By Kishali Pinto Jayawardene | The Sunday Times
.............................................................................................................................................................................................
Mutilated children and emaciated adults weeping over dead bodies testify to the unimaginable horrors that civilians had to undergo during the last phrases of the war in the North in 2009. We do not, of course, need the United Nations to tell us this. One (or as cynics may argue, the single) positive result of the hearings before the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) was similar such testimony.
Grievous stories from the North and South
But some predominant fallacies arising in the context of the above discussion need to be dealt with. One common assumption is that such brutal happenings were, in Sri Lanka’s literally blood soaked history, limited to the North and the East and to a particular minority.
Yet a reading of the Final Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Involuntary Removal or Disappearance of persons in the Western, Southern and Sabaragamuwa Provinces (Sessional paper No V-1997) would be instructive in this regard. Absent the photographs, the pages of this report tell us of equally grievous stories of Sinhalese children killed or maimed by Sinhalese soldiers.
As one Commissioner mused several months back in a different context; “we were told by weeping mothers of children being literally grabbed from their arms and dashed on the ground with remnants of their heads being scattered around by enraged soldiers who had come upon a suspected subversive or JVP infiltrated village in the deep South.’
Working on the commonality of justice
So through lack of awareness, lack of concern or simply because it suits a particular argument, it is sought to be maintained that brutality systematically directed at innocents has been an issue for the minorities alone, I strongly beg to disagree. It is true however that such brutality has been particularly pronounced in relation to the minorities and justified through a clearly racist mindset on the part of some. But that does not detract from specific historical truths that need to be acknowledged.
As an activist campaigner working in the South on these issues observed some years back, one of the main obstacles in their work was the refusal of other groups working on similar issues in the North and East to recognise the common issues inherent in their efforts. One rare example of a people’s movement which broke away from this pedestrian and shortsighted trend was the Mothers of the Disappeared which, in the eighties, brought suffering mothers from the South and the North (broadly speaking) together to enforce the accountability of the state for their loss.
It was, in that sense, quite different to the learning or interactive experiences, (as valuable as they are), currently seen where people from the majority and minority communities are encouraged to share and understand different cultural, religious and ethnic backgrounds. However, this movement of the mothers thrived only in the eighties before it was politically infiltrated by politicians, including the incumbent President, for their own gain in bringing down the then United National Party administration. With a new government in place, the impetus was weakened and the cry for common justice was largely lost in the years thereafter.
Outside concern evidenced not only regarding the North
The second fallacy is the lament on the part of otherwise reasonably sane people here that the world and non governmental organizations, whether local or international, have only been concerned about human rights violations that occur in the North and East. This is far from the case. In the eighties, the struggle to have the enforced disappearances of largely Sinhalese youth recognised by the international community was led by Amnesty International (AI), a fact about which President Mahinda Rajapaksa is only too aware since he was one of the primary human rights campaigners at that time.
The role played by AI was acknowledged by government appointed Commissions which cite extensively from AI reports. This positive involvement was informed by the sensitive and highly cautious approaches followed by AI campaigners at that time.
The likelihood of a campaign being initiated which had the potential to be immensely counterproductive was quite slim. Admittedly this was not quite the case in later years as seen in 2007 when, coinciding with the World Cup games, people in Australia, Bahamas, Bermuda, India, Nepal and UK were urged to sign white cricket balls urging the Government and the LTTE to invite independent human rights monitors. Viewed as a move aimed at demoralizing the country’s multi-ethnic cricket team, this infuriated many who were far from being government supporters and achieved nothing in terms of advocacy. But apart from misjudgments of this nature, the sweeping assumption that concern regarding human rights violations has been evidenced from outside only in relation to the North and East is simply not correct.
Avoidance of being trapped in a victim mentality
These are matters about which we should remind ourselves from time to time, to avoid being trapped in a victim mentality which proceeds on the quite mistaken assumption that the developed world and its agents in the international and local non governmental sector, not to mention the United Nations and the European Union (EU), are out to get Sri Lanka. This may be a convenient myth for the government’s propagandists to perpetuate to cover up their own deficiencies and lack of skilful dealings with foreign governments. However, it does not happen to be the truth.
From what we have seen of the reactions to the Advisory Panel report from across the world, ranging from the EU to Japan, the Government of Sri Lanka has been passed a clear message. Look after your own people, not by words, by vainglorious rhetoric or by building roads and hotels but by concrete action focusing on the Rule of Law and by giving the people their legal and constitutional rights.
This is as much as many Sri Lankan citizens have been telling their Government after all. Why should we shy away from or be coy about in any way whatsoever in calling for accountability in this regard?
© The Sunday Times
Monday, May 16, 2011
The message on internal accountability is clear
Monday, May 16, 2011
Two years after Mullivaikkal – "kiribath or paal soru?"?
Photo courtesy: Ross Tuttle | Foreign Policy
By Kusal Perera | The Sunday Leader
.............................................................................................................................................................................................
Blake met with the External Affairs Minister one to one in his hotel suite to convey Madam Clinton’s message to President Rajapaksa, say informed sources, after a formal meeting with the Minister and his senior staff.
That’s two years after the war when the UN Secretary General’s Advisory Panel Report is held out like a menacing hand. Two years, when most post war issues should have been managed and brought under control. That responsibility ignored with PR manipulations beyond the shores of Sri Lanka, professorial glib talk to satisfy the gullible middle class here, Sinhala heroes’ playing for local media and vernacular rhetoric aired for the poor and the innocent Sinhala majority, the world of the Rajapaksas revolve with increasing war crimes accusations. Taking umbrage against the UN and its SG instead of resolving issues at home, has only allowed piling of carefully sifted and documented evidence against this regime, during the past two years.
This is no more a ‘War Without Witnesses’. Satellite imagery provide evidence (though without witnesses) in this modern world. ‘WikiLeaks’ provides evidence too and the latest in Aftenposten in Norway, SITREP 74 speaks for Blake himself and implicates Gotabaya, Basil and Nambiar. Though taking time, documented stories surfaced as evidence through Tamil Diaspora sources, as well.
