Geneva overshadowed as Colombo hosts SL-US TIFA talks

Daily Financial Times
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In a progressive move, Sri Lanka and the US yesterday successfully concluded the 10th round of talks under the bilateral Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA).

Analysts described the talks and successful conclusion as a positive development as it was amidst continued political apprehension locally over the US-led resolution against Sri Lanka seeing successful passage at the UN Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva last week.

The Ministry of Industry and Commerce said yesterday that senior officials from the Governments of US and Sri Lanka met to continue their trade dialogue and evaluate progress under the TIFA.

The officials discussed a wide range of trade and investment issues including market access, the US-GSP, labour, trade promotion efforts, intellectual property rights, agriculture, promoting women entrepreneurs and sector-specific investment challenges.

“Officials of both Governments believe that progress on all these trade and investment issues foster economic growth, thus providing a strong foundation for inclusive economic development,” the Ministry said.

The United States and Sri Lanka agreed to establish a number of TIFA Committees to continue work throughout the year on a number of important bilateral trade and investment issues. The new TIFA Committees cover intellectual property, Customs cooperation and labour affairs. The two Governments also agreed to continue discussions on the possibility of establishing a Committee on Empowerment of Women Entrepreneurs.

Signed in 2002, the TIFA has been the primary forum for bilateral trade and investment discussions between the two countries.

The TIFA process has been the focal point of a sustained and multi-faceted high-level engagement between the US and Sri Lanka on trade and investment issues, including addressing impediments to greater trade and investment flows between the Parties.

Sri Lanka is currently the 80th largest goods trading partner of the United States with $ 2.4 billion in bilateral trade in 2011, though balance of trade favours Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka’s exports to the United States were worth approximately $ 2 billion, demonstrating a growth of 20% over 2010. On the other hand, Sri Lanka is the 114th largest market for the US, with exports amounting to only $ 307 million though up by 71.7% from 2010.

Senior officials discussed a range of labour-related matters, including Sri Lanka’s progress in addressing issues raised pursuant to the 2010 GSP review and an International Labour Organization technical assistance project funded by the US Department of Labour. The Labour Affairs Committee will provide a forum for continuing dialogue and collaboration on labour issues of mutual interest.

The US team will participate at the opening of Sri Lanka’s Expo 2012 today by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. This is the first exposition for Sri Lanka’s exporters and industries since 1997. There will be a number of events and programs focusing on US-Sri Lanka bilateral trade and investment issues, including an opening address on US-Sri Lanka trade and investment cooperation and a presentation on the US-GSP program for private sector participants at Expo2012.

© Daily FT

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'Sri Lanka Expo foreign presence sign of confidence' : president

Lanka Business Online
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The presence of a large delegation of foreign visitors at Sri lanka's Expo 2012 international trade fair and exhibition is an expression of confidence placed in the country, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said.

The fair is meant to show the world the new prospects for investment and trade in Sri Lanka after the end of its 30-year ethnic war in 2009, he said at the opening of Expo2012.

"Your presence in large numbers is truly encouraging and is a promise of future progress in our development," he told foreign delegates.

"The magnitude and arrangement of exhibits make it very clear that Sri Lanka is fully open to business."

Sri Lanka is a strategically important economic centre in the region, free of conflict, open to trade, and not held back by tough regulation with government encouraging the private sector," Rajapaksa said.

"That is why foreign direct investment has doubled. This year net inflows into the stock market are encouraging."

The Expo 2012 fair targets merchandise exports, services and investment with the travel trade and information technology and business process outsourcing firms also among the 370 exhibitors.

More than 1,300 foreign visitors had registered to attend the fair, Rishad Bathiudeen, Sri Lanka’s Minister of Industry & Commerce, said.

Export Development Board chairman Janaka Ratnayake said that after the end of the war Sri Lank is now in a position to attract new investments and boost tourism.

Despite the European debt crisis, sluggish world economy, and unrest in the Middle East, Sri Lanka is very resilient, he said.

"It is our aim to sustain and attain exports of 15 billion US dollars by 2015."

Trade delegations from USA (35 members), UAE (50), UK (45), Belgium (25), Singapore (35), Thailand (40), Malaysia (40), Korea (30), Pakistan (20), France (10), Russia (10) and Germany (10) will be attending.

China with 150 and India with 120 will be among the largest delegations. Ministerial delegations from Bangladesh, China, India, Korea, Maldives, Pakistan and the UAE are participating.

Among the large buyers who have already confirmed are Walmart Global Sourcing, ASDA, Arcadia, H & M, Victoria's Secret, Bhs, M&S, Calzedonia, Lulu and Carrefour, the export agency said.

At a trade and investment symposium will kick off on March 29, with international co-operation minister Sarath Amunugama and Central Bank governor Nivard Cabraal.

Jean-Marie Paugam, deputy executive director ITC, Geneva; Sandro Venonesi, chairman Calzedonia, Italy; Mark Harris, general manager London Stock Exchange group Iran Ogilvie, global head of business services, HSBC, will be participating.

The Commonwealth Secretariat will hold a workshop on international investment agreement negotiations and trade.

© LBO

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Black Prados of Pakistan vs the white vans of Sri Lanka

By Umar Cheema | The News
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When it comes to harassment of journalists, two South Asian friends, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, appear to exchange matching experiences and at both places the intelligence agencies are accused of these dirty tricks.

If the black Prado is a sign of fear for Pakistani journalists for its frequent use in state-sponsored abduction, the word ‘white van’ is nightmarish for Sri Lankan journalists as they are used by intelligence agencies for abducting journalists and human right activists.

Iqbal Athas, a Sri Lankan editor with 30-year professional experience, narrated in a conference here how the journalists in his country that he termed ‘endangered species’, are hounded, harassed and sometimes eliminated in a culture of impunity. Held at University of California (San Diego), the conference titled ‘Different Worlds, Similar Threats’ was jointly organised by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), Article 19 and Institute of Americas bringing journalists together from different parts of the world.

Although journalists from Russia, Latin America, Balkan and other regions also gave out presentations of the facts, Iqbal’s case has had a close resemblance of what happens in today’s Pakistan. His being a defence writer also adds his personal ordeals that he went through over the time ranging from attacks inside his house to the forced exile.

Like Pakistan, the critics of human rights abuses are branded traitors there, messaging services are scrutinised, journalists are abducted and killed and the entire exercise is carried out with full impunity.

As for white vans syndrome, Iqbal said ‘unknown but unarmed men’ who come in white vans kidnapped more than five journalists since 2006 and a number of other human rights activists. “So much so, the ‘white van syndrome’, because of the strong of white coaches the abductors used, became a fearful word. It forced some journalists to leave Sri Lanka.” Sri Lanka’s Military Intelligence is accused of these abductions, he said, and this practice has been going on since 2009.

Pakistan and Sri Lanka have excellent defence relations. Other than Pakistan that gets the major component, China trains Sri Lankan army in addition to providing ammunition and other defence needs of the force recently concluded a fight against the separatist Tamils.

