Sri Lanka's war probe opens as credibility questioned

By Amal Jayasinghe | Agence France Presse
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A government-appointed panel probing the final stages of Sri Lanka's civil war began work in Colombo on Wednesday, but rights bodies and lawmakers in the United States accused it of lacking credibility.

The eight-member panel will hear testimony from witnesses on five separate days in the capital and for two days in Vavuniya, near the former war zone.

The panel has been asked to report to President Mahinda Rajapakse within six months on why a 2002 truce broke down and to suggest ways to ensure the island will not revert to conflict, an official close to the probe told AFP.

"They have also been asked to ensure restorative justice," the official said, asking not to be named. "We are not looking at punitive justice, but they will recommend compensation for those who have been wronged."

The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the panel was an attempt by Sri Lanka to deflect international calls for an independent investigation into war crimes alleged to have been committed by government troops.

"There had been previous commissions and they have not borne fruit," HRW's South Asia director Meenakshi Ganguly told AFP. "We are not convinced of the commitment of the government of Sri Lanka to ensure accountability."

She said Sri Lankan authorities hoped the panel would buy time until international concern over war crimes allegations had faded. Other rights bodies such as Amnesty International have also criticised the panel's lack of independence.

US lawmakers in a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pushed for an independent probe saying the Sri Lankan panel "lacked the needed credibility."

The letter, released on Tuesday, was signed by 57 members of the US House of Representatives.

Sri Lanka has repeatedly rejected a separate United Nations probe into alleged rights abuses during the final stages of the war, which ended with government troops defeating the Tamil Tiger rebels in May 2009.

The UN has said that at least 7,000 ethnic Tamil civilians were killed in the last four months of fighting, while rights groups have accused the government of deliberately shelling civilians.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in June set up a three-member panel to advise him on accountability on alleged abuses, but the Sri Lankan government has refused to cooperate with it.

Sri Lanka says that no civilians were killed as its forces defeated the rebels after decades of conflict, and that it would not allow the UN or any other independent body to probe war crimes allegations.

The head of the government's then peace secretariat, Bernard Gunathilaka, was the first witness in Colombo and he outlined his role in the Norway-brokered 2002 truce.

"I am not going to say it was good or bad, but it (the truce) was a necessary thing at the time," Gunathilaka said.

The next formal hearing is scheduled for August 17, though not all proceedings are to be held in public.

© AFP

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Sri Lankan journalists demand information on colleague said missing for 200 days

By Bharatha Mallawarachi | Canadian Press
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Journalists protested and demanded Sri Lanka's government disclose information Tuesday on the disappearance of a journalist who supported the challenger in this year's presidential election.

Prageeth Ekneligoda, a political columnist and cartoonist with Lankaenews.com, is believed to have been abducted while on his way home from work on Jan. 24 — two days before the vote.

"Now 200 days have passed since his abduction, but there is no any information about him. We urge the government to release the reports on this investigation," said Gnanasiri Kottigoda, president of the Sri Lanka Working Journalists' Association.

He said the government should make public about what happened to Ekneligoda — "whether he is alive or not."

Nearly 150 journalists, rights activists and opposition lawmakers staged a sit-in and a protest march in the capital, Colombo, urging the government to expedite investigations into his whereabouts.

Police spokesman Prishantha Jayakody told The Associated Press on Tuesday that investigations were still continuing and no one has been arrested.

Opposition candidate Gen. Sarath Fonseka lost to the incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa in the January vote and afterward was arrested on accusations he planned his political career while still in the army — a crime in Sri Lanka.

Lankaenews.com has said Ekneligoda's criticism of Rajapaksa may have been the reason for his alleged abduction. Some government officials have claimed the journalist staged his disappearance to embarrass the government before the election.

Media rights groups say Sri Lanka is among the most dangerous places for journalists. Amnesty International says at least 14 Sri Lankan media workers have been killed since the beginning of 2006. They blame the government for failing to properly investigate several other attacks on media and arrest the culprits.

Last month, a dozen men armed with assault rifles and petrol bombs launched a pre-dawn attack on the offices of privately owned Voice of Asia Network.

The television management said the assailants assaulted security guards before setting fire to the building that houses the TV station, destroying its studios, control room and library. One guard and another employee were injured. No arrest has been made so far.

© Canadian Press

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Sri Lanka: UN Panel and Sovereignty Issues

By N Manoharan | Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies
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The appointment of a panel of experts by the UN Secretary General to look at accountability issues relating to human rights violations during the last stages of Eelam War IV in Sri Lanka in 2009 triggered protests in Sri Lanka against the United Nations. The protesters led by Housing Minister and leader of National Freedom Front, Vimal Weerawansa, laid siege outside the UN country office in Colombo in July 2010 preventing the UN staff and visitors from entry and exit of the premises. The Minister stretched the protest by observing hunger strike for three days before abandoning it. The issue clearly brought to the fore tussle between the authority and legitimacy of inter-governmental organizations like the United Nations on the one hand and the extent of sovereignty of individual states on the other.

The anti-UN stand in Sri Lanka is not without its politics. Colombo has been upset ever since the UN Human Rights Council’s attempted resolution against Sri Lanka last May. The Sri Lankan government has been lobbying strongly against the Panel ever since it was announced in June 2010 claiming that it was “interference in the internal affairs” and “violates sovereignty”.