While government propaganda satisfied the Sinhala middle class here and abroad, international organisations had worked passionately in salvaging evidence they are after. A reputed, internationally recognised expert panel thus concluded the much talked of British ‘Channel 4’ aired video, as authentic. A subsequent programme on ‘Channel 4’ on Isaipriya claimed its new content was added proof on war crime charges against the Sri Lankan government.
Most such stories, videos and satellite imagery have gone into the UN Advisory Panel Report as substantial evidence that require independent investigations into war crimes, crimes against humanity and accountability, trashing government claims about “pro Tiger propaganda”.
With the report made public, international concerns on presumptive war crimes and accountability keep piling up. The ruling African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa, that fought a savage battle against apartheid rule and thereafter was part of the campaign for reconciliation through independent and open ‘Truth Commissions’, supports an independent investigation on Sri Lanka. This regime’s trusted friends, Russia and China, according to media reports had warned they would have to reconsider their support, if Sri Lanka does not behave well with UN and other international staff, stationed in the country.
Portugal though listed as a new found ally, is an economic wreck given a Euro 78 billion bailout by the EU. The EU that sent out a crisp statement defending the panel report, scheduled an emergency debate on Sri Lanka’s presumptive war crimes on Thursday and endorsed its statement requesting the Sri Lanka government to honour UN panel report recommendations.
India is clearly disturbed with this loaded report to the extent that President Rajapaksa himself has doubts on their backing, as reported in the media. Well, they have to be coaxed, but how is an issue with a confused External Affairs Minister who does not know whether to officially respond to the UN Panel Report, or not, or how. In Colombo, Anandasangaree from the ranks of Tamil affiliations with the Rajapaksas, wants the government to face up to these accusations and absolve itself from all charges.
Complications for the Rajapaksa government don’t seem to stop just there. Sri Lanka’s permanent representative to the UN in NY, Palitha Kohona who was reported by Andrew Buncombe of The Independent a British daily, on May 20, 2009 as one who sent text messages from his mobile on how two LTTE seniors with a few others should surrender, is accused of complicity in war crimes in a case filed with the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands. An adopted Aussie, he is a citizen of a country that had signed the Rome Statutes.
This case if taken up by the ICC, would drag Vijay Nambiar, Chief of Staff to UN SG Ban Ki-moon to serious complicity, who according to Marie Colvin of the British Sunday Times of May 24, 2009 had told her over the phone from Colombo on May 18 morning around 5.30 am local time, President Rajapaksa had assured him, the surrendering Tiger leaders would be safe and his presence therefore at the surrender was not necessary. Neither Kohona nor Nambiar had contradicted or corrected those news reports to date. And this case if taken up, would also implicate all others who were constitutionally and command-wise, on top of the war.
Completing that jigsaw, a group of Tamil people in Norway it is reported, has sought permission to indict President Rajapaksa, Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka for their role in the May 2009 concluded war. Filed under Norwegian national law for the Chief Prosecutor to accept submissions, the report says Norwegian Minister Erik Solheim, has also been cited as one in the know of the “white flag surrender” incident.
What is the game plan of the Rajapaksas in facing this slowly but gradually swelling tide against Sri Lanka, or do they have one at all ? The political reality is, there is nothing certain with the two super powers, Russia and China. Having already registered their dislike in how this regime treats UN and international agencies, they have also in the past proved their uncertainty on commitments. Sudan and Libya are paying for that. It would be unwise today to think, we are strangely more important than Gaddafi and petroleum. Russia and China dropped Libya and would they keep Rajapaksa? And for what?
Those in this regime doesn’t seem to know the difference between handling complex international relations and treating foreign tourists on the Tangalle beach. This regime, certainly runs around with no strategic plan as to how it could meet international pressure and an extremely committed and stubborn Tamil Diaspora that is not necessarily ‘pro LTTE’, but ‘anti Rajapaksa’ for sure. For the Tamil people, there is good reason to be angry and feel jilted. It is the very ordinary Tamil ‘non vote’ on Prabhakaran’s dictates that brought this Rajapaksa regime to power in 2005 November, while 4.7 million in the South voted against Rajapaksa.
That being a bloody political blunder by the LTTE, this regime has no other reason to believe it has all the luck to continue with its petty scheming. It is petty too to believe, the international community and other agencies, more so the Tamil Diaspora would take it that this government is hell bent on having the Northern people resettled and rehabilitated at break neck speed. That the international community would believe Prof. Peiris when he says, the Advisory Panel Report would hamper government’s “reconciliation and peace efforts”. Its naïve to think the international community is deaf, dumb and blind to all the security restrictions, to all militarisation and violation of rights on the ground.
Would they, the Diaspora included, not know that the Economic Development Ministry could construct what ever it has funds for, but would be put to good use, only if the Defence Ministry agrees ? Would they believe it is despite the sincerity of the Rajapaksa regime that 50,000 houses pledged by Delhi are still on paper, running close to an year ? Would not those international networks also know, how signatures for the government sponsored petition against the UN panel report were collected in the North ?
With such routine addictions, lets not feel ‘lion happy’ keeping the TNA guessing and the international community waiting for political answers. Information flow is not just two way, but four way and beyond, in this world of competitive politics. It is a fact known to all who want to know, that full implementation of the 13th Amendment with police and land powers, even if promised by the President, would not go beyond his own Defence Ministry. These issues cannot be swept under the carpet with contradictory statements by confused politicians.
There is a fundamental flaw, not in the UN panel report, but in how this government feels it could handle this report. There is no way, the ground truth could be subverted to suit the political fancies of this regime, any more. Loud screaming about Western conspiracies, about traitors, on new suicide squads to protect President Rajapaksa, fake claims on reconciliation and peace, full page, heavily paid media advertisements by quacks; well…… can they mute the cold truth on the ground ? That truth is very clearly heard by those who want to know the truth and not by those who don’t want to tell them. That truth demands justice and decency over biased administrative regulations, this regime tries to find answers from.
The Rajapaksa troika needs to accept this simple truth. They’ve got to be honest at least to themselves. President Rajapaksa needs to sideline political clowns, to have sensible and practical advice with accurate information. The two ministerial failures who suffocated the 2002 – 2003 peace negotiations, will not be any patch to this more serious and complicated issue with an international face and a local soul.
