Sri Lanka and war crimes: Keep quiet and carry on

The Economist
.............................................................................................................................................................................................

Sri Lanka's government has got its retaliation in first. On April 12th a panel of experts delivered a report to the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, assessing whether war crimes were committed when the nation’s army bloodily won a long-running civil war against Tamil Tiger rebels early in 2009. The report has not yet been made public, but the government is furious that an independent inquiry took place at all. The report, it says, is “fundamentally flawed” and biased.

In recent weeks Sri Lanka’s rulers have vented their anger, most obviously by cracking down at home, intimidating those they blame for spurring the launch of the UN inquiry in the first place. At the sharp end are Western-funded education and advocacy groups, notably those keen on post-war reconciliation or those that point out flaws in the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Facing the most intense scrutiny are groups which have complained about repression, a muzzled press and a lack of civil liberties.

Top of the list is the National Peace Council, which pushed for a negotiated rather than a violent end to the war. Last month criminal investigators summoned its director, Jehan Perera, demanding details of the group’s funding and operations. Before that, a smear campaign in the press suggested the council takes orders from foreign donors. No specific crime has been alleged, making it harder for the council to clear its name.

Under surveillance, too, is the local branch of Transparency International, an anti-corruption watchdog. In October, after it launched a project to monitor abuse of public resources, investigators called in its accountant to quiz him over “suspicious transactions”. The inquiry was dropped, but the pro-government press has continued to vilify the group.

Most exposed of all are bodies which, as the war reached its climax, spoke up for civilians caught in the crossfire. Fierce army onslaughts finished off the brutal Tamil Tigers, but thousands of civilians were killed, injured or displaced in the process. Human-rights groups in the West backed the activists’ campaign. The government strongly denies any abuses and instead attacks the campaigners, saying they have involved foreigners in an internal affair. Now it accuses the NGOs of raking in funds without explaining how they are used, though the groups have offered to show their audited accounts.

Several factors help explain the timing of all this. Some in Mr Rajapaksa’s hawkish government seem convinced that his opponents are conspiring with the West or, worse, with the active and educated Tamil diaspora, to discredit him. By spreading the idea that “fifth columnists” fed harmful information to foreign experts, the government hopes to discredit the UN report.

If, in turn, other NGO types are worried by a crackdown, they might become less willing to snipe about other problems in Sri Lanka, such as pervasive nepotism. Journalists, too, might usefully be scared. On March 31st police arrested the editor of a popular pro-opposition website. In Orwellian style, he was accused by the state-run media of being behind a January arson attack that destroyed his own office and equipment. Supposedly, this was to bring the government into disrepute, by getting officials blamed. But scariest of all, one of the website’s reporters, Prageeth Eknaligoda, has now been missing for more than a year. It can be dangerous to speak out in Sri Lanka.

© The Economist

Read More

Summary only

UN calls for "International monitoring mechanism"

Photo courtesy: UN News & Media

The Island
.............................................................................................................................................................................................

A three-member panel, appointed by UNSG Ban ki-Moon, to investigate alleged war crimes during Sri Lanka’s successful war against the LTTE, has recommended the immediate setting up of an ‘independent international mechanism’ to monitor and assess investigations undertaken by the Government of Sri Lanka following the release of the report.

Although the panel, led by Marzuki Darusman, had finalized the 196-page report by March 31, 2011, it was handed over to Sri Lanka’s No 2 at the UN Maj. Gen. Shavendra Silva on the eve of Sinhala and Tamil New Year. (Read the Executive Summary)

The UNSG appointed the panel on June 22, 2010, 11 months after the collapse of the LTTE on the banks of the Nanthikadal lagoon.

Dismissing the LLRC (Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Committee) process, the panel demanded that Sri Lanka should launch genuine investigations into war crime charges and other alleged violations of international humanitarian and human rights law committed by both sides.

The panel also alleged the LTTE had held the Vanni population hostage and executed those trying to escape beginning February 2009.

