Sri Lanka row over Catholic letter on human rights

BBC News
.............................................................................................................................................................................................

One of Sri Lanka's governing parties has called for the prosecution of a leading bishop after he condemned the government's human rights record.

The Roman Catholic Bishop of Mannar and 30 priests wrote to the UN Human Rights Council calling for an inquiry into the legacy of Sri Lanka's civil war.

But Sri Lanka's Buddhist nationalist JHU party accused the bishop of sympathising with separatist rebels.

Correspondents say his comments have also led to a rift within the church.

The bishop of the northern diocese of Mannar, Rayappu Joseph, supported by 30 priests, signed a letter sharply critical of the Sri Lankan authorities.

Apart from calling for an independent international inquiry on the legacy of the war and the need for truth and accountability, the letter condemned what it described as continuing human rights abuses.

The signatories also blamed the government for recent abductions of human rights workers and "vicious hate campaigns" against its opponents.

It has prompted the ire of the strongly Buddhist nationalist JHU or National Heritage Party, which told the BBC that the government should prosecute the bishop.

Church 'rift'?

The bishop's comments also contrast graphically with those of the top Catholic hierarchy in the country. The BBC's Charles Haviland in Colombo says the differences have laid bare what appears to be a split in the church in Sri Lanka.

A statement by Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, who heads the church in Sri Lanka, accused Western countries of meddling in Sri Lanka's sovereignty by planning to table a resolution on Sri Lanka at the Human Rights Council, which is currently convening in Geneva.

It said this was "an insult to the intelligence" of Sri Lankans.

The diametrically opposed messages from senior Catholics here point to a rift in the church, even though the cardinal, then an archbishop, worked with the same Bishop of Mannar a decade ago to try to mediate between the government and the Tamil Tigers, our correspondent says.

The church also made a joint presentation to the government-appointed war commission, noting that a priest was among many people who unaccountably disappeared on crossing into government territory as the war ended.

But activists say Cardinal Ranjith should be more vocal on human rights problems.

Catholics straddle the ethnic divide in Sri Lanka and among the church's members are several ministers and the wife of the President.

© BBC News

Read More

Summary only

Five ex-LTTE members abducted since February 27

Tamil Net
.............................................................................................................................................................................................

Five former members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who were released last year by the occupying SL forces for integration with their families after the genocidal SL military's ‘rehabilitation’ programme, have been reported missing last week.

On 27 February, two armed men, who came in a vehicle, asked for Mr. Muthaiah Subramaniyam and took him in their vehicle saying that he was being taken for an inquiry and that he would be released. The abduction took place around 9:00 p.m. in Ki'linochchi.

He was living with his family since 10 June, 2010.

3 more abductions have been reported in Ki'linochchi and Mullaiththeevu districts since 27 February.

Another person has been abducted in I'nuvil, Jaffna.

The families of abductees didn't want to reveal the details or names fearing for the safety of the victims.

© Tamil Net

Read More

Summary only

Ideology behind military rape in ‘United Sri Lanka’

Photo courtesy: Dinidu de Alwis

By R.M.Karthick | Counter Currents
.............................................................................................................................................................................................

The pathology of the Sri Lankan army in the episode of Mullivaikaal would have been all too obvious to those who watched the Channel 4 video on ‘Killing Fields’ in Sri Lanka released last year – a phenomena that Tamils have been exposed to for decades, but now on prime time. While the zeal that the soldiers in the 99% Sinhala military showed in executing bound prisoners of war shocked audiences world over, many were unprepared for their drive and ‘call of duty’ in dealing with captured Tamil women – as shown in the scenes in the C4 video where Sinhala soldiers vividly describe the naked bodies of Tamil women combatants whom they had sexually abused before executing with words that would make a pornographer blush.

But what is the rationale behind these ‘excesses’? Is there an ideology behind this or is it just yet another crime committed during a counterinsurgency war?

Those who followed what happened after the release of the documentary would be familiar with the crass sexist, gender-insensitive remarks made by Defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa on one of the female war witnesses who appeared in the video. While observers looked at it as the rant of a paranoid, what was missed was that same sentiments, if not worse, were expressed by the Singapore based Sri Lankan ‘counterinsurgency expert’ Rohan Gunaratna in one of his lectures on ‘Defeating the LTTE on foreign soil’ recently.[i] The gentleman, who has a few books printed in respectable publishing houses to his credit, instead of addressing the allegations of war-crimes and genocide placed by some prominent Eelam Tamil women war witnesses, was more interested in commenting about their looks and personal lives. An intimidation tactic? Or does an ideology lie behind this?