This Rajapaksa regime, even for their own selfish survival, needs to have just one single, honestly briefed political stand in reaching out to the requests of the international community and to answer democratic needs of the Lankan society. That is not what the world sees in this regime. This regime for now as the world outside sees it, is a confused pack of political ‘Jacks and Jokers’ with no answers for its own problems. And that may leave paal soru instead of kiribath on the table, when finally, celebrations are called for.
With racist politics, those who read obituaries loud with passion, do not linger long with those who did the killing for them.
© The Sunday Leader
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Sri Lanka: Australian entangled in a final act of civil war
By Ben Doherty | Sydney Morning Herald
.............................................................................................................................................................................................
Now, two years on, an Australian citizen and senior Sri Lankan diplomat stands accused, in an application to the International Criminal Court, of complicity in the murder of surrendering Tamils. A Herald investigation examines one desperate final act in Sri Lanka's civil war on a lonely, bloody beach at Mullaitivu.
The ruthless separatist war waged by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam against the Sinhalese-majority Sri Lankan government came to its bloody end, after more than a quarter of a century, in May 2009.
The terrorist army, which at one stage controlled a third of the island, was reduced in the end to a narrow strip of coastal land, hemmed in by the sea, a lagoon, and a relentless assault from the advancing army.
Many Tigers vowed to fight to the death rather than lay down their arms, but as the bodies piled up on the beach, some sought a way to surrender, for themselves, and for the thousands of civilians they held hostage.
Under constant heavy shelling, on mobile phones with waning batteries, they rang and sent text messages to anyone they thought could help rescue them.
They contacted diplomats, journalists, workers of non-governmental organisations, seeking anyone who could broker an agreement between their rump of a resistance and the government.
They made dozens of calls.
Through a European intermediary, they got a message to Dr Palitha Kohona, Sri Lanka's foreign secretary, and at that time the public face of Sri Lanka's war against the Tigers.
Dr Kohona is dual Sri-Lankan Australian citizen, a former Australian diplomat and trade negotiator for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He is now an ambassador for Sri Lanka, the country's permanent representative to the United Nations.
He was contacted with a message on behalf of a man called Pulidevan, who was the head of the Tiger peace secretariat. Pulidevan was not a soldier, but a key Tiger policymaker. He offered an unconditional surrender.
Willing to walk out with him were members of his family, Nadesan, the head of the Tigers' political wing, a Tigers' Colonel called Ramesh, and more than a dozen civilians.
Over several hours it was negotiated that those who wished to could safely surrender under a white flag. They were told a route to walk from behind a defensive bund into the custody of the army's 58th division. The troops were told to expect them.
At 8.46am on Sunday, May 17, Dr Kohona sent a text message to a third party intermediary, which was passed on to Pulidevan.
"Just walk across to the troops, slowly! With a white flag and comply with instructions carefully. The soldiers are nervous about suicide bombers."
At 6.30am the next day, Pulidevan and Nadesan, each carrying a white flag above his head, and followed by a group of about 15 that included their families, walked from their hideout towards the 58th division.
A Tamil man who was in the war zone and watched them leave - who has since fled Sri Lanka, but asked that his name be withheld for fear of reprisals - told the Herald they walked as instructed and none were armed.
"I saw them with my own eyes. Pulidevan and Nadesan and then behind them the other people. I saw them walk towards the soldiers. The soldiers had trucks, they took the people behind the trucks and behind the sand mound, we couldn't see them any more. Then we could just hear shooting, and people yelling. The shooting was fast, like a machinegun.''
Reports at the time said Pulidevan's wife, a Sinhalese woman, called out to the troops in their native Sinhalese: "He is trying to surrender and you are shooting him".
The deaths of Pulidevan and Nadesan were reported within half an hour. The body of Pulidevan's wife was found, too, also shot dead.
The war ended that day. The bodies of some of those who surrendered were found in the days following, but many were not. It is believed that none of those who surrendered survived.
Dr Kohona told the Herald the text message was not part of any negotiations with the Tigers. "I have said … categorically that as foreign secretary of Sri Lanka, I never had the authority to issue orders to troops or to discuss surrender terms of any terrorists, either directly or indirectly."
He did not "honestly believe" an effort was made by the group to surrender.
"The text is likely to have been in response to an inquiry, but not from anyone associated with the LTTE. This was not an effort to arrange a surrender, which I had no authority to do.
"In my understanding this is how surrenders normally take place. This was all the advice I could give."
The Herald has confirmed with three independent sources the message sent by Dr Kohona to a third party was in response to an offer from Pulidevan of a surrender. The message was passed to Pulidevan.
But while Palitha Kohona was regarded as a key player in negotiations, evidence is emerging the Tigers' planned surrender was foreknown throughout the Sri Lankan government and military, to the very highest levels.
The report to the UN Secretary-General on the conduct of the war, released last month, found: "both [Sri Lankan] President [Mahinda] Rajapaksa and [his brother] Defence Secretary Basil Rajapaksa provided assurances that their surrender would be accepted.
"These were conveyed by intermediaries to the LTTE leaders, who were advised to raise a white flag and walk slowly towards the army, following a particular route advised by Basil Rajapaksa."
Leaked US embassy cables show Norway's ambassador was in regular contact with Tamil Tiger leaders and with both Basil Rajapaksa and another brother, Gotabaya, urging the government to accept a surrender.
And a deposition from a senior army officer, seen by the Herald, says there were instructions from a field commander "to get rid of the LTTE cadres who are surrendering, without adhering to the normal procedures".
The Sri Lankan government has maintained the surrendering Tamils were shot by other cadres as they deserted. It says it pursued a humanitarian rescue operation.
Dr Kohona himself addressed the UN Security Council this week, telling it that at the end of the war, "the government adopted a zero civilian casualty policy''.
He told the Herald he has "absolutely no idea" how Pulidevan and Nadesan died.
"The version [presented by the report to the UN] appears to be a convenient entree to establish criminal conduct. The rump LTTE has been working overtime clutching at straws to get even.''
