Sri Lanka: Minister threatens to break limbs of journos

By Lal. S. Kumara | Daily Mirror
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Minister of Public Relations Mervyn Silva warned that he will break the limbs of some journalists, who have gone abroad and made various statements against the country, if they dare to set foot in the country.

“I’m the one who chased one of those journalists ‘PoddalaJayantha’ out of this country. I will break the limbs of all these journalists, in public if they dare to set foot in the country” the Minster warned.

Speaking at a demonstration against the resolution against Sri Lanka at the UNHRC held in Kiribathgoda today Silva also said it is the only the President who can remove him from office.

He also said “Even if a Tsunami flow from Sigiriya I’m sure that no Tsunami will flow against me from President Mahinda Rajapaksa” . “Only Mahinda Rajapakshe can sack me, no other big shot can lay their hands on me until that happened I won’t leave Kelaniya. I know the sons of D.A. Rajapaksa from the time they were kids. The King of this country loves me, the King of this country trusts me” he said.

The Minister informed the public present at the meeting that his son, from this day, would be in the hands of the public. “I’m not afraid to die; two drug dealers from Colombo want to chase me away. But I’m not frightened to die, if something happens to my life, my wife and two children will still be there. From this day onwards my son will be in your hands” he said.

© Daily Mirror

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UN rights chief warns against Sri Lankan activist attacks

AFP | Expatica
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The UN rights chief warned Friday against reprisals against Sri Lankan activists, noting "threats and intimidation" carried out by Colombo in the run-up to a contested war crimes probe vote.

The UN Human Rights Council on Thursday adopted to the consternation of Colombo a US-led resolution demanding a probe to violations carried out in Sri Lanka's battle against Tamil Tigers separatists during their war in 2009.

The run-up to the vote was marked by "an unprecedented and totally unacceptable level of threats, harassment and intimidation directed at Sri Lankan activists who had travelled to Geneva to engage in the debate, including by members of the 71-member official Sri Lankan government delegation," said Pillay.
In Sri Lanka, media outlets have also been running a "continuous campaign of vilification, including naming and in many cases picturing activists, describing them as an 'NGO gang' and repeatedly accusing them of treason, mercenary activities and association with terrorism," said Pillay.

"Some of these reports have contained barely veiled incitement and threats of retaliation," she added.

Some of these reports were carried by state media outlets or filed by journalists accredited to the Human Rights Council session through the Sri Lankan mission, noted the UN rights chief.

"There must be no reprisals against Sri Lankan human rights defenders in the aftermath of yesterday's adoption by the Human Rights Council of a resolution on Sri Lanka," she added.

Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan envoy to Geneva himself also received an anonymous letter which UN security and the police are investigating, she said.

© AFP

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Sri Lanka rejects UN demands for inquiry

By Ben Doherty | The Age
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Sri Lanka will resist international pressure to hold an independent investigation into war crimes allegations against government forces, saying countries were bullied into supporting a UN resolution against it by the US and other ''powerful countries''.

Its Foreign Minister, G.L.Peiris, said the countries which supported Sri Lanka were ''acutely conscious of the danger of setting a precedent which enables ad hoc intervention by powerful countries in the internal affairs of other nations''.

The government would not bow to international demands for an inquiry, Mr Peiris said.

The UN's 47-member Human Rights Council this week passed the resolution which called on Sri Lanka to allow an independent probe into allegations the government committed war crimes during its civil conflict against the separatist Tamil Tigers.

Any probe could be acutely uncomfortable for the Sri Lankan government, reaching to the very top of the Rajapaksa family-dominated administration.

In Colombo, protesters took to the streets, condemning the UN, and carrying pictures of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who, they say, freed their country from terrorism.

The resolution, co-sponsored by the US, France and Norway, said Sri Lanka's domestic investigation, the Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission, did ''not adequately address serious allegations of violations of international law''.

Carefully worded - and watered-down from its original text - it demanded Sri Lanka ensured ''justice, equity, accountability and reconciliation'', following the end of the 27-year war.