To paraphrase Mao, the best weapons the oppressed could use are framed by the enemy. Very well then.

The Sri Lankan liberal website Groundviews had a few days back published an article titled ‘History after the war: Challenges for Post War Reconciliation’.[ii] The author Dr. Dewasiri, a Sri Lankan academic, raises some interesting points regarding the dominant ideology in the ‘united island’.

1. In the Sinhala-Buddhist ideology the unitariness of Sri Lanka is not based on modern premises, but on a belief that this has been so for ages.

2. The ‘Tamil North’ in the island is a place to be conquered and occupied.

3. The military defeat of the LTTE, which had put a checkmate to this Sinhala conquest ever since its inception and the concomitant Sri Lankan military presence in the Tamil homelands alone was not enough. Tamils had to be de-nationalized and the Sinhala-Buddhist presence had to be increased in the North and East of the island.

That the author fails to deduce and state from this the genocidal intent of the Sinhala apparatus leading to Mullivaikaal, the protracted nature of the genocide of the Eelam Tamils aimed to culminate at a moment of complete Sinhalization, and the ethico-political need to support the demand for Tamil Eelam, is of course not his fault. A liberal academic, this is as far as he can go.

But his admission of the desire of Sinhala nationalist ideology for the conquest of Tamil lands gives us hints to the problem at hand.

Classic aggressive colonization of a land always imagines and equates conquest of land with control of that land’s women. While in action it usually works out in different forms - enslavement, rape, prostitution etc. in the level of discourse, it works as desire for seduction and possession of the native. From Said on to Chinua Achebe, a variety of postcolonial scholars have written on such ideological functions of colonial literary canons. The narration of ‘white man seducing and possessing the native and living together happily ever after’ has always been accompanied in real life by a most brutal pillage of the land of the natives, which it masks in romance.

Consider this personal narrative of a Sinhala gentleman married to a Tamil woman published on Groundviews.[iii] At surface level, it seems to ooze with sexuality and sentimentality. But as one goes towards the end, the theme is clear. Through an idealization of his relationship with his partner, the idea of ‘they’ existing as a distinct nation is dismissed and only ‘us’ is upheld as ideal. There is no guilt on the fact that over 100,000 of the nation of his ‘Other’ was killed fighting for a separate state by the government he pays taxes to. Only a frustration that despite her willingness to be as Sri Lankan as the Sinhalese, there is still discrimination. The desire for his partner becomes transposed through his narration onto a desire for a united Sri Lanka, which incidentally practices structural genocide against the Other nation.

The cynical multiculturalist argument – ‘Oh, they are not so much different from US after all. And they try to be like US too. So why cant we all just be US?’ To use an argument that Zizek used in his dissection of Avatar, beneath the politically correct words of this narrator, an array of brutal racist motifs exist. For his plea is only for those who are willing to be part of ‘us’. An Isaipriya, who would have never been part of ‘them’, was raped and killed. Along with hundreds like her.

Then, the logic of the soldier who believes that by raping a Tamil woman he is inflicting a blow on Tamil nation/culture is precisely the practical reflection of the logic of the Sinhala male who believes that by his wooing of the Tamil woman, the unitary state of Sri Lanka is possible/preserved.

(Does this mean that love cannot exist between individuals of the two nations? The author would never suggest that. But, if this ‘love’ translates into a discourse, a narration that justifies/upholds/masks an oppressive structure, it ceases to be an emotion. It becomes political. Moreover, in the time of Genocide even love, especially love, is a political act.)

A more obvious example would be the Sri Lankan High Commissioner for Australia, Admiral Samarasinge (himself an individual accused of war crimes) stating to Australian parliamentarians about the success of reconciliation in the island by giving the case of a “recent marriage which had taken place between a Sri Lankan soldier and a former LTTE combatant.”[iv] Meaning is this. The wedding of a Sinhala soldier, emblematic of all that is ‘good’ in Sri Lankan society, to a Tamil Tiger combatant, emblematic of all that is ‘evil’ in Tamil society, shows that the island is finally one. A symbolic conquest par excellence of the hated/desired Other.

