Thousands of voters 'missing' in north

BBC Sinhala
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The main opposition in Sri Lanka says that over two thousands registered voters in two electoral bodies in the north are unaccounted for.

United National Party (UNP) quoting the elections commissioner (EC) said nearly 10-15% of people out of 21,000 registered voters in Pudukudiiruppu (PDK) and Maritimepattu in Mullaitivu district are either dead or missing.

"Therefore, we requested the election commissioner to consider issuing temporary identity cards," Dr Jayalath Jayawardene, MP, told BBC Sandeshaya after a meeting with the Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya on Tuesday.

He said party representatives requested EC Deshapriya to arrange special public transport for the election day.

Executive Director of Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE), Rajith Keerthi Tennakoon says that over half of eligible voters in the two Pradeshiya Sabhas do not possess national identity cards.

Military intervention

The representatives have also requested the commissioner to allow candidates and parties to meet those voters who are still in refugee camps.

Election for the two pradeshiya sabhas were not held together with other local government elections quoting security issues.

Hundreds of voters from the two electorates where the final days of Sri Lanka's war raged are yet to be resettled.

V Thirunavukarasu of Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP) said the commissioner agreed to allow candidates who are still in refugee camps to engage in campaigning.

"We requested the police not to allow any interference by the military in the election campaign," he said.

Representing Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), Sunil Watagala, said Commissioner Deshapriya pledged to personally monitor the minimising of military intervention during the election.

Counting the dead

According to Sri Lankan government statistics released recently, about 9,000 people died in the war-torn north of Sri Lanka during the controversial final phase of the war.

More than 7,000 of the deaths appear to be directly related to the military battle.

The Catholic Bishop of Mannar had earlier stated to a presidential war commission that nearly 1,50,000 people from the battle zone seem to have gone missing.

In a submission to the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) quoting information from local government authorities, Bishop Rayappu Joseph said that 146,679 people seem to be unaccounted for.

Local council elections for Pudukudiyiruppu (PDK) and Maritimepattu are to be held on the 24th of March.

44,682 have registered as voters, in the two local bodies according to figures released by CaFFE.

© BBC Sinhala

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US exploits UNHRC resolution to pressure Sri Lanka

By Sarath Kumara | World Socialist Web Site
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The US is proposing a resolution on Sri Lanka in the current session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC), which started last week. While the Sri Lankan government has opposed the move, the resolution will do nothing to address the war crimes and gross abuses of democratic rights by the military in the final stages of the island’s civil war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The draft resolution calls on the Sri Lankan government to implement the recommendations of its own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), as well as initiate credible investigations into allegations of human rights breaches not addressed by the LLRC report.

The Colombo government’s opposition to carrying out the recommendations of its own inquiry underlines the fact that the LLRC was a sham inquiry designed to cover up human rights abuses and deflect demands for an independent international investigation into war crimes. President Mahinda Rajapakse handpicked the commissioners to ensure no genuine inquiry took place.

Such was the scope of the war crimes that the LLRC could not endorse the government’s lie that no civilians had been killed by the military. The LLRC concluded, however, that any civilian deaths were accidental and blamed the LTTE for preventing people from leaving territory under its control.

The LLRC findings contradicted international reports, including from an expert committee appointed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. The UN panel found “credible evidence” of war crimes that implicated the government, senior state officials and top military commanders. It concluded that the Sri Lankan military had killed tens of thousands of civilians in the final months of the war to May 2009, including by deliberate attacks on hospitals and aid posts.

While most of the LLRC’s recommendations amounted to platitudes, it did go further than the government wanted. It called for “a political solution” that would involve devolving limited powers to sections of the Tamil elite in the North and East, the de-militarisation of civilian affairs in the former war zones and an investigation into extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances.

The US resolution calls for the Sri Lankan government to “accept advice and technical assistance” in implementing these steps and present a “concrete and comprehensive action plan” before the next UNHRC session. It effectively offers Colombo a way of ending international criticism and the danger of government leaders facing war crimes trials.

The Obama administration is pushing the resolution as a means of pressuring the Rajapakse government to accommodate US interests and those of India, which has also been demanding the implementation of the LLRC recommendations. New Delhi is pushing for a “political solution”—that is, a power-sharing arrangement between the island’s Sinhala and Tamil elites—to contain the anger in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu over the treatment of Tamils in Sri Lanka.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote to her Sri Lankan counterpart in January, pointing out that the LLRC recommendations were not being implemented. In February, US Undersecretary of State Maria Otero and Assistant Secretary of State Robert O. Blake visited Colombo. Otero announced that President Rajapakse had been informed that Washington planned to bring a resolution to the UNHRC session.

Washington, which backed Rajapakse’s war against the LTTE, is no more concerned about human rights in Sri Lanka than in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. For the Obama administration, the issue is a convenient device to put pressure on Colombo to shift away from the closer diplomatic and economic ties established with Beijing.

In May 2009, after the defeat of the LTTE, the US supported European countries in putting a resolution to the UNHRC on human rights in Sri Lanka. The resolution was defeated after Sri Lanka obtained the support of China, Russia and India, as well as other countries.

Addressing the latest UNHRC plenum, Mahinda Samarasinghe, the head of the Sri Lankan delegation, falsely declared that an internal accountability process was already underway on the LLRC recommendations and called for more time to deal with the issues.