An authoritative government spokesman told The Island that the UN panel had merely repeated unsubstantiated allegations made by the LTTE and its hired agents during the war and its aftermath. Could anything be as ridiculous as their assertion that the Sri Lankan military systematically targeted hospitals in the Vanni and executed some of those captured LTTE cadres at conclusion of the war. "Of over 11,500 LTTE combatants taken on the Vanni front, over 60 per cent were released after rehabilitation. Others are being rehabilitated and only a few hundred will ultimately face charges," he said.

The government spokesman also dismissed the allegation that the civilians were deprived of humanitarian assistance. He said that the panel had conveniently forgotten that in spite of heavy fighting the government with the help of UN agencies moved large stocks of essential items and medicine to areas under LTTE control.

© The Island

Read More

Summary only

Assasinated MP's wife labelled a terrorist and ordered out of Canada

Photo courtesy: Andrew Wallace | The Star

By Tracey Tyler | The Star
.............................................................................................................................................................................................

After her husband was assassinated during midnight mass at a church in Sri Lanka on Christmas Eve 2005, Canada welcomed Sugunanayake Joseph.

Former foreign affairs minister Bill Graham spoke at a memorial service for her husband, Joseph Pararajasingham, a Sri Lankan MP, calling him a “man of peace.”

Five years later, the Immigration and Refugee Board has ordered the 74-year-old Toronto grandmother deported, concluding her role as a politician’s wife — supporting her late husband’s career and accompanying him to political events — amounted to membership in a designated terrorist organization.

“My husband was not a terrorist,” Joseph told the Star on Thursday. “I am also not a terrorist. He was an innocent man. A man of the people.”

Joseph was also wounded in the shooting. Shortly afterward, the federal government issued a visitor’s visa so she could flee to safety in Canada, where her son and daughter are citizens.

But when she made a refugee claim in 2007, the federal government alleged Joseph was inadmissible because she had been complicit in crimes against humanity and had belonged to a terrorist organization in Sri Lanka.

A refugee board hearing began in July 2009 and continued over the next two years.

In a Feb. 17 decision, adjudicator Oksana Kowalyk found that by a series of associations, Joseph was, in effect, a member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Although neither Joseph nor her husband had formal membership in the LTTE, he was one of 22 Sri Lankan MPs who formed a coalition in 2001 known as the Tamil National Alliance, which pushed for peace negotiations between the government and the leadership of the Tamil independence movement.

The Tamil National Alliance functioned as the LTTE’s alter ego in Sri Lanka’s parliament, Kowalyk concluded in her decision.

And by supporting her husband’s activities as a member of the MPs’ coalition, Joseph also furthered the LTTE’s objectives, Kowalyk found.

The adjudicator based her conclusions in part on a letter from Amnesty International Canada, which described the Tamil National Alliance as a “proxy” for the LTTE.

But she also ignored portions of the letter in which Amnesty International stated membership in the Tamil National Alliance could not be regarded as de facto membership in the LTTE, argues Raoul Boulakia, Joseph’s lawyer, who is asking the Federal Court to review the ruling.

In an interview Thursday, Gloria Nafziger, Amnesty Canada’s refugee coordinator and the author of the letter, said “it would be simplistic” to call the Tamil National Alliance a proxy for the LTTE.

While it shared the LTTE’s desire for an independent Tamil state, the Tamil National Alliance has always advanced a platform of non-violence and is a credible political party, she said.

“Having been a member of the alliance does not mean you would have been a supporter of the LTTE,” Nafziger said, adding all Tamil politicians were under pressure to associate with the LTTE and being openly critical of the party could place their lives in jeopardy.

Now Joseph worries if she is deported, she will be targeted by militants who opposed her late husband’s call for a peaceful resolution to Sri Lanka’s political strife.

“I’m afraid to go back,” she said. “They shot my husband. They’ll shoot me, too.”

© The Star

Related articles

• Canada orders deportation of Mrs. Parajasingham (Tamil Net)
• Grandmother being deported to Sri Lanka fears for her life (City News - Toronto)
• Extraordinarily Perverse (Tamil Guardian)

Read More

Summary only

Sri Lanka Army to benefit from Indian line of credit

Press Trust of India | Hindustan Times
.............................................................................................................................................................................................