Frantz Fanon in his brilliant analysis of the role of Algerian women in resistance in the article ‘Algeria Unveiled’ notes how the colonizer viewed the veil as an impediment to his penetrative gaze, his desire to possess the feminine body of the colonized. “The European faced with an Algerian woman wants to see. He reacts in an aggressive way before the limitation of his perception. Frustration and aggressiveness, here too, evolve apace.”

The ‘veil’ in this case is, of course, the Tiger uniform. The female cadre is a revolutionary subject militantly fighting the objectification of the Tamil feminine body by Sinhala patriarchy, creating history on the field through herself, by virtue of her uniform and her weapon. Considering that the women combatant of the LTTE often outshined their male comrades in inflicting crushing defeats on the Lankan army, her body and her uniform were symbolic of castration of the patriarch-par-excellence.

To the army man, the body of the female combatant and the uniform that veils it is unchartered territory, a mysterious locus of his neuropathological desire and hatred, a symbolic challenge to his masculinity. So when the Tigers were militarily defeated, he had to unveil the inaccessible, he had to prove his masculine credentials; he had to reassert the supremacy of Sinhala patriarchy. At the risk of sounding cold, the sexual abuse of Tamil women cadres was expected. The very nature of Sinhala militarist-colonization of Tamil territory seeks to feminize the Tamil body-politic and penetrate it. The rape of the women who resist this penetration at both subjective and symbolic levels then needs to be seen not as case of individual pathology alone, but also as a systemic necessity.

‘Taraki’ Sivaram, the iconic senior editor of TamilNet who was assassinated by Sri Lanka, had observed that “One of the things that a regime of terror expects is the total submission of women to the regime of terror. Basically the regime of terror expects women to be sex slaves.” Submission needn’t be rape alone, though the threat of rape is always there. It needs simply to be the acceptance of the authority (legal, extra-legal, social) of the Sinhala patriarch and his symbolic figure. Dr. Dewasiri’s article talks about Sinhala-Buddhist ‘pilgrims’ flocking to Jaffna and about this being a politico-ideological act. But it has no mention of the proliferation of brothels in the city and the general profile of its customers. Nor does it mention Sri Lankan brokers from the south trafficking economically disadvantaged Tamil women from their homeland to other parts of the island, and sometimes, even outside the island. Nor the fact some of the commanders of the occupying army have advised the soldiers to ‘fall in love and marry’ the women, if possible that is.

To sum it up, sexual violence/attention that Eelam Tamil women face in their homelands is not an act of aberration committed by the Sri Lankan armed forces occupying Tamil Eelam, but is an inherent necessity of a neanderthalic Sinhala nationalism that wishes complete conquest of Tamil Eelam’s geography and concurrently views the body of the Tamil woman as a landscape of its desire, as an object if possessed will ensure the state’s unitary structure.

It is then obvious, as quite some Eelam Tamil feminists have pointed out, that the liberation of Eelam Tamil women is impossible without the liberation and complete decolonization of Tamil Eelam.

Women’s Day wishes.

[i] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCpARMjv6AU&feature=youtu.be

[ii] http://groundviews.org/2012/02/25/history-after-the-war-challenges-for-post-war-reconciliation/

[iii] http://groundviews.org/2010/05/22/living-with-the-other-in-post-war-sri-lanka/

[iv] http://www.dailynews.lk/2012/03/02/news32.asp

Karthick RM is a research scholar at the University of Essex, UK

© Counter Currents

Read More

Summary only

Fresh probe on aid workers & Trinco killings

By Kelum Bandara | Daily Mirror
.............................................................................................................................................................................................

Amid external pressure on accountability issues, the government assured the international community in Geneva last week it would reopen investigations into the 2006 killing of five students in Trincomalee and 17 aid workers at Mutur.

Former Attorney General Mohan Peiris gave this assurance during an interactive session with representatives of countries interested in the Sri Lanka issue.

Amnesty International officials asked what happened to the investigations into the killing of five students on January 2, 2006 and said the government had taken little or no action even five years after the killings had taken place. Mr. Peiris who was one of the panelists said the government had in no way swept everything under the carpet. He said the matter had been investigated and the government would reopen the case to ascertain the truth behind some of the allegations.

AI asked why the government did not publish the report of the commission appointed to look into 16 such incidents including the killings in Trincomalee.
Mr. Peiris said the document was not meant to be published.