Sri Lanka, declared the most dangerous country for journalists in recent years, has seen over 17 journalists killed and 27 injured since 2005. Iqbal has also suffered a lot and it started from 1998 when armed men stormed into his house, broke into the bedroom placing pitol on his right and left temples as he was watching TV with his seven-year old daughter. As he was marched out of the bedroom, his daughter started crying alerting the people in surrounding thus forcing the attackers to flee.

It turned out later that the assailants belonged to the air force chief as Iqbal had reported the malpractices and corruption in procurements. Iqbal returned to normalcy after some time but had to see a psychologist for next five-years for treating his daughter who could not recover that shocking sight. This was not the end of his trouble as he was forced into exile in 2009 other than the raiding incident at his residence and state-run media campaign dubbing him as a traitor.

His editor colleague Lasantha Wickrematunga was killed in January 2009 and another editor JS Tissainaygam was jailed and convicted on terrorism charges only to be released under international pressure.

Iqbal said recently a United Nations Human Rights Council’s resolution demanded investigation into the Sri Lanka’s alleged abuses of international humanitarian law during the war with Tamil tigers. Those journalists who supported this were dubbed traitors. Government sponsored demonstrators carried out protests near the residences of the ‘traitor’ journalists, shouting abusive slogans, carrying placards calling ‘terrorist acolyte’. Later these ‘protestors’ admitted they work for a local council and that they were ‘persuaded’ to carry placards and demonstrate for the reason they didn’t know.

So much so that the government’s minister for public relations Dr Mervyn Silva made a front-headline through a warning that he would break the limbs of journalists for making statements against the country. The latest assault on freedom of expression has come through an order by Ministry of Defence directing the mobile telephone operators to seek clearance for sending out SMS news on matters relating to ‘national security’.

© The News

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After UN vote, Sri Lanka to shut few embassies in Europe

IANS | First Post
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Less than a week after the West voted against Sri Lanka at a UN human rights meet, Colombo has decided to close some of its embassies in Europe.

The external affairs ministry said Tuesday that the embassies in Europe that were not serving any purpose in winning support for Sri Lanka’s national issues will be shut and new embassies will be opened in Asia.

“President Mahinda Rajapaksa had discussed the issue with the government. It will now be decided exactly which embassy in which country in Europe will be closed,” a ministry spokesperson told Xinhua.

He said the move was not a result of several European countries deciding to vote against Sri Lanka on a resolution over human rights violations at a 22 March UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva.

But the spokesperson quoted External Affairs Minister GL Peiris as saying that with almost all Asian countries, excluding India, voting for Sri Lanka in Geneva, it was felt that strengthening ties in Asia will be helpful for Colombo.

“The government has limited resources, so it is difficult to maintain embassies in every single country. So the government feels it will be more productive to have embassies in countries where we can gain something,” the official said.

The European Union voted for the US sponsored resolution asking Sri Lanka to fully implement the recommendations of an accountability commission following the end of the war in 2009.

© IANS

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Sri Lankan war crimes have not lost their resonance

By M.C.Rajan | Mail Online India
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The euphoria was short-lived. The hopes generated after India's vote at Geneva for holding Colombo accountable for war crimes, have now evaporated.

With Prime Minister Manmohan Singh bending over backwards to placate our tiny southern neighbor, there is nothing much to cheer about.

But the Lankan Tamil issue has returned to centre stage with all parties in the state speaking in one voice.

Even the normally reticent Tamil Nadu Congress Committee hasn't gone against the tide. Clearly, the issue of Lankan war crimes has not lost its resonance.

The Congress is accused of being a silent collaborator in the war. Worse, DMK was seen as a betrayer of the Tamil cause.

As a recent opinion poll shows, the plight of the Lankan Tamils continues to exercise the masses so much that many even favour the creation of an independent Eelam.

It is hardly surprising that the Congress has been reduced to a fringe player in the state.

The vote and its aftermath have exposed the lack of clarity on the part of New Delhi as well as the political class in the state.

It is sad that the politicians in Tamil Nadu and those in the forefront of the Lankan Tamil cause appear to remain content at raising their decibel levels.

They are far removed from the mainstream discourse of the Sri Lankan Tamil question.

No one has attempted a critique of the report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission appointed by the Sri Lankan Government.

Even the panel didn't give a clean chit to the island nation's army. Independent sources put the scale and magnitude of the human rights violations at a far higher level.

The Geneva resolution is only a logical extension of the international reaction to the human sufferings in Lanka. While the geopolitical interests of the Western nations are a reality, justice demands that large scale killings should not go unaccounted for.

In the absence of an informed public discourse, the Centre prefered to take an ostrich-like attitude. Some media critics went to the extent of questioning the rationale of the country's support for the resolution and lamented that foreign policy is becoming a prisoner of regional sentiments.

But, Dr Singh's letter to Sri Lankan premier Mahinda Rajapaksa, apart from being apologetic in its tone and tenor, doesn't suggest a change of stance-which is very necessary for a meaningful resolution of the ethnic problem in Sri Lanka.

'The PM should not have written the letter to placate Rajapaksa,' opines Lanka expert Prof Suryanarayanan.

In his view, it was unwarranted as New Delhi, though appearing to be hesitant in voting against Colombo, had enough reasons to justify it, despite getting the resolution diluted. In his view, the placatory letter has undermined the vote.

For, India has enough levers to influence Colombo and the Chinese threat vis-à-vis Sri Lanka is vastly exaggerated. New Delhi's hands-off policy after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi had only helped Sri Lanka to subvert the 13th Amendment, a grand vision of the former Prime Minister.

Though Rajapaksa talks of going 'beyond the 13th Amendment' he is yet to spell out what he has in mind. India needs to make its engagement more meaningful and result-oriented.

On the contrary, thus far, there is reluctance on its part to goad Rajapaksa to be accountable and move towards genuine reconciliation. Given this scenario, it is disappointing that Sri Lanka is adopting a hawkish position instead of seeing reason.

While India seems to have beaten a hasty retreat after the UNHRC vote, Colombo apparently seems emboldened. But, the yearning for justice by the Sri Lankan Tamils cannot be held hostage to imagined geopolitical calculations.

Needless to say, justice should not only be done but be seen to be done.

© Mail Online

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Sri Lanka reacts to the UN

The Economist
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Hillary Clinton is naked! Obama is naked!” shriek the Sinhala-language graffiti across a wall in Colombo. Following their government’s lead, many Sri Lankans are reacting angrily to the passage of an American-led initiative in the UN Human Rights Council which seeks reconciliation and accountability for war crimes that are alleged to have been committed at the end of their state’s civil war against the Tamil Tigers.

Three decades of war ended in 2009 with a bloody climax that left thousands of civilians dead and the Tigers defeated. Rights groups now want the government to account for the civilians who were killed by the army and to investigate allegations of serious war crimes that have been levelled against its soldiers. Having gained the UN’s support, the activists now face the wrath of a nationalistic public.

