As Sri Lanka says no visas, UN says no need to visit or talk to witnesses

By Matthew Russell Lee
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The government of Sri Lanka has said it will deny visas to members of the UN panel of experts to advise Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on alleged war crimes in the final stage of that country's civil war. Inner City Press asked Mr. Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky for Ban's response to being thus rebuffed.

“It's not a question of speaking to witness,” Nesirky said, emphasizing twice that it is “not an investigation, not an inquiry, not a probe.” The obvious question is, why not? More than a year after thousands of civilians were killed, the UN is only now convening three individuals to advise Ban on what he might do.

Inner City Press is told that the panel will have staff, to be based in New York. Meanwhile in Sri Lanka, the government is said to be setting up some protests to be held in front of the UN in Colombo. If Sudan were to do this, the UN would denounce it. But here?

Russia has chimed in, as it did during the conflict, calling the slaughter entirely an “internal matter.” As one wag put it, “They should know.”

Footnotes: The "no visas" announcement was made by External Affairs minister GL Peiris, who twice rebuffed the Press while in the US lobbying against the UN panel. Then, Hillary Clinton stood by Peiris. And now?

The Sri Lankan Mission to the UN put out the foreign ministry's statement, a day late and in an unwieldy format. The Permanent Representative Palitha Kohona is still apparently not back in New York. Sri Lanka has thumbed its nose at GSP Plus as well. What will happen with the IMF?

© Inner City Press

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Jaffna, where women weep

By Melani Manel Perera
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Tens of thousands of women lost their husbands, innocent victims of the civil war. The government however appears indifferent to their fate, and even Tamil society is keen on marginalising them. The correspondent of AsiaNews continues to cover the aftermath of the long and disastrous civil war.

Anyone who visits Jaffna for pleasure is in for an agreeable time these days. The Jaffna Peninsula is a pretty place, and is slowly modernising, both in the city of Jaffna and along the A9 Roadway. Roads, railway lines and bridges are being fixed. Sites like the Nagadeepa Viharaya Buddhist Temple are increasingly popular. Everything is beautiful.

However, anyone interested in knowing know how people live will find a different story. In Jaffna, the civil war between the Sri Lankan army and Tiger Tamil rebels has left so many women without husbands. The government and public institutions have no plan to help or protect them. Often, these women have four or even five children, to be raises on their own, doing odd jobs. The children sometimes go hungry. Only private groups provide some help in finding jobs for them.

Subajini Thurairajah, coordinator of the Women Cultural Centre (WCC), told AsiaNews that on Jaffna Peninsula there are about 26,300 widows, and that many tens of thousands more can be found in the northern and eastern provinces, especially Tamil and Muslim.

Many widows have had “troubles” with Sri Lankan soldiers, with some people suggesting they “get married,” Thurairajah said. However, soldiers who are temporarily stationed in the area just want “to have fun”. Many locals are upset that, with so many women without a man, the government does not issue orders to Sinhalese soldiers to respect them and refrain from taking advantage of their situation of need.

“These widows are still living the trauma of the cruel events of the war, especially the horrible moment when their husbands died, often before their eyes. Some do not know how to tell the children that their beloved father is no more. It is hard to tell children that their father died hit by a nameless bomb, without rhyme or reason.”

Only women who lost their husbands before 2008 were given a death certificate, which was denied to the others.

Making matters worse is a certain prejudice widows suffer from within Tamil society, for they are seen as bearers of bad luck. Women who lost their husbands are not invited to happy occasions and upper caste Tamils avoid and exclude them.

“We do not like this pattern,” the activist said. Instead, “we want to help these women. We must help them develop a different outlook to life so that they can find a place for themselves in society. We must give them greater dignity as women and mothers.”

© Asia News

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UN war crimes panel chief 'criticises Sri Lanka ban'

The head of a UN panel probing alleged war crimes during Sri Lanka's civil war has criticised a decision by Colombo to block him and colleagues from entering the country, a report said Friday.