A UN panel of experts report last year found up to 40,000 civilians may have been killed during the government's final offensive against the Tamil Tigers in the country's north in 2009.

© The Age

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A return to Sri Lanka’s killing fields by Channel 4

By Barry Mason | World Socialist Web Site
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Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields: War Crimes Unpunished was a follow-up to Channel 4’s Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields documentary shown in June 2011.

Presented by Jon Snow, it showed further horrific scenes of the closing days of the campaign against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the thousands of civilians caught up in it.

The Sri Lankan government produced its response to the original charges made by Channel 4 2011 documentary of war crimes carried out in the closing stages of the campaign against the LTTE. It produced a report at the end of last year, “The Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC)”.

Snow said that while the report conceded a large number of civilians had died and expressed concern about a large number of Tamils detained at that time who have now disappeared, it failed to answer any of the charges of war crimes made against Sri Lankan forces. It also denies that any civilians were deliberately targeted and did not hold anyone to account.

Case histories were used to show that war crimes had been committed and that responsibility lay with the government and the armed forces.

In January 2009, a no-fire zone was established within the rapidly shrinking area of LTTE control, to which civilians fled. United Nations representatives on the ground set up a bunker within the no-fire zone and the coordinates were sent to the Sri Lankan government so army shell fire could be directed away from it.

Over the next few days, shells continued to rain down on the bunker, leading to carnage. A confidential internal UN report cited by the programme stated, “The probability of shellfire originating from government of Sri Lanka forces is considered 100 percent.”
Eventually, after personnel in the bunker contacted UN and Australian representatives in Colombo pleading for them to pass the coordinates to the Sri Lankan heads of armed forces, the shelling was diverted slightly to avoid the bunkers but still fell within the no-fire zone. This showed the shelling originated from government forces and that they must have been aware of its murderous impact.
Civilians fled the no-fire zone and headed for a second smaller one declared by the Sri Lankan government on February 12, on a long narrow piece of land adjacent to the ocean. Three-hundred thousand civilians set up camp there.

In its second case history, the programme accused the Sri Lankan government of denying food and medicine to hundreds of thousands of trapped civilians by deliberately downplaying the numbers caught in the second declared no-fire zone. A cable from the US embassy in Colombo in April 2009, posted on WikiLeaks, showed the Sri Lankan government estimate of civilians left in the LTTE controlled area to be 60,000. Yet the United States and UN, using evidence from satellite pictures and other methods, put the true figure at several hundred thousand. The Sri Lankan government had drones in the area and must have been aware of the number of civilians.

The small amounts of food and medicine allowed into the area contributed to a huge humanitarian crisis. The deliberate restricting of food and medical supplies to civilians within a war zone is a war crime. The Channel 4 footage showed malnourished refugees and people with horrific wounds that had to be left untreated.

The original 2011 Channel 4 documentary showed footage of Sri Lankan soldiers executing naked and bound LTTE soldiers in the final days of the war. The footage had been taken by the soldiers as trophy videos on their mobile phones. It was independently verified, yet Sri Lankan authorities accused Channel 4 of faking the footage.

The current documentary explained that the LLRC did touch on these executions, but came to no conclusions. Last month, the army announced that an inquiry would take place, run by the army rather than an independent body.

The final case history showed new and shocking footage of executions by the army, with responsibility going to the top of the chain of command. Footage included the execution of the 12-year-old son of the LTTE leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran. A sworn affidavit taken from a senior Sri Lankan officer explains how the boy was sent along with five LTTE bodyguards to surrender to the Sri Lankan military. He was interrogated to get information on the whereabouts of his father. The affidavit finishes with the officer saying he subsequently learned the boy and the five bodyguards were dead.

The footage showed the bodyguards dead on the ground, apparently shot after being bound as in the previous footage of executions. Channel 4 again got the footage independently verified. The footage showing the dead boy was examined by an independent forensic pathologist. He concluded the boy had initially been shot at close range, standing in front of the soldier who fired the shot, which was near his heart. The pathologist explained that the subsequent wounds on the body must have been inflicted as the boy lay on the ground on his back. He described the boy’s death as a murder.

