Sri Lanka: 2011 dawns with killings and abductions

Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka | Press Release
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As the killers of five Tamil students in Trincomalee go unpunished for the fifth year, the number of killings and abductions in the government controlled north of Sri Lanka is alarmingly on the rise.

Manoharan Ragihar, Yogarajah Hemachchandra, Logitharajah Rohan, Thangathurai Sivanantha and Shanmugarajah Gajendran were all shot dead on the second of January 2006 in a High Security Zone in Sri Lanka’s eastern town of Trincomalee. The families, local journalists and international organisations had evidence that the crime was committed by the state armed forces. The government failing to find the perpetrators and punish them is clear proof to that evidence.

Three weeks later, Sudaroli Journalist Subramaniyam Sugirdharajan whose photographs exposed that the students were killed at point-blank range was shot dead near the Governor’s Secretariat.

2011

The new year dawned in Jaffna with Sobinathan Gopinath, a 27-year-old driver of a three wheeler taxi, disappearing from Urumpirai, where, within the duration of three days, a teacher was abducted and an education officer shot dead.

The latest of abductions were reported from Kilinochchi on the 3rd of January. 28 out of 30 boys who were abducted by an armed group were later dropped at the Omanthai military checkpoint. The fate of the other two is not known.

Tamils in Jaffna and Kilinochchi are terrified by this latest wave of forced disappearances and killings. Within the last two weeks of 2010 the following violence against northern Tamils were reported from a region with a disproportionate military presence where independent media and voluntary organisations are barred.

· The chief priest of Changkaanai Murukamoorthy temple, 56 year old Nithiyananda Sharma, died from gunshot wounds received at the temple early December.

· The decapitated body of Mahendran Thiruvarudchelvam, who had been displaced from the Vanni was found in Jaffna on the 20th of December, nine days after his disappearance.

· On the 27th of December Armed men who arrived on a motorbike, shot and killed the Deputy Director of Education for the Valikaamam Zone, Markandu Sivalingam.

· Gunmen killed environmentalist Ketheeswaran Thevarajah, in Jaffna on the 31st of December.

· 30-year-old teacher, Shanmuganathan Vignesvaran of Urumpiraay West had been abducted on 30th December at Urumpiraay, Jaffna.

Government ministers from the Tamil region, Vinayagamurthi Muralitharan and Douglas Devananda have already accepted in public that the abductions and killings have not been investigated to a conclusion. The commander for the Sri Lankan military in Jaffna, Major General Mahinda Hathurusinghe speaking to journalists has ruled out the involvement of the Tamil Tigers. However, he has told the BBC that the killing of the priest earlier in December was the work of two former Tamil Tiger fighters working in cooperation with a government army corporal and that all these individuals had been arrested.

The government

The government of Sri Lanka denied the allegations made against it and claimed that there was a political motive to discredit the government by associating it with some of the killings. It explicitly denied that the education official had been killed for condemning the singing of the national anthem in Sinhala, rather than Tamil, at a state function. However, it has failed to find the culprits or establish a motive.

The climate of terror in Jaffna in particular and in the north in general continues even twenty months after the Sri Lankan government proclaimed its military victory over Tamil Tigers. However, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has declared that the state led by him will not stop operations. Addressing novice cadet officers of the Diyatalawa Sri Lanka Military Academy on the 21st of December, President Rajapaksa said that the operation ’will not cease until all bitter past memories of terrorism and secessionist intentions are completely wiped out’.

Journalist for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS) strongly believes that the escalation of violence against Tamils following the president’s declaration is of serious concern in a land where Tamils are faced with loss of life, land, cultural identity and freedom.

While vehemently condemning these atrocities against the Tamil people, JDS warns that Sri Lanka will end up being at the mercy of an autocratic, fundamentalist state unless the freedom loving people within and without the country act immediately to stop this recurring violence.

Executive Committee
Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka
04 January 2011

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Tamils heavily victimised at Colombo airport

Sri Lanka Guardian
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With the heavy presence of the intelligence officers at the Katunayake International Airport in Colombo, Tamils travelling from overseas are being systematically targeted and put through extensive interrogative processes for several hours.

According to latest information, Tamil passengers of both inbound and outgoing flights are being targeted by the Terrorism Investigation Department (TID).

Those who escape the rope whilst entering are being nicked at the point of exit.

According to information, the TID officials armed with airline passenger lists single out individuals and take them into custody. Some of them are held at the airport for several hours and interrogated whilst some are taken away in unmarked white vans to unknown destinations.