A very different group of critics say that the resolution, which was passed by a clear majority on March 22nd, was so watered down that it bordered on the blasé. But Mahinda Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka’s president, is bristling. Speaking at a function in a remote village on March 24th, he insisted that Sri Lanka will not tolerate “arbitrary interference” in its affairs.

So no deal, and no compromise. That was the position Sri Lanka took at the Geneva-based council, explained G.L. Peiris, the external affairs minister. Addressing a crowded press conference on March 26th, he blamed India squarely for having swayed the council in favour of the resolution.

Manmohan Singh, India’s prime minister, had announced two-and-a-half days before the final session that his government was “inclined to vote” for the resolution. His statement was swiftly circulated among the council’s members. Several among them who would have opposed the initiative consequently chose to vote for it or to abstain, Mr Peiris said.

Some analysts in Colombo saw this as an admission of just how influential India has become in shaping international opinion on South Asian issues. Others felt the Sri Lankan government was fumbling around for a scapegoat.

The real trouble was that India had said initially that it would oppose the resolution. Things changed after a senior member of the Sri Lankan delegation indiscreetly announced India’s position to the press. Major political parties in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, which claim to share an affinity with the Tamil population in Sri Lanka, then combined forces to demand a policy reversal.

After weeks of relentless haranguing from their coalition partners, India’s central government backtracked. Mr Peiris says this came as a “shock”. Hours before the vote, however, India’s diplomats negotiated with America to dilute the draft’s language. That intervention however, did not earn India any kudos with its neighbour to the south. Instead, Sri Lanka’s media is accusing the Indians of duplicity.

Sri Lanka’s political relations with India will weather this storm. As Basil Rajapaksa, the powerful economic development minister and the president’s brother conceded, “We will never forget our relationship with India”. By contrast, China—which voted against the resolution and denounced it for good measure—is being praised generously.

Sri Lanka’s strained ties with the West will undoubtedly get worse, not least because the resolution is regarded here as a hostile move. Western diplomats prefer to characterise it as a means of pressing the Rajapaksas’ lethargic government into keeping promises it has made in the name of accountability and reconciliation.

America’s initiative was co-sponsored by 40 countries. (Among them was Norway, which once attempted—and failed—to negotiate a permanent peace between the Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tiger rebels.) Among other things, its language urges Sri Lanka to implement the recommendations of a presidential commission that tried, ineffectually, to unravel the confusion of the war’s final stages.

The conclusions of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) are widely regarded as being inadequate, when it comes to the task of fact-finding. Still its report offered other proposals to solve the country’s longstanding ethnic grievances. For instance, it called for devolution of power and a rapid demilitarisation of the island’s north and east, where large numbers of the Tamil minority live. The government has so far resisted both.

Even before the dispute at the Human Rights Council, Sri Lanka was shifting its foreign policy emphasis to Asia, Africa and Latin America. As a part of this change, several of its diplomatic missions in Europe are to be closed down even as more are opened on other continents.

The government is seething that the West will not let up on demands for accountability. It sees these as being motivated by the pro-Tamil Tiger diaspora. During the weeks that preceded the resolution’s passage, government ministers went so far as to accuse America and its allies of conspiring to topple the regime.

The same sycophants warned that their heroic president was on the verge of being hauled up before an international war-crimes tribunal, though in fact he never was. Crowds protested outside Western diplomatic missions, burning effigies and jeering. One minister called for a boycott of all American products, including Google, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s.

It is grimly ironic that there is still no discussion on the contents or aims of the resolution. For its part, the government seems to be growing ever more belligerent. Nimal Siripala de Silva, a senior minister, said on March 27th that the commission had “gone beyond its mandate” and that careful consideration would be given before its proposals were implemented.

For months, the government had flaunted the very fact of the LLRC as a means of fending off international calls for a war-crimes investigation. Now it is questioning the commission’s own report. This is precisely what independent analysts had feared would happen. But at least Sri Lanka is officially under watch—if only overseas.

© The Economist

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Prageeth's wife latest victim of Sri Lankan intolerance

By Bob Dietz/Committee to Protect Journalists
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On Thursday and Friday, we wrote about the ugly government backlash to last week's U.N. Human Rights Council resolution calling for an investigation into Sri Lanka's alleged abuses of international humanitarian law during its war with Tamil separatists.

That campaign of intimidation continues: In the magistrate's court where Sandhya Eknelygoda has been trying to gain any information about the whereabouts of her husband, Prageeth, who disappeared on January 24, 2010, she came under harsh questioning -- observers at the court called it intentionally intimidating -- from government lawyers about her presence at the UNHRC in Geneva. Before she returned home from Switzerland, her name had been denounced in the government-controlled media as one of the government's critics -- several of whom have been denounced as "traitors."

Eknelygoda told colleagues in Colombo that Monday's entire court session was about how she went to Geneva, who funded her trip, why she betrayed her country, and how much she was paid to do that. Her lawyer objected to the line of questioning, but was overruled, she said.

When she had returned home on Sunday from Geneva, she told reporters, "I only wanted to bring the disappearance of my husband to the notice of the international community. But, those who are allied with the government insulted me, saying I went there to betray the country," she said. You can see a video report of her statement on YouTube.

Eknelygoda and her two teenage sons have been waging a quiet but steadfast campaign to pressure the government for information about their husband and father. CPJ and four other media support groups wrote to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in March 2011, asking for his intervention in the case. Ban referred the issue to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and UNESCO, where it has been allowed to languish, despite pleas from Eknelygoda and her supporters.

Nor has a January 2012 ruling by Sri Lanka's Appeal Court that former Attorney General Mohan Peiris could be called in as a witness into the disappearance of Eknelygoda been acted on. In a November 2011 posting, "Sri Lanka's savage smokescreen," CPJ reported that Peiris told the Asian Human Rights Commission that Eknelygoda had taken refuge in a foreign country and that the campaign against his disappearance is a hoax, although he failed then and ever since to provide detailed information about where Eknelygoda had fled.

At the time, CPJ said that Peiris's statements "do more than point up the government's indifference to Eknelygoda's fate and the mental anguish of his wife and two sons. Peiris's statements highlight the disregard with which the government views international opinion."

Given the response in the government-controlled media following last week's Geneva vote, that indifference and disregard have moved on to outright hostility.

© CPJ

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Dying for the truth in Sri Lanka

By Richard Lindell |ABC News
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While the Sinhalese majority in Sri Lanka appear willing to give up some democratic rights to the government that ended the civil war, others aren't. And for those activists and members of the media getting the truth out can be a deadly business. Activists and reporters continue to disappear, and dissenting voices are silenced in a climate of fear and intimidation.

Elizabeth Jackson: In a rare opportunity, correspondent Richard Lindell was recently granted a visa to Sri Lanka.

There he saw first hand a government intent on intimidation and a population cowered into submission. That includes the country's journalists. Richard Lindell spoke to Frederica Jansz, the editor of Sri Lanka's Sunday Leader.

Fredrica Jansz: We have been attacked nine times, we are 18-years-old and our presses have been burnt down twice. And of course we paid the ultimate price when our founder, editor-in-chief Lasanthe Wickrematunge, was murdered in January 2009.