Apart from failing to recognize the Panel, Colombo refused to issue visa to its members. When such diplomatic tactics failed to work, there was a need for extra pressure in the form of protests with the blessings of the government. The government easily washed its hands off the protests saying Sri Lanka was a democratic country and its citizens were “free to demonstrate peacefully”. At the outset, Colombo denied any human rights violations during the ethnic war, and clarified that any investigations in that regard would be taken care of by its own ‘Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission’. Present Rajapakse’s regime believes that the UN Panel is the first step towards an international inquiry on the conduct and avoidable consequences of Eelam War IV through the International Criminal Court. Hardliners in Sri Lanka argue that despite large scale human rights violations in Iraq and Afghanistan in the name of the ‘global war on terror’ there is no inquiry into that by any international body. To them, what Sri Lanka did was similar: decimated a deadly terrorist group that was acting as a think tank for all terrorist groups of the world. In such case, why the double standards, they ask.

All these should have been taken up by Colombo through negotiations with the international community. It is the responsibility of any country to clear all doubt involving the lives of thousands of people. Instead, display of less than peaceful demonstrations in the name of ‘right to expression’ have damaged Sri Lanka’s credibility in the eyes of the international community. It should be noted that present ultra-nationalistic sentiments and confrontationist postures against world bodies like the UN are not in the interest of Sri Lanka, a small state that is still in the process of post-war reconstruction. It should not be forgotten that Sri Lanka got its membership at the United Nations out of much difficulty after independence due to prevailing Cold War politics. At this juncture, the country needs support and resources from all over the world. The UN is not a separate entity, but an organization with states as representatives. It enjoys legitimacy as long as states respect the sanctity of the organization. The advisory panel’s mandate is limited to advising “the secretary general... on the modalities, applicable international standards and comparative experience relevant to an accountability process.” It is neither a fact-finding mission nor an investigative body.

On its part, the UN Secretary General should have appointed the Panel with the consent of Colombo or at least filled in with acceptable faces. Presently it consists of Marzuki Darusman, a former Indonesian attorney general (as chairperson), Steven Ratner, a US lawyer, and Yasmin Sooka, who served in South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Marzuki Darusman was already part of International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) that was invited by President Rajapaksa to observe work of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into some instances of human rights violations. The IIGEP called off its exercise unilaterally not without disappointing Colombo. Cooperation of the concerned country is vital for the success of any such panel. The team has been given four months to submit its report. However, if it cannot travel to Sri Lanka to meet the concerned people, it may not be in a position to come out with any useful recommendations.

© IPCS

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Sri Lanka begins civil war hearings

Al Jazeera
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Sri Lanka has officially begun its investigation into the country's decades-long civil war, with a government-appointed panel set to hear testimony in the capital, as well as in a former war zone.

Wednesday's opening was a ceremonial event, with testimony expected to start on the second day of the hearings, on August 17.

The eight-member panel will hear testimony on five separate days in the capital and two days in Vavuniya, near the former war zone, an official statement said.

The inquiry is expected to focus on why a 2002 truce between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam collapsed and led to more fighting.

The president's office has said the panel will also make recommendations on how to ensure the country does not return to conflict.

Independent inquiry call

Around 7,000 Tamil civilians were killed in the final stages of the civil war last year, according to a United Nations report.

Colombo, however, has rejected the UN report, and refused to allow any independent body to investigate war crimes allegations.

US legislators have called for an independent international inquiry into possible war crimes, arguing that the panels set up by the Colombo-based government "lacked the needed credibility".

"There is mounting evidence that suggests both parties in the conflict committed severe human rights violations during the conflict," US congressmen said in a letter addressed to Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state.

"We urge you to call for a robust and independent international investigation that would finally clarify the events that occurred during the conflict and provide the foundation for a sustainable peace in Sri Lanka."

© Al Jazeera

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Indian Airport Authority plans to build airport in Sri Lanka

BS Reporter | Sify Finance
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The Airports Authority of India (AAI) plans to build an airport in Sri Lanka, which could be its first foray into the international market in about 30 years.

The state-owned operator had earlier built airports in Libya and Yemen.

"We are looking at bidding for an airport at Palaly in Sri Lanka. We have recently done the feasibility study for the airport," said AAI Chairman V P Agarwal.

The airport is near the city of Jaffna and upgrading the airport will include building a runway and the terminal building and the project would be worth Rs 400-500 crore.

AAI has been developing 35 non-metro airports across the country at a cost of around Rs 12,000 crore. The authority is also taking up the city-side development of Kolkata, Visakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar, Lucknow, Indore, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Guwahati and Jaipur airports through public-private partnerships.

During 2008-09, AAI had invested Rs 2,547.5 crore on modernising airport terminals, passenger facilities and air traffic and navigational aids — the highest capital expenditure incurred by it so far.

© SIfy

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President removes controversial minister on the promise of giving him a Cabinet portfolio in November

Lanka News Web
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The removal of Deputy Highways Minister Mervyn Silva from his portfolio and the temporary suspension of his post as SLFP Kelaniya electoral organizer and SLFP membership have been made following an agreement between the President and Mervyn, reliable sources told Lanka News Web. The decision against Mervyn was made following the controversy surrounding his action to tie a Samurdhi officer in Kelaniya to a tree last week.

The agreement between the President and Mervyn is that he would be offered a Cabinet portfolio during the Cabinet reshuffle in November after he is cleared from all charges by a disciplinary inquiry that would be initiated in the party.

A group of senior Presidential advisors have advised the President to make such a move in order to build people’s confidence in the SLFP, which is currently facing great erosion. Sources said that while the President had not agreed to such a move at first, he had later changed his mind after discussing the matter with Mervyn.

© Lanka News Web

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