Photo courtesy: UN News & Media
Inner City Press
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But the report was not made public. Rather, Ban shared a copy with the government of Mahinda Rajapaksa “as a matter of courtesy.” This, and the delay in even handing over the document, were reportedly agreed to in March when Sri Lankan Attorney General Mohan Peiris, accompanied by presumptive war crimes defendant General Shavendra Silva, visited the UN.
At the time, the only listed meeting was with Ban Ki-moon. But soon Sri Lankan government officials were bragging that they also met with Ban's panel. When Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky, he gave the impression that no such meeting with the Panel took place, saying, you were there, Matthew, you know.
On April 12, when Inner City Press asked Haq to clarify this, Haq denied that Nesirky said there was no meeting with the Panel. The video will tell the story: but whether the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary General should be engaging in what many in the press corps see as games.
Inner City Press asked Haq, since Ban in December and January said his Panel could travel to Sri Lanka due to Mahinda Rajapaksa's “flexibility,” if the Panel had in fact traveled to Sri Lanka and if not, if they were blocked. Haq refused to answer, even if they had gone there.
Previously, when asked about a filing with the International Criminal Court which, while primarily directed against Sri Lankan Ambassador Palitha Kohona, describes the role of Ban's chief of staff Vijay Nambiar in the so-called white flag killings of surrenderees, Haq told a journalist on the record that there has been no formal filing with the ICC. Even now that receipt has been confirmed by the ICC, there has been no subsequent statement by Haq's or Ban's wider office.
Inner City Press on April 12 asked if Nambiar, given his role as described in the ICC filing, will be recused from Ban's decision making on what to do with the Sri Lanka report. Haq quickly called this “specious,” pointing out that Nambiar is not the named target of the ICC filing. But that is not the applicable standard for a conflict of interest.
Haq said that Ban will, himself, make the decision on what to do with the report.
© Inner City Press
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
UN shares its' war crime report with Sri Lanka "as a matter of courtesy"
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
United Nations report on Sri Lanka must be made public - Amnesty International
Amnesty International
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"Sri Lankans must be allowed to see the panel’s findings. The report concerns a critical period in their recent history and they deserve to read it in full," said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific director. "Ban Ki-moon said that 'accountability is an essential foundation for durable peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka.' He must stick to his word - accounting for violations committed in the recent conflict is the first step to future reconciliation."
The U.N. Panel of Experts was appointed in June 2010 to advise the Secretary General on accountability issues relating to violations of international human rights and humanitarian law alleged in the final stages of the armed conflict in Sri Lanka, which ended in May 2009.
The panel was also asked to recommend a course of action that would ensure accountability, in line with a joint commitment made by President Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka and Ban Ki-moon on his visit to Sri Lanka in May 2009.
Amnesty International has called on the United Nations to launch an independent international investigation into alleged crimes, which include the killing of more than 10,000 civilians; the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam’s use of civilians as human shields and conscription of child soldiers; Sri Lankan army shelling of areas densely populated by civilians; and severe deprivation of food, water and medical care for people trapped by fighting.
The Sri Lankan government protested appointment of the U.N. panel as "uncalled for and unwarranted" and refused to fully cooperate.
"The panel’s work on accountability issues in Sri Lanka should mark the beginning, not the end, of a process of accounting for violations," said Zarifi.
For decades, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE or Tamil Tigers) systematically targeted civilians, launched suicide attacks at buses and railway stations, assassinated politicians and critics and recruited child soldiers.
Sri Lankan government forces and their armed affiliates also acted with impunity, engaging in extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and torturing those suspected of links to the LTTE.
"Impunity for violations has been the rule throughout Sri Lanka’s long civil war. The way to turn a new page in the country’s history and restore public confidence is to deliver truth and justice," said Zarifi. "By publicizing the panel of expert’s report, and moving toward an independent, international accountability mechanism, the UN would send a strong message that international law is relevant, and would reinforce trends of accountability for human rights violations globally."
© Amnesty International
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Sri Lanka: UN chief receives report of panel of experts on human rights issues
Photo courtesy: UN News & Media
UN News Centre
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The three-member panel was set up following the Joint Statement made by Mr. Ban and Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa after the Secretary-General visited the South Asian nation shortly after the end of the conflict in May 2009.
During their meeting today at UN Headquarters in New York, Mr. Ban expressed his sincere appreciation to the members of the panel for having completed their assignment, and said he would study the report carefully and will determine his next steps in the coming days.