Even after that murder, I myself continue to receive death threats. So yes it's a huge challenge to remain independent.

And more recently we even had the president himself calling my chairman and the owner of the newspaper and yelling at him, literally yelling, for a front page news item that we had carried exposing that he had siphoned off a billion rupees into a private account from a Chinese grant.

Richard Lindell: What you've just talked about seems to back the Reporters Without Borders report that says journalists, even now three years after the war, continue to be attacked, beaten, harassed and labelled as traitors if they speak up against the government.

Fredrica Jansz: Oh yes. And at the Sunday Leader that is a term that has been, we have been consistently called just that, traitors. Again by the defence secretary himself on the Defence Ministry website where he labelled not only us but also our lawyers, who were appearing for us in court cases, as traitors and terrorists.

Richard Lindell: Given the considerable personal risk, why do you continue to do it?

Fredrica Jansz: I believe in what I am doing. Someone has to do it. And I believe that at the Sunday Leader we have contributed somewhat to make some change, even if it is in the way people think in this country, and that by itself is a huge step.

Richard Lindell: When I read the Sri Lankan media it appears that the government is winning the propaganda war. Most of the media coverage is very favourable to the government. It does address the issues of the day but very much from the government's standpoint.

Fredrica Jansz: It is indeed. It's pathetic really, the current situation where the media is concerned in this country. Everybody - yes the government has been extremely successful in forcing the media into submission.

Richard Lindell: What about the general population, the readers, the viewers, do they buy what they're watching? Do they really think this is a fair and accurate depiction of what's going on in Sri Lanka?

Fredrica Jansz: I don't think readers actually think that it's a fair and accurate. Having said that, civil society in Sri Lanka is lethargic and dormant. So unfortunately, even with a newspaper like ours, we can only write it as it is, but there is nobody out there in terms of a civil society organisation or even the main opposition party to take forward those issues.

Richard Lindell: In the final editorial written by the former editor, Lasanthe Wickrematunge, he asked whether the readers, whether the general population, deserved the sacrifices Sri Lankan journalists were making and implored people not to take that commitment for granted. Do you think people, do you think the general population does care enough today?

Fredrica Jansz: No. I don't think so. And yes I agree with those words. We are taken for granted and we seem to be lone crusaders out there and that really is the tragedy for society here in Sri Lanka today.

Richard Lindell: So again I need to ask you the question, why do you continue to do it if most of the population really doesn't seem to be engaging in the issues, in the fight against the politics and the policies of the government?

Fredrica Jansz: Because I, as a newspaper editor, if I lose hope then I shouldn't be sitting here or doing what I'm doing. I still have hope that I can make that change.

Elizabeth Jackson: That's Frederica Jansz the editor of Sri Lanka's Sunday Leader and she was speaking to our South Asia correspondent Richard Lindell.

© ABC News

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Why the UN acts to hold Sri Lanka accountable for war crimes

By J.S. Tissainayagam | Global Post
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A resolution on Sri Lanka was passed in the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, Thursday. Human rights activists hailed the resolution as a hopeful first step by the international community in holding Sri Lanka accountable to war crimes. It is significant that this resolution was sponsored by the United States which became a full member of the UNHRC only in 2009.

The 27-year civil war in Sri Lanka between the Sinhala and Tamil communities ended in May 2009 with the government defeating the Tamil guerrilla group, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The aftermath of the war saw increasing evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Government and LTTE during the final months of fighting.

The resolution in Geneva calls upon the Government of Sri Lanka to implement the recommendations of the Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC). The LLRC was appointed by Sri Lanka in the wake of sustained international censure for war crimes.

The LLRC’s recommendations, which were made public in December 2011, while acknowledging that civilians had been killed by the Sri Lanka military, exonerated its actions by saying that such deaths were not widespread and systematic. The LLRC, however, unambiguously accused the LTTE of war crimes. Its report recommended the Sri Lanka government appoint a domestic body to investigate these acts and punish the wrongdoers.

The recommendations of the LLRC were met with a robust pushback by the international community, Tamil groups and human rights organisations. They emphasised that only an international body, and not a domestic one, would have the stature and power to hold an impartial investigation free of government interference.

But while they called for an international investigation, Sri Lanka was reluctant to implement even the recommendations of its own commission, the LLRC. This resulted in the international community finally moving as a compromise in Geneva, a resolution which only called for implementing the LLRC recommendations and not for an international investigation.

The human rights community is reasonably satisfied that a clause in the resolution, asking the UNHRC to monitor progress in the implementation of the LLRC, will ensure compliance by Sri Lanka. But, at the same time, rights activists are cognisant that the UN’s institutional drawbacks in Sri Lanka could be an impediment in achieving this.

Rights activists are worried that the UNHRC will have to work through the UN office in Sri Lanka to monitor the progress of the implementation. Unfortunately, while the UN’s office there has a functioning human rights desk, it has been completely overshadowed by the UN’s role as a donor and implementer of economic development programmes. The question is: will the UN have the resources and more than that the will to make the necessary transformation?

If the past is anything to go by, the UN has not shown the will. For instance, just before the Sri Lankan military launched its final assault on the LTTE under whose control were at least 300,000 Tamil civilians, the Government made an announcement that all international organisations and NGOs should leave the conflict area. Despite fervent pleas by the civilian population not abandon them, the UN left without any attempt to negotiate with the government to remain. Gordon Weiss the then UN spokesman in Sri Lanka described this as “a mistake.” Leaving without attempting to negotiate runs contrary to the UN’s usual practice as was amply demonstrated in Darfur.

Another controversy was the UN’s refusal to release casualty figures in the final months of fighting in Sri Lanka. The UN initially maintained “we do not count bodies.” However, the Inner City Press said on March, 18, 2009 that leaked documents revealed the UN’s Office of the Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) did have the numbers, which were deliberately withheld. The Inner City Press observed that “unlike in other conflicts from Darfur to Gaza, the UN withheld the Sri Lanka figures, in effect protecting the Sri Lankan government.”

These are but a few incidents that have led to commentators voicing doubts on the impartiality of the UN’s role in Sri Lanka.

If so, how are the gains in Geneva to be preserved? One way out might be for the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Department of Political Affairs to play more pivotal roles in Sri Lanka than they do today. If the UN is to “take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace” as is mandated in its Charter, its headquarters needs to work more closely with its Sri Lanka mission.

This could be accomplished is by the countries that voted in favour of the Geneva resolution taking the lead in making the UN strengthen its political and human rights mandates in its Sri Lanka mission. Negligence in this task might find Sri Lanka slipping out of its obligations.

J. S. Tissainayagam is a Weatherhead Fellow in International Affairs at Harvard University. He was Nieman Fellow in Journalism (2010-11) also at Harvard. Previously, he worked for a number of English national newspapers in Sri Lanka.

© Global Post

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Journalists are 'traitors', says Sri Lanka's state TV

By Roy Greenslade | The Guardian
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Sri Lanka's state-controlled media has described journalists as "traitors" following the UN human rights council's call for an investigation into the country's alleged abuses during its war against Tamil separatists.