Sri Lanka government will use the Indian line of credit to acquire a fleet of vehicles for the army trying to cut down on expenditure. The army in the quest to trim its operational expenditure was looking to stop the practise of hiring private vehicles, the Island newspaper on Wednesday quoted the Army Commander Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya as saying.

Jayasuriya said the government is to use Indian line of credit to acquire a fleet of vehicles required by the Army.

The government of India had extended credit worth $400 million since 2003 covering the areas of capital goods, consumer durables, consultancy services and food items.

© Hindustan Times

Read More

Summary only

"UN Report is flawed and biased" - SL Foreign Ministry

AFP | Khaleej Times Online
.............................................................................................................................................................................................

Sri Lanka on Wednesday rejected as “flawed” and “biased” a UN-commissioned report into alleged war crimes committed during the final 2009 offensive by government troops against Tamil Tiger rebels.

The External Affairs Ministry said it had received a copy of the report by a three-member expert panel who handed their findings to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Ban on Tuesday.

“The government finds this report fundamentally flawed in many respects,” the ministry said in a statement.

“Among other deficiencies, the report is based on patently biased material which is presented without verification,” it said.

© Khaleej Times Online

Read More

Summary only

Is it worth the wait for international support after the UN Secretary General’s report?

By Kusal Perera | Groundviews
.............................................................................................................................................................................................

Finally, yes finally, one big phase of the game came to a close with just a whimper. Now, its the next phase of the game. On 12 April, just before the South (wouldn’t know how the Hindu Tamils in the North would celebrate new year) gathers into their culturally colourful Sinhala New Year on 14th April, the UN Panel of Advisers on the Sri Lankan conflict (?) handed over their report to the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon.

Very little is officially said about, it being made public, but, a copy was immediately despatched to President Rajapaksa. Ban’s media spokesperson said, its just “courtesy”. A very curt news release in the UN news web says, the UN SG “will study the report carefully and will determine his next steps in the coming days.”

What went into this report writing and how, is now history. Yet that would give an indication to what would finally turn out as the next phase. In the absence of super power requests, the pressure on Ban Ki-moon that media talks about is not what could change Ban’s stance on Sri Lanka. Public statements made by different groups and organisations will not in any way prevail upon Ban to shift gear. All the statements, all the protests, all lobbying over the past year did not push Ban Ki-moon to make any positive move in favour of victimised, war devastated people. He was into playing politics with the Rajapaksa regime.

The very appointment of this advisory panel by the UN Secretary General, though kicked off to a big State sponsored protest here in Colombo, was not a UN Panel of Inquiry. Many international human rights organisations and conscience groups wanted an investigating panel. The PUCL of India made a clear and legally argued appeal on 08 May, 2009, asking for UN initiated investigation on war crimes and crimes against humanity in SL. He would not go that far. In South India, he was blamed for having Vijey Nambiar with him. The fact is, no Super Power asked him for an investigation on SL.

It wasn’t that President Rajapaksa was unaware of the reach, Ban’s advisory panel had. But as with everything else, he used it to keep the “warning fires” burning in the South. This hysteria against “a threatening, hungry demon at the kingdom’s gate” is what keeps the Sinhala sentiments in favour of the Rajapaksa regime, never mind its militarised, political presence with colossal waste, mega corruption and family rule with cronies and thugs.

The role of Ban’s panel was perhaps decided with silent and sneaky dealings between the Rajapaksas, the UN SG and his closest allies. There seemed an unwritten compromise had been worked out to restrict the panel from directly holding the SL regime accountable for war crimes.

There were if not more, at least two unexplained and almost hushed up meetings that throws suspicion on Ban and his stand on SL. One, was when President Rajapaksa travelled to NY for the 65th UN General Assembly in mid September, 2010 when Ban Ki-moon gave Rajapaksa an audience that had contradictory media statements. The other was between Ban and the AG, Mohan Pieris, accompanied by the controversial appointee to the deputy UN representative post in NY, General Shavendra de Silva. There is speculation still, whether this duo met with the panel itself. Denied by one of SG’s aides Nesirky and blushed over by another, Farhan Haq, with Lyn Pascoe cited as the one, who wanted the meeting to be kept undisclosed.

