered to plant explosives at the home of an outspoken opposition politician, is raising new questions about military abuses committed during the island nation’s long civil war.</b><br /><br />Captain Ravindra Watudura Bandanage, 38, deserted after flying to Toronto in October 2009.</span></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">He has since told Canadian immigration officials he was aware of torture and other crimes carried out by government forces against minority Tamils.<br /><br />Testifying at his refugee hearing, he said a colonel ordered him to place bomb materials in the home of a member of parliament named “Silva Jilingam,” an apparent reference to M.K. Sivajilingam, a controversial Sri Lankan MP then aligned with the Tamil National Alliance party.<br /><br />But the captain said he refused and was transferred to Colombo, where he helped with search and cordon operations that rounded up ethnic Tamils. He said he knew the army was torturing, beating and raping civilians.<br /><br />“I admit that it is a harassment of these people,” he said. “I admit that.”<br /><br />While there has been mounting evidence both sides in the Sri Lankan conflict committed atrocities, the testimony is noteworthy because it comes from a veteran former commissioned officer.<br /><br />Frances Harrison, a British journalist and author of Still Counting the Dead, a new book that tells the stories of survivors of the brutal end of the civil war, agreed it was unusual to hear such allegations from an ex-soldier and member of the country’s ethnic Sinhalese majority.<br /><br />“A few Sinhalese have helped bring out war crimes evidence from Sri Lanka but, assuming this testimony is truthful, it’s unheard of for a Sinhalese soldier to speak out openly about human rights violations. It would be a huge blow to the Sri Lankan government,” the former BBC correspondent said.<br /><br />The captain’s allegations come amid growing international pressure for an independent investigation into the final months of the Sri Lankan civil war. Two weeks ago, a UN review concluded the international body had failed to protect civilians despite verified evidence of atrocities.<br /><br />A kung fu champion who joined the army in 1993, Mr. Watudura Bandanage told the Immigration & Refugee Board he had been trained in counterinsurgency.<br /><br />While he denied taking part in combat, the IRB did not believe him.<br /><br />He recounted how, in 2008, a colonel had asked him “to do something which was not right…. He said there is an order in regards to this MP, there’s an order from the Defence Ministry…. I was asked to go to this MP’s residence and place some explosive material and detonator, and maybe they had planned to blame him for something and make him leave that area and to do something in that area that way or maybe they wanted to get rid of him.”<br /><br />The Sri Lankan forces routinely framed government opponents during the war to discredit them and justify their arrests, said Gary Anandasangaree, a Toronto lawyer who has been making presentations about human rights violations in Sri Lanka to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. But he said it was “rare” to hear such an account from a former soldier.<br /><br />In his refugee claim, Mr. Watudura Bandanage said he spent 16 years in the army, but feared for his life because he had complained to police about a prominent politician and his connection to drugs and prostitution.<br /><br />He said he had also leaked sensitive information to a Sri Lankan newspaper.<br /><br />“I know my life is at risk if I go back to Sri Lanka,” he said.<br /><br />But the board ruled in February he was not eligible for refugee protection because he was complicit in crimes against humanity. It said the fact he was asked to place a bomb at an elected official’s home showed he was a trusted officer and aware of the “relentless brutality” of the Sri Lanka Army toward Tamil civilians.<br /><br />“I find that during the last few years of the civil war in Sri Lanka, which includes the entire period that the claimant was a captain in the Sri Lankan army, military forces conducted ongoing widespread and systematic attacks on the civilian population in Sri Lanka. I find that the military forces of Sri Lanka committed countless crimes against humanity,” IRB member Michal Mivasair wrote.<br /><br />Mr. Watudura Bandanage’s appeal to the Federal Court of Canada was dismissed last week.<br /><br />“I think it’s very significant,” John Argue, Amnesty International Canada’s co-ordinator for Sri Lanka, said of the ex-soldier’s allegations.<br /><br />“I hope it gets discussed publicly because then we get closer to what really happened in the last stages of the armed conflict and could have a serious discussion about accountability.”</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">© <span style="color: #666666;"><a href="http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/11/29/sri-lankan-army-deserter-gives-rare-insider-account-of-government-forces-torturing-civilians/" target="_blank">National Post</a></span></span></span></span></div>