In an attack on Sri Lankan journalists, both at home and in exile, state television accused them of "betraying the motherland."

Although the broadcaster did not name the journalists who had participated in the human rights council sessions, it screened "thinly disguised photographs of them" and said it would reveal their names soon.

Journalists in the capital, Colombo, told the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) they were concerned about the campaign against them.

The CPJ responded by calling on the Sri Lankan government to halt its intimidation of journalists.

"The government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa has a long and alarming record of intolerance to criticism," said Bob Dietz, CPJ's Asia programme coordinator.

"The international community must be extra vigilant in ensuring that Sri Lankan journalists are not subjected to reprisals for voicing their concerns to the human rights council."

The UN resolution called on Sri Lanka to investigate abuses carried out by its military in 2009, at the end of the decades-long war with separatists known as the Tamil Tigers.

© The Guardian

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Sri Lanka Army holds first ever military tattoo in former war-zone

Colombo Page
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Sri Lanka Army's first ever military tattoo in the Jaffna peninsula has been well attended by an unprecedented crowd in the former war zone since its opening Friday, the Army reported.

The three-day long Army 'Searchlight Tattoo' was opened for the public on March 23 at the Alfred Duraiappah Public Stadium in Jaffna. It is being held until Sunday (25).

This year's event, unlike in previous instances elsewhere, is free to the public as a gesture of goodwill, the Army said. The event has attracted hundreds of youth and school children in and around Jaffna, the Army said.

Special public transport services have been organized on all three days for the convenience of the attendees.

The Jaffna Army Searchlight Tattoo showcases various skills of the Army, including mock simulation attacks and rescue of hostages, Army ceremonial features, free fall parachute jumps, dog shows, stunt riding displays and firework displays.

© Colombo Page

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Sri Lanka: Minister threatens to break limbs of journos

By Lal. S. Kumara | Daily Mirror
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Minister of Public Relations Mervyn Silva warned that he will break the limbs of some journalists, who have gone abroad and made various statements against the country, if they dare to set foot in the country.

“I’m the one who chased one of those journalists ‘PoddalaJayantha’ out of this country. I will break the limbs of all these journalists, in public if they dare to set foot in the country” the Minster warned.

Speaking at a demonstration against the resolution against Sri Lanka at the UNHRC held in Kiribathgoda today Silva also said it is the only the President who can remove him from office.

He also said “Even if a Tsunami flow from Sigiriya I’m sure that no Tsunami will flow against me from President Mahinda Rajapaksa” . “Only Mahinda Rajapakshe can sack me, no other big shot can lay their hands on me until that happened I won’t leave Kelaniya. I know the sons of D.A. Rajapaksa from the time they were kids. The King of this country loves me, the King of this country trusts me” he said.

The Minister informed the public present at the meeting that his son, from this day, would be in the hands of the public. “I’m not afraid to die; two drug dealers from Colombo want to chase me away. But I’m not frightened to die, if something happens to my life, my wife and two children will still be there. From this day onwards my son will be in your hands” he said.

© Daily Mirror

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UN rights chief warns against Sri Lankan activist attacks

AFP | Expatica
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The UN rights chief warned Friday against reprisals against Sri Lankan activists, noting "threats and intimidation" carried out by Colombo in the run-up to a contested war crimes probe vote.

The UN Human Rights Council on Thursday adopted to the consternation of Colombo a US-led resolution demanding a probe to violations carried out in Sri Lanka's battle against Tamil Tigers separatists during their war in 2009.

The run-up to the vote was marked by "an unprecedented and totally unacceptable level of threats, harassment and intimidation directed at Sri Lankan activists who had travelled to Geneva to engage in the debate, including by members of the 71-member official Sri Lankan government delegation," said Pillay.
In Sri Lanka, media outlets have also been running a "continuous campaign of vilification, including naming and in many cases picturing activists, describing them as an 'NGO gang' and repeatedly accusing them of treason, mercenary activities and association with terrorism," said Pillay.

"Some of these reports have contained barely veiled incitement and threats of retaliation," she added.

Some of these reports were carried by state media outlets or filed by journalists accredited to the Human Rights Council session through the Sri Lankan mission, noted the UN rights chief.

"There must be no reprisals against Sri Lankan human rights defenders in the aftermath of yesterday's adoption by the Human Rights Council of a resolution on Sri Lanka," she added.

Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan envoy to Geneva himself also received an anonymous letter which UN security and the police are investigating, she said.

© AFP

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Sri Lanka rejects UN demands for inquiry

By Ben Doherty | The Age
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Sri Lanka will resist international pressure to hold an independent investigation into war crimes allegations against government forces, saying countries were bullied into supporting a UN resolution against it by the US and other ''powerful countries''.

Its Foreign Minister, G.L.Peiris, said the countries which supported Sri Lanka were ''acutely conscious of the danger of setting a precedent which enables ad hoc intervention by powerful countries in the internal affairs of other nations''.

The government would not bow to international demands for an inquiry, Mr Peiris said.

The UN's 47-member Human Rights Council this week passed the resolution which called on Sri Lanka to allow an independent probe into allegations the government committed war crimes during its civil conflict against the separatist Tamil Tigers.

Any probe could be acutely uncomfortable for the Sri Lankan government, reaching to the very top of the Rajapaksa family-dominated administration.

In Colombo, protesters took to the streets, condemning the UN, and carrying pictures of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who, they say, freed their country from terrorism.

The resolution, co-sponsored by the US, France and Norway, said Sri Lanka's domestic investigation, the Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission, did ''not adequately address serious allegations of violations of international law''.

Carefully worded - and watered-down from its original text - it demanded Sri Lanka ensured ''justice, equity, accountability and reconciliation'', following the end of the 27-year war.

A UN panel of experts report last year found up to 40,000 civilians may have been killed during the government's final offensive against the Tamil Tigers in the country's north in 2009.

© The Age

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A return to Sri Lanka’s killing fields by Channel 4

By Barry Mason | World Socialist Web Site
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Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields: War Crimes Unpunished was a follow-up to Channel 4’s Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields documentary shown in June 2011.

Presented by Jon Snow, it showed further horrific scenes of the closing days of the campaign against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the thousands of civilians caught up in it.

The Sri Lankan government produced its response to the original charges made by Channel 4 2011 documentary of war crimes carried out in the closing stages of the campaign against the LTTE. It produced a report at the end of last year, “The Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC)”.

Snow said that while the report conceded a large number of civilians had died and expressed concern about a large number of Tamils detained at that time who have now disappeared, it failed to answer any of the charges of war crimes made against Sri Lankan forces. It also denies that any civilians were deliberately targeted and did not hold anyone to account.

Case histories were used to show that war crimes had been committed and that responsibility lay with the government and the armed forces.

In January 2009, a no-fire zone was established within the rapidly shrinking area of LTTE control, to which civilians fled. United Nations representatives on the ground set up a bunker within the no-fire zone and the coordinates were sent to the Sri Lankan government so army shell fire could be directed away from it.

