By Bharatha Mallawarachi | Associated Press
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Sri Lanka has barred some 3,000 villagers who fled the bloody final months of the country's civil war from returning to their homes in the north, possibly so the military can set up camps in the area, ethnic Tamil lawmakers charged Monday.
The villagers were among 300,000 civilians detained in camps for months following the government's defeat of Tamil Tigers rebels in mid 2009, ending 25 years of civil war and the rebels' bid for an independent Tamil homeland in the north.
The government said detaining the refugees — almost all of them ethnic Tamils — was necessary to weed out rebels hiding among civilians and also to ensure that northern areas are cleared of land mines before people returned.
However, the refugees were allowed to leave the camps in December and the government says most of them have now been resettled in their villages. Officials say there are about 33,000 remaining in camps, but they are allowed to freely move out and come back.
On Monday, Suresh Premachandran, a lawmaker from the opposition Tamil National Alliance, said about 3,000 people have been barred from returning to their villages. He and two other lawmakers last week visited Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu and Mannar districts, where the final battles raged.
In some villages, hundreds of people who were earlier allowed to resettle have now been evicted and sent back to schools that serve as refugee camps. Some are taking shelter under trees, Premachandran told reporters.
"The people were highly distressed and were literally rolling on the ground and weeping," the Tamil National Alliance said in a statement. "The army had forcibly loaded their belongings onto a tractor and was bringing it to the school when we got there."
He said the party has heard that the military was preparing to acquire some land for establishing semi-permanent military quarters, or cantonments. The party sought government clarification, but there has been no response, he said.
Premachandran also asked the government to allow the people to live in their villages as promised.
There was no immediate comment from the government, but government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said last week that the resettlement process has to be carried out cautiously due to the presence of an estimated 1.5 million land mines in the region.
He said the government has given priority for demining, and so far 275,000 mines have been removed since the war's end.
The Tamil rebels fought for a separate state, claiming decades of discrimination by the Sinhalese majority. The U.N. says between 80,000 and 100,000 people were killed during the war.
Sri Lanka has also faced growing international criticism for not examining alleged rights abuses committed during that time.
According to U.N documents, more than 7,000 civilians died in the last five months of the conflict and rights groups have accused the government and rebel forces of deliberately targeting civilians.
The U.N. has also appointed a panel of three experts to look into alleged rights abuses in the war, despite protests from the Sri Lankan government.
© Associated Press
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Himalayan Times
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A four-day conference jointly organized by Asia Pacific Regional Command of US Army and Nepal Army on ‘establishment of peace’ has begun in Kathmandu from Sunday (01).
According to NA Public contact directorate, the conference is expected to be beneficial for the sharing of the knowledge and experiences for the establishment of peace in the country.
The Army personnel involved in the peace establishment campaign from Nepal, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Magnolia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, international association of peace establishment training centre and representative and mediator of UN Peace Establishment Campaign are participating in the conference.
Director General of military training, Major General Anil Jung Thapa inaugurated the conference.
© Himalayan Times
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By Shihar Aneez | Reuters
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Sri Lanka on Sunday said it would invite outside investors into its $1.5 billion Hambantota port project, the keystone of a $6 billion post-war infrastructure revitalisation drive.
The invitation for external investment will coincide with the November opening of the port on Sri Lanka's southern coast, along an ancient "Silk Road" trading route and one of the world's biggest East-West shipping lanes.
The port and its accompanying services represent the single largest investment option for foreign investors in Sri Lanka, which is aiming to transform its economy after finally ending a quarter-century separatist war in May 2009.
One option that is not on the table for outside investors is the oil bunkering facility. Many have speculated China wants the right to use the site as part of its "string of pearls" strategy to expand its influence and maintain energy security.
"We will handle oil bunkering. We don't want to give it outside. But bulk cargo handling, storage facility, warehouses, transshipment, and all others are open for investments," Sri Lanka Ports Authority Chairman Priyath Wickrama told Reuters.