“It has been handed over to the President,” he said adding that the report on investigations into the killing of 17 aid workers in August 2006, was handed over to the French Embassy in Colombo.

The 17 employees of the French branch of the international aid agency Action Against Hunger were found dead on August 6, 2006 at the agency office in Mutur.

This matter was also raised by pro-LTTE Diaspora activists.

© Daily Mirror

Read More

Summary only

Eye witness account of the killing of the fisherman in Chilaw

By Janaka Liyanarachi and Nilantha Madurawela | Sunday Divaina
.............................................................................................................................................................................................

This article is a translation of a story appeared in the Colombo based Sinhala language Newspaper "Sunday Divaina" on 04th of March, 2012

You can’t grow anything in the Egodawella Village. Salinity is high in the soil. Therefore the only way the people of Egodawella live is by fishing.

Now we are near the Egodawella church. We are with a youth who is standing quietly looking at the small houses around us. In the soft light of the evening people are going and coming out of the church. Suddenly a man speaks to the youth who is with us.

“Who are these people?” he asks. The youth replies “they said they are from the newspapers.”

The man smirks. “Ah! From the newspapers!” “Have you’ll come to see if we too have died?” he asks.

We waited quietly. People started gathering in the church grounds. The youth turns to us and says, “Sir. Not one newspaper has written about what happened to us. Not one TV station has showed it. All of these people are now angry with the media. Didn’t you’ll just come from Anthony’s (the murdered fisherman) house?”

I nodded my head. W. Anthony Fernando was the fisherman killed during the fishermen’s protests on Februrary 15th in Chilaw (main northwestern town - 72.3 km/44.9 miles from the Capital Colombo). The way the incident was reported, it painted a picture in our minds that the death was due to the police firing live bullets, in response to an outrageous mob that had blocked roads and destroyed public property in Chilaw. However only when we went to Egodawella did we understand that the police had fired on unarmed fishermen who were simply preparing to go to Chilaw to protest. We shivered when we realised that the police had not only killed a man, they had also not allowed the people to leave their village and caused a lot of terror in the village.

Three people had been shot. One in the shoulder, one in the stomach and one in the head. Anthony was the one shot in the head. The discoloured stain of his blood on the ground had not still not been erased. The people had put a white flag on the spot where he fell and died when he was shot.

A youth came up to us and asked, “Can you write about our story?”. He added, “I am asking you this question because we told everyone who came here our story. Yet no one has written about it. We are now tired of telling everyone what happened to us. Don’t think badly of us but now we are very angry. If you’ll have come to just listen and go then there is no use. People are being shot. Innocents are being killed. Yet we have no way of telling anyone how they were killed. There are rumours going around that if we tell our story a white van will come and take us (to disappear). What can we do?”

I replied, “We will definitely write your story. I give my word. Just tell us what happened.” After that the youth spoke to us with more confidence.

“My name is Vijaya Warnakulasuriya . Write that I am a worker in the fishing industry. It was on the 13th (Februrary), it was that day that the government increased the price of kerosene oil by 35 rupees. People don’t understand our story. 2500 fishing (one day) vessels go out to fish per day, in the dutch canal zone of the Egodawella village. One vessel uses about 50 litres of kerosene a day. Before the increase our expenses for kerosene was about 1800 rupees. And we found it very difficult to make ends meet. Can you imagine what will happen when in an instant our expenses rise to about 2800 to 3000 rupees?”

“We decided to protest against this because we decided not to die in hunger. We came to this church and we talked about it. There were no politicians there. It was only the village people who got together. And it was the village people who took the decision. The father (priest) in the church told us that he will be with us throughout our struggle. We informed all the fisher community societies in the surrounding villages the 14th we had a protest march in Chilaw Town. We asked that this unfair price increase not be imposed on us. It was a very peaceful protest. The busses went on alternative routes and we did not block any ambulances, school van or doctors vehicles from getting about. We did not destroy any public property. In the afternoon we finished the peaceful protest and went home. We decided we needed to protest again the next day as we had not got a solution to our problem.”

I intervened and said, “but by this time the government had intervened and promised you all a subsidy.”

“What nonsense Sir! What subsidy? Do you know how many times the government has promised us subsidies and fooled us? We are tired of government promises,” said a youth.