The UN Secretary-General's report found it was "unable to accept the version of events held by the government of Sri Lanka".
© Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday, May 14, 2011
'Walk to the troops': SMS sent Tamils to their death
By Ben Doherty | The Age
.............................................................................................................................................................................................
It came, through an intermediary, from the Sri Lankan foreign secretary, apparent instructions for a surrender: ''Just walk across to the troops, slowly! With a white flag and comply with instructions carefully. The soldiers are nervous about suicide bombers.''
At dawn the next day, a group of nearly 20 - Tamil Tiger soldiers and civilians - scrambled from behind their defensive sand embankment, walking under white flags towards the Sri Lankan army's 58th Division.
Within half an hour their leaders were found, shot dead. None who surrendered are known to have survived.
The man who sent the text message was Dr Palitha Kohona, a dual Sri Lankan-Australian citizen, a former Australian diplomat and trade negotiator for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He is now an ambassador for Sri Lanka, the country's permanent representative to the United Nations.
A report to the UN Secretary-General last month named him as party to the failed surrender talks, and two Tamil groups have accused him of war crimes.
Dr Kohona denies the claims, telling The Saturday Age that while he sent the text message it was not a guarantee of safety. ''Absolutely not. This would be have been way beyond my authority to promise,'' he said.
The ruthless separatist war waged by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam against the Sinhalese-majority Sri Lankan government came to its bloody end in May 2009.
The Tigers, who once controlled a third of the island, were forced into a narrow strip of coastal land, hemmed in by the sea, a lagoon, and a relentless assault from the army.
Many Tigers vowed to fight to the death, but as the bodies piled up, some sought a way to surrender, to save themselves and thousands of civilians they held hostage. Under heavy shelling, they rang and sent messages to diplomats, journalists - anyone they thought could broker an agreement with the government.
Through a European intermediary, they got a message to Dr Kohona. He was contacted on behalf of a man called Pulidevan, head of the Tiger peace secretariat. He offered an unconditional surrender.
Willing to walk out with him under a white flag were members of his family, Nadesan, the head of the LTTE's political wing, an LTTE colonel called Ramesh, and more than a dozen civilians.
At 8.46am on Sunday, May 17, Dr Kohona sent a text message to a third-party intermediary, which was passed on to Pulidevan.
At 6.30 the next morning, Pulidevan and Nadesan, carrying white flags and followed by about 15 others walked towards the army, which had been told to expect them. A Tamil man who watched them leave told The Saturday Age they walked towards the soldiers as instructed.
''The soldiers had trucks,'' he said. ''They took the people behind the trucks … Then we could just hear shooting and people yelling. The shooting was fast, like a machinegun.''
The deaths of Pulidevan and Nadesan were reported within half an hour. The body of Pulidevan's wife, also shot, was found too.
Dr Kohona told The Saturday Age the text message was not part of any negotiations with the Tigers. He did not believe the group tried to surrender. ''The text is likely to have been in response to an inquiry, but not from anyone associated with the LTTE. This was not an effort to arrange a surrender, which I had no authority to do.''
The Saturday Age has confirmed with three independent sources that the message sent by Dr Kohona to a third party was in response to an offer from Pulidevan of an unconditional surrender. The message was passed to Pulidevan.
But while Palitha Kohona was regarded as a key player in negotiations, evidence is emerging that the Tamil Tigers' planned surrender was known at the highest levels of the military and the government.
The report to the UN Secretary-General on the conduct of the war, released last month, said both Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother, Defence Secretary Basil Rajapaksa, gave assurances that their surrender would be accepted.
The Sri Lankan government has maintained the surrendering Tamils were shot by other cadres as they deserted. It says it pursued a humanitarian rescue operation.
Dr Kohona addressed the UN Security Council this week, saying that at the end of the war ''the government adopted a zero civilian casualty policy. Our troops endeavoured to distinguish between combatants and civilians, and the protection and liberation of the civilians from the clutches of the terrorist group was their highest priority.''
The Secretary-General's report said the UN was unable to accept the government's version of events.
In January, an application to the International Criminal Court by two Tamil diaspora groups alleged Dr Kohona was culpable for the deaths of those who surrendered.
Sri Lanka does not recognise the court, and its citizens are exempt from its proceedings, but Dr Kohona's status as an Australian citizen means he could face prosecution before it.
Rajeev Sreetharan from US-based Tamils Against Genocide, said while it was unlikely Dr Kohona was the sole mastermind of any surrender plan, his role warranted investigation.
But Dr Kohona said he had no idea how Pulidevan and Nadesan died.
''The version [presented by the report to the UN] appears to be a convenient entree to establish criminal conduct,'' he said.
© The Age
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Jailing the Journalist
By Adam Sievering | City Beat
.............................................................................................................................................................................................
A frightening percentage of the missing people were Sri Lankan journalists, specifically those who felt confident enough to publish damning information about their government’s military campaign against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
Journalists who were targeted were those that exposed war crimes and human rights violations including, but not limited to, the government’s use of nuclear equipment in proximity of civilians, forced recruitment of child soldiers, torture, and the widespread killing of civilians residing in LTTE-occupied areas.
Despite rights ensured in the Sri Lankan Constitution that guarantee freedom of press, numerous reports of government-ordered abductions, assassinations and violent raids on newsrooms circulate, prompting human rights organizations like Amnesty International to demand justice for those who have been tortured, killed or wrongfully imprisoned for exercising their constitutional freedoms.
On May 7, award-winning Sri Lankan journalist Jayaprakash Sittampalam Tissainayagam (known as J. S. Tissainayagam, or “Tissa”) spoke about his experience as a prisoner and martyr of the Sri Lankan government at Amnesty International’s Southern Ohio Meeting, held in a conference room at University of Cincinnati’s College of Law.
During his 20 years as a journalist, Tissa wrote political columns about Tamil issues that were frequently critical of the government, but not partisan to the LTTE. Notably, he served as a reporter for The Sunday Leader under Lasantha Wickrematunge, who was assassinated in January 2009 following the publication of an editorial that stated “Murder has become the primary tool whereby the state seeks to control the organs of liberty,” among other reflections on the government’s brutal censorship of the media. Also, Tissa founded North Eastern Monthly and contributed columns to The Sunday Times prior to his arrest.