Over the next few days, shells continued to rain down on the bunker, leading to carnage. A confidential internal UN report cited by the programme stated, “The probability of shellfire originating from government of Sri Lanka forces is considered 100 percent.”
Eventually, after personnel in the bunker contacted UN and Australian representatives in Colombo pleading for them to pass the coordinates to the Sri Lankan heads of armed forces, the shelling was diverted slightly to avoid the bunkers but still fell within the no-fire zone. This showed the shelling originated from government forces and that they must have been aware of its murderous impact.
Civilians fled the no-fire zone and headed for a second smaller one declared by the Sri Lankan government on February 12, on a long narrow piece of land adjacent to the ocean. Three-hundred thousand civilians set up camp there.

In its second case history, the programme accused the Sri Lankan government of denying food and medicine to hundreds of thousands of trapped civilians by deliberately downplaying the numbers caught in the second declared no-fire zone. A cable from the US embassy in Colombo in April 2009, posted on WikiLeaks, showed the Sri Lankan government estimate of civilians left in the LTTE controlled area to be 60,000. Yet the United States and UN, using evidence from satellite pictures and other methods, put the true figure at several hundred thousand. The Sri Lankan government had drones in the area and must have been aware of the number of civilians.

The small amounts of food and medicine allowed into the area contributed to a huge humanitarian crisis. The deliberate restricting of food and medical supplies to civilians within a war zone is a war crime. The Channel 4 footage showed malnourished refugees and people with horrific wounds that had to be left untreated.

The original 2011 Channel 4 documentary showed footage of Sri Lankan soldiers executing naked and bound LTTE soldiers in the final days of the war. The footage had been taken by the soldiers as trophy videos on their mobile phones. It was independently verified, yet Sri Lankan authorities accused Channel 4 of faking the footage.

The current documentary explained that the LLRC did touch on these executions, but came to no conclusions. Last month, the army announced that an inquiry would take place, run by the army rather than an independent body.

The final case history showed new and shocking footage of executions by the army, with responsibility going to the top of the chain of command. Footage included the execution of the 12-year-old son of the LTTE leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran. A sworn affidavit taken from a senior Sri Lankan officer explains how the boy was sent along with five LTTE bodyguards to surrender to the Sri Lankan military. He was interrogated to get information on the whereabouts of his father. The affidavit finishes with the officer saying he subsequently learned the boy and the five bodyguards were dead.

The footage showed the bodyguards dead on the ground, apparently shot after being bound as in the previous footage of executions. Channel 4 again got the footage independently verified. The footage showing the dead boy was examined by an independent forensic pathologist. He concluded the boy had initially been shot at close range, standing in front of the soldier who fired the shot, which was near his heart. The pathologist explained that the subsequent wounds on the body must have been inflicted as the boy lay on the ground on his back. He described the boy’s death as a murder.

The next day, the body of Prabhakaran himself was displayed on television. The documentary analysed the footage of the head wound suffered by Prabhakaran and concluded his death was also the result of an execution, rather than a wound suffered in combat.

The widespread pattern of the executions involving being bound and shot in the back of the head suggests a policy directed from above, rather than the actions of rogue soldiers.

The conflict finally ended on May 19. The programme showed how the West was prepared to accept at face value assurances by the Sri Lankan government and to turn a blind eye while it finished off the LTTE. Then-UK foreign secretary David Miliband met with his Sri Lankan counterpart on April 29, 2009, while the army was carrying out its murderous operation. A leaked cable from the US embassy in Colombo to Washington quoted Miliband describing the Sri Lankan government as liars in its statements regarding the deaths and sufferings of civilians caught up in the war zone.

In a keynote speech—written for him by UK public relations firm Bell and Pottinger—at the UN in New York following the end of the war, Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapakse was well received. He warned the international community to keep out of Sri Lanka’s business.

Rajapakse can rest easy, knowing Sri Lanka’s strategic importance for the US in its ongoing war preparations for a future conflict with China will provide all the diplomatic cover he will need.

© WSWS

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US eases restrictions on Sri Lanka defense sales

AP | Boston Globe
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The U.S. has eased restrictions on defense sales to Sri Lanka to allow exports of equipment for aerial and maritime surveillance.

The State Department enacted the changes Thursday, just as the U.N. Human Rights Council urged Sri Lanka to investigate allegations of war crimes during its civil conflict that ended in 2009.

The department said the two developments were unrelated.

It may, however, help ease strains in the bilateral relationship. The U.S. proposed the resolution approved by the U.N. human rights body.

© AP

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Sri Lanka press slams 'neo-imperial' war crime vote

AFP | Bangkok Post
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Sri Lanka's media reacted angrily Friday to a US-led resolution demanding a war crimes probe and said the island had done well to go down fighting at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The state-run Daily News said the 24 nations which voted in favour of the resolution urging a credible investigation into alleged war crimes during Sri Lanka's battle against Tamil rebels in 2009 were being destructive.

The countries that backed the resolution were making "a desperate attempt to disempower and undermine Sri Lanka and they are trying every trick in the bag to further this dark design," the Daily News said.

It reported Thursday's vote at the UNHRC under the headline: "Might overrules right."

The privately-run, but pro-government Island newspaper commended the hawkish administration of President Mahinda Rajapakse for putting up a fight in Geneva.

"The cornered badger bravely fought the mastiffs of neo-imperialism, savage in the fray, and went down fighting yesterday," the Island said. "It certainly was a defeat as good as victory."

The paper also took a swipe at Sri Lanka's traditional ally India which turned its back on Colombo during the council's contested vote.

"India has been a loser in Geneva, though it helped the US win," the Island said. "India failed to carry Asia, or at least South Asia with it. In other words, Sri Lanka has won against India in Asia."

Tabling the resolution, the US said Colombo had been given three years to hold its own probe into allegations of war crimes, but "given the lack of action... it is appropriate" that the 47-member UNHRC pushed it to do so.

Rights groups say up to 40,000 civilians died in the final months of Colombo's military campaign to crush the Tamil Tigers, who waged a bloody decades-long campaign for a separate homeland for minority Tamils.

Colombo has denied its troops were responsible for any non-combatant deaths, but UN-mandated experts have accused the Sri Lankan military of killing most of the civilian victims in their final offensive against the rebels in 2009.

The United Nations estimates some 100,000 people died during Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict between 1972 and 2009.

International rights activists welcomed Thursday's decision as a step in the right direction.

© AFP

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Sri Lanka unfazed by U.N. rights resolution

By Amantha Perera | Inter Press Service
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As the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) voted in, Thursday, a resolution asking Colombo to act on recommendations made by its own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), Buddhist prayers reverberated through the Sri Lankan capital.

"It is a resolution that encourages Sri Lanka to implement the recommendations of its own LLRC and to make concerted efforts at achieving the kind of meaningful accountability upon which lasting reconciliation efforts can be built," United States ambassador to the Council, Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, said in Geneva.

As expected, Sri Lankan leaders rejected the resolution. Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, head of the Sri Lankan delegation in Geneva, termed it as misconceived, unwarranted and ill timed. "Shouldn’t we be given more time and space?"