About 30 investors -- primarily from India, China, Singapore, Russia, the Middle East, Australia and major shipping lines -- have expressed interest, Wickrama said. He did not elaborate further.
Chinese pearl?
China, Sri Lanka's largest infrastructure lender, has loaned $425 million toward the port, which will be Sri Lanka's largest.
"We are negotiating with China for an $800 million loan for the second phase," Wickrama said.
Wickrama declined to say if China will have a role in operating the bunkering facility, about which neighboring India has expressed concern to the Sri Lankan government.
Political analysts say Sri Lanka has successfully managed Indian pressure over the Chinese port investment, which could also help transshipment trade on the subcontinent.
Hambantota is one of four ports being built or upgraded under President Mahinda Rajapaksa's plans to renew the Indian Ocean island nation's $42 billion economy by returning it to its old and lucrative role as a trading hub.
Sri Lanka initially aims to get 2,500 of the 70,000 cargo vessels that pass Hambantota annually to use its bunkering and cargo handling facilities, and expand that to 8,000 a year once the second phase is done in 2014.
Sri Lanka now handles around 6,000 ships annually in its only port in Colombo on the western coast, which requires ships plying the East-West shipping lanes to divert.
Initially, Hambantota will have 100,0000 metric tonnes of bunkering capacity, which could be expanded to 4 million metric tonnes if demand picks up.
© Reuters
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By Sutirtho Patranobis | Hindustan Times
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The three-member panel appointed by UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon to look into human rights accountability issues during the final stages of the civil war in Sri Lanka is likely meet this month, media reports said on Sunday. The panel has already attracted a lot of criticism from the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime. In July, raucous protests were organised outside the UN premises in Colombo, forcing the agency to shut office for a few days. Ban Ki-moon, however, did not accede to the demand of dismantling the panel.
The Sunday Leader newspaper, quoting an associate spokesperson of Ban Ki-moon said the UN hopes to cooperate with the Sri Lankan authorities when looking into the country's commitment to human rights accountability as stated in the 2009 statement issued following UN Chief's visit to Sri Lanka and on alleged violations.
The UNSG announced the panel in June. Within days, the Lankan government had said it would not give visas to the three members to enter the country.
Spokesperson, Soungah Choi, told Sunday Leader that the Panel was hopeful of speaking to various people involved in those areas and would also ``seek the support of the Sri Lankan authorities."
The panel is to decide the modalities after it commences official sessions this month. The panel members met informally met in New York on July 20 but the four-month clock assigned to conclude the Panel's investigations did not begin to count down from that meeting.
Richard Bennet, Representative of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), under which the Panel is functioning, has been appointed as the chief-of-staff of the Panel.
The panel’s final report is expected four months after commencing official sessions, is expected to advise the UN Secretary-General on the implementation of the commitment to human rights accountability as agreed by the Sri Lankan Government in 2009.
© Hindustan Times
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Tamil Net
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At least a thousand of the persons disappeared during Sri Lanka government’s war on Vanni are students below the age of eighteen and their families, mostly mothers, have begun a desperate search for their children gone missing after arrest by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) at the end of the war, Education Department sources in Ki’linochchi said. Sri Lanka government has failed to disclose the particulars of the teenage students who had either surrendered or been arrested while humanitarian organizations responsible for tracing persons disappeared have no information on them, the sources added.
Most of the resettled families in Vanni, having lost their family heads and male members, the mothers have begun to put up notices with details of their children gone missing, outside the schools where they had been studying.
The mother of Tharmalingam Kaviraj, 16, a tenth grade student of Ki’linochchi Tharmapuram Makaa Viththiyaalyam, who had lost her husband during the war had put up a notice seeking her son. She said that she is unable to get any information about him from any of the related authorities.
Similar notices have appeared in many schools in Vanni which have begun to function after resettlement.
The social activists and organizations, vociferous on the rights of children and child soldiers during the war, are now conspicuously inactive doing nothing to help trace the teenage students disappeared during the final days of Sri Lanka government’s war on Vanni, education circles in Vanni said.
© Tamil Net
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