There was also the proposed visit to Sri Lanka. Again, Ban’s men played hide and seek with the issue and allowed MR to have a popular anti imperialist stand on it, for the benefit of his Sinhala constituency.

That being the panel’s pre report life, what can the Sri Lankan Tamil society and the world citizenry, expect from this collection of global players ? This may perhaps tell the world and the Tamil Diaspora once again, the UN is no world body that play independent roles to make this world a better place, despite efforts put in by effected constituencies to make this “august” body realise their global responsibility.

Its history is proof alone. No armed and brutal conflict had been adequately or purposefully handled by the UN and its Super Powers, ever since it was mandated to work towards global peace. All had been dominated by one or the other of the Super Powers for their advantage and the UN has only fallen in line. It is also no secret, the person elected to the post of UN Secretary General has to function as an “appointee” of the US and its allies.

Thus in the Mid-East and in Afghanistan everything had been manipulated for the advantage of the US and its Coalition partners, with no UN member, no regional alliance being able to stop that run by the US and its allies. Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, drone attacks in Afghanistan, over 107,000 civilian deaths and 3.9 million people turned refugees in Iraq since US occupation in 2003, Micheal Burn from Kabul reporting that while the UN was giving reduced numbers, the ISAF itself had given increased numbers in civilian casualties in Afghanistan, totalling over 5,500 deaths between 2009 and 2010 alone, well who would take US to task for any or all of that human tragedy? The UN and its Super Powers have never, lets stress that word “never”, taken decisions against any of the Super Power nations, in favour of human rights, democracy, regional stability and world peace, what ever language they use in UN Resolutions and Assemblies.

The number of US invasions and armed interventions that had gone without any censure on the USA and with no Resolution calling for any US President to be tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity, the 225 UN Security Council Resolutions on Israel that was never forced on Israel, as it was on Gaddafi and Libya, speaks volumes on how the international community and its world bodies apply themselves in establishing global peace, democracy, human rights, justice, rule of law and fair play, good governance and transparency, all key words in their rhetoric when making highbrow statements for the under developed and the under privileged people to listen to and take home.

Through all those years and conflicts, this world have moved to a new global era, where anti terror war has allowed all global power brokers to openly compromise in allowing any sadistic, despotic power to remain, through geo political compromises and resource utilisation. This post 9/11 World is more naked now, but not any less shy in supporting any war, in the name of eliminating “terrorism”. The Sri Lankan war proved it beyond doubt.

British law that checks arms supplies to warring nations was covertly violated in supplying arms to the Rajapaksa government, despite Miliband and his tough talk. EU dragged on its GSP “Plus” issue till the war was declared over by Rajapaksa. The US played through Japan and India in supporting the war, while issuing a statement now and then, for the Tamil Diaspora to take pride in their lobbying capacity. India was holding its own people at bay, tossing the Chinese dragon to scare them, while the war was waged with tacit Indian support on intelligence and military logistics.

It wasn’t that Rajapaksa out manoeuvred all others with his backing from China, Iran, Libya and Russia. They did provide crutches for the Rajapaksa regime to stand erect, but they could have been outplayed if the EU member states and the US wanted to. They certainly did not want the war to stop. Every single member of the Western world, the Tamil Diaspora is stilling pinning faith on, held back their hands, till Rajapaksa finished off the LTTE. They did have a social conscience within their own boundaries that had to be satisfied, but that was not loud enough to stop them from looking away, while the war was brutally waged for 03 years, ending in 2009 May.

That was more than clear, even during the worst and the last phase of the war in the Vanni. Thousands of grieving and protesting Tamil people who flocked to London in May, 2009 in freezing weather to demand a cease fire, ended up blocking the Westminster streets, but having 36 arrested, two jumping into the Thames and the British government staying solid cold as their coldest winter.

