US, India watched Sri Lanka's killing fields: Wikileaks

JDS Features
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The United States and India were closely, but simply watching via satellite when Sri Lankan government troops were massacring several thousands of Tamil civilians within the no-fire-zone using long-range heavy weapons and aerial attacks during the final months of the war, a latest release of the Wikileaks cables has revealed.

In a diplomatic cable note to the Secretary of State with a copy to the White House, Charge d'Affaires of the US embassy James R. Moore, has stated that he has shared the satellite images showing the situation inside the no-fire-zone with President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona just two weeks before Colombo’s declaration of military victory over Tamil Tigers.

President Rajapaksa, in turn, has informed the US diplomat that India too was providing the satellite assistance to the Sri Lankan military.

“In a May 5 meeting with President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona, Charge provided satellite images taken since April 27 of new shelling damage within the Government-designated ‘safe zone’,” Mr. Moore has said in his note on May 5, 2009, adding that he did this ‘privately’ on the sidelines of President Rajapaksa’s meeting with the Co-Chair Ambassadors in Colombo.

Competitive Satellite assistance

Although President Rajapaksa had maintained that government forces “have not been shelling into the “safe zone” since his April 27 statement announcing the end of heavy artillery and aerial bombing in this area”, Mr. Moore informed the President and the Foreign Secretary that he had been instructed to share those satellite images taken “before and after” his announcement on April 27 on “the apparent shelling damage in the safe zone”.

Claiming that President Rajapaksa, at the beginning of the preceding meeting with Co-Chair Ambassadors, has asked him for an assessment of the current situation, noting wryly, “you are probably better informed than I am”, Mr. Moore has said in the cable note that Rajapaksa has been “known to call individual battlefield commanders in the past to ask for frank assessments when he feels out of touch with ground realities”.

“The President remarked at lunch before this meeting that India had satellites and was monitoring the ground situation in Sri Lanka. It will now be equally clear to the Sri Lankan government that we are watching, too,” the Wikileaks has quoted Mr. Moore as saying in the diplomatic cable note.

Civilians killed in thousands

“Referring to widely-circulated but unofficial UN estimates of thousands of civilian deaths and injuries since late January” (which have elicited strongly-worded refutations by Government officials), Mr. Moore has said in the note that the US “is not in position independently to verify numbers of civilian casualties, but that it is clear there have been many”.

According to Mr. Moore, President Rajapaksa has also then claimed that government forces “would not shell civilian areas, confiding that the Army has
Deep Penetration Units (DPU) within the safe zone who are attempting to organize people to breach the LTTE earth berms and allow civilians to escape”.

By this, the President Rajapaksa, who is also the Defence Minister and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, has specifically confirmed that the military hit squads were in fact operating well inside the government designated no-fire-zone, where hundreds of thousands of people were holed up.

International duplicity exposed

The latest release of the Wikileaks has barefacedly exposed the political and diplomatic duplicity of some of the key power centres of the world’s order.

It is now beyond any reasonable doubt that these powerful countries had been watching and sharing information with satellite images obtained during the final stage of the war with the very perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity, while issuing mere statements demanding the warring parties to respect human rights and international humanitarian laws.

Wikileaks reinforces UN panel report

Ironically, these are the same countries which are demanding an independent inquiry into the “alleged human rights violations” in Sri Lanka during the final months of the war, as if the information and high-resolution satellite images they already have in their possession are insufficient to bring the war criminals before international court of justice.

This was obviously what the UN Expert Panel report, which appears to be gathering dust in the highest office of the UN, highlighted when it said that “the United Nations political organs and bodies failed to take actions that might have protected civilians” getting killed daily in thousands.

“Although the senior international officials advocated in public and in private with the government that it protects civilians and stop the shelling of hospitals and United Nations and ICRC locations, in the Panel’s view, the public use of casualty figures would have strengthened the call for the protection of civilians while those events in the Wanni were unfolding,” UN Expert Panel report, released in March 2011, categorically said.

The UN report, also known as Darusman report, notably said that the accountability for serious violation of international humanitarian or human rights law “is not a matter of choice or policy” of a government, but that “it is a duty under domestic and international law”.

© JDS

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Mass protests over Colombo’s new development projects

Photo courtesy: PassionParade

By Melani Manel Perera | Asia News
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"We are farmers and fishermen, we expect a development that will protect us, our lives and our livelihood. Without destroying the environment”, says Panama Chandrarathana Thero, the incumbent president of two divisions of Uva Wellassa, on the subject of numerous development projects undertaken by the Government of Sri Lanka. Representatives of civil society, priests, nuns and Catholic faithful participated in a seminar and exhibition, organized by the Land Forum, the National Fisheries Solidarity Movement (NAFSO) and the Praja Abhilasa Network.

Using as leverage one of the island’s greatest resources - an almost untouched nature in many areas - the government of Sri Lanka has rented for the next 99 years the lands of the islands Kalpitiya, Negombo, Rathgama, Vakarei, Arugambe, Panama, and Akkaraipattu to build hotels, resorts, golf courses and airstrips for seaplanes and aero-taxi services. The projects aim to promote tourism to contrast the economic impasse following the thirty-year ethnic conflict. But rather than being beneficiaries, the inhabitants of those areas are the first victims of this inhuman development. Foreclosures are now on the agenda, and the 200 thousand internally displaced persons (IDPs - Internally Displaced People) - because of the war - are bound to increase.

Suranjan Dinesh a catholic, and member of the All Ceylon Fisher Folk Trade Union, is a native of Kalpitiya: "We have lived in these islands for generations, but we are not considered citizens. In fact, no one has consulted us prior to the lease of our lands for the promotion of tourism in the area. What we want is to live in harmony with our livelihoods. "

"In Mullikulam (Mannar district) where I lived, there were 450 families - said Joseph Francis, a Catholic - we are all displaced, but we need to return to our village. Agriculture and fishing are our livelihoods. Why we do not get the benefit of the so called freedom while others are enjoying them? When do the authorities allow us to go back to our homes? ".