The next day, the body of Prabhakaran himself was displayed on television. The documentary analysed the footage of the head wound suffered by Prabhakaran and concluded his death was also the result of an execution, rather than a wound suffered in combat.

The widespread pattern of the executions involving being bound and shot in the back of the head suggests a policy directed from above, rather than the actions of rogue soldiers.

The conflict finally ended on May 19. The programme showed how the West was prepared to accept at face value assurances by the Sri Lankan government and to turn a blind eye while it finished off the LTTE. Then-UK foreign secretary David Miliband met with his Sri Lankan counterpart on April 29, 2009, while the army was carrying out its murderous operation. A leaked cable from the US embassy in Colombo to Washington quoted Miliband describing the Sri Lankan government as liars in its statements regarding the deaths and sufferings of civilians caught up in the war zone.

In a keynote speech—written for him by UK public relations firm Bell and Pottinger—at the UN in New York following the end of the war, Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapakse was well received. He warned the international community to keep out of Sri Lanka’s business.

Rajapakse can rest easy, knowing Sri Lanka’s strategic importance for the US in its ongoing war preparations for a future conflict with China will provide all the diplomatic cover he will need.

© WSWS

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US eases restrictions on Sri Lanka defense sales

AP | Boston Globe
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The U.S. has eased restrictions on defense sales to Sri Lanka to allow exports of equipment for aerial and maritime surveillance.

The State Department enacted the changes Thursday, just as the U.N. Human Rights Council urged Sri Lanka to investigate allegations of war crimes during its civil conflict that ended in 2009.

The department said the two developments were unrelated.

It may, however, help ease strains in the bilateral relationship. The U.S. proposed the resolution approved by the U.N. human rights body.

© AP

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Sri Lanka press slams 'neo-imperial' war crime vote

AFP | Bangkok Post
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Sri Lanka's media reacted angrily Friday to a US-led resolution demanding a war crimes probe and said the island had done well to go down fighting at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The state-run Daily News said the 24 nations which voted in favour of the resolution urging a credible investigation into alleged war crimes during Sri Lanka's battle against Tamil rebels in 2009 were being destructive.

The countries that backed the resolution were making "a desperate attempt to disempower and undermine Sri Lanka and they are trying every trick in the bag to further this dark design," the Daily News said.

It reported Thursday's vote at the UNHRC under the headline: "Might overrules right."

The privately-run, but pro-government Island newspaper commended the hawkish administration of President Mahinda Rajapakse for putting up a fight in Geneva.

"The cornered badger bravely fought the mastiffs of neo-imperialism, savage in the fray, and went down fighting yesterday," the Island said. "It certainly was a defeat as good as victory."

The paper also took a swipe at Sri Lanka's traditional ally India which turned its back on Colombo during the council's contested vote.

"India has been a loser in Geneva, though it helped the US win," the Island said. "India failed to carry Asia, or at least South Asia with it. In other words, Sri Lanka has won against India in Asia."

Tabling the resolution, the US said Colombo had been given three years to hold its own probe into allegations of war crimes, but "given the lack of action... it is appropriate" that the 47-member UNHRC pushed it to do so.

Rights groups say up to 40,000 civilians died in the final months of Colombo's military campaign to crush the Tamil Tigers, who waged a bloody decades-long campaign for a separate homeland for minority Tamils.

Colombo has denied its troops were responsible for any non-combatant deaths, but UN-mandated experts have accused the Sri Lankan military of killing most of the civilian victims in their final offensive against the rebels in 2009.

The United Nations estimates some 100,000 people died during Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict between 1972 and 2009.

International rights activists welcomed Thursday's decision as a step in the right direction.

© AFP

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Sri Lanka unfazed by U.N. rights resolution

By Amantha Perera | Inter Press Service
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As the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) voted in, Thursday, a resolution asking Colombo to act on recommendations made by its own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), Buddhist prayers reverberated through the Sri Lankan capital.