On March 7, 2008, he was taken into custody by the Terrorism Investigation Division of the Sri Lankan Police for writing an article in North Eastern Monthly, that stated:
“Providing security to Tamils now will define northeastern politics of the future. It is fairly obvious that the government is not going to offer them any protection. In fact, it is the state security forces that are the main perpetrator of the killings.”
After five months of detention, during which he was allegedly tortured and forced into writing a letter of confession dictated to him, the Colombo High Courts convicted Tissa and sentenced him to 20 years hard labor in prison for inciting communal violence with his writings and receiving money from the LTTE.
He was sentenced under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. Similar in nature to the United States’ Patriot Act passed in October 2001, it provides the Sri Lankan police with broad powers to search, arrest and detain suspects. It was first put in place as a temporary law in 1979, and then made permanent in 1982 when the LTTE resistance became formidable.
Proscribed as a terrorist organization by 32 countries, including Sri Lanka and the United States, the “Tamil Tigers” sought to secede from government order and establish an autonomous state in north and eastern regions of Sri Lanka beginning in the early 1980s.
LTTE supporters say the group’s chief objective was to secure a homeland for Eelam Tamils, who are native to the country, but represent an ethnic minority commonly persecuted by the predominantly Sinhalese government.
“My family couldn’t live in Sri Lanka after I was arrested,” says Tissa, who was released on bail by the Court of Appeals on Jan. 11, 2010, after the government received significant pressure from human rights organizations.
“You see, the biggest problem is, once you’ve been arrested for something that’s labeled a terrorist act, you become a terrorist in the public eye. Your family, your friends, anyone who is out to publicly defend you, will also be labeled a terrorist by the government.”
Tissa and his family have taken asylum in the United States. He now studies at Harvard University and speaks candidly about brutal censorship in Sri Lanka, which continues today.
“People will not speak out on important issues because they are scared,” he said. “Fear rules. There needs to be an impartial, international investigation of the war crimes in Sri Lanka because without accountability, there is no justice. Without justice, there is no resolution.”
© City Beat
Saturday, May 14, 2011
For Sri Lankan women, war for survival continues in peacetime
By Amantha Perera - IPS | The Irrawaady
.............................................................................................................................................................................................
Nearly one-third of families that have returned to the former conflict zone in the north are headed by women single-handedly trying to make ends meet, said a recent study by the Sri Lankan government and the United Nations office here.
The study, called the "Joint Plan for Assistance Northern Province 2011", detailed funding needs and goals in the former conflict zone. It found that more than 110,000 families who fled the fighting between late 2008 and May 2009 have now returned to their home villages or live with host families.
The report said as many as 30,000 of these families now could be headed by women, old and young, facing the daunting task of caring for families in a region devastated by over two and a half decades of war and only now slowly showing any signs of permanent recovery.
The war, waged by militants who sought an independent Tamil state, began in earnest in 1983 and raged on till May 2009. It left more than 70,000 dead, hundreds of thousands displaced, and an indelible imprint on all parts of Sri Lankan life.
It also left tens of thousands of women either widowed, with husbands missing during the conflict, or maimed or seriously injured. The numbers are hard to come by, but some estimates place at 40,000 the number of war widows in Sri Lanka’s east, where the conflict ended earlier, in 2007.
War-affected women can be found on both sides of the fence. There are also wives of government soldiers either killed, missing or seriously injured who now have to look after their families.
Another category is former fighters with the Tamil Tigers. The Tigers in fact recruited females heavily, naming them "Freedom Birds", with their own line of command. Of the more than 11,000 Tigers who were detained or surrendered to government forces at the end of the fighting, over 3,000 were females.
"We are only seeing the surface of this problem, it runs deep into our society," says Shantha Jayalath, the Chief Commissioner of the Girls Guides’ Association in Sri Lanka.
The Girl Guides recently launched an island-wide program to assist war-affected women. Officials working closely with the program told IPS that the more they worked, the more they realized the severity of the women’s situation.
Those who work with affected women on the ground agree with that bleak assessment. Saroja Sivachandran, Director of the Centre for Women and Development in the northern Jaffna area, told IPS that the massive task of rebuilding the region almost from scratch has pushed the issue of war-affected women to the sidelines.
"Everyone knows that women are facing a tough situation, but there is so much to be done here and very few resources," she told IPS.
There is help available, but on a small scale. For example, when stray cattle roaming the former war zone—there are over 60,000 of them left—are collared and handed back to owners, single women heading households are given priority to receive unclaimed animals.
The Girl Guides have launched a programme to impart skills training. Officials said the biggest demand was for skills that the women could use and earn a living with, while staying at home. Considerable interest has been shown in home gardening, dressmaking, handicraft and animal husbandry.
"It is very clear that most of the women want to work while staying at home. They have a dual role from what we see—that of the breadwinner and the traditional stay-at-home wife’s duties," Arundathi Chandrathileke, the Girl Guide’s official overseeing the training, told IPS.
The project tries to either fund self-employment or assist in job placements for those who complete the six months training.
Wives of government soldiers who were killed, missing or gravely injured showed a similar interest in skills that can be applied gainfully while staying at home. "These are young women with very few skills. It is still a very tough prospect for them," Chandrathileke said.
The Girl Guide official told IPS that most women in the role of sole breadwinner could not or did not want to leave an injured spouse or young children alone at home for extended hours.
Women and girls who once served in the ranks of the Tamil Tiger face a different kind of problem. Many of those who were once detained and released have received vocational and other skills trainings, but continue to be haunted by their past.
"It is very similar to them being branded on their foreheads," Chandrathileke said.
She mentions the example of an 18-year-old girl who was forced into joining the Tigers.
The girl passed her university entrance exam with exceptional marks, possesses language skills in all three main languages used in the country—Sinhala, Tamil and English—and has been trained as a data entry programmer.
"But no one wants to employ her. Why? Because she was a former Tiger," Chandrathileke said of the girl hailing from Kilinochchi in the Northern Province, the former showcase administrative centre of the defeated Tigers.