The TID also makes inquiries on those who have been allowed to enter and nick them at the point of their exit from the country based on information gathered.

Persons having links to Tamil nationalist politics or connected to the LTTE are even stopped at the point of departure. This is done by putting the person in the immigration database as a wanted person and when the person reaches the immigration desk for clearance the TID will be invited to arrest the person.

In order to justify the arrest, bogus and anonymous letters are also being produced to stop the person at immigration exit point.

Those who undergo lengthy interviews at the airport have experienced untold hardships. Whilst the interview is underway, the information provided by the arrested person are passed to the intelligence flying squads who will go around and interview the parties mentioned in the interview including to confirm the stories.

According to airport sources, some of those taken in unmarked vehicles are taken to unknown places and their fate is not known unless they are released.

Following the failed visit of the President Mahinda Rajapakse to the UK, the arrests of Tamils from London has increased.

The arrests of outbound passengers result in victims undergoing untold hardships on release to reorganise the travel again incurring unnecessary costs.

© Sri Lanka Guardian

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Sri Lanka prohibits UN war crimes investigation

By Daniel C Giacopelli | Open Democracy
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A panel of UN experts will not be allowed to conduct an independent investigation into alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka. Instead, the members of the panel will be granted visas to enter the country only if they agree to testify before the ‘Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission’ (LLRC), the Sri Lankan government’s own state-run committee.

The international panel will not, however, be given permission to travel around the country to meet prisoners, conduct interviews or carry out an independent enquiry: ‘It is only on that basis of giving evidence to the LLRC that the government has consented to their visit,’ said Keheliya Rambukwella, a government spokesperson. ‘The UN panel will be given visas only to testify before the LLRC if they request (that) and not for any investigations....This is the government stance and there is no change in that,’ he added.

It is the latest development in a back-and-forth saga concerning the role a post-war commission in the country, following the violent conclusion in 2009 of the quarter-century fight between Sri Lankan military forces and the Tamil Tiger rebels. Amid widespread claims that both sides perpetrated war crimes, Ban Ki-moon appointed a three-man panel to probe such allegations. The existence and mandate of the international panel, led by the former attorney general of Indonesia, plus a South African and an American, was vehemently opposed by officials in Colombo. In response, President Rajapaksa announced the creation of the government-sponsored LLRC and rejected the admittance of any third-party commission into the country, maintaining that the investigations were a ‘national matter’ and that the UN panel constituted ‘unwarranted interference’ that infringed on Sri Lankan sovereignty. Maintaining the credibility of the LLRC has been difficult for the government, however, as human rights groups around the world continue to point out that the commission lacks the impartiality required to conduct a convincing and effective investigation. Amnesty International, among other groups, has already refused to testify at the LLRC for this reason.

On 18 December, the government changed its position regarding the UN panel, announcing that visas would, in fact, be extended to the three members so that they can share evidence and present their findings with the LLRC, a move praised by the UN Secretary General. Yet it remained uncertain at the time the extent to which the panel would be given appropriate freedom to conduct an effective investigation, or one at all. One reporter in the country suggested that it was ‘unlikely’ that the international team ‘will be given free rein,’ a prediction ultimately confirmed by last Thursday’s announcement that no investigation would be permitted. Explaining the decision, Rambukwella noted that, ‘The circumstances are different now,’ without elaborating.

The openSecurity verdict: It remains uncertain whether the panel will take up the government’s offer to meet with the LLRC, given that no independent investigation will occur. The UN has not yet requested visas for the panel members. The possibility of a meeting outside of Sri Lanka between the LLRC and the UN panel has already been rejected by the LLRC.

One political analyst observes that, ‘There is no point in the UN panel coming here, if it is only allowed to meet only the LLRC and not allowed to meet the civil society and people affected by the war and to travel around the country.’ He notes that while the UN panel was largely created to examine the intensely violent final stage of the campaign, the LLRC has mostly been collecting submissions regarding ‘reconciliation for the future’. Without an independent inquiry, it would be difficult to know for sure the specific details of the damage inflicted in those final days.

Protests such as those from Sri Lankan officials regarding a violation of sovereignty, that supreme and sacred concept within the international system, are common, yet hold precious little moral weight when allegations of war crimes are involved. And indeed, research conducted by Human Rights Watch has shown that it is extremely likely that acts of violence amounting to war crimes occurred in early 2009. Self-preservation is the government's main motive.

