Sri Lanka’s ‘war crimes’

Dawn Editorial
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One doesn’t have to feel intrigued by the protest in Colombo. Led by a loyalist minister of President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government, the demonstrators want the United Nations to call off the probe into war crimes the Sri Lankan army is alleged to have committed against the Tamil in the closing days of the civil war last year.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s move to set up a three-member panel has come more than a year after the war had ended and reports of the army’s atrocities against civilians had started filtering out. The war was conducted by the army but had the full backing of the president who believed that Tamil Eelam was an intractable problem which could not be resolved through political means. The war had dragged on for 27 years and the final assault is believed to have been brutal with 7,000 civilians having been killed in the last few months of the fighting. Besides the Sri Lankan government is known to have resorted to ham-fisted measures vis-à-vis the media and the opposition.

The panel has been asked to advise the secretary-general on “accountability mechanisms for violations of international human rights and humanitarian law during the final stages of the conflict”. Considering that the changing nature of warfare is neutralising the effectiveness of the Geneva Conventions which lay down the principles of international humanitarian law, it is important that the principles of these conventions are observed by men in uniform even if they are fighting against dissidents and insurgents.

The verdict on Sri Lanka should come as a warning to other armies fighting on their own soil. The principle of showing humanity to civilians and wounded enemy soldiers and prisoners is sacrosanct and must be respected.

© Dawn.com

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Sri Lankan children affected by war, tsunami, daily stressors

Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.
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Two studies on children in Sri Lanka who survived the 2004 tsunami and ongoing civil war there found that it's not these stressful events alone that contributed to the youths' psychological health, but also daily stressors like domestic violence that are exacerbated by traumatic events and continue after the disasters.

The studies appear in a special section on children and disaster in the July/August 2010 issue of the journal Child Development.

The first study, by researchers at California State University, Los Angeles, Harvard School of Public Health, and Claremont Graduate University, looked at more than 400 Sri Lankan youths ages 11 to 20 who survived the tsunami. Researchers who work in areas where people have been harmed by disasters often focus solely on the impact of direct exposure to the disaster. This study argues that it's important also to consider the role of everyday stressors that continue after a disaster.

Specifically, the study found that while war and disaster have had a direct effect on the youths' psychological health, poverty, family violence, and lack of safe housing also represent major sources of continuing stress.

"By making sure not to miss the importance of ongoing stressors in youths' daily lives, our study highlights the need for holistic policies and programs that focus on reducing these current stressors," notes Gaithri A. Fernando, associate professor of psychology at California State University, Los Angeles, who led the study.

The second study was conducted by researchers at Bielefeld University, the University of Minnesota, the Vivo Foundation, and the University of Konstanz; Bielefeld University and the University of Konstanz are in Germany. This epidemiological study looked at almost 1,400 Tamil children ages 9 to 15 living at home or in a temporary shelter for refugees. The researchers used data from four cross-sectional studies done from 2002 to 2006. The data were collected by former teachers trained as counselors to help traumatized children, with supervision by members of the research team.

Children in this study had been affected by both armed conflict and a natural disaster, and many also coped with domestic violence. The researchers sought to determine what happens when risk factors accumulate.

Eighty percent of the children interviewed after the tsunami had been directly affected by the tidal wave, with many telling tales of struggling in the water. Sixty to 90 percent of the children also reported war-related experiences, such as witnessing bombings or seeing dead bodies.

The study found that all of the adverse experiences contributed significantly to the children's difficulties adapting. Particularly stressful were very severe exposure to trauma, loss of family members, and domestic violence.

As a group, children are the most vulnerable to the harmful long-term psychological consequences of violence and destruction. This study can inform those developing programs to help traumatized youngsters.

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Summarized from Child Development, Vol. 81, Issue 4, Growing Pains: The Impact of Disaster-Related and Daily Stressors on the Psychological and Psychosocial Functioning of Youth in Sri Lanka by Fernando, GA (California State University, Los Angeles), Miller, KE (formerly with Harvard School of Public Health, now with Medicins Sans Frontieres), and Berger, DE (Claremont Graduate University) and Tsunami, War, and Cumulative Risk in the Lives of Sri Lankan Schoolchildren by Catani, C (Bielefeld University), Gewirtz, AH, Wieling, E (University of Minnesota), Schauer, E (The Vivo Foundation), Elbert, T (University of Konstanz), and Neuner, F (Bielefeld University). Copyright 2010 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

© Eureka Alert

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Can UN panel heal Sri Lanka’s wounds?