Sivachandran, who works extensively with such women and widows, told IPS that the stigma is a big factor in the women’s lives. She said that many women in the former conflict zone married young and bore children in an effort to avoid conscription by the Tigers.
"Now we have young women not even in their mid-20’s who are widows with two children. They face all types of pressures and discrimination," Sivachandran said. In Eastern Sri Lanka, the bulk of the estimated 40,000 war widows are thought to be under 30.
Both Sivachandran and Chandrathileke agree that more attention should be devoted to helping these women.
"Most of them are victims of circumstances not of their own making. If we don’t make an effort to help them now, not only these women, but others who depend on them will suffer the wounds of war when all of us are talking of peace," Sivachandran said.
© Irrawaddy
Saturday, May 14, 2011
UN Panel Report, Sri Lanka and India
By Sivanendran | South Asia Analysis Group
.............................................................................................................................................................................................
“The first step is to penetrate the clouds of deceit and distortion and learn the truth about the world, then to organise and act to change it. That’s never been impossible and never been easy” - Noam Chomsky
A draft of the report was given to the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) for their review and response prior to publication. It was intended to incorporate their response in the final document. The government obviously rattled by the findings in the report, leaked it to their slavish press and sought to mobilise the Sinhala masses against the UN and the West. The government used all tactics in their armoury to prevent its publication, and using the period before publication to hurl abuses at everyone connected with the report. The press instead of investigating the mass of information in the report and examining its recommendations - as it is their function in a democracy - set about ridiculing and vilifying the panel members for its contents. Sri Lankan media have been especially frantic in their attacks on UNSG Ban ki Moon for commissioning the report. They have dismissed the document as a "fabrication," and contend that the UN researchers that documented the massacres of innocent Tamil victims of SLA are pursuing a vendetta against the Sri Lankan State.
Finally, GOSL blasted the report as "flawed, offensive and ridiculous" and decided not to issue a response and seek other ways of preventing any follow up action by the UN. Rejecting the report, the country's Media Minister said, "The report is a fraud and biased and we reject it... We are not panicked, and even we made our protest when they appointed the panel with“.
GOSL hoped that mounting such a campaign would at best dissuade the publication of the report or at worst force a review and weaken its contents. That would not be surprising, since UN employees have been reporting the massacres to their bosses for years, with no effect. But surprisingly (compared to previous UN vacillation over Rwanda and Bosnia), in this instant, the UNSG stood his ground and published the report without mollifying Rajapakse’s government. Its most controversial parts are accusations against the government , which according to it “Most civilian casualties in the final phases of the war were caused by government shelling,” and it believed that “Tens of thousands lost their lives from January to May 2009, many of whom died anonymously in the carnage of the final few days.”
The War and Crimes against humanity
It is impossible to understand the current situation in Sri Lanka, or to make a contribution to resolving some of the acute problems, without recognising the reality of the many human right violations over the past twenty five years committed by all parties, the huge crime that profoundly colours every individual and every event in the island. Yet this is not what the report has attempted to do. It was addressing only the final phase of the war. It has found credible information that war crimes might have been committed and they need investigating by an Independent authority. This has pushed the panel report in the eyes of Sri Lankan Government as an extremely partial, even partisan role and perceive it as highly political.
Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the ICC, entitled =Crimes against Humanity‘, reads:
1. For the purpose of this Statute, "Crime against Humanity" means any of the following acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack:
(a) Murder;
(b) Extermination;
(d) Deportation;
(e) Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law;
(f) Torture;
(g) Rape, enforced prostitution or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity;
(h) Persecution against any identifiable group or collectively on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court;
(i) Enforced disappearance of person
(j)
(k)
2. For the purpose of paragraph 1:
(a) ‘Attack directed against any civilian population’ means a course of conduct involving the multiple commission of acts referred to in paragraph 1 against any civilian population, pursuant to or in furtherance of a State or organizational policy to commit such attack;
(b) ‘Extermination’ includes the intentional infliction of conditions of life, inter alia the deprivation of access to food and medicine, calculated to bring about the destruction of part of a population;
(d) ‘Deportation or forcible transfer of population’ means forced displacement of the persons concerned by expulsion or other coercive acts from the area in which they are lawfully present, without grounds permitted under international law;
(e) ‘Torture’ means the intentional infliction of severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, upon a person in the custody or under the control of the accused; except that torture shall not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to, lawful sanctions;
(g) ‘Persecution’ means the intentional and severe deprivation of fundamental rights contrary to international law by reason of the identity of the group or collectivity;
(i) ‘Enforced disappearance of persons’ means the arrest, detention or abduction of persons by, or with the authorization, support or acquiescence of, a State or a political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge that deprivation of freedom or to give information on the fate or whereabouts of those persons, with the intention of removing them from the protection of the law for a prolonged period of time.
In the last few months of this conflict there have been widespread allegations of massive human rights and international humanitarian law violations. Eye witnesses to these allegations are the surviving 300,000 victims of Mullivaikal and personnel belonging to International NGO‘s present in the conflict zone. The report states “a number of credible sources have estimated that there could have been as many as 40,000 civilian deaths. Two years after the end of the war, there is still no reliable figure for civilian deaths, but multiple sources of information indicate that a range of up to 40,000 civilian deaths cannot be ruled out at this stage”. It is estimated almost 300,000 reported as being interned in camps. The SLA and the LTTE attacked each other without sparing the civilians caught in the middle, which not only constitutes a violation of customary international law, but also amounts to criminal conduct by them.
Many attacks on civilians fall into a pattern. Hospitals were continuously shelled in the conflict zone. Independent agencies such as Human Rights Watch lists thirty hospitals as being shelled during a period of less than four months. Other shelling hit government declared no-fire-zones, where women, children and the elderly gathered for shelter. On the 9th and 10th of May 2009, a small beach area near Mullaitivu, a declared no-fire-zone, was attacked mercilessly by the SLA while 50,000 residents gathered, leaving hundreds of civilians dead in a single attack. Prisoners, surrendered as well as captured persons were summarily executed (Shown on Channel 4 in UK) or simply disappeared.