The panel was tasked with examining “the modalities, applicable international standards and comparative experience with regard to accountability processes,” taking into account the nature and scope of any alleged violations of international humanitarian and human rights law during the final stages of the conflict in Sri Lanka.
Government forces declared victory over the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009 after a conflict that had raged on and off for nearly three decades and killed thousands of people. The conflict ended with large numbers of Sri Lankans living as internally displaced persons (IDPs), especially in the north of the island country.
The members of the panel are: Marzuki Darusman of Indonesia (chair), Yasmin Sooka of South Africa and Steven Ratner of the United States. They began their work in September 2010.
© UN News Centre
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
IFJ condemns restrictions on Tamil paper in Sri Lanka
Photo courtesy: Dushiyanthini Kanagasabapathipillai | Groundviews
International Federation of Journalists
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The FMM reports that Jaffna Municipal Council has ordered its officials not to invite Uthayan journalists to cover official events or provide them with any information such as media releases.
Officials are also reported to have prohibited all government offices and departments from subscribing to or purchasing the newspaper. The ban extends to libraries in the city, where Tamil-language speakers constitute a majority.
“It is unacceptable that authorities would actively deny a particular language group access to official information,” IFJ Asia-Pacific Director Jacqueline Park said.
Uthayan’s offices and journalists were subjected to attack throughout the country’s 26-year civil war, and the period since the war ended in May 2009. Most recently, a police constable was arrested after threatening to burn the newspaper’s office and assault its staff on March 17, after the paper refused to publish a correction to a news report, Sri Lanka’s Sunday Times reported.
Unidentified people riding motorcycles have warned staff against publishing reports and photographs not favourable to the Government or politicians affiliated with the ruling United People’s Freedom Party.
The IFJ joins the FMM in calling for an immediate reversal of the decision by the Jaffna Municipal Council.
© IFJ
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Sri Lanka Older returnees face isolation, poverty
Integrated Regional Information Networks
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"There are hardly any programmes to help these people," said Samantha Liyanawaduge, executive director of Help Age Sri Lanka, one of just a handful of agencies targeting older returnees.
Although no official figures are available, estimates suggest there are more than 30,000 people over the age of 60 in the Vanni, a vast swath of land in the island's north once under the control of the defeated Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which waged a decades-long civil war for an independent Tamil homeland
Since the war ended in May 2009, more than 320,000 displaced have returned to their homes or are now staying with relatives, the UN reports.
According to community workers, many of the elderly show signs of trauma or isolation and struggle to meet their daily needs. Those without extended family support face poverty, loneliness, dependency, ill health and lack of nutrition and access to adequate healthcare.
Chelliah Philip Nesakumar, an Anglican priest from Kilinochchi, the former de-facto capital of the LTTE, says the elderly often feel abandoned, with some demonstrating sudden outbursts of anger.
"On the surface they appear ok, but many are carrying the psychological scars of two-and-a-half decades of war," Nesakumar said.
Veeran Pandaran, a 61-year-old grandfather from Kilinochchi, had hoped things would get better when the war ended. "Life is certainly safer now, but we've been left to fend for ourselves," Pandaran said.
Ongoing development and rehabilitation work in his area includes hardly any programmes tailored to the old and impaired, he claimed. "There is nothing to help people like me," he insisted. "It's as if we are not important."
Limited resources
Help Age Sri Lanka - which has been working for the rights of marginalized senior citizens since 1986 - would like to do more, but resources are limited, forcing the agency to focus on the most serious cases first.
In February, it opened a small sub-office in Kilinochchi to coordinate its work and dispatch mobile medical clinics to the area each week.
Most of the elderly have cataracts. Of every 100 people the NGO sees, more than 60 percent are given glasses, while 20 to 30 percent require surgery.
Help Age has its own eye clinic near the capital, Colombo, which can carry out cataract operations free of charge; however, many people are physically unable to travel the 300km distance, or simply do not have the funds to make the journey.
This in turn leaves them no other option but to seek treatment at a hospital in the northern town of Vavuniya, 70km south of Killinochi, where the operation can be carried out at a cost of around US$55 - money many simply do not have.
"That's money these people don't have to spare," Liyanawaduge said.
Help Age organizes community groups and would also like to initiate programmes to generate income for them.
In the east of the country, Help Age has used elders' groups to start home-gardening, poultry and small cattle-farming operations.
"We know more needs to be done, but we simply don't have the financial resources to take them on," Liyanawaduge said.