By Feizal Samath | The National
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Sri Lanka’s cabinet met yesterday in a town formerly held by Tamil rebels during the country’s 30-year civil war in the latest effort to try to heal the wounds left by the bloody conflict.

The meeting in the northern town of Kilinochchi came as details emerged of a government reconciliation panel set up to search for answers to the conflict, which ended in May 2009.

However, political analysts and politicians believe such measures aimed at reconciliation and healing are futile unless they are accompanied by a political solution to end Tamil claims of neglect.

Others also claim the commission will have little impact and has been set up purely to appease the West and the United Nations, which have been seeking a response to claims of atrocities by government troops against civilians in the closing months of the war.

In May, the Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, appointed the Commission of Inquiry on Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation, aimed at examining the conflict between February 2002 and May 2009.

The eight-member panel, chaired by the former attorney general, CR de Silva, has been charged with reporting whether any person, group or institution directly or indirectly bears responsibility “in this regard”. It is also responsible for reporting on measures to be taken to prevent conflict or ethnic unrest in the future and promote national unity among all communities.

Mr de Silva told The National yesterday that public sittings will commence next month and the commission will permit witnesses to give evidence via a videotape to protect identities.

“Our mandate is to study and learn the causes that led to the conflict and recommend measures that won’t see a recurrence of this situation,” he said.

Mr de Silva added that unlike South Africa’s Truth Commission, which had a much wider mandate, the Sri Lankan panel will not have the authority to penalise anyone deemed responsible for the war.

He said sittings will move between districts to minimise inconvenience for witnesses from the north and the east.

SI Keethaponcalan, the head of political science at the University of Colombo, said many in civil society believe the commission will have a similar outcome to half a dozen presidential commissions that have probed similar issues in the past but led to no action being taken.

“In one instance, a panel concluded that no human rights abuses had occurred, when clearly there had been instances,” he said.

E Saravanabhavan, a parliamentarian from the Tamil National Alliance and the publisher of the popular Tamil-language Uthayan daily, said the commission is just to satisfy and impress the West.

“Nothing will come out [of it]. How do you expect people to go to offices of the commission in northern Jaffna, for example, when armed cadres of government politicians are still lurking around?” he said.

“A truth commission is a good idea but not the way it has been structured in Sri Lanka.”

Questions are also being raised about the period of investigation as it covers the 2002 ceasefire agreement between the rebels and the main opposition United National Party (UNP), which was in power at the time. One main issue of concern was over allowing top rebel leaders to travel abroad as VIPs.

There were also allegations that supplies of arms carried on LTTE ships were allowed free access.

“It’s very vague. It appears to be more a pre-emptive measure against the formation of the UN Panel of Experts than a serious attempt to find the truth,” said Mohamed Ayub, a journalist on the Colombo-based Daily Mirror newspaper.

Yesterday in Killinochchi, ministers led by the president made a “hearts and minds offer” to reduce the price of petrol and kerosene by three rupees (Dh10 fils) per litre in the northern Jaffna peninsula.

Amid tight security, ministers accompanied by dozens of officials met in the region’s security headquarters, once the regional office of the rebels.

On June 24, the government decided to rotate cabinet meetings between each district to give ministers the opportunity to study the development needs of the provinces, an official at the president’s office said.

But Mr Keethaponcalan said the government’s gestures would not reconcile the majority Sinhalese and minority Tamils, nor the underlying problems that led to the conflict. Even before the war began in July 1983, Tamils had for years claimed they suffered discrimination in jobs, land use and education, and called for greater control of the areas in which they live.

The rebels’ demands included greater civil, political and social rights for their community.

Thousands of Tamils, Sri Lanka’s largest community after the Sinhalese, suffered injury, abuse, trauma and loss of land or property during the conflict. “Proper reconciliation will come only after a political settlement of the Tamil issue is found,” Mr Keethaponcalan added.

“The government reconciliation panel is just an attempt to appease the international community.” Sri Lanka has previously responded with its own panel whenever the international community has called for accountability on human rights issues during the war.

Soon after the US State Department’s October 2009 publication of a report into alleged human rights abuses between January and May 2009, Mr Rajapaksa appointed a panel to probe the claims. The local panel report has yet to be published. Last month, after the UN Secretary-General, Ban ki-Moon appointed a panel to look at Sri Lankan accountability, the government responded by setting up the “lessons learnt and reconciliation” tribunal.