But, two years and 10 months have elapsed since the Sri Lankan military decisively ended this island’s three-decade-old civil war, and the majority of UNHRC members thought it was time Colombo acted to safeguard the rights of the Tamil minority on the island.

Thousands of civilians died as the war ended in 2009 with a bloody offensive into the northern areas of the country where the militant Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was then entrenched.

The U.S. – led resolution was passed with 24 voting in favour, 15 against and eight abstaining in the 47-member U.N. body.

"It is a matter of great satisfaction to us that 15 countries voted with Sri Lanka, despite the intensity of pressure, in a variety of forms, exerted on them all," said G.L. Peiris, Sri Lanka’s foreign minister, in a statement.

"As far as Sri Lanka is concerned, our policy in respect of all matters will continue to be guided by the vital interests and wellbeing of the people of our country. It hardly requires emphasis that this cannot yield place to any other consideration," Peiris’ statement said.

Significantly, Sri Lanka’s ally and influential neighbour, India, voted in favour of the resolution. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had indicated to Indian parliament, on Mar. 19, a shift in stance by a country that had stood with Colombo against U.S. and European moves to bring the war before the UNHRC in 2009.

An Indian official statement said the Sri Lankan government had committed at the UNHRC in 2009, to "forge a consensual way forward towards reconciliation through a political settlement respecting all the ethnic and religious groups inhabiting the nation."

India urged Sri Lanka to "take measures for accountability and to promote human rights that it has committed to. It is these steps, more than anything we declare in this Council, which would bring about genuine reconciliation between all the communities of Sri Lanka, including the minority Tamil community."

"As a neighbour with thousands of years of cordial relations with Lanka, with deep-rooted spiritual and cultural ties, we cannot remain untouched by developments in that country," the Indian statement said

Rights activists in Sri Lanka told IPS that the UNHRC resolution’s impact on the country would be symbolic.

"The symbolism is that many countries have expressed their assessment that the country has not lived up to their expectations in terms of international human rights obligations," Ruki Fernando, head of the human rights in conflict programme at the national advocacy and research body, the Law and Society Trust, told IPS.

Fernando said much now depends on "whether the government is willing to move ahead with the LLRC recommendations and work with the Council as suggested in the third recommendation in the resolution."

Established in September 2010 by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to look into the conduct of the war from 2002 till May 2009, when it ended, the LLRC handed over its final report with the recommendations last November.

Indications, in the build up to the vote in Geneva, suggest that the government is unlikely to cooperate. Sri Lankan delegation leader Mahinda Samarasinghe told UNHRC that his country would inform it periodically on progress, voluntarily, as it had done even before the war.

Barely 24 hours before the vote, President Rajapaksa told a public meeting in the northwestern town of Puttalam that he would not allow any form of foreign intervention.

"This is the second battle we are facing, after the war (against the LTTE)," Wimal Weeravansha, minister for housing, told another packed rally in Colombo on Mar. 13.

Weeravansha who has been leading public protests against what he terms as attempts by West to interfere – he launched a fast-unto-death in mid-2010 before the U.N. offices in Colombo that only ended when the president intervened – called on Sri Lankans to boycott U.S. products, including Coca-Cola and Google.

The overwhelming sense at public rallies is that Sri Lanka and the Rajapaksa government are being targeted by Western powers for independent policies and alignment with powers like China, Russia and India.

Tamil political leaders have a completely different view and support the U.N. resolution.

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the largest party representing minority Tamils in parliament, said that it was pushed to support the resolution because of the government's lethargy in acting on power devolution and feels that only international prodding will help.

"The government has not done anything towards finding a solution (to power devolution) but has been going on according its own agenda. We have no option but to ask for international support," TNA parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran told IPS.

"The LLRC is the government’s own baby. But, it has not even implemented the interim recommendations of the LLRC. We strongly feel that these issues cannot be solved without international participation," he added.

The resolution, however, avoids reference to war crimes or an international investigation, as called for by international rights groups like Amnesty International, the Human Rights Watch and the International Crisis Group.

The final draft said assistance from the UNHRC will be obtained "in consultation with, and with the concurrence of, the government of Sri Lanka" - reportedly through Indian influence.

These nuances are, however, no reason for a change of heart from the supporters of the government on the streets.

"This is a veiled attempt to influence our country, to make sure that they (West) can set up a proxy administration here," said Waragoda Premarathana, a Buddhist monk who had taken part in the Mar.19 rally.

© IPS

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Sri Lanka not to change policies despite outcome in Geneva

Xinhua | China Radio International
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Whatever the outcome in the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session in Geneva is, Sri Lanka will not change its policies and ongoing projects, a government spokesman said on Thursday.

Acting Cabinet spokesman Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena on Thursday said that the conduct of the government would not be changed depending on Thursday's decision in Geneva.

"Even before the U.S. backed resolution was introduced Sri Lanka had acted on various decisions to bring about reconciliation at the end of three decades civil war," he said.

Abeywardena explained that the government started resettlement of internally displaced persons, rehabilitated former rebels, recruited Tamil speaking policemen and developed former war-torn areas without any external influence after war.

He said whatever the outcome in Geneva, the country would continue with its policies that have already started.

Abeywardena added the U.S. sponsored resolution would not be able to be passed unless there is undue influence by the Western nations.

The vote on the U.S.-backed resolution on Sri Lanka is scheduled to be held on Thursday at the UNHRC in Geneva.

Over the last two weeks, supporters of the government and religious leaders conducted protest marches and demonstrations in capital Colombo, urging the United States and other Western countries not to exert pressure on Sri Lanka which is rising from the ashes of prolonged civil war.

The United States had moved for the resolution on Sri Lanka in order to push the government to address accountability issues during the final stages of the war against Tamil Tiger rebels and to also implement recommendations of a war commission.

© CRI

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UN adopts resolution on Sri Lanka

Photo courtesy:vikalpa.org

BBC News
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The UN Human Rights Council has adopted a resolution urging Sri Lanka to investigate alleged abuses during the final phase of war with Tamil rebels.

The US-backed motion called on Colombo to address alleged abuses of international humanitarian law.

It passed with 24 votes in favour, 15 against, eight abstentions. Sri Lanka denounced the process as "arbitrary".

Correspondents say that the US has become increasingly frustrated by Sri Lanka's approach to the rights issue.

In 2010 the European Union withheld trade preferences to Sri Lanka over its perceived failure to address human rights concerns.

In a statement, Sri Lanka's mission to the UN said the vote was a "selective and arbitrary process".

"The obvious reality is that voting at the Human Rights Council is now determined not by the merits of a particular issue but by strategic alliances and domestic political issues in other countries which have nothing to do with the subject matter of a Resolution," the statement said.

Sri Lanka's army defeated the separatist Tamil Tigers in May 2009, putting an end to 26 years of brutal civil war - but the final phase of that war has been a source of considerable controversy, with both sides accused of war crimes.