© IRIN
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Sri Lankan journalist speaks of attacks on media
By Kaleb Warnock | Iowa State Daily
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"I stand here today as a political asylum as a Sri Lankan journalist," said Jayantha through a translator. "I was forced to leave Sri Lanka to save my life. There are so many other journalists who live there in fear. Most of them are living in exile."
In his presentation, Jayantha told a room full of future journalists of the role and influence of media in Sri Lanka and how the struggle has caused extreme censorship of the media. He speaks primarily on behalf of the Tamil minority against the human rights violations enacted during the civil war between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Sri Lankan government.
The government tightened restrictions on the media following the end of the civil war in 2009, according to the Human Rights Watch report of 2010.
"As pressure mounted for an independent investigation into alleged laws of war violations," the report said, "the government responded by threatening journalists and civil society activists, effectively curtailing public debate and establishing its own commission of inquiry with a severely limited mandate."
Many of the threats were realized, Jayantha said.
"The first shots after the war was over were fired at the journalists and free media," Jayantha said. "They virtually crushed the free media institutions, and they only have the pro-government media to assassinate the character of the people who oppose them, or they actually use death squads to kill them."
As a matter of fact, Jayantha was the victim of a death squad, and he suspects they were motivated to silence him for speaking out against human rights violations.
"I was tortured and my left leg was broken," he said. "And today I'm walking with the assistance of steel rod that has been placed there. They poured acid on me. They also cut my beard and hair and put it in my mouth and forced me to inhale, which caused severe problems in my lungs subsequently. They thew my unconscious body in a ditch and left me to die."
Following the June 2009 attack, he was in the hospital for nearly a month and was unable to walk for six more. His case is not an exception, as many other journalists have been attacked and several have paid the ultimate price.
Jayantha said since this administration took over in 2005, five leading media institutions have been burned down, 35 media employees have been murdered and six journalists have been kidnapped. Five have been released due to public opposition, but one is still missing and has been since January of 2010.
There has been no ensuing investigation to many of these cases, including Jayantha's, and his attack remains unsolved.
"Every atrocity committed against a journalist and the media since April 20, 2005, to Dec. 8, 2009, the day that an editor of a newspaper was murdered, is being gradually covered by the dust that invaded through time," Jayantha said.
However, he continues to speak out against the Sri Lankan government and hopes to continue to fight for human rights in his home country. He called on journalists and the international community to fight for free speech and seek the truth and hold the government accountable for its actions.
"That's why I'm appealing to journalists. ... Don't let this freedom die."
© Iowa State Daily
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
UN served a ploy to surrender killings
Tamil Net
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The UN worker who was present at Vavuniyaa during the last days of Vanni war has revealed to TamilNet Monday morning that he and his fellow officials who were present there were informed by the UN hierarchy in Colombo to do necessary preparations to monitor safe arrival of LTTE Political Head B. Nadesan and at least 9 others who were promised by Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) safety with the assistance of the UN and the ICRC.
The UN officers at Vavuniyaa were instructed to do necessary preparations confidentially without leaking the information to media at that time.
A few days in advance, two UN Protection Unit officers were posted to Vavuniyaa from Colombo and they were allowed to proceed to Oamanthai while no other UN or INGO officials were allowed to pass beyond Thaa'ndikku'lam, the former UN worker further told TamilNet, adding that he was prepared to witness at any international investigations.
© Tamil Net
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
World Cup leaves Sri Lanka with $23 mln debt
AFP | Yahoo! News
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"We spent a lot of money to host the World Cup, to build two stadiums and rebuild one stadium. The World Cup left us a 2.5 billion rupee ($22.6 million) deficit," Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage told reporters.
Sri Lanka, which lost the final to India by six wickets, hosted 12 matches during the World Cup, with others held in India and Bangladesh.
The island built two new grounds in the southern town of Hambantota and the central town of Pallekele, while nearly $8 million was spent to renovate the Colombo-based R. Premadasa stadium.
"We spent about five billion rupees ($45.3 million dollars) to build the three World Cup venues," Aluthgamage said.
The minister said the governing body was forced to pledge the newly built stadiums, along with income from upcoming tours, as collateral to raise funds to pay for the lavish tournament that ended on April 2.
"We are not in a serious cash crisis," Aluthgamage said. "Building new stadiums costs a lot of money. You must look at it as an investment for the future development of the game."
Sri Lanka Cricket treasurer Sujeewa Rajapakse said the board took a $21.5 million loan from state-run Bank of Ceylon and another $3.5 million loan from the International Cricket Council (ICC) to tide them over the shortfall.