"It is a resolution that encourages Sri Lanka to implement the recommendations of its own LLRC and to make concerted efforts at achieving the kind of meaningful accountability upon which lasting reconciliation efforts can be built," United States ambassador to the Council, Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, said in Geneva.

As expected, Sri Lankan leaders rejected the resolution. Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, head of the Sri Lankan delegation in Geneva, termed it as misconceived, unwarranted and ill timed. "Shouldn’t we be given more time and space?"

But, two years and 10 months have elapsed since the Sri Lankan military decisively ended this island’s three-decade-old civil war, and the majority of UNHRC members thought it was time Colombo acted to safeguard the rights of the Tamil minority on the island.

Thousands of civilians died as the war ended in 2009 with a bloody offensive into the northern areas of the country where the militant Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was then entrenched.

The U.S. – led resolution was passed with 24 voting in favour, 15 against and eight abstaining in the 47-member U.N. body.

"It is a matter of great satisfaction to us that 15 countries voted with Sri Lanka, despite the intensity of pressure, in a variety of forms, exerted on them all," said G.L. Peiris, Sri Lanka’s foreign minister, in a statement.

"As far as Sri Lanka is concerned, our policy in respect of all matters will continue to be guided by the vital interests and wellbeing of the people of our country. It hardly requires emphasis that this cannot yield place to any other consideration," Peiris’ statement said.

Significantly, Sri Lanka’s ally and influential neighbour, India, voted in favour of the resolution. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had indicated to Indian parliament, on Mar. 19, a shift in stance by a country that had stood with Colombo against U.S. and European moves to bring the war before the UNHRC in 2009.

An Indian official statement said the Sri Lankan government had committed at the UNHRC in 2009, to "forge a consensual way forward towards reconciliation through a political settlement respecting all the ethnic and religious groups inhabiting the nation."

India urged Sri Lanka to "take measures for accountability and to promote human rights that it has committed to. It is these steps, more than anything we declare in this Council, which would bring about genuine reconciliation between all the communities of Sri Lanka, including the minority Tamil community."

"As a neighbour with thousands of years of cordial relations with Lanka, with deep-rooted spiritual and cultural ties, we cannot remain untouched by developments in that country," the Indian statement said

Rights activists in Sri Lanka told IPS that the UNHRC resolution’s impact on the country would be symbolic.

"The symbolism is that many countries have expressed their assessment that the country has not lived up to their expectations in terms of international human rights obligations," Ruki Fernando, head of the human rights in conflict programme at the national advocacy and research body, the Law and Society Trust, told IPS.

Fernando said much now depends on "whether the government is willing to move ahead with the LLRC recommendations and work with the Council as suggested in the third recommendation in the resolution."

Established in September 2010 by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to look into the conduct of the war from 2002 till May 2009, when it ended, the LLRC handed over its final report with the recommendations last November.

Indications, in the build up to the vote in Geneva, suggest that the government is unlikely to cooperate. Sri Lankan delegation leader Mahinda Samarasinghe told UNHRC that his country would inform it periodically on progress, voluntarily, as it had done even before the war.

Barely 24 hours before the vote, President Rajapaksa told a public meeting in the northwestern town of Puttalam that he would not allow any form of foreign intervention.

"This is the second battle we are facing, after the war (against the LTTE)," Wimal Weeravansha, minister for housing, told another packed rally in Colombo on Mar. 13.

Weeravansha who has been leading public protests against what he terms as attempts by West to interfere – he launched a fast-unto-death in mid-2010 before the U.N. offices in Colombo that only ended when the president intervened – called on Sri Lankans to boycott U.S. products, including Coca-Cola and Google.

The overwhelming sense at public rallies is that Sri Lanka and the Rajapaksa government are being targeted by Western powers for independent policies and alignment with powers like China, Russia and India.

Tamil political leaders have a completely different view and support the U.N. resolution.