The resolution tabled by the US:

asks the government to explain how it will address alleged violations of international humanitarian law

asks how Sri Lanka will implement the recommendations of an internal inquiry into the war

encourages the UN human rights office to offer Sri Lanka advice and assistance and the government to accept such advice

But there have been unconfirmed reports the text was revised during the proceedings. Among the countries voting in favour of the resolution were Belgium, the US and India. China and Russia were among nations which supported Sri Lanka and opposed the resolution.

India's support for the motion is likely to cause diplomatic tensions, analysts say.

Thousands of people in Sri Lanka, including some religious clerics and former military officers, have taken part in marches to protest against the resolution in recent weeks.

Campaign against 'traitors'

The vote comes amid a government campaign against what it calls "traitors", which has targeted journalists and human rights workers.

State television is using long slots in its Sinhala-language bulletins to denounce Sri Lankan journalists, some now in exile but some still in the country, who it says are helping the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels or "betraying the motherland".

Those based in Sri Lanka are not named but the TV repeatedly zooms in on thinly disguised photographs of them, promising to give their names soon and "expose more traitors".

State media have been similarly deprecating human rights workers who are in Geneva for the Human Rights Council session, the BBC's Charles Haviland in Colombo says.

A local organisation, the Free Media Movement, has condemned the broadcasts as "highly unethical". Such state broadcasts have in the past resulted in violent attacks on some accused people.

The Sri Lankan government commissioned its own investigation into the war last year.

Its Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) cleared the military of allegations that it deliberately attacked civilians. It said that there had been some violations by troops, although only at an individual level.

But another report commissioned by the UN secretary general reached a different conclusion, saying that allegations of serious rights violations were "credible" on both sides.

Rights groups Amnesty International described it as "a vital step forward for the country and for international justice".

Human rights groups estimate that up to 40,000 civilians were killed in the final months of the war. The government recently released its own estimate, concluding that about 9,000 people perished during that period.

© BBC

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'Western agenda used' for Sri Lanka war crimes

BBC Sinhala
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The director of a British documentary on last stages of Sri Lanka’s civil war has accused the West and the UN of failing to take any “effective action” to prevent alleged war crimes by the country’s security forces.

Callum Macrae, the director of “Sri Lanka Killing Fields: War Crimes Unpunished” said that many allegations against Sri Lanka government have been confirmed through leaked UN documents, US embassy cables revealed by Wikileaks and an interview former senior UN official John Holmes.

“The international community has an obligation of duty to protect which is a fundamental principal under international law. That duty was not carried out; the international community has failed on that,” he told BBC Sinhala service, Sandeshaya.

Mr Macrae says there were two major reasons for the “failure” by the international community to prevent Sri Lanka continuing with war crimes.

'Shelling UN workers'

“The climate this was allowed to happen was that Rajapaksa regime used the Western Agenda global war on terror to justify what they were doing,” he said.

The film, to be released next week in UK by the Channel4, also figures harrowing details of the killing of Rasmachandran Prabhakaran, 12, the younger son of Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.

Mr Macrae said the footage, recorded by a member of Sri Lankan armed forces, has been carefully examined by video experts to confirm that it was authentic.

“The forensic pathologist analysed and the moment of death from the nature of the wounds and it is clear that he was executed in cold blood,” he added.

The killing, together with other incidents of alleged executions by the security forces, is a clear proof that there was a “systematic pattern of executions of leading LLTE figures and fighters.”

The film alleges that orders for the alleged executions as well as “deliberate targeting of civilians” have come from the most senior commanders, including President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and Commander of Sri Lanka Army, Gen Sarath Fonseka.

“The Sri Lankan military is very very disciplined and very organised. The men who have most frequently claimed direct control of the war were President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother Gotabhaya,” he said.

The film reveals, says Callum Macrae, how a group of UN workers were fired upon by the Sri Lanka military after the workers informed their GPS coordinates to the military.

“There were systematic shelling of the UN bunker and the area around it. When they protested about it, they were told were sent directly by Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and Sarath Fonseksa,” he said, adding that it shows the highest command was aware about the attacks into the no fire zone.

“Those men bear direct commanding responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

The director said nobody would deny that the Tamil Tigers were also responsible for serious war crimes including the using civilians as a human shield in the war zone.

“The war crimes committed by the LTTE are clear and documented and are not challenged,” said Mr Macrae.

“However, it is important to recognise that the international community demands highest standards from a government which claim to be a democratically elected, legitimate government.”

© BBC SInhala

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GoSL reminds US of what its ‘own man’ in Colombo revealed

By Shamindra Ferdinando | The Island
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Sri Lanka striving to defeat a US-led resolution at the current session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) strongly believes a statement attributed to former US Defence Attache, Lt. Col. Lawrence Smith at a seminar in Colombo can’t be ignored by those pursuing the government on the human rights front.

The unprecedented statement made towards the end of Lt. Col. Smith’s tenure in Colombo in response to a query raised by retired Indian Maj. Gen. Ashok Metha disputed the very basis of the assertion that the LTTE wanted to surrender to advancing troops, though the government ignored the move.

The US soldier intervened, though Maj. Gen. Metha, who had served as the IPKF commander in the Ampara-Batticaloa sector in 1987, directed the question to Maj. Gen. Shavendra Silva, now at the centre of a controversy over indiscriminate military action on the Vanni front.

Authoritative Defence and External Affairs officials told The Island that the US, too, couldn’t close the eyes to its own man’s statement if it was genuinely interested in knowing the truth. Sources said that all major Colombo based diplomatic missions probably had agreed with the US official’s assumption, though the US State Department distanced itself from the statement attributed to Lt. Col. Smith. The US being a Co-Chair for Sri Lanka’s peace process, knew what was going on in the wake of close quarter combat operations on the Vanni east front.

This is what Lt. Col. Lawrence Smith had to say.

"Hello, may I say something to a couple of questions raised. I’ve been the defence attaché here at the US Embassy since June 2008. Regarding the various versions of events that came out in the final hours and days of the conflict — from what I was privileged to hear and to see, the offers to surrender that I am aware of seemed to come from the mouthpieces of the LTTE — Nadesan, KP — people who weren’t and never had really demonstrated any control over the leadership or the combat power of the LTTE.

"So their offers were a bit suspect anyway, and they tended to vary in content hour by hour, day by day. I think we need to examine the credibility of those offers before we leap to conclusions that such offers were in fact real.

"And I think the same is true for the version of events. It’s not so uncommon in combat operations, in the fog of war, as we all get our reports second, third and fourth hand from various commanders at various levels that the stories don’t seem to all quite match up.

"But I can say that the version presented here so far in this is what I heard as I was here during that time. And I think I better leave it at that before I get into trouble. "

"In Washington, no sooner he made these remarks (which were published exclusively in The Island) the US State Department disassociated itself with Lt. Col. Smith’s remarks.

"The State Department’s Deputy Spokesman Mark C. Toner said that the defense attaché had attended the seminar as an observer and a note taker. "His comments reflected his personal opinions. There’s no change in the policy of the United States, and his remarks do not reflect any change in our policy."

© The Island

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