I for one would not therefore expect Ban Ki-moon on his own to drag Rajapaksa into a Waterloo. In the absence of Super power pressure, he would make the report public, only in consultation with Rajapaksa, if Rajapaksa feels he could gain politically, out of it. It is true and it is a fact, the Tamil Diaspora is working 24×7 to expose the Rajapaksa regime on its war crimes committed, is keeping the Tamil issue and the need for a political solution ever present in international media. But that is not what would make Rajapaksa budge even an inch from where he is firmly saddled on.

Most recent events across the globe prove, it is after all the people who are suppressed, exploited and cheated, who eventually decide the fate of their ruler. Ben Ali was forced out only after the people living within Tunisia decided he should go. Egypt’s Mubarak faced the same fate at Tahrir square. Shah Palavi of Iran and Marcos in Philippines went out, not because of international pressure, but because the people in those countries decided they should go.

Where international pressure and collaboration intervenes, the result is bad enough to accept. Iraq and Afghanistan in modern times and Vietnam in the 50s to 70s. Or, may perhaps be Libya in the waiting. I sure believe, the Tamil Diaspora is not asking for such change in Sri Lanka. It seems anyway, we are wasting time with hopeful international interventions that would never make Rajapaksa’s stay, any more uncomfortable. Total all the dollars that have been pumped into his stay in power, since the war was declared over in May, 2009. That’s enough prove of what is in store for justice, accountability and good governance.

Thus Ban Ki-moon’s advisory panel report may not bring desired results, with all the campaigning by the Tamil Diaspora, to have it public. The answer after all, would have to be worked out in Sri Lanka, for better or for worse.

© Groundviews

Read More

Summary only

UN report on Sri Lanka's civil war due to be published,

Channel 4 News
.............................................................................................................................................................................................

AUN report into the bloody end of Sri Lanka's civil war is due to be published, and could raise the question of an international war crimes inquiry. Channel 4 News submitted evidence to the UN.

The report is expected to consider whether alleged atrocities committed by both sides at the end of Sri Lanka's 26-year civil war in 2009 constitute war crimes and deserve more international scrutiny.

Channel 4 News understands it could be published in the next ten days after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon was presented with the report on Tuesday.

At least 20,000 civilians died in the final few months of the Government-led military campaign to crush the Tamil Tigers. There have been reports of the use of human shields and child soldiers and apparent executions, as well as deliberate shelling and denial of aid to civilians inside a no-fire zone.

The United Nations panel was set up in 2010 after pressure from human rights groups and western Governments, and after an initial UN investigation into the authenticity of what became known as the Channel 4 video - depicting the execution of a group of bound men in a muddy field in Sri Lanka - declared that video to be authentic.

The panel finished gathering evidence in December but its reach has been hampered by the Sri Lankan Government, which did not allow the panel into the country to collect evidence. The Sri Lankan Government set up its own - much criticised - investigation, the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, to look at the war.

The Sri Lankan Government has hit out at the UN report, branding it "fundamentally flawed".

In a statement, the Sri Lankan Government said: "Among other deficiencies, the report is based on patently biased material which is presented without any verification."

Evidence

Towards the end of 2010, Channel 4 News obtained a longer version of the execution video, which was also sent to the UN panel led by former Indonesian Attorney-General, Marzuki Darusman.

An investigation into the video by this programme led to the identification of a woman journalist as one of the victims in the video, along with damning new details of the date and location where the video was filmed.

Leading war crimes lawyer Julian Knowles of Matrix Chambers told Channel 4 News the Sri Lanka video was "astonishing evidence".

Depending on the conclusions of the UN report, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon could order an investigation into alleged war crimes.

Justice

Yolanda Foster, Sri Lanka expert and researcher at Amnesty International, told Channel 4 News: "For Amnesty International, how the UN deals with Sri Lanka - given the scale and gravity of what happened there - it cannot be left to go unchecked.

"The UN can send a very important message to governments around the world - you cannot commit these violations."

She said Amnesty remains very concerned by ongoing human rights violations in Sri Lanka, including arbitrary detentions and reports of disappearances, and increasing pressure on human rights defenders.

"The panel is a good first step in setting out the widescale violations that occurred, but it is just the beginning. We very much hope that in the report there is a call to establish a UN commission inquiry to investigate the violations of international law which occurred."

© Channel 4 News

Read More

Summary only