I asked him, “ There are fishermen all over the country. Not just in Chilaw. There are thousands of fishermen in the south, north and east, yet not one of them have got on the streets. How come it is only the Chilaw fishermen that cannot bear the price increase?”

A man who had until now been sitting silently next to me, shouted at me saying, “You don’t know what is happening to the people of the north and east. Don’t talk about things you don’t know. The fishermen of the north and east cannot even go to sea because of the Indians. No body takes care of the fishermen of the North and East – no body looks at them. If there is one group that is worse off than us it is them. The people of the south at least have coconut trees. They can sell coconuts and live. We only have the sea. When we are unable to fish what do you want us to do? Eat sand?”

Another youth intervened and calmed him down, saying “Right, Right now let Vijaya tell the story.” Vijaya continued:

“On the 15th we gathered at this church and we were discussing what should our next steps be. We had called fishing societies from all over the province that day to come and join us. The fishermen of all these societies had not gone to sea but were gathering in the neighbouring village of Rideewella to join our protests. Therefore we were planning a big protest. The priests of the churches said they will be with us.”

“When we were having these discussions on how to proceed, we got information that the police had come and started beating the women of Rideewella. We rushed toward Rideewella. When we got there, the police had blocked off the roads with barriers. They had even brought “buffle” vehicles and there were hundreds of army and police carrying weapons surrounding us. I had only seen so many armed forces on TV when they showed the battles of the war (in the north and east). They were treating us like we were trying to take over the country. We were only asking to reduce the price of kerosene.”

“On one side of us we had the police and armed forces with their weapons drawn. On the other side of us was the sea. The only thing between us and the police and armed forces were the priests. We went towards them. They tried to calm us down and they were at the same time talking to the armed forces asking them to be calm as well. Then our people got a little restive. Then suddenly the police started shooting tear gas. Three tear gas canisters we threw back at them. Then there was canister like object that was thrown at us. When on of our boys when to pick it up to throw it back, it burst in his hand. His stomach and hand were injured.”

“After the tear gas they started shooting at us. We started shouting ‘please don’t shoot us.’ But they continued to shoot us. People started screaming and running all over the place. The first person to get shot was Anthony who got shot in the head. We could see him bleeding. Even after they shot him, they (the armed forces) didn’t let us go near him. Anthony’s nephew and other relatives ran toward his body. But they didn’t let them near. In front of us all they kicked his body and trampled it. They beat up the relatives who were trying to get his body. The relatives withstood this and finally managed to get to his body. The relatives dragged Anthony’s body from the melee and got a motorcycle and took him to hospital.” “We could not take the other three people to hospital because all the roads were blocked. Finally we had to take them by boat through the sea route to the hospital. They are still in hospital.”

“We suspect say that the police and armed forces had planned to kill one of us to strike fear in us. We didn’t have any bombs. I swear this is the truth. Yet the police said we had petrol bombs. It is true the people started throwing stones after they heard Anthony had died. They threw stones at the magistrates house. But all of this happened after the police started shooting. After they killed a man and didn’t let us go near the body.”

“Yet the government said the police were forced to shoot because the NGO’s had aroused the crowds against the police. This is total lies. Yet who are we to tell our problems to? Even the Fathers (priests) who said that they will be with us to the end – even they are isolated now. When the leaders of the Catholic church have got together with those who shot at us and left us adrift, what are we to do? Every word I have said is true. If you want you can go and ask those who were injured. They are still in hospital.”

The youth finished speaking. We had nothing to say. We only thought that we were standing in a front of the magistrate’s bungalow where an innocent man was shot and killed. We are in a country where the police present false evidence against him. We are in a country without courts. Can there be a country without courts? We left the Church and went to the hospital.

There was a youth lying there with his arm injured. We did not know when he would be able to regain its use or return to work. We asked him, “do you remember how it happened?”

His young wife who was standing next to him looked at us with fearful eyes. Then when she saw the youth who had come with us she calmed down. The injured boy started speaking. He said, “We were in the church. We only went to the place where the shooting happened because we heard that the people of Rideewella were being beaten up. When we went there, there were lots of police. The only thing between us and the priests were the priests. One Father was pleading with the police, saying ‘sir we are not going to make any trouble. Please let us have this peaceful protest.’ Yet the police did not listen. They started shouting at the Father and pushed him until he fell. When the people saw what the police did to the Father, they got agitated. Then the police started firing tear gas. Because the tear gas was so strong I left the area and went towards the sea to wash my face. When I came back the police had started shooting indiscriminately. I too got shot. We started pleading ‘don’t shoot.’ But they continued. They didn’t let other people get near the injured. It was with great difficulty that someone got to me. Then they could not take me to hospital because the roads were blocked. The people somehow got me here by boat.”