Anthony Thame a fisherman is from Parakrama Samudra Polonnaruwa. Even his house was expropriated: "We do not want seaplanes. This is our life. When the seaplane lands in our basin, the fauna on which we depend for our livelihoods will be wiped out. No organization or institution denies this and we do not know what will become of us. "

© Asia News

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First naval visit by NATO country since setting up of diplomatic ties

By Shamindra Ferdinando | The Island
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Sri Lanka Navy says a four-day naval visit by NATO member, Turkey will pave the way for closer ties between the two countries.

Responding to a query by The Island, an SLN spokesman said that it was the first naval visit since the establishment of consular relations between the two countries 104 years ago.

Turkey has the second biggest military among NATO countries and provided a range of assets in support of coalition operations directed against Libya, recently.

The Turkish frigate TCG Gemlik (F-492) left the port of Colombo for Djibouti yesterday. The vessel is on its way to a home base after carrying out counter piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden. On board the vessel was Rear Admiral Sinan Ertugrul, commander of Combined Task Force 151 engaged in operations in the Gulf of Aden. Ertugrul has served with NATO on three occasions, with his last assignment coming to an end in 2008 before being promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral in Aug. 2010.

According to naval records, the first Turkish naval visit had taken place 122 years ago.

TCG Gemlik is skippered by Commander Murat Ugur and carries 30 officers and 241 sailors. New Delhi-based Turkish military attaché Col. Mehmet Dursun was in Colombo to welcome the ship.

The well equipped Turkish navy recently vowed to deploy warships in the eastern Mediterranean, where the Israeli navy operates, causing fears of a conflict between two major US allies in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, a six-man Indian navy delegation is here for discussions on bilateral issues.

Headed by Rear Admiral P. Murugesan, the Assistant Chief of Naval Staff (Foreign Cooperation), the Indian delegation discussed operational, training, logistical and technical matters with an SLN delegation, led by Rear Admiral Jayantha Perera, Director General, Operations.

An SLN spokesman said that three-day ‘joint staff level talks’ would conclude tomorrow (9). Indo-Lanka talks coincided with the arrival of INS ‘Kuthar’ at the port of Colombo on Wednesday (7). The vessel left yesterday.

© The Island

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Uproar over piece of legislation

The Sunday Leader
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Parliament sittings were adjourned yesterday due to an uproar over the Criminal Procedure Special Provisions Act that was presented to the House.

Justice Minister Rauf Hakeem presented the Criminal Procedure Special Provisions Act where the police under special circumstances could detain a suspect for 48 hours before producing the suspect before court.

Following the withdrawal of the emergency regulations, the police were able to detain a suspect for 24 hours without producing him to court under the general penal code. However, the new amendment would increase the period from 24 to 48 hours

Hakeem has said the new order would be effective for two years and that police could not detain a suspect over 48 hours under any circumstance.

Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has told parliament that the new order was an illegal move by the government.

UNP parliamentarian Wijedasa Rajapaksa backing Wickremesinghe has said the government is trying to bring in the ordinance illegally through a gazette.

Deputy Speaker Chandima Weerakkody suspended sessions for 30 minutes to discuss the issue and later adjourned parliament.

© The Sunday Leader

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Sri Lanka said to still violate rights

By Bharatha Mallawarachi | Associated Press
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Despite removing draconian wartime laws, Sri Lanka’s government is using new abusive regulations to keep hundreds of people in jails without trial, an international human rights groups said.

In a statement Wednesday, the New York-based Human Rights Watch called on the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa to abolish such detention laws and free the prisoners.

“The Sri Lankan government announced that the state of emergency is over, but it is holding on to the same draconian powers it had during the war’’ against the Tamil Tiger rebels, said Brad Adams, the group’s Asia director.

Foreign governments critical of Sri Lanka should not be “fooled by this cynical bait and switch,’’ he said.

The statement comes as a reminder that Sri Lanka’s government remains on the radar of civil rights groups, which have repeatedly accused it of gross violations during the 26-year war against separatist Tamil Tigers, who were vanquished in 2009.

Between 80,000-100,000 people were killed in the war. However, a UN panel reported this year that tens of thousands of ethnic Tamil civilians might have been killed in the final months of the war, leading to claims the death toll could be much higher.

The emergency laws that had curbed civil and political liberties for most of the past 30 years in the island nation lapsed last week. The laws had allowed authorities to detain suspects for up to one year without bringing them to court, displace residents from their land, and set up ubiquitous military checkpoints.

Rajapaksa said the laws were no longer needed, but he approved four regulations under the powerful Prevention of Terrorism Act allowing the government to continue holding rebel suspects. Tamil lawmakers say there are about 900 such detainees.

The terror act also allows for arrests for unspecified unlawful activities without warrant and permits detention for up to 18 months without trial.

Such laws “leave an abusive detention regime in place,’’ Human Rights Watch said.

The terror act has existed for some time and people arrested over alleged terrorist activities will be detained until the investigation on them ends, said Lakshman Hulugalla, head of the government’s Media Center for National Security. He also said people who are undergoing rehabilitation are being released.

The government is holding about 3,000 former rebels in rehabilitation centers. About 11,000 Tamil rebels surrendered and nearly 8,000 have been freed after rehabilitation, the military says.

Rights groups and countries including the United States have urged Sri Lanka to charge the detainees or release them.

The island had been in a state of emergency since 1983 but for brief lapses to help peace talks.

© AP | Boston Globe

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