The populations of entire villages were forced to move to camps with harshly restricted exit, devastating conditions and no access for international observers. Civilians in such camps are subjected to: sexual violence, mistreatment as well as refusal of humanitarian aid, food, water, means of sanitation and medical supplies. At Manik Farm, the shortage of water and sanitation were especially severe causing the deaths of many weak and elderly people.
The deceptions
The panel also criticises the UN in failing to report and “to take actions that might have protected civilians.” The panel says casualty figures collected by the UN should have been made public at the time.
Releasing casualty figures isn’t enough. Why was the world happy to bury this horror in silence, and ignore the pleas of Tamils everywhere to intervene? In this day and age, when satellite information is so readily available at the press of a button, it beggars belief that the world did not see such an atrocity being taking place under its very eyes. Is it not shocking that such a horrible crime of such magnitude was allowed to be perpetrated by a bunch of mendacious men who almost got away by clearing the debris and burying the evidence?
The Rajapakse regime confused the international community about the nature of the war in Sri Lanka. GOSL successfully persuaded the world that the intractable ethnic war as a war against terrorism in an international political climate favourable to it. No doubt the LTTE made its contribution to fit in with this vision. In their effort, to solve this ethnic problem, GOSL drove out all independent international NGO’s from the war zone and perpetrated the massive atrocities against a trapped Tamil population, pummelling it with multi barrel rocket launchers in a war without witness. When the Tamil Diaspora was telling the world, that there were at least 300,000 in the war zone, GOSL called it a lie. The GOSL convinced the world that there were 70,000 in the war zone. When a massive population of men women and children were suffering and struggling for survival, all food rations and medications were limited to these numbers by this regime who should have known the facts. At the end of the war survivors numbered more than 300,000. To this day there are no apologies to the survivors or to the rest of the world from this regime for getting these numbers so wrong.
Again, take the matter of the solution to the National Question. The regime promised the world that they are addressing the underlying problem causing strife in the island through an All Party Representative Committee appointed in 2006 under the Chairmanship of Prof. Vithane. The distinguished panel was mandated by the President to prepare a set of proposals that would form the basis for a solution to the National Question. President Rajapakse during the course of the war, assured the world community and especially the Indian government during their many interactions that he was awaiting the recommendation of the APRC to finalise his course of action. After the end of the war, a triumphalist Rajapakse abandoned the whole APRC process and consigned the monumental efforts of the panel to the dustbin of history. The international community was once again manipulated and deceived.
The political somersaults the current Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka is a man of superb academic credentials and, is the face of the Sri Lankan government to the international world. He was the leader of the Sri Lankan delegation to the Norwegian peace process encouraging the LTTE to join him to explore jointly a solution to the National Question. The world is familiar with the modalities of this process. He has now cynically abandoned all his previous convictions to serve his time as an apologist for this regime. How can his judgement be trusted?
It was surprising that the Rajapakse regime who convinced the world that nothing untoward has occurred during the war and that they scrupulously observed all the laws of war. It managed to get the United Nations Human Rights Council to pass a deeply flawed resolution on 27 May 2009, on Sri Lanka that ignored calls for an international investigation into alleged abuses during recent fighting and other pressing human rights concerns. Further, GOSL assured that august assembly during its deliberations, that it does not regard a military solution as a final solution, and further underlined its commitment to a political solution with implementation of the thirteenth amendment to bring about lasting peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka. India believing these promises supported the resolution. We now know how Sri Lanka misled the world. This resolution was a political act and not a worthy epitaph for the defenceless men, women and children who died in the war.
"The Human Rights Council did not even express its concern for the hundreds of thousands of people facing indefinite detention in government camps," said Juliette de Rivero, Geneva advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. "The council ignored urgent needs and wasted an important chance to promote human rights."
"It is deeply disappointing that a majority of the Human Rights Council decided to focus on praising a government whose forces have been responsible for the repeated indiscriminate shelling of civilians," said de Rivero. "These states blocked a message to the government that it needs to hear, to ensure access to displaced civilians and uphold human rights standards. They undermined the very purpose of the council."
During the special session, UN High commissioner for human rights Navi Pillay called for an independent international investigation into violations of international human rights and humanitarian law during the recent fighting, including those specifically responsible. UN estimates say that more than 7,000 civilians have been killed in the fighting in Sri Lanka since late January 2009.
"The images of terrified and emaciated women, men, and children fleeing the battle zone ought to be etched in our collective memory," Pillay said. "They must spur us into action."
A majority of council members - including China, Pakistan, India and Uruguay - ignored the call for accountability and justice for victims by the UN high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay. Instead, the resolution adopted reaffirms the principle of non-interference in the domestic jurisdiction of states, a step backward for the Human Rights Council, Human Rights Watch said.
This resolution is a travesty of the truth. Sri Lanka, hailed it as vindication for the block of third world countries and for standing up for their cultural values against the Western block. What values; what culture? The panel of Experts, have now requested the Human Rights Council to review this special session resolution of May 2009 in the light of its report.
We cannot justify to the world that we can put behind this moment in history and move on. The victims of this conflict need closure, and this is not the way to bring it about. The dead have perished and more than 300,00 survivors are still waiting to tell their story. The full story is not yet told.
Indeed the systematic abuses by Sri Lankan government forces are among the most serious conduct imaginable. There abuse of human rights such as torture and extrajudicial killings is so widespread that Governments of the world owe it to Sri Lankan human rights victims – and to victims of human rights abuses around the world not to believe again the assurances of the Sri Lankan government and to ensure that the recommendations of the Expert panel is fully implemented.
Will India support the implementation of this report of the Expert panel in world councils, and answer the cries of the victims consistent with the noble spirit of the founding fathers of modern India or will it again trust the deceitful Rajapakse government to spin a web of deception on a trusting world. We are waiting.
© SAAG
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Sri Lanka: "Impunity prevails despite end of war"- Amnesty
BBC Sinhala
.............................................................................................................................................................................................
The government continued to subject people to torture and enforced disappearances, the watchdog said in its annual report.
"Enforced disappearances and abductions for ransom carried out by members of the security forces are reported in many parts of the country," the report said.