Yet, though it remains a highly unlikely scenario, the Sri Lankan government would be wise to allow the UN panel to fulfil its mandate within the country unhindered. It is important to note that the violence that emerged over the course of the 26-year old war was far from one-sided. As observed by Meenakshi Ganguly, despite the reportedly thousands of civilian deaths caused by government military forces, the hundreds of thousands of innocent Tamils held in detention camps and other alleged human rights abuses inflicted upon many in the Tamil community, ‘It is hard to mourn the passing of a group that pioneered suicide-bombings, murdered Tamils who opposed Tiger tactics, and ran a near-totalitarian state-within-a-state. The evil of the Tiger leadership was never more evident than in the final days of the conflict when Tiger forces shot Tamil civilians attempting to flee the fighting and heavy government shelling’.

Only by setting the record straight and shining light on the abuses originating from both sides will President Rajapaksa validate his post-war commitment, signed by himself and Ban Ki-moon, to ‘the promotion and protection of human rights, in keeping with international human rights standards and Sri Lanka’s international obligations’. And if concepts of justice and fairness are not attractive, surely financial incentives are. According to one estimate, Rajapaksa’s refusal to allow an impartial investigation has cost Sri Lanka $150 million (97 million pounds) in annual trade from the European Union and has been quite harmful for foreign investment.

© Open Democracy

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Sri Lanka mulls ban on mini-skirts

Press Trust of India | NDTV
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Sri Lanka was mulling a ban on mini-skirts following complaints, prompting the government to set up a panel to prepare a dress code for public places in the conservative country, officials and a media report said today.

The cultural ministry was considering public petitions calling for a ban on mini skirts which have raised the ire of ultra conservative sections of society, officials said.

The Cultural Ministry forwarded the petitions to a committee to study the requests and come up with a dress code for public places, a ministry official told PTI.

Ministry Secretary Nimal Rubashinghe said no firm stand was taken in respect of the skimpy women's clothing, but the Lakbima News daily said the government was contemplating banning mini skirts.

"There are individuals and groups representing religious and cultural interests, who have written to us raising concerns that this kind of (mini) dress would corrupt our culture," Minister T. B. Ekanayake was quoted as saying by the Lakbima news daily.

"They say with the arrival of tourists, this situation would worsen," the minister added.

Sri Lanka has already ordered the pulling down of bill boards featuring women showing extra cleavage or exposing thighs to advertise products or services in the capital and elsewhere in the country.

"A new era of moral purity is in the offing in the New Year," said the report in the daily, which is controlled by business family close to the ruling party, but has extensive links to gambling.

The country also took objection to bikini-clad women dancing around a Buddha statue in one of US pop singer Akon's music videos and denied him a visa to perform in the country.

Sri Lanka has also ordered Internet service providers to block access to over 200 porn websites said to feature local men and women.

© NDTV

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‘Sri Lanka to become regional financial hub’ says Central Bank Governor

By R. K. Radhakrishnan | The Hindu
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Sri Lanka is ‘proactively engaged in' the process of becoming the regional financial hub, Central Bank of Sri Lanka Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal said here on Tuesday.

Presenting the ‘road map monetary and fiscal sector policies for 2011 and beyond,' he said this was a gradual process.

The central bank was strengthening its global and regional financial links. The immediate goal was to develop the financial sector's capacity to proactively respond to the changing requirements of the economy, and support the next phase of economic development of the country, he said.

He said collaboration with foreign financial institutions and banks would increase further.

Sri Lanka had to get its systems, especially at the supervisory level, on a par and in line with international standards, to make the country a regional financial hub.

Since there is an increasing presence of international banks in Sri Lanka and local bank branches outside Sri Lanka, memorandum of understanding with home regulators of foreign banks and host regulators of local banks in the Asian region would be signed by the end of 2012, he said.

The biggest challenges of 2011 included, maintaining inflation at the ‘mid-single digit' and keeping the Sri Lankan rupee from appreciating too much, he said.

All key sectors performed impressively in 2010. The inflation had remained manageable at ‘mid-single digit levels' for two consecutive years, stability in exchange rate was maintained and there had been “remarkable macro economic stability.”

The central bank has projected its economy to grow by 8-9 per cent over the next few years and has asserted that all sectors would contribute to the growth, riding on the ‘peace dividend.'

Revealing that the central bank had invited Moody's for a fresh sovereign credit rating, he said both S & P and Moody's had given ‘stable' outlook while Fitch had given ‘positive.'

© The Hindu

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