<br />JDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06662962269623164331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2148299493388094232.post-51497575719945748812012-11-30T09:48:00.002+01:002012-11-30T09:49:00.960+01:00Jaffna University Tamil students boycott classes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a bp.blogspot.com="bp.blogspot.com" cy="cy" href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2148299493388094232" http:="http:" hyvbihfsi="hyvbihfsi" jaffna_university.jpg="jaffna_university.jpg" lpwq7ysc="lpwq7ysc" s1600="s1600" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" wyza3wxxrn0="wyza3wxxrn0"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.ggpht.com/-wYzA3WXxRn0/ULhyVBIHFsI/AAAAAAAAHcY/TGBlpwq7ysc/s1600/jaffna_University.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">By Charles Haviland | BBC Ne<span style="font-size: small;">ws <i><span style="font-size: small;">[Photo cou<span style="font-size: small;">rtesy: <a href="http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=35798" target="_blank">Tamil Net</a><span style="font-size: small;">]</span></span></span></i></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">.............................................................................................................................................................................................</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #999999;"><bt>S</bt></span><b>tudents at Jaffna University in northern Sri Lanka have started a two-day boycott of classes after clashes with security forces on Wednesday.</b><br />They say they do not feel safe after several were beaten and injured in the worst political disturbances since the civil war ended in 2009.<br /><br />Security forces entered the university, disrupting students marking a commemoration of dead rebel fighters.</span></span><br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The army said it had to restrain people who were throwing stones.<br /><br />But some staff at the university accused the security forces of starting the violence, saying they believe the police baton-charged a group of students who had begun a planned march through the streets.<br /><br />Only after that did some students throw stones, they said.<br /><br />One staff member told the BBC the aftermath of the clashes was "like a battlefield". And on Thursday, reports said there was little activity on the campus.<br /><br />There were Sinhala and Muslim as well as Tamil students on the campus, one staff member emphasised.<br /><b><br />Tension in the north</b><br /><br />Across the former war zone in northern and eastern Sri Lanka there is a higher military presence than usual.<br /><br />Asked by the BBC why the students in Jaffna should not be allowed to march in the streets, Jaffna's military commander, Maj-Gen Mahinda Hathurusinghe, said the students have been "categorically told not to" because "they would become violent".<br /><br />He said that "for the betterment of the country", "Martyrs' Day" - which commemorates dead Tamil Tiger fighters - should not be observed by people.<br /><br />The tensions arose as some students marked the death of Tamil Tiger guerrillas at small candle-lit memorials, while well-produced pro-Tiger posters appeared in various parts of the formerly Tiger-held territory.<br /><br />Since the end of the war this had hardly happened within Sri Lanka, where the Tigers and their separatist ideology are strictly banned - although Tiger sympathisers in the diaspora call 27 November "Martyrs' Day" and mark it as such.<br /><br />The clashes point to simmering tensions three-and-a-half years after the mainly Sinhalese security forces crushed the Tamil separatists, and as the army maintains tight control over the whole of the north where the war was fought most bitterly.<br /><br />In a Jaffna suburb, a petrol-bomb was thrown at the offices of a small Tamil political party on Thursday. There were no reports of injuries. It is unclear who did it or whether it was related to the campus trouble. </span></span><br />
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<![endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">© <span style="color: #666666;"><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20537417" target="_blank">BBC News</a></span></span></span></span>JDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06662962269623164331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2148299493388094232.post-11344423967829610862012-11-30T09:39:00.002+01:002012-11-30T09:49:50.263+01:00Sri Lanka sends us a suspect emissary<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a bp.blogspot.com="bp.blogspot.com" c_d7ji3cps="c_d7ji3cps" cq="cq" href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2148299493388094232" http:="http:" hwz2vk-4i="hwz2vk-4i" s1600="s1600" shavendra_silva.jpg="shavendra_silva.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" vlx2tdp7ptm="vlx2tdp7ptm"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.ggpht.com/-vLx2TDP7ptM/ULhwz2vk-4I/AAAAAAAAHcQ/Sc_d7Ji3cPs/s1600/shavendra_silva.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">By Peter Fabricius | IOL News<span style="line-height: 115%;"><i><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></i>.............................................................................................................................................................................................</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #999999;"><bt>T</bt></span><b>he Sri Lankan government’s controversial decision to appoint, as its deputy high commissioner to South Africa, an army general accused of war crimes serves – if nothing else – to highlight that country’s inadequate efforts to consign its recent dismal civil war to history.</b><br /><br />Sri Lankan high commissioner Winithkumar Shehan Rantavale confirmed speculation in the Sri Lankan media that General Shavendra Silva’s appointment to Pretoria was “in the pipeline”.</span></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Silva commanded the Sri Lankan army’s 58th division, which was one of the key divisions fighting during the final stages of the civil war against the LTTE “Tamil Tigers” in 2009.