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the largest party representing minority Tamils in parliament, said that it was pushed to support the resolution because of the government's lethargy in acting on power devolution and feels that only international prodding will help.

"The government has not done anything towards finding a solution (to power devolution) but has been going on according its own agenda. We have no option but to ask for international support," TNA parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran told IPS.

"The LLRC is the government’s own baby. But, it has not even implemented the interim recommendations of the LLRC. We strongly feel that these issues cannot be solved without international participation," he added.

The resolution, however, avoids reference to war crimes or an international investigation, as called for by international rights groups like Amnesty International, the Human Rights Watch and the International Crisis Group.

The final draft said assistance from the UNHRC will be obtained "in consultation with, and with the concurrence of, the government of Sri Lanka" - reportedly through Indian influence.

These nuances are, however, no reason for a change of heart from the supporters of the government on the streets.

"This is a veiled attempt to influence our country, to make sure that they (West) can set up a proxy administration here," said Waragoda Premarathana, a Buddhist monk who had taken part in the Mar.19 rally.

© IPS

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Sri Lanka not to change policies despite outcome in Geneva

Xinhua | China Radio International
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Whatever the outcome in the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session in Geneva is, Sri Lanka will not change its policies and ongoing projects, a government spokesman said on Thursday.

Acting Cabinet spokesman Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena on Thursday said that the conduct of the government would not be changed depending on Thursday's decision in Geneva.

"Even before the U.S. backed resolution was introduced Sri Lanka had acted on various decisions to bring about reconciliation at the end of three decades civil war," he said.

Abeywardena explained that the government started resettlement of internally displaced persons, rehabilitated former rebels, recruited Tamil speaking policemen and developed former war-torn areas without any external influence after war.

He said whatever the outcome in Geneva, the country would continue with its policies that have already started.

Abeywardena added the U.S. sponsored resolution would not be able to be passed unless there is undue influence by the Western nations.

The vote on the U.S.-backed resolution on Sri Lanka is scheduled to be held on Thursday at the UNHRC in Geneva.

Over the last two weeks, supporters of the government and religious leaders conducted protest marches and demonstrations in capital Colombo, urging the United States and other Western countries not to exert pressure on Sri Lanka which is rising from the ashes of prolonged civil war.

The United States had moved for the resolution on Sri Lanka in order to push the government to address accountability issues during the final stages of the war against Tamil Tiger rebels and to also implement recommendations of a war commission.

© CRI

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UN adopts resolution on Sri Lanka

Photo courtesy:vikalpa.org

BBC News
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The UN Human Rights Council has adopted a resolution urging Sri Lanka to investigate alleged abuses during the final phase of war with Tamil rebels.

The US-backed motion called on Colombo to address alleged abuses of international humanitarian law.

It passed with 24 votes in favour, 15 against, eight abstentions. Sri Lanka denounced the process as "arbitrary".

Correspondents say that the US has become increasingly frustrated by Sri Lanka's approach to the rights issue.

In 2010 the European Union withheld trade preferences to Sri Lanka over its perceived failure to address human rights concerns.

In a statement, Sri Lanka's mission to the UN said the vote was a "selective and arbitrary process".

"The obvious reality is that voting at the Human Rights Council is now determined not by the merits of a particular issue but by strategic alliances and domestic political issues in other countries which have nothing to do with the subject matter of a Resolution," the statement said.

Sri Lanka's army defeated the separatist Tamil Tigers in May 2009, putting an end to 26 years of brutal civil war - but the final phase of that war has been a source of considerable controversy, with both sides accused of war crimes.

The resolution tabled by the US:

asks the government to explain how it will address alleged violations of international humanitarian law

asks how Sri Lanka will implement the recommendations of an internal inquiry into the war

encourages the UN human rights office to offer Sri Lanka advice and assistance and the government to accept such advice

But there have been unconfirmed reports the text was revised during the proceedings. Among the countries voting in favour of the resolution were Belgium, the US and India. China and Russia were among nations which supported Sri Lanka and opposed the resolution.

India's support for the motion is likely to cause diplomatic tensions, analysts say.