After hearing that we had no more questions to ask him. We understood that was being destroyed was peoples dreams and futures as well.

© Sunday Divaina

Read More

Summary only

Sri Lanka against itself

Editorial | The Hindu
.............................................................................................................................................................................................

Sri Lanka is engaged in an all-out effort to stave off a resolution against it at the ongoing session of the United Nations Human Rights Council at Geneva. The United States, the prime backer of the resolution, has circulated a draft among the Council's 47 members calling on Colombo to do nothing more than implement the recommendations of its own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, as well as to initiate credible investigations into violations of international human rights laws not addressed adequately by the LLRC.

Among other recommendations, the report, tabled in the Sri Lankan parliament last year, asked the government to “ascertain, more fully the circumstances” of five incidents in which civilians were killed during the last phases of the war against the LTTE in 2009, and if wrongful conduct by security personnel were established, to prosecute and punish. It also asked the government to investigate the disappearances of LTTE members who surrendered, to demilitarise northern Sri Lanka, and to arrive at a settlement for devolution of powers to the Tamil minority.

In its defence, the Rajapaksa government has pointed to internal enquiries initiated by the Sri Lankan Army as “progress” on implementing the LLRC recommendations; it has also cited the setting up of a parliamentary select committee as evidence of its sincerity in addressing the Tamil question. The success or failure of a resolution at the HRC depends not so much on the merit of the issue, but on a country's diplomatic ability to line up friends and allies, in support of or against the resolution. By that measure, Sri Lanka could yet come out of its ordeal laughing.

While it is true that America's human rights advocacy is riddled with double standards, the debate at Geneva is an opportunity for Sri Lanka to reflect on why it finds itself at such a difficult pass. Over the past three HRC sessions, the Rajapaksa government was able to buy time with promises and action plans, which — had they been executed — could have saved Sri Lanka the diplomatic energy now being expended. Even the LLRC felt constrained to complain that its interim recommendations had not been implemented. Instead, the government has chosen to paper over issues of accountability for the loss of civilian lives during the war's final weeks. Much to the exasperation of allies such as India, it has also blown hot and cold about a settlement of Tamil political aspirations. Sri Lanka must realise that its own interests require it urgently to address these twin bases of national reconciliation. Sadly, its response to the Geneva challenge has been to whip up anti-U.S., anti-West, Sinhala nationalist protests at home, creating an atmosphere of an island under siege. This is hardly a constructive response; if anything, the government's over-the-top campaign may further sharpen ethnic cleavages in the country.

© The Hindu

Read More

Summary only

2,000 Tamils stage protest at UN in Geneva

AFP
.............................................................................................................................................................................................

Thousands of Tamils from across Europe protested in front of UN headquarters in Geneva Monday demanding the creation of an international tribunal to try "war crimes" committed in Sri Lanka.

Some 2,000 protestors, according to the SDA-ATS Swiss news agency, waved banners and placards in favour of self-determination for the Tamil minority and denounced "genocidal acts".

"We have proof of war crimes. We demand justice," declared some placards, while others demanded that Sri Lanka publish its "list of 18,000 prisoners".

The protestors also denounced the use of Tamil children as "sex slaves" and the imposition of the Sinahla language and Buddist religion on Tamils.

The protestors paid tribute to victims of the civil war that claimed tens of thousands of lives and ended in 2009 when guerrillas of the Liberation Tigers Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were forced from the north and east of Sri Lanka by the army.

The demonstrators were also demanding that the UN Human Rights Council, meeting until March 23 in Geneva, adopt a resolution on Sri Lanka.

At the previous session in September 2011, the council had deferred its decision pending the outcome of investigations by the authorities in Colombo.

"Three years have passed since the Sri Lankan government announced the end of armed conflict, but to date there have been no steps taken towards a permanent political solution to match the aspirations of the people of Tamil Eelam," said a statement from the Coordinating Committee of Tamils in Switzerland.