© The National

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SRI LANKA: Protest highlights hostility to international criticism

By Adithya Alles | Inter Press Service
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Traffic now flows around the U.N. compound here in the Sri Lankan capital, and the dozens of policemen visible last week are no longer there. It is business as usual, a far cry from a week back when an angry minister’s death fast just outside the main U.N. office made the area the focus of international attention.

Minister of National Housing Wimal Weeravansha staged a hunger strike for two and half days starting Jul. 8 to protest U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s creation of an advisory panel on Sri Lanka, which has been under international scrutiny for human rights violations.

Weeravansha ended the fast only when President Mahinda Rajapaksa persuaded him to give it up.

Beyond hogging the international headlines for a few days, the four-day protest that started Jul. 6 highlighted what has been a trend for a while – of emotions that run high against what many perceive as unwelcome U.N. interest in Sri Lanka, and their hostility to criticism about the country’s human rights record in relation to the conduct of the last phase of the bloody civil war that ended last year.

Since May 2009, when government troops defeated the Tamil Tiger rebels, which for decades had fought for a separate homeland for minority Tamils, the country has received criticism about rights issues around the war, including displaced communities.

The government has refuted this, and fears of what is often called ‘unwarranted foreign intervention’ have been common here.

But the U.N. chief’s panel, formed to give him advice on Sri Lanka, does not have any mandate to initiate an inquiry into Sri Lanka, according to Ban himself. It also does not have the Security Council’s approval.

Still, many, especially those who support the President, fear that the panel is the first step toward an international inquiry into the conduct of the war.

Rajapaksa has gotten assurances that there would be no war crimes inquiry initiated by the United Nations, Weeravansha’s supporters said. "Eighty percent of our demands have been achieved," Jayantha Samaraweera, a member of the National Freedom Front led by Weeravansha, said after the fast.

A heightening of the rhetoric since the end of the fast – and protests that at one point included the blocking of U.N. staff from entering the compound and its closure for one day – have drawn concerns from diplomatic circles and some activists alike.

Already, U.N. Resident Representative Neil Buhne, whom Ban has recalled for consultations, is unlikely to be sent back to Colombo.

Jehan Perera, executive director of the National Peace Council, a national advocacy body, said that the recall was a tough reaction by the United Nations, and showed that this protest could have far-reaching repercussions. "If the government expected the UN to back down in the face of domestic protests, the UN reacted in a totally different manner by recalling the representative," he said.

During Weeravansha’s fast, Ban said in a statement: "The Secretary-General believes the strong reaction to his establishment of a Panel of Experts on accountability in Sri Lanka is not warranted."

The protest drew concern from the Colombo-based diplomatic corps, including the United States, European Union (EU) and other western nations. Countries like Russia, China and India, which helped Sri Lanka stave off action at the United Nations in New York in the past, remained non- committal through the fast.

Ban’s statement also referred to an agreement between Rajapaksa and the U.N. secretary-general on May 23, 2009, just five days after the bloody war ended. He said that the panel was set up to achieve the aims of that May 2009 statement, issued after Ban visited Sri Lanka.

"These objectives include the further fostering of reconciliation and related issues as well as reflecting the commitment by Sri Lanka to the promotion and protection of human rights and the importance of accountability," Ban’s statement last week said.

But "there was no mention of forming an advisory panel by the United Nations Secretary-General on Sri Lanka's accountability issues during the war in the joint statement," the foreign ministry said.

Still pursuing the line of rejecting a foreign role, Foreign Minister Gamini Peiris said that Sri Lankan government had set up a Lesson Learnt Reconciliation Commission in order to look into the conduct of the war. "The onus is passed on the government of Sri Lanka as this is purely an internal matter," he later told the media.

The disagreement with the U.N. secretary general is not the only high-profile diplomatic row that the government is having– and using the argument of foreign intervention on.

The EU recently scrapped Sri Lanka off a list of nations included in a preferential trade scheme known as the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) Plus. The EU suspended the concessions worth at least 150 million U.S. dollars in 2008, arguing that Sri Lanka was in contravention of human rights covenants.

It later said that it was willing to restore the concession if Sri Lanka met a set of conditions, but the Rajapaksa government has rejected any agreement with EU conditions. "This is a sovereign government. The conditions are an insult to whole of Sri Lanka," government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella had told IPS.

Peiris has met EU ambassadors on GSP Plus, but a breakthrough seems remote.