<br /><br />The UN Panel of Experts – which investigated alleged alleged atrocities by both sides – had linked the 58th division to several potential war crimes.<br /><br />These crimes included shelling a hospital and killing many civilian patients in February 2009, and the shelling and execution of senior LTTE political leaders Balasingham Nadesan and Seevaratnam Pulidevan in May, as they walked towards the area controlled by the 58th division, carrying white flags and trying to surrender.<br /><br />The Panel of Experts said these atrocities should be investigated seriously and, if proved, senior army commanders, among others, “would bear criminal liability for international crimes”.<br /><br />Silva’s current job is as deputy ambassador to the UN in New York. Earlier this year he was barred from taking part in the UN Advisory Panel on Peacekeeping Operations after objections from, among others, UN human rights commissioner Navi Pillay – a South African – who said his participation would undermine “the credibility of UN peacekeeping”, as there was, at the very least, “the appearance of a case of international crimes to answer by Mr Silva”.<br /><br />Human Rights Watch expert on security issues Ole Solvang said Silva had also been charged in a US court, while he was based in that country, at the UN.<br /><br />But a US court had thrown out the case on the grounds that Silva enjoyed diplomatic immunity from prosecution.<br /><br />He added that, although the Sri Lankan government had conducted an inquiry into the war against the Tigers, it had failed to hold Silva and other military and political leaders accountable. During the closing stages of the war, government troops corralled LTTE forces in the north of the island, and then indiscriminately shelled civilian areas and executed LTTE leaders to eradicate the organisation, according to many accounts.<br /><br />Human rights advocates have also accused LTTE leaders of executing civilians or preventing them from fleeing from the areas targeted by government artillery. In August this year, South African Deputy Minister of International Relations and Co-operation Ebrahim Ebrahim – who has been working on the Sri Lankan issue since well before his current job – visited Sri Lanka with a civil-society delegation.<br /><br />His department said afterwards there had been “a heightened demand and urgency in the international community” for the Sri Lankan government to implement the outcomes of its inquiry into the war, that of the Panel of Experts, and other decisions of the UN Human Rights Council, “with specific emphasis on the need to address the accountability issues following the events of May 2009”.<br /><br />Sri Lanka’s response has been to appoint one of the accused to Pretoria. How will Pretoria respond in turn? Solvang said Human Rights Watch would like the government to accept him and then arrest him.<br /><br />That seems very unlikely.<br /><br />Human Rights Watch’s second choice is for South Africa to reject him. Though officials point out that it is very rare for a government to reject another country’s diplomat, some sort of behind-the-scenes discouragement can’t be ruled out.<br /><br />So a failure to achieve legal and ethical closure is one reason why Sri Lanka is not progressing towards closing this dark chapter of its recent history.<br /><br />Another reason is the government’s reluctance to tackle the Tamil minority issue politically, as the South African government also pointed out after Ebrahim’s visit, saying “that a durable and lasting peace would come about in Sri Lanka when the reconciliation process is underscored by a broad and truly inclusive dialogue process that addresses the rights and freedoms of the Tamil community”.<br /><br />As the International Crisis Group points out in a report this week, this durable peace has to be based on some sort of federal system, which delegates significant power to the Tamils.<br /><br />“The Sri Lankan government’s refusal to negotiate seriously with Tamil political leaders, or consider reasonable forms of power sharing, is heightening ethnic tensions and damaging prospects for sustainable peace,” the report says.<br /><br />It blames the Colombo government for failing to honour agreements with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), breaking promises to world leaders and refusing to implement constitutional provisions for minimal devolution of power to the island’s Tamil north and east.<br /><br />“Three and a half years after the end of the civil war, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has delayed long-promised elections to the northern provincial council – elections the TNA would be nearly certain to win,” says the Crisis Group’s Sri Lanka project director, Alan Keenan.<br /><br />“Rather than address Tamils’ legitimate demands for a fair share of power in areas where they have traditionally been the majority, the Rajapaksa administration has begun discussing a new amendment to reduce provincial powers even further.”<br /><br />After Ebrahim’s visit, Pretoria once again offered its help to Sri Lanka in trying to resolve “the Tamil question”.<br /><br />It gave no hint of how the Sri Lankan government had received this offer. But sending Silva as No 2 in Pretoria seems at best an enigmatic response. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">© <span style="color: #666666;"><a href="http://www.iol.co.za/news/sri-lanka-sends-us-a-suspect-emissary-1.1432088#.ULhrLGdfTCt" target="_blank">IOL News</a></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />JDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06662962269623164331noreply@blogger.com0