To dampen criticism, Sri Lanka’s army commander, Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya, recently appointed a five-member court of inquiry to examine the LLRC report on the civilian casualties and to probe a British-based Channel-4 documentary, Sri Lanka Killing Fields. Previously, the government and military had dismissed the one-hour video, which provides graphic details of war crimes.

At the same time, Sri Lanka is lobbying heavily behind the scene against the US-backed resolution. It appears to have the support of China and Russia, but India has not declared its hand. New Delhi is seeking to boost its influence in Sri Lanka, but is also concerned about the political impact in Tamil Nadu of rejecting the resolution.

At the same time, the Sri Lankan government has mounted a hysterical campaign at home against the supposed “international conspiracy” to tarnish the country’s name. The propaganda barrage is aimed at silencing any opposition, including the mounting strikes and protests by workers, by branding it as part of the agenda of this so-called conspiracy.

Nishantha Warnasinghe, leader of the Sinhala extremist Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), told the BBC that his party opposed any concessions to Washington and opposed the establishment of the military court of inquiry. The JHU is part of Rajapakse’s ruling coalition.

The opposition United National Party (UNP), which backed Rajapakse’s war against the LTTE and defended the military’s crimes, is seeking an accommodation with Washington. UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has called for consensus between the government and the opposition on the implementation of the LLRC recommendations.

The bourgeois Tamil National Alliance (TNA) is likewise manoeuvring. It previously condemned the LLRC report, but now calls for the implementation of its recommendations—in line with Washington and New Delhi. The TNA is desperately seeking US and Indian backing for a “political solution”, from which it hopes to benefit.

The Socialist Equality Party rejects both the phony US-backed resolution and the Rajapakse government’s chauvinist campaign against it. None of the Sri Lankan parties, including the various Tamil opposition parties, or the imperialist powers, has even condemned the atrocities for which the government and military are responsible. Only the working class, in a unified struggle for a workers’ and peasants’ government and socialist policies, can defend the most basic democratic rights and address these horrific war crimes.

© WSWS

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India yet to decide on rights resolution against Sri Lanka

By A Special Correspondent | The Hindu
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India is yet to take a position on the U.S.-backed resolution against Sri Lanka at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). “But the general view in [the] country, specific to human rights resolutions, is that they do more harm than good. This has been our response to such resolutions for a number of years,” said official sources.

India is still to take a stand on the resolution backed by Norway and western countries, besides the U.S., though Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has written twice to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demanding that New Delhi go with it, while Pakistan, along with the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC), Russia and China, has supported Sri Lanka.

“We strongly believe that Sri Lanka must be provided with the time and space required to continue with its genuine national endeavours towards achieving this objective, without external pressure,” Pakistan has said on behalf of the OIC. Russia and China have expressed similar sentiments, opposing attempts by western countries to hold a country accountable while it is trying to come to terms with the ethnic divide and a decades-long violent conflict.

Political resolution

New Delhi has backed Colombo in previous attempts to arraign it for civilian killings in 2009, but during bilateral diplomatic engagements India has urged political resolution of the feeling of alienation among Tamils. At times, it has expressed dismay at the pace of the political reconciliation process but continued helping the war-ravaged north and east Sri Lanka by beginning work on affordable houses, rail track upgrading, port expansion and electricity grid interconnection.

© The Hindu

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US tables draft resolution on SL

The Nation
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The United States on Wednesday (07) submitted the draft resolution against Sri Lanka to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

It welcomed the constructive recommendations made by the LLRC in its report but, the resolution noted with concern that the report did not adequately address serious allegations of violations of international humanitarian law.

Following is the full text of the draft resolution:

Guided by the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenants on Human Rights, and other relevant instruments,

Reaffirming that States must ensure that any measure taken to combat terrorism complies with their obligations under international law, in particular international human rights, refugee and humanitarian law, as applicable,

Noting the Report of Sri Lanka’s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) and its findings and recommendations, and acknowledging its possible contribution to Sri Lanka’s national reconciliation process,

Welcoming the constructive recommendations contained in the LLRC report, including the need to credibly investigate widespread allegations of extra judicial killings and enforced disappearances, de-militarize the north of Sri Lanka, implement impartial land dispute resolution mechanisms, reevaluate detention policies, strengthen formerly independent civil institutions, reach a political settlement involving devolution of power to the provinces, promote and protect the right of freedom of expression for all, and enact rule of law reforms,

Noting with concern that the LLRC report does not adequately address serious allegations of violations of international law,

1. Calls on the Government of Sri Lanka to implement the constructive recommendations in the LLRC report and take all necessary additional steps to fulfill its relevant legal obligations and commitment to initiate credible and independent actions to ensure justice, equity, accountability and reconciliation for all Sri Lankans,

2. Requests that the Government of Sri Lanka present a comprehensive action plan as expeditiously as possible detailing the steps the Government has taken and will take to implement the LLRC recommendations and also to address alleged violations of international law,

3. Encourages the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and relevant special procedures to provide, and the Government of Sri Lanka to accept, advice and technical assistance on implementing those steps and requests the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to present a report to the Council on the provision of such assistance at its twenty-second session.

© The Nation

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