Perera says that continuing diplomatic rows could be harmful for the country and its economy, which is very dependent on external factors and perceptions. He explained: "Garment exports are affected by the removal of GSP Plus, and if events like what happened near the UN repeat, there will some impact on foreign investments and tourist arrivals."

© Inter Press Service

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Sri Lanka- British business expect post-war expansion

Lanka Business Online
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The Council for Business with Britain (CBB) made up of firms doing business with the UK is expecting more business volumes between the two countries with the end of a three decade long war.

"As patron of the CBB, I am pleased to support this group in their on-going efforts to promote bilateral business relations between the UK and Sri Lanka," Acting British High Commissioner, Mark Gooding, said in a statement.

"Now is an important time in Sri Lanka’s economic development and the UK is already playing a role, through the companies represented by the CBB, but we can do more.

This will help further develop the strong existing economic and cultural links between our two countries at this exciting time for Sri Lanka."

The CBB has a membership of over 140 companies.

"…[T]he Council must look at ways to interact with its members in order to assist them in benefitting from the expected upturn in trade and business in general," the newly elected chairman of the CBB, Nick Nicolaou, who heads HSBC Bank was quoted as saying.

At the annual general meeting of the council held this week Shirendra Lawrence, managing director, MAS Active (Pvt.) Ltd. was elected vice chairman, a UK embassy said.

Mustanser Ali Khan, chief executive of Ceylon Tobacco Company was elected secretary, and Mohammed Ziauddin, managing director, Norfolk Foods (Pvt.) Ltd was elected treasurer.

Manesh Fernando, general manager, Hilton Residence Colombo; Romesh David, president, transportation and IT, John Keells Holdings; Janet Ford, Head of UK Trade and Investment, British High Commission, Colombo; Gill Westaway, Director, British Council, Sri Lanka; Lal de Alwis, President, National Chamber of Commerce and Anil Wijesinghe, chairman AWS Institute of Education were elected committee members.

© Lanka Business Online

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Sri Lanka cabinet meets in former rebel-held area

By Charles Haviland - BBC Sinhala
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The Sri Lankan cabinet is holding a special meeting in the former capital of the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels, Kilinochchi in the far north of the island.

The town was the guerrillas’ stronghold for 11 years until January 2009. By assembling there, the government is making a clear statement of its role in reunifying the island after years of civil war.

For years during their separatist war, and long after losing Jaffna further north, the Tamil Tigers held Kilinochchi.

It served as their command centre with the trappings of a state-within-a-state – law courts; administrative offices; a tax system and a bank.

Eighteen months ago, though, it fell to the Sri Lankan army and they established a strategic base right inside the buildings used earlier by their deadly foe.

For the Sri Lankan cabinet to meet in this town is a potent symbol of the government’s achievement in vanquishing the Tigers and reunifying an island whose land was divided for so long.

The government’s critics, however, say it must now do more to heal the island’s ethnic divisions, which are still raw, especially in the north and east.

Some opposition MPs have condemned the Kilinochchi cabinet meeting as a waste of money, with one saying he expects hundreds of luxury vehicles to converge on the town.

A prominent moderate Tamil politician, V. Anandasangaree, said he felt that that constant government visits were “irritating” local people still in shock after the war or searching for missing family members.

The government spokesman, Keheliya Rambukwella, said constructive criticism was welcome but that ministry officials would be available to solve people’s problems and it would be money well spent.

Chaired by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the cabinet ministers will review the progress of reconstruction in the former war zone whose people are only graudally returning to their homes.

A massive war memorial has recently been built in Kilinochchi. Recent visitors there say other construction work is proceeding slowly, hampered by the density of landmines in the area.

© BBC Sinhala

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Sri Lanka: Search on for oil off Southern coast

By Devan Daniel | The Island
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The government collected 2D seismic data on a 600 km stretch of sea floor off the Southern coast in search for signs that oil may be discovered, a petroleum ministry report said.

The survey which was carried out in 2009 was intended to investigate the petroleum potential of two gravity anomalies indicated by satellite off the Southern coastal belt of Sri Lanka, the 2009 Performance report of the Ministry of Petroleum Industries said.

The ministry charted a seismic data acquisition ship which collected the data of nearly 740 linear kilometres late February 2009.

"Currently, the data is being processed at Fargo Seismic Imaging Services in Mumbai. Preliminary views of the data suggest the existence of sedimentary basins in the survey area which is the first requirement in the search for petroleum," the ministry said in the report, which was released last month.