The Tamil associations called on UN member countries to open "an independent international investigation into the systematic genocide of Tamils by successive Sinhalase governments" in Sri Lanka.

The association also wants the withdrawal of the army from north and east of the island, the holding of a UN organized referendum and the right to self determination of Tamils.

They were also demanding a general amnesty for political prisoners and for their immediate release.

Early in the session of the Human Rights Council, the United States announced its intention to file a draft resolution to support "a process of true reconciliation" in Sri Lanka.

Washington wants Colombo to agree to take measures to fight against impunity.

The Sri Lankan government has said, however, it rejects outside interference.

© AFP

Read More

Summary only

"US special forces stationed in Sri Lanka" - Pentagon "No Americans in the Island" - SL Military

Sunday Times Online
.............................................................................................................................................................................................

US special forces teams are currently stationed in five South Asian countries including Sri Lanka as part of the counter-terrorism cooperation with these nations, a top Pentagon commander has disclosed, foreign media reported.

These teams have been deployed by US Pacific Command as part of its effort to enhance their counter-terrorism capabilities, in particular in the maritime domain, Admiral Robert Willard, the PACOM Commander said on Thursday, PTI reported.

"We have currently special forces assist teams - Pacific assist teams is the term - laid down in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Maldives, as well as India," Willard told lawmakers at a Congressional hearing in response to a question on co-operation with India on counter-terrorism issues.

"We are working very closely with India with regard to their counter-terrorism capabilities and in particular on the maritime domain but also government to government, not necessarily DOD (department of defence) but other agencies assisting them in terms of their internal counter-terror and counterinsurgency challenges," Willard said. Willard said, Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (Let) is a very dangerous organisation. It not only has very good operational security, but also a lot of international design in terms of their aspirations.

"So it is a very important threat, and we're working very closely with the nations in the region to help contain it," he said. The PACOM commander was responding to a question from Congressman Joe Wilson as to what effort is being made to counter threat from LeT. In his prepared statement, Willard told lawmakers that the US and India are working together on contain LeT.

"Responsible for many attacks in India, including the horrific attacks into Mumbai, LeT is headquartered in Pakistan, affiliated with al-Qaida and other VEOs, and contributes to terrorist operations in Afghanistan and aspires to operate against Asia, Europe and North America," Willard said.

He said Pacific Command's Indian Engagement Initiative that resourced and hosted Mumbai counter terrorist specialists for training exercises and exchanges throughout the US, together with capacity-building activities with South Asian partners are mainly focused on containing LeT and contributing to counter-terrorism self-sufficiency of the sub-region's militaries. Willard said, South Asia as a whole is of major strategic importance to the US.

Anchored by India and containing major sea line of communication for the transport of energy and other commerce to Asia and the America from the Middle East and Europe, South Asia security partnerships are increasingly vital to USPACOM's mission. "South Asia is home to a confluence of challenges, including nuclear armed rivals India and Pakistan, numerous transnational VEOs such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, piracy, trafficking in narcotics and persons, disputed borders, and insurgent movements that have plagued India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka," he said.

USPACOM engages throughout South Asia, assisting its militaries to counter and contain VEOs such as LeT, cooperating in maritime security activities such as countering piracy, conducting disaster response planning and training, and exercising extensively, service to service, he said.

© Sunday Times Online

Military denies presence of US troops

The Military denied reports about the presence of US Special Forces in Sri Lanka.

Military spokesman Nihal Hapuarachchi said there was no American or any foreign force in the island at the moment.

A top Pentagon Commander has said that US Special Forces teams are stationed in Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Maldives as part of counter-terrorism cooperation.

However the Army has invited four countries to come with eight-man teams comprising of 68 foreign servicemen attached to elite Special Forces along with 2500 of our servicemen for its annual ‘Comoran Strike’ SEAL (Sea, Air and Land) training exercise which is to be held in September to enhance the striking capabilities especially in amphibious warfare operations.

The training is focused on improving decision making, commanding and efficiency in deciding command capabilities at a given situation.

© Daily Mirror

Read More

Summary only

Revisiting Sri Lanka's bloody war

By Marzuki Darusman, Steven Ratner and Yasmin Sooka | The New York Times
.............................................................................................................................................................................................

Even as attention is riveted on the bloodshed in Syria, another conflict, far more deadly, is belatedly attracting the notice it deserves.