"We are expecting $25 million from the ICC soon, by way of hosting rights. Once that comes, we can sort things out," Rajapakse said.
Sri Lanka is to face England, Australia, Pakistan and South Africa this year, and is also due to host the World Twenty20 championships in 2012.
Sri Lanka won its sole World Cup in 1996 and emerged finalists in 2007.
Since losing the final to India, the team's captain, vice-captain and selectors have quit, while head coach Australian-born Trevor Bayliss also ended his contract to take up his old job at New South Wales.
© Yahoo! News
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Nepotism rampant in Rajapaksa government
Sutirtho Patranobis | Hindustan Times
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"Independent observers generally characterized the presidential and parliamentary elections as problematic. Both elections were fraught with violations of the election law by all major parties and were influenced by the governing coalition’s massive use of state resources," the report said, adding that there were instances in which elements of the security forces acted independently of the civilian government.
There was no immediate reaction from either Rajapaksa’s office or the ministry of external affairs.
The report criticised the government’s human rights record in the post-war era, though adding that disappearances had gone down. "The government and its agents continued to be responsible for serious human rights problems. Security forces committed arbitrary and unlawful killings, although the number of extrajudicial killings declined. Disappearances continued to be a problem, although the total also declined. Many independent observers cited a continued climate of fear among minority populations, in large part based on past incidents," the state department report said.
Official impunity remains a problem too, according to the report. "There were no public indications or reports that civilian or military courts convicted any military or police members for human rights abuses. The government established a post-war Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC). Denial of fair public trial remained a problem; the judiciary was subject to executive influence; and the government infringed on citizens’ privacy rights."
The report said that there has been no progress in investigations into the killing of Sunday Leader editor, Lasantha Wickrematunga and the disappearance of LankaeNews journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda.
Wickrematunga was shot dead in Colombo on 8 January 2009, Eknaligoda is missing since he left office on 24 January, 2010. “Witnesses reported similarities in the manner in which this attack was carried out and the January 2009 attack on MTV/MBC studios, and some local groups suspected ministry of defense personnel were behind the attack,” it said.
© Hindustan Times
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
UK 'linked' Fonseka to Lasantha killing
BBC Sinhala
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Lasantha Wickrametunga was shot dead in Colombo on 08 January, 2009. The attackers were never caught.
In a posthumously published editorial attributed to Lasantha he said, "When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me."
Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha, a ruling party MP, told BBC Sinhala service that the defence attaché of the British High Commission (BHC) in Colombo "gave a note" that accused then Gen Fonseka of being responsible for the assassination.
But the British authorities have neither denied nor confirmed Prof Wijesinha’s statement.
UK 'favoured' Fonseka
A spokesperson at the BHC in Colombo told BBC Sinhala service: "The British High Commission in Colombo would willingly share with the Sri Lankan authorities any evidence it obtained that shed any light on the assassination of the Sunday Leader Editor.”
Gen Fonseka, commander of the Sri Lanka army under President Mahinda Rajapaksa, during the was later selected as the common presidential candidate by the major opposition parties against Mr Rajapaksa.
"When the election came they (the British HC) took his side and did not provide us with the information," Prof Wijesinha told BBC Sandeshaya.
But the UK authorities have denied having favoured Gen Fonseka at January 2010 presidential elections.
“The UK Government remains impartial during elections in other countries. We did not favour any candidate in the Presidential Elections in Sri Lanka in 2009,” the BHC spokesperson said.
The US State Department report says that there has been no progress in investigations into the killing of Sunday Leader editor, Lasantha Wickrematunga and the disappearance of LankaeNews journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda.
In response Prof. Wijesinghe admitted that "it is necessary" to properly investigate the assassination but there was what he called a danger of government being accused of "political victimisation" if they pursue the case against Mr Fonseka.
Following a controversial military trial the former military chief is currently serving a jail term for irregularities in military procurements.
"But of course we shouldn't stop investigations just because we will be accused of political victimisations," said Prof. Wijesinghe.
The opposition has described the imprisonment of Gen Fonseka, who challenged President Mahinda Rajapaksa in the April 2010 presidential elections, as a political move.
Prof Wijesinha was the former secretary to the ministry of human rights before being appointed as a national list MP, after April 2010 elections, by the president.
He also admitted that there has been no progress in investigations over the disappearance of LankaeNews journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda.
"I think it is mistake from our part that there has been no investigation, of course we must investigate these incidents."
© BBC Sinhala
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