Thousands of people in Sri Lanka, including some religious clerics and former military officers, have taken part in marches to protest against the resolution in recent weeks.

Campaign against 'traitors'

The vote comes amid a government campaign against what it calls "traitors", which has targeted journalists and human rights workers.

State television is using long slots in its Sinhala-language bulletins to denounce Sri Lankan journalists, some now in exile but some still in the country, who it says are helping the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels or "betraying the motherland".

Those based in Sri Lanka are not named but the TV repeatedly zooms in on thinly disguised photographs of them, promising to give their names soon and "expose more traitors".

State media have been similarly deprecating human rights workers who are in Geneva for the Human Rights Council session, the BBC's Charles Haviland in Colombo says.

A local organisation, the Free Media Movement, has condemned the broadcasts as "highly unethical". Such state broadcasts have in the past resulted in violent attacks on some accused people.

The Sri Lankan government commissioned its own investigation into the war last year.

Its Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) cleared the military of allegations that it deliberately attacked civilians. It said that there had been some violations by troops, although only at an individual level.

But another report commissioned by the UN secretary general reached a different conclusion, saying that allegations of serious rights violations were "credible" on both sides.

Rights groups Amnesty International described it as "a vital step forward for the country and for international justice".

Human rights groups estimate that up to 40,000 civilians were killed in the final months of the war. The government recently released its own estimate, concluding that about 9,000 people perished during that period.

© BBC

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'Western agenda used' for Sri Lanka war crimes

BBC Sinhala
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The director of a British documentary on last stages of Sri Lanka’s civil war has accused the West and the UN of failing to take any “effective action” to prevent alleged war crimes by the country’s security forces.

Callum Macrae, the director of “Sri Lanka Killing Fields: War Crimes Unpunished” said that many allegations against Sri Lanka government have been confirmed through leaked UN documents, US embassy cables revealed by Wikileaks and an interview former senior UN official John Holmes.

“The international community has an obligation of duty to protect which is a fundamental principal under international law. That duty was not carried out; the international community has failed on that,” he told BBC Sinhala service, Sandeshaya.

Mr Macrae says there were two major reasons for the “failure” by the international community to prevent Sri Lanka continuing with war crimes.

'Shelling UN workers'

“The climate this was allowed to happen was that Rajapaksa regime used the Western Agenda global war on terror to justify what they were doing,” he said.

The film, to be released next week in UK by the Channel4, also figures harrowing details of the killing of Rasmachandran Prabhakaran, 12, the younger son of Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.

Mr Macrae said the footage, recorded by a member of Sri Lankan armed forces, has been carefully examined by video experts to confirm that it was authentic.

“The forensic pathologist analysed and the moment of death from the nature of the wounds and it is clear that he was executed in cold blood,” he added.

The killing, together with other incidents of alleged executions by the security forces, is a clear proof that there was a “systematic pattern of executions of leading LLTE figures and fighters.”

The film alleges that orders for the alleged executions as well as “deliberate targeting of civilians” have come from the most senior commanders, including President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and Commander of Sri Lanka Army, Gen Sarath Fonseka.

“The Sri Lankan military is very very disciplined and very organised. The men who have most frequently claimed direct control of the war were President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother Gotabhaya,” he said.

The film reveals, says Callum Macrae, how a group of UN workers were fired upon by the Sri Lanka military after the workers informed their GPS coordinates to the military.

“There were systematic shelling of the UN bunker and the area around it. When they protested about it, they were told were sent directly by Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and Sarath Fonseksa,” he said, adding that it shows the highest command was aware about the attacks into the no fire zone.

“Those men bear direct commanding responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

The director said nobody would deny that the Tamil Tigers were also responsible for serious war crimes including the using civilians as a human shield in the war zone.

“The war crimes committed by the LTTE are clear and documented and are not challenged,” said Mr Macrae.

“However, it is important to recognise that the international community demands highest standards from a government which claim to be a democratically elected, legitimate government.”

© BBC SInhala

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