The Mannar basin off the North-Western coast and the Chauvery basin off the Northern coast have been identified as potential locations for offshore oil.

In July 2007, the government awarded Cairn India a license to search for oil on a single block of sea bed on the Mannar basin which amounted to an area of 10 percent of the total extent on Sri Lanka’s side of the basin. India, has already found oil on its side and commercial extraction is already taking place.Cairn India paid Sri Lanka a signature bonus for being awarded the license and it plans to invest around US$ 110 million in searching for a possible drilling site and subsequent assemble of an oil rig if a commercially viable carbon deposit is found.

A Petroleum Resources Agreement was singed between Cairn India and the government which resulted in the incorporation of Cairn Lanka Limited.

The company recently acquired 3D seismic data of the 3,400 sq km exploration block offered to it and the data is being analysed by Cairn India’s geologists looking for the best place to start drilling but meanwhile it is studying wave and water current patterns in the Mannar Basin, crucial data to determine the type of oil rig they would have to lease.

Exploration drilling is expected to commence by 2011 and according to government estimates, there is a 60 percent probability of finding offshore oil deposits.

Two other blocks in the Mannar Basin were offered to India and China but so far the governments of the two countries have not responded to these offers.

Meanwhile, the government has entered into an agreement with Nexant Inc of USA to develop regulations for offshore petroleum operations with funds from US Trade and Development Agency.

The new regulations being drafted are: Sri Lanka Offshore Petroleum (SLOP) Geophysical Regulations, SLOP Drilling Regulations, SLOP Occupational Health and Safety Regulations, SLOP Environmental Protection Regulation, SLOP Registration and Administration Regulations, SLOP Production and Conservation Regulations and SLOP Diving Regulations.

The drafts to the above regulations have been completed and once translations in to Sinhala and Tamil are completed, the regulations would be subject to a consultative process after which the Attorney General would review and format the regulations.

© The Island

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"UN panel not authorized" says Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the UN

By Easwaran Ratnam | Daily Mirror Online
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The three member panel appointed by UN Secretary General Ban ki-moon to advise him on Sri Lanka is not authorized by any decision making body of the UN, Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the UN in New York Dr. Palitha Kohona said.

In an emailed response to a question posed by Daily Mirror online Dr. Kohona said that the move by the UN Chief to appoint the panel sets precedent as it is not authorized. He also noted that a similar move on Sri Lanka was resoundingly rejected by the UN Human Rights Council last year.

UN Secretary-General Ban ki-moon had earlier reiterated that the three member panel appointed by him on Sri Lanka has been set up to advise him with regard to taking forward the objectives of the Joint Statement of 23 May 2009 between Sri Lanka and the UN and is not an investigative body.

The Secretary-General had said the strong reaction to his establishment of the panel of experts on accountability in Sri Lanka is not warranted.

© Daily Mirror Online

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USS Pearl Harbor arrives at Trincomalee port on a 'goodwill mission'

Colombo Page
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The United States naval ship USS Pearl Harbor arrived at the port of Trincomalee in Eastern Sri Lanka Tuesday on a goodwill mission, Sri Lanka Navy announced.

Sri Lanka Navy ceremonially welcomed the US Navy ship carrying 24 officers and 328 sailors.

The Harpers Ferry-class dock landing ship is 186 meters in length and has a displacement of 11,251 tons. The ship is capable of transporting 500 marines.

Sri Lanka Navy said the US Navy crew of the ship will be participating in a series of special programmes organized by the Navy to enhance the relationship between the two navies.

© Colombo Page

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US 'funds' east development

BBC Sinhala
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The United States government has signed an agreement with the Sri Lankan government to provide financial to local authorities in the eastern province.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Ministry of Local Government and Provincial Councils have signed the agreement "to expand the Supporting Regional Governance Program (SuRG) to all 37 Pradesihya Sabhas and one Urban Council in the Eastern Province," a statement from the US embassy in Colombo said.

The US embassy said the SuRG program will be expanded to include all local authorities in the province.

It said USAID/Sri Lanka has invested nearly two billion US Dollars to benefit all the people of Sri Lanka, since 1956.

U.S. Ambassador Patricia A. Butenis said, "This demonstrates our shared vision on the importance of local government serving the needs of its citizens, and increasing transparency and accountability in service delivery and development."

© BBC Sinhala

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