Marzuki Darusman, a former Indonesian attorney general, was named Tuesday to lead a team advising UN chief Ban Ki-moon on possible war crimes committed in Sri Lanka during its 37-year separatist war that ended in 2009.

"Everybody loses out if we cannot go to Sri Lanka, it will make it harder for the truth to be unearthed," Darusman told the BBC, describing Sri Lanka's decision to ban them as "most unfortunate."

His remarks came after Sri Lanka's External Affairs minister Gamini Lakshman Peiris said Colombo will not grant visas to members of the panel.

The panel was "totally unnecessary," Peiris said Thursday.

He said Sri Lanka had announced its own commission into the end the war, which pitched government troops against Tamil Tiger separatists, and post-conflict ethnic reconciliation.

The UN panel was set up after international pressure for an independent probe into allegations that Tamil civilians were killed by government troops and that surrendering rebels were also executed in cold blood.

The United States, which has been pushing for a war crimes probe, urged Colombo to "take advantage" of the UN initiative.

Ban has asked his three-member panel to complete its work in four months.

When the panel was named on Tuesday, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky emphasised it had a mostly consultative role and that "primary responsibility for investigating rests with the authorities of Sri Lanka".

However, many diplomats see the UN's move as a precursor to a full-blown war crimes investigation.

The UN itself has said that at least 7,000 Tamil civilians perished in the first four months of 2009 before the government secured final victory over the Tigers that May.

© AFP

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Sri Lanka to block visits by UN probing war crimes

By Mel Gunasekera (AFP)
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Sri Lanka will ban visits by the three-member United Nations panel investigating alleged human rights abuses in the final months of the island's civil war, a senior minister said Thursday.

Troops finally wiped out the separatist Tamil Tiger guerrillas in May last year after decades of ethnic bloodshed, and the government has denied repeated allegations that thousands of civilians were killed in the fighting.

"We will not issue them with visas. We will not allow them into this country," External Affairs Minister Gamini Lakshman Peiris told reporters.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's appointment on Tuesday of the panel to advise on any violations of international human rights was "totally unnecessary," Peiris said.

He said Sri Lanka had announced its own commission into the end of the war and post-conflict ethnic reconciliation.

"We feel the panel is an unnecessary interference. The government should be given a free space to make its own findings," he said.

The UN panel was set up after international pressure for an independent probe into allegations that Tamil civilians were killed by government troops and that surrendering rebels were executed in cold blood.

It will be chaired by Marzuki Darusman from Indonesia, the UN's special envoy for North Korea, and hopes to complete its work in four months.

When the panel was named, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky emphasised it had a mostly consultative role, and that "primary responsibility for investigating rests with the authorities of Sri Lanka".

However many diplomats see the UN's move as a precursor to a full-blown war crimes investigation

The UN itself has said that at least 7,000 Tamil civilians perished in the first four months of 2009 before the government secured final victory over the Tigers -- who as recently as 2006 controlled one-third of the island.

The Brussels-based International Crisis Group said last month the Sri Lankan government had killed thousands of its civilians by shelling "no-fire zones" in the last months of the war.

The ICG said the military encouraged hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians to move into government-declared "no-fire zones" and then subjected them to "repeated and increasingly intense artillery and mortar barrages."

"This continued through May despite the government and security forces knowing the size and location of the civilian population and scale of civilian casualties," the ICG reported.

The group said it had collected eyewitness statements as well as hundreds of photographs, videos, satellite images, electronic communications and documents from multiple sources to support the charges.

Sri Lanka is extremely sensitive about criticism of its hardline war policy, which it views as having successfully brought peace to the island.

President Mahinda Rajapakse has always rejected calls for an independent probe and in March warned Ban that he would take "appropriate action" if a UN panel was set up.

Sri Lanka managed to stave off censure at the UN Security Council last year thanks to the support of Russia and China, close allies and key suppliers of military hardware to the island.

The government last week held official celebrations to mark the defeat of the Tamil Tigers defeat, with Rajapakse delivering a speech insisting that his soldiers did not kill a single civilian.

© AFP

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