Beginning this week, the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva has returned to an issue that has haunted it since 2009 — the bloody finish to Sri Lanka’s civil war. That conflict ended on a stretch of beach in the country’s northeast, as the remaining fighters of the Tamil Tigers and tens of thousands of traumatized civilians were surrounded by and surrendered to the Sri Lankan Army.

Sri Lankans and many abroad rejoiced at the defeat of a force that had routinely deployed terrorist tactics. But even as the government’s military campaign was under way, it became clear that the cost in civilian lives from its attacks on the Tigers was enormous. Right after the war, the Human Rights Council, to the shock of many observers, passed a resolution praising Sri Lanka’s conduct of the war. Sri Lanka’s president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, promised Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at the time that he would address the question of accountability for violations against civilians.

When, a year later, the government had done nothing to carry out Rajapaksa’s commitment, the secretary general asked the three of us to study the allegations of atrocities during the last stages of the war and Sri Lanka’s response. In our report, we found credible evidence that both sides had systematically flouted the laws of war, leading to as many as 40,000 deaths — many multiples more than caused by the strife in Libya or Syria.

The bulk of that total was attributable to deliberate, indiscriminate, or disproportionate governmental attacks on civilians, through massive shelling and aerial bombardment, including on clearly marked hospitals.

Rather than tackling these allegations head-on through a truth commission or criminal investigations, Sri Lanka created a “Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission,” whose mandate, composition and methods all cast serious doubt on its willingness to uncover what really happened in those fateful months.

When the commission issued its final report last November, it ignored or played down our report’s conclusions and characterized civilian deaths as stemming from the army’s response to Tamil Tiger shelling or cross-fire — as sporadic, exceptional and mostly inevitable in the heat of battle.

When it came time to proposing next steps for the government, it called for investigations by the same entities — the army and the attorney general — who have a track record of ignoring governmental abuses for decades.

The report had some welcome elements, too. It recognized some of the root causes of the war, as well as the responsibility of both the government and Tigers for civilian casualties. And it endorsed our view that Sri Lanka had a duty to provide truth, justice and reparations to victims; release detainees; and protect the state’s besieged journalists.

Yet the fact is that numerous recommendations of prior commissions of inquiry have not been implemented by the government.

The Human Rights Council’s members are currently looking at a draft resolution, circulating at the initiative of the United States, to demand action from Sri Lanka on uncovering the truth and achieving some real accountability. The United States deserves a great deal of credit for trying to get the council to move on this issue. It is time for the council to correct its embarrassing decision from 2009.

Yet such a demand is not enough. Given Sri Lanka’s unwillingness to take concrete steps, the best way to get to the truth is for the council to create an independent investigative body to determine the facts and identify those responsible, as we recommended in our report.

For Sri Lanka to experience a true peace, rather than simply the peace of the victor, truth and accountability are essential. This is the lesson from states as varied as South Africa, Sierra Leone and Argentina. The lack of much outside interest in the bloodshed while it happened cannot be an excuse for continuing to ignore the situation. The international community must now assume its duty to ensure that Sri Lanka fulfills its responsibilities to all its people and to the rest of the world.

Marzuki Darusman is a former attorney-general of Indonesia. Steven Ratner is a law professor at the University of Michigan. Yasmin Sooka is the executive director of the Foundation for Human Rights in South Africa.

© The New York Times

Read More

Summary only

Give time to Sri Lanka: China & Pakistan

By Kelum Bandara | Daily Mirror
.............................................................................................................................................................................................

China and Pakistan today at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) sessions in Geneva insisted that Sri Lanka should be allowed to carry out its reconciliation process without pressure from external sources.

Chinese Ambassador LIU Zhenmin said his government appreciated the efforts taken by the Sri Lankan Government to advance the national reconciliation process.

“We are of the view that more time and space should be given to Sri Lanka to bring the process to a conclusion, free from outside pressure. International assistance should only be given with Sri Lanka’s agreement,” he said.

Meanwhile, Pakistan also emphasized the need to give Sri Lanka time and space to continue with its genuine reconciliation mechanism worked out domestically. Pakistan also highlighted that Sri Lanka had continued to demonstrate its commitment to reconciliation.

So far, countries such as South Africa, Botswana, Thailand and Indonesia have made positive remarks on the reconciliation process in Sri Lanka.

© Daily Mirror

Read More

Summary only