On Thursday, the UN said Iniya Bharati, an advisor to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, is running a faction of the TMVP paramilitary group that still forcefully recruits children.
Child recruitment
In a statement to BBC, Iniya Bharati has denied the accusation.
"Police and army personnel continued to torture or otherwise ill-treat detainees. Some people died in custody after being tortured by police," the AI said.
It added that police killings of suspects or killings in apparent "escape attempts" continued to be reported from Sri Lanka.
The AI report is also highly critical of the government's treatment of former Tamil Tiger combatants.
Describing the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) as an "ad-hoc" measure, the London based watchdog says the panel is not empowered to investigate accountability issues on human rights violations.
'Ad-hoc' LLRC
Noting its shortcomings in mandate, the AI, Human Rights Watch and the International Crisis Group earlier rejected an invitation to testify before the LLRC.
The annual report accuses the Sri Lanka authorities of not properly addressing the issue of Internally displaced Tamil People (IDP) despite the fact that only 20,000 IDPs currently remain in the camps out of 300,000.
"Many Tamils who left the camps still lived in unsettled conditions and continued to depend on food aid. Tens of thousands remained with host families and some 1,400 remained at transit sites," it said.
The UN report on Children in conflict stated allegations of sexual violence across the four districts in the north (Killinochchi, Mullativu, Vavuniya and Mannar) among the displaced communities.
"Women and girls have reported lack of safety owing to the presence of members of the Sri Lankan Army or local officials, some of whom have been reported to have returned to the communities at night wearing civilian clothes and requesting sexual favours" says the report compiled by Under-Secretary-General and Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy.
© BBC Sinhala
Thursday, May 12, 2011
TID asks witness to implicate a senior army officer in the assasination of senior journalist
By Ananda Weerasuriya | Daily Mirror
.............................................................................................................................................................................................
The former Army Intelligence member, Kandegedara Priyawansa who had been arrested and detained for alleged involvement in the assassination of the Sunday Leader Editor made this statement when the inquiry was taken up before the Mount Lavinia Chief Magistrate Ms. Nirosha Fernando.
“The TID promised to make me a witness and offered a foreign job if I implicated a senior army officer for the murder”, he said
The Army Intelligence member and a garage owner in Nuwara Eliya, Pichchei Jesudasan are in custody for allegedly being involved in the assassination of the newspaper editor.
© Daily Mirror
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Relatives of missing people ‘still in grief’
By Arthur Wamanan | The Nation
.............................................................................................................................................................................................
He said people belonging to all communities, who had been affected due to the civil war and riots, should be equally compensated.
The government has the responsibility to accept the mistakes committed in the past, Dr. Vallipuranathan said.
He said the relatives of the missing people continued to suffer due to mental agony.
He therefore said the government should declare the deaths in custody and put an end to the mental agony of the relatives.
Dr. Murali Vallipuranathan during the session on December 8 told the commission that it was acting in such a way that incriminated the LTTE.
He said the commission should not have called the doctors who served in the Wanni, as the cases against them were not dropped and they were at the mercy of the government.
He pointed out that certain questions posed towards the doctors incriminated the LTTE.
The LLRC maintained that it was not functioning to praise the government but to ascertain the truth as to what happened during the final stages of the battle last year.
He was quick to assert that he did not sympathise with the LTTE and did not approve of its actions.
The commission, responding to Dr Vallipuranathan’s views, said the questions were asked from the doctors to ascertain the truth as to what happened at the final stages of the war.
The commission pointed out that it was not incriminating any organisation.
Massacre
In his submissions, Dr Vallipuranathan said his father (49) was among the 85 civilians who were massacred at Pankulam, Trincomalee, on their way to Jaffna.
He said the incident occurred the day after LTTE had attacked Pankulam police station.
“According to the few survivors of the massacre at that time, it was carried out by security forces. To date, no proper inquiry was held and nobody was charged for this gruesome massacre,” he told the commission.
In addition, Dr Vallipuranathan stressed that the displaced people should be resettled in their own places.
He pointed out that resettling them in their own places would help them overcome psychological and mental issues and get back to normal life.
He said that the military had put up luxury quarters on his father’s land in Vasavilan, a high security zone.
He said the land was not vacated even after a Supreme Court directive in 2006.
The commission in response to this issue said that it was looking into this matter, as there were several complaints.
The commission requested the doctor to provide the address and other details for it to look into the matter.
Dr Vallipuranathan also briefed the commission on the issues faced by the people who lived under the LTTE controlled areas in the 1990s due to restrictions on certain essential items.
Malaria
In his submission, Dr Vallipuranathan said certain medicines were not allowed to be transported into LTTE-controlled areas during the conflict in the 1990s.
He added there were many deaths due to malaria in the LTTE-controlled areas during the late 1990s. He pointed out that 451 deaths out of 540 due to malaria were reported from the north and east between 1997 and 1999.
He also pointed out that during the final stages of the war, the government had claimed there were only 70,000 civilians trapped in the conflict zone and had sent medicines and food items to the said amount.
“At the end of the war, the government statistics itself shows that the population that lived under LTTE control was more than 300,000,” he said.
In his submission, Dr Vallipuranathan also said he was not allowed to assist the war casualties soon after the end of the war.
“Though I gave my name to serve in these camps, my name was deliberately excluded,” he said.
He said he was aware of other Tamil doctors who were not allowed to serve in camps.
© The Nation
This site is best viewed with firefox
Visit the JDS New Website
Read the urgent alerts - act now!
Sri Lanka's Killing Fields
No Impunity for Enforced Disappearances
UN REPORT ON SRI LANKA
where is prageeth?
Amnesty: Failures of Sri Lanka's LLRC
Permanent Peopls's Tribunal on Sri Lanka - Final Report
Sivaram: A walk down memory lane
Remembering Lasantha
Subscribe to JDS newsfeeds
UN EXPERTS conclusion backs the JDS video
SL Execution Video : The truth comes out
A legacy unforgotten
Post-war justice in sri lanka : International Commission of Jurists
Evidence of Police Brutality in Sri Lanka
A Study of Police Torture in Sri Lanka
